Archive for May, 2009

Beware the Prepackaged Smoothie

We were in the grocery store the other day and were looking around at the prepackaged smoothies that are in the referigerated juice section of the store, and I started looking at the nutrition content in these “all natural” smoothies that are supposed to be healthy alternatives to high fat snacks or even meal replacements. What I found was not only that they were pretty high in calories for a fairly small amount of juice, which probably wouldn’t fill you up too much or at the very least leave you starving in the near future, but they were not really “all natural” as they claimed.

One even had some fancy name for what I thought might be high fructose corn syrup, which is anything but healthy, and certainly is not all natural. These smoothies were also very high in sugar, and they weren’t thick which means they didn’t really have much but reconstituted frozen juice concentrate. If you look at the ingredients one that was supposed to be made exclusively of mango was really a mix of apple juice, banana puree, some mango puree, pineapple juice and some other sort of juice that was anything but mango. This leads me to believe that it’s almost like you are drinking empty calories.

Sure, you may be getting some advantage such as vitamin C because it is juice, but other than that, you are getting a high calorie snack or meal that doesn’t fill you up and may in fact put your appetite on high for the rest of the day because it is so high in sugar. I actually prefer to make my own smoothies at home. This way, you know exactly what’s going into them, and you know you’re getting whole, fresh (I use frozen) fruit that is going to fill you up with fiber and good nutrients.

I think I’ve shared my recipe for at home fruit smoothies already before here, but in case I have not, here it is. You take a good vanilla light yogurt. My favorite is Dannon Light and Fit vanilla yogurt. You get the most bang for your buck with Dannon Light and Fit if you compare it to other low fat vanilla yogurts. It’s a little thinner, but it’s also about fifty calories less per serving and has less carbohydrates. It also happens to taste the best I think.

Use the fruit of your choice, but for highest nutrition value, try blueberries or blackberries, which have tons of antioxidants. You may also add ground flaxseed meal, which adds much needed, filling fiber. I like it because it makes it a more robust texture and keeps you fuller longer, plus it helps keep you regular! It also happens to have valuable omega 3 fats in it.

Next, add ice, and voila, you have yourself a low fat, great tasting smoothie. It all should amount to less than 300 calories too, so it’s a great breakfast or even a lunch if you want to make it that. For added calories and protein and filling ingredients, you may also add some protein powder to it.

Is Grapefruit Really a Good Diet Food?

I remember being a small child and even hearing about the wonders of grapefruit when it came to weight loss. It was all the rage. Dieters went to the stores and bought grapefruits by the droves. There were diets dedicated to grapefruit, where all the dieter ate was grapefruit for several consecutive days, supposedly boosting their fat burning capabilities and flushing toxins out of the bodies. There was also a particular diet that was used in hospitals where a person drank grapefruit juice with their protein in the morning, supposedly helping to enhance their fat burning abilities for the rest of the day.

So, is grapefruit really some miracle weight loss food, or is this all a bunch of hype, like a lot of other things in the diet and weight loss arena? Well, it turns out that grapefruit is really good for you, and may be a great diet food as well. The reason is a natural compound/chemical found in grapefruit (but also found in other fruits, it’s just in grapefruit in a fairly high concentration), called pectin. Pectin is believe to enhance the fat burning capability of the body, hence the diet craze over grapefruit.

If you’ll notice, grapefruit’s reputation as a great diet food has largely gone over the hill now, being replaced by other food fads such as the acai berry, which by the way has very little evidence of being anything other than a very powerful antioxidant, which is great, but how great for weight loss? Other foods that have replaced the grapefruit as a great diet food are almonds, which contain protein and omega 3′s and are touted as a great natural appetite suppressant since they lead to a greater sense of fullness and satiety.

Also in the good diet food arena today are foods like spinach, kale, low fat dairy products like yogurt, egg whites, and lettuce, all of which contain whole nutrients that help you keep full, whether by way of protein or fiber. Grapefruit is still a very healthful food to eat, I just wouldn’t count on it as a weight loss method.

