Weight Loss By Eating : Now You Can Eat Yourself Thin!

Weight Lost By Eating

Now You Can Eat Yourself Thin!

No More Restrictive Diet

No More Going Hungry

Stay Fit & Healthy

And 100% Natural!

Introduction

            Obesity can be viewed as a disease. I would say around 2/3'rd of Americans are overweight and this somewhat lead to the idea that obesity is a norm. Technology also does not help as it makes more things automated and leaving you less work to do. There are several signs to know if you are overweight or not. You see the bump of fat all around your body. You have difficulty breathing, can't run for more than 10 seconds before running out of breath, the lid of the ketchup jar is too tight for you to open normally but your younger sister can do that easily.

            Another method is using the BMI index. It is measured by dividing your height by weight. That method itself is not reliable as it can be misleading for some people. Another scientific method to know if you’re fat or not are to measure the waistline. The waistline is measured and then it is compared with your shoulder length. The bigger your waistline is, the more obese you are. Being a little over weigh is not a big problem. If you have a bigger waistline but you exercise, eat properly and lead a healthy lifestyle, then you do not need to go on a diet. This book is for people who know that they can't wear anything smaller than XL size. They are the people that should be worried. Other than clothes problem, they also need to worry about health complications like:

ü  Blount’s disease where you gain too much weight and it deforms your lower leg bones.

ü  Arthritis is a problem where the joint of the bones are overused causing wear and tear. This is not unusual to the older generations but younger obese people will face that problem.

ü  Sleep apnea is also another serious problem for obese people. It is a problem where you sometimes stop breathing thus interrupting your sleep and having little res. this can also leads to heart problems.

ü  High blood pressure is also another common problem obese people faced. The heart needs to wok extra hard to pump blood and it will cause more pressure on your arteries. Prolong condition will cause the heart and arteries to wear out.

ü  Depression is one of the common mental problem obese people have. Because of their size, they are usually the main target for bullying, jokes and criticism. This also causes them to have lower self-esteem.
When there is too much fat in the body, the insulin will have a hard time getting glucose to the cells. Thus more insulin is needed to maintain a normal blood sugar level. If there is too much resistance for the insulin, the problem might progress into diabetes.

ü  If there is too much fat in the liver, the liver might suffer from scarring, inflammation or even permanent liver damage.

ü  Obese female may suffer from polycystic ovary syndrome where they miss their period or even not get one at all. This can lead to excess testosterone hormones that cause acne, excess hair growth and even baldness. The testosterone hormone will also interfere with the ovulation process and cause infertility.

            If you look at all the health complications that comes with excess eating and lack of exercise, you shouldn't be surprise of most of the obese people do not live past 60. When they realize that, it is when the need to diet comes out and they want to do something before it is too late for them.

Facts About Diet and Weight Loss

            If a particular diet don't work is because it causes you starve yourself. This in turn leads you to have major craving afterward, making you lose willpower and eat more than you are suppose to. It feels like you get out of control emotionally and physically.

            When you go on a diet, it is not about keeping watch on the food you eat. There are several other factors you should know about before starting your diet. The problems you will be facing or how to prepare yourself physically and mentally are just an example what some diet plan does not touch about.

            First of all, you will encounter food cravings when you are doing your diet. It is fairly unavoidable, but you can do several things to suppress it. First you can eat healthy snacks like celery or grapes. These healthy snacks will help in suppressing some of the cravings you have by filling your stomach with it. So it is best that you don't avoid meals when you're on a diet. An empty stomach will just make you want to eat even more. Starving yourself is also a bad idea. This will cause you to crave even more and break your diet. Sometimes your hunger can just be an indication that you are thirsty, not hungry. Keep yourself hydrated or drink a cup of water before you decide to look for some snacks.

            If you have a specific cravings then do not keep any of the food you crave in your house. This will only tempt you into eating them. Try to do other things to keep your mind off the craving such as watch a movie or take a drive to the park. The cravings that you feel are mostly out of your old habits screaming to come back. It is alright to give in to your cravings once a while because plainly forbidding them does have a negative effect on your mind. This will make you feel less guilty about giving into your temptations while keeping it in check.

            Diet is also a slow and long process. There are several processes to speeds things up but it would require a lot of work and motivation. This is not recommended as most people already cannot keep up with the normal diet plan. Most people who are on diet also are not able to commit to it fully alone. At other times they also stop dieting once they reach their weight goal and start gaining weight again. So it is best to have a long term plan where you would have an easier time to commit yourself for a long time even though the process might seem slower.

            You do not need any special food to start your diet. It is usually unnecessary and is just an extra burden to your wallet. The fundamental philosophy of burning more calories than you'll need in a day is more than enough to set the path. If you would spend extra to replace all the cookies with organic diet cookies so you can continue to eat fast food, then is the same as you having a balanced meal daily with any extra supplements. Also the recommended foods for diets are usually cheaper than the normal meal that you always have.

            Diet will not work if you do not exercise. A rough average of the daily caloric need for a male adult is 2000. This varies between people as they have different metabolism rate, body build and even daily activities done. If you are a person that just sits at home and does not exercise at all then you would not see a big result in your diet. You will be consuming 2000 calories a day but you are only burning off 2500 calories a day. So it will take a long time to see a proper result for your diet.

            There is also a high possibility that you will fail in your first attempt to diet. It can be of various reasons but you shouldn't give up. It takes a lot of tries to find the perfect diet plan for yourself and you should look at past mistakes to see what you can learn from them. Also know that you can be an inspiring model to your family and friends who want to take up dieting. You should support them in their diet so their success will help give you more confident in your diet.

How They Work

            Losing weight is simple; lose more calories than you can eat. We eat because it is a necessity. The food we consume will be processed by our body, breaking them down and only keeping what is needed while throwing out the rest. We do tasks daily and our body uses calories and nutrients from our food to do all that task. But our body only needs a certain amount of calories to do all those. All the unused calories will be stored in our body as fat.

            The problem with our body is there is no way to tell it to stop storing calories. All excess calories will be converted into fat no matter how much fat you have in your body already. Most of us would always eat more than we need, taking in all those extra calories to thus being overweight. So a diet is supposed to help you lose those extra calories.

            A diet is an eating plan where you would control the amount of calories taken. Eating less is not the only way to diet. Since the goal is to eat fewer calories, you can have constant food but it is low on calories. So food like fruits or vegetables is low on calories if you compare it on the same amount with other food like meat.

            When you are dieting, you will be eating less than normal. So you would feel hungrier throughout the day and feel more unsatisfied when you finish your meal. It cannot be avoided since you are after all trying to lower your calorie intake. Do not be mistaken with skipping meals or starving yourself. Those will only worsen your diet conditions.

            What diet would include is to help suppress that hunger, let it be psychologically or physically. Diet will always prepare you psychologically first before starting it. This is to ensure that you will be able to keep on the diet plan for the whole duration and reach your goal. Diet plans will also give you alternatives snacks that you can eat to suppress your cravings.

            When you are on a diet, don't think that you will be having water and vegetables to last for the whole day. Diet actually promotes eating a balance meal. You only want to have a lower calorie count but the rest of the nutrients shouldn't be ignored.

