From lettuce to fruit, this is the season to enjoy salads. If you have any digestive issues (check your tongue, is it covered in a white film? Then you may) go easy on the crunchy stuff and stick to cooked salads and fruit salads. 

Don't worry if you haven't wiggled into your speedo's just yet... you have time!
This week is the last week and final phase; it's all about making the program your own.
I want you to keep your food portions realistic and the choices as pure as possible. 
For your activities, I don't want you to think of them as work outs but as lifestyle choices...

EVERY day you should be active. 
EVERY day you should be nourishing your body...
EVERY day you should be focused on your wellness. Don't let your wellness slide!


Remember that it can be hard to keep that vitality up but you CAN do it. You can make great choices and you can stick with it. If you falter, no biggie - just keep it going!

OK so this week I want you to add more beans to your diet. Beans, peanuts, raisins, blueberries, raspberries... and oats!  Oddly, no pun intended, I want you to run more :)
If you want to know WHY I want you to add the above, listen to Cucina Chatter with Lorraine Ranalli...we'll let you know there... it's worth the listen.

Now you are going to start a few seconds to a minute of a jog IF you can, to your walk. So walk five, then jog a few seconds to a minute.. then walk for a few more minutes, then jog again briefly. You want to get at least three spurts of  "jog" in there even if they are only a few seconds each.

Next week ...I'm giving you a break for Easter and Passover... however, please try to stick to the diet and fitness plan during that week. We'll resume soon after. Here is a song I love to keep me motivated and, it is great for a brisk walk OR a jog. (and get your inner Italiano on!)

You should be beginning to be speedo and bikini worthy soon!
Here is what we are working on this week.. if you need to make it "seven or eight weeks" to a speedo body THIS is the week you want to focus on staying with more...

Increase fluids
Increase veggies and fruits
LUNGE! BALANCE!  You've got get those legs ready and the core in shape even more...

Here is what you'll need to do - 
Focus on lunges to help you tighten those buns, legs and strengthen back and abs.

OK we are in week three. It's all about moving!

1.Get on a treadmill or get a pedometer and walk a mile a day at a brisk pace. 

2. Continue with Boat Pose.

3. Start push ups or plank posture

4.  Food: Remember that you are thinking of your plate as a bikini. Two triangles are for meat and carbs and the lower half of the plate is veggies.  Fruit and veggies  are now snack and desserts.

5. Add this! POTATO -CHICK PEA SOUP
Five potatoes diced
One can of rinsed chick peas
add chopped celery and a couple chopped carrots
a diced onion
spices with iodized salt.
water to your liking in the pot
and boil... then simmer.
Mash the potatoes  and chick peas a bit toward end- often, stir often and simmer. 

Let cool and put into small plastic freezable containers (serving size)

You have a soup now to go with almost every meal or, as a meal substitute or, as a snack.

This is an energy soup with protein and fills you up. It helps to hydrate you also.

Unless there is a strong, steady, horizontal wind from Japan to the East Coast, you won't need any pills, etc to "combat" the radiation. My inclination is to go into a thyroid rant here but I won't... buy my book "Fattitude: Lose your F in Attitude" instead; it's there.




However, here is what we do need to think about. 




1. BP leak. Still a mess, and we have conveniently forgotten about it even though most of the toxins are bio-accumulative, meaning, we are higher up on the food chain "yay" which means we will get hit worst "boo" with the toxins. So the flopping dead fish or the freakshow that may be hatching in the oceans from the leak, are just a snapshot of our future.  Just because we moved it around and made the mess less obvious doesn't mean it isn't as dangerous. 




2. The toxins now in the water from Japan, yea, we should worry. Same reasons as stated above. Some toxins are bio-accumulative.




3. Nuclear issues and water:  

  3a. Thermal = rush of warmer water = algae going ape crazy and decrease oxygen in the water, shorter life span for plants, less health of whatever lives in the water and you got it, more toxins;we may end up eating it. Or our children. It may find it's way into our cells. 




 3b. Migration. The stuff in the ocean already a mess from Japan ... the stuff that is alive. It won't be staying there long. It's infected (probably) and moving out. Maybe near us.




3c. Shock. Even the smallest temperature or water change can kill an organism or sea life. Ask the most careful adult or teen if they ever mistakenly killed a goldfish or beta fish; see what I mean? Now imagine a toxic dump in the ocean with water temp changes.  




 3d. Radioactive. "Slightly radioactive" is like "a little bit pregnant".  It isn't good and like pregnancy, there is a process and there is a result. However, there is radiation coming from earth naturally, there is cosmic radiation and this is not counting the medical radiation we've all encountered. That being said the amount that may release and distribute may be nothing. There is something like 80%+ percent of the radiation coming from Radon, and only 11% from medical... to give you an idea. Most of our issues from radiation are from below us already.




All of this means, again, we are fighting a toxic ecosystem and the more you focus on a healthy lifestyle the better. No need for emotional meltdowns nor being ignorantly bliss; just be smart, research the science behind what the media reports. Many people get mad at "the media" but there is no one stopping us from researching on our own. Make your own decisions upon what is right for you. 

Ahhh are you feeling like playing beach blanket bingo yet? 
It's week two of the Bikini and Speedo program for Cucina Chatter folks.. anyone can follow along!

This is a combination of  Fattitude and "spring fever" where we just let loose and have fun with getting well and in shape for the summer.

You are still working on your portions, and this week you are increasing your water intake. Winter dry days are behind us but now that the weather is warmer, you are moving more and even if you don't notice it, just a slightly warmer day will ignite a little drying out of your skin and cells. Drink up!  If you don't the body holds on to the closest water it has - fat! So drink so your body releases the fat.

Here is boat posture. VERY important not only for wellness and to avoid injury no matter what you do,  from sports to sitting at a desk all day; but having a strong core makes you look thinner and more fit. You stand a little taller, stand with better posture and have more muscle burning more calories -- all so that the speedo's and bikini's look like they were made for your body :)

Photos credits  istockphoto

Yes, by the time you are completed this six week program you can strut your stuff at the Jersey shore in a speedo if you wanted; but please, don't!
Just because you *can* doesn't mean you *should*.

This first week you should think of your plate as no bigger than a small speedo. If it is a large speedo, or a pair of bulky long swim trunks, that is too much food. Not a salad plate but yes, a smaller plate with smaller portions.
How do we remember smaller portions? Easy. Just think of the top of a string bikini. The left cup should be your meat. The right cup should be your carbs, like your pasta or potatoes. The bottom of the bikini should be your veggies.

Think of activities for your snacks. You are not to snack beach-ball size, but tennis ball size. You can have six snacks a day - the size of a tennis ball. However, they should be healthy snacks if possible. 
SO, three small meals a day with six portion controlled snacks.

Activity: Up your activity to 20-30 minutes a day.
That means if you are fit, you add 20 minutes to your program, and it can be in intervals of five minutes so by the end of the week, you work up to 20  or 30 minutes. 

If you don't work out at all, start with 5 or 10 minutes a day of  "something". Then add until you are at 20-30 minutes by the end of the week. You can do it!

Also, don't discount just a healthy, active lifestyle. It's warmer out - get out there and walk, flea market, do whatever you enjoy!

According to the Wall Street Journal, "The global wheat market is caught between freezing winds and a sirocco. Prices, up 13% since the start of December, likely will keep rising.

The freeze gripping a swath of the U.S. threatens winter wheat planted in the fall. The problem, believe it or not, is a lack of snow rather than too much. While those on the East Coast trudge through the stuff to work, some Midwestern areas haven't enough."