Today, our guest post author Josie wants you to ditch the weight loss gimmicks, deprivation of so-called “forbidden foods”, and severe calorie deprivation, in favor of Moderation, Discipline, Portion Control, and Commitment to exercising and eating healthy. Josie wants you to moderate those holiday sweets and opt for high-protein, healthier alternatives when possible.
Here are some ideas as to how you can try to stop yourself from binging on holiday sweets.
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This is a recipe for Oven-Roasted Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges that you will want to eat with every meal. Sweet potatoes are readily available starting in the autumn and all through the winter, but they are tasty all year round.
Also known as yams, sweet potatoes are packed full of vitamins and minerals such as including vitamin C, beta-carotene, fiber, copper, potassium, and iron, and best of all they won’t cause your blood sugar to spike as rapidly as white potatoes. There is also no need to add sugar to make them taste good because they are naturally sweet.
These orange-fleshed root vegetables are most often seen in a marshmallow-topped casserole around Thanksgiving, but why not try a recipe that adds savory and spicy flavors, such as these Oven-Roasted Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges?
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We recently talked about the sweet Omega 3 and antioxidant benefits of pumpkin seeds. Since autumn is upon us and Halloween fast approaches, you are going to want to cook pumpkin seeds, so I thought it appropriate to discuss some Pumpkin Seed Recipes.
Every time you carve a jack-o-lantern you end up with a Halloween decoration and a bowl full of stringy, slimy, pumpkin guts that don’t look the least bit appetizing. To make them appetizing, follow these instructions, and you’ll end up with a healthy Halloween snack that everyone can enjoy.
Once considered to be trashcan fodder, we now know you can roast them, toast them, or nuke them; and you can season pumpkin seeds with a wide variety of flavors. Check it out!
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This is one of the more disgusting Halloween recipes I’ve found. It is also not the healthiest recipe on Project Swole, but it is definitely fun for the kids. Just don’t let Fluffy near the final product or you might end up with more ‘Tootsie Rolls’ than you thought.
In an attempt to get as much protein into this recipe as possible, I am literally adding scoops of protein powder to everything and substituting protein bars for candy whenever possible. The recipe might not come out that great if you use every one of my substitutions, but you can pick and choose which substitutions to use based on personal preference.
I’ve also listed several substitutions for the cake recipes. If you use them all, the cake might not be that great, but using applesauce in place of oil never seems to ruin any recipe that I have ever tried.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger was a tank. He instinctively knew how to eat and how to train. His philosophy on whole food meals and snacks is accepted today as the best way to construct a weight gain diet, a fat loss diet, or even a regular healthy diet for a non-athlete. The famous Arnold Schwarzenegger protein shake will be sure to put muscle on anyone’s back.
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You could be wasting your time with a great workout routine and proper nutrition if you don’t know how to train and eat based on your body type. When I first started training and reading about body types my first question – what is my body type, was hard to answer. It seemed I was the combination of 2 of them so initially, I struggled to categorize myself. Honestly, your body type category doesn’t matter enough for anyone to be stressed out about categorizing the body type but knowing the details of how to eat and train for each type, at least gave me some direction as I set goals for fat loss and strength gains in my earlier years.
Hopefully, this guide will help you find some answers if you ask the question, ‘What is my body type?’
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Accept it or not, we all have that craving, or say, a mandatory ritual to take a sweet dish once we are over with our meals! Consuming sweets at the end of meals is a popular practice influenced by many factors—such as physiological responses, cultural traditions, and individual preferences. It doesn’t matter if it’s a slice of cake, a scoop of ice cream, or a small portion of fruit, eating something sweet towards the end of a meal has an emotional as well as physiological significance for many.
From satisfying the cravings to activating the reward system in the brain, eating something sweet after meals contributes to the overall dining experience. It could also be a factor in blood sugar regulation as well as social bonds. Understanding the causes that drive this behavior sheds an understanding of its multiple aspects.
In this article, let’s examine several reasons for craving and consuming sweets after meals from a scientific perspective.
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If you’ve been having health issues, you may be wondering if you’ve got a nutrient deficiency. It isn’t hard to imagine these days. Documentaries and Instagram Reels alike share information about depleted soil and inadequate diets. You may be feeling fatigued and wondering if it’s a nutrition issue or just a lack of sleep. The subject can get confusing, to be sure.
