For those of you who don't know who Tosca Reno is let me just give you a quick bio.
Tosca is a fifty year old woman who lives in Toronto, Ontario. A little over ten years ago she weighed 200 lbs. She decided to take control of her life, eat a healthy diet and exercise. As a result, she is now one of the fittest fifty year olds I have seen! She looks great (in my opinion). You can check her out at toscareno.com
I recently purchased her latest cookbook and made this dish last night. It was delicious! Tosca's recipe calls for this recipe to be served over brown rice and black beans. I chose to make it Primal and left out the rice and beans. Also, I was out of chili powder so I substituted cajun spice instead and it worked quite nicely. Enjoy!
Chicken Picadillo
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 lg yellow onion, peeled, coarsely chopped
1 lg green pepper, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp chili powder
2 cups fresh tomatoes, coarsely chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sea salt
2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1/2 cup raisins
black pepper
green onions and fresh cilantro for garnish (optional)
1. Heat olive oil in large skillet on med-high.
2. Add onion and peppers and cook until onion is soft-approx 5 minutes
3. Add chili powder, tomatoes, garlic, cumin, oregano, and sea salt. Cook for several minutes until mixture becomes fragrant.
4. Add chicken and raisins. Heat through for another 5-10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Let me know how this dish turns out for you.
Happy Eating!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Gone Primal
Yes! David and I have gone primal!!
David just finished reading Mark Sissons book The Primal Blueprint and has kindly placed it on my nightstand.
David started his primal journey a few weeks ago and is already singing it's praises. He's so impressed with this style of eating that he purchased the book for his staff and his best friend. He cannot believe how easy it is to eat the Primal way. He has lost weight and has noticed a significant decline in his aches and pains. "It's effortless" he claims (easy to say when your wife is doing all the shopping and cooking).
I have had a slower start but would say that I have been Primal for about two weeks now. Sugar still remains an issue and I have been gorging on chocolate like it's going to be extinct soon! I did declare today a "no chocolate" day and so far have only resorted to smelling the chunk that David ate this afternoon.
I have decided to not sing the praises of going Primal too loudly until I have given it a very good test run. Ask me in six months how I am doing or perhaps how I look will be your answer.
For more information on The Primal Blueprint visit marksdailyapple.com
Friday, March 5, 2010
Pay Attention
Hello My Fitness Friends;
This blog comes from Leo Babauta. Check out is blog Zen Habits. He espouses a simpler lifestyle and I, for one, think simpler is better. Less is more my friends Thanks for the wise words, Leo!
How to Reclaim Your Attention
Focus your attention, and find peace.
Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.
Awhile back I (a bit ironically perhaps) tweeted this message:
Consider what you give your attention to each day. It’s a precious resource, & determines the shape of your life.
This seemed to strike a chord with many people, who I think are feeling overwhelmed these days. Our attention is being pulled in too many directions, leaving us feeling overloaded, distracted, chaotic, spread thinly, without focus.
There are a million blogs, people, services, media, competing for our attention. Our attention is limited, and valuable, making it one of the most precious resources we have.
The world wants that attention. Only you can decide where it goes.
And it does determine the shape of your life: what you pay attention to becomes your reality. If you watch and read the news all the time, you will become obsessed with the latest crises. If you watch and read about celebrities, your life will revolve around them. If you socialize on social networks all day long, this will become your world.
If instead, you choose to give your attention to work you’re passionate about, that you feel is important, that will change your life and the world in some small way … this will become your life.
If you choose to give your attention to your friends, family and other loved ones — really give your attention to them instead of only half-heartedly while also checking text messages and emails and other updates — your life will be rich in many ways.
And so I urge you to reclaim your attention.
Here’s how:
1. Limit your friends. Not real-life friends, but social network and blogging and forum friends. Not that these can’t be good relationships, but having too many makes them meaningless. And each friend will take up a little bit of your attention — when you read their updates, click on their links, reply to their messages, look at their photos, and so on. The more you have, the more attention they’ll require. Limit them to just the essential.2. Limit your feeds. Blog subscriptions, newsletters, other updates and news subscriptions and so on. Limit them to a handful of essentials, and let the rest go. The more you have, the more attention they require.3. Limit your communication time. Going into your email inbox? Just give yourself 10 minutes to read, reply, delete, and get out. Going to do Twitter? Give yourself 5 minutes. Seriously, set up a timer. Don’t let these things take up all your attention.4. Give up on news. It’s a never-ending cycle. And if you’ve paid attention to the news as long as I have (I’m a former journalist), you know it’s all the same, year after year. Unless your job depends on it, the news is usually a waste of your attention. Let go of the need to stay updated. Even if your job does depend on it, keep it limited.5. Be brief. Write brief emails, tweets, updates, blog posts. With some exceptions, of course. But make brief your de facto. Read more.6. Give your attention to the important. This is the crucial part: choose what you give your attention to, and do this choosing carefully. What is important to you? Writing? Photography? Design? Coding? Creating a new business that helps others? Your kids? Figure this out, and give this the majority of your attention.7. Become conscious of your distractions. Once you’ve decided to focus your attention on the important, become more aware of distractions as they come up. Make note of them, and as you get the urge to be distracted, learn to pause, breathe, and return to the important.8. Surround yourself with the positive. If you want your life to be positive, let the positive have your attention. This applies to blogs, people, projects, and more.
