Monthly Archives: September 2012

The Skinny on Skinny Foods

Every month it seems there’s a new secret to weight loss. But truth is, we already know many secrets to burning fat and they’re all found right in your local grocery store. No, it isn’t as expensive as you might thing to eat healthy and you may be surprised at some of the “skinny foods” you’ve been missing out on. Remember we’re talking about real food here. Not diet foods. These are foods that will naturally help you lose weight and get rid of cravings. Foods that will burn fat and stop your body from storing new fat. Do you want to know what they are? Keep reading.

Beans, a True Fat Buster

Beans are the first one our list because of three reasons. First, they’re an exception fat burning food. Two, there are so many kinds of beans that finding ones you like and finding ways to use them is super easy. They’re so versatile! You can eat them as-is, you can make soup, add them to salads or use in meat recipes… the possibilities are almost endless. Three, they’re amazingly affordable. For a couple bucks you can grab a bag that lasts for weeks.

Beans have what we call resistant starch, which means that half the calories in them will never be absorbed by your body. So half the calories you get from beans will never have the chance of being stored as fat.

Eating beans has also been associated with a decrease in body fat, due to the fatty acid butyrate that’s found within beans. Fatty acid butyrate has also been known to control cell damage that can lead to cancer.

Gas? What gas? The gas you sometimes get from eating beans will go away as you start to include them more often in your diet. Your body will begin to build up the good bacteria that’s used to properly digest them.

Fool Yourself into Being Full with Pine Nuts

Pine nuts are on our list because of the fat in them called pinolenic. Pinolenic causes two other powerful hormones to be created: glucagon-like peptide and cholecystokinin. When these hormones are present, your body thinks it’s full because they tell your brain your stomach is full.

In one study that looked at how this worked, women who ate pine nuts started eating dramatically less. Their hunger subsided and they ate 36 percent less than they previously did. And you don’t have to eat a lot of them to get this effect, either.

Eating enough pine nuts to fill up a shot glass is plenty enough to get the benefits of them. Decrease hunger. Eat less. Lose weight.

Pine nuts are also a very good source of protein.

Skip the Morning Munchies with Fennel Tea

Fennel tea is an amazing late-night drink just before you head off to bed. Drinking fennel tea right before beddie-bye time has several benefits, actually. One of the main reasons people like to drink it is because it wards off those infamous first-thing-in-the-morning cravings. You don’t wake up as famished as you normally would and can therefore make a much more sensible breakfast decision.

Your body will absorb nutrients better, digest foods easier and more effectively and you won’t store as much fat. Pretty powerful stuff, huh?

Meaty Crimini Mushrooms Provide Massive Protein

Crimini mushrooms are the perfect mushroom to add to any kind of meat dish you create. By taking out some of the meat and replacing it with this yummy, meat-flavored mushroom you can instantly transform a dish. It becomes healthier and you don’t have to give up any taste. No blandness here. Crimini mushrooms are high in fiber, so it’ll fill you up quicker and you’ll be cutting fat at the same time.

These “baby-bellas” (little portabellas) have even been shown to ward off the possibility of breast cancer. Researchers say they just might be the answer to increasing your immune system so that your body can prevent the formation of tumors.

Apples Keep the Fat Away

Do you always eat a salad before dinner? If so, you should start topping it with fresh chunks of apple. Apples are powerful fruits for anyone who wants to lose weight. What makes apples so special is the pectin inside them – a fiber that reduces the amount of sugars and calories that your body absorbs when eating.

Maintaining a steady blood glucose sugar level that isn’t too high is important to your  health and weight loss. Apples do this, too. You won’t go through spikes and crashes due to your blood sugar level jumping up and down, which means less cravings and sudden urges to eat.

Raspberry Ketone to Take Charge of Your Metabolism

Everyone wants to magically increase their metabolism and that’s just what raspberry ketone can do. You have something called adiponectin in your body, which is responsible for regulating your metabolism. Raspberry ketone, naturally found in raspberries, controls the level of adiponectin in your body.

It pretty much destroys fat cells and helps prevent new ones from forming in the first place. Though it’s naturally found in raspberries, you won’t get enough raspberry ketone from eating raw raspberries. There is only trace amounts of it found in each one, so you’d be looking at eating 90 pounds of raspberries per day to get enough raspberry ketone for these benefits.

Instead, you’ll need to find a raspberry ketone supplement to use.

Kill the Cravings with Chili Peppers

Have you ever noticed that when you’re eating something spicy with chili peppers that are you aren’t likely to be craving other foods? Chili peppers have a compound in them called casaicin, which will kick your metabolism up a notch because of the increase in body temperature they create. They also reduce your appetite.

