Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Fudge

Have you tried this recipe of a soft, rich and mouth melting caramel fudge? If you haven’t, you need to make a batch right away! It melts in the mouth and the recipe uses no heavy cream, dairy or refined sugar and it’s homemade. You know what you are eating! Once made, it can be stored in the freezer and consumed throughout a week.

Salted-Caramels-Recipe-

 

Yield: about 150g of fudge, prep time – 10 minutes, freezing time – 3 hours, total time – 3 hours and 10 minutes


Macros

Total calories per fudge of 20g: about 84kcal

Protein – about 7g

Carbs – about 3g

Fat – about 5g

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Ingredients

  • 100g organic peanut or almond butter
  • 1 medium banana
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 ½ Tbsp almond or soy milk
  • 1 scoop caramel protein powder
  • 2 Tbsp honey
  • ½ tsp sea salt

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Directions

  • Peel and grate one medium banana
  • Add the banana paste to peanut butter and stir until it will become creamy and smooth. If you keep the butter at the room temperature it will help stirring (you don’t  need to do the heavy work, use your food processor)
  • Add the the rest of the ingredients to the mixture and and blend until very smooth! There should be no lumps at all.  Just smooth cream.
  • Layer a baking sheet with a baking paper. Spread the fudge paste on the tray. It doesn’t need to come to the edge. Sprinkle with sea flakes.
  • Place in fridge or freezer until firm.  Cut into squares (size is of your choice).  Store in the fridge to maintain solid bars.

Enjoy!

Honeydew Melon Sorbet

Let’s cool ourselves down with this honeydew watermelon sorbet. It’s light, refreshing and VEGAN!

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Yield: 400-500gr (depending on the size of the melon), prep time – 5 minutes, cooking time – 10 minutes, cooling time – 4-6 hours, total time – 4 hours 15 minutes


Macros

Total calories per 100g portion – about 58kcal

Protein – 1.4g

Carbs – 13.4g

Fat – 0.3g


Ingredients

  • 1 honeydew melon, cubed
  • 1 Tbsp. freshly lime juice
  • 3 Tbsp honey
  • ¼ cup water
  • Zest of lime or mint leaves (for decoration)honeydew-melon-fruit-34733483-4272-2848

Directions

  • Cut melon into cubes
  • Put the cubes onto the baking sheet, layered with baking paper. Leave enough space in between the cubes to allow for even freezing.
  • Freeze the honeydew overnight, or until completely frozen (4-6 hours).
  • Once the honeydew cubes are frozen, put them into the food processor. Add lime juice, honey, and water, and pulse until the honeydew becomes crumbly. If the paste is not smooth enough, add more water until the mixture becomes more fluid, but not slushy. What we need is a soft sorbet texture look.
  • Taste and add more honey if needed.
  • Top it up with a zest of lime or mint leaves and serve!

The sorbet can be stored in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy!

 

 

Apple&Peppermint and Lemon Ice Popsicles!

Just because the weather outside says it’s still spring, it cannot stop us from embracing the summer! We prepared a special summer treat recipe just for you guys! Refreshing fruit pops boasting with vitamin C! Beachbody-Blog-LemonadePopRoundup_two


Yield: 8 portions, prep time – 30 min, cooking time –  about 10 min. Total time – about 4 hours.


Macroc:

Total calories per piece:  about 40 kcal

Protein – 0g

Carbs – 10g

Fat – 0g


Ingredients:

LEMON LAYER:
  • 2 tsp sweetener
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup fresh orange juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon orange extract
APPLE & PEPPERMINT LAYER:
  • 3 tsp sweetener
  • 3 cups of water
  • 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh peppermint
  • 2 chopped apples
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

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Directions:

LEMON LAYER:

  • Mix 2 teaspoons sweetener with 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to the boil
  • Cook about 30 seconds
  • Pour into a bowl
  • Stir in lemon juice, orange juice and extract
  • Cool for 15 minutes
  • Cover and chill at least 1 hour.

APPLE & PEPPERMINT LAYER:

  • Chop apples into small squires
  • Add 3 teaspoons sweetener and 2 cups of water and boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes
  • Stir in chopped leaves of peppermint
  • Cover and set aside for 30 minutes
  • Strain through a sieve into a bowl. Discard solids.
  • Stir in lime juice
  • Cover and chill 1 hour.