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Hardcore bodybuilders, powerlifters, weightlifters, and even most other athletes eat a ton of protein in a day. OK, they don’t eat a “ton”, but they do eat more than the average person. There are myths and stories about professional bodybuilders and strongmen who eat 300-500 grams of protein each day. Most of us can’t follow that prescription so we end up with the nagging question, “how much protein should I eat in a day?” This leaves us with a number of additional oft-debated questions, such as:
“How much protein do the professionals eat?”
“Exactly how much protein do I eat?”
“How much protein is appropriate for me?”
“Can I physically eat ‘too much’ protein?”
“If so, what are the side effects?”
“Exactly how much is ‘too much’?”
Let’s stop to consider all of the factors that go into determining how much protein we should eat.
(more…)Here are 105 different protein shake recipes!
Utilize all kinds of fruits, vegetables, spices, and fun ingredients like peanut and almond butter, honey, oatmeal, and flavor extracts. Whatever you have laying around probably can be used in one of these protein shakes.
For those without digestive issues, check out the link to Optimum Nutrition below. It is an awesome product with a huge variety of flavors and sizes.
For those who are lactose intolerant, check out Muscle Milk protein powder, which also comes in several flavors and sizes. When I found Muscle Milk I could finally start mixing protein recipes again!
Need protein powder?
Optimum Nutrition is nutritionally the healthiest and highest quality protein powder I’ve found at a reasonable price. It comes in over 20 different flavors and is available in 1 lb, 2 lb, 5 lb, and 10 lb containers. Click here to order or learn more.
Muscle Milk is an equally great product and is also great for lactose intolerance. That’s right, if whey protein usually makes you sick give Muscle Milk a try. It comes in at least 10 flavors and in 2.5 and 5 lb jugs. Click here to order or learn more.
For many people, losing fat and keeping it off is an impossible task, and they’d sooner reach China by grabbing a shovel and flinging dirt around. The road to leanness is littered with the remnants of horrible-tasting food, dingy Tupperware containers, and the dreams of those who abandoned their quest because of the seemingly insurmountable difficulty.
We’ve all been there at one point or another, but those who’ve managed to travel the wasteland and emerge on the other side victorious have done so by finding a way to stay on the path while others fell to the wayside, rules be damned.
And let’s face it: the fitness industry has managed to create a lot of rules and myths, both intentional and unintentional, to keep people in a constant state of fear and dependence, but the concept of intermittent fasting has come around and anecdotally proved that many of these claims are based off faulty and cherry-picked research, or are just flat out lies. Freeing people from the shackles of dogma and letting them indulge their inner hedonists without an ounce of guilt has helped hundreds if not thousands, achieve the body of their dreams.
Forget about Atkins, low-fat dieting, low-carb dieting, the South Beach Diet, or any of those other fad diets. Here is a nutrition strategy you can use year in and year out to maintain ideal body composition, to get shredded for a show, or to lean out for summer.
Without further adieu, I’d like to introduce you to the new sheriff in town and how he can help you get to where you want to be as fast and painlessly as possible.
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Being a fitness trainer is an exceptionally challenging job that not only requires your expertise in helping others to achieve their fitness goals but also demands that you look after your physique on a daily routine. As a busy personal trainer, I am always searching for the best grab and go snacks that I can consume regularly to maintain my healthy appetite.
The perfect diet does not exist but with an evaluated plan that effectively contributes to your health, you can easily manage to get your fitness right on track just like a personal trainer myself. Let me take you through my day-to-day snacks and meals that make me maintain a balanced diet while helping in my fitness journey.
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You are a hardworking person who gets up early, works a full day, exercises, and takes care of the kids at night. Life sure is easy, right? Riiiight… Something is already telling me you could use some tips to manage cravings during your weakest hours.
OK, maybe your story is a little different, but most likely you are living a busy life, full of stress, anxiety, and deadlines. While you sit at your desk or drive your car, your daydreams shift to thoughts of salty chips or a smooth, sweet chocolate bar. You most likely are not thinking about healthy foods.
Don’t fret, it’s perfectly normal to have food cravings. When you constantly give in to your cravings and overindulge, is when you pay the price. Go ahead and accept your cravings as part of life, but also be aware that you can take action to prevent going overboard.
