Monthly Archives: January 2016

If You Fail To Plan, Plan To Fail! Meal Prepping 101

By | Nutrition | No Comments

One of the biggest predictors of your success in losing weight or improving nutrition habits is based on how well you plan and prep your meals for the upcoming week! Spending less time meal prepping is associated with eating fast foods that lack nutritional value such as frozen dinners and packaged, processed foods. People who plan their meals and grocery lists and then spend a few hours prepping meals for the upcoming week are linked with having better dietary habits, such as eating more fruits and veggies! Everyone is crunched for time these days, so below I’ve provided some tips that will help you plan and prep your meals in a timely fashion!

Tip 1: Ideally, it’s good to eat every 3-4 hours, which breaks down into three meals and two snacks. When meal prepping, try your best to include a protein, healthy fat and some veggies! Be careful with the types of carbs you choose and don’t go overboard depending on whether it’s a high carb or low carb day and add the carbs when needed when you’re meal prepping. With every meal eat a fist size of protein and palm full of veggies!

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Carbs: There are two different types of carbs, fibrous and starchy carbs. It’s important to eat both of them to maintain a balanced, fat-burning diet.

Some great options for starchy carbs are foods like oatmeal, sweet potatoes, whole-grain bread & raw fruit. Options for fibrous carbs are spinach, broccoli, mushrooms & asparagus!

Protein: Quick foods rich in protein that will give you your daily requirement of proteins are foods like eggs, nuts, almond butter, and protein shakes. For dinner options things like fish, chicken, and lentils can cook in minutes and are packed with essential proteins. Think lean meat options here.

Snacks: Meal prepping is also needed when it comes to your daily snacking! Snacks should be about ½ the size of a meal & should be about 100-200 calories for women and 200-300 calories for men.

The perfect on the go snack: Pear and/or apples with almond butter.. can you say YUM? That way you get some protein and a healthy carb with some fiber.

Tip 2: Pack a lunch box or your own to-go box when you’re out for the day. When making a grocery list think about some things you could pre make to pack in a lunch box such as salads, turkey, cut up veggies & fruit.

Tip 3: Have quick and easy snacks around the house that you can just grab and go! Some quick, healthy snacks would be apples, bananas, almonds, carrots or anything you can grab when you’re running out the door!

Tip 4: Better yet, keep a stash of healthy snacks in your car if you’re needing a pick me up. Almonds are a great snack to have in the car!

Tip 5: Having ingredients ready to go to make a protein shake after a workout or a healthy smoothie for breakfast in the morning is a great way to get all your nutritional value in for a speedy meal!

Tip 6: After planning your meals for the week create a grocery list, & stick to it! If you’ve planned what you’re getting at the grocery stpre you’re less inclined to splurge and get unhealthy snacks or junk food that you don’t need.

Tip 7: Buy fresh fruit and veggies & cut them up ahead of time, placing them in containers in the refrigerator, that way cooking and packing lunches takes far less time!

So, the take home message is if you want to succeed in weight loss always meal prep your meals and snacks for the upcoming week so you don’t have to worry about slipping up on your diet. It’s a smart and safe way to be in control of your nutritional habits & will help you avoid unhealthy fast-food options!

 

If you have questions on what kinds of foods you should be eating when meal prepping or would like to come workout with us email at info@bonzabodies.com

Healthy Food Swaps, Lose Weight Fast!

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Let’s face it, no matter how much we can turn around our nutrition habits everyone has a guilty pleasure when it comes to junk food. Provided below are healthy food swaps for common junk foods that we all have craved at some point. After reading this you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite junk foods in a healthier, alternative form that will leave you guilt free and satisfied!

Snacks like chips, pretzels, and foods that can easily be grabbed in handfuls here and there can really take a chunk out of your daily caloric intake without even realizing it. Salty snacks like chips have close to zero nutritional value resulting in short-term satisfaction. Think about it, when’s the last time you had one handful of tortilla chips when out to eat for Mexican food?

Healthy food swaps to chips & salty snacks:

  • Sweet & Tangy flavored almonds or pistachios
  • Kale chips
  • Beef or turkey jerky
  • Apple chips
  • Bean & rice chips
  • Sweet potato chips
  • Lightly seasoned edamame veggie snacks
  • Homemade veggie chips (you can thinly slice almost anything and bake it into a chip)
  • Roasted chickpeas
  • Endive leaves for dipping instead of chips

We also tend to crave other carb loaded treats like pizza, mac & cheese, and bread & pasta-based dishes. Yes, they’re all delicious but they usually make you feel tired and sluggish after eating them because your body has to work in overdrive to breakdown and store all of the sugars that are loaded into these heavy carb foods.

