HEALTHIFY normal food!!

People ask me all the time, "WHAT DO YOU EAT?!"
I've been eating healthy now for about 3 years and kept all my weight off that I lost (50 Lbs). I have HEALTHIFIED my life!! Following Beachbody programs taught me SO much!! I also have a family to feed, and people also ask me all the time what do I feed THEM???
So I have 3 boys, my husband and two sons who could care less about vegetables or health for that matter. My husband only cares that its cheap and yummy. My kids only care that it looks good and tastes good. I only care that its well balanced, healthy, nutritious, and natural or clean! 
SO! You can see the challenge I have! One of my goals a couple years ago was to make a list of 20 meals that my WHOLE family LIKES and that are HEALTHY! QUITE the challenge, I know. But you'd be surprised what you can do with NORMAL food and make it healthy. I've REALLY learned how to compromise with my family and food. And I've figured out how to make normal food healthy!!
Let's just take a couple of examples and I'll tell you how I HEALTHIFY it:)

#1. PASTA!! 
Everybody loves pasta right? You might think pasta is a big NO-NO when you're 'living healthy' or dieting, but to that I say 'WHATEVER!!' There's nothing wrong with PASTA except that it might be lacking fiber or loaded with fatty white sauce, OR just overdone...I mean OVEREATEN. I'm talking about portion control! So EAT pasta! Just not too much! How I do it....Start with making sure your pasta has a minimum of 3g of fiber. It can be whole wheat or whatever. My family doesn't like whole wheat, and frankly NEITHER do I!! So we use Smart Taste pasta (Ronzoni brand-the purple box!). It still has 5g of fiber!....but its not gritty like whole wheat, and looks like white (compromise so my family will eat it). I usually always get spaghetti on sale for $1 a box!

NEXT for healthifying pasta... the MEAT. Make sure you have MEAT! You need protein for a balanced meal and to give you energy that lasts! Just keep it lean, organic if possible. I usually get organic ground beef for my sauce.  

Next...the SAUCE! We like red sauce...my oldest son will NOT eat red sauce, he always wants white sauce. Red sauce is pretty easy since its not loaded with fat and based on tomatoes. You can make it from scratch or use bottled. I do either depending on how much time I have. Just make sure its a good quality jarred sauce. Making it from scratch isn't that hard either! I'm sure you could find 100 recipes on pinterest. I myself have about 5, let me know if you want one!
BUT if you love Alfredo sauce...who doesn't?! Then you may or may not know how horrible it is for you:) It's basically made of heavy cream, butter, and cheese...yeeaah. If you want Alfredo AND Healthy...look no further than this amazing Creamy Cauliflower Sauce recipe that my friend discovered and shared with me. OK SO NOW you know how to eat HEALTHY PASTA!! YEA!!!! 
Ok here's a tip, PS. Eat a salad with your pasta! While you're limiting the carbs to only one portion rather than 5, you need to get full right? FIBER fills you up, so fill up on veggies! Put a nice healthy salad loaded with veggies and protein on the side and you're golden. Watch out for cream dressings...stick to vinaigrettes...Ok salad is a whole other topic. But eat salad with Pasta, there you go, HEALTHIFIED!

#2. BURGERS! That's RIGHT I said BURGERS!!!! We are American. Let's not pretend we will not ever eat burgers again just cause we wanna be 'HEALTHY'. Pish posh. But remember we are HEALTHIFYING!!? 

Let's start with the MEAT. If you wanna buy frozen pre-prepared burgers, GO AHEAD! I'm all about quick and easy! You can get crappy frozen burgers, or you can get good quality ones. Go for lean, like 90% lean meat. You can also go for organic, but let's not push it. Just get some good quality beef. Like I said before you can get your own organic lean ground beef and make hamburger patties yourself, its not that hard! You can even get ground TURKEY if you want to make it really healthy! But supposing you're anything like my husband, or trying to please someone like him...lets just stick with beef for burgers.

Next...the BUNS!! This is where I get serious. FIBER. Anything "carbs" in your diet should be fiberous and plant based. That means minimum 3g of fiber. Get some WHOLE WHEAT BUNS. Sheesh, SO EASY!! Even if you go out to a restaurant you can usually request a whole wheat bun! For REAL, I always do! You don't have to use a piece of LETTUCE for your buns, get REAL! We're talking about BURGERS. Ok I think you get it. Whole grain. 

NEXT...the condiments. This is where you might get in trouble. Dude, don't worry. If you really wanna use Ketchup, go for it. It's not the best, but...its ketchup, I know. BUT you don't need it. Trade your MAYO and Ketchup for some AVOCADO! Seriously, so good. But if you must use Mayo, swap it for Olive Oil or homemade mayo, so easy to make!! Then...load on the veggies!! Onions, mushrooms, tomato, lettuce, pickles..whatever you like!! Load it on. If you MUST have a cheeseburger (like me) go for it. You really only need one fat source (which in this case is the mayo or avocado) but if you MUST....just do it. Or pick one! Trust me, your burger is gonna be GOOD! OK!!?

