1 diet mistake with a recipe suprise

Nutrition

by Craig Ballantyne ‎

Oh dear, I made a diet boo-boo recently. Twice.

Actually, I blame it on my friend who buys my groceries (I admit it, I’m too lazy to do my grocery shopping.)

Usually she’s perfect and gets me exactly what I need…but recently she’s made a mistake with my peanut butter.

I knew something was “up” when I tasted the peanut butter…because it was the BEST peanut butter I had ever had…and all natural peanut butter does not taste that amazing.

So I checked the ingredient list…

The jar said “all natural”, and while you think that might be healthy, I quickly discovered it was loaded with added sugar. These days you must be very careful because labels are getting very sneaky.

Always check your labels to see if there are added sugars or hydrogenated oils. If there are, AVOID those foods.

I prefer to stick to ONE-ingredient foods, and blend them all up into my morning blender drink. Check out these 3 funky recipes from last week:

Recipe #1 “Peach-Strawberry-Banana”:
1 peach, 1 banana, frozen strawberries, 2 cups almond milk (no sugar), spinach, Garden of Life raw protein powder (optional/use whatever brand you prefer), walnuts, cacao nibs

Recipe #2 “The Sweetest Thing” (best for after a workout)
1 banana, frozen strawberries, raspberries, blueberries (optional), 5 dates, spinach, almond milk, flax oil, protein powder (optional), almond butter.

Recipe #3 “Banana Bread”
1-2 large bananas, blueberries, spinach, almond milk, pecans, protein powder (optional), chia seeds.

The combination of the pecans and bananas make it taste like banana bread. Delicious.

Hope you enjoyed those blender drink recipes. I’ll share more of those in the future.

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Easy Ways To Shed Pounds…Without Dieting

1 Comment / Nutrition, Training

By Felicia Vance, BDO Staff Writer (BlackDoctor.org)

– Sure, you can lose weight quickly. There are plenty of fad diets that work to shed pounds rapidly — while leaving you feeling hungry and deprived. But what good is losing weight only to regain it? To keep pounds off permanently, it’s best to lose weight slowly. And many experts say you can do that without going on a “diet.” Instead, the key is making simple tweaks to your lifestyle.

Adopt some of these simple, painless strategies to help lose weight without going on a “diet”:

Time Your Meals

Set a timer for 20 minutes and reinvent yourself as a slow eater. This is one of the top habits for slimming down without a complicated diet plan. Savor each bite and make it last until the bell chimes. Paced meals offer great pleasure from smaller portions and trigger the body’s fullness hormones. Wolfing your food down in a hurry blocks those signals and causes overeating.

Sleep More, Weigh Less

Sleeping an extra hour a night could help a person drop 14 pounds in a year, according to a University of Michigan researcher who ran the numbers for a 2,500 calorie per day intake. His scenario shows that when sleep replaces idle activities – and the usual mindless snacking – you can effortlessly cut calories by 6%. Results would vary for each person, but sleep may help in another way, too. There’s evidence that getting too little sleep revs up your appetite, making you uncommonly hungry.

Serve More, Eat More Veggies

Serve three vegetables with dinner tonight, instead of just one, and you’ll eat more without really trying. Greater variety tricks people into eating more food – and eating more fruits and vegetables is a great way to lose weight. The high fiber and water content fills you up with fewer calories. Cook them without added fat. And season with lemon juice and herbs rather than drowning their goodness in high-fat sauces or dressings.

When Soup’s On, Weight Comes Off

Add a broth-based soup to your day and you’ll fill up on fewer calories. Think minestrone, tortilla soup, or Chinese won-ton. Soup’s especially handy at the beginning of a meal because it slows your eating and curbs your appetite. Start with a low-sodium broth or canned soup, add fresh or frozen vegetables and simmer. Beware of creamy soups, which can be high in fat and calories.

Go for Whole Grains

Whole grains such as brown rice, barley, oats, buckwheat, and whole wheat also belong in your stealthy weight loss strategy. They help fill you up with fewer calories and may improve your cholesterol profile, too. Whole grains are now in many products including waffles, pizza crust, English muffins, pasta, and soft “white” whole-wheat bread.

