Whipped Dessert:

1 1/2 cups water

1 banana

1 cup strawberries (I've subbed for 2 Kiwi or a 1 cup mango)

2 cups raspberries or blueberries.

½ cup Splenda

1 cup water

4 scoops vanilla or strawberry locarb protein powder

1 Tbs. cornstarch, flattened

Blend all ingredients together.. You may or may not need more water once whipped together... if too thick, just add it in slowly if necessary.

 HAPPY Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup raw oats or oatbran (uncooked)
  
• 1 cup of protein powder, vanilla
  
  
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch
  
• 1/2 cup fat-free cottage cheese
  
• 5 egg whites
  
• 1 cup of fresh blueberries
  
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 3 tbsp. cinnamon
  
• 3 packs of Stevia or Truvia
  
  
• add water to right consistancy.. looking for thick batter/pudding like texture.
  
  

Preparation

Mix all ingredients in your blender and cook them in a pan using Pam
non-stick cooking spray (just like normal pancakes). Flip them when they
get a little bubbly.

Condiments used:

Walden Farms Calorie FREE syrup

Ingredients

• 4 cups grated carrots
  
• 1 cup Splenda or Truvia
  
  
• 1 cup Brown Sugar Splenda
  
• 8 oz. can crushed pineapple (optional)
  
  
• 4 egg whites
  
• 1 whole egg
  
  
• 2 tsp vanilla
  
• 1 cup All purpose flour
  
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 4 scoops (any vanilla-flavored protein powder will work with this recipe)
  
• 3 tsp baking soda
  
• 2 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1/3 cup walnuts
  

  * plus 1/2 cup water (maybe a little more just to bind ingredients together)

  
  
  
  

Icing

• 2 Scoops (any vanilla-flavored protein powder will work with this recipe)
  
• 1 Tbsp Splenda
  
• 2-3 Tbsp unsweetened almond milk or coconut milk
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray four mini loaf pans OR a square baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
   
2. Combine carrots,
   Splenda, pineapple, egg whites, egg and vanilla in a large
   bowl and mix well. Add remaining ingredients except walnuts. Mix well.
   
3. Stir in walnuts.
   Spread batter into mini loaf pans or square pan and bake for about 45
   minutes or until center of cake springs back when lightly pressed. Cool
   in the pan.
   
4. To make icing, mix
   together the protein powder and Splenda. Add milk slowly until mixture
   turns into a consistency that can be spread on loaves (you do not want
   it to be too runny). Spread on loaves and let harden.
   

Oven Roasted Tomatoes
6 large tomatoes, halved horizontally or, equal weight in baby tomatoes will work 2.
1 Tbsp assorted herbs (thyme, rosemary, etc)
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup olive oil

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2) Place tomato halves face up on a lined cookie sheets and sprinkle with herbs and salt.
3) Drizzle the oil over tomatoes and place cookie sheet in the oven.

4) Bake at 375 for a 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to 200 and
continue to bake for another hour. Everyone's oven is different, so I
like to bake these until the bottom of the tomatoes are caramelized.

 _____________________________

Cider-Glazed Carrots with Fresh Thyme-
2 servings
1/2 lb. peeled carrots, sliced at an angle in 1/2" pieces
2 teaspoons butter
2 teaspoons fresh thyme, chopped
salt to taste
1 teaspoon Splenda or Truvia (optional)
½ cup apple cider

1) Melt butter in sauté pan and then add carrots. Cook until starting to
brown, and then add a pinch of salt, splenda or truvia if using and the thyme.
2) Add the apple cider and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and let cook
over low until the cider has reduced to a glaze and the carrots are tender, about 8-12 minutes.

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Training the knee flexion component of the hamstrings is critical to being strong out of the hole when squatting or initiating your pull off the floor (especially sumo). Glute-hams are the best option, but the others are still better than leg curls on a machine... Knee Flexion – Glute-ham raise, ball leg curl, TRX leg curl.

Accessory Posterior Chain – Romanian Dead Lift or Good Morning variation are very good exercises to strengthen the weakness... Most people's posterior chain is a weak link. RDL's and good mornings will help bring it up to par.

___________________________

One of the best ways to get stronger is to use lower reps with heavier weights.

