Nutrition Archives | Heather Palmer

Join The Connection with Heather Palmer

by Heather

What kind of habits could you start &/or break in 4 weeks? Think of eating, mindset, balance between all the things we ladies do in a day, just imagine what could happen in 4 weeks.

This spring is your chance to go all in for 4 weeks, this is your chance to join the connection with Heather Palmer ( aka me).

Join the Connection with Heather Palmer

With so much going on in your life, it’s hard to find time to be good to yourself. That’s why Jericho McMatthews and Elise Joan created a program designed to bring more balance and joy into your life—and help you get in great shape. FIRE AND FLOW takes the stress out of getting healthy and fit. For 4 weeks, you’ll alternate between Jericho’s high-intensity strength and
cardio FIRE workouts and Elise’s low-impact, body-shaping FLOW workouts. Each one is only 25–30 minutes. The goal is to work you out, not burn you out!
By the end, Jericho and Elise will help train your body to be active, as well as help train your mind to embrace new opportunities, release anxiety, and quiet the self-judgment.

We will also be learning & applying how to reduce inflammation in our bodies with foods to rid our bodies of the bloat, gas, irregular bowel movements that will help with better moods & sleep & energy.

What makes FIRE AND FLOW unique?

• Workouts are only 25–30 minutes, 6 days a week, with 1 rest day.
• The unique schedule alternates high-intensity FIRE days with low impact FLOW days to help you go hard but have enough time to help you recover and feel rejuvenated.
• Show yourself major love with the FIRE AND FLOW 4-Week Journal. Containing 5-minute self-care prompts and a handy habit tracker, this journal is part inspiration, part creator of healthy routines. Fill it out daily to hype you up and give your mental health a boost!
• The program also includes 4 FIRE and 4 FLOW bonus workouts that focus on abs, glutes, arms, and flexibility. These can be stacked onto any workout.

What are the FIRE AND FLOW workouts like?

• Jericho’s strength and cardio FIRE workouts help sculpt muscle, boost your metabolism, carve definition, and torch calories through metabolic conditioning.
• Elise’s FLOW workouts are important to your fitness and recovery—they bring balance to your workout routine by helping you build core strength, improve mobility and stability, and reduce stress.
• Workouts include modifiers and intensifiers. Whether you’re just getting back into working out or you crave a hardcore sweat, FIRE AND FLOW lets you do you.
• Equipment needs: light, medium, and heavy dumbbells and Resistance Loops ( you can order the loops through me)
• Optional equipment: mat

Nutrition is KEY and we will be tackling this head on. We will learn what foods can cause inflammation & bloat. We will learn how to eat and when. Recipes & more out the wazoo for you.

What's Included

Access to the Fire & Flow workouts along with membership to the full library for 12 months
me 1:1 for coaching & support.
Access to a private group for community & encouragement, a journal for mindset, and more…
A kickstart at healthier eating habits that start with learning what foods cause discomfort, bloat & gas
The possibility of weight loss
A greater shift in your mindset on your being as a whole.

KEY DATES!

I will be hosting 2 separate private groups. Join 1 or both.

TEST GROUP WITH HEATHER

Prep week starts Monday, May 30 and will run for 5 weeks

VIP GROUP WITH HEATHER

Prep week begins June 27 and will run for 5 weeks

You are going to click this button below, which will open up a google form, fill it out for prices, dates, access to the sample workout when it comes equipment, goals, to be put on the must have it now list & I will be in touch with all the details.

Nutrition

One Ingredient That Should Be Eliminated

by Heather

One Ingredient That Should Be Eliminated

When I was trying to go from obese to healthy & nothing was working, I was frustrated! I was told it was all about calories.. but it so is not! Losing weight & keeping it off isn’t always about the calories. It’s what the calories are made up of that counts. A lesson I learned the hard way. There was 1 of 4 ingredients that kept popping up in my “healthy” food choices that I began to research. This is the One Ingredient That Should Be Eliminated from what you eat starting today.

Let's Talk Seed Oils

Let’s talk SEED OILS

Did you know most of our packaged foods contain seed oils. And that these oils are very high in polyunsaturated fatty acids which promote inflammation & the accumulation of toxins in the body. In simple terms – very bad for our hormones, weight issues & brain function.

