Be Fab - Be You LLC
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]On this Thanksgiving day, a day of reflection and gratitude, it’s easy to think about the things I did NOT get done.
If this resonates with you, join me for my ‘I did Enough Gratitude Challenge’ right now.
Listen to the message I recorded this message just for you.
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]On Thanksgiving day with family and friends, it’s easy to focus on the food feast and feel the food coma after eating. I have been there many times in the past. I bet you have as well.
This afternoon, shortly after my workout, I got inspired and I did a Facebook Live. I shared a few words to help you set your intentions as you prepare for Thanksgiving along with a couple of strategies to stay the course of your health journey.
I am so excited to welcome Jada and Annie to the Be Fab – Be You family. These two bright and amazing girls from Charter North Springs High School in Sandy Springs started to intern with me.
When college comes around, Jada is interested in Psychology and Annie in Physical Therapy.
We had our kick off meeting this afternoon. They are excited to get started on projects I have ligned up for them.
I am super excited to be a mentor to them, contribute to their lives and careers, and I am grateful for the help they will provide.
I am also looking for interns with skills in graphic desigh, audio/video, and website. If you know of someone Or of a High School with internship programs I can approach, let me know.
Let the fun begin!
This recipe is full of nutrition. It delivers healthy carbs and protein from vegetables and healthy fats from coconut. Plus, cruciferous vegetables are natural detoxifiers. Meals like this will bump your energy, you feel nourished and light—refreshing meal for hot days. Help your digestive system by taking a few deep breaths before your meal. Close your eyes and smell the food. This process gets your hormones and digestive system ready for a meal. Chew your food well, especially dishes with rich vegetables like this one.
1. Put greens in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Massage greens until they are wilted.
2. Put lemongrass in blender with 1/2 cup water and blend until liquefied.
3. Strain through cheese cloth, a fine mesh strainer, or a nut milk bag.
4. Combine liquid from lemongrass with lime juice and coconut butter in the blender and blend until smooth. Add water if needed.
5. Pulse in jalapeño and cilantro.
6. Shred carrots or daikon, and thinly slice the red onion. Add to bowl with greens.
7. Pour dressing over the vegetables and massage in well. The greens should be wilted.
8. If possible, allow to sit for an hour before serving. Place a second bowl over the salad and put something heavy in it to press the dressing into the salad and allow the vegetables to fully absorb the flavors.
Enjoy it!
Search for more healthy recipes at www.BeFabBeYou.com/blog
Recipe Credit: Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo
67% of employers say poor employee health habits are a top challenge of maintaining affordable coverage!
Be Fab – Be You LLC customizes programs for corporations of all sizes. Become the role model for your employees and colleagues– help them achieve wellness inside and outside the workplace.
We offer a complimentary Wellness Energy Bites Lunch & Learn ($350 Value FREE). Don’t miss this opportunity.
To learn more, call 770-835-5490 or email us at info@BeFabBeYou.com.
Jason Did NOT Kill Us. We Survived Friday The 13th!We survived a tough Friday 13th routine. Did you move your fanny?
Aren’t we looking ‘awesome’ minutes after challenging our fannies? Kat wasn’t happy when I asked her to smile for the camera…I said, come on, we’ve done working out!
Dynamic, challenging, kinda long…it was a good one! Lots of shoulders’ taxing movements. I scaled to 55 lbs and bands for dips to preserve body parts.
50 Wall Ball (10 feet, 14 lbs)
50 Double Unders
40 Box Jumps (20 in)
40 Toes To Ring
30 Pull-Ups
30 Burpees
20 Squat Cleans (55 lbs)
20 Jerks (55 lbs)
10 Power Snatches (55 lbs)
20 Ring Dips (assisted with band)
Completion time: 34:51 min. What was the hardest part or movement of this workout? Not sure. Burpees are always party killers, especially if in the middle or at the end of a routine. Power snatches…took me a while. Snatches have always been my weakness. Have a take a moment and focus every time I lift the bar. Ring dips (assisted) were had and I had to compromise in doing three a time max.
