This morning I got up at 6am as opposed to my normal 4:30.
I find my mind drifting to anxious thoughts about missed productivity but realistically, I’m more productive when I’m rested. So, sleep wins. I’ll adjust.
My goal is to stay really focused on work (I’m feeling quite behind) until I need to get ready for my workout around 11:30am.
I’m excited to start one of my newest books that just came in the mail – Reinvent Yourself by James Altucher. I haven’t started it yet, but this picture sums it up.
You guys know that one of the big reasons I moved is because I wanted to surround myself with people who work harder and are more motivated than I am – I love his 5×5 rule!
Maybe I’ll get started reading it this weekend. I’ll share my thoughts about it with you guys!
Today’s workout is 17.4 – the 4th workout of the CrossFit open. It’s a doozy but I’m REALLY excited about it after being away from the gym for the week of my fast. Here’s what it looks like.
13 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible of below in 13 minutes)
55 deadlifts (at 155 lbs)
55 wall balls (14 lb wall ball to 9 foot target)
55 cal row
55 handstand push-ups (scaled to regular push ups for me)
All I can say is: damn. That one was killer! My posterior chain will be feeling it tomorrow!
On the food front
I drank coffee all morning – I chose cold brew today – Chameleon brand.
Guys, I’m loving this smoothie! First, let me say that I really don’t like protein powders and I rarely drink them. However, I’m not a purist about anything and I’m happy to have a bit of it every once in a while to mix things up.
Plus, having a smoothie as I ease back into food after the fast seemed like a solid idea.
Here’s the full recipe – it’s not mine – but below is how I modified it to work best for me
1 can full fat coconut milk
3 handfuls raw spinach
2 cups frozen cauliflower florets (frozen matters primary for the temperature – think of it as ice)
Sprinkle of unsweetened cacao nibs (I didn’t use the chocolate chips the recipe calls for)
When I posted this on Instagram the other day, I got lots of questions about how many servings it is.
Here’s the thing about servings: they totally depend on the big picture! You can’t determine an “appropriate” serving size for ANYTHING without understanding how much you’re eating at other meals, your activity level, what’s an improvement for you and activity level.
For me, I wouldn’t drink more than half of this at a time just because it’s so filling. Let’s get real though: for many people and compared to many food choices, this entire recipe would represent a massive improvement.
Let’s agree to look at the big picture instead of trying to define small answers!
I had half of it after my workout around 2pm (first meal of the day) and the rest has gone into the fridge. I’ll drink it tomorrow.
I’m heading out to dinner tonight and I’ve looked at the menu ahead of time to choose my meal.
I’ll be enjoying a spinach salad with avocado, pistachios and grilled chicken. I always opt for dressing on the side and make sure it’s an oil/vinegar based dressing.
I’m scheduling this post to publish before I’ll be home from dinner, but if anything changes, I’ll let you know.
The other night I made myself some soup and as I sat there eating it I thought, “this tastes almost exactly like a rich, creamy potato soup!” But, there was no potato in it.
I don’t know about you, but I LOVE a good rich, creamy soup in the cold weather.
Unfortunately, most of the fat loss friendly soups are far from creamy and filling!
I hate having a bowl of soup and being hungry 7 seconds later.
This soup will not leave you with that problem! It filled me up all night long!
If you want a delish, easy soup that’s as comforting as it is fat loss friendly, you’ve got to give this one a try!
Faux-Potato Soup (Creamy Cauliflower Soup)
1 carrot, peeled & diced
2 tbsp butter
2 celery stalks, diced
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bag frozen cauliflower (I used Trader Joe’s)
1-2 cups bone broth (depending on how thick or thin you want the soup, start with 1 and adjust accordingly. Yes, you can use stock if you don’t have access to broth – PS – did you listen to yesterday’s podcast on bone broth? Don’t miss it!
Salt & pepper to taste
In a skillet, melt butter.
Add garlic, onion, celery & carrot and saute until soft and slightly browned)
Meanwhile, add bone broth and cauliflower to a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 5-10 minutes
Combine cauliflower and veggies in a blender and blend until smooth.
