General Article

Have Your Chocolate and Eat it Too With These Healthy Food Tips

You can go from unhealthy fat filled eating to tasty healthy eating by changing just a few little things. You will not sacrifice flavor and no one will ever know you are doing it. In fact, what I am about to reveal are my top secrets that I have hidden from my family for years!

Change Your Cheese

I love cheese. In fact, the more cheese a dish has, the more I like it. One of my favorite dishes is a five-cheese manicotti. Now, even with my changes, it is not the healthiest dish. However, it is a whole lot better than what it was before I started!

Cheese is simple to change. When you go to your grocery store, you will find shredded cheese in packages. You will also find them in whole blocks. I prefer the whole blocks because they are not as dried out, but it does not matter.

What you need to look for is the cheese that says 2% or low fat. These cheeses taste the same, especially when used in recipes. This cuts down your fat tremendously. If you have ever done Weight Watchers, you will notice this in most of their recipes.

Change Your Chocolate

I love chocolate. I can eat it all day and all night long. I could not give up chocolate even if I wanted to. However, I have found some healthy alternatives to eating chocolate that are awesome.

First, there is Jell-O Pudding Snacks. You can buy the sugar free versions and they have half the calories. Plus, they are delicious. My favorite is the chocolate vanilla swirl.

For ice cream lovers, Weight Watchers has some to die for ice creams. They have my childhood favorite drumstick and my adult favorite Toffee. They are low in calories (1 Weight Watcher Point) and are oh so good.

Yummy Yogurt With Half the Calories

You have probably seen the commercials where the lady talks about Key Lime Pie, Cheesecake and such. She goes on and on about how she lost weight eating these delicious treats. It is true!

When you compare the light yogurt to the regular yogurt, you cannot taste the difference. My favorites, strawberry banana and banana cream pie, come in both the light and regular version. I bought them both and did a side-by-side comparison. I could not tell the difference and neither could my kids!

Chocolate Pie Galore

I make a chocolate pie that everyone gobbles up. It is simple and no one ever knows I use “healthy” ingredients. I take a light graham crust; fill it with sugar free Jell-O Pudding mixed with half a tub of light Cool Whip. Then I top the pie with the rest of the Cool Whip. Last, I add a handful of the mini chocolate chips. No one can taste the difference and by using the mini chips, you get the yumminess of chocolate chips at a smaller …

Growing Organic Vegetables – My Herbs Are Ready to Harvest – What Next?

You might have just begun to start growing organic vegetables and herbs or you could possibly be an experienced grower already. There exists one question that seems to appear time and time again.

What do I do with all those herbs?

In the next few paragraphs I will cover some helpful tips for your organically grown herbs.

Most people will use their herbs in a dry form. Always try to harvest your herbs as early as possible in the day. You simply need to use a sharp knife or a pair of garden scissors to harvest your herbs and make sure that the stems are quite long.

1: Cleaning Your Herbs

Wash the herbs, but remember they are herbs and not some steel fork. So be gentle with them and once washed put them on a piece of kitchen towel or a clean cloth. The herbs really need to dry out once washed so the towel needs to be absorbent so that all the water can drain from your herbs.

2: Drying Your Herbs

Once all the surplus water has been removed you then want to tie them together in bundles with a bit of string. Then hang the small bundles up in an area out of the way but if possible moisture free. I find that the airing cupboard can be a good spot as its always slightly warm and of course dry. Should you be hanging them near a window which has direct sunlight this will also be a great place. Just remember however, that the sunlight will take some of the natural colour from your herbs.

3: Making Your Herbs Ready For Use

Get yourself some glass or stone jars and once the herbs are completely dried out it is easy to crush them into the jars. I prefer to not use plastic as I always feel this effects the flavor of the herbs. Your herbs once dried will last for at least nine to twelve months.

4: Freezing Your Herbs

As an alternative you can also freeze your herbs. To do this simply harvest and wash as above but when drying you should make 100 percent certain there is no excess moisture. So keep turning them on the paper towel until completely dry. This is very important for the freezing process.

To get the best flavor from the herbs when frozen keep the flowers and leaves on the stems. Once they are dry it is easy to put them into freezer bags and place them into the freezer. One point to note here is to put a label or mark the freezer bag with the date. Herbs which have been frozen would be best used within six months of freezing them as this is when they have their best flavor.

