Easy, healthy zucchini soup that can be served hot or cold!

I absolutely LOVE this recipe and it is one of the easiest recipes to make, which means it’s right up my alley!! I originally learned this recipe when I was doing Beachbody’s Ultimate Reset program (a 21 day food and supplement program to help you detox your body and restore it to optimal health). The Ultimate Reset program is absolutely awesome and more info about it can be found here: https://teambeachbody.com/shop/-/shopping/URComplete?referringRepId=183908).

I have used this soup recipe (and many others of the awesome recipes that come with this program!) ever since!!

The soup is vegan, gluten-free, and can be served hot or cold so it’s a perfect healthy meal for a cold winter day or a summer evening! Additionally, this recipe only takes about 5 minutes of actual labor time- how great is that?!

Ingredients:

2 medium-sized zucchini

¾ cup cashews

Himalayan sea salt

Basil (fresh or dried)

Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (soy-sauce substitute)- I’ll give alternatives down below if you don’t have this

Directions:

Cut up zucchini into chunks and steam until semi-soft (length of time for steaming will depend on size of chunks).

While the zucchini is steaming, soak the cashews in water to soften. Drain after about 10 minutes.

Throw the steamed zucchini and cashews into a blender. I think a Vitamix is the absolute best if you plan on making a lot of soups, especially with its variable speeds and tamper tool to help push/mix thicker concoctions. Here is the one I use: http://amzn.to/2lhHfb0 (disclosure: I get a small commission from Amazon if you buy this product). I’ve had this for years and it has never failed me- I always joke that it has the motor of a lawn mower haha- it’s a beast! For this particular soup though, since the zucchini is steamed and the cashews are soaked, everything should be soft enough that you shouldn’t have a problem using a regular blender.

Add Himalayan sea salt, basil, and liquid aminos to taste!

I’m gluten-free so that’s why I use Bragg’s Liquid Aminos instead of soy sauce. The liquid aminos can be found on Amazon here: http://amzn.to/2jqWfpj. Full disclosure: I get a small commission from Amazon if you buy this product but this is honestly what I use at home and they can be hard to find at grocery stores.

I go pretty heavy on these seasonings :)

Blend all of that together and enjoy! The recipe makes 3-4 servings.

Happy cooking!

Katelyn

I would be honored to help you with your health and fitness journey :)  Here is a link to sign up for a free account with me as your coach: https://www.teambeachbody.com/signup/-/signup/free?referringRepId=183908. Or you can go to www.teambeachbody.com, sign up for a free account, and enter any of my info in when it asks if a coach referred you: screen name: KatelynLesk, coach ID: 183908

You can contact me or find out more information using:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoachKatelynLesk

Beachbody page: http://beachbodycoach.com/katelynlesk

Or my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/kate37721

Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Beachbody Coach.

Free 5-Day Clean Eating Challenge!

We recently just wrapped up a free, 5-day online clean eating group. I LOVE hearing the feedback of happier, healthier clients like this (I especially love the comments that show that people are proud of themselves, empowered, and on board with a healthier lifestyle!!!):

In this group, we provided meal plan guides (plenty of recipe options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner) but we also allowed participants who didn’t want to go full-throttle for the week to just pick one or two things that they eat regularly and could, for the week, replace with something healthier. I gave some suggestions in a “This over that” series (posted below for your convenience)!

I also give plenty of guidelines and suggestions for my own personal tips for healthy eating, weight loss, what “clean eating” really means, and more in this video:

Clean eating video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKrNQGqz7zw

Feel free to follow along with your own challenge to yourself for the next 5 days! You are WORTH it!! If you’d like additional support, you’re welcome to sign up for free coaching with me or check out info on our upcoming groups!

I would be honored to help you with your fitness journey :)  Here is a link to sign up for a free account with me as your coach: https://www.teambeachbody.com/signup/-/signup/free?referringRepId=183908. Or you can go to www.teambeachbody.com, sign up for a free account, and enter any of my info in when it asks if a coach referred you: screen name: KatelynLesk, coach ID: 183908

Visit https://www.facebook.com/CoachKatelynLesk and http://beachbodycoach.com/katelynlesk for more info!

THIS OVER THAT Series:

"This over that" day 1!

Salads are always a great option for clean, healthy eating but dressing can be a big downfall of this. Lots of dressings pack a lot of sugars, artificial flavorings/colorings, and partially hydrogenated oils. Even "light" dressings have a lot of not-so-healthy stuff in them.

Making dressings yourself is a great way to take back the power and control exactly what is going into them!

If anyone is interested in specific dressing recipes, I have some super-healthy cookbooks that have a LOT of great options for every type of dressing you might like and I'd be happy to share. Beachbody's Ultimate Reset (a 21 day super healthy food program) also includes some dressing recipes that I LOVE and use regularly!

