Workout time!

In my fridge and some healthy veggie tips!

As someone who has lost weight and kept it off I get asked what I eat all the time. When I first started losing weight, I ate low calorie but still had tons of processed foods. I cooked the same things all the time. Can we say chicken, broccoli, and brown rice? It got boring but it sure did help me lose the weight that I needed to get off. When I started I also didn't enjoy being in the kitchen so everything was super quick as well. I didn't take the time that I should have to prepare my meals. 

Now that I have gained a better education on food and what works for me and what doesn't I feel more comfortable trying new things. Now I search all over the internet and use cookbooks to plan my meals and I actually enjoy being in the kitchen and experimenting! Here is a look at my fridge. I wish I would have taken one when I first started eating healthy you would have seen a "healthy processed heaven" lol. 

Veggies are a must! I always keep them stocked in my fridge.

Chicken, turkey and vege0tarian burgers :)

My hard vegetables like potatoes and onions, I like to keep them separated from my greens!

 

Hummus, almond milk, vegan butter, and more veggies :) 

Some things to keep in mind 

Meal plan! That way everything in your fridge is what you are going to use through out the week for your meals. 

DON'T buy random vegetables! I did this because I thought that I was going to use them AND I didn't it was a huge waste of money! 

COOK the things that you KNOW are going to go bad first like using your cilantro,, or broccoli and lettuce. Your celery carrots and cucumbers will last a while so you can use those recipes toward the end of the week! I learned this the hard way as well LOL 

You can pre cut your vegetables and freeze them and even put them in an air tight container so that they stay fresh longer. I do this sometimes and it helps me keep the value of what I bought because we all know vegetables don't last long and they can be pricey especially if you are buying out of season. 

Lastly buy what is in season and you will save on costs. Produce costs more because of the transportation it takes to get here and often times that produce will have to the the first that is cooked. :)

Planning is success! It will help you a ton in the long run! 

Shakeology testimonial! Alyssa

 Here is a testimonial and pictures of my buddy Alyssa. I met here when I went for some training in Pittsburg. She is such a sweet girl, she was actually doing the Ultimate Reset when I met her and was so proud of her for sticking to her guns while we were all eating yummy Panera after the training event LOL.  Here is what she thought about Shakeology and what it did for her :) Enjoy!!

Why Shakeology?

I wanted to try Shakeology because I didn't know where else to turn. I did not have the dedication at first to change my eating habits, enough to see results at least. I tried a friends Shakeology and loved it. I figured it would help me start off my morning with a healthy breakfast instead of a grab and go on my way to class.

When did you start noticing results? How did you feel?

After a week I was feeling pretty good. I felt full enough to get me from breakfast to lunch without needing to snack. I was fully focused in my classes because I wasn't thinking about food! My energy levels went up and I was in an overall happy mood. I saw my eating habits start to change for my other meals, at that point I knew I had made the right decision.

Have you saved money on food by starting the Sheaology "regime"

Yes!! I save so much money on groceries. Before I started shakeology I did try to eat somewhat healthy. However, I would spend so much money on pre packaged snacks and grab and go breakfast bars. Now I usually buy 3 bananas a week to add for breakfast. Plus I am no longer buying processed food, going through a drive thru, or any of those bad habits.

Did you lose any weight on Shakeology alone? Did you workout while drinking it?

 I started Shakeology in March of 2012. By July 2012 I lost about 7 pounds just with Shakeology. At this point I was not doing a workout daily, just walking about 10 minutes, four times a day ( back and forth to class). Of course I started changing my other eating habits because of Shakeology and LOVED the outcome! After I saw that I could get results I started to workout again!

Brazil Butt Lift Masters

Brazil Butt Lift Masters has caught my eye! I have been wanting to tone down my workouts since I am in maintenance mode, I live in Cape Cod so being on the beach is a must isn't it. Especially since we have had the worst winter ever LOL. Ughh I can't stand the snow LMBO. So on May 6th I am going to start my Summer Slim Down Challenge and this wille be my program of choice. It is going to take 2 months for me to complete and I couldn't be more excited. This will be the perfect program for me to do after coming off of the Ultimate Reset. 

