Monday, July 15, 2013

~paleo friendly mini blueberry muffins~

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a mixer, blend: 3/4 cup egg beaters 3 T. honey 2 T. coconut oil, melted 2 T. coconut milk 1/4 t. salt 1/4 t. vanilla In a separate bowl mix the following: 1/4 t. baking powder 1/2 cup coconut flour Add the dry mix to the liquid mixture, and blend. Add 1/2 cup fresh blueberries. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. This is a small recipe. Mine made 8 mini muffins at 103 calories each. Melaine

Thursday, July 11, 2013

~instagram questions answered~

Wow! You guys really blew me away with all your kind comments and "likes" It's always a little intimidating putting your photo out there for all to see. What a wonderful group of followers/friends I have! I wanted to take a minute {or 60} to try and answer all your questions. First I want to say, I am no expert. This is just what I have been doing, and what has worked for me. We are all different and I know you will have to tweak things according to your likes, dislikes, and lifestyle. So, let's start with the before. And, of course I am having trouble loading the photo! Darn! Well, the before was actually 5 months into my routine. However, it wasn"t until the beginning of June that I decided to change my eating habits. I kept reading all this stuff about how "abs are made in the kitchen" etc. and thought I'd give it a try. I stopped reaching for the ice cream {even if it was within my calorie budget for that day} and started making fresh fruit and veggie juices and loading up on veggies and hummus. I have also slowly transitioned from reg. nonfat milk to almond and soy milk, in my lattes. However, with anything, I don't think you should do something that you can't can't reasonably continue for the rest of your life. It's not realistic for me, at least at this time, to give up my mexican coffee creamer, or my midnight scoops of nutella right out of the jar. :) Do everything in moderation. I drink a ton of water, gave up sodas and anything carbonated, and in June I started taking advocare. Reason being this. I had heard great things about it and my body was kinda "stuck" I was doing the same thing, going to the gym, and eating healthy, but wanted that little extra nudge in the right direction. I posted a link where you can buy it. Look on the top right side of this page. I don't know if the results I am getting are just from eating cleaner, or are a combination of that and the advocare, but I like what I see, so I will continue to take it! Her is a list of what I am taking: Every morning with breakfast I take a multi vitamin and a fish oil pill {not advocare} Throughout the day I take: carb ease plus thermo plus catalyst and fibo-trim I also like the pink lemonade Spark drink, but gave it up to save $. Ok, onto answering questions! I will try to do my best to answer them all! karigrousepointfarms: Help, I need your regimen stat, no gym workouts though. ANSWER: You don't need a gym, really. Half the time I work out, I just run. I also am a firm believer in push ups. You can do jumping jacks, you can run up and down the stairs, anything to get your heart pumping! jensmith70: I am right where you are 5 lbs ago sister. I need an example of a daily menu. ANSWER: It changes daily, but I usually burn right around 300-400 calories working out, so I try to eat around 1600 calories a day. If I don't work out, I'll eat around 1200. Daily menu, well, I'll give you what I ate yesterday: Breakfast: coffee and creamer {something I won't give up just yet!} strawberries and blueberries and greek yogurt and water. Taken with carb ease, daily vitamin, and fish oil. Snack: pure protein bar and water with fibo trim pill. Lunch: protein spinach salad {yesterdays post} water, and taken with thermo plus. snack: fresh fruit and veggie juice, made in my juicer, and coconut almonds. water, water, water. 1 oreo stolen from son. Dinner on the go: 2 pieces cinnamon raison Ezekiel toast with can't believe it's not butter spray. 1 tall vanilla soy latte {decaf} from Starbucks. 8 pm soccer game with 3 bottles water. come home and scrape the sides of a nutella jar and have a decaf coffee with more of my yummy creamer. Jodiannlor: pls share more on clean eating. ANSWER: I don't know much. Just trying to eat fresh, fresh, fresh. Nothing processed and I am trying to stay away from packaged foods. However, I do love my protein bars. Torigilliam: pls. do a post on clean eating/workout tips. ANSWER: clean eating tips~see above question. Workout tips: I'd say just try and do a little each day and gradually increase time. And, lift those weights! You will see a huge difference in how your body looks! Amyvermillioninteriors wrote: I so agree with the possibilities. I've seen incredible results without even exercising! ANSWER/COMMENT: So true! I wish I would have known this sooner! lovelylittleparties: wow. 7 days a week? ANSWER: Yes. Not that I will beat myself up if I don't work out, but I like to eat, therefore I work out. I do take days off though. There are days when I am sore, or just too busy. You can't get mad at yourself if you miss a day. Thechroniclesofhome: whoa. A month?! ANSWER: YES! :) kcsnead: love it!!! What's your new blog? ANSWER: you found it :) annmarie19804: where do you get your clean eating ideas/recipes from? ANSWER: I have a blog list on the right side of this page. I also follow a lot of clean eating people on instagram. They post a lot of recipes etc. Plus, I like to just make stuff up in the kitchen. I love to cook! lucki19: what program are you on? ANSWER: no program, don't think I could stick to one. sanctifiedpearl: do you mind me asking how often you are at the gym and how often you do at home workouts? ANSWER: Not at all. I don't really have a set schedule. If I get up and feel like running, I'll do that. If it's raining and crappy, I'll go to the gym. I also play soccer, so that counts for one day of exercising. I'd say I'd average 4 days at home and 3 at the gym. Hope that helps! ciaomarezy: any suggestions for food and exercises to get started? ANSWER: start slow. Do what you can and increase over time. When I started I would get winded running down to get my mail. Since then I have ran a half marathon. Baby steps, don't think things will change overnight. It takes time, but time passes by anyway, so might as well make the most of it. With food, same thing. Don't go overboard on eating all clean at first because chances are, you won't be able to keep up with it. Gradually add in fresh fruits and veggies. I used to HATE veggies, now I crave them! Ok, I hope I answered all your questions! Any more, leave them in the comments section here and I will reply there as well! Thanks again for all your kind comments! Melaine