To use the frozen herbs from the freezer just flake off the herbs between thumb and forefinger after which return all the unused …

Mall Foods to Avoid Eating

When we are shopping or browsing around the mall with friends or family we may get thirsty and grab a drink without even thinking about what is in it. Well, we need to start thinking about it. The highest calorie mall drink is a Jamba Juice Peanut Butter Moo’d. This drink contains 770 calories and 108 grams of sugar. It will not only add empty calories to your body and make you feel run down later, but you will have consumed half of your daily calories just by drinking it. Instead, you should try to pick a fruit drink that has less calories and sugar or stick to plain water. You will be glad you did.

The highest calorie Chinese meal at the meal is Panda Express’s Orange Chicken with fried rice. This dish is tasty and very popular but it contains 970 calories and 1,540 grams of sodium. It is battered and fried and definitely a bad choice for a healthy diet. It is best to pick a meal besides orange chicken and choose the steamed vegetables instead of the fried rice. This option will be lower in calories and sodium and ultimately better for you. It will still be just as tasty too.

Many of us enjoy going to the mall very much and many parents have kids that go to the mall all the time. There is nothing wrong with going shopping, it may even give you some exercise, but it is important to know what we are eating and to make the best choices possible. If we know what we are eating then we will know what to do to make it better. This way, you will be able to enjoy your shopping experience even more than before.…

Parents! Quick! Learn How To Get Your Child Eating Healthy!

If this idea is new to you, it may take a little time for both you and your child to adjust to eating healthy. Whatever you do, do not restrict food. Children who have their food restricted often end up heavier, because they become anxious about food and eating. Anxiety about not getting enough to eat will often lead a child to overeat whenever he or she gets a chance.

So, what is your child’s reaction going to be to eating healthy? “I don’t like fruit and veggies; I want a cheeseburger, fries and a candy bar.”

• Don’t panic it… Give it time. Food preferences are slow to change, but they do change over time. Making a new behavior a habit usually takes 3 months or more. I am going through this pain currently as we speak, but it’s getting easier to eat and like healthy foods.

• Take it slow. Your child doesn’t have to give up their favorite foods completely. For instance, cut out 50% of (1) of your child’s unhealthy habits, such as sugary drinks and replace with water or low-fat milk; two weeks later, choose another unhealthy habit to cut down 50%, such as unhealthy snack and replace with fruits, veggies or nuts; 2 weeks later, do the same thing, again and again. Make your changes small, and give your child time to adjust.

• Eat together as a family as often as possible and keep family meals pleasant and positive. Avoid making comments about the amount or type of food your child eats. Pressure to eat actually reduces children’s acceptance of new or different foods.

• Make healthy food choices for your family’s meals, and occasionally, ask your child what healthy meal they want.

• Make meal times fairly predictable. Eat at around the same times every day and always at the table, even for snacks. If dinner needs to be early to avoid the pre-dinner snacking, then do it!

• If your child does need a snack, make sure to have plenty of healthy snack foods on hand, such as fresh and dried fruit, raw vegetables, fat-free or low fat yogurt, fat-free or low fat cottage cheese, whole grain crackers, air-popped popcorn, nuts, seeds, cold chicken and fish, and slices of lean cooked cold meat. Let your child decide which snack they want. Keep in mind to limit the snack before their meal, as you want them hungry… it easier to get them to eat something they don’t like a lot when their hungry!

• Drink water or low-fat milk instead of sugary and high calories drinks. Examples include carbonated sodas, juices sweetened with sugar, iced teas, flavored milk, flavored sweetened waters, sweetened hot beverages such as hot chocolate, energy drinks, and sports drinks. Even watch-out for fruit and vegetable juices; when taken in excess, the juice contributes to a higher calorie intake. If you choose to include fruit and/or vegetable juice in …

Eat Healthy Without Really Trying

There are a lot of convenient foods out there in this hostile jungle we live in. It comes in bright, colourful boxes, with black letters on it. This black letters spell ‘Instant Meal’, ‘Microwave Ready’, or the local fast food joint’s name.

To make things worse, we all kind of know what foods are healthy and what not. But the general idea is that it takes a lot of time and effort to prepare these foods.

