The Commercial made me do a COMPARISON. . .

I was sitting here a few days ago glued to the couch as I finished the names & addresses for our wedding guest list and a commercial for Wendy's Berry Almond Chicken Salad and it made me say hmmmmm how does this compare to Panera's Strawberry Poppy Seed Chicken Salad. First I said to myself  "Man oh Man Wendy's keeps trying to add new things to their menu to bring the customer in and show them they're trying to be healthier". Then I thought but is this salad really healthy as they're claiming it to be and if in a bind would this be a decent alternative for my clients.
So ladies & gentlemen let's commence the comparisons. . . .For starters I won't be doing a taste testing this until the weekend so we're going to go off of the nutritional value & ingredient lists only

WENDY'S: BERRY ALMOND CHICKEN SALAD (minus the dressing) 

PANERA BREAD: STRAWBERRY POPPY SEED CHICKEN SALAD (minus the dressing)

• CALORIES: Despite Panera's salad being bigger in size it packs less of a caloric punch when you subtract the dressing (however I will say when you add it to the salad it still wins this category) 
• FAT: Being that both contain nuts & chicken they should be very close in fat content and they are but what makes Wendy's salad have slightly more Fat than Panera's is that Wendy's include Asaigo Cheese. Now I'm unsure at this point if you're able to ask for this to be taken off or put to the side seeing as they they sometimes have the items like this in separate packets. So Panera wins this category too 
• CARBOHYDRATES: Ahhhhhh the category that drives most people BATTY. . .this should be an easy guess as to which one has more carbs than the other based on the ingredients and that would be Panera. Wendy's salad is only packing a total 19g of carbs because there are only 2 fruits included (Strawberries & Blueberries). Where on the other hand Panera has a total of 28g of carbs due mostly to the 4 fruits included on their salad (Strawberries, Blueberries, Mandarin Oranges & Pineapple). Now obviously you can pick and choose which ones you'd like to include or exclude on your salad to alter this number to better fit into your daily nutritional needs. I'm not going to sit here and preach your head off about eating fruit and where it falls on the glycemic index. I'll just say like with anything else be mindful and eat in moderation and only on occasion. Basically don't go and OD on fruit!! 
• SUGAR: I'll just glaze over this quickly but again Panera has the higher sugar content again because of all the fresh fruit included. Now if we use the basic 2000 calories a day intake then your daily sugar limit should be about 50g. So basically you'll go from there in determining what your intake would be based on how many calories you're consuming or should consume a day. With that being said this falls well within your daily allotment. Also the sugar from the fruit is so much better than that from juices or artificial additives added to most foods (high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, concentrated fruit juice sweetener, etc) 

• PROTEIN: Ok again the amount of protein should be the same since they both include chicken & nuts but Wendy's slightly edges out Panera.If you look at the chart above the chicken on both salads are giving you 25-27g of protein but when you look at Wendy's you'll see you're getting an extra 8g of protein which is coming from the cheese. So if you subtract the cheese like I would then these two would be almost identical in this category.
• SODIUM: Seeing as though this is NOT a major macronutrient category I thought it was still important to include it because people ignore this a lot of times when eating out, at home, frozen items etc. Now this category is where Panera BLOWS Wendy's out of the water!! Panera's sodium total is 220mg which is very acceptable and is coming mostly from the chicken. However our friend Wendy's is packing a WHOPPING 780mg of sodium. WHEWWWW LAWD THAT IS TOO MUCH!! For starters 470mg of that comes from the chicken so its a no brainer that salt is the major component in their seasoning process. Then the almonds have been roasted and topped with sea salt but that's only giving us 50mg which is acceptable, where we tip the scales is with the Asaigo Cheese. Yet another good reason to NOT include the cheese on this salad. If I were to eat this the way its included here my body would immediately tell me there was too much sodium because I tend to limit my intake. 

All in All I would say these 2 salads are kind of close in comparison on paper despite a few things that I would subtract for my personal taste. So if you find yourself in a PINCH and you've got to go out and make a quick choice this would suffice. But remember to evaluate your nutritional intake for the day and make substitutions and subtractions based on your needs for the day. Now the next thing for me to do is to give the Wendy's salad a try and report back to you.  However if any of you have tried it let us know whatcha think :)

Kenisha (KQ)

It's June and time to Get it Right, Get it Tight!!

I want to Thank You all who showed interest in participating on the June Mean Abs workout. I will be posting the workout daily on the fanpage and linking it back to this post on my blog so you'll be able to come here to review it. Also look for videos of me demonstrating the exercises and the alternatives you can use to get'er done!!

