Top 5 Ways to lose 5 pounds in 7 days

1. Eliminate all bread, pasta,salt  and sugar from your diet. These types of foods will slow down your metabolism and cause you to hold on to your weight.  

 2. Eat a small meal consisting of protein and complex carbohydrates every 2 to 3 hours. These types of foods will speed up your metabolism and eating frequently speeds it up even more.

3. Eliminate fat from your diet. You can’t lose fat if you keep eating fat. Your body will just burn the fat you are eating and never go deep into your fat stores.

4. Exercise 30 minutes a day after eating your small meal. Make sure it’s the right type of fuel…protein and complex carbohydrate. Lots of people think eating before exercise will interfere with digestion but in the proper combination, this is the best way to exercise.  

5. Drink at least 100 ounces of water a day. “I’m gonna flush that fat right out of my gut!”

This is tough but it works…I lost 5 pounds just last week doing this. Commit to doing it for one week and you’ll be hooked on this new way of eating. 

7 Tips to practice “Mindful Eating”

From November’s issue of Oprah magazine, Brian Wansink, a professor at Cornell University, gives these tips on eating “mindfully”.

1. Buying at  a discount store means you are likely to eat more. If you do buy in bulk, divvy up your snacks in portion-controlled baggies. Never eat right out of the box.

2. The longer you sit at a table, the more you’ll eat. If you’re trying to lose weight, sit with a small group or by yourself when eating.

3. Pre-plate your food in the kitchen rather than serving yourself at the table. You are less likely to take seconds.

4. When you are eating at a buffet, put only 2 items on your plate at a time.

5. Always eat in the same room of your house but not in front of a TV or computer.

6. Don’t leave serving plates on a table unless they are filled with healthy vegetables.

7. Focus on what you really want…is it physical hunger or emotional hunger? Physical hunger is gradual; emotional hunger is sudden.

Professor Wansink wrote a book about this: “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Then We Think”.  

Top 3 food strategies for more energy…

OK, you may have read this before but this list is from the November 2006 issue of Health magazine. Maybe there’s something new here…

 Eat Smart…

1..Eat 5 or 6 small meals a day. The theory is that it gives you the constant fuel you need to keep blood sugar levels steady.  Watch the type of mini-meal you have. Low calorie and low fat, of course. Fiber helps, like an apple and some almonds or whole grain crackers and low fat cheese. Notice the protein complex carb combo?

2. Increase your  Vitamin B budget. It converts the food you eat into energy.  How about lean beef, pork, poultry or fish. Also, bananas, nuts, whole grains and seeds. Multi-vitamins help although food is better because your body can only absorb 10% of the vitmains and minerals in a traditional pill or capsule. A liquid vitamin and mineral supplement like Vibe is also a better choice since it is almost completely absorbed by your body.

3.Eat apples, pears or oranges .  These fruits combine the vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and fiber that you really need for more energy.

Top 6 foods that boost your immunity

…from Prevention Magazine, November 2006 issue.

1. Fish…Shellfish like lobster, oysters, clams and crabs contain selenium that produces proteins that clear flu viruses out of your body. Salmon, mackerel and herring have that crazy Omega 3 oils that everyone is talking about…2 servings a week.

2. Oats and Barley…contain a type of fiber that is more potent than echinacea..1 daily in your 3 daily servings of whole grains.

3. Garlic…fights infection and bacteria…2 raw cloves a day(!) plus crushed garlic to your cooking every day.

4. Yogurt…has “healthy” bacteria that can keep your digestive system free of germs that could cause disease…2 6-ounce servings a day.

5. Chicken soup…a study of 13 brands showed that all but one blocked the migration if inflammatory white blood cells. Chicken and added spices increase the immune-boosting effects…a bowl when you are feeling under the weather.

6. Tea…black and green are great for boosting immune system and increasing anti-oxidants in your body…drink several cups a day.

Top 10 tips for treating insulin resistance

1.Rather than the typical “three meals a day” routine, eat several smalls meals. You will slow down your body’s insulin reaction and make it easier for cells to absorb the glucose it needs.

