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Vegetarian Mock Bacon and Tofu Scramble
Vegetarian Mock Bacon and Tofu Scramble
(2 servings)
2 teaspoons grapeseed oil
4 vegetarian mock bacon slices
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 small onion, chopped
8 ounces firm tofu (or smoked tofu)
A pinch of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon freshly minced salad herbs
Salt to taste
Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the vegetarian mock bacon and cook quickly. Remove before it becomes crisp. Cut into bite sizes and set aside. Add the remaining oil and saute the garlic and onion. Add the tofu, cayenne pepper, and quickly saute them. Add the mock bacon and herbs.
Lightly season with salt and serve immediately.
Option:
Add cooked diced potatoes/sweet potatoes and/or vegetables such as green onions, bell peppers, zucchinis, mushrooms, or tomatoes. You may also top with your favorite salsa or mix in some low-sodium soy sauce. Substitute tofu with eggs or egg whites.
Fruity Bruschetta
(2 servings)
A great dessert/snack to make with the kids!
4 large round organic apple slices with skin on
4 teaspoons almond butter
1/2 mango
1/4 cup strawberries
1/4 cup blueberries
1 kiwi
1 tablespoon orange juice
Wash fruits well before use. Cut the mango, strawberries, and kiwi into small dice. Transfer to a mixing bowl, add blueberries, and mix with the orange juice. Spread a teaspoon of almond butter over each apple slice. Top with the prepared fruits and serve immediately.
Option:
You can top with a tablespoon of low-fat Greek yogurt and/or a little cinnamon. Feel free to change the fruits such as with banana, papaya, grapes, and so on.
Per Serving: 174 Cal (32% from Fat, 6% from Protein, 62% from Carb); 3 g Protein; 7 g Tot Fat; 1 g Sat Fat; 4 g Mono Fat; 30 g Carb; 4 g Fiber; 21 g Sugar; 57 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 4 mg Sodium; 0 mg Cholesterol
Adjust thickness with more stock, if needed. If a thicker consistency is needed, for example for spread, you may add more basil leaves and/or a few more nuts. Option: Substitute pistachios with walnuts or pine nuts (the classical pesto recipe).
Per Serving: 80 Cal (66% from Fat, 13% from Protein, 21% from Carb); 3 g Protein; 6 g Tot Fat; 1 g Sat Fat; 4 g Mono Fat; 4 g Carb; 1 g Fiber; 1 g Sugar; 70 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 54 mg Sodium; 3 mg Cholesterol
8 Surefire Steps to Staying Motivated
Step 1: Visualize what you want
Picture yourself attaining the goal you want to achieve. Some of us see still pictures, and others see moving pictures (like a movie). Some of us see our pictures or movies in color, and others see it in black and white. However it is that you see your picture, get in tuned to the details of the picture.
Step 2: Use all of your senses when visualizing
As you visualize, start to pay attention to the sounds associated with your picture. Also, notice how you feel in that picture. This feeling should be both emotional and physical. How does your body feel fitting back into those skinny jeans? How does that make you feel, emotionally? The more details you have in your picture, the more you are sending a message to your brain that this is really happening. Before you know it, it really happens.
Step 3: Write down your goals
Writing down your goals is a great way to stay focused on what you want. You can place your goals where you see them daily. Some people also just like to write their goals then put them away. That’s fun, because when you go back weeks, month, or even years later and read your goals you are amazed at what you have accomplished.
Step 4: Believe in your goals
Choose goals that you truly believe in your heart that you will attain. Understand, as humans, we tend to send ourselves “doubting messages” when we think of goals we want. Acknowledge what that is, just doubt, and mentally set it aside. Think about what you want. Believe in yourself and in your goal. Strive for it one step at a time.
Step 5: Challenge yourself
Choose goals that you know in your heart you can attain. With that, make sure you are challenging yourself. It’s that stretching moment in our lives that keep us motivated. It tough to be challenged, yet it feels great! Just to know you’re always stretching to go a little further is motivating in itself. It keeps you from getting bored and stagnant.
Step 6: Get support from friends and family
Tell those that love and care for you about your goals. Simply talking about it will motivate you (as well as inspire them). They can hold you accountable, encourage you, and celebrate with you.
Step 7: Strive for continued progress
As you accomplish each goal, replace it with a new goal that will push you to another level. This goes back to keeping yourself challenged, and avoiding boredom. When we find ourselves at a stagnant place in our lives, we tend to start to go backwards. Always give yourself something for which to strive.
