Showing posts with label delicious foods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label delicious foods. Show all posts

Sunday, 28 April 2013

How to lose weight without getting hungry


“I really need to lose weight but I hate feeling hungry most of the time,” I suppose this has to be one of the most common statements, made by people who follow many of the so called fad diets. If your diet leaves your stomach rumbling every hour on the hour, your body is telling you it’s time to make a change. I used to think that losing weight meant starving yourself. It took me along time to accept the fact that I could actually eat heartily and still drop a few pounds in weight.
The times I spent starving myself in the name of losing weight were miserable. When I did manage to shed a few pounds, I would sadly put it all back on, in a matter of weeks. Sometimes I’d even gain a few extra pounds. Now that's what I call depressing!
What I learned through many years of research (trial and error) is that when you follow a healthy eating plan, you can eat until you’re full, and still see amazing weight loss results.

What Are Healthy Foods?

Healthy foods are not created in factory's where food is processed to death. If the food is dried, dehydrated, canned, frozen or filled with ingredients you can’t pronounce, I suggest that you stay away from it. Examples of healthy foods include fresh fish, naturally raised meats, legumes, seeds, organic poultry, organic whole eggs, raw nuts, and fresh fruit and vegetables.

How to Make Healthy Meals More Filling


There’s nothing more miserable than having to deal with hunger pangs all day. If your meals aren’t satisfying your nutritional needs, this is exactly what’s going to happen. Here are some tricks to make your meals more filling:
  • Add a source of good quality protein and a source healthy fat (yes, fat) to each of your meals. Doing this should make your meals more appetising and curbs the hunger. Sources of healthy protein include natural meats, organic whole eggs, organic poultry and fish. Sources of healthy fat include avocados, fish, beans, raw nuts, coconut oil and olive oil.
  • Fill your plate with veggies. They help to divide your plate into three sections, and fill the larger section with veggies. Leave the other two sections for meat and other foods. Veggies are full of fiber, so they expand in the stomach, digest more slowly so keeping you full longer. Try eating green leafs such as cabbage, spinach, broccoli which are rich in magnesium. (57% of the US population does not meet the US RDA for dietary intake of magnesium)
  • Drink a glass of bottled water before each meal and throughout the day. This will help you feel full faster and reduce hunger.

Examples of Healthy, Filling Meals and Snacks


  • At Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, 1/3 cup of oatmeal with cinnamon and a small pear.
  • Snack: 1 medium apple, 1 cup of cucumber slices and 1 oz of raw nuts.
  • For Lunch: 4 oz ground turkey, 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice, 8 oz carrot sticks, and a small green salad with vinegar and olive oil dressing.
  • Snack: 2 tablespoons of almond butter, 2 slices of rye crisp bread and 8 oz of celery sticks.
  • For Dinner: 5 oz boiled halibut steak, 1/2 cup of green beans sautéed in garlic, small baked sweet potato and a small green salad with apple cider vinegar and olive oil dressing.
Diet plans that leave you hungry all the time (or even some of the time) are useless, why make life so miserable. Why not ditch the diet altogether and eat healthy instead? If you do it this way, you can eat delicious, filling foods and still lose weight.
Enough with the yo-yo dieting!
Why not check out Mike Geary's Fat Burning Kitchen Program for more great advice and recipes.


Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Hi Picky eaters - Here's 2 easy solutions

My Good friend Isabel sent me this email.

Sandra I almost can’t believe it. It’s finally happened!

My once very agreeable and easy to feed 2 year old has now, all of a sudden, has become…

A picky eater!

How can this be. What happened to that little boy who used to steal brocolli off my plate?

Up to this point, my little guy, Christian, was more than happy to eat any healthy concoction I put together for him veggies, fruits, a variety of proteins everything I ate, he would eat and was more than happy with any meal Mommy made for him.

Now, he has started to voice his opinion on different foods…and by that I mean, waving his hands over his face with a strong “NO!”

But, I’m up for the challenge. As committed as I am to feeding myself and my husband healthy food, As you know I am even more committed to feeding my children healthy food.

