Recipes

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Ingredients

1 pound of boneless, skinless thin sliced Chicken Breasts
1 tsp of Parsley
1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
½ cup Plain Non-Fat Greek Yogurt
Pinch of Sea Salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a bowl combine – greek yogurt, parsley, parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes and salt
Using a kitchen brush – brush the greek yogurt mixture on each chicken breasts and place in a greased 9×13 dish.
Bake for 20 minutes or until fully cooked.
Enjoy!

4 ounces of chicken is equal to one serving. This recipe serves four!

If you are following the 21 Day Fix or Insanity Max: 30, one serving is equal to 1 red and .25 blue!

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Main Dish

Asian Chicken Kabobs

Whenever I think of summertime recipes, I think of grilling. I love to fire up our grill in the summer! Since we are getting closer and closer to summertime, I have been looking for a perfect kabob recipe for the grill. This recipe blew my husband and I away. It was so good! It was sweet – but with a kick! One bite into these kabobs and we looked at each other and knew this recipe would be one of our new go to meals! These can be made gluten free, they are low carb and they are low calorie too! This recipe makes seven kabobs and each kabob is 106 calories. Hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

Ingredients

1 red pepper, one inch pieces
1 orange pepper, one inch pieces
1 yellow pepper, one inch pieces
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/4 cup of soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp of ginger, grated
2 tbsp honey
1 large red onion, one inch pieces
2-3 tsp sriracha
4 chicken breasts, chopped in one inch pieces
1 tsp sesame oil
7 wooden skewers (soak in warm water for 30 minutes)

Directions

Thread the chicken, peppers and onion on the wooden skewers and set aside.
Combine garlic, soy sauce or tamari, ginger, honey, sriracha and sesame oil in a small sauce pan.
Place sauce pan over medium high heat and bring the sauce to a boil.
Reduce heat to medium and let the sauce continue to bubble, stir often.
Remove from heat once sauce becomes thick like syrup. I cooked mine for about 6-8 minutes.
Preheat your grill to about 400 degrees.
Cook kabobs for about 3 minutes per side and then remove from the grill. These cook pretty quick since the chicken pieces are small.
Brush each kabob with the sauce.
Enjoy!

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Health and Fitness

Learning to be Confident

The last two weeks have been a mental struggle. We are going on our first vacation with Ben this weekend and it will also be my first time in a bikini since Ben was born. Thinking about myself in a bikini gives me mixed emotions. I feel nervous since my body looks nothing like it did before, yet, also excited about the progress I have made. I had a goal for this vacation and it was to wear a bikini. It wasn’t to be a certain size or to be a specific weight, it was simply to have the confidence to lay on the beach in a bikini.

I tried on some of my outfits that I am packing for vacation and even though they fit, I still didn’t feel as confident as I wanted to feel in them. I should be happy that my pre-pregnancy clothes fit. But honestly, after working my butt off for the last seven months, I was hoping they would almost be too big. I am 15 pounds less than I was before I got pregnant, yet my body doesn’t looks as fit or toned to me. Yes, I know I am hard on myself. I get up every morning at 4 am to workout, I eat clean and stay away from temptation. Although my main goal for weight loss was to be healthy, I would be lying if it wasn’t to look good too!

I posted about this mental struggle last week on my Facebook page and I was surprised how many people were shocked to hear that I struggle with this. I am the same as everyone else. We all make different choices but at the end of the day, our weight loss struggles are probably very similar. Just because you lose weight, it doesn’t mean you automatically love what you see in the mirror and feel confident. I have days where I see the new me and I have days where I see the old me. I nit pick myself just like everyone else does. I am no better than you and you are no better than me – we share the same struggles.

Although I struggle, I have moments where I feel crazy for ever struggling. I have worked really freaking hard. I worked really hard to lose 50 pounds before we decided to have a baby. Sacrificed many evenings to workout and go to the gym and many mornings to workout before heading to work. I had the willpower to say no to my cravings and say yes to clean eating. I also worked really hard to only gain 23 pounds during my pregnancy. I worked out with my husband, I did PiYo, I walked every single day on the treadmill on my lunch break. During the summer, my husband and I went walking every night after we got off work. We cooked healthy meals and I did my best not to have the mindset that I was eating for two. Once I had Ben, I immediately started working on my post-baby body by doing Body Beast, T25, Insanity Max: 30, all while nursing and eventually going back to work. I lost my baby weight within two weeks and worked on toning back up after that. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but come on…how can I NOT be proud of that?! I have had bad days, I have cheated and caved, but I have had more days on than off and everyday I strive to be better than I was the day before.

