Happy FITs-giving!

‘Tis the week to celebrate with friends and family and take a little holiday break. Don’t let the start of the holiday season leave you reaching for the pants with the elastic waste-band. Here are some tricks for staying on track:

1. Look up a Turkey Trot! Lots of cities and towns have small, organized runs on the morning of Thanksgiving. If you are staying the Washington DC metro area, here is a 5k walk/run turkey trot for you!

2. No luck finding an organized run? Get out there yourself. Grab a friend or your phone to listen to music (or a podcast…anyone listening to Serial??) if you are already itching to get away from your crazy relatives, and move for 45 minutes to an hour. This is a great time to set a personal best and to achieve it. You will certainly have the fuel (aka – extra calories) and you should have the time. Try to run or walk both Thanksgiving morning and on Black Friday.

3. Take a nice walk after the “big meal”. Most people eat pretty early so it shouldn’t even be dark out. Grab the dogs, the kids, and the rest of the family and just walk for at least 30 minutes. Not only will you be burning calories, walking should also help with digestion.

4. Sign up for a class NOW for Black Friday to hold you accountable! Can’t make it to class? Try a great in-home video like FITsugar’s 30-minute SHRED!

5. The big meal should be just that….THE big MEAL (not meals…) Try to avoid going for Thanksgiving dinners 3 and 4 after Thursday. Make this delicious and nutritious tortilla soup with the leftover turkey…just hold off on the cheese and tortilla chips. A dollop of greek yogurt would be a great substitution! Toss a little leftover stuffing into a salad, but PLEASE don’t put it between two brioche slices!

Happy Thanksgiving from the whole FITtrition team!!

More SOUP for you…

With holiday season upon us, it is really important to eat clean meals and snacks in preparation for the heavy holiday meals. You know we hate the word DIET, so don’t think about dieting (and DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF LEADING UP TO A BIG MEAL. You make significantly worse choices when you are starving…). Instead, focus on healthful, seasonal, delicious food that will leave you feeling satisfied.

I don’t know about you all, but we just can’t get enough of these wonderful fall soups here at FITtrition. Try this seasonal and vegan-friendly soup from Health Magazine out tonight! (I changed the recipe a bit so if you follow the link, it is slightly different from the recipe listed on this blog. The recipe on the blog is not vegan because it uses chicken broth).

Curried Sweet Potato, Carrot, and Ginger Soup

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 1/2 cup chopped shallots
• 3 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled sweet potato
• 3 cups (1/4-inch) sliced peeled carrots
• 2 tablespoon grated ginger
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 5 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Optional: top with a dollop of greek yogurt

Preparation

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallots; saute 3 minutes or until tender. Add potato, carrots, ginger, and curry; cook 2 minutes. Add broth; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender; stir in salt.

Pour half of soup in a food processor; pulse until smooth. Repeat procedure with remaining soup.

Pregnant FITfriends – this is for you!

I spent the weekend celebrating with many of my FIT friends and their beautiful families (who are both inside and outside of bellies).

With all of these expanding waistlines, I got tons of questions about exercising while pregnant so I thought I would share a few good prenatal exercise videos from our friends at FITsugar!

Grab light weights and carve out 10 minutes to tackle this great baby-safe upper body workout:

Strong GLUTES are integral to CORE strength so don’t forget your bottom half mommies-to-be! Take another 10 minutes to work out those legs.

FIT-mama has shared how important exercise is to surviving labor and bouncing back after baby so really try to devote 4-5 days per week to at least 30 minutes of exercise. Walking and running (if you were a runner before), the elliptical, and cycling are great ways to get your cardio in too! Just remember to check in with yourself and make sure you aren’t pushing too hard. And drink water! Lots and lots of water….

Congrats to all my beautiful friends and their expanding families!