Health Coach, Holistic Nutrition, Weight Loss Expert | Cheryl Giambattista
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Do You Know What Clean Eating Is?

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What is clean eating?

You might think it means washing your fruit and vegetables before you eat them or sanitizing your cutting board when you cut raw chicken.  These are good practices to follow, but clean eating is wholesome food, fresh vegetables, fruit and lean cuts of meat.

Let's take a look in your food pantry

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Take a good look at the food you have. There’s probably canned soup, dry pasta, spaghetti sauce and sugary cereal.  Do you have items you prepare just by adding water or milk?  

Read the labels of the food packages. Are there ingredients you've never heard of?  Take those items out of your pantry; we'll get to them in a minute. Do the shelves look empty? Hopefully you still have some good foods – whole wheat cereal, canned vegetables, oatmeal, rice and quinoa.

If you're ready to take your eating plan to the next level and start seeing the fat loss you've been dreaming of, clean eating is going to be a big step in the right direction!


Looking at the food you've taken out of the pantry, think about the similarities in ingredients that are additives - sugar, sodium, modified corn starch, trans fats and all those words you can't even pronounce - and next time you head to the grocery store, stick to the pantry items made only of one ingredient, or don't have any additives. The rest of this blog post gives you some good suggestions for how to re-stock your pantry!​

But let's not waste edible food! We want to take steps from "not so great" food choices to the best food choices for a balanced, fat burning diet! Donate these items to your local shelter or soup kitchen. There are many people less fortunate who can put it to good use! Or, if you're not ready to take the plunge just yet - and that's alright, make the commitment to start changing your purchasing habits for the future.

Now to the fridge

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Salad dressings, dipping sauces, relish, sugary jams? These items are loaded with sugars, sodium, unhealthy fats and preservatives.  They’ve got to go! If you have natural almond butter, eggs, milk, fruit and vegetables…..you’re off to a great start.​

Your fridge is going to be well used now. Clean eating includes fresh, wholesome foods. Most of them will be stored in your fridge.

​Remember, if you can store food on a shelf, chances are you shouldn't feed it to your body.

Time to go grocery shopping

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You’ll be cooking for your family now and eating such amazing food, you’ll forget all about the boxed items you used to eat.  First let’s choose some things for your pantry:
  • Whole grains: brown or wild rice, quinoa, lentils, barley and oats are excellent choices.
  • Canned goods: tomatoes (watch for added sugar), canned fish, beans and legumes, pure pumpkin and coconut milk.​

  • Condiments: yellow mustard, any spices (watch for sodium levels), balsamic vinegar, salsa (watch for added sugar), tamari and hot sauce.
  • Staples: low sodium broths, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, pure honey and maple syrup, apple sauce, natural almond butter, whole grain rice crackers and unsalted nuts.
  • Meat: Lean cuts are always a good choice.  Be sure the meat isn’t processed to make it something else – ham, sausage, premade burgers, deli meat, etc.  These meats have added ingredients and are processed to make them tasty, but they’re not the best choices for a whole clean diet. 
  • Dairy: Greek yogurt, eggs, cottage cheese and feta cheese are all good choices.  I recommend unsweetened nut milks (sweetened or flavoured skyrocket the ingredient list, sugar content and calorie levels) as a great alternative to dairy milk.
  • Produce: There aren’t any bad choices, so try lots of variety and choose some you’ve never tried before.  Have you ever eaten a star fruit or eggplant?  Pick up some fresh herbs too; they add so much flavour to your cooking.
  • Frozen fruit & vegetables are an alternative to fresh if you’re not able to frequent the grocery store as often as you need.  
Your grocery cart should look pretty amazing now, full of fresh healthy food.  Congratulations, you are ready for clean eating.

Let's use those groceries and start cooking!

Need idea for meals?

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What is Metabolism?

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What is Metabolism?

This word “metabolism” is thrown around a lot these days.

You know that if yours is too slow you might gain weight. But what exactly does this all mean?

