8 Simple Steps To Eating The Mediterranean Way

1. Eat lots of vegetables. From a simple plate of sliced fresh tomatoes drizzled with olive oil and crumbled feta cheese to stunning salads, garlicky greens, fragrant soups and stews, healthy pizzas, or oven-roasted medleys, vegetables are vitally important to the fresh tastes and delicious flavors of the Med Diet.

2. Change the way you think about meat. If you eat meat, have smaller amounts – small strips of sirloin in a vegetable sauté, or a dish of pasta garnished with diced prosciutto.

3. Always eat breakfast. Start your day with fiber-rich foods such as fruit and whole grains to keep you pleasantly full for hours. Layer granola, yogurt, and fruit, or mash half an avocado with a fork and spread it on a slice of whole grain toast.

4. Eat seafood twice a week. Fish such as tuna, herring, salmon, and sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and shellfish including mussels, oysters, and clams have similar benefits for brain and heart health.

5. Cook a vegetarian meal one night a week. Build meals around beans, whole grains, and vegetables, and heighten the flavor with fragrant herbs and spices. Down the road, try two nights per week.

6. Use good fats. Include sources of healthy fats in daily meals, especially extra-virgin olive oil, nuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, olives, and avocados.

7. Enjoy some dairy products. Eat Greek or plain yogurt, and try small amounts of a variety of cheeses.

8. For dessert, eat fresh fruit. Choose from a wide range of delicious fresh fruits — from fresh figs and oranges to pomegranates, grapes and apples. Instead of daily ice cream or cookies, save sweets for a special treat or celebration.




Reference : Oldways

Switch On Your Fat-Loss Hormones

Struggling to lose weight? Learn how you can optimise your body’s natural weight-loss weapons.

1) Ghrelin: Ghrelin is your hunger gremlin. It is produced in your stomach and, like many fat-loss hormones, works with your brain to signal that you are hungry. Reducing kilojoules, in an effort to lose weight, causes an increase in ghrelin. Even after 12 months of a reduced-kilojoule diet, research shows that ghrelin levels stay elevated. In other words, your body never adapts to eating less and constantly sends the “I’m hungry” signal, which is why maintaining weight loss is often harder than losing it in the first place.

What to do: Intense exercise decreases ghrelin levels, making it a key component to fat loss and weight maintenance.

2) Leptin: Leptin is a type of hormone called an adipokine that is released exclusively from fat cells. Leptin interacts with your brain to get your body to eat less and burn more kilojoules. The more body fat you have, the more leptin your fat cells will release. However, too much body fat leads to too much leptin being released—a condition called leptin resistance. When this occurs, your brain becomes numb to leptin’s signal.

What to do: To maximise leptin sensitivity, get adequate sleep and pack your diet full of antioxidant-rich berries and green and red vegetables. Losing weight also enhances leptin sensitivity and gives you some momentum, as the more weight you lose, the more effective leptin will become in your body.

How To Reduce Bulky Cheeks

10 Awesome Weight Loss Tips For Busy Women

1. Have an eat out strategy

Eating out is one of the main reasons many career women say they’re carrying extra kilos, but if you make healthier choices, frequent business lunches need not derail your weight loss efforts. In her diet book The Wall Street Diet (Hyperion), nutritionist Heather Bauer says you need to determine a dining out strategy before you hit the restaurant.

• Decide in advance: Will you have a cocktail, a piece of bread from the bread basket, or a light dessert such as sorbets?
• Check out the restaurant’s menu ahead of time (most are available online) and pick a simple dish, such as a lean steak, grilled salmon, or a chicken salad.
• Ask for any sauces and dressings to be served on the side, and always opt for vegetables or a baked potato instead of chips.
• Business lunches can be distracting because you’re focusing on the conversation, not on how much you’re eating, so remember that restaurant portions are generally much larger than what you actually need. Don’t feel pressure to finish your meal; eating more than you need is just as wasteful as leaving some left over.
• Another useful tip is to order fiddly food, such as prawns or mussels. Having to pick them out of their shells will slow down your eating, and research shows the slower you eat, the less you’ll consume.
• Eating with chopsticks may do the trick too, so sushi or Asian dishes are a good bet (but opt for veggie stir fries rather than creamy coconut milk curries).

The Miracle Noodle Craze

Miracle Noodle Soup

Calorie-Free 'Miracle Noodles' Are The Latest Diet Craze
A virtually tasteless gelatinous mass doesn't sound that great, does it?
 
That's why they call it the miracle noodle instead. This latest diet-food craze is being used as a replacement for traditional noodles and rice in some American homes, but originally came from Japan. They are called shirataki.

Yummy Or Gross?

Shirataki is produced in warm subtropical regions of Asia made from a plant that goes by many names and kind of resembles a yam. The plant is then ground into a powder and made into a gelatin like substance.  Naturally this gelatin is white colored but because hijiki is added it gains a rather unappealing grey hue.

