Your Weight! Your Health! Your Skin!

Hi guys,

Just a quick smoothie recipe that I tried out, with fantastic results.

With the smoothies article that I shared with you, about how I make my own smoothies, today I tried a different smoothie right after gym. It doesn’t have to be for breakfast, you can do one for lunch or supper also. Have  a look at the article about the smoothies that I wrote a couple of days ago.

For my tropical breakfast, I used 250 ml of fat free yogurt

180 ml of 100% fruit juice, which was a mixture of orange, pineapple and pear juice

5 strawberries, a full banana and 1 kiwi fruit

About half  of a mango, that is chopped and frozen

That is all I needed for my smoothie. I put everything into my blender, a minute later I was enjoying it.

So get creative, and healthier at the same time.

For the longest time bad things were being said about eggs, things that at some point I was believing. Eggs were said to be contributing to the cholesterol that people were being diagnosed from.

Now, I couldn’t eat eggs for two years straight because I had an allergic reaction to them. That was a sad time for me, because sometimes I would watch the family eat them and I couldn’t. The frustrating thing is that I didn’t understand the medical explanation behind. How is it possible that a person could eat eggs the rest of their life, and all of a sudden, seriously react to eating them? They said it was the yolk? Anyway, back to the goodness of eggs . . .

Today, I am going to set a record about the good and the ugly about eggs.

It turns out that eggs are a good source of high quality proteins, vitamins and minerals. This is very good news for vegetarians because they benefit from the vitamin b12 found in eggs as they don’t consume meat, so they lose  out on the vitamin b12 from meat. Vitamin b12 is vital for the functioning of all cells, especially the bone marrow, nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract.

It is a known fact that egg yolk contains lecithin. Lecithin is basically a type of fat that provides the body with choline. Choline is an important component for all membranes in the body.

Eggs are also a source of dietary cholesterol, which is why a lot of people, including health experts thought that eggs were the enemy when it comes to cholesterol. It has become clear though in recent years that the saturated hard fats found in sausages and fatty meats is what has the greatest impact on blood cholesterol.

Even with the knowledge we have, experts are still recommending cholesterol to a 300g daily consumption. People who suffer from coronary heart disease or who have a history of coronary disease in their family should not consume more than 200mg of cholesterol a day.

So how do you know how much eggs to consume in a week?

Here is a guideline, a single large egg consists of about 230mg of cholesterol. So in essence, you do not want to eat eggs more than 4 times a week. even for egg freaks like me, that is still great news.

So go on, you can enjoy your eggs with your breakfast, just make sure you prepare them healthily. I personally prefer fried eggs, even I know that boiling them is the healthier option.  On my cheat days, I fry them, with olive oil.

So the lesson is, eggs are not the enemy!

Hi,

Here is a great recipe I found that I wanted to share with you, I hope you will try it at home.

To prepare this meal you will need the following:

450g stir-fry vegetables

2.5 – 4ml chilli powder

5 ml chopped coriander

5ml ground cumin

5ml crushed garlic

2 medium onions

30 ml olive oil

4 -6 x 100 g fish steaks,  preferably cut into cubes

2 sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, drained and chopped

2 large sliced baby marrows

30 ml fresh lime juice

fresh coriander for garnishing

It is quite an extensive number of ingredients but they really make a great healthy meal. To prepare, heat the oil in a non stick frying pan and fry the onions over low heat until soft

Mix together the garlic, cumin, coriander and chilli powder together. Add this to the onions and stir for a about a minute or two.

Add the fish and continue to stir-fry for 3 – 5 minutes until the fish is cooked through

Add the vegetables, tomatoes and baby marrows and continue stirring for another 2 minutes

You can now add a little water if the food appears dry

Sprinkle with lime juice before serving, and garnish with coriander

The food should now be ready for serving. It is a great meal and it can serve up to 6 people.

If you enjoyed this recipe, share it with your friends, family and colleagues.

Ok so you don’t have the perfect body, so what?

