Season your food!

When I first started competing I had no clue. I was given a mealplan, and quite frankly, was in shock. I thought I ate healthy! I didn't think I could have anything not on that piece of paper. I didn't think to how to cook it. It didn't help that our kitchen was being remodeled so all i had was a microwave in the garage, and a little plug-in pan. I ate a lot of my veggies raw, or my food plain. I ate tuna out of the can. Sometimes on spinach, usually dry. By the end my mom took pity on me and started cooking some of my food. I got better and realized I could use some salsa and seasonings. Some of the stuff I don't use during competition season now, but you can use off-season or for general healthy recipes. Today I'm going to go over what you CAN use, because as easy as it sounds, we just don't think about it until someone mentions it.

If you are off-season, or just eating healthy here are some great spices to try. They do have salt, so watch how much you use, make sure to drink plenty of water. Your body will hold water the more sodium you have, but also will adjust to the level you take in. As you get closer to a show, you will want to use less, and especially as you drop water the last week these come out for sure.
I LOVE Garlic Salt! I get the kind that has the parsley in it as well. I use that on pretty much everything. Garlic Salt and Lemon pepper(Black Pepper, lemon peel, salt, onion, garlic) are great on fish, especially together! Old Bay is a seasoning a client shared with me, great for fish and other items. It has celery salt, red pepper, black pepper and paprika.(another favorite spice of mine) Lawry's Seasoned Salt, also some paprika, turmeric, onion and garlic. Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning is nice and spicy! It has salt, red pepper, black pepper, chili powder and garlic.

 

Some other items I never knew I loved. Cholula! This I discovered at IHOP, and would use it on my eggs. Its a great hot sauce. Mustards - I never was much for them. But now...oh my! The flavors! This one I show, French's Honey Mustard is the one I found that has <1g sugar per serving. Some can have a lot of honey and hence, a lot of sugar. Check the labels. Dijon, honey dijon, many flavors to choose from. These definitely have salt, make sure no sugar. These along with the above get taken out closer to show depending on your training. 

 These are your plain spices, no salt added. Black pepper, Red pepper, Paprika, Garlic Powder, Basil, Parsley, Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Solute, anything in the seasonings that does NOT have salt. These are ok pretty much up to the show. Especially with fish you can use lemon with the garlic powder and parsley and brown in the pan...delicious!

 

And of course, ANY vinegar is ok up to the show. They have 0 cals, 0 sugars, 0 salt, etc. Balsamic(great on salads, tuna), Apple Cider(hunger/sweet cravings, very close to the body's natural pH balance so has MANY uses), Malt vinegar(on white fish, pretend its fish 'n' chips!), just make sure its PLAIN vinegar with nothing added to it.

Of course, I will have more quick and easy recipes with these seasonings coming soon! ;)