Where did your Calories Go?

Are you trying to get in shape and stay healthy? At the end of the day, do you know what you actually ate? I am going to give you my top tips for eating for Health & Weight Loss.

1. Keep a Food Log. This can be on a small piece of paper, in a book or electronically. Most people underestimate what they actually eat and drink in a day. This will help you get to the facts.

2. Fill up & stock up on FRESH Veggies and fruits. You can eat a large volume of veggies and fruits and they will barely make a dent in your calorie allowances each day. These foods are high in fiber and vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.

3. Limit or eliminate the amount of milk and milk products you eat. If you must have Milk, look for Unhomoginized (Whole Foods Carries this) and Raw Cheese Products. Processed Dairy is irritating to many people's digestive systems and can also alter your immunity.

4. If you eat Red Meat, look for Grass fed and/or Organic Meats. These animals are raised in a healthier manner and fed what a cow is meant t eat. Toxins are stored in fat, so that they are kept away from organs. Amimals fed corn and soy have toxic fat which is then transferred to you. Your body will also hold the animals toxins in your FAT.

5. Include whole-grain choices such as brown rice and 100-percent whole wheat products for additional nutrients and to increase
your fiber intake. Look for sprouted grain varieties and try other complex carbohydrates such as quinoa, spelt, amaranth, barley and couscous.

6. Reduce your portion sizes. Use a salad plate for your main dish. If you eat out, have them wrap 1/2 to go before they serve you the food.

7. Realize that you do not have to eat 3 large meals everyday. Try breaking up your food into smaller portions throughout the day. Each time you eat, you rev up your metabolism through the digestion process. Remember...this means eating the same amount of food (not more) just in smaller portions. This helps keep blood sugar level throughout the day.

8. Plan your snacks ahead of time. Prep your food early in the week and keep it ready in the fridge for quick healthy options. This way you won't be looking to eat everything in site.

*****Never beat yourself up and always look forward. Everyday is an improvement to yesterday. Each improvement that you make will take you one step closer to ultimate health & vitality.

Tip of the day: Try one change at a time until it seems easy to add the next!!!!

Just Downsize Your Plates, Your Stress & your FOOD

Is Stress causing you to be FAT? When you are feeling Stress- Do you Eat, Do you MOVE or are you consciously trying to redirect your thoughts? :

I hear it all the time..."I can't wait to have a drink to unwind"," I deserve this cookie because I had such a hard day." Do you ever really think about how long the alcohol or sugar may make you feel better? When you eat sugar, you may feel a temporary rush, but soon after you feel a more prominent crash. Maybe your mood has changed or you have an even stronger craving or you might feel shaky, and reach for some more sugar. Chances are that if you were to keep a journal with what you eat and what emotions you were feeling before and an hour after the food- you would begin to become AWARE of how your Food Choices really effect you. FOOD IS A DRUG! (LITERALLY)

Another option to deal with STRESS would be to get moving. Obviously that means some sort of exercise. Here's the important part: Exercise SHOULD MEAN DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE. What you do should depend on your PERSONAL STRESS LOAD. I have said this before STRESS IS NOT JUST EMOTIONAL STRESS. It also means how, what and when you eat, are you sick or run down?, do you have inner candida, is your body tired from not enough sleep, etc... Depending on where you are will dictate how you should move. BUT BELIEVE ME THE RIGHT MOVEMENT WILL ALLEVIATE YOUR STRESS AND ANXIOUS FEELINGS. Movement may be walking, running, weight work at the gym or it could be stretching, yoga, pilates or tai-chi. You can Work OUT but more people probably need to WORK IN.

Here are your tips of the Day :
DOWNSIZE your PLATES so they hold less food.
CHEW ALOT AND EAT SLOWLY. YOU WILL REALIZE YOUR FULL AND NOT OVEREAT.
Downsize the noise while you eat. Turn off the TV while you eat- you will eat less. If you eat out, have 1/2 your food wrapped to go before they bring it out to you.
Eat the portion sizes you had 20 years ago before the world supersized
Simplify your cooking at home and cook more meals
IT"S OK NOT TO FINISH EVERYTHING ON YOUR PLATE. No more Clean Plate Club

*Never tell yourself that a food is off limits- you'll only crave it more. Find a friend to share a cookie with or order 1 dessert for the table or split 1 Crumbs cupcake into 5 pieces.

