Fitness Tip Friday #1

Welcome to Fitness Tip Friday! This is the first tip and I'm glad you joined me! I'm sure you're wondering "who is this girl and why does what she says matter?" While I may not have schooling on eating clean and fitness, I have real life experience in both and we all know that the latter is usually more helpful. I have been a clean eater for 5 years now along with an avid exerciser. I've done everything from crossfit to just using the treadmill and I am here to share my experiences with you. I am now a Beachbody coach because my goal is to inform people about the benefits of proper nutrition and fitness, so you too can live a healthy lifestyle.

Annnyway, on to the fitness tip. This week's tip is brought to you by the letter S....for stretching! It is so important to stretch before and after you workout to elongate those muscles you just worked and prevent DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). Did you know that your warm up stretches should differ from your cool down stretches? Too many times, athletes and coaches use cool down stretches to get warmed up (think soccer practice). Before a workout, you should complete lateral stretches and dynamic warm ups, while after a workout you should perform static stretches.

Lateral stretches and dynamic warm ups include things like jogging in place, jumping jacks, side bends, cross body toe touches, runner's lunge, windmills, and many others, depending on your body and how it feels.

Static stretches are usually held longer to really stretch the muscle. They include gluteal holds, adductor holds (butterfly), half cobra, child's pose, hamstring stretch, and pretty much anything else that really targets the particular area you worked that day.

Proper warm up and stretching allows you to get closer to your full potential and thus, closer to your goal. So go out and there and get your stretching on! Check back next week for another tip!

What type of stretching do you enjoy the most?

The Letter D

Twitter won't upload my photo, so......D is for a delicious dip full of #plantPower and #eatclean yumminess!

Paleo Fudge OMG

So last weekend I was searching for a paleo brownie recipe and came across this. It's a fairly simple recipe, BUT HOLY CRAP! IT IS SO YUMMY! My hubby had 2 pieces last night and tonight. It literally tastes like a mounds bar. I am so excited to have found this! It's supposed to be topped with this frosting (see below), but I didn't want to ruin the coconutty goodness so I decided to just eat the frosting as a dessert instead. You can make your own mind up, but make both and eat the frosting on oatmeal or even as a snack. How can this "frosting" be considered healthy?!?!!?

Pumpkin Chocolate Frosting (vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Makes over 2 cups

1 can organic pumpkin
3 tbsp raw cacao powder
1/4 cup almond butter
1-2 tbsp agave nectar or maple syrup (to taste)
1 tsp cinnamon

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor or blender. It's fairly simple to half the recipe as well.  

beTRUEtoYOU

Sooooo it's been awhile, but I am here to share my story for kasey over at powercakes.net. This is a picture of me completing my first adventure race, the Warrior Dash. I went with 4 other people, all who were really into working out. I was a little intimidated because it was first race and not in as good of shape as the others. When speaking with my husband later, he said that someone told him how impressed they were with me because I kept pace and didn't stop. Since then I've completed the Mud Crusade and a triathlon. I have also been in bootcamp for over a year, which recently transitioned into CrossFit.

Anyway, this picture is a POWER photo. I have received many great comments about it and my confidence has since risen,

My new favorite ingredient...pumpkin!

Happy Fall everyone! What an appropriate subject to be posting about today...pumpkin! Pumpkin is incredibly rich in vital anti-oxidants and vitamins. Luckily, it is very low in calories and a good source of vitamin A, flavonoid poly-phenolic antioxidants like leutin, xanthins and carotenes. I have been making a lot of pumpkin mash (warm up 1/2 cup organic pumpkin, 1/2 tbsp coconut oil, then sprinkle with coconut and almond slivers). This is a delicious and healthy side dish or main meal. This morning I had left-over coffee smoothie and wanted to use it post-workout. I combined that with 1/3 cup pumpkin, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, cinnamon to taste, and 1/2 + 1 tbsp vanilla soy milk.  I blended it with some ice cubes and had a protein-packed snack! I didn't get to take a picture because I gobbled it up before I thought of it! Can't wait to make it again. 

Mmmm cinnamon and apples

Kasey over at Powercakes inspires me and many others to eat healthy each week. I have learned a lot about eating clean and fueling up from her recipes and through others on Pinterest. I actually got my husband to share the dark chocolate powercake with me and he goes "is this one of those powercake thingies?" I have slowly, but surely, pulled him over to the healthy side. He even said that he could go "raw", but I'm not going that far. I think vegetarian is a far as I would take it. Any way, I am also looking for and trying out healthy desserts. Tonight, I was really craving apples and cinnamon, so I came up with: Warm apples and Yogurt. I clearly did not invent this, but it's so delicious I have to share it.

I heated up a small skillet on low-medium with 1 tsp coconut oil and cinnamon and threw in chopped up apples. I sprinkled cinnamon on top and pushed them around until they were warm and I couldn't take it anymore! I took about 1/3 cup plain Greek Yogurt and mixed it with the apples. So YUM even the cat wanted some! Go make it for an easy and healthy snack or dessert!

Love me some powerfood!

In the words of Cuba Gooding, Jr. in Jerry Maguire "show me the mother-f*ing money." We are pretty much broke right now due to it being the end of the summer and I haven't had a pay check since June. 6 days and counting until my account is full again. I am thankful for the time off, but the money goes quickly during those 3 months off. Because of that, I cooked with what we had on hand. We had brown rice, eggs, cheese and that's pretty much it. I did buy some large bell peppers and an onion and so I decided to make Brown Rice and egg stuffed peppers. It was my first time making S.P. and it was a valiant effort (could have been cooked longer, but tasted great.) I then realized that tomorrow was Powermealaweek at Powercakes day, so I quickly showed the world my creation. I hope you all are proud and maybe make this healthy dish for your family.

Here it goes:

1 cup brown rice
4 large bell peppers
1 egg for each serving
half an onion
1 small-ish diced red/green/yellow (mixed) pepper
chili powder, to taste
garlic
S/P

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Cook the rice according to the directions. Add the diced veggies, chili powder, garlic, and S/P to rice and mix together once off the stove. I evened out the bottoms of the peppers so they would stand without falling. Place in an oven safe square dish. Stuff the peppers with the rice mix. Dig out a little hole in the top to crack the yoke in. Carefully place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Once it beeps, add cheese to the top and cook for another 10-15 minutes or until egg is cooked thoroughly.

I served it with pumpkin mash. Warm the pumpkin on the stove and add 1 tbsp coconut oil, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, and honey. Stir until hot. Sprinkle coconut on top. It pretty much looks like (and tastes like)  baby food, so not everybody will be a fan. I just love how good pumpkin is for you and it's a potato-type side. Obviously, you can serve with anything you want on the side.  Leave me your comments! Enjoy!