My sweet tooth knows no bounds. As soon as I declare “self, let’s get serious about this whole weight loss business” I start craving sweets. Seeing as how this is the year without refined sugar with a couple exceptions (I’m looking at you Beaches Resort) I’ve had to get a little creative.

And here friends, is a Sunday, just as good as any old ice cream thing you’d find elsewhere. The star is, of course, the brownie. But how?

Meet The Pure Bar (organic, raw, refined sugar free). The main contenders are dates, agave nectar, cashews, cocoa, almonds and a proud “and that’s all!” at the end. I love them and buy them so often that our local grocery store has a hard time meeting my demand.

To me, the taste is very similar to a Little Debbie brownie. My husband would disagree and actually does not understand my love for these bars.

You guys remember the rumor about Lara Bar cherry and pecan pie bars tasting just like the real thing and we all went to the store and some of us (no names mentioned) bought a box on Amazon hoping that somehow someone finally figured out how to make dates and nuts taste like buttery crust and gooey filling? And then, well, it tasted more like fruit and nuts than gooey pies and we all cried? No?

This bar is so good, if you’re not my husband, go buy some and thank me later. Word on the street is that Trader Joe’s has them, Amazon has them and my local Food Lion stocks them just for me (I think).

All you need is 1/2 C whole plain yogurt, one Pure Bar Chocolate Brownie, 1 T all-fruit jam (melted or stirred in with the yogurt) and 1 T shredded coconut (optional).

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I found the following weblog article that is a must read before you next go to the grocery store:

Some Healthier Choices at Your Grocery Store

Some Healthier Choices at Your Grocery Store
Here are a few changes you can make the next time you go grocery shopping, to improve your health.

Think Fresh

Buy fresh fruits and vegetables as much as possible. If you cannot find them fresh, chose frozen fruits and vegetables. If you buy canned fruit, make sure you get it packed in it’s own juice without added sugar or corn syrup.

Juices

Look for juices that are 100% juice. Many bottled and frozen juices contain more sugar than fruit juice. If you use a juicer, be sure to retain some of the healthful pulp. If possible, eat whole fruits for optimum nutrition.

Oils

Chose extra virgin olive oil or canola oil. Try an olive oil cooking spray instead of butter for cooking. Avoid margarine and lard.

Milk

If you drink milk, chose milk with a lower fat content. If you are already drinking 2%, switch to 1%, and eventually use non-fat milk.

Breads

Select whole grain breads rather than white.

Miscellaneous

Much of the food found in the grocery store contains hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, MSG and artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. All of these ingredients are poor choices, and should be avoided whenever possible.

Many breads, cereals, soups, and boxed side dishes contain one or more of these ingredients. Take a little extra time to read the label, to find brands without these undesirable additives. For Example, Farmhouse brand makes rice and noodle side dishes without MSG or other additives, and Healthy Choice foods are generally free of unnecessary additives.

Discover healthier choices at your local grocery store. If your grocery store doesn’t have the brands or foods you want, ask the manager to consider stocking them. [Copyright © 2005 World Image Naturals, Inc. www.worldimage.com ]

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Vitamins are a little controversial as there are two sides to an argument as to whether our diets in North America have enough nutrients or not.

I eat what I think is a full diet of the good food that I need but still am not sure as to weather I eat all the vitamins and minerals necessary to stay healthy and to allow myself to rebuild my body from the environment and my daily exercise so I take some Vitamins.

Here is what I take:
2 multivitamin pills per day one in the morning and one in the evening
1 calcium pill in the evening with dinner
1 omega 3-6-9 in the evening with dinner

This may seem to some as overkill but I know that I have always felt better day in and day our when I am remembering to take multivitamins.

There are a few things to look for in a multivitamin that I always look for myself. The first thing is looking for B vitamins; B vitamins are good for combating stress to the body so I find they are important. In a multi you will find that the B vitamins are usually 2-3 milligrams as they are more expensive to produce and most companies minimize their costs by keeping the amount of this essential vitamin down. Look through all of the multi vitamins in the stores nearby for B vitamins in the 40-50 milligram range instead but still be aware of the price that you are paying.

I try also to stay away from the health food and nutrition stores as the vitamins that they sell are a lot more expensive and I am not sure that they are worth it, so I usually just go to the local grocery store or pharmacy and look there.

