FIVE REASONS WHY VEGGIES MAY HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT AND LIVE LONGER

As you all know on the HCG Diet, you are only allowed certain vegetables, and you are not allowed to mix vegetables during the 500-calorie phase of the diet. The following guidelines are perfect for the stabilization phase 2 or after the HCG protocol.  

Lose weight? Live longer? Your mom was right when she told you to eat your vegetables.

Vegetables help keep you full for longer.

The fiber and water in vegetables fill you up way more efficiently than eating processed carbs that are deficient in fiber. Combining vegetables with protein and healthy fats will keep you satisfied until it’s time for your next meal. 

Vegetables help prevent dips and spikes in your energy levels.

Once again, the fiber in vegetables helps regulate your blood sugar. If you’re eating all your allotted vegetables each day, you shouldn’t experience that late-afternoon energy slump (and cravings for sugar) that you may encounter when eating processed carbohydrates.

Vegetables help you live longer.

Numerous studies show that a diet rich in a variety of vegetables may help decrease the hardening of arteries, help lower cholesterol levels and help prevent inflammation, a component of many degenerative diseases including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Researchers believe the antioxidants (vitamins C and E, plus selenium and the carotenoids) may be partly responsible for this effect.

Vegetables are the ultimate food replacement.

You can’t go wrong when you replace junk food and processed carbohydrates, which are typically full of unhealthy fats and deficient in nutrients, with nutrient-dense foods like vegetables, which contain fiber, antioxidants and vitamins.

Vegetables help you lose weight.

Vegetables tend to be lower in calories, yet pack a way more powerful punch when it comes to keeping you healthy and full for longer. This all means you may tend to eat fewer calories, while still feeling satisfied, if not more satisfied, than when you rely on packaged foods and foods devoid of nutrients. 

Incorporating Vegetables

Initially, it may seem like a challenge to incorporate vegetables into your meals, but you have many options for every part of the day. Here are some suggestions:  

Breakfast

• Add spinach, onions, mushrooms, and a little tomato to your eggs and top with sliced avocado.
• Make a low-carb breakfast wrap using lean turkey sausage, scrambled eggs, spinach and avocado and wrap it all up in a leaf of romaine lettuce.
• Make lean ground beef hash by sautéing beef with scallions, red bell peppers and reduced fat cheese. 

Snacks

• Enjoy olives with a piece of lowfat cheese.
• Dunk celery stalks or cucumber slices into homemade roasted red pepper hummus.
• Wrap a couple slices of ham with a romaine lettuce leaf, and slice of tomato and cucumber.
• Top slices of tomato and cucumber with tuna or chicken salad. 

Lunch

• Pile spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms on a plate, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil and top with a sliced, grilled chicken breast.
• Top a tomato with cooked lean ground beef or turkey (seasoned with chili and cumin) and reduced fat Mexican-blend cheese. Broil until cheese is bubbling. 

Dinner

• Experiment with your spinach salad; add different vegetables or dressings and top with grilled salmon, shrimp or lean steak.
• Stuff a half of a bell pepper with lean turkey or pork sausage, cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes and top with grated cheese, no-sugar salsa, avocado or poached egg.
• Grill a lean steak, top with grilled bell pepper strips and onion and serve with a side salad and mashed “potatoes” (cook and mash cauliflower instead of potatoes, add lowfat milk until creamy.) 

STOP WEEKEND BINGES

Is Weekend Eating Destroying Your Diet?

Crammed with barbecues, family functions, and cocktail hours, weekends can be healthy-eating minefields. Avoid the most common pitfalls with these tips.

Eating Problem All your social events revolve around food.
Why It Happens With so many tempting items within reach all weekend long, it seems impossible to avoid blowing your diet.
Rescue Remedy You don't have to stay home, choose between parties or turn down every single bite. Before you leave the house, have a small, protein-rich snack (to prevent that "I'm starving" feeling). At the party, look at everything that's being offered first, then zero in on a few items that look too good to pass up and just have those.

