Ditch Empty Calories and Eat Real Food for Real Weight Loss

It's mid-December and everyone is already buzzing about their New Year's Resolutions to lose weight. You may be hearing a lot about detoxes or juice cleanses that will help to shed those pounds you gained over the holidays. But today we want to just stick with the basics: empty calories and exercise. We always hear so much about how to lose the weight the fast way but we want to talk about the reason so many of us are in this situation in the first place and what it would realistically take to lose the weight. NOT all calories are the same. In a day and age when so many foods we get are processed and packaged and picked up at a drive through window so many of the calories we are actually taking in end up being empty calorie foods which are calorie dense but are nutritionally devoid. Empty calories are the walking dead of calories. They pack all the punch calorically often have lots of sugars but are devoid of the fiber, vitamins and minerals that the body requires. All those empty calories that don’t truly feed the body also take a lot of effort to work off.

Here are some average calories burned after walking or jogging 1 mile:

100lb person: 70-90 calories 150lb person: 90-110 calories 200lb person: 110-140 calories 250lb person: 140-170 calories

Now let’s compare how much I would have to run just to simply burn off an order of French Fries.

1 order of small French Fries (230 cal) = Jogging 6 mi/hr pace for 2.1 miles 1 order of med. French Fires (380 cal) = Jogging 6 mi/hr pace for 3.45 miles 1 order of large French Fries (500 cal) = Jogging 6 mi/hr pace for 4.54 miles

I would have to jog more than a 5k race to burn off a large order of empty calorie French Fries!

To put that in context of bodyfat, there are 3500 calories in 1lb of fat. So if I wanted to burn off 3500 calories from those nutritionally devoid empty calories that I ate I would have to jog 31 miles.

We are just picking on French fries here, but you can replace this with any nutritionally devoid food. It is important to know the amount of calories your body needs daily and choose your calories wisely!

Now we can't sit here and talk about French fries all morning and not include an awesome recipe! So next time you have a hankering for French fries, make yourself a healthy version that won't hinder your fat loss goals. We found this amazing sweet potato fries recipe from Nom Nom Paleo!

Baked Sweet Potato Fries - via Nom Nom Paleo

Ingredients: 

• 2 large garnet yams
• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, melted (I just nuke it in the microwave for ~30 seconds)
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• Smoked paprika (or your favorite seasoning – cinnamon works well, too!)

 Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F on convection bake (or 425 F in a non-convection oven).
2. Peel the yams and cut them into even matchsticks. Toss the yams with the coconut oil, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika and place them in a single layer on a foil-lined baking tray.
3. Pop the tray in the oven for about 30 minutes, flipping the frites and tray halfway through. The fries are done when they’re brown and crispy on the edges.

Serves 4 people as a side dish.

Leave us a comment and tell us what food what your favorite healthy food swap is?

Thanksgiving Day Bodyweight Workout

3 days until the big feast! Things start to get a little crazy as we get closer to Thanksgiving day, we all get in preparation mode with grocery shopping, party planning and of course food preparation. We understand that it gets harder and harder to make it to gym when family is in town and you have a million things on your todo list. Last week we gave you 3 solid ways to avoid holiday weight gain and we really want to keep the momentum up so this week we are giving you another tool to arm yourself with. So here is a at-home workout to help you stay on track with your goals this holiday season. This bodyweight workout can be done in your backyard, garage or wherever you can find space. Start thinking about when your ideal time to workout would be and have a plan, morning before everyone is still sleeping is probably best and you will feel motivated and ready to start the day!

THANKSGIVING DAY BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT ROUTINE

3 Sets of each workout with 90 seconds to 2 minutes rest in between each circuit before repeating

1)Prisoner Squat (4 seconds down, 2 second hold at bottom) – 20 reps                      *raise your heels up slightly with a book or something equivalent if you are having trouble keeping from folding forward too much in your squat or you can't get low enough in your squat

2)"Happy feet" for 10 seconds then drop and do 10 push ups – 6x (Happy Feet - find a straight line to step over, one foot at a time forward and then one foot at a time backward, as fast as you can.)

3)Reverse crunches on floor - 20-30 reps

4)Forward lunge to a raised step-up to back lunge on the same leg then alternate to the opposite side – 20 reps per side

5)Jumping Jacks – 30 reps

6)Vertical Jumps w. stabilization (2 second hold at the bottome of the squat) – 10 reps

7)Planks – 30-60 seconds

8)Dive bomber pushups – As many as possible

9)Side planks – 30 seconds per side

10) Shuttle Sprint – 30 seconds

We hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving and look forward to seeing all of your foodporn photos on instagram! If you have any questions about the workout, leave them in the comments below!

What are some of your favorite workouts to do when you have a crazy busy week?

3 Ways To Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

TGIF! The week has almost come to an end and before you know it we will all be preparing our Thanksgiving feast! Do you have your menu and Turkey Day activities planned yet? For the past few years it's a tradition for us to wake up early to watch the Macy's Day Parade in Central Park, then go back home to cook and of course watch football. But that usually means we don't actually eat until late afternoon. Once all of our mess is cleaned up, the day is just about over. So this year we decided that we would skip the live parade and opt to watch it on TV that way we can have our Thanksgiving lunch and still have the entire day to do whatever we want! Movies, workout, walk in the neighborhood...the possibilities are endless!

Chris and I are still trying to decide what delicious food we want to eat on Turkey day. Last year we chose recipes from my Clean Eating Thanksgiving Pinterest board to make us a pretty healthy meal. We will probably do the same again this year because it all tasted really good and without a lot of guilt! I realize that we are lucky, in a sense, because we have total control over our menu and can make a healthy meal without the fuss of our relatives. The downside is that we are not with our relatives and we of course miss them a lot during the holidays! So I wanted to give you some clean eating holiday tips to help get you through day!

• Make some of your own healthy side dishes! Vegetables and sweet potatoes are pretty easy to prepare especially if you don't have to make a ton for the whole family. Find a few of your favorite holiday side dishes, swap out some of the less-healthy ingredients for healthier options {like replacing butter with coconut oil} and make a few portions just for you to enjoy!

• Choose your splurge! You don't have to feel deprived on Turkey Day in order to stay on track with your goals. Find one or two items that you REALLY love {like pumpkin pie with whip cream, a dinner roll, or stuffing} and enjoy a healthy serving with your meal.

• Turn your "I can't" into "I don't want to"! When your family or friends are lovingly pushing deserts in your face, tell them {and yourself} " I don't want a second helping of pumpkin pie" rather than say "I can't have the second helping of pumpkin pie". Telling yourself "I can't" will leave you feeling deprived and powerless, and will probably result in your giving in at some point. When you tell yourself "I don't" you are empowering yourself to make the decision because you know it will hinder your goals and are no longer restricting yourself because it is an active choice. Click here to read more on this topic.

I hope these tips help you get through the holidays without unraveling all your hard earned work!  Don't worry about what your loved ones will think or say about your lifestyle choices, just remember that you have to do what's best for YOU and your goals!

What are some of your tips for avoiding holiday weight gain?