It's not just a shake, it's nutrition Loaded with all the good stuff!!

watch this video to learn more about blood sugar levels and what Shakeology can do for you compared to food found in the store.

Shakeology and the Glycemic Index

Figuring out where to start

	INSANITY®	Shaun T	30–60 minutes	Transform your body in 60 days with the most intense workout program ever put on DVD.	MAX Interval Training—you perform long bursts of maximum-intensity exercise with short periods of rest.
	TurboFire®	Chalene Johnson	10–55 minutes	Burn up to 9x more fat and calories than with traditional cardio.	High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) ignites your metabolism and helps your body burn calories for up to 48 hours after your workout.
	Brazil Butt Lift®	Leandro Carvalho	30–50 minutes	Reduce your hips, slim your thighs, and lift your butt while you burn fat and melt away saddlebags.	Combines Brazilian dance, cardio, and signature sculpting moves with Leandro's proven TriAngle Training method that works your butt from multiple angles.
	Hip Hop Abs®	Shaun T	25–45 minutes	Calorie-burning cardio and total-body sculpting focused on abs and core.	Fun hip hop dance moves set to hot music to burn fat and sculpt lean sexy abs.
	Turbo Jam®	Chalene Johnson	20–45 minutes	Calorie burning and total-body sculpting focused on abs and thighs.	Kickboxing and body sculpting to the hottest tunes to burn more calories than almost any other exercise.
	Power 90®	Tony Horton	35–45 minutes	Fat burning and total-body sculpting focused on abs, thighs, and upper body.	90-day boot camp featuring fast and effective circuit-training workouts to transform your body in as little as 35 minutes a day.
	Hip Hop Abs®	Shaun T	25–45 minutes	Calorie-burning cardio and total-body sculpting focused on abs and core.	Fun hip hop dance moves set to hot music to burn fat and sculpt lean sexy abs.
	Body Gospel®	Donna Richardson Joyner	10–45 minutes	Calorie-burning cardio, core exercises, and strength training to tone and tighten your entire body.	Inspirational gospel music powers you through cardio and light resistance workouts to help burn fat and reshape your body.
	RevAbs™	Brett Hoebel	15–45 minutes	Fat-burning cardio, muscle-building and sculpting focused on abs and core.	Abcentrics™, Capoeira, cardio intervals, strength training, and ab/core work to get you six-pack abs in 90 days.
	Turbo Jam® Fat Burning Elite	Chalene Johnson	30–50 minutes	Advanced kickboxing and body-sculpting moves focused on core, thighs, and upper body.	More intense targeted workouts to maximize your fat-burning and sculpting results.
	Power 90®	Tony Horton	35–45 minutes	Fat burning and total-body sculpting focused on abs, thighs, and upper body.	90-day boot camp featuring fast and effective circuit-training workouts to transform your body in as little as 35 minutes a day.
	P90X® Plus	Tony Horton	20–45 minutes	The next level of advanced total-body training to get you ripped beyond belief.	Intense new cardio, muscle chiseling, and ab-/core-ripping moves to incorporate with P90X to ramp up your results.
	Turbo Jam® Fat Burning Elite	Chalene Johnson	30–50 minutes	Advanced kickboxing and body-sculpting moves focused on core, thighs, and upper body.	More intense targeted workouts to maximize your fat-burning and sculpting results.
	Rockin' Body®	Shaun T	15–45 minutes	Calorie-burning cardio and full-body sculpting moves.	Party off the pounds as you dance and sweat to the hottest hits of all time.
	INSANITY:THE ASYLUM™	Shaun T	45–60 minutes	Get stronger, faster, and quicker in just 30 days.	Unleash your inner world-class athlete through plyometrics, speed, agility, strength, and core workouts in a jaw-dropping series of progressions. In just 30 days, you'll push yourself to the next level of game-day readiness with dramatic, measurable improvements in your athletic performance.

Preparing a Fiesta?!

