So here’s the recipe:

1/2 cup Melted Coconut Oil (some will be used to grease  your casserole dish or baking sheet)

1/4 cup Cocoa Powder

3 Tablespoons Stevia Powder

1/4 cup Agave Nectar

1/4 cup Peanut Butter

7 cups of Organic Rolled Oats

Smattering of chocolate chips

Yield: A lot

Preheat oven to 310 degrees.

Be sure to grease two 9×13 glass pans with some of the melted coconut oil (cut your recipe in 1/2 if you only plan for a bit, but this goes fast…)

Get a large mixing bowl and add coconut oil, cocoa powder, stevia and agave nectar. Stir with a wire whisk until smooth. Then add peanut butter & stir with whisk until smooth. Now, you’re ready to add the oats and fold in with a spatula.

Put granola mixture into the pans and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top.

Place in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Remove and stir. Return to oven for 10-15 minutes. Remove sooner if you like your granola a little less crunchy. Keep in for longer, checking every five minutes, for crispier (careful not to over-bake, it gets progressively browner). Remove granola when finished to your liking and cool completely (will get more crisp as it cools).

It’s excellent as its own snack or with rice, almond or (my favorite) coconut milk.

In this lunch is oatmeal with carrot sticks (that's her addition), mini chocolate chips (for the oatmeal), broccoli, apples & oranges. The chocolate bell was dessert..

Has our culture gone too far? Are families now breaking the cardinal rule of eating? How many times did mom have to tell you NOT to play with your food? Well, this mom knows a Family Fitness Guru moment when she sees it.

Naturally, I had to get out the camera and ask them to come clean with their rule bending. Quite frankly, I enjoyed their creations immensely. (They sure didn’t last long!)

Below you can enjoy a video of the kids proudly describing their creations on a totally different rule-bending occasion.

Yeah, it’s a busy time.

Yeah, goodies abound.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1. You can make excuses or you can make fitness gains, but you can’t do both.

But you also have control over your schedule. If you think you don’t, then you need to make some serious life changes and either brake free from your kidnapper or strip away negative influences like TV, controlling people, over-scheduling yourself, that job you hate but feel compelled to stay at, etc. I am not suggesting you make these decisions in a vacuum, but c’mon at some point you need to excel past mediocrity, right? Do your research and work toward that freedom to have control of your life.

Okay, now that we have the EXCUSES out of the way, let’s move along:

2.This is the time of year when you’ll have to plan a little extra time to burn calories unless you plan to reduce your caloric intake (i.e. no goodies). It’s doubtful that you choose the ladder so let’s begin with the former. Get used to increasing your activity.

3. Drink at least half your body weight in ounces of water daily! Do it now, put down the mouse and find the nearest clean watering hole! Your kidneys, intestines, heart, lungs, brain, skin…everything will function better.

4. Add 5-10 minutes of interval training in 5-6 days weekly above and beyond your current workout routine. You’ll see strength gains and fat-loss during a time of year when most people are going in the other direction. Here are ideas of exercises you can do:
(Please ignore the solicitations to get free stuff. I no longer offer a subscription.)

5. Be sure to go extra on your fresh raw fruit and veggie intake to combat all those nagging viruses and curb those cravings for goodies. The green leafies work the best in this regard. I’m talking kale, Swiss chard, collards, spinach, etc. You need 10-13 servings minimum of every color of the rainbow in fresh produce every day. Check out Juice Plus link on the right margin, if you fall short of this.

For the best Cleveland personal trainer, visit TrainingbyLiz.com.

David Katz, MD, Yale University School of Medicine

Dr. David Katz, pictured here has stated, “Our children will suffer more chronic disease and premature death from eating poorly than from exposure to alcohol, tobacco and drugs combined.”

According to data analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the average teen eats fruits and vegetables 1.2 times/day.

Only 1/3 eat veggies less than once per day and 25% eat fruit less than once per day.

This information came from survey of 10,000 high school students, which shows a wide range of ethnicities, and this is what was pulled for various backgrounds:

-black teens eat even fewer veggies
-Hispanic teens eat veggies 1.1 times/day
-white teens eat veggies 1.4 times/day

All of these groups eat so few vegetables that their differences are negligible. The USDA My Plate recommendations are really a minimum at best. The reason why “Fruits and Veggies: More Matters” has replaced the “5 A Day” campaign is that there are over 4300 studies showing enormous benefits to eating fruits and veggies. If you put a minimum down of what one needs to do, then naturally most will aim for mediocrity, right? That’s just human nature. Let’s call it the “Law of Medicrity.”

But at least the USDA is on the right path, and that I will not discourage!

