Six Fuelings For Your Body Every Day

What are the benefits of eating a small amount of food more often?

--Helps you to lose weight
--Controls hunger
--Reduces blood insulin (a factor in fat storage and inflammation)
--Lowers total cholesterol levels
--Reduces LDL ("bad") cholesterol
--Depresses glucose levels
--Increases bile acid secretion
--Suppresses free fatty acids levels
--Reduces serum uric acid levels, a common risk factor for coronary heart disease
--Increases uric acid excretion
--Reduces adipose tissue enzyme levels
--Reduces fluctuations in satiety (fullness)
(from "Habits of Heath", chapter 6, page 63)

One of the things I've noticed as I've adopted this healthy habit of eating 5-6 small meals every 2-3 hours, is that I'm never hungry.  I'm constantly fueling my body, and it's happy!  And just look at all those benefits up there!

As you progress on this eating plan, don't forget to eat ALL of your meal replacements - you need those calories.  And, please space your meals every 2.5-3 hours. It's very important.

**HINT:  Take at least 2 meal replacements and a bottle of water with you whenever you leave the house.

My TOOLS!

Yesterday, I promised to post my "TOOLS" - those things that make my life a bit easier on this eating plan.  So... here they are: 

1.  This adorable scale is a Paula Dean scale, from Walmart.  I got it because RED makes me happy.  I use this to weigh ALL of my meat AFTER it's cooked.  I love that it has a really big bowl on top.  It holds lots. :)

2.  This is my amazing water bottle.  It's from Contigo.  I got it from Costco. It comes in a three pack (not sure if they sell these anymore - I got mine during Christmastime).  It's 24 oz.  I drink 4 of these every day.  When I first started the food plan, I weighed more, so I drank 5 of these.  The straw makes it SO SUPER easy to drink all of my water.

I am headed to Costco again today, because I saw these same water bottles (in a two pack) that are stainless steel and insulated.  They are around 20 oz.  They are supposed to keep drinks cold for up to 20 hours!!!  So, now I can make a shake before I leave the house, put it in one of these babies, and have that in my car for a MF meal while I'm out and about!  Sweet!

3.  This is my Magic Bullet blender.  I LOVE this thing.  I throw some pebble ice in (about 2/3 full), dump in the shake mix, any extract I want to use, and a bit of Truvia sweetener, and BBZZZTTT!  I've got a shake in about 10 seconds.  This is SO easy to use.  Costco has the set for around $40-$50, I think.  I've had mine for over 3 years.  LOVE it.

4.  This is an oversized mug.  It probably holds at least 3 cups.  I use this to make my soups in.  If I use anything smaller, my soup boils over and makes a mess.  Especially since I usually add a bit more water and bouillon.

5.  This is a small thermos (shhh... I got it at Jenny Craig years ago!)  My coach told me to put the soup mixes in a thermos in the morning, with boiling water, and let them sit until lunch time.  I tried this the other day - it was amazing!  The soup was SO much better!  Doing it this way allows the veggies and meat in the soup to soften up.  I think this one holds about 2 cups.

6.  And this is my little group of tools I use to mix things up - 1/4 cup measuring cup, small whisk, small mixing bowl, 1 tablespoon and 1/4 teaspoon.  I use these every single day.  The spatula is to clean out the bowl after mixing pancakes.

7.  Because I use all of these every single day, I just keep all of the small stuff in a cheerful red bowl on my counter!

8.  And, of course, I use one of these whenever I make pancakes!  Pull it out... heat it up... cook the pancakes... wipe it out... put it away!  Easy Peasy!

Hope this helps!

-Kara

Food Supplies for your Take Shape for Life Eating Plan - What I Use!

Just a few ideas for today. I found a website that has lots of recipes that you can make with your Medifast meals! So, you can now think outside of the box! I'm excited to try these. Here is the link: http://healthycheapandsimple.weebly.com/new-medifast-recipe-creations.html 

PLEASE make sure you only use the recipes for the Medifast Meals.  That way, you'll stay on plan. :)

Also, I had a client ask me about a shopping list for the start of the eating plan. Here is what I use...

