Tricks to Clean Up Your Diet: From "Mind Body Green Blog"

Great, easy tips on eating healthy from the MindBodyGreen website.  Check it out, they have great articles. This article is from their site, none of it is my own.

Some people claim that healthy eating takes a lot of time and is complicated. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you know how to do it right, you can incorporate more healthy food into your life!
1. Use this trick to store fresh herbs.Fresh herbs like basil, mint, oregano and sage flavor your food without adding any chemicals. However, sometimes you might get a huge bunch of basil or mint, use only a few sprigs, and the rest goes off before you know it. But there is a trick to make your fresh herbs last for a long time! Simply remove the leaves from the stems and place them into an air-tight glass jar, and store in the fridge. Just make sure that the herbs are absolutely dry. Using this technique, mint and sage will last up to two weeks. Basil, oregano and cilantro will last from seven to 10 days.
2. Freeze ripe bananas to make amazing smoothies and ice-creams.This is my favorite trick! When you freeze bananas, they change their taste, and when you blend them – they give any smoothie an amazing creamy texture. Simply peel some very ripe bananas, put them into a zip-lock bag or a container, and freeze at least overnight. Then add to your smoothies instead of regular bananas.
If you blend frozen bananas with a high speed blender or a food processor, it makes an amazingice-cream, which tastes so creamy and rich! You might need to add some water to facilitate blending. You can also add raw cacao for a raw chocolate ice-cream or some berries (frozen or fresh).
3. Make your own dressings and dips, and store them in a glass jarStore-bought dressings have plenty of preservatives, chemicals and bad fats. Even the healthy ones still have preservatives and ingredients that are not ideal for you. So the best thing is to make your own dressing. There are plenty of recipes for healthy salad dressing available. Just make a big batch and store in a glass jar or a bottle for up to a week.
An even better hack: place your dressing ingredients (for example, freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice, fresh herbs, some salt and pepper) in a glass jar, put the lid on and shake well until the ingredients have mixed. That’s an easy way to make your own dressing. For some of the recipes, though, you might need a blender. (Unfortunately, shaking a jar doesn’t do a great job blending a mango.)
4. Always have healthy food on site.You'll eat what's available. If you have healthy snacks handy, you'll eat them when you’re hungry, and there's less chance that you will eat something unhealthy. When you get very hungry, you might make bad food decisions. But if you have plenty of healthy food at home, you're more likely to eat healthy. Duh.
5. Make healthy breakfast the night before.Yes, mornings may be hectic and super busy. But you have no excuse for not preparing your breakfast the night before. A great way to do it is to make chia pudding or soaked oats in a glass jar. You can even make it in layers, e.g. soaked oats in almond milk, then a layer of blended fruit, etc. it takes about five minutes to make, then you place it in a fridge, and bam! You have a healthy breakfast in the morning.
Another breakfast hack is to prepare all your smoothie ingredients a night before. So in the morning all you have to do is chuck them in a blender. This takes less than three minutes.
6. Thicken soup or sauce with cauliflower.People love a nice texture! Creamy, thick soups, smooth sauces and mashed potatoes all taste good, but contain enormous amounts of fat, usually the unhealthy kinds.
Luckily, there is a super veggie: cauliflower. It's low in fat, low in calories, and high in fiber and nutrients! Simply add the steamed or lightly boiled cauliflower to your soup or a sauce, and blend it. You'll be pleasantly surprised by its thick and creamy texture. If you like to make mashed potatoes, use cauliflower instead of potatoes. It tastes very similar, and is lower in calories and easier to digest.
7. Instead of flour, use oats.White wheat flour is highly processed, devoid of nutrients and also contains gluten. For a healthier option, replace white flour with oats. Simply process dry oat flakes in a blender, food processor or a coffee grinder.
If you’re sensitive to gluten, make sure to get gluten-free certified oats. Oats naturally do not contain gluten, but are often cross-contaminated with tiny bits of wheat, rye or barley.
8. Replace wheat pasta with veggie “noodles.”Wheat pasta is very processed and also contains gluten, which many people are sensitive to. It is also very mucus-forming and is not good for your digestion. Therefore, you can replace your pasta with veggie “noodles” made of zucchini, carrot or cucumber. You will either need a vegetable spiralizer, or a simple peeler. If you use a peeler, just cut the vegetables into a flat noodle shape. Vegetable noodles, mixed with a sauce, become soft and their texture resembles real pasta.
9. Make your own flavored water.Soda and processed drinks are so out of date. They’ve been proven to cause weight gain, diabetes and heart disease. If you’re craving a delicious drink, you can make amazing tasting and absolutely healthy flavored water.
Add some fresh herbs, like basil or mint; some citrus juice, like lemon or orange; or fruit and vegetable slices, like sliced strawberries, cucumbers, orange, ginger, etc. My favorite combo is lemon, fresh ginger and mint. It’s best to make it before going to bed and let it infuse during the night.
10. Ditch milk for a home-made almond or other nut milk, and replace butter with avocado.Dairy products are also the food of the past. They contain so many antibiotics, hormones, and pesticides. Plus, cow’s milk is the food for baby calves, not for grown-up humans. Also, so many people are lactose-intolerant even without knowing it. Almond or other nut milk is so easy to make, and you can make a bigger batch and keep it in the fridge.
Butter is full of saturated fat, which clogs your arteries and leads to a heart disease. Instead, replace your butter with a heart-healthy avocado. It tastes so much better and is cruelty-free.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

