A Weight Loss Surgery Journal Marks Progress and Healing

We have heard it all our dieting life: “keep a food journal, it will keep you accountable for what you eat.” That advice always failed me, the best I could ever keep a food journal was through breakfast, I did not want to leave written evidence of my eating behavior.

But there is one time in my life I kept a journal, words and feelings scribed on the page. That journal chronicled the first year following my weight loss surgery. The weight loss surgery experience is profound. It is a physical and emotional Mt. Everest. I dare say there is no other change a morbidly obese person will ever undertake that is as emotionally significant as weight loss surgery.

There are two reasons for keeping a journal: first to have a release for your thoughts and feelings; second, to have a record of your experience. For many people it is less painful to be honest about our feelings when writing them down rather than speaking them. If we write them down we don’t have to hear them aloud. If we write them down we are not vulnerable to sharing with someone else. For me, writing my feelings on paper was like sweeping the floor – I could gather the debris and toss it out – I no longer had it cluttering my mind. Continue reading “A Weight Loss Surgery Journal Marks Progress and Healing”

The Best Tasting Medifast Foods

The other day, I received an email from a reader who was trying to put together a custom medifast order but wasn’t sure which foods to chose. She asked me to give her a list of what were the best tasting foods. I was happy to do that and I’ll share my list with you below, but everyone’s tastes are going to be different. Still, I spend a lot of time on weight loss web sites and many of the folks on there agree with me. So, below I’ll go over, by meal, which of the foods I most often chose and enjoy.

My Favorite Medifast Breakfast Choices: For breakfast, I almost always have the cappuccino. I am a coffee drinker and really could not start my morning without it. The cappuccino is part of the momentum metabolism line and you can get it by either ordering it individually or ordering a momentum package (which includes most of the other popular foods.) I also enjoy the oatmeal and like all the flavors (apple cinnamon, blueberry, and peach) but peach has got to be my favorite.

Mid Morning Snack: I will generally have a protein bar here because 10:00 – 10:30 is a busy time for me. These bars do not have the crumbly texture and bland taste of a lot of protein bars. Most of them are actually chewy and they don’t have a weird after taste. You are only allowed one of these per day. The only flavor that I don’t like on these is the strawberry crunch. My favorites are the peanut butter and the chocolate mint. Continue reading “The Best Tasting Medifast Foods”

What is Astaxanthin? Discover the Benefits, Food Sources and Side-Effects

What is astaxanthin anyway? It is a carotenoid and a powerful antioxidant. Have you ever wondered why flamingos are pink? They get their color from the astaxanthin in their diet. This is also one of the reasons why salmon has a pinkish color.

Astaxanthin originally comes from a microalgae called Haematococcus pluvialis. The reason you can find it in many animals, especially in marine animals is because they eat this plant and then digest it, thereby getting more astaxanthin in their bodies.

Best Food Sources

The best foods for this impressive carotenoid are marine plants, salmon, shrimp, trout and other seafoods. You do not need a lot to take advantage of the health benefits of astaxanthin, but most people are not getting enough, which is where the problem is.

The Benefits Continue reading “What is Astaxanthin? Discover the Benefits, Food Sources and Side-Effects”

Pairing Food and Wine is a Matter of Taste

First off let me say that I am in no way a wine snob. I do not believe that there is an ultimate right and wrong way to pair wine with food. It all boils down to your personal taste and the tastes of your guests. Most people like to pair white wines with white meats and lighter meals like fish, and red wines with red meats and pastas. You can certainly mix it up, however. Experiment and go with what you think tastes good.

That being said, some people are still uncertain and like some general guidelines to follow. Here is a listing of some wines and the foods that go well with them:

With appetizers:

If you are serving appetizers such as crab cakes or oysters on the half shell, try pairing it with a light, fruity Chardonnay. This white wine of North America is a favorite of many people and pairs well with light seafood fare. It is also a nice wine to sip on its own before a meal. Continue reading “Pairing Food and Wine is a Matter of Taste”

The Five CRITICAL Things to Do For Your Health and Weight Loss

I’m often asked what is the best diet, or the best food program, best exercise program and which single best book to recommend to improve your health, fitness or weight loss.

The answer is that there is no best way to do it. There is no best book, and there is no right way or wrong way to do it.

