Recipe of the Week: Pesto Bean Salad

Here's a quick easy recipe.  It's high in fiber so it will keep you feeling full, and high in protein rich, so you'll stay energized. It can be made in bulk and will keep for a long time. Making it a good option for those of us who need something we can just grab and go.

I always recommend organic if you can swing it,  but if you're on a budget don't sweat it.

Ingredients:
1 can each:
-garbonzo beans (chick peas)
-black beans
-red kidney beans.

1 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes.

3/4 cup chopped red or sweet onions.

1/4 cup chopped chives

2 tbsp pesto.

Salt to taste.

Now make the stuff :

Drain and rinse all the beans. Not to be crude, but if you're worried about the "musical fruit" effect you can soak the beans in water overnight and rinse again in the morning. Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly until the pesto is dispersed evenly. Add salt to taste.

Makes approximately three (3) servings at two (2) cups each. Store in a tupperware in the fridge. Can be serve cold or heated. Its a pretty versatile dish.
ENJOY!

Blame it on the guy upstairs...

Your brain that is. Pretty much all bodily functions are a result of chemical reactions between your brain and the rest of your body. When it comes to food it can get complicated.
Basically our bodies run on two types of fuels, our fat stores and the food we eat, and these two types of fuels are meant to serve very specific purposes.

When our metabolism is working as it should we naturally switch between the two types of fuel as necessary. Our fat stores are broken down and turned into fuel for mundane activities, like being at our desks, watching tv, reading a book. The food we eat is reserved for more strenuous activity, such as taking the stairs, running to catch the elevator, and of course exercising. So technically, if our metabolism would just do its stinckin' job, we should be burning fat all day. Unfortunately, most of our metabolisms aren't doing their jobs. So we get stuck using the other type of fuel, the food we eat, for all our daily activities. This presents another problem. Not only are we not burning fat, but our brains are mainly powered by carbohydrates from the food we take in during the day. So as we burn through the food we eat, we start running low on carbs. The brain sends signals letting us know it needs more carbs, so we eat more. Now the brain only uses the carbs, the rest of our body didn't really need more fuel so all that extra food gets stored in all your least favorite places. Its a viscous cycle.

 Another way our brains sabotage our metabolism is by making it a crutch. Our brain knows we need to eat to survive, when we eat endorphins are released that give us that "Yay! Food!" feeling. Endorphins are a chemical in the brain that increase our pain tolerance and improve our mood. That's why eating feels so good, and why we eat when we're bored or depressed.

Keeping this in mind will help you recognize actual hunger versus faulty signals. In our next post we'll look into how strength training can reset our metabolism and keep our bodies burnimg fat 24/7.

It all starts at the begining.

You can push the gas pedal all you want, but if the tanks full of jello or your running on fumes, you'll never reach your destination. Whether or not you reach your fitness goals depends largely on having the right foods in the right amounts. How many diets and starvation methods have you tried and suffered through just to loose a few pounds and then end up back in the same old rut. Truth is, diets only work while you're on them and most of us don't like diets, so most of us don't stay on diets. 
Our focus should be on our habits. What we eat, when eat, why we eat, and how we eat it. Instead of trying to remember a strict list of "eat this, stay away from that", adjusting our eating habits will make it easier to make the healthier choices come second nature.

First, let's cover some of the basics:

Reality Check
We all have limits. While it does take serious effort and self control to watch what we eat. It's not necessary, or realistic to expect ourselves to follow the plan 100% of the time. If we're honest with ourselves, sticking to the  plan 85-90% of the time is achievable for the long term.
That being said, what foods can you absolutely NOT live without? The foods that you tell yourself you'll never eat again, and then you wake up one morning with a junk food hangover wondering what went wrong. These will be your Achilles heel when it comes to maintaining good eating habits.
We all have them, for me it's fries. I love fries. And like me, you probably realized a long time ago that there is no way you will be able to give up your favorite food completely. So now what? The key is regulation and moderation.
Figure out what category your favorite food falls under in the "When" post to follow, plan to eat it at the appropriate time, once or twice a month.....and ENJOY it. Savor it while you have it, and then right back to the healthy choices.

Remember the Five P's
Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. This means preparing to make the healthy choices, will help you to make sure you actually make the healthy choice when the time comes. When it comes to food, ideally this means having as many meals as you can prepared at home. The more meals and snacks you can make at home the more control you have over the choices you make.
If you know you can't make meals at home to eat on the go and you will be eating out, you can still prepare to make healthy choices. Think of where you'll be throughout the day and what healthy options you'll have. This way, when it is time to stop and grab some grub, you'll hit the salad bar instead of the drive-thru.





Fill up the tank:
It is important to have the right amount of fuel to reach your fitness goals. Eating too much has obvious results, however not eating enough can send your body into starvation mode which starts the fat storing process and slows down your metabolism to conserve energy. First, you need to figure out how many calories your body needs right now. To figure this out, bust out your calculator.

• Women:  655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
• Men:  66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

That gives you a base calorie count (B) to work from. As you loose or gain weight depending on your goals, it may be time to recalculate. Write this number down, we're not done.

Now lets see how active you are. There are a lot of variables to this one. Consider these three aspects of your daily life (1)work, (2)home life, and (3)exercise habits.