Although the healthy nature of Konjac is well known in Japan, its general lack of taste relegates it to simply adding texture to dishes like sukiyaki.  It’s hardly considered a food that stands on its own.  Depending on the dish it’s either added in its slab form or in a thin noodle form called Ito Konnyaku (Thread Konjac) or Shirataki.

These noodles are calorie-free, all natural. They have barely any flavor, similar to a rice noodle. They are available in many different styles: angel hair, fettuccine, even as a 'rice' substitute. They don't need to be cooked, really just rinsed off. They can be used in warm or cold dishes, from pasta salads to Ramen.

The Wonders Of Raspberry Ketone

Raspberry Ketone: Fat-Burner in a Bottle

Research has shown that raspberry ketone can help in your weight-loss efforts, especially when paired with regular exercise and a well-balanced diet of healthy and whole foods. Raspberry ketone is the primary aroma compound of red raspberries. This compound regulates adiponectin, a protein used by the body to regulate metabolism. Raspberry ketone causes the fat within your cells to get broken up more effectively, helping your body burn fat faster. The recommended dose is 100mg per day. To get the same benefit from the whole fruit, you'd have to consume 90 pounds of raspberries.

Raspberries Helps You Lose Weight

Raspberries Help You Lose Weight

Raspberries are a small, delicate fruit that are very low in calories, low in fat and high in fiber. They are also full of essential nutrients that can improve your overall health. The variety of nutrients found in raspberries boost digestion, help the immune system, protect against certain diseases and aid in weight loss.

Raspberries are known for being low in calories and fat. A cup of raspberries contains 50 calories and 0 grams of fat. Raspberries are very high in fiber, containing 8 g per cup. They're also a good source of vitamin C, the B vitamins, folic acid, manganese, copper, magnesium and iron. According to the FitDay website, eating 1 cup of red raspberries provides half of the recommended amounts of vitamin C, 60 percent of the RDA for manganese and 33 percent of the RDA for fiber.

So what are the magical benefits of raspberries and how does raspberries help you to lose weight?

How This List Of Fat Burning Foods Will Boost Your Metabolism

What foods work great for fast fat burning? We all understand that we need to eat our fruits and veggies because they have he highest vitamin and mineral content of any other food.

Did you know that these are the best foods for weight loss also?

Raw fruits and veggies carry a much larger content of vitamins and minerals than your cooked foods.
Heat during the cooking process damages the vitamin and mineral content and kills natural enzymes. Vitamins and minerals give you the building blocks for your cells to stay healthy, and for your hormones to work properly which is why they are classified as foods that help to burn fat fast.

With the bad press that multi-vitamins have gotten recently, we should explore all possible areas for getting our vitamin and mineral requirements met naturally. I’ve put together a list for you of some of the best raw foods with lots of vitamins and minerals to make your body healthy, your age decrease and your belly, butt and thighs to slim down.

When used in addition to a moderate amount of healthy organic grassfed meats, and some raw dairy products, it is possible to get our nutrients from diet. It is also important to note that some foods truly are ‘super-foods’ like green leafy vegetables or broccoli. That’s because they provide a significant amount of more than one nutrient per serving.

Here is your list broken down into vitamin/ mineral content:

Vitamin A
Any green leafy vegetables including Spinach
Peppers
Yellow vegetables like Squash
Dried Apricots
Tomatoes
Broccoli
Asparagus

How To Beat Comfort Eating

Tips to Beat Comfort Eating !

The most important thing to be aware of is the time of day when you use food for emotional comfort.

Trigger Zones
Stress experts tell us there are certain ‘trigger’ zones in a day such as running late for a meeting or work, or as soon as you come in from a tough day. Feeling lonely at night is another common one. If you identify with these patterns, spend 3-5 minutes, yes literally a few minutes, before the trigger zone to break the habit. This can mean a walk around the block, a quick trip to the loo to re-touch make up (and therefore feel better) or going for a shower. Chances are once you’ve taken that breather you are less likely to want the food.

Bling Up!
Another trick I often work with is that I ask clients to buy themselves a visible piece of jewellery, be it a ring or a bracelet, that they put on and wear with the intention to remind themselves during busy days what their purpose or goal is. If you feel the need to eat, take a look at your new bracelet to remind yourself of your goal. You'll effectively think twice about reaching for the chocolate. It sounds silly but it can work – and is a good excuse for some bling!

Reward Yourself
Figure out how you can give yourself a non-food reward. What can take the place of the snack? If you are at home, try painting your nails, or taking a bath when you abstain from your snack. This will be extremely helpful in breaking the trigger zone habit, as above, but also reinforcing the positive feeling of not snacking. Figure out what will work for you.
Check out more tips from Amanda Hamilton

Food Journal – The Secret to Weight Loss Success

According to the National Weight Control Registry, out of 3000 dieters whom successfully lost 30lbs or more of weight and kept it off for longer than a year, food journalling was the number one behavior they had in common.

