Monday, September 28, 2009

The ABSOLUTE BEST paleo pancakes on the planet... Seriously

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I have been making versions of paleo pancakes since I began to paleo and FINALLY I have found the holy grail of paleo pancake recipes.

Here's the secret: ALMOND FLOUR!!!

No not the almond meal you get at whole foods ( bobs red mill) the kind you must buy online .

I have been baking with this non stop since I got my flour in the mail and I am in love.

I got the recipe from Elana's cookbook and thankfully her recipe is online because I can't reproduce it.

I replaced the agave nectar in the recipe with applesauce because I am not doing sugar due to my 30 day paleo challenge and I probably will keep it that way because it still tastes great! I believe I had to lower the cooking temp because I think the apple sauce is prone to browning quick. Keep them smaller than regular pancakes. About two inches in diameter.
I experimented with berries in the pancakes, it turned out really well.

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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Tips on Clean Eating

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Tips on Eating Clean
1)Keep your pantry and your recipes stocked.
• If you are going to live without temptation you had better keep your house full of nutritious foods you can feel great about eating and snacking on.
• I look for new recipes daily. Learn how to take a recipe you find interesting and modify it to what you can have. Find a great chili recipe, and use some other veggies instead of beans etc.
2) Pre-Cook
• Spend some time Sunday making 2-3 meals that will last for the week. This will cut down your cooking time during the week and save you that thought on the way home “what am I going to make tonight?”
3) Cook more than you need
• Going off the last item, when you cook more, you have left overs. Yumm!
• Don’t keep food you don’t want to eat in your house
• Keeping unhealthy food in your house where you can be tempted to eat it is a no no. Keep it out of your house and you’ll never have an issue.
4)Utilize Tupperware
• Get lots of sturdy Tupperware to keep all your pre cooked meals and leftovers in.
5) Get a food processor and a Crockpot
• I use my food processor almost every day whether I am making paleo ice cream or pesto sauce or baking
• I use my Crockpot at least once a week. It’s easy, it saves time, and it’s delicious.
6)Keep clean snacks on hand… just in case
• Nuts, fruit, veggies, beef jerky….. keep safe food close to you in times of supreme hunger or change of plans happen
7) Learn to use spices
• Changing the way you eat, means learning a new way to cook… or learning how to cook in the first place.
8 Learn to cook!
• Eating clean involves rethinking how you cook food as well as how you eat food. Once you realize how many options you really have, you will love the variety of veggies, fruits, and how creative you can get in the kitchen.
• Take a cooking class if you are seriously deficient in this area.
9)Create your menu for the week
• Spend some time researching recipes for your week’s menu before you go to the grocery store and buy food for the week. This makes shopping easier and more purposeful. And will save you extra trips.
10) Choose free range and grass fed meat whenever possible
• http://www.eatwild.com/basics.html
11)Craving something? Find a recipe and modify and experiment
• Try out your kitchen skills by finding paleo versions of recipes you love on the internet, or finding a recipe you love and modifying it to your new way of eating.
12) Love to bake?:
• Discover Honeyville blanched Almond Flour and www.elanaspantry.com
• Just be cautious, don’t be going crazy with muffins and cakes and agave nectar. Especially no agave nectar if you are doing your 30 days.
Eating out? Use caution, willpower, and authority
• Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want! If you don’t see it on the menu, ask if they can make it. Now I’m not talking about asking for some random thing, be reasonable here.
• Find something on the menu that you can modify to your liking. Sometimes there isn’t much. Most places have chicken breasts and can cook one up for you separately if its not on the menu.
• Obviously if you are out you are at the mercy of that kitchen, but sometimes you have to compromise. For example, I go to a networking every week at a restaurant and I usually order some kind of chicken breast sandwich without the bun or cheese and ask for fruit, veggies or salad on the side.
• I always bring nuts or fruit or something with me just in case.
• I always order something off the menu. It is debatable to me whether it is ruder to go to a restaurant and not order food or to bring some “extra snacks” and order off the menu and be the crazy person with all the modifications. So, I always go with the second one and I always leave a nice tip.
12) Eat Local
• Find the farmers markets in town and get your meats and produce there.
• There are some great resources for getting local and in season foods like Door to Door organics and Grant Family Farms here in fort Collins
• Get really local and grow your own garden!