Too many of them contain additives & are processed with hexane chemicals – sometimes even petroleum. Most of the plants used have been GMO’d which is a whole other ball of fire. These oils were originally created for either a fuel source or used in soap. Formerly called toxic waste – these seed oils now show up in way too many foods we consume daily.

Common seed oils are:
•Soybean oil
•Corn oil
•Cottonseed oil
•Canola oil
•Rapeseed oil
•Sunflower oil
•Sesame oil
•Grapeseed oil
And let’s not forget cooking spray, and good old fashioned vegetable oil.

I encourage you to begin read your labels, leave at the grocery store any foods that contain these & begin to make healthy swaps. It surprised me that my beloved peanut butter contained them, so I began to make some choices to better my health & that is when the weight started coming off easily.

My 2 favorite oils to use now are avocado & coconut. A little tip – when I bake I use avocado oil instead of vegetable & my baking is way more fluffier & lighter. And I even found an avocado oil spray for those sticky pans I have.

When you begin to eliminate seed oils from your daily food intake BIG healthy changes are going to start happening to your body & yes, your waist could get smaller without even trying. #justsaying

Nutrition, Virtual Fit Gym

Month of Macros

by Heather

Month of Macros with Heather Palmer

Seven years it took me to lose 45 pounds. I tried EVERYTHING. I restricted everything, ran all the miles and still nothing happened. It wasn’t until I discovered the secret. MACRONUTRIENTS. So this July, 2021 I am going to share everything on how I released the weight & have kept it off 4 years & counting. July is going to be the Month of Marcos.

You in? Space is limited.

What will You Get?

Well, beside how to eat all the foods you love with no restriction or cutting out you will learn how to fuel your body correctly, and begin to lose the weight & learn how to keep it off.

We start July 4, 2021 & each week that month we will have a different focus:

Learn all about Calories
Apply customized macro tracking to your plan
Learn about how to balance what we eat
An introduction into Intermittent Fasting

We will talk supplements as that is a hot topic, you will get access to 80+ full length workout programs to choose from, there will be daily accountability, tracking what you eat for the month is a must and yes I will teach you how, and progress photos will be taken as the scale tends to lie.

There will be no cutting out foods, or restriction on food groups, you want to eat carbs – let me teach you how to enjoy them and still lose weight! #trustme

It is time to ditch the diet, live your life and be the healthiest version of you possible.

Space is limited, you must email me right now at heathersrunningdiary@gmail.com with the subject line MONTH OF MACROS. Deadline is June 25.

Nutrition, Virtual Fit Gym

Unleash the Inner Athlete

by Heather

Unleash the Inner Athlete

Strength. Power. Visible results. Training that respects the body and your well-being. Created by Amoila Cesar – 645 is the commitment that changes everything. It is time to unleash the inner athlete within you.

But before we can run, we gotta learn to walk and that is what this virtual group is all about. We start in June and will end in November. The commitment isn’t for the faint of heart but it’s for you. The person who always quits, gives up or walks away. THIS IS FOR YOU.

645 is the Program we are working towards

But we must learn to walk first:

June 1, 2021 our virtual group opens for anyone interested.

June 6 we begin one week of prep. We will learn all about our trainer Amoila Cesar, nutrition plans, tools we will need & even do a few sample workouts to get a flavor for what we are working towards

June 14 we begin 2 weeks of 4 Weeks of the Prep ( see below for a description)

June 28 we will begin 6 Weeks of the Work ( again see below for more)

August 9 we will begin 645.

This will take us just past Halloween. You can join us for 1 or pieces of this online group. My goal is to stay to the end, commit to myself and do it all. You with me? I sure hope so.

Unleash the Inner Athlete

4 Weeks of THE PREP is inspired by the same kinds of functional training regimens Amoila creates for his private clientele. However, 4 Weeks of THE PREP has shorter workouts and modifications for every move to help you get your body and mind ready for Amoila’s advanced training.

5 days a week, you’ll do a 30- to 40-minute workout designed to help you gain muscle and torch fat— all while preparing you to take on Amoila’s more advanced training. While these workouts include modifications for every move and are not as intense as the ones in 6 Weeks of THE WORK, you’ll still have to give Amoila your all every single day if your goal is to get to 6 Weeks of the Work which comes next.

