SkinnyGirl On The Go Bars

I absolutely adore Skinnygirl, Betheny Frankel, so I am super excited to hear about her On-the-Go Bars that have just been released. I have everything from you book, her vitamins, alcohol (for those special occasions). Betheny is real and fun and a true inspiration to women every where. 

Skinnygirl has introduced their on-the-go bars, which are available in two delicious flavors, Banana Oatmeal Dark Chocolate and Dark Chocolate Multi-Grain Pretzel! I can not wait to try the Pretzel one. It is hard to believe that these are going to be good for you and taste amazing. I have such a hard time trying to satisfy that sweet tooth that I have occasionally and I am hoping these will be perfect. Skinnygirl has place two 100 calorie portions inside the package to make portion control easier throughout the day. However, once you eat one portion, it is going to be very difficult to try to resist the other one.

Skinnygirl On-the-Go Bars are all natural, vegan and Kosher, and contain 4 grrams of fiber per bar to keep you feeling full and satisfied longer. The Banana Bar contains 3 grams of protein per bar and the Dark Chocolate Pretzel contains 4 grams of protein. For a snack attacke when you are on the move, these will do the trick.

Keep these bars in your purse, gym bag or your desk drawer for a quick healthy pick me up during the day instead of grabbing a fattening candy bar. These are nutritious, guilt free and just yummy. I am placing my order today. Stay tuned for my Sparkling Review!

Summer Smoothies

Warmer weather is upon us, and eating cooler is the thing to do. Starting off the day with smoothies is a great way to adapt to the climate change. Personally I love starting my day off with a smoothie.  Some staples in every single one I make in the morning is Spinach, flax seed or chia seeds and protein. You can definitely change it up depending on what you are craving for the day.

Freezing bananas for future smoothies (or banana soft serve) every time they are about to go bad is a fantastic way to prevent food waste. **Tip: before you freeze and store your bananas, make sure to peel them!**

I love smoothies any which way, but if I am looking for something more substantial, here are some of my favorite ways to “beef” up a vegan smoothie. Feel free to add ice to your desired consistency if the fruit you are using isn’t frozen:

Tropical Delight:

-Pineapple

-Frozen Banana

-Coconut milk or coconut water (depending on desired flavor)

-Organcic Oryzatein Silk Sprouted Brown Rice Protein (I like Z Natural Foods)

Citrus Green Smoothie (courtesy of Vega One- their site has a whole recipe guide!):

-Vega One Natural

-2-3 Cups Spinach

-1/4 Cup Frozen Mango

-1/2 Cup Orange Juice

-Handful of Ice

-1/4 Cup Water

-1/2 Squeezed Lemon

PB&J Smoothie:

-1/2 – ¾ Cup Strawberries (Substitute Raspberries or Blackberries if you like)

-1 Frozen Banana

-Almond Milk (Add until desired consistency)

-2 TBSP Almond butter

-1 Scoop Pea Protein

Chocolate Greens:

-2-3 Cups Spinach

-1 Frozen Banana

-1 Scoop or Packet Chocolate Sunwarrior Raw Vegan Protein

My Current Meal Plan and Grocery List

I have posted quite a few foods the I recommend but I wanted to do a complete list.  This list is what I normally buy any given time when I go to the grocery store but this week I have started a more strict meal plan cutting out most of my carbs, fruit and bread.

My Meal Plan will consist of:

7:30 Protein, Egg Whites and Spinach
10:00 Protein, Spinach
12:30 6oz of Chicken Breast and Broccoli
3:00 Tuna, Dijon Mustard and Greens
5:30 6 oz of Chicken and Broccoli
8:30 (Post Workout) Protein Shake

As I have wrote about in the past, I have really messed up my metabolism by skipping meals and then just picking foods all day long. I need to shock my system, so I am going all out with only protein and veggies. In my cooler I will keep a container of brown rice or a sweet potato and for extreme emergencies, an apple which always picks me up if I am tired.

Here are the foods that I recommend for a healthy clean eating diet. Obviously you should not try to get them all at the same time. Try not to keep fresh fruits and veggies in your fridge for over a week. They will lose all of their nutrients. So buy small and buy often, unless you have a huge family and you can eat things up really quick. I usually go to the grocery store twice and week and buy in three day increments.

You can print this out and take it with you to the grocery store. I love whole foods and all the farmers markets. I also shop at Asian food stores for special veggies and things I can not find else where.