I can't tell you how many people I've worked with who have NEVER dropped their reps below 12 and can't figure out why they're not stronger. You don't have to lift singles week in & week out, but successfully dropping ur program down into the realm of 5's, and even 3's, should make a profound difference in ur maximal strength levels.

______________________________

A training principle often adopted by a number of trainers & athletes is the antagonist or push/pull training technique. All muscles naturally work in pairs, so when a certain muscle in a specific group contracts, its opposite or antagonist muscle relaxes or opposes the force of the contraction.

http://lowcarb4u.blogspot.com/2011/04/magical-mystical-coconut-oil.html

Abnormally High Sugar Consumption Fuels Disease Rates-- when we talk about "sugar," ALL sugars are included. So when you're evaluating ur sugar consumption, u can't stop counting once you've accounted for the number of spoons of table sugar you've added to foods & beverages. You must also include all other types of sweeteners, such as corn-based sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), honey & agave.

Obesity and diabetes rates have dramatically increased in the past 30 years. These increases dovetail nicely with a profound increase in sugar/fructose consumption with the advent of inexpensive HFCS, which is now found in virtually ALL pro...cessed foods. The prevalence of added HFCS in foods and beverages is now so great that the single largest source of calories for Americans comes from fructose.



It's loaded into your soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks, and hidden in most processed foods—from bologna to pretzels to Worcestershire sauce to cheese spread. Even most infant formulas contain the sugar equivalent of one can of Coca-Cola!

Peanut Butter Balls of Protein--

...these can be carried everywhere with you and are great quick bites of food. you can also use any nut butter you prefer. Almond, Cashew, Walnut whatever...

1 cup Grape Nuts or, you can crush up any nut(s) you like, cashews, almonds, etc...

½ cup Un-sweetened Almond milk  (they have vanilla or original unsweetened) so low in carbs, 2 carbs for 1 cup !!

½ cup chocolate protein powder

3 tablespoons all-natural peanut butter

½ cup whole flax seeds or, my favorite Chia Seeds (both optional)

Combine Grape Nuts or other Nut like Cashews or Almonds, the protein powder, and almond milk in a bowl and mix together

• Add peanut butter and continue to mix into a thick dough • Roll ingredients into 1 inch balls and roll in Chia or flax seeds, covering completely • Place on a serving dish and chill for at least 2 hours before serving

Tip: Use well mixed creamy peanut butter if possible. It will allow for a more even mixture.

Set Point Considerations

The human body has a lot of internal thermostat-type processes that help it maintain homeostasis. It tries to keep some semblance of "normal" in terms of bodily processes, and it can be quite difficult to change that set point.

Ever notice how after dieting your body tries to fall back to the weight you started at? That's your set point. It's what your body is used to, and it wants to get back to that state. One way to help re-set your set point is to maintain the new weight for a longer period of time in an attempt to get your body to recognize the new weight as its new set point.

Resetting your set point can take months. So rather than getting your weight up to a certain point and then immediately dieting back down, hold that new weight for six months or longer. It will help you hold on to more of that new muscle when you do eventually diet down.

This doesn't mean get fat and stay fat! It means put on muscle, keep your body fat under control, then hold that new weight for a while before slowly leaning out.

I did this about 4 years ago & it worked wonders. My new set point after a 2 yr period was 5 lbs lighter. Then another yr later it was 2 lbs lighter. Over all, Im now 7 lbs. lighter than I used to be & my body doesn't go above that new number now.

Just because it's "natural" doesn't mean it's healthy.... You wouldn't eat Cyanide would you???

Sugar and cancer

Of the over 4 million http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/detoxification-to-fight-cancer.htm patients being treated in the U.S. today, almost none are offered any scientifically guided nutrition therapy other than being told to "just eat good foods." Many cancer patients would have a major improvement in their conditions if they controlled the supply of cancer's preferred fuel: GLUCOSE. By slowing the cancer's growth, patients make it possible for their http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/colostrum.htm to catch up to the disease. Controlling one's blood-glucose levels through http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet.htm, http://www.healingdaily.com/mini-trampoline-exercise.htm, supplements, http://www.healingdaily.com/exercise/transcendental-meditation-1.htm and http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/pharmaceutical-companies.htm - when necessary - can be one of the most crucial components to a cancer treatment program. The saying "Sugar feeds http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/detoxification-to-fight-cancer.htm" is simple. The explanation is a little more involved.

