Superfoods And How To Incorporate Them!

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October 6, 2016 Dian Leave a Comment

Superfoods And How To Incorporate Them! Dieting is one way to try and get your health in order. But, I feel like it’s more important to change your eating and lifestyle forever, not count on changing your diet to lose and can’t wait to get back to eating the way you always did.

When I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and decided to get rid of it. I knew I had to change my diet and lifestyle, so I looked for a change I could live with for the rest of my life. For me, that didn’t include exercise – I know myself well enough to know I would not do it for the rest of my life and if I lost the weight that way it would come right back when I quit. I ended up changing my lifestyle and losing over 100 lbs and have kept off off over 5 years now.

I found what worked for me, and I encourage anyone that asks me how they can lose their excess weight to look at themselves and their life and decide how they could change and not go back.

Once avenue you could explore is nutrient rich superfoods. It’s hard to escape the buzz about superfoods. By now, you’re probably aware of their health benefits and may even have a list of superfoods you want to try. Eating more of these uber ingredients, which pack high levels of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, makes a lot of sense, but where to start?

Superfoods And How To Incorporate Them!

1. Make a Superfood Salad

Perhaps one of the simplest superfood recipes is a tasty superfood salad. Begin with a base of spinach, an excellent source of vitamin K, then toss in chia seeds, raspberries, broccoli, and avocado. Top it off with some grilled salmon and a dressing made with heart-healthy olive oil for a powerhouse lunch or dinner.

2. Snack on Atkins Superfood Bars

Sometimes whipping up a superfood recipe from scratch just isn’t feasible. Atkins’ new superfood bars provide a shot of superfoods in a pinch. Stash them in your purse or desk for a healthy, on-the-go snack. Available in tasty raspberry-chia, almond-coconut, and mocha-almond flavors, each bar packs 15 grams of satisfying protein and comes in at under 200 calories and 4g net carbs. Get a $3 off coupon and FREE quick-start kit here.

3. Whip Up a Smoothie

A smoothie makes an easy, nutritious breakfast when you add superfoods. Start with yogurt and/or milk (you can use non-dairy versions if you prefer) for creaminess and protein, and then whip in a mix of your favorite superfoods. Blueberries and pomegranate seeds add color and sweetness, while flax seeds, coconut oil, and avocado provide healthy fats. For a burst of vitamins and minerals, toss in spirulina or kale.

4. Stir into Soups

Kale has become one of the most widely touted superfoods, but the fibrous leaves and stalks that make kale so good for you also make it a little tough to cook with and chew. Here’s an easy hack: take your favorite homemade or store-bought soup, toss in some chopped kale, and let simmer. The leaves will become more tender and bulk up your soup without a lot of calories.

5. Get Sneaky

Rich in carotenoids, spaghetti squash offers a tasty, low carb alternative to pasta. So does spiralized zucchini. Get creative and swap superfoods in for traditional ingredients—you’ll add vitamins and cut carbs. Here’s another pro tip: grated cauliflower can substitute for flour in pizza dough.

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The Worst Staples In Your Fridge/Pantry For Healthy Living!

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October 5, 2016 Dian Leave a Comment

The Worst Staples In Your Fridge/Pantry For Healthy Living! Hubby and I eat sugar free, grain free, and carb free, pretty much a Ketogenic diet. We feel very good with it and we recently put my 89 year old Mother on it and she said her hands have stopped “drawing up”, so she is feeling good, too.

The Worst Staples In Your Fridge/Pantry For Healthy Living!

Our Pit-Boxer Molly recently was diagnosed with Bells Palsy, we have just put her on this diet to see if the lack of grains make the swelling go down and relieve the stress on the nerve that is causing it (as we understand it). We are very hopeful.

But, we know that many people aren’t into going all the way Keto, but, are looking at ways to eat better and try to be more healthy. So, here are some ideas for you in the kitchen.

When we think of homemade food, most of us tend to associate it with food that is good for us and nutritionally “safe”. Especially when compared to the likes of drive thrus, take away, and eating out. Cooking at home is generally seen as the healthier alternative.

However, there are some common food items that we keep in our pantries and refrigerators that may not be all that good for us. Let’s discuss some of the worst food staples and some of the healthier alternatives that we can replace them with.

The key to maintaining a healthy diet comes down to the types of foods and ingredients used in our cooking. By having the right foods in our pantries and fridges, we can find it much easier to eat healthy.

Table Salt

“Surely not!” I hear you all saying… Now I’m not trying to tell you that ALL salt is bad as sodium (a.k.a. salt) is a mineral that we need in our diet in small amounts. What I’m trying to say is that some are better than others, and unfortunately generic table salt doesn’t top the charts.