So, as I prepare for vacation, I have decided that I am going to choose to be confident. This is my husband and I’s first trip as a family with Ben. I don’t want to spend this vacation feeling insecure about the dimples on the back of my legs. This vacation is going to be spent soaking up the sun and enjoying every single second with my family. I can’t wait to see Ben stick is toes in the sand and take a dip in the pool. When we take Ben to the beach and to the pool, you can guarantee I am going to be rocking that bikini and feeling PROUD. I have cellulite, extra skin in my inner thighs, my stomach isn’t flat and I have stretch marks on my sides – but you know what? I am healthy and fit – and not to mention, 63 pounds lighter than I was two and a half years ago.

Being a mom doesn’t mean we have to cover up and be embarrassed of our bodies. If it weren’t for our bodies, we wouldn’t have our amazing children. My body gave life to my sweet little boy, nothing short of a MIRACLE. My body is far from perfect, but I have worked really hard for it.

This next week, I will be rocking my bikini on the beach and checking on my goal of confidently wearing a bikini as a Mom!

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Health and Fitness

Half Size Me Show

A few months back, I was interviewed by the Half Size Me Show about my weight loss journey! Really excited to share this with you all. My hope is that it inspires YOU to start a journey of your own!

Let me know what you think!

http://www.halfsizeme.com/171/

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Main Dish

Unfried Crispy Taco Shells

Up until recently, I had never actually made a taco with a soft tortilla. Growing up, we loved the crunchy taco shells – I mean, who doesn’t! Since I am allergic to gluten, I always put my turkey tacos on a soft corn tortilla, never flour. They always fall apart and I end up needing to eat them with a fork. Not a huge deal, but definitely frustrating!

So, I decided to try making a crispy shell – without frying!

Ingredients

Corn tortillas – amount is up to you!

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Place your corn tortillas between two damp paper towels and place them in the microwave for 40 seconds (or until very soft). I did 40 seconds for four tortillas, you may need to adjust the time based on how many tortillas you are cooking.
Remove from microwave and place each tortilla in the oven, folded in half over one of the wires on the oven shelf.
Cook tortillas for 6-8 minutes, or until desired crispiness. (NOTE: if these tortillas are too crisp, they will break when you try to fill them. I cooked mine 6 minutes, to the point they were crispy but I could bend the center enough to put my taco ingredients in them).

These were a hit in our house! I don’t know if I will ever have a soft tortilla again!

If you are following the 21 Day Fix or Insanity Max: 30, two tortillas would count as one yellow.

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Main Dish

Pineapple Chicken Skewers

This recipe was adapted and slightly modified from Cooking Light. This was a hit in our house! So simple to prepare and cooks in 10 minutes!

Ingredients

1 cup 100% Pineapple Juice
4 tbsp Rice Vinegar
2 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
2 tsp Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
2 tsp Honey
1 tsp Fish Sauce
2 cloves Garlic
4 Chicken Breasts (chopped in 1 inch pieces)
Wooden Skewers (soak in warm water for 30 mins to prevent burning)

Directions

Combine pineapple juice, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, sriracha, honey, fish sauce and garlic.
In a small sauce pan over medium high heat, bring sauce to a boil. Let boil for two minute and then reduce to medium heat for four minutes. (This sauce will reduce down and look more like a syrup).
Preheat Broiler.
Thread chopped chicken onto the wooden skewers. Ours made 6 skewers.
Place skewers on a lightly greased baking sheet. I sprayed mine with Pam Coconut Oil Spray.
Brush the skewers with about a third of the pineapple sauce and place under the broiler for 5 minutes.
Flip skewers and brush with a third of the pineapple sauce and return to broiler for another five minutes or until brown and fully cooked.
Once the skewers are done, you can brush them with the remaining sauce.
Serve and enjoy!

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Dressings

Sweet Onion Citrus Vinaigrette

Ingredients

1 clove Fresh Garlic, minced
½ Cup Sweet Onion, diced
1 whole Orange, squeezed
¼ Cup Olive Oil
¼ Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
¼ Cup Dijon Mustard
1 tbsp Honey
1 tsp Sea Salt

Directions

Place all ingredients in a blender.
Blend until smooth.
Enjoy!

