Stop Food Cravings: A Simple Approach

Food cravings are one of the most difficult things to manage when trying to eat healthier. Many people crave desserts such as cookies or other high fat sweets. The most important thing to remember is willpower will not completely stop food cravings. Many of your cravings are due to emotional eating. Emotional eating, eating when stressed from not dealing with problems, is very difficult to control. These cravings are controlled by the complex chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters. We have learned that when we eat certain foods they activate the feel good neurotransmitters. These chemicals take away our bad feelings and everything feels better-but it doesn't last. Most cravings are this response in action. Finding the source of your stress and dealing with it will help stop food cravings.

One strategy to combat this type of craving is to learn to effectively manage stress without using food. When you get a food craving, ask yourself how hungry you feel. If you are not physically hungry, stop and wait 15-30 minutes. During this time ask yourself "Why do I want this food?" "What will it do for me?" If you have determined you need it to relieve stress or boredom, find something else to do. Going for a walk or run is a great way to relieve stress. It also produces the feel good chemicals in your brain. Sitting down and listening to upbeat music is also another good way to relieve stress. Write down at least 15 activities you can do instead of eat. Place this list on your refrigerator. When a food craving hits, pick an activity from this list and do it.

If you feel that emotional eating is not the cause of your food cravings, you may be in a diet mind set. This is the belief that you must never eat anything that is a "bad" food. Most diets have a list of "good" and "bad" foods which many dieters feel they must stick to religiously. Since forbidden foods are always more appealing, you develop a strong craving for what you think you should never have. What many dieters fail to realize is that all foods can be included in a healthy diet -- even desserts.

The key to not overeating is to eat high fat foods in moderation. Practice the 90/10 rule for healthy eating. This rule says eat 90 percent healthy foods, and the other 10 percent the high fat foods you enjoy. The majority of the time eat a healthy and balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grain and lean meats, such as chicken. Do not skip meals or eliminate entire food groups. This will only cause you to eat more at the next meal. Attempting to starve yourself will not make you lose weight. It will only make you eat more when you do have a meal. Practice these strategies and food cravings will become a distant memory.

Top 5 Tips for Staying Slim This Holiday Season

The holidays are a wonderful time of year filled with family, friends and food. However, there is a downside to the holidays - calorie overload. People gain the most weight in the month between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. The culprit? Most, if not all, of the food is high in fat and calories - and people eat it. The holiday binge eating feels out of control and by New Year's Day everyone feels they need to go on a diet.

Much of this weight gain can be avoided with a few simple techniques. Since many people are against eating a low fat or low calorie meal on the actual holiday, it is better to focus on the various parties with friends and co-workers. Eating a high fat, high calorie meal one or two times a year is not going to make you gain considerable amounts of weight. What does matter is how you are eating over a long period of time. If you are able to keep the food you eat in a healthy range over the entire holiday season than eating the big holiday meal with not cause considerable weight gain or emotional stress.

A great way to start this process is to make low calorie/low fat versions of your favorite dishes for all those holiday parties. This is not as difficult as it may sound. Only a few easy strategies can help you save some calories -and pounds. Using these simple techniques can keep you from gaining a large amount of weight over the holidays.

1. Revamp your favorite recipes to be lower in fat. You can do this by using reduced fat ingredients such a lower fat cheese or sour cream. This will not significantly change the taste but will save a considerable amount of fat and calories from the recipe. You can also use less of a high fat ingredient if you feel their may be too much of it in your dish.

2. Find recipes that use vegetables and fruits as the base ingredient. If you are going to a party and need to bring a dish, choose one that has a lot of vegetables or fruit in it. The other ingredients should be flavor enhancers but should not cover up the taste of the main fruit or vegetable. This will ensure that you will at least eat your vegetables and helping other people get their vegetables too.

3. When you make a dessert, choose low fat versions of your favorite recipes. Overeating during a holiday party can wreck havoc on your weight, but eating a big dessert on top of it can send you over the edge. Eating a small amount of a lower calorie dessert will help keep you on the right path.

