S3 Shepherd’s Pie from Dr. Oz – Sweet!

Meal Management to the Rescue was a blast last Saturday. One of my assignments was to find a Shepherd’s Pie recipe that would be PPW compliant (yes, it is also S3  approved).

Do You Know How To Taco?

Does the kitchen drive you crazy? Do you think that there is some gene you are missing that doesn’t allow you to make healthy and tasty meals – and do it fast?

I was there, and I am always learning.

I started out not ever having made a butternut squash until I was married. I didn’t even know what one looked like. I also had not made real potatoes until after I was married. As far as I knew they come out of a box.

So it’s probably no surprise it was one of those “AHA” moments when I realized I could make my own taco seasoning.

(I’m not the only one who now knows this. If you have “Making a Difference, Making It Happen Cookbook” then look on page 58. You’ll find this recipe for Taco Seasoning. It was passed along by Josh’s mom. The book is dedicated to Josh and all the proceeds go to him as well, so pick one up!)

Back to tacos. These are wonderful because of all the diverse veggies and even the healthy fats you can add to tacos (think olives and avocado). My family makes “Naked Tacos”, otherwise known as Taco Salads.

Instead of grabbing the little packages at the store that usually have added sugar, here’s how to make your own. And the best part is that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it’s comes to using all these great spices.

Taco Seasoning

• 1 Tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Blend together and enjoy. Better yet, make a large batch and store in an empty spice container for next time.

By the way, this too was another assignment from Meal Management.

Enjoy making meals at home,

Coach Nancy

S3 Habit 5: Eat Healthy Fats Daily

I suppose the words “Healthy” and “Fats” are not used together all that often, because we have been led to believe that FAT is a four letter word.

But you can’t fool me, I can count better than that! 🙂

There are actually 4 primary types of fat.

3 healthy, 1 seriously unhealthy.

I will remind you again of what our friend Ryan Andrews over at Precision Nutrition has to say about fat.

Why are healthy fats so important?

Fats exert powerful effects within the body and healthy fats have been shown to offer the following benefits.

Strong evidence
Cardiovascular protection (though there is less evidence for protecting against heart failure)
Improve body composition
Alleviate depression

Average evidence
Prevent cancers
Preserve memory
Preserve eye health
Reduce incidence of aggressive behaviour
Reduce ADHD and ADD symptoms

When it comes to healthy fat, intake amount is important. People are often concerned about excess dietary fat, but not getting enough fat may also cause health problems.

We need adequate fat to support metabolism, cell signaling, the health of various body tissues, immunity, hormone production, and the absorption of many nutrients (such as vitamins A and D). Having enough fat will also help keep you feeling full between meals.

In other words, you NEED healthy fats if you want to be, well, healthy!

(Read Ryan’s Complete Article – “All About Healthy Fats”)

The first kind of fat is saturated fat, and if you eat animal protein, you usually have no problem getting that one in, maybe even a bit too much.

The other two are unsaturated fats – poly and mono. These include the Omega-3s which are found in fish such as salmon, as well as nuts, seeds and vegetable oils. Far from being unhealthy, all of these types of fats are crucial for optimal health.

It is also important to balance out the ratio of the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. The reason Omega-3 supplements are necessary for most people is that the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids has been dumped on it’s head by the way our food is raised and processed. What used to be a 1:1 ratio of 6 to 3 is now more like 16:1, and this does not allow proper cell functioning and integrity. That’s why we recommend a good Omega-3 supplement for everybody. 3-6 grams of EPA/DHA per day is the recommendation. Find more about Super Omega-3 here: Fish Oil and Why You Are Getting Ripped Off

Want to know for sure if you are getting enough Omega-3? Do what Nancy and I had done and get your blood tested. We just sent our Index Assay kit in and we will let you know the results when we get them. You can find out more about that here (we can get you the kits at a better price): http://www.sfh.com/products/omega_3-oil/omega-3_index_assay

So let’s get the bottom line

Starting next week we want you to consciously add healthy fats to your diet. Mix it up by eating nuts, seeds, fish, grass fed animals/eggs, olives, avocado, and coconut.

Supplement with 3-6 grams of quality fish oil a day.

That sound pretty good, eh? 🙂

Caution: If you are taking blood thinners, have heart issues, or have a bleeding disorder you absolutely need to check with your physician before supplementing with Omega-3 fatty acids (Fish/Algae Oils).  Just do it!

S3 Habit 5: Eat Healthy Fats Daily

To earn your daily point starting Monday May 13th:

1. Eat 4-5 meals daily
2. Eat complete lean protein every time you eat
3. Eat veggies every time you eat
4. Eat “other carbs” only immediately after training
5. Eat healty fats daily

Questions? Let’s here them!

P.S. – Who can tell me what kind of fats we should avoid at all costs? Share your answer below.

