Nov 23

Slimming Harvest Salad with Fat Burning Vinaigrette ;)

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I love big salads and I eat them a lot for lunch or dinner.  It is a really fun way to get creative by mixing up textures, tastes, and ingredients.  This salad is Thanksgiving inspired-so easy and delicious!  The creamy, crunchy, sweet, and salty elements pair perfectly with the veggies.  I topped it with my yummy vinaigrette which is a killer combination of ingredients which have been highly regarded for their fat burning qualities in numerous studies.  This tangy and sweet vinaigrette is so good and so good for you.  Plus it only has 3 ingredients too!  So easy!!

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Ingredients:

*3 cups spring mix (tear it up into tiny pieces with your hands)

*3 stalks or 100 grams celery (chopped small)

*6 slices or 112 grams of lean turkey (use some leftover Thanksgiving turkey instead if you want to!)

*1 ounce goat cheese

*1/8 cup or 20 grams reduced sugar dried cranberries

*1 tablespoon chopped pecans

*1/4 tablespoon organic extra virgin, unrefined coconut oil

*1 tablespoon organic apple cider vinegar (with the mother)

*1 packet or 1 teaspoon zero calorie sweetener of your choice (I used Truvia)

 

Toss the spring mix and celery in a large bowl. Top with the chopped turkey, crumbled goat cheese, cranberries, and pecans.

To make vinaigrette melt the coconut oil in microwave. Whisk in apple cider vinegar and sweetener. Pour evenly over salad and enjoy!!

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Makes one huge serving of salad and dressing!

Per serving (salad only)

346 calories

15 grams fat

27 carbs

8 grams fiber

30 grams protein

 

Vinaigrette

36 calories

3.5 grams fat

1 gram carbs

0 protein

 

 

 

 

Nov 20

Follow My Fitness: Chest & Back Attack ;)

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This workout will really fire up your upper back and chest.  Your core has to work really hard to stabilize your body while performing these moves so as a bonus you get a great core workout too!!  Be very careful when performing these moves.  A few of these can flare up your lower back if you perform them with too heavy weights.  As always if you feel pain modify or do not perform that particular exercise.  Below is my exact workout and numbers.

15 minute easy treadmill jog at 5.0 speed with 5% incline

For my strength training I did super sets by going back and forth between 2 exercises.  So exercises 1&2, exercises 3&4, and exercises 5&6 I did back to back until all sets were done for each exercise then I moved onto the next two on my list.  Exercise 7 I did alone as a final core burnout. 😉

1-Plank with dumbbell front and side raises-4 sets of 10 per side using 8lb dumbbell (get in high plank position on hand not forearm, raise small dumbbell out to side then straight in front as I show in the picture,  keep your abs, legs, & butt super tight to stabilize and do not allow your low back to sag-this is much harder than it seems FYI so start light!)

2-Wide grip lat pull downs-4 sets of 10 using 110 pounds (this is very heavy for me so I take short breaks in middle in order to complete the set)

3-Chest press crunches-4 sets of 15 using two 8lb dumbbells (perform a crunch and a chest press at same time by pressing the weights up as you crunch up)

4-Pushups-4 sets of 15

5-Dumbbell upright rows-4 sets of 10 using two 15lb dumbbells

6-Bent over rear felt raises-4 sets of 10 using two 10lb weights

7-Forearm planks-5 sets of 60 seconds planks

15 minutes elliptical-medium high resistance stepping backwards 2 minutes forward 1 minute

 

Nov 18

What to Eat When You’re Starving-Part 2!!!

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This is a follow up post to one of my most popular blog posts which you can find here

http://www.sarahbrockner.com/blog/2014/04/16/what-to-eat-when-youre-starving-what-i-eat-when-i-feel-like-eating-everything-in-site/

I think people are always looking for snacks that you can eat a lot of that won’t pack on the pudge ;). I know when I get really hungry a little 100 cal pack of something isn’t going to cut it so I wanted to share some more of my favorite foods to eat when I get crazy hungry or HANGRY (hungry+angry if you don’t know that lingo).  Read on for hopefully some new awesome binge friendly foods you can feel less guilty about enjoying in large quantities 😉

Puffed Kamut Cereal

I love this cereal because you could eat the entire bag for 500 calories if you want to.  It is the lowest calorie cereal with the best nutritional stats that I know of by far!!  One cup is only 50 calories with 11 grams of carbs, 2 grams of fiber, and 2 grams of protein. It also has no added sugar, is fat free, sodium free, and is packed with whole grains too.  It is a little boring taste wise so do what I do and add a generous amount of spice (cinnamon, unsweetened pumpkin pie spice, unsweetened apple pie spice, or Chinese 5 spice are delicious) plus a packet or 2 of stevia and a couple splashes of unsweetened vanilla almond, coconut, soy, hemp, or skim milk.  Seriously yummy and takes a little while to eat.  Give it a try!

Edamame or Soybeans (in the shell!)

