Join us for a 3 day challenge

They say it takes 3-days to make a habit, 3-days to break a habit, and three days to get back on track. Changing the way you eat requires a conscious mindset shift.

Next week a group of us are doing a 3 day program together to get back on track - debloat, kick sugar cravings, gain energy and start this school year off right!!!

The 3-Day Refresh Complete Kit includes:

Shakes for breakfast — During the 3 days, you are going to start your day with a shake 

Packed with potent superfoods,  to help improve and support all your body's vital functions, while also helping to maximize energy and maintain healthy blood sugar levels. Available in your choice of several delicious flavors, including vegan options (recommended because plant-based proteins are often easier for the body to digest during a cleanse).

VANILLA FRESH shakes for lunch and dinner — This patent-pending, delicious, and protein-rich formula helps curb your hunger with more than 20 grams of wholesome plant-based protein, 22 essential vitamins and minerals, probiotics for digestive health, and a patented potato protein extract clinically tested to satisfy your appetite.

FIBER SWEEP drink — Gently and naturally eliminates waste from your digestive system with its patent-pending blend of whole ground flax, chia, and psyllium seed husks.* As part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, Fiber Sweep can help lower cholesterol, support healthy blood sugar levels, and may even reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.

Because I need this jump start refresher also, I will be walking you through how this program works every day, but you also get a program guide with what to expect, and how to prepare your shopping list, as well as your body, for the 3-Day Refresh. It also contains a menu planner with numerous easy-to-make, nutritious, and delicious meals, a list of fruit and veggie options, guilt-free flavorings, and recipes for fresh-pressed juices.

The 3-Day Refresh will help you lose weight fast. But it does something even more important—it helps build your fat-burning metabolism. By nourishing your body and helping you break the cycle of bad eating habits, it can help you go on feeling those benefits for weeks to come

It is SUPER easy to follow and I am here to help you!!
Want to join us?
Just shoot me an e-mail below. 

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making lasting changes.

Hello, all you fellow moms, fighting to find your your lost strength and fitness

I’ve been sharing a lot on social media lately about my workouts - I am in week 6/8 of a program I absolutely adore, I’m getting great results and I like to share.  Today a friend walked right up behind me and didn’t even recognize me until I turned around!

But the truth is - it’s mostly not the workouts that are fueling my results!  It’s the fuel I’m putting into my body, and my new and improved relationship with food, that’s creating change.

It’s hard to describe changing your mindset!  It isn't just a menu plan, or a set of workouts to follow. It isn't about what the scale says every day, but more how you feel about yourself and how your skin fits.

Here are some of the things that are different for me:

💡I don’t feel restricted in what I can eat - no foods are off limits

💡 I don’t feel guilty when I have a treat - that’s important, because now I can have treats without overindulging because of guilt

💡 I think of what I eat in terms of what my body needs - no more eating because I “earned the calories”

💡 I am attracted to foods that make my body feel good - these are my new “comfort foods”

💡 I exercise because I love how it makes my body feel, not to try and make up for my diet

💡I never “fall off the wagon” because there is no wagon anymore.  I’m always either learning or losing.

Besides my mindset, I have lots of food knowledge and support and also a few supplements that make sure that I get all of the right nutrients, and also help me to have the energy I need to keep pushing forward.

The really crazy thing is that making a lasting change in your mindset isn’t hard.  You just need the right tools and support.  I’m looking for people who want to make the same kinds of changes I did.  Is that you?  Let’s chat today!

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Avoiding the office break room pitfalls.

This is an actual delivery to my office break room that one of the administrative angels orders every week. Sooooooo much temptation! 

I just read a study that found that on average, people take in 1,300 calories a week from the junk food that is sitting around free at work. HOLY CRAP ladies, that is a lb gained every 3 weeks!!! I was totally doing that to myself. 

I was just having a nibble here, and a candy there, and just a tiny handful of trail mix...and then I had gained 20 lbs. 

Now that I have lost that, I'm determined to never gain it back, and I've come up with a few tricks for avoiding the break room pitfalls! 

1> Stock your desk drawers with healthy yummy treats.

Dried fruit (Dried cranberries, cherries, etc)
Low-fat trail mix
Applesauce
Single serving fruit bowls (choose the variety without sweetened syrup added)
Reduced-fat or natural peanut butter to spread on a banana, an apple, pre-cut celery sticks or a Slice of whole-grain bread
Almonds (natural or roasted without salt)
Mini chocolate chips (Hint: Melt a few to make a dip to turn fruit into a special treat!)
Unsweetened cocoa or low-cal hot chocolate (Swiss Miss Sensible Sweets packets have only 25 calories, but it's so rich!)

2> Find ways to burn off some sneaky extra calories .

Ask about stand up or adjustable desks
Take a balance ball to work to sit on instead of a chair. You can build your abs while you work
Take walking meetings, ask a coworker to walk around the block with you rather than sitting in an office
Walk down the hall to ask a question, rather than sending an e-mail
Take strength bands to work, and step back and forth and side to side as you talk on the phone

3>Don't let stress-inducers like an approaching deadline or an upcoming meeting drive you to reach for food to tame tension.
Try deep breathing for just a few minutes
Have a cup of tea instead of a snack
Take a short walk
Catch up with a co-worker.

Someone is always going to bring in that leftover birthday cake, or those muffins they were experimenting on it, and if you are not prepared, those extra calories can add up to an expanding weight loss, and a scary scale fast, so make sure you are prepared and have your mindset tools to help you make it through the temptation. 

