Depression Busting Salad

Posted under healthy eating

 

Did you know that missing nutrients can cause depression? Or in times like these, make it waaaay worse than it already is.

 

Hey, today you need to do everything you can to rise above all of the chaos. You need a clear head!

 

You can beat depression by eating better.  Really! Here’s my favorite depression busting salad

 

Green leaf lettuce, washed and torn into bite sized pieces

Tomato

Red or purple onion, or green onions

Broccoli

Shredded carrot

Grilled chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces

Shredded taco cheese

Chow mien noodles for crunch

Catalina dressing

 

I wouldn’t worry about the little bit of fat. You need some fat with your meals to help your body properly use the nutrients. Did you know that?

 

You’ve probably been led to believe a lot of things that make you think that healthy eating is boring or gross. It’s not!

 

Top this off with a glass of orange juice and take your vitamins.

 

Try it and let me know how you feel!

 

Carole

 

Try a healthy eating plan that you’ll love >>>

 

Instant usually stinks

Posted under healthy eating, lose weight

 

I was having a conversation with someone about how awful instant food tastes, and how it makes no sense to me that people would eat that stuff when you can make real food that tastes good - just as fast, if not faster. 

 

And even when it takes a little longer – fresh real stuff always tastes better.

 

Pizzeria pizza

 

Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies

 

Real hot chocolate

 

And homemade anything, pretty much, right? Soups, stews, spaghetti sauce, …

 

I have a girlfriend who used to make a red velvet cake. It was awesome. She doesn’t make it from scratch anymore   I guess it’s a real mess to make. I’ll tell you, the box stuff doesn’t come close.

 

Instant is never as good.

 

And then you see stories all of the time about people who became instantly wealthy, usually by winning the lottery. Most of them have nothing left within 5 years. But the people who have built their wealth over the years usually hold on to it. And even if they lost it, they have the skills to rebuild. What are your chances of winning the lottery – a second time?

 

Then, I saw an ad for an instant weight loss product. While it’s true that you can lose weight quickly, it never stays off using these products, and many times may cause health problems. I mean, how many times have you lost and put back on the same weight?

 

But the people who take a year to lose the weight usually keep it off. I’ve seen it time and time again.

 

I had a girlfriend who lost the weight by giving up dessert.

 

I lost the weight by eating healthier – making sure to get my fruits and vegetables in every day. I lost even more weight when I quit drinking.

 

Another girlfriend lost the weight by increasing her fruits and vegetables, and eating more throughout the day instead of doing all of her eating when she got home late at night.

 

My daughter found it easier to control her weight if she gave up pop.

 

Another lady I talk to lost the weight by increasing her vegetables and walking the mall everyday. She actually stopped walking everyday because she said she’s lost too much weight.

 

All of these are principles of healthy eating.

 

Just eat healthier and get a little exercise - and within a year  – most people will level off to their natural body weight (of course, depending on how much weight you need to lose.) No dieting required.

 

And you don’t have to give up dessert! Just eat a piece of cake, not the whole cake

 

It may not be instant, but it’s glorious in the long run.

 

 

Carole

 

P.S. Need help with a healthy eating plan?

Just add meat

Posted under healthy eating

 

I hate grocery shopping. Always have. So I put off going to the store as long as possible.

Today, I looked in the fridge. There was a little lettuce, a little broccoli, one tomato, some leftover broccoli salad, and a quarter cantaloupe.

Cool. Sounds like a good dinner to me! Just add meat.

I swung by the store and picked up a top sirloin threw it in some marinade. When we were ready to eat, just grilled up the steak, cut up the veggies, and the cantaloupe, and wa-la! A great dinner.

Ok, I could have made tuna salad or cheese omelets. But, it’s been a stressful week. I wanted BEEF!

The point is, if you have fresh fruits and vegetables – you can make a great dinner easily. You just have to get past your own mental blocks.

One of the biggest mental blocks that I hear all of the time is – “it takes too long to cut up fruits and vegetables!”

No it doesn’t. And the more you do it, the faster you’ll get.

Think about it. Is that the only thing keeping you from being thin and healthy? For a lot of people, the answer is yes. Are you one of them? 

Are you tired of suffering and depriving yourself in the name of losing weight or trying to get healthy? Do I sound deprived? Of course not. That’s because I don’t buy into all of the lies. You don’t have to either. Just get the healthy eating plan for real people who like to eat. No flavored tofu here!

 

Have your healthy eating habits slipped?

Posted under healthy eating

 

Now that you’re all settling back into a routine –have you noticed that you’ve slipped back into unhealthy eating habits?

You might think that you’re saving time by grabbing fast food, or some instant stuff – but in reality, you’re only saving a few minutes.

And the down side?

Are you and/or your kids feeling sluggish in the afternoon?

Are you all too wiped out to do anything more than plop in front of the TV at night?

Are your kids having behavior problems?

Have you been more irritable and depressed, and overwhelmed?

Have you had a cold already?

Those are all sure signs that your eating habits have slipped a bit. But don’t worry, you can start feeling results in just a few days when you get back to a healthy eating plan.

Here are the absolute essentials of a healthy eating plan –

Eat 5 – 9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day. You can consider a glass of orange juice, or cranberry juice, or tomato juice, or V8 as a serving. Just make sure you’re getting some dark greens and some fresh fruit in there every day too. You can knock off 2 or 3 servings with a good salad every day.

I highly recommend one glass of orange juice, and one glass of cranberry juice a day. Both are highly beneficial. So is purple grape juice and tomato juice.

