Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

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Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

Chicken and turkey are popular for being high in protein and low in saturated fats making a mealtime staple for athletes as well as in many healthy eating households. Falling back on the same old recipes starts to become mundane and a little too routine.

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http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

After so many great questions and suggestions on the comment board this month, we’ve got kitchen efficiency on our minds. Keeping a healthy Primal Kitchen running smoothly and economically isn’t hard, but some creative strategy sure makes it easier.

If you’re only freezing water in your ice cube tray, you’re missing out. Everything from herbs, to dark chocolate, to bacon fat and even wine can be frozen into flavor cubes that will change the way you cook. It’s all about more flavor, more convenience, and less waste.

Simply pour ingredients into an ice cube tray, and freeze. Once frozen, all of these flavor cubes can be stored in freezer bags for up to 3 months. Use the ice cube tray already in your freezer, or look online for new trays in a variety of sizes and shapes.

Herbs and Oil

Use up fresh herbs instead of watching them wilt by combining extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil with freshly plucked herbs. Melt frozen oil & herb cubes in a saucepan before sautéing meat or vegetables for instant herbal flavor.

Pesto

Another way to freeze fresh herbs is by freezing pesto into cubes. This is a great way to preserve a bounty of fresh basil in the summer, or other types of pesto like parsley and cilantro. Instead of cooling soup with a watery ice cube, put a frozen pesto cube in your soup bowl instead.

Animal Fat

An easy and space-efficient way to store bacon grease (or chicken fat, or tallow) is by pouring warm, liquid fat into an ice cube tray. Store the cubes of animal fat in a freezer bag and pull one out whenever you sauté something.

Ginger and Garlic

Having pureed ginger and garlic at your fingertips saves a lot of precious time when you’re trying to get dinner on the table. To make, simply puree peeled, sliced ginger or whole peeled garlic cubes with water until smooth, then freeze. Pop a frozen cube of garlic directly into a sauté pan with oil for you next stir-fry recipe, or use the cubes for marinades and sauces. Tip: Use a smaller ice cube tray, since most recipes only require a little bit of garlic or ginger.

Wine

Don’t want to open a bottle wine just to deglaze a pan? That’s where wine cubes come in handy. Frozen cubes of red or white wine can be melted in a pan with butter, or added to tomato sauce or stew. For a refreshing, low-alcohol drink, pour sparkling water over a wine cube.

Frozen Greens

Puree fresh greens (like baby spinach) with a little water to make a green slurry, then freeze into cubes that easily add extra nutrients to soups, stews, chili, smoothies and other dishes.

Fruit Puree

Puree and freeze fresh fruit (think mango or berries) and use the cubes as fruit bombs for smoothies, miniature popsicles (put a toothpick in the ice cube while it freezes), or as a colorful way to flavor sparkling water.

Chocolate

Use a silicon ice cube tray to freeze melted dark chocolate into tiny bars or festive shapes (like hearts). Add chopped nuts, coconut, or your favorite super-food for a healthful treat.

Coffee

Never suffer through a watery glass of iced coffee again when you have coffee ice cubes on hand. These caffeine-packed cubes can also be added to smoothies.

Additional Ideas

And that’s not all… Try these ideas, too, for ingredients you use on occasion or want handy in smaller portions at a moment’s notice:

• Buttermilk
• Tomato Paste
• Chicken Stock
• Bone Broth
• Pureed Avocado

Remember, you’re limited only by your Primal-minded creativity (and how much room there is in the freezer).

Thanks for reading today, everyone. We’d love to hear how you make multiple use of your ice cube trays.

The post 14 Ways To Hack an Ice Cube Tray appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/

It’s impossible to talk about using food as a drug without looking at the genuine neurological and hormonal impacts it has on the body. The fact is, certain foods affect us more like drugs than others.

With actual drug use, we’re not operating with innate satiation signaling. But with food, our bodies have a built-in system for telling us when to eat, how much to eat and when to stop.

In our paleolithic ancestors’ time, it worked great. Today, we’ve become our own saboteurs. We’ve known for years that sugary and processed foods (those that strategically combine sugar, salt and certain fats into a triple crown disaster) are intentionally designed to override our inherent satiation signals and hyper-trip our reward systems.

