Tips to Keep You Going

l. Adopt a specific plan and write it down. 

2. Keep setting realistic goals as you go along, and remind yourself of them often. 

3. Keep a log to record your progress and make sure to keep it up-to-date. 

4. Include weight and/or percent body fat measures in your log. Extra pounds can easily creep back. 

5. Upgrade your fitness program as you progress. 

6. Enlist the support and company of your family and friends. 

7. Update others on your successes. 

8. Avoid injuries by pacing yourself and including a warmup and cool down period as

part of every workout. 

9. Reward yourself periodically for a job well done!

Who says pancakes can't be healthy?

Do you ever wish you could have pancakes (without all the calories) on the go without having to go dine in somewhere? Check out this awesome Protein Pancake Recipe!  

PROTEIN PANCAKE RECIPE

(optional) 1 scoop isolate protein powder (plain or vanilla flavored)

1 cup oats
2 eggs (or 1 cup egg whites)
1 cup 1% or fat freecottage cheese)
Cinnamon to taste
1 pkg of flavored tofu (there's almond flavored, mango banana)

You can add frozen blueberries to the mix or any other type of fruit for more natural sweetness.

Butter or oil  (to grease pan if necessary)


Directions:
Pour all ingredients into the blender. Grease pan if necessary with butter. Pour batter into pan and cook like you would pancakes. Cook until it bubbles, flip.  Once cooked, you can also use fruit spread on top, apple butter or maple syrup.

This is a great recipe to stock up on for a busy few days. 

Throw stock in the fridge and put in the toaster to warm up and enjoy during the week.  

Want a great recipe, with low calories, and the best part? It tastes great!

Orange Spiced Chicken w/ Broccoli 1⁄4 cup spiced chai tea (see recipe above) 3 1⁄2 oz chicken (skin removed, no visible fat) 3 1⁄2 oz broccoli (cooked) 1 orange peeled and cut into small pieces. Pour spiced chai tea into pan, add chicken pieces, simmer on medium heat till chicken is well cooked. (This works well with frozen chicken tenders, just put frozen meat in pan with tea and simmer till done). Place broccoli, oranges and chicken and juice from pan in a bowl. Toss with salt, pepper, herbs and spices. Enjoy! This works well with beef or fish too. Lobster with onions and tomatoes 3 1⁄2 oz Lobster pieces 1⁄2 lemon juice Salt, pepper and dill 3 1⁄2 oz onion slices 1⁄2 Tomato cut in pieces (serves as fruit) mustard and seasonings Put onion and 2Tbs water in medium frying pan, cook till onion is transparent. Add fish and drizzle with lemon juice, season with salt, pepper and seasons. Cook on medium heat till done. Add tomato and cook an additional 2 minutes. Season with mustard to taste and serve. I bake 2-4 pieces of fish at a time and put in individual portions in baggies. This way the fish is ready to go. Southwestern Salsa Chicken Simmer 3 1⁄2 oz of chicken in chopped tomatoes and chopped onion. (1⁄2 tomato, 1⁄2 onion). Season with salt, pepper and cayenne. Add a dash of sweetener and simmer till chicken is fully cooked. Serve over spinach or lettuce. Sometimes u can add chopped orange to this recipe for a great citrus twist. Sweet Basil Marinated Spinach Chicken Salad 3 1⁄2 oz spinach 3 1⁄2 oz cooked chicken in pieces 1⁄2 grapefruit diced into bite size pieces 2 tbs chopped basil Vinaigrette salad dressing (see recipe) Put desired quantity of vinaigrette salad dressing in bottom of large bowl, add chopped basil and stir. To enhance flavors add some vanilla or raspberry Stevia drops. Add chicken, grapefruit and spinach. Toss and serve. Spicy Cabbage Chicken Soup Put 1 C of chicken broth in bowl, add additional water as desired. Add 3 1⁄2 oz cooked chicken pieces, and 3 1⁄2 oz chopped cabbage. Season to taste. Simmer till cabbage is tender. Lemon or vinegar with sweetener makes a good sweet and sour broth. Add 1tbs of milk if desired.

Counting Calories

Each pound of fat your body stores represents 3,500 calories of unused energy. In order to lose one pound, you would have to create a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories by either taking in 3,500 less calories over a period of time than you need or doing 3,500 calories worth of exercise. It is recommended that no more than two pounds (7,000 calories) be lost per week for lasting weight loss.

