I really like salads, but after a while I get bored of them and then go back to eating the yummy fatty foods, greasy unhealthy foods. I love flavor. Every time I decide to try to eat healthier to get in shape and maybe loss wight I end up getting bored with the salads. I just need ideas on different salads and different EASY healthy food ideas for lunches to bring to work. I also want to start making healthy good tasting foods for my family of 7.
Hear hear. When Jennifer Gardner said she lost her baby weight by eating a salad every day for lunch I nearly gagged at how repulsive that sounded to eat something so boring every single day.
The key is these two things: make sure your salad is filling so you don’t finish it and then look through your cupboards for a candy bar and two, make sure your salad tests good so you don’t finish it and then look through your cupboards for….a candy bar.
No matter what anyone says, romaine lettuce, iceberg, spinach, cos lettuce, arugula, etc doesn’t really have much taste to them. But use that to your advantage. It means you can have a regular salad base and all the nutrients that come with the lettuce, but add different ingredients that can completely change the taste of the meal. Chicken versus ham and bacon bites; ranch dressing versus vinagearette, but the thing that I’ve found that can change the flavor is to add a bit of fruit to the salad. Strawberries are surprising fantastic. Cantaloupe, pears, grapes are all great, as well.
Also a fun way to get family to eat salad is to throw mini marshmallows into the mix. It seems to get them excited to chomp down searching for them.
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Fat is not just healthy, it is essential to good health. Fat won’t make you fat, just don’t mix them with carbs. As long as you have <9grams carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control & shouldn’t gain weight, no matter the calories because insulin, the fat storage hormone is not activated.
You can lose more body fat eating protein & fat (don’t eat protein alone) than not eating AT ALL. To lose weight fast, eat all you want, but nothing but meat, eggs, healthy oils, mayo, butter & half an avocado a day (for added potassium). Keep the calories high & the fat percentage high, at least 65% of calories. Green vegetables & some cheese will continue weight loss but at a slower pace.
The first 2 weeks eat several cups a day of (mostly) lettuce & celery, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms, peppers & more variety of vegetables thereafter – add 5 grams per day additional every week (20 grams day first 2 weeks, 25grams 3rd week, 30grams 4th week etc) til you gain weight, then subtract 10grams. That will be your personal carb level (everyone is different & depends on how active you are.)
Start with meat, fats & salads for 2 weeks and then slowly add in more green veg, wk4 fresh cheeses, wk5 nuts & seeds, wk6 berries, wk7 legumes, wk8 other fruits, wk9 starchy veg, wk10 whole grains. You will learn how your body reacts to different foods.
The first week is just water weight but fat is lost thereafter if you keep your calories high enough. Otherwise the body will strip it’s own lean tissue for nutrition. Although that may look great on a scale it will make it MUCH easier to accumulate fat in the future (since all that pesky lean tissue burning up calories will be gone). The body won’t release fat stores if you lower calories below what it needs. It will slow metabolism to compensate & store every spare ounce as fat. If you continue lowering calories, it will continue lowering the set point, til it can survive off nothing & store fat on anything. The body will only release it’s fat stores if it knows there is plenty of nutritious food.
Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) & exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.
The core of Atkins program is converting the body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). Dietary fat levels need to be at >65% of total calories, if not, the body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).
It takes minimum of 3 days to convert a body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis). People feel sluggish the first week but most feel better than ever thereafter.
Simple carbohydrates (sugar, flour, bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice) trigger the fat storage hormone insulin. The more protein the more the fat burning hormone glucagon is released.
Simple carbs are addictive & can be disastrous to health. The best way to break the addiction is NO carbs for 3 days. Make a huge batch of deviled eggs, eat one every time you want "something" – have huge omelets with bacon, sausage, peppers, mushrooms & cheese. Pork chops smothered with peppers, mushrooms & cheese – pork rinds & dip or tuna/chicken/turkey/egg salad – steaks – a huge sugar free cheese cake. Eat so much you won’t feel deprived of anything. By the 4th day, the addiction will be gone & you can start making healthy choices.
High insulin levels promote inflammation, weight gain, hunger & unbalance other hormones. Controlling insulin levels will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so lean muscle will be gained even without exercise.
Ground flax seed (2 Tbsp) 1/4 cup water, artificial sweetener, mix in a raw egg – let sit 10 min. to absorb liquid, put some cream cheese in the middle & nuke 2 min for daily fiber needs.
