Pilates workout with weights and glute band (video included)
Posted on July 3, 2023 Leave a Comment
written by Nina Shantel, blog: RealDietHelp.com, published July 3, 2023
In this Pilates full-body workout, I’ve incorporated exercises such as plie squats, chair pose, cobra push-ups, and traditional weightlifting exercises with dumbbells for an all-around fun, strength workout. The equipment needed to perform it exactly as shown is a mat, a sturdy chair or a barre, a glute band, and one set of light dumbbells. I’m using 8-pound dumbbells, but you may prefer to use 5-lb or 3-lb dumbbells. You can also do this 35-minute workout without weights or a band.
All exercise involves risk (so does inactivity). You assume all risks of injury so go at your level.
Below are the exercises in order:
- 1st position plie squats (heels) together with calf raises
- Banded, standing donkey kicks
- Banded side-to-side plie squats with 1-dumbell, held vertically by the ends, by chest (weight is optional)
- Squats on toes, hold barre or chair
- Chair-pose with alternating heels lifts, arms overhead to airplane arms
- Calf raise hold at barre for 1-minute.
- Kneeling lunge with fingers behind ears. Rotate torso in a circular motion 4 times to the right & 4 times to the left. Repeat with other leg in a kneeling lunge position. (core exercise)
- Cobra pushups
- Strict lateral raises with 3-count eccentrics (lowering). This works the shoulders.
- Bent-over Y’s
- Standing single leg butt-kicks with biceps curls on one leg.
- Standing single leg butt-kicks with the other leg with alternating overhead triceps extensions (back of the arms) and W-press (shoulders)
- Side pulls: Hold one dumbbell in each hand, bring weight up to ribs, lower and repeat (back exercise)
- On back, put legs straight in the air, with toes pointed, bring legs togethers and pull them apart to work the inner and outer thighs and lower abdominal muscles.
- Side elbow plank, plus curl bent elbow to fist on each side. 8-reps.
- Plank with knee taps
- Lay on stomach and lift legs with pointed toes a few inches off the matt. Make sure to lift the thighs off the matt too (not shown in the video because I forgot).
- Plank, bring left foot outside of left hand, bring right arm up for a twist. Bring left foot back to plank. Downward dog. Switch sides. Repeating with the right leg.
- Child’s pose stretch
- Pigeon pose
- Quad stretch
- Mermaid stretch
- Hamstring stretch on back, point and flex feet
- Figure-four glute stretch (this stretches the butt aka glutes)
- Seated pec stretch (this stretches the chest muscles)
- Biceps and triceps stretches
- Seated butterfly stretch
Play the YouTube video above, or click the image below to join me in this workout.
If this post is located on any other website other than mine, which is RealDietHelp.com, it’s been unauthorized, plagiarized (copied without my permission). The other social media sites where my articles and videos are approved to be published are on my YouTube channel (Nina’s Nutrition & Exercise Videos), my Fit Girl Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheHighFiveDiet/ and my Twitter account https://twitter.com/medairyfree
Vegan Blueberry Pancakes (gluten-free, oil-free, plant-based, sugar-free)
Posted on June 20, 2023 1 Comment
written by Nina Shantel, blog: RealDietHelp.com, published February 7, 2023
These vegan blueberry pancakes are gluten-free, plant-based, oil-free, low in fat and contain zero sugar.
Dry ingredients:
- 2 cups old fashioned oats
- 1 T ground cinnamon
- 1 T baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Wet ingredients:
- 3 medium bananas, peeled
- 1 small apple, peeled, cored and chopped
- ½ cup frozen pineapple chunks, diced
- 2 T lemon juice
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup frozen blueberries (don’t add to food processor)
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While oven is warming up, add dry ingredients, except for the walnuts, into a medium-sized food processor and mix until it resembles flour. Pour the oat flour mixture into a large glass bowl and set aside. Add wet ingredients, except for the blueberries, to the food processor and blend until it’s smooth. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix again until it resembles batter, about one minute.
Remove blade and set inside your sink to clean later. Add ½ cup of fresh or frozen blueberries to the batter and mix by hand. If using walnuts, pour batter into a large glass bowl, and gently stir in the walnuts with a large spoon.
With ¼ of a measuring cup, pour batter onto two large parchment-lined paper baking sheets. Bake for 20 minutes on one side, flip and bake 5 minutes on the other side. Serve with a drizzle of maple syrup, if desired.