You’ll also get one crucial active repair day and one rest day each week. These are intended to both help your body recover and enhance your mobility.

6 Weeks of the Wrok

6 Weeks of THE WORK is training like you’ve never experienced before. It’s six weeks of unforgiving workouts designed by Amoila Cesar, one of the world’s most sought-after trainers in professional sports, to help you gain muscle, torch fat, and get in the best shape of your life. This program isn’t a walk in the park—not by a long shot. But if you want the results, you gotta do THE WORK.

6 Weeks of THE WORK is cutting-edge functional training designed to help you build real-world strength that translates beyond the gym. In six weeks, you won’t just be leaner, but you’ll also be stronger,more agile and mobile, and see improvements in your performance in everyday life—all while strengthening your mental game.

Five days a week, you’ll do a butt-kicking 45-minute workout. Sweat will drip, your muscles will burn, and your stamina will be tested, but if you want results, you’ve got to commit and hustle every single day. As the weeks go by, Amoila will crank up the intensity by adding new moves and progressing the moves you’ve learned. You’ll also get one crucial active repair day and one rest day each week.

Unleash the Inner Athlete

Amoila Cesar has cracked the code training professional athletes to get the most out of their workouts without jeopardizing their game-time performance.

His secret? Don’t overtrain. It’s the model for his revolutionary new program: 645.

645 combines strength training, cardio, and mobility work using functional, powerful moves that will target your entire body, and still leave you feeling invigorated, energized, and ready for anything.

Commit to Amoila for 13 weeks, and he’ll help you build a legit fit body without feeling constantly sore and spent.

645 is 6 days a week, 45 minutes a day, for 13 weeks.

What's Included

A year’s membership to the full library

VIP/Early Access to 645

Membership to Nutrition+ to help you in the eating game which leads to BODi

Monthly superfoods &/or performance supplements to up your game

Full access to our virtual group with complete support, accountability & encouragement

Full access to my coaching 1:1

Full access to my members only tool box that contains the HUTT diet, meal plans, meal prepping & more

Even if it’s just for prep week to get the info to make a decision, email me right now at heathersrunningdiary@gmail.com with the subject line UNLEASH ME! and let’s talk price, commitment & goals.

Nutrition

Healthy Supplements 101

by Heather

In the world of healthy, the topic of supplements will come up. And the info on them is like a rabbit hole – never ending. Seriously, you can get lost and overwhelmed with the info out there. The why, how, when & more. I want to take this post to talk to you about healthy supplements 101 based off of what I use & why.

** Just a heads up, there will be outbound links to products, some do provide a commission back to me if you choose to purchase**

Healthy Supplements 101

I used to think supplements were for those big, hairy muscle dudes who kissed their biceps more then anything. And there was no way I ever wanted to look like that so I stayed clear of them. And maybe once upon a time that was the case. But today, the options are endless. But let’s break this down first.

A supplement is something that completes or enhances something else when added to it.

Now, I am a HUGE believer that 95% of your nutrition should come from whole, clean foods. Not a powder or gelatin capsule. A supplement should fill in the nutritional gaps of the food you are eating due to the fact that you can’t find those foods, those foods taste gross ( hello kale) or would increase your monthly budget 10fold just trying to get the real food intake from those ingredients.

Yes, I am against meal replacement shakes, diet pills & fat burners. Those products do not help you one bit. If all you take is meal replacement shakes, what do you do when you hit your goal weight? You have not learned how to eat proper real food & most likely will gain all & more of the weight you lost back.

And when you are looking at adding a supplement to your eating plan, ingredients should be your focus, not a carb/protein count. Let me explain. Here is my healthy supplements 101.

When I first began to take a pre-workout supplement all I cared about what was the carb count. But then I learned to look at the ingredients and the brand I was using was filled with fillers, artificial everything & nothing natural. Why would I put garbage into my body? I began to make a shift and look at ingredients and the source of those ingredients before I would purchase any supplement.

My daily food plan puts me about 1800 calories ( & that is in losing fat mode). The bulk of my calories come from whole foods: loads of veggies, quality meat sources & topped off with healthy fats.