Unfortunately, our own body composition can work against us—leading us deeper into a cul-de-sac of poor eating choices and behaviors. Leptin is one key hormonal player in our satiety signaling. When we’re obese, we lose leptin sensitivity, and we’re drawn to eat despite being functionally full. This is where we get into trouble and the gate is open to food dependence—a phenomenon that looks strikingly similar to chemical drug dependence in neurological scans.

The physiology here could easily be its own post, and I’ve written about these issues in the past. Suffice it here to say that it’s time to kick sugar/high carb (same deal) and processed foods to the curb. You’ll be forever waging an uphill battle with these food products. Food chemists have you by the tail. Get the monkey off your back by going cold turkey or by gradually replacing these choices with healthier ones that won’t hijack your physiology.

— From “How To Stop Using Food Like a Drug”

The post Primal Challenge Point: Stop Feeding the Sugar Cycle appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

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Advice and guidelines on postpartum weight loss can be extremely confusing, and there is one good reason for this: Everybody is different!

This means that women’s experience of pregnancy and postpartum will also differ, from the way each pregnancy carries out, to how their body responds, how much weight they gain and how fast (or slowly) their body sheds the extra pounds.

What most women in our culture commonly experience, however, is the explicit or subjective pressure to return to what they looked like before having a baby. The messages new mothers receive go something like this:

Take it easy.
Don’t be lazy!
Get comfortable in your new role.
Don’t get too comfortable with the extra weight!
Prioritize bonding with baby.
No, sleep.
Wait, diet!
Actually, exercise.
Just… do it all and keep your house clean while you’re at it!
Your body has done something miraculous!
Now punish it into submission so that it looks like such a miracle never happened.

We say the above only partly tongue-in-cheek. As most mothers can attest, this story is all too real! Pressure to lose the baby weight comes from many sources:

• Media: countless magazines, TV shows and social media feeds fawning over celebrities who immediately “bounce back” post-birth; “viral” examples of new moms who shrink rapidly, etc.
• Family: partners, mothers, mothers-in-law, and other family members who consciously or unknowingly put on pressure through comments, comparisons, suggestions, etc.
• The public sphere: strangers asking women when they are due even though the baby has already been born; unwarranted weight loss advice or suggestions while in public spaces or social events, etc.

Internet gives us access to a wealth of knowledge and information, but it also exposes us to unnecessary and potentially harmful messaging. Thanks to algorithms, new mothers who have googled anything related to babies and being a new mom can now be bombarded with ads for everything from baby bootcamp and weight loss programs, to spandex underwear and tummy-tucking girdles.

The message remains consistent: You must “fix” your postpartum body.

And (surprise!) said “fixing” is meant to happen by shrinking.

#FitMom #Goals

I want to fit back into my pre-baby clothes.
I want to look like I did before I had kids.
I want to lose the baby weight.
I want to [burn the flab, get rid of the ‘mom pouch’, feel like myself again]

Your client’s goal may be phrased differently, but many new moms share a desire to bring their body back to what it looked like before going through pregnancy.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with this type of goal, we do encourage you to do plenty of active listening. Specifically, we’d suggest you be on the lookout for vocabulary that suggests harsh self-criticism, disapproval, or rejection, since these are often signs of deeper conflict.

One great way to dig deeper into our clients’ thoughts and motivations is to get curious — in other words, ask plenty of questions! Listen attentively in order to understand how you can best be of help to them.

Some of the questions you can ask your client include:

• Why is this goal important for you? What is the significance or value behind this goal?
• What do you imagine will change or improve in your life by reaching X size or X number on the scale? (“I will feel __.” “I will have more energy.” “I will want to dress up again.”)
• Is there a specific motivation behind this goal? Do you have an important event coming up?
• What is your internal dialogue like right now? What is the chatter in your head saying? Is it positive and encouraging? Or is it defeating and berating?
• Is this a goal that you chose for yourself? Or was it perhaps planted or encouraged by someone else (like a partner, a relative, a friend, etc.)?
• How are you coping with life as a new mom in general? Do you feel supported and happy? Are you overwhelmed? Depleted? Thriving?

