IMG_3466

I’m So Tired of Lettuce – Recipes

Often when you think of eating healthy you automatically think of salads.  They care a quick and easy way to get your vegetables in and can be a really satisfying meal.  But, speaking from experience, they can get old really fast.  There has been so many times that I literally cannot eat another piece of lettuce because I am so burnt out on it.

I have put together a few lettuce-free salad recipes that you can throw together, have a healthy meal and keep yourself from going into lettuce overload.  Plus, they will give you some ideas to help you mix and match to create your own salad recipes!

 

Spinach is a great substitute for lettuce.  Not only is it a different texture and flavor (by the way, fresh spinach does not taste the same as canned or cooked spinach.  If you haven’t yet, definitely give it a try, you may be surprised at how much you like it.)

Spinach Salad with Turkey

By Kathy Smith

  • 8 oz. washed leaf spinach, stems removed
  • 1 small red onion, finely sliced
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
  • 12 oz. cooked turkey breast meat

1/2 cup Dressing:

  • 4 Tbsp. orange juice
  • 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
  • 2 tsp. olive oil
  • 1-2 small garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Whisk together all dressing ingredients and set aside. In a large bowl, combine all salad ingredients. Drizzle dressing on top and toss gently. Serves 4.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Nutritional Information: (per serving)

Calories: 193

Protein: 22 g

Fiber: 2 g

Carbs: 12 g

Fat Total: 8 g

Saturated Fat: 2 g

 

Experimenting with different greens such as cilantro, parsley or even mint is a good way to shake up your salad.  Not only do they pack a burst of flavor but they are great at detoxing your body, giving your fresh breath and giving you some valuable nutrients.

Asian Beef Salad

  • 2 oz. lean sirloin steak, grilled or broiled
  • 1/4 cup cilantro leaves (or mint, if you prefer)
  • 1/4 cup red pepper, sliced fine
  • 1/4 cup carrot, shredded
  • 1 cup baby greens
  • 1 scallion, sliced on an angle
  • 1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 lime

Before grilling or broiling, thinly slice steak against the grain. Gently toss all ingredients into a bowl. Squeeze a bit of lime over salad, then drizzle with olive oil and soy sauce. Gently toss to coat. Season to taste with any of the optional seasonings. Serves 1.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 5-10 minutes

Nutritional Information: (per serving)

Calories: 252

Protein: 14 g

Fiber: 14 g

Carbs: 13 g

Fat Total: 17 g

Saturated Fat: 3 g

 

Who says salads only have to have vegetables?  Well actually nobody considering tomatoes are a fruit…but you know what I mean!  Making a salad with fruit along with vegetables or peppers is a great way to add some serious flavor to your diet.

Spicy Mango Salad

  • 2 medium mangoes, peeled, cut into half-inch cubes
  • 1/2 small red onion, minced
  • 1/2 small jalapeno or serrano chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced
  • 4 Tbsp. orange juice
  • 2 Tbsp. minced fresh cilantro leaves
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 8 cups baby greens, washed and thoroughly dried

Toss mangoes, onion, chile, juice, cilantro, and salt to taste in medium bowl. Set aside, stirring occasionally, until flavors blend, about 10 minutes.

Place greens in large bowl. Drizzle remaining olive oil over greens and toss to coat. Add mango mixture and toss to combine. Divide salad among four dinner plates. Serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.

Great with veggie burgers!

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Nutritional Information: (per serving)

Calories: 126

Protein: 2 g

Fiber: 5 g

Carbs: 23 g

Fat Total: 4 g

Saturated Fat: < 1 g

 

 

Here is one that is mainly non-greens:

Mediterranean Tomato and Cucumber Salad

  • 2 medium tomatoes, diced
  • 1 cup cucumber, diced
  • 1/4 cup chopped scallions
  • 1/4 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl; toss gently to mix. Serve within 1 hour. Makes 4 servings.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Nutritional Information: (per serving)

Calories: 88

Protein: 1 g

Fiber: 1 g

Carbs: 5 g

Fat Total: 8 g

Saturated Fat: 1 g

 

 

This recipe I learned from my sister who would eat salads all the time.  It is what I call a taco salad.