            So when you are avoiding certain kind of foods, you would also be avoiding their nutrients. So the diet plan will show you alternative food you can take to replace the missing nutrients. Usually these foods are avoided and not forbidden completely. So you can still eat them in small portion once a while.

            A good diet also contributes to your natural metabolism. Each person has his own rate of metabolism. A person with higher rate of metabolism will be able to burn more calories a day. A proper diet plan can help people with low metabolism to fully utilize them.

            Like having a proper breakfast to jump start the metabolism, lunch to keep the energy going and eating less for dinner since you do not burn as much calories at night. This is to ensure that you have enough calories for the day.

Rule of Thumb

            When you want to keep a diet plan, discipline is one of the most important factors. Weight loss through proper diet will take from months to years to achieve your proper weight. Diet that is extreme and promote speedy result can turn into a form of yo-yo dieting. Yo-yo dieting is a term where a person following a diet and manage to lose his weight but eventually will eat and gain more than he lose.

            This happens because the diet he followed was too extreme; limiting his food intake and forbidding a lot of food category. So he cannot take all these diet thus giving in and eating more. Or it can be due to the lack of discipline after the targeted weight is achieved. This is usually the cause when you go for extreme hyper caloric diet.

            So to avoid that, dieters are advised to go slow in their dieting where it will take months to see big result and where majority will quit halfway. It is not easy to change a habit you built up for years. So that is why you need a lot of discipline, willpower and determination to be able to stay on diet.

            Changing a habit is hard at first. You must stick to your diet plan daily for the first month. This will set the foundation later when you are going on further into your diet. At that time, your willpower will be at its peak so it is best to take advantage of it and train your body to accept the new changes. So when you enter the middle stages, your willpower might not be as strong as before but your habit will kick in and you will already be used to your new diet.

            No one have to do the diet alone. You should get a friend to help or even diet with you. Do not enlist help from friends who does the opposite. By having someone beside you for encouragement, you can also slowly see the result in each other. It also helps to have someone to confide in when you think that the diet is not working out for you.

            When you pick a diet to follow, you should consider a few diet plans that might be similar to the one that you are already doing. This is to diversify the diet. Following the same diet that you hate over and over again will have a negative effect on your willpower later on.

            This might even cause you to abandon your diet. So by diversifying your diet, you will find a diet plan that you'll like and won't feel bored watching what you eat. You can cycle diet plan by weekly or monthly, making the diet eating plan fresh.

            If you are offered food, try to politely refuse the food offered first by explaining to the host that you are watching your weight. He should understand your situation and not pursue it. But if the host kept on insisting that you have some, and then take a smaller portion of the food.

             Eating a smaller portion is always better than taking a full course and you should not feel that you are offending the host by eating so little. Do take note that if you have broken one of your diet meals, this does not mean your whole day is ruined and you should not continue to follow your diet plan for the rest of the day. Just continue your day as if you never broken your diet in the first place.

Preparation

Evaluate yourself: “What is it I exactly want

            It’s important to make preparation before you begin your diet. What is utmost important is that you understand what you getting yourself into and what exactly you want out of it. Like they say, an arrow without a target never misses.

            Before boiling down to carrying out this diet, it is vitally important that you understand you will need to have a plan. You can call it your supercharged weight loss battle plan, or come up with something original for yourself. Give it a name, especially one that emotionally charges you and motivates you, that makes you want to get up each morning to do what it takes to get fit, lean and beautiful, giving yourself the body you have always wanted.  As the saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail.

            With that in mind you will now, not later, now decide what exactly you want out of yourself. Tell yourself right now what is your ideal outcome. Now write it down in a piece of paper stating what exactly you want.

Make sure you did this before you continue…

I’m watching you…come on go take a piece of paper and write this down.

Now you really want this don’t you? Then do this right now, and you can have it.

Okay, welcome back… assuming that you have already done this.

Continuing…

Now, note how it feels to have the body, to get what you want.

·         Does it feel good?

·         Do you feel vitalized, energized?

·         Do you feel like you can take on the world?

·         Do you feel sexy and beautiful?

·         Do you feel like you can woo any man or woman with your charm and charisma?

·         Do you feel aweee…ssoomeee!?

            Notice how you feel, and jot them down in words, single word for each feeling you get to help quickly remind you how it feels like to get what you want when you look at your supercharged battle plan.

            What I have gone through with you will be your supporting pillar to getting what you want. The intended result is for you to be forward looking towards your drop dead gorgeous body.  If you do not find yourself looking forward towards it, ask a different question to yourself, ask question(s) that gives you an emotionally charged answer that motivates you and give you the courage, confidence and determination to march forward to claim what is rightfully yours. You have every right to have a drop dead gorgeous body you want and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise (including yourself!).

            Congratulation if you have successfully completed this process. Now you have a supporting pillar, your own personal coach per se. Each morning when you wake up, begin your day by reading and imagining what you have written for your supercharged battle plan. Watch the words closely as they come alive and live inside your body. Notice that these words will slowly affect your subconscious mind that within the next 7 days, you will start noticing many of the tasks you deem to require effort become effortless like.

“Begin with the end in mind” is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.”

~ Stephen R. Covey from “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”

            The preparation you have done is based upon Stephen Covey’s rock solid principle. It’s the second principle or habit that he mentions in his book titled “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”

            You do not need to know exactly how it works.

            You only need to make it work for you.

            However, if you are interested, I would personally recommend that you could read or download the free audio on this website. You may get a better idea about “Beginning with the end in mind”.

            Link to visit to learn more about Habit #2 of Covey’s “Seven Habit” – “Begin with the end in mind”:

http://www.philosophersnotes.com/ideas/show/stephen-covey-stephen-covey-begin-with-the-end-in-mind

Eating habit

         

          The most fundamental way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you consume. A diet helps you achieve that goal by limiting your food intake. The less food you take, the fewer calories you store and the more calories lost you will get per day. Eating less sounds like a simple idea to follow but there is more you need to do.

            A constant eating habit is first what you need to achieve. Naturally we would only need to eat three times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. The snacks in between is optional depending per person. When you are on a diet, you need to train your body to accept food at a fixed time everyday. This is to tell your body when it should start working on the food you eat and prepare your body's metabolism.

            For each meal that you eat, you should plan to break them down into two. So Breakfast -> Snacks -> Lunch -> Snacks -> Dinner. You just need to have smaller portions for breakfast, lunch and dinner while eating healthy snacks to last in between. What this do is to let your body to fully burn all the calories that you eat and only store enough for the day. By breaking down your meals into smaller portion and more frequent, you would not have to worry about eating too much at one time.

            When you have your meals, try having them with people. This social meal helps you to be more wary about the food you eat and also be able to be a role model for the children. When you eat in front of the computer or TV, it might lead to over eating. The snacks that you kept putting into your mouth will build up over time and causing you over eat.

            When you eat, the first part of digestion is already happening when you start chewing in your mouth. The food is first broken down into smaller pieces and then passed to the stomach to finish up. So when you do not chew properly, bigger food chunks will enter the stomach and be poorly digested. This will leads to more fat formation in the body. Also, the body takes a while to process whether you are full or not. So if you eat and chew slower, you can let the body to process the information to the brain whether you should stop eating or not.

