Stories of Success

I caught up with Ashley & Lajuana in Dallas about a month ago. I love seeing my Texas & Colorado friends! I am so honored to be able to share their FirstFitness Nutrition stories with you!

"I can't even begin to explain how thankful I am that I found FirstFitness Nutrition over THREE YEARS ago! At a size 16 and almost 200 pounds, I was miserable. Nothing I was doing to lose weight was working, I just kept packing on the pounds. Less than 90 days after starting my Suddenly SLiM Transformation Program, I was down to a size 6!!!!!! Because this program teaches you the proper way to fuel your body and how to keep the weight from returning, I am down a total of 50 POUNDS and wearing a size 2!!!!!! I am at a weight and size I have NEVER been before! Thank you FirstFitness Nutrition for developing a program that actually WORKS!!!!!"

"Before FirstFitness Nutrition and SUDDENLY SLiM! I was in major health crisis. Obese, high blood pressure, diabetes, abnormal thyroid function, and facial paralysis. I was sick and tired and had a brand new little girl that I was scared I would never be able to enjoy as much as I wanted. Thanks to this amazing program, I've lost 83 pounds and 66 inches from my body!! I no longer require ANY prescription medication and I chase that curly girl around every single day! FFN changed my life and it can do the same for YOU!"

Cooking with FFN

My prepped meals ready to go in the fridge!

I have to admit, it's hard to cook healthy meals for my family when we are super busy.  I was so excited when my friend, Barbie, shared this amazing idea...what if we could show you how to cook meals for your families that were not only healthy, but also time and cost effective? With that idea came "Cooking with FFN". I love the ease of having these delicious meals ready to go each week! Barbie lined out all the details and now, I'm pleased to offer you the first week I tried this out.  It's so nice to know all I needed was about an hour to prep FOUR meals for my family!  I just popped them into the crockpot while my BodyFX shake was mixing up in the Magic Bullet!

Stay tuned for more recipes to keep you on track!

Chicken Fajitas

2 Green Peppers (Or 1 Green/1Red)

1 Onion

3 Chicken Breasts

½ Cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth

1 Packet Low Sodium Taco Seasoning

1 tsp chili powder

½ tsp paprika

1 tsp sea salt

Cook in crock pot on low 6 hours or on high 3-4 hours

Serve with whole grain tortillas, black beans and a side salad.

 

Spinach and Salsa Chicken

3-4 boneless skinless chicken breast

2 cups of salsa (or Pico de Gallo)

Frozen bag of spinach (I usually use 1/2 the bag, but you could use more or less)

1 to 2 tablespoons of Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning

Directions: Place all items in freezer bag, you can add or wait for the spinach 

Write on bag:

1. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or on HIGH for 3-4.

2. Shred the chicken and mix together with the spinach.

3. Serve on whole-grain/whole-wheat tortillas, over brown rice.  Don't forget your side salad!

Beef &Butternut Squash Stew

1 ½ pounds Lean Beef chopped in cubes

2 pounds Butternut Squash - cubed in 1/2”

2 Cloves Garlic

1 Large Onion Chopped

1 Sprig Rosemary (or 1tsp) *If using sprig remove before eating

1 Sprig Thyme (or 1 tsp)  *If using sprig remove before eating

32 oz Low Sodium Beef Stock

1tsp Pepper

1tsp Salt

3 TBS Olive Oil

Combine all ingredients. 

Cook for 3-4 Hours on High or 6-8 Hours on low in Crock Pot

Add a side salad for your side!

Bonus Recipe:

Tomato, Kale & Quinoa Soup

2 Cans (14.5oz) Petite Diced Tomatoes – Low Sodium

1 Can (15oz) Great Northern Beans-Low Sodium, drain & rinse

1 Onion, diced

3 Cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried basil

¼ tsp dried rosemary

¼ tsp dried thyme

2 bay leaves

32oz Vegetable broth – Low Sodium

Sea Salt & Pepper *to taste

1 Cup uncooked Quinoa//Keep in Separate bag till cooking

1 pound fresh Kale, Coarsely Chopped  **Added towards the end of cooking//Keep in Separate bag

** You may also add 1.5-2 pounds of Chicken or Lean Beef **

Put Bag one in Slow Cooker add Quinoa Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours.  Then add Kale cook until wilted.  Serve immediately.

I certainly plan to do this weekly!  It was so easy & dinner was ready when we got home!  

Prep your way to weight loss success!

Every Saturday, I plan my meals for the week. I create a grocery list.  I hit the store armed with my grocery list. On my list, I have changes I'm willing to make (based on what may or may not be on sale). I gather my goods.  I head home, with all my yummy stuff and get ready to prep for my weekly success.

