Eating healthy doesn't have to be boring! These turkey-stuffed bell peppers are the perfect meal for those days when you're bored of eating healthy. Shhhh, your taste buds won't suspect that this dish is low-carb and protein-filled. Serve over a bed of greens for a complete meal.
Servings: 5Here's what you need...
- 5 organic bell peppers
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 Tablespoons fresh basil, minced
- 1 yellow onion, minced
- 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- dash of salt and pepper
- 20 oz organic ground turkey, 99% fat free
- 1 organic tomato, chopped
- 3/4 cup spaghetti sauce
- 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- Bring a large pot of water to boil, add a pinch of salt. Cut the tops off the bell peppers and remove the seeds. Place in the boiling water, using a spoon to keep them submerged for 3 minutes or until the skin is slightly softened. Drain and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large skillet heat the oil on medium. Add the garlic, basil, onion, rosemary, parsley, salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the onions begin to soften. Add the ground turkey and continue to heat until the meat is browned. Add the tomato and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat. Pour the spaghetti sauce into the turkey mixture and mix well. Add the cheese and mix until well combined.
- Stuff each prepared bell pepper with the turkey mixture and place on prepared baking sheet. Cook for 15-20 minutes until the bell peppers are tender.
Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 193 calories, 3 fat, 256mg sodium, 14g carbohydrate, 3g fiber, and 28g protein.
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Monday, April 9, 2012
Turkey Stuffed Bell Peppers from HMS Fitness Newsletter
Friday, April 6, 2012
The Art of Selfishness
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What kind of people do you surround yourself with? Who do you spend the majority of your time with and what kind of activities do you enjoy with these people? Take a moment to observe the most influential people in your life. Do they make you stronger? Do they push you to become a better version of yourself on a daily basis?
You are the average of the five people you associate with most.
It’s just the way it works. If you want to be a good tennis player, you generally surround yourself with tennis players. If you enjoy live theatre or surfing, you instinctively gravitate toward the individuals who possess similar interests. Love partying and staying up all night? I’ll be willing to bet your closest friends do the same thing.
Knowing you are like a sponge, naturally absorbing and meshing the qualities of your five closest associates to form your individual character, make a conscious decision to surround yourself with people who inspire you. If you notice people are bringing you down, hurting you or simply draining your energy (energy vampires), there comes a time where it is necessary to be selfish.
“It is often the case that you have to fire certain friends or retire from a particular social circle to have the life you want. This isn’t being mean; it’s practical. Poisonous people do not deserve your time. To think otherwise is masochistic.”
A book I always recommend to friends, The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss discusses what I refer to as the art of selfishness. Along with the quotes used in this blog, Tim goes into further detail regarding the importance of your immediate social circle.
“Do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn’t making you stronger, they’re making you weaker.”
This is absolutely not encouraging an individual to be judgmental or condescending, but rather respecting that everyone walks his or her own path. If someone shares a similar path to yours, invite them along to share the beauty of cooperation and like-mindedness. If someone does not share a similar path, love and respect the path they lead and understand that although not today, someday their path may line up with yours.
We often spend too much time with those who poison us with pessimism, sloth and low expectations. Are you trying to quit smoking cigarettes? Attempting to cut back the drinking? Stop spending time with people who partake in the unwanted activities and surround yourself with what serves you. Spend time with people who challenge you to be a better human being. Spend time with people you admire and watch the transformation as you grow in incredible ways and inspire others around you to do the same.
-Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow-
Mike Sherbakov, CSCS, CPT
Back to the Basics
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For a recent corporate wellness presentation, I was asked to present employees of an insurance company with information on body composition, weight training and nutrition. There was no shortage of knowledge about celebrity diets and “magic pill” solutions from the participants, but few knew “the basics”. Television ads, magazines and false information result in a generally uninformed society willing to jump on the next product that promises them a sexy six pack.
