Brown bagging it the healthy way
Tony Robinson

When enjoying a healthy lifestyle, one of the biggest challenges
is making meals on the go. Brown bagging is even more difficult
when children are involved, but it is still possible to create
delicious, nutritious brown bag lunches that the whole family
will love.

The most important part of creating healthy, delicious brown bag
lunches is choosing the foods that will go into those brown
bags. It is important to choose foods that are easy to put
together, and to include foods that everyone in the family
likes. Including everyone’s favorite foods is a great way to
make sure the lunches will be eaten instead of traded for
Twinkies.

When creating healthy brown bag lunches for yourself and your
family, try to choose at least three choices from the following
list.

At least one fruit or vegetable, either fresh, canned
or frozen. Some good choices include apples, bananas and
oranges. Fruit salad also makes a great choice for brown bag
lunches. A whole grain product like bread, a tortilla
shell, a bagel, pasta, rice or muffins. Milk or dairy
products like low fat or nonfat yogurt, skim milk, cheese or a
yogurt drink or shake. Meat, fish, poultry, eggs,
peanut butter, legumes or hummus A healthy vegetable or
fruit salad

It is a great idea to involve the whole family in the
preparation of these brown bag creations. Why not have a family
session where everyone creates their own healthy brown bag
lunches using the ingredients you provide? Lay out all the
healthy foods, selected from the above list, and let everyone
choose their favorites. Involving the kids in meal planning at
an early age is a great way to help them learn to make healthy
food choices throughout their lives.

Packing those brown bag lunches can be exciting and fun for the
whole family. For instance, why not let every member of the
family choose his or her own special lunch box or bag? Other
good ideas and tips for brown bag lunches include setting aside
one shelf in the fridge for lunch fixings and finished lunches,
and setting aside a drawer in the cupboard for all the packaging
required, such as plastic bags, plastic cutlery, napkins, and
straws.

Of course, keeping the variety in brown bag lunches is very
important, both for the adults and the kids. There are some
great suggestions for keeping everyone from getting bored,
including:

Use a variety of different breads in your sandwiches.
Use a combination of wheat bread, rye bread and pumpernickel, in
addition to interesting bread alternatives such as tortilla
wraps, bread sticks and whole wheat crackers. Pack bite
size vegetables, such as baby carrots, broccoli florets and
pepper slices, along with a low fat dipping sauce. Add
bit size fruit like grapes, blueberries, orange wedges and
strawberries. Use only 100% fruit juice in brown bag
lunches. Avoid fruit drinks and blends, which often contain less
than 10% real fruit. Pick up a variety of single
serving cereal and let everyone choose their favorites. 
Buy a good selection of flavors of nonfat or low fat yogurt
every week, and let everyone choose their favorite flavor every
day. Pack a variety of dried fruit in your family’s
brown bag lunches.

Of course the kids are not the only ones who can enjoy healthy
brown bag lunches. Mom and dad can also join in the fun. After
all, brown bag lunches are a lower cost, and healthier
alternative to lunches out.

Some of the most popular choices for brown bag lunches, both for
children and their parents, include leftovers from the night
before (pasta, rice and potato dishes are great choices), cheese
and crackers, leftover veggie pizza, or a quick sandwich rollup
using a soft tortilla shell or pita bread.

One great way to enjoy a variety of healthy new foods is to form
a lunch partnership with four or five other coworkers. Everyone
takes turns bringing lunch for everyone. This can be a great way
to enjoy healthy new foods and gather some great new recipes.

About the author:

Tony Robinson is a Company CEO, webmaster husband and dad. In
his busy lifestyle he has placed importance on health and
fitness. Visit http://www.eat-healthily.com for good eating tips
and techniques to assist you maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Tags: Author, Brown Bag Lunches, Brown Bags, Company CEO, dairy products;, Family Session, Favorite Foods, Fruit Salad, Grain Product, Healthy Brown Bag Lunches, Healthy Food Choices, Healthy Foods, Healthy Lifestyle, Hummus, Lunch Box, Meal Planning, Milk Cheese, Poultry Eggs, Tony Robinson, Tortilla Shell, Twinkies, webmaster, webmaster husband and dad, Whole Grain, Yogurt Drink —

Advice on choosing health food and healthy foods and reading nutrition labels
Chris Robertson

Health food doesn’t need a definition, does it? We all know what
health food is it’s yogurt and granola, whole-grain cereal and
organically grown vegetables and fruit. It’s 100% natural, no
preservatives or dyes, unadulterated, pure. When you put all
that together, you should have healthy food, yet all too often,
what’s marketed as health food these days barely classifies as
food, let alone health food.