Cool on counter for 10 minutes before eating. This batch makes 13 pancakes. Each pancake: 100 calories, 18 carbs, 1 gram fat
To watch how I make these, play the YouTube video below:
If this post is located on any other website other than mine, which is RealDietHelp.com, it’s been unauthorized, plagiarized (copied without my permission). The other social media sites where my articles and videos are approved to be published are on my YouTube channel (Nina’s Nutrition & Exercise Videos), my Fit Girl Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheHighFiveDiet/ and my Twitter account https://twitter.com/medairyfree
oil-free, plant-based, vegan taquitos (crispy!)
Posted on June 13, 2023 Leave a Comment
written by Nina Shantel, blog: RealDietHelp.com, published June 13, 2023
Watch the cooking demonstration video at the bottom of the post to see exactly how to make these so your taquitos turn out perfectly.
Filling Ingredients
2 cans oil-free, fat-free, refried pinto beans
3 T coconut aminos
¼ cup salsa
¼ cup filtered water
A few dashes of each: salt, garlic powder, oregano, red chili pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, chipotle chili powder
2 T nutritional yeast flakes
1 onion, peeled and diced
½ red bell pepper, seeded, cored and chopped
1-2 T jarred jalapeno juice
26 non-GMO corn tortillas made with corn and lime juice
Toppings
guacamole
Salsa
Freshly sliced iceberg lettuce
¼ cup cilantro leaves
Put beans, coconut aminos, salsa and 1-2 T water in a large bowl and mix with a large spoon. Add herbs, spices, yeast, onion, pepper and jalapeno juice and mix again. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water if too dry to mix. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put half of the tortillas in the oven to warm up so they don’t break when rolled. Warming time is 7 minutes in a cold oven and 5 minutes in a warmed oven.
Put a few tablespoons of filling in the center of each warmed corn tortilla. With the edge of the tortilla, fold over half the tortilla over the filling and tuck the edge underneath the filling. Continue rolling the tortilla until it looks like a rolled taco. Place the rolled tortilla, seam side down, onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Follow these steps with each tortilla, making about 12-14 tortillas at a time.
Warm the remaining corn tortillas in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove tortillas and place on a plate or cutting board.
Place the filled taquitos into the heated oven on the top rack and cook for 15 minutes. While the taquitos are cooking, finish making the rest of the taquitos.
After the taquitos have been baking for 15 minutes, turn the oven to air-fry or increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Remember to reduce the temperature to 350 degrees when baking the remaining taquitos.
Put taquitos on a large plate (we usually eat five taquitos) and top with guacamole, salsa, lettuce and cilantro leaves.
If this post is located on any other website other than mine, which is RealDietHelp.com, it’s been unauthorized, plagiarized (copied without my permission). The other social media sites where my articles and videos are approved to be published are on my YouTube channel (Nina’s Nutrition & Exercise Videos), my Fit Girl Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheHighFiveDiet/ and my Twitter account https://twitter.com/medairyfree
Sugar-Free, Sweet, Vegan Cinnamon-Apple Oatmeal
Posted on June 6, 2023 Leave a Comment
This oatmeal is both sweet, from the cooked banana, and tart, from the green apple. It’s a combination unlike any other, and incredibly addictive, and smells like apple pie.
Ingredients:
1 ripe large banana
1 large green apple, cored and seeded (leave skin on)
2 teaspoons unsalted tahini, creamy almond butter, peanut butter or cashew butter
¼ tsp cinnamon, ground
1 ½ cup toasted oats (1/2 cup oats per person)
3 cups filtered water
Splash of hemp milk or plant milk of choice (hemp milk recipe https://wordpress.com/post/realdiethelp.com/8527 )
Directions: Peel and break banana apart into small pieces and place in a small food processor and blend until creamy. Add apple, tahini and cinnamon, and blend again until it looks like apple sauce.
Put 1 ½ cups oats and water into a small saucepan on stovetop and put burner temperature on medium-high heat. Stir. Add banana-apple mixture to pot and stir again. Keep stirring every 15 seconds or so until most of the water is evaporated. Turn heat off, cover saucepan, and let sit for five minutes, which will allow the excess water to steam and cook the oatmeal into a creamy texture.
Pour cinnamon-apple oatmeal into three bowls and top with a splash of plant milk and stir twice, to add a little more moisture. If you use my hemp milk recipe, it will give it a bit more sweetness and richness, like a dessert.
Serves 3.
Per person serving size below:
Calories 253
Protein 7 grams
Net carbs 41 grams
Fat 5 grams
If you want a more substantial breakfast, omit 1/2 cup oats and divide portions into two servings instead of three, and/or top with toasted whole walnuts or chopped almonds.
Vegan desserts, low-fat, plant-based, gluten-free, sugar-free, oil-free, no dates | Apple desserts
Posted on May 30, 2023 Leave a Comment
These baked apples 🍏 with a vegan 🌱 creamy tofu whipped topping is reminiscent of apple pie without the butter, sugar or flour.