But we live in an age of mass produced food ( veggies & fruits included) and the soil in which many of our plants grow are not as nutrient dense as they once were. If you follow me on Instagram for any amount of time you will go grocery shopping a few times with me & learn how I pick my veggies & fruit for their nutrients. ALWAYS READ YOUR LABELS, & look up the farms online to see what is really going on. You truly are what you eat and also what you are eating ate.

My Stack of Supplements

On the days I work out, I book end my workouts with a pre & post workout supplement.

My pre workout ( I like the lemon best as the other flavors have beet flour & that irritates my IBS) is formulated with key ingredients to help:*
• Boost energy and endurance
• Improve exercise performance
• Sharpen focus and reaction time
• Increase muscle power output
• Delay exercise-induced muscle fatigue

It contains Beta- Alanine, low dose caffeine from green tea & Quercetin ( a phytonutrient found in many fruits and vegetables. A strong yellow color indicates higher levels and higher purity)

I just wish I knew about this product when I ran track. Oh that would have been a game changer for me!

15 calories and taken within 30 minutes of me starting my workout for optimum performance.

Then after my workout is a post protein smoothie. When you’re too sore from your workouts, it’s much harder to be consistent with your program. Recover takes advantage of the critical post-workout window to help combat exercise-induced muscle soreness, speed muscle recovery, support muscle growth, and improve strength recovery.

The brand I take helps:

• Speed muscle recovery
• Combat exercise-induced muscle soreness
• Reduce muscle breakdown
• Promote lean-muscle growth
• Improve adaptation to exercise
• Improve muscle strength recovery
• Support muscle glycogen recovery

Key ingredients are Pomegranate extract, 20 grams of time-released protein & Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). Tastes like a chocolate milk shake.

I hate when I run out and it’s a weight lifting day. This stuff is gold!

Now I am a HUGE coffee drinker. I like the taste & the warm feeling it brings. And I figured if I was going to drink coffee all day long I might as well make it healthier for me. I generally drink my coffee black. It took me years to go from a double double to black. But once a day I add some collagen, MCT oil & protein to my mug to give me a little extra help.

Collagen – the one I take is flavorless and works with your skin, hair & nails.

Collagen is the main structural protein in the body. It makes up 25 to 35 percent of our total protein content in the form of connective tissue like tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bones, and about 75 percent of your skin. Collagen works side by side with another protein called elastin: Collagen fills out your skin, while elastin helps your skin “snap back” when stretched.

It’s flavorless and mixes well in my hot coffee. #winwin

MCT Oil. I actually get mine from Costco. Medium Chain Triglycerides. Again it’s flavorless and a squirt into my mug is all I need. It helps with fat burning, but also provides a healthy fat for my brain and I experience less brain fog during my day as a result.

And I do add a flavorless protein to my coffee. I am in the process of building muscle which means I need a bit more protein in my diet and this powder once a day helps boost the amount of protein in keeping my calorie count in check. I like this one for a few reasons:

Canadian company
Grass fed
Inexpensive
Flavorless as I like the taste of my actual coffee
& available on Amazon so it’s door delivery when I need it

What about a Multi Vitamin?

It’s a hard balance between getting all the nutrients you need & keeping your calories in check. I aim to get most of my nutrients from veggies & animal products but with depleted soils most of our food just does not have the nutrient base it once did.

I used to take upwards of 30+ vitamins & minerals all in capsule form every day. The additional monthly cost was HUGE, I had no idea if I was taking the right combination, if they were being digested or peed out, if what i was taking was actually what I needed and then the confusion of brand, quality & nutritional value came into play. The gelatin most came in was actually upsetting my stomach A LOT, I was feeling oogie after that many pills, and I can’t take pills without liquid and water mixed with all those was a recipe for disaster in my digestive system. I am thankful I have found a top up of dense nutrition that literally tops up my food and keeps my calories in balance. You can use it as a shake, I like it with coconut oil and makes for a pudding like dessert, or put it in my coffee too! And on days where time is not in my favor, it can substitute for lunch. It’s not a protein shake, or a weight loss shake or a meal replacement. It’s my daily dose of dense nutrition. And I can’t complain when I get it 25% off too!!

Complete with:

Proteins
Superfruits and Antioxidants
Supergreens and Phytonutrients
Adaptogens
Prebiotics, Probiotics, Fibre, and Digestive Enzymes
Vitamins and Minerals

Way more good stuff then a handful of guessing which vitamin is right.

