3 Amazing Vegan Recipes for Weight Loss

I watched a video from Craig Ballantyne the other day. In it, he said that he's gotten more hate e-mail since he started following a vegetarian lifestyle than anything else he's ever done, written about, etc.

Why do people feel the need (or the right) to go out of their way to be hateful to others just because they disagree with them? I absolutely don't get it.

Anyway, even though there are vegetarian and even vegan bodybuilders and fitness competitors, many people are still skeptical that men and women can eat AMAZING food on a a veggie meal plan and lose weight.

To prove it, Craig and Kardena Pauza supplied 3 awesome recipes from their Easy Veggie Meal Plans.

Let me know what you think of them!

1) Strawberry-Mango Smoothie - 385 calories

1 cup strawberries stemmed
1/2 mango peeled
3/4 cup/6 oz Almond milk or Raw almond yogurt
4 Brazilian Nuts (Raw & Soaked)
2 tsp agave or brown rice syrup or Really Raw Honey, or 2-3 Dates
1 medium sized Cucumber
1 tsp NutriBiotic Vanilla Brown Rice Protein Powder
Add ½ Cup Water and blend together
Optional: Dash Stevia, water, ice to taste only

Place all ingredients in a high powered blender. Add several cubes of ice if desired and blend until smooth. Continue adding ice until desired consistency is reached. Pour into glass and garnish with mint leaf as option.

2) Breakfast Quinoa - Calories 369, Carbs 46g, Protein 15g, Fat 13g

1/4 cup uncooked quinoa
2 Tbsp hemp seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk or fresh made almond milk
1 Tbsp raisins
1 med fresh peach
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Stevia or agave nectar to sweeten

Rinse Quinoa and combine with almond milk and water. Bring to a slow simmer, then cover and cook for about 15 minutes until the quinoa is tender. Stir in the remaining ingredients and place in food processor or blender and puree slightly. Ready to eat.

3) Portobello Mushroom Burger - 365 Calories (Craig Ballantyne's Favorite Veggie Recipe!)

1 Portobello mushroom cap
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
dash teaspoon dried basil
dash teaspoon dried oregano
dash tablespoon minced garlic
1 oz (2 tbsp) sharp cheese or vegan cheese
1 tablespoons bottled teriyaki sauce
1 slices of Ezekiel bread
1 cup of tomato (slices)
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Place the mushroom caps, smooth side up, in a shallow dish. In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, oil, basil, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper. Pour over the mushrooms. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes or so, turning twice.

Preheat grill for medium-high heat.

Brush grate with oil. Place mushrooms on the grill, reserving marinade for basting. Grill for 5 to 8 minutes on each side, or until tender. Brush with marinade frequently. Top with cheese during the last 2 minutes of grilling.

And remember, if you don't want to, you don't have to go straight vegetarian, you can just cut back on the amount of meat you regularly eat. In this day of "agri-business", "factory farming", "E.coli outbreaks", and "industrial agriculture pollution", there's a lot to be said about building a better body without meat.

Just adding a few of Kardena's recipes will help you transform your body within any healthy nutrition plan.

Click here for all of the meal plans and recipes at HALF-OFF:

Easy Veggie Meal Plans

P.S. - The half-price sale ends Thursday at midnight...

...and the Fast Action Bonuses will be removed.

There is a 100% No Questions Asked 60 Day Money Back Guarantee. Try Easy Veggie Meal Plans for 60 days. Craig and Kardena guarantee that you'll lose fat, feel better, boost your energy and increase your confidence or they'll refund 100% of you money... and, let you keep all of the free bonuses.

Check it out here => Easy Veggie Meal Plans

What's Bootcamp?

I get that question all the time and I usually explain that No Pink Dumbbells Bootcamp is basically small group personal training. It's open to women and men and involves bodyweight exercises along with some dumbbell and kettlebell work. It is a challenging workout but each camper works at their own level; the only person you are competing against is yourself.

That's the description but bootcamp is more than that.

Last night, I explained the evening's workout to the campers. Each training session is unique but this workout was very different from what we usually do. It would be much shorter than usual but very tough. I think most anyone would have considered it demanding.

I expected part of the challenge to be mental and I was right. Upon hearing me go through the exercises and number of reps to be completed, the eyes of one of the campers looked like saucers- and they stayed that way. I think she half expected me to say I was joking. When I didn't, I'm pretty sure she was thinking that she wasn't going to able to make it through or, at best, it would take her forever to finish.

Just then, Vicki, another camper said, "We can do this!" She went on to remind the others that they normally do about so many reps in a certain amount of time and then they have to repeat the exercise so many times. She said something like, "We just need to get through the whole thing once and then we're done." Then she repeated, "We can do this!"

You could see the mental shift.

The workout was tough but it would have been so much tougher if anyone had spent the entire time internally telling themselves that they couldn't do it.

Vicki finished her 500 reps first and after a short rest went over to the final camper who was still working and completed her workout with her. (For the record, it wasn't Saucer Eyes, which should lead to another post about what people are capable of compared to what they think they are capable of.)

That's bootcamp.

The encouragement, support and little pushes that these people give to one another makes a huge difference. It's a different atmosphere than the gym. Being among a group of people who are really challenging themselves makes you want to work harder and improve, which brings faster results.

Are You Your Own Worst Fat Loss Enemy?

I am a huge believer in your mind being very closely connected to your body. I believe our bodies listen to everything we say. Every thought, every word, everything- and after planting them in our subconscious, our bodies take each of these as a command for what it needs to do. We have about 50,000 thoughts a day. If the majority of these are negative, your body and life will reflect that. If you keep saying- I am fat when you are trying to lose weight, you will not succeed. If you say out loud that you have a big fat ass…guess what…your body thinks it is a command. You must start to visualize where you want to go, what you want to look like and how you want to feel and focus on that.

