“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

A lot of peo­ple get off track of their fit­ness and nutri­tion goals while trav­el­ing. Mainly, I think it has more to do with a lack of prepa­ra­tion rather than a lack of discipline.

For that rea­son, James and I always pack snacks for our trip to ensure we always have healthy options avail­able. Since we are cur­rently pack­ing for our perk trip to the Bahamas with Beach­body, I thought I’d share a few snacks we always pack:

Emer­ald Cocoa Roast Almonds

These are the per­fect travel treat. You get all of the health ben­e­fits of almonds with a dust­ing of dark choco­late pow­der. I love the indi­vid­ual packs when trav­el­ing sim­ply for the con­ve­nience fac­tor. Though these packs are only 100 calo­ries, they’ll keep you full for longer because almonds are a source of healthy fat and pro­tein. An added perk if you’re trav­el­ing to the beach: they won’t melt!

Larabars

The fewer the ingre­di­ents on a label, the health­ier the item. These bars all have 5 ingre­di­ents or less, and they are amaz­ingly fill­ing! My two favorite fla­vors are pic­tured here: choco­late chip cookie dough and peanut but­ter choco­late chip. SO good!

Justin’s Honey Peanut But­ter & Maple Almond But­ter indi­vid­ual packs

This is one of my favorite brands of nut but­ter, and I love that it comes in indi­vid­ual packs. Peanut but­ter and almond but­ter are sta­ples in our house, but it’s not always easy to find nat­ural ver­sions when trav­el­ing. I’ll take one of these packs and an apple to the beach with me for a great after­noon snack.

Shake­ol­ogy

My vaca­tion lunch of choice! When I’m at the beach, the last thing I want is a hot lunch. I’d much rather have ice cream. That’s where Shake­ol­ogy comes in. I get the taste of a milk­shake (choco­late, green­berry or trop­i­cal straw­berry) and the nutri­tional ben­e­fit of the salad bar! Shake­ol­ogy keeps me full for less calories…which will allow me to splurge on a few vaca­tion meals with­out any added guilt.

What are some of your go-to snacks to keep you on track while traveling?

I’m not a veg­e­tar­ian, but every once in a while when I make a meal like this, I won­der why I ever fool with meat. (If my hus­band reads this, he may dis­own me.)

At the Farmer’s Mar­ket this past week­end, I got tons of fresh produce…including some amaz­ing por­to­bello mush­rooms and fresh Texas pecans.

I’m not sure why…but I was imme­di­ately intrigued to use them together.

After my lunch today, I am super glad I did! Allow me to intro­duce my por­to­bello pecan wrap…

You will need:

1 Multi-Grain FlatOut! Wrap
1/2 medium por­to­bello mush­room, sliced
2 TBSP light bal­samic vinai­grette dress­ing
2 TBSP hum­mus
1/2 cup spinach
1/8 cup raw pecan pieces
**Feel free to add any other veg­gies you might like. I think next time I make this, I may add some yel­low pep­pers & cooked sweet potato strips.**

Instruc­tions:

In a small skil­let, saute mush­rooms for 5–8 min­utes, or until fully cooked. About three min­utes before you remove from heat, coat mush­rooms with vinai­grette dressing.

Heat FlatOut! wrap for 30 sec­onds in the microwave.

Spread 2 TBSP hum­mus down the cen­ter of the wrap.

Place spinach on top of hummus.

Place mush­rooms on top of spinach.

Sprin­kle pecan pieces on top of mushrooms.

Wrap, and enjoy this incred­i­bly nutri­tious and deli­cious veg­e­tar­ian treat!

Option: If you are eat­ing this for a meal, sim­ply cut diag­o­nally down the cen­ter for two even wrap pieces. How­ever, this would also make a great appe­tizer for a din­ner party. As pic­tured above, you can cut each wrap into 4–5 bite-sized pre-meal pleasers.

“Don’t eat after seven o’clock.”