Step 8: Reward yourself for accomplishments
To stay motivated, give yourself a reward for what you have accomplished. This moment of celebration is so important. It’s called positive reinforcement, and it feels so good that you want to set another goal and celebrate it again. Rewards can be anywhere from a pat on the back to a week-long vacation.
Eat for Exercise’s Sake
What you can do to make sure what you put in your body will give you a boost in the gym.
Every day, you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Or maybe you’ve found the perks of eating more frequent meals. No matter if you’re stuck on a traditional three-meal-a-day routine or have moved into the five- or six-meal plan, you need to eat the right stuff to be prepared for whatever is thrown your way in the middle of your workout.
So what should be on your mind while eating? Exercise. And here are a few eating tips that keep your upcoming workout front and center.
Consider the Amount
Yes, food gives you energy. Unfortunately, eating lots and lots of food doesn’t necessarily give you lots and lots of energy. Quite the opposite. Eating too much can cause you to feel heavy, sluggish, or in need of a bathroom break. On the other side of the eating spectrum, not eating enough will cause you to feel weak and unable to complete your exercise routine.
Neither is acceptable. Instead, you should keep your body fed evenly throughout the day. Just be careful not to eat a small meal less than two hours before exercising. If a hunger pain hits you within two hours of your impending workout, take care of it with a healthy snack. And if you must indulge in a large meal, make sure you have three or four hours before you plan to hit the gym. Otherwise, you may wind up falling asleep on the stair stepper.
Keep It Quality
Just as important as the amount of food you eat is the quality of food you eat. Sure, you may be able to get away with a fast-food burger now and then, but if your diet regularly consists of fatty choices, you’re going to have a hard time motivating yourself to get to the gym and work out once there.
To give your body the exercise advantage it deserves, eat well all the time. Start with a healthy breakfast with whole grains, fruit, and low-fat milk. For your other meals, avoid high-calorie, fatty foods. And when snacking before a workout, go with a banana, a fruit smoothie (use yogurt instead of ice cream or frozen yogurt), and granola bars. If you’ve got an intense workout planned, you may want to go for an energy bar.
Finish Strong
Now that you’ve eaten to help your workout go well, you should set your eyes on preparing for your next routine. A great way to do that is through your diet. After you finish working out, eat foods with protein and carbohydrates. Don’t feel hungry right away? Drink a sports drink to replenish what your body lost during the routine.
Once you feel the first hint of hunger, toss some cheese on top of a few crackers, grab a handful of nuts, whip up a peanut butter and banana sandwich, or sit down for lunch. Just make sure what you eat is healthy and will help your body recover after your workout. This way, you’ll feel great after working out, which will provide increased incentive to eat right and get back in the gym tomorrow.
Don’t Dehydrate!
In the midst of eating for exercise, don’t neglect one of your body’s most basic needs: water. Since more than half of your body is made up of water, your need for H2O cannot be overstated.
So before you walk into the gym, while you’re working out, and after you’ve cooled down and moved on with your day, you should be drinking enough water to keep your body well hydrated. Losing more sweat than you can replace with water? A sports drink may be just what you need. Just don’t drink them when you’re sedentary, as they often contain extra sugar and calories that can be a detriment to your good health.
5 Foods You Must Avoid
Another Great Article From Prograde Nutrition!
By Kevin DiDonato MS, CSCS, CES
Buying local, fresh foods from Farmers’ markets, organic farms, or from your local grocer can go a long way for your budget and your health. However, not everyone can benefit or wants to shop healthy. Here are the top five foods to avoid or minimize in your diet for a longer, healthier life and a leaner waistline, followed by the top five foods that will give you amazing health benefits.
Food #1 Low-fat Foods
Food labeling can be very deceptive when it comes to food geared for weight loss. Low-fat foods are one of the products to be careful about. Just because the food says “low fat,” does not mean the food is low calorie. Be sure to check the label and see how many calories are typically in the product. Most people associate low-fat foods with lower calories, so they tend to eat more. Do not be fooled by this deceptive labeling technique.
Food #2 Sugar-Free Foods
Sugar-free foods are geared to people with diabetes or at risk for developing diabetes. Sugar-free foods have low calories and no sugar.
However, look at the label under sugars, and you will see something interesting. Sugar-free foods tend to have sugar alcohols, which is an ingredient designed to give it sweetness. Most of the time, sugar alcohol is made from sugar products, which can lead to increased calories. Sugar alcohols carry between 1.5 and 4 calories per gram. Not only do you get extra calories, but you also can get cramping, bloating, and other gastrointestinal problems if you ingest too much.
