Confessions of a Personal Trainer

I love my husband.

{who wouldn't...he's a hunk}

And almost as much as I love my husband,

I love ice cream.

{there, I said it}

I <3 Ice Cream.

So what does my amazing, hunk of a husband do?

He brings me home a big tub of it.

With a bottle of magic shell.

Yeah, you know, the stuff that makes the magic little chocolate shell as you drizzle it over your cookies and cream ice cream deliciousness?

{yeah, that stuff}

So, to prevent myself from eating it every night,

what do I do?

That's right. I head to the bathroom.

The moment I'm done with dinner and I feel that sweet craving coming on, I either brush my teeth or I use mouth wash.

Why you might ask?

Because after my mouth is minty fresh,

I'd rather go make out with my hunk of a husband than eat ice cream.

Try it.

{but get your own husband}

When Olive Oil is not healthy anymore...

It is common to hear people say that the veggies they saute' are healthy because they use olive oil.

Well guess what?

It may not be as healthy as you think.

When oils reach a certain temperature, they begin to break apart.
(see the chart below).

When they break apart, they release "free-radicals" and become no healthier than vegetable oil.

So unless you are lightly sauteing your veggies at low heat, you might as well be cooking with vegetable oil because it's cheaper and just as unhealthy.

Might I suggest exploring with some of the higher heat oils or even balsamic vinegar?!

Use the following temps only as a starting point.
SORTED BY TEMP	SORTED BY NAME
200's 225 F: Canola Oil, Unrefined : Flaxseed Oil, Unrefined : Safflower Oil, Unrefined : Sunflower Oil, Unrefined 300's 320 F: Corn Oil, Unrefined : High-Oleic Sunflower Oil, Unrefined : Olive Oil, Unrefined : Peanut Oil, Unrefined : Safflower Oil, Semi-Refined : Soy Oil, Unrefined : Walnut Oil, Unrefined 325 F: Shortening, Emulsified Vegetable† 330 F: Hemp Seed Oil¥¥ 350 F: Butter (Good Eats) : Canola Oil, Semi-Refined : Coconut Oil† : Sesame Oil, Unrefined : Soy Oil, Semi-Refined 356-370 F: Vegetable Shortening 361-401 F: Lard 375 F: Olive Oil (Good Eats) 389 F: Macadamia Nut Oil†† 400's 400 F: Canola Oil, Refined : Walnut Oil, Semi-Refined 406 F: Olive Oil, Extra Virgin* 410 F: Corn Oil (Good Eats) : Sesame Oil** 420 F: Cottonseed Oil† : Grapeseed Oil¥ : Olive Oil, Virgin** 430 F: Almond Oil*** : Hazelnut Oil*** 435 F: Canola Oil (Good Eats) 438 F: Olive Oil* : Rapeseed Oil*** 440 F: Peanut Oil† : Sunflower Oil† 450 F: Corn Oil, Refined : High-Oleic Sunflower Oil, Refined : Peanut Oil, Refined (Good Eats) : Safflower Oil, Ref. (Good Eats) : Sesame Oil, Semi-Refined : Soy Oil, Refined : Sunflower Oil, Semi-Refined 460 F: Olive Pomace Oil** 468 F: Olive Oil, Extra Light* 485 F: Grapeseed Oil** 495 F: Soy Bean Oil† 500's 510 F: Safflower Oil† 520 F: Avocado Oil, Refined	Almond Oil*** 430 F Avocado Oil: Refined 520 F Butter (Good Eats) 350 F Canola Oil: Unrefined 225 F Semi-Refined 350 F Refined 400 F (Good Eats) 435 F Coconut Oil† 350 F Corn Oil: Unrefined 320 F (Good Eats) 410 F Refined 450 F Cottonseed Oil† 420 F Flaxseed Oil, Unrefined 225 F Hazelnut Oil*** 430 F Hemp Seed Oil¥¥ 330 F Grapeseed Oil¥ 420 F Grapeseed Oil** 485 F Lard 361-401 F Macadamia Nut Oil†† 389 F Olive Oil: Unrefined 320 F (Good Eats) 375 F Extra Virgin* 406 F Virgin** 420 F Olive Oil* 438 F Pomace Oil** 460 F Extra Light* 468 F Peanut Oil: Unrefined 320 F Peanut Oil† 440 F Peanut Oil, Refined (Good Eats) 450 F Rapeseed Oil*** 438 F Safflower Oil: Unrefined 225 F Semi-Refined 320 F Refined (Good Eats) 450 F Safflower Oil† 510 F Sesame Oil : Unrefined 350 F Sesame Oil**: 410 F Semi-Refined 450 F Shortening, Emulsified Vegetable† 325 F Shortening, Vegetable 356-370 F Soy Oil: Unrefined 320 F Semi-Refined 350 F Refined 450 F Soy Oil† 495 F Sunflower Oil†: 440 F Unrefined 225 F Semi-Refined 450 F Walnut Oil, Unrefined 320 F Semi-Refined 400 F High-Oleic Sunflower Oil, Unrefined 320 F Refined 450 F

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Truth or Dare?

