29 Jan ADDING TO LOSE WEIGHT

ADDING TO LOSE WEIGHT

ADDING (that’s right, ADDING) FOODS TO LOSE WEIGHT:

It’s not about depriving yourself of the foods you love to help you drop the pounds. You should never starve yourself or feel deprived in any way. It’s about ADDING foods to your diet. There are a few simple foods you need to ADD (not subtract) in order to curb your appetite and boost your metabolism. In adding these foods to your diet every day, you will find that your stomach actually has less space for the foods you might normally crave, the foods that are bloating you, and aging you.

WHAT TO ADD:

1. RAW NUTS… preferably almonds and walnuts. Not roasted. Not salted. RAW. Eat them every day, and always have a little bag of them in your car. Almonds add “good” fat to your diet and equalize the sugar in your blood stream, thus reducing sugar cravings. Walnuts are not only a good source of fiber and good fat, but they are also “brain food” that stave off Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

2. APPLES (preferably green, but any type will do). I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Well, guess what? It works! Buy organic, because the good stuff is in the skin. It’s the skin that actually keeps your appetite at bay. Wash and scrub it at home, then eat it whenever you feel hungry. Remember, because you eat the skin, it’s important to buy organic. Apples, because of the fiber, are filling. Apples, because of the sugar, are satisfying. Eat them plain with the peel on, or dip them in “good” peanut butter.

3. PEANUT BUTTER. Yes, that’s right, peanut butter. Not Jiffy or Skippy (they both add sugar). I mean the “organic, no preservatives, only peanuts and a tiny bit of salt” kind of peanut butter. If it requires you to stir in the oil, then dump a few tablespoons of the natural oil off the top and STIR. Use your arm muscles for God’s sake! Imagine what it took 100 years ago to make real “homemade” peanut butter. Spread it on apples (unpeeled) or celery. Celery is a great source of fiber, keeps you feeling full, and helps ward off high blood pressure. Celery and peanut butter is SOOOO much better than a handful of chips or cookies or whatever else is on your snack list. Try having your usual fattening or sugar loaded go-to snack AFTER eating 3 or 4 celery sticks with peanut butter: my bet is that you will either lose your desire, or you will not have room in your stomach for even 1/4 of your usual helping.

4. GREEN TEA. It makes you beautiful inside and out. Drink as much as you possibly can. No sugar. No honey. With every sip, think… “I am detoxing. I am getting stronger. My skin is improving. I am living as long as my potential.” Sip all morning and afternoon (until 5pm). Then… switch to the lemon water.

5. WATER WITH LEMON: Before or during dinner, drink a cup (or 2 or 3) of boiling water, or ice water with a slices of lemon. Water is your friend. Water with lemon is your lover. :)) Make it a first priority. Lemon speeds up your metabolism. I wake up each morning with a cup of hot water and lemon. Before a meal, it kick-starts your metabolism. During a meal, lemon helps digestion and helps you eat less. Water suppresses your appetite, eliminates toxins, and reduces fat deposits. It is absolutely essential to great skin and thinner thighs. That’s right. You heard me… THINNER THIGHS! Nothing thins your thighs like drinking a gallon of water. If you find yourself in a “situation” where you suddenly and unexpectedly have to put on a bikini and you are feeling not quite bikini-ready, drink (literally) a gallon of water. Distilled water is preferred if you are in a bikini emergency. It’s typically on the bottom shelf at the supermarket. No fancy packaging. No designer labels. That bloated, tight feeling will be gone in 24 hours. It seems counter intuitive, I know. “Won’t drinking a gallon of water cause me to bloat up even more?” No. Quite the contrary. Our bodies are composed of approximately 60% water. If we don’t consume enough, our cells will hold on to it for dear life for fear of running out. This is what causes us to bloat. But, if you feed those cells an excess amount of water, it triggers our cells to release, flushes out the system, and relieves the cells of the fear of deprivation. What you are left with are happy cells that are free from the anxiety of dehydration. Nothing, in my opinion, takes off those few extra pounds before you step into the ocean or sit your less-than-stellar sized ass by the side of the pool, like drinking a gallon of distilled water with lemon the day before.

6. RED WINE: That’s right. Red wine. This is a very important addition. Consider it as your late night snack. Drink a max of 1-2 glasses of red wine per night. (and I don’t mean the size of glasses used on the sitcom, “Cougar Town.”) 1-2 small glasses aid in stress, health, and beauty. 3-4 glasses hurts your kidneys and liver, which affects your skin, and ages you almost as much as the sun. Have you ever seen the skin of a heavy drinker? Not pretty. On the rare occasions when you exceed the recommended dose (I’m often in this category), drink at least 1 large glass of water for every glass of wine. So, if you’ve had 3 cocktails or 3 glasses of wine in a night, guess what? You are drinking 3 large glasses of water before you go to sleep. Plan on getting up to go to the bathroom a few times. Inconvenient, I know. But it will save your skin, stave off a hangover, and help to flush out the toxins you just consumed.