While white table salt originates from sea salt, it is often stripped of many of its naturally occurring minerals during processing. This can include being combined with additives, heated to high temperatures, and being bleached white. So what we’re left with is a very refined product that doesn’t have as much to offer in the way of nutrition.

Table Salt Alternatives?

The best alternatives for table salt are ones that are as close as possible to their natural form. Some great examples include Himalayan salt and Celtic Sea salt. These salts can come in rock formation and you can choose to grind them yourself or use them whole depending on what you are cooking. The price point of these purer salts may be a little higher, however for the sake of the nutritional benefits, I think this is a staple worth the extra price!

Bottled Sauces

You can’t go to a barbecue without there being bottled sauces on the table! Bottled sauces can be a staple for many dishes, especially if you are at a party or social gathering. The issue with sauces such as barbecue, tomato, sweet chili, Asian-inspired sauces and the likes is that they often contain a large amount of sugar and salt.

This can also be true for things such as pre-made pizza and pasta sauces. As well as their high sugar and salt content, many bottled sauces may also contain preservatives to prolong their shelf life and/or artificial colors to make them look more more vibrant and appealing.

While it may be a great convenience to grab them from the pantry, you might think twice once you check out the label!

Bottled Sauce Alternatives?

If you’re someone that has a small dollop of bottled sauce on your meal from time to time, then there’s no need to be concerned. However, if you’re a regular “saucer”, then you might want to consider finding an alternative!

I think that a fresh, homemade sauce is always better than one pulled off of the shelves in terms of both nutrition and taste.

Check out this barbecue sauce my Hubby created:

Low Carb, Sugar Free Barbecue Sauce

However, if you are in a situation where you are pushed for time and can’t make your own, then I recommend choosing sauce varieties that are as low in added sugar and salt as you can find.

Fruit Yogurt

Fruit flavored yogurts may market themselves as using “real fruit” but this isn’t necessarily a lot of fruit and can be often misinterpreted. Instead of using ACTUAL fruit pieces, some manufacturers could actually just be using fruit juice, fruit puree or fruit juice concentrate.

While the origins of these things may well be fruit, most of the nutrients that it would usually contain are often lost during processing. So essentially all you’re left with is the fruit sugar, and something that was intended to be a healthy snack has become more of a dessert!

Fruit Yogurt Alternatives?

Rather than going for store bought fruit flavored yogurt, I recommend that you stick with good old plain varieties of yogurt. “How boring..” I hear you all say… Well, it doesn’t have to be!

If you’re after fruit flavored yogurt, try adding in your own fruit instead. Some of my favorites are berries cooked down into a coulis or grated apple with a touch of cinnamon. This is also means you can buy just one yogurt but have multiple flavors whenever you want.

Next time you are going grocery shopping, try swapping out some of your regular staples with the ones I have mentioned above. They can make all the difference in how you feel, not just your waistline! What are some of your favorite swaps? Comment below!

* Results may vary. Strict adherence to the nutrition and exercise guide are required for best results.

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What Happens After The Weight Is Gone?

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February 13, 2015 Dian 2 Comments

What Happens After The Weight Is Gone? When you lose a lot of weight there are some physical issues you might have to deal with. Let’s just say… things “fall down”… My stomach is no longer huge, but, that skin didn’t disappear… and the same goes for other areas, my arms, my backside, and my chest. When you stretch your body out like that it’s hard to pull it all back in! lol

In my case the Dr. told me that no amount of exercise would change most of these areas for me. I sure thought losing 100 lbs would make me “look” better, but all I see in the mirror is loose skin, when I was fat at least it was tight and things were …firmer…! 🙂 I know I am healthier and I know I am better off now, I just wish there was a little physical reward… Ok, so no it’s not all negative – I quit snoring, I don’t have heartburn anymore, I can walk for longer periods of time, I have more energy, and with the right undergarments I can hold it all still and in the right places! lol

What Happens After The Weight Is Gone?

I remember when Kate Gosselin had her plastic surgery donated to her to remove the extra skin she had in her stomach after having the sextuplets. I am not up for plastic surgery, that is not something i think I would want to do. Although I had thought about implants until a friend told me you have to have them replaced every 10-15 years – did you know that?! I didn’t, that changed my mind and quick!

image courtesy: Hollywood Life

But, more than physical there are mental things to deal with. Even now, and I lost over 100 lbs about 4 years ago, I buy clothes that are too big for me. I shop in the wrong size section. I am looking for ways to hide my belly and backside. All things I did when I was fat. But, when I look in the mirror and when I am shopping I am still that fat girl.

