Flaxseeds For Your Health

Loaded with alpha-linolenic acid, an essential fatty acid that helps reduce inflammation, flaxseed has been used for centuries for medicinal and health reasons.

Gandhi himself proclaimed, "Wherever flaxseed becomes a regular food item among the people, there will be better health." Bauman adds, "The seed itself has terrific nutritional value, very usable protein, tremendous fatty acids, and minerals like magnesium, potassium, and zinc." Additionally, they're a great source of fiber.

Buy Flaxseed Oil Here: http://www.allthewhey.com/fso120.html

Using Flax Seed Oil

-Don't use flax oil for cooking - heat can turn the essential fatty acids into harmful fats. Add flax oil to foods after cooking and just before serving.
- Flax has many virtues, but it also has a vice: it turns rancid quickly. To prevent spoilage, follow these tips. Keep the flax oil refrigerated with the lid on tight. Minimize exposure to heat, light and air and try to buy it in smaller containers.
- Flax oil taken with a meal can actually increase the nutritional value of other foods! Research shows that adding flax oil to foods rich in sulfated amino acids such as cultured dairy products, vegetables in the cabbage family, and animal, seafood, and soy proteins helps the essential fatty acids become incorporated into cell membranes. Mixing it with yogurt improves its digestion and metabolism by the body.
- Flax oil works best in the body when its taken with antioxidants, such as vitamins E, carotene, vitamin B6 and magnesium.

While a tablespoon of flax oil a day may not keep the doctor entirely away, its bound to help!

How to Avoid Overeating

Food nourishes us. But it also satisfies us, soothes us and helps us celebrate. Put that together with the fact that food is just about everywhere, and often in lavish amounts, and you have a perfect recipe for overeating. But just as we are hard-wired and conditioned to associate food with comfort and relief from anxiety, nervousness, depression, anger and loneliness, we can undo that conditioning -- or at least eliminate the most destructive aspects of it. It’s not easy, but it’s also not nearly as hard as you might think. And, like most new habits, it generally takes no more than 21 days if practiced on a regular basis.

1. Change your surroundings. A shift in setting has the power to change your mood—and keeps you away from the refrigerator.

2. Take five. A five-minute break, whether it’s a walk around the block, a sprint up-and-down the stair or a deep-breathing pause, has a similar effect.

3. Fake out your mouth. If you're craving something sweet, try a pickle, hot pepper or any other completely different taste sensation. And if salty snacks are your weakness, go for something spicy.

4. Reward yourself.Treat yourself to a relaxing activity you normally wouldn't do: a warm bath, a surprise call to your college roommate in London or uninterrupted reading of gossip magazines!

5. Get physical.Go for a stroll, run or do any physical activity at all.The endorphins released will often balance the chemistry of a "craving brain").

6. Sit with your feelings. Rather than stuffing negative or uncomfortable emotions like fear and anger by stuffing your mouth, try "being" with those feelings for five to ten minutes. Can you locate it (in your stomach, your chest) and describe it (a hot pellet, ball of ice)? Write it down. You’ll discover it’s less frightening than you think.

The interesting part of the whole exercise is that most overeating triggers only last 15 minutes. If you can outwait them -- or outwit them -- you can beat them. You'll be amazed (and happily surprised) at how differently you’ll feel a quarter hour later.

Evil Foods that Ruin Your Diet

Cocktails
Joining friends for happy hour? Consider this: An eight-ounce gin and tonic has 160 calories versus an eight-ounce daiquiri, which has 430. If you know you'll be enjoying cocktails later, cut calories elsewhere that day. Then stick to one drink, preferably a glass of champagne or wine spritzer, which are much lower in calories.

Specialty Coffee
Drinking a cup of black coffee (sans sugar) is no problem. But a coffee filled with sugar, whole milk and whipped cream could easily cost you hundreds of calories. It's OK to indulge occasionally but don't make it a daily habit. If you do indulge, order the smallest size, ask for low-fat milk and replace sugar with an artificial sweetener.

Bagels
Although quick and convenient, these enormous rings of dough could wind up on your backside. Why? A four-ounce bagel is equal to four slices of bread. So eat just half a bagel, preferably one made of filling whole grains, and replace the butter or cream cheese with one tablespoon of protein-rich peanut butter.

