Recipe of the Week & Healing the Body through Intermittent Fasting!
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins & The Art of Fasting
DID SOMEONE SAY CHOCOLATE?! Chocolate zucchini muffins are so good, it's hard to believe that they are made with unrefined sugars and flours! And then there is zucchini in it too?! Might I also add they are nut free!
Summer time means vegetable gardens, and often that can lead to a surplus of veggies that are hard to use before going bad. Enter zucchini muffins! These muffins are not hard to make, and it left leaving the house smelling delicious! The zucchini fits right in so you don’t even know it’s there. Danielle Walker of Against All Grain is one of my favorite recipe bloggers. She creates gluten and dairy free recipes that never disappoint! Highly recommend you hang onto this recipe and give it a try at your earliest convenience, you won't regret it!
Check out some health benefits of zucchini!
Very water rich
High in vitamin C and potassium
Contains anti - inflammatory properties, supporting heart health
May aid in healthy digestion
Low calorie & low carb - great substitute to regular pasta dishes
All types of summer squashes support eye health, but especially zucchini!
High in B vitamins - supporting healthy metabolism and cognitive function
Aids in diabetes prevention
May help balance thyroid and adrenal function
As you can see, zucchini is such a great superfood to add to our daily meals……and our favorite treats as well! There are so many great ways to add zucchini to your meals, zoodles (zucchini noodles) being my No. 1 fav, but it’s great sliced up or shredded and added to salad recipes or cooked on the stove in some coconut or avocado oil with salt and pepper. Save that olive oil for cooler cooking temps and salads!
And with that, here’s the delicious chocolate zucchini muffin recipe!
Danielle Walker's Against All Grain : Chocolate Zucchini Muffins
The Art of Fasting
Fasting is a term that has become more well known. It simply means that you go a certain number of hours without food to allow your body to shift from sugar burning mode to fat burner mode.
People today are constantly eating at all hours of the day, some are even waking up in the middle of the night to snack! Being in constant feast mode keeps the body in that sugar burning mode, so if you have a health goal to lose weight and aren’t having success, it might not be entirely caused by the food you’re eating or the amount of exercise you are or are not doing. Perhaps it’s the timing of your meals that you may need to tweak!
Here are some health benefits to fasting:
Reduces total body fat percentage
Reduces visceral fat (belly fat)
Reduces waist circumference
Lowers blood pressure
Decreases LDL cholesterol
Decreases hemoglobin A1c
There are numerous benefits that go as deep as the cellular level too! I won’t go into that here, we’d be here all day!
To start off with fasting, strive for 12 hours. We sleep for at least 7-9 of those hours anyway, so just add a few extra hours of no food and then you just fasted for 12 hours! Push breakfast off a few hours later, or push dinner up one hour. The best part about fasting is that you can tweak it to fit your lifestyle! Final tip about fasting, always break your fast with a protein and healthy fat meal or snack. Keep an eye out for a healthy “fat bomb” recipe coming soon!
Until next time, spread the wealth of health by sharing this newsletter with your friends!
