Blog Archives
BREAK-THE-FAST RIGHT! The Best & Worse Breakfasts
The word “breakfast” literally means breaking the fast. After not eating for hours during the night, your first meal of the day breaks the fast, raises your blood sugar, and revs your metabolism. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day – and the most neglected. Whether people skip it or just choose poorly, most people are not getting the nutrition they need to feel good throughout the day.
Breakfast is necessary to wake your body up. You can try using coffee to fake your system out, but coffee doesn’t fuel your body like food does and it will eventually let you down.
So, now that you know how important breakfast is, here are the best and worse breakfasts, along with a few tips to boot!
TOP WORSE BREAKFASTS
Top 5 Fattening Sweet
- Donuts
- Danishes
- Cinnamon rolls
- Pancakes, waffles and French Toast (made with oil, butter and syrup)
- Deceiving Muffins, Coffee Cakes & Scones (although fat in muffins r better than the fat in donuts)
Top 5 Fattening Salty
- Sausage
- Bacon
- Eggs with yolks (restaurants also cook them in loads of oil)
- Hashbrowns and Tatar Tots
- Omelets with real egg and cheese (and lots of oil)
Top 5 Sugary Prepackaged Breakfasts
Cereal- Pop Tarts
- Taster Strudel
- Cereal Bars
- Granola (high in fat & sugar – better used as a yogurt topping)
COMING UP on Motivation Monday:
Men’s Fitness‘ Top 5 Worse Restaurant Breakfast Food
I’ll be unveiling the top worse Restaurant breakfast food on my Monday Radio Show. Here are some hints:
What Denny’s Meal has Over 1,160 and nearly 3,000mg sodium?- What IHOP meal looks healthier than it is – with 920 calories & 70gm of fat?
- Which Hardee’s Monster Biscuit has a days worth of sodium AND fat in one sandwich!?
- Which McDonald’s sandwich do you want to avoid the most?
- What Sonic Breakfast Sandwich with Sausage has 51gm of fat?
We’ll post the Ustream footage after it airs from 7AM-8AM Monday on WTTB 1490 right here! Listen LIVE or on Ustream!
OR subscribe to The SideLine Radio UStream to be the first to be notified when it’s LIVE!
BEST & WORST fromNutrition Action:
Burger King the WORST breakfast fast food joint and
Einstein Bagels the BEST for serving 300 calorie bagel thin sandwiches & low fat cream cheese. Also, Einstein bagel’s cream cheese is double whipped which means it has ¼ less fat in them. 8 of the 11 flavors have HALF the fat of regular cream cheese, yet they don’t label them light or low fat.
BEST BREAKFASTS
Top 5 GOOD Breakfast Food
- Dairy – yogurt & milk
- Whole Grains – oatmeal, whole grain, high fiber, low-sugar cereal, whole grain toast
- Egg Beaters, Egg Whites or Eggs with fewer yolks
- Ham steak and Turkey Sausage instead of Bacon
- Fruit
Skipping Breakfast Quadruples Your Chances of Obesity
4 Reasons Why:
- Breakfast fuels your body.
- Breakfast increases your metabolism.
- Breakfast keeps you sharp. (Have a good breakfast on big days, like test days & big meetings)
- Breakfast prevents overeating at lunchtime.
See all 18 Worse Breakfasts Featured in Men’s Fitness Magazine
What the Kale is THAT!?
My friend GiGi is one Kale of a blogger. 
She totally cracks me up with her fun wit, but inspires me with her passion for eating healthy – and just making healthy living super fun. After one of her recent blogs about Kale, I’ve just had Kale on the brain – and on the plate!
Ironically, while I was picking up some kale at the grocery store this weekend, Steve was researching Kale online and was amazed with it’s nutrition. By the time he got hom that night, I already had Kale cooked and waiting – and had no clue he had already gotten on a kale kick himself! Great minds think alike!
See What GiGi has to say about Kale:
Don’t believe us? Check out What WebMD says about Kale:
“One cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.