4. Consider skipping dessert. It may seem like a sin to not have dessert during the holidays but it can save you a considerable amount of fat and calories, even more than eating a lower fat dessert. It is not a written rule that you need to eat everything that is given to you at a party. If you feel too full, don't eat it.

5. Make sure to exercise daily. Physical activity is very important during the holiday season. You need to stay fit while eating lower fat versions of your favorite holiday meals. You will still be eating more food than you normally would. However, exercise will help speed up your metabolism so you can burn off the extra calories.

Book Review: Blood Pressure Down By Janet Bond Brill, PH.D, RD, LDN

The Blood Pressure Down plan is a concise plan to lower your blood pressure. It consists of 10 steps that you need to take to lower your blood pressure without drugs, although she states that drugs may be needed with this plan if your blood pressure is especially high. The book is very easy to understand and implement.

The book begins with a very simple scientific overview of how blood pressure can become elevated. This includes lifestyle choices and food habits that are proven to increase blood pressure, especially the increase of sodium intake in our diets. She defines both numbers of the blood pressure reading and what normal blood pressure should be. There are many sidebars with more in depth information on the subjects related to the chapter. These are very interesting and informative. The book then explains how blood pressure can damage the body, such as the eyes, kidneys and heart. This section is not heavy with scientific jargon or any other difficult to understand concepts, and it also includes pictures to help the reader understand the concepts discussed.

Next, the book goes through the 10 steps of the plan. They are: lose weight, eat potassium, magnesium and calcium, eat soy protein, eat dark chocolate, drink red wine, get physical activity and take four supplements. Each section has recommended intake, a food list and scientific evidence backing up her recommendations. There is also a chapter on decreasing sodium intake and how it can decrease your blood pressure. These chapters are very straightforward and seem easy to implement.

There were a few questionable parts to these recommendations. The first is eating soy. She states soy is safe if you are not allergic but most of the chapter is about substituting red meat for vegetable protein. You could easily swap out a red meat laden meal with a vegetarian meal made with beans or quinoa. Soy can be quite harsh on some people who are not allergic and does not need to be the basis of a blood pressure plan especially if the entire reason for eating it is to avoid red meat. There are many no soy vegetarian dishes that can make the need for soy unnecessary. Luckily she states in the book that if something is not working for you or you are allergic don't include it in your blood pressure plan.

The last part of the book is low sodium recipes. They use a salt substitute and herbs/spices to give them flavor. The recipes are all whole foods without any weird ingredients. There are breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes along with some snack ideas. This is a good ending to a highly recommended book.

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Healthy Meal Planning On A Budget

Successful meal planning is not difficult but is vitally important for keeping you and your family well fed and healthy. Planning meals for the coming week saves time and money. It is important to go food shopping only once a week -- with a list. Going every day or every other day causes you to spend more money than necessary. It also wastes time you could be spending with your family. Avoid shopping after work when you are so starving you want to buy-and eat--everything in sight. Also, you are more likely to eat unhealthy highly processed foods. Planning for the week ahead will make mealtime much easier and you are more likely to choose healthier options.

When planning a meal, go through the sale flier of your grocery store to see what items are on sale. This will help reduce your overall grocery bill. Note which items you normally eat during the week. For instance, if you always have pork tenderloin, notice if that is on sale or if some other pork you like is on sale. Remember that the store will also have in-store only sales that are not featured in the flier. These sales are sometimes related to what the store advertises in their weekly circular.

Once you have done this, search for recipes that have the sale items as the main ingredient. The best way to save on money is to not make complicated meals with a lot of ingredients that you have never heard of before. This will cause you to have a lot of leftover ingredients that will spoil. When you want to try something new, only choose one or two new food items. This will keep you from spending money on foods that will eventually go bad.

When searching for meals always keep in mind the Plate Method--fill half your plate with vegetables, a quarter with protein, and the last quarter with a complex carbohydrate/starch. Using the plate method can make meal planning simple. For example, a possible dinner could be a grilled chicken breast, ½ cup of brown rice with toasted almonds, and a steamed vegetable such as broccoli.