Jillian Michaels Master Your Metabolism Book Is Out

Jillian Michaels, who seems to become more and more popular as time goes by, has come out with another book on blasting away fat and helping people lose weight who have not responded to their liking when dieting and eating healthier. The book, Master Your Metabolism, is all about how the current American diet, which is rich in processed foods and a lot of chemical additives, is mostly about going organic and eating unprocessed, whole foods in order that your body may restore it’s natural hormone balance that helps it to achieve it’s ideal weight and weight maintenance.

She really advocates an organic diet that is high in unprocessed foods like organic fruits and veggies, and stresses the importance of vitamin C since it is a powerful antidote against a stress hormone called cortisol, which has been strongly linked to weight gain. She also talks about how getting enough sleep every night is extremely important because of the hormones it helps to both stimulate helpful hormones and supress the unhealthful ones that are counterproductive to your weight goals.

She says that when you sleep at night you produce the most HGH, which is human growth hormone, the hormone that keeps us lean and healthy in our younger years and tails off toward our later years, which accounts for more body fat and less muscle tone. Using HGH to lose weight is to your advantage because it helps to build muscle while helping to suppress fat production.

For example, she says that sleeping helps you produce a hormone called leptin which helps you feel fuller. The reason you feel ravenous all day after not sleeping enough is because your body has not produced enough of this natural chemical. Also she says sleep helps you to supress the production of cortisol, which helps in your weight goals as well. However, although she points out a lot of helpful and educational anecdotes and facts about why certain things are important in your diet and other things are counterproductive, she really advocates the organic, whole foods and seems to feel that processed foods are majorly responsible for a lot of the obesity and inadequate metabolisms.

I love to be educated on things like this, so this would be a book for me. I think it says a lot of things that some people may not know, but someone who is savvy in how to eat for optimum health may feel that some of it is repetitive. As always, her book is competitively priced, just like her workout dvd’s, which is always appreciated, and something that I feel is really important because she is making this information available to people who really need it. She’s extremely motivational, and I still love her workout videos too.

Low Fat Delicious Waldorf Chicken Salad Recipe

This recipe has become one of mine and my boyfriend’s recent favorites, what with the summer season coming up soon, and the warm weather arriving, we wanted something light and easy for lunches, and I’d had some delicious chicken salad at restaurants that combined similar ingredients, only I could tell they weren’t low fat because of the excessively rich flavor of it. However, with just some minor tweaks, you can make a delicious, low fat and high fiber and nutritional value chicken salad, without even using that much chicken, believe it or not!

This is a waldorf style chicken salad, which means it combines fruits and chicken and mayo basically. I’m going to write the exact recipe I use below so you can duplicate it with delicious results for you yourself or you and your family. For a lunch idea, you can put this chicken salad on a whole wheat pita for an additional 110 calories, or you can put it in a low carb wrap for about an additional 70 calories, depending on which brand of low carb wraps you use.

This also adds more fiber, which means you stay fuller and satisfied longer. By the way, this is a good meal for dieting, because my boyfriend and I have lost 30 pounds collectively so far and this is one of the items we love to eat, so you can feel good about it!

Ok, here’s my recipe for low fat, low calorie, high fiber Waldorf Chicken Salad :

3 chicken breasts, you can marinate them or not, I like to marinate mine overnight in a low fat, low calorie vinegarette dressing for adding juiciness and flavor. I pan fry mine, or you can broil them, whichever way you want is fine.

Let the chicken breasts cool. When cooled, slice and dice them or shred them, whichever you prefer.

I like to use about 1/4 cup of raisins mixed with dried cranberries and white raisins. Sunmaid makes bags of these that are already mixed, and you can use them on salads too, they’re delicious on salads.

1 whole apple. I like to use sweeter apple varieties such as fuji or gala, but you can use whatever apple floats your taste boat. Diced up the apple into small squares. This adds greatly to the fiber content and nutritional value. Remember the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”?

1/2 cup of plain chopped walnuts. I chop mine up in a nut chopper, but you can cut them up into little pieces with a knife too, it’s just a little more time consuming.