Kale’s health benefits are primarily linked to the high concentration and excellent source of antioxidant vitamins A, C, and K — and sulphur-containing phytonutrients.
Carotenoids and flavonoids are the specific types of antioxidants associated with many of the anti-cancer health benefits. Kale is also rich in the eye-health promoting lutein and zeaxanthin compounds.
Beyond antioxidants, the fiber content of cruciferous kale binds bile acids and helps lower blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease, especially when kale is cooked instead of raw.” Read the whole article, The Truth About Kale.
Simple Kickin’ Kale Recipe
1 Large Package of Fresh Organic Kale
2 Cloves garlic, finely sliced
1/2 cup chicken stock or water
1/3 cup red wine vinegar (to taste)
1 TBSP Cento Cherry Peppers (to taste)
Salt and pepper
Kick it even another notch by serving it with your favorite hot sauce. 
Do you eat Kale? How do you cook it? Share you kale story!
Diet Sabotage: 6 Problems, 6 Solutions
Here’s a million dollar question for you: Why is it SO hard to diet? Well, the answer is easy. We have issues! HaHa! Seriously, we have 6 common issues, or situations we find our self in on a regular basis, that we need to learn to face WITHOUT food.
1. Boredom
Problem: One of the most common reasons people eat is out of pure boredom. This is most common in the evenings. It’s not like the world will come crashing down around us if we watch TV without a bowl of snacks, but for some reason we feel the need to feed as soon as our fat butts hit the couch. Think about this: 300 extra calories of junk a night is enough to ruin a 3-mile run – and if you aren’t working out, 300 extra calories a day for 365 days a year adds up to a whopping 30lbs of fat!
Solution: Snacking is just a bad habit. You have a learned behavior to entertain your tongue while you entertain your brain, and it probably started as a child. Fixing this bad habit is easy as saying your ABCs! A.) Go cold turkey, and teach yourself not to eat when you are bored. B.) Trade a bad habit with a good one, by learning how to eat lower calorie items instead. C.) Find something better to occupy your time, like going for a walk or going to bed early. People who stay up late watching TV have more time to be tempted. You may just be better off going to bed and getting your beauty rest.
2. Laziness
Problem: In my opinion, laziness is one of the primary reasons we have a restaurant on every corner. Often times we don’t feel like cooking after a hard day’s work. So, we eat out because it’s easy. We like to be served – who doesn’t?! We don’t have to cook and we don’t have to clean up afterwards. Another reason people are tempted to eat out, or eat poorly, is because we make it too difficult to eat healthy. Our meals may be too complicated and time-consuming, and our snacks may not be realistic for our needs. So, we a grab quick fix or head to our favorite restaurant.
Solution: If you simplify your recipes, cooking won’t seem so overwhelming. But, if you know cooking a meal means spending 45 minutes in the kitchen, slaving over the stove, you will probably do anything to avoid it. Always keep some foods that are quick to cook, like frozen vegetable Steamers and defrosted meats. This will require changing your shopping habits. You can have the best intentions at the grocery store, but you also have to make realistic choices you can actually use in the kitchen.
3. Impatience
Problem: We live in a world filled with instant gratification. We don’t like to wait for ANYthing, and this includes food. Being hungry makes us impatient. The hungrier we get, the more impatient we get – but patience wouldn’t be needed if we weren’t so hungry to begin with.
Solution: Hunger makes us stupid. Seriously, we do some of the dumbest things when we are hungry, so the solution to the problem is to avoid being that hungry to begin with. Keep healthy snacks, like a bag of almonds or a protein bar, nearby. So, when you get hungry, you can have a couple of bites of the bar to hold you off until you can eat something healthy. Better yet, snack periodically BEFORE you even start to get hungry to begin with. By the time lunch or dinner rolls around, you can make healthier choices - and think with your brain, instead of think with your stomach.
4. Unpreparedness
Problem: This is probably one of my own biggest personal stumbling blocks. I do GREAT – as long as I’m prepared. But, as soon as I eat up all my healthy groceries, and no longer have healthy choices on hand, my diet goes out the window.