The 5 Critical things you must do to achieve your health are these

1. Continue to learn about health, fitness, nutrition and weight loss from a wide variety of sources

The single most important thing to do right from the start is to take action and begin learning about health, followed very closely by putting what you learn into practice. We are a very diversified bunch of people and what works for you may not work for the next person. You have to find what works for you from a wide variety of sources, expand your knowledge and accept no one thing as being the best for your health. Keep reading, keep learning and keep what works for you and discard what doesn’t. Continue reading “The Five CRITICAL Things to Do For Your Health and Weight Loss”

The Good Side of Processed Food

Processed food includes food stuff that has been altered from its natural condition for safety concerns and also for convenience. Sometimes we think that processed foods are bad but it is just a one big misconception among the people in general and processed food is as good as any other food product. Let’s take an example of milk. It should be called a processed food as it is pasteurized and homogenized. Some prefer to use raw milk and some, in fact most of us prefer its processed form that is available in our grocery shop and self-service stores.

Another very strong point to prove that processed food is not bad is the frozen vegetables. Many of us believe that fresh vegetables are the best but let me inform you that freezing of these vegetables preserves vitamins and minerals which means they are more nutritious than the fresh ones. Fruits and vegetables juices also very healthy processed food as all of them are equipped with extra calcium which makes them even more nutritious. The methods used for processing food include canning, freezing, refrigeration, dehydration and aseptic process. Let’s discuss canning.

Continue reading “The Good Side of Processed Food”

The Best Food For EXTRA Energy

Supercharge your energy levels this year with these essential five star super foods.

It’s that time of the year, well into January when you are getting back into the
swing of business, family and exciting projects for your year ahead. It’s when you
want to feel focused and energized. Choosing to eat the foods that give you energy
boosting nutrients, without loading up on calories, will specifically supercharge
your energy levels for a fit and more productive 2008.

Here is the low down on the top six foods for EXTRA energy and useful advice on how to incorporate them into your daily diet.
Plus at the end of the article you will find some extra top tips for beating fatigue.

The five star energy super foods Continue reading “The Best Food For EXTRA Energy”

Healthy, Nutritious And Delicious Recipes For Your Toddler

As a parent, our focus always remains that our kid should eat healthy food. On the contrary, kids are known to be picky eaters and making them eat something healthy is a difficult task at times. We constantly look for recipes that are healthy and will help in increasing our baby’s weight. We should not rely only on the child weight chart to decide if the baby is healthy or not. Skinny does not mean unhealthy and similarly chubby is not a definition of health.

For moms, the real challenge is to make healthy food choices look appealing. Below mentioned are few food items that are healthy and nutritious, using these we will prepare a few recipes which your little ones will gobble down in a minute.

Fruits
Vegetable
Dry Fruits (In moderation)
Pulses
Oats
Rice/Dalia
Ghee & butter (In moderation) Continue reading “Healthy, Nutritious And Delicious Recipes For Your Toddler”

Getting Healthy Before You Get Pregnant Leads to a Healthier Pregnancy and Baby

I have found many teenage girls being choosy and sulky over food and I include myself in this category. But once they start learning how to cook, the mother’s wacky old recipe tastes interesting if the young lady cooks it herself. Some women start eating all the veggies and fruits which they once hated as soon as they get pregnant. This gives rise to an interesting fact that if young ladies can cook their own food in a healthy way and start consuming it, they can be in a healthy state even before they get pregnant. I don’t know how far the idea holds true but being healthy by the time you get pregnant is very essential to have a baby as per experts in the healthcare domain.

It is just not that consuming healthy food is sufficient to conceive but you need to follow a series of steps to get healthy before you give birth to a healthy baby as it is evident that 1 in every 33 babies born in the USA have some sort of birth defect which can be fatal at times in the first year of the child birth. As it is apparent that healthy mothers have healthy babies, the women have lesser chances of having miscellaneous issues in their pregnancy such as miscarriages, premature labor, GD (Gestational Diabetes). The babies also are not vulnerable to premature birth, still birth or low birth weight. Continue reading “Getting Healthy Before You Get Pregnant Leads to a Healthier Pregnancy and Baby”

How to Stick to Your Healthy Eating Plan

If you are on a diet or are trying to live a healthy lifestyle, temptation is your biggest enemy. Being on a diet means you agonize over everything you put in your mouth. Peer pressure to eat at fast food restaurants or pizza joints makes it even tougher. This can be very frustrating for the dieter. Don’t despair though. You can overcome these obstacles and learn how to keep others from leading you into temptation.

One problem area can be your job. If someone orders lunch for everybody, it almost always is unhealthy food. In meetings or seminars there are the inevitable doughnuts, soft drinks and cookies. Try to decline in the unhealthy food politely, and let the person is in charge of ordering know beforehand you would like something that is healthier. If a lot of food is provided, you can take your own portion, split in half, and save it for tomorrow’s lunch. Learning how to stick to your healthy eating plan means you must be resourceful. Continue reading “How to Stick to Your Healthy Eating Plan”