Guilt free chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter drizzle

 

We all need a chocolatey sweet treat once in a while and you can totally have a little cake or dessert sometimes when eating clean I think. But if you want to enjoy a little sumthin sumthin and not kick yourself for it later, this is perfect!

Sorry kids but if you want the recipe for this one you're going to have to join in on a challenge group. I can't give everything away for free you know! That's not a punishment. It's a very small investment in YOU! YOUR HEALTH YOUR FITNESS.  Joining a challenge group helped me lose 20 pounds!

Get the recipe for these babies and much more when you join a challenge group.

PiYo group starting July 7th

Wedding group starting July 7th

Mashed Cauliflower with Grilled Artichoke Hearts & Portobello Mushrooms

This is kind of a pain in the butt to make, however it's really worth it because it's all veggies but soooooo filling!

portobello mushrooms

artichoke hearts frozen

garlic

cauliflower

toss the artichoke hearts and mushrooms in 2 tsp of olive oil salt pepper & chopped garlic

throw on grill or roast in oven

while that's cooking, cut up and boil the cauliflower

drain and loosely chop

put in blender a little at a time

this is the pain in the butt part use a food processor if you have

when it's all pureed, add tsp olive oil and salt & pepper

top with grilled veggies

Yesterday my husband brought home mint instead of basil. So I threw together these chicken burgers and they are soooo good! 

ground chicken breast
tomato
onion
zucchini
fresh mint
salt & pepper
mix together and form burgers
grill and top with avocado and mango

 

As long as you don't add syrupy sugar mixes to your sangria it's a great choice for catching a little buzz when eating healthy! Everything in moderation!

"21 day fix looks complicated" (whine whine) Um, does this look complicated?? SO MUCH easier than weighing food/counting points/calories and sitting around for hours logging food into your phone! Did you ever try to log a salad into your app? it's infuriatingly slow.

21 Day Fix Bridal Boot Camp

21 Day Fix Wedding Challenge Group!! This program is perfect for getting it together before your wedding!!  Who wants to look amazing and feel amazing on their wedding day?. I am looking for 8 engaged ladies who want to bring it for their wedding day! Contact me to secure a spot.

Protein Packed Gluten Free Waffles

These babies are so perfectly guilt free and crazy easy to make.  21 day fix approved. Try them for dessert too, that's what I did last night after a small dinner of salad, avocado and chicken sausage. I'm getting hungry all over again!

1/2 yellow of oat flour or grind up dry oatmeal
1 egg
1/2 red of greek yogurt
pinch of cinnamon

mix it all up and pour into waffle iron, serve with 1-2 tsp of maple syrup and fruit

The great carb debate. I am entirely nauseated by the word carb. In the past when I needed to lose weight I gave up carbs and would lose weight pretty fast. Most people don't even know what "carbs" are.  I guess I cut all grains of any kind.  But did you know milk is considered high in carbs? Anyway after my initial loss, I would get to my goal weight and shove every piece of bread and cake I could find into my face. And the weight crept back on. Let's break down the science of losing "weight" by cutting carbs:

"Don't Be Fooled by Quick Losses and Devastating Gains

After a week of doing a low carb diet, new dieters will lose anywhere from four to ten or even twelve pounds.

But there's a dark side to this instant weight loss. Slip up and eat a "normal" diet for several days and what happens? The lost pounds are back, all five or ten of them!

The quick losses and gains are almost entirely water. Whether you are low carbing or not, you must burn off 3,500 more calories than you take in to lose a pound of fat and you must eat 3,500 calories more than you need to gain a pound. Low carbing does not repeal the basic laws of thermodynamics. So what is that four to ten pounds of "easy go, easy come" weight all about?

When you cut the carbs out of your diet, your body empties out the "emergency" stores of carbohydrate it keeps in the liver and muscles in the form of a substance called glycogen. Glycogen is a normal part of our metabolism and allows us to do energy-intensive things like sprinting, for example, by letting us draw on the carbs stored in our muscles for energy.

When you start a very low carb diet you cut off the body's supply of dietary carbohydrate and this leads to a rapid emptying of these liver and muscle glycogen stores. And when you lose that glycogen, you also lose the associated water. That's the reason why, during the first couple days of a low carb diet, you lose weight so dramatically. It's also why you may feel slimmer and lose "inches." You haven't lost fat. You've simply squeezed out the water and glycogen in your muscles and liver.

But what happens when you go off the diet for a few days? If you eat a significant amount of carbs, your liver and muscles grab glucose from your bloodstream to replenish that emergency stock. As they do this, four grams of water join each gram of glycogen" - (source blood sugar 101)

This information is so crucial I believe in keeping weight off. Now we know carbs are not the devil and in fact avoiding them altogether then binging on them which ends up happening to most people will create a disaster roller coaster of "weight" losses and gains. Avoiding grains healthy and processed all together forever is pretty much unsustainable for most people. And there is always the problem of people wanting what they "can't" have.