Solution: Make grocery shopping and cooking a priority. Don’t let your kitchen run low on the things you need to eat healthy. It is impossible to eat healthy if you don’t shop healthy. Set 2 days a week you can cook in bulk so you always have prepared food in the refrigerator. Keep a good supply of Tupperware to make it easier to bring leftovers to work.
5. Emotional Satisfaction
Problem: We turn to food to satisfy our emotions. We eat when we have something to celebrate, and we eat when we have something to cry about. I don’t know why we turn to food to feed our emotions, but almost everyone does it.
Solution: We have to reprogram our brain. Some people have trained their body to want to go for a run when they are mad, or lift weights when they are stressed, but that didn’t just happen on its own. Those are trained behaviors, which you can also implement. At first, you’ll have to purposefully think of what the best response would be but, eventually, your body will catch on.
6. Exposure
Problem: When you have money in your pocket, it’s hard not to spend it – and, if you have food in front of you, it’s hard not to eat it. Allowing yourself to be in a position where you are constantly exposed to food, is a great way to set yourself up for failure.
Solution: First, tell friends about your goals and request fewer outings centered on food. Second, Avoid going to events hungry so you aren’t as tempted to eat poorly. Third, drink a LOT of water. Keeping a glass in your hand, and your belly full of agua, can help you resist nibbling. Lastly, learn to say no. The key to saying no is to not even think about it first. As soon as you entertain the thought of tasting something you have said “maybe” – and maybe is the beginning to saying “yes”.
If you want to succeed this year, you have to figure out which of these above problems could be holding you back. As soon as you diagnosis your problems, you can begin to tackle them and develop the right solutions for you. With a little trial and error, you CAN learn to face your issues withOUT the need to feed!
Today’s Motivation: You have the power to change your future by what you do today. Food no longer has to boss you around. YOU are the boss! YOU are in control! And, YOU CAN SUCCEED – and that success can start today!
Today’s Fitness Mantra: Weights VS Plates
What we EAT can be even MORE POWERFUL than what we DO in the gym. Don’t blow your hard workouts on poor diet. Put as much energy into planning your food as you plan your workout routine – and watch it pay off BIG TIME!
Is Your Protein Shake Making You Fat?
I always encourage people to boost their protein intake – however, if you want to lose weight, you have to do more than just add protein to your diet.
This is why many people can’t seem to shake the weight (pun intended). They add protein to their diet, forgetting it’s adding extra calories too. As a result, they gain weight or slow progress.
If you want to lose weight, those calories need to be shaved off somewhere else to make room for the calories coming from protein. Just because it’s protein doesn’t mean it’s “free calories”. Although they are good calories, they are still calories. So, in order to reach your goal, you need to set a budget for your shake matching your needs.
1. The Weight Gainer: Weight gainers can add protein to their diet without really worrying about the calories. If someone is a hard gainer, they probably need both fat and muscle weight in order to increase strength and size. So you are the lucky dog that can ignore this entire blog.
2. The Dieter: Dieters need to be in a caloric deficit. This means, they need to take in fewer calories than they are burning. In order to budget how many calories are coming from protein, simply multiple the number of grams of protein you are trying to get a day by 4. Since there are 4 calories in one gram of protein, this will give you the number of calories that are required to get your total grams of protein per day. But remember, that is just for the protein. That doesn’t include other ingredients you may add in a shake.
3. The Maintainer: This person wants to either preserve what they already have, or reshape their physique but still remain the same weight. This person will need to trade some fat and carb calories for protein calories so it evens out. In the end, they’ll still be eating the same amount of calories, but they will just be getting more protein.
Shocking Smoothies
FitStudio nutritionist Toby Amidor points out some of the worst offenders in smoothie land.
Smoothie King – NOT SO SMOOTH!
· Forty fluids ounces of “The Hulk Strawberry” weighs in at 1,928 calories, 64 grams of fat, and a whopping 250 grams of sugar.