Just add some good ole’ chili pepper sauce to your meals and enjoy a reduced appetite and increase in metabolism. Of course, you could eat them raw… but would you really want to?

Blocking Carbs with Vinegar

Vinegar helps you keep blood sugar levels under control. If you love starchy foods then vinegar is a must-have addition to your diet. It helps slow down the absorption of carbohydrates. There are all kinds of different vinegars out there, as well as delicious vinaigrettes that go well with a variety of foods. Find the one that you like and add it to your meals, especially pastas and potatoes. Making your own vinaigrette only requires a few ingredients in most cases and is simple and cheap.

The Skinny on Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are one of the newer foods that have been getting a lot of attention lately, especially among those who are trying to follow plant based diets. They’re little fiber superstars, they are. Including chia seeds in your food (or drinks) will help you stay feeling fuller much longer and can help reduce cholesterol levels. They also help prevent the storage of fat.

Chia seeds can be added to all types of dishes and many people simply make a refreshing drink to get their daily intake of them. One easy way is to throw a lemon slice in a bottle of water, add a touch of pomegranate juice or agave and throw in some chia seeds.

Old but Reliable Green Tea

At one time, green tea was the superstar in the weight loss world. Though it may not be plastered all over the evening news like it once was, that doesn’t mean that it’s lost any of its weight loss powers. To feel fuller and reduce the cravings/snacking that you would likely experience otherwise, just sip on green tea between meals.

Over time, its power is increased. So the longer you keep using green tea, the more it will help. Over time, your body will start changing how it deals with cravings. Your body won’t store as much fat as it once did and you’ll be metabolizing the food you eat more effectively.

Omega-3 Superstars – Pepitas

Never heard of pepitas? I bet you have. Pepitas are just pumpkin seeds and squash seeds. Both of these seeds can be roasted in the oven and eaten or added to your favorite salad for some hefty health benefits. First of all, they’re packed with omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are well known in the weight loss world, as well as the health industry as a whole.

Pepitas also give you lots of protein and magnesium. This is a powerful combination that decreases your appetite and cravings.

Red Lentils for a Fiber Fiesta

Getting your fiber each day is a breeze if you eat some red lentils. With as little as a cup of red lentils a day, you are getting three-fourths the fiber you should be getting. That’s a lot of fiber! Not only do you get a load of fiber with them, you will also be getting tons of protein. You can snack on them, replace the meat in one meal of the day or like a lot of people do, make red lentil soup.

Watermelon More than Just Fruit

Bet you didn’t know that watermelon was full of fiber and protein. Yep, this kid favorite packs a powerful punch that most people don’t even know about. In fact, they have so much fiber and protein that you could use watermelon in a meal instead of meat. Just like red lentils, a single cup will almost give you your daily allowance of fiber (three quarters of it).

Cinnamon & Spice?

Cinnamon is much more than sweet and spice. This spice is incredibly powerful for anyone trying to lose weight (who would have thought, right?). When you include cinnamon in your diet, food doesn’t pass through the stomach as fast. So next time you’re whipping up your favorite coffee drink, why  not put a dash of cinnamon in there? Double up on the foods from this list by thinly slicing apples, sprinkling with cinnamon and toasting them in the oven.

Drop Inches with Avocados

Wonder why Subway makes such a big deal out of avocados during avocado season? They’re powerful little things for your health and affordable (especially during their peak season). Avocados are super skinny food because of the monounsaturated fat found in them. Eat them for an amazing energy boost, to lose weight, burn fat and drop stubborn inches.

Posted in diet, Diets and Weight Loss.

New, Little Known Superfoods for Weight Loss

The best thing for losing weight isn’t the latest magic pill that’s being hyped up across TV shows and news. In reality, if you want to lose weight the right way and be healthy, the very first place you should be looking is the grocery store. Here, we’ve put together a list of some of the main things you should be bringing home when you go to the grocery store and we think you might be surprised. We think you’ll be surprised at simplicity of these foods and how affordable they are, as well as just  how powerful they are at helping you lose weight.

Burning Fat With Beans

There are actually a lot reasons we’ve included beans at the top of our list. They’re super cheap. Just about anyone can afford a bag of beans. Most can be bought for merely a couple of bucks. They last a long time and are very versatile in the number of ways you can prepare them. There are the traditional bean soups, but if you like salads, many beans are great on salads. If you find you just can’t get used to and enjoy one kind, move on to the next! There are all kinds of beans you can try out.

