Chipotle! So Good, but Healthy Too?

It's highly unlikely that you haven't fallen into the Chipotle bandwagon yourself or at least heard of it
anyways. I think this place is delicious and I eat there at least 2 times a week! Question is though, is it healthy? You can see all the signs inside the restaurant saying things like "naturally raised chicken, beef, pork... No anti biotics... no rBGH... Grass fed beef" and so on... So in that aspect of things, sure it is good quality food, it's made fresh, and brought up clean, so I'd say it is "healthy" for you. What about when we talk about dieting though, is it still considered healthy? The answer is yes and no; just because something is healthy doesn't mean that you can't still get fat off of it, and with a lot of the ingredients chipotle offers you have to weary of that. I put a link straight from the Chipotle website, it's a nutritional calculator which will tell you exactly all the nutrients and calories in whatever you get!

Just a couple of tips...
- Always go with the bowl, as the tortilla has 9grams of fat and a ton of sodium!
- Go with chicken as it has the least amount of fat and sodium compared to the other meats they offer.
- Try and hold off on the cheese and sour cream (this one is hard), if you have to get it, get one or the other not both; as they both combined have 18.5grams of fat!
- If you're going low carb, cut down on the beans and rice.


http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutrition_calculator/nutrition_calculator.aspx

Sweaty Pits!

So with the weather getting warmer and all, you tend to sweat easier; I for one though began to have major armpit sweating issues! I've never been too much of "sweater" except for when I workout, but for about the past 2 weeks I've been having excessive armpit sweat even if I'm not doing anything! The only things I could think to attribute it to would be the warmer weather, and the low carb diet I started around exactly the same time all of the sweat came about... So whether or not it's due to the diet I'm not sure, but I'm looking into it. The reason I'm writing this blog is because I bought at least 5 different deodorant/antiperspirants and none of them worked; they smelled good, but they didn't stop the sweating! I was going to give up until I found these on Amazon and they had 5 out of 5 stars; Sweat Block Antiperspirant Wipes. You dab your pits with them before bed and they do some magic that causes you not to perspire under there for 7 days; I'm on day 4 and still dry! Now as for the health aspect, these things can't be good for you, so if you're unsure ask your doctor before using them...

A couple of other things, they smell very strong, and they made my armpits tingle and burn a little throughout the night. You can still shower and wash your armpits every day without effecting the antiperspirant, and I still put on deodorant just for the smell! If you're
having pit problems I would definitely give these a try!

Healthy Eats... 99% Lean Ground Turkey with Red Potatos, Low Fat Cheese and Salsa

Here's a pretty quick and easy food option for you to try! It's healthy and can be perfect for a low carb diet depending on how much potatoes you use. As for the cooking, 99% lean ground turkey can dry out and cook very easily so be weary of that; you don't want to cook it that fast... before I cook it I throw 1-2 table spoons of olive oil in the pan and break the 2 pounds of 99% lean ground turkey down as much as I can with the spatula; it's easier to do it when it's raw than cooked. When it's cooking you may have to throw some additional olive oil into the pan. Also feel free to throw in your favorite seasonings just keep in mind the sodium content.

Midway through cooking I threw in the red potatoes plain and simple; I cut them in quarters before hand, and that's it! Depending on how low carb you may be going be careful as to how much potatoes you use as they're very dense in carbs. Afterwards I threw on some low fat cheddar jack cheese and Herdez green salsa to help with the plain flavor and dryness. If you find that yours is still too dry to handle try throwing a little coconut oil into the mix as it will make a big difference and help a lot!

Trying to lose weight... what should I do, Cardio or weights?

I get this question a lot and the answer simply is both are great for burning calories and losing weight - to a certain degree that is... Just remember one important thing, the benefits and results you'll get from each form of exercise is greatly dependent on how hard you're working! You can't just expect to find something that's easy to do and yet it burns calories like crazy it doesn't work that way; remember nothing comes easy in any aspect of life so neither is a healthier, better looking you!

Now resistance training of any form (bands, cables, weights, calisthenics) is said to burn up to 2 times the amount of calories as just regular steady state cardio. Now this can be true, but it's not going to be true if you're taking your sweet time in between sets, not using enough weight, not doing enough reps, and most importantly not pushing yourself to your limits. In that case the person doing cardio on the treadmill lets say will be burning more calories than you. As for cardio though you can easily burn 100's of calories in short amount of time, but you're not going to do it walking 3.5 mph with a 4 incline, if you're going to do that you're wasting your time in my opinion. In order to burn a ton of calories doing cardio you need to do HIIT, or high intensity interval training, which calls for short bursts of very high intensity actions followed by a longer rest period and then repeated over and over again. For example you walk on the treadmill at 3.5mph for 2 minutes, then once the 2 minutes is up you bump up the speed to as fast as you can go 8, 9, 10 mph for only 30 seconds. Once the 30 seconds is up drop it back down to a 3.5mph speed for another 2 min and repeat! HIIT is one of the best things for burning calories, and getting you in shape fast!