Jamba Juice – IS JAMMING YOU WITH CALORIES!
· An original “Peanut Butter Moo’d” creamy treat has a staggering 770 calories and 109 grams of sugar.
CLICK HERE to read Smoothie Do’s & Don’ts from FitStudio nutritionist Toby Amidor and get awesome smoothie tips.
CLICK HERE for fun and creative Designer Whey shake & protein recipes
WARNING: Top 10 Ways Food Labels Can Trick You
When you’re watching calories, you become more aware of everything that goes in your body. It’s like trying to save money for something special. You quit blowing calories on stuff you don’t really care about anyway, just like you’d quit blowing money on stupid stuff that is senseless.
The problem is, you can still waste calories and make bad decisions because reading a label is not as easy as reading a price tag. If only there was one simple number to look for, but there isn’t. We are looking at calories, fat, carbs, protein, fiber, sugar and all kinds of other stuff too. So, in the end, we can read the wrong thing – or read only one thing (missing other things) and still mess up. Plain and simple: labels are tricky business – and I believe many of them are tricky because that is exactly the way they planned it!
Here Are My Top 10 Label Rants:
1. Who eats 1/4 cup of granola and calls that one serving size? Unfortunately, most of us use a cup or more. In my case, that would mean a bowl of my granola would be 520 calories – and that’s WITHOUT milk!
2. Since when did 5 grams of protein become “high protein”? I hate it when a product proudly announces “Now, High-Protein” just because they added 2 more grams of protein. This is false advertising, preying on people who know high-protein is a good thing. In addition, it’s all relative. High protein isn’t high protein if the majority of calories are coming from everything else but protein.
3. Fat means nothing if it still has a million calories. Sugary products are known for trying to come up with something positive to say, like “this product is fat free”, when they should be saying “this product is loaded with sugar and is 500 calories, which can make you fat anyway”.
4. “Sugar-free” doesn’t mean healthy. Chocolate products are horrible about doing this. They tell you it’s sugar free, when it should actually say “made with sugar alcohol and still packed with fat”. Sure sugar alcohols are half the calories as sugar, but they are still calories, and many of the chocolate products are still high in fat. Erythritol, Hydrogenated starch hydrolysates, Isomalt, Lactitol, Maltitol, Mannitol, Sorbitol and Xylitol are all alcohol sugars. Bottom line – unless you are diabetic, just look at the calories – all ingredients will eventually be reflected there.
5. Who really uses 2 tablespoons of salad dressing on their salad? Restaurants typically give you two 2 ounce containers of dressing, yet a bottled dressing’s serving size is only 2 tablespoons – which won’t go very far on a dinner salad. My trick is to dilute it with water, but honestly people? Don’t you want the truth on the bottle, and for a company to actually show us what a REAL serving size is?
6. “Made with real fruit” doesn’t really mean made with real fruit. When “made with real fruit” is on the label, you picture workers mashing up berries and mixing it in to the food. No, instead, what it really means is that it has fruit concentrate in it – which the Dietary Guidelines for Americans considers just another form of sugar. This is very common in snacks for kids. Sugar is sugar, and calories are calories. Bottom line, if you want fruit – just eat fruit. You might as well call all the other fruit-like products candy.
7. I don’t care if you say you have “no trans fats”, you still have a lot of fat. This is another very irritating and misleading marketing tactic. Products scream “NO TRANS FAT”. Yet, they either have a ton of healthy fat, or they replace trans fat with saturated fat which is bad too. Although not all fats are created equal, some being healthier than others. They are all created equal when you are talking about calories and weight loss. 1 gram of trans fat, saturated fat, or unsaturated fat all have 9 calories in them (instead of 4 calories that are in 1gm of proteins and carbs). So, if it still has a lot of fat in it, it still has a lot of calories in it, maybe just slightly healthier calories.