Let’s begin with a quick introduction to body composition. Our bodies are composed of 2 elements; fat mass and fat free mass, otherwise known as lean mass. That’s it. Everyone reading this has probably heard of body fat percentage. “Bring it down… I want to be below 15%.” But what is it? Fat mass is fat. Lean mass is the rest of your body including bones, organs, and muscle! The fat mass you maintain divided by your total body mass equals your body fat percentage.
Always equaling a combined 100%, when fat mass or fat free mass goes up, the other comes down. 85% lean mass? You guessed it, equals 15% fat mass. Our goal should be to increase lean mass, as this turns our body to “autopilot” calorie burning mode. You see, every pound of muscle added to your body burns an approximate 50 extra calories per day. Add 10 pounds of muscle, burn an extra 500 calories a day without working out! Yes you can read that part again. Without needing to work out, your body will burn an extra 500 calories per day.
Resistance training is crucial for building muscle and increasing lean mass.
Being busy in this day and age, maximizing time becomes extremely important! Involve large muscle groups in workouts. Why spend 30 minutes in front of a mirror doing bicep curls when squat and presses can be added to the exercise? Triple the effectiveness, triple the results, 1/3 of the time. If done efficiently, an individual can spend 20-30 minutes doing a workout and have significantly better results than a typical 2-hour workout someone else may have. Start with multi-joint while your body is fresh and has the most energy.
The question I often get asked is, “How much should I be working out and how often?” Everyone’s body is different. A triathlete is going to have different bodily demands than an individual who is getting accustomed to his or her first fitness routine. The general rule of thumb is resistance training 2-3 times per week. If you can only squeeze in one workout, it’s better than nothing… but shoot for 3.
During the workout, target large muscle groups. Work out the legs, include push and pull exercises for the upper body and don’t forget some core work. Plan on completing 2-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions (of each exercise) so pick an appropriate weight or intensity. You shouldn’t walk out of the gym feeling like you need a wheelchair but you know how hard to push yourself. Make sure you feel accomplished at the end of every session. Get in, get out, and get results.
-Every day do something that will inch you close to a better tomorrow-
Mike Sherbakov, CSCS, CPT
Easy Baked Salmon from HMS Fitness Newsletter
Salmon is filled with quality protein and omega-3 benefits, making it the perfect center of your healthy dinner. Serve your salmon on a bed of fresh or braised greens.
Servings: 4Here's what you need:
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, fat free
- 1 lime, juiced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 4 (3oz) wild caught salmon fillets
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
- In a small bowl combine the yogurt, lime juice, and garlic. Put half of the yogurt mixture aside in the fridge. Coat the salmon with the other half of the yogurt mixture and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Place the salmon on prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes. Turn on the high broil for an additional 5 minutes until the top of the salmon has browned.
- Serve the salmon on a bed of kale with a dollop of the reserved yogurt.
Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 172 calories, 6.9g fat, 62mg sodium, 1g carbohydrate, 0g fiber, and 24.6g protein.
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Monday, April 2, 2012
Practical Perception
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In a previous blog, perception and reality were discussed. Can you see the world through the eyes of another person? Are you able to take on a different perspective? Try this exercise and let me know what you find:
Take a minute to scan your surroundings. Are you in a familiar place or somewhere new?
Stop reading this, and just look around you.
Pick out an object, maybe something you hadn’t noticed before, and focus your attention on it. Once you really focus, it will begin to radiate and become more “real” than it was when it was just an unnoticed piece of the background noise of your life.
Now, attempt to see your surroundings from the object’s point of view. This may be easy for some but extremely difficult for others. Depending on how capable you are at focusing your concentration, you may notice a slight shift in your perception - a weird jump in reality, where you suddenly view the world from a different perspective.
Did it work? Whether you noticed anything or not, your perception did change, even if for an instant.
It is important to be conscious of your perception. Did you consciously decide to create the reality you’re living now or was it largely shaped by parents, friends, school, or the media?
What does this exercise teach us? If you don’t like the story you’re living, change the perception. Your life is a story with countless chapters. Envision how you’d write the next chapter of your story. Focus your perception on creating a new reality, one where you are in charge of the story. It all begins with a decision. Decide now to be in charge of your own perception and create the most incredible story you can imagine.
