Guilt Free: Bliss Energy Balls

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A delicious healthy snack that actually feels quite naughty, is our bliss ball recipe!Bliss balls

Satisfiy sweet cravings with natural raw ingredients including dates and nuts. Our bliss balls provide an excellent source of fibre and nutrition at the same time.

They’re easy to make and keep in the fridge for several days.

Ingredients 

  • 1 cup dried dates, pitted
  • 1-2 tablespoons raw hulled sunflower seeds (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
  • 1/4 cup almond meal
  • 2 tablespoon almond, cashew or hazelnut butter
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon cocao powder
  • ? cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
  • 5-7.5 grams PGX Daily Singles (2-3 sticks)

Directions 

  • Place dates and sunflower seeds in a metal bowl and pour hot water over just to cover them. Let soak for at least 15 minutes. Seed may need longer soaking if a softer consistency is desired.
  • Drain water and reserve in a separate container.
  • Add all ingredients to the bowl except for the shredded coconut.
  • Mash and mix (a fork will do) the next 6 ingredients together until a paste forms. If the paste is too thick, add a tsp of the reserved date water and mix again.
  • Add PGX granules and mix a few more times to blend the granules in.
  • Put the shredded coconut in a glass or metal small bowl.
  • Take approximately a teaspoon amount of paste and form into a small ball with your fingers, it doesn?t have to be perfect.
  • Drop the ball into the shredded coconut and roll around the bowl until completely coated, forming a ball as you go.
  • Place on a nice plate to serve right away or store in a glass container and refrigerate.

Store in the refrigerator.
Yield: 10-15
Prep Time: 20-30 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes

Have a Healthy Weekend PGX’ers!

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Hey PGX’ers! It’s the weekend and we’re winding up with delicious links!

Check out these yummy ideas!

If you consider yourself a foodie and think you need to put that hobby to rest while you work towards your health goals, think again. Being healthy doesn’t mean you have to live on tasteless meals and water alone! Let me tell you a secret: healthy dishes can be mouthwateringly, drool-worthy, delicious treats! Don’t be afraid to indulge your taste buds every once in a while!

So to our foodie fans, this week’s wind up is for you! Check out these tasty links from around the web! Got a healthy recipe or food tip to share? Sound off in the comments or share with us on our Facebook page!

Enjoy and eat well beautiful people!

Do you cook with garlic? Guess what! There’s more to the garlic plant than the bulb. Why not Use Garlic Scapes in Your Cooking?

If you’re in the mood for a homemade iced latte but don’t want to water it down, here’s a great Iced Coffee Trick!

Sometimes you just need a Starbucks. Here’s a useful link for calorie-counting foodies: Starbucks Drinks Under 200 Calories.

I really want a Green Goddess Grilled Cheese Sandwich (pictured right). Don’t you?

Need a new idea for finger food? Try these Caprese Pops!

Click on this link because this sandwich looks like a really delicious and healthy way to start the day.

Saving the best for last: two Guilt-free Desserts from Steven and Chris!

 

Meatballs with PGX Daily!

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Looking for a delicious and healthy recipe for dinner?

Try this meatball recipe with PGX Daily Fiber!

The classic spaghetti and meatballs dish that could possibly become a kids favorite dinner dish. Served with a fresh green salad and homemade vinaigrette dressing to make it complete! Remember to choose high fiber pasta and choose to make your own tomato sauce or find organic pasta sauce that is low in sugar, sodium and fat.

Yield: 30-45 meatballs

Prep Time: 15-25 minutes

Total Time: 30-45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 Egg
  • ? tablespoon Paprika powder
  • ? tsp Chili powder
  • ? Sage powder
  • ? tablespoon Garlic powder (or 1 medium size clove of crushed garlic)
  • 2-3 tablespoon of Barbeque or marinating sauce (or ketchup)
  • ? tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • ? pound lean ground pork, (naturally raised-pastured)
  • ? pound lean ground beef or bison (grass fed, organic)
  • 1//3 cup oatmeal, dry
  • 4 PGX Daily Singles sticks (PGX = 10 grams)

Ingredients (Optional)

  • Replace oatmeal with cooked brown rice (leftover from a previous meal)
  • 1-2 tablespoons of fresh herbs such as basil, cilantro or chives
  • ? cup finely chopped Swiss chard or kale leaves (no stems)
  • Sesame seeds: 1/3 sesame seeds on a flat plate. Once you form the meatball, roll it around the plate to coat it evenly with the seeds

Directions

Line 2 baking tray with tin foil.

