almondMELk

Plant based fruit tart ♥️crispy shell filled with a vegan custard and topped with fresh berries.

TART SHELL

2 sticks @earthbalance buttery sticks

2 cups @bobsredmill gf baking flour

1-2tsp lemon zest

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Pinch of salt

Prepare a quarter sheet pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. Sift together flour and sugar. Place butter, lemon zest and salt in a mixer and blend until well smooth. Add flour and mix just until a dough forms. Remove dough from food processor and spread into sheet pan as evenly as possible. Place in fridge and let chill 30-60 minutes. Remove from oven and bake at 375°F for 20 minutes or until crust becomes lightly brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

FILLING

1 cup almond milk

1 container silken tofu

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp margarine

3 tbsp corn starch (slurry)

Smoothie bowl 💚

BLEND:

1 frozen banana

1 cup frozen mango

1 cup greens

1,2,3 or 4?? Comment below 👇🏼

1. Chocolate hazelnut spread with banana

2. Chocolate hazelnut spread with berries

3. Maple cashew butter with berries

Fruity vs. Chocolatey

🍑🍌🍓🍍🍫🍫🍫

Fruity

BLEND:

1/2 cup frozen pineapple

1/2 cup frozen peaches

1/2 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 banana

1/2 cup almond milk

1 scoop Vanilla Protein powder (optional)

Chocolatey 🍫

BLEND:

1/2 cup ice

1 frozen banana

1/2 cup almond milk

Fruit, fruit and more fruit

Fruit fruit fruit!

Although it is possible to lose a lot of weight quickly I just can’t/won’t answer this question. Reason being that losing a lot of weight quickly just isn’t a good idea. All your going to be doing is starving yourself, which will lead to muscle lose, feeling like crap, and possibly even serious health issues. Plus long term it’s the worst thing you can do for your body! 99.99% of the time the weight is gained back anyway and then some. This is because your setting yourself up for failure by trying to do some crash diet. You end reverting back to old habits as soon as the weight comes off. Instead, set yourself up for success by changing your lifestyle and creating healthy habits. This includes exercise, healthy eating and a positive mindset! Healthy habits are sustainable over a lifetime and are the key to successful weight loss. It’s slow and steady but your body and mind will be able to adjust to slow changes and yield the best results.

This really depends on how and why your trying to gain weight. Less common, you could be trying to gain weight because your currently underweight, meaning your body is lacking the essential fat it needs to maintain normal functions (more common in females especially with eating disorders). Or, which I find more common, is trying to get bigger for esthetic reasons which usually means trying to increase muscle mass 💪🏼.

General Weight Gain

When trying to gain weight for any reason, eating plenty of food is key. As I mentioned in my post about misleading weight loss ads, there are 3500cal in 1lb of fat (Calories are a measure of energy and fat is energy therefor 3500 is the measure of how much energy is in a pound of fat). Gaining weight requires eating more calories everyday than you normally would. It’s generally not recommended to gain more than 1/2-1lb a week, mostly because this will allow you to comfortably eat more food without feeling sick (plus odds are if your in this bracket eating more food will be challenging anyway). Therefor, it’s best to aim for eating an extra 250-500 calories a day, which will help you gain between 1/2-1lb a week. Why essential fat is important:

Fat surrounds and protects our organs

Essential for the central nervous system and bone marrow

For females with low body fat, it’s very easy to lose or have irregular periods (meaning your bodies equilibrium is off)

Essential body fat percentages: 3-5% in males 12-14% in females

Muscle Gains

Now if your trying to gain muscle mass that’s a whole ordeal and is quite complicated. For the sake of this post I’ll keep it general and brief. So again to gain muscle mass does require eating a surplus of calories. However, the primary difference is that muscle isn’t equivalent to fat, meaning that the 3500cal rule doesn’t apply. This is because we’re talking about tissue growth not fat storage. To gain 1lb of muscle its estimated to require anywhere from 2600-3600 calories (this number comes from research that has determined that tissue growth needs 5-8cals per gram.) When trying to increase muscle mass, gaining 1-2lbs a week is acceptable. This would mean eating anywhere from an extra 500-1000cal a day. Ok but here’s the most important thing, eating a surplus of food isn’t enough to gain muscle! Your training has to significantly increase as well. You have to be breaking down the muscle tissue enough (during your workouts) that the body needs the additional food to repair and rebuild the muscle 🏋️‍♂️. If your training does not reflect the need for the additional calories you will just gain fat. Even then study’s show that of the weight you’ll gain, only 30-40% of it will be lean mass (muscle). This is for several reasons buts it primarily because we can’t control exactly how our body uses the additional calories (that would be great if we could though! 😅) So in general, even eating an additional 500 calories a day will be adequate for muscle growth and less likely to lead to fat gain. Here’s some other things to keep in mind:

The amount of extra calories you eat will not correlate to the amount of muscle you gain!

Don’t go overboard with protein!!! Eating more protein won’t result in further muscle synthesis. What will actually happen is the body will start to breakdown the protein to use as energy (which is highly inefficient) meaning the protein won’t be available to build muscle. So make sure your still eating plenty of carbs (55-60% of your daily calories) that way your body can focus on using the protein for muscle building.

Your genetic play a huge role in muscle building. If you come from a long line of very lean people, odds are your not going to be able to get swole. Sorry 😐

Also make sure to consult your physician before starting any big eating change. For both goals mentioned above, consistent monitoring is highly recommend to stay safe and healthy!

————

Lemon bars (plant based)

🍋🍋🍋

CRUST:

2 sticks earth balance buttery sticks

2 cups gf baking flour

1-2tsp lemon zest

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Pinch of salt

Prepare a quarter sheet pan with cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper. Sift together flour and sugar. Place butter, lemon zest and salt in a mixer and blend until well smooth. Add flour and mix just until a dough forms. Remove dough from food processor and spread into sheet pan as evenly as possible. Place in fridge and let chill 30-60 minutes. Remove from oven and bake at 375°F for 20 minutes or until crust becomes lightly brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

FILLING:

1-12oz extra firm silken tofu

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp lemon zest

1/4 cup agave syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp cornstarch