Recipe: Mashed Cauliflower

I love mashed potatoes! Unfortunately, they're a terrible choice if you're trying to have a clean diet.

The side dish tastes best when it's loaded down will all kinds of fattening ingredients -- like butter, sour cream and gravy. And even if you leave that stuff out of your recipe (which I wouldn't) white potatoes are a fast-burning, starchy carbohydrate, the type of food that the body processes into fat.

Here's an alternative: mashed cauliflower. First of all, forget about taste here. If you try mashed cauliflower while thinking that it's going to taste exactly the same as mashed potatoes then you're going to hate this dish.

But, it is a good alternative if you're having a mashed potato craving, but don't want all the extra calories.

Here are the numbers (approximate) for a 1 cup serving of each dish:

• Mashed potatoes (no gravy): 237 calories; 9 grams of fat; 35 g of carbs; 3 g of fiber; 4 g of protein.
• Mashed cauliflower: 106 calories; 5 g of fat; 15 g of carbs; 6 g of fiber; 5.5 g of protein.

When you're trying to lose a few pounds, substitutions like this make a huge difference toward meeting your goals.

And remember, having a clean diet means thinking of food as fuel for the body, not a source of pleasure.

Also, swapping out high-calorie, high-fat foods for choices that are cleaner-burning (and, yes, less tasty) throughout the year means that you can have the foods you like at a fancy dinner or when the holidays come around. Who wants to pass on -- or feel guilty about eating -- mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving or Christmas? (Not me, that's for sure.)

Finally, with mashed cauliflower, who knows? You might really like it.

Check out this recipe from http://www.cookinglight.com/.

Tiffiany Moore is a certified personal trainer and NANBF figure competitor. Check out her site at www.trainertiff.blogspot.com. Questions or comments? E-mail trainertiff@hotmail.com.

TrainerTiff: Not Feeling the Crunch

Are you trying to get rid of that spare tire around your mid-section? Have you done more variations of crunches than you'd care to think about and still can't rid of it? Well, you're not alone.

Repeat after me: I can not reduce the amount of fat on my abs by doing thousands of crunches.

One more time: I can not reduce the amount of fat on my abs by doing thousands of crunches.

Spot reduction is the reduction of fat from a specific part of the body. It is also a myth -- a physiological impossibility.

You can't pick and choose where you lose fat.

So, the best way to lose that spare tire is to follow a total body workout routine (which includes ab training) and watch your diet. Sorry, but there's no simple fix -- despite the tons of products out there promising you amazing results by using some device for mere minutes a day.

Cardio and strength training several times per week in combination with a proper diet followed over a specific period of time (say, one month), ought to at least start deflating that spare tire. The longer you stick with a good program, the more results you'll see.

Tiffiany Moore is a certified personal trainer and NANBF figure competitor. Check out her site at www.trainertiff.blogspot.com. Questions or comments? E-mail trainertiff@hotmail.com.

Get Up and Eat Your Breakfast

It's easy to do. You hit the snooze button one too many times and now you're running around the house like a madman trying to get to work on time. You're rationalizing that you can make your normal 15 minute commute in just 5 minutes.

And then you do it: You skip breakfast.

You can almost hear the screeching sounds as your metabolism grinds to a halt.

Eating breakfast -- or "breaking the fast" -- kick starts our metabolisms. Here's how it works: After fasting all night, our bodies need fuel in the form of calories. (Not just any calories, of course. No donuts.)

Once we eat something, our bodies are then able to start burning calories more efficiently. If we don't eat quickly after waking, then our bodies will hoard calories later in the day, thus holding onto that unwanted fat.

If we get calories on a regular schedule -- starting with breakfast -- then we burn calories at a regular pace. (We have set the stage for a steady metabolism.)

If we get calories on an irregular schedule -- especially if we skip breakfast -- then we burn calories at an irregular pace. We actually hold onto calories, storing them as fat, when we do get them. (We have set the stage for a slow metabolism.)

Also, our brains benefit from eating breakfast. It helps improve our thinking ability. It's already hard enough to operate first thing in the morning, let's help ourselves out a bit. Right?

Tomorrow, try hitting that snooze button one less time and grab something to eat before you head out. Your body and brain will thank you.