Wednesday

My recipe for HEALTHY pancakes -- high fiber and protein

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that your typical pancakes are certainly NOT the type of food you want to eat if your goal is fat loss or staying lean.  The refined flour with almost zero fiber, the added refined sugars, the crappy inflammatory vegetable oils... not good.

The fact is... normal pancakes make you gain FAT!

However, for years, there's been a basic type of modified pancake recipe floating around in bodybuilding circles that is a healthier higher protein version (although not my favorite)...

Basically, the bodybuilder version is as simple as using a carton of egg whites in a blender, adding some dry oatmeal and vanilla whey protein (and a few other minor ingredients), and then cooking them up as "protein pancakes".

But I'll be honest with you... this bodybuilding pancake recipe tastes more like sweetened eggs than it does like pancakes.

So what I've done is come up with my own variation of healthier higher fiber and high protein pancakes that actually TASTES like pancakes. Of course, we know that most pre-made pancake dry mixes are not the healthiest option. However, they can be more convenient for most people than trying to make pancakes from scratch.

Here's what you can do to make much healthier pancakes:

1. Take only 1/3 of the quantity of pancake mix that the box calls for. So if the box says to use 1 cup of dry pancake mix, just use 1/3 cup instead. This way, you're greatly reducing the amount of refined wheat flour and sugar that are in these mixes by only using 1/3 of the amount recommended.

I know I'm usually pretty strict with ruling out ALL refined wheat flours, but sometimes just reducing the quantity and substituting the remainder with healthier ingredients is the best option for something like this.  If you want the healthiest option, start from scratch with your own blend of almond flour, coconut flour, and quinoa flour.  Otherwise, the easier method is just to follow this recipe.

2. For the remaining 2/3 of the dry mix, substitute in a mixture of equal parts oat bran, rice bran, and whey protein (preferably grass-fed raw whey protein). You can find oat bran at most grocery stores, and rice bran at most health food stores. Try using a little cinnamon too if you like the taste (cinnamon boosts the antioxidant content and also stabilizes the blood sugar response).

3. Use whole eggs instead of egg whites and use 1 extra egg than what the recipe calls for to increase the protein and healthy fats content.

If you missed my previous article about whole eggs vs egg whites, you'll see why it is downright foolish to use egg whites instead of whole eggs.

4. After mixing in the milk called for on the box, whisk the mixture in a bowl. Now you're ready to pour the healthier pancakes into the pan. Don't forget to top them with some blueberries or other berries for some extra taste and healthful benefits.

5. The best oil to use in the pan for cooking is virgin coconut oil. I use virgin coconut oil for most of my cooking as it's one of the healthiest options. It's a much more stable oil for cooking so it's not prone to the oxidation and free radical production that typical vegetable oils are prone to.

If you're confused about which cooking oils are healthy and which are not, this article of mine clears that up.

Again, the trick to this recipe is using only 1/3 of the dry pancake mix (since that's the least healthy part of this recipe) and the other 2/3 of the dry materials are the oat bran, rice bran, and whey protein (healthiest whey is this raw grass-fed whey here) to boost the fiber and protein content of the pancakes.

I only do pancakes on occasion as they are a nice treat, but at least with this recipe, you have yourself a much healthier version of pancakes that are quite high in fiber and much higher in protein and healthy fats than your typical pancake recipe... but they still taste like pancakes and are delicious in my opinion!

And do yourself a favor and please do not ruin this meal by dousing it with your typical fake maple syrup, which is usually all high fructose corn syrup!  Real maple syrup is better than fake syrup, but beware, as it still packs a LOT of sugar and calories.

Instead, a much lower calorie option is to simply top your high fiber, high protein pancakes with some REAL butter (grass-fed, organic) and some fresh berries or other cut fruit instead of syrup.

Enjoy! 

Feel free to share this page with all of your friends, family, and coworkers that might enjoy it. Copy this page into facebook to share this healthy pancake idea with your friends.

Which foods KILL stomach fat?





Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder - TruthAboutAbs.com &  http://BusyManFitness.com
http://AvalancheSkiTraining.com

Tuesday

The banana diet? Another stupid fad diet?

Here we go again with another ridiculous fad diet!

I was reading Mens Health today and they were talking about a new diet fad called the "morning banana diet" that is becoming so popular in Japan that Dole imports to the country have increased 25% in the last 4 months (according to Mens Health).

Supposedly the diet consists of eating as many bananas as you want for breakfast, eating anything for lunch and dinner, a snack at 3pm, no desserts at all, and get to sleep by midnight at the latest.