A lot of people I encounter tell me they don't have time to do this.  I disagree.  We are an on-the-go style family.  Weekends are generally spent doing the kids things or Get Thin With Jenn activities. We are busy during the week too.  Softball practice takes up our Wednesday night, as does my grad school class.  And basketball season, along with practices, is fast approaching. 

I also try to meet with clients at least twice a week and my team at least once.  I don't want to find myself going through the drive-thru grabbing a burger because I failed to plan my meals.  My attention to meal planning has paid off.  I haven't been really sick in over two years!  I've maintained my 60 pound weight loss for  4 years. And I'm at my healthiest now than I was before I discovered FFN.  I'm NOT going back to that sad, miserable, unhealthy place I was before I lost my weight. 

So as with any week, I've made my plan. I always try to keep it simple. Lunch for this week is a Swiss chard, kale & spinach salad topped with veggies and baked chicken & quinoa. 

Tomorrows is topped with guacamole. Not really sure what I will add to the others. 

How do you plan for success in meeting (or exceeding) your goals?!

Ramblings and other stuff

This week is going to be super tough! It's Cinco de Mayo & we are having a potluck at work. You know what that means...either eat to stay on track or eat to avoid offending  your co-workers. I'm probably going to wind up offending some people because I just started a 30 day challenge! But a girl has to stay on track...

For my 30 day FFN Ultimate Body Challenge, I decided to do Alexa Jean Brown's Sore-To-The-Core 30 day Ab Challenge and her 30 day Butt/Leg Challenge. This should be fun. You can find her on Instagram by looking for @alexajeanfitness.  Depending on how this goes, Kayla Itsine's 12 week challenge is next on my agenda. However, I'm not so sure about this working out at home business. I kind of like the group fitness thing. 

This week, my meals are super easy. For lunch, I will be having dinner leftovers. So it goes like this:

Monday-fajitas (without the tortilla), salad and baby bell peppers. 

Tuesday-grilled chicken, side salad and veggies

Wednesday-grilled chicken, brown rice and a side salad loaded with veggies

Thursday-Chicken Salad on Wasa crackers, sweet bell peppers with guacamole and a side salad

Friday-Leftovers from Thursday

Saturday-traveling

Speaking of traveling...I'm super excited about this weekend! I have a few new dustributors attending Super Saturday in Dallas with me. I can't wait for them to see our corporate head quarters! We would love to have you join us!

 

Make Your Own Almond Butter

I love almonds. I love them raw. I love them roasted. I love them with cinnamon, cocoa, smoked. I just love almonds. 

Up until the last couple of weeks, when I've wanted a nut butter, I've always bought almond butter. I pay close attention to the labels & make sure they only use almonds in my almond butter, but sometimes it just doesn't taste good, ya know?   Two weeks ago, during one of our winter storms, I embarked on a mission to make my own. My first experience was okay, but I really wasn't satisfied.  I used already roasted almonds, purchased from a store. And it still didn't taste super fresh. So this week, I bought some raw almonds.

I measured out 1 cup.

And roasted my own!

   

All you have to do is spread almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet and place in a cold oven. Turn oven on to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake almonds, stirring occasionally, until light tan and fragrant, 12 to 15 minutes. Be careful! The nuts will continue to cook after removing from oven.

I let them cool while I ate my breakfast this morning. And then popped them into my food processor. 

You'll go through several phases as they're processing. 

  

First, you'll get chopped up almonds. Then, it will look a little like almond "meal", basically a little gritty looking. After that, the oils will begin to release and it will start to stick to the sides of the food processor.  But...keep going. It's not ready yet!

  

It will kind of get thick & you'll notice heat coming off your food processor. No worries (unless the quality of your food processor isn't very good). The almonds are starting to break down, release their natural oils and make almond butter. (Mine started to ball up & I had to stop and break it apart.) At that point, I went about 5 more minutes, alternating between slow & fast. 

Finally, it started getting smoother. And the smell was positively divine!

And then...it was finished!!! I grabbed my scales & some 2 oz portion cups & divided it out 1 oz per cup. 

 

I now have six 1 oz servings of freshly ground almond butter! Make yours and let me know what you think!

Remember, when following the FirstFitness Nutrition program, you can enjoy 1/2 cup of almonds for a snack. Have some with a little celery! Yum!

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Menu Monday rolls back around!