Vegetables:
Broccoli
Green Beans
Asparagus
Baby Carrots
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Romaine Lettuce
Organic Green Mixtures
Baby Spinach
Onions
Red Onion
Mushrooms (All kinds...MY FAVORITE)
Seaweed
Sweet Potato
Frozen Edamame

Fruits:
Any that are in Season
No Dried fruits..too much Shooga (as Coach Lee would say)
Bananas
Blueberries
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blackberries
Grapefruit
Avocadoes
Nectarines
Apples

Grains/Breads/Noodles
Old Fashioned Oatmeal
Steel Cut Oats
Ezekiel Bread
Quinoa
Brown Rice

Protein:
Eggwhites ( I buy liquid)
Chicken Breast
Tofu
Salmon
Tilapia
Shrimp
Scallops
Lobster
Tuna in a can or packet
Lentils
Black beans

Nuts/Seeds
Ground Flax Seed (if whole, must grind them up)
Unsalted pumpkin or sunflower seeds
Unsalted almonds
PB2 (powered pb..IT ROCKS)
Almond Butter

Dairy & Dairy Substitutes
Low Fat Cottage Cheese
Non Fat Plain Greek Yogurt
Almond Breeze unsweetened Almond Milk


Supplements:
Vanilla Whey Protein - any is fine but I find one that is low in carbs and preferrably no sugar. Each scoop should have atleast 20 grams of protein

Extra Flavor and Sauces
Salsa in place of ketchup and great for Salsa Chicken
Sriracha-I love this stuff. I add it to my tuna fish. Nothing wrong with a little spice to make you drink more water and rev up your metabolism right?
Lemon
Mrs Dash Seasoning
Tabasco Sauce

Sweeteners:
Stevia
Honey
Ground Cinnamon
Agava Nectar

LOTS & LOTS OF WATER

Getting Healthy with Scentsy Week 6 Day 45

Late night work outs are never my favorite but there I was last night at 10:00 pm at the gym. I think at this point, I am afraid that if I miss I might stop going. Deep down I don't think that will happen, after all I am already almost on Week 7. I definitely do not want to start over on Week 1. 

My body feels smaller in some areas, but even though I said I wouldn't I checked last night and I am gaining. Darn scales can really mess you up, but I just want to see when the decrease starts happening so I can log it. I am sure I am going through what many people go through. You really have to drill into your head that muscle weighs more than fat. I know some people who have gained 10lbs before they actually started losing.  I keep telling myself, I just need to keep going.

The training is going well. I believe I have my calories in check. The hard part now is getting in water. I do well a couple days and then I slack off. Today I just keep starring at the water jug and just don't feel like drinking it. Isn't it funny how something is right there in front of you and you know you have to do it and you just don't. Water plays such a huge part in all this. It flushes out all the bad stuff and takes away bloat.  After writing that, I just took a drink. My gosh, just drink it already. LOL. 

These blog posts are to track how I am doing and kind of help people relate. Every day is a new obstacle, but habits are usually adopted after 21 days. I am well past 21 days now so if I can just control the thoughts that keep trying to get in my way in my head, I know that clean eating, working out and drinking enough water will become once again a part of my every day life. 

People give up so easily. I have given up so easily in the past. I mean I have always ran and eaten ok but I am really taking it to the next level now. I keep all my fruit and carbs before 1pm. I log everything I put into my mouth. I love www.Fitclick.com. It is so easy and free to log everything. This definitely helps you know exactly where you are calorie wise. How much protein, carbs, fat and sugar you have taken in. It is amazing how that one cookie or one spoonful of something can add up. Logging everything helps me not take those extra bites. Besides the fact that everything white, sweet, processed etc is completely out of the house.

I have to say KoKo FitClub really makes staying motivated easy. I do not dread the work outs any more. They are clear and precise. The computer tells you what to do, how to do it and you don't waste any time. I love that. I don't dread going, or the actual work outs or anything, I actually enjoy them. 

Almost end of Week 7. Still going strong. I feel stronger. I feel like I have more energy. I feel less bloated. I just have to keep going. 

Getting Healthy with Scentsy Week 6 Day 43- The Calories

Reduce Calories and workout. Yes most of the time, that is the simple answer to losing weight and being healthy but if you have been starving yourself for years, skipping meals and making your body think that you aren't going to get enough food, this becomes not so simple.