Healthy food swaps to high-carb foods:

  • Lettuce wraps instead of taco shells
  • Portabello mushrooms instead of hamburger buns
  • Eggplant instead of sliced bread
  • Instead of French fries try sliced carrots/butternut squash
  • Instead of lasagna noodles try eggplant or zucchini
  • Cauliflower is a great substitute for pizza crust, mac & cheese or mashed potatoes!
  • Oatmeal pancakes instead of flour-based pancakes OR try oatmeal & cottage cheese banana pancakes! J
  • Instead of pasta try:
  1. Organic soybean spaghetti
  2. Spaghetti squash
  3. Sweet potato noodles
  4. Black bean spaghetti
  5. Shredded cabbage
  6. Shirataki noodles

Like foods that are heavy in carbohydrates, sugary treats cause a huge spike in blood sugar because of the release of insulin in response to sugar intake. This can cause a vicious, repeating cycle of spikes in energy and an increase in the sugar cravings followed with an abrupt plummet of energy. A healthier way to get your sugar cravings in is to find healthy food swaps that will still satisfy your sweet tooth without putting your blood sugar through a rollercoaster of dips and dives.

Healthy food swaps to sweets:

  • Almond butter over peanut butter
  • Greek yogurt parfait instead of ice cream
  • Smoothies instead of ice cream
  • KIND bars
  • Baked apples stuffed with oats instead of cobbler
  • Frozen grapes or fruit kabobs
  • Fruit and cottage cheese
  • A square or two of dark chocolate
  • Low sugar sorbet
  • Hot cocoa w/ skim milk or almond milk
  • Nuts w/ a little honey drizzled on to

Below is a video of Bonza Bodies’ trainer Kayla sharing some of her favorite healthy food swaps!

If you have any questions regarding a trial workout at Bonza Bodies or interested in our specialized nutrition plan feel free to email us at info@bonzabodies.com

The Secret To Reaching Your Fitness Goals Faster!

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If you don’t already have a heart rate monitor, you should probably drop what you’re doing and go get one before your next workout! Most trainers and fitness instructors are recommending their clients to go out and get one. There are so many benefits in using a heart rate monitor for your daily activities and workouts such as tracking your level of effort during exercise, see how many calories your burning and tracking your progress!

   A brief background on heart rate and exercise.

Your heart rate is measured by the amount of times it beats per minute. Your heart is a muscle and as you exercise more your heart gets stronger, just like other muscles in your body. The stronger the heart is, the more blood it can pump throughout the body to deliver oxygen to working muscles. So, when you are training your heart will get stronger and won’t have to work as hard and you can track your heart rate during workouts using a heart rate monitor. Measuring the rate of your heart during exercise can help you gauge if you’re pushing your body too hard or not hard enough.

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   Heart rate monitors (HRM) are a great way to reach your fitness goals faster and more effectively. Heart rate monitors are able to find and maintain the right exercise intensity. For example, if you wanted to maintain working out at moderate intensity (50-70 percent of max heart rate) for thirty minutes the monitor will allow you to see if you’re working out in that range of intensity. There are ranges in prices of heart rate monitors and some of the higher end monitors can even provide specific zone intensity and time requirements to reach your specific weight loss or performance fitness goals! Cool! Using a HRM is a more proficient way of making sure your getting the most benefit from you workout rather than manually taking your pulse or trying to guess what intensity level you’re at.

Another benefit of heart rate monitors are that they provide feedback that help prevent you from exercising too hard in a single sessions or from over training in general, which can lead to having to take days off & thus prolonging you to reach your fitness goals. If you are paying attention to a heart rate monitor during a workout and it seems much higher during or after a workout than you expected it can be a sign that you’re over working the body and should lower the exercise intensity and/or your body needs to rest!

HRMs also can help keep you in check and track your progress over time. Some monitors are able to display your progress over time and can help you identify errors in your training regime or if you’re right on track! Heart rate monitors also keep you in check because you’re wearing a device that’s always letting you know if you’ve completed your training goals or if you actually worked out at the intensity you set your goal for. It’s a nice way to be held responsible for your workouts.

So, what are you waiting for? Reach your fitness goals faster & get a heart rate monitor!

Now that you know how to tackle your goals faster, come and check us out if you’re ever in the Denver area for a great workout! If you have any questions email us at info@bonzabodies.com