May 15, 2008

Undress your salad!

Are your salads making you fat? It is not entirely impossible to believe. Just when you think you have this healthy eating thing down to a science you realize that after eating like a rabbit, you are still craving “energy” in the mid-afternoon hours and your weight hasn’t really changed much since you last checked. What gives?

One must overcome the idea that salads have to be dressed in order for them to be delicious. You must first begin by undressing your salad and giving it more nutritional value with foods that are packed with energy and flavor. You can start by purging all those creamy dressings that are taking up space in your fridge, that’s your culprit right there. Sorry mega companies who sell the creamy fatty dressings, I can’t support you on this one. It is nearly impossible to eat only the recommended serving of two tablespoons, once you start to drizzle it on, who knows how much dressing you’re really eating. I challenge you to measure next time you try to “drizzle” two tablespoons of creamy fatty dressing onto your salad.

Anyway, let’s first figure out how we dress our salads for success:

Typical salad ingredients–as much as you want: Lettuce, Tomatoes, Carrots, Cucumber, Celery, and maybe even some Mushrooms, yum, delicious.

Toppings: ¼ cup Shredded cheddar cheese, *6 Croutons

Dressing: 2 tablespoons of creamy ranch

*based on only one brand, still, who uses only six, who counts only six croutons?

Nutritional Value of this salad: Almost 300 calories and over 27 grams of fat, the only protein (16g) comes from the cheese. No way? Yes way. I did the math. Obviously there are many nutrients in this meal that are really good for you but wouldn’t you rather put those extra calories and extra fat into something more fun?

Here’s my salad redo, with a fancier dress and much cooler toppings to please the palate:

Choose your veggies:

Hearts of romaine lettuce and baby spinach—lots!

Carrots—baby, shredded, sliced, diced—it really doesn’t matter.

Bell Peppers—your choice in colors.

Tomatoes – they can be cherry, grape, yellow, orange or red—your choice here too!

Any veggies you want to add here is fine

Isn’t this fun, you get to decorate your meal—too cool!

Want to add protein?

Choose one: 2 hard-boiled egg whites OR about 3 ounces (handful) leftover chicken, beef, pork, or fish—which I’m sure was lean OR small can of tuna packed in water OR ½ cup beans such as garbanzo or kidney beans.

If you really like cheese in your salad try one made with part skim milk such as mozzarella or a fat free Feta cheese.

Now choose your toppings:

½ Granny Smith Apple- diced sliced or anyway you like it OR mandarin orange slices OR Berries, why not? Try it out, this is your meal.  Don’t have any fresh fruit?  Try raisins, craisins, dried cherries, fig..all good for you but watch out for added sugars.

1/8 cup chopped Walnuts. Walnuts are a great source of Omega-3. (Source: Worlds Healthiest Foods)

OK go ahead, give it a little outfit:

1 TBS Olive oil mixed with 1TBS Lemon or Lime Juice—that’s all the dressing up this salad will need.

Yes olive oil and walnuts have fat, but it’s good fat. Tim Moore from the Vitaminstuff shares great tips about olive oil and its nutritional values. The tangy and crunch taste of the apple or the sweet, citrus from the mandarin is a pleasant surprise to the palate as are the walnuts and dried fruits.

Toss it all together and voila! You have yourself a well dressed salad.  When you are done with this meal you will be satisfied, for a while. Enjoy and please, share your salad re-do with us.

Stay Well,

Spin Diva!

Popularity: 47% [?]

January 29, 2008

Keeping you fuller for longer

Naturally Gorgeous is an innovative new smoothie developed jointly with nutritionist Amanda Ursell is marketed as the drink for the health conscious made with a compound called PinnoThin that keeps you fuller for longer.

Currently there are only two drink flavours on the market - ruby orange & strawberry, and coconut and pineapple - and I’m sure more flavours are expected soon. The magical ingriedient that helps to do what it says on the box, called PinnoThin is a completely natural ingridient derived from pine nut oil and mixes essential fats that will take control of your hunger. Pine nuts are a naturally rich source of essential fats and have been consumed in Asian countries for centuries.

Before Naturally Gorgeous came along, people were drinking smoothies not aware fully of their high calories and so by drinking Naturally Gorgeous with PinnoThin, one can stay fuller for longer and avoid excessive calorie consumption.

According to Amanda Ursell,

“The problem is, when we drink calories rather than eating them in foods, it seems that the area of our brains which tell us that we are feeling full do not get triggered very effectively. In other words we can slurp down drinks and not register the calories that we are adding to our daily total. The idea that a drink may be able to fulfill the role off both a drink and be filling fascinates me. Naturally Gorgeous drinks have been made using low GI ingredients including fruit juices, skimmed milk, agave nectar (a natural sweetener which comes from the  blue cactus plant in Mexico), pectin (a soluble fibre which appears to slow down stomach emptying) and a fascinating ingredient made from pine nuts called PinnoThin”

Seems like a good thing, but does it do what it says on the carton. Would love to hear your comments below. 