Eyeball Your Skinny Clothes

Hang an old favorite dress, skirt, or a smokin’ pair of jeans where you’ll see them every day. This keeps your eyes on the prize. Choose an item that’s just a little too snug, so you reach this reward in a relatively short time. Then pull out last year’s cocktail dress for your next small, attainable goal.

Skip the Bacon

Pass on those two strips of bacon at breakfast or in your sandwich at lunch time. This simple move saves about 100 calories, which can add up to a 10 pound weight loss over a year. Other sandwich fixings can replace the flavor with fewer calories. Think about tomato slices, banana peppers, roasted red bell peppers, grainy mustard, or a light spread of herbed goat cheese.

Build a Better Slice of Pizza

Choose vegetable toppings for pizza instead of meat and you’ll shave 100 calories from your meal. Other skinny pizza tricks: go light on the cheese or use reduced-fat cheese and choose a thin, bread-like crust made with just a touch of olive oil.

Sip Smart: Cut Back on Sugar

Replace one sugary drink like regular soda with water or a zero-calorie seltzer and you’ll avoid 10 teaspoons of sugar. Add lemon, mint or frozen strawberries for flavor and fun. The liquid sugar in soda appears to bypass the body’s normal fullness cues. One study compared an extra 450 calories per day from jelly beans vs. soda. The candy eaters unconsciously ate fewer calories overall, but not so the soda drinkers. They gained 2.5 pounds in four weeks.

Sip Smart: Use a Tall, Thin Glass

Use a tall, skinny glass instead of a short, wide tumbler to cut liquid calories — and your weight — without dieting. You’ll drink 25-30% less juice, soda, wine, or any other beverage. How can this work? Visual cues can trick us into consuming more or less. Studies show that all kinds of people pour more into a short, wide glass — even experienced bartenders.

Sip Smart: Limit Alcohol

When an occasion includes alcohol, follow the first drink with a nonalcoholic, low-calorie beverage like sparkling water instead of moving directly to another cocktail, beer, or glass of wine. Alcohol has more calories per gram (7) than carbohydrates (4) or protein (4). It can also loosen your resolve, leading you to mindlessly inhale chips, nuts, and other foods you’d normally limit.

Sip Smart: Go for Green Tea

Drinking green tea may also be a good weight loss strategy. Some studies suggest that it can rev up the body’s calorie-burning engine temporarily, possibly through the action of phytochemicals called catechins. At the very least, you’ll get a refreshing drink without tons of calories.

Slip Into a Yoga State of Mind

Women who do yoga tend to weigh less than others, according to a study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. What’s the connection? The yoga regulars reported a more “mindful” approach to eating. For example, they tend to notice the large portions in restaurants but eat only enough to feel full. Researchers think the calm self-awareness developed through yoga may help people resist overeating.

Eat at Home

Eat home-cooked meals at least five days a week to live like a thin person. A Consumer Reports survey found this was a top habit of “successful losers.” Sound daunting? Cooking may be easier than you think. Shortcut foods can make for quick meals, such as pre-chopped lean beef for fajitas, washed lettuce, pre-cut veggies, canned beans, cooked chicken strips, or grilled deli salmon.

Catch the “Eating Pause”

Most people have a natural “eating pause,” when they drop the fork for a couple of minutes. Watch for this moment and don’t take another bite. Clear your plate and enjoy the conversation. This is the quiet signal that you’re full, but not stuffed. Most people miss it.

Chew Strong Mint Gum

Chew sugarless gum with a strong flavor when you’re at risk for a snack attack. Making dinner after work, at a party, watching TV, or surfing the Internet are a few dangerous scenarios for mindless snacking. Gum with a big flavor punch overpowers other foods so they don’t taste good.

Shrink Your Dishes

Chose a 10″ lunch plate instead of a 12″ dinner plate to automatically eat less. People serve more and eat more food with larger dishes. Shrink your plate or bowl to cut out 100-200 calories a day – and 10-20 pounds in a year.

