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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Fitness at Your Fingertips

Everyday I wake up, one of my first decisions is what physical activity I will do that day. Even if I know it's a busy day, getting some kind of exercise is priority. So on those days when hitting the gym or a hike seems out of the question I rely on my handy dandy iphone!

If you have an iphone or any other smartphone here are my favorite apps for getting my sweat on in a pinch. And best of all, most of them are free!

Nike Training Club
This app is the ultimate FREE fitness app. It has soooo many different routines, moves, and levels and you can do almost all of them at home if you have some of the equipment(medicine ball, kettle bell, resistance band, etc...)

You can also watch short videos of real people doing each move so that you know exactly how to do it right. 

And there are celebrity athlete routines you can download for free as well!




Pocket Yoga
This app is $4.99 but so worth it! It has a great variety of practices and intensities and the lengths run from 30-60 minutes. There's an animated figure that shows you all the moves and if you want you can add your own music to the background. 



























My Fitness Pal

  This isn't particularly a workout app but it is awesome for tracking your calories taken in and burned. It has a very large data base for counting calories of any food. And if you ever wandered how many calories you just burned cleaning the house...you can look that up too. Oh and it's free :)
 

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Zucchini Parmesan


I came up with this recipe with some influence from a dish I recently had at an awesome pub in London called the Landsdown. It's was on the menu as a 'stuffed butternut squash' but to my surprise, when it came to the table it more resembled a delicious melty lasagna and tasted like one too!

Now as a half Italian, I love my pasta dishes. And chicken parmesan is in my top ten for sure though it's not so nice on the waistline...so I created this Roasted Zucchini Parmesan and it did not disappoint. I used a brown rice pasta(Trader Joe's brand) and all together the meal came to 353 calories! That sure beats the 1090 you get from the breaded chicken version. I'm pretty pleased with that :)


  Recipe makes two servings:

3 c. cooked brown rice pasta
5 medium green zucchini sliced 1/4" thick, long ways
2 T olive oil
1 t minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
2 c tomato pasta sauce
1/2 c shredded mozzarella
2 T grated parmesan
1 tomato sliced
1 handful chopped fresh basil


Set oven on broil. Coat zucchini in olive oil, garlic and salt and pepper and place in oven for 10-12 mins, flipping once. Remove from oven and layer over zucchini as follows: pasta sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, then tomato and return to oven for 3-5 mins checking frequently. Once finished, serve over pasta and fresh basil. Voila!

Because Healthy is Sexy!

Ok so I just got back from a long long trip to London, Paris, and Wales and I'm having a bit of a dilemma. See, I had such an amazing time and made so many fantastic memories but the aftermath of 3 weeks of rich food and booze has left me feeling....bluh. Now being back home and getting back to work I'm developing a whole new routine for getting back in shape and having fun with it.

Over the next 2 weeks, you all will get sneak peaks here and there of the recipes and workouts that are a part of my fitness and wellness program. I don't have a name for it yet but I hope you find it useful and inspiring. There's going to be lots of veggies, lean meats and raw foods and some super fun physical activities. Bikini season is just around the corner....lets get our sexy on!

                       My grocery cart at Trader Joe's....thats a whole lotta green!