Preheat oven to 400? F (204?C).

In a metal mixing bowl, add the first 7 ingredients and mix with a spoon or whisk.

In the same bowl, add the ground pork, beef, and oatmeal and if using PGX Daily Singles, add granules in at this time.

Use your hands to mix the remaining ingredients.

Take approximately 1 tablespoon of meat mixture between your palms and make a ball. Place on the foil lined baking tray. Leave ? inch space between meatballs on the baking sheet.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until the meat begins to slightly brown on the outside. Let cool for 5 minutes so they firm up before serving.

Beef and pork cooked temperature should reach 160-170? F (71.1-76.6? C) or until the meat?s juice runs clear.

And there you have it! Scrumptious and healthy, home-cooked meatballs! Bon appetit!

Stress and Your Weight

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PGX wants you to relieve your stress!

Your health, weight and stress: a bad combination.

Have you reached a plateau in your weight loss efforts? You may be surprised just how much stress has to do with that! Stress. Even the word sounds scary.

Stress causes our body to secrete cortisol which in turn, prompts our body to release stored glucose, increasing our blood sugar. Unfortunately for our waists, all the excess sugar that we don’t use gets stored as fat! Essentially, having too much stress in your life is like eating too much dessert, not too mention the sugar rush usually leads to food cravings. It seems a cruel and revealing trick of the English language that stressed spelled backwards is desserts!

Real Simple has three quick ways that you can relieve stress and, consequently, help you stay trim.

Work, school, family obligations, meetings and appointments, housework, projects… Life can get busy and overwhelming. So, my two main tips for this sunny Monday? Don’t stress the little things and get your daily fiber!

 

Old Man Winter and Your Workout

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Avoid those winter workout blues!

It’s cold and it’s dark for more hours than it is light out, but don’t let winter mess with your workout!

How many times have you let winter convince you to skip your workout? I don’t know how many times I’ve convinced myself that it’s too cold to get moving, too rainy to drive to an exercise class or the gym, too early to get up and ski… Unfortunately, it has happened. But this winter, my major fitness goal is to overcome the laziness, ditch the excuses and get exercising!

Fitness Magazine has a great article that has all the answers to trump those winter excuses: Winter-proof Your Workout!

Don’t let Old Man Winter get you down. Jump up and exercise!

 

Busting Fitness Myths

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Hey PGX’ers! Let’s bust those food and fitness myths!

Steven and Chris get the scoop from fitness guru Sarah Robichaud!

There are so many opinions about fitness and exercise out there, I know it’s easy to get confused. When is the best time to workout? If I’m working out early in th morning, should I eat breakfast after? If I workout regularly, can I eat whatever I want? I didn’t break out into a sweat! Does this mean I didn’t push myself hard enough?!

So many questions! I can’t answer them all in one day but Steven and Chris, with their fitness expert, Sarah Robichaud, have put together a quick read that answers a few of the most common fitness questions and debunk the myths around exercise and eating in, Busting Food and Fitness Myths.

Read on to bust those fitness myths and get your questions answered so you can get moving! Have a great workout!

 

Monday Morning Mix & PGX

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Gaining workout insight and inspiration from movement, music and PGX!

Without fail, if you wish for sun all weekend, you will not get it. And following that, you?re pretty much guaranteed to wake up Monday morning to – bingo! you guessed it! – clear blue skies and sun. That?s the way it always works, am I right?

This Monday morning was no different. However, today, I took advantage of the sunny skies and found inspiration in them for a great work out. The inspiration struck quick and I wasn?t about to waste the beautiful morning watching the news or immersed in my book!