Love and Peace, 

N. 

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Flavor saturation

I've been sitting for about 45 minutes, nibbling at the leftovers of Trevor’s mutton chettinad dinner. It is this intense spicy sauce with about 20 different spices, all perfectly balanced in this fiery throat coating sauce. I just realized that I’m not even halfway through what I warmed up, and I’m perfectly satisfied. It is total flavor saturation.

Flavor saturation is a chef school term that describes the idea that either the separate dishes of a meal, or the meal as a whole must have ALL the flavors that we taste present in a balanced way. Sweetness, hotness, bitterness, tartness, saltiness, and richness ( oiliness). The result of the perfect balance is total taste bud satisfaction.

Indian food is so very satisfying, because each bite has full flavor saturation. I've been nibbling at this for half an hour now. Just enjoying the lingering flavors from small bites. It's like the difference between eating a large slab of mild cheddar, or a few small crumbles of feta.

There is probably a life lesson in there about happiness saturation, although I can't get the thoughts of that pulled together quite yet, but there is certainly a diet lesson in this.

A bite of feta or tangy bleu or grana padano instead of big slabs of mild cheddar. A wonderful tapenade, or a squeeze of lemon instead of fat laden additives. Small bits of balanced intense flavor will satisfy cravings quickly and with minimal calorie intake.

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Game night healthy makeover

Game night...If you are part of my circle, just those two words tell you that lots of yummy food will be involved...so you are thinking plates of spicy wings dripping in butter sauce and ranch,, gooey pans of homemade pizza, or big crocks of queso with all of the fixings for the make your own nachos bar. Yep, used to be me.

So,  how does a healthy fitness mom replace all of that and still keep the whole gang happy?

Introducing build your own hummus "nacho" bar.

Supersmooth hummus involves cooking beans for hours from scratch, OR this little trick :

Pour chickpeas and liquid from can into a small saucepan; stir in 1.5 tsp of baking soda per can of beans. Bring to a simmer over medium; cook, stirring occasionally, 3 to 5 minutes or until heated through. The baking soda softens or dissolves the peas' skins, and just rinse in cold water and drain. Be sure to use a blender; a food processor will not get the hummus this smooth. Also, for once, do not reserve the water to use pureeing, as the baking soda leaves an odd aftertaste.

Step 1
Place chickpeas, tahini, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup of good quality olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 minced garlic clove in a blender; process until completely smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes, stopping to scrape sides as needed. Add up to 1/4 cup more water and oil, 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed. Let stand 5 minutes.

Step 2
Heat a large skillet over medium. Add oil; swirl to coat. Add onion and r minced garlic cloves; cook 2 minutes, stirring often. Add ground meat of choice ( I use ground deer or turkey), cumin, coriander, crushed red pepper, and salt; cook, stirring occasionally to crumble, until meet is browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in raisins; cook 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in parsley and remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Step 3
Spread hummus in a thin layer on a large plate or platter; top evenly with the meat mixture, 1/2 cup of tapenade from your grocery store olive bar, and fresh parsley. Serve with vegetables, lettuce for wrapping, and fresh pita.

I promise no one will complain about the menu change.

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Oh so many hats!

"IN THE beginning, Bartholomew Cubbins didn’t have five hundred hats. He had only one hat."-Theodor Geisel 

I remember back when I just had one hat, when I was just responsible for myself. Not a boss at work, not a wife, not a mom, not a housekeeper or chauffeur or cook. To be honest, I wasn't all that great at managing just that one hat. I was vain, I was petty, I was equal parts smart, charming, sexy, and witty ...and mercurial, mutable, skittish, temperamental, uncertain, unpredictable. I was self conscious, I was bold...but only to cover that I was also scared.

As life went on, I began to gather more hats, and truth be told, I actually got better with each hat. I learned to be a good manager and leader. I became a wife, and I must be reasonably successful at that, because I'm still going strong 20+ years later.

Somewhere in that time, I took off a bunch of hats, as I left a career as a hospitality industry executive, to be a stay at home mom. I don't regret that decision ever, but it with that decision, I took off many of the hats that brought admiration and accolades, the hats with all the bells and whistles and fancy feathers, the ones that seemed to contain much of my identity. I added about 10 new hats to the collection then, and some of those hats were dusty, or tired or even painful to wear. A lot of those hats didn't come with much by way of accolades, and, I have to admit...sometimes they were very heavy.

And then there is now, 14 years later, instead of this heavy head full of hats, it feels like hats are just falling away left and right. My kids don't need dressed, they don't need me to make breakfast or their lunch. They clean their own rooms, and even do some of their own laundry. Instead of wanting all of my attention...sometimes now, all they need is a ride off to their own lives.

...and I realized, that I don't actually know what that hat that I started with looks like anymore. I don't even know if it is there for sure, and I absolutely don't know what I want the few hats that I choose to put back on look like. But all of those hats gave me a lot of courage, and even the ones I didn't like made me stronger, and I'm absolutely excited to go forward, choosing only the ones that I love, and that fit me perfectly to take into the future.

So far, I'm keeping wife, mom and friend. I'm also happily wearing my librarian hat, and my "gives back to her community" hat. I'm trying back on my chef hat, but as a nutrition coach, creating new healthy recipes. I'm also a fitness coach, and I'm starting to build a team of people to share my new hats with.

Nina, of the 500, or 100, or maybe just 10 hats. I like it.

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