You should probably pick dare since I'm sure you don't want to know that it's true that it takes almost 500 crunches to burn off one beer, or one glass of wine or one shot of liquor (not including mixers).

Told ya you wanted to do the dare...

My first batch of homemade granola!

You should probably make some.

It's delish!

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 15-20
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 223.6

• Total Fat: 10.0 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 165.7 mg
• Total Carbs: 40.6 g
• Dietary Fiber: 6.0 g
• Protein: 4.1 g

Minutes to Prepare: 10

Minutes to Cook: 75

Number of Servings: 15

Tips

3 cups of quaker oats can be used instead of the 2.5 cups of oats and .5 cup of steel cut oats (but the steel cut oats have all the good nutrients in them, so try and include it)!

My favorite way to enjoy it is to mix it with vanilla greek yogurt! =)

Ingredients

2.5 cups Quaker Oats 

.5 cups Steel Cut Oats 

1 cup Almonds 

1.5 cups Craisins 

3 tbs Cinnamon 

1 cup Shredded Coconut 

1 tsp Salt 

.25 cups Coconut Oil 

.25 cups Honey 

.25 cups Lite Maple Syrup 

1 tbs Vanilla Extract

Directions

Preheat Oven to 250* degrees.

Mix oats, steel cut oats, almonds, cinnamon, shredded coconut, salt and craisins (the dry ingredients) together in a large bowl.

Mix the coconut oil, honey, vanilla extract and lite maple syrup (the wet ingredients) in a small bowl.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix well.

Spread uncooked granola over 2 cookie sheets (spray with non-stick spray if needed) and place in oven.

Cook for 1 hour, 15 minutes (75 minutes). Mix/stir granola every 15 minutes for even cooking.

Serving Size: Makes 15-20 half cup servings

I uploaded it to SparkRecipes.com HERE

Tabada-shmabada

This may leave a mark...

Confessions of a Personal Trainer

People assume that since I'm a personal trainer that I LOVE to work out.

 All. the. time.

And that I only eat chicken and rice and broccoli and oatmeal.

At. every. meal.

And other times, people think I'm either like "Jillian" on the Biggest Loser and I yell at people, or I'm like this workout "cheerleader" that jumps around the gym counting repetitions for people as they do the torturing exercises I have been scheming about all night...but that's another story for another day.

Well, guess what.

I'm not Jillian

{she is actually just a hired actress and not really a trainer...I'm sure I just bursted a lot of people's bubbles in one single sentence}

I don't work out all day every day.

And I eat more than just chicken rice and broccoli and oatmeal.

{I actually don't even really like oatmeal if you must know. I think it feels like snot in my mouth, so there}

{and plus, I like ice cream...in moderation of course}

Yes, that's correct.  Sometimes, I don't like to work out.

{actually, more often than not, I've been in a gym or studio for 5+ hours of my day and the last thing I want to do is stay there for longer so that I can get on an elliptical and go no where}

And no, I don't eat chicken and rice and broccoli and oatmeal every day, all day.

{that would be stupid of me}

There are days where I splurge a little.

And there might be a weekend that I splurge a little more.

But the difference is that that's where it ends.

I may not work out for a week, every now and then.

But then I get right back into it.

I may not eat all that great, every now and then.

But then I get right back into it.

Why?

{you might ask?}

Because I like the way I look and feel when I eat healthy and exercise on a regular basis more than I like eating bad food that makes me feel like crap and keeps me from wanting to get up off of my lazy booty.

And by God, sometimes (actually most of the time), we just have to stop making excuses, get some self-control, put down the wine and/or chips, put our gym clothes on and go.

Because the hardest part about being healthy is closing our mouth even when we really want seconds, and actually making it out the door to go to the gym.

But when we do, dang does it feel good.

Thanks for listening to my confession.

Dinner is Served...

Honey Balsamic Chicken

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 4
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 173.3

• Total Fat: 2.6 g
• Cholesterol: 65.7 mg
• Sodium: 367.6 mg
• Total Carbs: 10.1 g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g
• Protein: 26.3 g

Minutes to Prepare: 3

Minutes to Cook: 15

Number of Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 tsp of dried thyme 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp black pepper 1 tsp olive oil 1lb chicken breast 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar 2 tbsp honey

Directions

Combine first 3 ingredients; sprinkle over both sides of chicken.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook 7 to 8 minutes on each side or until chicken is done.

Transfer chicken to a platter; keep warm. Reduce heat to medium-low; add vinegar and honey to pan. Simmer 1 minute or until glaze thickens; stir constantly. Pour glaze over chicken. Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 chicken breast half).

Number of Servings: 4

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Portion Size Guide

How do you size up?