  • ¼ cup of ground taco meat
  • 8 oz of Mixed greens
  • 1 tomato diced or quartered
  • 1 avocado
  • 1/4 cup carrot, shredded
  • 2 Tbsp. grated cheese
  • Salsa
  • Beans (optional)

Mix greens, carrots, and avocado together.  Top with meat, cheese and salsa.

Sorry, no nutritional information available.

Warm asparagus salad with oranges

Ingredients:

1 lb. fresh asparagus, peeled, cut into 2 inch pieces

1 fresh orange, peeled and sectioned

2 Tbsp. Mrs. Dash® Tomato Basil Seasoning Blend

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Instructions:

Heat a 9 inch sauté pan to medium heat. Add olive oil. When hot, add and toss asparagus. Cook 1 minute, tossing every 30 seconds. Remove from heat, and toss with Mrs. Dash® Tomato Basil Seasoning Blend and orange sections.

 

Tired of vegetables altogether, not a problem.  Just throw together a quick bean salad and you are ready to go!  Oh and be sure to get Garden 7 to make up for what you aren’t eating!!

Black Bean Salad

  • 2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 can corn, rinsed and drained
  • 1 small red pepper, chopped
  • 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
  • 2 medium limes, juiced

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and enjoy!

Preparation Time: less than 10 minutes

Nutritional Information: (per serving)

Calories: 98

Protein: 5 g

Fiber: 5 g

Carbs: 16 g

Fat Total: 2 g

Saturated Fat: 0 g

 

 

These are just a few recipes.  There are endless ways to create healthy and delicious salads.  I hope that you see these and start trying different things together to create your perfect salad.

If you already have a favorite please feel free to share!!

Leave a comment
Posted in Food and Nutrition, Healthy Recipes | Tagged , ,
images

What is Your Why?

What is your why?

Okay, so maybe you have no idea what I am talking about.   To find your why, you have to ask yourself why you are going after a goal.  Why do you want to reach your fitness goals?  Why do you want to have your own successful business?

Being successful at something requires you to set goals and work towards them.  The thing is, it is very easy to get distracted and to fall of course when you don’t really know the reason that you are doing them.

For example for many, many years, I wanted to lose weight.  I didn’t really have a reason other than, I was fatter than everyone else around me and I had been “losing weight” since I was about 7 years old.  Obviously that wasn’t a great reason for me to lose weight.  I had to actually figure out why it was important to me to lose weight.

Now I can tell you that now I don’t want to just lose weight, I want to be healthy.  My why for doing so is because I want to live to be older than 35 so that I can spend time with my family.  I want to be healthy so that I can encourage others who have gone through the same struggles as me.  I want to be healthy because my body is a temple, I no longer want it to look like a garbage dump is growing inside of me about to spill out. To think about selfish it is of me to be fat really upsets me. Yours more than likely is not the same as mine.  However, it is important to find out the reason you really want something.  Get down to the root of that desire.

If you truly know why you want something, it makes it much easier to get.  I’m not saying that it will be super easy and just by knowing why you really want to reach your goal will make it just happen.  Nope, I am not saying that at all!

What I am saying is that when you have your goal as a target your why is the momentum that pushes you towards it and keeps you on track.

To find out what your why really is, just ask yourself “why do I want this?”

Than ask yourself again, and again and again, continuously digging deeper and deeper until you get to the root of your reason.

That is your assignment from me today.  Okay, I know you don’t like homework, but this is important so I want you to set aside about an hour sometime today and do this exercise:

 

Why do I want to (write your goal here)?

 

And why do I want that?

­­­­

And why do I want that?

­­­­

And why do I want that?

­­­­

And why do I want that?

­­­­

Now, you should have your why, if not you should be pretty close.  If you do, I would love to hear what it is.  I am going to be honest and let you know that I will use it to encourage and inspire you if you do share it with me.  So please share!  You can either comment below, share it on our Facebook page here or, if you would like it to be just between us, email it to me.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

Leave a comment
Posted in Motivation, Success tips | Tagged , , ,
change-is-scary

Knock Knock Knocking on Change’s Door

There has been a lot of change right at my doorsteps lately.  Between moving and starting a new healthy, fit and sexy life, and changing careers, I see change all around me.

