As we talk and work with more and more people, the more we realize how pushed for time everyone is … of course we know this, being busy parents ourselves who are also running a company.

The difference, though, is we’re comfortable in the kitchen and enjoy cooking.  We love finding new recipes, experimenting with various foods, and now it’s even more fun teaching Ella about all of this. 

We understand we’re a rare breed — few people either A) enjoy cooking and/or B) know where to even start if they were to venture in there.

Today we wanted to share some "must have" foods in your kitchen/pantry at all times.  While we love our favorite smoothie — a little variety in the diet is a good thing. 

So it got us thinking … it’s always good to have a few "real" foods on hand that will work in a pinch.

7 foods to always have stocked in your kitchen.

1. Greek Yogurt:  Why do we like it?  It’s double the protein and half the sugar of "regular" yogurt.  Always good when you’re in a pinch – now you always have a super easy snack on hand if you get the individual containers of Greek yogurt.
2. Nuts:  In our opinion, these are some of the greatest foods.  Ever!  They’re a great source of healthy fats, they’re a decent source of protein, and loaded with antioxidants.  Oh yeah and they don’t need to be refrigerated.  An absolute win win!   Perfect for travel.  Perfect for your desk at work.  And you can simply throw a handful on a salad, in a stir fry, or just eat ‘em as a snack. 
3. Packaged salmon (or tuna):  We prefer the packets over the can because they’re even that much more convenient — no can opener, nothing to drain.  These may not be "your thing" — but hear me out.  They’re not perishable.  They will last in your cabinet for a long time and if you are open to either salmon and/or tuna, they’re a great source of protein and healthy omega-3′s.  Whenever we travel we always have these — let’s face it, eating out all day every day is not the best.
4. Frozen berries:  We like these because they’re non perishable and loaded with nutrition.  These are winners for sure.  Always have them on hand to throw in smoothies, yogurts, or have with oats. 
5. Nut butters (almond, peanut, etc):  These are perfect for a quick meal — spread them on some whole grain bread, or just have with a banana or celery, as a quick snack.  Here’s a favorite meal of ours — 1 cup blueberries, 1 TBS almond butter, a sprinkle of unsweetened coconut.  Enjoy like a bowl of cereal!
6. Black beans.  Natures perfect carbohydrate — super high in fiber and antioxidants, yet also provides a nice amount of protein to boot.  Try mixing a can of the salmon or tuna with 1/2 cup black beans, toss with balsamic vinaigrette, and you’ve got an easy meal that’s ready in minutes. 
7. Jarred tomato sauce.  We’re advocates of throwing together you’re own sauce — it’s quick, easy, and has waaaaay less sodium and sugar.  But this is always great to keep on hand for the times you’re in a really tight pinch … quick, easy, and can help you put together a meal in no time flat.  A quick one for us — pick up a rotisserie chicken, top it with a little jarred sauce, melt some mozzarella on it, and you’ve got the easiest chicken parm you’ve ever eaten!

There you have it — 7 foods to always keep on hand.  Out of that entire list, just 1 needs to be refrigerated!

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We took Ella to the zoo yesterday to see her favorite Gorillas.

Fun day, walking around, spending time with her, and checking out some animals.

But then something very sad happened.

We’re watching the sea lions swim around (there’s a cool part you can see underwater) and there’s a couple next to us with son, who looked to be about the same age as Ella — 2.  The mom said "look at the sea lions." And then turned to her husband and said "he doesn’t even care, he’s watching Sponge Bob" and I looked down to see the poor kid in his stroller with a pocket size TV "thing" and Sponge Bob on there.

Seriously?

So my initial thought was — if THAT is what they do for him at the zoo, IMAGINE when he’s home.  It all starts with the parents.  If you’re active and show your kids that lifestyle, that’s what they know.  We’re living this now with Ella and try to lead that lifestyle for her.  We of course exercise ourselves, but then take her to the park, pool, or something else active every single day. 

And it reminded me of some scary statistics. 

• A paltry 25% percent of the population is completely inactive.  Does NOTHING.  ZERO.  Scary.
• A mere 21% of women strength train (arguably the most important piece to the physically active puzzle).

The list can go on.  None of this should be surprising to hear — although it doesn’t make it any less sad.

So what are we doing about this? Well, if you’re in the Louisville area, you can join Mohr Results Boot Camp.

And for those who aren’t (and even those who are), my colleague over at Livestrong.com just sent me an email about a very cool new contest their doing.  A fun challenge — men vs. women — trying to get people MOVING!  We’re on their Advisory Board so he had asked us if we could increase awareness of this awesome challenge …

The goal is pretty simple — be active at least 30 minutes/day — and when you are and login to their site to track your progress, you have the chance to get some cool publicity on one of the largest health sites in the world.

>>> Livestrong Physical Activity Challenge <<<<

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I’m in a conversation with someone the other day who is trying to lose weight.

She admittedly wanted to lose just 15 lbs, so she was clearly not obese…but she’s struggled with that same 15 lbs for years.

Lose 10.  Gain 8. 

Lose that same 8.  Gain 12. 

And from what she said, this pattern has gone on since she had her first daughter, 10 years ago.

She was concerned that as she continued to get older, her metabolism would slow …

…and wanted to know how she can speed up a seemingly slow metabolism.

We hear this regularly – my metabolism is slooooooow, I eat virtually NOTHING all day, yet can’t lose a pound!

So how do you speed up a "slow" metabolism?

One, keep in mind that the larger a person is, with muscle OR fat, the higher their metabolism.  That being said, muscle does increase metabolism more than fat, but not by much. 

