Sleep to Lose Weight!
Posted by: emilykbrooks on: August 11, 2009
Ahh! This is the type of news I love. According to University of Chicago scientists, people who lost three hours of sleep than their counterparts, ate 200 more calories that day from snacks. Check out the full article here!
Honey-Pecan Crusted Chicken
Posted by: emilykbrooks on: August 11, 2009
This is my favorite dish to make for guests.
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup honey 2
tablespoons Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/4 cups finely crushed plain Special K cereal (about 4 cups uncrushed cereal)
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans Cooking spray
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Sprinkle salt and pepper evenly over chicken; set aside. Combine honey, mustard, paprika, and garlic powder in a small bowl; stir well. Combine cereal and pecans in a shallow dish; stir well. Brush both sides of chicken with honey mixture; dredge in cornflake mixture.
3. Place chicken on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Lightly coat chickens with cooking spray to keep from overcooking the coating, and bake at 400° for 40 minutes or until done.
Your Fitness Questions Answered
Posted by: emilykbrooks on: August 10, 2009
Q. Hi Ralph, what is the difference between high-impact and low-impact exercise and is one better than the other.
A. Good question, and this depends greatly on how much high or low impact we are talking about. High impact sports, like running have been shown to increase bone density, which is especially important for women (Why? another answer for another time. For now, take my word for it!). Weight training has also been shown to improve bone density, although not to quite the same degree (it has plenty of other benefits!).
You can read more about this topic here, where a recent study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning is discussed. On the flip, to much high impact can lead to repetitive stress joint issues, so be sure to mix less load bearing exercise, like biking or swimming, into your routine.
As an aside, I have always found running to naturally burn more fat than any other form of cardio. I wholeheartedly recommend you hit the road while we still have the warm weather!
Sausage-Stuffed Manicotti
Posted by: emilykbrooks on: August 8, 2009
This is one of my boyfriend’s favorites!
10 uncooked manicotti noodles
Cooking spray
1 pound sweet turkey Italian sausage
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups fat-free milk
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
2 cups tomato-basil pasta sauce (such as Newman’s Own)
1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1. Cook pasta according to package directions.
2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Remove casings from sausage. Add sausage to pan; cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add onion and bell pepper to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until tender.
3. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in flour; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a whisk. Remove from heat; gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk. Return pan to heat; bring to a boil. Cook 6 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly with a whisk. Remove from heat; stir in black pepper. Add 1/2 cup milk mixture to sausage mixture; stir well.
4. Preheat oven to 350°.
5. Spoon about 1/3 cup sausage mixture into each manicotti; arrange manicotti in a single layer in a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle mozzarella over manicotti; spread remaining milk mixture evenly over mozzarella. Top milk mixture with pasta sauce, spreading to cover. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until bubbly.
The Ultimate Food Additive Glossary
Posted by: emilykbrooks on: August 5, 2009
I constantly hear the importance of eating whole foods from my trainer. He tells me to beware of reduced fat or fat free items, because they are typically replacing the flavor that comes from fat with some chemical additive. I do my best to avoid purchasing any foods with ingredients I don’t recognize, which has me reading labels more often. I’ve started to wonder what some of these additives are and what their purpose is. Here is a link to the “Ultimate Food Additive Glossery“. This will help you determine what all those additives do and whether or not they have any serious risks associated with them. Shop and eat healthy!
Asian Cabbage Salad
Posted by: emilykbrooks on: August 5, 2009
This is one of my favorite summer salads–but it’s great anytime of the year!
1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp ginger
2 tsp honey
1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cup shredded cabbage
1 cupshredded red cabbage
1 cup shredded carrots
4 tbsp raisins
2 medium scallion chopped
1. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, ginger, honey, sesame oil and vinegar and set aside.
2. Combine remaining ingredients and toss until well mixed. About 15 minutes before serving, pour dressing over salad and stir to combine.
3. Enjoy!
Team Training – Third session and I am still getting up in the morning
Posted by: emilykbrooks on: August 3, 2009
Today marked my third team training session with Ralph at ENRG Fitness Chicago. I am quite impressed with my ability to wake up at 5:15 in the morning. Not only do I wake up on time, I am happy to be getting up to go work out. I have tried on a few occasions to go to the gym in the morning before work, and each time I end up hitting snooze until it’s time for me to go to work. This is huge testament to ENRG! I love starting off the day like this!
Tanning beds deemed as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas
Posted by: emilykbrooks on: August 3, 2009
One of my best friends, Jill Brzezinski-Conley was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She has seen 6+ doctors in the past few weeks, and each one of them asked her if she tans. She said yes and they all said that going tanning is the worst thing a person could do. Jill asked the doctor on Friday if she thought that’s what caused the cancer, and the doctor said that she doesn’t know for sure, but she wouldn’t give a tanning package to her worst enemy.
International cancer experts have recently moved tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation into the top cancer risk
category, deeming them as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas. Click here to read the entire article from MSNBC.com
Team Training…at 6am
Posted by: emilykbrooks on: July 29, 2009
Today I had my first team training session with ENRG Fitness Chicago. ENRG’s take on group fitness, is that large exercise classes cannot focus on individual needs. By putting together a team of 4-6 people with like fitness levels and goals, what you wind up with is the spirit and camaraderie of group exercise with the tailored workouts and results of personal training. The best part about it is that cost for three days of group training is the equivalent to the price of one personal session per week. So per the agreement previously mentioned, I am basically getting three days of personal training instead of one.
As I also mentioned in a previous post, training is from 6-7am three days per week. I am not a morning person. I was thrilled when I recently read a book that suggested this cannot be changed–that one is either an owl or a lark and attempts at reversing that are typically futile. That was all I needed to accept the fact that I will never wake up earlier than I have to.
Surprise–I’m reborn! Well, at least for now. I woke up this morning at 5:15 and I kid you not–I heard a voice in my head say, “I feel so bad for you right now”. I peddled 20 minutes over to the park where we train. One of the two other girls on our team is a little bit stronger than I am–but it’s a great push to reach that next level. Ralph helps when one of us is not in proper form and cheers us on when we do well. I received the same personalized attention that I got with personal training, but it was even more fun with a team. After an awesome workout I peddled 20 minutes back home and felt amazing. I got a supervised strength workout in, as well as a decent cardio session–and all before 7:30am. I don’t know how endorphin levels are measured but it’s safe to say mine were very elevated. I can’t wait to get up at 5:15 on Friday! Rest assured I will do my best to schedule travel around training days–but when I am unable to do so I will be sad to miss it.
I hope that this is what it takes to shift my internal clock. I am tired–so it’s safe to say I will be in bed early tonight. Now all I have to do is continue to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier!
Blueberry Cobbler
Posted by: emilykbrooks on: July 29, 2009
This is one of my all-time favorite recipes and the blueberries provide a great source of antioxidants.
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup skim milk
2 tbs butter or margarine melted (reduced fat works also)
2 cups blueberries
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine four, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the milk and whisk the batter until it’s smooth.
2. Pour the melted butter or margarine into a 8″x8″ baking dish. Pour in batter and sprinkle blueberries on top.
3. Bake cobbler for 40-45 minutes or until the top is lightly browned.
