Cheers to a healthy start...

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Fiber rich granola recipe

(Picture taken from google image, but the recipe makes even yummier granola!!!)

My little sister and I make this gronola and it is super yummy and cheap!

1/4 cup of conola or olive oil
1/2 cup cold water
1 TBS honey
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups old- fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 TBS flaxseed

Optional:
1/4 cup dehydrated cocunut
1/2 cup sliced Almonds or pumpkin seeds
Cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Mix liquids and salt in LARGE bowl. Then add the reast of the ingredients. Mix well. Pour contents onto a large cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon if desired. Cook for 45-60 minutes stirring every 10 minutes. Let cool and store in an air tight container.

Fiber: about 7-9 grams for a 1/2 c. serving.

Do remember that granola is calorie dense so try to stick to the serving size with a peice of fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese, or served as a cereal!

ENJOY!!! and dont forget to check out the previous blog about FIBER!!!

YAY for Fiber!

So, I was watching Dr. Oz this morning, (which isn't a normal occurrence at all) and he was having a show on how important it is to add Fiber to your diet.

According to Dr Oz, Did you know:

- That every adult should have a bowel movement at least every three meals (once a day), but the average person has a bowel movement every 8 meals? SICK!! because that totally means that you have 8 meals just sitting in your intestinal track! No wonder why it is so common for people to have problems with their digestive systems!

- That the average adult should be eating 23 grams of Fiber a day? And people, the fiber pills don't count!! You should be getting your fiber from healthy choices of food so that along with fiber we are getting nutrients.

Because I only watched the show for about 10 minutes, I didn't learn much else!

Fun facts about fiber:

- According to medicinenet.com, People with higher fiber intake tend to have lower body weights. Why? Fiber has been shown to help the body stay fuller longer and helps the body’s absorption of calories slow down!

- Fiber helps constipation which could lead to hemorrhoids
But it made me curious as to what fruits would be a good Fiber choice. After searching the Internet here is the best fiber content chart that I have come across:

http://www.wehealny.org/healthinfo/dietaryfiber/fibercontentchart.html

Suggestions to eating more fiber:

1. Start slowly! Adding too much fiber too quickly can cause tummy aches, bloating of gas, and diarrhea, which are all no fun! So add things here and there slowly and build up to what your body can handle until you reach 23 grams of fiber daily.
2. Spread your fiber out. Do not consume all the fiber that you need at one meal. You intestines need constant fiber throughout the day to keep everything moving at a healthy pace.
3. Drink lots and lots of liquids to help fiber move easier.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Adding Fruits and Vegies Ideas...

An easy way to start being healthy is to find small ways of just adding fruit and vegies to food that you already eat.

Adding fruit to Pancakes:

If you dont have much time this is perfect! I bought a big bag of Krusteaz pancake mix at Costco for about $6. To every serving that I make for myself I will add fruit. Blueberries, bannanas, pumpkin with- 1 T sugar- 1 tsp cinnamon- 1/2 tsp of ground clover, strawberries, etc. Basically I will try to get whats on sale and use it.

Adding fruit to a peanut butter sandwich:

instead of high sugared/splenda-rized jams and jellies, I really like to cut up bananas. I also love blueberries on my sandwich as well.

Add vegies to smoothies:

So when I get lots of fresh fruit because its on sale, I usually dont eat it all. Instead of wasting it I will freeze it. It works perfect for smoothies. You can even freeze peeled oranges, apples, spinach:) Then I like to add a cup of yogurt, and vegies. Any vegies work. I like carrots and spinach. You really cant even taste that you have vegies mixed in with the fruit. With a little buttered- whole wheat toast and your smoothie, you have a wonderful well balanced breakfast:)

Use a little dip:

Notice how I say a little bit of dip. Dips are usually high in fat and calories. The other day I really- REALLY wanted dessert. I didnt have anything so I got out a green apple and caramel. Which really was a better choice than lets say my husbands 28 gram of fat/300 calorie ice cream bar. Carrots and celery dipped in peanut butter is a great healthy snack. I do love ranch and have to really watch how much of it I eat when I bring out the carrots with dip. But remember, if its the dip and vegies or the ice cream bar, the dip and vegies are giving you more of the nutrients that your body needs.

Add fruit to your dinner:

Especially with the summer coming, watermelons and cantloupe will def be in stock. Make them into cabobs and serve with dinner

For kids-

add sprinkles:

I used this trick for the foster kids that we had and it totally worked. For dessert I would give them fruit, but what kid wants fruit for dessert right? So I would put a dab of whip cream and some fun sprinkles on top. They loved it

Decorate the plate:

Make a face out of the vegies/ fruit- or let the kids make their own faces on their plate and have fun eating the different parts.

Decorate the fruit:

Ants on a log: This was another favorite of the kids. I would put peanut butter on celery and use raisons or choc chips to make a line on the celery making it look like ants:)

Mash it:
Add it to breads, soups, pancakes. You can also puree cauliflower and mix it into mashed potatos... sooo YUMMY!

Not at all a fan of "Diets"

So everytime I walk past magazines at the store I ALWAYS see headers that read something like this: "Lose 5 inches in 10 days" "How so and so lost all of her baby weight in just two weeks". And then you open the magazine to the page, see a gorgeous person thats probably been photoshopped to the max, and end up buying the magazine so that you too can "lose 5 inches in 10 days." Have any of you really lost those 5 inches and kept them off forever? If you have, props to you. I know I definately have not done any of those diets and felt that my body was actually healthy.

Although there are many 'fad diets' out there (Atkins, Southbeach, Lemonade fast, Cabbage soup diet, the Hollywood Diet, etc), and I have tried many of them, I do not agree with them and think that they do not work long term. Here are few reasons to why I dont agree with them:

1. They do not instill a healthy lifestyle. When diets do not help improve habits, a person goes right back to the lifestyle that they lived previously.
2. They help you to lose weight quickly, usually depriving your body of important nutrients that you need.
3. Alot of the diets focus on getting rid of water weight, when water is what you need to flush all of the bad things out of your body. And then when you start eating and drinking more water, that weight comes right back.
4. And most important, they do not follow the Word of Wisdom -

I think having a well balanced diet and eating balanced proportions is what will help a body be at the weight it is intended to be at. This website has a great basic setup to how much of each food group we should be trying to get:(http://www.mypyramid.gov/pyramid/index.html)

I tried not to deviate from the topic too much!! Sorry if I did... This topic could go in so many different ways but we will get to those things later:)