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!

O.K. here’s Day 1 of the 7 Day Diet Menu! If possible, the best way to start out this
weekly plan is the evening before Day 1. For many people, Day 1 will work best on a
Sunday so the day before would be Saturday.

Spend just a little time in the afternoon or evening on Saturday or the day before you begin this 7 Day Diet menu plan to prepare Creamy Breakfast Oatmeal . By starting a day in advance and then doing a little food preparation each day throughout the week you can minimize the time you invest. The oatmeal recipe makes about six 1/2 cup servings. That’s enough for most of the week! And by changing the toppings or accompanying food with each serving you can add variety to an otherwise monotonous breakfast routine.

I included an orange with breakfast on Day 1 rather than orange juice because it
provides a much better source of nutrients and fiber with fewer calories. I suggest
including tea but you might choose water or coffee instead. Just forgo any caloric
sweeteners.

I had intended to include whole wheat pita bread in this week’s plan but I wasn’t
successful in finding any at WalMart when I did my shopping. (Grocery shopping for a 7 Day Diet Menu ) However, I discovered Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins by Arnold which have turned out to be quite tasty and filling for only 100 calories a roll. They make a good substitute for pita and they are also a good source of nutrients and fiber (5 grams dietary fiber per roll).

I suggest starting Day 1 of this menu plan on a Sunday because it calls for preparing
a roast chicken, a baked potato, and steamed broccoli. That’s more cooking than
what is required for the rest of the week. If you are not a cook don’t get flustered.
Roasting a chicken is not difficult. You can follow the instructions that come with the
raw whole chicken or you might want to watch one or more videos of how others
prepare chicken on YouTube. To keep the calorie count down limit the amount of oil
or other fat you use to baste the chicken. (When you serve yourself the cooked
chicken avoid the skin and other fatty parts.)

Here’s a good instructional video on how to prepare a roast chicken: Easy Roast Chicken No need to add the vegetables. Just keep the chicken a little elevated so it roasts and doesn’t cook in its own juices (many inexpensive roasting pans are designed to keep the bird positioned a little higher than the bottom of the pan.) I only use olive oil and a little
seasoning (no butter) and I don’t particularly like thyme. Get creative and use the seasonings that appeal to you. Do add the lemon halves/slices to the inside of the bird. I find it adds a lot of flavor for no additional calories.

After roasting the chicken cut the breast meat off the bones and separate the wing,
leg, and thigh meat from the rest of the chicken. If the meat has been
cooked well enough (to an internal temperature of 180 degrees F for safety) the
chicken should pull apart easily. Don’t worry about how it looks! It’s food not
something to impress others.

After eating your meal, refrigerate the extra leftover meat. This is what you will use
to prepare many of the meals for the coming week. (If you don’t want to roast a
chicken you could bake some chicken breasts or you could buy already cooked
chicken. The cost will be higher but if you can afford to do so you will save time.)

[Optional: Keep the bones to prepare some broth but throw away the skin and fatty
pieces. Making chicken broth is easy. Typically it is prepared with some uncooked
chicken pieces, however, the cooked bones with some meat still attached will work
almost as well. Preparing your own broth will keep the costs down for the week and
you can choose to add less salt (sodium) than what you will find with most commercial
brands of chicken broth. (I typically forgo this step and buy commercial. As I’ve
shared before I value my time. But in this instance, I made homemade broth and I
came up with about six cups. I kept some in the refrigerator for use later in the week
and I froze some for another time.) ]

Breakfast

1 serving (1/2 cup) Creamy Breakfast Oatmeal

4 oz. Nonfat (skim) milk

1 orange

1 cup tea (white, black, or green) unsweetened

Morning Snack

1 piece Mini Babybel Light Original Cheese (50 calories)

Lunch

1 roll (Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins by Arnold -100 calories per roll)

2 Tbsp. Hummus (about 50 calories)

1 Apple

Water, unsweetened tea or coffee

Afternoon Snack

1 6-oz. container low fat Stonyfield Farm Yogurt (your choice of flavor, 130 calories)

Supper

1 medium baked potato (scrubbed well, the whole potato can be eaten skin
and all for lots of fiber - 6.6 grams; however, the day’s menu will provide you with
plenty of dietary fiber otherwise if you prefer to not eat the skin.)

1 cup steamed broccoli

1 tbsp. Light Butter with canola oil (Land O’Lakes)

3 oz. Sliced chicken breast, oven roasted (about 110 calories)

Water, unsweetened tea, or coffee

(Always remember to get plenty of water throughout the day.)

Total Calories = 1224

Total Fiber = 32.1 grams (this includes the dietary fiber from the skin of the potato)

Fat = 14% (the fat content is slightly on the low side but acceptable, 15-35% would
be better)

Carbs = 65%

Protein = 21%

Calcium = 928 mg (Women between 19 and 50 years need approximately 1,000 mg a day, 51+ need 1,200 mg a day) Iron = 9.5 mg (Women 19 to 50 years need 18 mg
of iron, 51+ need 8 mg)

Vitamin C= 232 mg

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1300, 1400, or 1500 Calorie Diet Menu (Modify the basic 1200 calorie plan to suit your needs)

If you are 50 or younger, you might choose to boost iron intake by adding a good
source of iron or by taking a basic vitamin and mineral supplement. Good sources of
iron include lean red meat, the dark meat of poultry, tuna, salmon, iron-fortified
cereals, dried beans, whole grains, eggs, and dried fruit. However, getting enough
iron from food sources isn’t easy when you need to limit your calories. My
recommendation would be to add a small bowl of iron fortified cereal for
an evening snack or otherwise during the day. Some good low calorie cereals with
significant iron include 100% Whole Grain Wheat Chex and Multigrain Chex cereals
by General Mills and Oatmeal Squares by Quaker. (To learn more about healthy
breakfast cereals for weight loss you may want to read: Ten Top Breakfast Cereals for
Weight Loss)

Women over 50 (postmenopausal) will want to get extra calcium and vitamin D. A
supplement would be fine.

As for additional calories, you might choose to have an extra serving of one or more
of the items already on the menu or add additional calories of your choice. With the
exceptions noted above, the menu is already fairly well-balanced for nutrition.

[NOTE: The menu plan was designed to meet the needs of one person on a 1200
calorie diet for one week. Although there will be a little extra food to meet the
additional calorie needs for a 1300 to 1500 calorie diet, I recommend adding
additional foods to the basic menu plan to stay on track. That is, rather than eating
additional servings for the first few days and risk running out of the food to prepare
and serve the remaining meals for the week, just stick with the plan. Simply add
other food of your choice for more calories. Toward the end of the week you will have
a better sense of how much extra you may have and when it will work to have a
second serving.]

That’s it for Day 1. Check back for the rest of the plan. When I have shared all 7
days I will also provide a shopping list and a final assessment about the
approximate cost for the week.If you would like to prepare your own weekly menu you may want to read my previous article Planning a 7 Day Diet Menu . I use and recommend My Food Diary as a service for calculating the nutritional content of meals and snacks and preparing all of the menu plans I share on this website. (For more 1200 calorie menu plans see 1200 Calorie Diet Plan)

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