Ideas for Healthy Alternative Snacks

August 20th, 2011

Snacks are a part of my life.  I love to munch on snacks as I am sure most people do.  When I am in the mood to “munch” I choose things that will be of nutritional value (most of the time).  The things that come to mind are carrot sticks, I will even put a little oil and vinegar on them for better taste.  Cut up cucumbers and tomatoes are a good healthy treat.   I like crackers with cheese, this not only is tasty but filling (4 crackers is usually my limit) its just something to hold you over.  I also snack on fruit.  We are talking about 1/2 to 1 whole cup.  Anything easy to eat, like cut up cantaloupe, strawberries, cherries, bananas, apples (throw a little cinnamon or honey on it even), watermelon, mango, grapes…  I also like to snack on a salad, oh, like put lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, jalapenos, green olives and a good low saturated dressing, add a little zing and put a little Parmesan cheese and red onions.

Also included in my snack ideas are a low saturated and sodium potato chip.  You can go to the healthier grocery stores or healthier isles of the grocery store and find them there.  I have found alot of  natural and healthier chip alternatives instead of the msg loaded chips I used to eat.

Peanut butter is something that will give a little pick me up during the day.  Use it on crackers, celery, apples.  Peanuts are also a good snack, just don’t sit down with the whole can.  It also helps to regulate your stool if eaten in moderation.  Nuts like mixed nuts or almonds and even walnuts.  You get the point.  A good trail mix with nuts and raisins.  No m&m’s though, remember, healthy.

Prunes are delicious but be close to the restroom, if you know what I mean.  That’s one thing about healthy food choices they help you to get rid of your food and not constipate you.

How about spinach?  I like to put a little olive oil in a pan and cut up onions and sautee that till the onions are soft and throw in the spinach for a little while and add salt and pepper, yum.  I am throwing ideas of the kind of food I like, you incorporate your taste buds into healthy ideas.  Do I eat foods that are unhealthy?  Yes, I do, but sparingly, occasionally, not constantly.  I think that’s a way to adjust to eating healthier consistency, with an occasional “treat”.

Good luck and happy eating for yourself and your body.  You know that saying “junk food junkie”?  Well it’s true, if all you eat is junk that is all you will want.  Just choose wisely and the rest will follow.  You will be eating a healthy diet before you know it.

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Food and Nutrition helps you lose weight

February 17th, 2010

Digestion improves with fruits and vegetables

Lots of fruits and vegetables function as natural laxatives.   Natural laxatives help to regulate your body’s digestive process. They provide roughage and good natural fiber that is important in helping your body get rid of wastes.
white beans, navy beans, kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, lima beans, soybeans, split peas, , black eyed peas, lentils, chick peas and artichokes
Consume more fruits and vegetables daily.  It is not too hard to do.  I find that when I want some thing sweet I will pick up a fruit.  A hand full of grapes are great or a kiwi.  Just think how healthy that colorful kiwi is for you.  The more color the fruit the more nutrition.  Fruits have no cholesterol, now that’s great.

Red Foods – tomatoes, , red cabbage and watermelon .

Red foods contain many phytochemicals and these phytochemicals  reduce free radical damage. The phytochemical called lycopene is helpful to prevent prostate problems, and reduce the effects of sun damage on the skin. Lycopene is the phytochemical that make the red foods get their red color.

Potassium, which is rich in , tomato paste, tomato puree, cooked greens, beet greens, white potatoes, white beans, lima beans, carrot juice, sweet potatoes and prune juice may help maintain healthy blood pressure.  Walking 40 minutes a day is also good for blood pressure.

Vitamin C is high in kiwi, strawberries, sweet potatoes, kale, cantaloupe, broccoli, pineapple, Brussels sprouts, red green peppers,  oranges, mangoes, tomato juice and cauliflower.  Vitamin C is good for inflammation and stress also body tissues and cuts and wounds.

You know we need to have lots of water for our bodies but did you know that fruit contains 80 percent water?  Now that is another good reason to eat more fruit.  Fruit is so nutritious a diet that consists of 100% fruit and nuts will be rich in protein, calcium and vitamins essential for a healthy lifestyle. What’s more, it’s low in fat, sodium and cholesterol.