            After your meal, do not go to sleep immediately. By doing that, you are telling the body to rest while there is still food inside your body. Partial digestion will leads to more fat. So actually try to walk around after your meal. This will keep the blood flowing so your body will be able to distribute the energy around your body more equally. This also means you should not eat 4 3-4 hours before you sleep. This is to let your body properly digest your dinner before preparing to go to sleep.

Food To Avoid

            When you go on a diet, it is inevitable certain food will go into do not eat list. These food usually contain high calories/sugar/fat and other unnecessary nutrients to your body. So these few food that is listed below is food that you should avoid but not banned forever. The word never is a negative word that should not be used in your diet. You are just eating it less frequent.

·         If you are a heavy drinker, then you should start slowing down on your drinks. One 12 oz beer a day can contain can make you gain half a kilo in a week if you do not exercise.

·         A 100 gram for beef will contain around 167 calories but 100 gram of celery will contain only 16-17 of calories. So if you bring them up to serving size, which you think will be able to keep your stomach full but still keep healthy? Of course you would pick a serving of celery. It is normal as meat contains a lot of saturated fat.

·         Cakes are not far behind when it comes to calories count. A normal piece of pound cake contains around 360 calories which most of it comes from fat. Even a fat free pound cake contains 240 calories.

·         Avoid snack bars; they are loaded with calories that are more than beer.

·         Potato chips always contain a lot of salt and fat. 10 pieces of it can give you over 100 calories.

·         Fast foods are never low on calories. They are always deep fried, contains a lot fat and sugar.

·         Meat sausages are a mixture of mostly unwanted meat and they contain a lot of fat. Vegetarian sausages are a better alternative.

·         One piece of a normal glazed donut has even more calories than a can of beer, 240 calories.

·         Eggs overall should be avoided. Most of the calories and cholesterol comes from the egg yolk. The egg white is relatively low on cholesterol and calories count is not high. But most food that has egg mixed in usually includes the egg yolk as well. So when you eat any eggs you cooked yourself, try to skip the egg yolk.

·         Ice creams are flagged for high calories. Most ice cream is made with full cream milk that is the main cause of the high calorie count.

Not all nuts are made equal. Some are good for your diet while others have a lot of calories packed in them. Be sure to check first which nuts you should eat for your diet.

Food to Eat

          For your diet, you should already know what food you should avoid. Now you need to know what food to eat. In a diet, you would need a balanced meal through the whole day. So taking in account the food restriction, most of your meal would come from vegetables and fruits. If you take a look at the food pyramid, it would already show you what food your body needs and what it least needs.

            Carbohydrate is the most important for the body to produce energy, it is followed by fruits and vegetables and then meat with nuts and finally salt, oil and etc. The basic body only needs on an average of 2000 calories a day so you should not exceed that. Your serving of carbohydrate can be less in a day and this can be covered up by eating more vegetables and fruits. If you can avoid any meat, then please do so. Fruits and vegetables are not known to have a lasting filling effect so when you choose to snacks, choose one that is low on calories, salt and sugar.

            Another thing to take note is that you need to consider the glycemic index of each food. The glycemic index is determined by how fast glucose enters your bloodstream as glucose. The lower the index, the slow the absorb rate will be. Naturally we would want food that is low on the glycemic. Slower absorption, the less glucose we take into our body. Other than helping us to lose weight, we would also be able to control our sugar level.

            Foods that have low glycemic index are usually fruits and vegetables while bread, grains, starches and pasta have high glycemic index.

            Negative calorie also would determine what diet food you should have. Negative calorie means you would need to burn the same or even more calories just to digest the food.

            An example is where you are given a choice of 150 calorie of hard cookie to 100 calorie of a soft cake. While most of us would take the soft cake because it has a lower calorie index, the correct answer will be choosing the hard cookie. The soft cake is easy to digest and your body will absorb the full calorie. Meanwhile, the hard cookie will need more calories to digest it and your body will spend 80 calories to just digest the cooking so it means you only take in 70 calorie into your body.

Food Diary

          When you are doing your diet, it is important to keep a food diary. It is to keep track of your daily to monthly consumptions and count the calories intake. It is to let you keep track of your progress so you would know what went wrong or if there is anything that needs improvement. In your diary, you should include these few things.

·         The estimated size of the serving that you had

·         The kind of food did you eat. The more specific you can get, the better. If you are adding any extra such as ketchup or salad dressing, be sure to write them down as well.

·         The time when you ate that food.

·         Were you alone when you had your meal or alone?

·         Where did you have your meal?

·         Did you do anything while you were eating like example watching TV or talking to someone?

·         What was the mood did you have when you were eating?

            Bring your food diary where ever you go and always write down anything that you eat or drink. A little think like a small candy, some soda, some pretzels or a piece of donut may not seem much at one day but keep eating them for a week and they will add up into a lot of extra calories. Do not wait until the end of the day to write things into your food diary.

            Write it down before you eat your meal so you can inspect the food and not miss any small details. Be specific and always add in the extra. An extra butter slice on your toast should be written down and do not generalize your food. For example saying vegetables for the broccoli you ate.

            Why do you need this food diary? It is so you can keep track of the calories intake you have per day. Sometimes people on diet do not know why they are not losing weight. A food diary will let you know what the main cause is for you not losing enough weight.

            Also, you would be able to count the estimated total calories you have per day and you can decide on how to adjust your diet even more. You can also decide when you can treat yourself to the cake you crave. If it has been a week since you last ate it, then go ahead and eat it guilt free.

            When you look back to your food diary after a few months, you will notice how much your food preference changed. This is to tell you that you are improving with your diet and what seem impossible then feels so easy now. Another reason is to boost your own self control. You would be able to control what you eat and not let yourself to lose to that cake cravings.

Exercising

          Exercising and dieting are two things that go hand in hand. If you just diet without exercising, you may not see any result at all because you are not losing calories fast enough in your diet. Also if you do manage to lose weight without dieting, you would look thin and frail as you lose your fat. So it is better to exercise to keep your body fit while you diet. There are also other reasons to exercise.

            A recent survey showed that seven out of ten adults do not exercise regularly and close to four out of ten are not physically active. If you do not exercise, then you will risk getting stroke, diabetes and heart disease. This has lead to death for about 300 000 people.

            Before you start exercising, you should consult a physician. This is to know your current body condition and see if you would risk injuries if you perform tiring exercise activities. When you first start out exercising, do it slowly. First start off with only 10 minutes which then is increase to 20 minutes then to 30 minutes and so on and so forth over the period of months. This will help avoid your body to feel very sore after each work out and decrease any injury risk.

            You should at least do 30 minutes or more of moderate cardiovascular activities each day. You do not have to do all 30 minutes together; it can be even short bouts of intermittent activities. Then twice a week, do exercise that would train your muscles. You can incorporate this physical exercise into your daily life. For example, take the stairs to the office instead of the elevator; go for a jog during your lunch time or park further away from your work place.

