!I’ll tell you a little secret...
I don’t like to cook. I don’t get fancy when I do cook. I prefer to keep things simple and of course quick. When I find myself in between hangry and eating everything in the cupboard, I can always rely on this quick and simple meal. It literally takes two minutes. Quinoa/rice blend 90 seconds in microwave (I’ll usually use just 1/2 cup when it’s ready). Grab your spring mix tuna or salmon packet feta cheese strawberries balsamic vinaigrette Can also add avocado Mix it all together and boom you’ve got your quick meal with the good fats, carbs and protein!
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![]() I wanted to check in with you and see how you’re doing with cleaning up your nutrition. What are your successes? What are you struggling with? Do you feel you’re on the right path of achieving the HEALTH that you want? What I wanted to share today is how certain foods make you FEEL. So Wednesday night, Joey brought us home Frontier burritos. Mmmmm! Now, here’s where KNOWING what you shouldn’t eat because you know how it’ll make you FEEL comes in. I know I HAVE to stay away from wheat. But I ate it anyway. C’mon it’s a Frontier breakfast burrito. Who doesn’t turn that down? Yeah, I know better. So Thursday morning at Emma’s 2:30am feeding, I woke up feeling HUNGOVER! Extremely weighted down, foggy headed, joints hurting and just feeling like I could sleep another 30 hours. It set the start of my day rather slow and groggy. And of course, I knew that this would probably happen with what I ate. And it did. It was about 3:30pm before I started to “wake up.” Other than that, I have to say I am feeling so much better. It’s been just over 6 weeks since my panic attack, blood work, etc and for the first 4 weeks I focused solely on nutrition. Two weeks ago I slowly started working out again and I’ve been able to keep up with my workouts 3 times per week. I’ve been able to get to the yard which really makes my heart sing. Even just pulling weeds really soothes my soul! It’s the simple things for me and I’m super excited to keep this up! The main message here is to really track and see how certain foods make you FEEL. Do you feel bloated, exhausted, get headaches, achy joints…? Your awesome body does a great job of letting you know more than “that food doesn’t agree with me.” We just gotta listen :) Are you eating packaged foods, processed foods, and take-out on a regular basis? Continue to track and also be mindful of how you feel after each meal. ![]() As we approach a new week let's take a look at last week. How was your tracking? Were you able to keep up with it? If not, what did you struggle with the most? Let's assume we all did our tracking 100%. Take a look at last week and see how many meals (snacks and grazing included) were NOT on point and put a X on it. How many X's do you have for the week? For example: I would put an X on my cocoa puff snack with Sophie. I would also put an on X on Wednesday night as we had pizza. Another X for Thursday night left overs. And then another X for last night for my small scoop of ice cream, bite of chocolate cake and about 7 sips of JW Dundee Honey Brown beer. 😋 That gives me 4 X's for the week. Now reflecting back to one of the first emails about mastering the basics, I had mentioned staying on track 90% of the time. This leaves about 10% to be able to have a little bit of something a few times a week. As I look back at my week, for as often as I eat (5x's/day) I should probably only have about 3 X's on my tracking. 4 would probably be OK but pushing it to stay in that 90% range. If I were to grade myself I honestly would say I was about 85-90% on point for the week. Here's another thing to look out for though. You've got to give yourself an X for meals MISSED as well. If you're not eating breakfast, X. If you skipped lunch, X. Think of the more you eat healthy foods you eat, the more X's are allowed (within reason of course). So in my tracking, Friday wasn't a great start to my day as I didn't have my usual breakfast. I still had a fig bar and string cheese but it wasn't "the best." How can you improve for next week? Look at where your X's are and why did that happen? Birthday party? Ok I don't have to worry about that for awhile. Friday skimpy breakfast? Ok I'll make sure I'll prep the night before so I'm not grabbing whatever is in the cupboard. That should dial me back into no more than 3 X's. Is this good stuff? Let me know if it's helping. Also, a question was brought up about shakes. Do I? Should I? What kind? When? Shakes can be a wonderful thing to incorporate in your daily nutrition, especially if you find yourself skipping meals and not eating enough. I will do about 2 shakes per day. It's quick, it's easy and I know I'm not skipping a meal. I will often have my first shake in the morning while I'm working. I'll have my second shake either as a post workout recovery shake OR for dinner if we get home late. I've been using shakes for the last 15 years and have tried just about every kind. When choosing a brand make sure it aligns with your nutritional preferences. Do you need no dairy, lactose, whey, artificial sweeteners, etc? For the last year or more I've been using Orgain. I pick it up at Costco and it's an all organic planet based protein with servings of greens. No soy, lactose, whey, wheat, or artificial sweeteners. I always get the chocolate flavored and add 1/2 banana and 1 heaping tablespoon of peanut butter or almond butter. Vega is another great brand with 2 servings of greens (powdered broccoli, kale, spinach). Ideally, work on getting all of your nutrients from food. But if you are having a hard time getting that food in consistently and you do decide to use shakes as part of your daily nutrition, look for quality ingredients. A good rule of thumb, if you can't pronounce it, don't consume it! So by now, hopefully you’re developing some good consistent habits with your tracking and allowing yourself to have a little bit of wiggle room to enjoy the foods and drinks you want. We shouldn’t have to deprive ourselves with the foods we love but learning HOW and WHEN to have them are extremely important to achieving the RESULTS you want.