MH makes a great point that there are major flaws with this as calorie consumption is not necessarily controlled, so the person could seriously overeat on calories throughout the day without any regard for that.

Also, why did they choose bananas? After all, if you were going to follow some stupid fad diet, why not choose a fruit with a higher fiber/total carb ratio and less calories and sugar overall? Some type of berries would be a much better option for fat loss.

Although I think bananas have many healthful properties, they are one of the most calorie dense fruits available, and I usually limit my bananas to only post-workout meals, since that's when your body will utilize the high GI carbs more readily for replenishing your muscle glycogen.
The bottom line... This is just yet another stupid diet fad that isn't going to help anyone with long term weight maintenance and fat loss.

As I've always said, what we really need is adopting a true fitness lifestyle, so that you can understand how to eat a nutritious diet that promotes fat loss and weight maintenance for life.
That's why the only "diet programs" that I endorse are NOT diet fads, but rather methods of adopting a healthy nutrition outlook that will work for you personally for life.

The only nutrition programs that I endorse are by a couple professionals that I know personally and are a couple of the top experts in the field:

Isabel De Los Rios - http://the-non-diet.com

and

Jon Benson's - http://FavoriteFoodsDiet.com

That's why I love both of these programs... because they are NOT fads, but rather smart strategies to achieve healthy eating for life that works for you personally.

Til next newsletter,
Don't be lazy... be lean.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder - http://TruthAboutAbs.com & BusyManFitness.com

http://AvalancheSkiTraining.com

Wednesday

1 more reason people are overweight

I've mentioned before about how shocked I am at the daily decisions some people make that go directly against their efforts to lose fat and get lean (despite their claims that they are "trying everything").

Well, once again I'm baffled. Here's what I saw...

I was waiting for a flight last week, and I wanted to get something to eat before getting on a 3 hour flight back home. Even though I had some almonds and a couple whole food bars to snack on in my carry-on bag (I try to always be prepared with healthy snacks while traveling), I knew I was going to need something more substantial to eat to hold me over until I would get home later that night.

Although most of the places to eat in the airport were your typical chain fast food joints, I was lucky enough to stumble onto a small cafe that actually had some surprisingly healthy options.
Now here's what shocked me...

There was a fast food joint (mickey D's) right next to this healthy cafe. The line for the mickey D's was at least 20 people deep with everyone that got through the line stuffing their face with all sorts of deep fried nasty-ness.

However, there were only 2 people in the healthy cafe (and I was the 3rd)! Huh!?!

Now I do realize that in recent times, the major fast food chains are at least attempting to offer up some healthier options for people to choose from, but I can assure you from what I saw, nobody was choosing any of the healthy options over the deep fried junk.

Not only that, but as I scanned the long line of people waiting patiently for their chemical-laden trans fat infested "happy" meals, I noticed that not 1 single person was normal weight... every single person in the line was overweight!

I can also make the prediction that if you conducted a survey of those 20 overweight people waiting in the mickey D's line for their junk food, and asked them if they wanted to lose weight, probably at least 90% of them would tell you YES. The other 10% are the people that simply don't care at all about their health or their appearance.

So once again, this begs the question... if these people honestly do want to live healthier and lose their fat, why are they making the decision to eat at the fast food joints, when a cafe with healthy options was right there next to it, and didn't even have a line to wait in?

Perhaps it has to do with the clever marketing of fast food joints and that people are semi brainwashed into choosing the fast food over some non-chain which isn't branded into their heads?

Perhaps they can't resist the fast food joint once they smell the fried food?

Perhaps they feel that the healthy cafe would be too costly instead of the cheaper food at the fast food joint?

I'm not sure of the answer. Again, as with anything involving the mind and decisions, it is a complex subject.

I do think that the cost issue is ridiculous if you think about it. Maybe a fast food meal full of junk would cost you $4.00 and the healthy meal at the cafe would cost you $6.00. My thinking is... isn't it worth the extra $2.00 to eat something that will make you feel better, look better, and live longer?

Maybe I'm just crazy, but it just makes sense to me to pay a little more for quality.

Something to think about as you're out there on a daily basis making these types of decisions that will affect your health (and appearance).

On this topic about food choices, here's another article of mine that shows you how to make healthier fast food choices when that is your only option:

http://www.truthaboutabs.com/healthier-fast-food.html

Til next newsletter,
Don't be lazy... be lean.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer

How to Lose Abdominal Fat

Friday

Do you workout too hard? too long? or not enough?

