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Oct 25 2010

Halloween Ideas For Adults

Growing up in a small town offered many opportunities for great Halloween memories. As a child, the month long costume making sessions with mom, the school Halloween parties and the eventual trick or treating around my neighborhood. Small towns offered a safe environment for accepting candy from strangers and we never had to worry about town bullies taking our candy.

As an adult, Halloween costume ideas revolved around sex or creating a funny costume. Times have changed, we’ve grown up and instead of candy, Halloween brings thoughts of eating that pumpkin and looking for recipes on how to cook with squash.

Halloween Roundup

Over the past few years, various writers have shared their thoughts on these various subjects here on the blog, so I thought I’d put together a little summary of Halloween ideas for recipes, costumes, workouts and even some environmental tips. The authors would love to hear from you, so please leave comments where applicable.

Halloween Recipe Ideas

Squash is a most excellent food. If you’ve got pumpkins laying around after the holiday, make use of it’s nutritional goodness by making one of these:

halloween recipe ideas

Pumpkin Butternut Squash Curry Soup – Butternut squash is one of my favorite’s. Here it’s combined with pumpkin and then spiced up with ginger and curry. Lots of Vitamin A and Beta Carotene!

Pumpkin Pancakes – great recipe for any fall morning. Spiced up for the cold months too.

Pumpkin Corn Chowder – If you like a chowder, this makes a great Halloween recipe, suitable for sharing. My wife and I are still trying to come to a conclusion about “what makes a chowder anyway?”, so please leave a comment with your thoughts and help us settle it once and for all.

Halloween Costume Ideas

halloween costume ideas
When I was a kid, I distinctly remember making a robot costume out of cardboard boxes. One for the head and a bigger one for the body. I also remember parading around our school gym for a costume competition where the teachers would vote on the best costume. The only other one I remember was a pirate costume.

Regardless, things are different now. With age comes a more mature theme.

Naughty Halloween Costume Ideas

Burn Off Those Calories

pumpkin workoutScott Tousignant, personal trainer and author of many great exercise products including Fat Loss Quickie put together a outdoor workout that makes use of any decorations you may have used.

Check out the Halloween Fat Loss Workout video and start pumping your pumpkins!

Environmentally Friendly Halloween

For years, Scott Bird wrote many excellent articles on conservation including his series on how to save water. He’s from Australia and suffice it to say, they’re way ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to water conservation.

Once the holiday is over, what do you do with all the leftover “stuff?” Here’s an idea:

Environmentally Friendly Halloween – Check out the 10 ways to make your Halloween environmentally friendly.

As far as I’m concerned, when it comes to Halloween, I’m just happy if there’s no snow. I like to think we can make it through the holiday with out the slush, snow and cold weather, but that’s not always the case.

I hope you have a great time trick-or-treating this year and every year, and encourage you to make use of one or all of the Halloween recipe ideas. They’re seriously good, and not just in October. Soup is a wonderful way to keep filled up and make use of your winter squash. Next year? I’ll be growing them myself.

Written by Rob · Categorized: Fun · Tagged: Exercise, Halloween, Recipes

Sep 13 2010

2 Quick Recipe Tips

One of the most surprising benefits I’ve discovered for being engaged to a gal from the Middle East, other than the vast cultural exchange, is the cooking.

Oh, yes ladies… my gal COOKS!

Which is good since I am a lousy cook. : )

Hanna enjoys it… and she brings a Middle Eastern flair to some really boring fitness/bodybuilding foods that I want to share with you today.

Here’s just two quick tips from Hanna on making the ultimate in “boring” foods — egg whites and tuna (yuck) — taste incredible.

TIP 1:
Lively Egg White Omelette

Let’s face facts: Egg whites suck. At least that’s what I USED to think until Hanna decided to experiment with my morning omelette.

Now I eat this stuff like it was candy.

Here’s what she does:

1. She cooks the veggies separate from the egg whites. You’d think this would be common sense, but I never did it and I’ve seen a lot of people just toss it all in together.

2. Add 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil with 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil to the veggies. This alone improved the taste tremendously.

3. Add 1/2 egg yolk to the veggies after cooking for 1 minute. This, again, is primarily for taste.

4. Garlic! If you love garlic, here’s your chance. Garlic ROCKS in egg white omelets.

5. Use Pam or another non-stick spray for the egg whites and cook them like you would a normal omelette. Then pour the almost-cooked veggies in the middle. Do the omelette dance.

6. Here’s the SECRET SAUCE… literally. This will sound nuts until you try it:

Shrimp Cocktail Sauce

Okay… Hanna’s bright, but this was an accident. She thought it was salsa. But I’ve NEVER gone back to salsa after stumbling on this incredible treat! I have no idea why it tastes so good, but it makes the omelette.