Beans are an amazing fat buster thanks to the resistant starch and fatty acid butyrate found in beans. The resistant starch means that half the calories in beans will never be absorbed by your body. Secondly, the fatty acid butyrate will help you decrease the amount of body fat you have and some say, even possibly prevent some forms of cancer.

A lot of people associate eating beans with getting gas. The solution? Eat more beans. The more beans you eat, the more your body will build up a good bacteria that is used to effectively digest them.

Trick Your Brain into Being Full with Pine Nuts

Pine nuts contain a fat called pinolenic. This fat actually produces two super hormones that play a vital role in helping you lose weight. These hormones are called cholecystokinin and glucagon-like peptide. What’s so important about them? When these hormones are present, they send signals to your brain telling it that your stomach is full.

The result can be a very substantial appetite reduction. In one study, the participants were eating dramatically less after they started including pine nuts in their daily diet: Up to 36 percent less to be exact.

What’s even more impressive is that you don’t have to eat a lot of pine nuts to get this effect. Enough pine nuts to fill a shot glass are plenty to reduce your appetite and lose weight. Oh, and pine nuts also give you a good amount of protein.

Fight Morning Hunger with Fennel Tea

Fennel tea clears your palate so to say and refreshes your taste buds, but that’s not the main reason why so many people recommend drinking this powerful drink right before going to bed. The main reason is to avoid those early morning cravings, so you can choose your breakfast sensibly. When you drink fennel tea just before you bed, you don’t wake up starving like you likely would otherwise.

Fennel tea also helps your digestive system so you can more effectively digest the foods you eat, absorb the nutrients from those foods and helps prevent the storage of fat in your body.

Protein Powerhouse – Crimini Mushrooms

Packed full of protein, crimin mushrooms are often called baby-bellas (they’re basically just little min portabella mushrooms). They have a nice rich meaty flavor that makes them the perfect choice for meat substitutions. So the next time you’re prepping some burgers, meatloaf or meat sauce, replace some of that meat with these mushrooms.

You’ll instantly reduce the amount of fat in that dish and add healthy proteins without ever feeling shortchanged on flavor.

In addition to that, some researchers believe that crimini mushrooms have properties that will fortitude your immune system, making it easier to fight off and prevent cancer (and the development of tumors).

Apples Stop Fat & Calories in Their Track

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Ok, maybe not always, but an apple a day certainly does keep fat away. Try to snack on apples between meals or at least chop some up and put them on your salad before dinner. Why? Apples have pectin. Pectin is a fiber that’s super-powerful when it comes to weight loss.

When you eat apples, the pectin in them will decrease the amount of calories and sugar your body will absorb… so it makes sense to eat them before you plan on eating a meal.

Another important benefit of eating apples is keeping your blood glucose sugar levels in check. If you snack on apples, you’ll help your body to keep a steady and healthy blood glucose sugar level and avoid the mindless eating that comes from a blood glucose level crashing down from a high.

raspberriesBoost Metabolism with Raspberry Ketone

You can’t lose weight if your metabolism in a lull. A super easy way to kick-start your metabolism and keep it going is by using a raspberry ketone supplement. Raspberry ketone comes from raspberries. Raspberry ketone will control your adiponectin, which is what dictates just how fast or slow your metabolism runs.

In addition to that, it obliterates current fat cells and helps prevent your body from forming more.

While it’s true that raspberry ketone comes from raspberries, you’ll be hard-pressed to get enough of it from eating raspberries to make any difference. In fact, it would be pretty much impossible! In order to get the amount of raspberry ketone needed to achieve weight loss, you’d have to eat ninety pounds of raspberries. Not only is that, as we said, pretty much impossible, but it’d defeat the purpose. Instead, you will need to find a good raspberry ketone supplement.

Chili Peppers Reduce Appetite

If you love spicy then you’re gonna love this. Chili peppers! Inside chili peppers is a compound by the name of casaicin. Casaicin increases your body temperature, which in turn increases your metabolism. It’s also been shown that eating chili peppers will decrease your appetite.

So the next time you think your burgers, pasta or other meal is ready to eat… think twice and add some chilis or chili sauce to it to give yourself a weight-loss boost. Do this often to keep your appetite and cravings in check, as well as to boost your metabolism.

Stop Carbohydrate Fat Absorption with Vinegar

We talk a lot about your blood glucose sugar levels, because when they’re spiraling from one extreme to the next, you are very likely to mindlessly eat… just following cravings that your body is telling you need. Well, vinegar is another great way to keep them under control. Vinegar will help your body maintain a healthy blood sugar level that isn’t swinging out of control every few hours.

