Hi everyone!

I had a funny discussion with someone earlier this week about how skewed our meal portions are now a days.  Ok, so some of you are reading this and thinking "boring"...and some of you are nodding your heads in agreement...and some of you are saying "really?".  This blogg entry is for anyone saying "really?"

You may have heard of suggestions such as "eat meat servings the size of a deck of cards, or cheese should be the size of two dominos, or rice should be in a serving the size of a baseball.  All of these can be helpful, however our perception of things can often get the better of us once the plate is infront of us.  Is that about the size of two dominos?

A really simple solution:  Use your hands to determine the size of your meals.

This works and here is why...because you always have your hands with you when you eat...perhaps not baseballs or cards.

For one MEAL:  use TWO hands as your guide...this is the amount of food you can eat.  One hand will represent your vegetable portion, one palm for your protein, three fingers for your grain portion, and two fingers for your fat portion.  How simple is that?!

For one SNACK:  use ONE hand as your guide...this is the amount of food you can eat.  A snack should be around 150 calories.  An idea snack would include some protein and vegetables or fruits.  Try a few almonds and a few cherry tomatoes.  Remember that the entire snack should fit into one hand. 
I encourge you all to try this next time you have a meal and snack.  It might surprise you at how much or perhaps how little you might be eating.

Have a wonderful Friday!!  I'm off to train another client!!

Angela

Hi everyone!

We all know that water is the number one choice when it comes to beverages (water is essential for life).   For some, coffee is considered to be just as important for survival, in their minds.

Now I am not going to say that coffee should be completely eliminated from your diet or daily routine, however, what you put in your coffee could be the culprit that is holding you back from your best physique.

Just by adding a little cream and sugar to your coffee could be adding up to nearly 100 calories per day!  Over one year if you have one coffee a day, that would equate to about 10 extra pounds!

Here are a few ideas to flavour your coffee without the extra calories:

Add vanilla or maple extract (all natural flavoring)
Add cinnamon
Add one piece of dark chocolate (>75% cacao) and stir into your cup of joe

It might take some time to switch from your milk and sugar coffee to these options, but give it a shot as the benefits are well worth it!  Try switching out one day/week then two, then three, etc.  Eventually you will be there and will feel so much better for it!

And remember, one cup of coffee/day is the recommendation.  You do not have to cut out everything in your diet...just keep it within reason.

Hello everyone!

I recently celebrated my Favorite Dad's birthday, (my only dad...but my favorite...our little inside joke), and got him a cool high tech pedometer.  As we all know, the more you move the more energy or calories you burn in a day.  Of course, the more calories you burn the more weight you can potentially lose.

My Favorite Dad and I chatted today about how it was going with the walking.  He said something to me that really made me laugh...

"I can really tell if I had a good golf game or bad golf game based on the number of steps my pedometer says...about 8000 steps equated to a score of 82 and about 12,000 equated to a score of 102!"

We came to this conclusion:

The worse the golfer you are...the more fit you will become!  There is always a silver lining!!!

The recommendation is to try for 10,000 steps a day for good health.  Most people average between 3000 and 5000/day.  A pedometer is an easy, inexpensive, and fun way to monitor this.  Try it for yourself...you might be surprised at how much or how little you move during the day!

Ok, enough typing...off to workout!  Have a great day!

Ang