Yummy Snacks

I absolutely love eating healthy foods! It makes such a HUGE difference in how I feel - both physically AND mentally. Whenever I indulge in foods with a high sugar content (not counting fruit sugar of course) I feel tired, yucky to my tummy and many times get headaches. While I don't believe in restricting any foods from your diet, (that only leads to obsessing about those foods and eventually giving in and gorging on them), I do believe that some foods are better eaten on rare occasions.

It seems like I'm always coming up with new, yummy little snacks to eat during my day to keep hunger away between meals. I'm sure everyone now has heard the theory that it's better to eat three small meals and two snacks per day, rather than the traditional three large meals a day. That method is the way I have eaten for the last eight years or so and I love it for several reasons:

1. I don't get terribly hungry between my main meals and therefore I don't overeat when I do sit down for lunch or dinner.
2. Being hungry makes me ornery. Keeping my tummy at a neutral feeling - meaning not feeling too full and not feeling too hungry - makes me a very happy person and keeps my blood sugar stable throughout the day.
3. If I eat six small meals a day, I maintain my energy better than eating a large meal - which makes me feel sluggish and tired.

If you haven't yet adopted this way of eating, I highly recommend it. Click here to see a very informative article on many of the benefits that come from eating six small meals a day.

Let me share one of my newest snacks that I adapted from the McDonald's Fruit and Walnut salad. I changed it up just a bit to go with the fruits that are in season, and to make it a bit more healthy. (Their recipe contains candied walnuts. Mine calls for raw walnuts.)

Lowfat vanilla yogurt in a bowl topped with:
1/2 of an apple cut into small pieces
1/2 of a banana cut into small pieces
Small handful of fresh walnuts

There you have it! It's a refreshing little bowl of healthy foods - sure to give you an energy boost and a happy tummy.

Wonderful Health Advice

I love reading anything that has to do with health. I am positive that by choosing health, we can be happier and enjoy life more than if we choose to ignore our health. I am excited that one of my articles was part of a blog carnival at http://www.weight-master.blogspot.com. But what excites me even more are all of the articles there that have wonderful information on how we can live healthy and live happy. So go ahead - curl up on your couch with a warm cup of lemon water and raw honey {SO yummy} and enjoy some good reads on your health!

Paying Attention to Your Eating Habits

We all know that in order to lose weight or maintain our current weight, we need to exercise regularly and eat right. That sounds simple enough, but if you've ever tried to lose weight - even if it was just five pounds - you know how challenging this can be. One of the major reasons why losing weight can be so frustrating is because many people focus the majority of their efforts on exercising rather than what goes into their mouths. While exercise IS important, it’s not the cure all. Being aware of what you are eating and especially WHY you are eating is valuable information that can aid you in your weight loss and health related goals.

Think about it. How many times a day do you find yourself eating when you’re not hungry? How often do you eat something simply because it is sitting right in front of your face? We all do it. At some time or another, we all eat foods due to boredom, stress, loneliness or because the taste of something is so darn good, we can’t seem to stop ourselves. The first step to overcoming mindless eating is to become aware of why we are eating. Each time you go to shove a little something into your mouth, ask yourself, “am I hungry?” Pay attention to what your stomach feels like – and I don’t mean by patting it on the outside to see how flat or fluffy it is. I mean focus your thoughts on what your insides are telling you. If you’re hungry, go ahead and eat. If you’re not hungry, either save what you were going to eat for later or just walk away. Most likely, in a few minutes, you’ll completely forget about your desire to eat that little something and save yourself a few hundred calories.

Doing this simple but very effective technique will definitely help your waistline shrink overtime. You can lift weights, run marathons, swim 20 laps a day – but if you don’t change your eating habits and you continually add pointless calories into your body you won’t shed the weight you are hoping to get rid of. I once had a personal trainer tell me that “achieving or maintaining your desired weight is 90% about what goes into your mouth and 10% how hard you exercise.”

While I’m not aware of any scientific studies on those numbers, I do know that when I have paid close attention to the mindless and emotional eating I am sometimes guilty of…if I will simply stop eating for reasons other than hunger, I can easily lose those few stubborn pounds that haven’t wanted to budge with regular exercise alone.

Is a 'New Year's Resolution' to lose weight really a good resolution?

I wouldn't be surprised if all of us at one time or another has made a new year's resolution to lose weight. After a long string of holidays that seem to revolve around food (starting with Halloween and ending with New Year's Eve), most of us are probably anxiously waiting for January 1st to arrive so we can get a fresh new start at exercising regularly, eating healthy foods and losing those few pounds that may have crept up on us over the past few months.

Typically however, when people resolve to lose weight at the beginning of the year, the excitement wears off very quickly because the results they are looking for do NOT come quickly. When you have been diligent about exercising and eating right for weeks and weeks - and the scale doesn't seem to budge - it becomes easy to doubt yourself and your goals. All too often, it is at that point of frustration when the New Year's Resolution to lose weight, starts to fade away. Workouts can become more and more infrequent, unhealthy foods start creeping their way back into the pantry and eventually you are right back to where you started.

This year, I have a suggestion to avoid all of that. Instead of resolving to lose weight - which only sets you up for disappointment - make a resolution to GAIN MUSCLE! There is a natural positive switch in your thinking when you make an attainable goal like this one...and that in turn makes it easier to stick with! The wonderful thing about gaining muscle is that it is physically impossible to lift weights and engage in resistance training and not see results. And what happens when you start to see results? You are happy, you feel proud of yourself and you are excited to keep going! The best part about it is that increasing your muscle mass speeds up your metabolism, which helps you shed fat pounds even faster than if you didn't try to increase your muscle mass. On top of that, adding a regular cardiovascular workout to your weight training regimen - even if it's only 20 minutes a day - will speed up your results by melting away the fat you originally wanted to get rid of.

You may think this solution to a fizzling New Year's weight loss goal sounds too easy to actually work...but studies have shown that positive thinking can alter our lives in many different ways. Go ahead - give it a try. You will only benefit by trying this out. You'll gain more muscle, hold onto your excitement and see your body change shape right before your very eyes!