Add more bone broth to blender if you want your soup thinner.
Add salt & pepper to taste
Now I know what you’re thinking…”How many people does it serve?”
I dunno.
I ate more than half of it for dinner.
But guys, I want you to think about it this way: it’s 100% relative.
I didn’t have anything else with it, which is way different than if you’re having it along side a steak and salad, ya know?
How much did you eat during the day?
What are your goals?
How hungry are you?
Are you satisfied after a half cup? Then stop!
Practice listening to your body and evaluating what you eat based on your whole day, not based on one single meal.
What is bone broth?
As the name suggests, bone broth is a broth made from the bones of an animal. Much of the bone broth you’ll find in a grocery store is from cows but you can also make or buy it from chickens or fish. I prefer mine from chickens.
Why is it good for you?
In addition to being incredibly rich in vitamins & minerals, bone broth is an exceptional source of collagen. Collagen is a protein found in the connective tissue of animals (and humans) which provides a wide variety of benefits from skin health to joint health & more.
It’s important to remember that there are different types of collagen and the different types have different roles. Also, the animals I mentioned – cows, chickens & fish – tend to predominantly provide a certain type of collagen.
Collagen found in broth from cows’ bones is primarily types 1 & 3 which are best for the health & strength of your skin & nails.
Collagen found in broth from chickens is rich in type 2 collagen and provides amazing benefits for joints & gut health.
Super cool factoid about collagen from fish: it appears to increase our own collagen production! Pretty cool, right?
How do you make it?
You guys know I’m a pretty simple person. I like simple, no-fuss recipes.
I buy the highest quality chicken I can find (this really matters when boiling bones) and I throw the feet & backbone section in a crockpot, submerge it with water, add onions, carrots, salt & apple cider vinegar and let it slow cook for 24 hours. There are absolutely more complex recipes but I’m a simple girl.
A word on “high quality chicken” – I buy organic, free range chicken from a local farmers’ market where the chickens not treated with hormones or antibiotics.
You can also buy bone broth. Please know, however, that much of the commercially produced bone broth contains MSG and I’d recommend you stay away from that. Buy bone broth without MSG or make your own.
(For anyone who is local to Winston Salem, North Carolina, definitely check out Caldero Bone Broth. Her chickens are happy, healthy & her bone broth is outstanding.
Are there health concerns?
Yes. We’re boiling bones. This is why I emphasize buying very high quality chicken/beef/fish if you’re making your own. Bones, including human bones, naturally contain both minerals & heavy metals. Though you’re not eating the bones, many of the nutrients are extracted while they simmer. You want to make sure that you’re using bones from grass fed animals who have not been treated with hormones, antibiotics or given feed that has been sprayed with pesticides & herbicides. When in doubt, buy your bone broth. Keep in mind, however, that you can purchase low quality bone broth just like you can make low quality bone broth. The same animal standards apply to products you purchase and you’ll want to stay away from MSG.
5 Reasons to Drink Bone Broth
It is fantastic for your immune system.
I mentioned that bone broth is rich in collagen. One of the amino acids that makes up collagen is known as proline. Proline is essential for tissue repair. When you give your body the tools it needs, like proline, for a strong immune system, you will recover more quickly & completely than if you rob your body of these critical tools.
It supports gut health.
One of the primary components of gut health is the strength & integrity of the lining of your gut. When we eat diets rich in processed foods, that gut lining begins to break down. The breakdown triggers inflammation, gastrointestinal issues and pain. The collagen within bone broth helps to protect & repair the lining of your gut.
It will make you more beautiful.
I’m talking primarily about skin & nails here. Of course collagen is a major component of our skin (and the source of many cosmetic procedures). Collagen helps with fine lines, wrinkles & even cellulite.
It can increase your own body’s production of collagen.
When we don’t give our body the nutrients it needs, our own production of collagen can slow. This may lead to premature aging, skin wrinkling, joint pain and inflammation. Fish collagen has been shown to increase endogenous production of collagen in humans!
It can reduce joint pain.