The next step in this is eating until you’re 80% full. Well what does that mean? 80% full? How do I know when I’m 80% full? We live in a society where everything is rushed. We’re rushing to go somewhere, picking up the kids, making dinner, etc. Food is no exception. Generally, people are pressed for time and find themselves scarfing down their lunch or dinner just to get to the next task. We need to find a way to STOP that. You may have heard that it takes about 15-20 minutes for your brain to catch up with your stomach on satiety and it’s true. Taking the time to enjoy, savor and SLOW DOWN your meal will give your brain a chance to catch up to your stomach and avoid overeating. This is your 80% fullness. Not feeling stuffed, not feeling starved, but satisfied. This is a PRACTICE so be please be patient with it. Here are some tips with portion sizing to help with your 80% full practice:
![]() So this week while you're tracking your nutrition, you may be asking "what is the ONE THING I need to do to get results?" There is always that ONE THING that people are looking for to take them to the next level. To provide all of the solutions to their problems. To get them into the clothes they desire. To feel better. To move better. To perform better. Far to often I see people trying a bunch of things and not giving it enough time to make an impact. "oh yeah, I tried that for about a week and I didn't see any results." "I went to the gym twice and I didn't see any results." "I tried that program twice and didn't see any benefit." "I signed up for that 12 week program but only went a handful of times." The truth about success is simple and as stated by Darren Hardy, author of The Compound Effect, "there are not 5,000 things one needs to do well to be successful. There are about a half-dozen things that need to be done well, just done 5,000 times over to be successful." So for example, if we were to pick out a half-dozen things that need to be done well: 1. Continue tracking nutrition, exercise and in some cases sleep 2. Following your nutrition program 90% of the time throughout the week. 3. Eating until you're 80% full 4. Drinking half your body weight in ounces of water per day (200 pounds = 100 ounces of water) 5. Having a protein, veggie or fruit with every meal 6. Including healthy fats in your daily intake Seems pretty basic and it really is. We really want to be able to master the basics therefore, if I were to suggest ONE THING it would be CONSISTENCY. Consistency with the basics. Master the basics. Doing the basics 5,000 times over to be successful. Instead of doing 5,000 things once or twice. This is something that has taken me a long time to put into action for a different area in my life. Once my mindset shifted, it has simplified the way I do things and also less stress! ______________________________________________________________ My food for today so far: One chicken sausage (no nitrates) with one zucchini and 1/2 avocado Protein shake (organic plant based protein, 1/2 banana, 1 tbsp peanut butter) Spinach and kale salad with salmon, feta and balsamic One small bowl of cereal (cocoa puffs) Dinner will probably be sweet potato and salmon The cocoa puff story- As long as I know the rest of my day has been doing well, I can trust myself enough to have a something in small amounts. In this case, Sophie wanted to spend time together eating cereal. We enjoyed a small bowl and that was that. No guilt for what I ate and I enjoyed our time together. If circumstances were different, (training for a show, getting blood sugars down, leaning down for a specific dress size, etc) then this probably wouldn't apply. _________________________________________________________ Let me know how you're doing and share your tracking! ![]() So how did you do last week in terms of nutrition? What did you struggle with? Was it planning? Eating out too much? Not eating enough? Did you track your foods (right down what you ate, drank, etc)? If not, totally OK, but I want you to really think about what your goals are. What is it that you really want to achieve? Is it a clothing size? A certain feeling? Feeling of wellness, health, confidence, sexiness, strength? Or maybe it's energy. Energy to keep up with your kids, to work 12 hour days, to do something totally out of the ordinary but always something that you've always wanted to do. Why is it encouraged to keep track of what you eat? 1. If you don't know what you've done, how do you know where you're going? 2. If you've tracked your intake, we can see what changes need to be made to move you further. 3. To keep yourself accountable. 