Get Food Portions Right

The top habit of slim people is to stick with modest food portions at every meal, five days a week or more. “Always slim” people do it and successful losers do it, too, according to a Consumer Reports survey. After measuring portions a few times, it can become automatic. Make it easier with small “snack” packs and by keeping serving dishes off the table at meal time.

Try the 80-20 Rule

Americans are conditioned to keep eating until they’re stuffed, but residents of Okinawa eat until they’re 80% full. They even have a name for this naturally slimming habit: hara hachi bu. We can adopt this healthy habit by dishing out 20% less food. Studies show that most people don’t miss it.

Eat Out Your Way

Restaurant meals are notoriously fattening, so consider these special orders that keep portions under control:

•    Split an entrée with a friend.
•    Order an appetizer as a meal.
•    Choose the child’s plate.
•    Get half the meal in a doggie bag before it’s brought to the table.

Complement a smaller entrée with extra salad for the right balance:half the plate filled with veggies.

Reach for the Red Sauce

Choose marinara sauce for pasta instead of Alfredo sauce. The tomato-based sauces tend to have fewer calories and much less fat than cream-based sauces. But remember, portion size still counts. A serving of pasta is one cup or roughly the size of a tennis ball.

Go Meatless More Often

Eating vegetarian meals more often is a slimming habit. Vegetarians weigh up to 20% less than meat eaters. While there are several reasons for this, legumes play an important role. Bean burgers, lentil soup, and other tasty legume-based foods are simply packed with fiber. Most Americans get only half of this important nutrient, which fills you up with fewer calories.

Burn 100 Calories More

Lose 10 pounds in a year without dieting by burning an extra 100 calories every day. Try one of these activities:

•    Walk 1 mile, about 20 minutes.
•    Pull weeds or plant flowers for 20 minutes.
•    Mow the lawn for 20 minutes.
•    Clean house for 30 minutes.
•    Jog for 10 minutes.

Celebrate

When you’ve kicked the soda habit or simply made it through the day without overeating, pat yourself on the back. You’ve moved closer to a slimming lifestyle that helps people lose weight without crazy or complicated diet plans. Phone a friend, get a pedicure, buy new clothes — or on occasion, indulge in a small slice of cheesecake.

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Tasty Thanksgiving Turkey Soup

Nutrition

Tasty Thanksgiving Turkey Soup

Thanksgiving recipe for Tasty Turkey Soup that was so easy even a turkey can do it!

Tasty Thanksgiving Turkey Soup

Ingredients:

2 cups turkey light meat, skinless, cooked and cubed
3 cups water
1/2 cup celery, sliced
10 ounces frozen mixed vegetables
1 carton of natural chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup whole wheat macaroni, uncooked

Directions:
In a quart 4-quart saucepan, combine turkey, water, celery, vegetables, broth, poultry seasoning, and black pepper. Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a full boil. Add macaroni and reduced heat to low. Cover and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until macaroni is tender.

thanks Sean

http://dadfitnessblog.com/

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The 10 Craziest (And Most Dangerous) Fad Diets

Nutrition

By Charlotte Evans, BDO Staff Writer (BlackDoctor.org) —

The desire to lose weight has made people try some very crazy things over the past few centuries. Not that they weren’t successful – at least for a while.

“All diets work to some extent,” says Susan Burke March, MS, RD, of Flagler Beach, Fla., a dietician and author of Making Weight Control Second Nature: Living Thin Naturally, “because you’re restricting your food intake. But with diet fads, the weight loss is usually temporary and can be quite dangerous.”

Here are some of the strangest (and potentially deadliest):

1. The hCG Diet. In the 1950s, a British physician, A.T.W. Simeons, suggested that adhering to a 500-calorie-a-day diet and getting daily injections of the hormone human choriogonadotropin (hCG), which is produced in early pregnancy, would promote weight loss. The hCG diet (also known as The Weight Loss Cure) works, March says, because you’re eating so little, but there is no evidence that the hormone injections promote weight loss and, in some people, they can be dangerous, causing blood clots, depression, and headaches. The FDA has approved hCG as a fertility treatment, but not for weight loss.