Food #3 Commercial Smoothies
Normally, smoothies are associated with healthy eating. They have skim milk, fruit, and yogurt, so they are considered a great, healthy food. Some commercial smoothies, however, have many hidden calories from extra sugar. Some smoothies are also made with ice cream, so you end up ballooning sugar, fat, and calorie content. Most of the time, the fruit in smoothies is blended up into fruit juice, or fruit juice is added. This eliminates the fiber that is found in the skin of most fruits. My advice: Make your smoothies at home, and leave the commercial smoothies on the shelf.
Food #4 Commercial Yogurts
Yogurt, again, has been considered a natural health product containing calcium, probiotics, and other products that have been shown to be beneficial to our health. Look at the label again, and you might see something surprising. When looking at the label, some of the first few ingredients in yogurt are different forms of sugar. All this extra sugar can lead to weight gain and stubborn, hard-to-lose body fat. So again, read the label and see exactly what is in the product before you choose the yogurt of choice.
Food #5 Sugary energy drinks including items with added vitamins and minerals
Energy drinks have been advertised as giving you that extra pick-me-up during the day, and a way to increase the intensity of your workouts. Energy drinks can contain high amounts of caffeine and sugar, which gives you that initial pick-me-up, but you end up crashing hard later. Also, some drinks that have added vitamins and minerals, can have loads of sugar as well. So stop and think before you drink and choose something lower in calories and sugar, maybe something like coffee or tea.
Next, I am going to share with you 5 foods that are beneficial to your health, and you might not even know it.
Food #1 Swiss Chard
Aging can create many different problems for people. Wrinkles, lack of balance, and our eyesight can worsen, and are just some of the different things that happen with the aging process. Swiss chard is considered a super food because of some of the amazing caroteniods that can be found in this leafy green vegetable. Swiss chard contains high levels of lutein and zeaxanthin that have been shown to help with good eyesight. These two caroteniods have been shown to build up in the eyes, which help with the way light rays enter our eyes and are absorbed.
Food #2 Pepper, Especially Capsaicin
So most of you are probably asking why pepper is on the list. Pepper is a zero-calories food that can add a lot of flavor to your foods. Not only does it pack a great punch to your foods, but capsaicin has been shown to have tremendous anti-inflammatory properties. It has also been shown to be helpful in fighting some cancers because of its anti-cancer effects.
Food #3 Wheat Grass
There are plenty of juices out there that contain Wheat Grass which is chock full of vitamins and minerals that will keep you healthy. Loaded with Vitamins, B, C, and E, this food can help to clean out your system and fight infections. Not only does this food contain essential vitamins and minerals, but it also is a complete protein. This food is full of the essential amino acids that our bodies require for building muscle. The high concentration of vitamins helps protect the body from stress that our bodies are under daily.
Food #4 Tahini
Tahini is now found in most grocery stores as an excellent source of all the B vitamins as well as calcium. B vitamins are essential in development of healthy cells in the body, especially red blood cells. B vitamins can also help in raising metabolism, and help our immune system become stronger. Tahini also holds a surprising amount of calcium, zinc, and copper. The high levels of calcium can help keep bones strong and healthy, and might be responsible in fighting some cancers. Tahini also holds an abundance of fiber, specifically sesamin and sesomolin, which can have positive effects in lowering cholesterol.
Food #5 Avocado
This amazing fruit helps reduce inflammation through some of the carotenoids found in the green, fleshy part of the avocado. This vegetable also has a tremendous amount of fat, but the good fats that are beneficial to the body. The main source of fat is Oliec acid, which helps with fat absorption and also helps to lower the risk for developing heart disease. Avocados also have phytosterols, which keep inflammation in the body under control.
How To Instantly Remove Two Of Your Biggest Weight Loss Obstacles >>
5 Tools for a Healthier Meal
Because having the right diet depends on what you keep stored in your kitchen cabinets.
Using lean meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, and low-fat food items is essential if you’re planning on having a healthy diet. But did you know the tools you’re using in the kitchen may also determine whether or not you’re going to eat healthy meals? Read on to learn what tools of the trade you should keep in your hands when you’re cooking.
All Day Cooker
Have a hard time finding time to cook dinner at night? Slow cooker to the rescue! Simply toss in whatever delicious vittles you have planned for dinner, set the cooker on low, and go about your daily life. After a hard day of work, cheering on your kids at the soccer field, and sitting for hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the sweet smells of your slow-cooked, home-cooked meal will make you glad to be at home. Not only does a slow cooker save time, it saves you money and calories by encouraging you to eat at home with the family and not at the steak restaurant down the street.