It’s hard to switch gears. A few years ago, pretty quickly after I had lost the weight, I was at a blogging convention and a blogger friend of mine told me my clothes were too big and I needed to go have someone measure me and tell me what size I should be wearing. So, I went to buy jeans, and I did that very thing, I thought she might be right. I was totally shocked and still don’t believe it, but, I walked in wearing a size 10 and left with size 2 jeans! That’s nuts! I was seriously buying clothes that weren’t my size, it was in my head that I was still fat and a size 10 was AWESOME!

Even four years later I still struggle with the same thoughts and feelings. When I think of styles and things that will flatter me, I think of the same type clothes I wore when I was trying to cover up all the weight.

Has this happened to you? Can you relate to what I am saying? I wanted to write about it because I heard someone on TV that said this very thing and I said “YES!” because I KNOW that feeling and those thoughts. Gaining weight not only makes you unhealthy it affects you emotionally and mentally. Just some of my thoughts…

My Best Weight Loss Advice!

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January 20, 2015 Dian 2 Comments

My Best Weight Loss Advice! This week a friend told me she had started a new diet to lose weight and had kinda not been sticking to it so well. I mentioned it to Hubby and he told me he had heard that diet only had a 1% success rate in people who lose and keep it off over time. So, I thought I would share My Best Weight Loss Advice.

If you need to lose weight to better your health and your life, I am not sure that there’s any tool that I am opposed to in helping you make that change. But, all too often what I see with friends and family is they do this or do that, or try this for a while and then that and lose weight and maybe get fit… and then they stop. Which means the weight comes back and they eventually start all over again.

My Best Weight Loss Advice!

Everyone knows that “yoyo dieting” isn’t good for your body, and I can’t imagine it’s good for your psyche either. I have told you before that I lost over 100 pounds a few years ago and I have kept it off. I have a lot of advice as to how to lose it and tips on keeping it off, as well. But, if I could only give one piece of advice and that’s all to anyone it would be this:

Choose a new lifestyle. Don’t “get on a diet”. When I had to get the weight off I knew myself enough to know that if I lost it by exercising it wouldn’t stay off because I HATE exercise – yes, I know I should and at times I do, but, if maintaining my weight is dependent on my exercising then I am doomed before I start. No one is more interested in your weight loss/gain or health than you are. The doctors were more than willing to give me medicine and treat my Type II Diabetes. I said no, I didn’t want it and I wasn’t keeping it. I would do what I needed to get rid of it. Take charge of your own life and health, be good to yourself – don’t put yourself in a place where you might not be healthy enough to play with your kids or worse yet to see them grow up, get married and have kids of their own!

If you are on Weight Watchers, which has a 6% success rate according to one article I read, are you going to stay on Weight Watcher’s for life? If not, are you sure you can keep the weight off? That goes for any “diet” or “weight loss” method. Can you maintain it for life to ensure you won’t regain the weight once you discontinue it?

My point is whatever avenue you choose to lose weight needs to be a complete lifestyle change, not just something to drop the weight because it inevitably returns and sometimes more.

You can go Paleo, do Zumba, eat Sugar Free, start running, eat smaller portions, whatever you think will work for you, but, it should be something you can realistically see yourself doing for life. I truly believe that was the key for me, I made sure I worked it all out the way I KNEW I could live for the rest of my life without feeling deprived or cheated out of anything.

I hope that advice helps in some small way. Don’t give up, just think it through and make sure this is something you can do for life. Think about your family life, your income, and your habits and how all that will work with your new lifestyle and choose what will work for you and then be confident and succeed!

6 Things That Helped Me Lose Over 100 Lbs And Keep It Off Over 4 Years!

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January 6, 2015 Dian 4 Comments

I want to share 6 things that helped me lose over 100 lbs and keep it off over 4 years. I know I have mentioned my weight loss before, but, I wanted to revisit it and offer these suggestions that worked for me to lose my weight and get healthier.

I know many people right now are struggling with their weight and with leading a more healthy lifestyle and cleaning up their diet. Hopefully my story helps motivate someone to take their health more seriously.

The beginning of the new year is always filled with ways to improve on our lives. So we always look at how we can save more, eat better, lose weight, exercise, and so forth. We often start off strong but then life gets in the way, we slowly but surely lose our drive to make those new found goals.

6 Things That Helped Me Lose Over 100 Lbs And Keep It Off Over 4 Years!

A few years back I was over 100 lbs overweight but thought I was healthy as a horse. I ate what I wanted which included many carbs for me, sweets were not my problem, carbs were. I could eat a potato mashed, fried, run over with a car, I didn’t care, I just wanted them!

