Curious to know if you’re the only family eating on wings? Well, you’re not! Check out this infographic I put together for you! To be honest I was pretty blown away at the entire thing.

I am going to guess there are going to be a lot of hungover and bloated people out there tomorrow. Fortunately for us, we’re Eagles fans in my house so Dan isn’t into watching the game AT ALL! I of course will still watch it but because of his lack of desire it means I don’t have to go out of my way to have finger foods and tailgate options in the house…

SWEET!

Instead we’re recovering from the Jimmy Buffet Concert from a few nights ago… no beer in our house and no junk food either!

From Jimmy Buffet Concert In Charleston!! 75 degrees in Feb.!!

(Please excuse my sun burn that is starting to show)

Back to the Super Bowl… just check this out:

Apparently Dr. Oz talked about Matcha not too long ago but since I don’t watch tv I was behind on this.

I was reading a magazine a few weeks ago that announced that 1 teaspoon of powdered green tea is equal to drinking 10 cups of normal green tea. At first I was skeptical so I let my science brain take over and started in on the research.

This so-called “powdered green tea” has a real name… Matcha. The Japanese have been using it for centuries and the claim of the tsp to cup conversion appears to be spot on.

It gets even better though, the antioxidant in green tea is called EGCG and it’s linked to decreased risk of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive diseases. A study in 2006 showed that those that drank just one single cup of green tea a day decreased their risk of Alzheimer’s by 38%… those that had two per day decreased their risks by 54%… sign me up!

And it’s all thanks to the EGCG… well that’s all great but Matcha is the superstar of this antioxidant. And just a single serving has 137 times the amount of normal green tea!

Holy Crap!

What about Matcha and Weight Loss?

Might try this little number tomorrow!

You’ve hear that green tea can help boost your metabolism. And it does, just not very much… you have to drink a heck of a lot of it to see any real results. The benefits come from once again the EGCGs which belong to a group of antioxidants called catechins… also called FAT BURNERS… that are found in tea.

Well, since Matcha is so concentrated it’s possible for it to boost your metabolism by as much as 40%… pretty amazing! A regularly cup of seeped tea may boost you 8% which doesn’t do much but 40% can be huge.

Just remember, this is not a fat burning cure and it’s important to maintain a workout program and healthy diet still!

Other Benefits

• Studies show that it might help fight off and decrease cancers (here)
• Help promote good digestion as a probiotic
• Improved skin and hair
• Improved immune system
• Increased energy (caffeine)
• Decrease Stress

Monks have used Matcha for centuries during meditations to help relax and get to their peaceful places!

What To Do With It?

I have some and at first was a bit skeptical… I wasn’t so sure about turning my food strange tinges of green. But I tossed a teaspoon in my shake and was pleasantly surprised, it was fresh tasting and didn’t over power the overall protein shake.

You can also mix it into rice, ice cream, oatmeal, I even found a recipe for matcha cupcakes!

It can be a bit expensive, I had some green tea that a friend had gotten for us from China so I took out my magic bullet and powdered it up myself… saving A LOT of money and still getting a great quality green tea.

This past weekend Dan casually looked over at me and suggested we change up our routines to be more circuit/boot camp style. I love these kind of workouts but if I want to do them I normally have to do them with my boot camp or on my own so when he showed interested I jumped on it!

My only rule was that since I design over 4-6 workouts each week, I did not feel like designing ours so that was up to him…

Bad call by me!

Our workout was AMAZING but just putting on a bra hurt like hell yesterday!

And any time I shows signs of weakness this is what I heard… “Oh come on Taylor… I wish your boot campers could see you now!” 

I am sure you can imagine the look I would shoot back and how determined I became to kick his ass!

I’ll post our workout below but I will say we’re pretty even on these workouts because while he is better with upper body moves like push-ups, I can do plyo jumps and leg exercises around him all day long (I love to rub that in). Each time he would break to shake his legs I would remind him of his own weaknesses!

This workout was done in an aerobic room at my gym, so you need plenty of space:

The Spouse Killer Workout

Oh… That’s Not All:

Because we hit our chest up so hard with all those push-ups, Dan then thought it was necessary to do a row circuit with the cables…

My response: “Bring it!”