            If you feel this is a too much of a chore, why not try to make your leisure time more active. Instead of sitting at home only, ask your family out for a bicycle ride, join a rock climbing club or just stroll the park every evening.

            Pick out exercising activities that you would enjoy to do, find it satisfying and gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Successful run will motivate you more to be physically active. Make it easy for you to be active by picking exercise that is easier accessible so you will not be unmotivated every time you want to perform your exercise. Lastly, pick out exercise that is compatible with your body and current age.

Sticking To Diet

            To make any diet a successful one, you need to be committed to it. Only with a right mind can you reach success. To prepare yourself, you need know what stage are you in before you can move on the next stage of your diet. It might not be obvious but it is there.

            First stage is pre-contemplation. You do not see yourself as being over weight. You do not feel like changing yourself. Only with strong pressure then you would see help. But then you would resist and changes and just be demoralized as you see your own situation as hopeless.

            Second is contemplation. This is where you acknowledge that you have an over weight problem and starts to think of a solution. But you are not willing to perform that solution. You would just brood over it, knowing what actions to take to make a change but never ready to do so. You would even procrastinate about performing the solution.

            Third is preparation. You finally decided to do something about your overweight problem. You move on from brooding about your problem to realizing your solution. You would also start to think about the future where you are slimmer and better looking. But at this stage you are not fully resolved yet. You would still have second thoughts about the solution as it requires you to change your lifestyle.

            Fourth is action. You start to take action in losing weight. You would start choosing the food you eat and exercise every other day. It is the first step in achieving your targeted goal.

            The final step would be maintenance. You need to keep the momentum going that you have in the action stage. If at anytime you lose your commitment or support, then you would fall back to any of the previous stages.

            So the final stage is the most important stage in your diet plan as you need to keep your commitment going for a long time. There are several methods you can use to keep being committed. First is to make a list about the reason why are you doing this in the first place. Look at the list daily to remind you of your goals. Do not have negative thoughts in your mind. Words like "never" or "depriving" should not be in your vocabulary. Rather than saying "never", you are just having desserts "occasionally". And so the word "deprived" can be replaced with the word "choosing" as you choose to skip chocolate cakes.

            Visualize in your mind about your future slim self doing all the things that you always wanted to do. This visualization will strengthen your motivation to commit and desire to succeed. Do this visualization daily, every time you wake up and anytime of the day you feel your commitment is weakening.

Evaluate Your Diet And Make Necessary Changes

         

          When you go on a diet, you do not have to restrict yourself to a single diet plan. You are free to change the diet plan anytime you want. The reason could be from it is not working for you or you do not feel that you can commit to it. But when you change your diet plan, there will be some consequences to it.

            First is how do you acknowledge the truth about yourself. A lot of people will diet until they reach their targeted weight and then starts to go back to their old habit before the diet started. You would notice this as the pants you wear starts to get tight and you have to wear your old pants again. When that happens, you would ignore it or acknowledge that your problem is back

            Second is how will you eat out your diet plan? Will you eat it while you are at work or when you are traveling? How about the times that you need to eat your diet food and will you like your new diet food?

            Friends and family affect your diet plans as well. If you are surrounded by people that are constantly overweight, how will you overcome that culture? Sometimes their influence can have a positive or negative effect on your diet.

            The diet you choose, will you love it? Following a diet is one thing but liking it is another. If you know that you will not be able to commit to the diet plan, maybe you should ask yourself what is wrong and why can't you follow it.

            Sometimes you might change your diet plan too much until people are criticizing about your effort. When that happens, you should prepare yourself ahead of time to either response actively or passively.

            The diet plans will also sometimes require you to have a change of environment. When that happens, are you willing to make those changes in addition to the food changes?

            You should also take account of local restaurant when you change your diet. You cannot expect to constantly cook at home all the time. So when you visit these restaurants, will they be able to fit into your new diet plan?

            When starting a diet, it is important to make it a habit. But when you change your diet, you might have to change your habit as well. Sometimes you might be able to do some adjustment to your current habit to fit the new diet plan.

            Last question to ask yourself is about your kitchen. Since you want to be able to control your diet, so cooking your own meal is the easiest way. So when you change your diet plan, you need to consider about your current kitchen condition. What will happen to your current food stock? Do you have all the appliances needed to make this diet work?

Eat yourself to thin

          Losing weight is always tied to eating less. It is because you need to have negative calories by the end of the day. It is counted by having the total calories that you eat in a day minus the amount of calories you burn. While the amount of calories burnt per person varies, the general idea is a person would burn 2000 calories a day just surviving. This means the organ is working, functioning brain and you are breathing.

            So to have lower than 2000 calories a day, you need to limit your food intake. This is so you would take fewer calories per day. You might think that only by limiting your food intake, that is the only way to achieve that. That idea works but it is already considered outdated. There is a new diet plan that lets you eat all that you want, keeping your stomach full but still keep the calories count in check. This is really eating yourself to a slimmer figure.

Good Nutrient, Bad Nutrient

           

            Foods that we take are digested. Beneficial nutrients will be absorbed; the rest will be taken out. Even in those nutrients, there are some that you would want to have less of it when you are dieting. Carbohydrates and fats are the two main nutrients that you would want to avoid. Carbohydrate is one of the main sources of energy. It will be broken down into glucose and be absorbed by the cells as food. If you introduce too much carbohydrate one time into your body, then you will get an insulin spike and prolong effect will cause diabetes.

            Fat despite the general view of society plays an important factor in our body. Not only it is one of the main sources of energy, it also helps in absorbing Vitamins A, D, E, and K. Without them, you can't receive those vitamins at all. So if you are a growing teenager, it is not advisable that you completely skip food that contains fat unless it is specified by your doctor.

            Since our body require those carbohydrate and fats but the diets wants to limit our intake of those two, I bet you are wondering how are you going to eat yourself to thin. The answer simply lies in your choice of food. Even in those carbohydrate and fats, there are the good kinds and the bad kinds. So naturally we would want to control our intake of the good nutrients and avoiding the bad.

Good Carbohydrate

            Natural carbohydrate is in most food that is natural like oatmeal, potatoes and whole wheat. The foods are still in their natural state and have not been processed or refined severely by machines or people. Foods containing natural carbohydrate also contain a lot of fiber which gives you a lot of energy over a long period of time. This in turn keeps you feeling full for a longer period. High fiber foods also help in lowering cholesterol. Natural carbohydrates are also classified as low in the Glycemic index. So as the glucose released by natural carbohydrate are lower and this fact is important to diabetics.

Bad Carbohydrate

            Bad carbohydrate can be found in foods that are already refined. Most of the time, the most of the nutritional value is removed and they are loaded with colorings, preservatives and flavorings. They are popular with people because they come in nice packaging and are full of flavors. In turn they are hard to digest and cause a spike of glucose when it is digested. You do not benefit much from eating that food because they only provide mostly bad carbohydrates. One may feel energetic after eating them but it is only temporary. To continue feeling energetic, one would want to eat more and leading to more calories in take.