3/4 cup of Low Fat Mayonnaise by Hellmans. Make sure it’s the Low fat variety and not the Light, because the Light has more than double the calories and fat in it, and you don’t sacrifice too much taste and flavor by using the Low fat version, because there are so many other flavors in this recipe that make up for it.

1 half red onion, diced small.

Mix this all together until the mayo is thoroughly mixed in with all the other ingredients. It will be a somewhat loose mixture, but it’s still very satisfying and tasty. I also like to add a dash of salt and pepper to mine, but if you’re watching your sodium you can of course skip this part.

What is the “Diet Plate”

There’s a new idea that I’ve always thought would be good, and I was actually surprised no one had put one to market yet, of course at least not that I knew of. But now someone has, and it might just catch on. Except they didn’t originate in America, the diet obsessed land, they put it out in Britain. It’s called the Diet Plate, and for about forty bucks (yikes!), you can purchase the Diet Plate and you get a free diet bowl to go with it. What are they, and how can they help you lose weight?

Well, all the Diet Plate is, is a tool to help you control your portions and take the guesswork out of your portion sizes for various food groups. For example, it has drawn the sizes of protein servings, veggie servings (which happen to be unlimited, so long as they are not in a buttery or creamy sauce of some kind) and last but not least (and unfortunately usually the most fun to eat of the groups, and also the smallest allowance as we all know too well), the carbohydrate group. This last group could be some sort of pasta, a baked potato, or bread of some sort, and of course for diet purposes it’s the smaller portion of the three.

Now, for the free bowl that comes with the Diet Plate, that is used for breakfast cereals, to show you what kind of portion of cereal constitutes a good amount of calories for your breakfast. I’m not sure how many people would actually use that since a lot of people prefer to have things like yogurt, meats and fruits and maybe english muffins or something of the sort for breakfast, but there you have it, and it’s free, so who can complain!

This whole portion control thing is really the key to losing weight, but also I believe that eating the right combinations of foods and what types of starches, veggies, fruits and meats you eat really matters as well, so hopefully the plan and directions that come with explains that some foods may be better choices, regardless of portions, just from a nutritional value and filling value to keep you fuller longer and keep you on your diet.

I always like the unlimited veggies part, but too many times people think that this means they can eat things like creamed spinach or veggies in butter sauces, and that’s not the case. So while portion control is an important part of weight loss and healthy weight maintenance, I think that the types of foods you choose will keep you healthier and on a diet longer because it kicks in your natural appetite suppressants, or on a good eating plan for the rest of your life, whereas low quality foods will just make you hungrier.

Oh, and portion control doesn’t just apply for meals, it of course applies also for snacking throughout the day, which is often forgotten if one is practicing portion control with meals.

Celsius Soft Drink Increase Metabolism?

There are TONS of diet products, fat loss supplements (fat burners), appetite suppressants and weight loss supplements on the market today. There are also now beverages that claim they can help you to lose weight by helping to boost the metabolism and energy levels.

One of the newer products on the market today to help ramp up your metabolism and burn more calories is the Celsius beverages. Celsius is a flavored, calorie burning sparkling beverage. Through clinical studies, it was found that a 12 oz. serving of Celsius raised metabolism and burned calories faster and increased levels of alertness and energy.

According to these studies, one serving of Celsius raised metabolism by 12%, on average and burned up to 100 calories. Celsius is designed for people who like the taste of a soft drink and want the energy boost of coffee and energy drinks.

Celsius will not give you the nervousness associated with coffee and energy drinks. Celsius ingredients include green tea, ginger, calcium, chromium, B and C vitamins and caffeine from the guarana seed. Celsius does not contain preservatives, sugar, aspartame or carbs.

Scientifically, Celsius is loaded with thermogenic agents to boost your metabolism. thermogenesis is the creation of heat, which is how we burn calories. In a series of clinical trials, Celsius consistently raised metabolisms. One of the studies looked at prolonged use of Celsius and found no negative health indicators and continuous boosting of calorie burning ability.