Eating Problem Grazing all weekend long.
Why It Happens Without a structured schedule, you grab whatever food is within easy reach.
Rescue Remedy Take 15 minutes midday Friday to review your weekend plans; identify any potential trouble spots (e.g., you're attending a backyard barbecue on Sunday) so you can schedule your meal and snack times around them. By imposing some guidelines, you cut the chances that you'll nibble mindlessly.

Eating Problem After a very long week you are so ready to kick off your long weekend with a big bowl of triple-fudge ice cream.
Why It Happens You're craving comfort, not food.
Rescue Remedy Brainstorm non-food ways to soothe yourself, like meeting a friend for a walk in the park or getting a pedicure while you finish up a good book.

By Shape.com

EXERCISE IN SELF ESTEEM

Exercise Your Way to Feeling Better About Yourself

If you’re like most people who want to lose weight, you probably think that shedding a few pounds will help you feel better about yourself. And chances are, you see exercise simply as something you need to do to accomplish that goal. But here’s something you may not know: this "necessary evil" approach to exercise may actually be preventing you from feeling better about yourself right now—even before the number on the scale or reflection in the mirror matches up with your ideal.

A simple attitude adjustment may help you start feeling a lot more comfortable in your skin right now—and this, in turn, can make your weight loss journey a lot easier and more pleasant. Here’s what you need to know to decide if you need to adjust your exercise attitude, and if so, how to do exactly that.

Making Friends with Your Body: The Roots of High Self-EsteemThere’s no doubt that feeling comfortable in your own skin is an important part of that “feeling-good-about-yourself” goal (also known as high self-esteem) you're trying to achieve. But the more you learn about the roots of self-esteem, the clearer it becomes that what helps the most has very little to do with achieving some abstract ideal, like a certain weight or look. In fact, there are many, many cases where people work very hard on goals like this—and even achieve them—only to find that they're still unsatisfied and unhappy. What does seem to have major, positive effects on self-esteem is the process of moving yourself—the right way—from where you are towards where you would like to be.

The journey is more important than the destination.
To be a little more precise, the best way to increase your self-esteem is to actively and effectively engage in something that is both good for you and consistent with your expressed goals. Both of these are key elements. If your goal isn't good for you, because it's unrealistic or strongly based on what you think other people want or expect from you (like trying to look like a model when your body can’t naturally achieve or maintain that), then you are going to face problems feeling good about yourself. Nothing you do will ever be good enough.

You’ll have the same problem if your actions aren’t consistent with your goals. To feel good about yourself, you have to treat yourself as if you are already someone worthy of respect and good treatment. If that means “faking it until you make it,” then that is where you need to start.

Exercising the “Right” Way, for the “Right” ReasonsIf you are carrying a lot of unhelpful baggage in the form of poor body acceptance, negative body image, or even body-rejection due to excess weight, then exercising the right way and for the right reasons may well be your shortest, fastest, and easiest path away from these problems.

But you’ll need a particular kind of attitude and approach, one that will help you begin appreciating your body for what it can do right now, and allowing it to be your guide and teacher on your journey towards change—not an object of your contempt and ridicule. Here are the basic elements of such an attitude:

Exercise for the “right” reasons. There aren’t many bad reasons to exercise of course, so in a pinch you should take advantage of whatever gets you going. But certain attitudes and approaches will help you get a better self-esteem boost. It helps a lot, for example, to tell yourself that you are working out because it is good for your body and you want to take good care of your body. When you do that, you affirm that you and your body are friends—not enemies—and you open yourself up for healthy communication with your body, allowing it to tell you what you need. This will work much better than setting out to burn calories so you can get rid of all that ugly fat you can’t stand.

Don’t just mark time. Make exercise a challenge and notice how you respond. The simple act of setting personal performance goals and watching yourself achieve them can work wonders. Keep a journal where you record what you do during your exercise sessions, noting the improvements in your capacities over time. Hold little competitions against yourself, trying to improve on your personal bests (not world records) a few times a month, and reward yourself when you succeed. Pay special attention to how exercise affects your mood, and let your body teach you how to use the type and intensity of the exercise you do to influence your state of mind.