Good Fat

            Like carbohydrate, fats also exist in its good form and bad form. Good fats are monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat. Monounsaturated fat have lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol who clogs accumulates and clogs your arteries while are high in HDL cholesterol who carry carries cholesterol from the artery walls and into your liver to be dispose off. Most nuts and olive oil contains a lot of monounsaturated fat.

            Polyunsaturated fat also have lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. The beneficial Omega -3 fatty acids belongs to this category. We cannot produce this Omega-3 so we have to eat them to have it. Foods like salmon, canola oil and linseed contains a lot of polyunsaturated fat.

Bad Fat

            Bad fat are divided into two categories, saturated fat and trans fat. Saturated fat is mostly found in animal products like meat, eggs, dairy, and seafood. These fats are solid at room temperature. They have a lot of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.

            The worse fat of all is trans fat. Trans fats are fat that went through a hydrogenation process where liquid vegetable oil is converted into solid fat. They are made so manufacturers can make food that has longer shelf life. Not only they have the most total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol, trans fat also lowers HDL cholesterol. So processed food like margarine contains a lot of trans fat.

            Now that you have a better understanding of both carbohydrate and fat, you can begin to see how you can eat yourself to this. All you need to do is to take note what food you're currently eating have bad carbohydrate and fat so you can replace them with food that is high with good carbohydrate and fat. I will guide you through this so you can get a better understanding of the food to avoid or eat less while eating more beneficial food without worries.

Taking the first step

            Another problem that you would face when trying to replace your daily meal is that you do not know how to cook them. Anyone can learn how to make salad or bread but to make them healthy and low on calories is another problem. I have already included a few recipes that you can read to get a head start in your diet. Do not be restricted into general food source for your diet. Even though it is recommended to eat a lot of vegetables and fruits, this does not mean you have to eat salad for a year. You can do a variety of dish like stir-fry, soups or make desserts with them. Have a variety in your diet; it will keep you from feeling sick from eating all the vegetables and fruits.

Below is a general list of food that contains bad carbohydrate:

·         White Pasta

·         White Rice

·         White Bread

·         Instant Oatmeal

·         Fruit Juices

·         Bagels

·         Donuts

·         Muffins

·         Sweets and Candies

·         Processed Breakfast Cereals

            These are the food that you should avoid or not eat regularly. One of the simplest ways to know what food contains bad carbohydrate is to know if the food is processed or not. If it is, then usually it contains a lot bad carbohydrate.

Good food that you can eat regularly is:

·         Any fruits or vegetables

·         Oatmeal

·         Brown rice

·         Potatoes

·         Wheat products

·         Wholegrain cereals

·         High fiber breakfast cereals

·         Grits

·         Muesli

·         Cassava

·         Corn

·         Amaranth

·         Navy beans

·         Whole Barley

·         Buckwheat / Buckwheat pasta

            So if you replace your daily bad carbohydrate with good carbohydrate, then you can eat more while not gaining more weight. Also you would feel full for much longer, suppressing your need to eat. Diet plans usually already include low carbohydrate recipes so you would gain even less daily if you replace them all in the good carbohydrate list.

Replace, replace, replace

            As for fat, it is harder to find easy replacement for it. As starters, stay away from food that contains trans fat or saturated fat. Trans fat exists mostly in shelf product or manufactured food. Read the labels first before any purchasing is made. If you come across a food that looks oily or can be kept for a long time, it is best to inquire if there is any trans fat used in the making. As for saturated fat, they come from mostly animal products. So consume less dairy or meat in your course of the diet. If you are having dairy, aim for the low or non fat version like low-fat plain yogurt. As for meat, aim for the lean cut as it is the cut with the least fat contained.

When cooking, you can use the oil listed below:

·      canola oil

·      flax seed oil

·      peanut oil

·      olive oil

·      non-hydrogenated soft margarine

·      safflower oil

·      sunflower oil

·      corn oil

            They naturally contain monounsaturated fat and less of saturated fat. To get more polyunsaturated fat, you can either eat more fish like salmon or take supplements.

            Now that you know what major food group to avoid or replace, now onwards to other food category that will help keep you full, low on calories and is healthy at the same time.

Don't forget the rest

            First, one of the easiest diets to achieve is to eat more raw fruits and vegetables. They are so low on calories and tough to digest until you actually burn more calories than you receive from them. So if you make these two as your main diet meals, you would surely see the result of your diet in few short months. Also your body would burn more calories if you eat a meal that is consisting mostly of vegetables and fruits only compared when you eat those two as a side dish.

            Then as mentioned before, fish like salmon contains a lot of Omega-3. At the same time, it also contains hormones that are called Leptin. They make your metabolism more active and can burn more fat. This is good for people that have a rare genetics disease that stops that from producing enough Leptin. Fish also contains a lot of protein. It is a good replacement for carbohydrate when your body needs glucose.

            Another method you might not think of is to add hot spices to your food. These spices like cayenne peppers, hot peppers and mustard actually increase your fat burning metabolism for a few hours. Spicy food also can lessen your appetite by increasing your body's epinephrine and norepinephrine level. Garlic itself is a strong diuretic which helps your body to flush out excess water from your body.

            Another food you can eat to lose weight is food that contains resistant starch like banana, potatoes and oat meal. They are just another kind of high fiber food that prevents your body from keeping too much fat.

Fighting back the urges

            In between every meal, you would feel hungry sometimes. Some diet would say not to give in to these urges but I say go ahead and eat something. If you eat something that is low or have no calories, then what do you have to lose. The two things you can consume are fiber and water. Hungry does not mean you're hungry but actually thirsty. So have a cup of water and wait a while. If you are still hungry after that, eat raw vegetables or a salad. They are filled with fiber and water, so they will keep you satisfied until it is time to have a proper meal. Food like apples or celery is highly recommended.

            Temptations will come and go. If you failed to push the latest one away, there is a few way you can take to prepare yourself before eating that chocolate cake. Eat a bowl of salad or a few fruits and drink two cups of water first. This is to first fill your stomach so you would satisfy faster and not have a lot of room in your stomach to eat the junk food. The more filled you are, the least junk food you would consume.

Manners even while dieting

            Use proper manners when you have your meal. Sit down on the table with everyone and use utensils. They actually help limit the food you take in your mouth. This is so you can properly chew them before swallowing thus helping with pre-digestion. If you use your hand to eat, there is a good chance that you would stuff more into your mouth than you should and not chew the food properly. Stop when you are full and not stuff. Full here meaning you know you had enough and you can feel it. Stuffed is when you completely filled your stomach and cannot take anymore. If you cannot stop eating when you think you had enough, drinks lots of water. They will fill in the gaps and make you feel stuffed.

            If you are thirsty during a meal or anytime of the day, then there are two things I need to tell you. First broth-based soups are actually healthy for you to consume. They are relatively low on calories, quench your thirst a bit and fill your stomach. Do not drink any carbohydrate drinks such as sodas, Have instead natural drinks like lemon tea or plain water. A little caffeine will help raise your metabolism and burn more calories but too much of it will cause health complications instead.

