Archive for July, 2006

Getting your Child to Eat Vegetables

Sunday, July 16th, 2006
Sharon Hopkins asked:


How you eat and what you eat affects your child directly. If you want your child to eat something that you dislike, you have to make an attempt to eat it first and then encourage your child to try a spoonful or plateful of it. It is not easy to get children to like any new food the first time. Keep reintroducing them from time to time.

Some tricks of trade that you can try to get your child to eat vegetables.

- Blend vegetables in a blender and add them to spaghetti sauce or liven up any non-veg dish.

- Keep a plateful of green salad, either in raw or grated form. You can toss up a salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, carrots, cabbage, onion, and radish and so on. You can have salads either at mealtime or in between meals, as a snack.

- While making sandwiches for lunch, add lettuce, tomato slice or carrots in between. Chicken, tuna or pasta salads taste great with dash of vegetables in it.

- If your child thrives on noodles, add boiled or lightly steamed vegetables to it.

- While making pizza, add chopped broccoli, spinach, etc in addition to other toppings.

- Vegetables with a dash of melted cheese added to soups changes the flavor altogether.



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Top 10 Bodybuilding Eating Plan Questions Answered

Monday, July 3rd, 2006
Kyle Richey asked:


Developing the proper habits is a vital aspect of any fitness program, and following a solid bodybuilding eating plan is no different. Get the answers to the top 10 questions now!

Q: How many calories should I be eating daily if I plan on bodybuilding?

A: The number of calories you should be eating varies by body size. As a general rule of thumb, when you’re just starting out, you should eat somewhere between 2,500 to 3,000 calories daily. Make sure that your eating plan includes protein, fat, carbohydrates and plenty of water.

Q: How much protein should be included in a bodybuilding eating plan?

A: Multiply your total body weight by 1.2 to get the total grams of protein you need to eat in a day. You should divide this amount equally between your meals and snacks throughout the day. Protein sources should include lean meats (such as chicken and turkey) and white fish. Post protein workout shakes should be the only liquid sources of protein throughout the day. If you do choose to include protein supplements no more than half of your daily protein should come from supplemental sources.

Q: When I am bodybuilding how much carbohydrate do I need to include in my eating plan?

A: Multiply your lean body mass (your fat free body weight, not your total body weight) by 0.8 to get the amount of carbohydrates you should be eating in a day. These should be divided between your major meals. Carbohydrates should also be included post workout.

Q: How much fat (and what types of fats) should I plan on eating when I am bodybuilding?

A: About 25% of your calories should come from fat. This isn’t to say you should increase the amounts of harmful fats in your diet. Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are needed when your bodybuilding. These include omega three and omega six. A good way to make sure you get your EFAs is to include flax seeds, flax oil, are flax meal in your diet. Another good source of EFAs is fish. Fish oil supplements can be taken to increase your EFAs.

Q: Should soy be a part of my bodybuilding eating plan?

A: No. Women often include soy in their diet to raise their body’s estrogen levels naturally. When estrogen levels rise, testosterone levels decrease. Since testosterone is a body builders best friend, it’s in your best interest to reduce your soy intake as much as possible while you’re trying to increase your muscle mass.

Q: How large of meals and snacks should I be eating when I plan to concentrate on bodybuilding?

A: You should eat something every 2 to 3 hours while you are awake. Instead of trying to eat 3 and meals a day it’s important to bring that up to between 5 to 7 smaller daily meals. This gets your body’s metabolism up and feeds your muscles so there able to continually repair themselves.

Q: Do I have to avoid alcohol when I’m bodybuilding?

A: Yes. When you are bodybuilding it’s important to decrease the amounts of alcohol you consume, if not completely cut it out of your diet. Alcohol can negatively affect your testosterone levels.

Q: When considering my bodybuilding eating plan what types of carbohydrates should I include?

A: Nutrient dense whole grains fruits and vegetables should be a part of your healthy eating plan when you are bodybuilding. Candy bars, soda pop, and other empty calories should not be a part of your eating plan.

Q: Why should I eat cruciferous vegetables when I’m bodybuilding?

A: Cruciferous vegetables have many important health benefits. One of the benefits of cruciferous vegetables is they suppress the amounts of estrogen in your system. Suppressing the amount of the estrogen in your system increases the amount of testosterone in your system. Testosterone is a natural bodybuilding enhancer.

Q: What should my post workout snack include?

A: Post workout snacks need to include protein and a high glycemic carbohydrate. The reason you include a high glycemic carbohydrate is to get the protein into your system as quickly as possible. Do not include fats in your post workout snack. Fats will slow the absorption of protein and carbohydrates.

By following the above guidelines for your bodybuilding eating plan, you will maximize your results with minimum effort and time. Good luck!