ICE POPSICLES

  • Pour about 2 1/2 tablespoons apple mixture into each of 8 ice pop molds
  • Freeze 1 1/2 hours or until almost set.
  • Arrange 1 wooden stick into mixture, being careful not to push through to bottom of mold. Return to freezer.
  • Freeze 1 hour or until frozen.
  • Remove molds from freezer.
  • Pour about 3 tablespoons lemon mixture over frozen apple mixture in each mold.
  • Freeze 2 hours or until completely frozen.

Enjoy!

Why diets don’t work and what you can do about it

why diets do not work and what to do

Have you ever noticed that after any diet, the pounds inevitably pile back on? Not only that, but people often actually gain more than they lose after finishing a diet. The idea of dieting is fundamentally flawed, with the process frequently being useless, painful and even dangerous to the person following it. In this article we are going to shed light on fad diets and provide you with some recommendations on how to avoid mistakes, and achieve long-term results.

 

diet

Are still considering dieting?

What does an average diet consist of? They vary enormously in terms of the type of food stipulated or prohibited, timeframe, and degree of strictness. However, there are a few common features. Let’s examine them briefly.

  • All fad diets are low in calories and rely on a nutrients deficiency principle. That means a dieter consumes fewer calories than he or she burns. This usually leads to a certain weight loss, but a series of studies have shown that the drop in body weight usually occurs predominantly as a result of muscle – but not fat – loss. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface, the body experiences a significant metabolic slowdown.

  • All diets are short-term (up to a few weeks). First of all, that does not allow the body to change in the longer term. Secondly, it means that a dieter will soon return to his or her “normal” – often unhealthy or semi-healthy – eating habits. These dietary habits caused weight gains in the past, so it’s fairly certain that the same thing will happen again.

  • All diets impose strict restrictions on the type and quantity of food consumed. That might provoke not only temporary mood swings and fatigue but also long term hormonal problems. Another consequence can be malnutrition (i.e. a deficiency of some important micronutrients and vitamins). It could impair bodily functions and negatively impact the overall health of the dieter.

Now, let’s dig a little deeper.

diets choise
to diet or not to diet

Calorie restriction

Very often calorie restriction in the course of a dietary programme is too extreme, and has no scientific basis. The buckwheat diet, green diet, zero carbs diet, fruit diet and even the lemon-water diet are just few examples of type of diet which are – to put it bluntly –  complete nonsense. Do people lose weight on such diets? Yes, they do. Do they gain it back? Yes, and it happens very quickly.

vicious circle 2
less muscle burn less calories

Decreasing calorie intake is another form of dieting. People keep their eating habits unchanged and just reduce the size of the portions or general quantity of their food intake, and exclude “criminal” food such as white bread or refined sugar. At first glance, this approach looks logical. Curbing excessive unhealthy food consumption will inevitably lead to weight loss. However, it is temporary. Having reached his or her target, a dieter reverts to “normal” eating habits, quickly gaining back everything that was lost, plus a little bit more, after every diet.

worst cerial

Another important point is that dieters almost never measure what they eat (we’re not speaking about bodybuilders, who, in opposite, obsessively weigh every ingredient). All food intakes is approximate and cannot be precisely replicated every day. Eating in public spaces makes tracking exact consumption even more complicated. It is impossible to be certain how purchased meals were cooked, and what additives such as oils, sugar, starches and so on were used. I’ve heard this stock phrase a million times: “I eat healthily but can’t lose fat”. When I start analyzing what people really eat I always see an abundance of hidden salt, sugar and fats in ready-to-eat or processed meals consumed. As a result, a dieter has fluctuating macronutrient intake (proteins, carbs, fats, fibre as well as salt and water) from day to day without any degree of consistency, consuming extra unnecessary nutrients that negatively impact the body in both the short and long term.

starvation 2
never starve yourself

Sometimes people stop eating completely for a while (“detox” fasting). This is probably the most terrifying scenario in terms of negative metabolic adaptation and the degree of harm it inflicts on the body.

Juice diets, which are currently extremely popular, are another example of outrageous fad strategies that inevitably cause overcompensating fat gain after the diet is over.

To recap, people do lose weight during diets but mostly due to three key factors:

  • muscle degradation,
  • loss of body water due to loss of muscle glycogen (1 molecule of muscle glycogen retains 3 molecules of intramuscular water keeping the body hydrated),
  • loss of intestine bulk due to extremely low food consumption.

 Muscle loss

muscle loss
fad diets cause muscle loss, metabolic damage, hormonal mess

Now, let’s look in more detail at muscle loss. Why is this factor important? It has been scientifically proven that muscles burn more calories for maintenance than fat. In other words, two 130 pound individuals with the same activity levels but with different body composition (let’s say, the first has 10% of body fat and the second – 30%) have completely different daily calorie expenditure. Who is going to burn more? Obviously the first one, as he has more muscle tissue.

