Health, Fitness & Wellness

Most of you who attend classes at Artfit or follow our social media and blog, are somewhere on the continuum between mildly interested in health and fitness to completely obsessed, because of this we want to share well-rounded information about health and wellness. It is important to realize that physical activity is only a small portion of being fit and healthy. In fact 80% of maintaining a lower body fat percentage is what you eat.

Recipe Blog

This is why we are introducing a recipe blog.  We will give you food related information explaining the why’s of what we recommend along with recipes. This way you can learn how to make the best choices for yourself and test out some great new recipes.

Eliminate Grain

The first thing that we recommend is eliminating grain from your diet. This sounds extreme, but we plan to show you how to eat full meals, enjoy baked goods, and not be hungry without eating grains.

Why shouldn’t you eat grain? All carbs control insulin and insulin controls fat storage. Unused carbohydrates will turn to fat in the body. Most people consume too many carbohydrates on a daily basis to be burned off.  Grain also increases insulin production. Over the course of time, high insulin levels can make our cells become insulin resistant. This leads to more weight gain and many health problems down the road. Try to limit your carbohydrate intake to 50 to 100 grams per day for weight loss or 100-150 grams a day to maintain current weight.  Remember this includes your veggies and fruit so they need to come first!

Grain Replacements

There are many options to use in place of grain. Almond flour and coconut flour are two of the most popular grain subsites.  You can bake with them. They will not affect your blood sugar and insulin levels like grains will and will be better used by the body.

Grain Free Flat Bread

Here is one of our favorite recipes. This is a flat bread that we use for pizza crust and tacos. It does not take long to make, and I will share with you my short cuts.

Ingredients:

2 cups of almond flour

2 eggs

1 tsp. Coconut oil

½ tsp. sea salt

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350

Combine all of the ingredients except the coconut oil in a bowl. (When using coconut oil be aware that when combined with cold eggs it will harden. To avoid this, make sure it is warm enough to be liquid before you add it in.)

Drizzle in the coconut oil on top then mix it in. (Adding the oil after everything is mixed also helps to eliminate the problem of it hardening.)

Separate evenly and roll in to balls. Smaller balls can make up to 6 personal pizza or tortilla size crusts.

Place wax paper on a baking tray.

Place the balls on the wax paper.

Use a rolling pin to roll them to desired thickness

Cook 6-8 minutes. I always check the bottom of the dough, because it will brown quicker.

For Pizza:

After it is fully cooked, top with pizza sauce, your choice of toppings, and cheese.

Place it back in the oven until the toppings are warm and the cheese melts

For Tacos:

Top with meat, vegetables, and cheese

We recommend an organic pizza sauce with no added sugar. We also recommend cheese that is organic and from grass fed cows.