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.

About the Author:
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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.

Keeping this blog and website certainly helps motivate me to not stray too far off my diet.  Still, there are days where it’s not enough.  There are days where I need a little extra help to keep on eating healthy.

Sometimes I get frustrated because my sciatica keeps me from doing any kind of cardio.  On a bad day, I can’t walk at all without pain.  On a good day I can walk a mile…if I do it slowly and carefully, and on a level ground.  Most days are somewhere between the two.  Because of this, my weight loss is pretty well slowed down.

Anyway, the point of all this is that a friend of mine, Lynn, told me about a website that is motivational, and helps you track your weight loss and fitness goals.  It’s for you if you just want to maintain your weight…and if you want to lose 100 or more pounds.

I’ve already been inspired by a lady named Annie, who has lost almost 400 pounds!  I’ll be doing an interview with her soon, and will let you know when it’s ready.

So what’s this place?  Called SparkPeople, it’s free.  If you want to take a look, here’s my profile page as an example.

If you decide to join, let me know so I can add you to my friends list!

Do you ever have bad days where your motivation and willpower are nil?  Where you don’t particularly care if you eat what you shouldn’t?

I had a day like that last week.  I had to deal with frustrating clients at work, which drained me emotionally.  I was tired from working overtime.  I didn’t want to bother with cooking.

So when David made the suggestion that we go to the nearby Burger King for a quick dinner, I said “ok”.  I knew it wasn’t a good choice, but I was too tired to care.

I’m actually glad I did, because it was an eye-opener.

Trying to be at least semi-good, we both ordered a chicken sandwich.  David added fries to his.  Instead of my normal water or diet soda I chose a small vanilla shake; David had a medium. When
our food was ready, we took the tray to a table and sorted the food.

Hmmm, there was a nutritional chart as the placemat on the tray, so I
started taking a look at it. Calories, carbs, fats, proteins — all
there in black and white.  Yikes!  What were we eating, anyway?

I started calling off some of the calories and fats to David as we ate.  Some of the burgers topped 1,000 calories all by themselves.  The fries had trans-fat.  Even our chicken sandwich had lots of fat, courtesy of the sauce and mayo.

(Actually the small vanilla shake was about the best choice of what we ordered, which says something about the overall health quality of the food.)

So David asked, “You mean to tell me that one meal could
use up almost all the calories I’m supposed to eat in a day?”

Yep, it’s true. For one of the king-size value meals with a regular soda, it could top 2,000 calories.  Even a whopper junior medium value meal with a soda was well on its way to 800.

Neither one of us finished our meal.

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Just what do vanilla aromatherapy candles have to do with dieting?  Actually a fair amount!

I like aromatherapy, so I look for more ideas on using it from time to time.  I came across an article the other day which linked using vanilla aromatherapy with dieting success.  Naturally intrigued, I had to read more!

The gist of the study (performed by St. George’s Hospital in London) was this:  the vanilla scent (used as skin patches)  soothed and relaxed and made the test subjects less likely to snack on sweet foods.  Fewer sweet foods caused fewer blood sugar swings.  Fewer blood sugar swings reduced cravings.

See where I’m going with this?  By not giving into cravings, the subjects ate less and took in fewer calories.  And with the fewer calories came weight loss!

OK, so in the study they used true vanilla aromatherapy (i.e. with essential oils).  I love the scent of vanilla (yum!) but most essential oils don’t have a really good scent life once they are out of the bottle.  And vanilla isn’t exactly inexpensive as essential oils go.

So, my idea of using vanilla aromatherapy candles! 

The only catch — you need candles that come with an authentic scent, and not mixed with other flower or fruit aromas.  I know, they are hard to find, but they are out there!  (I found a good source, so leave a comment if you want more info.)

So, will you try vanilla-scented aromatherapy candles?  I sure am — I’ll take any help I can get, when it comes to dieting and weight loss!