2.Eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains plus oats, beans and legumes are particularly helpful in providing your body with fiber, which controls your blood insulin and sugar levels.

3. Eat chicken, turkey and fish instead of red meat 

 

4. Minimize or eliminate processed meats and animal fats such as butter . 

5. Prepare dishes with healthy cooking oils like canola, sunflower and olive oil. Remember to use a moderate amount

6. Eat healthy snacks and avoid sugary drinks, baked goods and other sweets.

7. Eat dairy products since the proteins and enzymes can slow the conversion of glucose to blood sugar.

8.  Moderate exercise  for 30 minutes a day can make your muscles use the available glucose that’s floating around your bloodstream.

9. Sleep for 6 to 8 hours a night. Blood sugar levels can be disrupted and raise insulin resistance if you are sleep-deprived.

10. Relax with prayer, meditation or other relaxation methods. One study showed that relaxing can reduce high blood sugar levels. 

Hey, I’ve got high cholesterol but I never would have known if I hadn’t had my labs done (thank you, generous company that my husband works for who pays for free exams every year). AS a result, I found out that I had high cholesterol and steps have been taken to bring it down. But here are the Top 5 reasons why you should get it checked:

1. It’s critical to having a healthy heart.

2. You can boost your good cholesterol if you know that it’s low.

3. You can implement easy lifestyle changes that will override your genetic tnedency towards high cholesterol.

4. You can see how what you eat and how you live do make a difference in your health.

5. If you start with diet and lifestyle changes and add cholesterol-lowering medications on top of that, you may not need to take them forever.

Top 10 Guilty pleasures

Okay, these are food-related guilty pleasures. You can just feel yourself bloat up when you imbibe. See if you can beat these…pretty guilty!

10. Airheads-Blue Raspberry

9. Laffy Taffy – banana flavored

8. Reeses Peanut Butter cups

7. Lasagna

6. Egg rolls

5. KFC fried chicken

4. McDonald’s Big Mac

3. Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake -any flavor!

2. Beer!

1. Brownies…thick, rich with nuts!

The best healthy cereals according to…

Prevention magazine. I must admit, some of them don’t sound to tasty to me. With really long names that sound like a scientific formula for crap, you try and decide! Actually, the last one spunds pretty good. They are in reverse order, just because.

9.. Zoe’s O’s – whole grains, flax and soy

8. Kashi GoLean Crunch! – long grain brown rice, white oats and barley, flaxseed, almondsand honey. Yuck!

7. Peace Cereal – bran strands (!)

6. Fiber One Honey CLusters – whole grain flakes with honey-oat clusters

5. Nature’s Path Organic Pomegrain Plus Granola with Cherries – crispy rice, chewy rolled oats, and pomegranite juice.

4. South Beach Diet Whole Grain Crunch – whole grain flakes, ridged chips (?), puffed wheat andalmonds

3. Arrowhead Mills Organic 4 Grain Plus Flax Hot Cereal – cracked wheat, steel-cut oats, rye, barley grits and flax. 

2. Organic Weetabix Crispy Flakesand Fiber- self-explanatory. Think weetabix biscuits.

1. Envirokidz Organic Peanut Butter Panda Puffs – certified organic corn puffs sweetenedwith cane juice and flavored with all-naturalpeanut butter.

Top 10 (+5) Foods that can stop your metabolism

Some of these might make you cry…get out the tissues.

15. Movie Theatre Popcorn

14. Processed cheese food

13. Red and white labeled soup

12. Fast food french fries

11. Donuts!

10. Restaurant or delivery pizza

9. Alfredo sauce

8. Caffeine

7. High fat snacks and chips

6. Soda Pop

5. Saturated animal fats (Like steak!)

4. Alcoholic beverages (like beer!)

3. Nitrites (found in processed meats that you get at the deli)

2. Olestra (who eats this crap?)

and the number one food that can stop your metabolism from burning fat, not to mention make you really fat, is…

Hydrogenated Fats 

(Credit where credit is due…from personal trainer and e-book author Rob Poulos “Forbidden Secrets to Igniting Your Fat-burning Furnace”.)