Unfortunately most Salmon in our local supermarkets are Farm Raised. A long time went by before I learned the difference between eating Wild and Farm Raised Salmon. And for those of you San Franciscans who are still confused about it, here are some nutrition facts that may make you go “wild” next time..

Farm Raised Salmon

• Tend to have low levels of protein and high levels of fat, much higher than Wild Salmon.
• Are pigmented with food coloring to turn them pink when they are naturally white.
• Contain high levels of PCBs or polychlorinated biphenyl’s. PCBs are toxic organic compounds that were used in things such as coolants. There are high levels of these in small fish in our oceans and salmon consume these. The levels of PCBs were 8 times higher in Farm Raised Salmon than Wild Salmon.
• Contain high levels of antibiotics. Farm raised salmon are given these to fight off disease because they are grown in tight spaces with tons of other fish.

** Bottom line is that eating Farm Raised salmon will not get you healthy… For more important healthy tips, visit www.iluvmybodyfitness.com and sign up for our newsletter!

I decided to help you take the guess work out of healthy snacking by providing you a list of options to choose from (I highlighted my favorites!)

1. 5 Whole Grain Crackers with cheese. I recommend Ak Mak or Raincoat Crisp Crackers
2. 1 cup Plain Yogurt with 1/2 cup blue berries mixed in. I love the brands FAGE and Saint bonnet
   
3. Handful of almonds and dried fruit (no added preservatives)
4. Preservative free granola or dried fruit and nut bar such as Kind Bars and Lara Bars
5. 3/4 Cup baby carrots and 4 Walnut halves
   
6. 1 Slice cheese with 1 apple or any piece of fruit
7. 1 Apple with 1 tbsp peanut or almond butter
8. 1 piece of celery with 1 tbsp peanut or almond butter
9. 1/2 cup soybeans with 1/4 cup dried fruit
10. 1/4 Avocado on 5 whole grain crackers or 1/2 slice of whole grain bread
11. 1 Tomato with Fresh Mozzarella cheese and basil

For More Healthy Eating tips, check out our boot camps in san Francisco where we combine the importance of workouts and nutrition for weight loss and maintenance! Visit www.sanfranciscofatloss.com

Classes held at My Gym (901 Minnesota Street, San Francisco 94107)

San Francisco Boot Camp Details and Inclusions:

• Body Fat Testing from MV Nutrition and before and after pictures.
• Unlimited Access to all Classes held at My Gym
• 1 Free Class and $100 off your first month of training.
• Meal Plan and Grocery List Samples.
• Workouts fast! Only 45 minutes long.
• All boot camp classes use exercises that Burn Fat and Tone your entire body.
• Class times: M/W/F 6:30am and M/Tue/Th 6:30pm.

**30 day 100% Money Back Guarantee. If you are not satisfied with the classes within the first 30 days I will issue you a full refund, no hard feelings or hassles!

SIGN UP:

• Email Kristenfitness@gmail.com or call 877-359-3633 to Sign Up Now!
• Visit www.sanfranciscofatloss.com to see what clients have said about my San Francisco Boot Camp!
  

1 – Brush Your Teeth or Chew Gum right after a Meal. This helps you to forget about eating something sweet to finish your meal off.

2 – Get enough sleep! When we don’t sleep enough we don’t get a good grip on what we put in our mouths and we stop caring. Sleep at least 7 hours a night.

3 – Make a deal with a friend – Promise each other that you will not eat sugar so you have a buddy to confide in. This way you can hold each other accountable.

4 – Stop drinking sweet things like sodas that are PACKED with calories. Instead, drink a glass of water. -). Re-hydrating yourself often helps you to cut out the sugar.

5- Quit Cold Turkey! My client Nancy thinks this is the best way and I have to agree. Once you fight your cravings for about 2 days, things get a lot easier. You will stop thinking of going to that snack vending machine after lunch and grabbing a candy bar or soda. Your body stops craving it so much.

6- Eat a piece of fruit instead. The sweetness from the fruit will satisfy you and being packed with fiber and other nutrients it’s good for body!

7 – Food Journal. Tracking your food intake really helps you to see exactly how much sugar you are ingesting a day. Writing things down makes it a lot easier to say no to bad foods!

I hope this helps you get through the holidays! Leave a comment to let me know!

P.S. If you want to see how these women stayed away from their holiday sweets in San Francisco, check out this website:

www.sanfranciscofatloss.com

Happy Holidays!