You must start eating every 2-3 hours. It truly becomes a hassle. After all that we eat, we would think we would welcome eating that often but when you start eating clean, you really are eating a ton of food and 2-3 hours goes by very fast. Still after working out almost every day for 6 weeks, my body had not changed a whole lot until this week. This week, I have started to feel stronger, less tired and my stomach has felt much flatter. Last night after my work out, my arms felt very very tight. This gets very frustrating. We all want to see results immediately so I started really getting back into the measurement of how many calories I needed to have, while burning 500-600 a night to lose weight. If you do not get enough calories, your body is going to continue to think you are starving and hold on to the weight.

You see if you only consumer 1500 calories, but then burn 500 during your workout, your body is only getting 1000 a calories a day. That will not work to burn fat. Based on my height and weight, I need about 2020 a day to start burning 1.0-1.4lbs a week. There are a ton of calculators so that you can figure out exactly what you need based on your activity level. I use www.fitnessfrog.com or www.scoobysworkshop.com. Both are great for figuring out what your daily in take should be. I will point out that you really need to make sure you choose the correct activity level. Your daily intake must be precise in order for you to lose the weight that you want and keep it off.

Last night, I ended the day with about 1800 calories. I burned about 550 at the gym, so my intake was low putting me at 1250 for the day. I am sure this is better than I normally get but I really need to get this right in order to see the results.

As far as the results, I have vowed to stay off the scale and only to take pictures each week. No, I will not be posting them yet. They do motivate me to keep going to see the changes each week and now what keeps me going is that I am already on week 6 so if I quit, I will have to start at week 1. No Thanks,

As I change my program I will post about it. Currently it is as such:

Gym: Koko Fit Club


Workout: 
Cardio 15 minutes of Incline Interval Training  Calories burn average 150

Strength 1-2 30 minute Strength Session on the Koko fit trainer: Various Full Body Workout
Average Calories burned 250 for each one.

Cardio: 15 minutes 1-2  Elliptical Internal Training Sessions, Average Calories Burned 180 for each

Meal Plan
6-7 Small Meals a day starting at 7:30 AM

7:30: Protein Shake
10:30 Green Monster Shake with Protein, Almond Milk, Egg Whites, Steel Cut oats, Spinach, Flax and Bee Pollen, Blueberries
1:30 Organic Greens with Chicken and Sweet Potato or Whole Wheat Pasta
4:00 Cottage Cheese and Veggies
6:30 Chicken and Broccoli
7:30 Workout
9:45 Protein Shake

Water Intake
At least 1 Gallon of Water a Day

Today I feel great. I have finally started to get over the 2:00PM Hump where I have felt exhausted. The eating every 2-3 hours really keeps your sugar levels where they need to be so that you don't crash. I haven't been drinking coffee or needing anything sweet to keep me going at all.

Something to remember. If you body has been accustom to not eating at all and skipping meals. You don't want to just add 1000 calories a day all at once. Slowly add 100-200 calories a day until you are at the desired about.  When you have your cheat days or days where you don't follow your eat clean pattern as you normally would, go no more than 200 calories over or under.  Also change up the source where the calories come from to make your body use different energy source. You should also change up your workout routine and on the days where you eat more or cheat, make sure you push yourself. Give your body a reason to use those calories.

Lastly, remember, there is only one way to gain body fat-by eating too many calories consistently for too long. The days when you eat more than normal can be psychologically challenging, and can sometimes lead to binging. Be sure to stay focused on the goal and don't use a cheat day as an excuse to go crazy and pig out. It is to have those things that you crave so you are not keeping everything from yourself. You'll find that once you get started with Eating Clean, you won't even want the cheat days.

Make a decision to commit to eating clean forever. It sounds scary but once you get use to it, you won't be able to imagine how you ever ate any other way. If you do this, than the word "diet" is forever gone from your vocabulary. The roller coaster of starting and stopping can really have an effect on a person. I know I have been there. This is the longest I have committed to going back to eating perfectly clean in a very long time. I am going on my seventh week and I feel great. My skin is looking better and although I don't see everything that I would have wanted to in the first month, I know I am getting stronger and changes are happening. My moods are better. I feel energized after the work outs and in the morning. Ultimately, I can make my work outs as short as 15 minutes at KoKo fit or as long as 2 hours. Either way, I have been there every day for the last two weeks and still going strong.

Stick with me to watch the TRANSFORMATION!.

Until next time.....Keep on Sparkling.

Eat Clean To Be Lean: Week 6 Day 42

Good Morning,

Well you are now with me on this journey. I was going to wait to start blogging until I could post perfect before and afters but I think that is almost being a coward. Doing that would show that I am afraid of failing and only wanting to post if I succeed. Well I am afraid of failing. I am afraid of giving up. This time I will not.
I plan to do everything completely different than what I have done in the past. That means blogging my journey in regards to getting back in shape and feeling great.

