Check Out the Workouts Tab!!!

Hey guys!! This is just a short notice that our Workouts tab is up and running with WODs from CrossFit classes from my local gym. These workouts can be extremely difficult, and Katie already had one friend throw up so if you're new to working out then build up to it by modifying the moves with lighter weights or less reps. Whatever you do, do not injure yourself. Form is more important than getting it over with quickly. Also make sure to drink plenty of water before, during, and after. Plus refuel later with a healthy snack or a protein shake. Experiment with pre-workout snacks too. You don't want to eat too much and risk getting nauseous, but you also don't want to collapse from lack of energy (trust me - it ain't fun). Overall, please be careful and have fun! Do it with your buddy for some extra motivation!

The Perfect Green Smoothie.....

Ok, so I LOVE green smoothies. What I don't love though is that every time I make them I end up getting gross chunks of spinach that don't blend up. So then I'm stuck with this nasty green sludge in my breakfast....gross. I don't know about you guys but I don't want to be worried that the Loch Ness Monster is going to be crawling out of my smoothie cup on my drive to work.

This got me thinking...what can I change to make the perfect green smoothie? A smoothie with all the flavor and none of the mossy green gunk. So I started experimenting. I blended it longer than I usually did....when that didn't work I blended it A LOT longer...still nada. Then I thought wait a minute, what if I put the spinach in first? Now why I hadn't thought of this before? I have no idea (If you have, super huge mega props to you for being way smarter than I was...... but let me have my "ah hah" moment if you don't mind...just kidding, love ya!).

So now what I do to get a super smooth, super awesome green smoothie is....I put my greens in first, with whatever liquid I am using (almond milk, coconut milk, water ets.), and blend till smooth. Which takes hardly any time at all. Then I add all my other ingredients and voila!!! Instant creamy, almost frosty-like smoothie....except ya know...green.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me rant! Below I've given you my absolute favorite green smoothie recipe. Enjoy!!!! Oh and let me know what you think!

 Green Detox Smoothie

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup almond milk (or water)

1 Cucumber

1 Cup kale (or spinach)

1/2 green apple

1/2 squeezed lime (or Lemon)

1 Tbs melted coconut oil

1 Cup frozen pineapple



 1. Blend spinach and liquid until smooth.

 

See?!? No slime, or gunk, or sludge! Yayness!!!

2. Add remaining ingredients, blend thoroughly and enjoy!!!

 P.S You can always add ice if you only have fresh pineapple to give it that frozen awesomeness that...let's be honest...really makes a smoothie. Hope you guys enjoyed this recipe! Let me know what you think!

Dear Diary...

Katie and I were just talking about how hard it is to keep a food diary. There are a lot of apps now that will keep a record of what you eat electronically, but there's always a glitch. If you eat a lot of homemade food like I do it's a lot of work just to have to figure out the ingredients, the amount you use, what the portion size actually is, etc. And let's not even think about the family secret recipe where you just throw stuff in without thinking about number of teaspoons of paprika you used. It's a time consuming task and many of us simply stop keeping track after a few days. But as much as we would like to declare that a food diary is not a necessary factor in weight loss, it's not true. Keeping track of everything you eat can serve as a wake-up call. Who knew that you weren't eating the appropriate amount of essential fats and protein while you were completely over-indulging in refined grains over whole grains? And what kind of fat were you eating anyway? Saturated fat? Trans fat? Monounsaturated fat? Or polyunsaturated fat? Are you consuming too much sodium perhaps? There are so many factors that we have to consider in order to keep good track of our nutrition. It's almost impossible to do so unless we provide ourselves with a complete analysis of what we eat daily. Once we get a good balance of the essential food  groups, sure we can stop using a daily food diary and check up on it once in a while. But if we're amateurs at estimating how much fruits and veggies we ate compared to the amount of bread and crackers, then a food diary will help us learn to do so. 

"But what about all the time it takes to log in the food?" Well, think about all the time you waste everyday. Maybe it comes in the form of watching cat videos on YouTube. How about the amount of time you watch TV commercials instead of the actual show itself? What about when you're waiting for an appointment? The point is, we actually have plenty of time to log in the food we eat everyday. It's just a matter of using our time wisely. If we add up all those little minutes we waste, we may end up with a half-hour, an hour, or several hours. That's more than enough time to create a meal in your food tracker or add a new recipe. And once it's in there you can save it and use it for next time. These apps are built so that overtime you'll already have that special family recipe and other homemade delicacies at your fingertips. What may take 15 minutes now to log will only take 5 seconds next time. 

Go ahead then. Download a food tracker. Practice making a habit of logging in food. They say it takes 21 days to create a habit. I'm not saying that's true (I haven't exactly researched the validity of that statement), but consistency is key. Try to get a couple of food logging streaks, making each one longer. My favorite food tracker app is the MyFitnessPal app. It has a food logging streak counter, a bar code scanner for quick logging, a wide variety of foods, a nutrition chart to show the percentage of protein, carb, and fat you're taking in, and so much more. There are also other food trackers, but so far I haven't found one that I liked as much as MyFitnessPal. 