If you must have a latte, switch the ingredients to get rid of the fattening dairy!
I have a decaf americano (espresso) with a few pumps of vanilla syrup and a drop of caramel. Americano is made with water and you still get the sweetness. Get it hot or iced! And it's also OK not to finish it. Learn to trust your body's cues to fullness.
You get the point.

SOY- It's not what you think!!!

Soy is one of those topics where I feel people are very misinformed and uninformed. Most people have been programmed to believe what they see ADVERTISED. Most people have never had the opportunity to become informed by a third party with nothing to gain from sharing information. For the past 7 years I have been studying health and nutrition and in that time I have been exposed to ideas and facts that I never would have believed prior to this journey.

Americans have been raised to think that Milk- does a body good and we need it to get our Calcium requirements, we assume that artificial sweeteners are better than sugar and of course safe since the FDA has approved it for sale and we have learned to think that a perscription drug will only make us better. One of the biggest offenders, in my opinion, are the benefits of Soy.

For a while we heard Soy prevents heart disease, cancer and aging. Do you ever wonder who is behind these so called facts? Please read the short fact list on SOY. This is reprinted from the WESTON A. PRICE FONDATION. The Weston A. Price foundation has no agenda other than better HEALTH for you and for YOU to be better informed before you choose what you eat.

Confused About Soy?--Soy Dangers Summarized

* High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.
* Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.
* Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.
* Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.
* Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body's requirement for B12.
* Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D.
* Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.
* Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.
* Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.
* Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.


How You Can Help! We have several initiatives we are working on to alert people to the dangers of soy. These efforts will require continued support. Click here for our donation form.
Articles
Soy Studies

* For a list of over 200 studies showing the toxicity of soy, see http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~djw/pltx.cgi?QUERY=soy
* Dangers of Dietary Isoflavones at Levels Above Those Found in Traditional Diets, Posted 19 OCT 2002
* Studies Showing General Adverse Effects of Soybeans, 1971-2001, Posted 19 OCT 2002

Soy Activism

* An Open Letter to Barack Obama
* Soy Prison Complaint as filed
* WAPF Comments to FDA re: Final Rule Re Food Labeling: Health Claims; Soy
Protein and Heart Disease, Posted 24 FEB 2008
* WAPF Comments to FDA on Solae Petition (PDF), Posted 11 APR 2005
* Rebuttal to Solae Health Claim re: Soy and Cancer (PDF), Posted 25 JAN 2005
* Response to Solae's FDA Petition (PDF), Posted 14 JUN 2004
* Press Release Regarding Response to Solae's FDA Petition (PDF), Posted 05 JUL 2004
* Soy-Based Infant Formula: Testimony to the US FDA, Posted 12 DEC 2003

Soy Articles

* Colony Collapse Disorder: Soy Tie to Bee Die-Off?, Posted 15 FEB 2008
* Recovery from Soy: Part I --A Strategy for Dealing with Soy Allergies, Posted 14 FEB 2008
* Soy and Osteoporosis: Not a Leg to Stand On, Posted 18 DEC 2006
* Soy Industry on the Attack, Posted 16 JUL 2006
* The Soy Controversy, Posted 26 MAY 2004
* Soy and the Brain, Posted 28 APR 2004
* Advertising and Monkey Business, Posted 17 FEB 2004
* Committee on Toxicity in Foods and the Environment, Posted 23 MAR 2003
* Reply to Robert Cohen, the Not Milk Man, Posted 09 FEB 2003
* Tragedy and Hype
* Soy: The Dark Side of America's Favorite "Health" Food
* The Ploy of Soy
* Soya: The Quiet Conquest
* Soy Isoflavones: Panacea or Poison?
* Maganese Madness

Excerpts From The Whole Soy Story
By Kaayla Daniel, PhD, CCN

* The Promotion of Soy: Introduction by Sally Fallon, Posted 09 AUG 2005
* Soy Lecithin: From Sludge to Profit, Posted 24 FEB 2004
* Soy Carbohydrates: The Flatulence Factor, Posted 06 DEC 2003
* Not Milk and Uncheese: The Udder Alternatives, Posted 25 SEP 2004