4. To see on paper, or for you techies on your app, and have that visual and remembrance "oh that's right, I forgot I had a couple of beers on Tuesday night" or "yeah, I did eat the rest of my kids mac-n-cheese." All of those little things add up. So this coming week focus on tracking what you're eating. If you want to bring it in or email it to me that's great, I'll be happy to look at them. One of my mentors would tell his clients that if they weren't bringing in their food logs each week, he wouldn't take the time to do measurements at the end of each month. He's a pretty straight forward Scotsman, but it shows just how important keeping track of what you're eating, drinking, and even sleeping play in your success. Last week I did pretty well with the exception of tax day. I had chic-fil-a's spicy chicken sandwich, a couple of fries (too dry and hard), and a sprite. Throughout the week I did some intermittent sampling of chocolate coated almonds. If you aren't familiar with intermittent sampling, let me know and I can include that in a future post. ![]() Hi guys, I hope you had a wonderful weekend and got to really celebrate Easter with this beautiful weather! As we get a start on the week I know many of you have been non-stop working, go, go, go, and feeling a wee bit frazzled! I wanted to share a little tip that helps me get fired up for the week. I love Mondays. It's a chance to dive deep into what I need to get done and get the momentum going. It's been challenging having Emma with me all the time and I often don't feel like I'm getting anywhere! Some days I get a lot done while she's napping and of course most days we play, snuggle, eat and enjoy. What works well for me is setting my Big 5 for the week. Out of my lengthy to-do list, I pick the top 5 that are priority. If I get one thing done each day or all 5 done by the end of the week, I'm a happy camper. I'll admit, every time I look at my list I get a bit of anxiety. I'm still learning that it's not all going to get done as quickly as I'd prefer. So what are your Top 5? My personal Top 5 for this week: 1. Prep my next day foods the night before 2. TAXES!! 3. Aim for 2-3 workouts this week 4. Focus on quality time with family 5. Work on Finally Fit's Top 5. This is where the massive to-do list sets in! (Finish programs for my clients, etc) _________________________________________________________ I wanted to share with you our 4 week Spring Clean your Nutrition coming next week. Join me for this accountability group that is absolutely FREE and all online for the next 4 weeks beginning TODAY Monday April 17th. If you need to spring clean your nutrition, hit me up and I’ll add you to the accountability group. This is NOT a quick weight loss challenge, fat loss contest, or high stress get in shape fast program. That’s not what we’re about and if you’re looking for that, we’re not the right fit for you. We’re simply cleaning up what we’re eating, learning and establishing some healthy habits and having the accountability to see it through. I’ll be in the trenches with you for these next 4 weeks so if this sounds like something that you'd want to do, reply back with "I'm IN!" and I’ll be looking forward to seeing you in the group! ![]() Welcome back and thank you for taking the time for our final piece of our Nutrition Steps to Success! As we mentioned, we take the guesswork out of an overwhelming industry by custom designing your fitness and nutrition program based off your needs and goals. We believe in simplicity and mastering the basics before over-complicated and laborious attempts to achieve your best. This often starts with nutrition. You can workout every single day but if your nutrition is not in check, reaching your goals my seem a bit arduous. Our 12 Nutrition Steps for Success will help guide you in the right direction if you are consistently following these steps 90% of the week. Everything we do, every decision we make, every conversation and interaction we have, every need we aim to meet, every exercise and nutrition program we write begins with our Core Values in mind. Our Core Values 1. Stay true to yourself, your integrity, and the responsibility you have for your health. 2. Have only good days and great days- We believe everyday on this earth is a good day, what you do with it after that will make it a great day! Have fun, sense of humor, and an attitude of gratitude. 3. Constantly learn, always improve- We believe for one to improve they need to be coach-able, honor progression, principles and technique. Always be a student. 4. Get your mind right, take action - We believe leading by example and taking action on how we want to live our lives. 5. Embrace change, get comfortable with being uncomfortable- We believe in order to accomplish the above we need to be open to change and step outside of our comfort zone. Step 9: Turn in your weekly food and exercise journals every Monday. Keep a journal of what you are eating. Keeping a journal will keep you accountable and keep you on track. To become fit you must keep track of what you are doing so you can look back and make changes if you need to.
