Celebrate Families Day With Acai Muffins

It’s International Families Day! Who loves their families more than us? Make these delicious, energy-packed, high-fiber acai berry muffins for your family to celebrate the day. The acai berry is known for its rich antioxidants—its flavonoids and anthocyanins, which help you to defend your body from life stressors, giving you more energy to spend on doing the things you want to do.

These muffins are also high in fiber and protein as they contain flax seeds and whey protein to keep energy levels stable so you won’t experience sugar crashes and the moodiness that goes along with it—and neither will anyone in your family. They will sustain you throughout long days and are so tasty even kids will love them!

Acai Muffins

Ingredients:

2 cup all-purposes flour

1/2 cup flax seeds (ground)

½ cup vanilla whey protein powder

2 t baking powder

½ t salt

½ t baking soda

½ cup plain low fat yogurt

½ t baking soda

2 tablespoons agave syrup

1/2 cup soymilk

1 egg

½ t salt

1/8 cup vegetable oil

1 cup of acai berries (fresh)

 Directions

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a standard 12 muffin tray.

2) Combine the flour, flax seeds salt, protein powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt in a bowl.

3) In a separate bowl, place vegetable oil, egg, milk, yogurt, and agave syrup in a bowl and mix them.

4) Combine the contents of both bowls and mix them together until even. Fold in the acai berries.

5) Fill the muffin tray with the mixture to the top.

6) Bake for 20-25 minutes or until done. Let cool for 5 minutes.

You can add in variations like other berries as well. You can also incorporate acai berries into pancakes and smoothies. If you want to get really creative you can use the acai berry powder with chocolate or even add it to ice cream!

Get The Skinny on Snacking

With our endlessly hectic lifestyles, healthy snacking seems to fly out of the window and when you do stop to eat, the temptation to go the quick and easy route is strong and go for a bag of crisps or chocolate becomes incredibly tempting.

To ensure that you have the right snacks at hand it’s best to prepare them in advance – that way you can avoid being tempted by the high fat snacks.  Having the right snacks to hand will ensure your energy levels remain consistent and that you have the fuel you need to keep you going throughout the course of the day – vital if you have a tough meeting!

Myth: 'Snacking caused weight gain.' 

Fact:  If choosing the wrong snack foods and eating more calories than needed, weigh gain can be the result.

What are the right type of snacks ?

Here are some great and healthy snack option to keep in mind:

Fruits : high in fiber, water and low in calories and sugar.

Nuts : consumed in reasonable portions, they provide protein and fiber that can help suppressing your appetite.

Low Sodium Soup

Vegetables: unlimited amount of course.

Cheese and yogurt: low in carbohydrate and rich in protein.

Edamame: rich in fiber and protein.

Choose one or two of the below list for snack per day:

1 cup fresh berries or melon cubes

1/2 grapefruit

1 whole apple, nectarine, or plum

6 to 12 almonds or cashews, 10 to 20 small peanuts, or 4 to 8 walnuts halves

4 ounces 1% cottage cheese

8 ounces low-fat artificially sweetened yogurt, preferably Greek Yogurt

1/2 cup fat free, sugar free pudding

2/3 cup edamame or raw vegetables

2 wedges Laughing Cow Light Cheese on two celery sticks

1 cup of carrot or celery sticks with 2 tablespoons hummus

1 slices of apple with 2 teaspoons peanut butter

1 pear and 5 whole cashews

1 ounce part-skim mozzarella cheese and 4 Triscuits

1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese with cinnamon and 4 walnut halves

1 ounce reduced-fat cheddar cheese with 1 cup fresh berries

1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese topped with 1 sliced kiwi and cinnamon

8 ounces artificially sweerened yogurt and 1 1/2 tablespoons trail mix

12 ounces non fat cafe latte sprinkled with cinnamon and 6 almonds on the side

1 Wasa cracker with 1 cup canned ready-to-serve soup

1 cup salad greens with 1/4 cup each chickpeas and kidney beans with 1 tablespoon vinaigrette.

Remember you can indulge sometimes –we, at Peoria Club Fitness, say make the indulgence the exception rather than the rule and then you’ll be able to have your ‘sweets’ and eat it too. 

Seemingly Healthy Foods that are Bad for You (Part 2)

Flavored Fat-Free Yogurt

Don't fall into the fat-free fat-free trap. Just because something is fat-free doesn't make it healthy. In fact, many flavored yogurts have upwards of 15 grams of sugar in that tiny 6-ounce serving! Our advice? Buy plain, fat-free Greek yogurt and flavor it up with some fruit or even a small drizzle of honey. That way, you control what's in it!

Dried Fruit

 

While dried fruit does contain fiber, vitamins, and minerals, many companies add sulfur and sugar to make it better for store shelves. While you can buy unsulfured and unsweetened varieties in health food stores, why not just eat fresh fruit instead? It's much more filling and has fewer calories per serving! 

Energy Drinks

 

With so many energy drinks on the market, many of which promise to pump you up and give you a killer workout with added caffeine, vitamins, and minerals, it may be tempting to think that these drinks are healthy, but they aren't. Similar to supplements, energy drinks aren’t regulated by the FDA, so it's best to stick to plain ol' water to rehydrate and whole nutrition to energize!

 Original source: http://www.shape.com/