Collagen is concentrated in our joints. When collagen breaks down, we see more joint pain and inflammation. Increasing your consumption of collagen and increasing your body’s production of collagen can make a major difference in joint pain and inflammation.
Of course it goes without saying that this isn’t a miracle food. There are tons of foods with health benefits & that doesn’t mean you should eat them if you don’t love them. Telling yourself that you MUST choke something down because it’s good for you is a fast track to giving up. You’ve got to eat foods you love that love you back. That means:
Eat foods you look forward to eating & totally enjoy
Eat foods that make you feel great both while you’re eating it & afterwards (no guilt or regret)
Eat foods that give you energy and satiety without any kind of stomach upset or bloating
If this fits the bill, awesome! If not, not a big deal.
For those of you who are ready to make your own, I fashion my “recipe” after Dr. Axe. His recipe is super simple and he taught me the Apple Cider Vinegar trick: adding a little ACV helps to draw the nutrients from the bones!
Chicken necks, feet and backbone
4 tbsp ACV
1 onion
Carrots
Place everything in your crockpot & cover with water. Cook on low for 24 hours then discard the bones. I sip on a cup or two cups per day.
Interested in the Fat Loss Fast Track? The fall group is currently closed but you can get on the wait list for our first group of 2017!
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Holidays don’t have to mean overindulging and feeling stuffed-to-discomfort. They also don’t have to mean missing out on delicious food!
I want you to enjoy every single bite but still feel really great after the meals are over!
While there’s nothing wrong with enjoying time-tested family recipes, there’s also nothing wrong with finding healthier alternatives that make you feel better physically!
I want you to create that sweet spot where you love the food AND feel great about it!
No matter what you choose to eat, fat loss friendly or not, remember that food isn’t all that enjoyable when you eat too much of it! Stay within the lines of what is going to help you feel your very best!
With all that in mind, I’ve put together a Primal Potential recipe roundup of a few fat loss friendly paleo and primal Thanksgiving recipes! There’s no reason to not love and enjoy every bite of food you eat this Thanksgiving!
What are you eating for Thanksgiving? Cranberry bread is a big staple in my family but honestly, it’s not worth it to me anymore. I feel better, physically & emotionally, when I stick to meat & veggies. If I stumble upon homemade red velvet cake, I’ll absolutely have a few bites, but I won’t go past the point of feeling good about it both while I eat and after.
I’ve talked a lot about FOMO (fear of missing out) on the podcast – you can listen to an episode all about it here – but it keeps coming up again and again. So, I’ll keep talking about it, again and again.
I’m just gonna shoot straight, as if you were right here next to me on a bar stool sitting at the counter. I’m sipping my cold brew with a glass straw because that’s how I roll and you’re having a hard time making food choices that are aligned with your goals because you feel like you’re missing out on “everything” (warning: you just might be manufacturing a teeny bit of drama with that perspective, but I’ll totally let it slide).
So first of all – c’mon – stop focusing on everything you feel like you “can’t have”. Obviously you can have whatever you want, but that’s not the point here.
What DO you want? What IS important to you? What matters most? I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest it’s not cookies and wine but maybe confidence, freedom from food obsession and to look and feel amazing.
Do you realize how dramatically your life and happiness would change if you focused on THAT more than on everything you feel you’re missing?
Do you realize that when you say “yes” to all those things you don’t want to miss out on, you’re choosing to miss out on what you just told me you actually want?
How ’bout some FOMO in THATdirection?
Change your mind an inch and you’ll change your world a mile.
The second thing I’d ask you is, “Are you eating foods you love or are you forcing yourself to eat healthy foods and thinking about all the things you’d rather have?”
I’m gonna keep it real because I’ve been where you’re at – if you aren’t taking the time to identify and prioritize foods you love that are also aligned with your goals, you won’t be able to sustain your approach.
Sure, you might be able to white-knuckle your way to fat loss choking down dry chicken breasts and boat loads of broccoli but you won’t maintain your results.
If you aren’t eating foods you love that love you back, you’re going to struggle. You’ll probably be on-again-off-again and you won’t be very happy. But I think you know that already. The question is, are you ready to do something about it?
