What is the Flush the Fat Plan?

Cover of The Fat Flush Plan

If you are over weight and would like to loose some weight then you should definitely try out the “Flush the Fat Plan”. What is flushing the fat plan? It may sound a bit crazy to you, but it is really true. The fat flush plan can actually help you in reshaping your body as well as detoxifying your system. This plan is actually a low carbohydrate, three phase diet regimen and was created by Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D, C.N.S., an eminent nutritionist.

Phase 1 of the plan, called The Two-Week Fat Flush, lasts 14 days and is designed to jump-start weight loss. Phase 2, The Ongoing Fat Flush, helps you continue to lose weight, and Phase 3, The Lifestyle Eating Plan, focuses on maintenance.

The Fat Flush Plan was designed to increase metabolism, flush out bloat and to boost the fat burning process. At the core of the plan is the commitment to promote a balanced lifestyle and encourage simple healthy habits that seem to have gone by the wayside in our modern and hectic everyday life. Every aspect of each phase of the plan is focused on accomplishing this goal: helpful essential fats, amounts of protein, antioxidant-rich vegetables, moderate amounts of fruits, calorie-burning herbs and spices, cleansing diuretic beverages, exercise, journaling and even sleep are addressed.

The Two-Week Fat Flush is based on an average of 1,100 to 1,200 calories daily, and is designed to jumpstart weight loss for dramatic results. It will transform your shape by accelerating fat loss from your body's favorite fat storage areas - your hips, thighs and buttocks.

The Ongoing Fat Flush is the next step for those individuals who have additional weight to lose but who also want to pursue a more moderate cleansing program and enjoy a bit more variety in food choices while still losing weight. This part of the program is designed for ongoing weight loss, with approximately 1,200 to 1,500 calories each day. This is the phase that will be followed until you reach your desired weight or size.

The Lifestyle Eating Plan is your maintenance program for lifetime weight control. This phase offers over 1,500 calories daily, providing a basic lifelong eating program designed to increase your vitality and well-being for life. You’ll add up to two dairy products and up to two additional friendly carbs. Phase 3 friendly carbs include more choices from a variety of starchier veggies and nongluten hypoallergenic grains. Foods are always introduced one at a time to make sure there are no allergic reactions and you’re your body tolerates the food well.

Read more

Eat healthy during your holidays

Image via Wikipedia

When the holidays turn up, loads of persons forget every thing about their diets and healthful intake. They may gain weight ranging from 7 -- 10 pounds especially during Halloween and Christmas. If you want to make the holidays to more enjoyable without any gain in weight, then you should follow the tips as given below
Most traditional foods can be made low fat. Turkey is very lean without the skin, and gravy can be made without any fat. Potatoes that are served without butter can be very healthy. The beloved pumpkin pie is nutritious, although it can be made into a fatty dessert with the adding of whipped cream.

Even though the holidays are in, don’t forget about the exercise. Keeping weight off during the holiday season is burning off the extra calories. You should plan a walk after meals, park farther from stores when you shop, and take a few walks around the mall before you begin shopping.

During holiday parties and at family dinners, feel free to sample foods although you shouldn’t splurge. Decide on what you plan to eat in advance, then stick to your plan. Eat plenty of vegetables, fruit, low fat dressings, and slices of lean meats. Before you go to a party, eat a small snack to help curb your appetite.
If at all possible, avoid alcohol. Having too many drinks can cripple your will power, and also add excess calories to your diet. In the place of alcohol, drink water with lemon. Water can help to limit your appetite and keep you from binging. Also make sure to avoid eggnog, as each glass can have up to 300 calories.

Be flexible with your healthy eating, as one bad meal won’t ruin your diet. Try to balance your calories over a few days and don’t just look at one meal or day.

Read more

Latest Toaster Ovens

Image via Wikipedia

The modern kitchen appliances have nothing in common from the appliances that were in use about fifty years ago. An electric coffee pot was as asset about half a century ago to its owner. But now, it has become very common. The present day kitchen appliances, especially those run by electricity has made the old home owners to rewire their electric connections, because the new appliances are not meant to be run on those old wiring.

One of the most useful of all the modern appliances has got to be the toaster oven. With the high cost of electricity, it's not smart to run the regular kitchen oven to bake a couple of potatoes. You'd probably use ten times the cost of the potatoes in electricity with which to cook them.

During the holidays, a toaster oven keeps side dishes warm while you're carving the roast or making gravy. You can bake a pie, roast a chicken, cook some biscuits or set it on warm for a few minutes, then turn it off to let bread dough rise with the door ajar.

