The healthy alternative to your brownie addiction.

good greens bars!

Inside you'll find vitamins, probiotics and antioxidants, covered in organic, dairy-free chocolate. It's literally ground up whole real superfoods including spirulina (high protein algae), wheatgrass, raspberries, Nori seaweed, and more. It's seriously DELICIOUS. I can't say it enough. I LOVE eating these. The chocolate mint one tastes like a thin mint girl scout cookie, no joke.

 I thought Clif bars were delicious (though they're wayyyy too high in sugar) but these taste even better than the sugar-packed Clif bar. Not only that, but they're dairy-free, gluten-free, VEGAN, mostly organic, and there's NO added sugar. NONE. Not even artificial sweeteners. Most are soy-free, too (check the label). And, as if it needs to be any better than this, there's 10g of protein in this bad boy.

You might be thinking "well, I could just take a vitamin instead, right?" 

Wrong.

Your body absorbs vitamins and minerals better from real foods than it does from synthetic vitamins. All the stuff in this bar comes from real foods, so you're golden.

Let's compare it to other bars:

This is the perfect bar for breakfast, a snack, or dessert. I love love love having chocolate after dinner (I know, shoot me) but this quenches my chocolate craving while delivering stuff my body actually needs.

Eat these and feel good about it.

They're made in Ohio and they're available at Marcs, Amazon, or goodgreens.com! :) Read more on their website here.

Source.

Do you know what YOUR daily fruit & veggie requirement is?

This calculator from the CDC tells you your personal daily requirement of fruits and vegetables based on your age, sex, and physical activity level. This doesn't mean your fruit and veggie limit -- meaning you can always eat more than this if you are very active (and thus eating more calories per day). But, for optimal health and metabolism function, you should be eating at least this much a day. Click the image to go to the CDC's website and calculate yours.

What counts as a cup of fruits & vegetables?

Source: CDC

Better Than Pasta Primavera recipe

Sooo my pictures for this post aren't that fantastic (especially since there's only TWO) but if you, like me, have to constantly struggle to get your daily required veggies, you're going to want to try this recipe out. It's quicker and easier than it seems, but it looks fancy shmancy and tastes fabulous. I made this last night for dinner and ate it again for lunch today and it was delicious both times. My sister had some, and B also liked it, so it's man-approved too, which is always a plus at our house.

Here's the recipe:

Better Than Pasta Primavera

1 box of cherry tomatoes

1 box of grape tomatoes

5 cloves of fresh garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

cooking sherry or dry white wine (optional, I guess)

Brown rice pasta

frozen organic green beans

fresh tarragon

Fresh block of romano pecorino cheese (optional)

1. Add brown rice pasta to boiling water. (prepare according to package.)

2. Heat the olive oil in your saute pan over medium heat.

3. Use a garlic press or chop your garlic super small (or slice it super thin with a razor blade like Paulie from Goodfellas.) You want teeny tiny pieces of fresh garlic, any way you gotta get 'em.

4. Add garlic to the olive oil. Swirl it around until it smells delicious and starts to get golden brown.

5. Add all of your tomatoes and cover your pan. Let them stay in this oil-y garlic bath until they burst (about 12-15 minutes)

6. Meanwhile, when your brown rice pasta is approximately 5 minutes from being done, add the frozen green beans to the pasta water. 

7. When your tomatoes have burst, take off the lid and squish them. Make sure they're adequately squished! you want chunks, not pureed sauce and not whole tomatoes. 

8. Add a splash of white wine or cooking sherry to the pan to de-glaze, and because it's delicious. I guess you could leave this out if you want. 

9. Drain your pasta & green bean mix, put it in a serving bowl.

10. Add a few sprigs of tarragon leaves (torn off their stems) to your tomato mixture. Mix it around until the leaves wilt and you can smell the tarragon. (HEAVEN!)

11. Spill your tomato-tarragon-garlic-olive oil mixture all over the pasta and green beans, add some freshly grated romano pecorino cheese and bam, the most healthy and delicious take on brown rice and vegetables you've ever seen.