For more, read my new book, focus: a simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction.—
This blog comes from Leo Babauta. Check out is blog Zen Habits. He espouses a simpler lifestyle and I, for one, think simpler is better. Less is more my friends Thanks for the wise words, Leo!
How to Reclaim Your Attention
Focus your attention, and find peace.
Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.
Awhile back I (a bit ironically perhaps) tweeted this message:
Consider what you give your attention to each day. It’s a precious resource, & determines the shape of your life.
This seemed to strike a chord with many people, who I think are feeling overwhelmed these days. Our attention is being pulled in too many directions, leaving us feeling overloaded, distracted, chaotic, spread thinly, without focus.
There are a million blogs, people, services, media, competing for our attention. Our attention is limited, and valuable, making it one of the most precious resources we have.
The world wants that attention. Only you can decide where it goes.
And it does determine the shape of your life: what you pay attention to becomes your reality. If you watch and read the news all the time, you will become obsessed with the latest crises. If you watch and read about celebrities, your life will revolve around them. If you socialize on social networks all day long, this will become your world.
If instead, you choose to give your attention to work you’re passionate about, that you feel is important, that will change your life and the world in some small way … this will become your life.
If you choose to give your attention to your friends, family and other loved ones — really give your attention to them instead of only half-heartedly while also checking text messages and emails and other updates — your life will be rich in many ways.
And so I urge you to reclaim your attention.
Here’s how:
1. Limit your friends. Not real-life friends, but social network and blogging and forum friends. Not that these can’t be good relationships, but having too many makes them meaningless. And each friend will take up a little bit of your attention — when you read their updates, click on their links, reply to their messages, look at their photos, and so on. The more you have, the more attention they’ll require. Limit them to just the essential.2. Limit your feeds. Blog subscriptions, newsletters, other updates and news subscriptions and so on. Limit them to a handful of essentials, and let the rest go. The more you have, the more attention they require.3. Limit your communication time. Going into your email inbox? Just give yourself 10 minutes to read, reply, delete, and get out. Going to do Twitter? Give yourself 5 minutes. Seriously, set up a timer. Don’t let these things take up all your attention.4. Give up on news. It’s a never-ending cycle. And if you’ve paid attention to the news as long as I have (I’m a former journalist), you know it’s all the same, year after year. Unless your job depends on it, the news is usually a waste of your attention. Let go of the need to stay updated. Even if your job does depend on it, keep it limited.5. Be brief. Write brief emails, tweets, updates, blog posts. With some exceptions, of course. But make brief your de facto. Read more.6. Give your attention to the important. This is the crucial part: choose what you give your attention to, and do this choosing carefully. What is important to you? Writing? Photography? Design? Coding? Creating a new business that helps others? Your kids? Figure this out, and give this the majority of your attention.7. Become conscious of your distractions. Once you’ve decided to focus your attention on the important, become more aware of distractions as they come up. Make note of them, and as you get the urge to be distracted, learn to pause, breathe, and return to the important.8. Surround yourself with the positive. If you want your life to be positive, let the positive have your attention. This applies to blogs, people, projects, and more.
For more, read my new book, focus: a simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction.—
Monday, March 1, 2010
Food Obsessed
Hello Friends;
In case you didn't know, March is National Nutrition Month. What better time then for me to blog about my food obsession.
I'm pretty sure that I am not alone in this obsession. Just take a look around and you will see that I have lots of company. Fortunately, for me, I am obsessed with finding a way to eat a healthy, satisfying diet that keeps me lean, strong and happy.
Standing in line at the grocery store yesterday I saw bags of fried pork rinds and thought, "I'm really glad I'm not obsessed with those". Now, some organic dark chocolate or grain sweetened chocolate chips is definitely where my obsession starts to kick in!
Recently, I blogged about going Primal. You can find out more about The Primal Blueprint at marksdailyapple.com. I'm making my way there, slowly preparing by using up things that won't belong in my nutrition plan once I go Primal. David is currently reading The Primal Blueprint and is really liking it and becoming very motivated by it. I promise to continue to keep you posted on our progress.