The most versatile of kitchen appliances, you can use your toaster oven as a broiler for a quick grilled cheese sandwich or to broil up a juicy burger for lunch.
For single people, the toaster oven becomes indispensable. It takes up little counter space and can be tucked away on a microwave stand shelf when not in use. Cooking for one or two, you'll find you hardly ever need to use your big oven. With the exception of large roasts, ham or turkey, you can cook just about anything in a toaster oven.

If you live alone, that doesn't mean you can't make up a batch of lasagna, cannelloni or enchiladas. You eat one portion tonight and wrap the remainder in individual portions for freezing.

If you get eight portions from the pan, your toaster oven saves you time, clean up and electricity. You've got seven ready made dinners you can have over the next couple of months. One hour worth of electricity running the toaster oven allows it, and you, to sit idle for seven days in the future. Food preparation, along with dirty pans, measuring cups, spatulas and the like, along with the clean up, hot water and soap use happens once, but you eat for eight meals. Now that's what you call efficiency of effort!

Some of the new toaster ovens come with a convection cooking feature, allowing for faster cooking and as a bonus, a moister piece of meat with less shrinkage.
If you don't have one of these more-than-handy appliances, it’s clear you should. If you do, does your Grandma have a birthday coming up?


Read more

Healthy Eating Tips

Image via Wikipedia

We all eat to live. But eating does not mean that we can eat everything. What it actually means is that we should eat healthy. For becoming a healthy eater, we should be both educated and know everything about the food that we eat. But this does not mean that we should be smart enough and learn to calculate grams or fat, studying the labels and counting the calories. Healthy eating means something different.

Healthy eating is all about balanced and moderate eating, consisting of healthy meals at least three times per day. Healthy eaters eat many different types of foods, not limiting themselves to one specific food type or food group. Eating healthy requires quite a bit of leeway. You might eat too much or not enough, consume foods that are sometimes more or less nutritious.

However, you should always fuel your body and your brain regularly with enough food to keep both your mind and body strong and alert.

A healthy eater is a good problem solver.Healthy eaters have learned to take care of themselves and their eating with sound judgment and making wise decisions. Healthy eaters are always aware of what they eat, and know the effect that it will have on their bodies. When someone is unable to take control of their eating, they are also likely to get out of control with other aspects of life as well. They could end up spending too much, talking too much, even going to bed later and later.

You should always remember that restricting food in any way is always a bad thing. Healthy eating is a way of life, something that you can do to enhance your body or your lifestyle. If you’ve thought about making your life better, healthy eating is just the place to start. You’ll make life easier for yourself, those around you, and even your family.

Read more

Cooking Oil Facts

Image via Wikipedia

We all know that eating foods improve our health, regardless of how we cook the food which can also be important. There are so many oil and butter products which claim to be the best that it can be very confusing to know which one to use and which to avoid.

1. Canola oil

Canola oil is popular oil, with many physicians claiming that it has the ability to lower the risk of heart disease. The oil is low in saturated fat, high in monounsaturated fat, and offers the best fatty acid composition when compared to other oils.

You can use canola oil in sauteing, as a marinade and even in low temperature stir frying. It has a bland flavor, which makes it great oil for foods that contain many spices. Unlike other oils, this one won’t interfere with the taste of your meal.

2. Olive oil

olive oil offers a very distinct flavor with plenty of heart healthy ingredients. The oil is rich in monounsaturated fat, helps to lower cholesterol levels and reduce risk of cancer. It’s also rich in antioxidants and has a very long storage life.
Even though it can be used in cooking, it’s the healthiest when uncooked, such as with a salad or dipping sauce. When you use it with cooking, you should heat it on low to medium temperatures, making sure to avoid high heat.

3. Butter

Butter is one food that has been around for many, many years. Butter tastes good, and offers sources of Vitamin A and other fat soluble vitamins such as E, K, and even D. Butter is also made from natural ingredients and not chemically or artificially processed.

You can use butter with cooking, baking, or even as a spread. You can also pair it with creamy sauces, marinades, baked dishes, or even bread.

4. Margarine

Margarine was first introduced as an alternative to high fat butter. When it was first created however, it was loaded with Tran’s fat; a substance that we now know raises bad cholesterol.

As cooking oil, margarine tastes good, it’s lower in fat than most oils and butter, and it’s quite easy to spread. It’s available in a variety of different products and a good source of vitamin E.