            Spread out your meals throughout the day. If you eat a small meal of 150- 200 calories every 4-6 hours, then your body would constantly be burning these calories so your metabolism will always be on high. This way, you would burn more calories in a day compared if you eat 3 big meals a day. Even more true if you keep a diet that is high on fiber.

Diary of no secrets

            Record your meals, take note of every food that enters your mouth whether it be junk or healthy. Also the times that you eat. This is so at the end the day, you can do a few things with it. First is to look back and do a calorie count. You can see if the meal you are having falls below the total 2000 calories a day. If you eat more than 3000 calories a day, then you need to adjust your diet more. Also you can see when you feel hungry the most and how your body is adjusting. You might notice during the first few week, you cannot avoid snacking in between meals but later on, the snacking would reduce. This shows that you are making progress and your body is adapting to the diet.

            When your supply is low and you need to purchase a few more things, there are a few things you need to do first before you get into the car and drive to the supermarket. Make a list of the things that you need and only buy those necessary things. Make sure the food that you buy is healthy and goes along with your diet. Scratch out the rest. If your family or friends are asking you to buy those, why not influence them to have healthy snacks like you instead. Your success can be a path that they can follow. Also do not go shopping on an empty stomach. An empty stomach will just make your stomach jump every time you see a food product. This might lead you to fall prey to your cravings and buy more than your should.

Never skip this one

            The final step you must take to complete your eat to thin diet is exercise. Most people would hate that and always find excuses not to do it. But I am going to list to you reasons to do it. First of all, it helps in your weight lost. Your body only require 2000 calories a day to survive, so exercising helps in increasing the daily calories needed. The more it is used at the end of the day, the faster you would lose weight. Surely you would prefer to see result in the first six months than a year. Another reason is to keep your metabolism running. Higher metabolism means more calories are burned.

            Most avoid the last step because they are not used to it which is actually true. A step you can take is to do light exercise along with your diet. Use it as a reason to stop thinking about running to the nearest bakery to get a bagel. By occupying your mind with something else, it does not have time to think about food. Start out slow by doing 5 minutes of exercise daily, then next week increase it to 10 minutes, then another week increase it to 20 minutes then 30 minutes. After a few months, you would be able to do 2 hours without needed a break!

Recipe to weight loss fast :

Tomato Spinach Soup

A simple tomato with spinach soup.

Ingredients:

·         One can of crushed tomatoes

·         One can of diced tomatoes

·         Three ounces of fresh chopped spinach

·         One cup of finely chopped onions

·         Half a cup of chopped celery

·         Two finely chopped garlic cloves

·         Two tablespoon of olive oil

·         Quarter of a cup of chopped basil

·         One tablespoon of dried thyme

·         One tablespoon of dried oregano

·         Two cups of low sodium and fat free vegetable broth

·         One tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

·         Ground black pepper

The cooking:

First heat up the oil in the pot and add in the garlic, celery and onion. Then saute them until they are softened. After that, sprinkle the oregano and thyme over them. Then add in the diced and crushed tomatoes along with the vegetable broth. Also add in the spinach and basil. Stir until wilted. Then bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes. After that, add in the balsamic vinegar and season with black pepper.

Cauliflower Soup

This cauliflower soup like the other vegetable in it's family, makes a good base for soup.

Ingredients:

·         One medium sized potato, cut into one inch pieces

·         One medium sized cauliflower, trim it and cut into smaller pieces

·         One thinly sliced celery stick

·         Two crushed garlic cloves

·         One medium size onion, chopped finely

·         One tablespoon of dried thyme

·         Two table spoon of canola olive oil

·         Quarter cup of chopped fresh parsley

·         Four cups of fat free and low sodium broth

·         Grounded black pepper

The cooking:

First heat up the oil in a pot. Then add in the garlic, celery and onions so you can saute and cook until they are softened, which usually take around 5 minutes. Then sprinkle thyme over the vegetables. After that, add in the potato and cauliflower followed by the broth. Bring the mixture to a boil first before lowering the heat. Then add in the parsley and stir. Cover the pot and let it simmer until the potato and cauliflower are softened, which takes around 30 minutes.

Broccoli Soup

This broccoli soup is low fat while filling. You can add more body to it by adding in potato and low-fat milk.

Ingredients:

·         Half an onion, finely chopped

·         One stalk of finely chopped celery

·         One medium sized potato, peeled and turn into cubes

·         Four cups of chopped broccoli with their stems

·         Two table spoon of olive oil

·         One and a half cups of low fat milk or nonfat milk

·         Two cups of fat free and low sodium vegetable or chicken broth

The Cooking:

First pour the oil into the pot and heat it up. Then add in the celery and onions and saute them for a few minutes until the onions softened. After that, add in the broccoli and potato first, then the milk and broth. Bring the mixture to a boil. Then reduce the heat, cover the pot and let it simmer for 20 minutes to let the vegetables tenderize. After that, turn off the heat and let the mixture cool down. Pour them into a blender and blend until they become smooth. Then pour them back to the pot to heat them up before serving.

Carrot-Tomato soup

A carrot with tomato soup mixed with zucchini.

Ingredients:

·         Four medium sized carrots, already peeled and slicedTwo garlic cloves, chopped finely

·         One medium sized onion, chopped finely

·         One medium size zucchini, cut into half following it's length and then sliced

·         A 14.5 ounce of canned diced tomatoes with it's juices

·         One tablespoon of coriander

·         One cup of fresh, roughly chopped cilantro

·         Three cups of low sodium and fat free chicken broth

The Cooking:

First heat up two tablespoon of canola oil in a pot with medium heat. Then throw in the garlic and onions so you can saute them until they are softened. Then add in the coriander and mix them well. After that, add in the zucchini and carrots first, then followed by the broth and canned tomatoes. Continue mixing until the mixture boils. Then you reduce the heat, cover the pot and let it simmer for around 20 minutes. After that, the fresh cilantro, stir and let it simmer for another five more minutes. Then take the mixture into a blender. Blend the mixture until it becomes smooth in batches.

Pears with Butternut Squash Soup

This is a mildly sweet soup with a taste of spice. A good soup to be drank during the fall and winter.

Ingredients:

·         One pound of butternut squash, chopped into one inch pieces

·         Two medium sized pears that is peeled, cores cut out and chopped into one inch pieces

·         Two tablespoon of olive oil

·         One cup of finely chopped onion

·         One tablespoon of curry powder

·         Three and a half cups of low sodium and fat free chicken broth

The cooking:

First heat up the oil and add in the onions. Saute them until they become soft. Then add in the curry power and saute it with the onions for one minute. After that, add in the pear and butternut squash pieces and saute them for 4 minutes. Then add in the chicken broth and bring the mixture to a boil. After than lower the heat, cover the pot and let it simmer until the pears and squash becomes tender, which takes about 20 minutes. Then pout the mixture into a blender and blend until it becomes smooth.

Cucumber and Cantaloupe Salad

Salad made from cucumber and cantaloupe

Ingredients:

·         One cantaloupe, roughly chopped

·         Half a large cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped

·         Three scallions, sliced thinly

·         Quarter cup of lime juice

·         Quarter cup of chopped cilantro leaves

·         Salt and pepper

The cooking:

First take a small bowl and mixed in properly the salt, pepper and lime juice first. Leave it aside. Then take another bowl and add in the cilantro, green onions, cucumber and cantaloupe. After that, mix in the juice mixture little by little.

