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I love to SHOP

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Hello All,
Sorry for the long gap between post, but May has been a busy month, but the summer is right around the corner!!!
I love grocery shopping, I can spend hours, just browsing the isles. Here are some tips to remember when shopping.

Key points to remember before heading to the store:

Extra calories added to traditional foods, with the invention of high fructose corn syrup in 1970, this cheaper alternative is being added to food from anything to ketchup to some whole wheat breads…is cheaper, has a longer shelf life and it can be incorporated to foods that never received sugar treatments. Look at your food labels and if you see this as a top 3 ingredient, STAY AWAY. It's SUGAR

Time bombs, trans fats,… a generation ago it was hard for manufacturers to create baked goods that would last on store shelves, most baked goods require oils and oil leaks at room temperature…so since 1960s manufacturers had been baking and restaurants have been frying with trans fats…trans fat is cheap and effective. It makes potatoes chips crispier and cookies tastier…it also lets fry cooks make pound after pound of fries without smoking up their kitchens . But Trans fats increases your bad cholesterol, lowers your good cholesterol and greatly increases your risk for heart disease.

Animals we eat aren’t as healthy, as they used to be. The average piece of chicken has 266% more fat than it did in 1971, while it’s protein content has dropped by a third….mainly because chickens aren’t roaming and are being kept in cages and fed antibiotic laced soy-corn and other unnatural foods…so if this is happening to the food we eat, what is it doing to us! So if possible, look for organic meat or "naturally raised"
Rules when shopping at the grocery store:

1. Work the edges, in general the healthiest foods in the store is found along that walls…the dairy case, produce, and meats/seafood. The inner isles can be a nutritional dead zone with boxes, bags, and cans of highly processed foods.
2. Look high and low. One reason why good foods at the store can be harder to find, is because the big food companies overwhelm most smaller companies. Most big manufactures pay a slotting fee to have prime placement of their products…where they are easily reachable. So healthier foods typically on the top or bottom shelves.
3. More packaging=less nutrition. The closer you get to the earth the better. The process of shipping, cooking, refining, and packaging foods all helps strip out essential nutrients, leading to empty calories.
4. Learn the lingo. Differences between whole grain and multi grain.
5. Fewer the ingredients the healthier the food. Read labels
6. Watch the ingredients on the food label…listing in order of abundance.
Picking the produce that is in season…cheaper and better quality

Break out of Breakfast's Mold

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Everyone know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day right???????

But a lot of people rarely eat breakfast. it could be because of lack of time, but mainly lack of preparation. Not only does breakfast give you fuel to sustain your day, it can also help with any weight loss goals. Here are some of the ways regularly eating a healthy breakfast may help you lose excess weight and maintain your weight loss:

Eating breakfast reduces your hunger later in the day, making it easier to avoid overeating. When you skip breakfast, you may feel ravenous later and be tempted to reach for a quick fix, such as candy from the vending machine. In addition, prolonged fasting — which occurs when you skip breakfast — can increase your body's insulin response, which in turn increases fat storage and weight gain. In fact, skipping breakfast actually increases your risk of obesity.

Eating breakfast gets you on track to make healthy choices all day. People who eat breakfast regularly tend to eat a healthier diet — one that is more nutritious and lower in fat. When you skip breakfast, you're more likely to skip fruits and vegetables the rest of the day too.

Eating breakfast gives you energy, increasing your physical activity during the day. A healthy breakfast refuels your body and replenishes the glycogen stores that supply blood sugar (glucose). Skipping breakfast is associated with decreased physical activity.

Breakfast does not have to be traditional foods every day. It can be anything from waffles to a sandwich. It’s always a good idea to have quick0fix foods on hand or get breakfast foods ready the night before. If you’re running late grab some yogurt, a bagel with peanut butter or some cheese and crackers. Here are some good nutritious quick breakfast ideas:

· Fruit and milk with instant oatmeal
· Iron-fortified cereal with banana slices
· Peanut butter on toasted whole-grain bread, waffle, or tortilla
· Cheese slices melted on whole-grain toast
· Hard-boiled egg sliced on an English muffin
· Apple and cheese slices between whole wheat or graham crackers
· Bran muffin and yogurt topped with berries
· Whole-wheat waffle topped with fruit, nuts and ricotta cheese
Also you can try some of these ideas when you have a little more time:
· Add berries or other fruit to pancake batter. Also try grated/pureed carrots or zucchini work well too
· Try bagel with salsa
· Broil a bagel topped with apple or pear slices, sprinkled with cinnamon and low fat cheese
· Try using mashed avocado as a spread on bread
· Try raw vegetable with a cottage cheese or yogurt dip
· Add diced vegetables to a soft tortilla to make a breakfast quesadilla or burrito
· Add diced vegetables to an English muffin to make a veggie pizza
· Bake or steam an apple or pear
Try these recipes…they work great with kids too

Banana Dog or burrito

Whole wheat bun or tortilla, peanut butter, flax seed, banana, and jam
Spread peanut butter on bun or tortilla, sprinkle with flax seed, topped with a whole banana and a little jam on top.

Ready-To-Go Smoothie

Fruit, yogurt, Ziploc bags, milk, and juice
Measure ½ cup of your favorite fruit and ½ cup of yogurt, and spoon into an individual Ziploc bag. Place in the freezer. The next morning grab a bag, put it in a blender with ½ cup of milk and ½ cup of juice and blend until smooth.
A few fruit combos to try are: bananas and blueberries, banana yogurt and pineapple-orange-banana juice; strawberries and bananas with strawberry yogurt and orange juice; or raspberries and blueberries with vanilla yogurt and cranberry juice.