Now, back to the analysis.  Overall there were few kids eating closer to government guidelines: 16.8% eat fruit more than 4x/day and 11.2% eat veggies more than 4x/day.  (Again, the “Law of Mediocrity” here plays a role.)

The definition of fruit included fruit juice (insert exasperated sigh here) and veggies included potatoes (not fried or chips – thank heaven!). Don’t you wonder how the stats would go down even further if these two items were eliminated from the standards?

Why let your kids fuel up on sugar?

What’s wrong with fruit juice? Well, it is NOT fruit. It is dead, sugary liquid with no enzyme life as compared with juicing your own fruits. It has been pasteurized, which means those helpful digestive enzymes were cooked out of it .

Any shred of fiber has been eliminated, which means it takes almost no time to convert to blood sugar quickly (read: future diabetic). What is more, the sugar is concentrated versus eating a piece or two of fruit as it takes more fruit to juice. But if it were pure juice that would not be so bad. Most fruit juices have added the extra sugar because Americans like their sweets and food makers know it.

So, stay away from juices for yourself and your family! You can save the money anyway, and who doesn’t want that in this economy?

Potatoes are not such bad things, however, we tend to consume the conventionally grown variety, which absorbs lots of pesticides & herbicides, according to the Environmental Working Group (http://ewg.org) and has been on their “Dirty Dozen” list of what NOT to buy for quite a while now. Potatoes also present little fiber, if the skin is removed, and lots of starch, which converts relatively quickly to blood sugar.

When eaten with a balanced meal, potatoes are a good choice, if not fried or in chip form. The fact that we are ignoring green leafy veggies and multiple colors of vegetables every day, makes potatoes an over-used choice. Think color when eating produce. The color has significant functions in the body (that’s for another post).

Despite what the political celebrities are trying to accomplish, little is actually getting accomplished. The bottom line is that nutrition, like anything that requires education and good habits, starts at HOME. Michelle Obama, our queen of all things healthy, can have little influence over mom and dad as can other politicians, who are whipping up quite a bit of excitement and money to fight childhood obesity.

Now, before you get all offended here, let me just explain something. Yes, fighting obesity and disease is a worthy cause (that is MY purpose), but very little will actually get accomplished when the government and politicians enter the scene. We can look forward to pork barrel laws and pay-offs as the bandwagon travels the country. Perhaps another unnecessary government agency can be created to funnel money into and restrict choices. Call me skeptical, but we have only to look at the “Patriot Act” to see what mess that has created.

The fight starts and ends AT HOME. Period. It doesn’t take a genius or political leaders to influence our eating decisions. It takes education person-to-person and resolve to DO something about it within our own homes.

What can YOU and your family do to eat a minimum of 13 servings of veggies per day? For starters watch these videos and get started on Juice Plus to build your immune system now before the brunt of flu season hits. You may be eligible for the Children’s Health Study, which has already impacted over 530,000 children, and receive your children’s Juice Plus at no cost to the household.

For my household, we are going two straight years without the stomach flu since taking Juice Plus. That says it all.

What are the first things to suffer?

Your relationship to God, your workouts, food preparation (if you even had that in the first place), schedules and breathing!

1. Spend 10 minutes in prayer daily. Life always gets crazy.  If you don’t have God in your life, then you most likely think you have to bear the burdens of life all by yourself.  No wonder life can feel so overwhelming!

2. Ramp up your exercise. Yeah, you heard that! The weather is nice and outdoor activity is easier. Plan more days, not necessarily longer periods of activity. If you only performed 3 days of exercise, do 5 or 6. Take an active rest day once weekly (gardening, house cleaning, walking the dog an extra time).

3. Make food prep a priority. If you have kids or a seasonal job, then you are off your typical routine.  Cook or grill your meats in larger batches and portion them out for the week. As soon as you get home from shopping, wash, cut and store your vegetables. You will make it so easy to grab and go or bring a healthy dish to a picnic without the panic and last-minute unhealthy choices.

4. Make appointments to have “off” time and to exercise. And practice telling your friends or family, “No, Glenda, I have an appointment then. How about if I take Eustice to practice tomorrow?” (Okay, maybe your friend isn’t named Glenda nor does she have a child named Eustice, but you get my drift.)

5. Breathe.  Just breathe. In through your nose, down deep into your belly (filling those lower lung chambers) and out through your nose or mouth. Do it 10 times for 10-second exhales. When you stop for air and do some real breathing, suddenly life doesn’t seem so crazy, even if it’s just for a moment. You can have these moments peppered throughout  your day, sitting, standing or lying down.  Why not?

Was this helpful? What do you do to destress? Post your ideas here.

And to drop a dress size in 21 days, click here.