You’ll want to get a robust idea of where your client is at and where they’re coming from.

Throughout the question-asking process, remain mindful and connected to their responses. Some difficult conversations may arise as a result of bringing up these topics — your client needs you to tap into this struggle and be empathic, compassionate, and supportive.

Meet Them Where They Are

You wouldn’t take a newcomer to exercise and explain the technicalities of periodization to them. You wouldn’t sit with someone who is new to nutrition and demand they start counting macros.

In the same way, if your client is adamant about wanting to look like they never had kids, rather than try to convince them that this way of thinking could bring stress or be harmful, focus on what you can do to bring them closer to where they want to be while keeping their safety and well-being in the forefront.

You do not want to antagonize or negate your client’s wishes; this is a surefire way of losing their trust and their business. At the same time, you never want to encourage practices that you know could be harmful to a mother in early postpartum.

A gentle re-frame of a goal may be in order, and the conversation could look something like this:

Client: I want to be a size 6 like I was in high school.

Coach: Interesting goal! Tell me more about it… What does being a size 6 mean to you?

Client: I was young. I looked great! I want to get back to that.

Coach: That makes sense; sounds like that evokes a good time for you, when you felt really good. Is this accurate?

Client: Yes! I was so athletic and I had so much energy. That has changed so much.

Coach: I hear you! I definitely had more energy when I was in high school, too. I think age does play a role, but you’re right, there’s always room for improvement wherever we are. Here’s the great news: I can absolutely help you feel more athletic and energetic, closer to what you felt like when you were in high school!

Client: That’s awesome! And you think I’ll be a size 6, too?

Coach: That can be difficult to predict simply because our bodies have their own way of responding to the nutrition and exercise strategies we employ… I can tell you this, though: we will definitely focus on the behaviors that will make your goal more likely to happen. Does this sound good to you?

Client: Yes! That’s what I want.

Coach: Perfect. So we will put all of our focus on integrating these new behaviors, and we’ll start seeing the changes they bring. Does that make sense? Now, let’s discuss which new behavior you want to start practicing first…

In the scenario above, notice how the coach is in no way negating the validity of their client’s goal — in turn, there is no resistance from the client, who feels heard and understood. From this agreement, a plan can now be laid out.

Brave Bodies vs. Normal Bodies

Recently, social media has created the phenomenon of the brave mom — women whose viral Facebook or Instagram posts are portraying their real postpartum bodies: softer, wider, rounder, with loose skin, extra fat, more marks, dimples, wrinkles, etc. The accompanying media write-up typically describes these mothers as brave for showing the reality of their postpartum bodies.

While these images are absolutely necessary to counteract the constant barrage of ultra-slim and smooth postpartum figures that women are exposed to, we should also take the opportunity to question why, as a society, we choose to label images of normal postpartum bodies as brave.

If we all saw these postpartum figures as perfectly ordinary, which they are, there would be no implication of bravery or special merit attached to sharing what they look like. Unfortunately, loose skin, flabby tissue and hanging bellies — all inherently normal in postpartum bodies — are still seen as flaws, hence the courage attached to displaying them.

This is where we can all strive to change the narrative.

Although it’s important to recognize the courage required to go against limiting and deeply-rooted beauty standards, we can also hope for the day where such a proclamation of realness will no longer be necessary, and where women everywhere can share their postpartum pictures showing all types, shapes, and sizes of bodies without anyone batting an eye — at all.

As a coach, this is why our work matters: we can encourage the narrative to change every time we help women see the amazing, wonderful, fantastic qualities and abilities of their body.

The post Coaching Clients Who Want Their “Pre-Baby Body” Back appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.

Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

Day 293 Of 360

Rest up to :20 sec. in 5-rep intervals. Mind position and execution, and move with power. Use assistance as needed, and stay aggressive- there is absolutely no value to a casual tire flip.

Attach, adjust, brace, and drive; The steps don’t have to take long, but they need to occur.

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