Lose Weight With Meatless Mondays

With all the recent problems with horse-meat in burgers etc, you may find the following interesting reading!

Have you ever considered going meatless as a way to lose weight? I'm not suggesting a full-fledged vegetarian lifestyle. I'm talking about taking the meat off the dinner table one night a week - Mondays for example. Besides weight loss, there are many health benefits associated with substituting plants for meat. Check out this week's feature article to find out more about the benefits of going meatless on Mondays.
According the Meatless Campaign, going meatless once a week can have the following health benefits:

1. LIMIT CANCER RISK. Hundreds of studies suggest that diets high in fruits and vegetables may reduce cancer risk. Both red and processed meat consumption are associated with colon cancer.

2. REDUCE HEART DISEASE. Recent data from a Harvard University study found that replacing saturated fat-rich foods (for example, meat and full fat dairy) with foods that are rich in polyunsaturated fat (for example, vegetable oils, nuts and seeds)reduces the risk of heart disease by 19 %.

3. FIGHT DIABETES. Research suggests that higher consumption of red and processed meat increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.

4. CURB OBESITY. People on low-meat or vegetarian diets have significantly lower body weights and body mass indices. A recent study from Imperial College London also found that reducing overall meat consumption can prevent long-term weight gain.

5. INCREASE LIFE EXPECTANCY. Red and processed meat consumption is associated with increases in total mortality, cancer mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality.

6. IMPROVE DIET QUALITY. Consuming beans or peas results in higher intakes of fiber, protein, folate, zinc, iron and magnesium with lower intake of saturated fat and total fat.

Ideas for Meatless Monday Meals
• Tacos or burritos filled with beans, textured vegetable protein, or tofu rather than meat
• Salad topped with beans in place of chicken or beef
• Pizza with or without cheese and topped with vegetables, tofu or soy crumbles
• Whole-grain pasta with tomato sauce plus vegetables including mushrooms, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and onions
• Breakfast for dinner - oatmeal with fruit and walnuts, whole grain cereal with soy milk (or lowfat milk), or whole grain toast with peanut butter and banana
• Chili with beans, textured vegetable protein and (soy or rice)cheese
• Vegetable burger with lettuce, tomato, and guacamole on whole-grain bun
Bottom line
December is winding down and the New Year is right around the corner. It's the perfect time for a fresh start. People are more likely to begin an exercise program or start a diet in January than any other time of the year. Why don't you join in and make a move to get healthier in the upcoming year? By eliminating meat from your diet - just one day a week - you will take a huge step towards improving your eating habits and shedding some pounds. Say YES to Meatless Monday. In fact, why wait until January? Get started next Monday with this terrific meatless recipe from Mark Bittman.

Mark Bittman's Simple Bean Burgers
Makes 4 -6 Servings
Time: 20 minutes with cooked beans
14-oz. can of beans, drained (black, garbanzo, white, lentils)
1 small onion, quartered
1/2 c. rolled oats
1 tbsp. chili powder or spice mix of your choice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
1 c. freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Combine the beans, onion, parmesan cheese, oats, chili powder, salt, pepper, and egg in a food processor and pulse until chunky but not puréed, adding a little liquid if necessary. With wet hands, shape into whatever size patties you want (You can make the burger mixture or even shape the burgers up to a day or so in advance-just cover tightly and refrigerate). Bring everything back to room temperature before cooking. Film the bottom of a large nonstick or well-seasoned cast-iron skillet with oil and turn the heat to medium. Cook until nicely browned on one side, about 5 min.; turn carefully and cook on the other side until firm and browned. You can refrigerate or freeze any extras for later use.

If you're looking for some heat, simply add cayenne pepper, hot red pepper flakes, or the like. If you want some texture, you might include 1/4 cup or more roasted (or canned) green or red chili peppers.

Author:	Lorraine Matthews-Antosiewicz, MS RD, is a food and nutrition expert specializing in weight

 management. She is committed to empowering people through education, support, and inspiration to make real changes that lead to optimal health and lasting weight loss. 

 Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

Lose Weight Quick with this Exceptional Weight Loss Advice: Just 3 Simple Steps!

