Merry Christmas!

Here's to hoping you have a wonderful holiday!

**Blog posts will resume as normal on Wednesday, January 2nd**

Fit Friday

Topic Thursday

Here's a great visual for what 100 calories of fresh fruit looks like!  You can have a lot of yumminess for only 100 calories!!

Wellness Wednesday

Here's a great new way to pack a healthy lunch.  Put your salad in a jar...if you layer your salad as shown below, you can put all of your salad fixin's in one container.  Just shake it when you're ready to eat and there you have a healthy lunch!!

Tasty Tuesday

 Let's have some more fun with your slow cooker (crock-pot).  Check out these easy, healthy and yummy meals...we have one for breakfast, lunch and dinner!  Enjoy!

Maple Pear Walnut Oatmeal

Ingredients:
1/2 cup steel-cut oats
2 cups unsweetened non-dairy milk (you can use water instead)
1 pear, chopped
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
sweetener of choice, to taste (1/4 tsp stevia)

Toppings:
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
fresh grated nutmeg
drizzle of maple syrup (optional)

Directions:
The night before: Spray your cooker with some oil to make clean-up easier. Add all ingredients, except the sweetener and toppings. Cook on low overnight for 7 to 9 hours.

In the morning: Stir oatmeal and add sweetener. It may seem watery at the top, but if stirred, it should be a more uniform consistency. Top with walnuts and a sprinkle of fresh grated nutmeg. Makes 2 to 3 servings

**Please note this recipe uses a smaller slow cooker 1 1/2 to 2 quarts

BBQ Pork Tenderloin Sandwich

Ingredients:
1 trimmed 1 pound pork tenderloin
1/2 thinly sliced white onion
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
whole wheat sandwich buns

Directions:
Cover bottom of slow cooker with sliced onions, place tenderloin on top and cover with BBQ sauce. Cook on low setting for 7-8 hours (make ahead the night before for lunch). Take tenderloin out, shred with two forks and add back to sauce and onions. Serve on whole-wheat buns.

Balsamic Chicken and Spring Vegetables

Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 zucchinis, sliced into bite-sized pieces
2 yellow squash, sliced into bite-sized pieces
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 red onion, peeled and sliced into rings
1 head garlic, peeled, cloves intact
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons gluten-free Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Directions:
Use a 6-quart slow cooker and add the chicken. In a large mixing bowl, combine the chopped vegetables, garlic cloves, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Pour this mixture on top of the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours, or on high for about 4 hours. Serve with brown rice or quinoa. Makes 6 servings.

Motivation Monday

Fit Friday

Looking for a challenge?  Try out this move...a Down-Dog Split with Knee Drive. 
Try 3 sets of 10 per leg!

Topic Thursday

For most people, drinking enough water is a daily struggle.  If there is ever one recommendation I can give whether you want to lose weight or tone up--it's to drink more WATER!!!  I do hear complaints that water is too bland, too boring---but look at the pics below and tell me these don't look yummy!  Just add in some fruit to your next glass or take a pitcher, fill it with water and some fruit and keep it in the fridge! Play around with different combinations.

Wellness Wednesday

20 Active Ways to Be Social at Work

You’d like to mingle more with your co-workers, but every opportunity seems centered around eating and drinking. Don’t fret. There are plenty of ways to integrate your healthy lifestyle with your on-the-job social life, enabling you to boost your social capital while staying true to your health goals.
Studies show that healthy habits are strongly influenced by the people we spend time with, for better or for worse. Don’t let your co-workers’ negative health habits bring you down. Instead, be a positive role model for an active, healthy lifestyle and help build a corporate culture of health from the ground up.

Go For a Walk

• Invite a co-worker to join you for a quick walk instead of a coffee or smoke break. You’ll have a chance to catch up on work or personal matters, and return to your work stations reenergized and focusing on the tasks at hand. Even a 15-minute walk can do wonders for your mood and creativity.
• If you have a standing 1:1 meeting, suggest making it a walking meeting and reap the benefits of physical activity while getting the job done.
• Take the stairs whenever possible and others will likely follow your example.
• Take it one step further and organize a workplace walking group. Meet before or after work, during breaks or at lunch time for fun, fitness, and camaraderie.
• Bring your lunches to a nearby park or other outdoor area. After eating, enjoy a walk together.
• Visit a local bookstore, art gallery, or museum during your lunch break.