Once you have your desired recipes, make a grocery list. Note which items are on sale, and how much you are required to buy for your recipes. This is an extremely important step; not having a list with these specifics will cause you to buy more food than necessary. Without a list, you could forget what you really wanted to buy or get a bunch of unrelated items.

Once you have done your shopping for the week, plan out which recipe you will make on what day of the week. For example, you plan to make the chicken breast dish on a Monday. This type of planning makes the rest of the week run smoothly, reduce your stress level and you can feel good about serving healthy meals to your family.

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The "Secrets" To Long Term Weight Loss

For many, losing weight can seem like a goal that may never be accomplished. So many struggle and feel so discouraged with weight loss. But many do lose weight and kept it off long term. These individuals do not feel deprived or miserable. In fact, most feel energized and hopeful. There are a few key steps that increase your chances of losing weight and keeping it off. Many of these findings come from studying the 5,000 individuals who are part of the National Weight Control Registry. Participant have has on average a 66 pound weight loss and have kept it off for at least 5 years.

The first step is to assess how ready you are to change your lifestyle. There is no fad diet or short term plan you can go on that will lead to long term weight loss. You must change your eating habits and lifestyle for the rest of your life. For some, this may seem like a very overwhelming task and they just want to do something easy. Many of these individuals want something they can stop doing after a short period. If this is the case, then consider waiting a few months. During this time, list ways that permanent lifestyle change will help you improve your life and health.

Once you have decided that you are ready, you need to decide how you want to change your eating habits. 98 percent of the participants in the National Weight Control Registry changed their eating habits. Many chose a low fat, low calorie diet. Base your diet on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats/poultry and low fat diary products. Reduce the portions of food you take in so you are consuming fewer calories. It is also important that you make time to eat breakfast. 78 percent of National Weight Control Registry participants eat breakfast every day. This will start the day right and you will feel energized. Be sure to space out your daily meals to every 3-4 hours. This regulates your metabolism and keeps your weight in check. If you wait longer to eat, you will be so hungry that you overeat leading to weight gain. Be sure the eating plan you chose is one you can stick with. Remember, it is important that you like the food you are eating.

The next component of long term weight loss is physical activity. 94 percent of the individuals in the National Weight Control Registry exercised, and 90 percent of those were physically active for at least an hour a day. Their preferred method of activity was walking. Be sure to choose an activity you enjoy. It will be easier to stick with if you choose to participate in a sport, preferably a group sport and have team members help hold you accountable. Besides a sport, be more physically active in your daily life. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, and park at the end of the parking lot and walk. Many in the Registry watch less than 10 hours of TV a week. Spending less time in front of the TV (and computer) can help with weight loss. Spend the time you would be watching TV being active.

The last component of long term weight loss is self monitoring. 75 percent of the National Weight Control Registry participants monitored their eating habits, physical activity and weight. Weighing yourself every week can help you keep tabs of how you are maintaining your weight. You will also know if you begin to gain a few pounds and can take steps to lose that extra weight. One of these steps is keeping a food journal. Write down everything you eat, including the time the food was eaten and the specific amounts. If you begin to gain a few pounds, you can use this tool to see if you need to modify your eating. Keeping an exercise journal can also help you monitor how much physical activity you are getting in. This is especially helpful if you begin to gain a few pounds. You can quickly diagnose where the weight gain is coming from-food intake or exercise? These tools are meant to keep you informed of your weight and they will be vitally important to stop any weight gain.

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Book Review: The Fast Diet By Dr. Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer

The Fast Diet: The Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, Live Longer by Michael Mosley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Fast Diet by Dr. Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer is a small book explaining a method of fasting the authors call the 5-2 diet. This diet consists of eating normally for five days of the week and then restricting calories the remaining two days.  This concept is based on what Dr. Mosley learned in his BBC Horizon documentary Eat, Fast, Live Longer.  He tried different forms of fasting to improve his health and eventually created his own 5-2 approach.

