Food Prep Tips For Success!

I often follow the simple mantra, “Fail to plan and plan to fail.” Prepping your food can allow you more time in your week to spend doing the things you’d REALLY like to be doing, help you avoid grabbing for the foods that lead you in the direction opposite of your goals, take the guesswork out of your week, and help you stress less! It can take you just 1-2 hours on a Sunday afternoon to take care your meals for the week. And then you just toss your pre-made meals into a cooler or tote and you’re set for the day! Easy Peasy!

Here are 8 Tips for Weekly Meal Prepping Success:

1. Grocery shopping requires a list!

Make a quick list of the things you’ll need for the week. I usually throw recipes out the window and just wing it. Unless you’ve got a little extra time or the recipe is super simple, it’s hard to screw up a meal. With a list, stick to it and don’t go “off roading” at the store. You’ll be in and out much faster.

2. “Keep it simple, stupid!”

The simple and basic foods are the foods that will typically cost you less time to make and less money to buy. Two things we’re always thrilled about, right? These items include veggies, chicken, eggs, fruit, seeds/nuts/nut butters, rice, oatmeal, etc.

3. Make sure you have appropriate containers to put your meals into!

What good are your pre-made meals if you don’t have anything appropriate to store them in? I’m not one to fight the battle on glass over plastic. Just buy various sized containers that are perfect for the meals and snacks you’re preparing.

4. Cook in bulk!

Don’t make your meals meal by meal. If you’re gonna make chicken, bake in bulk for the entire week. If you’re gonna steam rice or roast broccoli, again, make a giant batch for the week.

5. While your bulk items are cooking, prep the details!

While your chicken is baking and your rice is steaming, fill containers or baggies with your non-cooking items like nuts, nut butters, seeds, rice cakes, and protein powder, etc..

6. Create an assembly line!

I lay out all my containers for the week and have my measuring cups and food scale ready! When your rice is done, plop a portion into each container. When your broccoli is ready, plop a portion into each container. When your chicken is ready…well, you get the idea.

7. Steam Bags rock!

These are another battle I don’t bother to fight. I love steam bags. These things are brilliant. You can either buy the ones in the storage aisle or just buy the frozen Steamfresh or generic brand items. These bags usually contain between 2-4 servings each and only cook up in about 4 minutes. They’ll save you loads of time compared to waiting for that giant pot of water to boil on stove!

8. Meal replacement bars or shakes!

These can have their place in our diets and can help save you even more time in the kitchen. I don’t really recommend consuming more than 2 servings/day and making sure your varieties  contain a healthy balance of all of your macronutrients (carbs, protein, fats) and contain an actual meals worth of calories (none of this 100-calorie diet mumbo jumbo). Also try to avoid soy, artificial sweeteners, and an ingredient list 10x longer than the grocery list you brought with you. So, read your labels!

I hope these tips help you rock your weekly food prep!

Yours in Health,

Tanya

Spring Clean Your Body

Spring has sprung! One of the first things I associate with Spring (and I’m sure many other people do, too) is Spring cleaning. The list is a long one! We all clean out our garages, donate the clothes we don’t wear anymore, move the couches and clean under the furniture, wash and clean out the cars, have garage sales to lighten our household loads, wash the windows, spray down the siding on the house, clean out or rearrange the cupboards and closets, and start planting or prepping the garden, etc. We focus so much on cleaning and organizing everything else around us, but you know what other thing we should really put on our list that could also use some serious Spring cleaning? Our bodies!!

Think about it for a second. We’ve been hibernating for several months. During those hibernation months we encounter some of the most indulgent, food-focused holidays and celebrating of the year. This is followed by the much anticipated New Year. Yeah, we claim our weightloss resolutions for the 1st of the year, but by Spring we’ve all but forgotten or lost motivation for our health and fitness goals. It’s really not surprising, if you think about it. A fresh, new year is exciting, but there’s not a whole lot to propel most of us forward after the initial excitement has passed. The Winter months (at least in Minnesota) are gloomy and snowy and the days are shorter with darkness settling in around 5PM. Not to mention, seasonal depression takes over bigtime the longer winter lingers. Let’s face it, with all of this going on we’re more likely to snuggle on the couch with a warm blanket, mindlessly snack on potato chips and comfort food, and watch hours of TV rather than head to the gym and prepare healthy meals after a long day at work.

Spring is a time of  birth/rebirth, growth, renewal, and a fresh new start! Everything around us is going through some kind of transformation, so why not take this time to transform yourself!?

Here are some Spring cleaning items you may want to add to the checklist for your body:

• Find a workout routine you love that incorporates all the elements: cardio, weights, and flexibility.
• Get yourself some fun new fitness toys to play with like training equipment (weights, resistance bands, a jump rope, etc.), a fitness tracker, or other fitness goodies.
• Clean out the refrigerator and cupboards, toss everything that’s not clean, and replace it with lean protein, complex carbs, fruits, veggies, and whole foods.
• Drink more water…at least a gallon daily.
• Go on a shopping spree and find a super-cute new pair of sneakers and a hot new workout outfit to get you excited about being active.
• Rearrange the furniture and create an environment conducive to making good healthy choices for transformation.
• Find a buddy and work on your bodily Spring cleaning together – it’s always more fun with someone else!
• Load up on some new music! Music is motivational and can really help you jam through a good workout!
• Create a dream board and fill it with photos of physiques you admire and quotes that inspire you!
• Subscribe to a fitness magazine or buy a new book to read. The more you educate yourself about health and fitness the more likely you are to live a healthy lifestyle.
• Buy yourself a cute new summer dress or swim suit in your goal size to help motivate you during your transformation.