Take a look at one of our favorite health food choices – yogurt.
It hit supermarket shelves in the early seventies, though it had
been available before that in health food stores and
restaurants. Real yogurt has two ingredients: milk (whole, skim
or low fat) and live yogurt cultures. That’s health food –
calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A, protein. Next time you’re at the
supermarket, take a look at the dairy case. You’ll find row
after row of hyper-sweetened brightly colored rainbow swirled
and candy-sprinkled yogurt packaged in ways that appeal to our
littlest consumers – children. Millions of parents buy the
enticing packages, secure that because it’s yogurt, they’re
buying food that’s healthy for their children.

One look at the label, though, and it’s clear that these kiddy
yogurts (as well as most of the yogurt that’s marketed to
adults) are a far cry from heath food. Some of the most popular
yogurts for children contain anywhere from 3 to 10 added
teaspoons of sugar. Considering how many teaspoons of yogurt are
in a single serving, you might as well hand your child the sugar
bowl. In addition, most yogurts include “natural” ingredients
that have little to do with health food. Ingredients like pectin
(to thicken yogurt), carrageenan (a seafood extract that gives
some yogurts their body, and annatto (for color) add little
nutritionally to yogurt. They’re in the mix to serve one main
purpose: to help yogurt survive its trip from the factory to
your table.

You’ll find the same situation with other foods that originally
made their debut as health foods in the seventies. Granola has
become granola bars with chocolate chips and gooey caramel.
Whole wheat flour is bleached and denuded of its flavorful
kernels. Sunflower seeds are roasted in oil and salted. Even
brown rice comes in the instant variety.

Healthy food not health food

The secret to feeding your family (and yourself) a healthful
diet of healthy food is to read the labels. The United States
Food & Drug Administration has laid out strict guidelines for
nutritional labeling of all food products. The nutrition label
will tell you all you need to know to choose real health foods.
Some things to keep in mind when reading nutrition labels for
health foods:

* In the ingredient’s portion of the nutrition label,
ingredients are listed in order by amount. The ingredient that’s
listed first is the main ingredient, followed by the next
largest amount, etc.

* The nutrition facts label must list each of the required
nutrients even if the food provides 0% of the recommended daily
value.

* The nutrition facts label must list what portion of the food’s
calories is derived from fat, from sugar, from protein and from
carbohydrates. It will also break down the fat into saturated
and unsaturated fat.

Reading labels on everything you feed your family is the best
way to tell whether a food is really a health food – or just
masquerading as one.

About the author:

Chris Robertson is an author of Majon
International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on
the web. Visit this Food Website
and Majon’s Food
directory.

Tags: alone health food, Annatto, Author, chocolate chips, Choosing Health, Chris Robertson, D Vitamin, Dairy Case, Favorite Health, favorite health food choices, food choices;, Food Ingredients, Food Products, food;, Health Food, health food stores;, Healthy Food, Healthy Foods, heath food, Internet Marketing, Majon International, Natural Ingredients, Nutrition Labels, oil;, Pectin, Sugar Bowl, Supermarket Shelves, United States Food & Drug Administration, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Whole Grain Cereal, Yogurt Cultures, Yogurts —

Here are some ways to lose weight fast.

1 – Take everything one step at a time. Begin simply by paying more attention to what you are eating, slowly cutting back on the bad foods and implementing more healthy foods into your diet. Once you have this under control, the next step is to add exercise to your plan. If you do not like exercising, take this one step at a time as well by implementing only 15 to 30 minutes at a time, at first.

2 – Choose foods and activities that you enjoy. If you do activities that you get enjoyment out of, you will find them to be much more successful than trying to exercise in ways that you do not enjoy. The same goes for foods that you implement in your diet: Choosing foods that you enjoy will help you enjoy your diet rather than craving bad foods.

3 – Build muscle. You lose calories based on your weight. Muscles, surprisingly enough, burn calories more quickly than fat does, pound for pound. Work out with weights to build muscle and lose weight, and then allow your extra lean muscle mass to burn more calories for you on a long term basis.

4 – Reduce your carbohydrates. Do not cut your carbohydrates out completely, because your body needs carbohydrates for energy. Cut out some of the white breads and pastas from your diet, though, to cut down on the carbohydrates that you consume. What carbs you do need to eat, you can replace with whole wheat and brown carbs for better health.

5 – Set realistic, measurable and attainable goals. Put deadlines on your goals, making them measurable. Make them realistic by choosing goals that you know you can attain. Set long term and short term goals and you will more readily achieve your expectations regarding quick and healthy weight loss.

6 – Give up the bad stuff. It may surprise you how unhealthy it is to eat candy, cookies, cakes and other sweets, and to drink soda and sugar laden drinks. Cut these bad goodies out either completely, or at least 80% of the time and the pounds will shrink away without you having to do much else to make the weight loss happen.