At first, I was so pumped up.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I still am, but at the same time I am starting to get fearful.  Of what, I have no idea.  I have to assume that I am fearful of change.  I just feel a nervous feeling in my stomach.  I feel hesitation in the back of my mind.  I almost got to the point of thinking, “maybe I am making the wrong decision.” I don’t have any reason to think that I am making the wrong decision about any of it but that thought keeps creeping up.

Thinking about and trying to pinpoint where all of these thoughts and anxiety is coming from, I started to realize that this is a pattern for me.  Just as my life is on the brink of changing, I start getting scared and normally I back out of what I am planning.  I even have this pattern with weight loss.

Countless times, I find myself having some sort of success with my weight loss program, I start seeing changes, get really excited, and then I start failing.  I literally start sabotaging my efforts.

I don’t do this consciously.  I don’t sit there and say to myself, “oh, you are doing so well, so now I have to stop it!”  Nope.  It just happens.  I start getting excited and that excitement turns to anxiety and, well, it’s just a nasty spiral.

I realize now that I have literally been doing this my entire life.

Do you ever get like this?  Do you ever feel like change is coming right around the corner and then all of a sudden it is gone?

I truly believe that it is an ugly little creature called fear.  Fear of the unknown.

We know what it feels like to be overweight, out of shape and unhealthy, but we don’t know what it feels like to be in shape, healthy and at a normal weight (at least I don’t).  So, even though it may be very uncomfortable in our own skins right now (by the way, I totally think that you should love yourself and feel sexy and make sure you feel sexy at every size) and we can imagine how great it will be to be fit and healthy, but in actuality we don’t.  We don’t really know how it will feel, it is different, something unknown.  Well, my friend, the unknown is scary.

Basically we have to make a decision either stay the same – look the same and feel the same, or make a change that could possibly leave us feeling the same (meaning you’ve lost weight are much healthier and you still feel uncomfortable in your own skin) or could make us feel so much better.  Honestly, I have never heard of anyone saying, “Oh, I lost weight, got healthy and I feel HORRIBLE.”  Uh uh, never heard it!

Once you make that decision, I am not going to lie, you will probably still come to the edge of comfort, probably more than once, but you just have to press through and remember why you are making changes in your life.  Remember why you are getting healthy, why you want to feel better about yourself.

I am making the commitment right here, right now to you that I will continue to push through, no matter how uncomfortable it gets.  How about you?  Are you ready to do the same?

Let me know in the comments below or on facebook by clicking here.

Leave a comment
Posted in Faith, Success | Tagged , , ,
Torres_del..Chile-1

I’m Never Going to Make It!

Yesterday as I was having my Bible study I came across a verse that stuck out to me but I kept thinking, that doesn’t apply to me anymore.  I don’t have that problem any longer.  The verse was Proverbs 20:1 which says, “Wine is a mocker, Strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”

In my teenage years, especially in my late teenage years, I was a heavy drinker.  In fact, I would have a bottle of tequila with me at all times.  It was bad.  Later on a few years later, I struggled with the drinking again.  Luckily I saw and recognized the spiral I was on before it got too out of control again.  I also had a serious bout with methamphetamines during the same earlier years which ultimately lead me to lose everything but my life (which I almost lost that also) and actually caused me to depend on God.

So anyway, I told God, I don’t get it, and I don’t drink or do drugs anymore. Why are You showing this to me?”  As many times as I tried to move on, I just couldn’t.  God then showed me that I can’t always continue to look forward.  Sure, it is essential to look forward a majority of the time to continue to move forward but occasionally the journey gets hard.  He reminded me that I have to remember how far I have come so that I don’t grow weary and give up.

The journey ahead always seems far until you look back and realize that you have come too far to go back and it would be a shame to stop where you are.

That was a moment I took to praise God.  The past few weeks I felt like I had so far to go and was not making any progress.  But He reminded me that He wants me to succeed and even when I feel like I am getting beat up and just can’t go any further, He is with me guiding me the whole way.