Here is what it is all about!!!! 

Launch your booty-sculpting sky-high with Leandro's advanced breakthrough moves. The 30-day Master Series program will not only help you perfect your booty, but also get the tight, sexy bikini body of your dreams.
It includes 3 innovative workouts:

1. Bikini Body. Sculpt sexy muscles all over with the stability ball and hand weights.
2. Higher & Tighter. Elevate your bum bum and trim your core with advanced moves using the stability ball.
3. Ipanema Booty. Shape a firm, round booty using heavier weights.

PLUS 3 TOOLS:

1. Stability Ball. Engages your core with every move, for your ultimate bikini body.
2. Sculpting Guide. Follow Leandro's fitness and nutrition plan to succeed.
3. Master Series 30-Day Calendar. Shows your daily workout, plus a hybrid option that includes the original Brazil Butt Lift DVDs.

FREE Online Support. Get support and keep track of you progress.

If you are interrested in signing up for my Summer Slim Down Challenge please contact me at jeannettealverio@yahoo.com

Or you can sign up HERE and order your program if you are interested but don't want to do the group!


If you would like to have me as your coach only you can sign up HERE


 

P90X Island Pork Tenderloin

This was by far my most favorite recipe out of the whole P90X journey that I was on in 2011. I would like to share it with those of you that are looking for new recipes. 

16 oz Pork tenderloin,
.5 tsp salt
.25 tsp pepper,
.5 tsp chile powder
.5 tsp ground cumin
.5 tsp cinnamon
.25 c brown sugar
.5 tbs fresh garlic, finely chopped
.5 tbs Tabasco sauce

1. Preheat pven to 350
2. stir together salt, pepper, chile powder, and cinnamon, then coat pork with spice rub.
3. heat oil in a skillet over moderately high heat and brown pork, turning, about 4 minutes.
4. Stir together brown sugar, garlic, and tabasco and pat onto top of tenderloin. place pork in a roasting pan and cook in the oven for 20 minutes or internal temp of 170. 

Fear - Do it afraid

I was reading my daily devotional this morning and it rang like bells in my ears! I couldn't believe it. It's like me week long devotionals have been speaking to me but this one was seriously yelling at me!

So I will give you a little overview of what I read this morning.
"Just because ordinary people take steps to accomplish extraordinary things does not mean that they do not feel fear."

"Fear does not mean that you are a coward. It only means that you need to be willing to feel the fear and do what you need to do anyway. It's one of my favorite phrases: 'Do it afraid!'"

Then Joyce Meyer goes on to ask questions if you are living a life that is full of fear and if you are fulfilled and if not find a way to be fulfilled. Her last quote that touched me was;

"Don't spend one more day living a narrow life that has room not only for you and your fears. Make a decision right now that you will learn to live boldly, aggressively, and confidently."

I mean this is some amazing stuff and it has done nothing but speak to me all day. I want to be a business owner, and I want to step away from the military life but I am so scared but I feel as if my calling is outside the 4 walls that I am living in now. 

I too also fear that I am going to gain the weight back that I have lost. I also fear so many things. At times I feel as if I am being safe.....so you feel that way? Do ever feel like you want to do certain things with your life, but are frozen by fear. All of my successes with the exception of weight loss and my marriage have been mapped out for me. Go to school, do the work, get the degree. Study and behave yourself and you will get promoted at work. Owning a business on the other hand....well not so much! It's scary but I have some tips that maybe you and I could take with us to succeed. 

I learned today about reverse engineering my goals. So what that means is take my goals and write down what I need to do to achieve them and research exactly what I need to do to get to where I want to be. If you feel like you can tackle everything on that list in some time than go for it! I am going to do the same! I am so excited but still scared! 

My measure of success.....it happened in my own time.

I was thinking this morning about my journey through my weight loss and it was not an easy one as I have said before. Many people look at me now and think that the way I look now is the way that I have always looked and cannot fathom a person like me being 25 pounds heavier than I am now. 

