Sweet & Tangy Grilled Chicken

Sweet & Tangy Grilled Chicken

Serve this delicious grilled chicken at your next barbecue. The honey-mustard glaze has a wonderful tangy flavor. Remember to add healthy side dishes for a summer meal that will satisfy without weighing you down.

Servings: 6

Here’s what you need:
4 Tablespoons honey
4 Tablespoons spicy mustard
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
½ teaspoon minced garlic
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Pre-heat your grill. If using coals, heat until the coals turn gray and there are no longer strong flames, 35-45 minutes.
Combine honey, mustard, lemon peel, soy sauce and garlic. Mix well. Reserve a few tablespoons of the sauce. Add chicken and marinate in the refrigerator for 40 minutes.
Cook the chicken 5 to 6 minutes per side. Brush with the reserved sauce, and continue cooking for an additional 3 to 4 minutes per side, until chicken registers 170 degrees F on a meat thermometer.
Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals 183 calories, 2g fat, 13g carbohydrate, 0g fiber, and 28g protein.

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How To Stop Craving the Wrong Foods

How To Stop Craving The Wrong Foods

You wake up each morning with every intention of eating "good" today.

You'll skip the drive thru line on your way to work. You'll refuse to get fast food with co-workers at lunch. You'll boycott the vending machine in the mid-afternoon. And you won't even think about having dessert after dinner.

But then your cravings win.

Your friend drops by with a big fluffy muffin and a latte for breakfast. A group of co-workers invite you to that greasy spoon down the street for lunch. Cake is passed around at the mid-afternoon staff meeting. And after dinner your honey surprises you with a bowl of your favorite ice cream.

You tell yourself that tomorrow will be different.

Tomorrow you won't give in to food cravings.

But then tomorrow comes with its own special circumstances, and cravings get the best of you once again.

Why Do Food Cravings Always Win?

Let's face it, we live in a world where food temptations are everywhere...which lead to cravings, which lead to you eating things that you shouldn't. Again. And again. And again. Until you're so fed up with your body that you don't even know where to begin to get yourself back on track.

Stores display the most tantalizing junk food items right where you could easily reach them. TV commercials for greasy, fattening foods portray them so scrumptiously that you literally salivate. Sugary snack items have full-page, glossy pictures in your favorite magazines. And as if all of these weren't enough, the people in your daily lif are another, constant source of food temptation.

To make matters worse, you've been conditioned since childhood to have a positive association with the act of indulging in your cravings. You use food as a reward. You use food as a source of emotional comfort. You use food as a way to relieve stress. And quickly these associations and uses of food become habit. A habit not easily broken.

New Technique to End Food Cravings
Food cravings don't need to have the upper hand on you anymore. Here's how you can fight back using your most powerful asset: your brain.

Remember that your mind is an amazing thing. Once your mind is made up about something it's nearly impossible to change it.

Try This Powerful Mind Exercise: Imagine that you are peacefully floating down a river on a raft. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and you are having a fun, relaxing time.

You feel wonderful about the river because it's making you feel happy.

Now change perspectives for a moment. You're now in a plane flying over the river and the raft. Instantly our eye is drawn to an enormous rocky waterfall. Then you look back to the person floating on the raft, having a wonderful time, headed straight for the treacherous falls.

With this new perspective of the river, do you think that you'd agree to get on a raft and take your chances floating toward the falls? Laughable, right? You've seen the hidden danger of the river. You know it leads to pain and suffering.

Now your negative association (watery death) with the river has replaced your initial positive association (relaxing fun).

This is the key to overcoming food temptations and putting an end to food cravings: building negative associations in place of existing positive ones. I'll break this process down for you in two steps:

Step One: Create a STRONG Negative Association with Unhealthy Food
You may not have realized it, but up until this point you've placed unhealthy, fattening foods on a pedestal in your mind. As long as the wrong foods are on that pedestal you'll continue to give into your cravings and will continue to gain fat.

Take the wrong food off that pedestal by listing off everything negative about them...

These foods make you unhealthy.
These foods cause weight gain.
These foods drain your energy.
These foods kill your confidence.
These foods lessen your quality of life.
These foods damage your love life.
Every time that you feel tempted to eat an unhealthy food, focus on your list of negatives. Kick the junk off the pedestal and put something healthy in its place.

Step Two: Create a STRONG Positive Association with wholesome foods
Now that your mental food pedestal has been cleared, put truly wholesome food items on it. Juicy fresh fruit, crispy vegetables and savory lean meats are the place to start.

List off the things that you love about healthy food...

These foods make you healthy.
These foods promote fat loss.
These foods boost your energy.
These foods build your confidence.
These foods improve your quality of life.
These foods enhance your love life.
I encourage you to immerse yourself into the world of healthy, wholesome foods. Browse the aisles of your local natural foods store. Stroll through a farmer's market. Pack healthy snacks to bring to work. Clear your kitchen of junk.