Well he did, and I did… and now my back is done!

Overall, a great workout! Thanks to the hubs!!

Today I have a special treat… this is an awesome guest blog post from Fit Is The New Black blogger Holly. She is a up and coming writing and a complete fitness freak (us freaks have to stay together) and though we’ve only chatted through email, I like her already! Her blog is very “tell it like it is” which is what I love!

Plus with me being a Southern Chick, it’s nice to bring in a bit of the North from time to time… new perspective ladies!! So read… comment on it… and head over to her blog!

Oh and PS… Holly let me post up a little video and workout that is posted up there… so go right after you read this:

Teens Are Encouraged to Have Weight-Loss Surgery. Wait, What?

Leave it to big business to make a profit off of America’s obesity epidemic. According to a new article in the New York Times, about 220,000 people use surgery to shed lbs. With insurance companies more eager to foot a surgery bill than a gym tab, weight-loss surgery has become a $6 billion dollar business. Cha-Ching!

But none of this surprises me. We live in an instant gratification culture. Everything’s got to be fast. And I’m from New York, so I’m an expert on these things. Fast rides, fast food, fast weight loss. It’s the American way. But is that really the right attitude to have about our health?

The article in The Times wasn’t detailing the weight-loss biz as much as it was describing the newest client that is falling victim to it-adolescents. Say what? Yes, more teenagers are being considered acceptable candidates for weight loss surgeries, like the lap-band.

As parents... it's our job to teach our kids to live a healthy life... not obsess!

Journalist Anemona Hartocollis, followed 19-year-old Shani Gofman for a year, and chronicled her experience pre and post surgery. Because you can read, I won’t go into extreme detail about what the story revealed. What I will mention, however, is what I found most disturbing.

The first thing was that Gofman ended putting weight back on, after her initial weight loss. I’m not a licensed nutritionist, trainer or doctor, but it’s obvious why Gofman saw poor results from her surgery- She didn’t learn how to eat properly! Altering somebody’s insides so that they can only have a golf ball amount of food is NOT teaching them proper nutrition. It’s teaching them frustration and deprivation, and frankly, you can learn that trying a Hollywood fad diet.

While some of us may struggle with our weight because of real medical issues, many of us battle the pounds because we lack basic nutritional understanding. We’re not taught to eat clean, or choose whole foods in grade school. Nutrition labels can read like Latin to the unlearned eye. It’s not our fault. We aren’t born with this knowledge. Like most things, we have to be educated about it. It’s inexcusable and sad that no one thought of educating Ms. Gofman. She may have been legally an adult, but she was also a teenager, and teens need guidance.

The American Way?

The second thing that bugged me from the article was that Gofman was actually discouraged from losing the weight the natural way. Seriously? WTF!

What type of world is this, where doctors steer away patients from diet and exercise, and onto the operating table? It’s like the bloody Twilight Zone.

Why wouldn’t they encourage her to enroll at the gym, or hire a trainer first? If money was an issue (her surgery was paid for by insurance), she could have gone old school, aka walking outside. And with the amount of fitness videos available on YouTube and Netflix, everyone has access to fitness today. You don’t even have to leave your home. And I don’t even want to hear the excuse that she was just too heavy to risk her losing weight the healthy way. Hello! What about the show, Ruby? That sweet southern belle proved that anyone can lose weight. Maybe Gofman’s doctors forgot to TIVO it.

I hate to say that there are no quick fixes, because it’s cliché, and everyone says it. What I will say is that if we are to become a fit and healthy nation, we have to be willing to do the work. Pills, fad diets, surgery, and everything in between may work, but only for a little while. While insurance may foot the bill for surgery, it won’t save you the heartache and disappointment when quick slim schemes don’t last. Working out, a healthy diet, and patience is the only recipe for lasting success. I hope someone teaches Gofman that recipe soon.

Thanks Holly! Remember… now you can go to: Fit Is The New Black

Image source: http://www.gogreenstreet.com

Image source: http://www.redorbit.com

Personally, I can tell you right now that I don’t. I do not do well with people bossing me around. If some drill sergeant came screaming and spitting in my face I might just scream and spit back… oops. Which is one reason I give so much credit to those serving in the armed forces! The strength these ladies have!