Both resistance training cardio have their unique benefits, but as for which one is better for getting skinnier, that's all dependent on you and how hard you push yourself! You should try and incorporate both types of training into your regimen though!

Counting Carbs? Keep in mind NET Carbs...

This seems to be a new thing I'm noticing these days with healthy foods, you'll see a lot of packaging on foods that says something along the lines of "Only 5 net carbs"... Well what is a net carb exactly and how does it help you? A net carb is when you take the total number of carbohydrates in serving of food and subtract the amount of fiber from it; what you're left with is a net carb. For example if I was eating some whole grain tortillas and on the nutrition label it said 10 grams of carbohydrate and 5 grams of fiber for one tortilla then technically you're left with 5 net carbs. This is because your body can only absorb 5 grams of carbs due to the amount of fiber.

So why is this a good thing to know? Because today lower carb diets seem to be the way to go for those looking to lose the pounds and fast, and by knowing how to calculate net carbs you'll save yourself a lot of trouble and actually be able to eat more then someone else who was counting carbs but didn't know how to calculate net carbs. Another example of this is lets say 2 people were only allowed to have 40g of carbs per day while dieting. The first person knows how to calculate net carbs eats a total of 70g of carbs, but all from sources with a lot of fiber which added up to 30g of fiber... leaving them at 40g of net carbs taken in for the day! Now lets say the second person didn't know about net carbs and just eats 40g of carbs, but in actuality they ate 20g of net carbs then they technically could be allowed to have more!

Whether you have some extreme weight to lose, or you're simply trying to tone up while retaining muscle mass, keeping net carbs in mind can help you out a lot when choosing the right foods!

THE ALMIGHTY SPARTACUS WORKOUT

If you're looking to get in shape and fast people may tell you that there is no way to do it fast and easy, getting in shape and looking good takes time; well they have never participated in the Spartacus workout! Although it's definitely no easy feat by any means, stick to it for a while and you'll definitely see some pretty nice results come on pretty fast. That's because this grueling high intensity circuit routine can get you burning as much as 731 calories in just 41 minutes! Whether you're new to working out, or you're a veteran the Spartacus workout will for surely give you a run for your money. I honestly believe that if you can complete the circuit exactly as instructed - 3 sets, 60 sec stations for each exercise, only 15 sec rest between exercises, and pumping out as many reps as you can - than you're in incredible shape!

I do this workout every now and then and sometimes I find myself barely making it through the third and final sweat... By then you'll be pouring sweat and ready to pass out. Don't get me wrong though you don't have to kill yourself for the Spartacus workout to be enjoyable, you can adjust each station time so it's less, you don't have to do all 3 sets, etc. I sometimes drop each station time from 60 seconds to 40-50 seconds and that makes all the difference. Although I see nothing wrong with sticking strictly to the Spartacus workout for a few weeks (3-6) it's always good to switch it up so that your body will keep progressing. So what are you waiting for, make an undefeated champion gladiator out of yourself, or at least your physique!

See the link for a better description, and directions for the workout and each exercise**
http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/spartacus-workout-1?onepage=1

Fast Food & Low Carb Dieting

OK - so yesterday I officially started the Metabolism Miracle Diet with my Husband.  We are trying to stay at or under 25 net carbs every day through phase one. As usual, I ran out the door yesterday morning with no plans for lunch and by 1:00 PM I was ready to chew off my own arm I was so hungry. I figured a half size Baja Salad from Wendy's would be a great low-carb choice.

The half sized portion (minus the tasty tortilla chips) is:

Reading Labels.
Low Carb is can be tricky
once you realize sugar is
in almost EVERYTHING!

370 calories
26g of fat
15g of protien
20g of carbs
6g of fiber.

Total Carbs – Fiber = Net Carbohydrate. So for this salad 20g (carb) minus 6g (fiber) = 14 grams of net carbs.  Oy vey! I am still learning... I wonder what had all the carbs? The 15 kidney beans in the salad perhaps?

It seems it is going to be quite the learning curve for us as sugar and carbs are in everything we eat!  But I really want to give this system the ole' college try!

If you want to learn more about the New York Times Best Selling Book, click here to read the hundreds of five star reviews on Amazon.com

Metabolism Miracle