Happy Saturday!
During this pregnancy I really haven't had big cravings for a particular food. I've gone in phases of only being able to eat crackers and cream cheese and pickles in the beginning months. And then my cravings became almond milk, burgers, and waffles and pancakes. But really, I haven't changed much of the way I eat now compared to pre-pregnancy - which is probably why I've felt really great this whole time! Eating balanced PFC does amazing things.
However, with that said, I wanted to satisfy some of those cravings and just find some healthier versions of my favorite foods for the occasional indulgence, without feeling totally bloated afterwards (TMI?). I stumbled upon a pretty decent pancake recipe that is becoming a weekly Saturday morning treat for the hubbs and I. And it's a recipe that I won't feel too guilty about feeding my little girl someday!
These pancakes have about 18g of protein and about 20g of carbs per serving. Try to get creative with your toppings to cut down on the sugar. Real maple syrup, along with a good slather of butter, is what we usually use because this is our treat. But you could top it off with real peanut butter (only peanuts and salt in ingredient list) for some added fat and protein, or real whip cream (made without sugar added) and berries for a fancy feast.
Here's the recipe:
Protein Pancakes
serves about 3
Ingredients
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup cottage cheese (full fat!)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tsp cinnamon
Directions
Mix all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth.
Make your cakes and enjoy! *This recipe isn't meant for the huge flapjack type of pancakes that you get at Perkins, my friends. This morning I made 3 relatively small pancakes for myself, but with all that protein they filled me up just fine.
Keep your day going with these other favorite recipes of mine!
Tuna Salad on Cucumbers
serves 2-3
Ingredients
2 small cans of tuna in water
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup diced celery
2-3 tsp diced red onion
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, optional
Directions
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
Adjust seasonings and oil to taste.
Load up slices of cucumber with your tuna mixture and enjoy! Who needs bread, anyway?
Egg Salad on Cucumbers
serves 2-3
Ingredients
2 hard boiled eggs, shells peeled
1-2 tsp relish
2 Tbsp real mayonnaise (try looking for one without soybean oil)
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
Adjust seasonings to your liking.
Load up slices of cucumber with your egg mixture and enjoy! ..you can tell sliced cucumbers are my new favorite bread replacement.
**For easy, weekly meal planning!**
Daily uses for cooked, shredded chicken!
At the beginning of the week, cook 4 or 5 chicken breasts (I like to cook them in my crock pot on high for 3 hours or so - it's just that much easier) and shred them all up.
Try out these ideas to use that chicken in different ways all week long!
1. Top off your salad with some chicken. You'll have your veggie (C), your dressing (F), and your chicken (P) -- PFC meal right there! Can't get much easier than that.
2. Chicken avocado salad. Mix an avocado with some salsa, salt and pepper (making guacamole, in essence) and add in some chicken for a pack of protein. Use those wonderful cucumber slices as dippers, and there's another PFC meal, easy peesy.
3. Chicken tacos! Who doesn't love a chicken taco? Mix up your chicken with some seasonings like cumin, a little bit of chili powder, salt and some salsa. Load up some veggie toppings like tomatoes, avocados, onions, or beans. A little fresh cilantro goes a long way, too. You don't even need a tortilla, just a fork and a hungry belly! ..my mouth is watering..
4. Chicken wild rice soup in the crock pot. I actually made this this week, yum!
-Chop up 3 large carrots, 3 stalks of celery and a large onion
-Load up the crock pot with your veggies, 1 cup of uncooked wild rice, 62 oz chicken broth, 1-2 tsp dried oregano, salt and pepper to taste.
-Cook on low for 6-8 hours, adding in your chicken during the last couple hours.
You will have soup for weeks! I put half of this recipe in the freezer
Happy Meal Planning, everyone!
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Ways You May Be Slowing Your Metabolism
Long time no see, my friends..
What a summer it has been! For me, it's been quite the busy one. Preparing for your first little one should be stressful enough, but the husband and I thought we should add to it by fixing up our house and getting projects done before baby - which, I'm glad we did. I'm happy it's over.
I sit here now, sipping my [decaf] coffee with nothing but a doctor's appointment on the agenda [I could go on and on about how I hate doctors appointments, but I won't.]. It feels quite strange to not have painting to do, or planting or even house cleaning to do at the moment - but I'll take it!
So, with my new found time I've been continuing to learn, and relearn, the fundamentals on managing a healthy weight. [I've also been learning a TON about birth and labor and delivery, but this is not the time or place for that.]