I used firm tofu in the video (below) because I couldn’t find silken tofu at my nearby markets, but it’s best to use silken tofu to get the perfect creamy texture. I’ve made this with raw apples and baked apples, but soft baked apples are sweeter and go better with the pudding-like topping. Another tip to make this low-fat dessert taste decadent is to splurge on alcohol-free vanilla extract. If you use the inexpensive vanilla extract that you will typically find in stores, it contains alcohol, and your dessert will have a sharp and overpowering alcohol flavor. It’s still good without vanilla extract.
If you have ten minutes, watch the video on how I make this dessert for best results.
Ingredients:
4-5 large apples box silken tofu, drained
1 teaspoon alcohol-free vanilla extract (I forgot to mention in the video)
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon
1-1 1/2 bananas
balsamic vinegar (about 1 tablespoon per serving)
walnuts or granola (approx. 1 tablespoon per serving)
Thinly slice, core and seed five or more of your favorite types of apples and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet at 350° for 30 to 40 minutes.
While the apples are baking and softening, prepare the whipped topping.
Drain the silken tofu, also known as soft tofu, and gently spoon the soft tofu into a small food processor. Add one banana and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of alcohol-free vanilla extract and blend until creamy. Taste the whipped tofu cream to see if it is sweet enough, if not, add half a banana. If you want more cinnamon, you can add one half to one more teaspoon of cinnamon at this time . Blend again; make sure there are no chunks and the tofu pudding mixture is completely smooth.
When the apple 🍎 slices are soft to your liking, take them out of the oven and let cool completely. Keep the apple slices and the whipped cream in the refrigerator in a covered glass container until ready to eat.
Plate the apple slices and add a dollop or more of the whipped tofu banana cream. Drizzle balsamic vinegar on top. Add desired amount of dry toasted walnuts, or raw walnuts or granola on top.
Store leftovers in refrigerator.
Caroline Girvan’s Diet (what does Caroline Girvan eat?)
Posted on May 23, 2023 Leave a Comment
written by Nina Shantel, blog: RealDietHelp.com, published December 20, 2022
Caroline Girvan, a pretty, thin, 37-year-old muscular bleached blond fitness model, who has a dark spray tan, has close to 2 million subscribers on YouTube, where she shares her exercise weightlifting and cardiovascular workouts.
It appears that her bodyfat percentage is in the single digits, since she’s shredded, so I wondered if she was vegan, she’s not.
While her workouts are well-thought out, her diet, or at least, what she recommends, is terrible for health, as it promotes heart disease, and will make it difficult to lose weight since it’s high in fat and low in healthy carbohydrates.

Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com
She calls herself a “nutrition expert.”
When I googled, “What makes Caroline Girvan a nutrition expert?” My search didn’t come up with an answer to that question, so I tried a different question. I typed, “What are Caroline Girvan’s credentials?” Answer: She’s a “certified personal trainer.” Certified trainers do have to read a chapter about nutrition, but it’s incomplete and usually inaccurate; that doesn’t make her an expert in nutrition.
If you want to watch the video I made instead of reading this post, scroll down towards the bottom of this article.
(I am a certified personal trainer and have a certification in fitness nutrition; I am a certified strength and conditioning coach, a certified plant-based grassroots Ambassador, a published author of four books, one is a cookbook and the other is a book that teaches nutrition and weight loss).
I found a video she made about what to eat. She doesn’t state how much of each food to consume so I cannot determine the calories or macronutrient ratios; but I can tell you that her diet is better than the standard American diet, but her diet will still elevate cholesterol levels and increase inflammation.
In her diet plan, she recommends people eat, the following.
Breakfast: eggs, toast, avocado, and fruit.
Fruits are extremely nutritious and contain fiber, nutrients, and water so that’s a fantastic food choice.
She recommends eggs and avocado for breakfast. For anyone trying to lose weight, they should avoid or limit avocados which are high in fat (the higher the fat, the higher the calories). Eggs are high in fat and cholesterol and should not be in any diet plan.
She recommends toast for breakfast. Toast is a processed food, but if it’s whole grain and is gluten free, toast is fine for most people to eat.
(I eat a salad with fruit and balsamic vinegar almost every morning for breakfast)

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Snack: protein shake or Greek yogurt.
She recommends a protein shake as a snack. Protein shakes are usually made with chemicals, toxic sweeteners, and isolated soy or dairy protein. Dr. McDougall says all protein powders, even vegan protein powders are toxic because the protein has been isolated (molecularly taken apart, the fiber, carbohydrate and fat removed).