I’m not sure how we devel­oped rules that imply calo­ries count more depend­ing on what time you eat them. Allow me to bust a com­mon myth.

Foods remain the same amount of calo­ries at 8pm as they are at 8am.

How­ever, the rea­son why most peo­ple gain weight who snack at night is because they ingest extra calo­ries. Plus, most peo­ple are less active at night.

So if you’re some­one who works out at night after din­ner, or you’re sim­ply some­one who sleeps bet­ter with some­thing in your stom­ach, it’s okay to eat at night as long as you fol­low a few rules.

Save around 150–200 calo­ries for post-dinner snacking.

Remem­ber, weight gain comes with con­sum­ing extra calo­ries at night. So as long as you plan for 200 calo­ries post din­ner in your day, you’re fine. Since I rec­om­mend eat­ing 5 times per day to keep a speedy metab­o­lism, this is as sim­ple as cut­ting out 50 calo­ries in your other meals and snacks through­out your day.

Side note: While I don’t rec­om­mend count­ing calo­ries as a lifestyle choice, when your goal is los­ing weight, it is impor­tant to keep track of calo­ries since nutri­tion is roughly 80% of the weight loss battle.

Stay away from spice and high-fat foods.

Fatty foods are harder for your body to digest, and spicy foods can lead to indi­ges­tion. Both of these can inter­rupt sleep pat­terns, which can also jeop­ar­dize your waist­line. (Click here to read more.)

Snack on foods that pro­mote healthy sleep.

Sero­tonin (the body’s calm­ing hor­mone) has been proven to be increased by eat­ing oats, poul­try and potas­sium rich foods. Stick­ing to these food groups will not only sat­isfy your hunger, but also improve your qual­ity of sleep.

Here are a few suggestions:

3 oz. grilled chicken, 1/2 cup spinach leaves, & 1 tsp dijon mus­tard in a whole wheat tortilla

1 serv­ing old fash­ioned oats with 1/2 banana

2 brown rice cakes, 1 TBSP hum­mus and 3 oz. turkey breast

1 medium apple & 1/2 cup non­fat Greek yogurt (Check labels & look for lower sugar.)

2 stalks cel­ery and 1 TBSP nat­ural peanut butter

Ver­sa­tile recipes that go into a slow cooker are my FAVORITE! This is a recipe that I adapted from Clean Eat­ing Mag­a­zine. It’s quickly becom­ing one of our fam­ily favorites.

A lit­tle spice. A lit­tle sweet. A lit­tle YUM!

You will need:

4 5 oz. bone­less, skin­less chicken breasts
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 gar­lic cloves
2 TBSP lime juice
2 TBSP nat­ural creamy peanut but­ter
1 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground gin­ger
1 TBSP red curry paste
3 pack­ets ste­via
1 1/2 TBSP coconut flour
1 Roma tomato, chopped
1 cucum­ber, chopped
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
1 TBSP nat­ural red wine vine­gar
2 cups shred­ded red cabbage

Instruc­tions:

1. Place chicken in slow cooker.

2. In a blender, com­bine broth, gar­lic, 1 TBSP lime juice, peanut but­ter, soy sauce, gin­ger, curry paste & 2 pack­ets ste­via. Blend until smooth. Pour over chicken & stir to coat. Cook until chicken is ten­der (On low, this should take 6–7 hours.)

3. Remove chicken & place on a cut­ting board. Allow chicken to cool.

4. Remove 1/2 cup broth mix­ture from slow cooker & place in a bowl. Add coconut flour to bowl & stir to form a smooth paste. Return broth/flour mix­ture to slow cooker & whisk until smooth, then cover.

5. Using 2 forks, shred chicken & return to slow cooker & stir to coat. Cook for 10 mintues.

6. Com­bine cucum­ber, tomato, onion & mint in a medium bowl. Add vine­gar, 1 TBSP lime juice & 1 packet ste­via. Mix thoroughly.