When it comes to cooking with oils, there are several at your disposal. There are many more than what is mentioned here, although the ones above are the most popular. Eating healthy involves cooking healthy food - which is where your cooking oil really takes center stage.

Read more articles

Making Nut Gift Baskets

Image via Wikipedia

Almost every family has a real nut as a member. Therefore why should you not make a special nut gift basket for this character? The process of the making is relatively simple and easy, but you can also find those which had been pre-made. Sometimes creating custom nuts gift basket is cost effective and sometimes it is not so.

We all know that this kind of snack is relatively expensive. If you don’t already own gift basket supplies you might want to leave this project up to the professionals. The cost of making a nut gift basket can be really pricey if you are not careful in the process. You can spend a lot more money in the long run if you try to take on the project yourself.

I usually make various arrangements for friends and family. Since my dad is the nut in our family, I decided to make a nut gift basket just for him. I spent little time looking for the core products like the container and packaging materials but the little nuts themselves were another story. My dad’s nut gift basket was an undertaking that I really underestimated.

Of course, I wanted to include a variety of the favorite treats in the nut gift basket. Dad is particularly found of pistachios. He will eat handfuls of them at a time. He puts the shelled pistachios into his mouth and works each treat out of its shell. Then he discards the empty shells. The practice has been one of amazement as well as embarrassment for me and my siblings.

Pistachios were on the top of my list and I was a little surprised by the price of these little snacks. One little bag of the pistachios quickly shrunk my budget for the nut gift basket project. I still had a few more nuts to collect as well and I was starting to get a little nervous about the undertaking.

Dad must have expensive tastes because the next snack on the list was macadamias. He loves to eat these plain but he really loves them when they are dipped in chocolate. Just one package of the natural variety and one package of the chocolate covered variety cleared out my budget for the whole nut gift basket.

I had to choose a smaller container than I originally selected and I was really aggravated when I saw a complete nut gift basket for less than what I spent on the few items I bought. Dad did love his present and the card that said, “You drive us nuts” but I really think that the professionally made nut gift basket would have been better. There’s always next year.

Read more

Why I eat Deer Jerky?

Image by Cowgirl Jules via Flickr

Have you known one of these special foods when you were a child? This is a special sandwich that was good on any sooner? Now see, I'm sure there is at least one that tickled your fancy and kept coming back for more. This little treat for me was and remains deer jerky. Yes, yes, I did not stutter, do not mention the beef. The venison is what you should give a try. I eat deer jerky enough all year and never tire of it. For all the skeptics out there, I suggest you take a cue for hunting. You may be pleasantly surprised. Oh, and did I mention it is much healthier than pork or beef?

Did you ever have one of those special foods when you were growing up? That one particular snack food that was good pretty much any old time? Now come on; I'm certain you had at least one that tickled your fancy and kept you coming back for more. That specials treat for me was and still is deer jerky. Yeah, that's right; I didn't stutter, nor did I mention beef. Venison is where it's at. I can eat jerky pretty much all year round and never tire of it. For all of your doubters out there, I truly suggest that you give venison a shot. You may be pleasantly surprised. Oh, and did I mention that it's much healthier than pork or beef?

Ah, there's nothing quite as tasty as a good local beer and some freshly smoked deer jerky. This is one combo that all bars and pubs should really consider. After all, those peanuts and snack mixes are kind of getting old. It's time for a man's meat. And I mean a real man. One thing I've noticed is that many individuals in the urban areas have yet to try deer jerky. They have never been hunting, nor have they ever tasted venison. This is a tragedy, folks. You're missing out. It's as simple as that. Back when I was in middle school I knew tons of hunters. They were a dime a dozen where I was. In rural Iowa you could find loads of them swarming the woods every deer season. I guess folks just wanted that tasty deer jerky. Not those other forms of venison are not good as well, because they are. I just love the way deer jerky can be hauled around everywhere. Heck, you can shove some of this stuff in your jeans pocket and eat it later. How cool is that!

Now, you don't have to be an avid hunter to acquire venison. Of course it doesn't hurt if you hit one with your car on deserted road. Typically you get to keep it if this occurs. However, I highly recommend you avoid all sprinting deer if you plan to keep your ride in good shape. A large deer can really trash a vehicle quick. Anyway, get online if you're looking for some tasty deer jerky. Pretty much anything it attainable in cyberspace. Hop on your PC and see what I mean. Get the low-down on jerky prices now.

Read more