1. Build muscle.  But, don’t get too excited about this — for every 1 lb of muscle, research shows there’s just about a 9 calorie/day increase in metabolism — that’s not much.  But that shouldn’t discourage you; the benefit comes from shaping those muscles as you’re losing fat through changing your diet.  Of course it all adds up, though, so while 1 lb of muscle doesn’t offer a huge calorie benefit, adding on more muscle than that does.  And there are a million other benefits to building muscle as well, so keep training!
2. The other way to speed metabolism is to eat.  More.  When you eat, your metabolism increases to digest and use the food.  Particularly when you have some protein with each meal.  Protein does more to boost metabolism than either carbs or fat.  So make sure each meal includes a little protein — fish, eggs, chicken, turkey, nuts, beans, etc. 
3. Eat breakfast.  Simple and it stokes your metabolism in the AM.  Combine this one with #2 (including protein) and you’ve got a win win.  In fact, there’s some solid data suggesting eating eggs in the morning boosts weight loss above and beyond choosing a bagel. 
4. Increase the intensity of your workouts.  Long, slow cardio sessions do little to nothing when the workout is done.  On the other hand, shorter, harder intensity exercise bouts cause a much longer increase in metabolism, even hours after your workout is over!  In fact, a study out just this week showed a 14+ hour increase in metabolism after a high intensity bout of exercise.  This boost burned an additional 190 calories!  Now that will add up.  There’s a reason sprinters are in such fantastic shape!  They train properly!

There you have it — 4 simple strategies to boost a lagging metabolism!

Our goal isn’t just to talk about losing fat.  Anyone can lose fat, fast. What’s more important is discussing how to lose fat permanently! And I say lose "fat" because some weight is good — we don’t encourage muscle loss, so focus on body fat and you’ll be golden. Just the other day I was on the phone with a writer for a popular fitness magazine.  And the writer asked me what I thought were the top 5 fat loss mistakes that people make. He was surprised that there was barely a pause before I started rattling off the common problems I see with people who are trying to lose fat.  And it’s not that I’m some incredibly brilliant genius, it’s just that after working with 1000′s of people over the years, it’s very clear where people are struggling when trying to lose belly fat.

1. Portions are out of control! This image is a perfect example of portion distortion.  Not that any of these are smart food options, but even if we went back to the smaller portions of each, we’d be headed in the right direction.So what can you do about it?  When at home, don’t serve family style.  You’ll eat more when serving out of a larger bowl or platter.  Read food labels, too, so you can see that sometimes 1 bottle, or 1 bag of a product, is often 2, 3 or even 4 servings!
2. Thinking all calories are created equal! A calorie isn’t a calorie.  That might be in the face of science.  Some say that all calories are equal, meaning as long as you cut calories, you’ll lose weight.  Sure, but is your goal to lose fat or lose muscle?  And don’t you want to fuel your body with all the nutrients you can?  After all, slugging down a 250 calorie sugar laden soda is far from eating veggies and hummus, peanut butter and an apple for those same 250 calories. So a calorie isn’t a calorie — eat quality, don’t just focus on quantity!
3. Outeating your exercise. Run 1 mile and you burn about 100 calories.  Walk 1 mile and you burn about 100 calories.  That means if you wanted to lose 1 lb/week through exercise only, you’d have to run or walk 5 miles every single day!  That’s not realistic or a good use of your time.  It’s much easier to eliminate those extra calories by replacing junk  with high nutrient fuel or eliminating calories from soft drinks, for example.  Exercise, yes, but you’ll get more bang for your weight loss buck by monitoring the foods you put in your body.
4. Skipping breakfast as a way to "save" calories. Eat breakfast and you’ll weigh less.  It’s as simple as that.  Just eat the right types of foods — avoid sugary breakfast cereals and instead opt for fruit, raw nuts, yogurt, eggs and veggies, for example.
5. Thinking exercise is your answer to losing fat. Exercise doesn’t work.  Nutrition does.  Sure, exercise needs to be a part of your fat loss routine, but even though you may exercise 1 hour/day, what happens the other 23 hours?

There you have it – the 5 most common fat loss mistakes! If you truly want to be permanently successful,avoid the mistakes above and you’ll be well on your way. Tomorrow we’ll be back with some fat fighting recipes!

"Obesity is the single greatest threat to public health in this century."

That was part of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Report out earlier this year that we talked about in a previous post.

But what if we looked at things differently…

…rather than focusing on obesity and weight loss, what if we first stopped the bleeding?

Stop weight GAIN in the first place before getting to the point where a person has to lose?

A report out recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that over 16 years, the 18,000+ women in their study gained an average of 20.5 lbs.

Here’s the problem with this — that’s not much more than gaining 1 lb each year — a weight gain no one would notice.  But this seemingly small amount of weight gain obviously adds up and 20 lbs over time can ultimately cause disease.

The problem, though, is that this small weight gain would commonly be attributed to "aging" or a "slow metabolism" rather than seeing it for what it is…

…here’s what they found in the study:

The women who gained that weight were not as physically active as those who didn’t.

In this particular study, those who cycled or walked briskly (imagine you are late for the bus) didn’t gain the weight.

Other research has shown similar findings — moderate to vigorous exercise helps with weight control.

And exercise is different than being busy — everyone is busy, few people are actually active, though.

We recommend aiming for at least 5 hours of movement each week …

…and definitely step up the intensity.  A Sunday stroll is surely better than sitting on the couch, but some intensity is a good thing occasionally too.  So do both — a Sunday (or any day of the week) stroll and some higher intensity exercise in there too will do wonders.

While this particular study focused on women, I’d be shocked if the results for men were any different. 

Move more.  Move often.  This seemingly small weight gain year after year will quickly catch up with you!