1. Sugar-free maple syrup - Walmart has one called Maple Grove Farms. Very good!  You can use 1-2 Tablespoons of this syrup as a condiment.

 2. I've been experimenting with extracts lately, and have had great success! I use them in the shakes, pancakes, and oatmeal. I get the Watkins extracts from Walmart - they are a good size, and they are about $2.30-$2.50 each. The extracts I use are: banana, peppermint, orange, raspberry, maple, coconut, strawberry, lemon, vanilla nut, and rootbeer. My sister told me that she adds the caramel extract to her Dutch Chocolate shakes, and it's YUMMY!

3. Make sure you have some "Pam" on hand - for non-stick cooking (pancakes).

 4. Get some packets of sweetener. I use Truvia. It's natural, has no calories, and only a few carbs. I add some of this sweetener so whatever I put extracts in. I've found that it is very sweet - so you only need maybe half of a package. Again, Walmart has this - it comes in a green and white box.  Remember that 1 packet of artificial sweetener counts as 1 condiment.

 5. Bouillon - chicken and beef. Get the low-sodium. I usually add an extra 1/2 cup to 1 cup of water with bouillon to my soups. This gives me a bit more soup.

 6. Costco canned chicken!!! I love this product. It's packed in water, and it's all white chicken breast. I like to use about 2 oz. of shredded chicken in my soups and chili. Adds more bulk, and then I don't have to try to eat 6 oz. of protein during my lean and green. Plus, being able to open a can and have instant cooked chicken is great! Lots of times, I just use the rest of the can I opened at lunch time on top of my salad. You can throw it into a pan and heat it up, and use BBQ sauce (1/2 tsp - on the condiment list), or a tiny bit of sweet and sour sauce. Sometimes, I'll just mix it with balsamic vinegar - that's my favorite. Remember to weigh your chicken, though. Usually, one can of chicken is around 7 oz. (that's the chicken, not the can plus chicken! :) So, you can have almost the whole can in one day. Makes it easy to split it between two meals!

7. I use the balsamic vinegar from Costco. It's amazing. (I'm drooling just thinking about it!)  (You can have 1 teaspoon as a condiment)

 8. Make sure you have a good supply of baking powder - you'll use this in your pancakes. Plus, I use cocoa in my shakes and pancakes. So, have some of that on hand.  (Cocoa is not really on the plan, so you have to be careful with how much you use.  I only use 1/8 - 1/4 of a teaspoon.)

 9. If you are having trouble drinking all of your water (you need to consume half your body weight in ounces every day), add a powder like Crystal Light, or Propel Zero (my favorite). I have a 24 oz. water bottle with a straw, and I usually drink 2 of those during the day, put Propel Zero in another one, and drink that at dinner with my lean and green. And then, I sip on the 4th bottle of water all night - and I've had all the water I need for the day!

 

10. Get a good, low-carb dressing for your salads. My favorite is Paul Newman's Olive Oil and Vinegar - just 1 carb. (Remember, this will count as your healthy fat - 1 serving is up to 2 tablespoons)

11. I also always have a supply of pebble ice from Sonic! I use this in my shakes.

12. Remember to stalk your fridge with protein (meat and eggs and tofu, if you'd like), and lots of veggies.  Check out the list of veggies you can have in the Quick Start Guide.

I think that's about it.  Tomorrow, I'll post my favorite tools for this eating plan - there are just certain things that will make your life easier while you are fixing these meals (like a Magic Bullet blender!)

-Kara
Health Coach

The Path to Optimal Health - It's all about HABITS!

Habits of Health by Dr. A... Yesterday, I was reading in the Habits of Health book, and something I read really made a lot of sense to me:

Most changes we try to adopt (like dieting) are based on solving a problem or trying to get rid of an unwanted situation. This type of motivation almost never leads to lasting changes. You make changes at first, but later you fall back into your old ways of behavior. So, for instance: think about your health problems... you might hate the way you look or feel, and your natural response is to feel terrible about it. In order to end that feeling, you take actions that make you feel better - you go on a diet, or you exercise. But those actions aren't motivated by what you want (just by what you don't want), so they lead you into a predictable cycle... you act, and then because you've acted, you feel better - even if the situation hasn't changed much. Feeling better takes the pressure off, lessening the bad feelings. Less emotional conflict means there's less reason to continue doing the things that reduced the conflict in the first place. Since you feel better, you no longer feel a pressing need to follow through on your actions. And the original behavior returns. That's what we call a "yo-yo pattern". Conflict-driven motivation in one of the major reasons people yo-yo. So, we need to change the way we're motivated...

