Losing Weight and Feeling Great

Wouldn’t you agree that cooking light is healthier for us?  Now, would you care to define what light cooking is?  I didn’t think so.  It’s hard, because to some people, it’s using fewer fats and oils.  To others, it’s about cutting calories.  And I guess they kind of do go hand-in-hand.

But don’t you also think that cooking light is also about more natural foods?  More fresh veggies, fewer canned foods?  At least, that’s kind of how I see it.

Today I have Gregory Spence as the guest author.  Greg will tell us something we’d probably all like to know; easy ways to start cooking healthier meals, without tummy rumbles in protest!

Three Easy Ways to Start Cooking Light

Healthier cooking is all about how cooking light can improve your health without producing boring or unattractive food. Today, more emphasis is being put on reducing our calorie intake and eating foods that are better for us. In order to achieve this we need to look at ways to do this that aren’t difficult.

Suggestion 1:  Oils and Fats

To start cooking lighter, why not substitute your regular high calorie or fatty ingredients with their lighter alternatives? There are many alternatives, and you’ll want to try reading labels (it can be an eye-opener). Choose those ingredients that have no trans fats and are lower in calories.

Dressings are particularly high in all the wrong things!  How about try a low fat mayonnaise or fat free ranch dressing in your sandwiches. Avoid using foods coated in oil;p anyone remember how all tuna used to be packed in oil?  it’s not just tuna that’s come a long way — many types of tinned fish are now packed in water rather than oils, and this significantly reduces your calorie intake.

The oil you use for cooking is also an important part of your lighter cooking style. Extra virgin olive oil is ideal but can be expensive.  A cheaper alternative is canola, which has lots of health benefits when compared to vegetable oils.  Still, if you can afford the extra-virgin olive oil for your cooking light, it’s worth it.

Tip 2:  What’s Your Fiber Like?

If you eat a lot of refined white bread then you will not be getting the fiber you need and your fat intake will be high. When choosing bread go for the oat-based alternative or the 100% whole grain variety.

Just because bread is brown does not mean it is healthier for you. Carmel colorings can do that without a drop of whole wheat.  By taking a true whole grain alternative your body will get an increased intake of fiber and lower amounts of fat. 

Idea 3:  Time to Bake

If you are into baking, try using Splenda instead of regular table sugar.  Splenda is a no calorie sweetener; you might also try stevia, which is all-natural.  If you’ve never tried it, unsweetened apple sauce instead of vegetable oil really does taste pretty good in most recipes.

Line your baking pans with no fat cooking spray instead of butter or shortening; better yet, use baker’s parchment paper for your oil-free baking.  That’s really cooking light!

Use semi-sweet or preferably dark chocolate in place of milk chocolate or (even worse) white chocolate.  Dark chocolate has antioxidants good for your body; just don’t over-indulge.

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Thanks, Greg, for those tips on cooking light.  It’s not always easy these days to get out the fresh veggies and chopping board.  I’ll agree, there are many days where fast food is tempting because I’l so tired.  But fast food is fat food (as I’ve mentioned in several recent posts like this one) so it’s a meal of last resort.

So, guess it’s time to clean out the cabinets again, of some of non-cooking-light foods.  So what will you do?  Are your going to make a more cencerted effort towards cooking light?

Are you struggling with how to lose weight successfully?  Do you try to be good each day, only to turn to snacks at night…and the diet goes out the window?  Or even more frustrating…you do everything you’re supposed to and the weight stays the same on the scales?

Lose Weight Successfully (Keep it Off)

Losing weight is partly in the mind — you have to be committed to your new eating plan.  And by the way, “diet” should perhaps be banned from the vocabulary.  Why?

Because when you finish losing the weight, you “go off the diet”.  But unless you’ve changed your eating habits in the meanwhile, you’ll likely go back to bad habits.  I’ll bet you’re familiar with what happens next — you gain the weight back and then some!

But if you’ve exchanged your old bad habits for nwe good ones, you are far more likely to keep the weight off.  And incidentally, that’s one reason for a slow weight loss — it gives you the time to develop new habits.

Supplements or Pills?

How to lose weight successfully — can it include supplements?  It’s a mixed answer.

Some supplementation is probably appropriate if you’re taking it for health benefits more than weight loss (even if it has somewhat of a weight loss component).  An example is a green tea extract; good for its antioxidant properties, and with a mild thermogenic effect.

On the other hand, other weight loss supplements…the answer isn’t conclusive.  Some people are helped by the supplements, others aren’t.  However one thing is universally true — no supplement will work all by itself, without following a sensible eating program.  (And exercise as well.)

A Healthy Diet to Lose Weight

Yes, you can lose weight with a fad diet.  But the question of the day is…will you keep that weight off?  Or will you need the latest fad again in a few weeks or months?

A healthy diet to lose weight is one that you can follow for life.  One that has the amounts of proteins, fats and carbohydrates for your body metabolism.

How to lose weight successfully — how to keep the weight off — depends on your commitment to change.  If you keep following your old habits, the weight will just come back.

You see the commercials all the time for NutriSystem food, and you find yourself wondering about it.  Does NutriSystem work?  What’s the food like?  How much does it cost?

NutriSystem Food:  The Good and the Bad

OK, first things first:  how does the food taste?  Is it great or is it terrible?

Well, how about it’s a little of both.  Some of the foods seem to be universally loved, like the pizza, hamburger, tacos and such.  Others seem to have few fans, like the beef stew and blueberry muffins.

All in all, the food is good, although some are a little on the bland side (especially the dinners).  Why?  Because the foods are produced to meet the needs of as many people as possible, they are bland-ish.  But that doesn’t mean they can’t be dressed up some!

