Kick The Cravings By Keeping Your Diet On Track With These Tips

Cravings happen for many reasons but the most common is because your diet is not balanced. You should not be truly hungry if you are eating balanced and small portion meals every 3-4 hours. You may be emotionally hungry from boredom, stress, happiness, exhaustion, ect. Most people get these cravings more frequently at night when things are less hectic. 

Here are some helpful hints to help you kick the cravings:

1. Drink 68 oz of water preferably with lemon

Lemon water also helps with weight loss by keeping the body in an alkaline state. Lemons are high in fiber pectin, which helps keep you full longer. Also, they have a diuretic effect, which helps with water weight gain. Having trouble kicking the pop habit? Try adding lemon to sparkling water.

2. Drink hot tea

3. Start cutting back on sugar, artificial sweeteners, and sodium**

**Note: These stimulate your cravings and cause bloating. Most processed foods have too much sugar and sodium so read your nutrition labels! Try to cut back a little bit each week and watch your cravings diminish.

4. Ask yourself, is short term gratification worth those extra pounds and work at the gym. There is no return policy on things you throw down the hatch! If you are following a balanced diet and you feel that hunger between meals this could be a sign that your hard work is paying off and your metabolism is revving up! That hunger is your body working but if you feel like this after 4 hours EAT because your blood sugar may drop. Waiting too long to eat will lower your metabolism. Eat your mealsand stop the in between snacking!

5. If your hunger gets the best of you here are some healthy snacks*:

- Almonds

- Sunflower seeds

- Veggies

- 1 bite of a protein bar

- 1 Rice cake

*Note: consume these snacks with 16 oz of water

Mexican Taco Salad Minus The Extra Calories

OK, you don't need me to tell you that if your Mexican Taco salad comes in a ginormous greasy shell, it's probably not calorie-friendly and is not low in fat. Taco salads often contain disturbing amounts of calories and fat.  

       

Serving Size: 1 salad (including shell)

Calories: 945

Fat: 57g

Carbs: 72g

Sodium: 1,910mg

Fiber: 12g

Sugars: 8g

Protein: 38g

The numbers here are so staggeringly high that you may find them hard to believe. Looks like the  grease-soaked shell, heaps of fatty beef, handfuls of cheese, and gobs of sour cream add up after all. 

Bottom line: Don't order taco salads when eating out. Instead, make them at home using this delicious and healthy recipe. Your entire family will enjoy this twist on their favorite Mexican meal.  

Servings 3 (2 bowls per serving)

Prep Time - 10 min, Cook Time - 15 min, Total Time - 25 min.

Ingredients:

6 - 6” Tortillas (I used Mission Extra Thin Yellow Corn Tortillas)

Cooking Spray

½ lb Lean Ground Turkey or shredded chicken

½ packet of Taco Seasoning

1/3 c water

3 tbsp Reduced Fat Shredded Mexican Cheese

2 tbsp Tostito's chunky salsa

Shredded Lettuce

6 Grape Tomatoes, quartered

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Sprinkle each tortilla lightly with water and stack them on a plate. Cover the top with another plate that is turned upside down and microwave the tortillas for 1 minute or until warm. 

3. Turn two 12 cup muffin pans upside down. Mist each side of a tortilla lightly with cooking spray and center it in the space between 4 muffin cups, creating a bowl. Repeat with the 5 remaining tortillas, forming 3 bowls on each tin. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

4. While the tortilla bowls are baking, spray a large skillet with cooking spray and add the ground turkey and brown. Add 1/3 cup of water and taco seasoning, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer 3-4 minutes.

5. Let the tortilla bowls cool for a few minutes after removing them from the oven. 

6. In each bowl, layer ¼ cup of meat, 1 tbsp of shredded cheese, 1 tsp of taco sauce, 4 quarters of grape tomato and some shredded lettuce (of course in any order you choose).

Nutrition Facts:

Servings – 2 bowls, Calories - 274.0, Cholesterol - 63.7 mg, Sodium - 384.8 mg, Total Carbohydrate - 8.1 g Protein – 17.8 g

Are You Drinking Enough Water?

You have been jogging for 20 minutes. You are hot and sweaty, and you are beginning to feel tired. What is the problem? The most likely answer is that you are beginning to feel the effects of dehydration. Generally, the average person is not 100 percent hydrated. Add exercise and a warm climate, and it spells dehydration in a big way.

Do not depend on thirst as a signal to avoid dehydration! Your body's drive to drink is not nearly as powerful as its drive to eat, and the thirst mechanism is even less powerful during exercise. Therefore, you must plan to drink early and often.

