Chocolate Milkshakes Without Guilt!

Making shakes/smoothies is a great way to nourish your body. They're quick, portable...just generally very easy and convenient! 

B.U.T. - you can turn them into sugar-laden, fat and calorie BOMBS if you're not careful. So....

Here are the recipes to our Top 3 Chocolate Shakes. Each of these is meant to be a meal (and quite often, it's the healthiest thing we'd consume in a given day!) Drink up!

Chocolate Mocha

1 cup cold coffee
1 scoop Chocolate Shakeology
Add ice (to your preference), blend until smooth

Reese Peanut Butter Protein Cup
1 cup milk (dairy or non-dairy)
1 scoop Chocolate Shakeology
1 scoop Isopure Chocolate Whey Protein
1 TBSP all-natural peanut butter
Add ice (to your preference), blend until smooth

Veggies Shouldn't Taste THIS Good Chocolate Berry Shake

1 cup milk (dairy or non-dairy)
1 scoop Chocolate Shakeology
1 cup berries of your choice
1 cup spinach or kale
1 TBSP honey
Add ice (to your preference), blend until smooth

If you want to know more about Shakeology or need to purchase some, here is the link!

In Health,

Tim and Lindsay
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How to Survive Labor Day Weekend

It is upon us. The last holiday until Thanksgiving. The unofficial end of summer. The latter statement alone is enough to make people react like "FTW - I'm going ALL OUT!"

Well, in case you want to know how you can enjoy yourself this weekend without completely blowing all your progress out the water....here ya go:

1. Plan ahead with your workouts. If you aren't normally a morning exerciser, consider becoming one for the weekend. Most activities take place later in the day, so if you get your workout in first thing, you don't have to worry about it anymore.

2. Don't "save yourself" for meals. You know what we're talking about - the whole "I'm going to starve all day so I can eat whatever I want at the cookout tonight" mentality. All that leads to is serious binging. Eat normally, that way when you're at the party, you aren't ravenous and mauling hotdogs and hamburgers like it's your job.

3. Keep it simple with your food. Indulge a little in what you really like/stuff you don't have often. Easy tips to minimize the impact on your waistline: no buns, go easy with the condiments, keep your serving of the creamy side dishes small, and fill up on the veggie and fruit trays if available!

4. Watch the booze. No bones about it - alcohol is nothing but empty, wasted calories! But if you want a little drink, go for the "lighter" options and be sure to follow it with lots and lots of water. Booze dehydrates you like no other...

5. Last but not least - don't forget that it's perfectly, 100%, absolutely, positively F-I-N-E to just relax and let loose a little bit! Keep a moderation mindset and it'll all be good in the hood.

We hope everyone has a fantastic Labor Day Weekend!

In Health,

Lindsay and Timothy
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Nutrition 101: Part 2 - Protein

This is Part 2 of our Nutrition 101 blog series. Check out Part 1 here for an overview of how many calories to eat, what to eat, meal makeup, and timing of meals. Now ladies and gentlemen, we present Part Deux....

Protein is absolutely essential for life. While most microorganisms and plants can biosynthesize (check out that fancy word!) the amino acids in protein, most animals, us human-folk included, must get it through our diet.

What is typically the first thing people think of when they hear protein? We're willing to bet it is something like this:

MMEEEAAATTT!

Yes, tis true - los animales make up a good portion of protein sources: meats, poultry, fish, etc. However, other sources of protein include:

• legumes (dry beans and peas)
• tofu
• eggs
• nuts and seeds
• milk and milk products
• grains, some vegetables, and some fruits (provide only small amounts of protein relative to other sources)

To explain the difference between a complete protein and an incomplete protein, we introduce this lovely summary from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 

Proteins are made up of amino acids. Think of amino acids as the building blocks. There are 20 different amino acids that join together to make all types of protein. Some of these amino acids can't be made by our bodies, so these are known as essential amino acids. It's essential that our diet provide these.

In the diet, protein sources are labeled according to how many of the essential amino acids they provide:

•  A complete protein source is one that provides all of the essential amino acids. You may also hear these sources called high quality proteins. Animal-based foods; for example, meat, poultry, fish, milk, eggs, and cheese are considered complete protein sources.

• An incomplete protein source is one that is low in one or more of the essential amino acids. Complementary proteins are two or more incomplete protein sources that together provide adequate amounts of all the essential amino acids. For example, rice contains low amounts of certain essential amino acids; however, these same essential amino acids are found in greater amounts in dry beans. Similarly, dry beans contain lower amounts of other essential amino acids that can be found in larger amounts in rice. Together, these two foods can provide adequate amounts of all the essential amino acids the body needs.

