I have been road tripping a lot this summer with my family. Generally, I pack snacks for the ride but on this particular trip, I forgot my snack stash.
And I was really hungry. I knew there was a convenience store right off the exit, so I decided to pick up something there. But when I stood in front of the shelves, I have to admit it took me a couple of minutes to figure out the best choice – something that would stop my stomach from rumbling and keep me feeling focused and energized, without a sugar crash or stomach ache later! When you’re hungry, it’s so easy to give into temptations. This video talks about finding the best options to help you stay on point nutritionally when you are in a pinch. I hope you find it helpful! Please let me know if you have any questions at all! I hope this video was helpful to you and now you can make a strategy the next time you find yourself HANGRY in the isles of your local convenience store. If you want more tips and strategies for healthy snacking, be sure to download our FREE Healthy Snacking Guide. This was my first ever Facebook LIVE video. I was super nervous but hey - if it doesn't challenge you - it doesn't change you. Plus - I had a super sweet high tech video studio set up so there is that.... I plan on doing more of these live videos so please let me know what you want to chat about! Don't forget to download your Healthy Snacking Guide - you are going to LOVE it!
WANT MORE OF THIS? Be sure to connect with us on Social Media. We post daily on both Facebook and Instagram for motivation, inspiration, and helpful tips tricks and strategies for healthy living. You can join our private facebook group to go even deeper with us or book a call to see how you can get started training with us in person. We can't wait to connect with you and support you along your journey with healthy living.
Much Love, Paige Wilcox Wilcox Wellness & Fitness
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I am so excited to share this recipe with you today! These brownies contain one of our favorite sweet ingredients – dates! – which have a well-deserved nickname of “nature’s candy.” They are amazing because they’re sweet, fiber-rich, and are fantastic to add to shakes, chia pudding, or … yes … even brownies. They are great to keep stashed in the cupboard. A bonus of this recipe is that it’s pretty easy to experiment with if you like to get a little adventurous in the kitchen. Because there’s no actual cooking involved, you don’t have to worry about having the proper ratios of various ingredients that you need when baking. I have some ideas for switching up this recipe below, but I don’t recommend trying them until you’ve made it at least once so you know the right texture to shoot for. :) These make tasty, high-fiber treats you can enjoy any time of the day. (Tip: For a grain-free version, try replacing the oats with almond flour. Because almond flour has a higher fat content than oats, depending on its consistency, you likely will have to cut down on the amount of almond butter you use. You also can experiment by using different nut butters.) I hope you LOVE this recipe! If you need help with healthy eating ideas, we've got you covered! Our FREE Healthy Snacking Guide & Cookbook has incredible snacking recipes and strategies to keep you on point. These snacks will satisfy your tastebuds, curb your cravings, AND give you healthy nutrients your body needs to feel energized AND satisfied. You can download our guide completely for FREE here! Our Healthy Snacking Guide & Cookbook is packed with tips, swaps, tricks and recipes help you meet your goals without depriving your tastebuds of tasty treats!
We included some of our favorite recipes: 🥥Pecan Pie Energy Bites 👨🍳Baked Chicken Wings 🍌Super Simple Banana Pudding 🥑Sweet Potato Chips & Guacamole We hope you love it! Happy Snacking! Wilcox Wellness & Fitness
Always Fresh, Sometimes Normal. Misfits Market tag line is my spirit animal and I am smitten!
I came across this organic produce subscription service recently and I am pumped for so many reasons. Misfits Market delivers organic produce to your door for up to 50% less than grocery store prices. They rescue all of the unwanted and 'ugly' but perfectly delicious produce. They are dedicated to breaking the cycle of food waste by helping delicious food find a good home. Our first experience was AWESOME! I was surprised with how much produce we got and how fresh it all was. It was super convenient to have it all delivered to our door. If you want to give it a try for yourself, feel free to use this code to save 25% off your first order! Let us know how you like it! Paige
For 9 years I worked as an account manager and I was out to eat with either customers or suppliers at least 4 times per week. Entering this job, one of the more senior reps had warned me that I would gain weight with all of the restruant meals and sitting on long car trips.
