How To Never Gain A Holiday Pound Again

The holidays are here and many of you are headed out of town...but don't forget to take your good exercise and nutrition habits with you! Here are a few tips to help ensure you start 2013 on the right track (and without extra padding). 

Read the labels: Avoiding sugar might sound easy, but since sugar is often hidden in foods, you have to become a bit of a label detective to eat right on the road. Many of the bars and other grab-and-go snack items in airports are loaded with sugars, artificial sweeteners and other processed ingredients that lead to weight gain and bloating. Be especially leery of foods marked "gluten free" or "low carbohydrate" -- they are most often desserts dressed up as health foods. Here are some common "hidden" sugars to be on the lookout for: sucrose, dextrose, fructose, maltrose, lactose, glucose, honey, agave syrup, maple syrup, brown-rice syrup, molasses, evaporated cane juice and corn sweetener. How do you avoid getting stuck with one of these dessert bars for lunch? Instead of leaving your snack in the hands of the airport gods, plan ahead and bring a high-quality, real food with you for that long drive or flight, such as Prather Ranch's beef jerky, turkey slices with avocado or even packs of easy-to-carry-on Artisana coconut butter (I recently found some at Whole Foods). 

Make the best possible choice: It's pretty hard to commit to not having any dessert over the holidays. But it feels even worse to go completely off your diet plan. Instead, simply make the best possible decision given your choices. Let's say your in-laws have gluten-free cookies, ice cream and dark chocolate to choose from for dessert.  Choose the dark chocolate! It's rich, highly satiating, and won't throw you into insulin overdrive the way grains (even gluten-free ones) can. As a second choice, I would go with ice cream (preferably organic). Even though it has sugar and dairy, ice cream is a better choice than a baked good because it is high in quality fats, does not contain grains, and is highly satiating (meaning you need to eat less to feel full). 

Take 20 minutes for yourself: Nothing feels worse than not making the time to take care of yourself. Many of you might feel selfish leaving your family to head out for a walk or a sprint, but taking the time to look after yourself will actually allow you to be more present and calm for your loved ones. I know what you're thinking: Is 20 minutes enough time to get a good workout in? Yes! Burst training, which requires minimal equipment, is the easiest and most time efficient way to keep your metabolism revved while on the road. Interestingly enough, the more you take care of your body, the more you want to take care of your body. Something as simple as heading out to do some sprints around the block can actually help you make better choices when it comes time for dinner. 

Hydrate: Travel, cold weather, alcohol, stress (and just generally being out of your usual routine) all lead to dehydration! Make sure you drink 1/2 your body weight in ounces of water daily AND avoid tap water as much as possible. Just the slightest dehydration leads to increased cortisol, lethargy, false hunger and weight gain. 

Check in: Let's say you ate something that you regret. It happens. You feel bad that the in-laws went through the trouble of making gluten-free biscuits, or maybe your aunt's dessert was too hard to resist. So check in for a few minutes. How do you feel? Instead of beating yourself up, use this moment to collect information. With just a little attention, what you notice might surprise you, such as: "After five weeks of not having grains, I had grains and instantly had to take a nap" or "After two months of not having dairy, I ate it and my indigestion came back." By taking note of how these foods make you feel, you're setting yourself up to more effortlessly avoid them in the future.

Cheers to a happy holiday and a very healthy 2013! 

Winter Playlist

Holistic Fitness Winter Playlist 

1. Vacationer - Good as New
2. The Knocks - Dancing with the DJ
3. Green Day - Let Yourself Go
4. Bag Raiders - Turbo Love
5. Jaydiohead - Fall in Step
6. Hot Chip - Motion Sickness 
7. Crystal Fighters - Xtatic Truth 
8. Grum - Heartbeats
9. Miami Horror - I Look to You
10. Jaydiohead - Reckoner's Encore 

Is A Juice Cleanse Right for You?

It's the week after Thanksgiving and many of you might still be feeling weighed down from the dessert, alcohol, grains and other foods that potentially crept into your diet (thanks a lot, Aunt Betty).  Perhaps you feel a little bloated and heavy, or maybe just a bit lethargic....could a juice cleanse make you feel better?

There's a lot of confusion about juice cleanses, as juice shops are popping up on every corner, mixing concoctions that claim to target everything from your mental acuity to your immune system. But what few people understand is that a diet composed only of juice, even for a few days, actually does more harm than good. So here you have it, the most common myths surrounding juice cleanses, and some truths to clear up the confusion behind those cute labels.

Myth: Juice cleanses make you lose weight!

Fact: Juice cleanses cause weight gain. Remember, the scale temporarily going down does not mean that it won't jump back up! When you go on a juice cleanse, you put less calories into your body than it takes to merely survive. Did you know that the average woman needs 1500 calories just to function for one day? When a body gets less calories than it requires to live, it starts to think it's going to die, which leads to increased adrenaline and cortisol, also known as going into "fight or flight" mode. So that feeling of lightness and mental clarity is more likely brought to you by an excess of adrenaline than a cup of beet juice. Similar to the runner's high, this state could easily be called the starver's high. And any weight that you lose in starvation mode you will very quickly put back on (and then some) as soon as the "cleanse" is over. 

Myth: I feel great when I'm juicing! It must be working for me.

Fact: Ask most people who claim to feel better on a juice cleanse what they were eating before the cleanse started. Protein bars? Tofu? Oatmeal? Candy? Most people who claim to feel better on a juice cleanse are really reacting to the lack of gluten, sugar, soy, dairy and other gut-irritating foods they usually eat. Or they are catching a buzz off of the short-lived starver's high.