The Blog is Back

I'm baaack!

That's right.  After weeks of kind-of dieting and kind-of eating everything in sight.  I am giving up and giving in, so to speak.  It's time to get control and learn how to eat right.  Apparently I really need a regimen and need to stick with it.  I have decided I am unable to do it on my own.

I am joining Weight Watchers again ... along with my weekly Maintenance meetings with the "Weight Management Program".  The WMP group is great, but I don't know how truly helpful it is.  Frankly, it's probably not them, it's me.  I need EXTRA help.

So, I'll be back documenting everything.  I think that's been part of my problem too.  While I've been ignoring the blog, I've also been ignoring healthy eating habits.  Luckily I've only gained about 5 pounds.  But frankly 5 pounds in two months is ... well 5 pounds too much!  At that rate I'd gain everything back in less than two years.  We can't have that now, can we?

So, I have to blog and track ... and hopefully that will help keep me on track.

Fed Up

I've posted several times about the dangers of sugar and how you should try to cut it out of your life.  Now there's a new documentary coming out this week on the subject.

Check out the trailer here.

The documentary is narrated and executive produced by Katie Couric and it's all about sugar and just how much of it we're ingesting every day.

According to the film sugar is added to 80% of all processed foods on store shelves.  That number has dramatically increased in response to the public's desire for "low-fat" foods.  When the fat is removed - more sugar is added to resort the flavor.  One of the more interesting facts from a movie clip shows that despite the increase in low-fat foods - Americans have gotten fatter than ever in the past few decades.

What's even worse ... this generation is the first generation ever that's expected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.  It's sobering.

You can learn more from the FedUp Facebook page.

There's also a Fed Up 10 Day Sugar-Free Challenge.  You can learn more on the movie's website.

Trying to Avoid Sugar

There's an interesting article on the dangers of sugar.  You can read it here from online magazine Salon.  It basically lays out the argument about why you should avoid sugar.   As with most articles, you have to take it with a grain of salt (sugar?), but I think the basic information is valid.  There's no nutritional value whatsoever to sugar.  It's empty calories and not just that, there are actual effects from sugar that can be detrimental to your health.


Here's an excerpt:

Even if that was the case, we’re eating too much sugar. Or, more specifically, too much added sugar. Sugars that are naturally present in whole foods like fruit are okay; it’s the sugar added to whole foods that we must worry about. Previously, the World Health Organization said we should limit consumption of added sugars to 10 percent of calories. Even then, more than seven in 10 Americans ate too much sugar. On average, about 15 percent of our calories came from added sugars.

But now WHO is considering cutting its recommendation in half. That means limiting sugar consumption to five teaspoons, the amount found in half a can of soda. The American Heart Association has long recommended that women limit added sugars to six teaspoons and men stick with nine or less. (For those looking for a loophole, this means all added sugars, including so-called healthier sweeteners like maple syrup, agave, honey, or even fruit juice.)