Classes held at My Gym (901 Minnesota Street, San Francisco 94107)

San Francisco Boot Camp Details and Inclusions:

"Patty Lost 55 pounds of Body Fat at my Boot Camp!"

• Body Fat Testing from MV Nutrition and before and after pictures.
• Unilmited Access to all Classes held at My Gym
• 1 Free Class and $100 off your first month of training.
• Meal Plan and Grocery List Samples.
• Workouts fast! Only 45 minutes long.
• All boot camp classes use exercises that Burn Fat and Tone your entire body.
• Class times: M/W/F 6:30am and M/Tue/Th 6:30pm.

**30 day 100% Money Back Guarantee. If you are not satisfied with the classes within the first 30 days I will issue you a full refund, no hard feelings or hassles!

SIGN UP:

• Email Kristenfitness@gmail.com or call 877-359-3633 to Sign Up Now!

Holidays are coming up and eating healthy becomes such a struggle for most people to keep up with!

After all the questions from my clients about how to maintain or even lose weight during the holidays with so many temptations around, I started thinking about how I could make fat loss an easy and effective system to make a part of your daily life. What I came up with are the the 3 F Words of Fat loss:

1. Food Journaling.
2. Fast, effective workouts.
3. Five meals a day.

These steps may seem fairly obvious but when done, they are highly effective! In fact my clients that use these 3 basic techniques lose weight faster than the others because they are more aware conscious about what they are putting into their mouths.  Remember, it is one thing to know about them and a whole other thing to actually use these techniques so USE them and I guarantee you will see results!

1 – Food Journaling
I am sure you all have heard that writing things down is extremely helpful for losing weight. You have no doubt even tried it for a week or two and have seen great results at the time. This is because writing things down makes you keenly aware of everything you put in your mouth! It helps you think twice before eating that second holiday cookie or slice of pumpkin pie.  The key is to make the recording process easy and effective for you. For some, this means recording online, for others, it means using their I-Phone and for the rest of us, it means actually buying a small journal and manually recording our meals to include approximate caloric value, fat, sodium and sugar content. Create a system which is fast and easy for you so that you have no excuse but to record your meals!! I will share some helpful websites for you all who enjoy recording online at the end of this post.

Another great advantage to writing everything down is that this allows you to plan your meals in advance. If you know that Friday is going to be a hefty day of eating because there is a holiday party at work during the day and another party at a friend’s house that night, make sure that you consume less calories on Wednesday and Thursday to make up for it.

2 -Fast, effective Workouts
My favorite topic! You do not, I mean DO NOT need to stay in the gym for hours and hours doing endless amounts of cardio and trying to burn calories you consume. Really you don’t. Here’s the secret: Get off the elliptical machine and move on to some circuit style weight training. I have tested numerous workouts on myself and none of them burned as many calories and moving from one strength exercise to the other with little rest time in between.

Example Circuit:

**Warm up, then complete 3 rounds of the following exercises:
1 – Squats
2 – Push ups
3 – Lunges
4 – Lat Pull Downs
5 – Rows
6 – Plank
**End with stretching
**Remember, do one exercise after the other and repeat 3 times !

Again, get off the cardio machines and do some circuit training. You will free up lots of precious time during the holidays to get your shopping done and attend all of your parties. The gym does not have to consume your life during this season or at any time.

3 – Five meals a day
This is probably one you have heard of and know that you need to take action on. People are always telling me they can’t find the time to eat 5 meals a day, there is not enough healthy food around, they don’t know what to eat, etc. Eating 5 meals does take a little planning but is very doable if you put your mind to it! The other trick to this one is to spread out your proteins and carbohydrates throughout the day with every meal so that your body stays satisfied for a longer period of time.

Example Meal Plan:

Breakfast – Oatmeal and 1 hard boiled egg
Snack 1 – Apple and 1 serving of almonds
Lunch – Spinach salad with 1 serving of grilled chicken breast and lots of veggies, slice of Whole Grain Bread.
Snack 2 – Yogurt
Dinner – 1 Piece of Broiled or Grilled Salmon with roasted veggies, green salad, and 1 serving of Quinoa.

There you have it, my 3 F Words of Fat Loss! These techniques are highly effective when it comes to fat loss and maintaining your beautiful figure throughout the holidays. Use them and please post a comment on your results.

Oh, and here are the websites you can use to record your meals:

http://www.fitday.com

http://www.nutritionforyou.com/

Write your comments below and check out how my clients feel now after implementing these techniques: www.sanfranciscofatloss.com