Team Training

• Join a company-sponsored or community sports league and have fun playing basketball, softball, hockey or soccer with your work team.
• Find a local fitness event, such as a 5K walk/run, walk-a-thon, or sprint triathlon and invite your colleagues to train together for the upcoming event.  
• If your workplace has an onsite gym or fitness classes, or if a nearby gym offers a corporate discount, participate.  It’s a great way to meet like-minded co-workers.
• Help organize and promote an internal fitness event: Climb stairs to benefit a charity or create a pedometer step challenge.
• Bicycle or walk to work. Find other employees who get to work on foot or on wheels and commute in together, if possible.
• Take 2-minute stretch breaks throughout the day together.

Just For Fun

• Organize a potluck, but bring a healthy dish to share and pay attention to your portion sizes.
• Play Frisbee® or freeze tag on your lunch break.
• Organize a weekend company day hike or volunteer to help organize active games at the employee picnic.
• Volunteer as a work team to plant trees, clean up a park or walk dogs at the animal shelter.
• If unwinding at a pub after work is part of your workplace culture, join in once in a while. Practice moderation, and if you don’t want to drink, order a sparkling water or orange juice.
• Invite co-workers to your home for a barbeque and a backyard Badminton tournament.
• Start an employee bowling league.
• Invite a co-worker to join you for an after-work run, bicycle ride, or game of racquetball.

Social Success

Developing good relationships with the people you work with is important, not just for your career, but for your health. Don’t let your commitment to good health stop you from getting to know your co-workers. Take the initiative to be active at work and encourage others to join in. When you inspire your co-workers to make physical activity a priority, you create even more of the social support you need to keep yourself moving.

**ACE Fitness**

Tasty Tuesday

Today let's talk convenience.  We're all busy and we don't have a lot of time to make dinner each night.  But with a little prep work, for 1-2 hours 1 day a week, you can have your meals taken care of and you control what your family is eating, rather than relying on fast food.

Here are some basics for doing Freezer Meals...

1)Make a list of recipes. Below are Crock Pot recipes
2) Then, make an ingredient list and go shopping (don’t forget your freezer bags).
3)To start, gather all of the ingredients you need
4) Then, chop all of the veggies first. Dice all of your onions, carrots, peppers, and mince your garlic.
5) Label your bags with the directions and
6) THEN add your meats (I trimmed my chicken breasts and cut in half to have a total of 4 pieces of chicken strips per bag).
7) Add your veggies.
8)Add your other ingredients.
9) Let out air, seal bag, and lay flat!
10) Freeze & Rejoice!
Pull the bags out of the freezer the night before you want to use them so they’re thawed when they go in the crock pot! And again, rejoice that you don’t have another huge mess to clean up!
Each recipe will give you TWO gallon size bags. Each bag is enough to feed a family of 3 (two adults and a child) at least one dinner, and at least two lunches, but possibly more.

Here are a couple of recipes to try...if you have any good ones, send them my way!!  I'll add more to this list as the winter months continue on!
Teriyaki Chicken


Ingredients:
-Medium to Large bag of carrots
-Red Onion cut into large chunks
-2 large cans of pineapple (undrained)
-4 garlic cloves
-4 chicken breasts
-1 cup Teriyaki sauce
Split between 2 bags, seal, mix, lay flat and freeze

Directions for Bags:
Add additional 1/4 cup sauce to crock pot.  Cook on low 6-7 hours.  Serve with brown rice

Sausage & Peppers
-6 Italian sausages (you can use chicken sausage too!)
-2 green peppers
-1 red pepper
-1 large onion
-4 cloves garlic, minced
-2 cans Italian diced tomatoes
-2 TBS Italian seasoning

Split between 2 bags, seal, mix, lay flat and freeze

Directions for Bags:
Add drizzle of olive oil, cook on low 6 hours, serve over hot whole wheat noodles or fresh french bread with a little mozzarella cheese

Motivation Monday

Being healthy doesn't have to be so complicated.  As the old KISS saying goes---Keep It Simple Stupid!!

Fit Friday

Topic Thursday

Today's Topic is Binge Eating...read below to see if you have symtoms of binge eating and how you can help control it.  It's very common and we all do it at some point but here's how we can conquer it!

Wellness Wednesday

Tasty Tuesday

Motivation Monday

I love this quote!!