Lose weight quick, what everyone with weight problems wants to achieve. The quickest way to do this in a healthy and maintainable fashion is to speed up your metabolism to the point that your body simply cannot hold onto your fat reserves. This is exactly what I’m going to show you. It’s so quick you’ll have lost a couple of pounds by the end of this article. What is your metabolism? Your metabolic rate is the rate at which your body uses up the energy it creates. Ideally, you want a high metabolism so that your using the energy faster than your body is creating it. This prevents fat storage and causes you to lose weight quick. Speeding up your metabolism so you lose weight quick can be done in the following ways. Listed in order of precedence: Build muscle through a weight training or resistance program Eat small meals regular Eat foods that take longer to digest Building muscle This is the most important aspect of speeding up your metabolism. The goal is to create a high muscle to fat ratio. This means your body is comprised of significantly more muscle than fat. Weight and resistance training are the best methods of building muscle. I recommend you do a 20 minute intensive session every other day. However, you must train with weight loss in mind. Check out the best exercise for weight loss page to find out how to do this properly. Eat small meals regular Overloading your stomach is one of the best ways to put on weight quick. In contrast, eating small amounts regular is a great way to speed up your metabolism and lose weight quick. Therefore, you should try to eat 5-6 small meals per day. The more often you eat smaller meals the better. You might think, well, isn’t a calorie a calorie no matter what time I eat it. This is traditional thinking and is simplified to the point that it’s plain wrong. You see, calories are used up in the digestion process so the longer you keep your digestion running the more energy you use and weight you lose. This is called the thermic effect of food and leads nicely into point 3. Eat foods that take longer to digest Foods that take longer to digest and use up more energy in the digestion process have a high thermic effect of food. Eating more foods with a high thermic effect and less food with a low thermic effect will speed up your metabolism and help with weight loss. Protein burns 25% of the calories consumed in the digestion process and fibre burns a little less. Carbs burn 15% of calories in the digestion process and fat burns hardly any. Therefore, you should consume more fiber and protein, a moderate amount of carbs and virtually no fat, to get maximum effect. 3 relatively simple alterations to your lifestyle and you’ll begin to lose weight quick with very little effort. So In black and white you should: Weight train for 20 minutes every other day Eat 5-6 small meals every day Eat more protein and fiber Follow this advice and you’ll lose weight quick and keep the weight off for life.
Author:  Mick Bulmer Author Resource:- http://www.weight-loss-programs-and-diets.com/weight-loss-advice.html Article: From Free Reprint Articles

The Best Foods for Natural Weight Loss

When you are trying to lose weight, there are some foods that are more conducive to natural weight loss than others. Diet and nutrition are crucial to healthy weight loss, and, if neglected, can severely stall your efforts. That said, it can be difficult to know when you are in the grocery store exactly which foods will support your new way of living and which will work against you. Following are a list of healthy, nutritious foods that are good choices for natural weight loss or any healthy diet in general. Meat Cold Water Fish - Fish is one of the healthiest forms of meat that you can eat, and cold water fish tend to be even better. They contain a particularly high content of omega 3 fatty acids, a heart healthy fat that occurs in other forms of protein in much lower amounts. Omega 3 fatty acids help combat insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes that is very common in people who are overweight. Salmon, sardines, herring, tuna, and anchovies are all examples of cold water fish. Vegetables Salad Greens - High in fibre and vitamins, salad greens make a great addition to any diet. Add on a bit of nuts or healthy salad dressing and you can build a thousand dishes on the same leafy base. The great thing about salad greens is that they are also very high in water content, allowing them to fill you up without adding a great deal of calories. Cabbage of Various Forms - There are many vegetables in the produce aisle that are healthy, nutritious, as well as cabbage in disguise. Broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi are all variations of cabbage that each have their own distinct appearance and flavors. Where they are similar, however, is that they are all low in calories, high in fiber, and very high in vitamins and minerals. Grains Flaxseed - Other than being very high in fibre and manganese, flaxseed is also an excellent source of omega 3 fatty acids, which are severely lacking in the diets of most people. Omega 3s reduce inflammation, protect against heart disease and diabetes, and promote healthy bones. Bulgur Wheat - Bulgur is low in fat and calories while at the same time being high in protein and fibre. It makes a great replacement for plain white rice and can be made into a risotto or pilaf that satisfies those carb cravings every time. Fats Olive Oil - Of all the fats you can use, olive oil is among the very best. This is due to the high content of monounsaturated fats that make it up, which are known to be good for promoting heart health. Consuming small amounts of olive oil regularly are linked to improving blood chemistry and reduced instances of colon cancer, possibly due to its high antioxidant content.

Author Tim Goodman.  Resource:- Visit http://naturalweightlosssystem.com

Article: From Free Reprint Articles

I want To Lose Weight and Get Healthy? Here’s How!

The Ultimate Reset: Your Ticket to a Slim Body of Good Health

  

Elizabeth recently commented on the way she and her family have lost weight, as follows:

If you want a new lease on life, stop leaning on diet pills, promises of overnight weight loss solutions and starvation cleanses that deprive your body of what it really needs. Oh yeah, and stop making excuses! It doesn’t just have to be for you. If you worry about the health of someone you care about, don’t sit back and watch as their life gets taken over by poor health. Do something about it!