Delicious and Healthy Mexican Food

Overstuffed burritos, deep-fried chimichangas, and greasy enchiladas smothered in cheese are prominently featured on the menus of most Mexican restaurants in the United States. In reality, however, genuine Mexican cuisine is very different. Colorful vegetables, flavorful salsas, grilled seafood, whole grains, and a variety of beans make up the backbone of the authentic Mexican diet.

Here are some ways to incorporate the bountiful variety of flavors of Mexican cuisine into your diet, in a way that's designed to help you lose weight and maintain good nutrition.

Avoid fat and fried foods. Some common Mexican dishes like refried beans are traditionally made with lard. Eating your pinto beans whole (instead of mashed and refried) and simmering them in water or broth (instead of lard), or replacing the lard with minimal amounts of olive oil, can make a huge difference. It may be hard to resist the basket of fried tortilla chips that appears (and keeps magically refilling) on your Mexican restaurant table. However, you can ask for baked tortilla chips or whole-corn tortillas to dip into your salsa instead.

It's also really easy to make your own baked tortilla chips at home. Just cut up corn tortillas into triangular wedges. Lay them out on a baking sheet and spray with a bit of olive oil cooking spray. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven until crispy for just 12 to 15 minutes, flipping once so both sides crisp evenly.

Choose whole grains. Either corn or whole wheat flour tortillas can be the foundation for a delicious Mexican fiesta. They have less fat, fewer calories, and more fiber than their white-flour cousins. Choosing 6-inch tortillas over 10-inch ones can also help you with portion control.

Embrace rice and beans. There's a reason why rice and beans are the other staples of Mexican diets. Black, pinto, and kidney beans are high in protein, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and fiber. As previously mentioned, whole beans simmered in water or broth instead of refried are also naturally low in calories.

To cook Mexican rice at home with little or no fat, sauté some chopped onions, garlic, and a bit of jalapeño (if you want that extra heat) in a pan with just a bit of olive oil. Add uncooked rice and sauté a bit longer. Add some low-fat chicken or vegetable broth and chopped fresh tomatoes and simmer until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked through and fluffy, about 20 minutes. Voilá! Delicious and nutritious rice that's convenient and easy to make. Use brown rice instead of white for whole-grain goodness.

Go with fish—and make it grilled. Along the coastal towns and fishing villages of Mexico and Baja, people eat healthy seafood fresh from the sea. We can embrace that sunny, relaxed lifestyle by eating tacos filled with tasty fish that's grilled (not fried), enjoying ceviche prepared with plenty of lemon or lime juice, or baking a tilapia fillet topped with spices.

Get spicy. Speaking of spices, Mexican cuisine has yet another bonus: It's full of some truly delightful spices and other flavorings, which can help you avoid adding extra salt to your diet. Although your typical Mexican restaurant meal may be loaded with sodium, you don't have to eat that way for a flavorful south-of-the-border-inspired meal. The staples of Mexican cooking include chili powder, oregano, cumin, cilantro, and chili peppers. And remember that hot peppers are a super metabolism booster. Even if you have a delicate palate, you can turn down the heat while still getting the benefits of these peppers by removing the seeds and veins, where most of the heat lives. Lime juice, another staple in adding authentíco flavors, is another great way of enhancing flavor without upping the sodium content.

Sample a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. Mexico is blessed with some of the most delicious fruits and vegetables in the world. Tropical fruits like papayas and guavas, as well as a variety of peppers and squashes, grow abundantly in the hot, sunny climate.

A typical Mexican street-cart food is often just a bunch of fruits (like mangos, pineapples, papayas, watermelon, or honeydew) and vegetables (including cucumbers and jicama) that have been sliced and seasoned with lime juice and chili powder. You can easily prepare this dish yourself for a delicious and nutritious afternoon snack, at home, at work, or for a road trip.