I also realized that this not only applied to my drinking and drug abuse but also my weight loss journey, my relationships, my self-development, and well, my life as a whole.  I can honestly say that I can look back even a year ago and see that I have come a tremendous way.  Sure, there are a lot of days that I feel like I am just going in circles up hill, but in actuality, I am moving and growing continuously.

So sure, while it is very important to keep your eyes on where you are going, I think that sometimes you have to give yourself a little boost by looking back and seeing how far you have actually come.

Next time you are feeling frustrated in your weight loss, and think “I’m never going to make it,” (Just like I do) remember that you have already made progress.  While you may not be at your goal, you are definitely not where you started, and hey, that is a huge deal – something to celebrate!

Leave a comment
Posted in Action, Faith, Reflections | Tagged , , ,
celebrate-300x217

Celebrate Good Times. Come on!

Sing with me “Celebrate Good Times Come on!”

Come on, I know you know the words, let’s try again.

“Celebrate….”

Okay okay, enough with the singing.

This month has been a month of celebrations for us.  First my birthday comes on the 5th and then Valentine’s Day and then celebrating moving to a new city.  It has really been a big deal for us.

As I got gifts from Pete and the birthday cards started coming in, I realized something…especially when I my husband told me he would cook for me and then the Chile’s gift cards started to roll in.  We celebrate with food.

Now, we don’t go out to eat very often because we are both on weight loss journies and well, we tend to overdo it.  We have a mentality of “I’ve got to get the most for my money.” And “I have to eat everything on my plate so I am not wasting money.”

Really?

Really!

That is sad to me.  First of all, that shows me that not only do we have a problem with food, but also money.  Ugh!

At least now, I have seen the light and can actually start working on those things.  But my point is, when we celebrate with food we find ourselves in a trap.  We feel like we are giving ourselves a great gift that we don’t normally get.  In actuality, it is stuff we have been eating for years and it’s really not that great!

Why not celebrate by pampering yourself.  You have been working so hard to do good for the inside of you, why not celebrate by doing something good for your outside.  Get a mani/pedi or a spa day.  Or what about a massage?  Make yourself as beautiful on the outside as you are becoming on the inside.

If you are anything like me, a book would be a marvelous gift!

I’m not saying that celebrating with food is always a bad thing, but think about it, If you are anything like me, you celebrate a lot.  When you are on a weight loss journey, you find reasons to celebrate. Am I right?  It’s like, oh wow.  I lost 5 pounds this week, I deserve to go celebrate and have a ginormous meal AND dessert.  Than you just gained back those pounds and have to do it all over again the next week.  It is a viscous cycle!

Yes, I have been guilty of this, and to be quite honest….It sucks!

I hate seeing all of my hard work gone just like that.  So, instead of celebrating by going out to eat or splurging on junk, find other ways to celebrate like buying a new healthy cook book or a new smaller outfit.  Oh yeah!

Don’t forget to throw in a birthday cake a few times a year but just remember all of your hard work before you start celebrating every weekend with food.

Leave a comment
Posted in Action, Food Addiction, Food and Nutrition | Tagged ,
stop-self-sabotage-subliminal

Seriously, Get Over Yourself!

Okay, so to let you know up front, this is written to me by me.  So if it offends you, sorry, it wasn’t intended to, but if it motivates you, perfect!  Take it and run with it!

Stop with the self-sabotaging!  Anytime you have some success you subconsciously sabotage it.  You think to yourself, “Ok, well, I am down another 10 pounds so it won’t hurt to eat this today,” which is true most of the time.  However, when you do that for a week straight and choose insane food that you know is going to make you gain weight, it doesn’t count!

Stop it!

I mean really!

What is the point of losing those pounds, which you and I know was hard work, when you are just going to gain them back in no time flat?  There’s not one!  It is a waste of time and effort.

So, what can you do to stop doing this?  Well first of all you have to remember that it is actually a lot easier to put on weight than taking it off.  If you keep this in your mind in will help you to get rid of that thought of “well, I did good, now I am going to reward myself.”

