The second secret will be found in Christmas!

Last week’s challenge was to have a TV/radio-free lunch.

Did you enjoyed your lunch more?  Was it easier for you to be calm when eating?

If this worked for you, continue to do it so that it becomes a habit.

The challenge this time is very interesting and it is going to be something fun to share at Christmas dinner:

When you sit down to eat (and with every dish served at the table) try to close your eyes with every bite.  

If you want to do it more interesting and you are eating with someone, you can blindfold each other.

Tell me how it went and what discoveries you had...



Merry Christmas!!!

Second SECRET to loose weight WITHOUT diets...

Hello again! 

Last week the challenge was to serve all you were going to eat before sitting down to the table.

Did you feel less anxious? More satisfied?


For this week  lets try:

Before you sit down to eat, shut off the television, radio or music.

I hope it doesn’t cause a revolution at home.  You will be able to talk with your family  more at ease, if you eat alone, try reading a book. 

Dinner time will become more pleasant. 

Small changes... big goals (getting ready for christmas)

It has been proven that only by making small changes over long periods of time, can we achieve permanent success.

I challenge you to make a change per week, or choose one with which you feel comfortable and make it part of your daily life.

I propose:

1. This week try to serve ALL you're going to eat before sitting down to the table.

2. Try to distribute your food this way: One third of your plate with fruits or vegetables, one third with carbohidrates and the rest with meat or beans.

Let's see what happens...

Organic and ecological: What are they and how to eat them?

 Organic food came some years ago as an expensive and almost exclusive fashion. 

This “new wave” includes foods (fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat), cosmetics and cleaning products. Sold in most supermarkets, these are usually more expensive.

But I wonder: Is it worth paying more for these products? Do they offer benefits that no other food offers? Will my food be healthier if I choose them?Before deciding if they are worth buying, let’s get to know them:Organic farming:

• Cultivates soil taking care of natural resources without using chemicals or genetically modified organisms (such as fertilizer or to control pests).

• Considers the quality of life of the farmer.

• Obtains chemical-free products.

• Maintains soil fertility.

• Respects the environment.

The objectives are to produce healthy food with a higher nutritional quality without chemicals or pesticides, grown with processes that help the earth and its farmers.

One of the most important aspects to consider is that by buying organic products, not only are you giving your family healthier and chemical free food, you are helping to improve the living conditions of farmers and thus benefit everyone involved.

The main differences between conventional and organic farming are:

  

CONVENTIONAL	ORGANIC
Use of chemical fertilizer to boost growth.	Use of natural fertilizers such as compost, to feed soil and crops.
Use of synthetic insecticides to reduce pests and diseases.	Use of natural insecticides, beneficial insects and birds to interrupt pest reproduction to reduce diseases.
Using synthetic herbicides to eliminate unwanted weeds.	Using natural herbicides and crop rotation.
Use of growth hormone in animals to increase growth and medications to prevent disease.	Feeding the animals with organic products and access to open spaces. Balanced diet and clean rooms to prevent diseases.

How to identify them?

Most of these products have green labels that include the words "organic" or "ecological".

It can be very expensive to switch completely towards organic food, if you want to include them I recommend you start with fruits, vegetables and meats, with which you will get the most benefit. 

Also I think in some circumstances you should consider them:

• Feeding children under one year.

• Persons with chronic diseases.

• Pregnant women

Have a great and healthy week!!!

Eating sugar has never been so healthy!

This time I want to give you some ideas to remove sugar from your daily diet, without sacrificing the taste of your food.  Remember that if your family eats less sugar, they will reduce their risk for obesity, diabetes and heart diseases. So let’s begin:

• For this warm summer, you can make fun popsicles with stevia: Mix 1lt of water with the juice of 3-4 limes, add stevia until is sweet enough.  Put several pieces of fruit in the popsicle form and fill them with the lemon-stevia mix. Choose fruits of different colors and forms for a funny looking dessert.

• If you like fresh fruit desserts but think they are sometimes too sour, sprinkle stevia and it will improve the flavor.

• If you like clear water with a little flavor, add stevia to a liter of water and add slices of fruit such as lemon, orange, tangerine or watermelon.  Then add a lot of ice and enjoy!

• Make fresh fruit water blending your favorite fruit (lemon, orange, watermelon, cantaloupe, guava) and adding some stevia to sweeten.

• If your kids like chocolate milk, mix a glass of skim milk with a little stevia and a teaspoon or two of cocoa, so you will eliminate sugar completely and your children will still enjoy the drink.

• Make delicious smoothies by blending yogurt or skim milk, seasonal fruit and stevia.

• If you like baking and desserts, visit our page: postresano.com.mx and you will find low calorie recipes, prepared with stevia.

See you next week!

Low calorie products, effective or just more expensive?

“The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d druther not”, Mark Twain.

How many of us, in our thousands of attempts to lose weight have come to the same conclusion? Who is going to feel motivated after all the prohibitions and sacrifices that apparently are needed to be healthy? The eternal NO, no, no and the food you like the most turns out to be the most dangerous!

