To detox or not to detox....that is the question!

Is eating clean hard for you too? 

It is for me.  So I thought I'd share some secrets with you today to help get you back on track, or maybe begin the journey of clean eating for the first time.  

When I find myself back in a rut and not making healthy choices, I know it's time to do a quick detox!

Have you ever heard the word detox?  Well, detox can get a bad rap from some trainers, but all it means to me is setting aside a 3-10 day focus of eating clean (no processed foods, basically only food God made, and basically how we should eat the majority of the time). 

This "detox" time period allows you to commit 100% to only eating real food.  When you set aside a time frame to do this, you can mentally tackle it.  It's much easier to commit to eating perfect for 3 days, than say, the rest of the year, right?

But what ends up happening is that you feel so AMAZING after 3 days of eating clean, and you rid yourself of cravings, that you end up eating clean for another couple of weeks (or months) at least before possibly reverting back into old habits.

The key is making those visits back to old habits less and less until you really are only indulging in sweets or high calorie "junk" on occasion (not regular enough at all to make you gain weight back).
I usually do a detox eating plan for about week, maybe 2-3X/year.

So I'd encourage you to go on a 3-10 day detox plan.  Here is a simple one you can download for you to consider following.  I'm starting this plan today and plan to commit for the next 7 days!
 
You'll notice this plan eliminates meat for the first few days.  This just allows the body to work on clearing out the digestive track so better absorption can follow.  You'll be eating a ton of veggies and fruits and getting your protein from Shaklee 180.  The supplements listed at the bottom are optional.

What's great is you are not going to count calories for the next 7-10 days, but you will lose weight....I promise!

Hope this helps to refocus you and get you back on track, where we all feel our best!!

Yours in health & nutrition!
Sara Oliver
www.GetToBootCamp.com
www.AdventureBootCamp.MyShaklee.com

Yummy, Healthy Recipes! Green Mac & Cheese Anyone?

That's right!  I made some Green Mac & Cheese last night, and it was yummy and a hit with the family too!  I blended spinach with the milk before blending in the cheese.  Check out the recipe at the link above.

I am trying lots of recipes this summer from my good friend, Brooke Thomas, owner of 360 Your Life.  Her blog is amazing and she has awesome nutrition tips on getting your whole family enjoying more nutritious food!  Yesterday we made her fruit ka-bobs and Green Mac & Cheese!!  



Oh and I also made Brooke's Love Crunch!  A great dessert option.  All so yummy, packed with good nutrition, and family hits!!  Enjoy checking out her blog today!

Pick out 2-3 new recipes to try each week this summer.  You're sure to find some yummy and healthy options to get you on a healthier journey!  It just takes planning and then doing.  Get the kids involved.  Show them what you do to plan the family meals.  Then take them to the store with you and let them pick some fruits and veggies!!

Yesterday I took my kids with me to HEB around 10:00.  Even though I'd eaten a yogurt around 9:30, I was so hungry when we got to HEB.  I guess my metabolism was still burning like crazy after yesterday's workout!!  Anyway, I went in and bought bananas and a bottled water.  I ate the snack and THEN bought my groceries!!  Saved me from buying food not on my list.  I was suppose to eat a piece of fruit for my mid-morning snack anyway!

Dedicated to your success,

Sara Oliver
www.GetToBootCamp.com
www.AdventureBootCamp.MyShaklee.com

How to get back on track with your nutrition!

The answer?  Make a Plan!!

And yes I have some great ideas for you!!

For clean eating, plan out your day with REAL food that you enjoy. Any fruit and veggies you like, nuts and seeds, and lean meats. Take 1 day/week to plan it all out, buy it and get it all in baggies.

Example day:
Breakfast: Smoothee for breakfast. Have your blender ready the night before. Add milk of your choice, 1/2 frozen banana, frozen blueberries and some Shaklee 180 protein powder. Blend and go!! (There are many other great tasting recipes for smoothees!  You can find one that you'll love and crave!)

Snack: yogurt with fruit.  I just discovered this yummy Chobani brand that I love!  It's only 100 calories and this coffee w/ dark chocolate is great!!  Drink a glass of water.