It does not mean that you should be out there punishing yourself by going into a diet. A diet is supposed to be a positive thing not a punishment, a decision where you take your power back. A diet is supposed to symbolize that you have made a decision about the direction you want your body to take. In fact, the number one reason why most people do not stay long enough to see results with diets or always gain all their weight back is because most diets are not sustainable. To me, a diet is being conscious of what I am putting in my mouth, eating healthily and managing my food portions. It does not include me staying away from great foods, that are beneficial to my body.

So today, we look at a concept of diet without sacrifice. For most people a diet implies giving up their favorite foods and eating foods that are tasteless and horrible to the mouth. It is time to turn this phenomenon around. And I am talking from experience.

I used to be one of those people who thought eating healthily involved eating boring foods, but it is once I started experimenting with food, and learning more about it, did I start coming out with not so bad tasting foods. I started finding out about spices that I could use to make my food exciting.

Spices can turn even the most boring foods into something even you can enjoy. I tend to be lazy a lot, especially because I stay alone and it gets really boring to cook a grand meal for one person. As a result I eat a lot of fish and chicken because they are really quick to prepare, and on top of that they are lean. That’s where spices come in.

Instead of using marinades or butter on these, I use spices, which is great because I don’t have to pack on the calories. Lately I have been trying Italian seasoning, and it is not a bad choice when it comes to the calories. These spices will even work to revamp your salad, so get creative.

You can even enjoy the occasional treat when dieting as long as you do so sparingly, that’s what I do. The key when dieting is to learn about proper portions and moderate indulgence. There are all kinds of low sugar or low carb desserts  that you can enjoy sparingly, the same way I do. You can even find sugar free or low calorie candy in some cases though you should keep in mind that calories, particularly when it comes to candy you eat unconsciously add up quickly and you must pay close attention to those things you put into your mouth.

The point I am trying to make is that you do not have to sacrifice flavor in order to diet or to eat healthily. Seasonings are a great way to add a lot of flavor for a tiny bit of effort on your part. Desserts are also great and you can find many dips and sauces that can be made with fat free or low fat mayonnaise or sour cream in order to cut a few more calories during your dieting process. Now this just to make your diet sustainable. You still need to be aware of all the things you are putting into your mouth, and what the repercussions are.

These dips and sauces can often make a great substitution, when paired with vegetables, for those chips and dips we love so much and often miss when dieting or when we are trying to eat healthily. Cucumbers, green, red, and yellow peppers, broccoli, and carrot sticks all have a nice little crunch to them that when combined with a good low fat dip can help cure the crave beast for greasy chips that often rears its head when dieting.

If you watch your calories carefully during meals you should be delighted to know that there are many little snack treats that are prepackaged in 100 calorie packs for your enjoyment. This means that you can indulge on occasion in those treats that you love most without sacrificing all your dieting efforts in the process.

We all want the benefits of losing weight and will readily admit that if it were a simple process we’d all be thin. However, opting for a low calorie snack now and again is not a sin. It can definitely make the difference in sustaining your diet and healthy eating habits.

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Today is Wednesday and they have a special at my favorite pizza place: Bacon, salami, ham, mushrooms, onions, garlic  and quite a bit of dough. Mm just thinking about the taste makes my mouth watery. You can see that I really love my meat, and all that meat has a fair share of fat!

Great as the temptation was to get my favorite pizza, I am ecstatic to announce that I resisted the temptation. Instead I opted for a salad and fish, and I feel great!

I not only love fish for its great taste, I also love it because it is a great source of protein, and it is really quick to prepare. Do you know that the protein we eat is vital for tissue repair as well as the formation of hormones and enzymes that control our body’s chemical process.

Fish is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids help to lower your risk of getting coronary heart disease. The types of fish that you want to include in your diet are pilchards, sardines and mackerel. Snoek fish and salmon are also great sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

For people like me who are weight conscious, fish is really amazing because it it has fewer kilojoules when compared to other foods that are good sources of animal protein.

The best way to cook fish? Avoid frying, especially in animal fat or butter. Opt for grilling or baking or steaming it or poaching.

I had hake with my salad, and even though it does not have huge amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, it is definitely a healthier choice than consuming pizza.

Now I am not saying I am off pizza for good, but it felt great to make healthy food choices.

Write in tell me what you had to give up this week for your health?

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