Healthy Supplements 101

It may seem like a lot, but really it’s not. It’s 100% health and I have built these supplements into my daily calorie bracket and they supplement what I can not get from real, clean, whole foods. I call it healthy supplements 101.

Need help in if you should be adding supplements or what kind? Just ask, I am only a message away & would love to chat with you.

Nutrition

Eat Those Veggies

by Heather

Eat Those Veggies

I don’t know about you, but I am too old to yo yo diet anymore. I want my body to pick a weight that is healthy and stay there. The secret I found to maintaining my healthy weight. is to eat those veggies. YES, eat them everyday, with every meal and even at snack time. YES EAT THOSE VEGGIES!

Our bodies require, NEED nutrients. This is how we stay healthy, this is how we stop the yo yo dieting and live our lives. And vegetables are the most nutrient dense food on the planet. They are clean, whole & 100% awesome.

Let’s talk the good, the bad and the ugly of veggies. NOT all veggies are created equal. I found this out the hard way when the extra 50lbs I was carrying out not leave me.

Vegetables are the only food that we could live on 100% and not die. They are that nutrient dense. And in learning how to fuel my body i realized there are 3 categories of veggies: good for you, only sometimes good & eat very rare.

Different Kinds of Vegetables

Let’s break it down further: root veggies, fruits pretending to be veggies & all the others.

ROOT veggies – the ones to stay away from. HIGH in starch which is converted to glucose and stored as FAT in our bodies. These are veggies that grow in the ground – Yams, beets, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, potatoes, carrots, yuca, kohlrabi, onions, garlic, celery root , horseradish, daikon, turmeric, jicama, Jerusalem artichokes, radishes, and ginger. I rarely will eat a root veggie. The starch count doesnt work for me. IF I do eat a root veggie I always pick from the colored ones first. ( carrots, beets ) And use the seasoning ones sparingly like garlic, onions, tumeric. If you are a low carb eater then root veggies are a great way to carb cycle or carb up as it’s still a natural source of nutrients.

The next category which I will eat from sometimes is fruits thinking they are vegetables. The ones with seeds – tomatoes, peppers, squashes, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, corn, beans, egg plant – anything with SEEDS. Fruit is HIGH in sugar and so are these ones… our bodies don’t care where the source of sugar comes from (natural or processed) – it’s treated all the same, if it can not be used as fuel immediately its converted to glucose and stored as fat. So a good time to eat these ones is 2-4 hours before you are going to work your body. That way you enjoy the great taste and your body will use the fuel before it can store it.

A little trick to bring down the macro count is do not eat the seeds – so pick them out and eat the remainder of the plant. And the one fruit pretending to be a veggie that you should never ever eat EVER is corn. A farmer will feed his cattle, pigs, chickens corn to fatten them up so when he goes to the butcher he gets more $ for his animal. If corn is meant to fatten up an animal just think of what it is doing to you!! so put down the cob, and run away. lol

And that leaves all the other veggies – fill up on them!! The leafy ones like all the lettuces, spinach, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, and so forth. These are ones I sneak into a lot of different foods and they fill me up!! If I make a salad I will use 80% of these veggies then sprinkle with the fruit ones and then an oil based dressing.

So if you are a veggie eater already and the weight isn’t coming off as easily it’s time to look at what types of veggies you have been eating.

How to Eat Those Veggies

Now I encourage you to try a different way of preparing, cooking, roasting veggies. Example is I can’t stand boiled Brussels Sprouts. YUK. But cut them in half, sprinkle with olive oil & roast them at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes and I will eat them all up now. So if you have tried a certain veggie and thought it was gross, I encourage you to try a new way of preparing them. And as we age our taste buds change too so never dismiss a veggie.

And then lastly, sneak in veggies into weird places through out your day to get the most in. What I mean is this. I use frozen cauliflower rice in my protein shake instead of ice cubes. There is no flavor change and I’m getting in a whole serving of veggies. Avocados are a great one to mash up and put in anything, fresh baby spinach leaves too – blend them in your shake, cut them up and put into pizza sauce, use as leaves in a salad & more.

So my closing point, add a serving of a vegetable to each of your meals. Get those nutrients in! Your waist line will thank you.