Lunch: salad with avocado and strawberries and lean meat! Drink a glass full of water

Snack: 1/4 cup of nuts and fruit.  Drink a glass of water or some green tea!  I drink the Shaklee 180 pomegranate tea for a metabolism boost!  I love it hot!!

Dinner: protein the size of your palm, complex carb (sweet pot OR brown rice) the size of your fist and half a plate full of veggies (either baked, steamed or a big salad!!)

If you need another snack before bed keep it to less than 100 calories. A spoon of peanut butter usually does the trick for me!!

As you can see, everything before dinner can be on the go and pre planned and packaged the day before. Buy yourself a small cooler to throw your snacks into so you can take it to work with you!! Having a plan with be the key to your success!

Take some time to plan out different dinners to cook at home and buy all the ingredients for the next 7 days. Write your menu and post it in your kitchen so you'll remember what your plan is later in the week.

I keep dinners simple. Lean meat in the George Foreman or grill, steam or bake some chopped veggies drizzled with olive oil and add a sweet pot or steamed brown rice!! Dinner is done!!

What questions or comments do you have?  I'd love to hear from you!

At first if may seem overwhelming but give it a go!! You can do it!

Dedicated to your success!
Sara Oliver
www.GetToBootCamp.com
www.AdventureBootCamp.MyShaklee.com

Getting on a soap box

Today I want to talk about what our ultimate goals are.  This email may be for those of you who are within 5-10 pounds of your goal weight, but I'd like everyone to read the email all the way through and I'd also love your feedback!!
 
Please choose from the following what goal you are striving to achieve the most:

• To be at a healthy weight I can maintain with exercising 4-6 days/week and eating clean the majority of the time.  To be happy with what body that brings to me.
• To be skinny at the cost of losing some muscle because I love weighing: ____(fill in the blank).  When I am at this weight I feel my best (mentally).

Ok, so yes I am setting this up.  

I'd like to present to you an argument today that the scale isn't the whole story!!  And that option one is the goal and I hope you can grow to want more than option 2!!

We reach a place in our weight loss journey where obsession can take the place of what was once a good goal setting journey.  We started out wanting to lose weight and we did it!!  (Let me say again this argument is for those of us who have reached our goal weight but are now facing another delimna)  

We reached our goal.  Now what?

Are you happy?  Content with what you see in the mirror?

This is what may surprise many of you: I have never met a women that is 100% happy with her body!!  And let me tell you, I've trained some beautiful women with what the world would call, perfect bodies.  But not to them.  Not in their eyes.

This is what is sooooo interesting to me!  And something, as a fitness professional, I struggle with sometimes. 

Heaven forbid, I help you reach your goal weight and never set you up to be emotionally stable/happy & spiritually strong enough to be ready for the thoughts of critism that will still arise in you about your physical body!

So there, I said it.  We will continue to look at what we don't like about our bodies, all the while admiring in others their best features. 

Once our goal weight is achieved, my hope and desire for us all would be that our goal changes away from a number on the scale, and instead to being healthy.  (Nothing wrong with weighing ourselves and keeping weight gain in check)  But what I'm saying is that we then begin approaching fitness as a lifestyle that will produce low cholesterol, and a strong heart, clean arteries, strong bones, a longer life to enjoy with others, more flexibility, greater energy to enjoy life, better sleep, and to decrease our risk for disease. 

A word of caution:  if you instead continue to focus on becoming thin at the cost of losing bone denisty, etc, then what good is being thin?

Only you know what habits you are living out day in and day out.  I'm not preaching to anyone specifically, rather a word of caution and a word to encourage us all to pursue a balance in nutrition that fosters health!  Health in mind and body.  Not a way of eating that is unhealthy to just to fit into a certain size.  

Does that make sense?

Yours in health,
Sara Oliver
www.GetToBootCamp.com
www.GoodHabits.MyShaklee180.com
 

If you don't take care of your body, where will you live?

Priorities.  What are yours? 

I hope taking care of your health falls in there somewhere high on the list.  You only have one body.  If you don't take care of it, where will you live?