Granola Bars
They sound like the ultimate health food, but granola bars are often no better than candy bars. Some contain more than 200 calories and may be loaded with sugar. If you can't give them up, at least choose a low-fat, one-ounce granola bar that contains whole grains.

Applesauce
Applesauce seems like such a healthy food. And it can be, as long as you're eating natural, unsweetened applesauce. Otherwise, you'll get a huge dose of sugar and calories -- 100 calories in four ounces of regular applesauce versus 50 in four ounces of the natural, unsweetened version.

Mayonnaise
It tastes delicious on sandwiches but beware: Just one tablespoon of mayo has 12 grams of fat and 110 calories, so use only a teaspoon at a time. Even better? Switch to low-fat or use hummus instead, which has only about 30 calories and 1.5 grams of fat per tablespoon.

Sports Drinks
Unless you're exercising for more than an hour, you don't need a sports drink. Sure, they might taste better than water, but down a 32-ounce bottle and you'll be 240 calories richer. If you can't stand plain water, add orange or lemon slices for a splash of citrus, or try a no-calorie flavored water.

Baked Chips
Although healthier than regular chips, baked chips are still loaded with calories. One ounce of baked chips (about 15 chips) contains 110 calories and packs no nutritional value. Instead, get a crunchy, salty fix by snacking on whole-wheat crackers, celery with peanut butter or low-fat popcorn.

Regular Soda
One 12-ounce can of regular soda contains about 150 calories, not to mention a slew of sugar. Drink a can a day without changing anything else in your diet, and you could gain 15 pounds by year's end, according to one study. Switch to diet soda, and limit yourself to two cans a day.

Salad Dressing
Salad is a dieter's best friend, right? Not when it's swimming in dressing. Top those greens with one tablespoon of dressing -- full-fat dressings have about 50 calories per tablespoon -- or switch to low-calorie alternatives like salsa or balsamic vinegar.

Orange Dreamsicle Shake

Orange Dreamsicle (32 grams protein)

-1 scoop French Vanilla All the Whey Bariatric Protein Isolate (24 grams protein
-1 scoop (individual serving) sugar-free Sunrise Orange Crystal Light powder

-8 ounces skim milk

Alternatives: substitute 4 ounces orange juice for 4 ounces milk; substitute 4 ounces yogurt for 4 ounces milk; add 1/2 tsp. orange zest to shake.

Celery...who knew!?

Celery is a dieter's dream food, especially those that have problems with snacking. It is
extremely low in calories, yet it provides many health benefits - plus its an easy, tasty, and crunchy snack.

Celery contains vitamin C and several other active compounds that promote health, including phalides, which may help lower cholesterol, and coumarins, that may be useful in cancer prevention. To boost flavor but still keep the calorie count to a minimum, you can dip celery in your favorite low fat & low sugar dressing.

Keep a stock pile in the fridge so next time you feel those cravings coming on just grab some and munch away!

Protein Sized for you

The size of a protein portion – meat, poultry, fish, eggs, soy or beans - that we HOPE to get to over time - is the size of a standard tape cassette.

If you’re eating more than a CD’S worth of protein at a meal right now, you need to GRADUALLY move towards a healthier volume. Sooooo either serve yourself a little less than you’re used to, OR take a little bit off your plate before you start to eat.

Keep the smaller protein portion size steady for about a week, and then begin to size it down once again for another week, if you’re ready.

Do this, little by little, in the same way each week, finding your own rhythm. Reducing gradually – step by step - until you get to cassette sized protein portions at each meal is sound advice!!!!!.

Quick Tip

Using mustard instead of mayonnaise on your sandwich is an easy way to boost flavor and nutrition while keeping fat to a minimum. Mustard even contains protein and is low in calories.

The Romans most likely developed the prepared mustards we know today. They mixed unfermented grape juice, known as "must," with ground seeds (called sinapis) to form mustum ardens, or "burning must."

So, do as the Romans do and eat your mustard!

Carbohydrate Basics

Just a couple of decades ago, carbs were the dietary rage. Athletes filled up on pasta before events and high-carb (low-fat) diets were thought to be the answer to everything from weight loss to the prevention of heart disease. Then came the Atkins diet and a spate of other spinoffs. With the advent of these carb-counting weight-loss plans, people mistakenly got the message that all carbs were bad. Recently, a more moderate view on carbs has taken hold which differentiates between them, categorizing them as bad, better and best. To understand the difference, however, we need to understand that the term carbohydrates really means.