Many people gain weight on high carb, do low carb to lose weight & then are shocked when they return to high carb & gain weight. Many people can return to moderate carb levels but very few can really eat all they want of sugar & maintain weight or health.
I am adamantly opposed to low calorie dieting because most people lose a good portion of lean tissue (including vital organs like the heart) along with fat stores. There is no nutrition in fat stores, only energy. Most people get impatient and lower their calories and increase their exercise to a point where they lose so much lean tissue that when they return to what was maintenance level eating they are now accumulating more fat stores because their caloric needs have dropped due to the loss of this tissue as well as their metabolism slowing down to work more efficiently on fewer calories & it becomes a vicious cycle of dieting and more loss (including vital organs like the heart). This stress t
References :
Dr.Atkins was a cardiologist, low carb was a health plan easier sold as a "diet" Read any of his books for easily understandable science. Normalizing blood pressure, blood sugar, insulin, cholesterol, triglyercerides & hormone levels are all bonus features of doing a low carb way of eating. Lutz "Life without Bread" & Taubes "Good calories, Bad calories" are excellent books that dispel all the nutrition myths.
http://www.atkins.com/Program/Phase1/WhatYouCanEatinthisPhase.aspx
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html
low carb recipe websites -
http://forum.lowcarber.org/forumdisplay.php?f=2
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/low-carb-recipes-menus/
http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/recipes.html
You need to come to the realization that the purpose of food not to entertain you! Plus, there is so much more toi living healthy then "eating salads". Lose the 1970′s diet mindset and educate yourself on nutrition….or just keep failing. Your choice.
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I think you have a predetermined idea of what "salad" means. To me, a salad can be made from cold uncooked veggies, nuts, seeds, a little pasta, fruits — or combination of these. What makes most salads less healthy is the dressing. No need to dump on anything — when just squeezing fresh lemon or orange juice over the top will give it enough ‘zing’.
BTW: Eating healthy means a balance of proteins, carbs and good fats. It doesn’t mean just eating carbs (salads).
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I eat really healthily (although not necessarily low fat…) and I find it better to male small changes because then they’re easy to stick to. Make healthy recipes such as fish stew where you can put herbs, garlic and spices in. Instead of white pasta, go for wholemeal – the nicest I think is wholemeal spelt. Brown basmati rice is lower GI than other rices – nutritious too, and you could try for example Indian lemon rice (spiced rice with lemon juice and lentils – really easy) with fish or chicken baked in yogurt. Roasted vegetables is one of my favourite meals (potato, sweet potato, butternut squash, leek, onion, garlic, celeriac, fennel, red bell pepper, mushroom, courgette, aubergine etc…) and is a great way to get loads of veg. Also soups with really good wholemeal bread make a nice meal. Homemade hummous is a really tasty and easy snack with raw veggies and definitely tastes amazing. Also red kidney bean salad in mustard/vinigarette dressing (loads of recipes all over the net) is a really nice snack and although it has a bit of mayo in the dressing it’s a better option than many other snack ideas. Hope this helps….
P.S. No more soda
Try and get into the habit of drinking water only. It’s hard at first but pays off.
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How about some sauteed-in-butter onions, mushrooms, peppers, garlic on that salad? Fish, roast beef, sausage, bacon, salami, cheese, nuts, heck even bologna. I lost 50lb eating that stuff, AND exercising.
"I also want to start making healthy good tasting foods for my family of 7."
Lots of vegetables. If they are too fat, do everything as before except no pasta or potatoes…and no bread.
References :
Hear hear. When Jennifer Gardner said she lost her baby weight by eating a salad every day for lunch I nearly gagged at how repulsive that sounded to eat something so boring every single day.
The key is these two things: make sure your salad is filling so you don’t finish it and then look through your cupboards for a candy bar and two, make sure your salad tests good so you don’t finish it and then look through your cupboards for….a candy bar.
No matter what anyone says, romaine lettuce, iceberg, spinach, cos lettuce, arugula, etc doesn’t really have much taste to them. But use that to your advantage. It means you can have a regular salad base and all the nutrients that come with the lettuce, but add different ingredients that can completely change the taste of the meal. Chicken versus ham and bacon bites; ranch dressing versus vinagearette, but the thing that I’ve found that can change the flavor is to add a bit of fruit to the salad. Strawberries are surprising fantastic. Cantaloupe, pears, grapes are all great, as well.
Also a fun way to get family to eat salad is to throw mini marshmallows into the mix. It seems to get them excited to chomp down searching for them.
References :