I had a chat today with one of my long-time customers about her struggles with her workouts. Here's the basic problems she feels that she has been having...

She feels as though she's "stressed out" all the time about her workouts and if/when she's going to do them, and if she's doing them with enough intensity or actually overtraining.

Well, she did something for the past week that she hasn't done in a long time... she took the entire week off from all exercise. The interesting thing that she found was that she actually felt better overall, felt less stressed with not having to try to fit her workouts in, and also had a lot of aches and pains go away.

Right away this screams out to me that she was a classic case of overtraining.

So now she's confused as to whether she should keep working out at all or possibly just try to workout with less intensity.

Here was my response to her:

First of all, you definitely should take "off weeks" every couple of months. I do that all the time, although for me, I usually like to make it coincide with some sort of vacation.

When I do it, I usually do about 10 days with no weight training at all. If I get any exercise at all, it's just recreational activities or sports. This really helps not only your body to recover, but also gives your mind a break from intense training.

Also, it sounds like one of your problems is that you're "stressing out" about getting your workouts in. I think that's the wrong mindset, and you should actually be looking forward to your workouts instead. So maybe start thinking about how you can actually look forward to enjoying your workouts instead of stressing out about them or dreading them.

Like I've mentioned before, I actually can't wait to do my workouts I'm so excited about them sometimes. Sounds weird I know, but that's the mindset I have about it.

I love "mixing it up" and it really keeps it interesting... sometimes I like just doing standard weight training routines, sometimes doing all kettlebells, sometimes doing all bodyweight exercises, sometimes doing all outdoor workouts, sometimes doing circuits, sometimes powerlifting, sometimes bodybuilding style training, etc, etc, etc.

There's just so many different ways to train, it certainly never needs to be boring.

Anyway, back to your original question... it sounds like your layoff was much needed since you're feeling better during your week off. However, that doesn't mean that your entire life should be a layoff. You still are going to want to do intense workouts a portion of the time and resistance training should still be a regular part of your routines since it is so important for overall health, strength, and maintaining low body fat levels.

It just sounds like your body and mind needed a break and you might have been a little overtrained.

Also, make sure that you're varying or cycling the intensity of your workouts on a regular basis. Always trying to train at the highest intensity levels is a sure-fire way to overtrain and also make yourself dread the workouts.

I like to think of a cycle (such as a 6 week cycle) as a gradual building of intensity with a "peaking" of intensity towards the end of a cycle... And then within each week should be days that are higher and lower intensity too so that you're not burning out the nervous system.
I'd definitely recommend keeping the resistance training in your workouts on a regular basis, but just find ways to use variety to keep things interesting, and also use different intensity levels regularly, as well as scheduled off-weeks about every 2-3 months for total recovery. I think that's your winning combo.
============

I think the take away from today's topic is to take a look at how hard you've been training and decide if it's time to step things up a notch or perhaps back off and take a week to 10 days off if you think you've been overtraining.

No doubt that after your time off, you'll have a nice refreshed body as well as a renewed enthusiasm for your workouts. Works every time!

Here's another article of mine on a unique style of workout you've probably never thought of (and it's quite a time saver too!):

http://www.truthaboutabs.com/time-crunched-workouts.html

I'll be back soon with more Lean-Body Secrets.

Til next ezine,Don't be lazy... be lean.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer

Recommended resource:

http://BuildCrazyMuscle.com

Thursday

6 Week Healthy Meal Plan Metabolism Kickstart

I have a special gift for you today...

6 weeks of Free Healthy Meal Plans to kickstart your metabolism.

I wanted to give you a gift simply as a thanks for being a loyal subscriber to the Lean-Body Secrets Ezine, so I contacted my friend Isabel De Los Rios (a nutritionist that I highly respect for her in-depth nutritional knowledge) and we came up with this gift for you.

You can go to this page below to claim your complimentary copy of the 6-week metabolism kickstart meal plan program:

6 Weeks of Free Meal Plans for Fat Loss & Weight Management

Enjoy!

Feel free to email this link on to any of your friends, family, and coworkers that might enjoy it.
Also, feel free to post this link above into your facebook or myspace pages or on your blogs so that your friends can benefit from the meal plans as well!

Well, I'm off now to get in a good butt-kickin kettlebell workout at the local park now. I just love training outside in the fresh air... I'm back on the east coast for a little while and it's a beauty of a day here today!

I'll talk to you soon. Til next newsletter,
Don't be lazy... be lean.

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder - TruthAboutAbs.com & http://BusyManFitness.com

Workout Program for Skier Fitness