Step 10: Active on Precision Nutrition ProCoach Our online nutrition coaching system helps you focus on building habits one at a time. It provides you with actionable steps, daily lessons and keeps you accountable to reaching your goals. Step 11: Following your Custom Exercise Program Our 10 Phase exercise Program will guide you through the proper progressions safely and efficiently. We believe in a simple, customized and systematized approach focusing on the individual based on his/her needs and goals. We don't offer random workouts with modifications. We design Programs. Follow your Custom Program 2-3 times per week for better mobility, strength, balance, fat loss and definition. Step 12: Cardiovascular Exercise Come to one of our Summit sessions or focus on cardio on your own 3-4 days per week for 20-30 minutes each. This great for heart health, fat loss, increased metabolism, release the "feel good" hormones and numerous other benefits. Make it as moderate or intense as your body desires and get out there! Well that's a wrap! Thank you for taking the time to read through our Purpose, Mission, Core Values and Nutrition Steps for Success. We hope you were able to take away some ah-ha's and perhaps reminded of some things that you should be taking action on to improve your health. If you've made it this far, we'd like to offer you a 30 day trial to our online nutrition coaching, ProCoach as well as an in-person complimentary Strategy Session to see if our exercise coaching programs are the right fit for you. Just Contact us and we'll get you set up straight away! ![]() Welcome back and thank you again for taking the time to see what Finally Fit is all about! Our Purpose is simple and in honor of my mom, to empower you to move better, feel better and live life better! We take the guesswork out of an overwhelming industry by custom designing your fitness and nutrition program based off your needs and goals. We believe in simplicity and mastering the basics before over-complicated and laborious attempts to achieve your best. This often starts with nutrition. You can workout every single day but if your nutrition is not in check, reaching your goals my seem a bit arduous. Our 12 Nutrition Steps for Success will help guide you in the right direction if you are consistently following these steps 90% of the week. Step 5: Eat vegetables with each meal As you've probably heard from your mother and grandmother when you were a kid, "eat your veggies." Well they were right!! According to Precision Nutrition, by developing the habit of eating vegetables at each meal, you're more likely to get your 10 servings of cancer-fighting, free-radical-destroying, acid-neutralizing, and micronutrient-rich power per day.