It sounds like a tedious task, and almost everyone groans at the thought of it but if correctly adopted the food journaling habit will undoubtedly bridge the gap between who you are now and who you wish to be.

It is a positive behavior that replaces a negative one (mindless munching) and not only is it good for weight loss management, but a food journal can help to identify allergies or digestive issues you may have that you were not aware of.

My tips for keeping a successful journal are:

• Be sure to use a notebook that can easily fit in your purse or jacket pocket so that you have it with you every where you go, or store the information on your mobile device or blog.
• Ensure that you log all food that goes into your mouth before you eat it. Don’t wait till the end of the day. This is a very important technique which develops the habit of becoming mindful about food. When we are mindful, the temptation to binge or indulge in foods is greatly reduced.
• Record the food you eat, but also record the feelings when you ate it, the people you were with, the place you were and how you felt afterwards.
• Don’t get hung up on the calories! If you have to research every single calorie count of the food you are eating daily chances are you’ll give up! Instead of calories, make a note of the portion sizes and the macronutrients.
• Review your journal weekly, make notes of what you did well and where you could do better.
• Begin each week with a goal you would like to achieve daily for that week. For instance, No Soda, or No Sugar and mark your progress daily, at the end of the week reward yourself with something special (non-food related)!
• Put random positive affirmations and quotes throughout your journal on the first day you get it, so that along your journey you will come across messages to keep you motivated.

Keep them, it will be nice to look back on in the years to come.

Almost everyone in their adult life has struggled at one time or another to shed pounds and keep those pounds off. Fad diets, pills and surgeries don’t get to the root of the problem that caused the weight gain in the first place.

5 Goals to Losing Weight

To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. Every good weight-loss plan has the same two parts: food and physical activity. Wise food choices can help you eat fewer calories and daily (or almost daily) physical activity helps you burn off some of the calories you consume. You lose weight more easily and you're more likely to keep it off, too.

1. Keep portions smaller than your fist. It’s easy to overeat when you have too much food on your plate. Smaller portions help prevent overeating. Overeating can make health problems worse, especially if you have diabetes. One way to control overeating is to reduce portion sizes when you eat. For most foods, a reasonable portion is ½ to 1 cup – about the size of a woman’s fist. Even if your fist is larger than that, it is still a handy measuring tool that goes everywhere you go. Just keep your portions smaller than your fist.

The two most common exceptions are:

• Meat, chicken and fish. For these foods, keep portions the size of a deck of cards (about half the size of your fist.)
• Plain vegetables, including salads without dressing. You can have as much as you want because these foods are filling and low in calories.

2. Control your hunger with filling foods that are low in calories. Foods such as soup, salad, fruits and vegetables can help fill you up without adding a lot of calories. These foods will satisfy hunger and help you lose weight. Research shows that people feel less hungry when they eat a certain volume (amount) of food. High-fiber foods, such as fruits and vegetables, can provide a feeling of fullness and also digest slowly. That helps you feel satisfied longer so you eat less.
3. Keep track of what you eat. When you keep track of what you eat, you're more likely to meet your food goals. Studies show that keeping a food log or diary helps people lose weight and keep it off.
4. Make trade-offs to reduce how much fat and sugar you eat. Foods high in fat and sugar are usually high in calories, too. But that doesn't mean you have to give up your favorite foods. Learn to make trade-offs instead. If you want to indulge in your favorite dessert, eat a lower-calorie meal.
5. Enjoy more physical activity. As you already know, regular physical activity is important for keeping your heart healthy. Increasing physical activity may help you lose weight and strengthen your heart at the same time.

Instead of ...	Try ...
Counting every calorie and fat gram	Keeping a food diary. Once you know what you are eating you may be able to reduce the amount without having to count every calorie. Try eating ½ portions.
Eating dessert after dinner	If you feel like you have to eat dessert, try eating dessert only after lunch, and choose a low-calorie dessert like fruit. The earlier in the day you eat high-calorie foods, the more time you have during the day to burn off those extra calories. (That doesn’t mean eat dessert after breakfast.) Refer to the “make trade-offs” section above.
Skipping meals to lose weight	Eating 4-5 smaller meals during the day. Eating every 3-4 hours helps control hunger. Just make sure that your smaller meals do not exceed your daily total calorie goals.
Starving between meals	Planing ahead and bringing healthy snacks with you wherever you go so you won’t be tempted to pick up something unhealthy on your way. Drink a tall glass of water to get you through a craving.
Tasting food while you cook	Resisting eating the food you are making until you are sitting at the table with a plate and proper portion sizes in front of you.
Stopping at the grocery store on the way home	Shopping after you eat. Never go to the store hungry or you’re asking for trouble. If you must go to the store before eating a meal make sure you have a healthy snack (see above) to eat before you get there to curb your appetite and reduce the likelihood of binge-buying.
Weighing yourself every day	Weighing yourself once a week. We recommend choosing the schedule that works best for you. If you have heart failure, you must check your weight every day to look for sudden changes.

Source : American Heart Association http://www.heart.org