Healthy. Happy.

1. Be clear with your goals. 

Instead of saying “I want to lose weight,” say something like “I want to lose 20 lbs” or “I want to eat X calories a day” or “I want to work out X times a day.”

2. Be realistic

You’re not going to lose 20 lbs in a day. You’re not going to go from not lifting at all to deadlifting 500 lbs in a month. Be realistic about your schedule too. You’re not going to work out for 8 hours a day. 

3. If you want to change your diet make small, doable changes.

If you starve yourself, you’ll gain it all back. You can’t flip your diet upside down and deprive yourself of all your favourite foods and expect yourself to stick with it. 

4. Have a plan

It’s all fine and dandy to say you have all these goals, but it means nothing if you don’t have a plan. You want to lose weight? Great. How are you going to do it? Quitting smoking is great. Have a plan to do it, and have a plan for your setbacks. Which brings me to my next point

5. Expect setbacks

They’re going to happen. You need to expect them and plan for them. What are you going to do when they happen? If you expect them, they won’t be a surprise that completely derails you. Any time you’re improving yourself there will be setbacks and it’s okay! It’s part of the process.

6. Love yourself

I’m amazed on a regular basis that people ridicule new people in the gym. We were all new, inexperienced lifters with no clue what we were doing. We all struggled at some point.

Decided to try a lower carb option for my mozzarella sticks! I’ve been stricken with my carbs and the spring roll wrappers I use aren’t low enough for my liking. This worked out to less than 1 carb per mozz stick! That’s much better!

Ingredients: *8 String Cheeses, Cut In Half (Polly-O is zero carbs) *2 Eggs, Beaten *1 Cup Parmesan Cheese (the powdered kind) *1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning *1 Clove Garlic, Minced *1Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes (optional)

Instructions: *Mix Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, and minced garlic in a medium bowl. *Dip each string cheese into the egg mixture and then into the cheese mixture. *Dip the string cheese in the egg mixture and roll it in the cheese crumbs again. *Press the cheese crumbs into the cheese using your fingers. I then rolled them in my palms to make sure the coating was tight. *Place the coated string cheese into the freezer for one hour. This helps hold the coating in place while it’s frying! I put mine on parchment paper in a small baking sheet. *Pour about half a cup of oil into a frying pan, and let it get HOT. *Place 4-5 string cheese halves into the pan. *Cook until golden brown on all sides. *If the crumb mixture falls off the string cheese, wait until the oil is hotter. *Serve with a low carb Marinara or Tomato Sauce (Trader Joe’s Rustico is 3 carbs per ¼ Cup) *Enjoy!

These were amazing. What I’ll do in the future is make a whole batch of them and just freeze them. Then I can pull them out when I want one or two. The coating process takes a while and this will break it down for the future!