Rising Freshness
Want to make your house smell like heaven and your entire family drool? You can do both by investing in a bread machine and using it regularly. By baking your own bread, you’re the final word on what ingredients will be in each slice, making it possible to give your bread an added boost of fiber, wheat, bananas, or nuts. Of course, you can always bake bread in your oven, but a bread maker makes the process easy, which makes you more likely to keep fresh-baked bread around the house at all times.
Grill In
Want the flavors of the great outdoors without the open flame? It’s time to purchase an indoor grill. One of the best advertised is George Foreman’s Lean, Mean, Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, but there are a number of other brands that offer many of the same benefits. On top of grilled flavor, indoor grills are easy to clean and like their outdoor counterparts, an indoor grill allows the fat from your meats to slide off the grill, making sure it never touches your mouth.
Slick, Nonstick Cookware
No matter what you’re cooking, you’ll have to add some oil or butter to keep it from sticking to the pan—unless you swap in your grandmother’s frying pan, skillet, and saucepan for nonstick cookware. By keeping slick, nonstick cookware in your kitchen, you immediately reduce the amount of fats that find their way into your food due to the necessary slathering of oil or butter. Thanks to their incredible popularity, you can pick up a set of nonstick cookware for relatively cheap at any store that sells kitchenware.
Oil of O’Spray
Cooking often requires oil to on the bottom surface of the pot or pan being used. Sometimes, even your nonstick cookware will need a little oiling. Instead of pouring oil, spray it. Don’t like the flavor of oils that come in spray cans? You can pick up an oil sprayer, fill it with your oil of choice, and spray just the right amount of oil on your cookware. This keeps you from using more oil than is necessary, saving you precious money and preventing you from getting extra oil-based fat.
A Juicy Snack
When you’re on the go and need a quick pick-me-up, you have a few options. You can grab an energy bar, a pack of peanut butter crackers, or a glass of juice.
If you prefer to get your nutrition in a glass, buying a high-quality juicer is a must. With a powerful juicer in your hands, you can blend whatever fruit or vegetable you can find for an instant, powerful jolt of energy and good health, courtesy of Mother Nature.
5 Exercise Goals for Beginners
A handful of things every newbie should put on his or her exercise to-do list.
Just getting started exercising? Congratulations! Your decision is one that will bring you face to face with improved health, looks, energy, and more. While there is a great temptation to swallow the entire gym whole in one bite, it’s better to take stock and come up with goals that fit your needs.
Ready to create some gym-worthy goals that will help you reach your destination of a better, healthier life? Get started with the list below.
Goal 1: Find a Time
The first thing you have to do before you work out is figure out when you’re going to head to the gym. Sure, you may go to the gym on a whim on occasion, but you can’t depend on these spur-of-the-moment trips to help you meet your other fitness goals. Rather, you’re going to have to come up with a regular time to get to the gym. Whether it’s at 4 a.m., during your lunch hour, or right after work, having a predetermined time to exercise will help you with the next goal.
Goal 2: Stick with It
Once you’ve figured out when you can work out, it’s up to you to make sure you follow through. Though you may think the benefits of exercising are enough to keep you going strong, you may be wrong. To make it a little easier to stick with your routine, give yourself a goal of sticking with your routine three days a week for three months. Once you’ve been at it for that long, it should be cemented into your schedule, making it easier to stick with exercise for the long haul. If you constantly need another goal, reset your clock for another three months a week or two before completing the initial three months.
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. - Jim Ryun
Goal 3: Trim or Tone
Toning up and trimming down are often the primary purposes for working out. If these are reasons for your new interest in exercise, use them to your advantage. Every day you work out, write down your weight, the most important measurements to you, and the exercises you perform. Over time, you’ll be able to see improvements in all three areas. And if you’re having trouble in one (it can be difficult to continue losing weight after a certain point), you can be encouraged by other statistics, such as your lowered blood pressure or how much longer you can stay on the treadmill now than when you first began.
Goal 4: Be Honest
When you’re first getting into your exercise regimen, it’s easy to be forthcoming about your workout routine. After all, you’re in the gym three times a day, lifting more weights in a day than you have in the past four years, and running six miles during lunch. But it becomes more difficult to be honest when you’ve been at it a while. To keep yourself honest, get an exercise partner to hold you accountable. The best way for this to work is to work out with this person every time you go to the gym. This way, your partner knows when you’ve worked out and can help you work out at the intensity necessary for you to meet your other exercise goals.
Goal 5: Limit Rewards
It’s not uncommon for people to feel they deserve rewards for every positive thing they do. If you’re one of these people, you may seek a reward for your exercising prowess. But it’s important to see the way you feel and look as your reward. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with missing a day at the gym or licking an ice cream now and then. However, if you’re not careful, your reward system can wind up making it impossible for you to meet your exercise-minded goals.