7. Divide cab­bage for indi­vid­ual serv­ings, and serve over steamed veg­eta­bles, quinoa or brown rice. (Left­overs also go great in a whole wheat wrap for lunch the next day.)

Enjoy!

Choco­late, VEGAN Trop­i­cal Straw­berry & Green­berry Shakeology

“Michelle, I would love to try Shake­ol­ogy, but I’m sorry. I just can’t afford it.”

When­ever some­one tells me this, I want to apol­o­gize to them.

Not because I think they’re poor.

But because I haven’t done a good enough job help­ing them real­ize the impor­tance of Shakeology.

The truth is, we all oper­ate within a bud­get. Sure, some of us have a lit­tle more flex­i­bil­ity to spend than oth­ers, but we all make deci­sions on how we will spend our money based on our priorities.

I recently read an arti­cle in Time Mag­a­zine that high­lighted what the aver­age Amer­i­can spends annu­ally in a few cat­e­gories. Here are a few highlights:

Cof­fee: $1,092
Lunch: $2,000
Pets: $1,183
Soft drinks: $850

To a per­son who hates ani­mals, it may seem absurd to spend almost $1200 on a pet. But I don’t see $1,200 when I look at my sweet puppy (And if you have a pet, I’m sure you don’t either!)

A per­son who thinks Star­bucks is over­priced may scoff at drop­ping over a grand on cof­fee. But to the woman who meets with her prayer group at Star­bucks every morn­ing before work, she wouldn’t trade that $1,000 for anything.

And the busi­ness man who drops $2,000 a year by tak­ing clients to lunch? That’s noth­ing to him com­pared to the income those meals bring in by help­ing him main­tain­ing great rela­tion­ships with his clients.

See my point?

If it’s impor­tant to us, we’ll find a way to make it work If not, we’ll make an excuse.

Since break­fast can be done healthy for cheaper, you could sub­sti­tute Shake­ol­ogy for lunch or din­ner. You could use half a scoop daily. You could split a bag with a friend and drink it every other day.

You DO have options, and you could make it work.

So if you’ve thought about try­ing Shake­ol­ogy, but you’ve told your­self it’s too expen­sive, please take 2 min­utes and watch this video.

Hint: You want to watch it all the way through. You’ll be glad you did.

Diet does not equal deprivation.

That’s right. I despise the word “diet” any­way. I make healthy choices…which is exactly what this bread is: a health­ier ver­sion of a sin­ful treat. Enjoy in moderation!

You will need:

3 eggs
2 cups unsweet­ened apple­sauce
2 tea­spoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup ste­via
2 cups grated zuc­chini
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tea­spoon bak­ing soda
1 tea­spoon salt
1 tea­spoon cin­na­mon
1/2 tea­spoon gin­ger
1/2 tea­spoon nut­meg
1/4 tea­spoon bak­ing pow­der
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 pack­age (3.4-ounce size) sugar free fat free but­ter­scotch pud­ding mix

Instruc­tions:

Mix bread ingredients.

Pour into non-stick pans.

Bake 1 hour at 350ºF degrees.

Enjoy!

I’m cur­rently read­ing Sugar Nation by Jeff O’Connell. This state­ment struck a chord with me:

“Swal­low­ing a pill is eas­ier,” says David J. Dyck, Ph.D., asso­ciate pro­fes­sor in human health and nutri­tional sci­ences at the Uni­ver­sity of Guelph, and a top researcher in the field of exer­cise and insulin resis­tance. “But as long as that atti­tude per­vades our soci­ety, we’re in a lot of trou­ble. It’s amaz­ing how some­thing as sim­ple and mod­est as a bit of exer­cise can do so much with so few side effects”

(pg. 205).

It breaks my heart that peo­ple would rather wear an insulin pump than pump iron.

Rid your mind of the mis­con­cep­tion that car­dio is bet­ter than lift­ing weights. Done cor­rectly, lift­ing weights can be as much as an aer­o­bic work­out as tak­ing a brisk walk.