-Every day do something that will inch you close to a better tomorrow-
Mike Sherbakov, CSCS, CPT
The Windows of Our Lives
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“Everything you see or hear or experience in any way at all is specific to you. You create a universe by perceiving it, so everything in the universe you perceive is specific to you.” – Douglas Adams
Jim navigates through life wearing green-lens sunglasses, Jane with red-lens sunglasses. At the end of each day, Jim tells his friends how “green” the world is. Jane does the same for her friends, describing in great detail how “red” the world is. Assuming they don’t realize their respective colored sunglasses are worn, which one of them is correct in their perspective of the world?
We all view life through a unique lens or “window” as I like to refer to it. This window may be distorted any number of ways based on previous life experiences. With no two windows being identical, looking through them provides us with our perspective of the world. Our perception of any given object or situation we are confronted with becomes our reality. Perception is reality.
Once we are able to accept the notion that two individuals can be looking at the same object and see it two very unique ways, we begin to understand the complexity of human interaction. With each unique individual comes a unique reality. Something you view as irrelevant or meaningless can have a world of meaning to someone else. Learn to love and accept all beings no matter how different their perspective may be from yours. Remember, it is their reality. Be mindful of your words and actions for you never know what state of mind or reality another individual is experiencing.
Along with understanding the complexity of different realities, it is crucial to embrace the fact that everyone is fighting their own battle. Everyone has a story. Everyone has dealt with pain, happiness and love on very different levels. It is these experiences that have shaped our individual windows
We have all been in a situation where we have hurt someone’s feelings. Whether you intended the words or action to be hurtful or not is irrelevant. If the individual on the receiving end explains that it made them feel a certain way (sad, angry, etc), you owe them an apology; feelings cannot be argued. In these circumstances, be aware that the feelings are very real in the other’s reality.
So is Jim or Jane right? Is the world green or red? The answer is both. In Jim’s reality, the world is green. For Jane, the world is red. Neither one is “wrong” unless they are judging the other for seeing the world a different way. Awareness. Be aware of others’ windows. Be aware that there are countless perspectives of one object or situation. Open your mind to these perspectives, open your heart to others’ realities and be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
-Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow-
Mike Sherbakov, CSCS, CPT
Sunday, April 1, 2012
The Art of Letting Things Happen
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We’ve all had great days when we felt on top of the world. We’ve also had those not-so-great days when we felt like curling into a ball and disconnecting from the world. What kind of person are you when faced with challenging situations? Does adversity stop you in your tracks or are you able to approach every situation acknowledging there is something to be learned? It is easy to appear confident and collected in times of ease; the challenge is to maintain this character in times of difficulty.
Bad things are going to happen… that’s just the way life goes. Situations beyond our control will present themselves in varying magnitudes. What we are able to control is our individual response to the situation. Let us first discuss the difference between a reaction and a response.
In a stress reaction we react habitually and automatically to a situation. We aren’t aware of what we’re doing, similar to a knee jerk reaction. Alternately, in a stress response you have given yourself a few seconds to stop, become conscious of the situation, and choose how you want to respond.
In an earlier blog, “Can’t Help But Smile,” I discussed a day in which I received a parking ticket and chose to look at the situation as an opportunity for growth; a lesson learned. Many people in the same predicament would have exhibited anger or frustration. Remember, energy is contagious. Walk around with frustration or anger and see if things get better. People around you will either take on your frustration or avoid you altogether.
Rather, practice the art of letting things happen. Understand that there are good and bad circumstances that will arise on any given day. Let them happen, without attachment, and respond to them appropriately. Too often we worry about that which we cannot change. Something that can always be changed is our response. Just giving yourself those few seconds of awareness changes the situation into one in which you have more influence and control.
Bring awareness to your thoughts and feelings, practice non-attachment and in the wise words of John Lennon, “Let it Be.”
-Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow-
Mike Sherbakov, CSCS, CPT
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