Tag Archives: healthy eating

creamy garlic dressing

Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing

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Most commercial dressings are full of unwanted sugar, salt, artificial colors, flavors, and other things your body doesn’t need.

This dressing is void of all of the yuck, and brings on the yum.

If you are looking to clean up your eating, and go as close to nature as possible, this simple recipe is for you.

Creamy Garlic Salad Dressing

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic
  • 3 TBS fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 TBS raw honey (or pure maple syrup)
  • 1/2 bunch parsley

Directions

Place all of the ingredients in a blender.  Blend until smooth. If you need more parsley or garlic, add more to taste and blend again until smooth. Refrigerate dressing if not using immediately. It’s alright if the dressing solidifies when cold, it’s natural. Just take it out of the refrigerator and keep at room temperature for 30 minutes. Stir before serving. Enjoy!

 

Healthy After a Holiday

Bounce Back to Healthy After a Holiday

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July 4th just passed and I can tell you that I didn’t hold back. I ate ribs, tri tip and Uncle Dave’s bleu cheeseburger, along with mac n’ cheese, baked beans, and potato salad.

As if that wasn’t enough, later that evening I had a surprise inside red, white, and blue cupcake and a helping of my famous spicy peach cobbler. Boy was I feeling it that night.

Thankfully I completed a sweat dripping 45 minute Turbo Fire kickboxing workout in the comfort of my mom’s living room that morning with my sister which registered at over 3 miles of punching and kicking on my Fitbit.

If you are like me, the day after a holiday is just as bad as the holiday itself because you have leftovers, and try everything you couldn’t fit on your first or second plate the day before.

Lucky for us all, today is a new day! And we can get back on the road to healthy whenever we decide. For me, today is that day.

How to Bounce Back to Healthy After a Holiday

1. Shake it up.  After a holiday I like to start my mornings by drinking a meal replacement drink. Something with a great taste, plenty of vitamins and minerals, and chock full of super foods and protein is what I go for. Personally, I drink Shakeology, but find one that suits you. Look for a shake with low sugar, no extra chemical junk added, and a calorie range of 150-300 calories this will help you to not overeat.  

2. Go Green.  Another trick of mine is to eat tons of greens after I splurge during a holiday.  Loading up on greens will help to regulate your system, and push out the junk you indulged on. You’ll feel light and energized.  I go for a huge salad full of veggies and a light homemade dressing for lunch for about 3 days straight after big holidays.

3.  Water Down.  This is probably a no brainer, but it never ceases to amaze me how little water people drink. When you are detoxing your body from the shock you put on it during a holiday you must drink plenty of water. For me, that means 2-3 liters (or even 1 gallon, which is a ton so be careful, you can over do it).

4. Meatless Monday.  Usually I start my cleansing process on a Monday, and I make it a meatless day. You read all of the different meats that my body had to try to digest this holiday weekend. My system is taxed, yours probably is too. Give it a break by having a few meatless meals.

5.  Move it Lady!  At least 30 minutes a day this week get your body moving. Whether it’s for a walk, swim, or if you pop in a workout video like I do, you must move your body. The combination of eating well, drinking water and working out will help your body bounce back and get you moving in a healthy direction again.

As always, I’m here to help. Feel free to ask me questions below or on Facebook @Get Fit With Annett.

 

South Beach

5 South Beach Diet Phase 1 Food Hacks

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If you’ve been around the health and fitness portion of Happy Wives Club, you may have noticed that I usually write all of the posts. I’ve been assigned as the resident “expert” for lack of a better term.

This week I was happy to hear about a post from one of our contributors, Maggie Reyes.  She’s been on a mission to lose weight WITH her husband.  When I heard about this I got super excited. I LOVE when a husband and wife are on a joint mission to get healthy. 

One of the most popular diets around is called the South Beach Diet. It has different phases to it.  I’m not going to go through the diet with you step-by-step.  Just know that if you are on it you’ll say goodbye to a lot of carbs (like potatoes, fruit, bread, rice, pasta, etc for a couple weeks). 

Maggie has some food hacks that will help you out if you are in Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet!

Make it a Healthy Day!

Annett Davis (HWC Health/Fitness Contributor) 

5 South Beach Diet Phase 1 Food Hacks!

The hubby and I are losing weight together.  When we analyzed all the things we could eat during the South Beach Diet phase 1, we realized we would have to get creative to stick to the eating plan.