How much protein you should take in depends on your sex, age, and goals. The USDA recommends that protein make up between 17% - 21% of your total daily calories (~46 grams for adult women, ~56 grams for adult men). In our case, where we do strenuous workouts on a daily basis, we consume much more protein than that. Feel free to email us (fitwithfarrar@gmail.com) for some personal consultation to help figure out how much protein you should be consuming.

SOOO....That might be more information than you feel like you need to know, so let's K.I.S.S. it.

• You need protein....
• You should mostly get your dietary need of protein through high quality/complete proteins, but can supplement with incomplete proteins, and....
• You should at the very, VERY least be consuming 46 (women) to 56 (men) grams of protein each day.

And that concludes Part 2 of the Nutrition 101 series - Part 3 will go into the supposedly dangerous waters of the land of CARBS!

If you enjoy our blog posts, please share with your friends and family! We are on Facebook too and always have motivational updates, workout and food pics, etc. Just click here and "like" our page!

In Health,

Timothy and Lindsay

Nutrition 101, Part 1: What and How Much?

This is the first of a series of blog posts related to nutrition. It seems to be the hardest piece of the puzzle, the most difficult thing for people to make lasting, lifestyle changes with. We'll start with the basics in this post: how much to eat, what to eat, the make-up of your meals, and the timing of what you eat.

How Much to Eat: Finding Your Caloric Range

This process starts with determining your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This number is how many calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day; the number of calories your body uses just staying alive. Age makes your BMR go down and not eating enough food makes your BMR go down. There are tons of calculators online that you can use, like this one here. For any mathematicians or scientists out there who get off on numbers, here are the actual formulas:

BMR calculation for men (metric)	BMR = 66.5 + ( 13.75 x weight in kg ) + ( 5.003 x height in cm ) – ( 6.755 x age in years )
BMR calculation for men (imperial)	BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.76 x age in years )
BMR calculation for women (metric)	BMR = 655.1 + ( 9.563 x weight in kg ) + ( 1.850 x height in cm ) – ( 4.676 x age in years )
BMR calculation for women (imperial)	BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )

As we mentioned, BMR is just what your body burns being at complete rest. Obviously, even really inactive folks do more than just stay in bed all day and night, so you need to add in an "activity factor" to your BMR. You can do that with these numbers: 

Little to no exercise	Daily calories needed = BMR x 1.2
Light exercise (1–3 days per week)	Daily calories needed = BMR x 1.375
Moderate exercise (3–5 days per week)	Daily calories needed = BMR x 1.55
Heavy exercise (6–7 days per week)	Daily calories needed = BMR x 1.725
Very heavy exercise (twice per day, extra heavy workouts)	Daily calories needed = BMR x 1.9

If you are unsure where you fall with activity factors, go with the lesser one. More often than not, you don't burn as much/aren't as active as you think you are. Once you have your BMR plus activity factor, that's the number of calories you would need to maintain your current weight. If you want to lose weight at a healthy rate of 1 pound per week, you would need to reduce your magic daily number by 500 calories, either by increased exercise or cutting it from your diet/caloric need. 

What To Eat & The Makeup of Your Meals

While how much to eat is just a simple numbers game, what to eat is a wee-bit more complicated. People choose to utilize various nutrition and dietary guidelines: some prefer vegetarian/vegan, paleo, etc. The USDA puts out this as a guideline:

This isn't "horrible" and is certainly better than the old pyramid; BUT - for our nutrition, we'd make a couple tweaks: make the grains much smaller, less dairy (or at least organic, grassfed, hormone-free dairy only) and increase the protein. Unless you have specific dietary guidelines (like vegan and the others we mentioned before), this is definitely a good place to start! 

You should try to have the makeup of your meals the same throughout the day: a good amount of protein, some wholesome carbs (vegetables are the preferred!), and a little bit of healthy fat. 

Timing of What You Eat

Hmmm....tricky. For the lay-person, someone just getting started, or someone just wanting to live a more healthy lifestyle, it can be pretty simple: eat the bulk of your carbs early in the day, eat when you are hungry, and try to have smaller meals more often rather than just one or two humongous meals. Pre and post workout nutrition is also important (Pre: slow digesting, fibrous carbs and lean protein; Post: fast digesting proteins and carbs). Now the reason we say tricky is because this is an area we are still researching ourselves, mostly about the concept of intermittent fasting. More to come on that in the future, but for now, just K.I.S.S. with the basic rules! 

Okay - how ya feelin? Don't get overwhelmed - it really is not that scary! Figure out your caloric intake for either maintaining or losing weight, eat the good stuff, and taper what you eat throughout the day. 

If you are interested in discussing this information on a more individualized level, let us know! We'd be glad to consult with you and develop a plan based around your personal goals and needs. Email: fitwithfarrar@gmail.com or message us on Facebook!

Part 1 of Nutrition 101 is done! Keep an eye out for Part 2!!

In Health, 

Timothy and Lindsay