Raw Food Birthday Cake Recipe: How I Made a Raw Food Blueberry Cheesecake

April 17, 2013 by 14 Comments

Raw Food Birthday Cake HeaderThis past weekend was my girlfriend’s birthday.

And I wanted to make her something special.

Something delicious.

Every year for my birthday she makes me an incredible raw food birthday cake: no refined sugars, no flour, no baking required. Just raw, natural ingredients.

She knows me too well.

So this year I thought I’d return the favor and make her something a little bit extraordinary.

I put my Googling skills to use and dug up an incredible raw food blueberry cheesecake recipe. I grabbed the mighty food processor, put on some good tunes, and got to work.

Let me show you what I created. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition Tips, Recipes

Taste Buds, Mad Scientists, and the Truth Behind Your Food Cravings

March 13, 2013 by 34 Comments

Food CravingsI want you to imagine something for a second.

Imagine that everything you know about food – or you think you know about food – is now gone. It’s no longer there. That part of your brain has been erased.

To you, there are no such things as calories or carbs. You’ve never heard of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, digestion, or anything related to food consumption.

To you, food is just, well, food.

Now, with that in mind, let me ask you a question…

If I give you a random food to eat, something you’ve never seen or eaten before, how would you know whether that food is ‘good’ or ‘bad’?

If you knew absolutely nothing about a food or its ingredients, how would you know whether to classify it as good (as in, sure I’ll eat it again) or bad (as in, I’ll never touch this again)?

Think about that for a second because it’s very important.

Hint: there’s a bit of biology involved.

The answer is actually fairly simple.

But, what you’ll soon discover might scare you.

Let me explain.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition Tips, Your Brain

Learn how to Cook: An Essential Life Skill that can Better your Body

February 27, 2013 by 12 Comments

[This is a guest post written by my good friend and food lover Darrin Carlson from theguycancook.com. I asked Darrin to prepare this post for Bloom to Fit because I know he is incredibly passionate about teaching people how to prepare simple and healthy meals. Learning how to cook for yourself isn't hard and it can literally transform your life. Take it away Darrin.]

Learn to cook80% of your health and fitness is the result of your diet!

We’ve all heard sayings like this, and most people who have been successful at getting and staying in shape will agree that changing their diet had the most dramatic effect.

But how can you eat a healthy diet in a world of fast food and chemically-engineered food products?

Easy: learn how to cook.

When you learn how to prepare your own meals from scratch, you have 100% control over what you put into your body.

You don’t have to struggle reading nutrition labels, and plenty of research suggests that reducing the amount of “high-calorie, high-flavor” food that you find in most prepared meals is a successful way to reduce overeating.

Oh, and knowing how to throw together a tasty meal will come in handy on date night, whether you are a guy or a girl.

So you’re ready to learn how to cook? Awesome! Here are the basic guidelines. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Guest Post, Nutrition Tips

How to Make Raw Food Protein Bars: My First Daring Attempt

November 14, 2012 by 20 Comments

Home-made protein barsAbout a year ago, my lovely girlfriend surprised me with a pair of tickets to a raw food workshop out of town (she knows me so well).

It was an incredible workshop led by a raw food chef (who happened to be pregnant at the time) with more enthusiasm than I’ve ever been exposed to in my life.

She left quite an impression on me as she shared her craft and taught us how to make some killer raw food desserts.

And that impression kind of stuck with me.

As has the love for making awesome raw food meals. Ever since that workshop, I’ve been having sporadic moments of raw food cravings.

Cravings powerful enough to spark imagination. Cravings that force my girlfriend to get out her heavy-duty food processor and start performing some magic.

This past weekend was one of those days.

Out of nowhere, I had an indescribable urge to fulfill one of my life-long dreams:

To make my very own protein bars.

Here’s how I (ummm we) did it… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition Tips, Recipes

Why you Can’t Resist the Food That’s in Front of You

October 31, 2012 by 17 Comments

Can't Resist Food in Front of You Why is it so hard to resist food that’s in front of you?

You know the feeling I’m talking about…

The irresistible, un-suppressable feeling. The half-guilty half just-this-one-time feeling we get when we’re trying to decide whether the food in front of us will end up in our stomach or not.

The truth is it’s simply hard to say no.

And it’s not all your fault.

Resisting the food that’s in front of you is actually going against millions of years of human evolution and design.

From a biological perspective, you are designed to eat the food that’s in front of you.

Here’s why… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition Tips, Your Body

Why Exercise Can Make You Fat

September 26, 2012 by 51 Comments

exercise makes you fatAbout a month ago, a friend of mine told me he was going to try to lose some weight.

So he started Insanity.

He was willing to put himself through hell (that’s pretty much the definition of insanity, right?) to lose some weight and finally get lean.

I gotta admit, his intentions were great.

And I was happy to see him finally put his body first. That’s half the battle right there.

But there was only one problem… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition Tips

Stop with the Crunches and back away from the Sandwich

August 15, 2012 by 28 Comments

CrunchesThis may end up sounding like a bit of rant.

That’s because – maybe on some subconscious level – it is.

But there’s something I see. Something I continue to see over and over again.

And it’s something that continues to bother me and frustrate others.

Here’s the scenario…

I walk into the gym.

And what do I see?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition Tips

Intermittent Fasting for Beginners: The Complete Guide [Part 2]

April 30, 2012 by 31 Comments

This is a two part article series on intermittent fasting. If you haven’t done so yet, please take a few minutes to read Part 1 of the guide here. You’ll be happy you did.

Intermittent FastingRecall from Part 1 that intermittent fasting is the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food (and in some cases drink) for a period of time.

But how long is this ‘period of time’?

Well, it depends.

It depends on the fasting protocol you choose to follow.

Let’s dig into some details again… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Intermittent Fasting, Nutrition Tips

Intermittent Fasting for Beginners: The Complete Guide [Part 1]

April 25, 2012 by 14 Comments

This is a two part article series on intermittent fasting. I was forced to split it up due to its length. I hope you can get something useful from it :)

Please note that a lot of the information in this post is referenced from various sources, including Brad Pilon’s book Eat Stop Eat, Martin Berkhan’s website Leangains, Mark Scisson’s book Primal Blueprint and website Mark’s Daily Apple, and a number of other sources that I will reference as we go along. Enjoy!

Intermittent Fasting…

intermittent fasting

It’s kind of been the buzz word this past year, hasn’t it?

But the interest in it hasn’t seemed to die down one bit. I’m still getting tons of questions about the topic. People want to know what intermittent fasting is all about. They want to know how it works. They want to know if it works.

And, above all, they want to know if it can really help them build a better body.

I planned to write this post a long time ago, but I figured it would be wiser to let the dust settle a bit before I shared this.

If you’ve ever contemplated intermittent fasting, here’s your complete beginners guide.

Let’s get rolling… [Read more...]

Filed Under: Intermittent Fasting, Nutrition Tips

How Much Water Should I Drink a Day? The Truth Behind Water Consumption

April 4, 2012 by 25 Comments

hydration testHere’s a common question: How much water should I drink a day?

Hmmm. Well, we’ve all heard the same cookie-cutter advice…

You need to drink 8 glasses of water per day.

Right…

I mean, sure, water is important. But is it that important? Do you really need that much of it?

Well, since I’m naturally curious and I have some not-so-serious trust issues, I figured I would do some digging around and test things out for myself to finally uncover the truth behind water consumption.

Let’s just say the findings were beyond intriguing…

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Nutrition Tips
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