I adore this dish and its just as healthy as a boring old plate of brown rice and vegetables. Spice it up a little. Let me know if you guys enjoyed this!!

run Disney!

Ok, so I love Disney more than the average twenty-something. My family and I went once a year, every year, until I was 15. My grandparents still go and live there for almost half the year. My whole family is Disney-obsessed.

So you can imagine how pumped I was to learn that Disney hosts themed races at the Walt Disney Resort. The two upcoming races are the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10 mile race in October, and the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February, omg. I googled pictures of past races, I'm preeeettttyyyy sure they give you a crown.

They're not as expensive as you'd think ($135 for the Princess Half Marathon if you apply early) and you get to run through Epcot and The Magic Kingdom.

You have to run under a 16 minute mile or else they'll pick you up on a golf cart and transport you to the finish line. I run about a 9 minute mile which is obviously not amazing. (Just to put your mile time into perspective, the world's best marathoners run between a 4 and 5 minute mile... and that's marathon, meaning 26.2 miles at below 5 minutes per mile.) I'm guessing a brisk walk would put you around 15 or so minutes a mile. So, if you're not a "runner", you can still do this.

I would love love love to do a Disney Run. Add it to the bucket list. Maybe this winter when my grandparents are there... In the meantime, if you've got a vacation weekend or you're from Florida-- Do a Disney Run!

Twilight Zone Run

Disney Princess Half Marathon

More Disney Runs!

Manda Bee's Headband Giveaway!

I am a firm believer in owning high quality workout clothes that you love wearing. Putting on an old baggy t-shirt and my high-school Soffee shorts doesn't get me too amped about working out, but when I buy stuff that looks good and feels comfortable, I feel happier about the ensuing sweat-session, and that might just end up being the little extra motivation you need to get your booty into the gym. 

So, now that you all can relate to the importance of cute workout gear.......

I am giving away TWO (that's right, TWO!) Manda Bee's Headbands this week! 

All you need to do is....
1. Be a follower (google+ or via email)
2. Comment with your favorite exercise or type of exercise (Spinning, Zumba, Running, etc.)

*One lucky winner chosen at random will receive TWO FREE Manda Bee's headbands of YOUR CHOICE. Any colors, any patterns (check out the entire store and find two that you love!). I'll contact you once you've won to get your shipping address and color choices. 

Just trying to spread some fitness love!

This is why you don't buy canned fruit.

Hmm, light syrup you say? Lets check the ingredients...

High fructose corn syrup!! 17 grams of sugar!! Don't do it!

Don't ever buy anything "in syrup". If you must get canned fruit, look for the "no sugar added" canned fruit (it's rare, trust me). B likes those Dole peach fruit cups, so instead of that we buy cans of peach slices with no sugar added. 

If you can't find no-sugar-added canned fruit, head to the frozen fruit aisle! Frozen fruit actually retains a ton more nutrients than canned fruit anyway.

Always check your labels!!

How many calories should I eat per day?

To lose body fat, you should be eating: 

Your BMR PLUS how many calories you burn with exercise and daily activity. Never less than BMR, never more than you burn.

What does that mean?

You have to burn more calories than you take in. That's the easy part.

Figuring out what that number is, now that's the hard part. 

Your BMR tells you how many calories your body burns at complete rest. (Technically, the rate at which your body uses energy while at rest to keep vital functions going.)

Your BMR is useful because you know that you need at the very least, this amount of calories. You never ever ever want to eat less than this number, because your body will go into starvation mode where you store all your fat, and burn lean muscle mass. (Basically, you lose lean weight and gain fat. you get "skinny fat". Soft and squishy body type) Read more about calorie restriction and getting skinny-fat here.

Daily Activity

Now, what also needs taken into consideration when determining how many calories you need is how many calories your body burns in a day via general daily activity and exercise. It is incredibly difficult to determine the exact correct number of calories you personally burn in a day, because everyone's bodies burn at different rates. So, the BMR and "daily caloric needs" calculators are only estimates. (Though very good estimates!)