Another interesting fact is that the human body starts burning muscle tissue for energy when calorie intake is insufficient. Fat is used to store nutrients for the body in case of starvation, which is why the human body tends to keep it for as long as possible, destroying muscle tissue first. It’s a survival mechanism. Only in certain circumstances the body uses fat for energy (for example, when a certain heart rate is reached). Muscle loss during fad diets is inevitable even if a dieter continues exercising, and the less muscle tissue the dieter has, the fewer calories he/she burns.  That’s why prolonged fad diets provoke muscle degradation and, as a result, significant metabolic slowdown.

Metabolic slowdown

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more muscle burn more calories

Let’s say a couple of words about metabolic adaptation (slowdown/damage). This probably the simplest correlation to explain: The human body is both ingenious, and highly efficient.  Survival is its main objective, so the fewer calories consumed, the fewer calories used. The body becomes very efficient and stores everything possible to deal with the possibility of starvation. In other words, the less you eat – the less you burn. And it works the other way around: the more generous the food supply, the less the need of the body to store fat for a raining day. However, don’t forget about food sources. Fat-laden, sodium-rich and sugar-heavy processed food never brings benefits. When boosting your metabolism, always opt for whole foods.

To sum up, when a dieter starves him/herself for a prolonged period, negative metabolic adaptation occurs. In combination with inevitable muscle loss it causes even more dramatic consequences – a dieter simply starts gaining more and more weight, while eating less and less.

High cortisol

Cortisol is a human stress hormone. Overwork, fad diets, long and exhausting cardio sessions, over-exercising, and lack of quality sleep, sunshine and fresh air are only a few examples from the long list of cortisol boosters. High cortisol levels cause major water retention (in case of some extreme female dieters, up to 25-30lbs). Moreover, high cortisol slows down the metabolism even further.

To diet or not to diet

keep-calm-and-dont-diet-international-no-diet-day

Taking into account all of the above evidence, the question must be asked: is it actually worth dieting?

The answer should be obvious: No, if we’re talking about fad diets.

Another, related, question is how can we achieve targeted body correction?

It’s all about long term life-style changes: Short-term diets don’t provide long term results and may be harmful, whereas permanent changes to your eating habits bring long-term benefits.

How to start and what to do   

CALIFORNIA WALNUT COMMISSION MEDITERRANEAN DIET
stick to whole food and healthy eating

Here are just a few simple tips that could make your healthy eating easier, and more effective.

  • Always rely on a scientific, fully customized approach! Generic diets and programs work poorly. Don’t copy someone else’s strategy. Most likely it was designed for an individual with a different somatotype, body fat percentage, activity level and other differentiating factors.
  • Would you perform dentistry on yourself? I didn’t think so. Always rely on professionals. Hire a qualified nutritionist to design the right strategy for your needs and guide you through the journey. It’s not going to be easy, as any life-style change requires complete focus, dedication, patience, and competent support.
  • Never starve yourself. Remember, fad diets are harmful.
  • Accept that finding healthy food in public places, or around your office, is pretty much impossible. Make it a habit to carry around a few little Tupperware boxes containing your freshly made meals. You will definitely be hungry at some point. Take care of yourself and don’t allow hunger to force you eating rubbish, or to starve.
  • Try to avoid processed food. This step alone will be hugely beneficial in the long-term.
  • Always put your health first.
  • Fast food and junk food cravings only exist in your head. The normal human body does not need junk food at all. Believe it or not, our brain can work perfectly on complex carbs. The human body is able to produce endorphins and serotonin without eating mountains of sweets. Our ancient ancestors never knew McDonalds or Nutella and lived happily without them. So the biggest monster lives in our own heads. Stop feeding it!
  • Take your time. The human body needs a far longer time to change than we tend to believe. Give yourself time. Be generous. Healthy eating will start working sooner or later. Just be consistent
  • Keep calm and eat your chicken (or broccoli/spinach/cod – whatever suits you!). Stress slows down the metabolism, making the body store more fat and retain water.
  • Sleep well and get enough fresh air every day. It’s a basic rule and you shouldn’t make excuses for yourself.
  • Just as you can’t be “almost pregnant”, you can’t “almost eat healthily”. You either do it or you don’t. The more you cheat the more you crave. It is better to eliminate junk food from your diet completely. Good luck!

Tatiana Dmitrieva

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