It’s been a while since I’ve shared some of the most recent research about weight loss or directed you to some fun and informative sites to help you in your effort to eat healthy low calorie food. So today I have some news, updates, and other info I think you’ll like.

Fruits and Vegetables for Weight Loss and Better Health

Summer is the season for fruits and vegetables. I hope you are taking advantage of the low calorie nutritious choices available at your grocery store or farmer’s market. Maybe you were ambitious this year and planted a garden for some homegrown treats.

My husband and I have a small garden. However, a lot of our fruits and vegetables come from a local CSA (community supported agriculture). We did enjoy our own homegrown rhubarb and asparagus earlier in the season and now we have lots of ripe and delicious raspberries both red and golden.

If you would like some creative ideas on ways to incorporate more fruits and vegetables in your diet I encourage you to see what Alice Henneman, M.S., R.D. has shared on her University of Nebraska Extension website. 13 Fun Ways to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables The article and slide show provided was posted on the site back in February so Alice shares ways to use frozen fruits and vegetables. I’m sure the suggestions will work equally well or better with fresh.

Put your emphasis on fruits and vegetables and you will not only fill up and feel satisfied for longer with fewer calories than with energy dense foods (high calorie foods) but you will gain the benefits of all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber as well. Check it out!

Natural Weight Loss Supplement that Actually Works??

Speaking of staying satisfied for longer, you might be interested to know that there will soon be a new and HOPEFULLY safe botanical product available that may enhance satiety after a meal. All too often we overeat because the part of the brain that signals when we have had enough is slow to receive the feedback it needs for proper regulation of energy intake.

This new product is made from the bauhinia bush, which grows in the Amazon basin. Native people have long made medicinal products from this bush. Although the weight loss supplement is not yet available for sale in the United States, it could be on the market soon.

If you have followed my blog posts for some time you probably know that I am not a fan of most dietary supplements. There are a few exceptions but most are simply not worth the money. I think this product may be an exception. However, I need to read some objective reviews to learn more. If it is as good as it sounds, I will keep you informed.

New Service available with My Food Diary

My favorite online food diary and nutrition calculator service MyFoodDiary has recently become even better! Not only can you search over 50,000 foods, add items to your food diary, record your exercise, and view reports BUT you can now do all of this from your cell phone! I think this has tremendous potential.

Just imagine making use of the time you might have while waiting in line at a store, or waiting to board your flight at an airport, or waiting for your kids to finish a program or event. Use this time to record your meals and snacks. And do take advantage of the ability to look up the calorie count on a food item before making a purchase at a restaurant. You may not have access to the calorie and nutrient data for all restaurants but what is available could be a big help!

This service works best with smart phones such as iPhone, Palm, and Blackberry but it can also work with most phones that are XHTML compliant. I would imagine if you can access the web with your phone than you are good to go. No extra charge for this service! I don’t have a smart phone but I was able to access MyFoodDiary with my Verizon cell phone to find the calorie counts for the sandwiches at Subway.

Food Diary Review: MyFoodDiary.com

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

EFT is a system of realigning the energy in your body to release any kind of interfering blockage or energy disruption. Evidently this system can be used for weight loss, headaches, pain control, ADD, anxiety relief, trauma, and much more. The way in which it can help with weight loss is by changing your relationship with emotional or addictive overeating.

If you have not heard of EFT I would imagine the procedure for practicing EFT will not be like anything you have encountered before. However, having said that, the procedures are endorsed by some well-respected health and wellness professionals such as Carole Solomon, PhD. an online psychologist who recommends this program to her weight loss clients. Carole provides excellent tips and strategies to combat stress-induced overeating. To learn more about Carole and what she offers you might enjoy a blog she started recently called StressEating.com

If you would like to learn more about EFT including the specific techniques to practice this system, I encourage you to visit the Discover EFT website. You can download a free 87-page digital book (ebook) and learn all about it.

Another program Carole recommends is the Heartmath emWave tool. By using this tool you can learn to better regulate your stress and emotions so that you can adhere to healthy intentions.

I find this concept to be fascinating in light of some recent research results published in the May 1 issue of Science magazine (2009). Researchers discovered that there is a significant difference in the brain activity of those individuals who successfully resist eating unhealthy foods versus those who do not.

There are two different regions of the brain that became active with study volunteers who resisted temptations to eat unhealthy food. However, the individuals who chose the unhealthy foods had brain activity in only one of these two regions. Fascinating. It makes me wonder why? Are those who make the better choice more well informed? And if not, what else is happening?

I’ll share more information about the Heartmath program soon!

Till next time, watch those calories and eat healthy food!

Last week I mentioned that I would have a new tool to share that would provide you with additional support for your weight loss efforts on a low calorie diet. The new tool is actually a toolbar and I’ve named it 1200 Calorie Diet.

I created this toolbar for you to have easy access to many of the very best resources online for weight loss on 1200 calories.

The toolbar can be added to Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Flock. Hopefully in the near future it will be available for more browsers. It is something you can download and install in just a few steps.

With this toolbar, I’ve included links for an excellent free nutrition and calorie calculator online. I only discovered it recently and I’ve not mentioned this site anywhere else. It’s one that I use when I want to know how many calories are in a small quantity of food. For example: how many calories in 10 grapes or 1 oz. of yellow tomato?

I still use MyFoodDiary.com when I create 1200 calorie diet sample menus and to keep track of the healthy foods in my diet as well as those I recommend for others. But there are times when the database at My Food Diary doesn’t have the information I need.

Also included with the toolbar are links to calculators for determining BMI (body mass index), BMR (basal metabolic rate), and calories burned with exercise. I have links to my latest blog posts here at the Women and Weight Website so you won’t miss a thing. And I have links to the latest posts for my Weight Loss Motivation blog. I have been writing these posts for quite some time and will soon have completed a book that I plan on sharing with my subscribers.

As I find more useful tools and sites, I’ll add it to the toolbar and you will know instantly. The updates are automatic!

You can find the download link for the toolbar on a new page I created called 1200 calorie diet. On this page I will include all of the most helpful links for information on this website related to 1200 calorie diets. Go check it out. I’ve listed many of the best links and I will be adding more soon.

Also, try the toolbar and let me know what you think!

I’m heading to Georgia to visit my mother who is in a Nursing Home but I will do my best to post another article before I return in a week. (I’m leaving at 4:00 a.m. in the morning!) Please be patient with me. I sometimes have trouble with having access to the Internet on these trips but I will do what I can. (I have an interesting article for you. I’m in the market to buy a new bathroom scale and I’m thinking of buying one of the new weight scales that also measure body fat. I’ll let you know why I think it may be a good choice.)

Till next time, watch those calories and have a great week!