I hope you decide to do some bodily Spring cleaning and add as many of these items to your personal list as possible! These are just some of the ideas I came up with, but if you think of anything else you’d like to add to this list, please share and comment below! The more ideas, the better! Happy Spring cleaning!

Yours in Health,

Tanya

Cellulite: How Do I get Rid of It?

We’re all far too familiar with the term cellulite…and we dislike it, right? In fact, “dislike” might not be a strong enough word. I frequently get questions about cellulite – most of which ask me how in the world you can get rid of it. Well, I’ve decided to create a blog to answer all the most common questions regarding cellulite – including what it is, who gets it, why we get it, and what we can do about it. Here goes!

What is cellulite?

Cellulite is the term that describes the dimpled appearance of skin often found on the legs, butt, and even the abdomen. We often use terms such as cottage cheese, orange peel, and hail damage to describe the “unsightly” appearance of cellulite. The reason the skin looks dimpled is because there are uneven fat deposits that push through connective tissue just below the surface of the skin.

Who gets cellulite?

One common myth is that only overweight or obese women get cellulite. In reality, though, very skinny women also have cellulite. And not just women get cellulite, but men, as well. Cellulite is much more common on women, though, because of our higher percentage of body fat, which collects mostly in the lower regions of the body. I’ve seen women who are overweight have very smooth and dimple-free legs and booties while other, skinnier women have quite a serious case of cellulite. Cellulite absolutely does not discriminate!

Why do we get cellulite?

There are several things that may contribute to why we have cellulite. Most of them being gender, genetics, race, body composition (how much fat you have on your body versus lean muscle), age, circulation, hormones, the thickness of your skin, how well you eat, how active you are, and how much water you drink.

The burning question: How do we get rid of it?

There are a lot of creams, potions, and treatments out there claiming to be a cure for cellulite, but realistically, they’re not much good and aren’t well proven to work. Cellulite is pretty much something you either have or don’t and your best bet is to minimize it using the following three techniques (which work quite well, if you go for it!):

1. Eat well – What you put into your body definitely shows on the outside. The cleaner your diet is, the more youthful and smooth your skin looks. A clean diet also helps lower your body fat percentage, which helps shrink fat cells and minimizes the deposits under your skin.
2. Train hard – Combine both weights and cardio. Most people skip the weight portion of this equation. Lifting weights is what helps build a leaner body and changes the SHAPE of your body. When you build shape through lean, strong, and rock hard muscle tissue, you can help smooth out the dimply appearance of cellulite.
3. Drink plenty of water – Water works to naturally flush the body of toxins and excess water and helps to hydrate your skin from the inside out. Not drinking enough water and retaining water can contribute to cellulite being more noticeable. Aim for 1/2 your body weight in ounces or 1 gallon.

I hope these tips help you out. Just like anything else, there isn’t a quick fix or magic solution for cellulite, but if you follow these suggestions and be patient and consistent, you should see an improvement.

Yours in Health,

Tanya

5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Eating THAT

As a health and fitness professional, I see and hear more often than anything else that nutrition is the toughest part of developing a health and fitness lifestyle. I can certainly attest to and agree with my clients on this one.

There are times when I even make impulsive decisions that cause me to feel terrible about my moment of weakness. These decisions don’t leave a huge immediate physical impact on my body, but they often mess with my head, make me feel a little mental fog, and lose some of my energy. Then what happens? Sometimes I end up falling off the wagon completely because I feel like I’ve already failed, so what’s the point? I don’t think I have to ask for a show of hands for how many of us have experienced this situation, do I?

The reality of the matter is that it really doesn’t matter how others see us or what they think, it’s how WE FEEL about ourselves. We are the ones who suffer the consequences of our actions and impulsive decisions in moments of weakness.

So how do we fix this? The first thing we really need to do is learn to be less impulsive about the things that could interfere with what is truly important to us. Take these next few steps:

STEP 1: Grab a couple pieces of paper and a pencil (ancient, I know) and sit down with your thoughts.

STEP 2: Write down and clarify your goals and what’s important to you.

STEP 3: Determine and write down all the things that could possibly get in the way of you and your goals. 

STEP 4: Go through each of the scenarios you’ve come up with and create a solid plan of action.

I find that a lot of people are impulsive simply because they aren’t clear enough with themselves about what it is they truly desire. So when the moment of derail approaches, they are more likely to cave in because they haven’t thoroughly thought everything through. Without a clear idea of where you want to end up, you can’t create a good roadmap for how to get there.

So now that you have your roadmap and directions for your destination, when you encounter those moments where you have the opportunity to go off-roading, hopefully you’ll check back with your directions and stay on course. If you still find it difficult in that moment of weakness, ask yourself these additional five questions:

QUESTION 1: How will the decision to eat this make me feel physically tomorrow?

QUESTION 2: How will the decision to eat this make me feel mentally tomorrow?

QUESTION 3: How hard or long am I going to have to workout to burn this off?

QUESTION 4: Am I WILLING to workout that hard/long to burn this off?

QUESTION 5: Is eating this RIGHT NOW going to feel better than how I will feel when I hit the goals I want to achieve LATER?

If the roadmap doesn’t sway you from off-roading, hopefully the answers to these 5 questions will put a bitter taste in your mouth and cause you to push that (fill in the blank) away and stay on course.

Yours in Health,

Tanya