More Low Carb Ground Turkey w/ Peppers and Jalapenos!

Hey everyone so as you can see I've been eating a ton of ground turkey lately, but one problem you might run into I when dieting or trying to eat cleaner and healthier is that certain foods get dull or boring. So because of this you always have to be switching things up even if it means just changing a couple of the ingredients; for this dish I used 99% lean ground turkey breast, favorite seasoning, assorted bell peppers, and canned jalapenos for some tangy spiciness! I love spicy foods and I love jalapenos, they add a really nice unique and interesting flavor and you can even poor some of the juice into the meat for extra deliciousness.

The peppers are good for boosting your metabolism a little bit to keep that fat burning going strong. You can add some cheese, or a healthy fat like an avocado to the side as well, as there is pretty much no fat in this dish; and remember to burn fat your body needs to consume fat as well!

So just because you might think two or thee things together would be gross you might be surprised at how new and good tasting they can be; it can definitely bring a lot of new and good flavors into your regular boring dishes!

High Protein Diet Making You Constipated? Try Aloe Vera

I hear from a lot of my clients that when they start consuming a lot more protein, especially from protein shakes and powders that they have a lot of trouble when it comes to the bathroom. One solution that you can try is Aloe Vera gels, they work great as a natural diuretic, cleanser, and metabolism booster! They're cheap and easy to find, if you're having problems I definitely recommend you try them out, but start at a low dosage and see how your body reacts.

High Protien Diet and Bad Breath - Quick Fix

My parents are both on a high protein, low carb diet right now and their breath is kickin'.  I know from working with a lot of athletes at the gym bad breath is a definite side effect of high protein diets.

Recently my mom started using these breath pop rocks called "32" by Thomas Connelly, DDS -
she purchased them on QVC. Hers is a link: http://32oc.com/en/

These effervescent breath crystals leave breath smelling minty for up to four hours. Packaged in convenient, small pouches these things are pretty effective at cleaning the mouth with pop rock like action and washing bad breath. 

I like them because they are refreshing and sugar-free!

According to the 32 OC website:
"32 utilizes our trademarked IsoVoxy Crystals in inhibiting odiferous volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) via oxidizing thiol (a.k.a., sulfhydryl) groups. What that means in Plain English is 32 works to eliminate bad breath at its source."

Try one before getting up close and personal and feel confident your breath is not offensive.

Green-Coffee-Extract Burns Body Fat

There's a lot of craze today about green coffee bean extract and all of the benefits it has to offer you. I was reading an article in Muscle & Performance about one of the benefits of green coffee extract, and that is that it burns body fat! Green coffee extract coming from raw, unroasted, green coffee beans contains chlorogenic acid; a crucial component for fat loss that is diminished when the usual roasting process of coffee takes place.

 "This fat-loss booster (chlorogenic acid) works synergistically with caffeine to burn the body fat that has been released from storage by caffeine. Look for products that contain 200 to 400 milligrams of green-coffee extract that's been standardized to 50% chlorogenic acid, and take it 2-3 times a day between meals." <Stiefel, Steven, and Chris Logan. "Coffee Craze." Muscle & Performance 1 Apr. 2013: 13. Print.>

Also if you guys remember I did a product review for Amino Energy, guess what, it has green coffee extract in there! if you haven't seen it yet take a look, I definitely recommend you try it out!

http://blog.renovatemybody.com/2013/04/product-review-amino-energy-by-optimum.html

Be Prepared... Bag Your Nuts

Pre bag your nuts or your snacks for the long day ahead with Ziploc snack bags. These things are great for storing just the right portions to keep you satisfied without risking overeating. Make sure you get the right measurments, these are 6-1/2inch by 3-1/4inch; and I definitely recommend that you do get the Ziploc brand due to the better quality as the generic ones tend to break very easily so unless you want nuts everywhere get the Ziploc!

PB2 - Low Fat Powdered Peanut Butter

Peanuts are loaded with energy, protein, and they keep you feeling full; the only thing is they are loaded with fat! Even though its considered a healthy fat it doesn't mean you should eat mad servings of peanuts throughout the day; a lot of people have this misconception that because raw (uncooked, unsalted) peanuts are healthy, that they can just snack on them all the time throughout the day. Same goes for peanut butter; a lot of my clients when I ask what they're eating they're having peanut butter with almost every meal! Peanut butter with their toast at breakfast, peanut butter for a snack, pb&j for lunch, peanut butter in their protein shakes and so on...  That's fine, you can do that if you want more trouble getting your weight off.

So how do you get all the benefits of peanuts without all of the fat? You get PB2. PB2 is a powdered form of peanut butter with 85% less fat then regular peanut butter. So for example 2 tbsp. of the powder mixed with one tbsp. of water to make peanut butter only has 1.5 grams of fat, only 5g of carbs, 2g of fiber, and 5g of plant protein!

 I never use it to make peanut butter I just throw it in my protein shakes from time to time for some added protein and energy. If you decide to use it in your shakes make sure you either have a shaker cup, or you're using a blender as it won't break down from just stirring it in a glass alone. It tastes great and adds a nice consistency and richness to your shake! So if you use a lot of peanut butter try PB2 instead!

Beach'n It!

Even with the crazy and random weather we've been getting here on long island that past couple of weeks this weekend was bright and sunny; so a couple of other trainers and I hit up the beach. While we were there we were challenged to a game of football by some other dudes and after about an hour and a half to no surprise we emerged victorious! The reason why I bring this up though is for the past 2-3 days my entire lower body has been so sore it's pretty much crippling sometimes! Everything from my quads, hammys, glutes, hips, and calves are all fried! You have to understand though that these are all regular body parts that I train in the gym, and I train them hard for that matter and I never get this sore. The reason being why I'm so sore is due to the running and jumping around on the sand. Beach sand is a great proprioceptive (unstable yet controllable) environment, that helps engage and utilize muscles that you rarely ever use just doing regular cardio on the treadmill for instance. By running around on the sand you're working on your stability muscles, which gives you better balance, reaction time, and of course stability. You'll burn a lot more calories doing exercise on the sand because your body uses up more energy always trying to balance and stabilize itself out.

Some simple and easy exercised you can do when you go to the beach are... Sprints, jogging, jumping jacks, lunges, squats, pushups, plyometric pushups, burpees, 1-leg and 2-leg side hops, or even play a little game of volleyball, soccer, or football and work on your juking skills; you'll really feel it the next day! So get out there and enjoy mother nature, and workout those dormant muscles!