Category: Nutrition

Why is sugar so bad? Sugar is not your friend

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Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com

Well guys , it is the holidays and Christmas is literally less than four days away Whew! I know with everything that has been happening in 2020 we are looking forward to the holidays. One thing some of us look forward to is having our SWEETS! Yes I said it SWEETS. For most of us it all really starts with Thanksgiving, and we are not usually working on our summer bodies at this time. I always have a sweet and a lot of the time I have to remind myself to get that under control and not go overboard. With that being said now I will let you know all the reasons why sugar is not your friend:

1. Too much sugar consumption leaves the door open for many diseases and disorders

2.  Too much sugar in diet can cause you to crash and feel sluggish

3. Too much sugar in the diet opens the avenue to Type 2 Diabetes due to an excess in sugar in the body can lead to insulin resistance

4. More prone to cancer

5.Weight Gain

6. Heart Disease

7. Arthrosclerosis and so much more

Now that you know why sugar is not your friend , how are you going to work on limiting it in your diet? To start always read your nutritional facts label that is where you will find out how much sugar is in your food. Also keep in mind if a food item is more than one serving and you eat more than one you will consume more sugar per serving. Try other alternatives to sweetening your food such as honey, agave, and stevia. I’ve even heard now that there is coconut sugar ! It is recommended that men should have 37 grams or 9 teaspoons of sugar a day while women can have 25 grams or 6 teaspoons of sugar a day according to the American Heart Association. Now that is not a lot so you can see why controlling our sugar cravings is so important. Make sure this holiday not to splurge to much sweets but also enjoy what can in moderation. Happy Holidays! Stay Safe

Check out my Youtube Video on why Sugar is not your friend

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The New Normal Exercising At Home

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Our physical health is so important and this is no surprise. Exercising has many benefits it keeps you fit, contributes to weight loss, helps you to get stronger and build muscle, and is beneficial to our mental health. With everything going on in 2020 with the pandemic and stay at home orders exercising at home is becoming the new thing. Even though many people were exercising at home way before things changed for us our homes are going to become our new gym.

I will admit I was never into exercising in the past because I always felt like my weight was stable for many years and I didn’t need to lose any weight. I thought exercising was all about weight loss but it isn’t theres so much more to it and it makes you feel good. These days with being a mom and into my first year of motherhood I am still working on time management and fitting in time for myself to get things done but below I will share with you some the exercises I am doing at home.

After giving birth I lose a great amount of weight going from 162 pounds down to 146 pounds. Most of my weight was baby weight! But as time went on and I started getting my appetite back I was eating pretty much anything and then when quarantine started I gained all my weight back. It has been a struggle for me to shed the weight but I am trying very hard to get it under control.  Right on my main focus is burning calories and cardio exercises.

Here are some of my favorite cardio exercises ( and I’m sure some of your favorites too!)

1. Jumping Jacks – jumping jacks is one of the most classic exercise moves I know. I remember doing jumping jacks in Kindergarten! when we had gym and pretty much all through elementary school during gym time. Jumping jacks are fairly easy but you can get tired easily. But I love it because it is a quick calorie burner and depending on your intensity and how many jumping jacks you can do, you can even burn more calories. Start off with a set number and gradually increase the number. So first start off with 50 then increase to 100 then 150 and so on

2. Burpees – I don’t know if this is a favorite of everyone but I love doing burpees. For me it’s a better alternative to doing push ups and allows for full body movement. Depending on the intensity of this you can also burn some calories really fast.

3. Squats – Now I know this is a sure favorite for everyone. They are easy to do but they do hurt after a while  lol my legs get tired easily but I love how versatile you can be with a squat doing it in many different ways for example a jump squat

4. Jump Ropes – This is my new favorite thing and I should have purchased one way before this. Jump roping is an instant fat burner and you can literally burn 150 calories in 11 minutes so imagine how much you can burn doing twenty minutes of jump rope probably close to 400 calories!

5. Side to Side High Knees – The way I do this is a run side to side doing high knees and increase the intensity as I go along

For now those a my top 5 calories burners but I will be adding many more to the list. Leave a comment below and let me know your favorite stay at home workouts!

Be well and stay safe.

I was a little late on getting my workout equipment since when quarantine had started I had so much trouble finding workout jump ropes in stores. I was able to finally get one through Amazon. Click the link below if you are looking for a nice workout jump rope


 

Acid Re-flux Update

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Hey guys how are you all doing? I hope you are doing well, staying safe, and healthy during these times. 

I just wanted to update on my acid re-flux.  To start I can say it has almost been a full year since I have taken any acid re-flux medication. I stopped taking prilosec when I found out I  was pregnant and even after giving birth last October I never continued with prilosec and zantac was being pulled off shelves due to that fact that it was found it could cause cancer.
Even though I haven’t been on any medications does not my re-flux has resolved. I still get re-flux symptoms but they have been stable and mild. If you have acid re-flux it is important to make sure that you don’t sweep it under the rug. That’s what I did many years ago and then it just kept getting worse and worse from that point. I haven’t had a major re-flux episode (acid hitting my throat) since 2017 and I want to keep it that way. I also want to continue to help you all on your journey. 