German Otto Warburg, Ph.D., the 1931 Nobel laureate in medicine, first discovered that cancer cells have a fundamentally different energy metabolism compared to healthy cells.

The gist of his Nobel thesis was this: malignant tumors frequently exhibit an increase in "anaerobic glycolysis" - a process whereby glucose is used by cancer cells as a fuel with lactic acid as an anaerobic by-product - compared to normal tissues.(1)

The large amount of lactic acid produced by this fermentation of glucose from the cancer cells is then transported to the liver. This conversion of glucose to lactate creates a lower, http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/saliva-ph-test.htm as well as overall physical fatigue from lactic acid build-up.(2,3) Therefore, larger tumors tend to exhibit a http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/saliva-ph-test.htm.(4)

Hence, http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/detoxification-to-fight-cancer.htm should attempt to regulate blood-glucose levels through http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet.htm, supplements, http://www.healingdaily.com/mini-trampoline-exercise.htm, medication when necessary, gradual weight loss and http://www.tm.org/.

Since cancer cells derive most of their energy from anaerobic glycolysis, the goal is not to eliminate sugars or carbohydrates entirely from the diet but rather to control blood-glucose within a narrow range to help starve the cancer cells and boost http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/colostrum.htm.

Sugar's effect on your health

In the last 20 years, we have increased sugar consumption in the U.S. 26 pounds to 135 lbs. of sugar per person per year! Prior to the turn of this century (1887-1890), the average consumption was only 5 lbs. per person per year! http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/heart-disease.htm and http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/detoxification-to-fight-cancer.htm was virtually unknown in the early 1900's.

The "glycemic index" is a measure of how a given food affects blood-glucose levels, with each food being assigned a numbered rating. The lower the rating, the slower the absorption and http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/enzymes.htm, which provides a more gradual, healthier infusion of sugars into the bloodstream. On the other hand, a high rating means that blood-glucose levels are increased quickly, which stimulates the pancreas to secrete http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/insulin.htm to drop blood-sugar levels. These rapid fluctuations of blood-sugar levels are not healthy because of the stress they place on the body.

One of sugar's major drawbacks is that it http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/insulin.htm, which inhibits the release of growth hormones, which in turn depresses the http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/colostrum.htm. This is not something you want to take place if you want to avoid disease.

An influx of sugar into the bloodstream upsets the body's blood-sugar balance, triggering the release of insulin, which the body uses to keep blood-sugar at a constant and safe level. Insulin also promotes the storage of fat, so that when you eat sweets high in sugar, you're making way for rapid weight gain and http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/triglycerides.htm, both of which have been linked to cardiovascular disease. Complex carbohydrates tend to be absorbed more slowly, lessening the impact on blood-sugar levels.

Sugar depresses the immune system.

We have known this for decades. It was only in the 1970's that researchers found out that http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/vitamin-c.htm was needed by white blood cells so that they could phagocytize viruses and bacteria. White blood cells require a 50 times higher concentration inside the cell as outside so they have to accumulate vitamin C.

There is something called a "phagocytic index" which tells you how rapidly a particular macrophage or lymphocyte can gobble up a virus, bacteria, or http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/detoxification-to-fight-cancer.htm cell. It was in the 1970's that Linus Pauling realized that white blood cells need a high dose of http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/vitamin-c.htm and that is when he came up with his theory that you need high doses of http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=2sO3HF3YmRA&offerid=20052.91865247&type=10&subid= to combat the http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/colds.htm.

We know that glucose and http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/vitamin-c.htm have similar chemical structures, so what happens when the sugar levels go up? They compete for one another upon entering the cells. And the thing that mediates the entry of glucose into the cells is the same thing that mediates the entry of vitamin C into the cells. If there is more glucose around, there is going to be less vitamin C allowed into the cell. It doesn't take much: a blood sugar value of 120 reduces the phagocytic index by 75%. So when you eat sugar, think of your http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/colostrum.htm slowing down to a crawl.

Here we are getting a little bit closer to the roots of disease. It doesn't matter what disease we are talking about, whether we are talking about a common cold or about cardiovascular disease, or cancer or osteoporosis, the root is always going to be at the cellular and molecular level, and more often than not http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/insulin.htm is going to have its hand in it, if not totally controlling it.