Here are the calculators
Ace daily calorie requirement estimator
BMR calculator

It is a challenge to eat enough calories so that your body won't be running on lean muscle fumes, but not too many calories which will cause your body store fat. There is a lot of trial and error involved, but you can get a good starting point by using the calculators. 

What happens if you don't eat enough calories?

If you aren't getting enough calories per day, you will lose weight. However, the weight you lose is not the kind of weight you want to be losing.

There are two sources of weight in our bodies: fat weight, and lean weight.

Fat weight is fat,

Lean weight is muscle, bone, organs and connective tissue like ligaments and tendons. 

Toning up your body requires losing FAT, and to lose FAT, you must eat enough nutrient-packed calories for your metabolism (your body's calorie burning mechanism) to function properly. To figure out that number, estimate it here.

Calorie restriction causes your body to go into starvation mode where, panicked because its not getting what it needs, your body stores and hangs on to every last ounce of fat you have, and for energy, it burns up your lean mass. Bone density decreases with calorie restriction (so you are more susceptible to break a bone) and so does the strength of your connective tissue (hellooo, sprained ankles). Maybe even more importantly, you're losing muscle mass, so you end up looking like a squishy, shape-less weak mess, and that's not attractive.

To make it even worse, calorie restriction screws with your metabolism, making it harder to lose fat in the long run. 

On the flip side, building muscle raises your metabolism, meaning your body needs more calories per day to be healthy (which is awesome, because then you can eat more.)

If you're a serial weigh-er, know this: Lean muscle weighs more than fat, so if the scale doesn't fluctuate too much, don't freak out. You're losing fat and building heavy, lean muscle.

How do you avoid becoming skinny-fat like that guy up there? Eat your daily recommended amount of calories, and make sure they're coming from whole, nutritious foods... AND, lift weights. Muscle doesn't appear out of nowhere.  

Eating is good. Eat. Don't starve yourself. Don't be skinny fat. 

What happens when you eat "empty calorie foods"?

Empty calories

The purpose of a calorie is to provide our bodies with both nutrition energy. Energy, so our bodies can operate, and nutrition, so they can operate effectively. Nutrients are earth's chemical compounds that fuel the body's mental and physical processes including cell repair, digestion, and other bodily functions. 

Empty calories are calories that provide very little to nothing in the way of nutrients or energy. Some of America's most popular empty calories are some of our most favorite-- cakes, cookies, pizza, fast food, anything deep fried, sodas, cheese, ice cream, sausage, hot dogs and white bread... (And this deep fried oreo below.)

If you don't get enough nutrients, meaning you frequently eat meals and snacks made up of empty calories, your body will become deficient. Even the slightest nutrient or vitamin deficiency can manifest itself as chronic fatigue, mental cloudiness and/or depression, hair loss, bad skin, gastrointestinal problems, and weight gain. Prolonged nutrient deficiency can lead to a higher risk of serious illness and disease. Not to mention you will always be hungry, you'll have cellulite, a flabby belly, etc. etc.

Nutritional calories 

Whole, real, nutritious foods contain vitamins and minerals for our bodies to break down and use for proper functioning. This is why when people start juicing (purée-ing fruits and vegetables into a vitamin-packed juice) they immediately experience more energy, healthier skin and hair, mental clarity, and weight loss. Its the surge of clean, real nutrients that causes this. Luckily for you, juicing isn't the only way to get your nutrients. Eliminating empty calorie food and replacing it with wholesome, real, additive-free foods will allow your body to  build up it's defenses and begin functioning better.

Fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats (like nuts and avocados), beans... all real foods with real nutrients. Google "clean eating recipes" -- never-ending jackpot of things you can eat and not feel bad about!

Receiving the proper nutrition will create an ecosystem for your body to thrive in. All of your bodily systems (like your immune system, breathing, heart, etc.) will be on their A game. It will help your body achieve a healthy metabolism, so that you are able to burn fat and gain lean muscle. It'll allow you to think clearer, have more energy, sleep better, and be happier. 

The more crappy food you eliminate and the more real food you incorporate, the better you will feel, look, and think. Don't treat your body like a trash can. Food is FUEL!