Here are the rules I use to prepare Christian’s food (pretty much the exact SAME rules I use for myself)

1. Include a quality protein source into every meal (this includes snacks). I always make sure to include a natural protein source to keep his blood sugar from spiking and crashing during the day. I do think that many times children have meltdowns because of low blood sugar (and other times, they are just being kids!) Christian’s favorites are eggs, meatballs, chicken (only if it’s cooked in coconut oil) and scallops (only if they are on mommy’s plate…hahaha). For snacks, I will include a few raw almonds, brazil nuts, walnuts or almond butter.

2. Include raw food several times a day. It is not necessary to go “all raw”, as some people promote, but I do think that the inclusion of 1 or 2 raw foods into each meal, with all enzymes intact, assists in the proper digestion of the whole meal. I have known some people to go an entire day only consuming cooked foods, with nothing raw in their daily meals, only to suffer from gastrointestinal distress, gas pains and bloating. Many times this can be easily resolved by just adding a few raw foods into each meal. Christian’s favorites are raw carrots and cucumbers with Celtic sea salt and olive oil. He’ll also eat cauliflower (only if it’s raw), and that’s pretty much it. I’ve tried some other veggies, only to get the furious hand wave. He loves all fruits, so he’ll usually have an apple, pear, banana or kiwi with some raw nuts for snacks.

3. Include 1 complex carb that is wheat free and gluten free. I truly believe wheat and gluten create havoc in most people’s bodies…yes, even children. I know my son will be exposed to many different foods as he gets older, but at home, I will continue to feed him (as I do myself) wheat free and gluten free options. This does NOT mean I purchase any of those “gluten free” processed foods, which are overloading the supermarket shelves these days. It does mean I include rice, quinoa, and all varieties of potatoes.

4. Include 1 or more healthy forms of fat into his meal. Most children (and most adults) are just not getting enough healthy fats or Omega 3’s every single day. Christian is a huge fan of coconut, loves avocadoes and enjoys nuts with his snacks.
It sounds like my kid is eating pretty healthy right?

Well, I gave myself a pat on the back and said, yes, my child still does enjoy a variety of healthy foods, but there is just one problem…

He will NOT eat any other veggies than the few I mentioned above. Long gone are the days of zucchini, spinach, broccoli…not even the occasional asparagus. He will start saying NO even before you’ve put these foods in front of him.

So far I have used 2 very successful strategies to “trick” him into eating his veggies.

1. Hide veggies in meatballs. My Turkey-Vegetable meatballs are a perfect example of this strategy. These are so delicious and he’ll never know there’s healthy zucchini in them.

2. I’ve started giving him 1 Athletic Greens shake each morning. I wasn’t sure that he was going to drink this, but the first time I gave it to him, he drank the entire thing and asked for “mas” (that’s more in Spanish). I put water, 1/2 tsp Athletic Greens, and 1 tsp of raw honey in his sippy cup and shook it up really well. I told myself ahead of time that if he didn’t drink it, I would then take that mixture and put it in a blender with a banana…but that wasn’t necessary. He loved it.

Athletic Greens is really just “real food” in powder form which is why I feel 100% safe giving it to my son and drinking it myself every day. It has often been called “nutritional insurance”… exactly why I give it to Christian every day…because with his pickiness around veggies, I want to ensure that he’s getting all necessary vitamins and minerals every day. The added benefit is that he is also getting healthy probiotics and digestive enzymes.

Monday, 11 April 2011

Two yummy recipes with minimal ingredients.

Food Recipes have been my hot topic of the week recently, and is one of the most favorite things I love to talk about. I really love trying new and creative ways to keep my meals fresh, delicious and interesting, and of course I enjoy passing on that information to all of you.
Today I’ve got 2 fantastic recipes for you, whose claim to fame is going to be “delicious with minimal ingredients”. The first is my all new favorite pregnancy snack (and, NO, you don’t have to be pregnant to enjoy it), and the second is a recipe I have all set to make this evening as a treat for my family.

In my search for new and creative recipes, I actually chose these two because they have very few ingredients and are super quick to put together while still being delicious (of course!).