For example, I think the tacos are yummy with an added tablespoon of salsa and a little low-fat cheese.  The pizza gets two thumbs up with some turkey pepperoni on top.  The hamburger seems to be great no matter what you do to it!

And the desserts — I don’t think there’s one that I don’t like!

Try It Before You Buy It

Now I’m not going to lie — NutriSystem is a little on the expensive side (although if you already eat out a lot, it might actually be a savings).  Figure on about $300 a month.

There is an option of trying some food, however, before you sign up for the full program.  Kind of a "try it before you buy it".

Strange as it may sound, ebay has a lot of NutriSystem listings!  You can buy a few day’s worth of food to try out and see how you like them.

If you decide to go this route, stay away from listings that include the tuna casserole dinner, blueberry muffins or microwave chocolate cake.  The muffins and cake are actually pretty decent once you know how to prepare them, but the tuna…well, better not touch that one!  (Yes, I speak from experience.)

So, If so, check out the box below; click on an image to see the listing and bid amount.

I was asked how I started my weight loss; it all started with a 3-day diet to help kick-start the dieting process.  After checking around some, I was appalled at some of the diets I saw — not healthy at all!  So, I came up with one of my own that I still use from time to time.  Here is it — my 3 day smoothie diet.

(The diet is first, then the recipe for the smoothie itself is farther down on the page.)

3 Day Smoothie Diet

This diet has the same menu for all three days; it is:

Breakfast:

1 fruit smoothie with protein

Morning snack:

1 piece of string cheese — regular, not low fat.

Lunch:

Large green leafy salad plus raw veggies of your choosing, 3 tbsp low-calorie dressing (30 or fewer calories per tbsp).

3 ounces protein — tuna, dairy or chicken.  Another option — serving of yogurt, as long as it has at least 7 grams of protein and is less than 140 calories.

Afternoon Snack

1 medium apple, 1 tbsp peanut butter

Dinner:

Fruit smoothie with protein

Dessert

1 cup sugar-free jello.

That’s it — not very complicated, but by the end of the 3rd day you’re really wanting anything but another smoothie!

Fruit Smoothie (With Protein) Recipe:

• 6 large strawberries, frozen
• 1 small banana, frozen (or, 1/2 large banana)
• 1 serving vanilla whey protein powder.  I happen to like OnWhey because it has a lot of protein and isn’t too sweet.  But choose any with at least 17 grams of protein per serving.
• 1 tsp flaxseed oil or olive oil (I promise, you won’t taste it and you do need the fat in this diet for it to work).

Put it all in the blender and blend til it’s nice and thick.  If you need to, add one more large frozen strawberry.

The Special K diet is "kind of" a fad diet, in the respect that it’s not mainstream and that it was developed by the Special K manufacturer in order to sell the cereal.  But it’s also a relatively reasonable diet for two weeks, and supposedly the average weight loss is 5 pounds.

The Special K diet for weight loss boils down to this:  eat a serving of cereal + 2/3 cup skim milk + serving a fruit twice a day — breakfast and lunch.  Or, eat one meal with the cereal and one meal with a Special K protein meal bar.

You can have two Special K snacks during the day (protein bars, protein water, etc.).  You can also snack on raw veggies.

Then, dinner as usual, but with plenty of veggies for fiber.

So now the question is — is the Special K diet healthy?  My vote is "mostly", as it also depends on what you normally eat for dinner!

The Special K diet.can get very boring for the two weeks, but if you really like the cereal and meal bars, it’s not too bad.  A little light on the fruits, but there are certainly plenty of veggies.

As always, I have to ask about any diet that seems to leave out a food group — in this case, fats.  On the other hand, it also depends on what fats you normally consume at dinner.  If you have a nice salad with an  olive oil dressing and some grilled salmon — you’re fine there.

If your normal dinner is fast food on the run…I’m not sure the Special K diet would help you at all!  You just get too much in the way of fats and calories from the majority of fast food meals.

If your normal dinner is fat-free or extremely low fat, then I think the Special K diet is too low in fat.  Then again, it’s just for two weeks — not the rest of your life.

So, I’d have to say that if you want to drop some weight fairly quickly and don’t mind eating the same thing twice a day, the Special K diet is reasonable.

(Just as an aside — I do like the Special K cereal — always have.  But once a day is fine for me.)

Is the Ornish diet really healthy for you?  Will it work for the average person?

My vote is no, and here’s why.

The Ornish diet is basically vegetarian (which is fine), but also exceedingly low in fat (not so fine).  The proteins are basically derived from beans and legumes, but also allows for fat-free and very low fat dairy products.

Now I can buy into the vegetarian diet part of the Ornish diet — vegetarians tend to be of a normal weight and generally don’t have a big cholesterol problem.  Vegetarians also tend to take better care of their health — get more exercise, read more labels, etc.

But I cannot say yes to a very low-fat diet that misses out on some good-for-you fats, like the omegas.  I’ll be honest — the extremely low fat diets are way overrated.

(Now if your doctor puts you on a very low fat or otherwise restricted diet for a specific health reason — listen to your doctor.)

Humans are omnivorous creatures — we eat proteins, fats and carbs.  All are necessary for a healthy diet.  But I still maintain that any diet that attempts to exclude any one food group long-term is unhealthy for the average person

Now I know that diets like South Beach and Sonoma really restrict carbs for the first 2 weeks of the program, but it’s two weeks and then you get on a balanced diet.

I’ll have to pass on recommending the Ornish diet, when it comes to weight loss.  While it may be what some heart patients need, it’s not totally healthy for the average person.