Myth: Juice cleanses help you detox!

Fact: Amino acids, such as glutamine, glycine, taurine, etc. (also known as the building blocks of protein) are absolutely vital in the detoxification process within the body. Without ample supplies of these amino acids, your body cannot complete the detoxification/elimination process effectively. We store our toxins in body fat. Anyone  looking to lose body fat should want a highly efficient detoxification process. On a juice cleanse, because you aren't getting enough calories, you start to mobilize some body fat, re-introducing stored toxins into your system. But with only fruit and vegetable juice coming in, you lack the proper nutrients to eliminate these toxins, which puts the body under even more stress.

If you're really interested in detoxing, only eat organic foods, cut grains out of your diet, limit your exposure to plastic containers, switch out your toxic home products to green ones, limit your alcohol consumption, increase your saturated fat intake (via healthy animal fat or coconut oil, for example) and exercise to get things moving.

Myth: Of course my cleanse is healthy, it's only fruit and vegetable juice!

Fact: Most of the nutrients in fruits and vegetables are in the skin and pulp, which is discarded in most juices. Juice is a more sugary, less nutritious version of the real thing. Did you know that fresh apple juice has four times more sugar than one apple?

So when and how can you incorporate juices into your diet?

Use a VitaMix and juice greens: VitaMix is a high quality juicer that does not remove the fiber from fruits and vegetables. I also suggest making your juices mostly vegetables (and adding some lemon, ginger and herbs such as parsley) to keep the glycemic index down. If you must add fruit, try a green apple, which is relatively low in sugar.

Add fat and/or bone broth: I like to add coconut oil (or have Plant Cafe add it for me!) or bone broth to
my fresh vegetable juices, making them more of a balanced snack than a carb bomb.

Have a juice after eating protein and fat: Say you had a nice grass-fed steak with some avocado and still felt hungry. Perfect time for a vegetable juice.

Final tip: Chew your liquid and drink your food. If you drink a juice, make sure you take the time to swoosh it around in your mouth rather than gulping it down. Because the digestive process starts in the mouth, this little trick will ensure that you prepare your body to effectively metabolize the juice.

What I'm Eating: Beef Bavette with Red Onions and Chimichurri Sauce, Roasted Cauliflower Soup

Get thee to BiRite

Happy Halloween! And Go Giants! With all of this celebration, chaos and candy, you might find it difficult to stay on track with healthy eating this week. But as you all know, the best way to avoid eating bad foods is to have good foods (really good foods) readily available. So here are two vitamin-packed, fat-burning recipes that I love as dinner AND as leftovers for lunch (and even breakfast!) the next day. You'll find that both of these recipes are incredibly quick and easy, giving you more time to workout, spend time with your kids and take your dogs to the beach. The soup takes a little over an hour, but of course can be prepared ahead of time, and the bavette takes only about 20 minutes to prepare. 

Roasted Cauliflower Soup:

Soup is the perfect food for boosting your immune system, and fighting off the common cold and flu. I love to add a bit of coconut oil to any soup for added immune support, and a good dose of healthy fat.

What You'll Need:

1 medium-head cauliflower (roughly 1 3/4 lbs), separated into 1-inch florets
1 medium onion
32 oz organic chicken stock (fresh is best, such as from Bi-Rite or Prather Ranch...or homemade!)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Ground pepper
Parsley

Drizzle the cauliflower florets with olive oil, sea salt and pepper and spread them evenly on a large-rimmed backing sheet. Roast in the oven at 400 degrees until the florets are tender and golden. Meanwhile, sauté your chopped onion in a pan with olive oil and a pinch of salt. Cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until they are translucent and aromatic. Add the roasted cauliflower and the onion to the chicken stock, and let simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the simmering is complete, use an immersion blender (or food processor) to blend the soup into a rich and creamy texture. Add salt and pepper to taste. I like to garnish my soup with fresh herbs for an extra kick of flavor, and find that parsley blends wonderfully into the nutty flavor of the cauliflower in this soup. And if you're looking to add even more flavor, add a dollop of Green Valley Organics' Lactose Free Sour Cream on top just before you add your parsley. Similar to whipping cream, this sour cream simply contains the healthy fat and none of the lactose that causes the inflammatory reaction most people experience from milk products. 

Health Tip: Cauliflower is loaded with antioxidants (namely vitamin C and manganese) and has been proven to aid in the detoxification process within the body, significantly lowering the risk of cancer.

Pan-Fried Bavette Steak with Red Onions and Chimichurri Sauce (from BiRite's cookbook, Eat Good Food)

Chimichurri sauce hails from Argentina, and tastes a bit like a vinegary pesto. Its bright, herby notes bring an unexpected freshness to the richness of the steak. You can buy the sauce freshly-made from BiRite, or simply make your own. 

What You'll Need:

1 1/2 lbs of grass-fed bavette steak (flank or skirt steak will also do)
Sea salt
Ground pepper
1 large red onion, cut into 1/4 inch rings
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 large bunch of parsley, stems removed
1/2 large bunch of cilantro, stems removed
2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

Sprinkle the salt and pepper over your steak and set aside until it comes to room temperature.
To make the chimichurri sauce, put the garlic in a blender or food processor and pulse to chop coarsely. Tear the parsley and cilantro into 2 or 3 inch lengths, and add to the processor, along with 2 tablespoons of the vinegar, 1/4 cup of olive oil, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Puree until smooth. Add more salt or vinegar if needed. 