Let me just tell you how I am feeling. I feel extremely frustrated. I started back on this journey because of Scentsy and meeting Natalie Hodson. (Another Scentsy Consultant). Something clicked when I met her. What really hit me was that she was 5'8" like me. I had put it in my head that because of my height, I could never be in shape. In my world, the only fit in shape girls were 5'7 and below. When I saw her and realized that she was almost same build as me, something clicked. I watched her carry her cooler around, go to the gym when we are all sitting on our butts having wine and it was like I got hit in the head. Sitting on my butt thinking that I just would always be a certain weight or keep gaining was ridiculous. And so the craziness began again. The cleaning out of the pantry, the dumping of the fridge, the purchases of whole foods, the cooler, the ice packs, the work out clothes. To stay motivated, I am on the Scentsy Wellness Page where almost 2500 of us are on the quest for a healthier more fit lifestyle. I have already blogged about the first two weeks and now we are on Week 6 Day 42. It is very difficult to stay focused. Some days the Wellness Group discourages me more than helps me. I feel like everyone on there is losing pounds after pounds, inches after inches, just by changing simple things. It gets very frustrating even though I have to constantly remind myself that every single person is different. It is definitely a mind over mind thing. I keep telling myself, I am on Week 6. I have gone longer than I have in a very long time and to not stop now. I really take a good look at how I am feeling. As far as my body is going, I feel stronger, less tired, less bloated. That is what keeps me going. I have convinced myself that my body is trying to trick me. It is not giving me the changes I want because it assumes I am going to quit. It is definitely a competition now between me, my mind and my body.

I am in the gym every day. I do 1-2 thirty minute strength sessions at Koko kit and atleast two 15 minute cardio sessions. I vowed I wouldn't weight myself and only take pictures but last night at the gym, I hopped on the scaled and I had lost 1lb. Frustrating yes but maybe the transformation is happening. My body is finally starting to realize that I am not giving up or giving in. So maybe it has given up holding on to the weight.

I do think this week, I will really focus on eating and making sure I am getting enough calories. I think I am still too low for what I am burning so my body is still thinking it needs to hold on to excess.

After trying many different diets, and bouncing all over the place, I always go back to what I know. Eating clean is the most effective for weight loss and having the most energy. Eating clean basically eating whole, natural, unprocessed foods. This means staying away from preservatives, artificial sweeteners, etc. When grocery shopping, I look at the ingredient list, and if there are any ingredients that I don't know than I won't eat it. The only thing that I do include in my diet that is processed is my protein powder.

For calories, I wanted to try to stay around 1800, but I don't think I have been hitting that. This week I will make more of a conscious effort to log my food in some of my fav websites like myfitnesspal or sparkpeople. They are free. I try to stay at 40% protein, 30% carbs and 30% fat. These websites will calculate that for you.

Foods I avoid:

• processed foods
• foods with added "shooga" (check those frozen weight loss meals)
• foods with too much sodium
• cereal where "shooga" is the 1st or 2nd ingredient
• juice, soda or diet soda
• flavored yogurt
• artificial sweeteners
• white carbs or other simple "shoogas"

Grocery List

• Fruits: apples, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, avocado
• Vegetables: broccoli, green beans, edamame, carrots, peppers, onions, spinach, zuchinni
• Chicken Breast
• Turkey (Lean Ground)
• Shrimp, Tuna, Tilapia
• Plain Greek Yogurt
• Low Fat Cottage Sheet (Fat free has too much "shooga"
• Sweet potatoes
• Ezekiel Bread
• Oat meal or steel cut oats
• Olive Oil
• Quinoa or Brown Rice
• Almond Butter (no "Shooga" added)
• Black Beans, Chick peas
• Flax seed, chia seeds, almonds
• Eggs, Egg Whites

Other Tips:

• When eating salad, I add a protein to it and always use red wine vinegar or tofu dressing. This has no "shooga", no fat. If you are going to use other dressings, watch for the "shooga". Fat free usually has a lot of "shooga"
• I eat every 2 1/2- 3 hours.
• I try to have most of my carbs before 1pm
• Measure your food. Get a food scale
• I take a big water jug to work with me. It holds 74.4 ounces of water. I usually drink two of those a day.
• Use Greek Yogurt as sourcream. Awesome substitute. Has protein and no fat!
• I put cayenne, mint or cinnamon on anything I can. Helps burn fat and speeds up the metabolism.
• I do not follow the "don't eat after 8" rule. Coach Lee says Never Hungry Never Full. If I am hungry, I eat something. I just choose wisely. If I workout late, I fuel my muscles with a protein shake with in 20 minutes of the work out.

