Supplement Your Workouts With Fat-Burning Foods

When trying to get rid of that holiday weight, it's important to eat the right foods, along with doing the right exercise. Believe it or not, there are foods that you can eat that will increase the amount of fat your burn and that, along with exercise, can turn your body into a fat burning machine that burns fat 24/7. Try adding these foods to your daily diet for best results.

1. Whole Grains (But NOT Wheat!) – Steel cut oats, and some sprouted grains are okay to consume in small amounts. One cup per day will be enough to fill you up and provide excellent fat burning properties. Wheat, on the other hand - even whole wheat - has inflammatory properties that can lead to weight gain, so it is best avoided entirely if you're trying to lose weight.

(Image courtesy of Jaime_Crespo at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)

2. Grapefruit – Start your meals with half a grapefruit to take advantage of the fat burning effects and boost your weight loss.

3. Nuts and Seeds – Full of good fats, nuts can fill you up, give you added nutrition and improve satiety. Be careful, though; nuts are high in fat. One handful a day is plenty. Seeds like flax, sunflower, and hemp are lower in fat, high in Omega 3s and 6s and super good for you.

4. Hot Peppers – Add hot spices to everything you eat and watch the pounds melt away. The added heat produced with hot sauce and hot peppers has been shown to increase metabolism both during and after your meal.

5. Cinnamon – This spice helps thin the blood, boosts body heat, and burns calories and fat when added to your food. Try making a tea with hot water, lemon and cinnamon with a little honey to help it all go down.

6. Green Tea – Full of beneficial antioxidants and something called epigallocatechin gallate, green tea can boost metabolism and aid in burning fat. Be careful about the caffeine, and consume in moderation. A cup or two per day is plenty.

7. Berries – Great as an anti-inflammatory and full of resveratrol which boosts metabolism and aids in weight loss. They’re also low in calories, so eat all you care to.

8. Beans and Legumes – You can eat a lot more beans and legumes than you might think. They are high in protein and other essential nutrients. Aim to have a cup every day.

(Image courtesy of Viacheslav Blizniuk at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)

9. Leafy Greens – You can eat a lot of leafy greens without ever having to worry about how much you’re eating. Prepare them without adding fat with some balsamic vinegar, shredded carrots, and salt and pepper and they’ll taste just like Mom’s. Or drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. You should shoot for eating a pound or more of leafy greens each day.

10. Fatty Fruits – Yes, it may sound strange, but coconut, olives and avocado are really good foods to eat that will not only fill you up, but also give you added nutrition and healthy fat which will curb hunger and fill you up on fewer calories.

Burning fat is a full-time job, and adding these foods to your diet on a daily basis will make it a lot easier to burn more fat, faster. Start today with one food at a time, until you’re enjoying all of these foods every day.

For more information on fat-burning foods, check out the Fat Burning Kitchen.

 

How to Give Up Fast Food for the New Year

The start of a new year is a great time to make a commitment to better health. If one of your New Year's Resolutions is to lose weight, along with getting more exercise, you will also need to make healthier eating choices. One of the best things you can do for your health, and your waistline, is to stop eating fast food.

We all know that after a long day at work, it is so easy to drive to a fast food drive-thru and order a quick meal for the entire family. But during this time we are probably just focused on the time we are saving, and not the calories we are consuming.

Eventually, continuing a fast food regimen can lead to you becoming overweight. Just by cutting out fast food from your diet, you can lose weight quickly. Setting this as one of your weight loss goals for the New Year can easily be accomplished once you have identified it as an area you want to change.

Make a Commitment

(Image courtesy of KEKO64 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)

The first step in reaching your New Year goal of giving up fast food is to make a commitment to do so. When you make a commitment to yourself, and accept that as something that you want to delete from your life to live healthier, you are also identifying a benefit.

Giving up something that you may love is not easy, but when you have it attached to a benefit, you will be more inclined to stick to your goal. If you don’t see a benefit, the opposite will happen, and you will revert back to your old habits. Once you stop eating fast food, however, and begin eating healthy, real, whole foods, you'll probably find you actually don't miss it as much as you think you will!

Cook Meals Ahead of Time

To avoid those days where you work late or the children have activities that get done late, cook extra meals on the weekend and freeze them in serving size containers. Just by taking the extra time on the weekend to cook a little more than you normally would, means you can have extra food readily available that just needs to be reheated.