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet (you might wish to use coconut oil, which is safer at higher heats) over medium-high heat. When the pan is smoking, add the steaks and cook undisturbed for at least two minutes. Lower the heat if they are browning too quickly, and cook for about 4 minutes on each side, depending on your preferred doneness. Remove the steaks from the skillet, cover with foil, and let rest while you cook the red onions. To cook the onions, add a little more oil to the pan along with the onions and a pinch of salt. Stir occasionally, until they become soft and golden brown. Add 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar to the onions and cook, stirring until the vinegar has evaporated and the onions are soft. 

Slice the steaks across the grain into 1/2 inch thick strips, and top with the sautéed onions and chimichurri sauce. Enjoy! 

Remember: The healthiest snack doesn't come in a package....it's a mini version of a meal! These two dishes make the perfect leftovers, and are sure to keep your blood sugar regulated and your hand out of the candy jar.

What I'm Eating: Grass-Fed Beef Taco Bowls

Let's face it: a big hunk of meat and a side of vegetables gets old quick. I find ground meat to be the perfect cure for hunk-o-meat boredom, so I headed over to BiRite, took a look around and decided to make some grass-fed beef taco bowls for dinner. Tacos are an incredibly easy meal to cook that's family friendly, delicious and perfect for those of you who are on a grain-free, dairy-free diet. Use the right ingredients and I promise you, you won't miss the tortilla.

What You'll Need:

1 lb Grass-Fed Ground Beef (Incredibly fresh from Bi-Rite or my other go-to, Prather Ranch)1/2 Yellow Onion1 Green Pepper1 Bunch of CilantroGuacamole or Avocado SlicesTaco Seasoning (Sea salt, Pepper, Ground Cumin, Oregano, Garlic Powder and Chili Powder)


Slice the onion and green pepper and sauté them on medium heat in either olive or coconut oil (you won't taste the coconut later, and it's a great source of healthy fat). Once the vegetables have cooked for a few minutes, add the grass-fed beef, stir and let cook for about 7 minutes, or until the meat is no longer pink. Before you remove it from the heat, season the taco filling with sea salt, pepper, oregano, ground cumin and chili powder (alternatively, Whole Foods sells taco seasoning packets that are salt-free, non-GMO and gluten-free). Serve the taco filling in a bowl and garnish with guacamole or salsa and freshly cut cilantro. Full of healthy fats from the beef and avocado, and loaded with vitamin C from the green peppers, this meal is sure to please your appetite and fix your "same old meat and veg" boredom. 

What I'm Eating: Root Vegetables

While there's an enormity of information out there about eating your greens, many of you will find that it's much easier to digest root vegetables, such as carrots and beets, than it is to digest a raw green salad. Feeling like you need a little detoxification and cleanse? Looking to lose weight? Root vegetables can help. Beets, carrots and other root vegetables, with their high levels of soluble fiber, are incredibly helpful in both the digestive process and the detoxification process within the body. How? Quite simply, the better you digest your food, the fuller you feel (and the less you'll eat). And the better you eliminate your food, the less toxic you'll be, which significantly reduces your stress levels and aids in the fat loss process (after all, toxins are stored in fat). 

Many people who switch too quickly from an unhealthy diet to one loaded with vegetables and high-quality proteins and fats often experience diarrhea or constipation, both of which can be the result of too much insoluble fiber (found in broccoli, brussels sprouts and many other raw vegetables). Root vegetables, on the other hand, are incredibly easy to digest and absorb, often leaving you feeling more satiated post-meal. While they are often misunderstood as "too sweet for fat loss," root vegetables, having grown underground, absorb all of the vital nutrients and minerals from the soil, making them highly nutrient-dense foods that are loaded with free-radical-fighting antioxidants.

I bought some gorgeous (as gorgeous as underground vegetables can be) beets from my local farmers' market this weekend and roasted them, a super quick and easy way to transform beets into a warm or cold salad. With just a handful of ingredients, this recipe couldn't be easier:

Roasted Beets Drizzled with Walnut Oil and Sea Salt

-Pre-heat your oven to 375 (you can even go higher if desired)

-Clean the beets and cut off their greens, allowing an inch or two of the beet stems to remain

-Cover a baking sheet with foil and a layer of parchment paper and place the beets on top

-Coat the beets in a thin layer of olive oil

-Roast beets in the oven for 30-40 minutes, or until a butter knife easily goes through them

-Let the beets cool, cut off their stems and peel off their top layer

-Drizzle the beets with La Tourangelle roasted walnut oil, add a pinch of sea salt and serve!

I want to lose weight: Should I eat fruit?

I've been getting this question a lot lately, so I decided to write a quick post about it. While it's true that fruits are a great source of fiber and nutrients, they are also a source of sugar. Anytime you hear "ose" on the end of a word (fructose, dextrose, sucrose) you should immediately think the of the S word: Sugar! Fructose is the sugar contained in fruits. And while it is a natural sugar, it's still sugar. In fact, sugar itself is natural. It's a whole, real food. That doesn't mean you should eat it! 

But you just said fruit was loaded with nutrients and fiber! There are no nutrients in fruit that you can't get from vegetables, so if your goal is significant weight loss, replace your fruits with vegetables. Because most people reach for fruit in the morning, a simple solution is to make extra vegetables for dinner the night before (roasted broccoli or cauliflower are my favorites) so you can easily reheat them in the morning with your proteins. Not only will you get all of the nutrients and fiber you're after, you'll also feel satiated much longer from the vegetables than you would if you had chosen to eat a fruit salad with your egg. 