I listened to a great episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Dishing Up Nutrition, where a woman who had lost 90 lbs from changing her diet shared her story. She has wonderful insights and encouragement for those of you who have a similar goal and want to change your health for good - not just for this next 30 day challenge, or this next diet plan to try - but life-changing health improvements. You can listed to that episode here, I highly recommend it.
She got me thinking about all of the mistakes many of us make when it comes to fat loss, most of which we do with good intention! But many of these things will just lead you to failure in the long run and may destroy your metabolism along the way.
Our metabolism, and really our bodies, are quite smart. It's not just a machine, like the calories in, calories out myth makes it out to be. Our bodies know how to adjust, they know how to use certain food for certain things, it's all regulated by hormones - and we should be impressed, having the utmost respect to the Creator who designed it all! With that, we must learn how to make our bodies efficient so that our metabolism works for us and not against us.
Here are some things to take a look at in your own lifestyle that may be slowing down your metabolism:
You aren't eating enough protein: For us ladies it can often be hard to get the adequate amount of protein we need each day. The recommendation is to aim for 80 grams of protein daily, but in my opinion it doesn't hurt to get even more, say 100 grams or slightly more.
Why do we care about protein? Protein is what builds our muscles. Muscles use fat as energy quite well, which is great news, they're our own God-given fat burners! Protein keeps us feeling full and satisfied - helps us avoid the sugar cravings!
Check out this study on higher protein diets and weight loss: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Good protein is going to come from animal products. All meats, eggs, and dairy are wonderful sources and should be in your daily routine. Animal protein is absorbed the best, it has all essential amino acids we need and often it has a good amount of healthy fats we need as well - bonus!
Which brings me to the next one..
You aren't eating enough fat: Fat. I wish we called it something else. Fat tends to scare us away, especially since we've been told for decades that eating fat makes us fat. Every time I see a new study come out and headlines on the news saying that fat may not be making us fat, I throw a party in my mind and dance around a little [for real]. There's a reason we love butter and heavy cream. You can't mimic that same mouth-feel and richness that butter and cream shower upon us. Food companies have tried their best to find alternatives, but God did the best job when he created heavy cream for us to enjoy in our morning coffee [if you tolerate dairy, that is].
Like protein, fat makes us feel full and satisfied. Fat supports our metabolism. Check out this article about how fat doesn't make us fat: NPR thesalt
What's even more, is that our brains need fat. Your brain is made up of mostly fat and needs fat to build and maintain healthy brain connections. For you smarty pants out there, check out this detailed study on the effects of nutrition on our brain: PMC journal
And for us simpler folk, check out this article about healthy fats for healthy brain function: The Fats to Eat for Better Brain Health
Fat is just so cool...
You are eating too much sugar: it probably makes sense that eating cookies and cakes and brownies every day isn't going to help us lose fat. I think we can all understand that concept. But the same goes for your morning cereal with skim milk, the bagel or sub sandwich you have for lunch, and the big plate of spaghetti for dinner. All of these things convert into sugar once they hit our bloodstream.
Why is sugar so dangerous for our metabolism? Sugar turns into glucose. Glucose triggers insulin release. Insulin stores that glucose into our cells as glycogen. Glycogen is a fancy name for fat. And that's the cycle.
How can we break that cycle? Well, if glucose gets stored as fat by insulin, then we must reduce the amount of glucose we put into our blood stream. Which means we must limit the sugar in our diet! Viola!
The less fat we have and the more lean muscle we have, the faster our metabolism will be!
You aren't managing your stress: Diet is a big factor when it comes to fixing your metabolism and making it more efficient. However, the next big factor is stress.
Stress is inevitable, unavoidable, especially in this country. We just don't know how to slow the heck down. We live in fast-forward every day and it takes a toll.
Stress is linked to the hormone cortisol. Hormones are so important to our metabolism and fat loss. I've already mentioned insulin, and now cortisol. Cortisol is released when we are stressed out and it holds onto our midsection weight. Stress produces more sugar cravings, too. Studying for a big exam? Busy day at work? Crying baby? Broccoli sounds really good during those circumstances, right? No, it's more like a big bowl of cookie dough ice cream with extra hot fudge and whip cream on top... we've all experienced that.
So make sure to take time for yourself. Take time to pray, do some yoga, do something you enjoy, find time to laugh and be goofy. It'll be worth it in the long run.
You're doing too much cardio: Recently I read an article written by Kiefer that you can read here. It explains in great detail why running long distances many times a week will not give us the fat loss we desire. In a nutshell, running creates stress and stress makes us hold onto fat. When we run a long distance our body will use our muscles as energy. When we have less muscle our metabolism slows down because muscle is our fat burner. So, we end up with bodies that have less muscle and more fat - opposite of what we were looking for.