2. The Twinkie Diet. A bakery manager invented Twinkies in the 1930s, but the diet fad’s origins are unknown. Twinkies have 150 calories each. Eat nothing but Twinkies and you could lose weight. It works, March says, because even if you eat 10, that’s only 1,500 calories a day. “You’ll also get mighty tired of it fast. It’s similar to the nothing-but-chocolate diet. You can lose weight because after the first day or two you’re not that interested in eating chocolate.” And you’re depriving your body of essential nutrients.

3. The Baby Food Diet. This Hollywood diet fad works by substituting baby food for two, possibly three, adult meals a day. “You will lose weight because you’re restricting calories,” March says. “But you’ll lose a lot of what adults enjoy about food — fiber, taste, and crunch.” Baby food may be pure and high in vitamins, but it’s not appropriate in terms of adult nutrition, says March. Once you start eating like an adult again, the pounds will return.

4. The Cigarette Diet. This has to be one of the most harmful diet fads ever, March says. If you light up rather than eat, you could see some weight loss — cigarettes have no calories and nicotine is a stimulant. But smoking is the cause of many deadly medical conditions including heart disease and lung cancer. In the 1920s, cigarette manufacturers promoted their weight-loss benefits, but that was long before the dangers of smoking were recognized. “Never start a habit as harmful as smoking to lose weight,” says March.

5. Aoqili Diet Soap. Aoqili diet soaps made of seaweed and aloe vera are supposed to not only smooth the skin, but also wash away the fat that lies beneath. Similar to detoxifying seaweed body wraps, aoqili soaps have been used for thousands of years in the east Asian countries. They may make your skin look smoother and softer, but they won’t help you achieve weight loss, March says. “There’s no pill or potion or liquid you could take that will make you lose weight,” she says.

6. The Sleeping Beauty Diet. This diet advocates sleeping 24/7 for weight loss. You might be tired because you’re starved, but if you sedate yourself to be able to sleep that much, you’re putting yourself in real danger. Elvis Presley apparently was a devotee of this diet fad. “There is some scientific research to support the idea that lack of sleep can contribute to excess weight and obesity,” March says. “So there is something to be said for getting adequate sleep — adequate, not total.”

7. The Chewing Diet. This diet fad is attributed to Horace Fletcher, who sold art in San Francisco in the early 1900s. He advocated chewing incessantly, until the food was purified, and then spitting out what remained. He supposedly had many fans, including novelist Henry James, industrialist John D. Rockefeller, and cereal mogul John Harvey Kellogg. “This diet at least has some science behind it,” March says. “Studies show if you take your time and eat more mindfully, you will feel full with less.”

8. The Vision Diet. If it doesn’t look appealing, will you leave it on your plate? That’s the idea behind this craziest of diet fads. Wear blue-tinted glasses, and everything you plan to eat looks disgusting. The most likely outcome: You’ll still eat whatever you want and you could hurt your eyes from wearing the tinted specs for too long. A better vision diet is one that is includes lots of colorful fruits and vegetables, March says. “That way you’re getting lots of antioxidants.”

9. Ear Stapling. Ear stapling involves having surgical staples placed in the inner cartilage of the ear. The staples are believed to stimulate pressure points that control your appetite, similar to acupuncture. But after a few weeks, they become ineffective as a weight-loss tool because your body gets used to them. “I don’t know of any science that says this will work,” March says. “It might have a placebo effect. Better to tie a rubber band around your wrist and snap it to remind yourself not to overeat.”

10. The Cotton Diet. For this diet, you eat cotton balls before meals. The idea is that they fill your stomach so you’re not hungry and don’t eat too much. “But it’s like eating paper,” March says, dismissing this weight-loss plan with one word: nonsensical. Cotton balls have no nutritional value and could damage your digestive tract, March adds. “Have some sugar-free gelatin or drink a big glass of water before eating instead.” Both are better ways of reminding yourself you could feel fuller with less food.

Time and time again, experts continue to agree that there is no proven way to lose weight that is more effective ( not to mention safer) than eating healthy meals and exercising. It may not be the sexiest of diet plans, but it will give you the best and longest lasting results.

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