A New Look For This Healthy Eating Blog

Greetings!

"A change is as good as a holiday." At least, that's what "they" say.

Well, I needed a mini-holiday, so I decided to change a bit the look and feel of my blog: I've changed the banner, the description, and a few links.

I hope you like it. I'll be adding more recipes, weight loss entries, and healthy eating discussions in the coming days.


Yours in Health,


Skinny Jeff

Fad Diets Vs Real Life Diet?

Fad Diets vs Real Life Diet

Fad diets are popular. Some work, some don't. And the ones that work, tend to work only for a little while.

What is a fad diet? Answer: Whatever fashionable new diet that saturates the market through the "feel good" media. The are characterised by their focus on drastic elimination of certain types of food: eg. low calory diets, low carbs diets, raw vegies diets, and that type of thing.

But a clearer indicator is the "detrition" factor, namely how long can people keep doing their dietary regime for.

With most restrictive diets the detrition rate is high. People cannot bear the food deprivation and soon fall off the wagon, and get back to their bad old days... often gaining more weight than they lost in the first place.

The focus on food elimination is, I believe, the main flaw of fad diets.

A real life diet should allow you to indulge every now and then on foods that other regimes forbid.

A real life diet should actually teach you how "food management skills", that is the ability and willingness to eat what's good for you.

It requires a total reframing of habits and the way we perceive (and enjoy) food.

There are regimes such as Weight Watchers' (TM), and the CSIRO system. They are good because they promote a balanced approach to eating, and they let you enjoy a few indulgencies... as long as you follow the rules.

The mental factor is, perhaps, the most important factor of all when trying to lose weight in a healthy way. This factor includes the personal circumstances of a person.

I was reading yesterday about this new book by Maryon Steward called "The Real Life Diet Plan". This nutritionist says [fad] diets don't work because...

... "in the long term at least... most men and women who struggle to keep their weight in check have an underlying nutritional deficiency which makes them crave sugary foods."

Ms Stewart also makes a vaild point: people are also affected by their own personal circumstances. Have you ever tried to lose weight whilst going through a divorse? Doable? Yes. Easy to do? Nope.

She claims that her book will help you find the right diet for your personal circumstances. It will help you determine what essential vitamins and minerals you're lacking, and the reasons behind unhealthy cravings. All of this, taking into account whatever is going on in your life at the time.

I think that's a good point to take into account when deciding to lose weight.



Yours in Health,


Skinny Jeff

Crash Diets, the Mind, and Everything Else.

Greetings!

Yesterday I had a little conversation with a friend and colleague about dieting and weight loss.

A while ago, she was overweight. She saw how I lost weight following the Weight Watchers (TM) Points System (TM) with almost no effort. I lured her into trying the system herself, and she achieved good results.

Fast forward 2 years.... Life got in the way. She stopped going to WW, and a series of incidents threw her "off the wagon". Result? She's gained back a couple of kilos.

She's now considering going back to WW.

Now, the thing is that you can lose weight with whatever method you choose. The question, however, is whether the weight loss will be long-lasting or just another yo-yo result.

Well, that depends on yourself and how you use the weight loss method of your choice.

For instance, you can lose weight weith WW. But if you don't change the way you see food, and the way you deal with your cravings, your weight loss will be a temporary thing. You'll gain your weight back again.

That's one of my friend's problems: She "loves" chocolate; She "loves" sugar; She "loves" KFC; She "loves" fast food; and she regularly schedules social lunches where she know (or ought to know) that chances are she'll be consuming "bad food".

If that is her attitude, she'd better rethink her weight loss strategy. No method will give her long lasting results.

As the Buddah said "Everything starts in the mind."

And when you vocalise what's going on in your mind, your thoughts start shapping into real living entities.

If you think and proclaim that you "love" the foods you're not supposed to eat, not eating them will become a sacrifice. Eating them will become a treat. Eating what's good for you becomes a sacrifice. Skipping your healthy eating routine will be a treat.

Do you see how difficult it is - in these circumstances - to keep on track?

