Why should you add spinach to your diet?

Spinach nutrients;

• Calcium
• Vitamine A
• Vitamine C
• Fiber
• Folic Acid
• Magnesium

Adding spinach will help you with your bone strength, control cancer, lower homocysteine, protect you against heart disease and age related memory loss.

Having a hard time to adding spinach to your diet? Try making some spinach cubes and add them to your smoothie

Buy fresh spinach from your local grocery store, wash and clean leaves and place in your blender

Add a little bit of water then blend until liquid

Fill an ice cube tray with the spinach mix and place in freezer. Once frozen into spinach cubes you can pop them out and use them in your fruit smoothie or protein shakes!

Quick and easy way to add some green veggies to your shakes!

Enjoy

Courtnie

There has been growing research over the past few years of certain foods and their added benefits! A lot of foods we eat day to day have tons of positive benefits that we may have not even known before! Here are a few superfoods and some reasons you should incorporate these foods into your diet.

Blueberries – have an increasing ORAC value and antioxidant benefits

Nuts – high in omega 3′s can help lower your cholesterol and lower your oxidative damage

Spinach – high in calcium and antioxidants this superfood is great for your bones.

Pumpkin Seeds – contain phytosterols — a naturally occurring compound with an reputation for cholesterol-lowering properties.

Goji Berries – Gram for gram, goji berries pack more vitamin C than some oranges and more beta-carotene than carrots!

Green Tea – Popular known for its antioxidant benefits Green Tea is a great beverage choice for overall health and wellness.

Cinnamon – full of fibre, cinnamon has an increasing effect on your metabolism, by lowering blood sugar. Is great to add to a sugary dessert!

Try adding these foods to your diet for added benefits!

Yours in fitness,

Amanda

The primary functions Vitamin B plays are to produce DNA during cell division, formation of healthy Red Blood Cells (RBCs) etc. More importantly, the B12 is responsible for energy supply in the human body. The natural sources of Vitamin B12 are Meat, Poultry, Milk and other dairy products, Eggs, and Fish.

It is especially helpful to women during there time of the month as RBC are essential to our energy.

Here is what Learn2Sweat suggests!

Most women worry that they are going to get too muscular if they start lifting weights. But the truth is, it very hard genetically as a female to increase your muscle mass!

Amanda and I can both vouch that it is a lot of work to put on muscle as a female :O

Time and time again I see women at the gym with there 3-5 lbs, dumbbell weights doing biceps curls……..Let me put this into perspective for you, the average purse that you carry probably weighs more than those 3-5 pounds, even a four liter jug of milk from you local shopping market will weigh more then 3-5 pounds.

The truth is putting on some muscle is going to help you lose weight, not bulk up!

Most people know that muscle burns more calories than fat but, just how much more? Over the years I’ve heard that a pound of muscle can burn anywhere from 30-100 extra calories a day!!

Tip #1. Things to watch when trying to put on muscle is, believe it or not: the birth control pill, this will increase your estrogen and or progesterone hormone levels and make it harder to add muscle.

Tip #2. I frequently get asked what to do first, cardio or weights, and the answer is; do what ever you would like to improve first. So if you are looking to improve your time or distance running, do cardio first. However if you are looking to in muscle mass do weights first. This allows you to put your greatest effort into reaching your goal. Even better yet split your workouts up, but this will require you hit the gym twice a day!:O)

So get pumped up, and let your muscles melt the calories away!

Seasonal French toast without the extra calories :O)

Ingredients

1/2 cup of Egg whites

1 cup of Almond milk (breeze)

6 Slices of Rye bread

1 TBSP of Vanilla

1/4 tsp of Nutmeg

pinch of Cinnamon

How To Prepare

 add the egg whites, almond milk, valilla and Nutmeg. then whisk together until completely blended. Then soak the rye bread in the mixture. Place in a hot, non-stick frying pan, or use some Pam Cooking Spray just prior to placing the bread in pan. Brown on each side, then add topping and severe warm!

 Toppings

For toppings without the added calorie count, try yogurt!! My favorite is the 35 Calorie source yogurt (desert line or plain vanilla) and then add some fresh fruit and cinnamon and “ta-da” Calorie wise, delicious french toast with a Holiday twist!! Mmmm so good!!

~Courtnie~

Running shoes have a shelf life too!

Stopping in at running shoe specialist store such as the Running Room, maybe a good idea before getting a new pair of runners.

They are professionally trained to assess the wear and tear on your old shoes and can suggest a new pair of runners that will meet you your needs in functionality and will help you choose a shoe that will provide your feet with the proper support.