S3 Habit 4: What Is An “Other” Carbohydrate?

Today we are going to tackle what is probably the most confusion and controversial part of ANY nutrition plan.

You know what I am talking about.

Carbohydrates.

The word “carb” is ingrained into our minds, and usually when we think of it in the term of nutrition we think of all the “Low Carb” diets out there – Not so much fun.

Carbohydrate is not a dirty word. Your body functions best when you eat carbohydrates, that’s not really the question.

Let’s put it this way. If I ask most people what they think about when they hear the words “Carb” or “Carbohydrate” this is the answers I get:

• Bread
• Muffins
• Cookies
• Doughnuts
• Pasta
• Cake
• Potatoes
• French Fries
• Rolls

and they are right, those all contain a lot of carbohydrate.

But here’s another list:

• Apples
• Oranges
• Kiwi
• Asparagus
• Beets
• Spinach
• Green Beans
• Peppers
• Carrots
• Peas
• Squash
• Cucumber
• Whole Grains (not pretend whole grains, I mean “whole” whole grains) 🙂

These are all carbohydrates too!

The big difference is the way your body handles these carbohydrates.

The first list is made up of simple carbs. Simple carbs are made up of one or two sugar molecules and break down very quickly and easily.

The second list are what we call complex carbs. These are compromised of more than two sugar groups, and these take much longer to break down in your system.

Both of these, simple and complex carbs, are digested into simple sugars before the body uses them.

But there is a big difference in the speed of digestion between a cinnamon roll and a string bean, or even a bowl of oatmeal for that matter.

This speed of digestion is also a factor in how much insulin is released into our bloodstream.

High speed carb, more insulin. Low speed carb, less insulin.

(I am getting to the point, I promise.)

Insulin is a storage hormone, and it has very powerful effects on the body. It is responsible for shuttling nutrients (glucose, amino acids, fats) into our bodies cells. It is necessary for life, which is why diabetics need to have insulin shots. Their pancreas isn’t working anymore, so they need outside intervention.

Now I am really going to simplify here, but think about it.

When is the best time to have insulin released? When does our body have the most nutritional requirements, for instance repair and growth? (That was kind of a big hint)

Right after you train!

When you have hit the weights hard and left it all on the floor, this is when your body is ready, willing and able to use those simple sugars and amino acids (broken down protein) and get the repair process started. Insulin is now doing great things, it is shuttling nutrients into willing cells and making you better – sweet!

In fact it is a terrible idea to neglect post-training nutrition. You must provide the body the mortar to build the bricks, and the most convenient way to get that done is a post-training shake (partially pre-digested and fast acting) immediately after training. This is Prime Time. But you also need to follow that up with a meal within a couple hours, and this is where you want to have the majority of your non-fruit and vegetable carbohydrates (other carbs) for the day, even if you train in the afternoon or evening. If you want a few great ideas for post-training carbohydrates, ThePPWKitchen will hook you up.

A look at the other side

Insulin has a “dark side” as well. This important hormone, you remember, is really good at storing things.

Like all those ho-ho’s you ate, right on your hips.

You see when you overload your body with too much food, especially easy to digest food like the simple carbs we talked about, your body needs to do something with it. If it doesn’t need to burn it, it does the next logical thing.

It stores it. (You know, the ho-ho thing)

That is why in general it is best to avoid simple carbohydrates during periods of low activity (like the pint of Ben and Jerry’s right before bed).

The Take Home

Carbs are not your enemy. However we can be smarter about when we eat our simple carbs. It’s not a matter of never eating starch and sugar, just save them for the meal you eat directly after you train.

That’s not so bad!

Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown Habit 4

Here’s how you score your point starting Monday May 6th.

1. Eat a minimum of 4 meals (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Recovery Drink)
2. Eat Lean Protein every team you eat
3. Eat Veggies every time you eat
4. Eat “Other Carbs” only after training

Here are two more terrific articles (with picture, charts, animations and everything) to catch you up on all things carbohydrate.

All About Carbohydrates

All About Insulin

Keep this in mind as well. We all handle carbohydrates a little differently. You may get away with a little more “other carbs” than your neighbor. Don’t get cranked up about never eating your favorite foods again. Just embrace the opportunity to discover different foods and different flavors. Nobody said change was easy, but I am proud of anyone who makes an effort.

Keep Making It Happen!

Super Salad Dressings – Make One for Dinner Tonight!

Salad dressing are super easy to make. Since you don’t use large amounts you don’t have to make it every day.

The easiest is to slice a lemon in wedges and squeeze one slice on your salad. Great flavor!

Or try these more  traditional salad dressing recipes.

1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder (for a real garlic flavor – 2 garlic cloves minced)

Shake together and voila

If you have more time

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 entire bulb of garlic roasted for an hour in the oven and cooled. (just squish the contents into your salad dressing container)
1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Super yummy

Caesar Dressing
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Sprinkle salad with parmesan cheese, save calories and don’t put extra in your dressing.