Don't forget salsas and salads. Let's not forget the soul of Mexican cuisine—salsa! There's a seemingly endless variety of salsas that can be made from tomatoes, tomatillos, garlic, onions, peppers, limes, and more. The more colorful the salsa, the more nutritious it'll be. The good news is that freshly made salsa is good for you, so you can pile as much as you want on your tortillas, grilled fish, or salad.

And an easy way to make a nice Mexican salad is to get a bowl of mixed greens and toss in some corn, cooked black beans, and a few chopped avocados (but don't overdo it, since avocados, while nutritious, are high in calories), then top everything with a generous serving of your favorite salsa. If you like, add some slices of grilled chicken or a few grilled shrimp. There you have it—lunch!

One Day At A Time

I'm motivated today! Why? B/c I'm reading and watching all the great The Bombshell DYNASTY!'s  "WHY".  It's been tough to stay motivated during this 1st month of P90x, but I make myself continue on an pushing PLAY b/c I have such a great support system and I know one day soon (may be 2 months from now) that I will be that much closer to where and who I want to be.

• I CHALLENGE everyone on my friends list and in the SUMMER SLIM-DOWN CHALLENGE to do 1 thing today that brings you closer to your Dream! When your done post about about on my wall, your wall, or one of the support groups! Share your motivation, drive, and struggles with everyone!
  
  Free motivation, nutritional advice, and guidance from your favorite person :o)

Summer is Here!

7 Substitutes for Diet-Killing Picnic Foods

It's almost summertime, which brings the incongruous collision of picnic season and swimsuit season. The weather's perfect for hiking, camping, barbecuing, and days at the beach—lots of opportunities for outdoor exercise, but just as many opportunities to pig out at pool parties, luaus, outdoor festivals, and county fairs. Here are some foods to try avoiding during the dog days of summer, and some ideas for substitutions for picnic favorites.

1. Fried chicken. It's not the K or the C in KFC^® that's the problem; it's the F, which stands for fried. And if you have any desire to stay slim this summer, it's time to tell the Colonel you're "kicking the bucket." One extra-crispy KFC breast will run you 510 calories and 33 grams of fat, 7 of them saturated. That's nearly three times the calories of a home-grilled skinless chicken breast, and almost 15 times as much fat—more than nine times the saturated fat alone. So you're clearly better off cooking the chicken yourself. But if you're grabbing something on the run, KFC does have a grilled chicken breast option, or you might want to visit the rotisserie case at your local supermarket—if you go there, try picking a chicken that's not slathered in sugary barbecue sauce. Either way, make sure you remove the skin—that's where you'll find a lot of the fat and calories.
2. Sandwiches. A picnic without sandwiches is like a picnic without ants. It just wouldn't be the same. But of course the sandwich is only as good as its ingredients. If you're using white bread, you're just eating empty carbohydrates. Make sure you buy whole-grain bread, and that it has the word "whole" in the ingredient list. Wheat bread is essentially the same as white bread, only with a little molasses added for brown coloring. It's nutritionally the same, if not worse. Whole wheat bread, on the other hand, contains the fiber and the vitamins you're looking for. For lunch meat, try avoiding processed meats like bologna and salami. They're packed with extra fat and sodium. And when buying unprocessed meats like turkey or roast beef, make sure they really are unprocessed. The makers of some brands of turkey grind up the skin and dark meat and then press it into lunch meat form, so you're really getting as much fat and sodium as you'd get from bologna. Watch out for flavored turkey as well. Most of the time the secret ingredient is salt. If you want to be really healthy, buy a whole turkey breast from your market's poultry section and roast it yourself, so you can control the amount of salt you add.
3. Brats and burgers. It's always great to fire up the grill and start cooking up a mess of meat. And the good news is that grilling is one of the healthiest ways to cook food. It adds tons of flavor without adding fat. Of course, the best thing to grill would be skinless chicken or fish, or vegetables. But if you're craving a juicy burger or brat and a portobello burger just won't do, there are still some decisions you can make to keep things on the lean side.
   