You can buy the super cute preportioned packs (made for kids actually but who cares) or a bigger bag.  The shells make them more fun to eat and really slow down your binging which allows your mind to realize when you are full easier.  The faster you eat the more likely you are to go really crazy over in your calories so anything that requires a little work to eat is always good.  You can eat them frozen or defrosted for a minute or so in microwave.  If they aren’t salted then add some salt or seasonings if you want (buffalo chicken wing popcorn seasoning is really good on them-try it oout!!) The little bags are 38 calories, 1 gram fat, 3 grams of carbs, 1.5 grams of fiber, and 3 grams protein.  The big bags are only 440 calories for the whole bag so way better than a lot of things you might want to eat a whole bag of haha!  Most likely though you will make it through half a bag or so which is only 220 calories, 10 grams fat, 14 grams carbs, 8 grams fiber, 22 and grams protein (which will help you feel fuller).

Lettuce Wraps

These are great because you can eat a bunch of these for very low calories and carbs but high protein.  Bibb or butter lettuce is the best but romaine is excellent too.  All of these big lettuce wrap worthy leaves are only 1 calorie with negligible amounts of other macronutrients (fat/carbs/protein)!!  So it’s basically a calorie free way to wrap things up-score!!  What I do is wash a bunch of them on the weekend and keep them in a container wrapped in paper towels to stay dry.  If I get super hungry I pull several of these giant leaves out then add some lean protein such as a coupes slices of lean ham, turkey, roast beef, water packed tuna, or baby (salad) shrimp.  You could add some low fat cheese in too if you wanted but I usually just stick to low cal condiments like spicy mustard and salsa or hot sauce.  Wrap them up as best you can and chow down :). The calories, etc will ultimately depend in what you put into them but most things I listed are very low calorie items.  Lettuce wraps help you get veggies in, take a long time to eat, and are way more filling than you may realize.  Yay!!

Grapes

I love grapes because they remind me of one of my favorite candies-gummies!!    They are super sweet, chewy, and juicy just like the candy however these delicious spheres are very low calorie and packed with awesome healthy things.  1 cup of grapes is 106 calories, 0 grams fat, 27 grams carbs, 1.5 grams fiber, and 1 gram protein.  They are full of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and water notably potassium, calcium, and vitamin A.  The water is important because sometimes we are hungry because we are dehydrated.  I prefer Concord grapes especially because they taste super good and personally I like the fact that they have seeds and therefore take even longer to eat.  You can freeze your seedless grapes if you want a seedless snack that will help keep you occupied for even longer.  Once again this allows more time to allow that sweet tooth monster to be calmed down 😉

Meringue Cookies

Love these things if I am super hungry and really want something sweet.  These cookies are light as air, fat free, and taste like crunchy marshmallows-yummm!!  I like to buy the mini versions which for 13 cookies are only 110 calories, 0 grams fat, 27 grams carbs, 0 grams fiber, and 1 gram protein (Stats vary a little depending on flavor).  These are way better (for the amount you get) than any other cookie I know!!  You could safely eat 39 cookies (3 servings) for no guilt if you were having a sweet tooth attack & I confess I certainly have before!! 😉

 

Nov 17

Flip Your Mindset

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Nov 13

Follow my Fitness: Ab blast with cardio ;)

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I decided to do a core focused workout for this Follow My Fitness post.  Sometimes I add ab exercises in while working other body parts but I wanted to just focus on my entire core along with some cardio this workout.  This will hit upper, lower, obliques, and those deep inner “corset” muscles (transverse abdominus) so you will definitely feel it all over lol!  Modify where you need to (if you need to) If you decide to do this workout.  The sets, weight, and reps are the exact numbers that I performed 😉

 

15 minutes treadmill workout

Done at 2% incline-2 minutes at 7.0 speed/1 minute at 7.5 speed/2 minutes at 6.0 speed.  Repeat 3 times.

Ab Blast

*4 sets of 20 reps Push Pass Crunches with 10 pound dumbbell (lay on back with knees bent holding dumbbell in one hand, crunch straight up while pushing dumbbell towards sky, pass dumbbell to other hand at top of move and return to laying-that is 1 rep)

*4 sets of 20 reps using 8 pound dumbbell of Floor Tap Crunches (lay on back with knees bent holding dumbell in both hands, crunch up 45 degrees with arms outstretched, twist to bring dumbell to tap floor on one side then return to center and repeat twisting opposite way-each tap is 1 rep)

*4 sets of 30 reps Hip Dip Planks (begin in forearm plank position, with tightened core dip your right hip as close as possible to the floor on that side while pivoting  and stacking feet on top of each other (when dipping towards the right the left foot would be on top), return to center then repeat opposite way-each dip is 1 rep.)

*4 sets 20 reps Side Planks with Side Crunch (these are a little tricky to get down but you’ll feel the burn in your legs and shoulders too once you perfect the movement as they have to work really hard to stabilize your body-start in a side plank position but with only hand on floor (not forearm), to perform crunch simultaneously bring outstretched top arm and top leg together to meet in the center so toes and hand are pointing towards sky,then return to high side plank position, do 10 crunches per side for a total of 20)

*4 sets of 20 Single Leg Low Ab Reverse Crunches (lay on back with knees bent, bring right ankle up to rest just above the left knee,  place hands flat facing downward alongside body, lift butt off floor while trying to press heel or toe of the left leg straight up towards sky to perform reverse crunch, do 10 reps then do same thing using opposite leg to perform 20 total)

*4 sets of 80 second Around the World Planks (from forearm plank position, raise one hand several inches off floor and hold for 20 seconds, repeat with other hand and then both legs keeping core super tight the whole time)

Ended with 20 minutes of stair stepper at a moderate pace

Stretched very well!

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