If you enjoy running and enjoy that euphoric feeling after accomplishing a long run or you like to chase endorphins, there are other ways to get that feeling. Any intense exercise that you do can produce endorphins - heavy weight lifting or sprint work, for example. So, if fat loss is your goal, try out a new style of exercise that improves your metabolism and doesn't hinder it like long distance cardio does.
You're not lifting weights: Muscle. I've talked about how important our muscles are for our metabolism and for fat loss. Eating protein will help grow our muscles, add some weight lifting to the mix and you got a good equation for building muscle. Over the years as I've done various types of exercise, I've learned to challenge myself with heavy weights for building lean muscle quickly. Ladies, we're probably more comfortable lifting lighter weights for higher reps, but choose something heavy enough to cause you fatigue after 8-10 reps - you'll be happy with your results. And please don't even worry about bulking up like a man - we're not wired that way. Just know that a toned arm is a strong arm; a toned behind is a strong behind; toned and lean legs are strong legs.
So, I challenge you - add some weight lifting to your schedule at least twice a week, even if for only 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Take time to learn proper form. Maybe work with a trainer for a period of time or even take a look at JASSAFit (a company led by Jason Seib and Sarah Fragoso who can help you with your weight lifting plan and check your form all online!).
I want your weight loss to be fat loss. I want everyone to learn how to lose fat in a healthy way that will last a lifetime. I want the yo-yo dieting of losing and gaining, then losing and gaining to end. I want good research and good nutrition to win out over quick fix diet plans.
I'm not a fan of quick fixes that promise fast results. Fixing broken metabolisms may take time. Nell shares during her story in that Dishing Up Nutrition podcast episode I mentioned, that it took her body a year before she finally saw fat loss. Years of destroying our metabolism will take time to fix it. BUT once it's fixed, you're on your way!
What a summer it has been! For me, it's been quite the busy one. Preparing for your first little one should be stressful enough, but the husband and I thought we should add to it by fixing up our house and getting projects done before baby - which, I'm glad we did. I'm happy it's over.
I sit here now, sipping my [decaf] coffee with nothing but a doctor's appointment on the agenda [I could go on and on about how I hate doctors appointments, but I won't.]. It feels quite strange to not have painting to do, or planting or even house cleaning to do at the moment - but I'll take it!
So, with my new found time I've been continuing to learn, and relearn, the fundamentals on managing a healthy weight. [I've also been learning a TON about birth and labor and delivery, but this is not the time or place for that.]
I listened to a great episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Dishing Up Nutrition, where a woman who had lost 90 lbs from changing her diet shared her story. She has wonderful insights and encouragement for those of you who have a similar goal and want to change your health for good - not just for this next 30 day challenge, or this next diet plan to try - but life-changing health improvements. You can listed to that episode here, I highly recommend it.
She got me thinking about all of the mistakes many of us make when it comes to fat loss, most of which we do with good intention! But many of these things will just lead you to failure in the long run and may destroy your metabolism along the way.
Our metabolism, and really our bodies, are quite smart. It's not just a machine, like the calories in, calories out myth makes it out to be. Our bodies know how to adjust, they know how to use certain food for certain things, it's all regulated by hormones - and we should be impressed, having the utmost respect to the Creator who designed it all! With that, we must learn how to make our bodies efficient so that our metabolism works for us and not against us.
Here are some things to take a look at in your own lifestyle that may be slowing down your metabolism:
You aren't eating enough protein: For us ladies it can often be hard to get the adequate amount of protein we need each day. The recommendation is to aim for 80 grams of protein daily, but in my opinion it doesn't hurt to get even more, say 100 grams or slightly more.
Why do we care about protein? Protein is what builds our muscles. Muscles use fat as energy quite well, which is great news, they're our own God-given fat burners! Protein keeps us feeling full and satisfied - helps us avoid the sugar cravings!
Check out this study on higher protein diets and weight loss: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Good protein is going to come from animal products. All meats, eggs, and dairy are wonderful sources and should be in your daily routine. Animal protein is absorbed the best, it has all essential amino acids we need and often it has a good amount of healthy fats we need as well - bonus!
Which brings me to the next one..
You aren't eating enough fat: Fat. I wish we called it something else. Fat tends to scare us away, especially since we've been told for decades that eating fat makes us fat. Every time I see a new study come out and headlines on the news saying that fat may not be making us fat, I throw a party in my mind and dance around a little [for real]. There's a reason we love butter and heavy cream. You can't mimic that same mouth-feel and richness that butter and cream shower upon us. Food companies have tried their best to find alternatives, but God did the best job when he created heavy cream for us to enjoy in our morning coffee [if you tolerate dairy, that is].