And as Gary Taubes asserts in "Why We Get Fat," What makes fruit worrisome from the perspective of Adiposity 101 is that it is sweet to the taste precisely because it contains a type of sugar known as fructose, and fructose is uniquely fattening as carbohydrates go. As nutritionists and public-health authorities have become increasingly desperate in their attempts to rein in the obesity epidemic, they've also become increasingly strident in their suggestions that we eat copious fruit along with green vegetables. Fruit doesn't have to be processed before we eat it: it's fat- and cholesterol-free; it has vitamins and antioxidants; and so, by this logic, must be good for us. Maybe so. But if we're predisposed to put weight on, it's a good bet that most fruit will make the problem worse, not better" (p 136).

The bottom line is this: if you want to lose weight, greatly reduce your sugar intake, including fruits. If you want to eat fruit, stick to the low-glycemic varieties, such as berries and apples, and try to save eating them for when you want dessert or are craving something sweet.  

Need A Little Monday Motivation?

Because sometimes you just want to stick your head in the sand

If you want to lose weight, you don't need to count calories. You simply need to eat until you are nutritionally satisfied. This concept sounds wonderfully simple, but take a look around and you'll see that it's quite challenging for most people. Then look around in nature: do you ever see an overweight lion or a giraffe with love handles? These animals eat, move and live in accordance with their unique body chemistry and needs. We, on the other hand, have lost touch with our internal cues with regards to what to eat, when to sleep, when to drink water, how much water to drink, when to move, when to rest....the list goes on and on. And add into the mix that we are overwhelmed with an enormity of mis-information and a dizzying array of overly-processed food products, and you have yourself a society full of fat lions. 

So, what's an easy way to get back on track? If you've been following my blog, you know that the first steps are to switch to an organic diet, stop eating gluten (and really grains in general), eat right for your Metabolic Type and hire a Chek Practitioner to design a stretching and exercise program that takes your body's stress levels and physiological load into account so that you don't overtrain yourself into an even more stressed state (and, consequently, a bigger pair of jeans). 

Wow. That's actually a lot to chew! No pun intended. So whether you've been gluten-free for 3 years or you're just starting to conceptualize your morning without that big bowl of Cheerios, here are a few nutrition tips that you can incorporate today to start looking, feeling and functioning at your best. 

First things first: if you don't want to gain weight, you must snack! The trick here is to not let yourself get too hungry. If you're serious about fat loss, then you have to be serious about blood sugar regulation. Why? Because when you go too long without eating, the chances are pretty high that the first thing you'll reach for for quick energy when you DO eat will be high in carbohydrates and/or sugar. And when you eat processed carbs/sugary foods, your blood sugar levels sky rocket, which in turn causes your adrenals to release insulin, which results in an energy boost followed by an energy crash. This instability in time leads to body fat storage, adrenal depletion, chronic fatigue and mood swings. So, when should you eat? Most people need to eat every four hours. And what should you snack on? Here are two snacks that are high in heart-healthy saturated fats and omega-3s, wonder foods for keeping your blood sugar levels stable. 

Two Moms In The Raw Gluten-Free Almond Butter Cacao Truffles: Easy to find at Whole Foods and many other health food stores, this low-glycemic, count-the-ingredients-on-one-hand super snack is loaded with healthy fats and proteins to keep you satiated AND keep your blood sugar in check. The perfect snack to keep at your desk at work (better than the doughnuts or candy your co-workers are eating) and ideal to take on a long hike for sustained energy. 

Prather Ranch Grass-Fed Cowboy Style Beef Jerky: The yellow lab approves! Prather Ranch recently got their sugar and gluten-free beef jerky back in stock, so head down to their shop at the Ferry Building before it's sold out again! This beef jerky is an easy and convenient way to get real, high-quality protein in an easy-to-carry-around snack. Working out and heading back to the office? Beef jerky! Long car trip to Tahoe? Beef jerky!  

Mix it up! If you truly want to stick to a healthy lifestyle, it has to be sustainable for life. My friend and fellow CHEK Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach Diane Sanfilippo, recently published an amazing cookbook called Practical Paleo that is full of super easy recipes that are all dairy, gluten and grain-free and most importantly, delicious. Diane is incredibly talented in the art of taking a healthy meal and making it taste so good that you forget it's good for you! So if you're in a menu rut, check out her cookbook for some new healthy dishes. 

The Incredible Lightness of A Lettuce Cup

I really love ground meat, and all of the things you can do with it: meatballs, burgers, meatloaf (worst word for a great food). So tonight, after a hard sprint workout, I decided to make lettuce cups with tons of garlic and ginger and organic ground turkey (the irony is not lost on me that in my last post I promised to never make you eat ground turkey on a piece of lettuce). But, this recipe is super flavorful at the same time that it's super healthy (the garlic speeds up your metabolism while the ginger boosts your immune system). Plus it's one of those dishes that leaves you feeling satiated but not stuffed, the perfect post-workout meal. 

Ginger and Garlic Turkey Lettuce Cups:

1 lb Ground Turkey (I like to do 1/2 light and 1/2 dark meat for added flavor and healthy fats)

1 tbsp Coconut Oil

1 Clove Garlic, Minced

1 Inch of Ginger, Peeled and Minced

2-3 Green Onions, Thinly Sliced

Butter Lettuce (they make the best cups)

3 tbsp Soy Sauce (I like the San-J Tamari Gluten-Free/Non-GMO Soy Sauce)

1 tbsp Sriracha Sauce (The Sky Valley one is gluten free, and tastes great)

Salt (to taste)

For added flavor and texture, add mushrooms and/or water chestnuts

Heat the coconut oil in a cast iron wok and add the ground turkey, garlic and ginger. Once the turkey is fully cooked, add the green onions and cook for another minute or so. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, sriracha and salt and add it to the turkey mixture. Stir together and spoon into the butter lettuce cups. The leftovers make the perfect lunch or snack! 