9. “Light” and “Low Fat” can still mean heavy and fattening. Salad dressings, peanut butter and milk products (like cheese) are the worst! They say “Low-Fat” but they still have a ton of fat in them. The fact is, they can’t take too much fat out of certain products, so they do what they can and proudly display it. The problem is, they often replace those calories with sugar, and other ingredients, to make up for the flavor. Some of them are the same calories, just a few calories less, or even more calories. For example, low fat JIF peanut butter and regular JIF both have 190 calories in them. So, if they reduced the fat by 4 grams, the calories should have been reduced by 36 calories. So that means they replaced those calories with something, considering the carbs doubled and the sugar also increased. These are the things that make you go hmmmm.
10. Just give it to me straight! No one buys a 20 ounce drink to split between 2 1/2 people. Get real people! Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Welchs – PLEASE just tell us how many calories are in the entire bottle because that’s what I plan on drinking. It is ridiculous to split up the nutrition information so I have to multiple everything by 2.5. If something is an individual bottle or single use container, it’s label should have a single serving. Period!
- B -
What is YOUR label rant? Do Tell!
Chobani Powers USA
Fitness isn’t just about supplements and weight training, it’s about eating healthy foods to fuel your body too.
When Chobani hit shelves here locally, the news quickly spread around the gym. This healthy snack was not only delicious, but it was higher in protein than regular yogurt. That’s why we literally have a whole drawer dedicated to it in our refrigerator. We actually eat so much of it, we have an overflow in our 2nd fridge in the garage.
There really aren’t a lot of snacks to choose from that are naturally high in protein. Before Chobani yogurt, the closest thing we could come to was cottage cheese. And, if you are like me, there is no way anyone is getting that lumpy mess down my throat. I just can’t get over the texture.
Then Chobani came and saved the day. Before Chobani I was eating regular yogurt, which can have double the carbs as greek yogurt, especially if you get the kind with fruit in it. It also had practically half the protein Chobani has. For a girl who’s not a big meat eater, the more protein I can get the better.
Why Eat Chobani? Well, for my fitness peeps, eating high-protein snacks, like Chobani (and Designer Whey bars, my other favorite high-protein snack), means preserving muscle and giving your body what it needs to repair muscle after hard workouts. For my non-workout folks, it means preventing muscle loss, which is even more important as we age.
This is why there was no surprise Chobani sponsored for the Olympics. What a perfect FIT! (pun intended!) They naturally power people every single day!
Way to go Chobani! Thank you for powering me – and Team USA!
- B -
I Am a Proud Chobaniac:
Click on the video below to get Steve‘s Chobani Core & Glute Workout, complete with written instruction.
http://chobani.com/community/blog/2012/07/featured-chobaniacs-pfiester-pfitness/
The Healthy Salty Snack You Can Afford to Eat
If you’re like me, and crave salty snacks, then you are always happy to discover something healthy to feed your craving. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of salty healthy snacks available beside popcorn, so imagine my sheer joy the first time I tried edamame (boiled or steamed soy beans in the pod).
My first edamame experience was at a local asian restaurant, Bangkok. After they came out, I remember thinking “what do I do with that? Do I eat the whole thing or am I supposed to pop the beans out?” Yes, Steve and I were edamame tards. After gnawing on the whole thing for a bit, shell and all, it didn’t take long to discover the stiff stems were not very chewable. We quickly figured it out and they became a part of our regular diet.
They are easy to cook too. I buy the bag of frozen edamame and steam them (which can be done traditionally or in a microwave oven for 5 minutes). Then I sprinkle soy sauce, and/or salt, on them and begin snacking!! Today I cooked them and then threw them in my cooler for the beach. They were an awesome cold snack too.
The greatest part of this salty wonder is they are truly healthy. Most people are just happy to find snacks that are just “not unhealthy”, but edamame is as healthy as it is tasty. Half a bag of edamame is only 150 calories – and a very equal balance of calories I might add! 12.5gms of protein, 6gms of fat, 11gms of carbohydrates and 5gms of fiber. Look at the graph to the left. You can see that edamame gets 31-36% of the calories from each substrate.