Try these tips and see if your egg white omelette doesn’t become your favorite meal of the day.

TIP 2:
Canned Tuna Extraordinaire

Again, I have the lovely Hanna to thank for this.

Like egg whites, I used to HATE canned tuna. Now, again, I can eat this every night without complaint.

Here’s what she does:

She cooks the veggies the same way as in the omelette above and then pours the tuna from the can into a skillet. That’s IT.

I’ve never had “tuna ala skillet” before… and I have no clue why this tastes so smooth and delicious, but it does.

If you hate canned tuna for being dry or tasteless, try this. You’ll never go back.

If you want 40 pages of recipes like this… very yummy and VERY healthy… then be sure to pick up my EODD “Favorite Foods” Dieplan.

Here’s more about it:

Favorite Foods Diet + Recipes <-- click.here.for.more

Remember:
Don’t Quit. Get Fit!

P.S. Most of the recipes that come with my EODD book can be prepared in 15 minutes or less… so do not let the clock become your enemy when it comes to getting lean!

And remember: You can eat your favorite foods several days per week on my plan and still get rid of excess bodyweight.

Why give up living when you don’t have to, right? : )

Favorite Foods Diet + Recipes <-- click.here.for.more

[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson. I have his permission to share it with you. Jon is the author of the Seven Minute Muscle Workout]

Written by Rob · Categorized: Weight Loss · Tagged: Cooking Tips, Every Other Day Diet, Recipes, tips

Sep 02 2009

Your 5-Minute Fat Loss Shake

[ Note: This article was written by fitness and nutrition author Jon Benson. I have his permission to share it with you. Jon is the author of the Seven Minute Muscle Workout]

Protein shakes are a dime a dozen. However a high-quality protein drink that is both homemade and nutritious is a rare find. Most protein drinks today have traveled the path of least resistance — cheap and potentially dangerous sweeteners, sugar alcohols (in order to bring down the supposed “carb count”), and protein sources that are often dubious…and accompanied with more outrageous claims than grams of the good stuff.

I use a simple, homemade, economic and super-healthy protein drink at least five times a week during my normal nutrition cycle and several times a day during peak training cycles where I need to be in top shape. My strategy for building this drink was simple:

  1. Go hormone-free and organic with everything possible;
  2. Go with plenty of healthy fats rather than cheap sugar substitutes to help control insulin and provide more satiety;
  3. Think ‘raw’;
  4. Make it delicious!

Below you will find this recipe, complete the the exact ingredients used. It takes less than five minutes to make and keeps me full for 2-3 hours. It is less than 1/3 the cost of an out-of-the-box MRP (Meal Replacement Product) and contains 1/10th the number of ingredients — and that’s a good thing. If you cannot pronounce it, it’s probably bad for you. And it tastes fantastic!

Mix the following into a high-quality blender:

1. One heaping scoop of Jay Robb’s Egg White Protein You will need to adjust this amount to your body weight. I use up to 1.5 grams times my body weight (max) and as low as 1 gram times my body weight when doing two shakes a day. For me this is between 20 and 35 grams of powder. Jay uses the best sources available, including hormone-free cattle and Stevia, a herbal sweetener, to make his excellent protein. There are no additional carbs to speak of and only the bare essentials ingredient-wise. Jay also makes a high-quality whey. I will often combine the whey and the egg white powders, using a bit over half a scoop each.

2. One raw egg (cage-free) Do not worry about cholesterol or getting food poisoning. These claims are mostly media hype. You need the high-quality protein and fats found in the egg. Most people try to go low-fat when making a protein shake. This is a mistake, as fats are crucial to the digestion of protein. As for contamination: Roll the egg on the counter. If it wobbles, you are safe to consume it. I’ve used this technique for ten years and I’ve yet to have one case of food poisoning consuming raw eggs. Oh, and it makes the protein drink taste better (believe it or not.)

3. Five grams of L-Glutamine Powdered L-Glutamine (I use Jarrow’s brand) is one of the healthiest things you can supplement your diet with. L-Glutamine has been shown to be one of the most powerful nutrients for both recovery and immunity enhancement. Bodybuilders will take up to 25 grams per day of L-Glutamine during hard training cycles; I do as well. It makes a tremendous difference in both performance and wellness. It is tasteless, too.

4. Five grams of Creatine Monohydrate If you want more strength and muscle fullness, good old creatine monohydrate (the non-fancy stuff; just monohydrate for me) works like you would not believe. Five grams per day is all you need. Like L-Glutamine, it is tasteless. I use Jarrow Brand.

