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Seven ways to clean up your diet

There are numerous things that you can do to clean up your diet. Little changes can have big effects! Read on and find out a few helpful hints to help you in your quest to become fitter and healthier.

Ground Turkey is a great alternative to ground beef. But, be careful! Some versions of ground turkey have more fat per serving than ground beef. Just because it states 85% lean; it can still have up to 19 grams of fat per serving. So, if you choose ground beef or ground turkey; check the label.

Cottage cheese is a great way to incorporate dairy into your diet. I love to add blueberries and strawberries to cottage cheese. It seems like a cheat meal but, it is not! I also use low fat cottage cheese in my protein pancake recipes. It mixes up great with fruit, protein powder, oats, and truvia. Like other dairy products I use the low fat version of cottage cheese. There is a non-fat variety. The fat taken away is usually replaced by sugar. Extra sugar is converted to extra fat. Always check the labels.

Natural organic chicken is the way to go. Most chicken is pumped up with a saline solution to make it look fuller so, you the consumer wants to buy it. Check the chicken’s label for the levels of sodium. Frozen chicken has typically 270 milligrams of sodium. Fresh chicken has 292 milligrams of sodium per serving. Organic chicken has 45 milligrams of sodium per serving. When possible buy natural organic chicken.

I love Peanut Butter. Be wary of the low or reduced-fat variety. Remember when fat is taken away in a product it is generally replaced with sugar. Sugar turns to fat. Look at the label. Try to buy peanut butter whose ingredients are peanuts and salt. The is a natural peanut butter and better for you.

Low Fat yogurt tastes great. But unfortunately, it can have up to 17 grams of sugar per serving. Try replacing low fat yogurt with low fat greek vanilla yogurt. Greek yogurt boosts double the protein, less sugar, and less sodium per serving than yogurt. One of my favorite recipes for greek yogurt is: 1 cup greek plain (vanilla) yogurt, 1 pack truvia (or stevia), 1 scoop of your favorite protein powder (mine is BSN vanilla), and Stir! YUM YUM.

Okay. Let’s get this straight. Bread is not the enemy! “Enriched white flour” or “Refined” is the enemy we are looking for!! Try Ezekiel Bread. I like the whole grain variety and the raisin loaf. I keep them in my freezer. When it is time to eat I just toast them in the oven. The Whole Grain Variety is perfect for turkey sandwiches. The Raisin Bread is perfect for breakfast. Just toast and add a dab of peanut butter and no sugar jam.

Protein shakes are a great way to get a tasty meal in. I usually drink two a day (10 am and 4pm). There are numerous concoctions you can create with them. My favorite line of protein powder is BSN Lean Dessert proteins or Syntha Six. Check out my web site for some of my favorite shake recipes. Feel free to add to delete ingredients to create your favorite ones.

This is a super easy article. It also demonstrates that it is super easy to make small changes to your nutritional plan. These small changes will have a big impact on your health and fitness levels. One step at a time in the right direction is all you need to improve your life. Rome was not built in a day but, it was built.

Cheers.


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Persistence over perfection Always.

Small decisions that you make on a daily basis are important factors that will determine your destiny.

Imagine this scenario: You wake up late for work. No time for exercise this morning. If you skip just one morning this will not hurt your fitness goals. It is just one morning! Come on.

There is also no time to eat breakfast. You rush out of the door. Hurry get the kids to school a little late. You are only 6 minutes late for work. There is a big deadline today! You type away at your keyboard all morning to get the reports in by 1:00 PM. No time for lunch; Just a Honeybun at your desk. You make the deadline by the skin of your teeth! A smoke break would sure take the edge off of your stress. Just one won’t hurt. Five o’clock can not get here fast enough!

The rest of the afternoon involves house keeping tasks for your office; answering emails, returning calls, and working on expense reports. Oh no, at 4:00 you realize that you do not have any food at home to cook for dinner. Looks like it is drive through tonight! But, you were trying to cut back on spending on unnecessary items. Oh well, one time can’t hurt. The kids are cranky when you pick them up. Homework time is stressful! Why do they need homework any way! It is only 6:30! Two more hours until everyone goes to bed. A glass or two of wine will help ease the rest of stress off of the evening. By the time it is time for bed, the kitchen is cleaned, homework is finished, everyone is sleeping; you are frazzled. Ambien take me away. Now, I know that this is a little exaggerated. We all can relate to some elements of this profile of a harried day.