Sounds a lot, I know. Never? Cannot remember? How about getting started with 50 and add 5-10 a day or every two days? Break reps down thru the day if needed. Regain and strengthen your core. Why? Keep reading.
Several years ago, I did 250 reps of core/abs, first thing out of bed, for a couple of weeks before I went to trip. On Thursday, prescribed workout was purely sprinting. That’s not my body cup of tea—my motto is protect my body parts for longevity and knees and hips wouldn’t be happy! Thus, I decided I was going to do one rep max of bench presses and core.
Stopped presses at 95 lbs then decided to give 500 reps of abs a try. Twenty sets of 25 reps of different movements including ab-mat sit-ups, bicycles, crunches, leg lifts, leg crosses, bridges, Russian twists, and a few personal creations without names 🙂
23:25 minutes later, including short breaks between, I was done. That was a little over 21 reps/minute. Some sets took me longer than others (bicycles, twists, crosses were 50 for 25/side). Since I had no baseline to compare to, I am happy with the results. Baseline is set for next time.
EVERY exercise performed, especially when standing versus machines, should engage abs. Always ask yourself whether you’re engaging the core muscles during a movement. If you are not, get a trainer to help you because you could be easily overusing other muscles, including our back! I am available to help 😛
Find a here an article from the Mayo Clinic and another from Harvard for greater knowledge and motivation to get started.
It will be a beautiful day in Atlanta. Hope wherever you are, you can go outside for fresh air and move your fanny.
Likely you are not only a mom to your own children. As women, we may well play an irreplaceable role in someone’s life. Have you thought about it?
Mothers are heroes—moms, step moms, grandmas, aunts, sisters, best friends and mentors when alive—and then they may well become guardian angels.
How will you celebrate all of the mother figures who have made a deep and lasting impact: the women who love you unconditionally, who support you through difficult times, who demonstrate courage and grace in the face of a challenge, and who help you enjoy life’s happy moments?
If you’re a mother, practice self-care and appreciation! Do something for YOU. What does bring you peace, make you smile and relax, see the bright side of things, and appreciate the small moments? As you look around you, right now, what are three things you can be appreciative of?
As soon as finish reading this paragraph, try this…close your eyes, take a deep breath, drop your shoulders, and relax your jaw, your mouth, your forehead. Do this periodically throughout the day, every day, and you will notice positive outcomes. You will feel more FAB! You will feel more empowered to keep making awesome decisions about your lifestyle and continue to help others!
I would like to share my mentor and health coach’s though because I thought it was so applicable to many of us out there:
Perhaps she [your mother] wasn’t perfect; she may have even been hurtful or not fully present at times, but honestly she likely did the best she could with what she had going on. Ultimately, you are here because of her, and YOU are a gift!
Surely, I am calling my mom in Brazil as soon as I post this note. She will be 72 years old in September. Dad was not there parenting at all. Mom played mom and dad’s role. She worked hard to put food on the table for me and my older siblings. I remember times we ate the same thing daily because there was much else she could afford. Until today, there are few foods I cannot smell because makes me a little sick to stomach as I ate too often, especially beef. If I ask mom to tell me the nutritional value of tripe, she cannot tell me that’s a great source of protein, zinc, selenium, B-12, and some saturated fat (at the time, meats were always from grass fed animals). Yet, mom knew and knows tripe helps bone, growth, and energy. 
Dona Celina and her husband treated me like I was one of their children. They fed me countless meals. I was lucky to have had them in my life.
My sister, on the other hand, was given a responsibility to help to take care of me plus house duties at young age while mom was working to put food on the table. As a grew up, sister became a protector, especially when mom got angry and wanted to beat the hell out of me J. Nobody is perfect and that’s our job to put ourselves on others’ shoes to understand what drives one to do x, w, and z. The bottom line is, siblings and I turned to be all right. None of us got into drugs, alcohol, and unhealthy habits. We were great students. We started working at young age and gave mom money to help for expenses. I paid for my first bicycle at age 12 making/sewing moccasin shoes by hand. I remember vividly the day I went to store to get the bicycle. WOW!