The Good, the Bad and the Not-So Bad

Carbs encompass a large range of foods that vary from a teaspoon of white sugar to a cup of cauliflower to a loaf of bread. But there are huge differences in how our body reacts to different kinds of carbohydrates namely because of two factors: the carb’s effect on our blood sugar and its nutrient density (how much fiber, and how many vitamins and minerals it delivers).

The best carbs contain fiber, such as vegetables and fruits. They're loaded with vitamins, minerals and hundreds of important phytochemicals like cancer-fighting indoles (found in the cabbage family), lutein and zeaxanthin, which are the superstars of eye nutrition (found in watermelon and spinach), and quercitin, a natural anti-inflammatory (found in apples). To avoid these carbs makes no sense.

On the other hand, there are carbs that deliver sugar and little else (think soda). Most of the carbs you want to avoid come with a bar-code: They’re highly processed and offer little in the way of nutrition. Unfortunately many of the carbs we routinely eat fall into this category, including refined breads, cereals, pastas and most desserts. These are the carbs we’d be much better off without, especially if we’re trying to control our blood sugar or weight.

Whole Grains

Many foods cannot just be picked from a tree like an apple and eaten. Wheat for example, has to be processed before it's edible. You don’t have to eliminate foods like pasta and rice altogether; instead, the goal should be to eat the least processed form of these foods. White rice, for example, has been far more processed than whole grain brown rice (it's had the bran and outer shell removed, along with much of the nutrients). Same goes for white bread versus whole wheat. So how do you know how processed a food is? A good indication is fiber, which is usually lost when a carbohydrate is highly processed. When shopping, read food labels and use the five and five rule: Look for five or fewer grams of sugar, and five or more grams of fiber per serving. If a grain-based food meets that criteria, it's probably worth eating.

Check back soon to learn about portion control!

Grabbing the controls

We posted that a good diet is a healthy eating plan you can follow for the rest of your life. Getting an eating mix that’s just right for you is like finding the greatest pair of jeans. It’s no good too loose or too tight; it’s gotta be styled just right. Finding that balance is the key to getting it off and keeping it off. Sooooo if you find yourself grabbing for food too often or you’re restricting yourself so much that you’re ready to scream, think of Goldilocks, or finding great jeans; not too loose, not too tight, but just right to make you want to stay. Here’s some things to think about:

-Are you getting enough sleep? (check older post-‘ snooze to lose’)
-Are you watching too much TV? (check older posts – ‘TV’s are getting slimmer, we are not;’ ‘no more couch potatoes;’ ‘A good diet means less TV’)
-Are you drinking lots of calories ( check older post – ‘so-duh’)
-Are you taking in lots of salt ( check older post – ‘can’t shake it’)
-Was your last meal full of carbs? ( sweets, chips, pasta, white bread)
-Are you eating to calm yourself down or fill an emotional emptiness?

Some To-Do’s:
1) Cut out pairs of pictures of thin women and large ones. Tape a set to your mirror, refrigerator door, your pantry door or anyplace you need to remind yourself that you want to downsize, not fill up with food. Look at them when you’re grabbing and force yourself to go for something healthier.
2) Stock up on gum, water, fruit , easy-grab veggies and use them to satisfy the craving to chew or fill-up.
3) Think out of the box:
Some things are just too tempting. We keep eating them like we’re in a crazed mania. To avoid trouble, put portions on a plate in a glass or in a plastic zip bag BEFORE tasting. If you can keep snacks to about 100 calories – you get the gold star.....

11 Things to dish out, or you can’t take it.
Portion control is key, especially with these foods:
candy
soda
cheese
chips
cereal
pretzels
deli meats
popcorn
nuts
cookies
ice cream

if there are more IRRESISTIBLES, add them to the list. Make sure you portion it out before you let yourself eat.

4) Start a daily food diary. Keep it as simple as - writing down what you ate during the day.... both meals and snacks - do it before you go to bed if you can't find time before that .... you can check your progress, set goals for yourself , and see what times and foods are the hardest. Then you can make up strategies to help yourself thru the rough spots.... we'll post lots more about that. If you're into it, write down what your mood was like before you ate and after..... This is all about getting to know your triggers so you can find ways to disarm them!!!!!!

