Archives November 2015

Sadly, there aren’t actually foods that burn more calories than they contain. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your eyes open for foods that offer very low amounts of calories that will do your diet good. Ready to hunt down some of the best low-calorie foods available? Here are 10 of them.

#1: Black Rice

Everyone loves rice. Most folks are gaga for the white stuff, but many are turning to brown rice. If you want to trim more calories and cram in some more fiber and antioxidants, go even darker. With black rice, your main and side dishes will get a boost in needed nutrients while stripping out calories.

#2: Carrots

There are few foods as dense and filling as carrots that offer so few calories to add to your waistline. How many calories? An entire cup of the orange goodies contain a meager 52 calories! Additional perks include the fact that they’re great cooked or raw and have plenty of vitamin A.

#3: Asparagus

Toss it on a salad, get it fresh off the grill, or steam it up on the stovetop. However you prefer your asparagus, you can take comfort knowing that this filling food comes with just 27 calories per cup. Of course, many prefer their asparagus loaded with salt and butter, and if this is you, be careful! Otherwise you can easily turn a low-calorie stalk of asparagus into an unhealthy addition to your meal.

#4: Arugula

It’s green, has something of a peppery kick, and rings in at 4 calories per cup. Yes, you read that right—4 calories. Versatile enough to go wherever green, leafy veggies belong, arugula adds flavor without adding fat, cholesterol, or calories to your salads, soups and beyond!

#5: Broccoli

What is it about green stuff that makes it so low in calories? Whatever it is, broccoli meets the criteria for being one of the top 10 low-calorie foods at just 50 calories a cup. Broccoli seems to have some of the greatest benefits of any low-calorie food, as it contains vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that strengthen and protect your body from a variety of dangerous and deadly diseases.

#6: Lettuce

Weighing in at only 5 calories per cup, lettuce comes with a variety of nutrients, depending on the type you eat. Best choices are those that are dark and rich in color. While you’re not likely to eat a head of lettuce on its own, it provides an exceptional, low-calorie base for all sorts of fantastically delicious and nutritious meals.

#7: Mushrooms

Want to amp up that salad even more? Better grab a handful of mushrooms. Even if you grab a massive handful, you’ll only get 15 calories. And don’t forget that you’ll also get a nice pile of potassium, antioxidants, and various B vitamins. Worn out on salad? Feel free to use mushrooms with other foods and enjoy their versatile abilities.

#8: Tomatoes

Tired of salad talk? Then don’t use that tomato in a salad. Instead, grab a knife, slice up a tomato, and eat it like an apple. When you finish off your medium-sized tomato, it’s okay to feel good about yourself, because you only consumed 22 calories. You also chowed down on vitamin C, potassium, fiber, and an antioxidant called lycopene.

#9: Watermelon

It’s hard to imagine a list of top foods without something to tantalize your sweet tooth. If you’ve ever been at a picnic, you’ve eaten watermelon. Its naturally sweet, has more of those cancer-fighting antioxidants that your body loves, and is exceptionally low in calories. It’s OK to splurge a little on this as a treat, but be careful with how much you eat, as watermelon has 17g of sugar in a 10 ounce slice.

#10: Broth

Rounding out the list of top 10 low-cal foods is good ol’ broth. No matter if you go for chicken, beef, veggie, seafood, or miso broth, it all drops just 10 calories per cup. Chop up some carrots, black rice, broccoli, and mushrooms, and you just made a fantastic soup with just a few more calories than ingredients. Just watch the sodium levels of the broth you choose, as excess sodium contributes to water retention and bloating.

While I fully encourage you to replace the processed, high calorie items in your diet with the 10 foods listed above, all the low calorie foods in the world won’t get you the body that you desire if you neglect to include a challenging exercise program into your routine. You simply MUST exercise in a way that challenges your muscles to adapt and strengthen in order to be fit and healthy.

Are chronic excuses keeping you from the rewards of a regular, challenging exercise routine? If so then you’re missing out on much more than you realize.

Here are the Top 7 Reasons to Exercise
Reason #1: To Melt Fat Away

The most coveted side effect of exercise is, of course, fat burn. The combination of a challenging exercise routine and a balanced meal plan is the best known way to lose fat. Here’s what losing fat feels like:

• Your pants become loose
• People around you begin to say that you look great
• A glance at yourself in the mirror makes you smile
  

  Illustration depicting a sign with a stop making excuses concept.

• Your energy levels soar
• You feel amazing

Reason #2: To Alleviate Pain

Regular exercise is a great way to alleviate chronic muscle and joint pain. Persistent back pain can be lessened by strengthening your core, and you’ll protect yourself against injury. It amazes people when the chronic pain that they’ve lived with for years begins to fade after starting a regular exercise program.

Reason #3: To Increase Lean Tissue

More muscle is good for many reasons. You see, muscle uses many more calories each day than fatty tissue. In fact, one pound of muscle burns 30-50 calories each day at rest—compared to a measly 9 calories per pound of fat.

When you exercise your body composition will change to contain more lean tissue, thus resulting in extra calories burned while you sleep. What could be better than that?

Reason #4: To Stay Young

Tim D. Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College in London, led a study on the effects of exercise on aging. The results were astounding. They found that exercise appears to slow the shriveling of the protective tips on bundles of genes inside cells (called telomeres), which means a slowing of the aging process.

Here’s the study in a nutshell:

• Telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes and every time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter.
• Once a telomere gets too short, that cell can no longer divide.
• Aging occurs as more and more cells reach the end of their telomeres and die. This results in weakened muscles, skin wrinkles, loss of eyesight and hearing, organ failure and slowed mental functioning.
• The study analyzed the telomeres from the white bloods cells of twins over a 10-year period. Telomere length was used as a marker for the rate of biological aging.
• It was found that the length of telomeres was directly related to that twin’s activity level. “There was a gradient,” Spector said. “As the amount of exercise increased, the telomere length increased.”
• People who did 100 minutes of weekly exercise had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 5-6 years younger than those who did 16 minutes of exercise each week.
• People who did 3 hours of vigorous exercise each week had telomeres that looked like those from someone about 9 years younger.

Reason #5: To Prevent or Control Type 2 Diabetes

Regular exercise helps to stabilize blood sugar levels. This is something that people with type 2 diabetes, or at risk for type 2 diabetes, gain substantial benefits from. Exercise improves the body’s use of insulin, and the related weight loss improves insulin sensitivity. Of course patients with type 2 diabetes need to follow guidelines from their doctor before starting an exercise program.

Reason #6: To Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Levels

Exercise has shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels for these two reasons:

• Weak heart muscles pump little blood with lots of effort. By exercising you strengthen your heart muscles and train them to pump more blood with less effort. The stronger your heart is the less pressure will be exerted on your arteries.
• Exercise Increases HDL levels in some people—this means a decrease in your risk for heart disease. Other heart disease risk factors such as weight, diabetes and high blood pressure all show improvement with regular exercise.

Reason #7: To Feel Great

The first thing that clients tell me after starting an exercise program is how much better they feel. Most didn’t even realize how bad they felt. It is easy to get used to feeling sluggish, achy and unmotivated. Exercise boosts your energy levels and makes you feel amazing.

The quickest, easiest way to guarantee that you’ll meet your fitness and weight loss goals is to work one-on-one with a qualified fitness professional. You’ll be held accountable with your workouts and you’ll be instructed properly and shown techniques and strategies that will expedite your results. If you’d like to get started, or haven’t been to the gym in a while, give me a call, shoot me a text, or just schedule an appointment. I’d love to help you get moving again and on the past to feeling great!