As many of you have realized by now, I really LOVE trying new foods, and finding new ways to make meals tasty while still fitting into my healthy way of eating. I also got very much into cooking, once my son started getting older because I realize that if I want him to continue to eat healthy, it’s really up to me to make his food YUMMY. This is also true for adults who want to continue to keep a healthy way of eating…if your food tastes good, a healthy way of eating is easy to follow. If your food tastes bad, well, then you know what’s going to happen…frustration, abandonment and a possible quick trip to the closest fast food joint.

These 2 recipes came straight out of Dave Ruel’s Metabolic Cooking cookbooks. His cookbooks are really great and you’ll see below that his recipes are a great complement to our principles of healthy eating.


Without further ado, here are 2 great recipes for you to try this weekend:

Apple No-Crisp (1 of my new favorite snacks!)

INGREDIENTS - RECIPE MAKES 1 SERVING
• ¾ cup Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 apple, sliced or diced
• Pinch of stevia
• Pinch of cinnamon
• Pinch of nutmeg

DIRECTIONS
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, stir well and enjoy!

LEMON-HERB STUFFED SALMON
(I picked this one because it sounds delicious)

INGREDIENTS - RECIPE MAKES 2 SERVINGS
• 2 salmon fillets (4 oz each)
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced
• 1 scallion, sliced
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 425F. Make a horizontal cut in the salmon fillets, for 2/3 of the fillet’s length.
2. Lay the salmon on a baking dish (I prefer a glass dish for fish).
3. Stuff the salmon (in the horizontal cut) with lemon slices.
Do the same with the scallion.
4. Mix together the two herbs and stuff them into the salmon as well.
5. Bake the fillets for 15 minutes.



Wednesday, 26 August 2009

How to make all your food delicious

Recently I let you in on my 3 magic bullets for accelerated fat loss. If you've implemented those principles, good for you! Keep at it and you will be seeing the difference really soon.

Now, you may be asking yourself "What is left to eat?" and more importantly "What delicious food can I eat?"

All of the food I eat each day is incredibly delicious and healthy at the same time. I am able to achieve this because many of the foods people think are not healthy, really are. Examples of such foods are coconut oil, butter, bacon, and raw nuts. Yes many of those foods contain a high amount of fat but I am going to let you in on a very important fat loss secret right now:

Fat does NOT make you fat!

You actually need fat in order to shed your unwanted fat. The trick here is to make sure it is the right kind of fat.

Unfortunately, many people (this may include you) have been led to believe the opposite. People still think that butter and saturated fats are the reason heart disease is one of the top killers in this country (and now in many other countries as well). The truth is that it's not the natural fats that are causing this epidemic, it's the sugar, processed and packaged foods and over consumption of refined oils that are causing so much disease (and you can add Diabetes, High Cholesterol and High Blood Pressure to this list as well).

1. Did you know that during the 60 year period from 1910-1970, the proportion of traditional animal fat in the American diet declined from 83% to 62%?

2. During this same time butter consumption plummeted from 18 pounds per person each year to 4 pounds per person each year.

3. During the past 80 years, the consumption of dietary cholesterol intake has increased only one percent.

So if our consumption of butter and cholesterol has actually decreased, where is the problem? Why all the heart disease?

1. During the same period, the average intake of dietary vegetable oils (margarine, shortening, and refined oils) increased by about 400%.

2. During the same period, the consumption of sugar and processed foods increased by about 60%

Those are the facts, but there's never better proof than the results I see with my clients and my readers. When people finally stop eating margarine, refined oils, "fake" butters, sugar and processed foods, their health sky rockets! (and by sky rockets, I mean: gets better, greatly improves, elevates to whole new levels). Not to mention all the body fat they lose off their body (isn't that just an awful side effect?)

It's important to mention that the butter I use is organic and grass fed. The coconut oil I use is organic and unrefined and the bacon I buy is grass fed and nitrite / nitrate free. These are great foods to add into your meal plan. Not to mention the fact they will make any recipe absolutely delicious.

Now that I told you butter is ok to eat, here is a yummy chicken recipe I make in my house often:

(Please remember that the mad scientist in me sometimes forgets to document the exact amounts so you may need to make slight changes for your own tastes.)

