Tag: Muffins

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Weight Loss Exercise

Eliminating Sugar from Your Diet

When following the Paleo Diet you will see that all sugary foods are banned. Even though this might be hard for some people, eliminating sugar from your diet is a good thing!

Yes, sugar does taste good but it also contains fats and huge amounts of calories. Not good for anyone wanting to lose weight! Sugar is addictive and you will find that the more you eat, the more your body will crave sugar.

Eliminating Sugar from Your Diet

Your body cannot handle all this sugar and will store excess sugar as fat. This fat shows up on your hips, thighs, buttocks and stomach.

As well as food cravings sugar is responsible for making you feel tired. If you eat too much sugar you may find that you wake up tired. You don’t feel refreshed at all. You can get rid of this tiredness but eating more sugar but then the cycle starts over again. You feel better from the sugar high but your body crashes leaving you feeling extremely hungry and fatigued.

Breaking the Sugar Cycle

So how do you break this cycle, how do you eliminate sugar from your diet? Well the obvious way is by eliminating as much sugar as possible from your diet.

Eliminating Sugar from Your Diet

Eliminating Sugar from Your Diet

Cutting back on soft drinks, processed foods, crackers, muffins and cookies is a good start. You should also be careful about choosing fruits which are high in sugar. If you are trying to lose weight only eat one or two pieces of fruit per day.

People who eat high amounts of sugar have been found to have high triglyceride levels, plus their good (HDL) cholesterol levels are low. Low HDL levels are a cause for heart attacks.

The amount of sugar that you can safely eat is around 8 teaspoons per day, or 100 calories for women and 150 calories from sugar for men. This amount of sugar can be found in one can of soda!

The best way to eliminate sugar from your diet is to take one step at a time. Start by replacing those soft drinks with herbal tea or water. Water will actually help flush out toxins from your body and jump start your weight loss efforts.

Start eating regularly and allow yourself small snacks in between each meal. Sugar is known to curb your hunger quickly, so not allowing yourself to suffer from those hunger attacks is key. By keeping your body full with nourishing healthy foods you can overcome your sugar cravings and eliminating sugar from your diet within a few days.

If you do decide to quit sugar totally the first two to three days will be the hardest to get through. Your body will crave something sweet so make sure you have snacks such as nuts or berries on hand to eat.

Stress is another cause of sugar cravings and if you find yourself wanting to eat when stressed then it is time to deal with the cause of your stress. Taking the time to find out the root cause and handling it is the only way to remove stress from your life. As well as making you crave sugar stress can cause all kinds of health issues including heart attacks and death!

By following the Paleo diet you will only be consuming sugar that is found naturally in foods. By eliminating sugar from your diet you should experience a sharp drop in your weight quite quickly.

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Weight Loss Exercise

How to Handle Snack Attacks on the Paleo Diet

Snacks are part of life and on any healthy diet you are told to eat something every few hours. This is very true if you are following the Paleo Diet. The problem is finding out what to snack on. You need to have snacks that are quick and easy to prepare and that fit in with the principles of the Paleo diet.

One easy snack to prepare in advance is sliced vegetables. This can include celery sticks, carrot sticks, cucumbers, radishes and cherry tomatoes. Plus you can serve it with a low calorie dip or dressing. This type of snack is perfect for when you are at home on the weekend. Or it can be prepared ahead of time and packed for work or school.

Eggs are another suitable snack choice for anyone on the Paleo Diet. You can prepare them as hard boiled eggs, slices of frittata or as egg muffins.

Fruit is a quick and simple snack to prepare. Choose berries, slices of oranges, apples and grapefruit. These are easy to pack if you need to take your snack with you as well.

Small amounts of nuts and seeds can be packed into small containers and popped into your bag. They are easy to eat no matter where you are plus full of nutrients that help you get through a busy morning. As nuts are higher in calories it may be best to eat them as a mid morning snack. By eating nuts early in the day your body has lots of time to burn off the calories.