Brief Sci­ence les­son: Glyco­gen is stored in our mus­cles. By lift­ing weights, we cre­ate more stor­age space for glyco­gen, while simul­ta­ne­ously cre­at­ing more insulin recep­tors. Essen­tially, the more mus­cle we have, the bet­ter our bod­ies can absorb glyco­gen. (The fact that we strug­gle with insulin resis­tance as we age could have noth­ing to do with the aging process. Rather, that as peo­ple age, we become less active, so we lose muscle.)

Bot­tom line: Type 2 Dia­betes is a lifestyle dis­ease that research proves can be pre­vented or even reversed, by exercise.

Not only are dia­betes med­ica­tions expen­sive, but they have many neg­a­tive side effects includ­ing nau­sea, stom­ach pain and even depres­sion. The only side effects from exer­cise are weight loss, ele­vated mood, improved brain func­tion, etc.

If you’re dia­betic or dia­betes runs in your fam­ily, I’m beg­ging you to treat exer­cise like your life depends on it… because it does! Choose to reg­u­late (and per­haps END) this dis­ease with per­spi­ra­tion instead of prescriptions.

As always, if you need help get­ting started, please con­tact me. I’ll be right there with you every step of the way!

Some­times, a girl just wants some pancakes.

That hap­pened this morn­ing. Thank­fully, there’s a way to make these sweet cir­cle treats and still have a high pro­tein break­fast to fuel my morning.

Warn­ing: Not all pro­tein pow­ders cook well. I’ve tried dozens of brands, and a lot of them make the pan­cakes taste spongy. Beachbody’s vanilla whey is the best one I’ve found (and it’s pretty yummy as an actual shake too!)

Feel free to get cre­ative. Adding 1/2 cup pump­kin or 1/2 cup sweet potato puree adds extra nutri­ents and extra flavor.

You will need:

1 scoop vanilla whey pro­tein (Here is the one I use.)
1/2 cup egg whites
1/4 cup unsweet­ened vanilla almond milk

Instruc­tions:

Mix all ingre­di­ents in a small bowl until smooth.

Pour half of the bat­ter in a small skil­let. When edges begin to bub­ble, flip pan­cake over and cook other side until lightly browned.

Repeat step 2 for the remain­der of the batter.

Optional: Driz­zle pure honey or pure maple syrup, or gar­nish with blue­ber­ries or bananas for a sweet finish.

Meet Jackie

But peo­ple who meet her to today call her Dr. Vidosh.

Jackie, who is a 1st year OBGYN res­i­dent doc­tor, not only helps other peo­ple get healthy. But over the last few years, she has trans­formed her own health using Shake­ol­ogy, healthy eat­ing habits, and exercise.

Dur­ing her third year of med­ical school, Jackie not only devel­oped a pas­sion for women’s health, but real­ized that if she didn’t actively make the time for her own health, she wouldn’t be able to ade­quately pro­vide health for oth­ers. Even with her crazy med­ical school sched­ule, she began pri­or­i­tiz­ing find­ing time to exer­cise and eat healthy food.

When Jackie asked me for a work­out that would improve her speed, with­out hes­i­ta­tion, I rec­om­mended Insan­ity.

“Insan­ity totally trans­formed my body,” Jackie says. “I went from a size 6 to a size 2, and def­i­nitely increased my lean mus­cle tone and speed.”

Insan­ity quickly led to Shake­ol­ogy.

“Shake­ol­ogy was appeal­ing because it was quick and easy to fix, and it’s also easy to carry in a sports bot­tle while I’m in the hos­pi­tal. I have since been using Shake­ol­ogy for the last 2 years. It is great because it is one of the few lower calo­rie meals or snacks that keeps me the fullest. I will have it either as a post-workout snack, or break­fast because of how long it keeps me full. I also love it because I can use it in a vari­ety of ways, includ­ing to make my own
pro­tein bars, or mixed with oat­meal as a pro­tein boost.”