Okay, so anyways…

A recent article spiked my curiosity for the Marines when a proposal was made to add pull-ups to the women’s fitness test for the Corp.

It wasn’t passed which actually surprised me, they are sticking to a “flexed arm hang”… to get a perfect score all the ladies would have to do with the proposal is a total of 6 pull-ups for a score of 100%, but they would only be able to get a maximum score of 75 if they did the hang instead.

Personally, I think the chin-up part of the test is a great rule, bringing together equality between the sexes a bit more since the boys have had to do this for quite some time now. Except they have to do 20 chin-ups for a score of 100!

Here is the entire Female Marine Corp Physical Fitness Test… would you cut it?

I am posting the exercise and what the score should be to receive 100 points.

1. Timed Flexed Arm Hang- 70 seconds
2. 2-Minute Crunch Test… how many crunches can you do in 2 minutes? 100 crunches
3. 3 Mile Run 21.0 minutes

Where would you rate on the test?? 

My own scores-

1. I haven’t done an arm hang but I did to 9 pull-ups non-stop this morning.
2. I can do 100 crunches in a minute.
3. But the last 5K I ran was in 26 minutes… so this I would have to work on for sure!

The reason they didn’t go through with the pull-up idea is because apparently on average female marines can only do 1.63 pull-ups. Don’t let this lead you to think girls can’t do them.

I have a video that I did quite some time ago on pull-ups because I LOVE them but when I went to look at it, it’s far too old so I am going to film a new one soon!

Also, to read more on the Marine Female Pull-up Test read [Here]

Source of image: http://usmcocs.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/female-physical-fitness-test-pft/

Image source: New York Times

For Christmas I received this handy gadget:

Kitchenaid Pasta Attachment!

I have been wanting this thing for years… so I was super stoked when I opened it up! Okay, so I am not the biggest pasta eater in the world, so why would I want this?

Well, I am not the biggest pasta eater because I don’t want freeze dried pasta, and I don’t want the soft white pasta noodles in the specialty section of the store. I wanted the ability to know with 100% certainty that the pasta on my plate is 100% whole wheat and nutritious.

The FDA allows food manufacturers to claim a product as 100% whole grain as long as 51% of it’s whole grain… to mean that’s far too processed!

Eating healthy complex carbs are actually very important for a balanced diet, I just want to know that it’s complex… hence my desire for a pasta maker!

Well… I had my first attempt this past weekend and OMG it was AWESOME!

Dan actually told me it looked too easy and I needed to trade it in for an old fashioned, crank pasta press… I just gave him “the eye”.

When I went to the store to get my flour I was amazed out the diversity to choose from! Everything from chickpea to coconut flour!

I decided to not go too crazy and try to play it safe, after all it was my first time making pasta from scratch.

This is my pasta recipe… super easy, super clean and super delicious! I’ve also decided that I will NEVER buy store pasta again, this is just way too easy!

Clean Homemade Pasta:

• 1.5 cups whole wheat pasta
• .5 cups chickpea pasta
• 1/4 cup water
• pinch of salt

Center is filled with chicken, onions, Chinese cabbage, splash of soy and hoisin sauces.

 What’s the last thing you made from scratch??

It’s been forever and a day since I shared a recipe, or at least it feels that way. So without further ado I give you:

Chinese Crispy Pork (Siu Youk)

I know what you’re wondering: why am I cooking Chinese pork? Great question!

Dan and I are putting a trip together for China later this year. And even though it’s not for quite awhile we are both very excited. Excitment and nervousness… Dan’s Chinese teacher (so we can learn the basics) informed us that the Chinese restaurants around town are anything but authentic. In fact the nearest real Chinese restaurant is in Atlanta, GA and I don’t feel like driving 6 hours for food.

With that said… it’s really just the drawn out way of saying that we are introducing authentic cuisine into our meals to start learning the flavors and foods so we know what we like and what to order. I would hate to order something and end up with a plate I refuse to taste.

