Challenge 13: Cook Your Own Meals

Gabby Reece’s Take Control Of Your Health Challenge Day 13

Today we want you to eat all your meals at home or a friend’s house – no dining out! Hopefully you already eat the majority of your meals at home or at least prepare them and take them with you. If not try and get into the habit. Not only will it save you money but will probably help with your weight.

It’s Memorial Day Weekend – a great time to hang with friends and family and bbq!

COOKING BENEFITS
Provided by Sabra Ricci

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It is much more cost effective to prepare meals at home. For the price of a nice meal at an average restaurant such as Olive Garden, Chevy’s or Romano’s Macaroni Grill, you can purchase enough food for several meals in your own kitchen. And if your dining out extends to high end establishments like Nobu, Gordon Ramsey or Lidia Bastianich’s Felidia, you could probably feed the whole neighborhood for a week.

CONTROL
Even more important is control; control of ingredients, control of portion size, control of calories and control of your program. It is more difficult to adhere to any weight loss program when you have no idea how many calories, carbs or fats are on the plate placed in front of you. And you can insure you are getting the freshest, most nutritious ingredients when you do your own shopping and that everything on your table is healthy.

FUN
Cooking at home can be very enjoyable. We know everyone likes to eat good tasting food but just think how proud you will feel if you made the food that puts a smile on your family’s faces!

COOKING IS EASY NOWADAYS
I don’t know about you but when I envision my Mom in the kitchen as a child I remember an apron, flour, oil, blenders, and lots of pots and pans. Fortunately for us cooking healthy has actually made cooking easy in comparison to all those greasy, doughy recipes of the past! Now a days you pretty much just have to chop and either bake or grill if you go the healthy route.

Turkey Tacos:
corn tortillas, cooked seasoned ground turkey, olives, lettuce, avocado, shredded cheese, jalapenos or green chili, salsa, onions, light sour cream
Chop, assemble, and voila! How easy is that??

Teriyaki Chicken with brown rice and veggies:
Chop up some chicken, add some teriyaki, chop and steam broccoli and carrots, cook some brown rice – so easy!!

Try New Foods!
Dal, Tempeh, Jerusalem Artichokes, Arame, Amaranth, Kohlrabi are all foods that many people have not even heard of, but are delicious, have nutritional benefits and can be prepared easily at home. Everyone has heard of fish of course, but some have never cooked it at home. I have provided some of my favorite recipes for you to try for this challenge. Enjoy!

Sabra has put together 6 unique recipes for today’s challenge. We want you to give them a try. They might entice you to cook at home more often!

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FITNESS

Do an Upper Body Workout

Today we want you to tone and strengthen your arms. You may lost some weight by doing this challenge and you will probably lose more if you continue. So tighten up that skin, tone your muscles and do an upper body workout.

click here to view some upper body workouts
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DAILY REQUIREMENTS

Limit your caffeine and alcohol to one 8 oz cup per day
Take a 15+ minute walk
Get 7+ hours of sleep
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Gabby’s Message

We hope you embrace this challenge and begin to enjoy all the benefits of cooking your own food. You should learn it’s really not that hard, and can be quite fun especially if it turns out good

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CHALLENGE RECAP
Challenge 13: Make a Meal from Scratch
Challenge 12: Eat Fiber Rich Foods
Challenge 11: Understand Supplements
Challenge 10: Switch Refined Salt for Sea Salt
Challenge 9: Limit Your Sugar
Challenge 8: Go Gluten Free
Challenge 7: Go Meatless For 1 Day
Challenge 6: Swap Foods
Challenge 5: Limit TV/Computer to 1 Hr
Challenge 4: Manage Your Stress
Challenge 3: Drink 8 oz of water every 2 hours
Challenge 2: Make A Weekly Fitness Plan
Challenge 1: Eat Good Carbs, Fat, Protein Every 3-4 hrs

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