We’re in a situation where we have the unhealthy stuff easily and readily available, and the healthy food takes effort to get ready. The logical thing to do is to fill our stomach with the unhealthy stuff, because most of us don’t have the time or energy to spend an hour in the kitchen. And don’t forget the dishes afterward.

This bad situation is born mostly out of desperation. You know that you’ll feel better when you’re eating healthy; you know that you’ll have more energy, visit the doctor less, and enjoy your family and even your work more. But a lot of people feel that the have little choice.

In this article, we’ll look at ways to make it easy to eat healthy. I know that it’s possible to eat healthy, and still don’t spend too much time in the kitchen or washing dishes. By bringing a couple of new things into your food preparing habits, you’ll find it almost as easy as getting fast food, to eat healthy.

What would you do with extra energy and another 45 minutes in the evening? Would you read that book that you wanted to read for so long? Would you start working on a side line business? Would you start a new family hobby?

Here we go.

Let’s begin with the grocery list.

Fresh food is mostly the best option, but most organic food doesn’t last long. It’s the genetically modified fruit and veg that last longer on the shelve. A very good alternative is the frozen vegetables and dried fruit. If you don’t like the chewy effect of dried fruit, let it soak a little in water and the use it in a smoothie or in a cooked meal.

You could also freeze your fruit that is on its way out. Use that also in a smoothie or in a cooked meal.

Steam your food.

You can steam fresh or frozen food. This is one of the most convenient ways to prepare food. When my wife gets home in the evening, she quickly pop some food in there, and a hour later we’re ready to eat. I got my steamer from Verimark.

Most steamers have a timer switch. It’s a matter of set and forget. Once the timer ran out, a little alarm goes of to tell you that it’s time to eat. Just add natural spices to get the taste you want. To prepare meat in the steamer.

Get a dishwasher.

This is a very easy way to …

Buying Healthy Food

Much like anything else, buying healthy food needs to be carefully planned and thought of. You don’t wake up one day and just decide to buy a new car or a new house, right? There should be plan. You might wake up one day wanting to own a new car or house, but there are a lot of things to consider. If you’re married, you’ll have to consult your spouse. You would most likely consult your bank account before rushing off to buy that Jaguar!

Buying healthy food is not that different from buying a new car or house. Your family will be greatly affected by such a big move. You will need the consent and approval of your spouse before you can start throwing away his favorite chips or her favorite Mac&Cheese. And if you have children, you must explain it to them the reason why you’re doing this.

Practicing healthy eating will not be easy since we can see the yummy and wonderful food during commercials or while going through the grocery isles. And that is why carrying a list of the products you need to buy will always be the wisest way to start this with.

But before doing your list, first you need to go to your cupboard and identify which items/foods can still be used and what must leave. After doing so, you’ll need to plan what food you wanted to prepare for your daily meals. Then after doing so, you can now start making your list.

Once your list is done, and you’re ready to go to the grocery, remember to go to the produce isles first. Never go “strolling” in the grocery with an empty cart, because it’s always easy to divert from your list and start grabbing the things you assume you and your family will need.

When choosing products, as much as you can, go for the naturally produced rather than the chemically enhanced ones. Always read the label before putting it into your cart. Pay attention to the amount of sodium, food coloring, fats, monosodium glutamate, aspartame and other harmful additives. These are the additives needed to preserve the product and the higher the contents are, the more harmful it is for us.

When choosing meat, always go for the white one rather than the red. White meat contains lesser fats, which will lessen bad cholesterol in our system. Go for fish meat, especially salmon or tuna. Salmon and Tuna are rich in omega 3 fatty acids that will increase good cholesterol.

When choosing fruits, go for the berries. They contain higher level of anti-oxidants that helps prevent cancer from developing and lessen the probability of heart ailments. When choosing vegetables, the greener it is the better it will be for you.

I truly hope that this article will prove to be helpful to you and your family as you start correcting or calibrating your family’s diet! Eat Healthy, Be Healthy!!!…

Best Way to Lose Weight – Can Meat Actually Assist You to Lose Weight?