Tuna Salad

A light tuna salad that can be made quick

Ingredients:

·         Eight cups of hearts of romaine, chopped

·         Two medium tomatoes, diced

·         2 small cans of chunk light tuna, already drained

·         Half a cup of pimiento- stuffed green olives, sliced

·         Quarter cup of lemon juice

·         Half a teaspoon of garlic and salt

·         Three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

·         Pepper

The cooking:

Mix the oil, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a bowl. Then add in the romaine, olives and tomatoes. Toss to coat them. Lastly add in the tuna and toss again.

Barbecued Salmon with Herb Mayonnaise

Healthy fish coated with low carb mayonnaise to keep the moisture.

Ingredients:

·         One salmon fillet, weight may vary from half to two pound

·         Two tablespoons of lime juice

·         One third cup of light mayonnaise

·         Quarter teaspoon of herbs you like

·         Coarsely ground black pepper and coarse salt

The cooking:

First heat up your barbecue grill. Then wash the salmon fillet and pat it dry with a paper towel. Put the salmon skin down on a piece of aluminum foil. Take a small bowl and whisk in the lime juice, mayonnaise and herbs until it becomes smooth. Then spread it all over the top of the salmon. After that, sprinkle some salt and pepper lightly.

The take the aluminum foil with the salmon to your grill. Cover the salmon with the lid but open the vents. Cook it for around 10 minutes where the salmon will be slightly opaque at the thickest part. Then take the salmon out and it is ready to be served.

Salmon Burger

A nice tasting salmon burger dressed with lemon cream sauce

Ingredients:

·         One small can of salmon, flaked and drained

·         Half a cup of onion, chopped

·         Three quarter cup of bread crumbs

·         Two egg whites, slightly beaten

·         One tablespoon of butter

·         Salt and pepper

Lemon Cream Sauce:

·         One teaspoon of grated lemon zest

·         One cup of fat-free sour cream

·         Two tablespoon of freshly-squeezed lemon juice

·         Half a teaspoon of granulated sugar

·         Lemon wedges

The cooking:

First make the lemon sauce. Take a bowl and put in the lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar and sour cream. Mix them until they are properly blended. Then take another bowl, mix in the salmon, onion, egg whites, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. After that, shape them into six patties. Heat up the frying pan over medium heat and melt the butter. Then cook the salmon patties until they are brown on both sides. After that, take them out of the pan and onto the plate. Cover with lemon cream and garnish with lemon wedges. Serve them.

Tuna Steak with Apricot

Hearty meal of tuna with it's nutritional oil with apricots and tomatoes

Ingredients:

·         One tune steak, around 150g of weight

·         Eight dried apricots

·         One medium size tomato

·         Half a small red onion

·         One tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

·         One tablespoon of brandy

·         Two table spoon of extra virgin olive oil

·         Few leaves of lettuce

·         Half a teaspoon of dried thyme

·         Ground pepper

The cooking:

First chop finely half of the tomato and dried apricots. Then put them into a blender with vinegar, olive oil, brandy, thyme and a good helping of pepper. Then blend the ingredients until fine. Use the mixture to marinate the tuna for 30 minutes. If you plan to marinate for a long time, then keep it in the fridge and take it out 30 minutes before cooking

After the tuna is properly marinated, slice the onions into strips and fry them lightly for 2 minutes. Then chop up the remainder tomato and fry them together with the rest of the apricots. Then place them on the on the lettuce leaves.

Then take out the fish with the marinate sauce and fry it in the same pan that you used to cook the tomato and apricot. Cook each side for 3 minutes and it is ready to be served.

Vegetable Ratatouille Pasta

A healthy Italian dish served with pasta

Ingredients:

·         One large sized aubergine

·         One green bell pepper

·         One red onion

·         Two medium zucchinis

·         Quarter bottle of red wine

·         One teaspoon of dried thyme

·         Two bay leaves

·         Three garlic cloves, crushed

·         A can of chopped tomatoes

·         Two tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

·         Pepper

The cooking:

First chop the aubergine, zucchinis, onions and peppers into an inch square pieces. Then fry the onions in a little olive oil for a few minutes. Then add in the rest of the vegetables with garlic and fry them again for a few minutes. Then add in the thyme along with the wine and slowly stir them in low heat. Add in the tomatoes after that and put the bay leaves on top. Then over the pan and let it simmer at low heat for 45 minutes. Stir it occasionally. Then 10 minutes before you serve, stir in the balsamic vinegar. Then serve with around 60g of pasta, sprinkle with low fat Parmesan cheese and put on pasta.

Mustard Chicken

Simple dish of chicken cooked with mustard.

Ingredients:

·         Two table spoon of mustard

·         Four halved chicken breast, boneless and skinless

·         Half a cup of non-fat plain yogurt

·         Quarter cup of bread crumbs

The cooking:

First preheat oven in 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Then coat the baking dish with a vegetable spray. Take a small bowl and mix in the mustard and yogurt until they are well blended. Then brush the mixture on both sides of the chicken breast. Then sprinkle bread crumbs on both side of the chicken and pat them lightly. Then put the chicken on the baking dish, cover it and into the oven. Bake for around 25 minutes. During the last 10 minutes, open the cover so the chicken breast can go slightly brown. Then take it out of the oven and serve immediately.

Red Wine Beef Stew

This beef stew will warm you up in cold nights

Ingredients:

·         450g of lean beef

·         Seven celery sticks

·         Four carrots

·         Five garlic cloves

·         Two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

·         Half a bottle of red wine

·         One stock cube

·         Some fresh basil

·         Salt and pepper

The cooking:

First peel the carrots and chop it with the celery into one inch long pieces. Then chop the garlic into fine slices. After that, chop the beef into around one inch size chuck and remove any fat you see. Then take a pot, heat it up on high temperature with a tablespoon of sunflower oil. Braise the beef for 30 seconds first and then add in the carrot, garlic and celery. Let it cook for another minute. After that pour in the basil, vinegar, wine, salt and pepper. Dissolve the stock cube in the pot as well. Then turn down to the lowest heat and over the pan. Leave it cook for least 1.5 hours to 2 hours. Then it is ready to serve.

Chicken & Spring Vegetable Stir-Fry

A simple chicken with spring vegetables dish for your daily diet

Ingredients:

·         Two chicken breast, around 150g each

·         100g broccoli

·         100g baby sweetcorn

·         Two medium sized carrots

·         Bunch of spring onions

·         34g of ginger

·         One tablespoon of olive oil

·         Four blocks of egg noodles

·         One jar of black bean sauce

The cooking:

First boil some water and add in the noodles. Let it boil and simmer for around 4 minutes until the noodle is ready. Drain and keep warm. Then slice the chicken breast into one inch size. Cut up the broccoli into florets. Then peel the ginger and carrots and cut them into matchsticks. The spring onions should be trim and sliced diagonally. Take a second pot, boil and blanch the sweetcorn and broccoli in the water for 2 minutes. And then drain them well. Take out a pan and heat up some oil. Add in the chicken and stir fry them for around 8 minutes. Put them in a plate and keep them warm. Then heat up the pan with out again and add in the spring onions, ginger, and carrot. Stir first them for 2 minutes before add in the broccoli and sweetcorn and further stir fry them for another 2 minutes. Then add in the chicken, black bean sauce and noodles. Stir fry them to coat and heat through. Then they are ready to be served.