Adding 15 minutes of moderate exercise, say walking one mile, to your daily schedule will use up 100 extra calories per day. (Your body uses approximately 100 calories of energy to walk one mile, depending on your body weight.) Maintaining this schedule would result in an extra 700 calories per week used up, or a loss of about 10 pounds in one year, assuming your food intake stays the same. To look at energy balance another way, just one extra slice of bread or one extra soft drink a day – or any other food that contains approximately 100 calories – can add up to ten extra pounds in a year if the amount of physical activity you do does not increase.

lf you already have a lean figure and want to keep it you should exercise regularly and eat a balanced diet that provides enough calories to make up for the energy you expend. If you wish to gain weight you should exercise regularly and increase the number of calories you consume until you reach your desired weight. Exercise will help ensure that the weight you gain will be lean muscle mass, not extra fat.

Overweight or Overfat?

Overweight and overfat do not always mean the same thing. Some people are quite muscular and weigh more than the average for their age and height. However, their body composition, the amount of fat versus lean body mass (muscle, bone, organs and tissue), is within a desirable range. This is true for many athletes. Others weigh an average amount yet carry around too much fat. In our society, however, overweight often implies overfat because excess weight is commonly distributed as excess fat. The addition of exercise to a weight control program helps control both body weight and body fat levels.

A certain amount of body fat is necessary for everyone. Experts say that percent body fat for women should be about 20 percent, 15 percent for men. Women with more than 30 percent fat and men with more than 25 percent fat are considered obese. 

How much of your weight is fat can be assessed by a variety of methods including underwater (hydrostatic) weighing, skin fold thickness measurements and circumference measurements. Each requires a specially trained person to administer the test and perform the correct calculations. From the numbers obtained, a body fat percentage is determined. Assessing body composition has an advantage over the standard height-weight tables because it can help distinguish between "overweight" and "overfat." An easy self-test you can do is to pinch the thickness of the fat folds at your waist and abdomen. If you can pinch an inch or more of fat (make sure no muscle is included) chances are you have too much body fat. People who exercise appropriately increase lean body mass while decreasing their overall fat level. Depending on the amount of fat loss, this can result in a loss of inches without a loss of weight, since muscle weighs more than fat. However, with the proper combination of diet and exercise, both body fat and overall weight can be reduced.

Exercise and Weight Control

Just about everybody seems to be interested in weight control. Some of us weigh just the right amount, others need to gain a few pounds. Most of us "battle the bulge" at some time in our life. Whatever our goals, we should understand and take advantage of the important role of exercise in keeping our weight under control. Carrying around too much body fat is a major nuisance. Yet excess body fat is common in modern-day living. Few of today's occupations require vigorous physical activity, and much of our leisure time is spent in sedentary pursuits.

Recent estimates indicate that 34 million adults are considered obese (20 percent above desirable weight). Also, there has been an increase in body fat levels in children and youth over the past 20 yaars. After infancy and early childhood, the earlier the onset of obesity, the greater the likelihood of remaining obese. Excess body fat has been linked to such health problems as coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes, arthritis and certain forms of cancer. Some evidence now exists showing that obesity has a negative effect on both health and longevity. Exercise is associated with the loss of body fat in both obese and normal weight persons. A regular program of exercise is an important component of any plan to help individuals  lose, gain or maintain their weight.

Yet more reasons why blueberries are a superfood

Summertime offers so many wonderful pleasures and for many people, myself included, blueberries are among those at the top of the list. I could eat them three times a day - prepared differently or just naked. Even plain, these spectacular little colourful berries are definitely a tasty treat. And, as an added bonus, they have so much scientific research backing their powerful disease-fighting effects. Researchers are investigating a multitude of benefits including their potential defence against certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, urinary tract infections and weight gain. You have to wonder if there's anything that these berries don't protect against.

For a mere 80 calories per cup, blueberries offer almost four grams of fibre along with a range of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C and potassium. But it's their pigments, called anthocyanins, that are at the centre of much investigation.

Unlike some research on various compounds which requires ridiculously large amounts of a food to be consumed in order to achieve any disease-fighting effects, investigators at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center point to consuming just one cup a day to prevent cell damage - the type that can lead to cancer. They suggest the abundant antioxidants in blueberries offer protection against free radical damage to cells which can be the first step in cancer development.