So, I got my cycling gear on (quickly), got my iPod ready and headed out the door. My goal was to do 45 minutes of power cycling through the neighborhood. But, of course, I needed some auditory inspiration; I decided to rely on my trusty Monday Morning Mix. My mix relies heavily on much of the soundtrack featured on the 2010 documentary from Trafik Pictures: To Live & Ride in LA. However, there are a few other little gems I snuck in there that also get me pedaling a little harder. My Monday Mix is about 60 minutes long and, I can tell you, it made my Monday morning and put me in a positive mood. I?ve been smiling all day.

I powered through the hills and focused on the falling leaves that abound in our neighborhood. Although I find fall in the northwest a bit dreary, there is always a silver lining on days like this. When I returned home and began my usual weekday tasks, I did them with a big smile on my face. I feel great and I think a little of my positivity rubbed off on my kids and wife too.

Right before my morning smoothie, I took my PGX, my multivitamins and I can tell you I?m ready to take on this week. Have a great week and remember to always find inspiration with movement, music and PGX!

 My ?Monday Morning Mix?

  • Chromatics – In The City
  • Bad Veins – Falling Tide
  • Datarock – Bulldozer
  • The Chemical Brothers – Theme for Velodrome
  • Trouble Andrew – Bang Bang
  • Ballerina Black – Microphones In the Mattress
  • From Monument to Masses – Checksum
  • Eulogies – Eyes On The Prize
  • Bad Veins – Crosseyed
  • Themselves – Dark Sky Demo
  • Ballerina – Leaves
  • Hot Hot Heat – Implosionastic
  • Minus the Bear -Animal Backwards
  • Darker My Love – Summer Is Here (…it?s really not, but I can wish!)
  • Futurecop! – Starworshipper
  • Minus the Bear – Secret Country
  • Streetmedia – The Life (feat. Diego Redd)
  • Crown City Rockers – Restless

 

Friday Fitness Fun for Fall!

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Discover the Top 10 Workouts for Fall!

Get out of the gym and into shape!

Autumn is here and with this season, comes colder weather; and with the colder weather often comes heartier appetites and occasions for comfort food. I know that I have to make even more of a conscious effort to eat well, exercise and not to become a winter couch critter! But does the chilly weather mean I have to go the gym?

Just because summer is over, doesn’t mean you have to workout indoors! It’s true that when the rain and cold weather comes, it’s not as appealing to go outside but I think these fun outdoor fitness activities might change your mind!

Fox News shares their Top 10 Fall Workouts that will help keep you in shape and having so much fun not matter how many layers you may need to put on!

My personal favourite on that list is Ultimate Frisbee. Although…I wouldn’t mind raking a huge pile of leaves and jumping in! Get outside and enjoy the fall colours and crisp air. Just remember to bundle up!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

 

Workout Bloopers!

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It’s PGX’s Weight-wise Wednesday and we’ve got a quiz!

Take the quiz and spot the workout bloopers!

Quiz time! Don’t worry it’s not scary. Have you ever gone religiously to the gym, had what seemed like the perfect workout, and then got stuck on a weight loss plateau? You could be eating healthy food and exercising, but if you aren’t seeing the results that you hoped for, you might be committing some workout bloopers!

When I took the quiz, I discovered the mistakes I was making in the gym and now that I have an answer to my plateau troubles, I feel more motivated to change things up! Take Fitness Magazine’s Can You Spot Workout Bloopers? quiz and test your gym know-how!

Good luck and keep on moving!

 

PGX & Red Carpet Fitness!

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Want the secrets to looking red carpet ready?

Learn how you can get that red carpet glam from the celebrity fitness experts!

So did you watch the Oscars last week and think: how on earth do these celebrities get in such good shape that they look fabulous in those figure-hugging gowns and those svelte, slim-fit suits?! You’ll be happy to hear that their red carpet glam is not out of your reach. With a little perseverance, positivity and a place to start, you and I can definitely get that red carpet celebrity look!

So where to begin? Check out what celerities trainers are saying!

Allure Magazine talked to Harley Pasternak (trainer to stars such a Natalie Portman, Megan Fox and Orlando Bloom) and revealed his slim-down secrets.

Want more red carpet tips? Fitness expert Rick Miller dished out his top 5 tips and recommended exercises to get into Oscar shape!

Remember to supplement any exercise plan with good nutrition and keep up with your daily fiber!