More info on the Ultimate Reset can be found here:

Ultimate Reset: http://teambeachbody.com/shop/-/shopping/URComplete?referringRepId=183908

Ultimate Reset Challenge Pack: http://teambeachbody.com/shop/-/shopping/BCPCLN305?referringRepId=183908

But I find that the more convenient healthy foods are, the more likely I am to use them! So I posted all of my easy, super simple dressing replacement options below. These are also great things to ask for at a restaurant (every restaurant has the olive oil and vinegar option and if you're at a place with any kind of Mexican food, why not shake things up with a little salsa? also super easy to ask for lemon wedges)! My favorites to put on a salad:

- lemon juice and olive oil (this is my daily go-to- very easy, adds some healthy fat and vitamin c, and the vitamin c also helps with iron absorption from the spinach)

- seasoned olive oil- this Tuscan herb one is delicious

- olive oil and red wine vinegar

- salsa (regular or a peach or mango salsa is fun to mix it up!)

- pesto (be sure to check the ingredients to make sure they are all healthy unless you are making your own)

- not pictured: hummus (I also have a super easy to make hummus recipe if anyone is interested)!

"This over that" day 2!

I LOVE making my own yogurt parfaits! It saves you the added sugar (and/or artificial sweetener), flavorings, and colorings that come in regular yogurt and it's so much more filling and satisfying! My favorite combo is plain organic yogurt with strawberries, raisins, and walnuts. Other fruits, nuts, and coconut are also good toppings. Have fun experimenting!!

“This over that” day 3!

It is very difficult to find a pasta sauce without added sugar. For the longest time, I never considered making my own because I always assumed it was a complicated process! Turns out- it’s not!! Majority of the time it takes to make it is just letting it simmer on the stove. And this recipe is DELICIOUS- I like it so much better than jarred pasta sauce!! It is seriously so simple and easy!!

AND, you get a 2-for-1 today because this recipe also includes my recipe for zucchini noodles!!

Recipes here: http://katelynlesk.blogspot.com/2015/11/zucchini-pasta-with-homemade-sauce.html

Here’s my full demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY5w3dHoyL0

“This over that” day 4!

Better carbs!

Again, here is where single ingredient whole foods win out over things like bread, noodles, and canned baked beans that have a variety of additives and are highly processed. I checked the label on a can of baked beans recently- on top of a lot of added sugar, there is also caramel coloring- why is that necessary?? And why should we be putting that in our body?

My own personal favorite carbs are rice, oatmeal, quinoa, and beans. I much prefer zucchini pasta over regular noodles. And a great alternative for things like pancake mixes are to make your own (if anyone is interested, I have a great recipe using coconut flour)!

These are all things we can control :)

“This over that” day 5: YOU PICK IT!

Since today is the last day of our group, we’d love to be able to help out with anything you’d like to replace with a healthier version but are struggling to find a good substitute! Let’s hear it!!

And in the meantime, let me leave you with this quote from Tosca Reno’s “The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged” book. I hope it inspires you to continue incorporating what you learned and implemented in this group!

Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Beachbody Coach.

What is the Ultimate Reset and WHY IN THE WORLD am I crazy enough to do it over the holidays??

WOW, do I have a lot to fill you guys in on!! This is a long post (so much to share with you guys!) but keep reading- there’s a lot of good info in here. And I promise to make the rest of my posts about my updates/progress with the Reset a lot shorter :)

So... What is this “Ultimate Reset” exactly? 
The Ultimate Reset is a 3-week cleanse. It transitions you to a vegetarian diet in week 1 then a vegan diet for weeks 2 and 3. You eat 3 full meals a day (and there are snack options too) as well as take supplements provided by the Reset throughout the day. I’ll feature a little bit about each supplement and its purpose over the next few days. My favorite part of it is that you are clearing out processed foods (and all the residual toxins in our bodies because of them). I’ve been trying very hard over the last year or 2 to GREATLY decrease my intake of processed foods and transition to a (mostly) organic diet. So I feel like this cleanse will be a great way to clear out anything leftover from processed and/or unhealthy foods and continue on my path to clean, healthy eating (fresh, healthy foods, no pesticides, raw where applicable/possible, as little processed foods as possible, no antibiotics/hormones, and tons of nutrients and best possible quality of food).

I’m a HUGE skeptic 
Prior to becoming a coach, you would have never seen me trying something like this. I was so skeptical about any sort of cleanses, detoxes, and so-called “health” shakes. But after seeing what goes on behind the scenes of Beachbody, learning the values/beliefs of the company about what should (and should not) be going into our bodies is the same as mine (no GMOs, no artificial additives/flavors/colors, no scary stimulants, and the BEST quality ingredients from all over the world from areas where they are naturally grown and the soil quality is the best), and experiencing the benefits of the products first-hand, I have a complete and total trust in any Beachbody product. They do not cut corners for any reason. They truly care about the health of the customer and want people to get the MOST out of their products and are only willing to put the best quality ingredients into any of their nutritional products. 