The body makes proteins to create muscles, tendons, ligaments, hair and nails. Proteins are also important in the make-up of enzymes, genes and hormones. Fruits that contain protein include: dates, figs, avocados, peanuts, almonds, brazil nuts, and walnuts.

Fruits that contain essential fatty acids include olives, avocados, nuts and seeds.  Essential fatty acids help our bodies stay healthy.

So when ever you think what can I eat as a snack think about sunflower seeds, almonds, peanuts, walnuts… and Fruit like kiwi, banana, strawberry, blueberry, you get my drift.  You will be surprised at how filling you will be by eating healthy.  Remember though, portions.  Don’t eat the whole bag of anything.  Nuts and seeds are a serving about the size of the palm of your hand.  Fruits about a half a cup.  Remember to snack on this stuff and not processed foods.

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January 15th, 2010

To lose weight by changing our eating habits we need to be aware of what we are eating and eat better foods.

  1. You like to eat:                                         You eat instead:
  2. Ice Cream                                                   Frozen Yogurt
  3. Processed Cakes & Pies                             Fruit
  4. Chips                                                          Pretzels
  5. Fried Chicken                                             Baked Chicken
  6. French Fries                                                Baked Fries
  7. Syrup                                                           Honey
  8. Processed Foods                                          Home Cooked
  9. Hamburger                                                   Turkey Burger
  10. Canned Beans                                          Fresh Beans (you cook)
  11. White Bread                                                Wheat Bread
  12. Potato Chips                                                 Nuts or Seeds
  13. Fruit Cocktail in the can                               Fresh Fruits
  14. Microwave Diet Meals                                Home Cookin
  15. Soda                                                             Unsweetened Drink
  16. Diet Soda                                                      Unsweetened Drink
  17. Doughnuts                                                     Fruit
  18. Canned Soup                                                 Home made Soup
  19. Canned Broth                                                Home made Broth
  20. White Rice                                                     Brown Rice
  21. Canned  Goods                                              Fresh Foods
  22. Boxed Goods                                                 Fresh Foods
  23. Ramon Noodles                                             Home made Soup

So you say how do you do it.  How do you pick the foods that are good for you instead of the ones that are bad?  well, processed foods are full of fillers, chemicals, additives, sodium, fats and some has msg (monosodium glutamate).  MSG is a flavor enhancer, it stimulates the taste buds and makes you think the food you are eating is way better than it really is.  Some people have side effects to MSG.  Any way, when you eat processed foods that has a lot of additives you think the food is better than it really is/ mentally and nutritionally.  Ever heard the phrase “junk food junkie”?  When you eat a lot of “junk food” your body kinda forgets that “real food” is wwwaaaayyyy better and your body craves the junk food because of the additives.  If you eat a lot of junk food then quit eating it and eat some home cooking.

Home cooked food is fresh and depending on how you cook it, can be very nutritious.  Your body will benefit from home cooked food by the nutritional value it has.  If you feed your body with nutritious foods it will be happier and then be satisfied.  If you feed your body with processed foods it will not be as happy or satisfied.   Try it, when you get hungry- instead of reaching for a processed snack or meal- eat one that was home cooked.  Do it for about 2-3 weeks and you will notice a difference.  So you don’t have time?  Well, prepare some things ahead of time.  After you eat supper at night prep for tomorrows meal.  Use a crock pot to cook just about anything.  Beans come out great in a crock pot.  Experiment and have fun you deserve it.

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Exercising to lose weight

January 7th, 2010

Exercising and losing weight are not two separate issues.  You need to do them together to keep the weight off for good.

What ever exercise you will do is the exercise for you.  There are different kinds of exercise.  Cardio exercise is a very good exercise.  Some cardio include (but not limited to):

Step aerobics, 800 calories burned per hour

Elliptical burner, 600 calories burned per hour

Racquetball, 800 calories burned per hour

Just so you exercise

You can swim, bicycle, walk… anything that you’re going to do.