Leftover pieces of meat or seafood are wonderful snack choices. Just dice them up into chunks the night before and place them into a small container. By eating leftover meat you are adding protein to your diet which will provide you with energy during the day.

Chicken or turkey breast diced or sliced makes a good snack choice. So does canned tuna, peeled shrimp and slices of leftover meatloaf or meatballs.

When having vegetables or meat as a snack it is nice to eat them with a dipping sauce. Some good sauces to use that won’t affect your Paleo Diet are salsa, nut butters, pesto sauces and guacamole.

Once you get into the habit of making snacks that fall in line with the Paleo Diet principles you won’t be lost for what to eat. Instead you will have tons of choices which are healthy and taste wonderful.

Remember eating snacks is a good healthy choice and you should try not to go more than 4 hours without having some sort of snack. Now you won’t have to worry about what snack to make.

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General Weight Loss Tips

The Gift

In the past week and two days, I’ve had something major happen. The desire to overeat, or eat for the wrong reasons is slowly disappearing. This is not the time to be cocky about my actions (I’ve been there), but at the very least thoughtful and aware of them. Fighting the urge to overeat, for me, is a task that has consumed me most of my life.

And yet, when I cut out the food that calls to me, the battle disappears. I know right now that I have a five pound bag of sugar in the pantry. Right next to the flour. I know that I have butter in the refrigerator and muffins in the freezer. It’s not that these things are bad or I think they are to blame. But, it’s nice to know that I can live in harmony with these things in my kitchen.

Knowing that I’m only 10 minutes away from freshly baked cookies or bread, does not consume because I know that I won’t be eating them. Or even making them for that matter. But to say sure, I’ll  have a couple. Which inevidebly turns into, go ahead and have a few. And finally, screw this, I’ll start over tomorrow. All the while wondering if any other human being has ever consumed 12 cookies in one sitting. Or an entire frozen pizza. Or cake or pie or a sweet apple crumble.

It’s nice not to be a contender in the tug of war that is me against whatever it is I’m trying not to overeat. Whatever concoction I can come up with in my kitchen when I just need a little something sweet. Because I’ve been good. Because I’ve had a hard day. Or because gosh darnit I deserve a little dessert.  A mug full of microwave cocoa, butter and sugar. I’ve done it, oh yes I have.  But, it’s never, or I should say rarely a little dessert for me. A little taste. A no thank you “it’s too rich for me”.  I have not tasted, I’ve consumed.

I’ve come to realize that I’ve been trying to lose weight wanting to be that person. Wanting to be the person who already fought and won. Wanting to be the person maintaning. Figuring it out. Having a little something on the weekends, but still watching. I wanted to skip these steps of saying no or realizing that I can in fact live without so much sugar, and so much flour and so many potatoes. I can still find comfort and contentment in roasted vegetables and chicken, Indian curries and sauces, fluffy brown rice, sticky ribs right off the grill or crisp apples dipped in almond butter.

But I know that I need a game plan for the day that I do eat a little sugar or warm bread dipped in olive oil, or a pizza right out of the brick oven. Those days are inevitable. But they don’t have to derail or consume me. Overeating doesn’t always have to be my default. Overeating does not define me. I’m not pretending this day will not come. There is no guilt in the pleasure of food. In savoring and indulging for a special occasion. I’m okay with that day down the road. But I’m so happy to be on this current road.

A road where I don’t have to decide not to have a snack of nuts because they have too many calories. Or a day where I’m not measuring out portions of salad dressing and chicken. Because I know, that these are not foods I punish myself with. When I’ve had enough I simply stop.

I don’t have to be maddening about this at all, and I love that. I love for food, on most days, to be an after thought. I want to be consumed with my work, my latest project, writing, creating intricate jewelry. I want my days to be filled with walks or jogs. I want them to be filled with sweat from dancing. I am excited to have tasted the freedom, the freedom of getting wrapped up in anything and everything that doesn’t revolve around food.

Taking care of myself, I’ve realized, is not sacrifice. It’s a little gift that I give to myself every single day. The gift that used to be food is now replaced with life.

 

 

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