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It might be a shocker for many people, but not all salads are good for weight loss food. The modern-day fitness industry has created this aura around salads, claiming that salads are the “ideal health food”. Not only this is not the case for many types of salads, but this approach also hurts people who eat salads genuinely trying to lose weight, only to see no results.
In this article, I will tell you about 3 steps to make your salads healthier and actually help you with weight loss. But before talking about ways to fix the problem, let’s figure out what the problem is – what makes many weight loss salads unhealthy?
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Protein ice creams are produced with all-natural ingredients and are usually 100% vegan. They taste as good as any other sugar-loaded ice cream but are way healthier. The best part about protein ice cream is that it can be served at lunch, dinner, or even breakfast, as it is light, fluffy, and nutritious.
Protein is uncountably the main component of every cell in our body. It doesn’t only help in repairing and building tissue muscles but also makes our hair and nails shiny and long. All body chemicals and enzymes need protein to function properly. Hence, people on a diet often take a high-protein diet to fulfill their body requirements.
Let’s look at how easy it is to make protein ice cream with a few ingredients in just a few simple steps.Â
(more…)Just in time for the new year! Lose fat quickly and safely on this 21-day fat-loss shred diet!
Disclaimer: the author is no longer a certified nutritionist and has not been a certified nutritionist since the mid-2000s. Use these diet guidelines and meal plans at your own risk.
To spare you from having to read this entire post to learn the premise, here is a quick summary of the Project Shred Diet:
Judging by a recent Swole Poll, most Project Swole readers want to build muscle – 53% to be exact. However, 33% of you are looking to lose fat and I’d wager a guess that at least 50% of the muscle-builders will, at some point, switch their goals to losing fat. Therefore I can say that if you are one of the 60+% of Project Swole readers that will eventually want to lose fat, then this article is for you.
The Project Shred Diet is, in fact, a diet plan that you can follow for the recommended 21 days or longer. There are 7 days of carefully planned out meals – 3 full meals and 2-3 optional snacks per day. Each of the 7 days can be switched and swapped around as you prefer. To get the most benefit try to hit all 7 days before repeating. Some food substitutions can be made within reason. I’ll tell you all about the rules in a moment.
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Another great gross-out Halloween snack for you and the kiddies. Looks like someone just squeezed a zit! Arrange these Protein Pus Pockets on an hors d’oeuvres platter as the recipe says, and you will have a fun and healthy treat for a Halloween get-together.
You could also make a handful of these and keep them in the fridge for a quick snack or a small meal. They are also easily taken to work for lunch because they are small and very portable.
So, how do we make them?
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There are several reasons to start a vegan diet, but each person’s motivation will be unique. Some people may choose to be vegan because they feel there is a connection between a vegan diet and chronic degenerative illnesses. Other people choose to be vegan because they care about animals. Other factors may include the environment, religion, weight reduction, and so on.
Whatever goals you have currently to motivate you, you will end up broadening the circle of compassion in this world and raising your mind and body to new heights! Being vegan, as they usually say, is like drinking a truth serum, because living an honest, healthy, clean life alters your mindset.
Let’s take a moment to think about the essential aspects you’ll need to start a vegan diet plan for weight loss and general good health.
(more…)If you are looking for a pure protein powder, check out Muscle Milk. Muscle Milk protein powder comes in about 20 different flavors, and is available in 1 lb, 2 lb, 5 lb, and 10 lb containers. Learn more about Muscle Milk. Finally, a protein powder that tastes great mixed with water!
Maybe you prefer all-natural whole-food protein bars. Visit RX Bars for awesome tasting bars. My favorite is Maple Sea Salt.
“Like eating 3 egg whites, 2 dates, and 6 almonds. With no B.S.”
Please note: you’re about to read my original story from 2011.
So I was hungry the other day at work and didn’t have many meal choices. The cafeteria was closed, I didn’t have any money for the vending machine, no protein bars, and only a couple of packets of Sweet & Spicy Tuna in my desk drawer. I’d already eaten tuna earlier that day, so I wasn’t in the mood for more.
What to do? What to do?
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When you need to drop fat quickly to get shredded, you might have to say, “screw healthy lifestyle eating habits”, and take a more aggressive approach. It’s great to eat healthily and maintain low body fat. But what if you only have 2 months to lose 20 lbs? What if you are trying to get from a decent 12% bodyfat to a ripped 6% bodyfat? Well, now it’s time to talk about jumping on a hardcore diet to melt off the fat and show those hard-earned abs.
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