Turn some exercise time into playtime. You are, among other things, an animal with a body that needs to play. Notice how happy and excited your dog or child is when he gets to go out and play—especially when you physically play together. There is a part of you that still feels the same way. This need doesn’t go away just because you get older, become more serious, or are a little out of shape. The more exercise you can do in the form of sports, games, and other activities that are fun and rewarding themselves, the better. So be creative—turn some of those daily walks into roller skating, ice skating, golfing or Frisbee, racing with your dog, or even belly dancing!

Research shows that individuals who exercise feel better about themselves and their bodies. Once you start a workout program (or begin exercising for the "right" reasons), you'll soon experience the positive changes in self-esteem and body image that regular exercisers of all shapes and sizes enjoy. It's never too late to start feeling better about yourself!

By Dean Anderson

SNACKING HEALTHY

Adding Snacks to Subtract Pounds

While some dieters happily accept when someone suggests a snack, others feel pangs of guilt when a nibble is merely suggested. However, there is nothing inherently wrong with a bite between meals. In fact, snacking might be the missing ingredient that will help you reach your weight loss goals.

But how can this make sense, since snacking theoretically adds calories?

Snacking doesn’t serve to replace a meal. In fact, you should spread meals and snacks out by an hour or two, and snacks should total a couple hundred calories or less.

Munching between meals can actually reduce your overall caloric intake by curbing overeating at your next meal. By controlling later binging, snacking can help you stay on track. You can actually use this to your advantage. If you know you are going out to a big dinner with friends later, for example, make sure you have a healthy snack before you head out so you’re less likely to order (and finish) a large entrée.

How You Snack Can Make or Break Your Diet

There is definitely a wrong way and a right way to snack. You should avoid sugary items like candy and soda, and shouldn’t be consuming enough calories to constitute a meal. Instead, steer towards foods that will satisfy you and keep you feeling fuller longer. Fruits and vegetables are always a safe bet because they are low in fat and calories. (Just be sure to avoid high-calorie dips.) Yogurt, fruit smoothies, even a slice of whole-wheat toast all make great snacks during the day. Combining lean protein, some healthy fat, and complex carbohydrates will help you feel fuller longer.

Mini Meals

Many experts are recommending several smaller meals throughout the day instead of the usual three. By eating at regular intervals, your blood sugar levels (and therefore your energy levels) remain stable. So, instead of that mid-afternoon crash, you’ll be full of vigor through dinnertime!   Eating every few hours (especially if you chew on fruits and veggies) can also help add extra nutrition that might be missing from other meals.

Snacking Isn’t Grazing

Mindless eating is often the downfall of many snackers. You may start with only a handful of your favorite crackers, only to finish the entire box, without even thinking about it. Obviously, this example isn’t the healthy snacking that can help you reach your weight loss goals.

To avoid grazing:

• Fill a small plate with your snack, and leave the kitchen. Just walk away. When your plate is empty, snack time is over. 
• Never bring the entire container with you in front of the television or computer. Enjoy your snack without distraction and you won’t be tempted to reach for more.
• If you stand around the snack table chatting at a party, you may find yourself reaching for food when the conversation lulls. This can often lead to an unintentional binge because you simply aren’t paying attention to what you are eating. 
• Limit yourself to a single serving. 
• Plan out your snacks just like you would a meal. Is one cookie worth the calorie cost, when you could eat a plate of fresh fruit instead? 

Practice Moderation

As with the rest of your diet, moderation is crucial when snacking.  If you don’t keep track of calories consumed, you might add excess calories and fat to your diet without realizing it.

Don’t sabotage your diet with unhealthy nibbles throughout the day; stick to nourishing foods whenever possible. If you know you have a weakness for junk food, do yourself a favor and don’t purchase these items next time you are at the grocery store. Then you won’t have to fight the temptation of ice cream or potato chips when hunger pangs hit.

By Liz Noelcke