Posts Tagged ‘Healthy Diet’

5 Tips to Maintain Healthy Eating Habits Over the Holidays

Lesley Johnston

Now that Halloween is over and all the candy is eaten, the grocery and department stores are already filling themselves up with the next holiday temptations. Whether it is Thanksgiving or Christmas, a big part of the celebration will probably center on fatty foods and drinks. Even the healthiest eaters are prone to cast aside their good habits for another plate of turkey with gravy and an extra piece of pie.

If you are determined to maintain a healthy diet throughout this party season, there are ways you can stick with your weight loss program without feeling left out. Nothing is worse than passing on your favorite holiday treats. After all, they only come around once a year, right? Instead of missing out, simply change the way you approach the temptations. Here’s how…

Healthy Habit Maintenance Tip #1: Use A Smaller Plate. Sometimes it is not what is on a persons plate that makes them gain weight, but rather the big portion they give themselves. One tradition you can do without is stuffing yourself until your belt buckle bursts. Portion control is key to losing weight no matter what time of year you make healthy eating goals.

Instead of giving up your favorite holiday foods, simply use a smaller plate and eat less. Wait at least two hours before you go back for seconds and sip on a few cups of hot herbal tea in the meantime to keep you feeling satisfied. Losing weight does not have to be the chore that most people make it out to be.

Healthy Habit Maintenance Tip #2: Alter Recipes. If you are the person in your family who is doing all of the cooking, you have the upper hand. Using low fat ingredients like egg substitute, applesauce for oil, reduced-fat cheeses and fat-free sour cream will go virtually unnoticed by you and your guests. The more colorful you can make your plate with fruits and vegetables, the healthier you will eat.

Just because your grandmother used to drown everything in fatty butter and gravy does not mean it is a tradition you need to carry on with. Just remember not to snack all day long while you are cooking and then eat a huge meal. Many times it is the cooks who gain more weight than the customers because they do not realize their fingers are constantly grabbing for samples.

Healthy Habit Maintenance Tip #3: Eat Before You Go. Do not arrive at parties on an empty stomach unless you want to end up overeating. Many times when you attend a party, the food is different from what you normally eat and you will be tempted to sample everything new that you see. Going to a holiday party empty stomach is like letting a child loose in a candy store.

Drink a healthy protein shake before you go, or a nice big glass of ice water. There is no harm at trying new things, but making sure your tank is half full before you go will allow you to make decisions based on your stomach and not on your eyes. You will probably still want to sample that 5 cheese and salsa dip, but you won’t want to eat half the bowl.

Healthy Habit Maintenance Tip #4: Keep Yourself Active. One of the key components to good health is exercise. We all know it and it is more important over the holidays than any other time of year. Most people promise to join a gym after the holidays, but the problem with that is how they live during the holidays. They eat more than usual and when judgement day comes, they have their work cut out for them.

You can find ways of moving around more without going to the gym before New Years Resolution time comes around. Offer to do the dishes after Thanksgiving instead of plopping yourself down on a recliner in front of the TV. Grab a long lost relative during a party and walk around the block. The more you move around, the more calories you will burn.

Healthy Habit Maintenance Tip #5: Forgive yourself. If you do surrender to temptation, forgive yourself and get back on track the next day. One overindulgent evening will not destroy all the previous days that you maintained your healthy habits. Holidays are usually more about one day though, so make sure that you do not make a habit of spending every evening at a different party filling up on junk food.

The key to losing weight and maintaining an ideal weight is leading a healthy lifestyle. This means you are making healthy choices about what you eat and you are keeping yourself active with daily exercise. It also means that you should not give up the things you love just because you are afraid to gain a pound. Tomorrow is always a new day, but the choices you make the night before can dictate how your new day will go for you.

Bill Winch is a Personal Wellness Coach whose mission is teaching and coaching others who are struggling with getting healthy, losing weight safely and keeping it off for good. He is also a Certified Business Growth Specialist, former High School and College Business Educator and Counselor, and mentors from his home office in Rochester, NY. If you are interested in receiving his Free Report “9 Weight Loss Myths Exposed” visit his website by clicking on FREE REPORT or by calling him directly at (585) 271-3767 for a free wellness consultation.
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Healthy Cooking For Special Diets

Lesley Johnston

Healthy cooking for special diets do not need to be a chore. The key is to remember important issues for each diet, and to creatively change your recipes to meet those needs.

Vegetarian cooking is not difficult. The goal here is to remember that varying degrees of exclusion of animal products from your preferred diet sometimes makes it difficult to lay hands on certain proteins. Most plants, legumes, and grains contain at least some amino acids that make the complete proteins found in animal products. Mixing and matching foods is a great way to be sure that vegetarians get all amino acids. Your job is made easier by the fact that most vegetarians are not vegans, which means that many include some variant of animal products into their diets.

