SUN SKINNY

New research has been released that shows a correlation between thin people and higher blood levels of Vitamin D.

Vitamin D, also known at the "sun vitamin", also helps to prevent osteoporosis and certain forms of cancer.

So get out in the sun! You only need 15 minutes of unprotected sun-exposure each day to get your recommended dose of Vitamin D.

Soak up the sun and start getting skinny!

FORGET THE FAT

HERE is an article with a list of 30 foods that help your body shed excess fat. The list:






1) Cottage Cheese (look for non-fat)

2) Egg Whites

3) Oatmeal

4) Sushi

5) Peanut Butter

6) Beans

7) Fat-free plain yogurt

8) Lemon

9) Energy Bars (make sure to read the ingredient list and calorie count! Clif is great)

10) Carrots

11) Soy Chips (great replacement for potato chips!)

12) Part-skim string cheese

13) Hummus

14) Edamame

15) Dried Fruit (WATCH PORTION SIZE! And watch out for added sugar)

16) Shrimp

17) At-home Thin Crust Pizza (add tons of veggies to sneak in an extra serving!)

18) Tofu

19) Salsa

20) Poached Chicken

21) Sweet Potatoes (especially the purple kind! Read more about them in my old post HERE)

22) Baked Apples (or raw apples dipped in peanut butter... mmmm!)

23) Fat-free Cool Whip*
*THIS IS A NO-NO! The article may say that this treat is low calorie, but it's also made ENTIRELY from hydrogenated oils... aka trans-fat aka created in a lab aka your body doesn't know what to do with it so it just stores it in your mid section! Stick with regular old light whipped cream (read labels! Watch out for high fructose corn syrup!) and smother some blueberries in it. Great treat and still low calorie!

24) Frozen fruit (watch for added sweeteners!)

25) Fudgesicles (create your own with some vegan chocolate pudding placed in the freezer with a toothpick in the middle!)

26) Fat-free sugar-free pudding (avoid artificial sweeteners and, yet again, READ LABELS!)

27) Angel food cake

28) Fat-free hot cocoa

29) Virgin mimosas

30) Herbal tea (and green tea!)

SOLO DANCE PARTAY!

As of late I have noticed how sometimes our lives become so chaotic and jam-packed with "to-do" lists and responsibilities that we lose sight of what matters most: our emotional and physical health.

Without a healthy body and mind you can't work and you can't pay your bills... let alone get around to living your life! And so, for those days that are just too jam packed to lace up your running shoes or hop in the car to head to the gym, I give you Dance Party.

Set up either your computer or i-pod docking station in a room where you can be alone and have plenty of space to move around. Create a list of up-beat, fun songs (I use guilty pleasures like Britney Spears and techno) that is a total of 30-60 minutes long. Click "play" and DON'T STOP DANCING TILL THE WHOLE PLAYLIST ENDS!

Hop around, swing your hips, try moves that look completely ridiculous. You'll find it not only fun and invigorating, but do this at least 3 days a week and you'll start seeing some serious toning all over your body!! Dancing works muscles that you didn't even know you had, plus it's great cardio! Not to mention how nice it is to let go of your self-consciousness for a while :)

So when you don't feel up to pounding the pavement, turn up the tunes and get an awesome workout right at home! Also fun: use YouTube and try to copy dances from your favorite music videos. Totally lame, but no one will ever know!! SOOO much fun!

PURPLE POWER!!

HERE is a place to read more about PURPLE sweet potatoes!! Not only are they beautiful and unique, they also pack a huge antioxidant punch (think the antioxidant that makes blueberries blue) and are LOW on the glycemic index scale, so they are less likely to pack on the pounds and they wont spike insulin levels in the blood!

This is GREAT news for anyone who loves sweet potato fries! Now you can make up a batch at home for your next get-together and have all the flavor and more healthy properties! Not to mention the fact that their color is a great conversation starter. The link I have above has several recipes for you to try :)

Like plain old french fries better but avoid them due to carbs? Try purple peruvian potatoes from your local supermarket. They aren't sweet potatoes... they're regular old fashioned potatoes but with the same antioxidants and decreased gylcemic impact of the purple sweet potatoes. Buy a batch and cut them up, sprinkle with olive oil & salt & rosemary, bake at 350 for 20 minutes and VOILA! A lovely, TASTY, nutritional snack!

