On your way to a thinner, happier, healthier YOU with 2 great recipes!

As a fitness and health professional, and while studying toward my certification as a certified health coach with the holistic nutritional school of Integrative Nutrition, I would like to take this time and share a few recipes that can REALLY go a long way with making veggies and other foods that are calorically dense EASIER to eat. One of my favorite salad dressings that I make is made up of primarily 2 or 3 ingredients, your call. All you need is a high powered blender(preferably the VITAMIX), about one cup of cashews, 2 peeled oranges, and optional tbsp. of balsamic vinegarette. Throw all those in the blender and turn on high for about 15-20 seconds or until nice and liquidy. You can add half an orange if you like it a little runnier. I use this on salads, dip cucumbers and things in it. It is AMAZING and cuts down on all the calories added by store salad dressings and you can feel good about the 2 ingredients you are making it with!

One of my other favorites is very simple and a great way to start breakfast. I take 2 plain pieces of Ezekiel bread and toast them. Then, I scramble some egg whites with about one yolk and cut it in half. Next, take avacado and spread on top and top it off with some hot sauce or small bit of lower sugar ketchup. So good!!! Try these recipes out and let me know what you think. I know you will love them!

In The Kitchen: Bored with Breakfast?

I'll be the first one to admit...as a fitness competitor the same old foods just don't fly ALL the time. Now, don't get me wrong, I do like what I eat every day even though 99% of the time it's the same stuff over in over again, just slightly tweaked a bit here and there. Breakfast can be one of the most repetitive meals for me especially, reverting to the classic eggs and oatmeal, only putting hot sauce or sugar free ketchup on my eggs and cinnamon and maybe a small number of blueberries on my oatmeal. This does get pretty darn boring day in and day out...and sometimes it leaves me craving something like pancakes, but HEALTHY pancakes. So, therefore I leave you one of my favorite recipes that you can really play with to suit your favorite taste/flavor.

I just combine egg whites and wheat flour/oats in a blender...I use a high powered blender so it really blends together well. To make the pancake more moist...I like to add about half banana into the blender. Spray the pan/griddle and then let it heat on med-high heat. After, I top with some sugar free cool whip (I like to keep it frozen I don't know why) and then also some walden farms sugar free chocolate syrup. I use all the sugar free stuff sparingly as I don't like to have too many things like that in my diet...but I do use it on occassion especially when craving something while on a contest diet.

Try it out and let me know what you think. Get creative with it!

Don't be THAT guy! (or girl) Train your midsection PROPERLY!

I often am in the gym looking around, especially viewing things from a trainer's perspective...so many exercises for the core/midsection that people are doing TOTALLY wrong and can actually make the physique look worse. Here I am going to break down a few of the exercises that are commonly butchered at the gym, making me grimace and just shake my head in dissatisfaction.

In no specific order:

1) Hanging leg raises: Often I see people just see people hanging loosely from the ab straps or even if hanging on to bar with their hands they are simply hanging freely and then proceeding to swing. This, my friends, is only working your hip flexors more than anything believe it or not.

Correction: If in the ab straps, do what I like to call a "scapula pullup" (scapula being one of the 3 major shoulder movers) and hold that position while doing your knee ups/leg raises. This makes things a bit more difficult, however, eliminates the hip flexor essentially by limiting swinging if done under control, engaging your lower abs throughout the movement. Try about 12-15 of these and you definitely will feel it!

2) V-ups: Another term people might be more familiar with is "knee in's.." How many times do you see someone on a flat bench with their legs up just simply bringing their knee's into their chest and back in a super quick fashion? Again, NOT engaging your abs like it should. Hip flexors will give out way before your abs ever will.

Correction: With your butt/glutes (however you want to be politically correct) on the edge of a bench and slight bend in the knee's, bring your legs up and crunch with your abs at the same time, basically creating a "V" with your body. This will really hit the abs without a lot of hit flexor. Pointing the toes down also eliminates a lot of quad/hip flexor strain. If you get strong with this exercise try putting a small dumbell between the toes.

3) Side bends: This is probably my biggest pet peeve. I see guys doing these ALL the time with HEAVY weight! Dude, what are you doing? If you want the appearance of love handles with low bodyfat be my guest. What I mean here is that when you do those side bends with heavy weight...that is muscle you are working! You are essentially building the sides which creates the illusion of a thick waist. And aren't we going for a smaller waist/V taper look?

Correction: Just DON'T use weight and know what you are working! You can still do these without weight, there's just no need to bulk that area up!

There you have it...my top 3 abdominal/core mistakes I see people making in the gym. Let me know if you have any questions about anything!!!

Progress pictures: They REALLY are important!

WOW, just tonight I was on my computer after getting home from training & massage therapy clients and I sat down and was scrolling through old photos of me & also now the new photos. After looking at them, I cannot stress the importance of taking progress pictures and photos every 3 to 4 weeks to see the changes. Time goes SO FAST I feel like. Especially since I am in my late 20's now, I feel like the days just fly by sometimes. The scale does not tell us what we always want. You literally can stay the same weight but lose a few percentage points of bodyfat but you cannot tell BECAUSE you didn't take any pictures. These are the best judgement of if you are on the right track or not. Only here you can analyze if your hips got smaller, arms got more toned, etc. You get the point. Just look at the difference in me when I was 19-20. I'm glad I entered the bodybuilding.com teen of the week that year. Because if I hadn't I wouldn't have any pictures of me without my shirt on when I was 19. Almost 10 years ago! That's hard to believe. But look at my progress since. I'm not gonna lie. I'm proud of myself and who I've become. So why shouldn't you start changing the way you look at yourself and create YOUR TRANSFORMATION. Start taking pictures and hold yourself accountable!!!