Are you ready to change your perspective on FOMO? Are you ready to embrace foods you love that love you back and invest the time in understanding what that means for YOU?
Before you get all tripped out in your head – this does NOT mean you need to buy expensive foods and spend hours prepping and cooking. I certainly don’t! Let me give you an example of a fat loss friendly meal I enjoyed the heck out of (so much so it actually felt like an indulgence and I cannot wait to enjoy the leftovers today!)
Spaghetti Squash Primavera with Basil Cashew Pesto
Ready for this one? Spaghetti squash primavera with cashew basil pesto & merguez sausage!
It sounds fancy but it’s not. I’ll prove it to you!
Let’s talk about the pesto. First, I made it myself. Second, it took about 5 minutes. I’ve been using it as a salad dressing, mixed into veggies like with this squash and I might be flat out eating it off the spoon when I want a snack.
Here’s what you’ll need for the basil cashew pesto:
fresh basil
unsalted cashews
garlic cloves
extra virgin olive oil
salt
Now, when I cook, I cook for 1 but I also cook to have leftovers (so I don’t cook as often). I’m going to give you ratios for this recipe so you can scale it according to how much you make.
2 parts loosely packed fresh basil leaves
1 part extra virgin olive oil
1 part cashews
garlic
salt
Here’s how I made it
2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup cashews
2 raw garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
I tossed all that in my Vitamix blender and then into the fridge. I actually made this a couple days before this spaghetti squash primavera and decided at the last minute that it would add tons of flavor! More on the pesto in a minute.
Spaghetti squash is super easy. I’m not a gourmet cook or a recipe writer but, like I said, we’re just chatting in my kitchen so I’ll happily tell you what I did.
I cut the squash in half length-wise and scrape out the seeds with a spoon then drizzled the inside of the squash with olive oil. After lining a baking sheet with foil (fewer dishes to wash!), I put the squash face down on the foil.
I popped mine in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes. If you want your squash more tender, you can cook it longer, but you should probably google it because if you cook a small squash for 25 minutes, it might be mushy. Mine was a big guy and I always kind of wing it. Basically, I take it out when I’m tired of waiting. (I told you! I’m not a cook!)
While the squash was cooking, I had 2 skillets on the stove. In one, I was cooking 1 link of merguez sausage I’d picked up from the farmers’ market. You could use absolutely any protein. Ground beef, grilled chicken, chicken thighs, chicken sausage – whatever your hungry heart desires! Heck, got leftovers? Use that and skip a step!
In the other skillet, I warmed some olive oil before adding 2 chopped cloves of garlic and a sliced sweet onion. I let them cook down, stirring occasionally while the squash and sausage cooked. (I was not tending to this stuff, I was going back & forth into the living room paying far more attention to Netflix than to this low-maintenance dinner prep).
(Yes, clearly this a high-garlic meal. Don’t like garlic? Skip it! Recipes are suggestions, my friends. Just suggestions.)
Once the squash was done, I grabbed a potholder and a fork to scrape it right into my bowl. Yup, I ate one half of the squash all by myself! All the veggies, please! I added about 1 tbsp of the basil cashew pesto to the squash and stirred it all up, the heat from the squash melting the pesto a bit, as it had solidified a bit in the fridge.
I topped the bowl with half of the onion/garlic mixture, then about 6 sliced (raw) cherry tomatoes, the sausage and sprinkled the whole thing with a few garlic chips I had recently bought at a gourmet market (it’s just toasted garlic slices).
It was amazing. I have the other half in the fridge for today, all I have to do is slice up a couple tomatoes and cook another sausage link!
I didn’t feel deprived, I didn’t feel stuffed, every single bite felt like an indulgence.
Did I want dark chocolate afterwards? Yup, I did. I thought about it and asked myself, “just for today, can I pass on that?” Yup, I can.
I asked myself, “When you’re in bed tonight, would you be more glad that you enjoyed the chocolate or more glad that you passed on it?”
I’d be more glad if I passed on it.
Well, I’m in the business of feeling good, making myself proud and eating foods I love that love me back so the chocolate choice was a no brainer!
Here’s to finding foods you love that love you back!