She recommends Greek yogurt for a snack, but doesn’t explain why yogurt is a good food choice. The probiotics in all yogurts are usually inactive, and what little remains is worthless.
We don’t need to add shakes or yogurt to our diets since Americans generally eat excessive amounts of protein.
Unless someone is underweight, I advise people to try not to snack between meals as snack calories add up fast.
Lunch: salmon, brown rice, and broccoli.
In her food plan, she advises people to eat Salmon for lunch. Salmon is a high-fat food. All fish contain mercury, PCB’s, microplastics, cholesterol and toxic chemicals.
Fish is poor protein choice. I used to eat salmon too, but now, when I want salmon, I make baked tofu “salmon” with nori. Tofu is high in protein, and the nori seaweed contains iodine and omega 3s.
Caroline recommends the whole grain, brown rice, to pair with the salmon for lunch. Brown rice contains quite a bit of arsenic so I would choose another grain, like quinoa instead.
Caroline recommends adding a vegetable like broccoli to the lunch with salmon and brown rice. Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable and something everyone should eat often.
Mid-day snack: rice cakes, peanut butter, apple.
Caroline recommends eating rice cakes smeared with peanut butter and an apple. I’m not a fan of rice cakes since they taste like cardboard and puffed rice is processed.
Peanut butter is a high fat food, which is not recommended for people trying to lose weight.
She recommends eating an apple for a snack. Why just one? Apples are awesome and contain healthy phytonutrients. People should eat more apples!

Photo by Eva Bronzini on Pexels.com
Dinner: chicken breast, lentil pasta, marinara sauce, spinach
A dinner with chicken breast, spinach, and lentil pasta with a marinara sauce would have been a good choice except for the chicken breast, which contains saturated animal fat and estrogen hormones, which makes it hard to lose weight. Leave out the chicken breast and it’s still a high-protein meal, and gets a thumbs up from me.

A good substitute for spaghetti is to use zucchini noodles.
I use beans instead of animal products, which are heart healthy and absent of saturated fat and cholesterol.
Snack: cottage cheese (gross, that’s what my grandma used to eat)
It appears Caroline’s choosing cottage cheese due to its high protein content, but most people have digestive issues with dairy because us humans weren’t supposed to consume baby bovine fluid. Any excess protein doesn’t turn into muscle, it turns into fat!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Another snack option she recommends is dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is delicious, but chocolate bars are high in fat, and contain sugar, which is inflammatory and additive, and can lead to overconsumption.
A diet so low in whole carbohydrates, which is what she advocates, would make it difficult for most people to gain muscle, feel full and satisfied, and have enough energy to complete a difficult workout.
Her diet is lacking in in fiber, and those fibers are essential for good gut health, so I recommend she add more fruit, definitely berries, and more vegetables, like sweet potatoes and beets, to her food plan, add in beans and lentils for heart-healthy protein and carbohydrates for fuel, and get rid of the dairy and animal products, which are acidic and inflammatory (not ideal for building muscle or losing weight).



She recommends eating six times a day. Eating more frequently can lead to weight gain, not weight loss, and frequent eating doesn’t allow the body enough time between meals for repair because it’s spending more time digesting food.
I recommend people eat less frequently, limiting their meals to no more than three times a day if they need to lose weight.
To sum up Caroline’s diet, it’s a high-fat, high-protein diet, low in carbohydrates, low in fiber, low in micronutrients, high in mercury, hormones, and toxins.
The reason why she isn’t fat from eating all this fat is that her portions aren’t huge, and she doesn’t eat more calories than she burns off.
Fatty foods are not nutritious; fat doesn’t contain fiber or nutrients (the exceptions are nuts, seeds and avocados which should be limited, or avoided by people who are overweight).
Being slim, muscular and/or beautiful doesn’t mean someone’s diet is healthy.
Even if you or I exercised and ate exactly like Caroline, we wouldn’t look like her.
Proper nutrition, consistent exercise with progressive overload is key for a fit, muscular body but genes play a huge role in determining how one looks.
Caroline’s diet plan is better than most out there, but it not health promoting, will leave most people hungry, and have trouble following. All-in-all, I would grade her diet a “B-.”
If you are looking for a HEALTHY, sustainable diet, check out my plant-based, whole-food diet and nutrition book: the High-Five Diet.
If this post is located on any other website other than mine, which is RealDietHelp.com, it’s been unauthorized, plagiarized (copied without my permission). The other social media sites where my articles and videos are approved to be published are on my YouTube channel (Nina’s Nutrition & Exercise Videos), my Fit Girl Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheHighFiveDiet/ and my Twitter account https://twitter.com/medairyfree