~Rachel Cosgrove

Amen, Rachel!

I've talked and written about the subject of self-talk lots of times. Most women would rarely speak to their friends and family, or allow others to speak to their loved ones, the way they speak to themselves.

You cannot achieve your goals, whether they be physical, financial, educational, etc. if you are constantly programming yourself for failure.

Do yourself a favor and check out the rest of Rachel's must-read article here ==> My Big Fat Ass

Circuit Workout

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted. Sorry. Bootcamp and new training programs for members have been keeping me busy and yesterday, my internet service was down. Anyway, here's a circuit workout for you to try out. Let me know what you think.

Depending upon how much time you have, you can make this a standard length workout or really shorten it up if you're tight on time.

15 reps of each exercise (15 per side on Rows, Hip Extension & Cross Body Mountain Climbers) with no rest between exercises.

* K.B. or D.B. Swings
* One Arm K.B. or D.B. Row
* Lying Single Leg Hip Extension
* Pushups
* Lying D.B. Pullover (Knees bent, feet flat on floor. Hold D.B. at ends to allow more range of motion.)
* Cross Body Mountain Climbers

Rest 30-60 seconds and repeat up to 6 times.

Use good form and challenge yourself. Unless you're really deconditioned, using a 5 pound dumbbell on the above exercises is not going to do much.

Collected Fitness Wisdom #9

When exercise BURNS YOUR MUSCLES that’s a good pain- this means you are pushing past your comfort zone to inspire change, working with intensity to torch calories and build muscle, and burning sugar so your body can burn fat for hours and hours after your workout.

When exercise HURTS YOUR JOINTS that’s a bad pain- it means you are quickly wearing down the structural integrity of your joints and will soon be unable to do anything without pain or stiffness. This is most often caused by a combination of using too heavy of loads, poor exercise form and technique, strength imbalances, and lack of mobility and/or flexibility- seek professional help!

~B.J. Gaddour


People want to go on weight loss diets to get back in shape. I can understand that but if you are in the habit of skipping meals or using vending machines for lunch, you don’t need a diet! You need the basics of healthy eating.

~Ray Burton


Too many people blatantly lie to themselves (and others!) about where they stand on the road to their goals. They say, "I am doing everything I can to… lose weight / alter body composition / lower cholesterol / be healthier." Yet, upon closer inspection, these same people are only doing what’s convenient for them. They’re doing the bare minimum without making any sacrifices or without making themselves a bit uncomfortable.

Really – if you are not getting measurable, visible results from your actions, then you’re not doing the right "stuff". This doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person or that you don’t have the ability to succeed. It just means that you need to make some changes. And it means that you need to stop holding onto denial and first admit that you are gonna have to make some changes.

~Kim Ball


Even an average uncomplicated program you are consistent with is far more effective than any high–tech, super–advanced program you fail to be consistent with.

~Will Brink


The maxim, "no pain no gain" gets knocked all the time as if it were bad advice. The fact of life is that you don’t grow unless you are constantly stepping outside the comfort zone, and outside the comfort zone is discomfort and pain.

~Tom Venuto

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Last Chance For Free 7-Day Veggie Meal Plans

I received two e-mails from readers concerned that there was some "catch" to this offer. I imagine that there are more who are interested in the meal plans but didn't let me know they're apprehensive. Here is a version of the responses I sent out:

To get the free meal plans, the only thing you give them is your first name and e-mail address- they have no way of charging you for anything unless you order something from them later and give them your info. You will get an e-mail asking to confirm that it was you who signed up (they're following the Can Spam Act) but once you do, you just download the free report and one or both of the meal plans (they have a male and female version with different calorie amounts).

They ask for your name and e-mail address, same as anybody else who gives something away online. They're basically trading a freebie for access to you. Their hope is that people will like the free meal plans so much that they'll end up buying the entire veggie nutrition program when they release it. In fact, I just found out that anyone who downloads the free meal plans gets added to the VIP List and will get access to an extra 25% off the full Easy Veggie Meal Plans when it's released on Monday, July 27th.

Kardena and Craig will not give your e-mail address to anyone else but they want to be able to contact you in the future about products, sales, etc. I have multiple e-mail accounts and I use certain ones just for things like this so that my primary addresses don't get cluttered. There are plenty of free e-mail accounts available if you're concerned about getting spammed.

I trust Craig Ballantyne implicitly; I purchased his Turbulence Training program a few years ago, I'm a member of his private forum and I've met him in person. No way he'll rip anyone off. They will send e-mails about their products and about sales, etc. but you can always unsubscribe.

If you are interested in vegetarian meal plans for fat loss, don't wait. The free meal plans will only be available until tonight (Friday, July 17th) at midnight.

And remember to download Kardena Pauza's powerful free report, "The Top 10 Foods You Must NOT Eat on a Vegetarian Diet."

You can find everything here ==> Easy Veggie Meal Plans.

If you give it a try, I would really like to know what you think of the recipes, how the meal plans work for you, how you feel while using them, etc.

We Did It!

For those of you who haven't made it to the gym this week, I want to let you know that we surpassed our goal! We raised $1304 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, beating last year's total of $1289. Thanks to everyone who helped make that possible.

Body & Soul members and friends should be really proud of that figure. In speaking to folks at St. Jude they are always impressed by how much Body & Soul, a smaller gym, raises.

I think there's a good chance that, overall, donations to St. Jude are down this year so I'm extremely happy that we were able to send them a few dollars more than last year.

St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world. St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family's inability to pay.

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