Technically “metabolism” is the word to describe all of the biochemical reactions in your body. It's how you take in nutrients and oxygen and use them to fuel everything you do.

Your body has an incredible ability to grow, heal, and generally stay alive.  And without this amazing biochemistry you would not be possible.

Metabolism includes how the cells in your body:
  • Allow activities you can control (e.g. physical activity etc.).
  • Allow activities you can't control (e.g. heart beat, wound healing, processing of nutrients & toxins, etc.).
  • Allow storage of excess energy for later.

So when you put all of these processes together into your metabolism you can imagine that these processes can work too quickly, too slowly, or just right.

Which brings us to the “metabolic rate”.  ​

Metabolic Rate

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Metabolic rate: This is how fast your metabolism works and is measured in calories (yup, those calories!).

The calories you eat can go to one of three places:
  • Work (i.e. exercise and other activity).
  • Heat (i.e. from all those biochemical reactions).
  • Storage (i.e. extra leftover “unburned” calories stored as fat).

As you can imagine the more calories you burn as work or creating heat the easier it is to lose weight and keep it off because there will be fewer “leftover” calories to store for later.

There are a couple different ways to measure metabolic rate. One is the “resting metabolic rate” (RMR) which is how much energy your body uses when you're not being physically active.

The other is the “total daily energy expenditure” (TDEE) which measures both the resting metabolic rate as well as the energy used for “work” (e.g. exercise) throughout a 24-hour period.

What Affects Your Metabolic Rate?

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In a nutshell: a lot!
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The first thing you may think of is your thyroid.  This gland at the front of your throat releases hormones to tell your body to “speed up” your metabolism.  Of course, the more thyroid hormone there is the faster things will work and the more calories you'll burn.

But that's not the only thing that affects your metabolic rate.

The size of your body counts too. 

Larger people have higher metabolic rates; but your body composition is crucial!  

As you can imagine muscles that actively move and do work need more energy than fat does. So the more lean muscle mass you have the more energy your body will burn and the higher your metabolic rate will be.  Even when you're not working out.

This is exactly why weight training is often recommended as a part of a weight loss program.  Because you want muscles to be burning those calories for you.  

The thing is, when people lose weight their metabolic rate often slows down which you don't want to happen. So you definitely want to offset that with more muscle mass.

Aerobic exercise also temporarily increases your metabolic rate. Your muscles are burning fuel to move so they're doing “work”.

Food & Metabolic Rate

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The type of food you eat also affects your metabolic rate!

Your body actually burns calories to absorb, digest, and metabolize your food.  This is called the “thermic effect of food” (TEF).

You can use it to your advantage when you understand how your body metabolizes foods differently.  

Fats, for example increase your TEF by 0-3%; carbs increase it by 5-10%, and protein increases it by 15-30%.  By trading some of your fat or carbs for lean protein you can slightly increase your metabolic rate.

Another bonus of protein is that your muscles need it to grow.  By working them out and feeding them what they need they will help you to lose weight and keep it off.

And don't forget the mind-body connection.  There is plenty of research that shows the influence that things like stress and sleep have on the metabolic rate.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to metabolism and how so many different things can work to increase (or decrease) your metabolic rate.

Boost Your Metabolism Naturally

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Are you looking for a simple way to boost your metabolism?

My favourite product to help your body to burn more fat is the TruShape Metabolism Booster.

With TruShape capsules, you'll soon be fitting into your favourite clothes again!

This is a thermogenic capsule that helps you shed fat without the use of harsh stimulants and caffeine.



By adding TruShape to your diet you will...

- reduce body fat
- stimulate calorie burn

- supports appetite control


Contact me for more information and to order.

Recipe (Lean Protein): Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken Breasts

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Serves 4

2 lemons, sliced
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 tablespoon thyme
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
dash salt & pepper
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive old

1. Preheat oven to 425F. 
2. Layer ½ of the lemon slices on the bottom of a baking dish. 
3. Sprinkle with ½ of the herbs and ½ of the sliced garlic.

