Get Sexy Summer Abs

Photo by Russ Anderson

It’s spring time! That means everyone is going to be working and doing their best to achieve those sexy summer abs! A lot of people start doing those situps and crunches in the hops that a 6 pack will pop up. But I’m here to tell you a secret, you can do 8 million crunches but if you have fat over top of your abs you’re not going to be able to see them! So in order to get that 6 pack that you’re dreaming of you have to clean up your diet!

Here is a sample 1 day menu for ridding fat from your body.

Breakfast
2 scrambled eggs
1/2 fresh grapefruit

Snack
1oz of almonds

Lunch
Salad with avocado and grilled chicken

Snack

Low fat Greek Yogurt

Dinner

Lemon pepper salmon with sweet potato fries

Foods that target weight loss and help things like intestines and reduce cortisol levels which will specifically target the fat loss in the stomach area.
Note: Make sure you are eating proper portion sizes!

Almonds
Avocado
Dark chocolate
Flax seed
Olive oil
Peanut butter
Nonfat Greek Yogurt
Mushrooms
Eggs
Berries
Grapefruit
Sweet potatoes
Salmon
Garlic
Quinoa
Lemon
Grapes
Peppermint
Lean protein; chicken/beef

Make a menu for a week, pre-plan your meals for the week and you’ll be on your way to a flat belly in no time!

For more in-depth information check out the Flat Belly Diet from Prevention!

My Simplified Plan for Losing Weight

Photo by: Steve Johnson

So it’s the middle of January, are you still following through with your New Years Resolutions? Did you even make them? Maybe you’re like a lot of people and you make them, but you don’t share them with anyone.

I wanted to come up with a simplified way to lose weight. The more simplified something it is, the easier success will be with it. If you ask anyone, weight loss is 90% what you eat and 10% exercise (some people say 80/20, but you get the idea). So if the most important thing is what you eat, then I need to focus on eating healthier foods and make it a habit.

I’ve started with breakfast, I have eggs and bacon every single day. It’s 140 calories and fills me up with protein. For added health benefits I mix in some ground flax and turmeric in with the egg (both of those things have anti-cancer properties!)

Now that eating eggs and bacon for breakfast is a habit, this week I’m going to focus on lunch. I think that I will switch between tuna salad and protein shakes. I could probably eat tuna every day because I like it, but it’s really only safe to eat it 3x a week because of the mercury content.

For dinner we usually have protein and vegetables, but I saw this super disgusting article on how the FDA now approves diseased meat that has pus coming out of it and cancerous tumors, so I think for now I will be going mostly vegetarian until I can get some grass fed beef from a local farmer. (PS another good place to order meat from is Tropical Traditions).

Once these become habits, it means my calories will be under control and I can start switching things up a bit here and there. You can create your own simplified diet based on the foods that you like, have protein and veggies for the first few weeks and then you can start adding in some carbs, I plan to break up breakfasts with some oatmeal on occasion.

 

So that is my simplified plan, I’ll let you know how it works out! I will be documenting myself for 100 days and post the results when I’m done 🙂

 

Cherise

The 40 Minute Hamburger Bun

I came across this recipe a couple of years ago and I’m not entirely sure where it originated, but I’ve made it numerous times since then! It’s super simple and once you get the hang of the recipe you can really make them in about 20-25 minutes 🙂

Flickr: Jefferyw

2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (110° to 115°)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
3 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil and sugar; let stand for 5 minutes. Add the egg, salt and enough flour to form a soft dough.
Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 3-5 minutes. Do not let rise. Divide into 12 pieces; shape each into a ball. Place 3 in. apart on greased baking sheets.
Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Bake at 425° for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Makes 1 dozen.

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Have allergies? Try beans!

Are you suffering from allergies or asthma?

Research from John Hopkins School of Medicine says that beans may be your answer! You could be low in folate and scientists examined the medical records of over 8,000 participants in a natural health and nutrition survey. They found that if you were low in the B vitamin folate you had a 40% more chance of wheezing and 31% more risk for allergies. People lacking folate had higher levels of immunoglobulin E antibodies, which is what your body makes when it detects a foreign invader such as an allergen. The more you create, the more likely you are to have allergies because it creates more histamines that cause allergy symptoms.

How can you get more folate into your diet? Eat some beans! Beans are an awesome source of folate. Eat them in chili, spread them on toast, have some lentil soup, make a bean dip out of pinto beans and hot sauce.

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Turkey Rollup

Alright, so these turkey rollups leave much to be desired from the way that I made them. In reality I had planned to get a bunch of vegetables and make this AMAZING salad and homemade dressing. Unfortunately, when I went to the grocery store all of the fruits and vegetables were literally rotting on the shelves. I was like are you kidding me right now!? I went to another store and the SAME THING! So, sadly I had to abort my idea of awesome delicious, vegetarian healthiness and figure out what else I could make today.