I loved this dressing. For lunches this week, I have put this dressing over a bed of kale and cabbage with shredded carrots, grilled chicken and almond slices. Also very good over a bed of spinach and arugula and then topped it with cherry tomatoes, reduced fat feta cheese and a quarter of an avocado!

This dressing serves 11 and one serving size is 2 tablespoons (or 1 orange container if you are following the fix!).

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Health and Fitness

Don’t Put A Deadline on Your Body

We often put deadlines on our bodies. Wanting to lose a certain number of pounds by a certain date…and when that date nears and we aren’t to our goal, we give up.

Rather than being on a diet for a month, make it a healthy lifestyle. Lifestyles have no end date. If you lose 30 pounds, you will have to work the rest of your life to keep it off. We don’t get to lose weight and then go back to our old habits. If you want to lose weight AND keep it off, you have to work at it forever.

Every. Single. Day.

Weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. There is no prize for whoever loses weight the quickest. You didn’t gain the weight overnight, so don’t expect to lose it overnight. I see so many of my challengers and friends beating themselves up when they “only” lose a pound.

HELLOOOO! A pound is AWESOME!!!! Be proud of yourself every single step of the way and remember, it is not a race. Rather than trying to lose weight quick, focus on creating healthy habits that will last a lifetime.

Create a healthy lifestyle and the weight will take care of itself.

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Health and Fitness

Time Is Not An Excuse

I get a lot of messages of people congratulating me on MY success…while telling me why they can’t do the same.

Not enough time. Too tired. Unsupportive spouse. Don’t have time to make it to the gym. Kids are picky eaters. On a tight budget. Too busy. I could go on…

Ready for some tough love?

News flash! We all have the SAME amount in the day. The difference between us? The way we CHOOSE to spend our time.

I work full time. I am a fitness coach and run my own business on the side. I run multiple fitness accountability groups each month. I am a Mom. I am a wife. I wake up at 4 AM to workout every single day. I cook breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. I meal plan and prep every week. I eat clean and follow a meal plan every day.

You are busy? Join the club. Do you think you are the only one who is busy?

This is a LIFESTYLE. Life goes on and you need to learn how to live a healthy lifestyle regardless of what you have going on. I made a lot of sacrifices to get to where I am and I will continue to make those sacrifices for the rest of my life.

Make the time to workout. Make the time to meal prep. Make the time to eat clean. Find people who support your journey and encourage you along the way. Lastly…BELIEVE you can do it.

We have the same 24 hours. If you want what I have, choose to spend your time differently. If I can do it, trust me, you can too.

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Health and Fitness

What Do You Hate More?

What do you hate more?

Most days I like to workout, but days like today, I hate it. I woke up with a headache…one I have had for days. I could have easily shut off my alarm and gone back to bed. As much as I can hate exercising, I hate one thing MUCH MUCH more.

Being overweight.

I never want to be that 215 pound girl I once was. Never, ever, ever. Skipping workouts, cheating my meal plan…those are things that old me would have done. 30 minutes of exercise seems like nothing in comparison to being overweight.

Everyday, I will choose exercise over extra pounds. 30 minutes a day is a small sacrifice I will gladly make to be healthy, happy and confident.

What do YOU hate more?

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Health and Fitness

5 Day Coaching Preview

I am sure you know by now, I am a Beachbody Coach. You see my challenge group invites, the programs I am doing and my personal progress. But, have you ever wondered what exactly I do as a coach?

Before I signed up, I had NO CLUE what a Beachbody Coach did. If I am completely honest, I thought it was a pyramid and a get rich quick scam. I wanted nothing to do with it, mainly because I had no idea what it was all about.

One day back in November 2013, I saw a girl on Instagram post about the coaching opportunity. She mentioned that she had been coaching for about 5 months, was earning income and inspiring others and wanted to know if there was anyone who wanted to join her team. For some reason, I decided to leave my email in the comments and see what happened! She emailed me and later that day, I was an official Beachbody Coach. She made me feel comfortable, told me all about the team support, the training’s and made me feel like she was really genuinely wanting to help me have the same success she did in the business. At this point, I had lost 50+ pounds and P90X was one of the programs that helped me lose weight. I went to school for Finance and Economics and wanted a way to do something with my passion for fitness and health without having to go back to school for a different degree. Beachbody gave me that opportunity. Also, I really wanted to help others get healthy. It changed my life and I really wanted to help others do the same! I will be honest though, I had low expectations for coaching. I knew it would be worth it because just by coaching, I would be saving over $20 a month on Shakeology due to the coach 25% discount. But more than that, I was hoping to just make an extra $50 or so to help out with my upcoming wedding and to just have some extra spending money. I had no idea where coaching would take me.