Why is it that we will spend money of movies, popcorn, getting our nails done, eating out, and a $5 cups of coffee, but we balk at buying a $8 piece of salmon from the grocery store or purchasing a canister of high quality protein for $40?  It's crazy!!  Priorities.

I really do believe that if you spend money now on your health and save a ton of money later down the road on medical bills!!

The biggest hurdle I believe some clients struggle with is spending money on high quality food.  

How many times have you gone to the store, without a plan, dropped $200, and gotten home only to realize you still don't have anything to eat!!!?

You have to PLAN your menu before you go to the store!!  Sit down and write out your dinner for the week!  They don't have to be hard, gourmet meals.  Keep it simple.  I usually do a lean meat on the grill or George Forman, brown rice in the steamer or a baked sweet potato, with a lot of veggies (either a big GREEN salad or baked or steamed veggies!)  Simple!

Let me just say this, if you'll plan your menu, and then choose high quality food, when you get to the check out counter, it is not that much more if you shop properly.  Remember, you shouldn't won't be grabbing the processed food out of the isles or the frozen dinners from the freezer.  Instead, you'll be spending your money on:

• fruits & veggies (order from www.RawfullyOrganic.com by Friday and I'll pick up your box for you for $6)
• wild caught fish
• organic red meat and chicken
• Hummus
• whole grain breads
• nitrate/nitrite free deli meats
• almonds, walnuts, pecans, flax seeds, chia seeds
• natural nut butters
• brown rice
• olive oil and coconut oil
• coffee
• eggs
• yogurts
• fat-free milk or almond or coconut milk
• frozen, organic fruit for smoothees

I promise, you'll check out and be amazed!!  Your bill will be less than $200 and you'll have a ton of good food to eat!!

Here's a perfect day of eating healthy:

• Breakfast:  Blend a Smoothee every morning with frozen fruit (possibly throw in some greens too!) and Shaklee 180 Protein!! 
• Snacks: nuts and fruits OR oatmeal! 
• Lunch:  GREEN salad with lean meat or cottage cheese added 
• Snacks:  same as above 
• Dinner: lean meat, veggies and brown rice or sweet pot

Yours in the journey,
Sara Oliver
www.GetToBootCamp.com

How to lose the muffin top!

Sorry to break it to ya, but you can't crunch or even plank your way to a six-pac!!  No, you have to eat super, super clean to get there!!  Guess what?  We all have abs under "there", we just have to get rid of the "there" to see them.  Haha!

Now, cardio will help burn fat, yes!  But considering what stores fat may be the best approach to getting rid of it!  

So how do we store fat?

We store fat best when we increase our insulin levels.  Insulin pushes fat into storage mode fast to balance the body.  

Translation:  Lower your sugar spikes and sugary foods and you'll lower your body fat%.  

Challenge:  Go off all desserts, sodas, and breads for 3 days straight and here is what I can promise you:

• You'll feel better!
• You will STOP having cravings for junk!
• You will feel thinner (Oh-because you will be!  You'll start to be a fat burning machine instead of a fat storing machine)
• You'll want to keep it up.  And keeping it up will lead you to the results you seek!!

What you can eat:

• Shaklee Protein drinks (NOTE:  The NEW Shaklee 180 products that are coming out in January will have LOWER sugar content than the Cinch products do now. But as always, Shaklee never uses artificial sweeteners.  Shaklee 180 Smoothees will be sweetened with natural cane sugar and stevia.  Balanced with the right kind of protein that preserves muscle, this is the perfect food for your post-workout meal and will help you burn fat)
• Lean protein:  egg whites, lean chicken, fish and red meat.  (Keep red meat to once/week)
• Healthy fats:  nuts (almonds and walnuts), natural nut butters, olive oil, coconut oil, avocados
• Healthy carbs:  all the green veggies you can get your hands on, and keep fruit to one/day when trying to lower you body fat %.  You can also have a fist-size of either a sweet potato OR brown rice OR oatmeal/day.  Focus on veggies though!
• Green tea & coffee!  Yippee!!  Keep the sugar and fat away from your coffee. 