7 – Have a suitable breakfast. Most of your calories should be consumed early on in the day, and breakfast is no exception. Eat a nice breakfast to give your metabolism a good foundation to run from for the remainder of the day.

8 – Control portions by leaving something behind. Make sure your portions are correct based on the actual serving size of your food, and then make sure not to clear your plate completely. Exercising portion control will give you better control over what you put into your body for easy and achievable weight loss.

Implement these tips one by one and in no time at all you will begin to see a significant difference in your weight.

Tags: 8 Ways, Attainable Goals, Bad Stuff, Better Health, Breads, burn, Burn Calories, Cakes, Candy Cookies, Carbohydrates, energy;, food;, Goodies, Healthy Diet, Healthy Foods, Lean Muscle Mass, Losing Weight, Pastas, Step At A Time, Sweets, Term Basis, Term Goals, Ways To Lose Weight, Weights, Whole Wheat —

Lose 9 Pounds In Three Days With The Hospital Three Day Diet Plan

I know you arent going to believe this but I lost 9 pounds in 3 days, by using the hospital three day diet plan. Not only did I come out of the hospital feeling better, I even looked better. It was safe and fast! You can do the same thing with this amazing little diet and frankly it doesnt taste that bad. Read on to find out about it.

Have you ever had to spend more than a day in the hospital? If you have, or if you know someone who has, you probably have seen the food they serve. Hospitals have been somewhat notorious for serving bad food i.e., food that tastes yucky, bland, or boring.

Of course, most folks probably think that because the hospital tends to be more interested in serving healthy foods, and they have to produce them en masse. Even still, the meals being served from those little plastic trays are getting tastier and more nutritious all the time. Not only has medical care improved over time, so have nutritional guidelines and food preparation techniques.

The Hospital Three Day Diet is pretty tasty, and it is true that it is a diet you might find in the typical hospital setting, but that doesnt really automatically mean it is going to taste terrible.

The Hospital Three Day Diet is based on the chemical components in the food, so it is a very strict diet that does not allow you to do any substituting. The idea behind the Hospital Three Day Diet is that the foods work in combination to help you lose weight. You are supposed to follow the exact plan for three days, then stop. It is supposed to be used as a motivational jump start to boost your weight loss plan. If you find yourself wanting an additional boost, it is acceptable to follow the hospital three day diet, eat sensibly and reasonably (dont pig out) for four days, and then follow the plan again.

Here is what you get to eat on the Hospital Three Day Diet:

Breakfasts

First Day: A cup of plain black coffee or tea, of a grapefruit, 1 slice of toast with nothing on it, and a tablespoonful of peanut butter.

Second Day:A cup of plain black coffee or tea, 1 egg, 1 slice of toast with nothing on it, and a banana

Third Day:A cup of plain black coffee or tea, a small apple, 1 ounce of cheddar cheese (sharp or mild doesnt matter), and 5 regular saltine crackers with nothing on them

Lunches

First Day:A cup of plain black coffee or tea, 1 ounce of cheddar or 1 slice of toast with nothing on it, and cup of tuna (plain, packed in water)

Second Day:A cup of plain black coffee or tea, cup of tuna or 1 cup of low fat cottage cheese, and 5 regular saltines.

Third Day:A cup of plain black coffee or tea, 1 hard-boiled egg, and 1 slice of toast with nothing on it
Dinners

First Day:3 ounces of lean meat (chicken), 1 cup green beans, 1 cup of carrots, 1 small apple, and get this now 1 cup of vanilla ice cream (woohoo!)

Second Day:2 beef hot dogs (sans buns), 1 cup of broccoli, cup of carrots or turnip greens, banana, and cup vanilla ice cream

Third Day:1 cup plain tuna again, 1 cup cauliflower or 1 cup kidney beans, 1 cup carrots or beets, 1 cup of watermelon or cantaloupe, and cup vanilla ice cream.

See why it gets its name? Cant you just picture the hospital orderly handing you these exact things to eat during your brief stay? There must be a reason for that, and trust me, this diet works. In three days, I lost nine pounds, which was just enough to look better in that little black dress I bought on Tuesday for Saturday.

Tags: bad food i.e., Black Coffee, Chemical Components, Diet Foods, Diet Plan, Exact Plan, Food Preparation Techniques, food;, Healthy Diet, Healthy Foods, Hospital Diet, Hospital Three Day Diet, Hospitals, Jump Start, Lose Weight, Losing Weight, Lost, Medical Care, Pig, Plastic Trays, Strict Diet, Tastes, Typical Hospital, Weight Loss Plan —