Zuchinni Onion Soup

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I love this recipe for zucchini soup! It usually has little ditalini pastas in it, but since I can't have pasta, so I added ground chicken, and the base is still wonderful tasting. Since it's beginning to become fall, squash is really in season right now and the zucchinis I bought at the store looked amazing and ripe and plump!

What you need:

4-5 large zucchini squash, quartered
4-5 med sweet onions, chopped in large pieces
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
4 tblsp olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound Ground chicken, cooked

Place garlic and olive oil in a large skillet and saute for about a minute on med heat. Place the tomato paste on the skillet then Place the onions in the skillet and saute until translucent and soft, stirring occasionally and trying to break up the onion layers: about 20 minutes.

When the onions are soft, use your food processor or blender to liquify the onions. It should be a thick onion base with not chunks. Put the onion base into a large soup pot.

One zucchini at a time, pulverize them in the food processor. It shouldn't become a paste, but it should be small chunks. Place the zucchini in the soup pot. Add the cooked ground chicken.

Stir everything together and add salt and pepper to taste. Bring the soup to a boil and then drop the heat to low and let simmer for 20 minutes to let the flavors meld.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Why Dairy is not as good as you think

The question I get the most when i ask people to give up dairy for health and anti inflammatory reasons, is " But why do I hear all the time that I need 2 servigs of dairy a day to help me lose weight?" My answer: Advertising dollars. We don't need it, it's terrible for your digestion, and it's a terrible source of calcium.

Read more below
http://www.vibrancyuk.com/dairy.html

http://gomestic.com/consumer-information/10-facts-the-dairy-industry-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-milk/

Monday, September 21, 2009

Paleo Pesto Spaghetti Squash

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I have been loving spaghetti squash lately and last week I decided to make a pesto sauce for it. It is soooooo good! Its dairy free too!

The recipe is as follows.

1 small Spaghetti Squash
2 packets of organic basil(about 1 cup)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup pine nuts
olive oil
salt to taste

Cut your spaghetti sqaush lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Place it face down on a baking sheet and bake in the oven at 450, COVERED with aluminum foil so the outside doesn't burn, for 30-45 minutes or until the inside is tender enough to scrape out. Scrape out the spaghetti and place in a large bowl.

While squash is cooking, in a food processor, place basil, garlic, and pine nuts. Blend until a paste forms. Next put the processor on and add olive oil until the paste becomes a sauce and is the consistency you want. I failed to measure how much olive oil I used because I just went by what I saw, but when I eyeball my olive oil bottle it looks like I used about 3/4 cup. I really wanted it to be saucier rather than thicker so it would blend in my squash easier. Add salt to taste.

When your squash is done, pour on the pesto and mix. I put my squash in a pan and added the pesto in it over the heat because I wanted it to soak up the flavor more. You don't have to do this though.

Eat as is, or with veggies, meat, tofu, whatever you think will taste delicious. If you add veggies, you might want to add them to your pan while you saute the squash in the sauce so they get that flavor in too.

If you are allergic to pine nuts, walnuts would work well with this. Im going to try another version with cilantro next time because Diego doesn't like basil... weirdo....

Inspire me Monday: How Many Hats do you wear?

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How Many Hats do you Wear?
Daughter, Entrepreneur, Fitness Chick, Dancer, Girly girl, girlfriend, coach, friend, teacher, music lover, motivator, confident speaker, student, Paleo girl, Crossfit addict , sweet tooth, over achiever, procrastinator, control freak ….. Those are all my hats I can think of off the top of my head but I know there are more.

What I challenge you today to think about is how many hats you wear? Are you a mother, a father, a spouse, a comedian, a smiler, a listener, a caretaker, a supporter…. However you can define yourself, however you can finish the sentence “I am.”
I have been taking an eastern religions class online to fulfill my requirement for humanities before I go to chiropractic school and we are studying Hinduism right now and the concept of one true reality, called Brahman, that is manifesting itself in many forms can really speak to our own lives. (and is the reason I thought about this topic for today’s email)

Many people think Hinduism is polytheistic (believing in many gods), which it is but it’s not quite because actually, all of the Hindu gods are manifestations of the one true god, the ultimate truth. So I thought to myself, “just like me.” NOT because I think I am a god, but because I say things to myself daily, like “who do I feel like being today, Lauren the fitness chick, or Lauren the girly girl?” We ourselves are one person, and we are so many people all at the same time. How do we juggle through all these people we are daily?