Start slow, you gained the weight slowly it may be slowly in coming off.  You will eventually need to exercise 50 minutes 4-5 times a week.  Or say 200 minutes a week of moderate intense exercise.  200 divided by 5= 40 min/day, 5 days a week at least.  It can be done and it is done by many people.

I know, it’s hard to start exercising if you haven’t done it in a while.

Start slow, so you don’t give up and stay consistent.  Even if you don’t want to get up and go exercise get up any way.  You will be glad you did exercise makes you feel better and if actually done correctly you will look better physically.

Consult a doctor before any exercise program.

Get a buddy if need be.  Some times exercising with a friend can be much more fun.  You have some one to talk to, some one to encourage you, some one to motivate you when you don’t want to go, some one to push you … Don’t do too much too fast.  Log your steps.  Weight yourself daily or every other day.

Exercising to lose weight is important it uses excess calories that would otherwise be stored as fat.  Weight loss is about creating a calorie deficit, you need to burn more calories than you take in.  We can all make excuses not to exercise.  But the truth is it’s good for losing weight.

Exercise is good for the heart, blood pressure, fatigue… many, many things.  So remember you want to do this for you, for your body, for your health and for the exercise.

Now, I hope this helped you to want to get up and exercise because it’s good for you and your weight loss.  Motivate your self, educate your self and appreciate your self you’re worth it.  No one can do it but you, you have to get up and go.  You have to want it and I know you do or you wouldn’t have read this article through.  Good Luck.

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A list of groceries to help lose weight

January 7th, 2010

Trying to lose weight is hard and making your grocery list could be easy.  If you are like most people your grocery list consist of mostly processed foods.  Things like pop tarts, quick grits, sweet cereal, pies, frozen pizza, hot pockets, can goods and frozen pancakes are on your grocery list.  The average person has 90% processed foods on their grocery list.  When your walking around the grocery store look at peoples carts, there is a lot of processed foods (food in the can, box or package prepackaged) in their carts.

How do you make a grocery list to lose weight?  Well first off if you’re serious about losing weight you’re gonna have to get serious about cooking and eating good foods so your body can get nutritious foods and you can feel satisfied and this will lead to weight loss.  The way to cooking good food, that is good for you is creating a grocery list.  Staples on your grocery list (things to all ways have on hand at home)  should be -

1. lettuce (salad is good for you, it also helps fill you)

2. vegetables, such as broccoli, cucumber, carrots, onions, bell peppers…

3. fruits, such as apples, kiwi, lemons, bananas, blueberries…

4. whole wheat bread

5. chicken, breast or what you like.

6. extra virgin olive oil

7. meats, but go lean

8. nuts and seeds

This is not the only food to pick but this is a guide.  But when writing your grocery list go as fresh as you can.  Fresh frozen fruit and vegetables are okay.  But if at all possible boxed, canned or packaged, stay away from these.  Even stay away from crackers, chips, you know the processed stuff.

Say you want to fix a chicken breast sandwich for supper.  Well, you’ll need bread, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, low fat cheese if want, extra virgin olive oil to cook the chicken in… Should you put mayo and mustard, that’s up to you but regular mayo has a lot of calories so very little.  Mustard is not so bad with calories so you decide.

So when you decide what you want for breakfast, lunch or supper.  Decide what you have at home and what you don’t and what you don’t have put on your grocery list.  Always try to put fresh vegetables and fruits on your grocery list these foods are highly nutritious and satisfying when trying to lose weight.  The more satisfied you feel and the more filling you feel on nutritious foods the greater your chance of sticking with the new way of eating and actually losing weight.  Remember  your cooking your own food and you’re plating your own food, serve smart.

I hope this helps you to plan a grocery list with nutritious foods that you will enjoy.

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Processed Food VS Home Cooked when trying to lose weight

January 7th, 2010

Processed food has very little nutrition so when your trying to lose weight it’s best to eat home cooked meals.  Home cooked meals will fill you for longer because of the nutrition.  Processed foods make you feel hungry sooner because of the low nutrition.