Girl talk

We want to hear from you. ...... sooooooo....... just double click on "comment" ----- give us your thoughts, and let's get rolling here.


Who doesn't need a little girl talk? Especially when it's almost time for the dreaded bathing suit !!!!!!

What makes you roll your eyes when you're looking at yourself in the mirror??????

Makeup Tips for the '5 Minute Face'

Fed up with your tired beauty routine? Wish you could follow a simple yet effective set of steps that actually work for you? Well now you can with these techniques by Carmandy from the TLC show “How Do I Look?” These techniques are practical and all about enhancing your natural beauty without spending hours trying to look polished and pulled together.

Five Minutes to Beauty
1. Start with a tinted moisturizer or foundation, spot conceal any redness and apply under eye concealer.

2. Next, dust on a light translucent powder.

3. Highlight is key to this look so applying a shimmering light shadow under the brows, on the inside corner of the eyes and on top of the cheekbones will showcase your face.

4. Next swirl on blush for a fresh lively look.

5. Line the upper lash line with an eyeliner pencil and smudge with a Q-tip. This will give you the subtle definition you need.

6. Sweep on mascara to the top lashes only. Skipping the lower lashes will save time and potential cleanup.

7. Now slick on lip color and you're ready to go.

Fast, easy and effective!

How whey, and other foods, act as natural appetite suppressants!

1. Apples An apple a day keeps cravings at bay. High-fiber foods like apples generally require more chewing time, giving your body extra time to register the fact that you're no longer hungry. Therefore, you're less likely to overeat.
One study in Brazil found that women who ate the equivalent of three small apples a day as part of a healthy diet lost significantly more weight than those who didn't eat apples. And apples are also a natural anti-inflammatory.

2. Pine Nuts

Pine nuts contain the highest amount of protein of any nut or seed. In Siberia, a handful of pine nuts are traditionally taken with a meal to create a feeling of fullness. What's the secret ingredient?
Pine nuts contain pinolenic acid, a naturally occurring polyunsaturated fat that actually stimulates two powerful hunger suppressing hormones. Both hormones play a major role in signaling to the brain that you're no longer hungry. In one study, participants consuming an extract of pinoleic acid reduced their food intake by 36 percent.

3. Flax Seeds

Flaxseed oil is the best known plant source of omega-3 fats but raw flaxseeds are even better, especially for appetite control. In addition to the omega-3, one ounce of flaxseeds provides the added benefit of 8 grams of fiber. The more fiber you eat at any meal or snack, the slower the rise in your blood sugar, helping to keep the hunger hormones at bay.
Flaxseeds can be tossed onto salads, thrown into smoothies or sprinkled over vegetables. Studies at the National Cancer Institute show that flaxseeds have cancer preventive properties and lowers cholesterol. Purchase Flax Seed Oil at http://www.allthewhey.com/fso120.html .

4. Oatmeal

Real oatmeal -- not instant -- is one of the healthiest carbohydrates. It's low on the glycemic load scale and has a high fiber content, so it enters your bloodstream slowly and keeps you full for a long time.
One bowl of oatmeal consumed daily can reduce cholesterol 8 to 23 percent. For breakfast or as a snack, a small bowl makes an excellent hunger reducer.
We suggest adding a little butter or a handful of pine nuts for longer-lasting fullness. Or how about sprinkling on some ground flaxseed or cinnamon?

5. Soup

Soup is one of the best kept secrets to appetite control and weight loss. Research at Pennsylvania State University shows that men and women consuming two servings of low-calorie soup daily lost a whopping 50 percent more weight than those consuming the exact same number of calories with snack foods.
The secret is soup's combination of high water and low calories. Make sure to choose broths or vegetable soups, not their creamy-rich cousins.

6. Whey Protein Powder

Whey protein powder can help you lose weight and build muscle. New studies suggest that whey may have an impact on food intake through its effect on hormones that influence a feeling of fullness. In one study, participants consumed a liquid meal consisting of either whey or casein and 90 minutes later were allowed to eat freely at a buffet table. The whey group consumed significantly less calories.
Whey also supports the immune system and can lower your blood pressure. Purchase whey at http://www.allthewhey.com/ !