Whew!  I made it through a weekend trip to Eureka Springs without doing too much damage.  We had a wonderful weekend.  Our stay at 5 Ojo Inn was fabulous!  Jan & Richard are wonderful hosts and we are already planning our next trip.  They served up a great (not totally FFN friendly) breakfast, but we were able to not do too much damage to our wasitlines and even indulged a little!

Anyway, while we were in Eureka, we happened upon a few cool places--Fresh Harvest and The Spice Boat.  The Spice Boat had the most amazing spices, fresh from the docks and packaged without any additives.  We even bought some tea too.  Fresh Harvest was an Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar shop.  If you're in Eureka, you really should stop by!  They are worth the trip!

Even though we had a great weekend, I'm so glad to be back home where I can control what I am eating and how it's prepared.  This is our last week of softball and will end with a tournament over the weekend.  You got it...another "I can't plan for this completely" weekend.  And we have football on Friday night.  My crockpot will be getting a workout this week!

My menu this week will obviously include Shakes & Fruit for breakfast as usual.  For lunch, I have planned to have dinner leftovers or tuna using the Lime Infused EVOO we bought at Fresh Harvest. It is positively life changing stuff! (LOL) I'm planning some fish & chicken for our dinners...check out a few of the recipes I'm trying this week:

Seared Salmon with Cinnamon & Chili Powder

Baked Slow Cooker Chicken

Quinoa Pilaf (this is actually my favorite Quinoa recipe.  It's the first one I made that everyone LOVED)

Have a FFN Friendly week!

Jenn

Menu-October 6-12, 2014

It's #MenuMonday!  How am I staying on track this week?  Here ya go!

Notice the "grayed" in boxes....those are NEW recipes to try!  I can't wait!

I've also changed up the system a bit.  I've added a "workout" section & removed the "grocery list".  I tend to buy groceries without my menu, so why waste space there?

We have a busy week this week.  Monday after school, I've promised Cheyenne we would go see The Maze Runner.  We won't be out too late, so we can still have dinner at home. But Tuesday is where it gets all crazy!  Dusty & Cheyenne will be off to softball practice, while I head to Arkadelphia for the City Council meeting.  Wednesday, we will play catch up from a busy week beginning while Cheyenne is at AKC.  Thursday hits us with softball practice & a college night in Hot Springs for Wednesday.  Friday night we have football (Lyndsey) and softball (Cheyenne) while Saturday brings us a college visit for Lyndsey & a softball tourney for Cheyenne.  Just when I think things have gotten slower for our family, we get hit hard with a hectic schedule.

How do you stay on track when your family has you running?

Jenn

Weekly Menu: September 28-October 5, 2014

Tomorrow is #MenuMonday & I've got mine all ready for the week!  As usual, Lyndsey has her weekly football game and Cheyenne has softball practice, but things have definitely slowed down at our house.  Thank goodness, right?!  Softball league is over now & we are off from tournaments this weekend. We get to enjoy dinner at home every night but Thursday & Friday night this week!  It's been a while since that happened!

It's always super hard to stay on track when you're on the go.  We try our best to make the healthiest choices when we are away from home, but we all know you can't really control what's in your food when you don't prepare it yourself.  With that said, I'm starting on a 30 day detox today!  I've been feeling super clunky & funky and feel that I need to get back on track, even if I haven't gained any weight!  The best way to feel better quickly is through a good cleanse & detox.  Follow my menu to feel better inside & look better on the outside!

Have a great week & eat well!

Jenn

No more excuses--30 Day Challenge

So...I've been "too busy" to regularly hit the gym. But, if I'm REALLY being honest, I really have no excuse. With having a treadmill at home, I can do cardio any time! And I have a body, so I can do body weight exercises all day long. There's a million options on YouTube and probably more on Pinterest.

I. Have. No. Excuses.

I make time to watch tv. I can walk/run on the treadmill or do a few push-ups while watching the tube. Easy, right? Not. So. Much. I'm unmotivated. I have no focus when it comes to getting up off my butt and sweating. 

Oh. Yeah. There's that. Sweat...

Sweat is gross. 

The bad thing is, even though I despise getting going, I'm always glad I did! I love it AFTER! Everything, including the delicious soreness of muscles that comes with it. Including the SWEAT!!! (*gasp*) 

So, what am I going to do about it? 

I thought this video would be a pretty good start! I own the DVD already. And since it's also free online, I have no excuse! 

(Yeah, right...stay tuned for my excuses). 

In the meantime...why don't you join me? I've even included a check-off sheet. 30 days.  That's all.

Here's Level 1-

Oh yeah...it's Jillian Michaels. 30 Day Shred. Still in?

Jenn

P.S. Here's a nice little tracking sheet for you to use too. See...No. More. Excuses.