One does not have to live a monk life of eating rice and water. Of course, that's an extreme example. Let's try again...

One does not have to eat just salads to keep one's weight down and be healthy. Not in my view, anyway.

I believe a good diet is balanced and varied. But you do have to watch out for the amount of fat, calories (Kilojoules), and sugars. You can eat these in moderation.

But more importantly... you have to change the way you perceive food, and the ranking importance you give to certain foods.

It's just a matter of forming new eating habits and new tastes.

A while ago, you would not see me eating salads of any type.

After I learnt about eating well, I learnt to "love" salads and other wholesome meals. In fact, I can tell you that I'm not very keen on sugar and other fat things any more.

How do you think of your food?

That's some food for thought for you. ;-)


Yours in Health,


Skinny Jeff

Low Fat Banana Bread

Greetings!

If you have been following my old low fat recipes site, you'd know by now that I love bananas.

With the latest whether problems Queensland is facing, the price of bananas has already skyrocketted to $6.00 a kg. Hmmm... that's no good...

The choice is now clear. Pay the higher price, or abstain from eating bananas for a while.

I'll pay the higher price. I have to have my bananas! (I must've been an ape in my past life...).

Here is an easy low fat banana recipe I wanted to share with you. It is nice, moist and dark, and it's only worth 3 pts in the WW old points scale.

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas, well mashed

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup egg substitute

1 tsp. salt (optional)

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

Directions:

First, preheat your oven to 350º.

Next, spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

Then, mix the bananas and egg substitute together in a large bowl. You can use real eggs, but you have to add an extra point per egg for the whole loaf of bread, and divide it up by the number of slices (10).

Stir in the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda and blend.

Put the batter in the pan and bake for 1 hour.

Remove from the pan to a wire rack, and serve still warm or cooled.

Enjoy.

Yours in Health,


Skinny Jeff

Karate for Weight Loss?

Greetings!

Yes, believe it or not, Karate (or any other form of martial art) is not only about punching and kicking your opponents. Self Defense is only 1 significant part of Karate.

Anoter benefit often overlooked from practicing martial arts is the improved health you gradually gain when you exercise regularly. You increase your metabolic rate, stretch your muscles giving them full movement, your breathing improves, and you burn fat like there is no tomorrow.

I think I've mentioned it before... I'm developing a website on Karate: www.Karate-Made-Easy.com. Very soon, I will include a couple of articles on the benefits of practicing Karate.

Not only that, but I will also include a series of warming up exercises you can practice, even if you're not interested in Karate as a Martial Art.

As we say down under in the West... "keep it moving".

If you like the site, let me know. Even better: link your blog or website to that site. The vast majority of its content right now focuses on self defense techniques, but as I already promised, I'll include a section on calisthenics (warming up exercises) that'll help you burn the fat and keep fit.





Yours in Health,


Skinny Jeff

Brain Food... Or Fishy Claims?

Greetings!

I love fish and seafood!

You know how the media has spread the idea that having fish regularly is supposed to be good for you?

The idea that consuming fish is good for your brain is not new. But recently a large amount of scientific evidence is supporting the claim that it is also good for the rest of your body (including the brain) due to the fatty acids (Omega 3), which - among other things - assist you in controlling inflamation, allergies, and other things.

I was listening to a very interesting article via podcast from our ABC Radio National. Click on that link to listen to it.

Yours in Health,


Skinny Jeff

Time is a commodity

Greetings!

How time flies. I posted that last low fat recipe about 2 months ago... and haven't posted any more recipes again. Sorry about that.

It's just that I've been very busy. I have been doing some work around the house, getting rid of a truck-load of sand (don't ask... it's a long and boring story), playing poker with friends (I'm hooked on Texas Holdem Poker...), adding content to my painting website and a karate website I started last month, working during the daytime, and having a bit of family quality time every now and then.

I told you... I've been busy!

And that brings me to a very important thought: you can buy money (yes you can), but you can't buy time. You can stretch time a bit... but you can't buy it. Time is a finite commodity.

Think about it.




Yours in Health,


Skinny Jeff