I noticed a major shift when I was on the modified fast (and off sugar).  I felt great, had lots of energy and my skin looked amazing.  Once I got off the diet and my bad habits started again I felt all those negative effects once more.  My skin wasn't as clear, I was tired all the time and quite often I would fall into a depression.  I'm sure there are other reasons behind a lot of this, but I believe a significant amount was due to the excess sugar in my diet.

I am going back on the modified fast for a few weeks to try to kick the sugar habit (again).  I'll start posting regularly to keep you updated.  Wish my luck!

Changing Formats

Just a quick update for you.  Since I have been slacking off lately, I have lost track of what day it is on my diet.  Frankly, I just don't feel like going back and counting.  Since I am no longer on the modified fast, I am giving up on the "Day ???" in my post titles.  Hopefully this won't be an issue for any of my readers :-)
Thank you for understanding!

Day 157: Losing Weight After 40

This is a great article from the website MindBodyGreen.  After months of dieting ... and still struggling ... I have to agree with all of these!

Most women find that as they get older, it becomes harder to manage their weight because their metabolism has slowed. Diets that worked in the past become less and less effective. Contrary to most weight loss advice (which seems to treat everyone the same), my take is that women over 40 need to approach weight loss differently. So if you're over 40 and want to shed a few pounds, here are 8 things you should know:

1. Exercise isn't enough.

Exercise is a must for your health and wellbeing. But women over 40 can't rely on it alone for weight loss. If you're working out regularly and still not losing weight, it's because you have to pay more attention to what you're eating.

2. You can't lose weight as quickly as you did when you were 25.

I've seen it many times. If you're 55 years old and trying to lose weight, and expect it to happen at the same rate as when you were 25, you're asking for trouble. Unrealistic expectations mean that even when you're making good progress, you'll feel frustrated at the pace of your progress. This can often lead to second-guessing your approach and then finally giving up (which is what most people do).

3. You can't turn to quick fixes …. and that's a good thing!

This is the number one reason why women over 40 have an advantage with losing weight. (Yes, that's right, an advantage!) You might think that it's a bad thing that you can no longer drop 10 pounds in a week. But what this means is that you have to focus on making long-term changes, which is the cornerstone of successful weight loss.

Not only can you not rely on quick fixes, but you really can't rely on dieting anymore, either. I'll see clients who say things like "I never want to go on another diet again!" This makes them much more focused on long-term change rather than a quick fix. Again, that's a good thing!

4. Failure doesn't make you a failure.

In most areas of life, one failure is enough to put people off trying again. Not with weight loss. Most women in their 40s have a long list of diet failures behind them. I am always impressed with women who—despite 20 or 30 years of not being able to lose weight—are still willing to give it another go. It's testament to how important they feel managing their weight is.

The problem arises when you start thinking that since it hasn't happened so far, it's never going to happen. But the fact is, most people who have eventually succeeded at losing weight have a past history of diet failures. It's certainly not a barrier to getting what you want.

5. The best way to lose weight is to change your eating habits.

For most people, even if they are given the best food plan in the world, they struggle to stick to it. Why? Because our eating habits are ingrained, and simply being told what to eat is not enough to reverse years of conditioning.

So you shouldn't be hard on yourself for not being able to stick to a plan. Instead, you need to get a better understanding of what your eating habits are (by keeping a food diary) and how you can change them.

6. Make small changes

How do you make it more likely that you will stick with something for the long-term? Don't completely overhaul your current diet. Just make small adjustments. For example:

• Take control of your food environment, by removing unnecessarily tempting food from your line of sight (on your desk at work or the kitchen benchtop.)
• Focus on being more mindful when you're eating, so you eat slower, really enjoy your food, and connect with what your body wants.
• Share food with others (especially snacks and desserts) to minimize calories while still enjoying foods you love.

There are plenty of different areas of your eating you can change. The idea is to "nudge" your behavior in the right direction. But remember: the best changes are small ones that you barely notice

7. The sooner you act, the better.

While it's possible to lose weight successfully at any age, there's no denying that you'll have a smoother ride the sooner you start. So start now!

8. Your best friend is persistence.

You can succeed at losing weight, but it means that you'll have to be persistent. Things won't always go your way. There will be weight plateaus and reversals. But that's OK. Just keep focused on your goal, keep making small changes and keep going. This is the key to your success.

BY DR. KHANDEE AHNAIMUGAN