Eat This, Not That! Easy and Delicious Recipes for Fat Loss

I love food. There, I admitted it. In the world of high performance strength and conditioning, not everyone loves food. To most athletes, food is fuel. And while it's true that certain dietary guidelines have been proven to promote rapid fat loss and improve athletic performance, ground turkey on a lettuce leaf just sounds awful to me. So if you're scared that because I'm gluten free, I'm somehow into promoting steamed fish and cucumber slices as a satiating and delicious meal, hopefully this post will clear that up for you (and supply you with some fun and healthy recipes to try at home). 

Grass-Fed Steak Fajita Bowl:

Roughly 1 lb Prather Ranch Flank or Skirt Steak

2-3 Bell Peppers (the more colors, the better)

1 Yellow Onion

Marinade:

Juice from 1 Lime

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

2 Minced Garlic Cloves

1/2 Fresh Jalapeno Pepper (Seeded, and Finely Chopped)

1/3 Cup Fresh Cilantro (Chopped)

Mix the marinade ingredients and coat the steak, letting it sit at room temperature for 45 minutes, or longer (in the fridge). Pan-sear the steak on both sides over high heat to desired temperature (I suggest coconut or avocado oil for high heat, not olive or canola oil). Once the steak is done, remove it from the heat and cook the onions and bell peppers in the same pan, so that they absorb all of the juices from the steak. Cook the vegetables for roughly five minutes and remove from heat. Cut the meat into thin slices and combine with the vegetables, adding salt to taste. For a grain-free version, serve the fajita mixture in a bowl instead of a corn tortilla, adding guacamole or even just avocado slices on top for added flavor. 

Spinach and Arugula Salad: Dark, leafy greens are packed with cancer-fighting antioxidants and are one of the best sources of iron and calcium (yep, calcium from vegetables, not milk). 

Homemade salad dressing is one of the easiest things you can use to add some life to your seasonal greens, and keep things interesting. One of my favorite dressings, French Walnut Oil Vinaigrette, is super fast, easy to make and loaded with heart-healthy omega-3s:

French Walnut Oil Vinaigrette:

4 Tbs Roasted Walnut Oil

1 Tbs Dijon Mustard

1 Tbs. Balsamic Vinegar

Sea Salt to taste

Simply whisk the ingredients together and drizzle over spinach and arugula for a healthy and satiating salad. Because of the versatility of the walnut oil, I also love to add strawberries (when in season), apple slices or any other farmers' market vegetables I might have around for nutrient diversity.   

Grilled Peaches*:

Savory or sweet, grilled peaches are an incredibly easy and delicious summer snack. Add them to arugula for a more nutrient-dense salad, or have them after dinner as a healthy dessert alternative. 

4 Ripe Peaches

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil for Drizzling

6 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 Cup Blue Cheese (Optional)

Halve and pit the peaches and brush them with olive oil. On a medium-hot grill, place the peaches cut side down for roughly 3-4 minutes (until you see grill marks) and flip over and cook the other side for roughly 4 more minutes (until the peaches become slightly soft). Put the balsamic vinegar in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook it for about 3-5 minutes, or until you see that it has become noticeably thicker. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly. If you're adding blue cheese, divide it evenly over the peaches. If not, simply drizzle the peaches with the balsamic reduction and enjoy. 

*Bi Rite's Eat Good Food cookbook. A must-have in any kitchen! 

6 Ways to STOP Overeating for Good

Food is pleasure. There’s no question that enjoying a beautifully prepared meal is an integral part of a well-lived life. But in looking beyond food as enjoyment and going back to our biology, we are truly designed to eat until we are nutritionally satisfied. Food, like water and breathing, is a part of survival. But if that’s true, then why do so many of us struggle with overeating? For some, eating is less of a “need” and more of a “want” reflex, which brings emotions into the mix. For others, choosing the wrong types of foods leads to the bottomless portion pit. But as we all know, for all of the complexities involved in weight loss, one simple truth remains: calories in versus calories out. So if you’re serious about losing weight, it’s time to put the brakes on and stop overeating for good. 

Eat the real thing: Throw out anything that is sugar free or fat free. Sugar-free, non-fat, low-fat and imitation foods are NOT satiating, meaning you actually have to eat more of them to feel full. Also, because many low or no fat foods are high in calories but essentially devoid of nutrition, your body metabolizes them simply as sugar, which leads to overeating and subsequent weight gain.  

Avoid foods that contain table salt: Ever notice how you can eat an entire bag of potato chips? Table salt is a processed, stripped version of sea salt (which contains over 40 vital nutrients). And because we are designed to eat until we are nutritionally satisfied, nutrient-devoid table salt makes us eat and eat and eat without ever feeling like we’ve had enough. 

Drink water 15 minutes before a meal but never during: You can be eating the healthiest food on the planet, but if your digestion isn’t working properly, you won’t absorb or metabolize these foods optimally. And if you can’t absorb your food, the chances are pretty high that your body will tell you to eat more! Drinking water during a meal interrupts the body’s production of hydrochloric acid and wreaks havoc on your digestion.  And when you do drink water, make sure it’s room temperature. Cold water sits in your stomach until its warm enough to be released for absorption, also slowing down the digestive process.