I was determined that this wouldn't be the case for me so I researched and researched and figured out how I would be able to stay on point with my health goals even on the busiest of weeks. Here, years later, I am sharing what I learned from that experience in our Dining out Guide. Eating on point when you are dining out is so simple if you stick to just a few basic guidelines. We include these guidelines in our Healthful Living Guidebook but I made this Dining Out Guide as an extended version of that so that you will know how to order based on the type of restaurant you are at. With this guide, you will learn how to order like a ninja when you go to: ● Diners, delis and sandwich shops ● Burger joints ● Mexican restaurants ● And so much more! With this guide you will know EXACTLY what to order to stay on point with your #goals so that you are feeling great and have the energy to do the things that #setyoursoulonfire. Also – you don’t need to order a boring ole’ salad with grilled chicken on it. There are so many great options at literally any restaurant you go to! Download your guide here. We hope you love it! Please let us know if you have any questions at all! ENJOY! Paige Wilcox Wilcox Wellness & Fitness We are SO EXCITED to share with you our new Meal Prep Guide. The guide outlines practical tips for making sure you always have a healthy meal ready when you need one. The best part is…. it doesn’t involve eating chicken and broccoli out of plastic containers… unless that is your thing. Instead, it’s all about how to plan and prep your meals without disrupting your entire routine (i.e., meal prep for “real” people living real, busy lives!). I made sure the guide has plenty of information on how to store your meals, too, so they don’t end up with “freezer burn” and also so you can avoid that nagging worry in the back of your mind about whether it’s time to keep or toss your prepped creations. Here are just a few reasons to plan and prep your meals ahead of time:
Your new Meal Prep Guide includes a couple delicious recipes that you can make-ahead to save yourself a ton of time! One of our new favorite breakfasts (chia pudding) is in there, along with a delicious Beef Stew you can make in the pressure cooker in no time flat. This guide is another “thank you” for all your support. We want you to know how grateful we are to be able to do what we love each day. That’s all because of you! → Click here to download the Meal Prep Guide now! Feel free to share this with your friends, family or coworkers who might benefit from it. We appreciate it!
ENJOY! Wilcox Wellness & Fitness My dear friend Allison Hopkins who has spent her career in the biotech industry, shared with us last week information on the gut microbiome and the benefits associated with the morning mojo drink. For me, it was eye opening. Who knew that our gut microbiome could be in control of our cravings of all things. I always knew that when I ate good foods, I craved good foods and vice versa. Those sneaky little critters! If you missed last week’s blog post, you can catch up real quick here. This week is going to be focused on alkalization. She makes it fun, promise! Here’s Allison:: Part 2 - Alkalization: In my last post I focused on how ACV and lemon juice benefit our gut biome, and this week I am going to focus on alkalization. Alkalization is related to the pH of the body. The pH scale is logarithmic, and ranges from 1-14, with each point representing a ten-fold change. The lower the pH the more acidic, and the higher the pH the more basic or alkaline. Research shows that a balanced, slightly alkaline pH, equates with greater health. Our blood pH is always maintained at 7.4 no matter what. This is critical for life, so as a result our bodies do an incredible job at making adjustments to ensure that our blood pH stays right where it should be. Two main processes are used by our bodies to ensure this perfect blood pH - Maintenance of an alkaline reserve and acid storage. Our body maintains an alkaline reserve, mostly in the form of calcium, which our bodies can draw from when our pH becomes too acidic. But it’s important that we replenish these reserves through the food that we eat in order to prevent the reserve from being depleted. The calcium reserve is stored in our bones, and if our bodies need to pull from this reserve too frequently and without replenishment through our diet it can lead to calcium deficiency, which is responsible for a number of health problems including arthritis, heart disease, gout, high cholesterol, cancer, acid reflux, and high blood pressure. Another side effect of a body that is too acidic is weight gain. You have probably seen all kinds of articles claiming that drinking apple cider vinegar or lemon juice can promote weight loss. Can that really be true? Well, a lot of these claims are tied to the pH of your body! The 2nd way that your body will compensate and prevent too much acid from harming your vital organs is to store that acid, and wouldn’t you know it, our bodies store acid in fat and muscle cells! The use of fat cells for storage leads to weight gain as well as difficulty losing weight when the body is too acidic. Storage in muscle cells results in low energy, muscle cramps, and in extreme cases, chronic fatigue. Some more common ailments associated with too acidic of a pH include acne, joint pain, sleep problems, premature aging, and slow digestion. So, how does all of this relate to Morning Mojo? You might be asking, both apple cider vinegar and lemon juice are very acidic. How can this possibly help maintain an alkaline environment? Well, while both lemon juice and apple cider vinegar are acidic outside of the body, the end product of digestion are very alkaline. Therefore, morning mojo actually helps your body maintain an alkaline environment. In addition to your morning mojo the majority of the foods you eat should be alkaline forming. Most fruits and vegetables are alkalizing, whereas meats, grains (unless sprouted), most fats, dairy, and all junk foods are acid forming. As always, moderation and balance is key. Don’t be tempted to only eat alkalizing foods as being too alkaline has health risks as well. Another way to help maintain a balanced pH is to drink plenty of still water, which has a pH of 9. If you’re struggling to replace your soda at lunch with a refreshing glass of water, this next point might give you some motivation. Colas, including diet colas, have a pH of about 2.5, almost all the way to the end of the acidic scale, and when you drink colas your body pH is dramatically impacted. In order to compensate your body will start pulling from the alkaline reserve, depleting calcium from your bones. In order to offset one cola you would need to drink 32 glasses of water!! I think that’s amazing! You need 21 times the amount of water to neutralize the effects of one can of soda. This would prevent your body from drawing the calcium reserve in your body. But 256 ounces - WOW… I drink a lot of water but I am not sure that is possible. Since this is impossible, this is why it is so important you are eating enough alkaline forming foods to help you maintain an alkaline state.