Now, I am not saying that you shouldn’t reward yourself, just don’t do it with food.  Go ahead and celebrate, you deserve it!  Celebrate by buying yourself something or going somewhere and doing something awesome or even pampering yourself but don’t pig out and waste your hard work.

Of course, I am not saying that you shouldn’t enjoy that high calorie, high fat, creamy, fried, smothered, whatever food every now and again, but really, I mean honestly, save it for special occasions, not every day.

I am not saying that you should try to be perfect.  If you try, you are going to fail.  Just plan ahead.  Plan to make healthy choices, and if you happen to not eat healthy one day, screw it, get back up the next day and start where you left off.

You don’t have to start over; you don’t have to beat yourself up.  By doing so, you are just making your journey that much harder!

So really, get over yourself, get over your excuse, and get on track, stay on track the best that you can.  Celebrate the small steps and the big steps and don’t’ sweat the pebbles and stumbling blocks in between.

 

Leave a comment
Posted in Motivation, Success tips | Tagged , ,
Weight Loss success Tips Failure and Success

Planning to Succeed or Planning to Fail?

Have you ever heard the quote, “Failing to plan is planning to fail?”  Think about it, really.

How do you do your weight loss?  Do you simply decide, “Hey I am going to go on a diet this week and see if it really works this time?”  Or are you someone who thinks and plans out goals and then maps those goals out.  You know exactly how much weight you want to lose and you know a realistic time frame in which you want to lose that amount of weight?

failing to plan is planning to fail
If you are the latter, my guess is that you are well on your way to reaching your goals if you aren’t already there.
There are so many important reasons to plan your weight loss just as you would anything else that is important in your life.
If you don’t know where you are going how do you know you will get there?
A few years ago I was reading a book that had me do an exercise and I want you to do it as well, so you can really understand what I am telling you.
First of all, stand up in a room that doesn’t have to many pieces of furniture in the middle of it.  If you don’t have a room like that, that’s ok, just push everything to the wall out of your way.  Next, I want you to look at a door in the room.  Go completely to the other end of the room.  Spin around a couple of times and walk to the door.
Next I want you to go back to the other side of the room again.  This time I want you to close your eyes, spin around a couple of time….Keep your eyes closed!  Now, walk toward the door still keeping your eyes closed.

Now tell me, did you make it to the door?

I know when I did this exercise, I was way off!  I mean another room off.  LOL.

But the point of this exercise is to show you how important having a plan for your goals is.  If you can’t see your path to your goal, it is going to be nearly impossible to reach.  You may end up WAY off, and end up somewhere that you never wanted to be.  Heck, you could even trip over something and get injured along the way!

So what does it look like to plan out your weight loss goals?  Sure you may be thinking, “Okay, I will eat healthy, exercise this when I get a chance and drink more water.”  Well, that’s okay but it’s probably not going to get you very far.

Let me show you an example of my weight loss plan: (please note that this is my customized weight loss plan and you should make your own that works with your life, needs and goals)

Okay, so right now, my goal is to lose 65 pounds in 14 weeks (I have broken my ultimate goal up into smaller less overwhelming but still challenging goals).

The things that I know that I need to do are eat healthy, exercise 5-6 times a week, drink at least 100 ounces of water daily. So, I am going to start with those things.

What does healthy eating mean to me?  Well, to me healthy eating means to eat 6-10 servings of vegetables with 3-5 servings of fruit a day.  Having 2-6 ounces of lean protein such as white chicken or turkey meat, or even fish or egg whites with every meal that is not a meal replacement shake.  I will be replacing 2 meals a day with a shake or a meal replacement bar and I will eat 2-3 protein based snacks in between meals.

I will also give myself a 1-2”open” meals a week so that I can eat whatever I want.  Sometimes I choose for those meals to be healthy, other times when I have plans to go to a birthday party or some other event, I eat whatever….No guilt!
I also plan out my meals for the week.  So, every Wednesday, I sit down, think about what I have going on over the next week and a half, decide which days my open meals are going to be on, and what meals I want to have for every meal throughout the week.  I literally have a menu made. Oh, I also, weight myself on Wednesday mornings to see how far I have come along over the last week and make adjustments to the meal plan if I need to.  You know those weeks that you just don’t lose the weight you expected!  (I also keep a journal to let me know what foods affect me and how. I know it seems like a lot of work, but it really doesn’t take too long.  On Thursdays, I go to the grocery store to get everything I need for the following week.