The re-flux journey is not an easy one but it takes a lot of time to get better and you must evaluate the foods the you are eating which are your trigger foods. As we know many foods are acidic then alkaline so you have to find the right balance in order to minimize those symptoms. 
I am excited to be back and to continue to help you all on this journey!

The ” Weight” of Pregnancy

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Pregnancy is one the most exciting times in a women’s life. To experience the joy of bringing a new life into this world. Throughout the stages of pregnancy and three trimesters the body will go through a series of changes one of the most notable things being weight. That may be the one part women dread the most about pregnancy the weight gain that comes with it. Then you start to think will I be able to lose this weight after?

For me weight gain was not a major issue in the beginning of my pregnancy. During my journey I was not able to eat much at all. Once the nausea started it pretty much stayed with me throughout my whole pregnancy and never went away. For most women nausea usually goes away by the second trimester. It was a tough battle to tackle the nausea and dry heaving on top of already having a history of acid reflux. Most days I didn’t even feel hungry I had no appetite because of the nausea but I still made sure to eat anything I could of course not anything but nutritious foods for me and the baby. Then eventually as time went on I had to drink ensures for extra calories.
My weight pretty much stayed stable until about  25 weeks of pregnancy. I started weighing 138 pounds and by the end of my pregnancy I was 160 pounds. Not bad right? A month after giving birth I weighed in at 146 pounds. Now today I am 156 pounds so I am almost back to my end pregnancy weight. Even though I instantly lost weight I seemed to gain it back. Even though the pregnancy is over the real work has just begun and postpartum weight also counts.

How did I get back 156 pounds ? Well the good news is that it wasn’t instantly but gradually. During postpartum you go through a whirlwind of emotions.  Your getting used to having a new baby, juggling bottles, diapers, pumping, or breastfeeding and no sleep is not easy! And in between all of that you have to figure out when will you have time to eat and do you even have time to cook?
For me, I just pretty much ate anything whenever I could. Most days I wouldn’t eat until at 4 PM.  I ate a lot of chips , chocolate and anything that was easy fast food. It seemed as though all my healthy ways of eating had gone through the window.

Now to this present day I am getting back on track with how I used to be I am eating healthier, meal planning, and even exercising something that I never was really used to doing much at all. I am making sure to drink a lot more water and not beat myself about my current weight. 
The point of this post is to tell you mamas out their not to be upset about weight gain and to embrace it.  The post postpartum journey is not easy but once you ease into a routine and also fit in time to take care of YOU, everything will fall into place.

How Do You Handle Your Sweet Tooth on Valentine’s Day

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Happy Valentine’s Day! Picture Credit: Me!

Now we all love sweets, at least most of us get a sweet tooth from time to time. Now for someone like me who has Acid Reflux when it comes to those Valentine’s Day chocolates, I definitely cannot have the whole box in one day. Maybe more like one piece of chocolate a week lol. So the question is how can we still enjoy sweets without consuming too much sugar and calories?

First to start do not overdo it! Whether you get one box of chocolate or many different sweets do not eat it all in one sitting! Whew! Second, try looking for sweets that are vegan! Now they still contain sugar of course but the ingredients in vegan sweets will be a lot healthier and not contain high fructose corn syrup which we know is like the number one sugar enemy. High fructose corn syrup is used in so many food products including wheat bread that you may think is 100 percent healthy, always read your nutrition facts labels they are there for a reason. 

Third try looking for sweets that are organic which will have much better ingredients but again it does not mean it does not contain sugar. Fourth, you can go completely sugar-free and look for sweets. I have tried many things that are sugar-free such as sugar-free cakes, sugar-free ice creams, and sugar-free chocolates and they still taste good! Lastly, if you are good at baking in the kitchen you can bake your own sweets that way you get to control how much sugar you use in your recipe. 

When it comes to sugar in the diet, it should always be in moderation. Really when it comes to sugar consumption for Males the total amount for one day should only be about 37.5 grams of sugar and for females 25 grams of sugar per day (According to the American Heart Association). Now we all know that most of the time we go over those recommendations. 
As I always teach to anyone that I coach we have to have certain things in moderation and sugar is most certainly one of those things.

Here is a list of a few things I have tried out:

Breyers Sugar-Free Vanilla Ice Cream

Breyers Non- Dairy Peanut Butter Flavor Ice Cream

Pillsbury Sugar-Free Yellow Cake Mix

Healthy Foods Healthy Foods

There are many sugar-free sweets you can purchase through Amazon if you can not find them in your local supermarkets such as sugar- free Reese’s and Hersey candies

Some of my favorite vegan brands are:

Enjoy Life

Lenny and Larry’s

Nature’s Bakery

Happy Valentine’s Day!