Lots of fad diets suggest individuals to increase their meat intake, specifically the ones that recommend low-carb diet plans. For example, take the Atkins diet, which suggests that you follow a diet plan which is higher in protein and lower on carbohydrates. The logic behind is that raising the quantity of protein intake is the guaranteed way to shed pounds, and that meat is the ideal source of protein. However, is this really true? Here I will show you just how much meat can assist you lose weight.

Fad diet plans such as Atkins and others often play on the lack of knowledge of people. The truth is pretty much different than what the promoters of the fad diet plans might have you think. As a matter of fact, you’ll be able to shed weight simply by burning up more calories in comparison with what you take in, not necessarily by raising your protein consumption!

Besides, certainly not all sorts of meat are beneficial for your overall health, plus some can in fact cause you to gain pounds. For instance, meat like ham, bacon, pepperoni, salami, poultry, etc., contain a substantial quantity of calorie content. Do you really believe that you may lose weight by raising your calorie consumption? Definitely not! On the contrary, you certainly will increase your weight. That’s the reason I seriously doubt that an excessive amount of meat intake is ever going to help anybody to lose just any amount of pounds.

Should you take in lots of meat regularly, it will eventually block your arterial blood vessels as well as harm your kidneys, not forgetting that it will even damage your gastrointestinal system since whenever you ingest meat, it has a tendency to rot inside your colon. There is more! Meat not just poisons your blood vessels, additionally, it leads to dangerous ailments like diabetes and cancer. As we discussed, meat is not actually your friend at all!

Furthermore, to get the necessary amount of protein out of your meat, you will have to consume it either uncooked or boiled. In case you prepare meat along with all sorts of spices, meat intake will not do you any good simply because lots of protein is being washed out throughout the cooking process! If you believe that a huge protein consumption will certainly enable you to shed weight, then keep in mind that it’s definitely the amount of protein that matters, instead of its origin. Do not forget that you will be able to get a lot more protein from organic foods like seeds and nuts in comparison with meat can ever provide! These types of whole foods can give your system all the protein it requires, yet still not doing harm to you by any means!…

Do You Deserve to Eat?

A shocking trend that I have noticed with females who follow my eating pattern is a tremendous fear of food. It’s not the junk food of course but rather the healthy kind. It goes something like this. “I just wanted to make sure I am supposed to be eating this much quinoa, it just looks like so much!”

When I get this response it is a blazing red flag that indicates a profound fear of food. Then three days later I get an email like this. “Wow I can’t believe how much food I am eating and I am still hungry yet I am still hungry by my next meal! (No shit, it’s called the principal of volumetrics) My cravings are completely gone!” (The reason your cravings are gone is because you are finally eating enough. Did it dawn on you that the reason you had such cravings in the first place is because you had such a fear of food?)

Here is the interesting thing though, these females tremble in fear when it comes to eating moderate portions of nutrient rich healthy food but have no qualms at all when it comes to getting in a decadent filthy morsel or sugar and fat dense treat.

Why do these women have such a striking fear of eating a half a cup of quinoa of yet gobble up a brownie in a heartbeat? I will tell you why, because the quinoa, once cooked takes up more space, it fills up that bowl to the brim and appears to be a high volume of food, which in their na?�ve mind equals more carbs, fat, calories and of course weight gain!

Of course the brownie has far more fat and sugar but don’t tell them that! It’s only one third the size of that bowl of quinoa so in their pea brain there is no way it can be bad.

I asked another female why she didn’t follow the directions on her eating pattern by not adding an extra cup of oats, “I didn’t think I deserved it!”

Another red alert response is when the female doesn’t think she deserves to eat. For some females the light switch goes on and they find success from eating plentiful amounts of food but for others they can’t seem to wrap their head around the idea that eating plentiful amounts of healthy food will actually benefit them and the fear of eating leads to severe cravings and ultimately binging on junk, thus the vicious cycle continues.

Another belief that feeds into this is the mentality that “I have to be hungry in order to burn fat!” Nothing could be further from the truth. IF you are always hungry your metabolism is going to plummet and your body is going to think it’s starving and before long you go and shovel down a dozen doughnuts. Guilt stricken you proceed to hop right back on the “I gotta be hungry to lose weight” …

How to Fit All Those Healthy Foods Into Your Day

We all know that healthy eating is the first step in staying healthy. In fact it is the primary illness prevention activity w can have. At the same time we all know that certain types of food are unhealthy for us. And yet eating healthy food can sometimes be a problem.