The Fast Diet begins by giving an overview of the science behind fasting and all of its benefits such as helping to prevent cancer, diabetes and depression. This chapter is not very detailed as there needs to be more study on how fasting creates these benefits. Many of the studies have been done on mice and there are not many studies done on humans. So much of the advise in the book comes from what they have seen work in animal studies. Both authors then detail why they decided to start the 5-2 fasting method and the kinds of results they hoped to have.

The second part of the book gives the details of the 5-2 feast/fast program in practice. For two days during a 7 day week a fasting individual would eat 600 calories a day for men and 500 calories a day for women. They stress that during these days you need to eat nutrient dense foods since you will be eating a considerable amount less than normal. They emphasize a plant based diet rich in vegetables and fruit. They recommend for best results that you eat breakfast and dinner. It is more effective for a person to fast for a considerable period of time. For best results they recommend not eating for a least 16 hours.

The third part of the book gives you practical tips for dealing with feelings you most likely will have when starting this program. There is also a large section of frequently asked questions about their 5-2 fasting method. This part is very detailed and one of the most helpful parts of the book. The book then gives sample menus for ten fast days at both calorie levels, plus recipes for the food given in the menus. The food is mostly plant based with a small amount of meat. The fast day food is nutritionally sound and nutrient dense and the recipes are simple and quick to make. The book ends with a collection of case studies and glowing comments. These ending comments seem more like an advertisement for the diet's wonderful benefits rather than an honest overview of people's experiences.

This type of plan seems more sustainable then a continuous fast for 3-4 days. It works because participates will naturally eat less on the other five days. Overall they are eating less than they were before they started the program. The book states that you can eating whatever you want on non fasting days which basically gives the green light to eat processed fast food. There is no science stated in this book that says you are hurting your health by eating junk food most of the time which is a big red flag. Since most of the benefits of fasting have only been seen in mice, it is too early to know if  a diet like this is truly a good idea.

Overall, the book seems more like a fad diet than a health eating plan. Fasting can have benefits but trying to promote the diet by hyping up the "eat whatever you want on the other days" feels like a ploy to sell books.

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How To Shop For Fresh Produce At A Farmer's Market

Shopping for fresh produce at your local farmer’s market is the one of the easiest and best ways to not only purchase fresh fruits and vegetables but to support your local farmers. Farmer’s markets can have a variety of fresh produce and flowers plus homemade food from people in the community. This is the freshest, tastiest and least expensive food you can buy when done right. With a little research and planning, you can come back from a farmer’s market with an array of fresh produce.

To find a local farmer’s market check out your local paper or online. Local Harvest lists all of the farmer’s markets from around the country. To pick a place to go to, make a visit the farmer’s market first before buying anything. During this visit, check out what the vendors offer and talk to the farmers. Find out how their fresh produce is grown, such as whether they use conventional or organic farming methods. Some farmer’s market vendors also sell meat, poultry and eggs. Find out how their animals were raised and if they are given any hormones or antibiotics. Also ask if the animals were grass fed or corn fed. The answers to these questions will be important and will help you decide if you will go to that particular farmer/farmers market. Sometimes conventional farmers have an oversupply of crops and need to sell them and use farmers market to get rid of this excess crop – this produce is essentially the same food as in the grocery store. If you are looking for fresh organic produce from local farmers you need to research the farmers.

Once you have decided on a particular market, it is important to begin with a list of items you will need -- just like when shopping at a grocery store. This starts with meal planning for the week. When you are planning meals, keep in mind what fruits and vegetables are in season at the time. Farmer’s markets sell fresh produce in season, meaning that at any given time the only produce available are those foods that ripen during that period. For example, you decide you want to make an apple dish but it is May and asparagus is in season. You will need to plan for this. Search the internet for a handy guide that tells you which fresh produce is in season in your area. If it is spring, you will find many spring vegetables such as asparagus, at the farm stand. If you are going in the fall you will find a variety of fresh fall fruit and vegetables such as apples and pumpkins. Plan meals according to the season and you will not have any trouble finding what you are looking for.