4. Place the chicken breasts on top and sprinkle salt & pepper. 
5. Place remaining lemon, herbs and garlic on top of the chicken.  Drizzle with olive oil. 
​6. Cover with a lid or foil.

7. Bake for 45 minutes until chicken is cooked through. If you want the chicken to be a bit more “roasty” then remove the lid/foil and broil for another few minutes (watching carefully not to burn it).

Serve & enjoy!

Tip: You can add a leftover sliced chicken breast to your salad for lunch the next day!

References:
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-energy-balance

https://authoritynutrition.com/10-ways-to-boost-metabolism/

Want to Reset & Speed Up Your Metabolism?

Join my Simple Swaps to Slim Down Fat Loss Program!

You will be guided every step of the way towards your leanest, healthiest body ever!

During the program, you will completely reset your metabolism so it starts working FOR you instead of against you!
Yes! I Want to Learn More!
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Transformation Tuesday: Susan Deobald

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You Can Be Lean For Life!

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Have you taken a moment to think about your New Year's resolutions and goals for 2017?

What sort of new habits do you want to form?

What do you want your life to look like a year from now?


Over the holiday seasons I've been supporting a great group of coaching clients who did an amazing job of setting weight loss goals and then using my support to help stick to them.​

For this Transformation Tuesday I'd like to introduce you to Susan Deobald who started my Simple Swaps to Slim Down Program back in November.

Here's what she has to say about her journey so far...

"I struggled trying to lose weight. I found that with this program I am losing and it isn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Since I joined in November I am so happy that 

I have lost 10 pounds and lost 4 and a 1/4 inches off my waist. 

I have been blessed to have an awesome health coach to walk me through this process and be there for me every step of the way.

Because of the results that I have had, my husband has now decided to join me in losing more weight and maintaining it! 

​Thanks Cheryl for your assistance and guidance."
​

- Susan Deobald
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​Wow!

Don't you think Susan looks amazing?

Over the holidays, she was travelling away from home and went through Christmas company parties, family dinners and multiple gatherings and still managed to move towards her goals!

I'm so proud of her results and I'm excited to continue sharing her successes with all of you!

Here are her stats...

Nov. 3/16 - Bust: 40 1/4  Waist: 41 1/4  Hips: 39
Dec 29/16 - Bust: 40 Waist: 36 1/4  Hips: 38 1/4

Are YOU Ready to Start 2017 Off on the Right Foot?

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  • • Do your food cravings feel out of control and you need a way to curb them?
    In this free report you'll learn what the BEST foods are to keep you full and craving free!

  • • Do you want to see results fast?
  • Your life moves at a lightning-quick speed, but so can your metabolism! Start by reading the information in this free guide and when you apply them to your diet, you'll start seeing results almost immediately.

  • Is your metabolism at a stand-still and you want to give it a natural BOOST to start burning fat? 
    You'll find out my tried, tested and true methods for naturally increasing your metabolism so that you can more efficiently convert fat to energy.
  • Are you sick and tired of yo-yo diets, un-met goals and plateauing with your weight?
    My Simple Swaps method, as you'll read about in this free report, is the sustainable and achievable solution that doesn't require restricting calories or extreme dieting.

If you want to read the full version of my Simple Swaps Guide to Meal Planning & Prepping eBook, click below to register for my email list and you'll receive your copy right away!
​

Send Me My Free Meal Plan & Prep Guide!
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    Health Coach Cheryl

    I am a health coach, wife and mother of 6.  I have spent the last 20 years incorporating REAL FOODS into my family’s nutrition plan, while helping others to do the same.

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  • HOME
  • About
    • Health Coach Cheryl
    • My Story
  • My Programs
    • Simple Swaps
    • Coaching For Families
  • Blog
  • Clean Beauty
  • Praise
    • Success Stories
    • Press
  • Contact