Celsius comes in a variety of flavors including lemon-lime, ginger-ale, cola, orange, wild berry, green tea rasberry acai and green tea peach mango. The Celsius recipe includes a blend of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and botanicals. Celsius sells online for a price of about $48.00 for a case of 24, or an average of about $2.00 per 12 oz. can.

McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger Without Bun a Good Low Carb Choice?

Once in a while, we will go through McDonalds and get what we consider a “treat” when we’re on the up and up with our diet routines.  It’s considered a treat because we know it’s not low in fat and certainly doesn’t have much nutritional value aside from a lot of protein (and grease), but at least it’s very low in carbs, and it’s an alright choice for when you want to be “bad” without really being bad at night for dinner.  We eat two double cheeseburgers from McDonalds without the bun.  It’s really tasty too!  I love it when the pickles are still hot and there is ample ketchup, mustard and onion to add to the savory flavor.

We always discuss also how there must be some sort of an addictive chemical in their cheese, because the american cheese McDonalds uses tastes so good, unlike other american cheese slices I’ve had.  I don’t know if it’s just because it’s higher in sodium or maybe in fat, but they’ve got the cheese down to a science.  Plus there is some sort of seasoning in their burger patties. I detect a bit of an onion flavor in them.

At any rate, let’s talk about the calorie content in two McDonalds double cheeseburgers without the bun.  There are about 280 calories in a double cheeseburger without the bun.  You save about 120 calories by not having the bun, and a whole lot of carbohydrates as well.  Because you can burn off pure protein better than you can protein combined with a simple carbohydrate (the bun), this makes for an ok meal to have at night.  It will satisfy you, but you may find that you’re somewhat hungry an hour later, although you don’t usually feel an absolute need or desire to eat more food, which is a good thing of course.

What you’re really doing here is eating low carb.  It’s a good idea to do this at night so that you don’t get too tired if you eat this during the day.  Then you also don’t have as long of a time at night to crash from lack of sugars (there are basically no sugars, which is fuel for the body and brain) in his since it’s mostly protein, unless you count the ketchup and other condiments.

We’ve been eating this as a meal about once a week and it allows us to feel like we’re being bad for dinner when in reality it is within our calorie restrictions, and I never gain weight from eating it the morning after, which is good.  In fact, I might even be a pound or two lighter!

Two Great Low Calorie, Low Fat Snack Ideas

I’m always on the quest for new light snack ideas that will satisfy my sweet/salty snack tastes but won’t bottom me out when it comes to calorie, fat, salt and carbohydrate allowances for the day.  I also like snacks that are high in fiber so that they fill me up and are satisfying for a longer period of time than snacks with no fiber at all.  This is why I discovered two new snacks for my low fat, relatively low calorie diet.  And they taste good and they satisfy, which is the most important part of all!

Ok, so my first favorite new low fat, low calories and fiber rich snack is Orville Redenbacher’s mini bag of Light Kettle corn popcorn.  This one is WAY better than the regular butter flavored stuff in my opinion.  It’s got a nice, lightly salty and sweet taste to it with just a hint of a butter taste. The sweet hint is what really makes this popcorn fun to eat.  It satisfies that sweet and salty craving that so many of us have which is the reason we go overboard and eat the wrong foods because we crave that sweet or salty combination.

That usually means fat, salt and calories, but this is great because it doesn’t come with all that baggage, and it’s also fiber rich.  You feel like you’re eating a lot because it takes up a lot of space, and it does satisfy.  It’s 110 calories per mini bag.  It has two grams of fat per bag, and a whopping 4 grams fo dietary fiber.  Nice!  You could even eat two of these bags if you were super hungry and not bust your calorie counts for the day if you really wanted to!

My second snack I like now is something I’ve noticed is increasingly hard to get at the grocery store, so it must be catching on like crazy because it’s so yummy and good for you at the same time. What I’m talking about are the Diamond bottles of flavored almonds.  They come in a Vanilla flavored variety, a Cinnamon Sugar, and plain old, sea salt variety.

They are all delicious, and if you mix them, voila you have sweet and salty!  They’re all low fat, high fiber, and they dish a generous amount of omega 3 fatty acids, which are terrific for weight loss and weight maintenance, and they are relatively low in calories for a nut.  They are not fried or cooked in oil, so they’re natural, beside the coating on them which is minimal.  A terrific way to get protein, fiber, omega 3′s and a great flavor for your diet!