Popularity: 5% [?]

January 27, 2008

350 calorie breakfast meals

This post follows on from my post on easy weight loss by counting your calories.

 In that post, the message was simple: to lose weight, consume less calories than you should give off. I also suggested splitting your meals throughout the day and thus lowering the calories per time. I used the example of splitting into five segments of around 350 calories each so to explore that more, here are some meals that calculate to 350 calories.

Cereal - 300 calories

• 1 cup of cereal
• 8 oz 2% milk
• 1 banana
• 1 coffee or tea

An egg-muffin breakfast - 320 calories

• 1 whole wheat English muffin
• 2 pats low fat butter
• 1 hard boiled egg
• 1/2 cup of fruit
• 8 oz fruit juice
• 8 oz water

An oatmeal breakfast - 300 calories

• Oatmeal - 325 Calories
• 1 cup oatmeal with raisins
• 1 cup of fruit
• 1 cup coffee or tea
• 1 banana

Popularity: 8% [?]

January 16, 2008

My current breakfast plan

My current (and favorite to date) breakfast plan is a very simple and elegant one.

I get up at 7am and have a pint of water usually on it’s own as I like the taste of water. During the course of the night, we lose a lot of water through our breathing, snoring and heat so drinking a glass of water is essential to internal detoxification, cleansing and recycling. Regardless of what you have for breakfast, I highly recommend you drink a glass of water as soon as you get up. If you don’t like water, squeeze some fresh lime into it for taste.

By 7.30am I’ve had a shower and am ready to go. Between 7.45 and 8am, I make and drink a half pint of freshly squeezed carrot, apple and ginger juice. I love juicing fresh fruits. I usually buy enough fruits to last me the whole week at the weekend but if I run out, I will go to the shop and get some more. I also select fruits from the supermarket to ensure they ripe in time for when I need them. With fresh juice, you can also consume a lot more fruit than you would by eating it.

It is important to eat your fruit at least 30-60 minutes before a meal as it is water-rich and composed of simple sugars which are digested in the small intestine. If you eat fruit after a meal, you stop it from reaching its required destination, the small intestine, as it gets stuck in between food in the stomach. This is all part of the science of food combining and I have written about this particular item in more depth in my book How to Live Healthy in an Unhealthy World. Get it free here.

At 10am, I eat a handful of fresh berries with almonds or cashew nuts. I have decided in this current breakfast plan not to eat a proper meal before noon and for that reason I make up a mix of good nutritious stuff by having some kind of berries or grapes with a handful of nuts. 

At 11.15am, I eat a healthy fruit salad. During this time, I try not to mix too acidic fruits with those that are not too acidic. Each requires different enzymes to digest the fruits and a large mix of un-similar fruits will disturb the system. Usually, I would have pineapple with apple or grapes. Or pear with kiwis, melons, bananas, oranges. The best way is to chop them all up into small pieces and mix up into a bowl of fruit or a “fruit salad”

At 12.00, I proceed to prepare a delicious lunch. Breakfast is officially over and in another post I’ll cover lunch options I’m currently on.

The underlying message is that I consume a lot of fruit in the morning when my system is empty and can take up a lot of its required nutrients, vitamins and minerals from fruits very easily. At lunch, I’ll introduce the proteins and/or carbs. The other important message is planning. Plan your breakfast (or any meal) in advance and work at it and as a result you’ll see your benefits more readily. 

 

Popularity: 9% [?]

January 11, 2008

Top five tips to healthy meal planning

 

Photo from africaborn

One of the best ways to ensure you stay on track with a healthy eating lifestyle is to plan your meals a few days in advance so that when the day comes, you simply have to indulge in preparing (and eating) the meal rather than spending lots of time deciding what to make and then ending up eating junk. 

A common reason many people don’t eat healthy is because “they don’t have the time”. By carefully planning your meal in advance, you set yourself up for a healthy week as well as saving time and money when you go shopping. 

Here are my five tips to meal planning successfully…

1. Get a notice board. For some reason, I love kitchens with a small notice board where the whole family can see what’s happening. Writing up your meal plan for 5-7 days in advance including breakfast, lunch and dinner is great so everyone can see what’s coming up. The other choice is to have everyone in the house keep their own meal plan and write it in their “food journal”. 