So for week 1 I set out to make a traditional pulled pork recipe. It was so easy and tasted AMAZING!! The aroma from the kitchen made the entire house smell delicious. It’s one of the only foods where we actually ate the leftovers (I am queening of tossing them out).

It’s clean, high in protein and overall a great meal for your dinner!

Chinese “Crispy” Pork (Siu Youk)

Ingredients: 

• 2 lb pork butt or shoulder, fat trimmed and cut into two halves
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp anise seed
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves*
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 quart water
• Thinly sliced green onion
• Fresh cilantro sprigs
• Hoisin or Chinese plum sauce (Use sparingly)

*Ground cloves were considerably more expensive than whole cloves so I bought whole cloves and grounded them in my coffee grinder. It works better than using my food processor since they’re so small.

Directions:

• Place a 4-5 quart pot on high heat and combine meat, garlic, anise, ground cinnamon, cloves, soy sauce and water.
• Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until the meat is very tender when pierced, around 1 1/2 hours.
• Bring back to a boil, uncovered on high heat until sizzling and cook about 30 minutes, make sure to stir often.
• Drain off the fat and with two forks shred the meat and place in an oven safe 9 x 13 pan.
• Bake at 400’F in oven until pork begins to crisp; 15-20 minutes.
• Serve over brown rice, quinoa or barley. Top with onion, cilantro and hoisin (1 tsp goes a long way) to taste.

Good bye 2011… you were a great year but I have to say your time is up and I am welcoming in 2012.

The number 12 has always been one of my favorites, so that means it has to be a fabulous year!

My 2011 Recap: 

• Nike was brought into our lives (Can’t remember life before the kitty!)
• My 1 year wedding anniversary (still love ya Dan!)
• I quite my day job and focused 100% of my websites, training, my boot camps
• My niece Lainey we born
• Body Fat Blasting Boot Camp was launched
• I went from running 2 boot camps to 7 in Charleston
• I competed in my first strong woman’s competition, and 2 mud runs
• And so much more!

Now that that is done we can look into the future! And by that I mean healthy food recipes that my family and I will be munching on tomorrow to celebrate!

Collard Greens: They are in the same family as broccoli and therefore have some great cancer fighting powers due to high antioxidants. They are also a great source of Vitamin C, beta-carotene, Vitamin K, and even Omega-3s! Eat up! Just avoid cooking them in fat back or other not so good for you grease.

Black Eyed-Peas: These are actually a bean, not a pea. They are a great source of fiber, protein, and potassium. They are also low in calories and fat. Eat up! We serve ours over brown rice… Hop-n-John style!

Ham: We bake it and it’s a great source of protein. Ham isn’t my favorite meat though and it can be fatty so I stick to a smaller portion and fill up on the veggies and beans.

Lentils: This is a tradition that Dan brought to our house. Lentils represent wealth and are a great legume, filled with fiber, vitamins, protein, and low in calories like the peas. I love lentils!

I am finally feeling so much better! Just about back to my old self and ready to really workout hard! Whoo Whoo!

So back to our holiday… normally on Christmas I am like an excited little kid, waking up at 6:00 am and sneaking downstairs before anyone else. This year, things were different… for one I didn’t know what to expect Christmas morning since it was the first with my in-laws and second I learned how great Nightquil is!

Those two factors allowed me to sleep in until 7:30, which I am pretty sure is a record for me.

The family wasn’t far behind and we spent the first half of the day tearing through presents. I must have been a very good girl this year because Dan, I mean Santa… brought me a new watch AND a sapphire necklace.

(Sorry about the poor quality of these pictures)

Very surprised!

My first sapphire, even though it's my favorite stone!

We munched on cheese platters and ate on cookies for the day. Christmas dinner was another different event for me, instead of the traditional HUGE southern meal I am used to I was treated to grilled shrimp, fillet mignon, Brussel sprouts, salad and homemade mash potatoes. It was delicious and even without all the casseroles and heavy foods, it still felt like a holiday meal.