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Good Foods to Eat to Lose Weight

Sunday, July 2nd, 2006
Judy Sharp asked:


We all know that the food we eat makes a big difference in the amount of weight we lose.

It’s simply a matter of making choices - low fat chicken rather than fatty meat, water and fresh juice rather than soda, baked potato rather than fries. It’s the choice we make when we purchase our food for the week, or go to the drink machine at work. Soda or water? Water!

When you substitute the healthy weight loss foods you lose weight faster and have more energy.

The top healthy foods you can eat to lose weight:

1. Vegetables. Eat as much as you like! It doesn’t matter what you choose, as long as it’s fresh. Avocados have fat, but it’s fat that will help you lose weight - and fill you up! Potatoes are starchy, but they won’t put on the weight, especially if you’re eating a lot of other vegies as well.

Eat them raw or cooked, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to have more vegies on your plate than anything else.

No butter or sauces, of course. You’ll be amazed at the subtle and delicious tastes of vegetables! A good soy sauce will add flavoring if you like.

Buy organic if you can - you’ll reap the benefits in healthy energy. If not, wash all vegetables well.

Vegetables are alkaline and balance the body’s chemistry. They’re full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidants and low in calories. Try to get a mixture of colors in your diet - green, orange, red, yellow and white.

2. Fresh fruit will also help you lose weight because it’s full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidants, just like vegetables. Yes, it has fruit sugars, but they are the complex kind that takes time to digest, and so do not end up as fat cells.

And it will REALLY speed up your weight loss if you use fruit as a replacement for candy and puddings.

3. Eat plenty of whole grain. In order to lose weight it MUST be whole grain. Substitute brown rice for white, wholegrain pasta for regular, and try some of the other wonderful grains available, such as buckwheat, quinoa and spelt. Eat traditional rolled oats for breakfast or a wholegrain cereal, preferably without sugar. If you eat bread, make sure it’s made of a good whole grain. Don’t choose the kind called “multigrain” when it’s mostly white bread with some seeds scattered in it.

4. Beans. Substitute all or several meat portions a month with beans. You can cook them from scratch - or to save time, buy them canned. If you buy them canned, put them in a colander and rinse well with running water. Full of protein and fiber, beans are an excellent low-fat way to get your protein.

5. Water. Drink water, water, water. Soda puts on weight very quickly. And don’t be fooled by diet sodas. Sugar substitutes still add weight - something you rarely hear the truth about.

You can also drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice. Drink it as soon as it’s made for that zinging, full feeling and lots of weight burning.



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Eating Healthy - Back to Basics!

Saturday, July 1st, 2006
Susan Dean asked:


Isn’t it funny how society in general believes that by eating healthy we must have to eat uninteresting and tasteless food. How wrong it is to believe this. However, I do think this fact is changing but not quickly enough. If we could just rewind a little to way back before fast food eateries and remember what it was like for most people we would see that back then people did eat healthy and enjoyed what they ate. Often you would grow your own vegetables and fruit. People made their own jellies, sauces and chutneys. No preservatives and no additives.

But as times changed and homes were built on smaller blocks cutting out veggie patches, people working longer hours, more convenience shopping close at hand and of course fast food eateries popping up everywhere we have become lazy! It is easier to stop for some food rather than make something at home. Who wants to spend their time tending a vegetable garden when they can just go to the local store and buy what they want? Having both parents working instead of having mum at home cooking nutritious meals and snacks our kids are stopping off and buying fast food. This same food that they have been seeing advertised so often on that dreaded television set that they sit in front of for hours.

With all the obesity, heart disease, diabetes and stokes that are quickly becoming a fact of life I think it is time for people to really sit up and take note that often all they have to do is exercise regularly and start eating healthy! To do this they need to think about what they are eating now compared to what they should be eating. First they need to cut down on sugary drinks such as cola. They need to drink more water and eat fresh fruit and vegetables along with lean red meat, skinless chicken, fish, lean pork and stop deep frying!

You must remember to eat breakfast lunch and dinner with fruit, yogurt, vegetables or seeds for snacks. Eat smaller portions and make sure you have plenty of fiber in your diet as well. This really is not hard to do. And when you do start eating healthy you will notice that not only will you start to look and feel better but also your food will look more interesting to eat compared to burgers and fries. These have no color or texture that is appealing. You just have to look at a plate of vegetables and you are awed by the wow factor of color.

Of course, by all means do have a treat once in awhile and if that includes a hamburger, fries, a soda or some chocolate then so be it but do it only in moderation. I know that I am a big fan of potato chips but I do have them in moderation whilst I eat healthily the rest of the time. Once you are in a routine of eating the right things and exercising regularly then you can afford to have these treats occasionally.



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