Use the technique above consistently and you will soon find that healthy, wholesome foods are your favorite.

And craving the wrong foods will be a thing of your past.

Alcohol Consumption

Alcohol Consumption

While there are generally no alcoholic drinks allowed on your program, there are some special precautions you can take to enjoy an occasional drink. First off you have to realize that alcohol, whether beer, wine or liquor, has calories and they add up fast when you drink. But, if you “allow” for those calories by substituting food that you are allowed to eat then you can get by without much impact on your weight loss.

Let’s define an alcoholic drink first. One drink consists or 1.5oz of liquor (vodka, rum, gin, bourbon, whiskey etc...) 5oz of wine, or a 12oz beer or cider. But not all drinks are the same. Yes, those measures will contain about the same amount of alcohol (beers can vary greatly) but the calories can be greatly different.

And be careful. Drinking alcohol can lower your ability to say no to those foods you should not be eating. Drink with caution. When in a social situation where there is food in front of you and your inhibitions go down, it can be trouble.

General rules if consuming alcohol:

- No beers or ciders; carbs and sugars are just too high. (Unless extremely low carb, like Michelob Ultra, Miller Light, Amstel Light not all light beers are low carb.)

- A 5oz glass of dry wine is fine. If it is sweet it has too much sugar.

- Best bet is liquor. Vodka, Whiskey, Gin, Tequila etc… But be careful with mixers. No fruit juices, no sodas (Coke, Sprite etc.) No tonic water, it has almost as much sugar as colas and no diet sodas (no artificial sweeteners). Neat or on the rocks is fine, or mixed with water or Club Soda/Seltzer, i.e. a gin and tonic with lime is bad, a gin and club soda with lime better.

- If you have a drink of any kind you must not eat your fruit for the day.
One drink = One fruit serving.

Of course you don’t want to make it a habit. And make sure you drink an extra 16-32oz of water per drink you have.

Cheers.
Dr. John Heary, CFT, SFN
Fitness 19
800 Harlem Rd.
W. Seneca, NY 14224
(716) 970-9149
www.MaximumFitnessSolutions.com

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How to Know if You're Overeating

How to know if you’re overeating

Let's face it, the extra pounds you're carrying around are due to overeating – plain and simple. Why do you overeat? Here are a few likely reasons:

1. Habit: Whether you realize it or not, you eat in a learned pattern, rather than out of need. You clean your plate because that's what your mother taught. You eat what is served without stopping to check if you are full. You butter two pieces of toast for breakfast rather than questioning if one piece would do the job.

2. Absentminded: You forget to pay attention when you eat. Mindless munching while watching a movie, snacking while driving, or picking at food while cooking – these absentminded calories really add up.

3. Something Deeper: Sometimes you use food for recreation or to change your mood. These calories may lend you a temporary sense of comfort or pleasure, but ultimately your body suffers from the indulgence.

Here are 3 Steps To overcome Overeating – read these, and apply them to your life.

Step #1: Pay Attention

Be aware of what and how much you eat. This simple concept will save you from hundreds upon hundreds of calories each week.

To apply this rule, don't eat while your attention is distracted by another activity. Only put food in your mouth when you are hungry and conscious of it. This means turn off the T.V., get out of your car, and no matter what you do, don't graze in the kitchen while cooking.

Step #2: Practice Balance

Be aware of the types of food that you eat during each meal, and make sure that it's balanced. When you eat a balanced diet filled with lean protein, whole grains, lots of veggies, a few daily servings of fruit and limited fat and sweets, your body will be satisfied and you'll lose the urge to overeat.

This means you shouldn't always eat carb-based meals, and you also shouldn't always eat high-fat meals. Make a mental checklist of the food groups that you've eaten each day. Did you eat lean protein? Did you have plenty of vegetables? Did you refrain from eating more than one or two primarily carb-based meals? This mental checklist will save you from making food decisions that you'd later regret.

Step #3: Be Tuned In

Your body will always tell you when its hunger has been satisfied – you've just gotten so good at ignoring the signs that you barrel through your meal only to feel like you've been hit by a ton of bricks once all that food hits your stomach. It's time to take a deep breath and listen to your body.

An important part of being tuned in is to eat slowly. Once you start to pay attention you'll notice a point when each bite becomes less and less satisfying. That is your body's way of letting you know that you've had enough and that each continued bite is simply overkill (yes, even if you're only halfway through that plate of pasta).

By learning how to control your eating habits, you'll find weight loss to come simply and naturally.

