Most people complain that breakfast is one the hardest meals to eat in a day. However, your mother was right: it is one of the most important meals.
Not only does a balanced breakfast give you energy for the rest of the day, but it helps you eat less and feel less hungry as the day goes on. It’ll prevent you from digging into the cookie jar when you get home from work, and will allow you to have a great workout at noon.
But, since time is usually an issue for most people, here are 5 of our favorite quick breakfast meals that you can make in a snap:
1) High-Fiber Protein Pancake: Most people think of butter and syrup when they picture a pancake, but this is different. Instead, mix up the following ingredients and cook them the night before so you have this healthy pancake in the morning. Just warm quickly on the stove or toaster oven and top with your favorite nut butter:
Ingredients:
• 1/2 Cup Egg Whites
• 1 scoop Vanilla Prograde Protein powder
• 1/3 Cup dry Old-fashioned Oatmeal
• 1 tsp Ground Flax Seeds
• 1/8 tsp. Baking Powder
• Sprinkle of Cinnamon
• Olive Oil cooking spray
Directions: Spray a nonstick pan with cooking spray and place on medium heat to preheat pan. Meanwhile, combine the egg whites and protein powder in a mixing bowl, stirring with a fork or whisk until well-blended. Add oatmeal, flax, baking powder and cinnamon and mix vigorously for about a minute. Check pan’s temperature by dropping a tiny amount of water on it. If the water bubbles/sizzles immediately, the pan is ready. Using a large spoon or small ladle, spoon a small amount of the batter into the pan, gently spreading it to a pancake shape if it’s too thick to do this on its own. Cook on one side until bubbles begin to appear and burst on the top of the batter. Using a spatula, carefully flip over and cook for roughly the same amount of time. Repeat until batter is gone. Serves 1.
2) Scrambled Eggs with Avocado and Salsa: Scrambled eggs really aren’t that hard or time-consuming to make. People think you have to mix the eggs ahead of time, but you can just quickly stir them a few times while cooking and they’ll become scrambled - Amazing! We like mixing two Omega-3 Eggs with ½ cup Egg Whites and adding Spinach. Then, top with slices of avocado and fresh salsa. It’s a quick breakfast fit for a king (or queen).
3) Whey Protein Smoothie: When you’re in a rush you can make this smoothie the night before, or quickly in the morning. The key thing is to use a single-serve blender unit, like a Magic Bullet, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning a huge, messy blender when you’re done. We like to combine the following: 1 Cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, 1 scoop Prograde Vanilla Protein, 1 Tbsp Ground Flax, 1/3 Cup frozen unsweetened Mixed Berries, ½ Cup raw Spinach (the spinach adds a neat green color to the smoothie, but it still tastes awesome! Try it!), and 1 Tbsp Natural Peanut Butter.
4) High-Protein Cereal: Face it, people love cereal because it’s easy to eat and can be healthy. But, most brands are covered with sugar and full of junk. Also, with just milk, it doesn’t really pack much metabolism-boosting protein. So, instead, try this with your normal breakfast bowl: Mix one scoop of Vanilla Prograde Protein with water or milk and pour that over a bowl of your favorite low-sugar breakfast cereal; some of our favorite are Uncle Sam, Bran Flakes (add your own raisins to make it Raisin Bran), Cheerios, Puffed Rice, and Shredded Wheat.
5) Nutty, Berry, Greek Yogurt: Most people think of yogurt as just a snack item, but it can be a great breakfast food too. However, like cereal, some yogurt is really like dessert, instead of a health food. So, skip all that sugar found in most yogurts and try this: Mix 6 ounces of 2% plain organic Greek yogurt with 2 Tbsp of slivered almonds, 1 tsp ground flax seeds and 1/3 cup frozen, thawed, unsweetened berries.
Prograde Get Serious Get Results http://perfectfitpt.getprograde.com/
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
How Does Strength Training Actually Help Me Burn Fat?
Q) I've heard that strength training increases my metabolism. How does it do that and will that help me lose weight?
A) Strength training, which involves using weights, bands, kettlebells or other forms of resistance that challenge your body to work harder than it does in everyday life, definitely does increase your metabolic rate. However, so does endurance exercise (such as running). The difference is how long and how much these activities boost your metabolism that really has an impact on your overall ability to lose body fat and/or decrease your weight.
Just so we’re all on the same page, let’s talk about the components of our metabolism:
First we have our resting metabolic rate, or RMR. This is the energy needed (quantified in calories) to keep our bodies alive – our heart beating, our lungs breathing, etc. Your RMR makes up about 60 to 80 percent of our total metabolic rate. The variation in RMR is due to individual differences among people, the foods we consume, and the activity we engage in which can directly change RMR.
