Sweet Potato Protein Muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of mashed sweet potatoes 
• 12 egg whites
• 1/2 cup sweetener of choice
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 tablespoon cinnamons

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Mixed the mashed sweet potato with the egg whites, cinnamon, vanilla, and sweetner of choice. Pour into a greased muffin and bake for 20 minutes. 

Turkey Chili

                                                                                               Ingredients: 

• 2 lbs extra lean turkey
• 2 cans no salt added diced tomatoes
• 2 can tomato sauce
• 2 cups of shredded carrots
• 1/4 chopped purple onion 
• 4 tablespoon of organic chili powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

     Directions:

Brown the meat and add the tomatoes, sauce, and veggies. Next, add the salt and chili powder and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat. Let the chili simmer for 10 minutes and  then serve.

Makes 8 servings

Stickin Thinkin

Metaphysical writer Louise Hay reminds us, “The more you dwell on what you don’t want, the more of it you create.” Others simply pay no attention to their thoughts whatsoever, and like a garden that’s neglected; soon enough, weeds start growing. Eventually, the weeds take over your garden.

 Here are a few examples of negative statements and self-defeating questions:

• I can’t lose weight no matter what I do. Why can't I lose this last ten pounds?
• Why is it so hard for me to lose weight?

• I have a slow metabolism.

• Why can everyone else lose weight except me? It’s not fair.
• It’s not my fault because I don’t have good genetics.
I don't want to be fat anymore.

• I wish I could get rid of this gut.

• It’ll never work because I like food too much.
I don’t have the willpower to get lean.

• I would work out but I don’t have time.

• I just can’t get myself up that early to work out.

• I hate being fat.

• I’ll never see my abs.

• I hate cardio. 
I can’t.
 I’ll try.

All day long you carry on a mental conversation with yourself. Psychologists estimate that we think up to 60,000 thoughts a day and that 98% of these thoughts are the same ones we had yesterday – most of them negative. In a year, that’s almost 22 million thoughts! If Madison Avenue advertising giants can influence your subconscious mind to make a buying decision by repeating an ad a mere two dozen times (they can), then just imagine the impact that millions of your own thought commands have on influencing your subconscious mind – it’s staggering! That’s why it’s so important for you to take conscious control over your mental dialogue and program your brain with positive goals.

Fortunately, the one thing in life you always have 100% total control over is your thoughts. If you want to be successful in losing body fat or any other endeavor in life, you must master your communication with yourself. You must take charge of your self- talk, “police" your thinking, and literally re-program your brain for success. If you’ve cluttered your mind with a lifetime of “Stinkin Thinkin,” as Mr. Ziglar calls it, this may be challenging at first. It will take time to erase the old programming, but it can be done.

The first step is simply to become conscious of what you are thinking. Become aware of your thoughts. Bob Proctor, a master success coach and creator of the Goal Achiever program, suggests saying “NEXT” or “SWITCH” the instant you catch yourself in the middle of a negative thought or self-defeating question. Then, immediately replace it with a positive thought, affirmation, or an empowering question. Simply overwrite the old thought with a new one. Replace “I’ll try” with “I’ll do it.” Instead of “I should” say “I must.” Completely banish “I can’t” from your vocabulary. Soon you’ll find that your mind switches its “polarity” and the negative thoughts pop up less.

Here are some examples of how you could change the negative self-talk to positive self-talk:

• How can I lose fat and enjoy the process?

• What can I do today that will help me get closer to my weight loss goal?
• What can I eat right now at this meal that will help me lose body fat?
• How great am I going to feel after I finish my workout today?

• My metabolism is getting faster every day.

• I am getting leaner every day.

• I like the way I look.
I am 100% responsible for my results.

• Whatever it takes, I’ll do it.

• I like eating healthy foods.
I love working out.

• Training early in the morning is exhilarating.

• I have time for anything I am committed to.

• I like myself.
I can do it.
I’ll do it.

My goal:
I am developing clean eating and consistent exercise habits that are so ingrained into my lifestyle that they stay with me for the rest of my life!

Burn...Baby...Burn

Almost every conventional diet program ever conceived has one thing in common: Extremely low calories. Nearly all of these low calorie diets produce weight loss in the beginning. The problem is, none of them work for long – it’s physiologically impossible to lose fat permanently by starving yourself. The human body is simply too “smart” for this to ever work.

When you starve the fat, you also starve the muscle. When you starve the muscle, you lose muscle along with the fat. When you lose muscle, your metabolism slows down and your body enters the “starvation mode.” When your body enters starvation mode, fat loss comes to a screeching halt as your body tries to conserve its energy. When the fat loss stops, you either give up (and gain back the fat you lost), or you grit your teeth and drop your calories (starve yourself) even more. If you drop your calories even more, your metabolism slows down even more. And if your metabolism slows down even more, fat loss comes to a screeching halt again. Eventually, you always end up throwing in the towel because you can’t keep dropping your calories forever. It’s a vicious cycle. You just can’t win the very-low-calorie-diet game.


To lose body fat, you must create a calorie deficit. There is no other way. A calorie deficit means that you burn more calories than you consume every day. There are two ways you can create this calorie deficit: 1) decrease your caloric intake from food, or 2) increase the amount of calories you burn through exercise.

Both methods should be used, but of the two ways, burning the calories is healthier, more efficient and more permanent. That’s where the phrase “Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle” comes from: It means, don’t starve the fat with low calorie diets, instead, Burn the Fat with exercise. It also means keep your muscle mass intact at all costs with weight training and sufficient amounts of nutrient dense food. Losing muscle is unacceptable.

The secret to fat loss is to allow yourself to eat more (of the right foods) and use exercise to burn off the fat. Ironically, most people do the opposite: They slash their calories to starvation levels and exercise little or not at all. This slows the metabolism, decreases lean body mass and invokes the body’s starvation response. Exercise allows you to create the calorie deficit and burn fat without slowing down the metabolism.

It's amazing what can happen to your body when you put nutrition, cardio and weight training all together at once.

It’s tempting to believe that all you need to solve your excess body fat problem is a pill or diet shake. The supplement companies certainly want you to believe that. The truth is that exercise and good nutrition from whole foods are all you’ll ever need.