Chicken with "I'm not afraid of butter" dressing

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts (approximately 1 lb of chicken)
6 Tbsp of melted butter
lemon juice from 1/2 large lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

Directions:

Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a large pan. Season chicken breasts with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cook chicken breasts in butter covered on very low heat. Do not let the butter get brown. Pour lemon juice in a separate bowl. Slowly stir in the remaining melted butter as you stir mixture. Then slowly add the olive oil as you stir mixture. Season with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Once the chicken is cooked through, served on a plate and pour the "dressing mixture" over your cooked chicken breasts.

Don't be surprised if you are tempted to pour this dressing on your veggies and just about every other food item you can think of. It's delicious!

Remember it is not the fat that's keeping you fat. It is the refined oils, "fake" foods and sugar and artificial sweeteners that are the real culprits.

Now go on and enjoy some delicious food (while you shed off that unwanted fat at the same time!)

By the way...how are you doing on your "no white foods" plan? You should already be feeling the amazing, almost instant effects of giving your body a break from many of these foods. If you have not started yet, just begin today. If you are already 2 days in, good for you! Doesn't it feel good?

Monday, 24 August 2009

The best place to start for maximum Fat Loss

Hello Readers,

I'm going to post everyday some great and valuable nutrition information from Isabel, that you are going to be able to get started with right now. I am not holding back!
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Let me begin by telling you my "3 magic secrets" to getting many of my clients to lose their first 5-10 lbs in just 2-3 weeks. It begins with a short story about my uncle and a conversation I had with him last summer.

My family and I spent this particular Saturday afternoon at my cousin's house barbequing and having a great time. There are 2 things guaranteed at my family functions: lots of laughter and LOTS OF FOOD!

So, just as we're chowing down on steaks, chicken legs, hamburgers and hot dogs, (I swear, I was not the one eating the hot dogs) my uncle came up to me and said "Hey Isabel. Your mom says her knees don't hurt anymore like they did last year. My knees are killing me. What do you think is wrong with them?" (All the while he's still chomping down on his second hot dog and cola).

"Well Tio (I speak Spanish to all of my relatives) let me give it to you straight. (Look of fear in his eyes). This past year my mom, your sis, lost 40 lbs. That's 40 lbs less weight that her knees have to carry around. Of course they feel better. I guarantee if you lost a few lbs. yourself, your knees would stop hurting."

At this point Tio looks like he wishes he had just asked me about the weather, the upcoming election or even quantum physics, ANYTHING but be told that he needs to lose weight.

"Isabel, I'm 60 years old and I have been this fat forever. I wouldn't even know where to start."

So I gave him 3 super easy rules to follow. (These are my magic bullets for getting your metabolism in fat burning mode.)

"Tio, follow these three rules and I guarantee you, better yet, I promise you, you will lose a minimum of 10 lbs. in 14 days."

1. Don't eat anything that is white. Think about most foods that are white and chances are you shouldn't be eating it. Specifically, I'm talking about white bread, pasta, sugar, white rice, and most milk products. Healthy foods like cauliflower, chicken, turkey, fish are all exceptions to this rule. Based on Tio's current eating habits, I didn't think he was all too worried about cauliflower anyway.

2. Only drink water, NOTHING else! How about coffee? Just to keep any possible withdrawal headaches at bay, one small cup of organic black coffee is ok. Can you add half and half?...Well is it white?

3. Don't eat anything with the word wheat in the ingredients list. What if it's whole wheat? Look, if the word starts with W and ends in T and has the letters h-e-a in between, you can't eat it.

Tio agreed that he was up for the challenge. Anything to make the knee pain go away and make his niece stop lecturing.

I highly recommend you follow those same rules for the next 14 days (No, not for the rest of your life. Just for the next 14 days.) You will absolutely amaze yourself with your results. Remember, no white foods (except for the few I mentioned above), only water to drink and no wheat products.

I promise this is not how you have to eat for the long term in order to lose weight and keep it off but I do know that this is a great way to jumpstart your metabolism and see some initial weight come off a bit faster.

Don't let one more day go by without feeling and looking as great as I know you can! Don't wait until you have eaten all the food in your fridge or "used up" all the food in your pantry. It's not worth the wait! Commit to this e-course and your new incredible body right now and I promise the results will be worth it. And I will be here to guide you and support you along the way.