ACCOUNTABILITY IS KEY and I will be on ya'll like white on rice!! I want to hear about your progress, your frustrations, see pics, find out about those who you've talked into to joining us and anything else you'd like to share. Please feel free to post anything you want on the Fanpage regarding the Ab Challenge and anything else you'd like to post about that you want to know more about, vent about, etc. I look forward to seeing ya'lls AWESOME Abs come the end of June. . . Get it Right & Get it Tight!!

RECLAIM over now time to RELEASE

So my first 7 days are in the books and as you see I'm still here in one glorious piece :) Despite my minor setbacks that occurred during Days 5 & 6 I was able to bring things back together 100% during Day 7 and end the week on a high note. There's nothing real major to report in relation to the EATS as most of the meals were repeats of prior days:

• Breakfast - Oatmeal w/flaxseed, cinnamon, 1/2 cup chopped apple (which I mixed in my Oats) however I passed on the yogurt and went for 1/2 a Tropical Strawberry Shakeology. 
• Lunch - Zucchini-Cashew soup (ya'll know I was EXCITED about this one) and a Microgreen Salad.
• Dinner - Baked Tempeh (you know I PASSED) with steamed veggies & brown rice (I opted for Quinoa instead). Now I'm not sure if any of you saw the pic on my personal Facebook but as you'll see here LC was totally spoiled last night with his dinner while I stuck to my Reset. Needless to say he put his fork in my bowl and stole some of my veggies then asked could he have more. . . UMMMM NO, LOLOL!! 

Now let's talk stats real quick. . .I'm unsure if you've noticed or not but I haven't shared actual numbers with you in terms of my weight or measurements in the beginning of the Reset and I'm actually going to keep it that way but I will explain why. I am taking & tracking my measurements and weight but I'm not sharing it because I'm trying to no longer be defined or define myself by the numbers on the scale. However the numbers on the tape measure are a more realistic evaluation of where you are and the changes you're making. So what changes have I made, well first you need to know where I began which is about 12-15lbs over my normal maintenance weight. Also all my measurements: waist, hips/butt, thighs were all up 1.5 - 2.5inches which is about right in terms of my weight because some people have a theory that for every 5lb lost = 1inch weight loss where others its a 10lb lost = 1inch. Everyone is different and there is NO TRUE formula for this, so don't go quoting me on that one. However if we subscribe to one of those theories in this instance it would partially hold to be true because if I'm 12-15lbs over and we use the 10lbs = 1inch this formula would work out. Anywho, back to my stats LOLOL!! As of Day 7 I've lost 4.5lbs and .5inches in every location.

Enough of that now onto how generally feel overall and that is GREAT! For starters its not just the nutrition & supplementation that's making me feel better its the discipline & structure which are 2 things I live for and appreciate. Yes I am spontaneous in my life but when it comes to my fitness & nutrition I like a well laid out, organized & structured plan. Knowing that better explains to you why I'm feeling happy & at peace while others feel all out of sorts because this kind of structure is taking them out of their comfort zones. But not only is the structure helping me but the supplements what were prescribed last week were very influential too. There are 4 supplements for the Reclaim Phase which are the MAIN supplements and will remain in your plan throughout all 3 Phases. They are:  

• MINERALIZE- simply put this is pure Himalayan salt and its added to your water daily. We all need sodium/salt in our life but not the regular table salt most of us have at home and use. Regular table salt (sodium chloride) contains trace minerals that aren't good for us
• OXYGENIZE - ummmm obviously we need oxygen to live but the amount of oxygen atoms has significantly reduced over the years due to all the airborne pollutants. The addition of this supplement helps your body to detoxify and to begin to develop a stronger immune system 
• OPTIMIZE - this supplement is a blend of systematic enzymes that roll the clock back and brings your body back to operating at its full potential  
• ALKALINIZE - as I've mentioned before. . . a more pH balanced body is "less likely" to be vulnerable to inflammatory diseases, cancers, viruses, etc. And that's what this supplement is here to do for you. . .bring your body back to its natural pH balanced level

Well there you have it for my Reclaim Phase round-up and now I'm almost 1 day into the Release Phase which sees the introduction of the Detox supplement which I will discuss in another blog. On Thursday I'm heading home to South Carolina so now we'll have the added challenge of traveling and staying on task. I've already begun by purchasing some of my EATS to take with me and I sent my mom out to gather some fresh fruit for me. But as ya'll know she'll prolly have every snack under the sun up in her house, but I will have no problem fending off those temptations with the assistance of you guys!!

Hollatcha later cause I think I'm headed to get my wig done (again I don't wear a wig LOL just a term of endearment for my hair). I'll post a pic for ya'll to see once I'm done because the outcome will definitely surprise you

Kenisha (KQ)