These proteins are excellent supplements to a vegetarian dish of their favor. Textured vegetable protein (TVP), and soy proteins such as those found in tofu and Boca also make vegetarian cooking much easier. Most of these proteins do not have much flavor of their own, so they will blend in nicely with whatever dish you are cooking. When it comes to vegetables and grains, just remember the basics: the more colorful the vegetable, the more nutrients it has, and whole grains make better nutrition than their bleached counterparts. Legumes are excellent resources, but be sure to cook them well as legumes are often difficult to digest for most people.
Many of the same rules for vegetarian cooking also apply for diabetic cooking. Instead of animal products and protein, the issue here is sugar. When most people think of sugar, they think of candy and other sweets. However, there are other foods that contain those simple sugars that often overload the system of diabetics. So, the goal for preparing diabetic dishes is to avoid the temptation to use these sugars in excess. Try using whole grains instead of bleached ones such as white bread and pastas.

Feel free to serve dessert, but try using a sugar substitute and stick to whole grain flour. Sugar substitutes are a must for consideration when serving drinks such as sweet tea and soda. Fruit is a possibility, but do not expect your diabetic guest to eat a whole bowl full. Even so, keep some sugary snacks and juices on hand for blood sugar emergencies when blood sugar has dipped well below healthy levels.

Light cooking recipes presents the least hassle because most westerners are beginning to appreciate its benefits as a means of disease prevention. The trick to light cooking is simple. Stay away from heavy meats such as meat with a lot of fat on it or red meat. Try substituting meat with TVP or tofu when you can get away with it. Lightly fry foods in cooking spray rather than butter or oil, and use foods that will offer the best nutrition possible.

The goal of healthy cooking for special diets is to fill the belly with enriching foods that promote good health. Of equal importance is to find creative ways to meet dietary needs without much fuss.

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Easy Ways to Maintain a Healthy Diet

Lesley Johnston

Nowadays, people are becoming increasingly more conscious about what they eat and are always on the lookout for healthier alternatives. There’s good reason why people are getting more and more concerned with health issues. With blood pressure, cholesterol, obesity and many other diseases haunting us in the news almost every week, we have grown to become more vigilant and more careful eaters.

Several popular restaurants and fast food chains acknowledge this powerful trend, and they are now offering healthier options in their menu. Even pizza parlors and ice cream corners offer more wholesome choices to meet the population’s growing health demands.

Making Healthy Food Choices.

Fruits and vegetables are your best options. Eat as much fresh fruits and vegetables as possible. As these are known to be high in fiber, they can be very helpful in lowering the levels of blood cholesterol in the body. Although you need to take in a certain amount of fiber daily, one must not do it abruptly. Slowly increasing fiber intake to allow the body to adjust accordingly is recommended.

Choosing lean meats and poultry, less the skin, is a good practice. When eating poultry, stick to the white meat, which is the healthiest part. Slow cooking meat makes it tender and succulent while still leaving the flavor and the nutrients to the food. You can also go for the healthy alternative sources of protein such as beans, nuts and peas.

If you feel like having a quick snack or a dessert, try to avoid cakes, cookies, doughnuts, muffins and pies. Stay away from those with too much refined sugar. Opt for fresh fruit slices or mashed potatoes.

Cooking Healthy

Decades ago, the different kinds of cooking oil are virtually unheard of. We used to fry our food with just any kind of oil we can grab in the supermarket. Things have come a long way since then. More people are now acutely aware about how olive oil, canola oil, sunflower oil and flax seed oil are different from palm oil, coconut oil, butter and other vegetable oils. Many people even go a step further and no longer use oil to cook their foods; preferring instead to use other innovative methods of cooking their foods.

In recent years, Crock Pot recipes have increased significantly in popularity. With its even heat distribution and constant heating style, the Crock Pot locks up the food’s nutrients more effectively. The result, therefore, is a meal that is rich in both rich in flavor and nutrients.

Slow cooker recipes range from roasted pork to basic pasta to yummy desserts. Even food for the littlest member of the family can be prepared using the slow cooker. There is no need to worry about the safety of commercial baby food as you can prepare your baby’s meals right at home with your Crock Pot.

Once you adopt a healthy diet, try to make it a point that it is not just a fad you are trying to follow. It may not be very easy embracing a healthy diet as a part of your lifestyle, especially if you have not been used to it. Just remember that the pangs of adjustment are only temporary. Things will be much easier as you progress.

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