Check in: If mindless snacking is your problem, tag the emotion that brought you to the cabinet or refrigerator. Picture a TV announcer if you have to: “This calorie consumption has been brought to you by”…your anxiety, depression or even boredom. Tag the feeling before the snacking. If you’re stressed, take a walk or write down what’s stressing you. Can’t take a walk? Maybe this site will help: http://www.calm.com/ The idea here is to give your feelings a place to go that doesn’t involve food. By breaking the stressed – eat food – feel worse chain, you’ll break your mind’s association with food as the “cure” for those feelings.  


Figure out your metabolic type: You might be eating right according to your wife’s Metabolic Type, but there are nine different Metabolic Types, which means that the chances are pretty high that your body’s ideal ratio of proteins to carbs to fats is off. Finding out what’s ideal for YOUR body is the fastest way to eat foods that will keep your unique bio-chemistry in balance (keeping you from overeating both at meals and in between).

Add some healthy fat: I love this coconut milk yogurt as a high in healthy fat snack or dessert replacement. In addition to tasting great, it’s also highly reparative for your gut, helping to maintain a healthy gut balance without dairy.  I also love to add this roasted walnut oil to my salads or even drizzled over meats for an extra kick of healthy fat and anti-inflammatory omega-3s. It adds a unique flavor to more common foods and is incredibly satiating. 

Burn Belly Fat Fast with This Simple Five Step Plan

Warm weather is finally here and everyone has been coming to the gym looking for the same thing: flat abs. I can’t count the number of times I hear, “I feel great everywhere except for this stuff around my belly [insert belly grab here].” And as much as I hate to admit it, there’s not a single ab exercise in the world that will give you the flat, toned, sexy stomach you’re after if you aren’t doing at least four of the following five steps listed here. Why? Because no matter how hard we try to tone those muscles, if you’re making bad nutrition and lifestyle choices, you can do 1000 crunches and still barely see a change in your waistline. So here you have it: 5 steps that will lean out your abs starting NOW.

Cut it out: Dairy, that is. Did you know that dairy stalls the fat loss process? The unique amino acid composition in the proteins of certain dairy products causes your insulin levels to skyrocket (even more than when you eat a piece of white bread). And as we all know, high insulin levels leads = increased belly fat.  The biggest offenders are whey, milk, yogurt and cheese. The least offensive dairy products are organic butter and organic whipping cream (high in fat and lacking in insulinogenic amino acids).

Rev it up: If you really want to see the stored belly fat peel off, add in sprint days on your off days from strength training. Sprint days consist of bursts of high intensity exercise. Done correctly, these days of high intensity training will keep you from the dreaded weight loss plateau.

Write it down: A couple of chips at work, a sample of some chocolate at the farmers market….here and there it ALL adds up. In fact, a study on dieters proved that those who wrote down everything they ate lost twice as much as those who did not. Bottom line: you might be eating more (or worse) than you think.

Throw it away: Pretty simple. If it’s there, you are most likely going to eat it. Get rid of tempting junk food (even if it’s disguised as healthy…Flax Crackers, I’m talking to you) and load up on healthy snacks so you have something nutritious to reach for when you’re hungry. Leftovers from dinner the night before, Prather Ranch or another high-quality beef jerky, organic almonds and turkey slices with avocado are some of my favorite snacks.

Cool it off:  Chronic stress leads to increased cortisol leads to chronic inflammation leads to belly fat. If you’re really serious about fat loss, reduce your overall inflammation. It’s the cause of every disease: cancer, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, the list goes on and on. And a big, poofy gut is one of its greatest signs. To lower your inflammation, avoid sugars (even in the form of grains), cut out all vegetable oils (canola, etc), eat plenty of healthy animal proteins and fats, sleep, exercise smarter not harder, load up on dark leafy greens, stay away from too much cardio, get fresh air and sunlight and reduce your emotional stress.

Implementing this fat-burning plan for even a month will have a profound effect on your abs. With proper exercise, nutrition and lifestyle choices, I've seen dramatic results on clients of all ages. So no excuses! Here's to a healthy and happy summer. 

Lose Weight for the Summer! My Top Training Tips for Dropping Fat Fast

Purely from a training perspective, it’s pretty simple: if you want to lose weight for good, you have to put your body through a smart exercise program that builds muscle, burns fat and calories and factors your hormonal response in wisely. Clearly proper nutrition plays a major role in the fat loss puzzle. No matter how hard you train, if you’re eating over-processed, garbage foods, you’ll have a very hard time seeing the results you’re after (and you’ll feel pretty lethargic and bloated in the process). But as confused as we are about eating right, we seem to be almost equally confused about training right. I spend a lot of time in gyms watching trainers put their clients through what essentially amounts to an aerobics class. What’s the result? A lot of sweating and stress for little to no decrease in body fat (and in some cases, weight gain). There is a science to fat loss. There are proven techniques that will get you leaner than you’ve ever been in your life. So toss your notions about long runs and 1000 crunches to the side, and try the following training tips for the next 6 weeks. The results will speak for themselves.

Rev Up Your Resting Metabolic Rate: Want to speed up your metabolism? Regardless of your age or genetics, the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism will be. Focus on workouts that incorporate strength training with anaerobic conditioning (rapid bursts of high intensity exercise) if you want to swap out body fat for lean muscle mass.

Circuit Train with Proper Rest Periods: Go, go, go! might sound great in theory, but if you don’t rest and let your heart rate come down during workouts (what we call rest periods) you’re essentially training your body to be calorie efficient, like a marathon runner or other endurance athlete. What does that mean? If you train hard for an hour with no rest, your body will come to expect that hour of exercise and hold on to existing body fat (for energy) accordingly. Conversely, if you use the science of rest periods to your advantage, you will continually shock your system, increase your Growth Hormone and accelerate your fat loss drastically. Generally, rest periods of around 60 seconds with exercises performed in the 8-12 rep range for 3-4 sets are optimal for burning fat and creating lean muscle mass.