In other words, if you have fat to lose, you've got to earn those higher-carbohydrate meals by exercising first. This isn't to be mistaken for a "low-carbohydrate diet," rather, it's a controlled-carbohydrate diet. If you have fat to lose but haven't just worked out, eat less pasta, rice, bread and other starchy carbs. Opt for a double serving of veggies instead. If you have just worked out, a mix of carb sources is fine. Step 7: Eat healthy fats daily Health, body composition, and performance can be optimized by balancing saturated, monounsaturated (extra virgin olive oil, some nuts and avocados), and polyunsaturated fats (from some nuts, some vegetable oils, and fish oil supplements). By adding these to a diet of fruits and veggies, carbohydrates, when earned, and lean proteins, your dietary fat intakes should balance right out. Step 8: Drink your post workout shake Always drink a workout shake either during your workout or within 10 minutes of finishing your workout. Use a high quality clean protein mixed with fruit or other carbohydrate. You will not get everything out of your workout if you skip this step. You must replenish your body immediately after your workout with quick releasing carbs and fats (a shake is best) to ensure optimal recovery. That's it for Part 2 of Nutrition Steps for Success. Let us know if you have any questions and watch your inbox for Part 3! ![]() I've been getting a lot of questions and requests lately for meal plans. "I need a new meal plan," "I need food that's not so boring," "I need foods that my kids are going to eat." Nutrition can be an overwhelming topic, especially when you're trying to lose weight. Over the years, I have given meal plans, tips, and suggestions and ultimately people fall back into their old habits. Our Mission is to Change the Way Fitness is Done. But it's also to change how nutrition is being conveyed. I've been following Precision Nutrition for many years now, became a certified PN coach and have had the pleasure of working with many of our clients on this. We believe in simplicity and mastering the basics before over-complicated and laborious attempts to achieve your best. You can workout every single day but if your nutrition is not in check, reaching your goals my seem a bit arduous. Before you decide you need a new meal plan, run through this checklist to see if you have mastered ALL of these habits, consistently 90% of the week. More than likely, you'll see you don't need that "detox" plan, the quick fix diet, depriving yourself of your favorite foods or eating foods you don't like to get results. Step 1: Taking a multi-vitamin and fish oil everyday. As you've probably heard, the modern diet often leads to small deficiencies of certain vitamins and minerals. These deficiencies can slow your metabolism and impair your ability to burn fat - among other things. And a good multivitamin can help fix that. Here are a few tips from Precision Nutrition for choosing a good one for you. Choose the right product Like with most supplements on the market, choosing a multi-vitamin can be confusing. So many companies, so many products; it can be overwhelming. So, to keep it simple, here's our advice. Any multi-vitamin is better than none. Even drugstore brands like Centrum represent a step in the right direction if you're not supplementing right now. Choose the right dose It's important not to overdose on vitamins as some of them (particularly the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K) can build up to toxic levels. That's why you should stick with the recommendations on the label of the brand you choose. You may have heard a lot about Omega-3's. And fish oil is the key source. There's a ton of very positive research on fish oil supplementation, it's been shown to be great for fat loss, and it's even been shown to improve mood and motivation. Choose the right dose Our clients start out by using 1 gram of fish oil per percent body fat they have. So, if they're 10% body fat, they use 10 grams of fish oil. If they're 20% body fat, they use 20 grams of fish oil. And so on, up to a maximum dose of 30 grams per day. We follow this protocol for 14 days. Then, we cut the dose in half. So, if a client starts out taking 10 grams for 2 weeks, they cut the dose down to 5 grams after that. If they start out taking 20 grams for 2 weeks, they cut the dose down to 10 grams after that. This latter dose (1/2 gram per percent body fat) can be followed indefinitely. Choose liquid over capsules We also make it easy on our clients by recommending liquid fish oil supplements (vs. the capsules). Liquid supplements are higher in purity, rarely cause the "fish burps" that are common with fish oil capsules, and make it much easier to get the recommended dose. Step 2: Drinking half your body weight in ounces of water daily. Being dehydrated is a big "no-no" when it comes to achieving a fit body. Being dehydrated takes away from your exercise performance, leading to decreased results, causes fatigue and increases your cortisol levels, your stress hormone that breaks down muscle tissue. Your urine should be clear and if its not you're not drinking enough water. If you have a diet coke habit, it is time to cut it out. Diet coke does nothing for your health, stick with water. You can have coffee and tea in moderation. Step 3: Eating each meal until 80% full Take 15-20 minutes to eat each meal. Take your time and listen to hunger and appetite cues. The communication between our gut, to our brain, and back to our gut is slow. If we eat quickly, we're likely to eat far too much in the 20 minute time period before our brain finally says: "I'm content. You can stop eating now." This will take some trial and error but this strategy is best for those interested in weight loss or maintenance. Step 4: Protein portions. You may have heard that your hand is perfect for measuring your foods. It is! Use this tip to figure out how much protein you need. 1 palm size for women and 2 palm sizes for men for each meal. This will help ensure an adequate intake of protein, stimulate metabolism, improve muscle mass and recovery and reduce body fat. That's it for Part 1 of Nutrition Steps for Success. Let us know if you have any questions and stayed tuned for Part 2! |
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