Among the other vitamins that I take Calcium I take as I am not sure that I am taking in enough and my wife worries about osteoporosis and who would really want brittle bones anyway. I take the Omega vitamins as they are good for your heart. Also be aware of antioxidants, these are vitamins Beta Carotene (Vitamin A), C, and E are thought to slow down the aging process by removing free radicals from your body.

Although I may be a little aggressive with my vitamin intake compared to some people it seems to me good prevention to at least take a multivitamin once a day and to try to keep up with nutritional info as you see it in the news.

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Welcome to the second installment of the Token Fat Girl Cook Along! This week we made gyros. And the challenge was to make one ingredient from scratch. The typically gyro consists of meat, such as chicken, beef or lamb, tzatziki sauce (yogurt with cucumbers and dill), and pita. The rest is up to you.

I really cut it close this week with my gyro making them last night and finding myself at the grocery store around 8pm. The gyros were served around 10pm last night so my challenge was making gyros with meat and yogurt sauce from scratch in a limited amount of time.

I couldn’t find a lot of lamb and I am weird about buying ground meat from chain grocery stores so I decided to buy lamb chops and steaks instead. I knew that I would have to puree the meat anyway and figured I could skip having ground meat.

I used this recipe as a base. But skipped all of the refrigeration. I placed the meat (pulled from bone) into the food processor with four slices of thick-cut bacon, 1 medium yellow onlion, marjoram, oregano, salt and pepper. Processed until it became a puree. Which honestly, is kinda gross looking.

I spread the meat puree into a bread dish and baked at 350 degrees for about an hour. During that hour I would take the meat log out and drain the fat. I did that about three times.

Once the log is done, let it sit for about 10 minutes before cutting into thin slices. I then browned these slices on the skillet. I found the slicing part difficult as the meat was falling apart.

On to the tzatziki sauce. This was another area of short cuts for me. I could not find plan unflavored greek yogurt at my local grocery store. Nor could I find plan full fat yogurt. How annoying is that? My local Food Lion has about a million flavors of crap-tastic chemical yogurt, but not one container of full fat yogurt. I remembered that I had some plain full fat yogurt at home, at least a cup left and some cream-top sour cream and decided to make that work.

I didn’t have time to strain the yogurt, so I just left it as is. 1 C full fat yogurt, 3/4 C full fat sour cream, 1/2 t (plus more to taste) garlic powder, 1-2 T lemon juice, fresh dill, chopped english cucumbers and salt and pepper. This came out delicious. I’ve made tzatziki sauce many times before and found this just as refreshing.

Tzatziki sauce.

Store bought flat bread.

Finished gyro! The verdict? Delicious! Josh really liked it a lot too. I am not set on this being the best gyro meat recipe. It was great with everything, but not flavorful enough on it’s own. I liked it though. The process grossed me out a lot. I think I’d like to try this with a rotisserie oven next time.

I’m also pleased with how good it was on less time. I skipped a ton of steps and the results did not suffer. This could easily be made on a regular week night in about an hour.

Thank you so much to those who participated!

Caroline: My Fascinating Life

Rachael: Treadmill Truth

**************************************************************************************************************

February 4th Challenge!

Post Date: February 10th 2011

Details: We will have one week to complete the recipe and then post (with photos) our results on the same day.

To make the recipe a little more fun I will post a challenge for the recipe such as: you must use an artichoke in your recipe, or use one local ingredient, or it must be made bento-box style. I encourage us all to make the recipe your own and find ways to make it work individually. For example: making it vegan, gluten-free, made with whole wheat pasta, make it miniature, deconstructed, change the filling, make it low calorie etc.

All you have to do is leave a comment in this post letting me know you’re in and I will link to your blog on reveal day!

Our  assignment begins Thursday January 27th, making the following Thursday (the 3rd) is reveal day! You can make the recipe at any time during the week, just make sure you schedule your post for Thursday.

Here is this week’s recipe:

This recipe (and photo) comes from Best Recipes Evar.

Challenge: Make 1/2 or 1/4 of the recipe as is and use the rest of the dough in an inventive way. Make pizza crust, cinnamon rolls, calzones…you name it! Make it your own.

Time to fire up those ovens!