5. Raw almonds I cannot say enough good stuff about almonds. Besides tasting great, they are loaded with essential fats and healthy fiber. Here is how I measure how much to use. This comes right out of my book “The Every Other Day Diet”.

Get it here:

The Every Other Day Diet     The “Cheat To Beat” Diet Plan

You can find 15 other shake recipes and over 40 pages of recipes in my book that fit the bill of being tasty and fantastic fat-burning meals. Here is the trick: Divide your body weight by 10. That’s it. If you weigh 200 pounds as I do, that means 20 almonds. Simple, right? I created an entire measuring system for Every Other Day Diet’s SNAPP! System of eating that is this simple for everything: Calories (none to count), carbohydrates, fats, protein intake… even water!

6. Frozen berries (raspberries mixed with blueberries) Yes, fresh is better than frozen… but frozen makes the shake more frothy. Plus I buy organic berries and freeze them in containers. There is practically nothing lost in the process. How much? Simple: Divide your body weight by 5! In my case this is 40 berries, or about a handful. Once you count them out once or twice you never have to again.

7. Pumpkin seeds This was a great find: A super-healthy and tasty addition to my protein recipe, plus a nice bump in the fiber content. Measuring something as fine a seeds is a bit more challenging using my numeric system, so we keep it simple: Use your palm. Just pour the seeds into your palm. Make sure they are not forming a pyramid or overflowing. That’s the ideal amount.

8. 1 to 1.5 cups of pure water I use only 1 cup of water as I like my shake thick.

9. 1 cup of ice Adjust to taste and texture preference.

10. Stevia (to taste) I love Stevia. It is an herbal sweetener that does not cause an insulin spike like sugar or even sugar alcohols can, and does not have the health hazards of artificial sweeteners. I use a few packets as I like my shake nice and sweet.

There you have it: A mostly raw, protein-rich, health-fat, carb-friendly protein drink that will fill you up for hours, tastes great, and contains more raw nutrition than most people get in a week.

P.S. There’s an eye-opening weight loss video you need to see.

Watch it here: Weight Loss Video     Watch

Written by Rob · Categorized: Weight Loss · Tagged: Every Other Day Diet, Fat Loss, protein, Recipes, Shakes

Apr 20 2009

Recipe: 3 Dairy Free Coleslaw Dressings

Coleslaw is one of my favorite side dishes so for variety sake, we had to come up with some dairy free coleslaw dressings. Cabbage is part of the cruciferous vegetable family and is excellent for colon health. If you’re a guy, colon health and specifically cruciferous vegetables play a big role in prostate health and increasing testosterone. We make our own coleslaw around our house, grating fresh red and yellow cabbage ourselves. I like to make different sorts of dairy free coleslaw dressings, some with a little kick.

I used to think that coleslaw dressings were always white and creamy because that’s how it was when my mom made it. It’s also how you’ll find the fast food variety of coleslaw, like KFC or otherwise. We like mustard and lime and spices such as cayenne, so they’re included in our dressings.

dairy free coleslaw dressingsGrowing up, coleslaw dressings typically included dairy and or mayonnaise, but for health and weight loss reasons, dairy should be completely avoided.

Honey Mustard Coleslaw Dressing

½ cup olive oil
½ cup Udo’s Oil
3 Tbsp organic Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp Honey or Agave (unpasteurized honey if possible)
Celtic sea salt or Real Salt brand sea salt to taste

Place all ingredients in a jar or blender. I like the magic bullet blender for this purpose. Bullet blenders are so versatile. Shake or blend until combined.
[Read more…]

Written by Rob · Categorized: Health, Recipes · Tagged: coleslaw, dairy free, dressings, Healthy Salad Dressings, Recipes

Jan 31 2009

Recipe: Orange Vegetable and Lentil Stew

This weeks hearty Orange Vegetable and Lentil winter stew is loaded with all things orange that are good for you! It is another magazine find, and yet again I’ve altered a few things to make it healthier.

Vegetables and fruits that are bright orange get their color from a high concentration of Beta-carotene. Why is that important for your health? Because Beta-carotene helps your body create Vitamin A and is a powerful antioxidant that helps boost your immune system. It also aids in good vision – didn’t your mother always tell you to eat your carrots?

So what comes to mind when I say “eat orange foods”? Carrots and oranges? Well – here’s a LOT more orange things you might not have thought of. Enjoy!

Orange Vegetable and Lentil Stew

[Read more…]

Written by Darlene · Categorized: Health, Recipes · Tagged: carrots, kobacha squash, Lentils, orange, Peppers, Recipes, squash, stew, sweet potatoes, Vegetables, Winter Squash

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