When you know that you have something that you can simply place in the microwave for a few minutes to feed yourself and your hungry family in minimal time, spending money on fast food may not even cross your mind. After all, fast food is just about that – getting food quickly.

(Image courtesy of KEKO64 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.)

Keep Healthy Snacks Available

Keep healthy snack bars or dried fruit available in your bag or purse for those times that you or your children are so hungry after leaving work or an event. Choosing to eat a healthy snack will curb your appetite and make you less likely to pull up to a fast food restaurant for a quick snack.

By keeping non-perishable food available at all times, you will never be caught off-guard. You will give your hunger satisfaction for at least two hours, which is more than enough time to drive home and cook a healthy meal. It’s all about choices.

Choose Healthy Restaurants

If eating out or grabbing a quick meal is your only option, make wiser choices on where you eat. While you are not hungry, research and look for other places to eat that may be healthier for you and still provide a quick meal.

Many natural food stores now have food bars and freshly prepared healthy meals that can be warmed up in the store or eaten cold. These stores are giving you the option to make good choices and to stick to your health plan of not eating fast food that is full of fat and salt.

Staying away from fast food is not as hard as you may think. All it takes is some pre-planning and that deep desire to make a change for yourself to live a longer, healthier life.

For lots more tips on eating healthy, along with delicious, healthy, and fast recipes to prepare at home, be sure to check out our Cooking From Scratch blog. In fact, we're actually doing a series this month on eating to lose weight, so go check it out!

5 Tasty Snack Ideas For Staying Healthy And Productive At Work

If you want to stay fit and healthy, it's hard to avoid talking about food once in a while when it comes to exercise. After all, they are both essential parts to the puzzle, and one can definitely affect the other. This month, we'll be sharing some healthy eating-related tips that can really improve your fitness results. We'll start off where we've been for the past few weeks: at the office.

Work days can seem long and tiring, and everyone needs a little pick-me-up during the working hours. Sure, you may eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner according to schedule, but sometimes in between energy levels can crash and leave you wanting to go to dreamland. This is where snacks can come in very handy.

However, a majority of people tend to make the mistake of opting for sugary and carb-heavy snacks like doughnuts, bread, pastries, and sugar-laden coffee to increase their energy levels. These types of snacks may pick you up for a while, but eventually your energy levels will crash even lower than before - and you'll end up gaining an extra 10 lbs before you know it!

Instead of reaching for the quick-fix carbs, stock your desk and office fridge with these healthy alternatives. Not only will they replenish your energy for a longer period of time, but they'll also help you keep the weight off instead of derailing your fitness goals.

1. Apple slices and peanut butter: Low in carbs and all-natural, this snack will please your sweet tooth while giving you some good nutrition as well. Just be sure to use natural peanut butter with no added sugars or unhealthy added hydrogenated oils.

Roasted cashews make a great snack. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

2. Mixed nuts: Nuts contain healthy fats, some carbs, good amounts of proteins, and several vitamins that will keep your energy levels up without resulting in a crash later on. These make a super simple snack, and you can keep a jar containing different types of nuts mixed together (cashew nuts, almonds, pecans, and so on) on your desk. Don’t eat too much at one go though; nuts still contain a high amount of calories. Limit yourself to a handful or so.

3. Vegetables: Of course, you probably know about this healthy snack idea already, but are you eating enough of them? To make it simple, you can bring carrot sticks, radish sticks, or cherry tomatoes to work to snack on when you feel a little famished. These snacks are low in calories and high in fiber. Sprinkle on a little salt or dried herbs for extra flavor if you like.

4. Fresh fruits: The next best snack to vegetables is naturally fruits, since fruits are high in fiber, taste good, and have a high water and vitamin content as well. You can bring apples, oranges, grapes, or other such small fruits to work to eat when you need a boost.

5. Yogurt: Yogurt is a refreshing and healthy snack to have, as long as you stick with the sugar-free varieties. If you want more oomph, add in some oats, fresh or dried fruits, or flax seeds into your yogurt for a more balanced snack with more staying power.

These are just a few of the many different healthy snacks you can indulge in to give you some extra energy when you are feeling low at work. There are many others you can try; just experiment and see which natural, unprocessed foods taste good to you and make you feel energized at the same time.

Trying to Burn Fat? Avoid These 11 Foods

Welcome back!  Sorry for the missing workout last week - we got back from vacation so late that I didn't have time to post one. Don't worry - we've got a great one coming on Thursday that will really help boost your metabolism and melt away those stubborn pounds!

