1. Lemon is awesome for cutting fat, phlegm & mucus in the body, it’s full of vitamin C, helps boost your immune system, fight infection, and reduce inflammation which will help you recover from your workout. Lemon also helps detoxify your liver aiding your body in flushing toxins and fat.
2. Cayenne pepper, some people know it as red pepper/capsicum, and it’s spicy! This herb is one of the most powerful herbs on the planet…… and is one of the ancient healing herbs going back hundreds of years. It has a high heat unit which helps increase circulation so you carry more oxygen and nutrients into your cells and body, and it helps increase your energy. Cayenne pepper also helps cut fat in the circulatory system and lower cholesterol. Ultimately it will help your body and brain have more energy in the morning! It’s an amazing fat burning tool! (you can get cayenne or capsicum capsules if you prefer)
3. White Tea…this tea bag includes some other herbs including the shizandra berry. White tea is the least processed tea of the black tea, green tea, and white tea (they all come from the same plant) and has the highest antioxidants. It also gives you an energy boost without the crash later. It’s also a great boost for the immune system!

If you are interested in Healthy Vegetarian Meal Plans, they are on Sale Here Now.

For those willing to use dairy I tell them to use cold filtered unsweetened whey protein.  Don’t buy a product full of artificial sweeteners and fillers (like maltodextrin).  Why be vegetarian and put all that other crap in your body?

Here are 9 More Great Vegetarian Protein Sources:

Food Type: Protein / Carbohydrates / Fats

* Tofu 4 oz.: 8 gr / 4 gr / 4 gr

* Black Beans ½ cup: 7.5 gr / 20gr / 5 gr

* Peanut Butter 1 Tbl.: 4 gr / 3.5 gr / 8 gr

* Almond Butter 1 Tbl.: 2 gr / 3 gr / 9 gr

* Cashew Nuts ¼ cup: 5 gr / 9 gr / 12 gr

* Seitan 3 ounces: 20 gr / 8 gr / 2 gr

* Tempeh 4 ounces: 16 gr / 14 gr / 6 gr

* Sunflower seeds raw ¼ cup: 6 gr / 6 gr / 14 gr.

* Soybeans ½ cup: 16 gr / 14 gr / 8 gr

I hope this helps you make better food choices as a health conscious vegetarian.

If you need more help with your Food Plan, please don’t hesitate to contact me and set up a consultation.

Here’s to your Health! =)

What do cows eat for strong bones?  MILK?  No, green grass!

Americans consume a lot of milk annually along with Scandinavian countries, and many European countries.

In fact, we’re in the top 12  consumers of milk among all the countries in the world, yet the United States along with Europe account for more than half of all bone fractures in the world.  And the incidences of osteoporosis in these countries are increasing every year.  How does this happen if we are consuming cartons and cartons of milk, which is supposedly good for developing strong bones?  Why do we have high incidences of osteoporosis?

The truth is there are SO MANY better food options for obtaining calcium in your diet than milk. There is a list of the top 120 foods containing the most amount of calcium per gram, and this list was created by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture).

Do you want to know what’s at the top of the list? Seeds! Nuts! Leafy Greens! Seaweed.  Where is cows milk?! Down around #50. Pretty shocking, huh?!   Gram for gram, milk is beat out by 50 plant based calcium rich foods!

Here are just a few of the foods that blow milk out of the water with their calcium content.

• Raw almonds (over double the mg of calcium)
• Sesame seed butter/tahini (triple the mg of calcium as milk)
• White beans (double the calcium as milk)
• Flax seeds (almost double the calcium of milk)
• Kidney beans (you get the idea, more calcium)
• Turnip greens
• Dandelion greens
• French beans
• Brazil nuts
• Seaweed
• Navy beans
• Collard greens
• Dried figs
• Mung beans
• Raw parsley

If you would like to know more about eating Healthy Vegetarian, check out EasyVeggieMealPlans.com

Karen has some really tasty recipes and ideas on incorporating a moderately high protein diet into the vegetarian lifestyle.  Enjoy!

How to Have More Energy

If you eat a larger than normal meal or a calorie dense meal, do you notice how tired you feel afterwards?

This is what I call FOOD COMA.

This is where you get extremely tired and you start to regret stuffing yourself, but it’s too late the DAMAGE is done. You can barely keep your eyes open and all you want to do is crawl up into a ball and go to sleep. You can’t focus or concentrate on work and even a simple conversation takes effort. All you want to do is lie down.

So many people have this experience on a daily basis. In fact, I was just like this during high school when I would gorge on fast food and pizza and junk.

But this is not how your body should feel after meals.

With the Vegetarian Lifestyle, you won’t be sleepy after you eat. In fact, you’ll be alert, mentally sharp, and physically ready to take on the world.

By eating high nutrient low calorie foods, you will eliminate the side effects from food comas. I guarantee you’ll have more energy with the Veggie Meal Plans diet than you have on any other diet – simply because you will NOT be restricting your calorie or nutrient intake – in fact, you’ll be able to fill yourself up with our delicious foods.

I love making smoothies because they give me so much ENERGY in the morning.