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

~protein packed summer salad~


This was a delicious salad I made for lunch, so I thought I'd share it with you. It's packed with protein and is very filling.
Mix 1 can tunafish with 2 teaspoons of mustard and 1 tablespoon olive oil based mayonnaise. Place on top of 1 cup mixed greens. I got mine at Trader Joes, mix of lettuce, kale, etc. Squeeze on a little fresh lime juice and top with dressing of your choice. I used reduced fat cilantro dressing from Trader Joes which was delis! Melaine

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Track Your Progress!!

Eventually, I'm sure, Melaine is going to post her progress and results we have been tracking all along the way through her journey.  Nothing is more discouraging than working so hard, only to be disappointed because we don't feel like we are making any progress, but not having any good solid information or data to direct us one way or another.  Well - my take on this is... if we don't track what we are doing as well as tracking what the results are, of what we are doing, then how can we ever know how to course correct??  So - how does Melaine track her progress?  On one of these....

The InBody 230 is a body composition analyzer.  This is what it looks like!  I'm going to try to answer several questions in this post like...

1.  How does it measure your composition?
2.  How accurate is it?
3.  Who can be assessed and who can't?

 

Answers:
1.  How does the InBody measure your composition?  The InBody uses BIA (bioelectrical Impedance Analysis) to analyze your body composition.  If you are accustomed to using calipers to track your composition or any other tool - just remember that you can't compare this method with anything else.  You'd be comparing apples to bananas - because BIA is a technique that measures body impedance by sending an electrical current through the body.  NO - you do not feel the electrical current at all, it is very low and very safe.  The current only passes through the water fluids inside the body, and based on the impedance values collected, the body water volume is calculated.  Since water fluids are usually inside muscle tissues, by using the water volume, the fat-free mass can be calculated.  Body fat calipers measure skinfolds to calculate how much subcutaneous fat(fat under the skin) a person has.  So,  a couple of advantages here by using the InBody - it's highly accurate and not subject to human error (me pinching in different places) AND you don't have to put up with getting pinched which is a pain especially if I haven't filed my nails - and plus, let's face it - it really puts us in a vulnerable spot.  Who likes to take their shirt off and let someone pinch their fat?  However - the volume of body water fluctuates (I know this is common knowledge here) to sustain homeostasis in the body - which in turn, will affect each measurement.  So - with this in mind, we need to be as consistent as possible by following some standard preset guidelines under the same conditions.

2.  How accurate is this?  The InBody uses 8-point tactile electrodes - that easily contact the body at 2 points in each hand and foot.  All other BIA devices use 4-point tactile electrodes.  The 8 point method, divides the body into 5 regions (left and right arm, trunk, left and right leg) with minimal error rate, enhancing measurement reproducibility.  The common method using 4 electrodes, divides the body into only 2 regions (the upper and lower body) which gives over-generalized inaccurate results.  The 8-point tactile electrode method measures the 5 segments of the body directly, giving pinpoint measurement of each section.  This method minimizes the error and detects the body water content and the level of muscle development in each segment.
In addition to this 8-point tactile method, InBody also uses a multi-frequency analysis.  Other BIA devices use a single frequency and estimates the amount of intracellular water from the extracellular impedance values.  A single, low-frequency current hardly travels through the intracellular water resulting in inaccurate measurements.  The proportion of intra and extracellular water is consistent in a healthy body; however, in children, elderly people and obese people their amounts may be imbalanced.  Generally, extracellular water is measured by low frequency currents and intracellular water is measured by high frequency currents and it is important to know both.  InBody uses a multi-frequency analysis - accurately assessing both intracellular and extracellular water.
Add the 8-point tactile electrodes and the multi-frequency analysis capabilities to the fact that it measures 5 separate segments separately to measure the amount of body water and fat-free mass in each segment - makes for highly accurate results because each measured part isn't affecting the measurements of the other parts.  So it's not an estimation - but rather a direct measurement.

3.  Who can use this and who can't?  It is safe and accurate for kids, elderly and anyone up to 500 lbs.  It is NOT good for anyone with implanted defibrillators or pacemakers.  Although the electrical current that is sent through the body is extremely low, it is not recommended.  They also discourage anyone that is pregnant to use impedance - 

Anyone want to see Melaine's Inbody progress reports??

Shine on!  
Carrie