The MyFitnessPal is an example of a handy electronic food diary

Bread...and All That Jazz

  

    Okay ladies and gents!!! Katie here...As of yet I have not personally introduced myself, I left that in the hands of my much more talented co-blogger Jess. However, considering this is in fact a co-owned blog I guess I'm required to show my face on here every once in awhile right? So as I like to say...no time like the present. That of course goes for workouts....school projects... movie marathons...and my personal favorite...eating. I love to eat....I mean you have no idea. In my unhealthy teenage years I could seriously put away some nachos...and a pizza....a lot of ice cream....and....Ok, I'm getting a little, teensy weensy,  bit carried away...needless to say I was not healthy. Here let me show you a quick before and after shot.... 

Left: Age 16 Right: Age 19

    Ok enough of that, heaven knows those days are long gone for me!!!  A year or two after the picture on the left I got myself together and started eating right, thank goodness. One of the really awesome things I learned when switching over from fatty, sugary, artery-clogging foods to clean and healthy ones was...........wait for it.............YOU DONT HAVE TO STARVE YOURSELF!!!! Nope, not even a little! So yes, I still eat, I just turned the way I ate around a little bit. I put down the french fries and milkshakes, and picked up the fruits, veggies and of course the dark chocolate *drool*. I mean don't get me wrong I am still a milkshake fan, every once in awhile though, instead of every day. One thing that I was a huge HUGE fan of too, was bread. I LOVED bread, ate it all the time,  sometimes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I realized though, as we all do when jumping on the healthy train, bread (especially those white uber processed unnatural breads) did not love me. Not only did it give me a lot of weight around my middle it also made me feel sluggish and sleepy...yuck. However I found an awesome alternative...at least for the breakfast portion of the day. I found 90 Second Bread!!! That is what I am blogging about today, because I am in LOVE with this stuff! It is soooo easy too! I found a recipe on Pinterest and can not stop making it! I did tweak it a little bit to make it my own and Paleo friendly. As I am sure you will find out Jess and I are really big Paleo fans so a lot of the recipes we post on here will be Paleo or at least primal friendly. So let me know what you all think!

90 Second Bread (Paleo Friendly)

Ingredients:

1T Coconut Oil (or grassed butter)

1 Large Egg 

1T Coconut Flour (I use Trader Joe's brand but any brand will work)

1/4 Tsp Baking Powder

Splash of Vanilla Extract (optional)

Instructions

1. Melt coconut oil in a small round microwave safe container (I will include a picture of the one I am using but you want it to be roughly the size of an english muffin because this is the size the bread will be) 

2. Once oil is completely melted, add the egg, coconut flour and baking soda to the bowl. Mix thoroughly, you want to make sure you break up all the chunks of flour so you have an extremely smooth batter. It should be the consistency of very thin pancake batter. 

3. Scrape the sides of the container so that all the batter is at the bottom, then place in the microwave for 90 seconds. 

It looks a little weird right out of the microwave, once you toast it it's much more appealing.

4. Once done let cool and pop out of container, at this point you can eat it just like that or cut it in half and pan sear it in a little extra coconut oil to crisp up the edges (this really does make all the difference) If your short on time you can also pop it in the toaster but this doesn't do the job quite as well.

This just happens to be my breakfast tomorrow...Yum! 

90 second bread, two eggs, a slice of turkey and some fresh spinach.

*The vanilla extract gives it a sweeter taste which is great if you're putting almond butter or fruit on it. If you want the bread for savoy foods leave out the vanilla.

First Thing's First...

Welcome to Salt & Pepper Fitness! Our goal is to share our journey to gaining better fitness and health. But before we get started, let us introduce ourselves.

Salt and Pepper Fitness

My name is Jess. I'm currently a freshman in college studying in kinesiology/exercise science. My future career goal is to become a personal trainer and/or a physical therapist assistant. I was a competitive swimmer since the age of five, and I participated in summer league, high school, and year-round teams. After I stopped swimming year-round, though, it was difficult to adjust physically and nutritionally. I could no longer indulge in a boatload of calories as I have before, and it became difficult to keep on working out without a team or coach around me. I was still in love with fitness and health, and I wanted to be able to gain and share more knowledge on how to become a better athlete. But I still needed a support system.

Jess and Mozzie (the dog) at a 2K Dog Run

So I was fortunate enough to have a friend like Katie, my co-blogger and our other fitness addict. Katie is studying graphic design at a technical college, and she created our lovely Salt and Pepper Fitness logo. From an early age she had a passion for horseback riding and is still pursuing her passion. Katie decided to turn her life around at age 17 by living a healthier lifestyle, thus resulting in a new-found love for creating nutritious dishes and acro-yoga. Katie also enjoys kayaking and dancing.

Katie on a Tightrope

From an outsider's standpoint, Katie and I are pretty different people, despite being friends since we could barely talk. We also have completely different fitness backgrounds. But our addiction to becoming stronger, healthier, and happier women helped keep our childhood friendship alive. Now it's our turn to share our experience with others out there who share the same passion for fitness. It's a pretty long journey, and we're only just beginning.