FRENCH FRIES. Now, this is not PART of a burger...but lets face it. It goes together like white on rice (except I don't use white rice...anyway, you know what I mean). FRENCH FRIES are potatoes. Potatoes are a vegetable. But anything deep fried is ummm....LOADED with VEGETABLE OIL. And so far in this meal, we already have our allotment of carbs and fats. So bypass them if you can.  But if you think you can manage a small portion and you must have fries...consider roasting some sweet potatoes! Drizzle a little olive oil over some sliced sweet potatoes with a little salt (I use pink Himalayan salt) and roast them in the oven for 20 minutes on 425 F. Done. So yummy, my kids gobble these up.

P.S. I hope this goes without saying...skip the soda. Go for a lemon water. 

There you have it...HEALTHIFIED BURGERS!! (this is a pic of my burger today, I wanted to use my sprouts but I was all out of lunch meat, so I made a burger with sprouts! yum!!:)

These are just TWO examples of how you can make NORMAL food, healthy! No need to eat fish and broccoli every day. PAH-LEASE!! Stay tuned for how to healthify MEXICAN food, Sandwiches, and PIZZA!!

Changing the way I eat, it's a lifestyle!

Eating healthy IS NOT just about eating Fruits and Veggies all day and sacrificing the good in life! PAH-LEASE!! Here are a few things I have changed in the way I eat to make life healthier!:
Peanut butter->Natural Peanut butter (less sugar!)
Mayonnaise->Olive Oil Mayo (1/2 the fat!)
Mayonnaise->Avocado (natural fat!)
Bread->Whole wheat bread or Whole grain bread (fiber!) I love Dave's Killer Bread (organic too)
Salad dressing->Olive Oil and vinegar or homemade vinagrettes (natural fats)
White Sugar-> Honey, fruit, Applesauce, dates, molasses, unrefined coconut sugar, and pure maple syrup
Yoplai yogurt-> Chobani low fat/nonfat GREEK yogurt (Protein!)

Bacon-> Turkey bacon (way less fat and saturated fat)

Pasta-> whole wheat pasta OR Smart Taste pasta (has lots of fiber but looks white)
BUTTER->oil, coconut oil, olive oil, etc. or skip the butter all together!
Cheddar cheese-> mozzarella cheese (less fat!)
Rib Eye steak-> Sirloin steak (Lean meat)
Tortillas-> whole wheat tortillas (FIBER)
English muffins->whole wheat (FIBER)
Rotisserie chicken-> boneless skinless chicken (LEAN protein)

Juice or soda-> Water, water, water!!!

French fries-> homemade baked sweet potato fries (chop, toss in a little olive oil and salt and bake!)
If I'm still hungry....eat veggies (fiber fills!:) If I have a sugar craving...eat fruit!!
Avoiding cravings-Shakeology® and eat protein with each meal (5 meals a day!)

I'm sure there are more great substitutes that I've made and will make, but that's all I can think of right now!;) There are so many little changes to make that all add to a healthy lifestyle to make you feel great and be healthy in the long run!

What changes or substitutions have you made to be healthier?? Comment below I'd love to know!!

Lose Weight while Nursing

This is such an important topic cause what new mom doesn't want to get back to feeling great, active, and get rid of baby weight? I have new moms ask me all the time if its possible to lose weight while nursing. YES its absolutely possible!!!! Because I did it!!

I only speak from experience. I began my first Beachbody Challenge Group with Insanity and Shakeology RIGHT after my 2nd baby was born. I was 7 weeks postpartum after my 2nd C-section when I began working out again and I started Insanity when I was about 8 weeks postpartum! I know, crazy. But I just put my head down and went for it.

My goal with nursing was to nurse FULL TIME until my baby was at least a year old (no pumping, no bottles, no binkies, no formula). My nursing experience with my first was a major struggle that I won't get into here. I could go on for hours about nursing, but I won't. So I was determined. Also I never lost any baby weight from my first pregnancy (30 lbs) so I was determined to lose weight this time!!

I followed the Insanity meal plan to the T!! I drank Shakeology daily. ALL I did for nursing, was added an extra 500 calories to my diet. Of course all calories are not created equal. I added 500 calories more of the good stuff, the same stuff I was already eating. I loved the Insanity meal plan because each meal/recipe was 300 calories. Then if you needed more calories it gave suggestions to add on 100-200 extra calories per meal. So that's about what I did. I ate 5 meals a day each of about 400 calories.

When you want to lose weight the first thing you need to do is determine your CALORIC NEEDS. You also need to know how many calories you are burning for your workouts (if you have a Beachbody program that's easy, if not you might want to get a calorie tracker or app or something to help). You just need your weight, height, age, gender and activity level (including your workout).

After you have those numbers...you can use this equation to figure out YOUR caloric needs. It's called the Harris Benedict Equation (since we're talking about nursing women, this equation is only for women). Bear with me and get out your calculator and a piece of scratch paper:

Step 1: 
655+(4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years) = ________
This is the amount of calories you NEED daily in order to maintain your current weight.

Example: 655+ (4.35x143) + (4.7x65) - (4.7x 28) = 1450.95  (these were my real numbers when I began)

Step 2:
Now take your number from Step 1 and multiply by the level of exercise (Exercise Factor) listed below.