Flash forward a year and a half and I am now a Two Star Qualifying Beachbody Coach with my own team called Fearlessly Fit. My team has grown to over 70 coaches and is growing by the day. My team of coaches is like a family. I trust them with things I don’t tell too many people. We support one another, give each other tips and advice, hold one another accountable and encourage one another. Most of them are complete strangers, yet I feel incredibly close to them. My team is a part of a much larger team with over 3,000 coaches. That team is just like Fearlessly Fit – supportive, motivating, encouraging…and like family. On top of all of that, I am now doubling the income I make at my full time corporate job. Never in a million years did I think that would be possible with Beachbody.

Beachbody has given me the ability to turn my passion for fitness and health into a business. It has given me the opportunity to pay it forward and inspire other women to get healthy and change their lives. Losing weight changed me. If I can help just ONE other person lose weight and feel as good as I do, it makes me feel like my journey was worth it and it gives me purpose. This is what I was meant to do.

I still work my full time job. I am a mom and a wife. I take care of the household, cook dinner, meal prep and still get in my workouts every morning at 4 AM. Coaching is something I have been able to do from my own living room in my spare time. So many people tell me they don’t have time to be a coach. How much time does it take? That is what I always want to ask them! Coaching is different for everyone. Some coach for the discount, some coach as a hobby and others do this as a full time job. The is the beauty of being a business owner – you get to set your schedule. If you want to work and make this a full time job, you can do that. If you want to coach just enough to get your shakeology paid for, you can do that too!

My only regret is that I didn’t sign up sooner. I wish I would have known about what this opportunity was REALLY about. I would have signed up a LONG time ago and would be a lot further along in my business. This is why I want to share this opportunity with you. I want to tell you about the ins and outs of coaching. How does a coach make money, how does a coach advance in rank, what are the different ranks, what are the perks, what is the team structure like, what kind of trainings are available and how you will get started.

I am hosting a 5 Day Coaching Preview starting on June 1st and going until June 5th. No strings attached, just a way for you to see what this coaching thing is about and see if it is something that would interest you. Maybe you find coaching is exactly what you want to do or maybe you find you want nothing to do with it. Either way – come join me! Bring your questions, your concerns and your hesitations and let’s address them! Other coaches from my team will be joining too so you can get a couple different perspectives on coaching!

Hope to see you there!

Head over to my Facebook page to see the 5 Day Coaching Preview Video!

click here to join the 5 day coaching preview

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Health and Fitness

When In Doubt, Sweat It Out!

I have always been one that finds every excuse in the book to NOT workout when I am sick. Sometimes it is best to give your body rest, but other times, its best to just sweat it out. I started getting sick last week and it started with a stomach ache for a couple days and then it moved on to a scratchy throat and ended with nasal congestion. I took Sunday through Wednesday off. I actually had all intentions of waking up early yesterday and working out. When my alarm went off at 4 AM, I rolled over to my husband and said, “Do you think I should just sleep in to give my body rest?”. Meaning – I am really tired, please justify my sleeping and and skipping my workout.

Do you do that? Look for others to justify your excuses?

I am the queen of it. If my husband says its ok, I feel better about my excuse. At the end of the day, whether you justify your excuses or not, you are still letting your excuses win. Another example. The other night, I was craving Tim’s Jalapeno Chips SO bad. As you know, I am following the 21 Day Fix Extreme plan right now and unfortunately, chips aren’t allowed! Before my husband left for the store, he asked me if I wanted him to grab the chips. I said no, but was secretly hoping he would get them anyways. Thankfully, he didn’t! But once again, even if he would have bought them, it doesn’t make it ok.

My goals are my own, not my husband’s or anyone else’s. I need to do what is best for me and have enough willpower to stand up against my excuses. I can’t rely on someone else to tell me no!

So, last night, I committed to working out in the morning. I laid my workout clothes out, had my DVD ready and even put my scoop of E&E in a cup. I got up at 4 AM today and had one of the best workouts I have had in a long time. I had to pause a few times to blow my nose, but overall, the workout made me feel much better than I had been feeling previously. Felt good to SWEAT out this cold. Burned over 400 calories before 5 AM and I felt really proud that I didn’t let my excuses win.

We are all tired. We all want to sleep in. But, we need to remember to make our health and our goals a priority every single day. We are important!

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