This is a great segue into our focus for next week, which will focus on hydration. Remember, the recommendation for water intake is ½ of your body weight in ounces. So if you weigh 150lbs you should be drinking about 75oz of water each day. Not only will this keep you hydrated, but it will also help you maintain a healthy pH! From Paige: GOOD STUFF, Allison! Thank you! Hard to believe that soda requires 256 ounces of water to neutralize the pH of one 12 ounce can of soda. I also love the supported evidence that the MoJo has the ability to bring us to a more favorable akalized state. We hope this has inspired you to give our Mojo a try. It certainly is an acquired taste - I think it is absolutely delicious - like a fancy lemonade but a lot of our clients absolutely hate it at first. (They do grow to love it!) If you are interested in giving it a try, you can download our recipe here: https://wilcoxwellnessfitness.lpages.co/mojo/ Let us know what you think! Can’t wait to share next week’s post with you on the benefit of hydration in the body. Enjoy! Paige & Allison Inspired to give the Morning Mojo a try - download our recipe here : https://wilcoxwellnessfitness.lpages.co/mojo/ Want more support? Join our free Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WilcoxHealthyLiving/ Join our free private FaceBook Group - Healthy Living with Wilcox Wellness & Fitness to connect with us live. Daily we post all things healthy living - pro tips for healthy living, recipes, and weekly workouts for you to do at home. We will answer any question you post and we encourage you get involved in the discussion. Don't miss another post. Join our mailing list here: http://www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/keep-in-touch.html My dear friend Allison Hopkins who has spent her career in the biotech industry, shared with us the past two weeks week information on the gut microbiome, alkalization and the benefits associated with the morning mojo. Her findings have been eye opening and inspiring. Pretty incredible that a simple little drink that we can make at home for pennies is so incredibly impactful to our health. If you missed last two week’s blog post, you can catch up real quick here: Part 1: Mircrobiome // Part 2: Alkalization. This week is going to be focused on hydration. She makes it fun, promise! Here’s Allison: Hydration is perhaps the single most important attention you can provide to your body. Our bodies are made up of 3/4 water. Three quarters of that water is contained within our cells and the rest make up various fluids such as blood, gastric juices, bile, mucus, and the fluid surrounding our brain and spinal cord. Water is critical to transportation of nutrients, hormones, and chemical messages throughout our bodies. Our bodies utilize two main processes, called hydrolysis and osmosis, to support life. Hydrolysis is the chemical breakdown of a compound due to a chemical reaction with water. Water is involved in not only helping move food from our mouths through our digestive system, but also, through the process of hydrolysis, breaks down the nutrients from our food so that they are available for our bodies to use, and then carries those nutrients to our cells. Don’t be fooled - our cells are just hanging around ready to receive those nutrients. Remember, our cells are made up of water, in fact 75% of the cell is water. And through the process of osmosis, a process by which molecules pass from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one, equalizing the concentrations on both sides, our cells are able to receive nutrients. If our cells are not properly hydrated they cannot receive nutrients from our blood as effectively. Inside the cells all of the amazing nutrients from our food, including mineral salts and electrolytes, combine to fire up the mitochondria, the power plant of the cell, and the key to a healthy metabolism. But metabolism leaves behind all kinds of waste products within the cell, and water facilitates the removal of waste from our cells. And, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what water does for our bodies. Water also regulates temperature. It stores heat like passive solar energy, and helps to cool the body through perspiration. Water makes up the synovial fluid between our joints and serves as a cushion that keeps our joints and spinal discs from rubbing together. Water is part of our immune system, and like all other cells makes up a significant amount of our white blood cells and lymphatic fluids, which carry toxic substances and carcinogens to the lymph nodes where they can be destroyed and removed from the body. Our brains, the most important organ in our whole body, is made up of 85% water! We know that water conducts electricity, and within our brain our neurons are constantly sending electrical impulses to send messages to our bodies. So without a well hydrated brain those electrical functions can’t occur effectively. Ever notice that when you’re dehydrated you have “brain fog”? This is why! So at the very least, making a habit of drinking morning mojo each morning is a great way to