Like protein, fat makes us feel full and satisfied. Fat supports our metabolism. Check out this article about how fat doesn't make us fat: NPR thesalt
What's even more, is that our brains need fat. Your brain is made up of mostly fat and needs fat to build and maintain healthy brain connections. For you smarty pants out there, check out this detailed study on the effects of nutrition on our brain: PMC journal
And for us simpler folk, check out this article about healthy fats for healthy brain function: The Fats to Eat for Better Brain Health
Fat is just so cool...
You are eating too much sugar: it probably makes sense that eating cookies and cakes and brownies every day isn't going to help us lose fat. I think we can all understand that concept. But the same goes for your morning cereal with skim milk, the bagel or sub sandwich you have for lunch, and the big plate of spaghetti for dinner. All of these things convert into sugar once they hit our bloodstream.
Why is sugar so dangerous for our metabolism? Sugar turns into glucose. Glucose triggers insulin release. Insulin stores that glucose into our cells as glycogen. Glycogen is a fancy name for fat. And that's the cycle.
How can we break that cycle? Well, if glucose gets stored as fat by insulin, then we must reduce the amount of glucose we put into our blood stream. Which means we must limit the sugar in our diet! Viola!
The less fat we have and the more lean muscle we have, the faster our metabolism will be!
You aren't managing your stress: Diet is a big factor when it comes to fixing your metabolism and making it more efficient. However, the next big factor is stress.
Stress is inevitable, unavoidable, especially in this country. We just don't know how to slow the heck down. We live in fast-forward every day and it takes a toll.
Stress is linked to the hormone cortisol. Hormones are so important to our metabolism and fat loss. I've already mentioned insulin, and now cortisol. Cortisol is released when we are stressed out and it holds onto our midsection weight. Stress produces more sugar cravings, too. Studying for a big exam? Busy day at work? Crying baby? Broccoli sounds really good during those circumstances, right? No, it's more like a big bowl of cookie dough ice cream with extra hot fudge and whip cream on top... we've all experienced that.
So make sure to take time for yourself. Take time to pray, do some yoga, do something you enjoy, find time to laugh and be goofy. It'll be worth it in the long run.
You're doing too much cardio: Recently I read an article written by Kiefer that you can read here. It explains in great detail why running long distances many times a week will not give us the fat loss we desire. In a nutshell, running creates stress and stress makes us hold onto fat. When we run a long distance our body will use our muscles as energy. When we have less muscle our metabolism slows down because muscle is our fat burner. So, we end up with bodies that have less muscle and more fat - opposite of what we were looking for.
If you enjoy running and enjoy that euphoric feeling after accomplishing a long run or you like to chase endorphins, there are other ways to get that feeling. Any intense exercise that you do can produce endorphins - heavy weight lifting or sprint work, for example. So, if fat loss is your goal, try out a new style of exercise that improves your metabolism and doesn't hinder it like long distance cardio does.
You're not lifting weights: Muscle. I've talked about how important our muscles are for our metabolism and for fat loss. Eating protein will help grow our muscles, add some weight lifting to the mix and you got a good equation for building muscle. Over the years as I've done various types of exercise, I've learned to challenge myself with heavy weights for building lean muscle quickly. Ladies, we're probably more comfortable lifting lighter weights for higher reps, but choose something heavy enough to cause you fatigue after 8-10 reps - you'll be happy with your results. And please don't even worry about bulking up like a man - we're not wired that way. Just know that a toned arm is a strong arm; a toned behind is a strong behind; toned and lean legs are strong legs.
So, I challenge you - add some weight lifting to your schedule at least twice a week, even if for only 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Take time to learn proper form. Maybe work with a trainer for a period of time or even take a look at JASSAFit (a company led by Jason Seib and Sarah Fragoso who can help you with your weight lifting plan and check your form all online!).
I want your weight loss to be fat loss. I want everyone to learn how to lose fat in a healthy way that will last a lifetime. I want the yo-yo dieting of losing and gaining, then losing and gaining to end. I want good research and good nutrition to win out over quick fix diet plans.
I'm not a fan of quick fixes that promise fast results. Fixing broken metabolisms may take time. Nell shares during her story in that Dishing Up Nutrition podcast episode I mentioned, that it took her body a year before she finally saw fat loss. Years of destroying our metabolism will take time to fix it. BUT once it's fixed, you're on your way!
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