Second we have the Thermic Effect of Activity, or TEA. The more active you are, the more your total metabolic rate will be increased. TEA includes all activity from mowing your lawn (with a push mower, that is), to playing basketball, to walking across the room. It’s not just structured activity, but also the activities that we engage in every day to live our lives.
Third, we have the Thermic Effect of Feeding, or TEF. This is the amount of energy expended to eat and digest food and use those nutrients to create more energy.
So our metabolism, known as total energy expenditure (TEE) = RMR + TEA + TEF. Each component is different for each person, resulting in unique metabolic rates.
Strength training increases our TEE by elevating the amount of calories expended in activity (TEA). The harder you strength train, the greater the amount of calories you burn through exercise. In turn, if your food intake does not highly exceed your needs and consists of quality choices, you will lose weight and body fat.
Interestingly, strength training also increases the amount of calories expended in your RMR. The reason it does this is by increasing the amount of lean muscle mass you carry, which requires more energy to maintain and repair than fat tissue.
Both strength training and endurance exercise will increase your energy expenditure at the time of activity, and for a few hours afterwards, when they are conducted at the same intensity (you all have experienced that increase in hunger after a good workout, whether it be strength or cardio work).
However, strength training is unique in that if you perform multiple sets of a challenging weight to failure, scientists have shown that the energy expended afterwards, known as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) can be elevated for 24-36 hours. Some people call this the “Afterburn” effect of serious strength training.
Overall, strength training can boost your metabolism, but it has to be more challenging than activities you do every day. You can’t expect 3lb dumbbells to make much difference to your metabolic rate if your children (that you carry around) weigh more, or your grocery bags are heavier. Your body needs to remember that strength training requires “strength” so you have to load your exercises accordingly. Otherwise your body won’t get the challenge it needs to build muscle, lose fat and look better in your clothes – and that’s what we’re all looking for, right?
Prograde Get Serious Get Results
http://perfectfitpt.getprograde.com/
A) Strength training, which involves using weights, bands, kettlebells or other forms of resistance that challenge your body to work harder than it does in everyday life, definitely does increase your metabolic rate. However, so does endurance exercise (such as running). The difference is how long and how much these activities boost your metabolism that really has an impact on your overall ability to lose body fat and/or decrease your weight.
Just so we’re all on the same page, let’s talk about the components of our metabolism:
First we have our resting metabolic rate, or RMR. This is the energy needed (quantified in calories) to keep our bodies alive – our heart beating, our lungs breathing, etc. Your RMR makes up about 60 to 80 percent of our total metabolic rate. The variation in RMR is due to individual differences among people, the foods we consume, and the activity we engage in which can directly change RMR.
Second we have the Thermic Effect of Activity, or TEA. The more active you are, the more your total metabolic rate will be increased. TEA includes all activity from mowing your lawn (with a push mower, that is), to playing basketball, to walking across the room. It’s not just structured activity, but also the activities that we engage in every day to live our lives.
Third, we have the Thermic Effect of Feeding, or TEF. This is the amount of energy expended to eat and digest food and use those nutrients to create more energy.
So our metabolism, known as total energy expenditure (TEE) = RMR + TEA + TEF. Each component is different for each person, resulting in unique metabolic rates.
Strength training increases our TEE by elevating the amount of calories expended in activity (TEA). The harder you strength train, the greater the amount of calories you burn through exercise. In turn, if your food intake does not highly exceed your needs and consists of quality choices, you will lose weight and body fat.
Interestingly, strength training also increases the amount of calories expended in your RMR. The reason it does this is by increasing the amount of lean muscle mass you carry, which requires more energy to maintain and repair than fat tissue.
Both strength training and endurance exercise will increase your energy expenditure at the time of activity, and for a few hours afterwards, when they are conducted at the same intensity (you all have experienced that increase in hunger after a good workout, whether it be strength or cardio work).
However, strength training is unique in that if you perform multiple sets of a challenging weight to failure, scientists have shown that the energy expended afterwards, known as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) can be elevated for 24-36 hours. Some people call this the “Afterburn” effect of serious strength training.
Overall, strength training can boost your metabolism, but it has to be more challenging than activities you do every day. You can’t expect 3lb dumbbells to make much difference to your metabolic rate if your children (that you carry around) weigh more, or your grocery bags are heavier. Your body needs to remember that strength training requires “strength” so you have to load your exercises accordingly. Otherwise your body won’t get the challenge it needs to build muscle, lose fat and look better in your clothes – and that’s what we’re all looking for, right?
Prograde Get Serious Get Results
http://perfectfitpt.getprograde.com/
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