Low Carb Your Life

Most weekends my best friend Liz and I will go food shopping together. We are both really into health and fitness, and since she has a baby we don't spend time together like we use to. We use our food shopping for social time together, and also time to discuss our health and fitness. We always end up going at the busiest time possible, which is ok because we have learned some tricks to the trade. While shopping during prime time on a Sunday afternoon we realized how incredibly overwhelming something as simple as food shopping can be, especially when you are starting a new diet, and looking for things you may have never heard of. It was then that we decided to create a new challenge group, one that gets back to the basics. One that strips it down right from the start. We wanted to include things like navigating your way around a busy grocery store, meal prepping, setting up a work out space, creating meal plans, clean eating 101, cooking 101, and everything in between. 

Tomorrow there is a new Tony Horton program being released by Beachbody that I am particularly excited about. Tony Horton and the P90 franchise has a special place in my heart. I remember seeing my neighbor in high school doing the original power 90 vhs tapes and trying them a few times. I had always wished I stayed with them. Fast forward ten years and I was doing P90X which is what really transformed my body and gave me the results I was hoping for. It was my second beachbody fitness program, and I was more than happy with my results. I absolutely loved Tony's humor, and was excited to push play every day. I would have started out with a Tony Horton program, but the whole EXTREME thing scared the crap out of me, and THAT is why I am so excited about his new program P90.  Some people like to jump into the whole extreme thing right off the bat, but if you are like I was, you want to ease your way in so a program like P90X would be something you work up to. P90 g

My 21 day fix dinner last night was baked cod, mashed cauliflower and quinoa. It consisted of 1 yellow container, 1 red, and 1 green. It was a lot of food! I couldn't finish it. I am making an effort to get better at explaining how I make my food. I am not usually one that measures or times things out. I just watch it while I cook and know when to take it out, but I am aware that doesn't help you all and am making changes to explain myself. Today I have an actual recipe for how I made the cod, but I have a less formal recipe for the mashed cauliflower. Hope it helps! BAKED COD INGREDIENTS 1 clove of garlic, minced 2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil 1/4 tsp. Himalayan salt 1 Tbsp. lemon juice 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley 1 6-oz. cod fillet DIRECTIONS In a medium glass bowl, prepare marinade by mixing garlic, oil, basil, salt, lemon juice, and parsley.  Place cod in tin foil and pour marinade over it.  Seal tinfoil and place

I grew up in an Italian household and we all know that pasta and bread are a given. Every Sunday the entire family would head over to my Mimi's after church for a nice Italian meal and good company. There would be huge baskets of bread, Italian cookies, and lots of pasta. It wasn't just food to me, it was tradition, it was my family, it was my Mimi. That being said, it was extremely difficult for me when I realized that eating all that bread and pasta was affecting my health. It was even more difficult when I realized that if I wanted to reach my fitness goals , I was going to have to make a change. I didn't want to give up that feeling (funny how food can actually be emotion isn't it?). I knew I needed a way to make my old life mesh with my new life, so I started researching. For me, although I loved the taste of pasta, it was more about the memories. I loved twisting it on my fork, my Mimi's meatballs, and lots of sauce.  Through my research I found