One day I had to chase a dog as she flew out the front door in pursuit of another dog. In the next few weeks I felt like something wasn’t right with my foot and I began to notice it had a small protrusion on one side. I finally went to the Dr. who told me I have torn my Achilles Tendon almost completely in half and would need surgery to repair it. Great! That’s what I wanted to hear! (insert sarcasm here)

I was sent to get my pre-surgery blood work done, and that’s when it all came crashing down. All of the carbs, extra weight, and no exercise came to a head when a few days later the phone rang and the nurse told me I couldn’t have the surgery because I had Type II Diabetes. I was in shock. You see I had lost a husband to this disease years before and I know how devastating the disease can be and what it can do to your body.

I went back to the Dr. to see if they made a mistake. Here’s a dramatic recreation of the conversation.

Dr. – “No mistake, you have it.”
Me – “No, I don’t”
Dr. – “Yes, you do.”
Me – “Well, I am not keeping it!”
Dr. – “Ok, let’s do that.”

My determination was far more than just a “New Year’s Resolution” type determination. This was a “Oh my goodness, I have let it go too far!” determination.

The first thing I did was read everything I could get my hands on and began to use all of that knowledge to try and formulate a plan that worked for me. I feel that the most important thing I did was find something that worked for me. Something I could essentially do for the rest of my life without feeling like I was losing out or not “normal”. I wanted to be able to hang out with friends and family and not feel like I “couldn’t” have something or couldn’t enjoy myself because of restrictions.

With dietary changes and Diabetic medicine the Dr. gave me, I was able to get my blood sugar under enough control that I was able to have the surgery. After the surgery I had to be in bed for quite sometime, AND lose weight. I knew the weight loss was key to allowing my body to function the way it was meant to in the first place.

I knew it had to be a lifestyle change to get rid of the Diabetes and weight and keep them both at bay. I also knew if I chose to lose it with exercise I wouldn’t keep it up for the rest of my life, so it would end up coming back. That meant an exercise routine was out. I know I NEED to exercise I just don’t, and I know I wouldn’t do it with any regularity, so again that was out as part of the solution for me.

Portion sizes were a big thing for me, I chose to eat correct portion sizes. So, I bought a food scale and weighed the protein for my meals and made sure I didn’t overeat or snack between meals.

One thing I read was that when your brain tells you you’re hungry, be sure to check with your stomach and make sure your brain is telling you the truth. lol When you pass a bakery you may have just filled up on lunch earlier, but the smell from the bakery makes you say “Ohhhh… I am sooo hungry…” When in fact you are quite satisfied. You smelled the fresh bread and your brain told your stomach you were hungry, but if you stop and think and listen to your stomach you would find that while you could probably eat more, were you actually hungry? No.

Here are 6 things I learned that helped me lose over 100 lbs.:

your waist should be no more than 1/2 your height in inches. So, if you are 5’5”, that would make you 65” tall, so your waist should be no larger than 32.5”.
don’t be fooled by your sense of smell into thinking you are hungry when you’re not.
it takes 2 weeks to make a new habit, you can teach the brain anything new in 2 weeks.
belly fat is called Omentum and it squeezes your kidneys and that causes high blood pressure. It poisons your liver and causes high cholesterol, it also blocks insulin which causes Diabetes. All of that is caused by belly fat!
a growling stomach isn’t a hungry stomach, it’s just your stomach acid digesting what’s in there! So, truly – don’t laugh – but how many times in my life have I sat there and heard my stomach growling and said “I MUST be hungry!” lol What a joke! I didn’t feel hungry, but, if my stomach was “talking”, well then I MUST be hungry and just don’t know it! lol
watch a skinny person eat. They don’t eat it if it doesn’t look good – what?! lol That one helped me a ton!

Side note: one day after my surgery my sons got some fast food and came over and sat with me and ate and talked. I watched one of them (they are both thin, but, one is really thin) like a hawk, and then something incredible happened! One of my sons bit a piece off of a french fry and threw the other half in the trash! I stopped him mid-sentence and demanded to know why he would throw away a perfectly good fry! He said because the other side was brown… WHAT?!! I saw it, it was brown, but it wasn’t molded or dirty or stepped on (I’m not sure, in the past, that any of those situations would have kept me from eating it!). I was shocked! I have watched him closely now when he ate and basically if it is not pretty, he won’t eat it! If it doesn’t taste good he won’t eat it! ANDDD… if he isn’t hungry, he won’t eat it! What?! all of this was foreign to me! I mean I HAD to clean my plate! Bad, good, or ugly, the job had to get finished and I was your girl!

Using what I had learned in 6 months with a good portion of that time spent in bed recovering from my surgery and unable to exercise, I lost 60 lbs and was able to stop taking medicine for the Diabetes. It’s been 5 years and I have maintained my weight loss of over 100 lbs and I don’t have Diabetes anymore (my Dr.’s words), and I don’t feel deprived of anything!

Whatever your health goals are make realistic changes to your lifestyle, ones you can maintain without feeling deprived. You’’ll be less likely to give it up!