Paleo Pumpkin Pancakes

INGREDIENTS: 

1/2 C Pumpkin Puree
1/2 C Flour of Choice
1/2 Tsp Each: Vanilla, Stevia , Baking Soda, Baking Powder, Pumpkin Pie Spice.
Dash of Salt
1/2 C Egg Whites (3 Eggs)
3TBLSP Almond/Coconut Milk
Chia Seeds (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix together all ingredients
2. Preheat griddle pan
3. Spray with cooking oil

I topped my pancakes with some almond butter , slivered almonds/pecans , and some bananas. Feel free to use your imagination here and go crazy according to your likes and dislikes! Soo easy and yummy, ENJOY this fall classic.

Sclupting Hamstrings!

For me personally hamstrings have always been the portion of my legs that take alittle extra work to train. I find myself always focusing on glutes, quads and calves but your hamstrings are a huge muscle in your leg don't ignore them! When hiking a harder trail yesterday I noticed that my legs were burning out faster because of my lack of strength in this area. So when I got home I searched around for some new good exercises to help me in this area. Incorporate all or some of these next time you train legs! :)

Hamstrings have always been one of my favorite muscles to train. I love how tight the back of my legs feel at the end of a workout, and I adore the curve well-developed hamstrings add to one’s profile. That sexy hamstring curve is the perfect accessory for your skinny jeans, shorty shorts and sassy swimwear.

To help get your hamstrings top form, I thought I’d share a workout featuring some of my favorite exercises. Add these sets to your leg or glute day. Or, if the back of your legs need extra love, add in a second hamstring day into your training week. Just make sure it’s a few days after your leg day, so your hamstrings have sufficient time to recover. Take a look & get to work!

JB’S HAMSTRING WORKOUT
Minimize rest between sets (30 – 60 seconds).

4 x 12 Lying Hamstring Curl, superset with
4 x 12 Seated Hamstring Curl

4 x 12 Dumbbell Stiff-Leg Deadlift, superset with
4 x 10 (each leg) Weighted Diagonal Step-up (shown without weights)

4 x 12 Glute-Ham Raise, superset with
4 x 15 (each leg) Single-Leg Bench Bridge

Exercise Descriptions

Weighted Diagonal Step-up. I feel this version of the step-up more in my hams and glutes than the traditional step-up.

Get Set. Stand parallel to the bench with a barbell across your shoulders or dumbbells in hand.

Work. Step up laterally and forward onto the bench. Kick the back leg up for an additional challenge. Step down to starting position. Complete all reps on one side before moving on to the second side.

Glute-Ham Raise. This is a challenging, but very effective exercise for the hamstrings, glutes and calves. You WILL be sore after doing this exercise.

Get Set. This exercise can be performed with a partner holding your ankles or by securing your ankles under a piece of equipment (as shown). A Smith machine at a low position also works well to secure your ankles. Fold up a towel or a mat and place under your knees.

Work. Descend to floor, keeping your body from head to knees in a straight line. (This will be tough when you are first learning this exercise.) Flex your hamstrings and glutes to control the movement. When you reach the floor, land on your hands. Then, gently press off your hands to help you return to the upright position. However, remember to focus on using your glutes and hamstring to control the majority of the movement.

Single-Leg Bridge Using Bench. This is a killer exercise to target the hamstring/glute tie-in. You can perform this un-weighted or with a plate in your lap, as shown.

Get Set. Lie down on the floor perpendicular to a bench. Place the heel of one foot on the edge of a bench and extend the other leg straight up. For additional challenge, place a plate or dumbbell in your lap.

Work. Press into the heel positioned on the bench and raise your hips as far off the ground as you can. Then, lower your hips about half way down. That is one rep. Complete all reps on one side before switching to the other side.

Push Toward Your Best
Remember to appreciate where you are TODAY in your fitness and life journey. We all get so caught up in where we are going, what we are working toward and the things we want to change, that we rarely take time to just bask in our current awesomeness. So, go ahead and do it. Take a good long look in the mirror and account for all the work your have done for your health, your body, your mind and your soul. Be grateful for all you got. It’ll infuse you with potent positive goodness to keep you smiling and moving.

Keep pushing— your best is waiting.

5 Reasons Your Exercising and NOT Losing Weight!

Do you know why despite exercising fairly regularly you are unable to lose any weight? Nothing can be more frustrating than trying to lose weight, eating healthy and exercising but still being unable to do so. It is especially discouraging to see the scale not budge after the euphoria of the initial loss of the first few pounds. Here are 5 things you should make sure you are doing right to get the pounds off!

1. Exercising on an empty stomach: is a serious mistake. You need energy to work out and without food providing the fuel for it, calories burned will come from muscle instead of fat. It can actually prevent weight loss.
2. Guzzling large amounts of water: Sip water to keep yourself hydrated. Gulping down larger amounts of water at a time can cause over hydrating that can lead to low amounts of sodium in the body, causing dizziness, cramps, slurred speech, and nausea.
3. Repeating the same workout can also be a downfall as it can not only cause boredom and more chances of skipping or cutting short your exercise regimen, but also increases the risk of repetitive stress injuries. What’s more, repetition is also likely to lead to fitness or weight-loss plateaus. Therefore, changing up your regimen every four weeks is an important part in staying fit.
4. Skipping the warm up before your workout is a big no, no. Warm up gives your muscles and joints a necessary pump of blood and oxygen, to give them the energy, flexibility, strength and injury-protection. Dropping warm up and getting straight into your routine means you’ve just turned the first few minutes of your exercise into the warm up and the remaining time is the time that you actually exercise and even that with much lower intensity than your regular workout.
5. Not Resting Enough: is another culprit. Now there are three things we are talking about here:
   1. You are training all over. The right way is to focus a hard-core workout on one or two particular muscle groups, and then to let those muscle groups rest and focus on another group the next day. The body needs to repair the muscle tissue in the areas that were exercised, and it’s this repair work that makes the muscle grow in strength, shape and tone. Not giving it a rest means muscle exhaustion does not let your body repair and tone.
   2. Same goes for your entire body as well as mind. Give a day of rest to your body after a week of exercising.
   3. Sleep! Getting a good night’s sleep is a must. Sleep deprivation causes the release of cortisol that stores fat like a vengeance. The biggest spike in fat-burning hormone plasma levels occurs in deep sleep. So a bad sleeping pattern may actually causeweight gain.

There’s no reason why your workout regimen won’t be a hit if you take care of these five simple things. It’s a shame to see so much effort, energy and motivation going to waste for the lack of something so simple. So step on it and let us know how it works out for you!