start off your day with hydration. Even if the thought of drinking ACV and lemon juice is tough to swallow at first, starting your day with a big glass of water is a great healthy habit and good start. You can always increase the amount of ACV and lemon as you acquire a taste for it. One closing thought for you to consider. It is recommended that we drink ½ of our body weight in ounces of water. So if you weigh 150 lbs you should be drinking about 75 ounces of water each day. This may seem like a lot at first, and you might think that you don’t even feel that thirsty. How could you possibly drink that much water? Well, we as humans are very good at compensation. Our bodies do a lot to keep us ticking without us even realizing it, and this is true in the case of water as well. Our brain requires a lot of water, and if it doesn’t have the water it needs we will find ourselves in a very serious state. So our bodies compensate to ensure that we are able to stay alive even in times of water shortages. Our bodies will pull water from our cells and deliver it to the brain to ensure that this important organ has everything that it needs. But this is at the cost of all of those other systems and processes that I describe above. We need to be drinking water throughout the day in order to ensure that our cells and bodily fluids are fully hydrated as well. By the time our brains start telling you that it needs more water it has already taken a large part of the water it needs from other parts of the body. By the time you feel thirsty you’re already quite dehydrated, impacting the efficacy of all of your other bodily systems. So whether our grandparents knew it or not, there is something about starting the day with a glass of ACV and lemon juice. If for nothing else, it helped to support their hydration. While research findings and opinions are varied on the topics addressed in this blog series there is a lot of evidence that points towards benefits associated with apple cider vinegar and lemon juice. As with everything, moderation is key. And perhaps even more importantly, you need to determine what helps you feel your very best. Personally, I’ve experienced a multitude of positive results that I believe are associated with incorporating Morning Mojo into my morning routine. If nothing else, starting your day off with a nice hydrating glass of water can only benefit you and the health of your body. Inspired to give the Morning Mojo a try - download our recipe here : Drink up buttercup!
Allison & Paige Inspired to give the Morning Mojo a try - download our recipe here : https://wilcoxwellnessfitness.lpages.co/mojo/ Want more support? Join our free Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WilcoxHealthyLiving/ Join our free private FaceBook Group - Healthy Living with Wilcox Wellness & Fitness to connect with us live. Daily we post all things healthy living - pro tips for healthy living, recipes, and weekly workouts for you to do at home. We will answer any question you post and we encourage you get involved in the discussion. Don't miss another post. Join our mailing list here: http://www.wilcoxwellnessfitness.com/keep-in-touch.html I am so excited to introduce my dear friend Allison Hopkins to contribute as a guest blogger. Allison and I have known each other for over 11 years - she is my go to when I want to hash out the virtues of grass fed vs organic or really anything else in life. We were colleagues for 9 years when I worked in the Biotech industry. We covered the State of Maine together and have clocked hundreds of hours in the car together. Let me tell you a little bit about long car rides with curious minds… they discuss a lot. Allison and I are similar in a lot of ways - we love data, we love analyzing that data, and we love talking about it. Allison has studied immunology & molecular biology at the master’s level and is the best person I know who can take something super complex like Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and break it down so anyone can understand it. Allison has always lived a healthy lifestyle - she is the one that first warned me in my early twenties of the dangers of chemicals in our cleaning and personal care products. Recently she has invested an incredible amount of time learning about nutrition and exercise - she has recently become Precision Nutrition Certified and has embraced our Habits for Massive Impact, starts her day each morning with our Morning Mojo and works out 3 times per week with our at home workout guide. I am so excited for you to learn from Allison in this 3 part blog series on our Morning Mojo from a scientific perspective. I have had the privilege of learning from her for years and I am excited to share her brain with you! Allison has experienced first hand the benefits of starting her day with the Morning MoJo and in this blog series she is going to share with us her research with WHY this is such a powerful drink for health. She will share with us the incredible benefits to the Microbiome, Alkalization, and Hydration. Here’s Allison! |
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