WHAT'S IN YOUR GYM BAG?

I feel like my car is a traveling gym bag. I have two gym bags in there, 3 yoga balls (good thing I drive an expedition) hand weights and stretch bands...you name it, its in there! Have you ever taken a look at the items in a friends gym bag? What do you think you will find. There is one item that you will find in every fitness professional, bodybuilder or athletes bag. Can you guess what it is?

The answer will surprise you. “TO GO” plastic containers. I’m not kidding. You will find containers filled with with half eaten and fully eaten pre-measured meals for the day. It’s our secret...well it is not really a secret. Studies have shown for years that the secret to losing weight is to eat frequent meals, at least every 4 hours. The best way you can control what is going into your body is measure it out for yourself, and you get to control the ingredients that are in your food.

Help yourself be successful at losing weight. Invest in some containers and start using them now.

Empty Nest – Good for my diet?

As of this month I am officially an “Empty Nester”. I have son in his third year of college. My youngest son is only a senior but decided to move to another city to play hockey. So the empty nest status came a year earlier than I expected. I have been reading many articles on empty nesters. “They say”... this syndrome usually effects women more than men. Claiming we don’t know how to fill the time and void in our lives and we turn to food. You lose touch with your regular schedule, your social group may change, and you can feel isolated. Our metabolisms slow down, hormones are changing, and we are losing muscle mass. WOW, I’m getting depressed just reading all these facts.
Now I know its only been a week since the boys have left the house, but I am not feeling these side effects at all. Don’t tell my boys but I’m kind of enjoying myself. I miss them dearly, but there are some positives. For instance, I do not have to have chips, sugary cereals or ice cream in the house anymore. There isn’t anybody asking me to make them pancakes at 1:00PM, as they get out of bed, or a toasted cheese sandwich in the middle of the day. I can exercise anytime of the day, and not feel guilty about not being home with them. I Love The Biggest Loser cookbooks, so I have been trying new healthy recipes without having to cook seperately for them. Usually when I try a new healthy recipe, I will cook them a frozen pizza just in case they wont eat it. This is the latest dinner recipe I made. I thought it was a little dry, but good and filling.


 
BENCH PRESS BELL PEPPERS
2 large green bell peppers
1 lb of extra lean ground turkey breast
3 tablespoons of fresh minced garlic
2 cups cooked brown rice
2 large egg whites, slightly beaten
1/4 cup chopped mint (I didn’t use this because I didn’t have it)
3 ounces reduced fat feta cheese crumbles


Pinch of salt


preheat over to 375. Cut tops off of peppers and boil for 5 minutes. Cook turkey and garlic in a pan, chopping turkey to bite size pieces. When dine transfer to a bowl and add the rice, egg whites, mint, feta and salt. Mix well and spoon not the bell peppers. Put peppers in a ceramic baking dish and add a little water. Bake for about 20 minutes.  

            


311 calories, 38 grams protein, 30 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams fat, (Not bad for a meal)




Thank goodness for facebook. It keeps me in touch with my boys. Below are pictures I found of them on their pages. I guess if you are this active you can have ice cream once in awhile. Since I don’t think I will be doing any of these things in the near future I will stick with my healthy eating habits!

Pay It Forward

Have you ever done a "Pay it Forward" good deed? Just recently I felt the need to do this for a person I have only met once. You may know her, Karin was a competitor in the 2011 News Herald Lighten Up Contest. I follow her blog. You should check it out. It is very inspirational. http://lightenupwithkarin.blogspot.com/

I was reading her blog and she closed it by saying "I need Help". I felt like she was talking to me, saying..."Charlene I need help". So first thing I did was talk to the doctors and owners of Slim&Fit in Mayfield about Karin. I told them I wanted to offer her free training and nutritional help. You see, I was a contestant in the 2010 lighten up contest. After losing 35 pounds in the contest my entire career changed. I am now a certified Personal Trainer and am studying to get certified in Sports nutrition. The contest put me in the public eye and my new career sky rocketed.

Well, the owners gave me permission to help Karin with her training and nutrition! I can not do this for her. After all, I will be with her two or three hours a week. This leaves her 165 hours in a week when she has to make the right choices without me. We started last week and the first thing I gave her was a journal. I told her to write EVERYTHING down...what she eats, exercises and weekly goals. I want to see what choices she makes during those 165 hours.

I have complete faith in her. She is determined. I can't wait to post before and after pictures of her on my blog. Give us about 6 months to work hard and then look for the pictures. We (Karin) can do this!

Changing My Drivers License Weight

Today I got to do something I have never done before in my life...lower my drivers license weight! This morning I trained a few clients then I headed to the school to vote. When I showed them my drivers license they informed me that it had expired on my birthday on July 10th. I had about 25 credit cards with me and even a pay check from Slim & Fit but that wasn’t good enough to prove that I was Charlene. I was very aggravated. After much complaining one of the workers made a phone call and I was able to do a paper ballot.

Now an unplanned trip to the BMV. I went through the normal paper work and eye test to renew the drivers license. When she asked me my weight, I was so tickled to tell her. It was 30 pounds lighter than my old drivers license! This day is getting better by the minute. I hope the next time I renew my license it will be another 20 pounds lighter. Now I have a great goal. I sure hope it doesn’t take that long.

On my way back from the BMV, I decided to stop at this new smoothie shop called Pulp. Have you been here yet? One of my clients told me about this place and asked me if it was good for her. So, I decided to stop and check it out for her. Looking at their menu and flyers I could not find any nutrient labels anywhere. When stores do not offer this information up front, I become leery of them right off the bat. I asked the gentlemen behind the counter if this information was available and he pulled out a laminated info sheet for me to see. The lowest calorie drink on the menu that I saw was 360 calories, YIKES. As someone who can only have 1200 – 1500 this seems high. The store clerk told me I should not worry about calories but more about the fat content. Now the fat content was low, but I know that calories in VS. calories out is how you lose and maintain your weight. I believe you can have anything you want in moderation. So is this something you should have everyday after a work out? Absolutely not. Would it be a better choice than heading to the ice cream shop on a Saturday afternoon. Absolutely, it would be. For the record...IT TASTED SO GOOD. I love the quote “If it taste GOOD spit it out, it can’t be GOOD for you”