To your best health,
Nancy

S3 2013 Habit 2: Eat Lean, Protein Dense Foods with Each Meal

Week 2’s habit is focused on getting your body what it needs to manufacture enzymes, hormones, and antibodies, replace worn out cells and build new cells. Without it the machine can’t operate at full capacity.

Protein.

The team over at Precision Nutrition has done a great job telling us what protein is and why it is so important to eat. You can’t live without it, really! Read “All About Protein” Here.

There are so many more choices out there than just chicken and fish.

Have you checked out the PPW3 shopping list on our sister site ThePPWKitchen.com yet?

There are Forty-Two different protein sources on that list alone – 42!

How Much Protein?

A good rule of thumb is this: Look at the palm of your hand. If you are a woman, your portion per meal should be about the size of your hand. This will be between 20 and 30 grams. Men, double that portion per meal, or 40-60 grams. The fact is that most of the time you are not going to want to get the food scale out every time you sit down to eat (although that is  great idea for a week or two until you get good at eyeballing portions), and the palm method is easy and portable! 🙂

Here are just a few examples of lean protein sources. The amounts listed will provide approximately 20-30 grams of quality protein, which is what we would consider a women’s portion.  Guys, do a little multiplying and double it.

High quality protein.
3-4 oz of cooked lean meat, poultry, or fish
1 cup of cooked seafood
4-5 egg whites
2-3 large eggs
6 oz. cottage cheese
6 oz. of plain greek yogurt (1 container)
2 oz of part skim cheese
1 scoop of protein powder
1 cup cooked lentils or beans
3-4 oz of tempeh or tofu
1 small veggie burger

Now it can be noted that some of these foods, particularly the dairy, have some carbohydrates as well, which is why we talk about protein dense foods.

Let me give you an example.

We all love peanut butter, but is peanut butter a good source of protein?

Let’s look at peanut butter from a well known store – Trader Joe’s. I actually love Trader Joe’s peanut butter.

Peanuts and Salt. That’s it.

And if I look at the nutrition label (you do, right?) you will see that 2 Tablespoons, or 1 serving, has 8 grams of protein. Not TOO bad you might be thinking.

But the % of protein in Peanut Butter is actually quite low, in this case around 17% of total calories. (Hint – it’s mostly fat)

Make sense?

Here are other “protein sources” that you’ll want to avoid:

Bacon
Lunch Meats
Sausages
Pepperoni
Protein in “fast food” restaurant meals (chinese take out, etc.)

These are low quality proteins, most of which are high in fat, sodium, and sugar, contain nitrates and a lot of other nasty preservatives.

So how do you score your daily point starting in Week 2 (Monday April 22)?

By doing S3 Habit 1 and 2
S3 Habit 1: Eat 4-5 meals each day
S3 Habit 2: Eat lean protein with all those meals

Here’s a handy dandy chart to help you get pointed in the right direction:

Quality Protein Fibrous Carbs Compliments

The possibilities are endless, so get out of the drive through, put on that Chef’s hat and Make It Happen!

S3 2013 – Let’s Get In The Habit

We are gearing up for Sizzlin’ Summer Slimdown 2013 and we are wicked excited about seeing all the great things you are going to do.

If you have been training at Get Fit NH or a reader of our “stuff”, you know that we are all about building nutrition habits that will enable us to achieve and maintain a lean, high performance body – for a lifetime.

We base a large part of our work on Dr. John Berardi and his team over at Precision Nutrition. There are two (at least) reasons we do that. The first is that these are the same exact principles that allowed me (Coach Dean) to lose over 80 pounds and keep it off for many years. The second is because of my success and the success I saw in others using the system that I sought what is recognized within the industry as the best (and I might add hardest to earn) Nutrition Coaching credential for fitness professionals. I believe it is the best, and the PN team is always on the cutting edge of nutritional science and getting better.

So let’s get started!

Habit 1 is very straightforward.

Eat 4-5 meals per day.

At this point it doesn’t matter what, when, how or why.

Every time you eat, mark an “X” on your success checklist. If at the end of the day you have eaten at least 4 times, give yourself a point.

Pretty simple, eh?

You see we know how busy life is, and we know that it can be a real struggle to eat consistently. Skipping meals on a consistent rate is not cool for many reasons. You don’t get enough nutrients, your blood sugar can go wild, your metabolic rate is thought to slow down – all sorts of things that make achieving and maintaining a lean and healthy body nigh near impossible.

Look I have absolutely no objections if you want to start implementing some or all of the other habits too.

But don’t complicate things.

• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Dinner
• Recovery Drink

That’s four feeding opportunities – check!

Just eat.