Blame it on the Bad Luck Fairy! But, I can point out five or six times in this scenario where this mom could set herself up for success. Pay attention to the little things. Bad decisions are bad decisions. If your smoke everyday, you are a smoker. If you take drugs on a daily basis to function; you need drugs to function. If you overeat everyday because of your emotions, you will become over weight. If this women repeats this schedule everyday for a month she will have developed some pretty bad habits.

With all that you did today, you did not leave time to accomplish some of your long term goals. Goals which include: a healthy eating plan, fitness regime, quality time with your children, studying for the GRE, going out to lunch with friends, planning that birthday party for your second child.

Our thoughts are our reality. We sow our own thoughts. Have good ones. The happiness and peace you seek are inside of you. Listen to what your mind tells you. Your inner voice is yearning to be heard.

Have postitive affirmations that you keep on index cards. Memorize powerful statements that you can use to turn negative thinking around. The world will feed us junk if you let it. We have to feed ourselves nurturing thoughts. Here are some of my favorite affirmations:

“Dream big and will it to happen.”
-Brian Souza

You are an eagle born to soar.

Motion equals emotion. So, start moving.

Stay strong and keep dreaming.


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Spring Cleaning Time with Myself!

Food is the most accessible commodity in our households. It is around us for special events like birthdays, baptisms, communions, graduations, ALWAYS. I think you get the picture.
It is easy to develop emotional attachments and feelings with certain foods. I will always think of pulling taffy on cold mornings with my Gammy. My mommom June used to fix frozen bags of bean soup for me when I went to college. Growing up my mom made the best homemade cinnamon toast. My fifth grade teacher would beg me to make my oatmeal cookies for her. These things will forever be embedded into my pschye.
It is fine to associate loving memories with food but, somewhere along the way I got something more into this relationship like self-worth. I think it happened for me in my early teens. I developed much quicker than others. I longed to stay thin and lean like the rest of the girls my age. Other things were rooted in these changes. I was extremely introverted and self-conscious. Food was a hobby that I could participate in at home by myself. Besides, those homemade fries were sooo delicious. I used food to self-medicate. I felt good while eating. I liked the texture of food in my mouth. I liked the physical process of preparing it, eating it, and enjoying the feeling of being full. Food was something that didn’t judge me, made me feel good, and was always there. I was in love with eating. Then came the after effects. The extra pounds during these formative years is not a great option for a teenager. I began to hate myself for eating certain foods. I started being restrictive with my diet. Binges are an inevitable result of being restrictive. After bingeing started then came the binge and purge cycle. Within a year and a half I had a full blown eating disorder. I did not stop. I started exercising compulsively too. High School track, weights in the morning, additional running in the afternoons soon became a part of my everyday routine. I started to get depressed after doing this for two years. When I was a senior in high school I did not want to get out of bed. I did not understand why I felt this way. I was tired and could not continue this cycle for much longer.
My parents got me the help I needed. I went to an inpatient treatment facility for thirty days followed by three years of therapy. The binge and purge cycle stopped. My love of food has never stopped. I am an extremely active person to this day. I love weight lifting as much as I do food. But, maintaining a healthy relationship with food will always be a part of my life.
I am determined to be a shining example of health and self-respect to my children. I will stop the emotional binding behaviors that have plagued generations of women in my family. I will treat food as an ally in my quest of health. Food will be an agent to live optimally not a crutch to fall back on when I am feeling low.
My goal is to help women not settle for being a middle-aged, average, mini-van driving, overlooked and underappreciated person that society portrays us as. I do not believe women should be the last person on our to do list. I believe that women, espcecially mothers can be glorious and sexy, and still have a family and career. I challenge all women to eat optimally, exercise generously, and live life according to their standards not the standards of the past.

I am woman hear me ROAR!

If this definition of emotional eating rings a bell for you please seek the help of someone you can trust or a professional. No one deserves to go through this alone.

Emotional eating: Emotional eating is the practice of consuming large quantities of food — usually “comfort” or junk foods — in response to feelings instead of hunger. Experts estimate that 75% of overeating is caused by emotions.

Remember you are the change you seek. Everything you need to accomplish your goals are in YOU!

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You are the change you seek!

For help with emotional overeating, exercise plans, or diet plans you can contact me at themonicadborel@gmail.com. Put Ezine Article in the subject line please!!

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