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The human body is a complex system made up of chemical and electrical reactions at the cellular level that is controlled by hormones that circulate through the blood stream. Our metabolism is the rate at which these reactions occur and is based on the amount of calories we burn at any given time. By simply controlling these reactions we can alter our metabolism either upward or downward and control weight loss and gain. So how do you do this? What is the magic pill that allows us to gain control over our metabolism? Very simply the food we eat has a great bearing on how our body’s engine responds. Put high octane fuel into your system and it will respond in a positive manner. Put sugary sludge into the tank and the whole system slows down and starts storing fuel (fat) for future use. This is where the fat loss 4 Idiots diet can become an integral part of your weight loss program. The idea behind this diet is to tap into the power of the food you eat to accomplish your weight loss goals. This is not a diet that targets just one type of food or food group such as all the low carb, low fat, high protein, or low calorie diets that are on the market today. The point is all of these types of foods have a place in our diet because the human body needs all these different nutrients to function properly. By eating healthy foods with the right type of calories at certain times during the day you can increase your metabolism and start burning that excess weight. fat loss 4 idiots does just this by calculating the types of foods will work best for your situation because not everyone is the same or has the same weight loss goals. The online diet generator is able to generate menus and food lists from the personal information you put into it. There are no pre-packaged meals to buy as everything you need can be purchased at your local grocery store. Losing weight is about changing your eating patterns and the food you eat to tap into your own internal metabolic engine. Lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, whole foods, and vitamins and minerals all play a part in the weight loss equation. The fat loss 4 Idiots diet helps you achieve this ideal nutritional intake to not only lose weight but to also live a healthier life.

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Many people want to lose weight but I can not find time or motivation to perform tasks and incorporate a plan for weight loss in their hectic life. I'll show you simple things you can do everyday that will help take the pounds off and you will also save money at the same time. True, I'll show you things that you can start doing today that will start to reduce your excess weight and expense. The first thing you can do is leave your car at home and walk. If you have a store that is close to or have to mail an envelope by the local post office is right around the corner, instead of having your car and gas to lose – just leave it at home . The walk will help raise your metabolism, get your blood flowing and burn calories. At the same time as you save gas and therefore save money. This is a simple idea, you can start doing today and take the first step to losing more weight and save. To lose weight you have to burn calories through exercise and changing how you eat and how much time you eat. Here's another trick you can do today to help you lose weight. Do not eat a large meal at night. When you eat after your body begins to store food that is found around your waste line. If you're hungry at night, try to eat meals that are low in carbohydrates and fats. Fruits and vegetables would be a healthier alternative. By reducing the amount of food rich in calories that you consume in the evening you can shed pounds slowly and save money at the local grocery store. Another trick is to do a lot before buying. Make your lunch and get to work instead of ordering fast food every day. It is easier said than done but do your daily lunch is much healthier than eating out and you will save a bundle. Make sure you add at least one fruit and vegetables in your lunch and try to keep away from foods that are rich in sugar, contain large amounts of trans fat, hydrogenated oil, fried and are high in saturated fats. You can find some good ideas for quick breakfast online is safe and easy to do. Just do a Google search for "easy meal ideas and visit one of many Web sites listed in the results. One last thing to do is to transform a space in your home into your personal space exercises. If you do not want to spend hundreds of dollars for a subscription to the gym or feel uncomfortable exercising in front of others here is a good solution. You can throw books at home. When you wake up, try to take 5 to 10 minutes to do some simple exercises at home. You have several options you can consider. You can take a morning exercise show on TV if it is available, you can buy a book that will show you some quick and easy exercises you can do at home or purchase some of the many exercise videos or CD available. What you want to look for is a program that will provide you with exercises that are easy to do and you get your heart rate and thus burning calories. Slow start with 5 to 10 minutes per day and then as start getting easy exercises you can chnage the program to a stronger. This will also save you money by buying a subscription to the gym much. The last trick that may help you lose weight and save money is to drink plenty of water. Our body is mostly water and yet most of us just drink a glass of water per day. Instead, we fill our bodies with the soda, artificial juices, alcohol, etc.. . You should try to drink at least 4 glasses of water per day and in doing so you will see that you have more energy throughout the day and it will help to clean impurities from your body. At the same time, by cutting or reducing the overall cost of your soda and beverages high in sugar will save you more money. Here are some simple things you can do today to start losing weight and saving more money. If you want to have good ideas on simple exercises you can do at home to lose weight, you can find them in many fitness magazines available in your local store or by doing a Google search for "exercises at the home easy. You can also find money more convenient and easier-saving tips and ideas online Financialhelpidea. com