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Finally, a great-tasting muffin recipe with no added sugar! Naturally sweetened with banana and blueberries, these muffins are as sweet as they are delicious. Enjoy one with a side of scrambled egg whites for a quick and nutritious breakfast. Servings: 18

Here’s what you need…

• 1 cup mashed banana
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup refined coconut oil
• 2 cups wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup frozen blueberries, left to thaw in a strainer

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 18 standard-sized muffin cups with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, combine banana, egg whites, water and oil. Add the flour and mix. Gently fold in blueberries. Immediately spoon batter into muffin cups.
3. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove muffins from tins and cool on a wire rack.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 98 calories, 4g fat, 13g carbohydrate, 2g fiber, and 3g protein.

Here’s a quick and easy way to lose weight. For dinner tonight use a small plate instead of a full sized dinner plate. It sounds simple, but you will actually eat less off a small plate than you would a full sized plate. This is a great way to encourage smaller portion sizes without feeling like you are being deprived.

We all have a list of our favorite things. It may not be written down anywhere, but you know the things that make you happy.

The list holds your favorite foods, music, TV shows, movies and even people in your life that you can’t get enough of. This is the stuff that you really enjoy. It’s the stuff that makes your life worth living.

Somewhere on the list is your health and appearance. You know that looking and feeling great make a good life even better.

The interesting thing about your list is that without fail you’ll always make time for it.

• When your TV show airs, you watch it or record it to watch later.
• When your favorite actor stars in a new movie, you do your part by going to the theatre.
• When you’re hungry, you turn to your favorite foods.
• When the weekend rolls around, you do everything you can to spend time with the special people in your life.

Yet when it comes to exercise you automatically say, “I don’t have time.”

Time for TV, but no time for exercise… We live in an age where life is full. You don’t have extra time anymore.

You no longer have time. You make time.

• You make time for your TV show.
• You make time for your hobby.
• You make time for your friends.

It’s time to drop the charade of “I don’t have time to exercise” and call it what it really is.

An excuse.

You know how to make time for your favorite things. You know you want good health. You know you want to look great. You know you want more energy.

Exercise delivers all those benefits - and more.

I believe that exercise belongs on your list of favorite things.

Make It A Favorite: How do you turn something that you’ve dreaded into something that you enjoy?

1. Block the Negative: Your thoughts play a big part in determining your favorite things. Block out any negative thoughts you may have about exercise. Focus your energy on creating a positive attitude that will get you excited about hitting the gym, rather than dreading it.
2. Focus on the Benefits: With exercise you have so much to gain and nothing to lose. Exercise makes you stronger, sexier, happier, and gives you more energy. Pick the benefit that moves you the most and fixate on it.
3. Get Guidance: The easiest way to put exercise on your list of favorite things is to experience it at its best. Get onboard with one of my personal training programs and I’ll show you the most effective and enjoyable techniques that will get you into the best shape of your life.

This recipe is as refreshing as it is nutritious. Plump black lentils mixed with chunks of mango, strawberries, tomatoes and onions will tease your taste buds into submission. A splash of balsamic vinegar is the only flavoring that this colorful salads needs. Serve as a side dish or as a light meal.

Yield: 3 serving

Here’s what you need…

• 1 cup black lentils, cooked
• 1 medium mango, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 6 medium strawberries, chopped
• 1 tablespoon red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place the lentils in a medium bowl. Chop the fruit and onions, add to lentils.
2. Add balsamic vinegar to the lentils and fruit, mix until well combined.

Nutritional Analysis: One serving equals: 148 calories, 1g fat, 27g carbohydrate, 10 g fiber, and 9g protein.

While you’re checking out nutrition labels for sugar content be on the lookout for the following names that all describe refined sugar:

Sucrose High fructose corn syrup Fructose Lactose

Organic sugar Maltose Dextrose Glucose

The correct answer to the following question will shock you.

Would you survive longer on a diet of just water OR on a diet of water and refined sugar?

The answer: You would survive longer on just water.

Sound impossible? Just ask the five sailors who were ship wrecked in 1793.

The ship was filled with sugar, thus giving the marooned five a diet of sugar and water. When they were finally picked up, nine days later, they were in a wasted condition due to starvation.

The story of the five sailors intrigued French physiologist Francois Magendie to conduct a series of experiments in which he fed dogs a diet of sugar. All of the dogs died.

Magendie proved that as a steady diet, refined sugar is worse than nothing.

How can sugar be worse than nothing? Plainly put, refined sugar is an anti-nutrient.

It starts out as sugar cane, and then goes through an extensive refining process that destroys all of the enzymes, fiber, vitamins and minerals. What you’re left with are empty, naked calories.

The problem is that your body needs the enzymes, fiber, vitamins and minerals that were taken out in the refining process in order to metabolize sugar and use it as energy. So it takes those nutrients from your own body.

So while you are enjoying that chocolate bar, sugar is draining vital nutrients from your body. Like a sweet parasite.

And it doesn’t end there…

• Sugar creates false hunger (as a result of the insulin rush and then ensuing plummet in your blood sugar levels), which makes you overeat. This means a constant struggle with your weight in which you never seem to achieve your ideal size.
• Sugar promotes aging (due to the advanced glycation end products, or AGEs, that occur when insulin levels are consistently elevated as a result of eating too much sugar). Sugar has even been dubbed the negative fountain of youth.
• Sugar weakens your bones - making you vulnerable for osteoporosis, and weakens your teeth - making you vulnerable for cavities (both due to the calcium being pulled from your bones and teeth in order for your body to process sugar).
• Sugar in excess is stored as fat (after your liver has no more room to store it, sugar is converted to fat and deposited on your belly, thighs, hips and the backs of your arms).
• Sugar can impair brain functioning (as a result of depleted B-vitamin production).

If you’re still not convinced of the danger of sugar here are more ailments linked to its overconsumption: varicose veins, constipation, hormonal imbalances, ADD and ADHD, increased emotional instability, depressed immune system, increased risk of cancer and degenerative diseases.

The average modern person consumes 46 teaspoons of sugar every day. That comes out to roughly 175 pounds of sugar each year.

And it’s no wonder, since sugar industry is big business. They sneak sugar into any product that they can.

Go through the foods in your home and you’ll see that sugar has been added to everything from ketchup and spaghetti sauce to crackers, oatmeal, peanut butter and even ‘healthy’ items like weight loss bars.

Where does this leave you?

You are in a unique position. Your personal judgment determines the foods that you eat and the foods that you avoid. It is my hope that you approach sugar with new eyes.

While all other foods offer you caloric energy PLUS some nutritional benefit, sugar doesn’t. Sugar is simply caloric energy with a sweet habit forming taste, and a hoard of health risks.

Use your judgment wisely and limit your sugar consumption - you’ll love the benefits of low sugar living.

And while you’re at it contact me to start a training program that will turbo-charge your results.

(Oh and if you’re ever in a ship wreck with only sugar and water at your disposal - just drink the water!)

Take a look at a great story about me, Nick Irons, on AOL’s fitness Blog.

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