The food part is such a huge part of getting in shape. If you don't get this down, then you could quite possibly never see the results you want. Plan your meals, set an alarm and get your water in.

Week 6 begins. Check back and let me know some of your tips too. Let's do this together and most importantly, Don't Give Up! Your body expects you too. We will change that. It is time for our bodies to stop making the decisions and our minds to take over.

We Can DO THIS! Tell me how you are feeling as we start the week.

Until next time....Keep On Sparkling!!  

We Can DO THIS!  Tell me how you are feeling this week.

Scentsy Bootcamp & Clean Eating

It is has been a while since I have personally blogged. This week is the week I will.....begin yet again. We all know I started the Visalus Challenge back in December. I really like Visalus but I have begun a new venture making everything simple, going back to the basics. The things about Fitness and Nutrition that I have always known. It is simple. There are no secret tricks, there are no magic diet pills. There is one way and the only way to be healthy and in shape : EAT RIGHT AND GET MOVING!

Iin May, I attended Scentsy Director Bootcamp in Meridian, Idaho. It is a special training for Scentsy's Consultants who have promoted to Director or higher. It was amazing. For 2 days we received incredible training and were treated like royalty by the Scentsy Home Office Staff. On the last day, we had training with Scentsy Wellness Trainer, Coach Lee Leslie.  It changed everything for me and brought me back to the thinking I had 10 years ago. .... again I say, there is no other way but CLEAN EATING and EXERCISE.

I will be blogging about this new venture here and you can also visit my You Tube Page for more Video Blogs on How I am doing!

So I am starting a bit late. Right now I am on Week 5 Day 39. I got back from Boot Camp and first began to clean out my pantry and fridge. I took out everything white and boxed. I did good for the first week. I also joined a gym called KoKo Fit Club. If there is one in your area. Definitely CHECK IT OUT! I have worked out at many gyms and loved many of them but I will say even though I use to be in great shape, I could never stay focused. Koko does EVERYTHING for me! You are able to stay on one machine and the workout is all set up before you even get there. Everything is programmed in, how many reps you do, everything. I love it. The work outs are also timed, so there is no wasted time and your heart rate stays up so that you are able to burn fat the entire time.  Really, check out the website and go visit if you can. If you don't like the gym atmosphere and like to get in and get out of gym, this will be perfect for you.

So the week after I joined Koko, my mom came to visit. Yeah not good to try to stay focused, but I did ok. She left a week later and then I started again.

So let's see:

Gym Membership: Check
Clean out junk food: Check
Bought Cooler: Check
Bought Water Jug: Check
Went to Grocery store for Food: Check
Prepped Food: Check

I was off. So every Sunday night, I prep my food. I make tons of Chicken in the Crockpot. I usually look up tons of low fat recipes just to change it up. I let it cook for 8 hours. If there is ton, I freeze each piece in a baggie and also keep some out for the week. Wait lets go back. Here are the things I bought.

Large packages of chicken
Fish
Broccoli
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Green beans
Sweet Potatoes
Brown Rice
Organic Greens
Whole Wheat Pasta
Steel cut oats
Oats
Protein
Blueberries
Raspberries
Flaxseed
Chia Seeds
Bee Pollen
Wheat Germ
Tofu
Lemon Juice
Garlic
Olive Oil
Dijon Mustard
Ezeikel Bread
Spinach
Ice Cool Packs
Cottage Cheese
Greek Yogurt

Those are the basics right now. I have taken a ton of pictures, so I'll start posting those too. Then I bought a cooler. It was about $14 at Target and tons of zip lock baggies. I carry the cooler around every where I go. This is the only way someone can eat clean and keep things on track.

So now with my groceries, my food prepped, my cooler packed, I was off. Now I do this every single day. My alarm is set on my phone to eat every 2-3 hours and every hour for water. I am drinking UNGODLY amounts of water.

I just squished the last 5 weeks into one little post. LOL. Now I can start getting into detail on how I am doing every single day. I will post about specifics, how I eat, the shakes I drink, what work outs I do and how I am feeling. I will leave it at that for now and post more this weekend. I have tons of tips and tidbits that are really working and I am truly enjoying myself again.

Until next time, keep on SPARKLING!!