  As you can see, there are no vegetables on there, because there were no vegetables for me to put on it!

This rollup is a tortilla, 2 tablespoons of spicy brown mustard, a handful of cheese and 4 slices of turkey rolled to perfection. It may have tasted better had I grilled it, but it seemed to be lacking… vegetables. It would have been a lot better with a bunch of lettuce and some red and green bell peppers on it. However, it’s a simple lunch that’s way healthier than a fast-food lunch, so I guess it’s a win there!

Dinner: Turkey Sliders and Baked Sweet Potatoes – recipe to come later 🙂

Paleo Red Pepper Bacon Burger

I love bacon and I love burgers! So I decided to make a Paleo burger, which is basically just a burger with no bun. I like slightly spicy foods, so in general I always add a little heat to whatever I’m cooking, because it’s just better that way. 😉

What you will need (Makes 4 servings)

4 slices of thick cut bacon, cooked and set to the side.

**

1lb ground beef
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp oregano
pinch of salt and black pepper
Lettuce, for a “bun”
Spicy mustard for topping

Mix the ingredients from ** and beyond together and form patties. We use a George Foreman grill, because we love it. Seriously, it’s like my favorite piece of equipment in the kitchen. If you don’t have one, you should buy one, but in the meantime you can use a pan on the stove. In the George Foreman grill you place the patties for approximately 8 minutes or until it is no longer pink in the middle, to cook it in a pan cook for 4 minutes on one side and 4 on the other – check the center for pinkness.

When they are fully cooked, you put them onto a nice large piece of lettuce, add a little bit of spicy mustard and the bacon and voila, delicious and paleo friendly 🙂

 

{Meatless Monday} 3 Cheese Toasted Cheese

For the next few days I’m just trying to use whatever we have in the cupboards, so for Meatless Monday, we were debating between two choices, but ultimately decided with cheese, because well, we love cheese.

So what goes in this lovely toasted cheese sandwich?

We used Italian Bread, because that’s what we had on hand, but you can use whatever kind of bread you enjoy.

2 Slices of Bread
2 Slices of Sergento Provolone-Mozzerella Cheese
1 Slice of White American (no yucky cheese dyes for us, please!)
1 tablespoon of A1 Steak Sauce – yes, this is a surprisingly delicious combo, trust me.

Put the cheese and A1 Sauce between the bread and you can either grill it on a panini press (we have this George Foreman grill/panini press combo) or you can heat up a pan and put a little bit of coconut oil in it and grill it on each side for about 2 minutes (or until cheese is melted and toast is browned) on medium heat.

Enjoy!

I’ve lost 3 dress sizes and I’m getting my abs back – ask me how 🙂

 

Veggie Casserole

Super easy lunch or dinner veggie casserole. This recipe comes from my friend Lu 🙂

What you’ll need

A bag of mixed veggies of your choice
A red pepper diced uncooked
5 small potatoes cooked
1/2 an onion diced uncooked
2 cloves of garlic uncooked
4 chopped hard boiled eggs
Sausage or ham diced

Mix everything together and enjoy!

Cherise

I’ve lost 3 dress sizes and I’m starting to get my abs back – ask me how!

Steak for Lunch!

I have these little steaks for lunch on most days, it’s simple, doesn’t require a lot of thought, it’s satisfying and no carbs! I know the picture doesn’t have any vegetables in it, it’s because we ran out of salad and I was so busy doing stuff for my sister’s baby shower that I forgot to buy any more before today’s lunch.

What you’ll need;

Round steaks ($3.98 at Walmart for a pack of 2)

George Foreman grill or pan

Whatever seasonings you like  or a tablespoon of A1 sauce for dipping.

Place the steak on the George Foreman grill and cook for 6 minutes, voila done.

If you are using a pan cook for 4 minutes on one side and 2 minutes on the other.
This creates a medium-done** steak 🙂

**Note: Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish or eggs may increase your risk of foodborne illness.

Mini Roast Beef and Pepper Jack Panini’s

Sometimes I get in the mood for Panera, but in our new location we don’t live anywhere near one, so I’ve had to come up with alternative ways to satisfy my cravings.

I was looking through Panera’s website and came across a roast beef panini and it looked good, but not quite what I was going for, so I just took some inspiration from them and created my own version of something utterly delicious.

I purchased mini-ciabatta rolls from Walmart, along with some roast beef and pepper jack cheese (because I love a little bit of spice!) and put it all together with a little A1 steak sauce on the bun and used my George Foreman grill/panini press combo to create this lovely dish that was a real winner.

Here it is laid out for you 🙂

4 mini ciabatta rolls sliced in half
1 package of thin sliced roast beef
2 slices of pepper jack cheese
2 tablespoons of A1 Steak Sauce
Put as much (or as little) roast beef as you would like, I used 3 slices per roll, then used half a slice of cheese on the bottom of each bun and put A1 sauce on the top of the bun, grill and serve.