Sundays are cooking days.  If there are meals that I can cook ahead and store in the freezer or refrigerator, I cook them on Sundays.  I also make a giant salad, with spinach, romaine lettuce, shredded carrots and cucumbers so that it is ready for any meal.

Okay, so now that we have gone through eating and meal plan; let’s look at the exercise plan.  Again, I think about what I have going on throughout the week.  If I have a really busy week, I make a goal to do at least 10 minutes of exercise on my busy days and at least 60 minutes on my non-busy days.  Normally the 10 minute days I use for sculpting certain problem areas of my body, like my arms, neck or back.

If I have a not-so-busy week, I plan on getting 60 minutes of exercise in every day 5 days a week, if not 6.  I ALWAYS give myself a rest day.  24 hours of really doing nothing, I don’t work, I don’t clean or cook.  I read, sleep and spend time with my husband.  This time really makes all the other days worth it!

Last but not least, I measure my water.  I have two 50 ounce Pepsi bottles (I think they are 1.5 liters), that I washed out and use for water.  I make sure that I have one empty before noon and I sip on the other throughout the rest of the day.

Above and beyond all of these steps that I take to reach my goal I try to learn as much as I can about how the body works, why it stores fat, why it is harder for some people to lose weight than others.  I also learn about different eating plans, so that I know how to feed my body once I am in maintenance of my weight and not losing weight because my ULTIMATE goal is to lose weight and keep it off and not having to struggle with it any more.

I know it seems like a lot of work and a pain, but it’s actually fun once you have a plan in place and know exactly where you are going and how to get there.

If you need help planning your weight loss goals to guarantee your success, feel free to reach out to me.  I am here for you and I promise to be one of your biggest fans and supporters.  You can connect with me here.

 

With Love and To Your Success,

Cami

Leave a comment
Posted in Success tips, Weight Loss | Tagged , , , ,
where'd you go

Where’d You Go?

Hey there!

I am so terribly sorry for leaving you hanging for what seems like forever.  I haven’t posted a blog post in a long time and I am sorry.  Please forgive me O:).

Good news is, that I have been going through some amazing training on how to serve you better and how to help you reach your goals faster.  So please bare with me as I implement some new changes to our calender and a new “face” of Shake Up The Day.

BTW, did you see our faces at the top of the page?  What do you think of the new look?

Check back in with us on Monday, where we will start our new schedule and put into place some great improvements to help serve you!

 

To your success

Cami
BTW ~ If you found this post to be of any value to you, please SHARE it below!

 

Leave a comment
Posted in Our Team, Uncategorized | Tagged , ,
toned-legs

It’s Tuesday, Let’s Tone It Up!

Hey guys, I just so happened to be surfing YouTube this morning….I am always looking for fun new workouts to try so that I don’t get bored.  Call it ADD or whatever but I like to change it up!  So anyway, I found a fun new leg workout for us ladies to help tighten up our legs, thighs and butt.  Not too bad for a Tuesday, I do declare!

By the way, this is aimed towards the ladies, but not a bad workout for the guys either…so be sure to check it out.

So here it is: Tone It Up Tuesday!

Leave a comment
Posted in Fitness | Tagged , ,
Quickstart Program

SUTD TV and Giveaway!

I am really excited today.  If you follow us on Facebook you may have seen a post last week mentioning ShakeUpTheDay TV.  In it I asked what you want to see or learn about, etc.  Well, after getting some responses, I decided to go ahead with idea and get started on it right away.
So, that being said, I have to warn you, this video is rough around the edges :) , but it is a start.  I promise they will get better!

Because it is so awkward, and because it is the Christmas season, we decided to throw in a giveaway also!  So, check it out to find out how you can win!

Leave a comment
Posted in Giveaways, ShakeUpTheDay TV | Tagged , ,