The health dangers which ingesting sugar on an habitual basis creates are certain. Simple sugars have been observed to aggravate asthma, move mood swings, provoke personality changes, muster mental illness, nourish nervous disorders, deliver http://www.clickxchange.com/fr.phtml?act=1124166.2, hurry http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/heart-disease.htm, grow gallstones, hasten hypertension, and add arthritis.

Because refined dietary sugars lack minerals and vitamins, they must draw upon the body's micro-nutrient stores in order to be metabolized into the system. When these storehouses are depleted, metabolization of cholesterol and http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/healing-fats.htm is impeded, contributing to higher blood serum http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/triglycerides.htm, cholesterol, promoting http://www.healingdaily.com/exercise/childhood-obesity.htm due to higher fatty acid storage around organs and in sub-cutaneous tissue folds.

Because sugar is devoid of minerals, vitamins, fiber, and has such a deteriorating effect on the endocrine system, major researchers and major health organizations (American Dietetic Association and American Diabetic Association) agree that sugar consumption in America is one of the 3 major causes of degenerative disease.

Empty Calories in so-called "Nutritious" Snacks: u already know 2 avoid foods that have trans-fats, sky high sugar and calories... But dont be fooled by junk food that has vitamins & minerals added to it. It's still junk food w/ empty cals. Just becuz vitamins or veggies are added to something doesn't make it healthy. A cake made with applesauce, agave and/or sucanant is still calorie laden, full of carbs, fattening and not healthy. Don't trick urself. ________________________________________________________

.•When u eat 120 calories of glucose, less than 1 calorie is stored as fat. 120 calories of fructose results in 40 calories being stored as fat. Consuming fructose is essentially consuming fat!

 •The fatty acids created during fructose metabolism accumulate as fat droplets in ur liver & skeletal muscle tissues, causing insulin resistance & non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Insulin resistance progresses 2 metabolic syndrome & type II diabetes

Junk Food Makes you Stupid

According to research published in thehttp://jech.bmj.com/, children who have diets high in processed foods may have a lower IQ. This comes via findings from the http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/. The study “tracks the long term health and wellbeing of around 14,000 children born in 1991 and 1992.”

The researchers looked at three different diets: Processed, traditional, and health conscious. Proceeed diets were high in fat and sugar, traditional were high in meat and vegetables, and health conscious were high in salad, fruit, vegetables, rice, and pasta.

IQ was measured after 5 years, at age 8.5.

The processed diet  at age 3 was associated with a lower IQ at age 8.5. The inverse was also true, with a healthy diet being associated with a higher IQ.

According to the research, the brain grows the fastest during the first three years of life. What you feed a child during this time has a profound effect on intelligence.

This study is an interesting starting point, but the diet selections are way off base. What they call a “health conscious” diet is full of carbohydrates. I would call their classifications into question. It would be interesting to perform this same experiment using a true healthy diet and see if that resulted in a higher IQ than the traditional diet. Further, I’d like to see this carried out over the course of decades. I wonder if the IQ continues to degrad over time while on the bad diet.

Regardless, I hope this will make parents think twice about what they feed their children.

Read more http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/documents/pr-junk-food-and-iq-jan-11.pdf  http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/documents/pr-junk-food-and-iq-jan-11.pdf

http://blog.questproteinbar.com/crow-intelligence/

I'm barely touching on the subject here... but I am so tired of hearing people (women) ask me if doing light weight and high reps will give them lots of great muscle and definition...  It's so much deeper than this people. Its about DIET, it's about CONSISTANT training, it's about PROGRESSING though increased stress on the body.  Maybe one day I will have the nerve to write a long post about this... for now I'm going real basic....

In my mind, Without moderately heavy to heavy weight training, there is no point in lifting. 5 lb. dumbbells will get you nowhere fast!  Heavy is up to the individual... it's not about everyone lifting the same amounts of weight!!!  If I lift 50 lbs. you don't have to lift that as well if you are only capable of lifting 20 lbs.  It's about finding what it heavier weight to YOU.  So if you are use to lifting 10-12 lb. dumbbells then try lifting 15-17.5 lb. dumbbells.... Work in your range to progress. Trying to do what someone else does right off the bat can cause too much stress on a muscle and cause injury or just overly sore muscles.

I believe IF you are trying to gain muscle and really reshape the body.... Light weights won't do anyone much good after a short while. The body adapts too easily to light weight. Think about it this way... if your grocery bags are heavier than some of the dumbbells you probably lift, then what's the point?? 