So How Much Should You Drink?

Follow these guidelines:

Before exercise: Drink one to two cups (eight to 16 ounces) of fluid two hours before exercise to make sure you are well hydrated. Then drink another one-half to one cup immediately before exercise.

During exercise: Drink one-half to one cup every 15 to 20 minutes during exercise. Although this might seem tough at first, once you schedule it into your regular training routine, you will quickly adapt to having fluid in your stomach. In fact, the fuller your stomach is, the faster it will empty.

After exercise: Replace any fluid you have lost. Drink two cups of fluid for every pound of body weightyou lose during exercise.

Remember, dehydration also occurs during cold weather exercise--your body temperature rises, and you still lose water through perspiration and respiration.

What Should You Drink?

Should you just reach for the water bottle when you need to hydrate, or are sports drinks better? The answer to this question depends on how much and how hard you exercise--and how much you like water!

The ideal fluid replacement beverage should encourage fluid consumption and promote fluid absorption. If you exercise less than one hour, water should be fine. If you exercise longer than one hour, the fluid should also supply energy to your working muscles. In this case, drink about two to four cups per hour of fluids with carbohydrate concentrations of from 4 to 8 percent. (Most sports drinks fall in this range.)

What about the sodium in most sports drinks? The average exerciser does not need to replace sodium or other electrolytes during exercise. Even well trained marathoners will reserve enough sodium to complete a competition. After heavy exercise, however, it is best to eat a meal that contains some sodium to replace what you may have lost. Follow your cravings--do not worry about restricting the sodium in your food immediately after running a marathon.

However, if you do not like water, sports drinks that taste good and contain less than 8 percent carbohydrate and some sodium might offer you a performance advantage. At the very least, if they encourage you to drink more, they will have done their job.

Signs of Dehydration

It is essential that you are aware of the warning signs of dehydration.

Early signs include:                                                   Severe signs include:                

-fatigue                                                                    -difficulty swallowing

-lightheadedness                                                      -sunken eyes and dim vision

-appetite loss                                                           -stumbling

-dark urine with a strong odor                                  -clumsiness

-flushed skin                                                            -numb skin

-heat intolerance                                                      -shriveled skin

Why You Should Avoid Low Fat Frozen Dinners when Losing Weight

 

 
 Low fat frozen dinners may seem like a good option to cut fat when you are on a diet. These meals in a box can appear to be healthy and balanced and may even taste good enough to tolerate when you are trying to lose weight. But there are ways in which these entrees may not be good for you. Why should you avoid low fat frozen dinners?
 
Avoid Low Fat Frozen Dinners Due to High Sodium Content. In order to improve taste, manufacturers often add extra sodium to frozen dinners. The United States Department of Agriculture recommends no more than 2,300 mg. of sodium intake¹ daily for healthy adults. That is equivalent to approximately 1 teaspoon of salt.
For example, Healthy Choice Roast Chicken Breast meal contains 600 mg. of sodium. This is one-fourth of the daily allowance of sodium for a healthy adult. If you
are eating 6 small meals/snacks a day, you would have to watch your sodium intake for all of these other meals to indulge in this small, 11 ounce meal.
To help you see how much sodium is in this meal, a 1 ounce portion of potato chips² contains 168 mg. of sodium. Be sure to check nutritional labels before buying low fat dinners or avoid them altogether.
 
Avoid Low Fat Frozen Dinners Due to Added Sugar. Different sugars are added to low fat dinners to make them taste better. Sugars add calories and no nutritional value to a meal. Often these sugars are in the form of high fructose corn syrup.
For example, Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Baked Chicken Breast contains 5 grams of sugar. Regular Stouffer's Baked Chicken Breast contains 2 grams of sugar². Although 3 grams of sugar may not be much, it can up during the day, adding unnecessary calories to your diet.

Avoid Low Fat Frozen Dinners and Make Meals from Fresh Foods. Fresh foods are always better than prepared frozen dinners. They are not processed and only have ingredients that you add. You can control how much salt and sugar you add to each meal. Herbs and seasonings can go a long way to adding taste without extra sodium and sugar.

For ease in preparation of one meal at a time, you can separate fresh meats and foods into serving sizes before freezing or storing. Then you can take out and prepare what you need for each meal. This is a healthier choice and can help you avoid low fat frozen dinner when losing weight.

Original source: Jolynne M Hudnell, Yahoo! Contributor Network

1) USDA; Dietary Guidelines; www.health.gov
All other nutritional information found at:
2) Calorie Count; Food Browser; www.caloriecount.about.com