Chicken & Sun-Dried Tomato Orzo

Combination of sun-dried tomatoes and Romano cheese delivers a flavorful dish.

Ingredients:

·         One tomato, diced

·         Half a cup of sun dried tomatoes, chopped

·         Four chicken breasts, boneless, skinless and trimmed

·         One garlic clove

·         Three teaspoons of marjoram, chopped

·         One tablespoon of red-wine vinegar

·         Eight ounces of orzo

·         One tablespoon with 2 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, divided

·         One cup of water

·         Half cup of Romano cheese, finely shredded

·         Quarter teaspoon of salt

·         One package of frozen artichoke hearts, thawed

·         Quarter teaspoon of ground

The cooking

First cook the orzo in a large saucepan with boiling water until it becomes tender. Usually it takes around 10 minutes. Then drain and rinse the orzo. Then get a blender and put in quarter cup of sun-dried tomatoes, tomato, cup of water, garlic, vinegar, two teaspoons of marjoram and oil. Then blend it until there is a few noticeable chunks remain.

Then season both side of the chicken breast with salt and pepper. Heat up the remaining oil in a large skillet with medium-high heat. Then put in the chicken and adjust the heat. Cook it until it is golden outside and not pink inside, which takes around 3-5 minutes each side. Then put it on a plate and cover with foil to keep it warm.

Get a pan, pour the tomato sauce in and heat it till it boils. Then pour half a cup into a small bowl. After that, add in the last cup of sun-dried tomatoes, orzo, artichoke hearts and six tablespoons of cheese into the pan. Stir the mixture until it is heated through, which takes around 1 - 2 minutes. Then divide among 4 plates. Slice the chicken. The put sliced chicken on the divided sauce along with two tablespoons of the reserved tomato sauce and sprinkle some marjoram and cheese.

Roasted Halibut with Banana and Orange

A fruity fish dish

Ingredients:

·         One pound of halibut or any white-fleshed fish

·         Quarter teaspoon of kosher salt

·         Half teaspoon of ground coriander

·         Two oranges, peeled, segmented, chopped

·         Two ripe bananas, diced

·         Half teaspoon of grated orange zest

·         Quarter cup of fresh cilantro, chopped

·         Half teaspoon of ground coriander

·         Two tablespoons of lime juice

·         Quarter cup of kosher salt

The cooking:

First preheat the oven with 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Then get a baking sheet and lightly coat it with cooking spray. After that cut your fish into 4 portions. Mix the salt and coriander in a small bowl first before sprinkling them evenly on both side of the fish. Then place the fish on the baking sheet. Put in in the oven and let it bake until it is ready, which takes around 10 minutes depending on the size of the fish. While the fish is cooking, get a bowl and mix in the orange zest, bananas, cilantro, chopped oranges, lime juice, salt and coriander. When the fish is ready, put it on the plate and spoon the fruit mixture over the fish.

Gorgonzola & Prune Stuffed Chicken

A simple recipe of chicken breast with a healthy stuffing

Ingredients:

·         Quarter cup of whole wheat breadcrumbs

·         A third of a cup of Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

·         Half a cup of chopped prunes

·         Four chicken breast , boneless, skinless, trimmed

·         One teaspoon of thyme, minced

·         Half teaspoon of salt

·         Half teaspoon of ground pepper

·         One shallot, minced

·         One tablespoon and one teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil

·         One cup of chicken broth, low sodium

·         Half cup of red wine

·         Four teaspoons of all-purpose flour

The cooking:

Get a small bowl and mix in the breadcrumbs, half teaspoon of thyme, quarter cup of prunes and Gorgonzola. Then make a horizontal cut alone the thin edge of the chicken, almost through the opposite side. Stuff about two and a half spoon of the mixture into each chicken breast. Use toothpicks to seal the opening. Season the each side of the chicken breast with salt and pepper.

Then heat up a nonstick skillet with one tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Then put the chicken in to cook until it is golden, which takes around 4 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a plate. Then add in the last oil, shallot, and the last teaspoon of thyme onto the pan and cook. After a minute later, add in the wine and last cup of prunes. Reduce the heat to medium and continue cooking while scraping up any browned bits. After 2 minutes, the wine should evaporate.

Pour the broth along with some flour into a small bowl and whisk until it becomes smooth. Then pour it back to the pan and continue to cook and stir it until it is thickened, which takes around two minutes.

Then reduce the heat to low, put back the chicken with any sauce into the pan and turn it to coat it with the sauce. Cover the pan and cook the chicken until it is fully cooked. Put it on a plate, take out the toothpick, slice the chicken and top it with the sauce.

Baby Tiramisu

This healthy dessert will make sure you have your cravings checked once a while

Ingredients:

·         Half teaspoon of vanilla extract

·         Two tablespoons of confectioners sugar

·         Half a cup of ricotta cheese, nonfat

·         Four table spoon of strong coffee

·         One eighth teaspoon of cinnamon, grounded

·         Twelve ladyfingers

·         Two tablespoon of bittersweet chocolate chips, melted

The cooking:

Take a bowl and mix in the vanilla, ricotta, cinnamon and sugar. Then place six ladyfingers on a loaf pan, Then drizzle the with two tablespoons of espresso. After that, spread the ricotta mixture over the ladyfingers. Then place another layer of ladyfingers and drizzle them with the remaining coffee. Then drizzle with the melted chocolate. Put the mixture into the fridge until the chocolate is set, which takes around 30 minutes.

Spiced Vegetable Omelet

A dish filled with Omega-3 that dun require a lot of washing up

Ingredients:

·         One tablespoon of golden linseed

·         Two tablespoons of milk

·         Two large eggs or three medium eggs (discard the yolk of the third egg)

·         Half a teaspoon of ground turmeric

·         One teaspoon of dried mixed herbs

·         Half teaspoon of ground cumin

·         One ball of frozen spinach

·         A bunch of frozen peas

·         One medium cup of mushroom

·         Two tablespoon of grated cheese

·         Salt and pepper

The cooking:

First put the linseeds into a coffee grinder and pulse the seeds until they are loosely ground. Then whisk the egg in a bowl while adding the ground linseed, milk, herbs, spices, salt and pepper. Keep on whisking until they are all mixed in. Then heat up a non-stick pan with a bit of oil. Pour some of the mixture in and wait 30 seconds before you whisk the mixture again. Add in the frozen spinach. Keep the omelet loose at the edge of the pan. Then add in the frozen peas and sliced mushrooms on the same side of the spinach in the omelet. When the omelet is almost cooked, sprinkle moist cheese over the mushroom and fold the empty side of the omelet over the cheese. Let it cook for another one minute before serving.

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