But today, we're going to talk about food, because as important as exercise is, when it comes to burning fat, there are two parts to the equation....

When embarking on a fat burning regimen, it’s important to realize that there are foods that people pass off as healthy that aren’t! The following foods should be avoided if you're trying to burn fat and lose weight. Thankfully, there are always delicious substitutes so you will never feel like you’re missing out.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Overt Fat – This includes processed coconut oils and olive oil. While these types of fat may be the healthier kind, remember that they still contain a lot of calories. It might surprise you how much fat many people add to their food without realizing it. If you still want to use overt fats like this, be sure to measure every teaspoonful. Or, instead of overt fats, try enjoying the naturally occurring fat contained in a serving of nuts, fresh coconut or 1/4 of an avocado. These whole foods contain other important nutrients and fiber that help you feel full and provide your body with good nutrition.

2. Empty Calories – If everything you eat is full of nutrition, it’s more than likely your body weight will balance all on its own - without you even having to try too hard. Instead of crackers for a snack, choose slices of fresh apple; instead of cheese made with dairy, try eating a nut based cheese in small quantities on celery.

3. Low Fat Dairy Products – Some say that you’ll lose more weight overall if you avoid dairy products entirely, but the low fat and fat free varieties are the worst because they are often full of processed sugar to make up for the lack of fat. You might think these are "healthier," but the truth is they are anything but!

4. Processed Sugar – White sugar and all processed sugar, including the new agave products, can be chock full of calories - and they spike your blood sugar, which causes weight gain and over time, can lead to diabetes. While one might be slightly better than the other, when it comes to calories it’s best to stick to real, whole, ripe fruit in moderation to get your sweets in. Again, these contain fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients besides just the sugar. And avoid any type of processed sugar, including things they try to pass off as healthy. Just say NO to sugar! It's one of the most important substances to avoid if you're trying to lose weight - or just be healthier in general.

5. Fast Food – Most fast food is terrible for you even when it tries to be healthy. Some fast food salads can top 2000 calories for one serving when combined with the fatty dressing they provide with it along with the fried chicken on top! If you want to order fast food, order the salad without the dressing, without the croutons, and without the meat for best results. Oh, and skip the crackers too. Come to think of it, that salad doesn't sound too appetizing now, does it? It's better to make your own at home with fresh ingredients, so you can control what goes in it - and it'll taste better too!

6. Processed Food – Whether it is freeze dried veggies, or flavored yogurt, the best thing you can do for your waistline is to avoid processed food like the plague. That includes protein powders and other potions. You want to shoot for 100 percent whole foods, as close to nature as possible. These contain the full range of nutrients your body needs to maintain a healthy weight.

7. Smoothie King Smoothies – Not to pick on Smoothie King, but most smoothie joints have a serious problem. Pretty much nothing in them is actually healthy. Everything has extra sugar by the truckloads and should be avoided at all costs. If you like smoothies, it's really easy to make your own at home in a jiffy! Just combine some fresh or frozen fruit, vegetable juice such as carrot, a handful of fresh spinach, and maybe some plain yogurt with a dash of honey in a blender, give it a whiz, and voila! Healthy smoothie at the ready!

8. Fancy Starbucks Drinks – These drinks are high in sugar and fat, and the “fat free” and “sugar free” varieties are full of dangerous chemicals that should be avoided as much as possible as well.

Avoid white bread (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

9. White Bread – If you are going to eat bread, eat the highest nutritional bread you can such as sprouted bread like Ezekiel Bread. It has no preservatives, and has a lot of nutrition in it that many other types of bread don’t have. It also is easier to digest, and higher in protein.

10. Salt – Most food already has plenty of salt in it. A good way to cut down on salt is to use it during cooking but remove it from the table. The amount that is included in a recipe is usually the ideal amount for taste. There is no need to add more.

11. Fatty Salad Dressings – Mentioned above, fatty salad dressings are the bane of existence for healthy vegetables. Instead, make your own low-fat dressings by blending fruit with balsamic vinegar or using natural fats like avocado. Extra virgin olive oil is okay in moderation - just pre-mix it with vinegar and spices and you'll use less than if you dump it on the salad separately.

There are probably plenty of other unhealthy things you can do without. Each time you have a choice of what to eat, choose the item that is closest to a natural, whole food source for the healthiest and best fat burning results.

3 Weight-Loss Tips To Get The Body You Want

While not everyone has the time or the desire to go to the gym five times per week, there are many common weight-loss tips that anyone can follow to lead a healthier lifestyle - and build a healthier, leaner body.