More Q & A with Jackie

What is your favorite Shake­ol­ogy recipe?

A choco­late, peanut but­ter, banana smoothie. I freeze a banana overnight, then add 1 scoop choco­late Shakel­ogy, 1 TBSP PB2, 5–6 ice­cubes, 1/2 cup soy milk, and 1/2 cup water and blend it in the blender. So good!

As a doc­tor, why would you rec­om­mend some­one take Shakeology?

The nutri­ents! It has lower sug­ars con­tent than a lot of other pro­tein pow­ders, as well as lower calo­ries, and it doesn’t sac­ri­fice taste for performance.

What advice would you give to a busy per­son who needs to start work­ing out?

I am a sched­uler. I have to write down exactly what I want to accom­plish in a day for it to get done. I write my work­out down and treat it like an appoint­ment I need to keep. As far as chang­ing your eat­ing habits, I have found that the meal plans layed out in each of the work­out plans I have tried are very easy to fol­low and give a good idea of foods to choose
from. Also, when I ini­tially started out, I would shop with a copy of Mitch’s lad­der, just in case I for­got what was “good.”

Get­ting my work­out in can be a chal­lenge, as time is my biggest lux­ury. That being said, it is a pri­or­ity of mine. Cur­rently, I am work­ing nights at the hos­pi­tal. If I can’t get a full work­out in, I at least make it a point to run up the stairs every time I need to take them and don’t use the ele­va­tor. We have yoga mats, weights, and a pull-up bar, so in the very least I can find 5 min­utes to do crunches, push-ups, and pull-ups. At other times, when my sched­ule is more “nor­mal” I work out right after work. If I sit down, I’m toast, so I will often times bring my work­out clothes to change into at work after a shift so that I am moti­vated to do the work­out, even after a long day.

What work­out are you doing now?

Since doing Insan­ity, I have com­pleted Tur­boFire and now, I’m cur­rently using P90X2. I’ve enjoyed them all! I love them because most of the work­outs can be done in a hotel room (Trust me, I’ve done it!), and you get results. They give you all the nec­es­sary tools for suc­cess. You just have to push play!

Any last advice for us, Dr. Vidosh?

You are worth the invest­ment into your health. It can seem daunt­ing, expen­sive, and maybe even a lit­tle over­whelm­ing at first, but tak­ing the time and effort to take care of your­self is absolutely worth it. Your energy will be higher, your endurance longer, and your abil­i­ties to prob­lem solve will get bet­ter as your body gets into bet­ter shape.

We are a tri­une being — body, soul, and spirit. None of them func­tion as well unless they are all healthy and “worked out” on a reg­u­lar basis. What are you wait­ing for?!

Jackie, enjoy­ing her active lifestyle in God’s beau­ti­ful cre­ation, thanks to her ded­i­ca­tion to her fit­ness & proper nutrition

For info about any of the prod­ucts men­tioned in this arti­cle, con­tact me & I’ll help you find the right pro­gram for you.

Eat food, not too much. Mostly plants.

After read­ing any of Michael Pollan’s books, that’s what he wants you to take away from it.

Granted, I’m a nutri­tion nerd, so I love read­ing his books. I guess the aver­age per­son doesn’t have The Omnivore’s Dilemma or In Defense of Food on their bookshelves.

But one of his newer books is a lit­tle dif­fer­ent! I just fin­ished read­ing Food Rules: An Eater’s Man­ual, which is a great and quick read. (I fin­ished it in less than a week!)

Food Rules is bro­ken down into three parts:

1) What should I eat?

3) How should I eat?

Now, I can’t write out all 83 rules for you. (What fun would that be?!)

But what I will do is high­light my favorite rules over the remain­der of Jan­u­ary on Face­book and Twit­ter.

So be on the look­out — my favorite rules will be up each day around noon CST!