It’s Goal Call Monday.   Each week brings a new focus and a little recognition! Enter your goal for the week in the comments for a chance to win a small gift card.

Last week my goal was to drink more than eight glasses of water everyday. I succeed in at least 6 days.  There was one day at work that I completely blanked on refilling my bottle!

This week, my goal is to use the juicer at least 4 times and create wholesome, natural, fresh vegetable and fruit juices.  The kids and I tried Apple today.  I’ll have to experiment with the different varieties.  Today’s was a bit tart, but tasty.  I think the gala or golden delicious will be more up the kids alley!

Are you ready to commit to a goal this week?  It’s really easy.  Here’s how it works.  Share your Goal in the comments section and all entries will be entered for a drawing.  Through a random drawing , a lucky winner will receive a small prize.

What is your goal this week?

It’s Goal Call Monday.  There were no comments, hence no winner to announce!  So I hope you jump in on the action this week because I’d love to give away a $5.00 gift card for iTunes, Amazon or Subway for your goals.  Each week brings a new focus and a little recognition!

I’m super excited to say that I completed my vision board yesterday all because of Goal Call Monday.  I was exploring options outside of traditional paper and magazines, but was amazed to find that so many “Vision Board” sites require purchases or monthly payments.

So, I changed tactics and moved to creating my own computer version by using Power Point.  It worked beautifully.  The actual making of the vision board will come in another post.  I still need to find a way to tranfer the music from iTunes to the presentation, but for now, I can play it on my iPhone while watching the vision!  I’ve selected Carrie Underwood’s Crazy Dreams and JoJo’s Exceptional to play while watching.

Here’s what I put together with the help of a google images search, affirmation list, and past affirmations:

This week my goal is drink more than eight glasses of water everyday.  At work, I’ve not been drinking water regularly throughout the day, so this is an opportunity to get back to the basics.

Are you ready to commit to a goal this week?  It’s really easy.  Here’s how it works.  Share your Goal in the comments section and all entries will be entered for a drawing.  Through a random drawing , a lucky winner will receive a small prize.

What is your goal this week?

How time flies. I wrote this article for Fitness Link back in April and wanted to share it with you…

I was asked a simple question, “Are organic eggs better for you than conventional eggs? My husband isn’t on board with making the switch. He doesn’t see the difference.” I thought, oh, this will be an easy question to answer. I’ll gather facts about organic and conventional eggs and the answer will be obvious.

When sifting through the politics, economics and mass production processes of our food chain, validating claims proved to be nearly impossible. I recognized the challenges of being a truly informed consumer. Click here to continue reading…

Fitness Link is my personal training business in which we can tailor your dream goals and needs to your lifestyle. We focus on workout plans, personal training, wellness coaching, and metabolic typing services. We come to you or provide online, email and phone support if you don’t live in the Nashville area!

Visit our website for details!

Taking clients to the grocery store was quite the eye opener for me. I had covered a lot of the information during sessions and in consultations, but walking through the aisles and showing clients made the exercise invaluable.

The grocery store is filled with information, but processing and understanding the details can feel overwhelming. Here are a few tips that I put together to help you better understand how the food is that you purchase and bring home.

Happy Shopping!

When looking at foods to purchase, consider:

1. Quickest path from nature to mouth. The body is equipped to break down foods in their natural state. The more processes the food undergoes before reaching our pantries, the more the body has to figure out how to break it down.
2. Food combinations (Overall Meal Planning) for maximizing nutritional value. The body uses food as part of major chemical processes in the body. Many of the functions require multiple nutrients to be the most efficient. Our body needs over 50 nutrients a day.
3. Major Ingredient Concerns:

• Salt: Under 120mg per 100 cal serving. Goal-60mg to 100 cals.
• Sugar: Daily allowance of 12g-36g a day. 3Tsp-9tsp.
• Fats: Avoid trans fats (anything with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated ingredients).
• Goal: 1-2-3 rule—for Every 100 calories, 2 g. fiber, 3 g. fat.
• Keep saturated fats under 10% daily total calories. Usually around 8-12g. A day.
• Healthy fats are necessary in the diet. Look for unsaturated, poly, and mono fats.
• 20% daily intake should be in the form of fats.

Deciding Factors in keeping food healthy, nutritious, and tasty:

1. Cooking Method: In general, the most nutritious state of a food is in it’s raw form followed by steamed, broiled/grilled, sauteed, boiled, and (LEAST) fried.
2. Environmental Factors/Organic: There is uncertainty in how much damage or influence pesticides have on various foods and on our bodies. Just because something is labeled organic, does not necessarily mean it’s better for you. Be aware of processed foods regardless of the ALL NATURAL or ORGANIC labels.
3. Price: Still a major factor in determining your ability to purchase a wide variety of foods. Price does not mean that nutritious foods are off limits. Most quality fruits, vegetables and meats can be purchased through sales and smart shopping. Keep an eye out for sales, buy in bulk, freeze, and plan ahead to create frugal, nutritious meals for less than processed, convenience food prices.

Other Tips:

• Keep ingredient lists short
• Avoid difficult words in ingredient lists
• List is ordered from most to least
• When shopping for processed foods (sparingly), go for foods with sugar or salt not within the first 3 or 4 listed ingredients.

Arming yourself with knowledge is one of the many steps to help you in this journey of healthy living. You’re not alone. Work on one tidbit of information at a time and before you know it, you’ll be an expert in what you’re bringing into the home. Keeping our families healthy and happy is a continuous conquest! Enjoy.

As I walked through our new PUBLIX (Yeah!!! It’s a few minutes around the house), I saw this vegetable root called YUCCA. I had no idea what it was, but the price was right (0.79 cent a pound) and I figured an Allrecipes search would provide a recipe worth trying.

The Yucca root is very much like the potato. The recipe I found was Yuca French Fries. Not wanting to fry them, I tried baking and WOW–What a wonderful surprise.

Try this:

1. Peel the Yucca root.
2. Cut into fry size. **Some sites mention cutting away a hard fibrous core (similar to a pineapple core), but I didn’t see one in this one.**
3. Boil in water for 20 minutes.
4. Preheat oven for 400.
5. Drain the Yucca.
6. Layer on the baking dish.
7. Drizzle with olive oil, seasoned salt, garlic powder, and pepper.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, turning once or twice for browning.

They were slightly sweeter than potatoes and gobbled up by the little ones! What a nice winner for the Posey household. I hope it becomes one for you.

We often mention trying new vegetables and foods, but rarely take the chance for fear of the unknown. This was a reminder to me that it’s worth checking out the wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables we have available in our supermarkets and local farmer’s markets.

This link provides more information about the Yucca Root and nutritional data can be found here. What are you going to try this week?