  Exercise Factor             Category                            Explanation
    1.2                                 Sedentary                            Little or no exercise
    1.375                             Lightly Active                       Light exercise 1-3 days a week
    1.55                               Moderately Active                Moderate exercise 3-5 days a week
    1.7                                 Very Active                          Hard exercise 6-7 days a week
    1.9                                 Extremely Active                   Hard daily exercise and/or a physical job

Step 2 Example: 1450.95 x 1.7= 2466.6
This number will tell you how many calories you will need daily to MAINTAIN your weight WITH exercise.

Step 3:
NOW, if you want to LOSE weight, subtract 500 from this number.

Step 3 Example: 2466.6-500= 1966.6

Step 4:
NURSING: If you are nursing FULL TIME (baby is not eating any other food other than breastmilk, typically under 4-6 months) ADD BACK 400-500 calories. If your baby is over 6 months you might only want to add 300 calories. You be the judge based on how many times a day you are nursing your baby.

Step 4 Nursing Example: 1966.6+ 400= 2366.6

This may seem complicated, but its the most scientific and accurate way to figure out your caloric needs based on YOU and your needs. As you continue your exercise program, you may need to adjust your calories if your milk supply is too great and you are not losing weight, reduce by 200 calories for a week or two and see how it goes. If your milk supply is dwindling after a week or two, increase your calories and make sure you're drinking pleanty of water. You should be drinking half of your weight in ounces a day. So if I weigh 120 lbs I need to drink 60 oz of water daily. And even more if you're nursing! Also recalculate each month. As your metabolism speeds up you may need to eat MORE! But as you lose weight you may not need as much either. So make sure you always know what you need, and make sure to get what your BODY needs!

There are many ways to track your calories. Do whatever works best for YOU! I personally keep track the old fashioned way. I found it easier to have a white board on my fridge and after I prepared each meal, I'd estimate how many calories were in my meal, and write it down on my white board. Then at the end of the day total it up. If I kept each meal to about 400 calories, I usually hit my mark. If you're within 100 calories of your Caloric NEEDS you're good. I personally didn't get TOO picky or EXACT with my counting calories. I usually estimated each item I was eating to the nearest 25 or 50. I would just add it up in my head and jot it down. For example if I had an egg scramble breakfast burrito I'd say "OK roughly 70 for each egg, 100 for olive oil, 25 for peppers, mushrooms and onions, 100 for a whole wheat tortilla. That's about 365 calories.
At the end of the day my white board on my fridge would look like this (for example):
  365 eggs
  400 apple/pb cott cheese
  450 soup/sand
  350 shakeology
+500 salmon/veggies
=2065

Make sure you're eating often (every 2-4 hours), 5 meals a day or 3 meals and 2 snacks. Make sure your meals are balanced with lean proteins, whole grains or veggies, and a small amount of natural/plant fat with each meal. Add fruit if you need more calories. If you want more tips on what to eat...Check out my other blog post on what to eat.

I hope that wasn't too complicated! Even if you're nursing, you can still lose weight....FAT! You must feed yourself, and your baby the RIGHT foods, but with the right diet and exercise you can easily shed 1-3% (healthy amount) of your body weight each week! I averaged anywhere from 1-3 lbs lost per week. I weighed and measured myself each week to see progress. Some weeks you might lose inches and not weight. Some weeks you might lose both. Either way...its a success!

I hope this helps! Keep me posted or reach out to me if you have any questions or comments! Remember everyone is different. This may not work for everyone. Hormones play a big role in weight loss, so if it isn't working, talk to your doctor. For some women they have to stop nursing in order to lose weight. For others just nursing and using that extra 500 calories takes care of things! We're all different, but this worked for me and it has worked for MANY people that I have helped! I hope it works for you and you begin feeling great!! Good luck!!

Here's My results:

In the first 2 months of Insanity I lost 18 lbs and 18 inches. I reached my goal of losing 30 lbs one month later. So I lost 30 lbs in 3 months. I went from a size 14 to a size 6 and continued to exercise daily and eat healthy. I was able to droop another 20 lbs over the next few months. I also nursed my baby for 14 months!! My milk fluctuated a little, but my baby always got enough. My milk supply was very sensitive, to where I could tell if I ate a little too much or too little the day before just by how much milk I produced. If you don't get enough calories, your milk will be the first thing to go, so make sure you hit your Caloric needs daily, not less by more than 100-200 calories. Listen to your body, and your baby.

Beginning of my journey to present day at my lowest, after I finished the Ultimate Reset Cleanse losing 5 more pounds. I gained back a little weight on purpose to be at a healthier weight for my height. I'm most comfortable around 110 lbs. I fluctuate a little, but not too much. It's amazing after over 2 years I've been able to maintain my motivation, my results, and continue to progress!! I'm so happy I was able to do all this while nursing. It was a lot of work, but so worth it!! I feel proud of my self that I can accomplish anything! I could go on for hours about how this has changed my life, but that's another post:)

 Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns or would like more help with your weight loss while nursing. If you'd like me to be your Free Beachbody Coach just visit my website and click on JOIN! www.beachbodycoach.com/meganpotter