Live greens and whole foods in this (not to mention one of my favorite elixirs of life... ginger!) - nothing artificial

Extra nutrition? ...Me? 
Now going back to my original opinion of nutritional products- quite frankly, the way I ate was pretty healthy to begin with. I never thought I needed any of these additional nutritional products. Based on my trust in Beachbody, I knew these would be good products, I just didn’t think *I* had a huge need for them. I’ve completely changed my belief about this. Shakeology was what really changed my perspective. The health benefits I started seeing from it less than 2 months into drinking it daily were incredible (reduced cravings, much easier weight maintenance, energy, fullness, overall feeling of health, and most notably, a 45 point reduction in cholesterol). I could go on and on all day about the benefits I’ve seen from it but I’ll save the specifics for another post. So after seeing these results first hand and doing a TON of research on the individual ingredients in these products, I realized there was no way I could be getting all of these nutrients from my normal, daily diet no matter how many fruits and veggies I was eating (and trust me, I eat spinach right out of those giant plastic containers- I’m not lacking on my veggie intake). Why do we wait until we start feeling a cold coming on to overload our system with Vitamin C and zinc? Why not do this everyday, for ALL of our bodies’ systems, not just our immune system? So bottom line, the biggest skeptic has now become the biggest believer and I’m looking forward to finding out what great health benefits I’m going to discover with the supplements and diet in the Ultimate Reset :)  

A cleanse over the holidays. Could my timing BE any worse? 
Now, as you can imagine, the diet that comes with the Reset is pretty strict (you’re not even supposed to use table salt, but use Himalayan sea salt instead because it’s not stripped of a lot of its minerals the way table salt is). So naturally the option to find something healthy on a restaurant menu or at a party is out. I will be cooking and eating ALL of my own food over the next 3 weeks, carefully monitoring every single thing that’s going in it. You guessed it, that means I will be bringing all of my own meals to any holiday parties and even Christmas dinner (I already warned my family not to factor me into the food count). But truly, there is never a perfect time. So why not start now and prove to myself it’s possible?

No Christmas cookies for me :(

This was actually my Runner’s World quote of the day: “If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin” - Ivan Turgenev, Russian novelist and playwright. Very fitting :)

My main reasons! 
So that brings me to my 3 main reasons for doing this (and starting now): 
1. To be a guinea pig. As a coach, I always like to be able to give you answers and info based on first-hand experience! I’m also excited to see what health benefits I can get from this. I’m hoping for improved digestion/decreased bloating, better healthy feelings all-around, and a decrease in cholesterol (Shakeology has improved that a lot but I still have a ways to go). Heart disease, high cholesterol, and cancer run in my family (on both sides) and anything I can do to help my long-term health, I’m on board with!! 
2. Force myself to learn a lot of new clean-eating recipes and the healthiest ways to prepare food. I have already learned a lot just in the grocery shopping and preparation about the healthiest possible ingredients I should be using (like the Himalayan sea salt) 
3. To show it IS possible. In addition to what I already touched on about it never being a perfect time, I want to inspire people to make healthy choices even during the busiest times of year. The holidays are a perfect time to demonstrate this. I know most people wouldn’t be trying to go as extreme as this, but if I’m managing to do the Ultimate Reset over Christmas and New Year’s, I hope that can inspire people to at least get a quick workout in each day and reduce their holiday cookie intake :)  Remember, every little healthy choice counts so keep at it! You can do it!

This was a post to some of the women in my “busy moms” challenge group on the same topic. They are doing an AMAZING job of buckling down and sticking with their workouts and good nutrition despite the craziness of the holidays.

More to come! :)
So I’ll keep you posted on how this goes! I’m looking forward to feeling SO HEALTHY after the holidays instead of *so crappy* like I have in years past (or the feelings of digestive system failure I had a few weeks ago after Thanksgiving). If this is something you’re interested in, please don’t hesitate to contact me!! I will guide you through every step of it!! It would be a FANTASTIC way to kick-off good health in 2013!! For more info, check out the Ultimate Reset website: http://myultimatereset.com/KatelynLesk 

 

Beachbody Reset Youtube channel: Check videos playlists for info specific to what you’re looking for (better digestion, healthier eating/clean eating, preventative measuers against poor family healthy history, fitness lovers looking to take their nutrition to the next level, and more). http://www.youtube.com/user/BeachbodyUltimate?feature=watch

Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Beachbody Coach.