7. FRUITS AND VEGETABLES: Seems obvious, right? We’ve been told from the time we were toddlers to eat our fruit and vegetables. So do it. They all contain large amounts of water and fiber, which makes you feel full. The easiest way to add extra vegetables to your diet is make a salad. If you eat a small salad before a meal, you will eat less of that meal. Make sure, however, you choose a low-calorie dressing, and don’t drown your salad in it. All fruits and vegetables are good for your metabolism, but some give it an extra little boost. Broccoli, for example, is high in vitamin C and calcium. These two work together to take your metabolism to new heights. Vitamin C aids in the absorption of Calcium, and Calcium stimulates your metabolism. So there you go. It’s a double whammy that really revs up your metabolism. Grapefruit, another metabolism booster, reduce insulin levels, which helps your body process food more quickly. More calories burned. Less fat stored. Simple. ADD extra fruits and vegetables to your diet every day. If you are determined to eat a steak, then eat it. But eat a salad first, add extra vegetables to your meal, and you’ll find you will eat far less of that steak.

8. PEPPERS: Chili peppers have been used for centuries throughout Asia as an herbal remedy to suppress the appetite. Cayenne, Chili, Jalapeño, Habanero… It doesn’t matter which you choose. Even the common bell pepper is beneficial. It is the capsaicin, contained in the peppers, that is the real hero. The amount of capsaicin varies from pepper to pepper, but the general rule: the hotter, the better. Peppers stimulate digestion, reduce appetite, and increase circulation. There are many theories as to how peppers accomplish this. Some believe that capsaicin blocks the communication between the digestive system and the brain, signaling that you are not hungry. Others think they simply make you feel full. My personal thoughts are that, in addition to the fiber in chili peppers and the role capsaicin plays in making us feel full, it is often painful to eat peppers. Right? They burn your mouth and tongue. This burning causes you to drink extra water as you are eating. I’m no scientist, BUT I HAVE noticed my behavior when I eat spicy food… I drink water. Whatever the reasoning behind it, it works. Just do it. It could be as simple as adding red and green bell peppers to your salad, or dousing your eggs with a little hot salsa or Tabasco sauce. And do not discard the seeds or the placental tissue (the membrane holding the seeds). The seeds add fiber to your diet, and the white membrane that holds the seeds contains the highest concentration of capsaicin. So eat every part of the pepper. The theory: Spice up your food and you will eat far less of it.

9. SALMON AND TUNA: These fish are high in Omega-3 fatty acids. They are great for your metabolism and they reduce inflammation in the body. In addition to boosting your metabolism, they are great for heart health, skin, and hair. They are, what I call, a “pretty food” (a food that will make both your insides pretty and your outsides look spectacular). That’s always a good thing. You will obviously not want to eat this every day. In fact, tuna should not be eaten more than once a week due to its mercury content. But try to have Tuna once a week and salmon as often as you can. And by tuna, I don’t mean a sloppy tuna sandwich with gobs of mayo. No. What I mean is either a seared tuna steak or canned tuna, either plain, with a little olive oil, VERY little light mayo, or a little vegan mayo, on top of a leafy green salad.

10. OATMEAL: No…not the instant, flavored kind. I mean steel cut, unflavored, good old-fashioned oats. I know, the stuff in the envelope is so much easier. Its pre-measured. It’s 3 minutes in the microwave. It’s also CRAP! It’s simply not the same. You might as well eat a danish. You can always make a large batch of the good stuff, a slightly watered down version early in the week, and heat it up each morning and add your toppings. It will literally take the same amount of time to open the envelope and pour on boiling water. If that STILL doesn’t work for you, believe it or not, many of the steel cut oats give microwave instructions in case you simply can’t spare the 20-30 minutes it takes to boil them. Me? I admit that I use the microwave method occasionally. But take note… your glass bowl had better be 5 times the size of your oats/water mixture (seriously), or you’ll be wiping up the bottom of the microwave for the “20 minutes” you should have used to cook them in the first place. Oatmeal is a great source of fiber. Fiber is our friend because it takes up room in our stomach and takes a long time to digest. I put raw walnuts and 1/2 a sliced banana in mine most of the time. Put it in a coffee (or preferably a green tea!!) mug. This not only helps with portion control, but it is easy to carry on the go. I don’t expect anyone to eat this EVERY day. Boring. But you CAN mix up the toppings. Sometimes I use banana and walnuts, sometimes peaches, sometimes blueberries. It’s like having a different breakfast each morning. Aim for 3-5 times per week. No sugar. No milk. Just the steel cut oats, made with water (who is our friend) and fresh fruit of your choice with RAW nuts. You’ll be shocked at how long it takes you to get hungry again.

So there you have it! It’s really simple. Don’t give up ANYTHING (at least not yet)… Start by ADDING. See the difference. In the following weeks, we will talk about the subtraction. Trust me. It’s a MUCH shorter list.

Live Young,
Darnell 🙂