But it's also so important to eat the right carbs.  I have been staying away from too much processed carbs because I feel they bloat me: pasta, bread in particular.  I seem to do ok with small portions of brown or white rice, sweet potatoes, milk, oats. Not to be all "pluggy" but that's what I like so much about 21 day fix, I know how many carbs to have a day, there is a daily limit on carbs and then I know I am losing mostly fat, not just water because I am still getting a daily allowance of carbs.

 

It's the day after Memorial Day Weekend. I am proud of myself, I did every scheduled workout and followed the 21 day fix plan almost perfectly. Holidays and Sundays for that matter are usually an excuse for me to go buckwild when trying to lose weight. 

In the past I would've purposely went out of my way to eat crud because, hey, it's a holiday, I have been eating healthy! Break out the brownies, cake, doritos, mac n cheese etc. I totally am all for these things in moderation, but not for a full weekend! Or even all day long, like I used to.  I am finally waking up to this.

I did have a pina colada because there is this one bar here it's only open in the summer and they are fantastic there. I had some extra protein a couple things here and there but it was NOWHERE near the bingefest I usually partake in. It may have been because I am a dork and went to no parties just hung out on the beach and went for a walk with my kids.  We'll see what happens when I have to go to a party and have no control over the food. When there is a plethora of cookies, taco dip, hot dogs, pies, oh man it will be hard. The food has a way of seducing me. Must learn moderation, that is the key.

 

I have another incredibly hard recipe. But it will be worth it.  This salad is so perfect for a hot summer night when all you want to do is grill off something. Make it a couple hours ahead so all the ingredients can get to know each other, when they are happy you will be happy.

1 package of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 large green zucchini

1 lemon

4 scallions

salt & pepper to taste

Chop all veggies, squeeze entire lemon over add salt & pepper to taste. For 21 day fix measure out one green of this salad, add 1/2 blue of feta cheese and/or toss with 1 yellow of brown rice or couscous for one serving.

21 Day Fix - My review and results:
First maybe a little background information. You might be wondering what those blobs of rainbow colored plastic are in the above photo. Those are color coded tupperwares that represent different food groups and their size reflects the portion of said food group.
The program comes with those tupperware, a meal plan book and workout dvd's 30 min each doing things like weights, intervals, cardio, pilates, yoga etc.
Basically the meal plan book gives you lists of acceptable foods, calorie requirements which are based on your weight and a formula they give you.  I was in the lowest calorie group.
You get to eat each container worth of a food group a certain amount of times a day.
For example
4 red containers which are protein YAY!
1 blue tiny container which is for cheeses, avocado, hummus BOO!
2 purple for fruit
2 yellow for carbs
3 green for veg
1 orange for salad dressings seeds
even tsp for nut butter or cooking with oils

So this may sound crazy confusing but when you get the package and read everything it's really simple.  I loved using this program. It is so much more easy than Weight Watchers, Calorie Counting apps, eyeballing your portions, logging everything you put in your mouth? Ever try logging a salad in WW or My Fitness Pal? It's never ending!! Plus I made a cheat sheet, which only MY challengers will get a copy of.  It's really helpful.

This is how I logged things for  the day. I used the memo app in my phone to add what I can eat each day and also my weekly treats as I ate things I just erased them. and refilled each morning or beginning of the week.

What is a day like on the 21 Day Fix?
Shakeology with 1/2 purple of apple and 1/2 green of cucumber
2 eggs (red) 1 green of veggies on 1 slice of whole grain bread
1/2 fruit with tsp nut butter
1 red of chicken breast, 1/2 blue avocado, over lettuce & salad fixings plus 1 orange of salad dressing
1/2 blue hummus and veggies
1 red of flank steak with 1 yellow sweet potato and grilled asparagus

Now this menu doesn't look like any new revelations but its the portion control from the containers that makes all the difference for me. Also knowing how much of each food group I can have a day helped me tremendously in my daily eating. I won't overeat my healthy fats which I did alot, or overeat fruit, even protein, you will eat enough protein for your workouts instead of not enough which happens. This plan is fool proof and stupid simple. End of story!

My results? 9 pounds! In three weeks.

 Troubles in yoga-ville

Today on my schedule: p90x3 yoga workout. I'm doing a hybrid of p90x3 workouts with 21 day fix food plan.
Getting the moves down since its my 5th time and I really like it. Then my Zen was broken towards the end. A mosquito came sauntering in as they always do. I clumsily slammed my hands and missed my evil target about 246 times. Tony was in the background talking smack about tree poses. I never got that little vampire. When I returned to my poses, I saw an ant, my other summer adversary merrily crawl by, I had to just watch him......frozen in my triangle pose.

The past three weeks on the 21 day fix could not have been possible for me without these cookies. They are from the 21 day fix meal plan book and they are scrumptious. Even though I indulged in these babies a few nights a week, I still lost 9 pounds in three weeks.  Yeah I think I am pmsing, can't stop thinking about chocolate.