LESS EQUALS LONGER?

THIS ARTICLE talks about a new study just released that studied the effects of a calorically restrictive diet in monkeys. The results: it increased overall life expectancy and decreased the rates of disease!! CRAZY!

Calorically restrictive = 30% less calories than their average body requirement.

This is only one of many studies confirming the positive effects of a moderately calorically restrictive, but STILL NUTRITIONALLY COMPLETE, diet. If you think about it, this makes a lot of sense. If you eat foods that are not calorically dense, like fruits and vegetables, you can eat a whole bunch of food with a lot of vitamins and minerals without consuming a lot of calories. It takes a whole lot of pounds of vegetables to eat 2,000 calories in one day!

Moral of the study: if you can make the commitment, eating 30% fewer calories may have some long-term anti-aging benefits if you make sure you have a nutritionally complete and varied diet. Being a vegetarian or vegan can make this jump a lot easier, since the bulk of fresh fruits and veggies can keep you fuller longer.

NOTE: Do NOT start a new eating plan without consulting your MD. And be careful! Excessive calorie restriction can cause a ton of health problems (loosing your teeth, osteoporosis, CARDIAC ARREST!) and the last thing you want is an eating disorder (highest rate of death for ALL mental disorders, not to mention the misery of obsessing over nothing but food 24/7), so BE CAREFUL if you are looking to reduce your calories.

NATURAL NOURISHMENT

With the temperatures warm and the sun ever-present, summer is the perfect time to get outside and be active. One catch: you lose more electrolytes through sweating than you do in cooler temperatures, making it harder to exercise for long periods and at high intensities.

So if you want to pick up your workout and speed your recovery, what is a a fitness buff to do? Most sports drinks have outrageous amounts of calories and use artificial sweeteners that can do way more harm than good, so what's the point in drinking something that works against your efforts?

Well, mother nature has the answer and it's DELICIOUS! Coconut water (NOT milk) is the fluid from the inside of an unripe coconut. It tastes great, is low in calories, and has a TON of electrolytes... including more potassium than in an entire banana!

Drink one 8oz 60 calorie Zico coconut water BEFORE working out to increase you duration and overall calorie burn. Drink one after to replenish what you've lost through sweating. Limited calories, no added sugar, and everything your body needs to keep it in tip top shape. Also great for a day at the beach!

BEAT THE BLOAT

HERE is an article with 10 foods to avoid if you want to ban belly bloat!
The list (and my summaries/explanations):

NOTE: Anything with a * means that the entry is not entirely factual. I have included explanations and clarifications for any information from the article that wasn't totally accurate.

1) SALT
-water is attracted to salt, so it makes you retain excess water, especially around your middle! Hidden sources: restaurant food, canned soups.
2) Excess carbs
-8 servings a day of whole grains is ENOUGH! Any extra is stored as fuel... a type of fuel that leads to excess water storage.
3) Bulky raw foods*
-raw vegetables mainly, but this bloating is temporary! If your body isn't used to a lot of ruffage, you may see some distention in your belly. What to do? KEEP EATING RAW FOODS! Your body adjusts over time and the extra fiber helps to DECREASE tummy distention in the long run.
4) Gassy foods
-Broccoli, cauliflower, beans, cabbage... "too much of a good thing" does exist! These foods are very healthy, but in excess they can lead to bloating and gas.
5) High-acid drinks
-ALCOHOL, coffee, soda... these irritate the lining of your GI tract and can lead to swelling. They included tea on their list but this is FALSE! Green and white teas actually HELP to decrease bloating because they are diuretics, so they flush excess fluids in the body!
6) Fried foods
-The high fat content causes these foods to be digested more slowly, leading to increased uncomfortable feelings of fullness and stomach distention.
7) Spicy Foods*
-If you have gastric reflux, then yes, the extra release of stomach acid stimulated by spicy foods can lead to stomach irritation and inflammation. However, if you do NOT have GERD, these foods can actually DECREASE stomach bloating by speeding up digestion!
8) Carbonated drinks
-The carbonation in soda and other fizzy sips can lead to excess gas in the GI tract, leading to distention, stinkyness, and overall unpleasantness.
9) Chewing gum
-When you chew gum, whether you mean to or not, you naturally swallow some air. The build up of air in the GI tract leads to belly bloat, gas-y-ness, and general discomfort.