For many years, this was the belief that many of us had about food and exercise, until the 90's when miraculous foods called “light” or “low calorie” came along.  

For many of us it seemed the end of dieting, mornings at the gym, and suffering at parties... this was the re-ci-pe for success.  And we changed most of the products we bought and every product that had written "light", "low ..." or "free of ..." was taken into our shopping cart.  They were more expensive but it was worth it.

 

Unfortunately, some time later, came the bad news, we realized that they were not so magical and infallible.  Some of us had ended up eating more and others even gained weight.   Additionally it was discovered that not only did eating these products not guarantee weight loss, but some of them threatened our health. Obesity and weight-related diseases did not decrease but increased after the launch of these foods.

But not everything is bad news; I believe that the key to human welfare is to find a balance.  

Low calorie foods are not the magic recipe, but not all of them are harmful.  Used in moderation they can be a very good tool to achieve our goals.

In the end, what we want is that our efforts to eat well and live better are worthwhile and that we feel better.  The key is to know how to choose the ones that are useful for you (light, lite, low…)... and even which "sinful" (full calorie) ones can be good for us too.

Over the next four weeks we will learn more about low calorie options.  The aim is to know the different types and what they are made of so that you can choose which to include in your diet and which are not convenient according to your goals.  

I do not pretend to tell you what to do or forbid anything, but I think that the informed choice is the best. 

Eating healthy, staying fit and enjoying what you like doesn’t need to be impossible, it is a matter of finding the right path!

Have a healthy Halloween!

Remember that there are no forbidden food, it's all about proportions and combinations.

This week I have some ideas for Halloween.  

With these desserts/candies you will offer your children healthier options as fun as the original ones. 

Apples of terror

Wormy ice cubes

Scary Lemon Water

Fruit punch

To make the hand, freeze a juice-filled glove.

Funny tangerines

Cemetery sandwiches 

Have fun!

Our faithful companions at parties:SNACKS

To complement what we learned last week, today I leave you with the calorie content of 100 grams of the famous companions of alcoholic beverages:  snacks

SNACK	CALORIES
Banana chips	519
Potato chips	379
Potato chips BBQ	491
Potato chips Cheese	496
Potato chips Sour cream & Onion	531
Nachos	498
Trail mix (chocolate chips/nuts/seeds)	484
Dip BBQ flavour	143
Dip honey/mustard	464
Dip French cheese	96
Baby carrots	59
Pickles	18

REMEMBER

1 bag of potato chips: 50-100g

1 tablespoon dip: 10-15g

See you next week!

And ... is alcohol FATTENING?

 Yes, indeed! Each gram of alcohol contains 7 calories, so that if we take 100 mL of a beverage containing 50 % alcohol, we will be taking 50g of alcohol and 350 calories. This is equivalent to a full meal! And worst of all is that alcohol doesn’t nourish one bit.

Alcohol also gives calories (and makes us fat).  The only difference is that it doesn’t contain any nutrients.  It’s an “empty” food.

For example, if we go to a party and begin with a Rum & Cola( 50ml rum (111kcal ) and 100ml of Coca Cola (42Kcal ), during dinner we have 2 beers (200kcal) and finally a vodka on the rocks (126Kcal), we would be adding 479 extra calories to our day.  This is equal to eating 2 fried eggs, 2 slices of bread, a glass of orange juice, one piece of sweet bread and a cup of coffee.

It sounds terrible! All our effort to lose weight lost by a few drinks in an evening.

But not everything has to be banned, there are some tricks in order to be able to enjoy alcohol without sacrificing too much.  

Here are some tips:

• Choose low percentage alcoholic drinks like wine or beer.
• Choose low-calorie soft drinks or sugar free, such as mineral water, to mix them.
• If you mix your drinks with juices, look for those that don’t contain sugar.
• Avoid quenching your thirst with alcoholic beverages, try drinking a few glasses of water BEFORE drinking alcohol.

Here is a table with the most common alcoholic drinks and how many calories they provide:

DRINK	PORTION	KCAL
Anise	A cup ( 50mL )	131
Cava brut	A cup (100mL )	65
Cava semi-dry	A cup (100mL)	69
Beer	One can (250mL )	100
Light beer	One can (250mL )	55
Cuba libre cocktail	One glass (250ml )	347
Cocktail Daiquiri	A glass (100ml )	222
Gin Tonic Cocktail	A glass (250ml )	350
Cognac	One cup (50mL )	112
Geneva	A cup (50mL )	110
Sweet liqueurs	A glass (50mL )	116
Rum	A measure (50ml )	111
Sangria	A glass (200ml )	172
Cider	A small glass (100ml )	38
Dry Vermouth	A measure (100ml )	118
Sweet vermouth	A measure (100mL )	151
Table wine	A glass (100ml )	71
Sweet wine	A glass (100ml )	157
Fine Wine	A glass (100ml )	116
Moscatel Wine	A glass (100ml )	165
Vodka	A measure (50ml )	126
Whisky	A measure (50ml )	111

The lesson here is: Don’t ruin all your week’s effort to loose weight with some "drinks".  Just learn to choose the best option .

See you next week.