When you combine the right eating habits with an active lifestyle, you will be on the path to getting the body you want.

Here are some of the easiest weight-loss tips that you can do on a daily basis:

1. Cut your calorie intake where you can

You can reduce your daily calorie intake by 10 – 15% simply by including more fruits and vegetables in your diet. The great thing about this is, you can eat as much as you want of these, and still cut calories! 

Some examples of healthy foods to include in your diet every day are: 

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* Broccoli
* Carrots
* Any green leafy vegetables
* Green beans
* Tomatoes
* Cucumbers
* Watermelon
* Apples
* Peaches
* Any kind of berry
* Fresh squeezed vegetable juices

Cut out processed foods, and include real, whole foods like fresh fruits and veggies, and your body will respond with better health and healthy fat loss!

2. Change your eating habits

There are several things you can do, which will reduce how much you eat.  You may not even realize how making these changes can have a significant impact.  Here are some of these changes that you can implement:

* Drink water before a meal –
While drinking a generous amount of water is always a good thing for promoting a healthy lifestyle and weight loss, having a glass before a meal will make you feel fuller before your meal begins.  As a result, you will eat less at your main course.

* Enjoy your meal by eating it slowly –
If you eat quickly, you are likely to eat more as your stomach has not yet told your brain that it has had enough.  Taking your time will give your body time to tell you that it has had enough to eat. If you're a foodie, check out the Slow Food Movement for inspiration!

* Eat spicy foods –
Spicy foods do two things.  First, they increase your metabolism, which allows you to burn more calories.  Second, because they're spicy, you'll eat more slowly, and drink more water.

* Eat a hearty breakfast and lunch, while having a lighter dinner –
Eat a breakfast that is balanced with protein and complex carbohydrates, such as muesli.  This will keep you feeling full longer.  Repeating this at lunch, will mean that you will not need to eat as much at dinnertime.  You also want to try to consume the bulk of your daily calories by the early afternoon.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

3. Incorporate activity as part of your daily life

Aside from your eating habits, the activities you do can help to shape your body.

Avoid using the word, "exercise," as it sounds like a chore.  So if you're going for a bike ride, instead think of it as a "nature outing."

Treat everything you do as a way of burning calories.  Parking a little farther from the store will allow you to do more walking.  Skip the elevators, and opt for the stairs whenever possible.  Walk or bike to the store instead of driving there.

What are some other things that you can do to lose weight?

Although not directly related to weight loss, here are a couple of other things that can impact weight loss:

* Keep yourself busy –
People will often overeat when they are bored, simply because they have nothing else to do.  So be sure to do something that will keep your brain busy.

* Get adequate sleep and a nap -
Sometimes your body will feel hungry when, in fact, all it wants is a twenty-minute rest.  Try having a nap, and you will likely find that you are not hungry when you wake up.

In conclusion, you do not have to be a gym rat to make changes that will benefit your overall health.  Following these weight-loss tips will jumpstart you on the road to success.

Want To Lose Weight? Watch What You're Drinking!

Everyone knows that losing weight means cutting down on your calorie intake and burning more calories through exercise. However, many people fail to consider the impact that their drinks have on their weight loss goals. Drinks contain calories just like food, but some drinks can even hinder your weight loss efforts in other ways. Here's a quick guide to the main drink categories you need to watch while losing weight.

Alcohol

Beer (Photo credit: RaeAllen)

Many people are good at looking at their diet and knowing what they should and shouldn't eat, but don't take time to look at their alcohol consumption in the same way. Alcohol should be accounted for as part of your daily calorie allowance, so a couple for drinks a day will soon add up!

And they don't call it a "beer belly" for nothing: research has shown that alcohol can actually reduce the rate at which your body burns calories! It can also lead to some pretty unhealthy cravings, so it's important to be careful, and reduce your alcohol intake if your goal is weight loss.

Coffee, Tea and Weight Loss

Some other drinks that many of us have every single day include coffee and tea. But are these helping or hindering your weight loss efforts? Studies have shown that any drinks containing caffeine can interfere with weight loss. The stimulation that occurs after you drink caffeine, whether from coffee, tea or even soda, really isn't good for cravings!

Many of us also even link the drinking of tea or coffee to eating a snack. In this case, even if the coffee itself isn't doing you any harm it's still encouraging your snacking habit, which obviously isn't going to help you lose weight.