Time is a major factor that affects whether we eat healthy food that has been cooked in such a way that the nutritious elements are kept. Availability is also another one. Cooking recipes also play an important part. Many people reason that there must be truth in the statement that healthy food is boring food.

Then along comes that other aspect of eating that affects nine out of ten people. Dieting.

If you are on a diet or have been trying to eat better, you might have had problems trying to get all the healthy food that you know you should be eating into your diet. For the most part, many of the common dishes and meals that are eaten don’t use large quantities of fresh and natural foods in them. Besides eating a salad before a meal, what are some other options to consider.

If you are going to get more than a few servings a day of fruits and vegetables, you are going to have to plan for it as it won’t happen by accident. Processed foods, which have lost much of their healthy food ingredients are easily available – fresh food that is unadulterated by any type of manipulation, is very hard to find. You have to go out of your way to get the right food into your diet.

One of the easiest ways of eating this type of food is to simply blend it. There are a wide variety of blended fruit and vegetable drink recipes that you can follow. Take all those items that you know you should be eating that really don’t go well with other things and make a shake. One common one is what’s called a green drink. This has apples, bananas, with some leafy greens. You can also mix fruit and vegetables with something like whey powder to make interesting combinations. Drink this in the morning to get the good food in your early on in your day.

Another way of doing this is to plan fresh foods as your snacks. Fruits sometimes don’t keep as well during the day as do vegetables. Have a few bags worth of fresh food made up that you can take with you to work or out during your day. Snack on these to get them into your diet.

The key is to plan these foods into your diet with intent. Find something that works for you so that you can be eating better foods during your day.…

Healthy Food For Your Child

As a parent, it can be frustrating to try to get your child to eat certain foods. The young palette does not often appreciate new colours, tastes, and textures in food. However, teaching children good eating habits early in life can help them continue to make healthy choices throughout their lifetime!

Each child is different. Some are content eating three meals a day filled with fruits and vegetables, while others eat many small portions and are extremely picky. There is no ‘right’ method of how your child eats, as long as he or she is gaining weight and developing at appropriate measures. However, it is important to continue to offer a wide variety of food to your child, even if they are extremely picky about what they put in their mouth. That way, even if your child does not have a balanced diet on certain days, their weekly diet will be rounded. Just remember that as long as healthy choices are being modeled by the parents and continually offered (not pressured) to the child, eventually, the child will try them too!

Here are some tips for ensuring your child has adequate nutrition:

– Feed your child a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Include food that is different colours for both nutritional and aesthetic purposes.

– Offer a variety fruits and vegetables from a young age. This helps the child build healthy eating habits early

– Model healthy eating habits. Children often want to eat whatever the parents are eating, so make sure it’s nutritious!

– Put fruits and vegetables into your child’s favourite dishes. For example, a pasta sauce rich in diced veggies or add cucumber and sprouts to a sandwich.

A major step in healthy eating is to reduce the amount of processed food in your child’s diet. Cookies, candies, and other packaged snacks contain large amounts of sugar and artificial flavours or colours. Even fruit drinks are in the same unhealthy category! Processed foods pack high caloric punch without much nutritional value. Not only that, but all the chemicals in these foods can lead to hyperactivity, restlessness, poor attention span, and obesity in children. Parents often notice that once processed foods are removed from their child’s diet, there is a significant improvement in overall physical and mental health.

Here are some tips on eating whole foods:

– Avoid processed/sugary snacks: chips, cookies, donuts, candy, etc.

– 100% fruit juice instead of sugary beverages (soda, iced tea, fruit drinks, etc.)

– Baked potato instead of French fries

– Using whole wheat instead of white bread/pasta/flour

– Oatmeal instead of sugary breakfast cereals

– Leftover slices of chicken or turkey meat instead of processed cold cuts

– Breaded chicken breast strips instead of store-bought chicken nuggets

– Air popped popcorn instead of chips

– Popsicles made with 100% pure fruit juice

– Fresh fruits and vegetables as snacks: apples, bananas, berries, grapes, celery, carrots, cauliflower, etc.…