Interval Train: When it comes to fat loss via cardio, it actually is a sprint, not a marathon. In other words, if you really want to burn fat, stick to interval or burst training and leave long runs and hours on the elliptical machine to the other bored folks. According to a study in the International Journal of Obesity, after comparing 16 weeks of sprinting with endurance cardio, the sprinters had a 9.5 % decrease in belly fat whereas the aerobic group increased their belly fat by 10.5%. Most people I talk to don’t actually like long cardio workouts. They just feel like they “have” to do them to burn fat and “make up for” nutrition slips. But as we all know, you can’t burn off bad foods with a long run. And now we know that if anything, you might just be making your pants tighter! My favorite burst training technique is roughly 30s of burst followed by 60-90s of recovery (a moderate pace). Work up to 10 bursts two times a week and you'll see fantastic results!

Two Healthy Dinners That Also Double As Breakfast

The number one question I hear in the gym every week is…what do I eat for breakfast?! With sugary cereals, yogurt and pastries as the most common breakfast foods out there, it can seem daunting to switch to proteins and vegetables for the first meal of the day. But the fact remains: if you want to be healthy, you have to make your breakfast look like dinner. If you read my previous blog you know that a breakfast full of sugar slows down your metabolism, reduces your energy and actually leads to over-eating at lunch and dinner! Conversely, if you eat a breakfast that is full of healthy proteins, fats and vegetables, you speed up your metabolism and actually eat less as the day progresses. So here you have it, two of my favorite gluten-free, dairy-free and vitamin-packed dinners that taste amazing for breakfast the next morning.

Healthy Chicken Salad Lettuce Cups

Ingredients:

Butter Lettuce
2 Organic Chicken Breasts
3-4 Stalks of Celery, Chopped
3-4 Carrots, Chopped
3 Tablespoons of Dill
I Cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon of Mustard
Champagne or Red Wine Vinegar to Taste
1 Organic Egg Yolk
Sea Salt and Pepper to Taste
Garlic (optional)

Fully cook and shred or dice the chicken breasts into bite size pieces. In a bowl, combine the chicken with all of the vegetables and dill and set aside. In another bowl, combine one egg yolk with the mustard, salt, pepper and a splash of vinegar. Slowly whisk in the cup of olive oil, making sure to add the oil in slowly. Adjust seasonings accordingly (adding garlic or vinegars to your taste). Once your healthy “mayo” is complete, pour it over the chicken and vegetables and toss gently. Simply scoop a cup of the chicken salad into your butter lettuce cups for a complete and healthy meal. For extra crunch, try adding chopped almonds on top of each lettuce cup.

Basque Style Baked Eggs

Ingredients:

2 White Onions
1 Red Pepper
1 Green Pepper
1 Yellow Pepper
4 Tomatoes
2 Garlic Cloves
4 Ounces of Organic Ham (Use more if you are a protein type)
Basil
8 Eggs
Sea Salt
Hot Paprika

Peel the onions and peppers (removing the seeds) and cut them into slivers. Then chop the tomatoes (also removing the seeds) and garlic cloves. Put the onions and peppers in a pot (with a little olive oil) on medium heat and let them sweat for about five minutes, keeping the lid on tight. Then add the garlic and tomatoes and cook the vegetables together gently until almost all of their liquid has evaporated. While they are cooking, cut the ham into small pieces and chop the leaves from a small bunch of basil. As soon as the vegetables are cooked (and the liquid has evaporated) add the ham and basil into the mixture and stir well. Spread the vegetables into a 1 ½ inch deep, oven-safe dish and make eight small holes in the mixture so that you can fill each one with an egg. Once the eggs are in place, bake at roughly 400 degrees. When the whites of the eggs are set, remove from the oven and let cool before serving.

The Top 4 Worst Breakfast Foods

Most people are indoctrinated in the idea that breakfast food has to be doughnuts, bagels, waffles and juice. These foods are quick, easy and most importantly, sound “normal” as a morning meal. But think back to your last breakfast of cereal and orange juice. Did you feel a little shaky? Need a second cup of coffee? Become ravenous again only 1-2 hours later? It’s a proven fact that a breakfast full of organic proteins and vegetables leads to fat loss, sustained energy and decreased sugar cravings. It might take a little longer to prepare the foods suggested in this blog, but good things are worth the wait. So here you have it, the four worst breakfast foods for your health AND a few great options for fat loss and improved vitality.

Egg Whites – Many people ask for egg whites in an attempt to “cut out the bad fat” from their breakfast. However, studies show that there is no correlation between eating whole eggs and weight gain, heart disease or high cholesterol levels. Because the yolk of the egg contains a tremendous amount of vital nutrients (such as protein, inflammation fighting essential fatty acids, vitamins A and D and calcium) when you opt for just egg whites, you’re left with mostly water and a slight amount of protein. So if you’re serious about getting the most bang for your buck out of the foods you choose, go with the whole egg. In addition to being one of the most complete proteins available, the whole egg is so healthy that some say it’s better to eat an egg than it is to take a multi vitamin!