Another thing I like about edamame in the shell, is it takes work to get the bean out. Not that it is a big job, because it’s not a bother at all. However, it slows down how fast we typically eat snacks. I enjoy the taste more and the entire snack takes longer to eat than many other similar snacks. Any snack that can slow us down from inhaling it is a good snack!
So, instead of reaching for a bag of chips, next time you are craving something salty to snack on, go steam up some beans!
Are Overcomplicating Fitness?
“I see too many people putting too much energy looking under the microscope, when they just need to look at their plate.” Steve Pfiester.
Many people overcomplicate their diet so much they miss what matters most – and they can do the same thing with their workouts. If anyone can get all fancy with diet and workouts, it’s my husband Steve – and even with his extensive knowledge of human anatomy that’s required to graduate Magna Cum Laude in Physical Therapy, Steve keeps it simple.
Quote from Steve’s recent blog, “I can’t tell you the countless times I’ve been at the gym and have seen the meticulous biomechanical strategies that some people come up with to make their lifting routine more effective, or the countless times I’ve listened to people who are extremely overweight, discuss food on a totally microbiological level. Instead of looking at calories, they’re “buggn” about if it is free range or not. I am not arguing that biomechanics and microbiology doesn’t have a place in training and nutrition, but by god-man, look at the bigger picture. I call this “majoring in the minors”. As a trainer, blogger, or just exercise enthusiast, it is so vital that we realize the importance of fundamentals.“
If you have been worried about nutrition or working hard on the technicalities of training, read Steve’s newest blog: Majoring in the Minors.
10 Must Have Grocery Grabs for Healthy Peeps On the GO!
So you want to eat healthy and lose a few pounds but you don’t have time to really look things up and see how many calories in everything you eat. Well, I’m here to help. ALTHOUGH not looking up calories while on a “eating budget” is like writing checks without looking at a price tag, I can at least give you a few “good buys” for those times you just need a go-to quick and easy snack or meal.
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.
One thing I know is if I don’t shop smart, I won’t eat smart. Although I’d love to cook fresh meals and snacks, that’s not always realistic. So, it’s important to keep your needs in mind and be prepared to fuel your body when life forces you to eat on the run. Here are a few items that are always on my shopping list so I have something quick when I’m crunched for time.
1.) Chobani Vanilla Yogurt with a sprinkle of Low Fat Granola
8oz, 200 calories, 22 gms of protein, 0gms of fat
This is an AMAZING amount of protein for a portable snack or meal. I also love the plain yogurt with honey, granola and blueberries as well as their fruit flavors for when I’m in a rush and on the run.
2.) Bolthouse Farms Protein PLUS Mango Smoothie
Bottle: 360 calories, 30 grams of protein and less than 2gms of fat
The flavor is fresh, smooth, fruity, sweet and tart – a great recovery drink right after a hot run or intense workout. You can’t even taste the protein and the texture is amazing. They offer various flavors but be sure to watch for the Protein PLUS label as not all their smoothies are high in protein.
3. Friendship Non-Fat Cottage Cheese and Pineapple
1 Cup: 220 calories, 24gms of protein, 0gms of fat
This is one of Steve’s favorite treats when dieting. It’s sweet, packed with protein and filling. If it doesn’t stick with you long enough, try switching to the 1% Low Fat version for 240 calories, 24gms of protein & 2 gms of fat. Fat typically helps foods stick with us longer, which keeps a dieter more content and tummy satisfied.
4. Dark Zone Perfect Bar, Dark Chocolate Strawberry
1 bar: 180 calories, 12gms of protein, 5gms of fat
When I’m in a total pinch and need something to throw in my purse, this is a great tasting bar that leaves me feeling satisfied to hold me over for a real meal. The great thing is this is available at most grocery stores so you don’t have to hunt down a nutrition store to get a decent snack bar. NOTE: This does not qualify as a protein bar. In my opinion, a protein bar should have at least 25gms of protein.