Next, plan to go early, preferably right when they open. You want to get the freshest produce and have as much selection as possible. If you go later in the day you risk losing out on the best fruits and vegetables. Much of the food will spoil from sitting out in the hot sun, and there will only be throwaways left. When you start shopping go to the vendors you picked out when you were doing your research and buy from them. Get as much as you can from your list—if you planned well you should be able to get most of the fresh produce from the farmers market. Also be sure to bring your own bags. Some vendors have bags but some may not. Bring a large reusable bag to make it easier to carry your food home.

Remember that all the food at the market is fresh from the ground or picked that day or the day before. These items are real foods that have not been processed in the way supermarket produce has been. You will need to know how to clean your fresh produce once you get it home. There will be clumps of dirt, some bugs, sand and other inedible material. This is to be expected. Get some good quality organic vegetable soap and wash your root vegetables and fruits. Submerse green in a sink full of water at least twice to clean out the dirt.

Shopping at the right farmer’s market can be a great experience. To find a market close to you visit www.localharvest.org.

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Save On Food By Growing Your Own Vegetables

Growing your own food is a money saving and healthy endeavor. Growing your own fruits and vegetables in a backyard garden can provide you with organic food at a significantly  lower cost than buying organic produce at the grocery store. Planting a backyard garden is not as difficult as some may believe, and it will produce enough food for the entire growing season and even longer when they are preserved for later use. Freezing or canning your garden produce can give you fresh summer vegetables during cold winter months without having to buy more at the grocery store.

Before you begin your garden you will need to decide where you are going to put your plot. Gardens do not have to be large fields. A small patch will fit you and your family’s needs perfectly. Many square food gardens are only about 4 feet by 4 feet. A patch this small can provide more than enough food for a family of four plus enough for preserving for later use or to give to a food pantry. Decide how much food you want to grow and create a garden that will fit that amount. A garden plot also needs to be in a sunny area, with well draining soil. Most food plants need full sun to grow properly.

Next, you will need to create exceptionally healthy soil. Building a raised bed is perfect for this and there are many square foot gardening kits available that have cut down on a considerable amount of work. Also raised beds allow you to fill the space with the kind of nutrient rich soil that will grow extremely nutritious organic food. The soil is the most important part of any garden as this is where the vegetables get their nutrients. You will want to put in a many nutrients as you can. To do this you will need to add compost to your raised bed. Compost is decomposed organic matter from grass clippings, dead leaves, kitchen scraps and other materials. It has so many healthy microorganism that a garden would not be complete with out it. You can start you own compost pile by putting kitchen scraps and dead leaves into a outdoor compost bin or in a big pile surrounding buy chicken wire. The matter needs to be rotated to make sure all of it breaking down and that it won’t start to smell like rotting food.

Once you have planned out where your plot will be and the kind of soil you will use, you need to decide what to plant. This should follow your taste buds—plant the foods you normally eat. If you eat a lot of bell peppers, plant a row of those. If you eat a lot of broccoli, plant a row as well. Pick whatever vegetables are your favorites and that you believe are easy to grow. If you are growing from seed, start them inside about 6 weeks before you plan on planting them into the ground. Planting from seeds is much less expensive than buying plants at the garden nursery. You certainly can buy the plants at the nursery as well and plant as soon as you get home. If you start your plants from seed you will need ample time to harden them off, or get the used to being outside. To do this take the plant outside every day, for an hour at first and then lengthen the amount of time the plant is outside. This method will ensure to not shock the tender plant. Once it has been exclusively outside for a few days you can plant it in the garden.

During the course of the season, water and weed to make sure your plants grow properly. It also helps to put some compost around them to beef up the nutrition of the soil. Check you garden daily to see how the plants are doing and keep a log of which plants are doing very well and which ones are not performing as you would have hoped. Continue to plant ones that do well, as they will produce the most food.

Soon you will have real vegetables that are ready to be harvested. Harvest the amount of food you need for a recipe right before you start to cook with it for maximum flavor and nutrition. Wash the vegetables with vegetable wash, and cook. The taste of fresh vegetables right out of the garden can not compete with the flavor of store bought produce. Plus, fresh from the garden vegetables have not lost any nutrients due being shipped and left sitting around in warehouses. You will have the highest quality food you can get and right from your own backyard.

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