Monday we woke up, and headed to Winterthur, which is a historic Dupont mansion that was all decorated for the holidays.  The day passed far too quickly and ended with family game night of Clue. Off to bed at 9:30 since we had to wake up at 3:30 for our flight…

And that brings us back to Charleston! We celebrate Christmas with my family Sunday, so we are blessed with two Christmases!

And that’s all folks! Wooo… long winded!

Back to fitness next week!

In exactly two weeks from today, millions of women will start putting together their weight loss plan. But out of all of those women most will give up by February and in the end only 5% will actually hit their “resolution”.

It doesn’t sound very promising for a lot of women but it can be for you! Just think how amazing you’ll feel when you look in the mirror (not too long from now) and realize that you’ve achieved what you set out to do.

Heres what it is going to take…

1. Dedication: are you ready to actually commit to a program? Whether it’s on your own, with the help of an on site trainer or an online fitness community. You’ve got to remember that every day counts… food and exercise. Keep in mind that flat stomachs are made in the kitchen so please forget the idea that if you workout, that’s enough to hit those goals.

2. Tracking. Motivation is the biggest reason women fail to hit their goals, it’s too easy to give up and forget about it. That’s why tracking your progress can help. When you see right in front of you what you’ve accomplished you will stay fired up to keep going. Write down weight, measurements, workouts, and food.

3. Is it a good program? Walking on the treadmill isn’t a workout. Now if you’re very overweight then it might be a good place to start but eventually you will have to do an organized workout plan that is fitted to your goals and plans. It should include some cardio exercise and strength training exercises.

These are just 3 ways to stay on track, next week I will post up more “Hit The Target” rules to follow. But in the mean time if you are still looking for a program might I casually suggest:

The Art of Weight Lifting Community

or:

Body Fat Blasting Boot Camp (12-week at home boot camp)

I wanted to share another top notch workout but before I get to that I have to share the weekend!

Weekend Recap: 

It’s Sunday night and Dan and I are actually doing nothing (well beside surfing the web). In fact, we had a movie day and watched three movies. It was funny because we both agreed that we’ve never had a full out sit, chill and watch movie day. But it was much deserved.

Our weekend was crazy! We host an annual wine party each Christmas and it’s always 2 Saturdays before. So that was yesterday. Because our list grows each year we decided it was time to move the party out of our condo… one of the places I teach a bootcamp at allowed me to use their clubhouse! It was perfect and already fully decorated for the season.

But because I love the idea of cooking and doing this grande party I spent over 15 hours in my kitchen between Friday and Saturday cooking and baking! And let me just say, it’s hard to put a menu together for 20-30 people!

Here’s what we ended up with… and YES everything was homemade from scratch!

• Turkey meatballs in marinara (always a hit)
• Whole wheat pizza bites
• Wheat fettucini quiche bites (no pie crust)
• Baked Chickens (brined for 12 hours)
• Proscetta-wrapped stuffed dates
• Clean chocolate truffles
• Chocolate dipped strawberries (decorated to look like Christmas lights)
• Cheese Plate (Brie, Smoked Gouda, Muenster)
• Sugar cookies (not clean, nor homemade… I was exhausted at this part so took the easy route)

Working Off The Wine And Treats With This

This is a workout I created for my boot camp this week. I love making these holiday themed workouts so I am really excited to share it with you!

It’s to be done just as if you were singing the song. So on day one, just do exercise 1 for 1 rep. Then straight to day 2, do 2 reps of exercise 2 and 1 rep of exercise 1…. day 3 is 3 reps of exercise 3, 2 of 2 and 1 rep of 1.

Keep this pattern going until you are all the way done with 12 days of fitness!

The 12 Days Of Christmas Fitness

1.  Candlestick burpee
2. Body up/downs (start on back and stand up all the way trying to not use hands)
3. Lemon squeezes
4. Leg Raises
5. Golden Push-ups
6. Double Jumping Jacks
7. Squatters Squatting (squats)
8. Lunge jumps (1-1 count… 16 total)
9. Pike Push-ups
10. Climbers Climbing (Mt Climbers)
11. Plank up/downs
12. Tuck Jumps
    

    A requirement for holiday workouts?

I also found this Holiday Cardio Mix I am thinking about getting for the ladies… what do you think?