I’ll blend different fruits and vegetables with a little protein powder to make easy to digest and energizing drinks. I’ll also add a tiny bit of fresh ginger to give it a zing and anti-inflammatory properties. You won’t get the same energy or health benefits from a plate of bacon, eggs, and white-flour pancakes!

I also love to make fresh, flavorful soups. And it’s easy too.

I make soups in the blender or food processor, such as a simple tomato gazpacho soup, or Mexican green soup, or an Asian inspired coconut curry soup. These soups can be warmed on the stove or eaten at room temperature. These foods are full of life! I use everything from carrots, celery, broccoli, cilantro, basil, onions, coconut, apples, oranges, lemon, and a variety of spices.

I make these really great wraps using a low-carb tortilla, romaine lettuce leaf, or a collard green leaf as the wrap shell.

Each wrap is lovingly filled with fresh veggies like spinach, sprouts, green onions, cilantro, avocado, tomatoes, and then I add hummus, salsa, or herb seasonings/salt.

I also make a pate from sunflower seeds and spices, tempeh, or seitan, which makes the wrap filling, very nutritious, and energizing!

These are just a few ways in which you can fill up on nutrient-rich foods that will leave you energized and feeling great day after day.

Here is where you can find out a lot more and get a 7 Day Healthy Vegetarian Meal Plan - Free.  Your body, energy, and waistline will thank you =)

But I do Not like the conditions that animals are now being raised in!

I recently watched Food Inc, and even though I have read a lot on the subject, seeing the abuse that the animals endure was almost too much!

So the way I see it, if you want to have a rockin body you can do one of 3 things:

• Eat 100% Local Organic – eating lots of lean protein, veggies and fruits (costs more)
• Ignore the abuse and the crap in your food from your “Super Store” (not healthy)
• Switch to a primarily Vegetarian Lifestyle (hard to get enough protein)

Most Vegetarian Meal Plans (if the vegetarian plans at all) are woefully lacking in protein, and are Usually no healthier than eating meat because of all the corn / high fructose corn syrup / trans fat garbage that they are laced with.

Until recently there weren’t really any other good options for vegetarians, and I am not qualified to handle a meal plan that I am not personally using (I try to go local organic).

Recently Craig Ballantyne (a great fitness author I like) teamed up with Kardena Pauza to create Easy Vegetarian Meal Plans – here is Craig’s Reveiw:

Review of Easy Veggie Meal Plans:

“You won’t get enough protein on a vegetarian diet”, or so they say. Well, I tested that theory out first hand. You see, I am a weight training enthusiast and for the longest time I subscribed to the pro-meat eating ideology. In fact, my friends often made fun of me for all my protein shakes and chicken breasts that I would regularly consume like clockwork.

Well that all changed when one day I took a bite out of a raw hamburger and became so violently ill that once I finally managed to recover I was so turned off by meat that I began searching for a healthy vegetarian diet solution.

The problem, however, was in finding vegetarian meals that met my stringent criteria; healthy, protein-filled, easy to prepare, and most importantly tasty.

I’m not sure what your experience has been with vegetarians, but I’ve come across many in my time and a large number of them don’t have the body type that I would categorize as fit.

So, when I finally came across Kardena Pauza’s Easy Veggie Meal Plans, my interest was definitely peaked. Everything that I was looking for in a vegetarian diet she had put together in a 90 day program. I had to try it.

I would be lying, however, if I didn’t admit that I was a little nervous about having a shortage of protein in my diet. After all, protein is the staple of any weight trainer’s diet, right?

But, I was totally shocked. After 30 days on Easy Veggie Meal Plans I noticed that I had so much more energy, making my workouts that much more effective. But, perhaps the most valuable lesson I learned was just how much protein you actually need in your diet. I read Pauza’s theory regarding protein consumption and then I went out and proved it.

So, I discovered that I didn’t need as much protein in my diet and I was feeling more alert and vibrant, but what about meal preparation? Because if the meals outlined in the Easy Veggie Meal Plans were going to take forever to prepare, then they just weren’t going to fit in with my lifestyle.

Well, to my surprise, a majority of the meals I could easily make in about ten to fifteen minutes. As busy as I am, I’ve got 15 minutes to put together a meal, and these aren’t just your regular “fast food” meals. They are deliciously protein-packed, nutrient-rich meals. I was on to something here.

Another Thing I Liked:

It’s not uncommon when switching over to a vegetarian diet to run into people who are misinformed about this type of lifestyle. So, scepticism and veggie diet bashing are fairly prevalent, but as a bonus Pauza includes a “Defend Your Diet” coaching call where she explains how to fend off the veggie haters of the world. This was the perfect compliment to the program because now I could confidently and informatively educate my friends and family. Who knows, maybe even convert them!

So there you have it. If you’re looking for a deliciously healthy, protein-filled, and easy-to-prepare vegetarian option, then pick up a copy of Kardena Pauza’s Easy Veggie Meal Plans. Your body will thank you!

So if you are interested in knowing more, I can hook you up with 2 Free Vegetarian Meal Plans with this link.  Let me know what you think please – and Eat Healthy!