DELICIOUS DIET-FRIENDLY DESSERT

I found am amazing recipe for simple to make, vegan blackberry lime tartlets!! The photo in this post is of the finished result. Not only are they low in fat and calories, but they're bite size, so you can watch your portions!



BLACKBERRY LIME TARTLETS

24 mini phyllo shells (buy pre-made in freezer section)
1c plain soy yogurt (or regular, is you aren't vegan)
1 tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp lime zest (scrapings from the skin of a lime)
1/4c apple juice
1/3c organic sugar
2 tsp Agar powder
6oz Blackberries

1) Bake phyllo shells for 4min at 350F (to make them just hard enough to not soak up the filling)
2) Mix soy yogurt, lime, and lime zest in a medium-sized bowl
3) Put apple juice and sugar in to a medium sized sauce pan and heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Sprinkle in the Agar powder and continuing heating until completely dissolved.
4) Add the apple juice/sugar/agar mixture to the yogurt/lime/lime zest. Stir until an even consistency.
5) Divide yogurt filling among the phyllo shells, chill in fridge for about an hour.
6) Place blackberry on each filled phyllo (or, for even more flavor, puree the blackberries and place the puree on each filled phyllo), SERVE AND ENJOY!!

***4 tarlets contain approximately 158 calories, so enjoy without regret!!

EXPLOSIVE EXERCISE!

Plyometrics, or exercise with EXPLOSIVE movements (like jumping, hopping, etc.), is not only fun, it TORCHES calories as well!

As a working woman I understand that my time is valuable and limited, especially on work days. Because of this I often nap or watch TV rather than exercise after a long day at the hospital. Plyometrics is an amazing discovery that allows you to not only exercise on work days, but to do so in a more effective and less time-taxing way.

10 minutes of plyometrics can burn 100 calories! It also helps to build muscle and increase bone density!

HERE is an article with a plyometrics workout that is perfect for before work, during your lunch break, or when you get home!

But be warned: Plyometrics utilizes intense bursts of muscle energy, so it is difficult! Think about jumping rope. Not so tough for a minute, but try jumping at a good pace for 10... it's EXHAUSTING!! The workout linked in this post is fun and easy to follow, but it is tough, so pat yourself on the back for how damn strong you are when you complete it (ESPECIALLY if you can do the rotation more than once!).

THE BENEFITS OF KEFIR

If you don't know what "Kefir" is, now is the time to learn! The health benefits it offers are too good to pass up... not to mention it's delicious!

Kefir is a lot like yogurt. It's a fermented milk product made with probiotics, but instead of utilizing traditional yogurt bacterium, it is made with Kefir grains.

Kefir grains are little balls of "good" bacteria that have been shown to improve digestion, increase immune function, decrease oxidative and mutagenic damage in the body (aka it's a STRONG antioxidant that combats free radicals and the effects of aging), aids in weight loss, can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and naturally balances the bacterial flora of the intestines.

Kefir's anti-cancer and healthy skin/hair benefits are continuing to be studied, so the list of positives attributed to Kefir will likely grow longer!

What I love about Kefir is that is has FAR MORE probiotics than regular yogurt (with added anti-fungal properties) and it's slightly thinner texture lends itself to making AMAZING smoothies: Just add 1 cup Kefir and a handful of mango (or blueberries, or another fruit) to the blender (you can add agave nectar or honey for additonal natural sweetness) and voila! You have a delicious and nutrious snack or breakfast with minimal effort :)

So, what's stopping you?! Go grab some Kefir and start seeing the health benefits today!

For more on Kefir, you can check it out HERE