Skim Milk – In an attempt to “cut out fat” to lose fat, many people choose skim milk over whole milk when it comes to their breakfast cappuccino or bowl of cereal. But remember: healthy dietary fat will not make you fat! Just like stripping the yolk from the egg removes the majority of its nutrients, stripping the fat from dairy products leaves you with what is essentially sugar water. And we all know that eating sugar leads to rapid weight gain! In fact, in 2005, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health studied the weight and milk consumption of roughly 13,000 kids ages 9 to 14 from across the country. And what did they find? Contrary to what most health magazines would like you to believe, "skim and 1% milk were associated with weight gain, but dairy fat was not." So if you’re going to have dairy in your diet, make it organic and go for the real thing! Did you know they even add powdered, processed milk to skim milk (even the organic brands) to make it look white? The real version just keeps sounding more appealing…

Oatmeal – Or really any type of granola, cereal or grain. There’s no better way to get the dreaded pooch belly than starting off your day with a big bowl of oatmeal, granola or any of the other breakfasts that come in a box. To your body, grains are just sugar. So whether you’re eating cereal or granola or a slice of bread, your body’s hormonal response is the same: you’re eating sugar! Because these foods leave you full but not nutritionally satisfied, you’ll often find that you are hungry again only 1-2 hours after breakfast. So while most people would consider yogurt and granola a “light” breakfast, you’ll actually eat more after that type of meal than you would after a meal containing healthy fat, vegetables and animal protein. So instead of loading up on dessert in disguise at breakfast time, make your morning meal look like dinner and you’ll be on the road to weight loss and improved mental acuity.

Orange Juice – To your body, orange juice is just sugar. Many people ask me if having a fruit juice (even freshly squeezed) is a good way to load up on nutrients at breakfast time. And I always say the same thing: Don’t drink your calories! If you want the nutrients from an orange, eat an orange. Because digestion starts during the chewing process, when you drink (instead of eat) your foods, the sugar content is more quickly transported to your blood, causing an insulin roller coaster than can lead to increased body fat. Instead, start your day with a large glass of high quality water and save room for the good stuff…food! Which brings me to:

Some Healthy Breakfast Options:

Smoked salmon, sauteed spinach and a side of blueberries
Organic chicken sausage and a side of zucchini sauteed in coconut oil
Organic eggs with a side of avocado

And if you don’t have time to cook….

On The Go Breakfast Options:

Hard-boiled eggs (easy to make the night before)
Organic beef jerky with a side of walnuts
Leftovers! Meat balls, turkey burgers or any protein leftover from the night before is a great quick and easy breakfast.

From Flabs to Abs in 5 Simple Steps

The elusive washboard stomach. Everyone wants it but almost no one has it. In a world where 50% of the people in a gym are performing some type of crunch or other ab exercise at any given moment, why is a strong, toned stomach so hard to achieve? The answer is pretty simple: There is no such thing as spot reduction in exercise. If you are making certain foundational mistakes in your nutrition and exercise programs, your body won’t shed the fat necessary to reveal the toned, tight stomach muscles you’re after (regardless of how many crunches you do). So here you have it, my five easy tips for transforming your flabs to abs this winter:

1. Use Big Bang Exercises: If you want a flat stomach, focus on big, high energy movements such as squats, dead lifts, cable pulls and various Swiss ball exercises instead of smaller, isolated movements. Because these big bang exercises recruit multiple muscle groups at once, they burn significantly more calories than a standing bicep curl or any exercise that requires you to sit on a machine. Although it might not look like it to an outsider, that single arm overhead split squat you're doing is actually an ab exercise.

2. Blast The Abs Hard At The End: Make sure you end (not begin) your workout with isolated ab exercises. Why? For starters, the abdominals are very important stabilizers in the body. If you exhaust them at the beginning of a workout, your chance of injury (specifically to your lower back) increases drastically. So, once you reach the END of your workout, blast your abs hard. The reason is simple: Because the rectus abdominis muscle (the one that creates the six pack effect) is composed predominately of fast twitch muscle fibers, it responds to high intensity (aka load) and high speed movements. In other words, doing 100 bodyweight crunches is a complete waste of time when it comes to creating a strong, lean mid-section. Instead, try a Swiss ball crunch (roughly 12 reps) with a weight on your chest, kneeling cable wood chops or a cable rope crunch if you want to effectively condition and tone your abs.

3. Detox The Right Way: You must eat organic food if you want to see a flat, toned stomach. Because toxins are stored in fat, to the degree that you eat non- organic, chemically treated, antibiotic and hormone fed foods, your body fat will increase. Toxins are transported to your liver when you bring in more toxic chemicals from your environment than your body can handle. As a protective mechanism, the body then stores the toxins in body fat to keep it away from your vital organs. In this way, if you are poisoning your liver, regardless of how hard you train, you will have a very challenging time reducing the body fat around your mid-section.

4. Stay Hydrated: Your body depends on water for almost every chemical reaction it undergoes. When you don’t drink enough, your body starts to store water in your tissue, making you look puffy and heavier than you actually are. So in order to avoid excess bloating, drink ½ your body weight in ounces of clean water daily. Tea, juice, coffee and other non-water drinks do not count! They actually dehydrate you or act as food in the body.

5. Cut Out The Grains: Your abs are what you eat. If you’ve been training hard but still have a layer of mush over your abs, there’s a very good chance that the problem lies in your diet. The easiest way to turn your flabs to abs is to cut out grains. Remember: the human digestive machinery was not designed to process grains. As a result, wheat, oats and even quinoa have all been proven to irritate the gut wall, causing inflammation (aka the dreaded pooch belly). So if you’re serious about leaning out your stomach, replace the grains at each meal with dark, leafy vegetables (which pack way more nutrients and health benefits per calorie).

Remember that the body is a system of systems. You can’t simply train one part of your body and expect it to look and function in a healthy way if you aren’t a healthy person! Stick to the foundational principles (eat only organic, drink enough water) and train the abs intelligently if you really want those washboard abs.