2. Make meal planning a family activity. Get your partner and/or kids involved in meal planning by saying what they want to eat. I recommend before you delve into planning meals as a family, you all set some guidelines as to what kind of foods you will allow and what kind you won’t allow. This will allow you to get rid of junk from the diet. 

3. Start with a blank grocery list. I love when there’s blank white paper and I’m free to write out what comes to my head. It’s the same with a food grocery list. Do it with the family and once you decide on the meals, you can list out all the ingredients you’re going to require. 

4. Remember to stay flexible. Meal plans, however great, are not set in stone. A posted menu plan promotes accountability, but family members will forgive you, as long as they get their postponed favourite a day or two later. 

5. Make it a habit. Meal planning should become a habit just like brushing your teeth. After you’ve made a few, you’ll get to see how much time, money and energy you’ve saved and will be sure to do it again.

Popularity: 13% [?]

January 2, 2008

Feed Your Family Right - Book Review

For the family with not enough time on their hands, with children who don’t like vegetables and families that like to eat out, this book makes a good, inspiring and extremely helpful read. Authored by nutrition expert Elisa Zied and someone who had these challenges, “Feed Your Family Right”.

Common themes in the book include making fitness a core part of your lifestyle whether you have 5 minutes or one hour, managing your portions and making use of fresh vegetables for simple healthy recipes.

Remember what one reader of our site once said, “our state of health is the sum total of our daily healthy habits” and so as Eliza Zied shows in the book, all her small tips and guidances all add up to a better healthy lifestyle.

In her book, she has also done great work in pulling out common problems and providing solutions for health seekers to get on the path of health and wellness. For example, she very clearly points out the problem of lack of time. Unfortunately, many parents and young adults with not enough time have put health before career and resort to carefree eating and exercise. Zied says 30 minutes of exercise daily is optimum, she suggests breaking it into intervals of 5-10 minutes throughout the day and that can be done easily at work or at home.

Elisa also has advice for parents: lead by example. If you’re overweight, your kids are going to follow. It should be up to the parents to lead by example when it comes to healthy cooking, raw eating, exercising and juicing. It should be up to the parents to also lead by example when it comes to communication and how to interact with one’s health. Parent’s shouldn’t come home and couch in front of the television, nor should they just eat out, come home and sleep.

One thing I like about Elisa’s work overall is her moving-towards-change attitude rather than moving-away-from-pain attitude and those involved in any kind of personal development or self-help will recognize this as an important teaching. She discusses that parents tell their kids that eating more fresh vegetables and fruits and other healthy foods will help them run faster, perform better, increase memory, etc rather than telling them that eating a second bowl of ice cream will make them fat. See the difference? 

For fast readers like me, Elisa helped me read faster and save time by providing the important information in easily digestible charts to analyze and use as required. More than anything, Elisa Zied’s “Feed Your Family Right” is an excellent nutrition guide for parents and young adults that is extremely timely in what I consider to be an unhealthy world that we’re living in. Out of 10, I give this book 7.5 and recommend you buy it or borrow it.

Popularity: 11% [?]

December 22, 2007

Christmas 2007 Food Plan

Christmas is an important time to watch what you eat. Whether you’re a raw food junkie or eat as normal, it’s important to note in advance what you’re going to eat, the habits you’re going to take on during the Christmas period and what you’re going to mix together. Whether you’re eating raw or not, here are some things to take note of. 

- Turkeys that are usually bought from grocer’s are kept frozen and wrapped in either a bag or box for a long time. The turkeys have also been kept in good form by using chemicals. Therefore what you eat will be stuffed with chemicals and have lost most of its nature that you’d rather enjoy. Why not look for a farm that sells turkeys that have died from natural causes? “Seek, and ye shall find.”

 - Frozen corns are usually used to accompany the turkey during Christmas. Although nearly but not totally raw, go a step further and buy fresh corn that you could then boil, steam or roast. Steaming is of course the most natural way forward.

- Salad during Christmas dinner is probably the only complete raw food during the festive period. Use fresh juicy fruits and vegetables during your meal. Although dressings are sometimes used, if you don’t make it yourself, it’s not raw and will ruin the salad. Fresh salad is best!

- Apple slices, pickles, olives, pineapple spices - for such side condiments, avoid using bottled or canned items. Get it all fresh and enjoy them after a simple rinse. You’ll also be chemical free!

- Tea, coffee, wine, etc - what do you usually drink during Christmas feasts? I would rank coffee the worst out of those three with wine second and tea the best, however a glass or two of red wine is also quite attractive. I’m a wine fan anyway and enjoy tasting and noting down my thoughts on wine.

If you’re interested in raw food dishes, some of my favorites come from Matt Amsden’s book RAWvolution.

 

Popularity: 5% [?]