Recently, I saw a commercial about constipation. Actually, let me correct myself. I saw a commercial about a remedy for constipation. The commercial didn't really talk about why a person might be constipated and how to make some dietary changes to alleviate that uncomfortable situation, it just encouraged it's viewers to take a pill or two every day and VOILA! promblem solved!! I see this so much in commercials. Nexium is another good example. For those of you suffering from heartburn, again, don't bother making dietary changes, just take a Nexium or Zantac a day and again VOILA!! no more heartburn.
There is no doubt that we are a nation that is food-obsessed, but we are also a nation obsessed with getting rid of the excess weight often caused by our unhealthy food-obsessed habits. It's a vicious cycle. Overindulge on the weekend, start your diet on Monday morning. Been there, done that and I am DONE WITH THAT!
I know that I am on a bit of a rollercoaster of a journey when it comes to my diet but I know it's a journey worth travelling. Problem is there is so much conflicting information out there that sometimes it's hard to know what's right, what works and what's just plain crazy. Okay, the plain crazy ie: The Cookie Diet, they are pretty easy to spot. But how much protein, carbs, fat to ingest in a day, how many hours in between meals, what foods to eat together for optimal fat burning, yadda, yadda, yadda, it just becomes overwhelming to me. As a personal trainer and someone who has done a fair amount of reading about nutrition, I have bought into the "Eat every four hours" theory and often encourage my clients to do the same. What I have found though, is that my day becomes driven around mealtimes. I MUST eat NOW! It's been 3 hours and 59 minutes since my last meal! I believe that this way of eating works for many people, especially those who are disciplined and are eating clean. But, if I am being honest, it's not really working for me. I am not achieving my goal of feeling comfortable in my skin and with my current body fat percentage. So from here on out my goal is to eat whole foods and eat when my body tells me I'm hungry, that's if my body remembers how to do that!
I encourage all my food-obsessed friends (you know who you are) to reevaluate what you have been doing nutritionally and see where some practical changes could be made. Please share your thoughts as they will be helpful to those of us in food-obsessed rehab :)
Happy Eating!
In case you didn't know, March is National Nutrition Month. What better time then for me to blog about my food obsession.
I'm pretty sure that I am not alone in this obsession. Just take a look around and you will see that I have lots of company. Fortunately, for me, I am obsessed with finding a way to eat a healthy, satisfying diet that keeps me lean, strong and happy.
Standing in line at the grocery store yesterday I saw bags of fried pork rinds and thought, "I'm really glad I'm not obsessed with those". Now, some organic dark chocolate or grain sweetened chocolate chips is definitely where my obsession starts to kick in!
Recently, I blogged about going Primal. You can find out more about The Primal Blueprint at marksdailyapple.com. I'm making my way there, slowly preparing by using up things that won't belong in my nutrition plan once I go Primal. David is currently reading The Primal Blueprint and is really liking it and becoming very motivated by it. I promise to continue to keep you posted on our progress.
Recently, I saw a commercial about constipation. Actually, let me correct myself. I saw a commercial about a remedy for constipation. The commercial didn't really talk about why a person might be constipated and how to make some dietary changes to alleviate that uncomfortable situation, it just encouraged it's viewers to take a pill or two every day and VOILA! promblem solved!! I see this so much in commercials. Nexium is another good example. For those of you suffering from heartburn, again, don't bother making dietary changes, just take a Nexium or Zantac a day and again VOILA!! no more heartburn.
There is no doubt that we are a nation that is food-obsessed, but we are also a nation obsessed with getting rid of the excess weight often caused by our unhealthy food-obsessed habits. It's a vicious cycle. Overindulge on the weekend, start your diet on Monday morning. Been there, done that and I am DONE WITH THAT!
I know that I am on a bit of a rollercoaster of a journey when it comes to my diet but I know it's a journey worth travelling. Problem is there is so much conflicting information out there that sometimes it's hard to know what's right, what works and what's just plain crazy. Okay, the plain crazy ie: The Cookie Diet, they are pretty easy to spot. But how much protein, carbs, fat to ingest in a day, how many hours in between meals, what foods to eat together for optimal fat burning, yadda, yadda, yadda, it just becomes overwhelming to me. As a personal trainer and someone who has done a fair amount of reading about nutrition, I have bought into the "Eat every four hours" theory and often encourage my clients to do the same. What I have found though, is that my day becomes driven around mealtimes. I MUST eat NOW! It's been 3 hours and 59 minutes since my last meal! I believe that this way of eating works for many people, especially those who are disciplined and are eating clean. But, if I am being honest, it's not really working for me. I am not achieving my goal of feeling comfortable in my skin and with my current body fat percentage. So from here on out my goal is to eat whole foods and eat when my body tells me I'm hungry, that's if my body remembers how to do that!
I encourage all my food-obsessed friends (you know who you are) to reevaluate what you have been doing nutritionally and see where some practical changes could be made. Please share your thoughts as they will be helpful to those of us in food-obsessed rehab :)
Happy Eating!
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