A word about artificial sweeteners:  When eliminating sugar it's tempting to add in artificial sweeteners.  Don't!  Your body doesn't need chemicals to replace sugar.  Instead try dialing down your sweet tooth.  Like I said above, after 3 days cold turkey, you'll be fine!

Having said that, a safe sweetener is stevia.  So you can use this in moderation.  Keep some packets in your purse for when you order unsweet tea at restaurants, or just order water!

Here's to lowering belly fat and exposing the 6-pac below!
Yours in health,

Sara Oliver
Master Trainer, Owner
Adventure Boot Camp Trainer

Bay Area TX Adventure Boot Camp
www.GetToBootCamp.com
www.AdventureBootCamp.MyShaklee.com
www.GoodHabits.MyShaklee180.com 
713.515.5081 

My next 7 day eating plan

Turn "I WISH" into "I WILL"

 
Are you thinking, "Easier said than done..."?  

Well, I say, "Not really!"
 
Sometimes we find ourselves in a rut of bad habits.  Poor eating habits can keep us from reaching our goals.  And poor eating habits are sometimes hard to turn around because we don't feel good (from eating poorly), so thinking clearly to make a turnaround is hard.
 
So take ACTION!
 
Get a piece of paper and and write out how you know you should eat for the next 7 days.  Now make a grocery list to pick up on your way home from work today. 
 
You CAN eat clean.  You CAN reach your health and fitness goals!!  And once you're back on track with clean eating, you will also WANT to get to your next boot camp workout!!

---

Here's my next 7 day plan:
 
Breakfast:  I always begin with a Shaklee protein drink and Shaklee Vitalizer strips (all my vitamin needs)
 
Snack:  Oatmeal w/ walnuts
 
Lunch:  Big salad w/ avocado and either another protein drink or chicken.  I'll also have more raw veggies with hummus!
 
Snack:  Cinch snack bar: 120 calories and 10 grams of protein!  (You can do this too or have a handful of almonds w/ a small piece of fruit)
 
Dinner:  Lean meat (the size of my palm), 1/2 plate full of veggies and maybe a potato or quinoa serving (the size of my fist)
 
Snack:  small bowl of popcorn (100 calories)

---

That's my template above!  That's my healthy habits that I follow daily!  My next 7 days of dinners:
 
Tonight:  Chicken with some deer sausage cooked on George Foreman.  I cook it topped with onions and bell peppers.  We'll have some zucchini and squash that I bake in over for about 45 minutes.  I chop them up, drizzle with olive oil and bake!  Family favorite!  I'll also make some Quinoa tonight.  You cook the Quinoa in 15 minutes.  Mix in a can of black beans, can of corn, chopped cilantro, olive oil and lime juice and cummin.  I eat on this all week.  A serving is the size of my fist.
 
Wed:  Bean Burritos.  I open a can of fat free refried beans and a can of chicken.  Mix them together and fill tortillas with them and lay them in a pan.  Then pour a can of enchilada sauce over the top and bake on 350 for 30 minutes.  Serve with a side of veggies.  We will have steamed broccoli and carrots. 
 
Thurs:  Chili in a crock pot.  Easy!!  Serve with brown rice and veggies!!
 
Friday:  Take left over chili and make enchiladas. Just roll chili in tortillas and bake for 30 minutes.  Serve with veggies!!
 
Saturday:  Grilled Pork Chops on grill w/ sweet potato and steamed veggies.
 
Sunday:  Fish.  We like to bake Tilapia in over for 15 minutes.  So easy!  Add a big salad or steamed veggies and dinner is done!
 
As you can see I keep it simple here.  I'm not a gourmet chef.  I just keep to protein, veggies and healthy carbs for dinner.

 

Have a plan.  Without a plan you plan to fail!

 
Dedicated to your success!

Sara Oliver
Master Trainer, Owner
Adventure Boot Camp Trainer

Bay Area TX Adventure Boot Camp
www.GetToBootCamp.com
www.AdventureBootCamp.MyShaklee.com
713.515.5081