Really think about this.... If you are lifting lighter weights at the gym than what your groceries weight, than what your kid you carry around weighs or, than the gym bag or laundry basket you carry weighs, then what's the point of the light baby dumbbelss??

If you CAN lift heavier then you need to!!

The body works off of physical stress, if you don't stress the body with weight, movement out of the ordinary and rep ranges, and take it out of it's comfort zone then how does the body and therefore YOU progress??? The body needs physical demands made upon it and no matter what you say, 5 lb. and 10 lb. dumbbells in most cases do not create enough work, stress or weight to help you progress.  Each body part, every muscle may require different demands, different weight but overall, lift heavier than you think you can.

S-

So make physical challenges upon yourself and see your body change.

Question: Like most people these days, I have a busy schedule. Often its hard to get my five to six meals every day. Got any suggestions?



Answer: Sticking to a multiple-meals nutrition program is easier and more convenient than most people realize. Here are several tips that will help you get all your meals in. First, cook several meals ahead of time each day or, pick 1 day per week to make larger batches of chicken, lean beef or lean turkey patties to last you at least 3-4 days... and pack them in plastic containers until you're ready to eat them. That way, your food is ready for microwaving.

Second, incorporate meal supplements such as low carb protein powders for on the go and for quick meals when you don't have time to sit and eat. Also, QUEST Low Carb Protein Bars should be a part of that quick meal go to ( http://www.QuestProteinBar.com ) into your daily nutrition program for when you can not get a real food meal. Quest bars have no sugar, No sugar Alcohols & No Fillers. They have 20 grams of quality protein and only 4-5 grams of carbs that come only from nuts! It's the cleanest protein bar on the market. A great example of an eat-anywhere meal is a Supplement Bar such a Quest Bars or, a can of tuna and some fibrous carbs such as broccoli or green beans. This works well if you can't prepare a full meal.

The importance of eating five, six, or more meals a day is huge. It keeps your metabolism reving, keeping you leaner in the long run. This pattern of eating is metabolically beneficial in three ways. To begin with, multiple meals that include starchy carbohydrates help keep insulin constantly present in the body. This powerful, growth-producing hormone helps make amino acids available to muscle tissue for growth and recovery. Insulin's release is triggered by the conversion of carbohydrate into glucose by the liver. Frequent meals also increase "thermogenesis," the production of body heat from the burning of food for energy. Following a meal, your metabolic rate is elevated as a result of thermogenesis.



So the more meals you eat, the higher your metabolism stays throughout the day for fat burning and muscle building. Finally, with a constant nutrient supply, you are never forced into a starvation mode. With meals coming at regular intervals, your body learns to process food more efficiently, and your metabolism is accelerated as a result.

Be smart... Plan ahead!

Childhood Obesity & School Lunches – Truth or Scapegoat?

http://blog.questproteinbar.com/childhood-obesity-school-lunches-truth-or-scapegoat/

You’re only 1/4 of a teaspoon of sugar away from being Diabetic. Seriously.

http://blog.questproteinbar.com/youre-only-14-of-a-teaspoon-of-sugar-away-from-being-diabetic-seriously/

DO YOU EAT TO MUCH HFCS..??? If you do, be careful...

Common Foods High in HFCS

• Regular soft drinks
  
• Fruit juice and fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice
  
• Pancake syrups
  
• Popsicles
  
• Fruit-flavored yogurts
  
• Frozen yogurts
  
• Ketchup and BBQ sauces
  
• Jarred and canned pasta sauces
  
• Canned soups
  
• Canned fruits (if not in its own juice)
  
• Breakfast cereals
  
• Highly sweetened breakfast cereals
  

Problems Caused by Too Much HFCS

• It can lead to higher caloric intake
  
• It can lead to an increase in bodyweight
  
• It fools your body into thinking it’s hungry
  
• It increases the amount of processed foods you eat, thereby decreasing your intake of nutrient-dense foods
  
• It may increase /browse/complications-and-care/insulin-resistance/ and triglycerides
  

You know how important it is to control the sugar and /browse/food/low-carb/ in your diet. So you read food labels and listen to your body cues to make sure you’re getting what you need to stay healthy. But what happens when a manufacturer disguises sugar as something you don’t recognize? Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. In fact, one of the more popular aliases for sugar today is high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)—a corn-based /browse/food/sugar-and-sweeteners/ that has been on the market since approximately 1970.