Here’s an example

Local Concord Area Fitness Professional Earns Prestigious Certification

Concord, NH based physical preparation coach Dean Carlson becomes the first person in New Hampshire to achieve the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification.

Get Fit NH  is pleased to announce that co-owner and coach Dean Carlson has successfully completed the rigorous requirements for the successful completion of the industry’s premier nutrition designation.

Dr. John Berardi, founder of Precision Nutrition says “The goal is simple: to teach elite fitness professionals how to become elite nutrition coaches.” He further explains “Once you can consistently influence your client’s nutrition, your ability to deliver results increases 3-fold, at least.”

As co-owner of Get Fit NH, a 3-time “Best Gym” winner, and a trainer who has helped hundreds of members look and feel great, Coach Carlson knew he could deliver even better results, and be a better coach, by continuing his education. “I am proud of earning my Level 1 certification with Precision Nutrition” he said. “Dr. Berardi’s work was instrumental when I was 80+ pounds overweight, and I knew that further study into cellular biology, digestion and metabolism would help me better understand how to help our clients get even quicker results.”

While thoroughly covering the science of nutrition, the Precision Nutrition Certification ensures its graduates can do something even more important: Teach people at all levels practical and realistic nutrition that gets results.

“All the knowledge in the world is useless unless it can be communicated easily to our members and then implemented” Carlson explains.

To learn more about how Coach Dean can help you get control of your eating and build a lean, healthy body, please email him at getfitnh@gmail.com or give him a call at 603.344.2651. For a free 2-week trial to his Epsom/Concord training facilities, please visit http://www.GetFitNH.com

To learn more about Precision Nutrition, visit http://PrecisionNutrition.com

Dean Carlson is the co-owner of Cr8 Health & Fitness, LLC. Dean is a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer, Certified Youth Fitness Specialist Level 2, and Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified. As a “former fat boy”, he understands what it takes to achieve a level of fitness he thought was long gone. Dean  is a physical preparation and performance coach and is the training director of Get Fit NH, with locations in Concord and Epsom, NH.

Your Chocolate Cravings Fixed?

Jenn, (one of those crazy people who train at 5 am Concord), sent me a fantastic recipe. She has shared this recipe with several at the 5 am crew but wanted to fill everyone in on her secret.

Protein Pancakes

1/2 cup egg beaters (or 2 large eggs)
1 scoop UMP (I have used all flavors)
1/2 a mashed banana
splash of vanilla

Mash the banana in a bowl and add the eggbeaters. Stir in the UMP and then add vanilla. Cook as you would regular pancakes. I get three pancakes from the recipe. They are SO yummy!

“I have made them with chocolate, rocky road and vanilla (with cinnamon). All flavors of UMP are good.  Make it a GREAT day!”

Melissa who trains at 5 am Epsom also has her secret recipes for UMP.

“I’ve discovered a new recipe. It was delicious!”

Chocolate Fix Cookies

1/2 an avocado
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 scoop of UMP vanilla protein
Purée all of the above
Mix in 1 square of dark chocolate chopped (optional of course)
Bake at 350 for 8-10 min

It’s perfect for those chocolate cravings. I found it very satisfying and I don’t even care for avocado typically.  What is typical is the UMP (Ultimate Muscle Protein) is delicious in all kinds of recipes, not only the best tasting shakes around. 🙂

Keep those recipes coming in,
Nancy

Spring Seminar Series with Whole Health Concord

Get Fit NH is excited to announce our Spring Seminar Series, featuring Dr. Laura Jones and Dr. Amanda Hegnauer of Whole Health Concord. Anytime we have a chance to hear these two pros speak it is a treat, so mark the dates on your calendar now.

I was talking to a client this morning who expressed frustration at all the conflicting info on health and nutrition that’s “out there”, so if you want to hear the latest research PLUS some great tips on how to make it work for you, get on over here.

Drs. Jones and Hegnauer will be presenting a 4-part series designed to help us “tune-up” our bodies for optimal health and performance. Invite your friends, as these are open to the public and we want to spread the word. Don’t be fooled by the word “lecture”, this seminar series is user friendly and practical and down to earth.

Be there!

A Biochemical Tune-Up
Presented by:
Dr. Laura Jones & Dr. Amanda Hegnauer of Whole Health Concord

Location: Get Fit NH Concord 287 South Main St. Concord, NH

Lecture 1:  Thyroid Health – a key factor in metabolism, weight, and body composition
Tuesday March 26, 2013 7:00pm

Lecture 2: Adrenal Health – an essential component of optimal health and ideal weight
Tuesday April 23, 2013 7:00pm

Lecture 3: Female Hormones – Keeping them balanced through all of life’s changes
Tuesday May 7, 2013 7:00pm

Lecture 4: Optimal Body Weight and Composition – Updates on current research regarding naturopathic tools and approaches that can help you attain the weight and health you are striving for.
Tuesday June 4, 2013 7:00pm