This is where food hacking comes in. Basically you can tweak recipes changing ingredients or otherwise altering a traditionally made item to suit your needs, tastes or budget.

With a little creativity, we have found ways to eat some of the things we love within the strict parameters of the diet’s instructions.

south beach diet phase 1

Here are 5 of our favorite “hacks.”

Breakfast Yogurt – 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt, 1 heaping tablespoon of your favorite sugar free jam, 2 Splendas.

You cannot have fruit during phase 1, but you *can* have sugar free jams and jellies. Mixed in with Greek yogurt, they add flavor and sweetness and make this an easy addition to the breakfast rotation.

Chili with Mushroom – The hubby looooves chili, but he usually eats it with rice, so he had to find a substitute. He experimented with mushrooms as they are light in flavor and typically take on the savory flavors they are cooked into.

He followed the standard chili recipe on the back of McCormack Chili and just substituted mushrooms for rice. This one is definitely for the bolder experimenters, but for us, it worked as a great substitute.

The next 3 tips are all about the satisfying the Sweet Tooth.

Snickers Hack – Hershey’s Sugar Free, Caramel Filled Chocolate (1 piece) + approximately 5 to 10 peanuts. It may not be Snickers, but it really satisfies.

Almond Joy Hack – Russell Stover’s Sugar Free Coconut filled chocolate + 3 almonds.

Imaginary Ice Cream – you really can’t have ice cream during phase 1, but you can have sugar free fudgsicles. Take the fudgiscle, put it in a large cup and remove it from the stick with a knife. Put it in the microwave for 10 seconds, then add a nut of your choice (pecans and almond shavings work really well for this). Voila! Imaginary Ice Cream!

There you have it, 5 creative additions to South Beach Diet Phase 1.

Have you ever done the South Beach Diet?  Do you have any favorite food hacks to add to the list?

 

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Want a Simple Secret to Good Health? Skinny Dip!

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Summer is almost over so I think it’s about time I told you one of my secrets. I love a good skinny dip.  No, not swimming in the nude silly.  I love dips that are yummy and healthy treats!  My husband loves dips, and knowing that I’m feeding him something that’s good for his body makes us both feel great.

Annett’s Top 3 Skinny Dips!

  • Hummus-  One of my favorite “skinny dips” is a simple smooth hummus.  It’s a traditional Middle Eastern dip that takes the edge off, especially on a hot day.  Coupled with a plate full of veggies, hummus just cannot be beat. 

This dip is made from garbanzo beans, also known as chickpeas, which are legumes full of protein. It also includes olive oil, which can help regulate cholesterol and protect the heart.  Garlic is another amazing ingredient in hummus that is currently being used to help combat cancer and helps reduce the risk of heart disease.  This skinny dip contains several vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B6, magnesium, calcium and more.

  • Guacamole- My husband always says he thinks we have some Latin blood in us because we LOVE all types of Latin food.  One of my favorite dips is guacamole! A few years ago on an excursion in Mexico I learned to make authentic guacamole in a cooking class.

 Avocado is the main ingredient in guacamole.  It is an amazing healthy fat.  Guacamole is a good source of vitamins as well, with vitamin C, B6 and K.  This skinny dip’s nutrients can help with things like having healthy bones, production of red blood cells, and helping to decrease the risk for cardiovascular disease. 

  • Southwestern Layered Dip-  There are many versions of this dip. Some have 5 layers, 6 or 7, but they all have a few things in common- beans, cheese, and veggies.  The recipe that I like includes salsa, no sodium refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado on top.

This low calorie, low fat, low sodium, low cholesterol, gluten free, high fiber treat is packed full of flavor.  Make sure you put the correct portion on your plate, because you are going to want more.  By modifying the ingredients swapping out things like Greek yogurt for the sour cream, and nonfat beans for the full fat salty ones, and making your own guacamole, you save your body from a lot of excess junk.  It’s so easy to make, you can even make your own homemade corn chips to go with it! Check out this great recipe for the dip and chips here.

I hope you will start to skinny dip as well.  These are great fast healthy treats that you can have any day. No need to wait for a special occasion. I have hummus a few days a week at my house. You can rest easy knowing that you are doing your body good.

What’s your favorite “skinny dip”?