Does Love Pack on the Pounds?

Well, love really does seem to be a double edged sword, at least it is when it comes to expanding belts and dress sizes for us ladies and expanding pants sizes for the fellas out there.  I know me myself, a woman in her thirties, had to reel myself back in after becoming so comfortable and happy in my relationship with my long term boyfriend that I packed on twenty pounds and he packed on – well he packed on a lot more than twenty!  Love is a great thing, it really is, but when you become so comfortable that you forget to take care of yourself, that becomes a problem, especially since excess weight can cause major health issues and shorten our lifespan.

Many people don’t realize until it’s too late that they’ve fallen victim to the “fat and happy” lifestyle of coupledom, content to go out and eat and drink wine, and not consider the calories so much because, well, they found their true love in their partner, and they certainly don’t need to try so hard to impress them any more, do they?  Well, this way of thinking can become dangerous for a few reasons.

First off, it could actually damage the relationship by making you resent eachother in the long run.  It could also take away from your sexual attraction to eachother.  Hey, while we’d all like to think we’d love Mr. or Ms. Right any which way they come, we are attuned to, as humans, the idea that fitness and looking healthy are still physical ideals of beauty, and none of us are immune to that sense of animal attraction that makes us fall in love in the first place.

Second, it can make you fal into a pattern that’s very difficult to break out of, especially when children enter the picture.  Once you’ve started cooking a certain way, or have gotten you and the kids used to certain foods that maybe aren’t so good for the “thin you” inside, it’s really hard to break that habit. When it’s two people, sure you can support eachother in your weight loss efforts, but you also may sabotage eachother’s weight loss efforts in the same breath.

How many times have you caught yourself being persuaded to get an ice cream sunday on a nice afternoon by your partner, when you yourself were not really hungry for this at all?  It works both ways, and keeping eachother on track is important if you want to spend a long, productive, happy and healthy life together, so it’s important to value diet and exercise in your relationship – not shallow as some people may have you think.  Health is important, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

Summer Time Restaurant Indulging?

It seems somewhat counterintuitive, because most people think of summer time as the time when they are more in shape, less likely to pig out and gain a bunch of weight, and be more active because the weather is nice. While it’s definitely true on the being more active part, we’ve noticed that for us, it seems like the restaurant temptations come much harder and faster in the summer, and we actually found for a while that rather than losing summer time weight, we were gaining because we were indulging in going out more, spending more money on food and fun (and inevitably, summer time sugar alcoholic drinks), and essentially packing in way more calories than we should have on a daily basis.

Let’s give a typical weekend (in our old way of living, we don’t do this any more, we made a pact to lose weight and keep it off, plus we’ve been really scrounging to save money lately) as an example of these weekly temptations to go out and indulge in fattening, caloric foods.  It’s the weekend, and Sally and Tom (two fictitious names of course, we don’t have friends by those names), call us up and ask us to dinner at the latest Mexican bar and restaurant that opened up just up the road from us.  Far be it from us to resist the temptation of any easy night of dining, fun, food and drinks and foresake the leftover baked chicken from the night before, so we accept.

This happened almost weekly, we’d have healthy eating plans for the night and either we’d get invited to go out with friends and drink and eat, or we would just say screw it and go to a restaurant out of sheer laziness and wanting the experience and instant gratification.  And there you have the reason why we could never get weight off in the summer time.  We’d be fine during the week, and Friday Saturday and Sunday we’d shed our lunch packing, calories conserving ways and become the weekend warriors of restaurant indulging.

I’m sure you have similar stories.  The moral here is that maybe the recession will spur you to forego the typical weekend restaurant trips that tend to turn into three nights in a row of splurging and overdoing it on the calories.  It may seem harmless and fun at first, but believe me, both your waistline and your pocketbook will suffer in the end whereas if you eat healthfully at home, you will conserve on both your hard earned money, and calories, fat, sugar and extra weight!