   For burgers, consider a leaner option than beef, like ground turkey or buffalo. But as always, check the label. Some ground turkey has as much fat as fatty ground beef. Ground turkey breast is usually much leaner than ground turkey that's either dark meat or mixed dark and white meat. If you've decided to go ahead and make beef burgers, try to find some that has the lowest fat content available, less than 5 percent if possible. Ground sirloin is usually pretty close. If you can't find a grind that's low enough in fat, ask your butcher to grind a lean piece of chuck roast or top sirloin for you. In addition to being leaner, this will also reduce your chances of picking up food-borne illnesses like E. coli, since only one cow is involved in producing a steak, as opposed to potentially hundreds in ground beef. In fact, if you're someone who likes to eat your burger rare, having the butcher grind a piece of meat for you is a must.
   
   Bratwurst is another delicious summer fave, but watch the fat and sodium content in these as well. The chicken, turkey, and even veggie versions of sausage sound like they'd be lighter, but they're often just as fatty as the pork versions.
4. Potato or macaroni salad. The culprit in these two picnic staples? Mayonnaise. At 5 grams of fat and more than 50 calories per tablespoon, mayonnaise is the element of these side dishes that'll sidetrack your diet. But you can mitigate the damage somewhat by replacing the mayonnaise with nonfat yogurt, or you could try whirling some nonfat cottage cheese or nonfat ricotta cheese in a food processor to give it a creamier texture. You'll get fewer calories and less fat—plus by going eggless, you'll lessen your risk of salmonella. Another way to make potato salad healthier is to leave the skin on, as they contain the spud's fiber and most of its vitamins. For macaroni salad, you can boost fiber by using whole-grain pasta. Make either salad tastier and better for you with heart-healthy olive oil, vinegar, and lots of veggies.
5. Baked beans. Beans, beans, the musical fruit . . . well, you know the rest. Full of fiber and low in fat, beans are a great side dish that'll help you feel full. What you want to watch out for is the sugar that's added to most baked beans—sometimes a tablespoon or more in a cup. Try plain pinto beans, or my favorite, beans canned with jalapeños. Replace high-calorie sweet with low-calorie fire and you won't even miss the sugar. Three-bean salad is another flavorful way to consume your legumes without a lot of added fat or sugar.
6. Trail mix. Summer's a great time for checking out nature, and it's always great to bring along a healthy snack like trail mix. But check the ingredients. Some trail mixes, especially those that contain granola, can be loaded with fat and super-unhealthy hydrogenated oils. There are trail mixes on the market that have more fat than a large order of fast-food fries, so it's definitely a "buyer beware" situation. Also check out how much sugar is in the trail mix or granola bars you take backpacking. Some bars aren't much healthier than a Snickers^®. If the ingredients in your trail mix include chocolate chips and marshmallows, you may not have made the healthiest choice. Try making your own trail mix with healthy unsweetened oats, nuts, and dried fruit. Or take along a couple of P90X^® Peak Performance Protein Bars.
7. Ice cream. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. And we'll really be screaming when we try to stuff ourselves into our swimsuits after eating everyone's favorite fatty, frosty indulgence. It's hard to resist a cool ice cream cone on a hot summer day, and the tinkling of the ice cream truck bell can still make me want to bolt into the street. But depending on scoop size (which can average from 1/2 cup to a full cup or more), that scoop of vanilla can have upwards of 400 calories and as much as 25 grams of fat, up to 15 of them saturated. If you're culinarily gifted, you might consider making your own sorbet. If not, check out some of the ones available on the market. Sorbets are usually low-fat or nonfat, although they can still have tons of sugar. Try to find some that are mostly fruit. Speaking of fruit, for a healthy frozen treat, how about sticking some fruit in the freezer? Most fruits, especially berries, grapes, and bananas, freeze quite well. They'll last longer and popping a few frozen grapes in your mouth can cool you off on a hot day and you'll still get all the vitamins, fiber, and health benefits that a Creamsicle^® just can't provide.