Inspecting the wear and tear on my shoes, especially the soles, and also by feel. I can usually tell by small aches and pains that start in the chins, heels and arch of my feet.

I prefer the Sacony runner myself, it fits and my feet best, and I feel it is reasonably priced for it’s value! But again this is why seeing a specialists will help you in determining what shoe brand/model  best fits your needs.

Things to think about when choosing a shoe include:

• Do you  have high or low arches?
• Do you have wide or narrow feet?
• Do your feet invert or evert?
• Assessing your gait; such as your heel strike.
• Most important of all what activity will you be using the shoe’s for?

As far as shoes life span, it depends on the activity that you are preforming and what type of surface your on! For a runner, running on ashfault their shoes life will not last as long if you were running on trails! For me personally an average life span is somewhere between 400-600km.

Exceeding your shoes life span can lead to major problems if not caught early. Including shin splints, knee, hip and even back issues, Yikes. So remember to be nice to your feet and treat them to a new pair of shoes when needed.

Once you have purchased your replacement runners remember to slowly switch over, break them in gradually!

And now tie up your laces and get sweating!! :O)

~Courtnie~

Ingredients

¼ tsp of Cinnamon

¼ tsp of  Nutmeg

½ cup of Egg whites

1 Can of pumpkin (~800 ml)

¼ cup Almond milk (almond breeze)

1 tbsp Vanilla

¼  cup of cooking Splenda

How to prepare

Set the oven at 450

Mix all of the ingredients together

There is no crust to this pie so once you have all of the ingredients mixed, pour into a cooking pan.

I use disposable individual foil pans that are in different shapes for fun (from the dollar store) Makes about 10 tins

But you can use what every you would like

Cook for about 25 mins, until golden brown on top and check with a tooth- pic to make sure the inside is cooked as well!

Then you can add a spurt of low fat whip cream on top

And enjoy this “spoo”tacular treat!! Yum Yum!

~Courtnie~

Clean eating and a proper workouts will help you lose weight and feel great! Check out Learn2Sweat’s bootcamps and presonal training for more information!

Give it a try from the comfort of your own home

25 scorpion push-ups

30 squats with a medicine ball toss (suggested weight 10 lbs.)

35 v-sits

40 kettle bell swing (suggested weight 12.5, 15, 17.5)

45 weighted walking lunges (suggested weight 12, 15, 17.5, 20 lbs.)

50 bench hop overs

Repeat 7 times!

Remeber to do a proper warm up and cool down!

Now, this is always a hard one for people to understand. But, you need to eat fat to lose fat!!

Here are a few reasons why you should be eating about 20 – 30 % of your daily caloric intake of fats!

~ They’re great for your heart

~ Slow digestion of quick digesting carbs and protein

~ Good fats will lower your LDL cholesterol

~ Reduce you cancer risk

~ Reduce oxidative damage

~ higher in fiber

~ increase satiety, decreasing your hunger

and many nuts, legumes, oils have essential vitamins and minerals to keep your body functioning the way it should be!

Here are a few different forms of fats to try..

• Almonds, walnuts, pistachios, pine nuts, pecans, cashews
• Avocados
• Fish oils
• Salmon
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Stayed tuned for some healthy recipes!

xo,

Amanda

That is the equivalent of eating 34 sugar cubes….

This subject hits close to home for me, as  my home town Manitoba, has been named the “Slurpee Capital of the World” the last 12 years in a row.

And it just so happens that the incidence of diabetes is also the highest in Manitoba than anywhere across Canada, and is still on the up rise.

So lets put the sugars drinks down and find a healthy alternative!

Here is a simple and easy solution;

Ingredients:

• 1/2 packet of singles, crystal light (any flavor, there’s a lot to chose from!!)
• 2 cups of ice cubes
• 1 cup of water

Place them in a blender and tah-dah your very own calorie free, refreshing Slurpee!!

*They have recently come out with some great flavors of BCAA’s that you could supplement for the Crystal light, for a post workout slurpee*

*You can also add you favor fruit with a 1/4 cup of  ”Almond Breeze” Almond milk to give your drink more of a smoothie constancy and taste. This will also provide you with some nutritional value!*

My favorite Smoothie

• 1 cup of  ice cubes
• 1/4 cup of almond breeze milk
• palm full (about 3 Tbsp of shave almonds)
• 1/2 Large Banana (better if frozen!)

Blend it all up and this makes for delicious post workout treat!

enjoy :O)

~Courtnie~