Happy Thanksgiving from everyone here at Northstar!

     The holiday season a common time to lose track of healthy habits. While we're spending time with family and friends this weekend, here are a few simple tips to make staying on track a little easier!

Slow-Cooked Chicken

Here’s a SUPER easy fitness dinner. It’s filled with muscle-building protein and dotted with fiber-rich veggies to keep you on track with your fitness goals.

Putting dinner in the slow cooker before you leave for work in the morning is one of the easiest ways to ensure that you’ll be eating a healthy dinner that night. This chicken breast comes out so tender that it literally falls apart—it’s delicious. Enjoy!

Courtesy of RealHealthyRecipes.com

What you need
Servings: 6

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small red onion, chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 lbs organic, boneless, skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper
12 dried figs, chopped
1 cup butternut squash, chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
2 Tablespoons fresh tarragon, chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh sage, chopped

Instructions

1. In a large skillet place the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes.

 Which type of exercise endurance training vs. strength training best decreases the risk for coronary disease?

We've been taught to exercise daily through endurance training to best decreases the risk for coronary disease.   But when look at all the components of energy metabolism we see that strength training in fact is superior in decreasing the risk for coronary disease (McGuff & Little, 2009). 

When exercising at a low-intensity steady-state an individual is not able to achieve complete glucose depletion which results in a reduced ability of these muscles to store glucose.  Glucose storing capacity is reduced when glucose elimination is incomplete and leads to extra glucose in the bloodstream.  This extra glucose in the bloodstream will be diverted to fat cells which in turn increases the risk of developing coronary disease.  Endurance training such as running, for example, does not facilitate complete glucose depletion and thus decreases...

We've been taught that to get the best heart health, you need to go all out cardio to do so.  That's great when you are younger, but once life started getting in the way, the intensity slowly decreased.  Or you were injured trying to get back in shape. 

Now you yearn for the days when you were full of life, free to do what you liked, and wanting to break free of the chains of fad diets.  

Could it be that we were taught incorrectly, or that what you were taught didn't apply to your body type, capabilities, and fitness level?  Well, there's a new kid on the block, and it's making all the difference.  

The key is resistance training, but not just any.  It is resistance training that matches who you are, what you can do.  Safely.  And the results is a superior heart and physical health.  It's what will allow you to turn back that clock and allow you to live decades younger, not worry about fad diets, and let you be...

Stubborn areas of fat are pesky, and it always seems to happen in the wrong places!  

You may have wanted to diet to lose those pesky pounds to tone up, but unfortunately, that dieting may be what's causing it.  When your body goes on a diet, it gets into starvation mode.  This causes a couple things to occur.  1) Your body will more readily consume lean muscle to provide the energy before it burns the fat.  2) As that lean muscle is what burns those calories, your metabolism starts to slow. 3) As it slows, the food you do eat more easily turns to fat.   

Additionally, other factors like stress are contributors to keeping the fat on.  I recently sat down with Anna Slaback from Essential Habits for Wellness, and she states, "One of the biggest reasons why we see fat stored more readily in the gut is because of cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone that is released when we are in a state of stress. "   When that stress is prolonged, the body...

Feeling stressed? Most people are these days.

The past couple of months have been filled with new levels of stress as we’ve all dealt with the coronavirus pandemic.

But you don’t have to let stress get the best of you.

When stress is getting you down, you need something that makes you feel good and is good for you.

I’m talking about exercise!

Every time you exercise you increase your body’s production of endorphins.  But not just any exercise will do.   Often walking and other forms of cardio aren't sufficient to take off the edge.  And if you are stressed, trying to get out to exercise alone is often a one way street to not doing it at all.

In case you have forgotten, endorphins are responsible for those good moods you get into after a race and the pleasure you feel while chomping down on a piece of chocolate.

However, before you grab a piece of chocolate and skip your workout, remember the end result of each and choose which one will...

This recipe for Turkey Meatballs with Pine Nuts is great to make on the weekend, to fill your fridge with healthy snacking options for the week. You could also make a batch of hardboiled eggs and slice some cucumbers while the meatballs bake. These healthy snacks are all low in carbs and sugar – the two things that your snacks should never contain.

Taking control of your snack foods is key to getting on track with your fitness results.

Courtesy of Real Healthy Recipes

What you need
Servings: 12

1 cup blanched almond flour
½ cup nutritional yeast, or Parmesan cheese
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
¼ cup coconut cream, or half and half
1 Tablespoon ketchup
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon minced garlic
½ cup yellow onion, finely chopped
½ cup pine nuts
2 lbs ground turkey
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a...

If you've ever wonder why you mindlessly munch later at night, you are not alone.  Experts say this is not uncommon occurrence, and may not be driven off hunger alone.  And this is limited to late evening, but can occur throughout the day.

Snacking more at night can also be due to other factors, such as what you did during the day. 

• If you are dehydrated throughout the day, your body could result in feeling hungry.  In this case, it is best to have a glass of water to first address your body's desire to refill itself.  And by drinking water, you will not only rehydrate, but your body will naturally feel more full.  
• If you had a calorie deprivation, meaning you did not eat enough, your body may be calling for more calories.  Remember, your body doesn't immediately register your calories, so by going on a restricted amount for extended time, this can lead to your body eating more than it needs.
• Stress.  If you have had a stressful day,...

Our clients are successful in life.  They continuously choose the things that improve their lives for the better.  

They also deal with a lot of stress, in their job, at home, and all that life-getting-in-the-way stress. 

So, what is the secret that they know about handling that stress and being successful?

From the physical well-being, one key is to know what stress does.  When you have stress, your cortisol levels rise, giving you that response to react to things in a certain way.  The challenge is, when we are under stress, we tend to make rash decisions, we get headaches, tightness in our muscles and neck, our breathing shortens.  Over time, it leads to adrenal fatigue, and you tire easily, lack energy and drive and can become sad and depressed.

When under stress, you can also be tempted to stop taking care of yourself.  You give in, stop being at the top of your game, binge eat, drink more alcohol.  You stop being your successful self....

Ever get the winter chills and hate living in the cold?  Have you ever wondered why you get more chilled as you get older?  For those of you who have, there's hope. 

Traditionally, brown fat was thought to be the body’s main thermostat that insulated and generated heat to keep the body warm.

 “Our findings demonstrate for the first time that muscle, which accounts for 40 per cent of body weight in humans, can generate heat independent of shivering,” says Muthu Periasamy of Ohio State University in Columbus.

Surviving the chill

Through experiments on mice that had their usual thermostat – brown fat – surgically removed, Periasamy and his colleagues proved that a protein called sarcolipin helps muscle cells keep the body warm by burning energy, almost like an idling motor car, even if the muscles do not contract.

All of the mice had their brown fat removed, but some of them had been genetically engineered to lack sarcolipin too. These...