We all flip through magazines and daydream about having those legs like those women that essentially grow out of their necks. I’m shaking you virtually right now. Wake up. Let go of those images of emaciated lingerie models and start focusing on what your body needs to be healthy and the rest will just fall into place (and stop falling over the top of your jeans).

Today marks the end of week one for me of my second time doing the Ultimate Reset and I already feel brand new. What the frigg is that, you ask? The program that changed my life, thanks for asking. In May of 2012 I was ready for a change. My health was on the up after my new love affair with Shakeology, the first program that got my life back on track. I had adopted a new mentality of going for what I wanted and I was ready to put it to the test.

The Ultimate Reset is a 21-Day full body reset that brings your body back to its factory settings. If you are often dragging or tired, have a tough time digesting, feel like your metabolism has slowed down, want or need to lose weight, have high blood pressure, blood sugar or cholesterol, have diabetes or any other chronic illness or just want to get healthy again, this is it.

Without drugs, crazy juice cleanses, running to the bathroom, or starving yourself, you can have it all. It’s a 3-phase program that changed my life along with other members of my family and some great friends. With the help of all natural supplements that help rid the body of the toxins that we come in contact with everyday, Shakeology, and a very clean, whole food approach to eating, your body can do a 180.

My mother, uncle and I decided to do the Reset together. That was the first thing we did right. Making the decision to do it, and doing it together. I had already lost several pounds through Shakeology and P90X, so I wasn’t expecting to lose much on the Reset. This was more of my back door approach of getting my mom and uncle to do this program.

Real Results:
After week one, I was down 8 pounds, no longer needed caffeine, and I had more energy than I knew what to do with. I was sleeping like a baby, and waking up early ready to go. If you know me, you know that typically isn’t my style. By day 21, I was down a total of 15 pounds and over 12.5 overall inches. I went down 2 pants sizes, was digesting food like lettuce in a meat grinder, had incredible energy, clarity of mind, and could finally see all the definition I had earned during P90X that had been hiding beneath my outer layer.

They Got Their Life Back:
Sure, it was great to lose the weight. Do you know what was better? The fact that my mom and uncle got their lives back. My mother, who has been fighting off high blood pressure and cholesterol for years, lost 18 pounds in the 21 days. She was able to come off of her cholesterol medication and reduce her blood pressure medication. That’s still not the best part. Every other diet or plan she had done, when it was over, she gained back the weight. In the three months after the Reset, she lost an additional 25 pounds – at least! Not only was her body reset, but her mind was reset. Yes, her metabolism was working at the rate it was when she was in high school. Yes, she could now digest things that her body wouldn’t even touch before. But now she understands what her body needs! She knows how she will feel after eating certain things, she knows what the right foods are for her to eat at different times of the day, and what to stay away from.

Let’s talk about my Uncle Fran for a moment; a high-ranking man in a huge corporate company, with no time for health nonsense (or so he thought)… until the  Reset. He lost 20 pounds during the 21 days. Over the months to follow, he has lost another 15 – at least! My uncle had his 1^st full check up since the Reset. The last time he went into the doctor, they told him he had to make some serious life changes. He was on the cusp of diabetes and the dangerous fat surrounding his organs was putting him at risk for heart attack, stroke, and other dangerous weight related illnesses. He had very high cholesterol, high blood pressure and ulcers in his stomach. A few months after the 21-day program, his blood pressure was down to his ideal range. His total cholesterol went from 258 to 165, his LDL (bad cholesterol) went down from 140 to 90 and his HDL (good cholesterol) went up from 40 to 58. His triglycerides went from 259 to 75, and he was able to come completely off of the ulcer medication he had been dependent on for decades. The doctor was shocked, but mostly by the fact that my uncle had eradicated the dangerous fat around his organs, an often difficult thing to reverse.

“As a guy in my mid-forties it was time to get serious about my health, losing weight and taking back control of my exercise and eating habits.  The Ultimate Reset and Shakeology were the perfect start to that process. Four months later, 35 pounds lighter and off of ulcer meds I feel better, look better and have the motivation to maintain a rigorous workout routine that has made the process even easier. The Ultimate Reset provided me with a no-brainer approach to a healthy detox that taugh me the principles of eating whole foods and creating healthy eating habits.  Shakeology is an easy meal repalcement that guarantees me the balanced nutrients and protien that I need throughout my busy day. These programs have been great! ” – Francis Hyatt

 

So yes, I was happy with my results, but for those of us that worry about the health of a parent, spouse, friend or family member, this program can give them their life back. Talk to them about it or offer to do it with them. Life is far too short to hold onto the cookies that bind us (literally and figuratively)! Drop your cookie and help the person you love drop theirs too.

Author: Elizabeth Gemmell