“HFCS now represents more than 40 percent of caloric sweeteners added to foods and /browse/food/beverages/ and is the sole caloric sweetener in soft drinks in the United States,” write George A. Bray, Samara Joy Nielsen and Barry M. Popkin, the authors of the commentary.

HFCS—It’s Here to Stay

Today, food companies use HFCS—a mixture of fructose and glucose—because it’s inexpensive, easy to transport and keeps foods moist. And because HFCS is so sweet, it’s cost effective for companies to use small quantities of HCFS in place of other more expensive sweeteners or flavorings. For these reasons and others, HFCS isn’t going away any time soon. That is why, to best manage /, you need to know what HFCS is and how to identify it in products.

Understanding Glucose and Fructose

Since HFCS is a blend of glucose and fructose, it’s important to understand the role each plays in your body. All sugars, indeed all carbohydrates, have four calories per gram. But that is just part of the story.....

Glucose (dextrose) is a monosaccharide (basically, a simple sugar), which is the form of sugar that is transported in the blood and is used by the body for energy. This is what you measure when testing your blood glucose or blood “sugar.”

Fructose is also a monosaccharide and is often referred to as “fruit sugar,” because it is the primary carbohydrate in most fruits. It’s also the primary sugar in honey and half the carbohydrate in sucrose (table sugar). However, fructose does not stimulate /browse/medications/insulin/ secretion or require insulin to be transported into cells, as do other carbohydrates.

What It Means to You and Your Diabetes

As a person with diabetes, you know how important it is to control your blood glucose and insulin levels to avoid complications. So, it would seem that a lack of glucose and insulin secretion from fructose consumption would be a good thing.

However, insulin also controls another hormone, leptin, so its release is necessary.

Leptin tells your body to stop eating when it’s full by signaling the brain to stop sending hunger signals. Since fructose doesn’t stimulate glucose levels and insulin release, there’s no increase in leptin levels or feeling of satiety. This can leave you ripe for unhealthy weight gain.

The Fate of Fructose in the Body

Fructose requires a different metabolic pathway than other carbohydrates because it basically skips glycolysis (normal carbohydrate metabolism). Because of this, fructose is an unregulated source of “acetyl CoA,” or the starting material for fatty acid synthesis. This, coupled with unstimulated leptin levels, is like opening the flood gates of fat deposition.

Check the Food Labels

While there is no way of knowing exactly how much HFCS is in a given product, you can read the food labels to gauge sugar levels. So, for example, if HFCS is one of the first ingredients listed (in soft drinks or syrup, for example), it is safe to assume there’s a lot in the product. If HFCS is in the products you buy, make sure it is either low on the ingredient list or that the products list very few total grams of sugar (which is how HFCS is shown on ingredient labels).

What Does It All Mean?

If HFCS is one of the first ingredients listed on a food label, don’t eat it. Make a mental list of the worst culprits, such as regular soft drinks and many highly sweetened breakfast cereals. HFCS alone won’t make you fat, but when HFCS is high on the ingredient list, the food is not the best choice. As part of a lifestyle that has many of us eating too much and moving too little, we’re putting our health at risk if we don’t choose our foods carefully. Christopher R. Mohr, MS, RD, LDN

NOW, READ those FOOD LABELS--

SHANNAN

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large red bell pepper
  
• 4 4-oz boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
  
• 2 tsp olive oil
  
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped (1/2 cup)
  
• 1 12-oz bag spinach
  
• 1 cup packed basil leaves, shredded
  
• 1/8 tsp sea salt
  
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
  

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Place red pepper on a baking sheet and roast in oven for 20 minutes, turning once (some of the skin should turn black). When done, remove from oven and set aside for 5 minutes to cool.
   
2. Place chicken on another baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes.
   
3. Meanwhile, peel and seed red pepper. Then purée with vinegar in a small food processor until smooth. Set aside.
   
4. Heat oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion and sauté for 1 minute. Then add spinach, basil, salt and black pepper, and toss for 2 minutes, until spinach is wilted.
   