These memories bring me to this final note. My personal mission is to leave this world with cognitive function of my brain and functionally mobile. This mission is the underlying reason I am a health and fitness coach today. My professional mission hasn’t been much different since I started Be Fab – Be You in 2014. That is, to empower YOU achieve wellness inside and outside the workplace by educating, evaluating, supporting, and training YOU.
Do not hesitate to contact me if what you need is knowledge, guidance, accountability, and support to implement steps to Be Fit and Healthy, Age Beautifully, Be You!
Mexican BurritoHappy 5 de Mayo! If you are looking for a recipe for a healthy burrito, you found it here. This recipe offers great substitutes for rice, beans, and flour wrap. It will nourish four people or two people with leftovers. You can eat it naked or wrap it with collard green leaf, which i recommend for added nutrition. Plus is a much healthier alternative to any kind of overly processed flour product. Make it a fun and enriching activity for yourself and family or friends. Help spread the concept of eating healthier but replacing inflammatory foods for nourishing foods.
1 pound ground beef, grass fed if possible to reduce inflammatory components in conventional meats
1 medium white onion, diced
1 long red chili, diced with seeds
1 can diced tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, finely diced
1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
2 tsp cumin powder (you can grind whole cumin seeds)
1 tsp coriander seeds powder (you can grind whole coriander seeds)
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp ghee (or grass fed butter)
1-2 tsp Celtic salt or sea salt (use 1 teaspoon for those with hypertension or whatever other reason)
2 large sweet potatoes, cut in cubes
1 tsp smoked or sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cumin powder
A good pinch of black paper
A good pinch of sea salt
2 tbsp olive oil
For salsa salad2 tomatoes, cut in quarters, seeds scooped out
2/3 cup diced roasted red peppers
1 medium cucumber, diced
1/2 cup diced spring/green onion, about 2-3 springs
1/2 cup chopped coriander, leaves and stalks
1/2 lime, juice only
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
1 small red chili chopped or chili flakes to your heat taste
2 tbsp olive oil
A pinch of sea salt
Heat 1 tabslepoon of ghee in a large, deep frying pan or a casserole dish. Sautee onion until soft and golden. At the same time turn the oven to 390F.
Bring the heat back to high and add beef mince in small chunks. Stir and cook until browned on all sides, about 5-7 minutes. At this time I peel and cut the sweet potatoe – it’s all about efficiency. Remember to stir and break the beef apart regularly at the same time.
Add spices, garlic, salt and chili to the beef and cook for a couple of minutes. Add diced tomatoes and a little water, about half a cup, stir and bring to boil. Then turn to low-medium heat and cook for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Once beef is under way, mix sweet potato cubes with sweet paprika, cumin and olive oil and scatter in a large baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes at 190C. Take out of the oven, sprinkle with a generous pinch of sea salt and pepper, toss around and put back in the oven for a further 5 minutes.
Final step is to prepare the salsa salad. Dice tomatoes, cucumbers and red peppers, add chopped coriander, garlic, spring onion and chili and season with lime juice, sea salt and olive oil. Mix together well and set side until serving.
Cut avocado into quarters and drizzle with some lime juice to prevent discoloration. Once everything is ready, divide between four bowls and serve with a quarter avocado each.
Or add everything to a large leaf of collard greens!
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Adapted Recipe from Eat Drink Paleo
How did you move your fanny?
Friday afternoon, 4/29/16, I felt it was a good day for an easy 5K row. Dragged the rowing machine outside for fresh air, turned my pandora dance music station of phone on, placed water bottle next to me, and GO!
Set damper at 5.5 and focused on form (didn’t lean too forward or back, used full range of motion, kept your arms straight). Every 750m, I reversed grip (palm-up) to engage more of my biceps. Rowing with palm-up doesn’t provide the same power and that’s OK. It was a day to recovery muscles, not to break records :-). As long as arms are maintained next to the body, it’s totally fine to row with palms up. Completed 5K in 24:12 minutes.
Got home and got busy in the kitchen.
Had this 3 lbs bag of broccoli that was going to expire soon. It was time to do something with it. Made a delicious broccoli casserole.
Stay tuned for recipe!