An ad in a recent Avon flyer said that “Vitamin C helps repair sun damage – Brighter more ever-toned skin in just 2 weeks!” Of course, they are trying to sell their Vitamin C serum, but the truth is, it works fine if you eat and drink things containing vitamins C, and take your vitamins – you will see results in less than 2 weeks! And you’ll get sick less often too.

I’ve written before about the wonders of cranberry juice. It really is amazing stuff. People used it forever to take care of kidney infections, but it also helps leg cramps, removes plaque from your arteries and your teeth, helps keep your gums healthy, helps flush out toxins, and helps build your immune system. Great stuff.

Get packaged foods out of your diet. They are filled with chemicals and corn syrup, and have few if any nutrients. And they taste bad.

There are tons of resources where you can learn to whip up healthy meals fast – from my cookbook, to Rachel Ray.

Drop the pop. It’s probably the worst thing for you. One can of pop a day can equal a weight gain of 10 pounds in a year. Plus, it’s bad for your teeth, causes sugar spikes, doesn’t quench your thirst, and has no nutrients. Diet pop is even worse for you, and now they are saying that diet pop is a leading cause of obesity.

We weren’t meant to eat chemicals. Get as many of them out of your diet as you can as quickly as possible. Replace them with great tasting nutrient rich foods.

Thousands of people are jumping on the healthy eating bandwagon. Last I checked, there were 6,771 searches a day for “healthy eating.”

It’s the surest way to cut your medical expenses!

Even putting all of that why you should stuff aside, it is so much more enjoyable to sit down and eat a good meal.

Last night I had a pork chop, sweet potato, broccoli salad, green onions and applesauce. (I think there’s a law that you have to have apple sauce with pork chops, isn’t there?)

Tonight I had a chicken breast, salad with green leaf lettuce, broccoli, and home grown tomatoes, buttered noodles, and cantaloupe.

We’re talking 15-minute dinners here. Great tasting and full of nutrients that will make you look and feel great.

If you haven’t jumped on the healthy eating bandwagon yet – what are you waiting for?

Have a plan - get thin

Posted under healthy eating

 

You’re just about to bite into that fast food burger and fries when a little voice inside your head whispers “you know you shouldn’t be eating that.”

 

As a matter of fact, not half an hour ago you were telling your friend how fat you are and that you really need to lose weight.

 

But that’s not even the worst of it.

 

You know 3 people who’ve been diagnosed with Cancer in the last few months, your best friend just started insulin shots, and your doctor is threatening to put you on blood pressure medication.

 

You shrug and join the chorus of “getting old is hell.”

 

But there’s this growing fear – What will happen to me?

 

Will you be on blood pressure meds the rest of your life?

 

Will you get diabetes and not be able to eat the foods you love?

 

Will you not be able to recognize your family – and get lost wandering the neighborhood?

 

Will you get Cancer?

 

And the truth is, if you keep eating the way most Americans eat, there’s a good probability that you will end up with at least one of the ‘Lifestyle Diseases.”

 

Oh, but you say – “There was this article recently that said that the American life expectancy was up!”

 

That’s true. There was. Later in that same article it said that there are 40 countries with longer life expectancies.

 

40 countries have longer life expectancies than the good ol US of A? How can that be?

 

Simple. They don’t eat the junk we do. They eat real food.

 

All of those “Lifestyle Diseases” are largely preventable. Just eat 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, cut out the packaged and fast foods and get more activity into your life. Just follow this lifestyle and you’ll dramatically just your risk of disease. Now, you never have to buy another health or diet book ever. You just learned the whole secret.

 

But if you’re at all like me – you want to have the energy you did in your 20s and 30s, be thin, strong and healthy, and look forever 35. And you want your kids to have a healthy lifestyle and avoid disease too. We all want our kids to be smart, healthy, and happy, don’t we?

 

You can do all of that by changing the way you eat.

 

Now don’t go getting all negative on me. Eating healthy doesn’t mean tofu, steel rolled oats, and all of this other weird stuff you see floating around. It’s not nearly as hard and mysterious as people make it out to be.

 

As a matter of fact, I’m a single mom and a business owner. I don’t have time to be putting out gourmet meals. It’s got to be fast, easy, and healthy. I don’t have time for us to be sick either.

 

You need a plan. (That’s why I wrote High Energy Eating for you.)

 

Most of your unhealthy eating habits are caused by forgetting to plan, don’t you agree? You forgot to take something out of the freezer, or you forgot something at the store – and you’re too tired to deal with it. It happens to me once in a while too.

 

And even then, how do you plan healthy meals that you can make fast?

 

OK, here’s a basic 101 on healthy meal planning.

 

First, find out what food will help you accomplish your health goals.

 

Do you want to lose weight?

 

Do you want to help prevent cancer?

 

Do you want to keep your blood pressure or sugar levels under control?

 

Do you want to look younger, have more energy…

 

Whatever your health goals, find the foods that will help you achieve them. If you already own High Energy Eating, just go to the foods guides

 

Now, make a list of all the foods you and your family should be eating. Sort them by putting the foods you like at the top of the list.

 

If you do sale paper menu planning like I’ve taught you, it will be easy to plan your menus for the next week – cheap.

 

And if you’re eating a healthy diet, you can just shop the outside edge of the store and be out in a flash.

 

And, most of your fresh fruits and vegetables don’t even need to be cooked. How fast is that? If you have fruits and veggies, and a piece of meat, chicken, or fish on hand – you can make a dinner in a flash.

 

So there you have it, the basics of a healthy eating plan.

 

Happy eating!

 

Carole