Processed food is made with trans fat and saturated fat and these are not good for your body.  Home cooked meals, with fresh ingredients have what ever you put in them.  Home cooked meals can be virtually sodium free if you don’t add sodium in your food.

The types of home cooked meals you fix depend on you.  If you don’t have a lot of time then chicken breast cut in chunks then stir fried, not deep fried, with vegetables like broccoli, napa cabbage, onions, bell peppers and carrots is delicious, season it a bit, though for the best taste.  If time is of essence cut the vegetables the night before and they will be ready for supper time to cook.  If you want rice put a little bit but if you put enough vegetables you won’t need rice.  Now remember don’t use any processed food for this, nothing out of the can please.  Remember that color in your diet is good.  The green Broccoli, Orange Carrots, Green cabbage, green bell pepper they have color and it’s good.

I can’t tell you enough if you’re trying to lose weight cooking at home is the way to do it.  Eating out at a fast food restaurant is not as healthy as eating at home.  For one, the sodium in fast food is high and you can’t control that but at home you can control it.  For another reason the fats in the foods at the fast food places are higher than at home.  At home  you control what fat you use.  Try using extra virgin olive oil at home when you cook it’s good for you, a small amount.  Another reason is portion control at home you can serve a smart portion at the restaurant they may serve twice as much and it might tempt you to eat it.

So what I am saying is Home cooking is soo much better for you.  The fresh ingredients, lower sodium, lower fats and smaller portions make cooking at home a good way to lose weight.  Processed foods are high in sodium, fats and portion.  If you say you don’t have time to cook try prepping things in advance and you’ll see it is achievable, fun and nutritious.

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Change eating habits to lose weight

January 6th, 2010

To lose weight change your eating habits.  Changing your eating habits may sound hard to do.  You need to recognize your eating habits.

Do you eat when your hungry only or do you eat when your depressed or worried even when you’re not hungry?  If the above is your case recognizing it is the first step and working on it is the next.

Eating habits happen slowly, not over night so changing them will take time.  When you decide to make your change start one day at a time.  On the first day you may look at what you’re eating for breakfast.  If you’re eating 3-4 eggs, a biscuit, bacon and grits I would suggest you cut that in half.  Cutting your big portions in half will help to shrink the stomach.  Cutting big portions will be a positive change it will allow you to be able to eat more often during the day.  Eating more often, small portions, will keep you feeling more satisfied with less food.  If you want to change what you eat for breakfast, if you’re eating eggs, bacon, grits and a biscuit, eat fruit instead.  Fruit for breakfast is an energy booster and a healthy alternative to “traditional” breakfast.  Light breakfasts also include yogurt, a bagel, toast with peanut butter anything lighter and less filling.

Now as far as changing an aspect of eating 3 big meals a day you could change that up and eat 5 small meals.  You would be surprised at how satisfying it is.  Eat a light breakfast, then at 10:00 eat a snack, remember eat light.  Then eat a light lunch and then at 2:00 eat another snack, this helps the afternoon hunger pains and the eating too much for supper.  Then eat supper, try to eat it before 6:00 if at all possible.

Another way to change eating habits is to change the way we buy groceries.  By habit you may purchase foods that are quick to fix.  Frozen pizza, hot pockets, chips… You could try to concentrate on fresher ingredients, ones you have to fix and put together yourself.  If you don’t have a lot of time then plan your menu accordingly.  But the fresher the better when it comes to food.  Processed food is high in sodium and low in nutrition, it leaves you hungry.  Eat salad with meals, remember salad dressing can be high in calories so change to vinegar and oil or low fat dressings.

Once you try to change your eating habits its not so hard to do and the benefits are for you.

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Cutting Calories helps Lose Weight

January 5th, 2010

Cutting calories helps you to lose weight.  The choices we make when we decide to eat effect how we manage our weight.  If we can choose a healthy alternative to an unhealthy food we can cut calories.  For example using low fat or skim milk instead of whole fat milk can cut calories.  We can eat steamed or boiled (slightly) vegetables instead of fried.  Steam or boiled anything instead of frying is better for us.