We need to motivate ourselves by focusing on what we want - not what we don't want! This is the difference between a problem-oriented motivation and an outcome-oriented motivation. Changing our emphasis from what we're against to what we're for has a dramatic impact.

I found this fascinating. If I'm understanding this right - what I need to do is change my motivation from thinking that I don't want to be unhealthy, to thinking that I want optimal health. Instead of trying to lose weight, I need to focus on gaining health! I love this idea! If I focus on losing weight, then at some point, I'll lose all the weight, and then what? Most likely I'll stop doing what I'm supposed to do, because I've reached that goal. But, if I focus on gaining health - well, that never ends. It's a life-long pursuit. And that means, I'll be working constantly on that. No more yo-yoing!

On the front of the Habits of Health book, it says "The path to permanent weight control and optimal health". I'm now well on my way down that path, and I've got the goal of optimal health in mind. It makes me happy just to think about where I'll be in 2 months, in 6 months, in a year - or even 2 or 5 years.

-Kara

Taste Suggestion: Extract Heaven

I'm sitting at my computer enjoying orange flavored pancakes with chocolate chips! I've had some real successes in the past few days with extracts, so here are a few suggestions:

Root beer Float: 1 package of French Vanilla shake mix, root beer extra, one package of Truvia sweetener, water and ice. Blend this up in a Magic Bullet, and you've got a root beer float - seriously! It's super yummy.

Chocolate Orange pancakes: My favorite pancake mix is the chocolate chip (mostly because I'm a chocolate nut), so I thought I'd try this: 1 package of chocolate chip pancake mix, orange extract, 1 package of Truvia, 1/4 cup water, and 1/4 teaspoon baking powder. Don't forget to spray your pan with Pam so they won't stick. The smell while I cooked these was almost as good as the taste. I ate them without syrup - they were sweet enough because I added the Truvia. Mmmmm... heaven. I'm not exaggerating. :)

Taste Suggestion - Cocoa

Welcome to my two new clients, Ronalee and Stephanie. I'm excited to work with you both, and help you along the road to health! Today, I thought I'd share a Taste Suggestion - something you can add that will improve the taste of some of your meal replacements. Because I LOVE chocolate, I've been experimenting with cocoa. For 1 tbsp of cocoa, there is .5 g of fat, 10 calories, and 3 carbs. However, you don't need to use a tablespoon. Just use 1/2 of a teaspoon - this gives you only tiny amounts of fat, calories, and carbs. Here are a few suggestions for cocoa: 1. I like to add ice and extra water to my shakes. This can make the taste watered down, so to a chocolate shake, I'll add 1/2 teaspoon of cocoa, and one packet of Truvia sweetener. This makes a rich, yummy, bigger shake! 2. I love to add 1/2 teaspoon of cocoa to my Original Pancakes to make cocoa flavored pancakes. I'll use a bit of Truvia as well, to help counter the bitterness of cocoa. Remember that you can also make muffins from the pancake mix, by adding a bit more water, and baking them. Oh, and don't forget the baking powder to make your pancakes fluffier. Works with muffins, too. Please make sure to check in with me if you have any questions... 801-360-4666.

New Health Coach!

Well, it's been several weeks since I posted anything, and I've made great strides toward getting healthy. I've been on the diet for 13.5 weeks now, and I've lost 42 lbs, and over 40 inches!! Wow, right?? I'm so happy with how I'm feeling that I've decided to become a health coach, so that I can help others reach their optimal health. I'm so excited about this new opportunity. So, from now on, I'll be posting as a health coach, and trying to post things that will help my clients. I can't wait to get started. I've cleaned out my office, and I'm getting all of my "stuff" organized, so that I can be the best coach possible. This is just the next step on my road to optimal health, and I know I'll enjoy it!