So what’s my point? Know who you are, every part of you. Appreciate how many things you are to so many different people but most importantly to yourself. Do you have enough hats that are just for you or are they all for other people? Do you have any hats that you’ve forgotten about or pushed down?
Know how all your hats work with each other. If you are stressed out, feeling overwhelmed, just feeling like something’s not right, it’s probably because one of your “yous” isn’t playing well with the others.
There are always good and bad hats. We can’t all be perfect. You might find that you want to permanently take off one of your hats, like my sweet tooth hat. I am working very hard right now to just get rid of that thing.

Most of all know that these hats don’t own you. You own them, and you can change them any time you want. You can choose to wear the “emotional eater” hat or not. You can choose to wear the “I hate exercise” hat or not. You can choose to wear the “I have fill in the blank disease “or not.

Whatever you are, however many hats you wear, make sure they are the ones YOU CHOOSE.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Butternut Squash Latkes

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I found this recipe at Elanas Pantry and I am sure you will see many more from her website here.

These latkes were fresh, sweet, and nutty flavored and gave Diego and I just enough of that "potato" feeling. I wish I would've remembered to take a picture of them but we ate them too fast!

I also made the homemade applesauce to go with them. They were super easy to make.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

What is Clean eating?

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Clean eating is a broad term to mean that you eat foods that are minimally or not processed at all and are in their purest, most nutritious and whole form. To eat clean you must shop for your own food, cook your own food, and I'm not going to sugar coat it, spend quite a bit of time researcing and educating yourself about what "clean" will mean for you and how you can make it palatable and work for your lifestyle.

Now when I say, "work for your lifestyle" this might be too broad. If you want to eat clean, you will have to change your lifestyle to fit clean eating. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. You have to change your habits and your way of thinking if you are going to make clean eating your way of eating because it's not easy. I'm not trying to scare you, I just want you to understand what all this entails and not sugar coat it. The truth is that ingesting most of the food that is available and what we would call "easy" is the same as ingesting a low level poison into your body. Sugar, refined grains, dairy, gluten, soy.... these are all things that are sabotaging your digestive system, hormone regulation, and overall wellness of your body.

So I'm sure by now you are wondering how you eat clean. My simple answer is: Go Paleo. What is paleo? In the shortest possible way paleo is lean meats, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds. If you can't find it and eat it raw, then you aren't eating it(obviously we usually cook out meat nowadays, but we can eat it raw).

"The Paleo Diet is a way of eating in the modern age that best mimics diets of our hunter-gatherer ancestors - combinations of lean meats, seafood, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. By eating the foods that we are genetically adapted to eat, followers of the Paleo Diet are naturally lean, have acne-free skin, improved athletic performance, and are experiencing relief from numerous metabolic-related and autoimmune diseases."


This means NO sugar, NO grains, NO dairy, NO beans, NO alcohol and NO startchy roots or tubers. Having said that, yes I think there is some value in whole grains like quinoa however what I recommend to some clients when beginning a program with me is to just go full paleo for 30 days in order to normalize their insulin levels and just clear their bodies of everything that might be messing with their systems. If you've been eating lots of sugr and grains, refined or not, for a long time you need to increase your insulin sensitivity in order to bring your hormone levels back to normal. That being said, any grain, whole or not, will cause too large of an insulin spike and will just hinder your efforts to normalize insulin sensitivity ( see more on this here). This is definitely situational and it depends on the person and what their stress levels and other medical issues are. Some people find it easier to ease their way into paleo before they begin their 30 days in order to lessen the stress on their bodies.

I can tell you I've already had one client discover a dairy allergy while doing her 30 days. She had had hives for 10 YEARS prior to starting, and was taking an antihistamine to control her internal hives so she could eat comfortably, but still had them on places on her skin. About a week into it, she noticed she had absolutely no hives at all!!! That is a drastic example, but easy to see the benefit. Imagine what is happening inside your body that you can't feel or see?

