Protein is the new dessert

Yummy Protein shake!

A while back, I was on SparkPeople.com logging my food intake and was surprised to see that my necessary protein intake was far below the recommended amount for my goals. In fact my "Pie Graph" was heavy in the carb department and slim in protein. I actually thought I was doing really well. I'm not a meat eater so I supplement with legumes and nuts. I am currently trying to build muscle so I decided to really get my protein consumption up. One of the most fun ways to add protein is a shake. My favorite protein powder is BSN Lean Dessert. LEAN DESSERT PROTEIN™ ideal for weight management and calorie-restricted/low-carb diets, producing thick, delicious shakes that will help to satiate you for hours unlike most meal replacements. Your body can't digest more than 25 grams of protein at a time and with 20 grams per serving, Lean Dessert fits perfectly into my meal plan. It has only 2-3 grams of sugar and zero aspartame! I enjoy a shake for my mid morning snack/meal or if I'm starving, before I go to bed. The thing that I really love about Lean Dessert is the flavors. It comes in Whipped Vanilla Cream Banana Pudding Chocolate Fudge Pudding Fresh Cinnamon Roll Banana Nut Bread Chocolate Coconut Candy I've tried them all and love them. I mix mine with almond milk and ice but you can add other ingredients like fruit. Someone twittered that she mixes a scoop of Chocolate Fudge Pudding with a little water and one tablespoon of organic peanut butter to make cookie dough. How great is that?! I recently tried the Chocolate Coconut Candy Bar flavor and it's really good. Even the Rockstar, who doesn't like coconut thinks it's good. The coconut flavor is not over powering. It's very creamy and if you feel festive, you can moisten the rim of your shake glass and dip it in unsweetened coconut. I purchase all my supplements at Vitacost.com because they are so much cheaper than other retail sources. Vitacost has so many fitness products and supplements for you, kids and even pets. It's my favorite e-tailer. The Retail price of Lean Dessert is $27.99 for 1.39 Pounds. Vitacost sells the same item for $14.99 a savings of 46%! Let's save you even more money though.. Before you go to VitaCost, sign up for a free Ebates account. Ebates is a site that pays you cash back on your internet purchases. Currently, Vitacost is giving 5 percent cash back. 1. Click here to go to Ebates. 2. After you sign up and are logged in, search for 'vitacost' in the search box at the top of the page. Ebates will give you a link to the Vitacost site and you can then shop away and get your cash back! Another plus is that Vitacost ships very quickly. I had my order in 3 days. Here's my favorite fitness model/guru Jennifer Nicole Lee talking about Lean Dessert and how she uses it to stay looking so great! Lean Dessert is also available at Amazon.com :)

The Body Beautiful Formula for Permanent Weight Loss!

Picture yourself with the last 'diet book' you'll ever need.

Have you ever wondered "What should I eat to lose weight?" If you have, then you are like almost every one of my personal training clients. It's very confusing when you start an exercise/weight loss/ training program . You are working on so many different new things, you'd like the eating part to be simple, right? I have found that my clients do best when the eating program is not too restrictive, too tedious, too difficult, has too many calculations.. you get the idea. It has to be liveable!! Also, as a trainer, one thing I never want is to see my clients lose weight then regain it. It's important that the eating plan be based in sound nutrition as well as something fits into day to day life. It has to transcend the weight loss phase and become a lifestyle. This is it!!! I recommend The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged: Lasting Fat Loss That's Better than Ever to my clients and to anyone who will listen. Clean eating IS the way to get the body you want, not only aesthetically speaking but also for health. What is Clean eating? Author, Tosca Reno defines clean eating as eating six small meals of good food. Yes.. six small meals.not just snacks or tidbits. Eating clean means you are fueling your body every 3-4 hours with healthy, non- processed food. You already know how I feel about processed foods!!! Let's think about how Sumo Wrestlers become so big. They starve themselves all day then gorge with huge meals before going to bed. Not eating all day slows the metabolism down so your huge meals are stored as fat! When you feed/fuel your body with healthy food, it boosts your metabolism so you are an efficient fat-burning machine. The clean eating formula is borrowed from the Physique Industry where it's practiced by 1000's of followers. The Body Beautiful Formula is as follows. 10 % training + 10 %genetics + 80 Pecent nutrition! You really are what you eat! I'm a huge fan of clean eating and on this blog you'll see that using tools like Michi's ladder and the Eat Clean diet are my favorites because they work. In Tosca Reno's book, you'll not only get all the menus, you'll get the shopping lists you need as well as recipes. It's very easy to read and understand. It is full of big, beautiful pictures and motivating success stories. One of my clients used the "Cooler plan 1" and lost 10 pounds in his first week. One thing you may not be used to is not being hungry. Eating clean keeps your insulin levels steady so you aren't overwhelmed by hunger. Nice!! If you are really ready for permanent weight loss and want the step by step program I and many trainers use for our clients, get this book! You can pick it up at Target or Amazon.com. At Amazon.com you can preview it. Let me know how you are doing with your clean eating!!