5. To serve, place 3/4 cup spinach mixture on a plate, top with 1 chicken breast and 2 tbsp roasted red pepper sauce.
   

Summer zucchini is in abundance in the markets right now. And if you (or your neighbors) have a garden, you're likely loaded down with the green stuff. Here's how to put it to delicious use.

If you love to eat beef, but have recently had concerns about its levels of saturated fat and cholesterol, then you'll be thrilled with what you're about to discover.

Cattle were not designed to eat grains. And because of that, their diet of grains in factory farms largely contributes to the negative aspects of eating beef.

The fat content of beef is the primary reason it has lost ground as a respectable entrée on America's dinner table. Not only do most beef cuts have a high fat content, ranging from 35-75%, but the majority of it is saturated.

Grain-fed beef can have an omega 6:3 ratio higher than 20:1-- This well exceeds the 4:1 ratio where health problems begin to show up because of the essential fat imbalance. Grain-fed beef can also have over 50% of the total fat as the far less healthy saturated fat.

Grass-fed beef has an omega 6:3 ratio of 0.16 to 1. This is the ratio science suggests is ideal for our diet. This is about the same ratio that fish has. Grass-fed beef usually has less than 10% of its fat as saturated. If you are a pregnant or breastfeeding mom, the extra omega 3 from the grass-fed beef will provide incredible nutritional benefits for your child.

Compared to grain-fed cattle, grass-fed beef is:

• Two to four times richer in heart healthy omega 3 fatty acids.
  
• Higher in "good" unsaturated fats and lower in "bad" saturated fats.
  
• Three to five times higher in CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) content.
  
• Loaded with over 400% more of vitamin A (as beta carotene) and E.
  
• Virtually devoid of risk of Mad Cow Disease.
  

Grass-fed beef is naturally lower in calories. A 6-ounce steak from a grass-fed steer can have 100 fewer calories than the same steak from a grain-fed steer. Simply by switching to lean grass-fed beef, in one year you could save 17,733 calories and lose 6 pounds without changing anything else in your diet.

Here's another thing about grass-fed beef… CLA is a naturally occurring fat found in animal and dairy fats such as beef and poultry that are not fed grains. As soon as you start to feed cattle grain, they start to lose their ability to produce CLA. Animals that graze on pasture have from 300 to 400% more CLA than animals fattened on grain in a feedlot.

As we all know, diet and exercise are required to lose weight. However, University of Wisconsin research shows that CLA intake assists individuals who lose weight in preventing putting pounds back on.

Obviously, CLA enriched beef will not enable you to lose significant weight without other dietary measures and exercise, so please review my optimal food choice program for additional suggestions.

The human intestine produces CLA naturally from linoleic acid. Recent studies have been conducted on attaining a higher CLA content in daily food intake because of possible health benefits such as weight loss.

Our organic meat is certified United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic. Every ranch is visited by a Government-approved inspector to ensure animals are raised according to USDA organic standards.

What does this mean for you?

• NO antibiotics or synthetic growth hormones.
  
• Animals are allowed free access to the outdoors and pastures.
  
• NO conventional pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, bioengineering, or ionizing radiation.
  
• Encourages the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future.
  

I have used almond milk for a long time now since I became disillusioned with soy milk and soy in general.  I also stopped using regular milk because of the sugar content, just too high for me.  Almond Milk tastes good, a subtle flavor that can be used in anything like oatmeal, baking, or just to drink in a glass. It has less sugar than regular non fat or lowfat milk and soy milk too. I’m currently using it in oatmeal/oatbran in the mornings and everyother day in a shake.

Almond milk is made when roasted almonds are crushed to make almond butter, then mixed with water plus vitamins, stabilizers and, in some cases, a sweetener, such as evaporated cane juice. Compared with other alternatives, almond milk is especially low in calories: A cup of original-formula Silk Pure Almond contains 60 calories, compared with 90 calories for a cup of original-formula Silk soymilk and 130 calories for a cup of 2% milk.

I use the UNSWEETENED Almond Milk which has ONLY 40 calories compared to the others. You can get it in the milk section of your market for more immediate use or, in the cereal isle where the cereal and cocoa mixes are: it comes in a sealed container that doesn't have to be refridgerated until opened.

Protein is ur Perfect Fuel During Intense Training. Amino acids can serve as ideal muscle fuel during intense exercise. Your body uses only certain amino acids for muscle fueling. So go for lean proteins & protein shakes

 www.QuestProteinBar.com