On top of that, vinegar is especially important if you love your potatoes and pasta. If you include vinegar in your diet then your body will not absorb those carbohydrates as fast. You can take vinegar and make all kinds of different, yummy sauces or vinaigrette to match just about any kind of cuisine you favor, too. Most are very easy to make and don’t cost much at all. Of course, there are plenty store-bought version too.

chiaseedsChia Seeds a Secret Source of High Fiber

Chia sees are a hot topic right now. All the healthy living websites and TV shows seem to be featuring them and giving ideas on how you can use them in your own kitchen. These little seeds are a powerhouse of fiber, that’s for sure.

What’s cool about chia seeds is that they’re pretty easy to incorporate into your daily diet since they can easily be used in both food and drinks. When you start using them, you will feel fuller and not want to eat as much. They’re also good for helping to reduce cholesterol levels and reducing the amount of fat your body stores.

If you want a really easy way to get chia seeds into your diet, make this simple drink. Toss in some sweetener or juice (pomegranate is always good) to a glass of water, sprinkle some chia seeds in and top it off with a slice of lemon.

Green Tea for the Long Haul

A few years ago, green tea was all the rage (much like the chia seeds are now). But just because it isn’t being talked about everywhere you turn doesn’t mean that it is no longer as effective at helping you lose weight. That’s not the case at all. It’s just there’s always something newer, something ‘just discovered’ that everyone wants to talk about.

Green tea is still very much effective. It helps you get rid of those cravings and helps you to feel fuller. So instead of a sugar-filled juice or soda (no-no), drink green tea between meals instead. At least some of the time.

If you continue to drink tea on a regular basis you’ll continue to stack the benefits of it. The longer that you use green tea, the more powerful it starts to become as your body adjusts. Your body will start refusing to store fat like it used to. It will start metabolizing food quicker, easier and more effectively. It’ll even start dealing with your cravings in a completely different manner.

Dump Cravings with Pepitas

Pepitas, pepitas… wondering what on earth that is? No, it’s not some miraculous new finding or exotic food ingredient. They’re simply squash seeds and pumpkin seeds. Pepitas is the Spanish word for them. They’re full of powerful Omega-3 fatty acids, which we all know are vital for our health. But that’s not all. They’re also incredible sources of magnesium and protein, which means that they are very helpful at reducing your appetite and getting rid of cravings.

The beauty of these seeds is just how simple they are to prepare. Nothing crazy. You can simply pop ‘em in the oven and roast them with a sprinkling of seasonings, use them as part of crusting for meats or put them on a salad.

red-lentilsFiber Filled Red Lentils

Red lentils are an amazing source of fiber. Just eating a single cup of them a day will give you three quarters the fiber that you should be trying to get each day. Now that’s fiber-packed for you, isn’t it?

Fiber is just one of the benefits that you get with red lentils. While fiber is vital in helping you feel nice and full, protein is just as important. Red lentils are another one that can be fixed in a variety of ways, too. They make a good meat substitute since they’re so packed with protein or you can do what many people do and fix up a delicious red lentil soup.

Watermelon – A Meat Alternative?

Watermelon is one of the most popular, nice-n-light foods during the summer. But I bet there’s a good chance you didn’t realize just how good it is for you. A lot of people recommend it when it’s especially hot out, because it’s high in water content. But surprisingly, it’s also incredibly high in protein and fiber.

Most people don’t realize just how powerful watermelon can be in a healthy diet or to lose weight. Watermelon can realistically be used as the protein in any meal with as much protein as it has. And it doesn’t take a lot, either. Again (like we mentioned above with the red lentils), it only takes a cup of watermelon to get ¾ of the daily recommended allowance of fiber.

Cinnamon for Weight Loss?

The next time you’re eating cinnamon toast, remember this… Cinnamon is a super spice when it comes to weight loss – not just a yummy addition to your meal. Eating cinnamon can make it easier to lose weight, because food doesn’t pass through your stomach as fast as it normally would. Add cinnamon to your coffee drink, toast or even pork chops. There are endless ways you can incorporate cinnamon into your day.

Get apples and cinnamon by slicing some apples and sprinkling them with cinnamon then roasting them in the oven or frying pan.

Avocados Kick Start Energy

Subway sure got something right… avocados are a powerhouse of nutrients and properties that are sure to help anyone trying to lose weight. I think avocados make the list on any superfood list! What makes them so powerful is the monounsaturated fat that they have. Adding avocados to your meal will give you an energy boost, help you burn fat faster and trim some inches around that waistline.

Posted in diet, featured, Weight Loss.