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Stuffed Southwest Chicken

Stuffed Southwest Chicken

You know that skinless chicken breast is a great source of lean protein, but grilled chicken night after night gets boring. Here's a new way to dress up your healthy lean protein. The southwest flavors of chiles and lime make this a seriously tasty meal.
Servings: 4

Here's what you need...

4 oz light cream cheese, room temperature
1 (15oz) can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
1 (4oz) can Hatch green chiles, roasted and chopped
Salt and pepper
4 organic, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon olive oil
Tajin seasoning (blend of dehydrated lime, ground chile peppers and salt)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl with an electric mixer on low speed, combine the cream cheese, drained tomatoes, corn and chiles.
Slice through the thick part of each chicken breast so that it opens like a book. Double wrap the chicken with plastic wrap and out it with a meat until it's 1/4 inch thick.
Season one side of each chicken breast with salt and pepper, then flip it over and spread with 1/4 of the cream cheese filling. Roll each chicken breast up and place it seam side down in a baking dish. Rub a little olive oil over the top of the chicken then season with Tajin and salt and pepper.
Cover and bake for 35 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for another 15 minutes.
Thinly slice and then serve.
Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 234 calories, 6g fat, 522mg sodium, 13g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, and 31g protein.

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Interval Training For Faster Results

Interval Training For Faster Results

Want to get more out of your workouts?

There's a little secret in the fitness world called interval training.

What is interval training? Rather than doing the same cardio exercise your entire workout, interval training alternates short, high-intensity bursts of exercise with slower, low-intensity periods of recovery.

Research has shown that such intervals of high and low-intensity activity burn more calories and build fitness quicker in a shorter amount of time.

Once designed for elite athletes, interval training is now something the average fit person can try. You don't need fancy equipment or special training to rev up your routine with interval training.

Read on to learn more about this fast, slow, fast, slow method of training and weight loss.

Theory Behind Interval Training
By alternating high-intensity movements with low-intensity movements, you're working both your aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen) systems. High-intensity exercise causes your muscles to produce lactic acid (waste products), which lead to muscle soreness. Too much lactic acid build up causes exercise to become exhausting and painful.

Alternating hard and easy exercise will reduce the amount of lactic acid that accumulates, thereby making exercise more comfortable, improving your endurance and increasing your speed.

Interval Length
So how long should intervals be?

The answer is, it doesn't matter.

There are no real hard-and-fast rules about interval length. Varying lengths bring varying benefits. So how fast and how often you pick up the pace depends on you.

Beginners should aim for no longer than 30 seconds of high-intensity bursts. If you're feeling strong and are in good shape, go ahead and push yourself a bit longer.

Know the Risks
While a no-rules approach may sound appealing, interval training isn't for the beginner. If you're new in the land of fitness, take your time as you increase the intensity of your workouts.

Rushing into high-intensity exercise may lead to injury. Start out slowly. Add one or two high-intensity intervals each workout. Slow down if you feel you're overdoing it. As your stamina increases, feel free to challenge yourself.

Sample Workouts
Remember, there's no set rule about how to do interval training. It can be tailored to your fitness level and type of exercise.

An interval-training workout involves four variables that can be changed to meet your goals: intensity of intervals, duration of intervals, duration of recovery intervals, and the number of interval repetitions.

Interval training can be casual, spur of the moment bursts of activity depending on how you're feeling that day or if you're working towards a more specific sports or fitness goal you can take a more sophisticated, scientific approach.

Interval training workouts have been designed for plyometrics, sprints, stair running, jump rope, speed drills, and agility drills.

A simple example of interval training for walking would be to add short bursts of jogging or alternate slower walking with brisk walking. If you walk outdoors, you could jog or walk faster between certain landmarks such as mailboxes or street signs, then slow down for a short distance.

A second example that really gets your heart pumping and improves fitness in a short amount of time includes running, rowing, or cycling. Warm up for about 15 minutes, then run, row, or cycle as hard as you can (at 90 percent of your maximum heart rate) for three minutes. Then go easy for three minutes, allowing your body to recover. Repeat these three-minute intervals of high- and low-intensity exercise three or four times. Then cool down for 10 minutes.

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Strawberry MicroGreen Salad

Strawberry MicroGreen Salad

Microgreens are tiny leafed vegetables that are harvested when less than two inches tall. They have remarkably intense flavor and high levels of vitamins and minerals. Pair this salad with a piece of lean meat for an excellent, light meal.
Servings: 4

Here's what you need:

3 cups organic microgreens
1 cup sliced strawberry
strawberry dressing (6 strawberries, 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon agave nectar, 1 teaspoon olive oil, dash of salt and pepper - blended)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Toss the microgreens with strawberries and dressing. Sprinkle with walnuts.
Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 124 calories, 6g fat, 8g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, and 2g protein.

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