Sometimes our cooking methods need to change.  Putting a little bit of oil, extra virgin olive oil instead of animal fat is a good change.  Stir frying opposed to frying is healthier.  Baking our vegetables in a little olive oil is very tasty.  We can use real unsalted butter instead of margarine but as always so very light, these tasty foods can add more calories the more we use.  Taste is important so we want it to taste good of course.

Healthy Substitutions

instead of Try

Ice Cream                                                           Sherbet or Sorbet

Doughnuts                                                          Bagels

Chips                                                                     Nuts or Seeds

White Bread                                                       Wheat Bread

Fried Potatoes                                                  Baked Potatoes

Portions are important.  If we eat too much our stomachs stretch and we need to continue to eat more food than necessary to feel full.  Try cutting your portions in half, eat a salad with meals and eat slowly.  Eating slow makes us take longer to eat, makes us enjoy our food more and longer and we feel more satisfied.  We need to portion foods so we don’t feel deprived of food.  We can eat a lot of food we enjoy but we have to be smart with choices.  If you cut your portions it’s important to eat a small snack to help tide you over to the next meal.  So say you ate breakfast at 7:00 and it was 2 eggs a slice of wheat toast and small amount of grits.  Well, at 10:00 you will be hungry so eat a small healthy snack then.  I would suggest 1/2  strawberries, blueberries, or a handful of nuts, seeds or even 4 crackers and 1 slice of cheese (low fat).  These are healthy alternatives to high fat snacks.

Cutting calories to lose weight is picking healthy low fat foods instead of Processed high calorie and high sodium foods.  Healthy eating is something you can learn and enjoy.  Healthy does not mean you can eat more of it.  Healthy eating means satisfying your body and not eating as much.  When we eat processed foods our body lacks the nutrition it needs to do its job.  When we eat processed foods we eat more because our body wants nutrition and it’s not getting it from processed foods.

So let’s cut calories so we can see a difference in our weight.

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How To Lose Weight

January 5th, 2010

You want to know how to lose weight.  Losing weight is a matter of simply burning more calories than you eat.   Eating less food if you don’t exercise enough is another way to cut calories.  Yes, you need to exercise to burn some calories.

Make some changes in your diet like eating 5 small meals a day, by cutting your portions down in half your able to get your stomach to slim down and consume less food.  5 small meals a day could be, a small breakfast and then a small 10:oo snack, a small lunch and then a 2:00 snack and then an early supper if at all possible so you can burn more food before going to bed for the night.

You can lose weight if you eat smarter.  Drink water instead of sugary drinks.  It’s a good idea to eat fruits instead of sugary foods and snacks.  Eat nuts or seeds some times instead of chips.  Contrary to what people think,  a small hand full of nuts or seeds is not that fattening.  What’s fattening is when we sit down with the whole bag.  These are some ideas to cut out extra calories.

How to make the weight come off

Calculate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate).  Your BMR is what your body needs to function normally.  The least amount of calories you need to eat each day.  This is not 100% , adjust as you go.

A Calorie Counter will calculate your activity level.  These are calories you burn during the day while sitting, standing or what you do daily.

Calorie Calculator, calculate the calories you eat and drink daily.  You can use a journal to do this.
BMR + Activity Calories – Food Calories

Eat less than you burn so you’ll lose weight.  Do not lose weight too fast, that can be dangerous.  You can lose weight at a steady pace and be happy. You can lose weight by eating healthy foods.  By Healthy foods I mean foods with nutritional value.  These foods would be fresh fruit and vegetables or frozen if need.  Healthy foods are foods that satisfy our bodies and nourish us.  Do the best you can to stay away from processed foods.  Processed foods are foods in the box or can.  Most processed foods are not nearly as healthy for us as fresh or frozen foods.  Processed foods with added MSG (a flavor enhancer) will tend to make you eat more because the flavor enhancer stimulates the brain to make you think they taste better, therefore we eat more.  Eat a variety of food this will satisfy you more and will let you stick to eating healthier.  These are some tips on eating healthier as a way to lose weight.

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