5. Toasted Berry Crumble GoLean Crisp with Simply Smart Fat Free Milk
3/4 cup of cereal with 1 cup milk: 270 calories, 19gms of protein and 3.5gms of fat
With 8gms of fiber, 18 whole grains, no high fructose corn syrup & 9gms of protein, you’ll feel fuller longer with this fun cereal with a nice berry kick. One thing I LOVE about Simply Smart Fat Free Milk is the expiration date is nearly two months away from the purchase date, which means less waste for people like me that don’t drink a lot of milk.
6. StarKist Tuna Creations Sweet & Spicy
Whole Pouch: 175 calories, 27.5gms of protein and 1.25gms of fat
This is a easy on-the-go way to throw together a great tasting sandwich or salad. I use a whole packet on mixed greens with onion, tomatoes and Roland balsamic vinegar, with a sprinkle of olive oil to make the salad stick with me. Also try it heated or try one of the StarKist recipes like the Sweet & Spicy Tuna Wrap.
7. NEW Smart Ones Steamer Bags
One meal: Approximately 360 calories, 25-30gms of protein and 7gms of fat
Of COURSE it’s always best to eat fresh meals but if you don’t have the time and you need something quick – this is one tasty, high-protein find! It’s 30% larger than most frozen diet meals and has DOUBLE the protein than most other pre-packaged meals. The flavors are good and it tastes pretty fresh as well. Not bad for frozen!
8. Sunrich Edamame in the Shell
150 calories, 12.5 gms of protein, 5gms of fiber and 6.25gms of fat
Edamame is an awesome side dish or snack. I love to steam it and sprinkle low-sodium soy sauce over it for a salty healthy snack. You can also add shelled edamame to salads and meals. Since they are a nice balance of fats, carbs and proteins, as well as packed with fiber, they keep you feeling full. My favorite part about them is it takes time to eat them when they are still in the shell so the snack entertains you longer.
9. Crunchmaster’s Multi-Grain Cracker
16 crackers: 120 calories, 2gms of protein, 3gms of fiber and 2gms of fat
Not only can you have 16 crackers for the same amount of calories for 6 stinkin’ Triskets, but these tasty crackers are all natural and Gluten Free. Since it doesn’t have MSG, which is normally added to boost flavors in flavored chips like Doritos, you are not only eating a healthier snack – you’ll likely eat less of them. MSG has been thought to make people want to eat more, so this is one snack you’re more likely to control. Try it with THIN slivers of low-fat pepper jack cheese and a few grapes for an awesome treat! TIP: Don’t eat them out of the bag – count them out and put them on a plate to help manage how many you eat.
10. Peanut Butter & Green Banana Wrap on Flatout Whole Grain Wrap
Calories for 1/2 of banana, 1TBS peanut butter & wrap: 250 calories, 13.5gm of protein, 7-9gms of fiber (depending on Flatout flavor) 10.8gms of fat
This is one quick, tasty and filling snack or light lunch. Add alfalfa sprouts for a fresh and unique added crunch. This wrap is PACKED with fiber, which keeps you feeling full but it also has another amazing benefit – it boost fat loss! Slightly green bananas have high amounts of resistant starch, which greatly reduce as the banana ripens. Resistant starches can’t be broken down like regular starches so your body treats it more like a fiber. In addition, experts believe they block the use of some carbohydrates, forcing our body to use stored fat as energy instead of what we ate. One Colorado University study concluded that replacing 5.7% of standard carbohydrates with resistant starches could boost fat lost over time – as much as 30%!
DON’T LIKE WATER? TRY THIS!
Mio Liquid Water Enhancer
0 Calories, 0 protein, 0 fat
For those of you who just can’t STAND the thought of guzzling large doses of water and you KNOW you need to increase your water intake, this may be your answer. I personally love water but Steve loves sweet drinks but keeping pitchers of Crystal Light can be a drag. Mio is easy and can be taken on the go. Squirt it in your water bottle or add it to your glass of water from you refrigerator door. It’s easy, it’s tasty and it’s totally customizable to YOUR liking!
TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAV FOODS!
Share some of your favorite foods by commenting below. The more you share, the more people we can all help!!
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