The bottom line here is eat REAL food. If its processed, it's not real. Look at your labels, if it's got more than 4-5 ingredients and you can't understand any of them it's not real. If you didn't make it yourself, it's probably not real food. Be conscious of what you cook with, make sure there aren't any chemicals and other low level poisons in your food. Find out how gluten, sugar, grains, and dairy, effect your body. Go clean, go paleo. Go all out or start with laying off the sugar and the grains for a week or so and go from there. This is your body, and it's the only one you have. Take care of it!!!!

You can find out more at http://www.thepaleodiet.com/

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Theme of the Week: What are your limiting beliefs?

clutter3 “Man is made or unmade by himself. In the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself. He also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.” — James Allen

This week I want to bring attention to your limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs create disempowerment. What are your self limiting beliefs and how can you change them? Why does this matter? Because…

“Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself.” — Liberace

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, there are no things you can’t do, only things you won’t do. So once you’ve acknowledged that you have some limiting beliefs that might be causing you pain physically emotionally, and spiritually, even unconsciously, you can begin to become empowered by seeking information on how to change these beliefs.

When you believe "I can do it," the "how to do it" develops. - David Schwartz



6 Common Limiting Beliefs

1) Lack of Self Worth: “I am stupid,” “I am not –fill in the blank- enough.” Negative self talk and feelings of worthlessness can lead to depression.

2) Self Hatred: “I hate myself.” It is far easier to focus your love and attention on friends and family than to acknowledge that you love yourself.

3) Victimhood: Believing that any misfortune you suffer is the result of life circumstances, genes, past behaviors, family, and others’ moods etc. Occurs on the emotional level.

4) External Validation: Believing that other people know what is best for you. Here it is easy to lose sight of your inner strength and lose self confidence.

5) Other People’s Emotions: Believing you are responsible for other peoples emotions and reactions…. Another form of victimhood

6) Self Denial: Believing that your needs and desires are not of paramount importance. When you believe this you are literally giving away all your energy to others and you have nothing left for yourself.

For more on these limiting beliefs as well as a great intro to the world of energy, check out Bente Hanson’s book The New World of Self Healing.

“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.” Anthony de Mello



Click the link for a great article on how to identify, work through, and change your limiting beliefs. http://abundancejournal.com/2007/how-to-get-rid-of-your-limiting-beliefs/



Hansen, Bente. The New World of Self-Healing: Awakening the chakras and rejuvenating your energy field. Llewelleyn Publications: 2006.

August/September Happenings

Transform Yourself! Express Your Health! 6 week class. This class is designed for women who are ready to dig deep, create their vision, and change their lives! Group Workouts mon/wed and with 30 for discussion/speakers on monday. I am bringing in phenomenal speakers in the community to speak on topics that will help you learn and grow mind, body and spirit, and most importantly leave you feeling inspired, empowered and buzzing when you leave.

New Early AM Transform Yourself Workout only class: tue/thurs 7-8am $180 begins Tues September 15

AM Transform Yourself class starting Tues September 15: Tue 8:30-10 and Thurs 9-10am.

Next PM class starts Sept 28 Mon-7-8:15pm and Wed 7-8 pm $ 240 (20 a class)

Class Specials

2 For 1 class with a friend ( new clients only)

Refer 3 friends and get your class FREE!!

Refer one friend to class and save $40.

Refer 2 friends to class and save $70

New! Kitchen Sweep: Are you confused at what foods are healthy and what foods aren’t? If you want some extra attention on your nutrition program at home this is a great program for you. I will come to your kitchen, help you understand the basics of clean eating, get rid of the bad foods ( and donate the extra) , help you create a shopping list and plan some meals, go grocery shopping with you, and even help you cook/prepare a few healthy meals! $70/hour

Hot Moves Seductive dance Class Wed @ 8pm at pivotal wellness
Let your inner temptress out in this new dance class! Get confident, feel sexy, shake your stuff, and have fun with the girls.

Come with a friend and Try class free

$12 drop in, $80-8 punch card

Email lauren@empowerfitness.org or call 407-399-0170 for more info or to sign up

 

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