Many people drink green tea for weight loss. There's been a lot of hype over this drink in recent years, and studies have shown that green tea extract may help you to lose weight. However, drinking too much green tea means you'll still experience all the negative effects of caffeine listed above. If you want to drink green tea, be sure you do so in moderation, and use a natural non-sugar sweetener like stevia to avoid blood sugar spikes and crashes, which increase snacking.

Juicing (Photo credit: bertholf)

Juice

Many people switch their unhealthy sodas for juice when trying to lose weight, on the assumption that this is "healthy". While it's true that fruit juice does come with more health benefits than sugary drinks, you still have to be careful about how much you're drinking. Make sure you choose juice without added sugar and include the calories within your daily allowance. Try not to have huge amounts in one go, as you'll want to keep your blood sugar levels stable. Fresh-squeezed juices made yourself, which include more fiber and less sugar, are always better. Also opt for juices that contain vegetables as well as fruit - for more health benefits and less sugar.

Water

When you're trying to lose weight, it's vital that you drink enough water. Not only will you need this to keep you hydrated while you're working out, you'll also want to use it as a way to make losing weight easier. There's no miracle substance for losing weight, but water comes pretty close.

Did you know that what you think is hunger is often thirst? Drinking more water every day can reduce those cravings that encourage you to overeat. And drinking a couple of glasses of water before each meal can help fill you up to prevent overeating. This makes it a lot easier to reduce your portion sizes!

The truth is that water is always best. If you're used to drinking coffee, sugary drinks, alcohol and soda, then gradually replacing them with water will help your weight loss efforts, even if you do nothing else - although of course we don't recommend that!


Other Helpful Resources:
http://www.newholisticliving.com/1/post/2013/09/the-weight-loss-secret-that-doesnt-exist-part-1.html
http://www.newholisticliving.com/1/post/2013/10/the-weight-loss-secret-that-doesnt-exist-part-21.html
http://www.newholisticliving.com/fun-ways-to-exercise.html

5 Healthy Breakfast Tips To Help You Lose Weight

If you want to lose weight, or you just want to get healthy, then breakfast should be number one on your list. Even if you're exercising every day, you could be sabotaging your plans by skipping breakfast! And, if you do eat breakfast every day, you may be choosing the wrong foods. Here are 5 healthy breakfast tips to make that first meal of the day a healthy one.

American Country Breakfast. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1) Never Skip Breakfast: This is number one on the list of healthy breakfast tips for a very good reason! You may think you're shaving calories off your day by missing breakfast, but it just leaves you more likely to snack on unhealthy foods throughout the morning. Above this, breakfast kickstarts your metabolism, making your body work harder to burn off calories from the meals you eat through the rest of the day.

2) Avoid Sugar: Many of us wrongly assume that all breakfast cereals are healthy. This is far from the truth: many of them are overloaded with sugar. This can lead to weight gain and energy spikes that will leave you feeling sleepy by lunch time.

3) Don't Drink Too Much Juice: Although fruit juice is good for you, this doesn't mean that it's free from calories. The sugar in fruit juice can cause an energy spike, so stick to a small glass and drink water to hydrate you for the day. Drinking more water has the added benefit of helping you to feel fuller and avoid snacking.

4) Start As You Mean To Go On: Think of breakfast as a kick-start for your day, and start with healthy foods that'll give your body the energy you need. This means avoiding fast food and fried breakfasts that'll leave you feeling sluggish at work. Starting the day off on a healthy note will also naturally encourage you to eat healthier throughout the day.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

5) Include A Few Superfoods: Superfoods are certain whole foods that known to improve overall health and greatly decrease your risk of developing a range of diseases. Thankfully, many of these are perfect for breakfast. Here are a few top ingredients to get you going: oats, tea, yogurt, berries, nuts and seeds. Even if you only add a handful of these ingredients to your breakfast, it's a good way to make sure you get something healthy into your body to start off the day. An example of a tasty breakfast item that can include multiple superfoods is muffins - try making muffins ahead of time for a quick and healthy breakfast the next morning - try oat muffins with blueberries, nuts, and flax seeds for major superfood power!

If all these healthy breakfast tips seem a little complicated for you when you frequently find yourself rushing around in the mornings, remember to plan ahead. If necessary, prepare your breakfast the night before to make it as easy as possible for you to start the day off on the right foot, and stick to a healthy diet.

Remember that eating right is the other half of weight loss, and will help you meet your exercise and fitness goals that much faster!