One of the most difficult things about committing to a weight loss or health improvement program is the way adjusting your caloric intake or diet can create cravings for the sorts of foods (or quantity of foods) on which your body is used to running. Ignoring your appetite can only work for so long before a craving is likely to take over and, before you know it, you are stuffing your face with the same sorts of sweets, fast foods, or fatty foods that created your health issue in the first place. Improving a lifestyle demands a substantial degree of self-discipline. However, there are fortunately some really excellent tools at your disposal to curb your appetite and reduce cravings. This includes one secret weapon that you need to be sure to include in your dietary arsenal – spinach!

Including spinach in your diet will be an enormous benefit to you as your work towards losing s much body fat as possible. This insight is actually backed by some hard science, evidenced by a study completed at Lund University in Sweden. In their study, researchers monitored 38 overweight women and instructed the to consume either a beverage that contained five grams of spinach extract – comprised almost entirely of  the cell membranes in the spinach stems – or a placebo. After three months of study, the team found that the group who had consumed the spinach extract lost 50% more weight.

They credited this dramatic difference in weight loss success to the spinach groups overall trend of maintaining a diminished caloric intake. The research team investigated and found that there is a compound in spinach stems called thylakoids, which reduces hunger. That holds especially true about cravings for fast food and sweet treats. Thylakoids slow the digestive process significantly, which allows your intestinal hormones more time to indicate to your mind that your hunger has been satisfied and you do not need to eat anymore. That, in turn, reduces how hungry you feel. The more satisfied you feel, the less you can eat. They are so effective they have been measured to reduce cravings for such dietary disasters by as much as 95%.
Easy ways to start regularly including spinach in your diet (especially the stems!) include throwing a few handfuls of the green stuff into the blender when you make your protein shakes. Although the color might change, the taste is likely to stay exactly the same. Similarly, be sure to add plenty of spinach into your rotation of fruits and veggies when juicing. Finally, spinach can be delicious all on its own! Try to eat spinach salads or sautéed spinach with your meals.

by Josh Bezoni

Close your eyes and imagine this incredibly typical scene, a situation which almost everyone will find more than familiar. You had a great day jam-packed with positive, healthy diet choices, but it is late at night now and those cravings have arrived. You are standing in front of your refrigerator and, to be perfectly honest, you are scanning the shelves and totally determined to keep up your good work. And why wouldn’t you be at the fridge? That is where almost all your fruits and vegetables are mostly likely to be, so that they stay cold and fresh for as long as possible. That’s where healthy foods automatically belong, right? Wrong.

The surprising truth of the matter is that the refrigerator can actually cause certain foods to spoil at an accelerated rate. That can be quite shocking to some people who have become so accustomed to trusting that one piece of technology with all of their comestibles. Here are five foods to store outside of the fridge to keep them fresh and tasting great for longer.

Bananas

Putting bananas in the refrigerator actually disrupts their natural ripening process. Once they hit those colder temperatures, they may actually never return to that natural state, even if you put them back to room temperature.

Sweet Potatoes

Exposing sweet potatoes to cold temperatures causes the starches within them to becomes sugars. This not only destroys the intended flavor and texture of the sweet potato, but brings all the issues that come with increased sugar content (from a health perspective). Unless you prefer your sweet potatoes to be both flavorless and worse for you, be sure to steer clear of the fridge with sweet potatoes.

Tomatoes

Think closely about your personal history with tomatoes in the kitchen. Can you honestly recall ever having a fantastic one straight out of the fridge? Certainly not. They not only become mushy in those diminished temperatures, but lose flavor too.

Apples

Much like tomatoes, apples suffer when exposed to cold temperatures for longer periods of time. They lose both flavor and texture after a while. If you prefer having cold apples with that great, crisp bite to them, plop them in the fridge 30 minutes before eating.

Onions

Refrigerators do something uniquely gross to onions after a while. They turn them soggy! The already strong presence of onions will then become a burden, causing the rest of the food in there to smell and taste like onions as well. Instead, store them in a paper bag placed within a cool, dark cabinet to improve their shelf-life.

Everyone wants to boost their metabolism. From the most in-shape athletes to those just starting to pay attention to their health. Boosting your metabolism can help you burn excess fat, decrease your resting heart rate, and many other functions that increase your overall health.

One of the simplest and most effective ways to boost your metabolism is to increase your protein intake. Protein-rich foods increase metabolic rates over 3 times more than carbs and fats. What’s more, studies show that high protein diets can lead to greater weight loss and fat loss than calorically identical diets with lower protein.

When researchers at the University of Illinois compared the effects of high-protein diet to a standard reduced-calorie diet, they found that people who consumed more protein had a 62% higher fat loss ratio, even though both groups consumed the same number of calories. Essentially, you can consume more calories and lose more fat. The secret to that? Leucine.

Leucine is an amino acid found in protein rich foods. It’s key to preventing the loss of calorie-burning muscle when you’re trying to lose fat and age-related muscle loss.

Why is Leucine so important? Basically, muscle loss contributes to a decreased metabolism. Looking “skinny fat” and rapid rebound weight gain when resuming a normal eating routine after a diet are all things you definitely don’t want.

So how do you consume more leucine? The most leucine rich foods are Lean red meat, chicken breast, cottage cheese, and Greek yogurt. If you consume one of these things with each meal, your metabolism will be in great shape!

Research also shows that leucine, when paired with intensive training can be even more beneficial. In skeletal muscle, there’s a decrease in leucine during exhaustive aerobic exercises. While those are great for burning fat, incorporating muscle building weight training into your workouts is a great way to keep your leucine production up. Which, in turn, will keep your metabolism and help you burn fat and stay in shape.

By Josh Bezoni