I help a few people where I work with their weight loss and they see the way that I eat and listen to what I say but they can't see that I have had a journey of my own to go through so I feel the need to talk about that so that you can understand where I came from and how I got to where I am.

I used to be the girl that would look at celebrities and say to myself....I want to be like her, I want to be like her. I want to lose weight.

I bought cleanses, I bought exercise DVD's that I never used and I bought crazy drinks that would promise me a better body. I didn't work out and I didn't eat healthy all in the name of creating a lesser budget on food. I wanted the results but I wanted them in a week just like many of you who are starting out. So there I was heavy and busting out of the biggest pants that I owned.......what a shame. All of those pills and cleanses didn't offer me anything in regards to my weight loss because they never TAUGHT me how to eat healthy. I can and will always say that you can lose weight with just eating and not with just exercising. I can promise you that one, but I prefer both because of the many benefits exercise has to offer that we can't see in the reflection of the mirror.

So When I started eating healthy and got really serious about making my change. I bought bars of all kinds protein bars, fiber one bars, almonds, protein shakes, and a LOT of microwave meals that are laden with sodium. I would barley eat fruit and what the heck was a vegetable? I ate corn and green beans and out of a can at that. After the scale stopped budging which was after a good 15 pound weight loss I started playing in the kitchen.

I lived in AK at the time so money was on my side. I invested in cookbooks, read blogs and researched about healthier things to eat. I had cauliflower mashed potatoes, tried the P90X pork tenderloin which was amazing and not something that I would normally eat in addition to signing up for a nutrition certification.

By trying all of these new things I figured out that I liked vegetables and that I could make them taste good. My nutrition certification helped me understand what good food was and how natural foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats are the ONLY way to lose weight in a healthy way and keeping it off. It wasn't about the newest fad that Dr. oz has out there to try out. No offense to his fans but if you follow him you are wasting serious cash buying ALL the supplements he wants you to take just eat REAL FOOD. Now I have seen food documentaries and marketing is solidifying the claims put in those documentaries so I am leaning toward having a 75% plant based diet. I am not ready to give up meat for good but personally I think that having meat once a day versus 3 times a day is good for me for now.

I have been where I would eat what the stars would eat, or what my beachbody coach would eat and sometimes there were good ideas there but I wasn't ready for that drastic of a change. 

What I am trying to say is, you have to go and move forward when YOU ARE READY. I can't tell you how to eat or what to eat you have to figure out that on your own, I say that because my palette and yours are not the same, what tastes good to me now may not taste the same to you. Only you know what you like and only you know what ingredients and things you enjoy.

I can and will always give you suggestions, recipes, and meal plan skeletons; but maybe giving up chocolate is a NO for right now but giving up full fat milk is so do that. Start eliminating the "bad" things from your diet and REPLACE them with good things and over time you will see a change. If you take small steps and they give you results push yourself harder to get that "ideal for you" lifestyle diet.

Find things that are healthier replacements for what you already eat like replacing beef meatballs with turkey ones or lacing your meatballs with spinach. Over time your palette will change and you will crave healthier foods.

Being healthy and at optimal health is not something that changes over night. If someone had told me that I would be eating the way that I am today I would have laughed a big belly laugh in their face and tell them that I was not going to give up my beloved PRican food, but I never had to, I found a way to keep the flavor and lessen the fat. Change happens gradually and it has to happen (with this because it is something YOU control) over time and slowly so that you can win and by winning I mean you being at optimal health :)

No one is perfect and perfection is not attainable. I am not perfect and do not pretend to be. I ate sour patch kids and I am going to drink margaritas tonight with my husband. BUT I do know that tomorrow I need to not eat candy or drink, exercise and eat healthy. Just because I had a drink doesn't give me the permission to treat my body badly by continuing to do so tomorrow. It is all about balance and once you find that in your own life and in your own way, you will then be good to go. When you stop wanting to look like someone else and LOVE YOURSELF enough to want to make your body a machine for you THEN you will succeed.

Until next time!