I thought this was an interesting clip from NBC on Diet myths, which is the series that I had started a while a go.

Hope you enjoy!

Question: What Diet Myth do you struggle letting go?

Asia, North America, South America, and Europe.

All four of these countries were brought together by Crofters to create an amazing flavor blasting blend of superfruit spreads. These spreads are an antioxidant power house. . . as much as twice the amount as other fruits! Crofters Superfruit Spreads are all organic and have 1/3 less sugar than your regular jams. With only 30 calories and 7g of sugar you are sure to get a great taste without paying for it on your waistline.

Each contains different fruits from the four countries and all four Superfruit spreads are mixed with Morello Cherries and Red Grapes. Here are the four fruit spread blends:

From Europe we have Black Current and Pomegranate Blend.

This combination has been known to lower the risk of age-related diseases including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Asia brings Raspberries and Yumberries Blend.

Evidently Asia use to use this combination to maintain and restore health! Yumberries are known to help treat digestive problems and control blood sugar.

North America brings Wild Blueberries and Cranberries Blend.

This combination blend is loaded with Vitamin C which helps you fight the common cold as well as aiding in preventing cancer, cataracts, and lowers blood pressure.

South America contains Maqui and Passionfruit Blend.

Maqui fruit is known to have as much as twice the amount of antioxidants as acai berries and improve cardiovascular health, stabilizing blood sugar and fight inflammation.

I thought I would try each one out and decide which one was my favorite, but I have to say that I really did enjoy every single one of them. They each had their own unique flavor and what I loved most is the chunks of fruit mixed in. If I absolutely had to choose just one I would have to go with Crofter’s Superfruit spread from South America (Maqui and Passionfruit Blend)

If you are looking for a sweeter fruit spread, I would recommend going with South America’s Maqui and Passionfruit. For a more tart flavor, go with North America’s Wild Blueberries and Cranberries blend. I guess if I absolutely had to choose just one I would have to go with Crofter’s Superfruit spread from South America (Maqui and Passionfruit Blend)

So what are you waiting for, go out and experience these different cultures through Crofter’s SuperFruit Spreads!

Question: Of all four blends, which one do you think you would enjoy the most?

Sun salutations, standing poses, seated poses, inversions and backbends before relaxation… Yoga is full of moves that will make your body more flexible, increase strength, stamina, realign the spine, and bring your body into a state of relaxation.

Yoga looks completely different for each person. For one person it’s time in the morning to stretch and find a state of relaxation and peace before a hectic day, or other’s it’s for flexibility and balance, while for others it’s sweating in a 100 degree room for several hours changing positions.

From hatha yoga to bikram yoga and ashtanga yoga, these workouts are challenging yet sopeaceful and refreshing… leading to a state of internal bliss.

But can yoga replace one’s cardio workout?

This is a very controversial question.

With so many different types of yoga, each one is going to be a different answer. One hour of yoga burns approximately 200 calories. Of course with any type of exercise, the intensity of that workout is going to effect the amount of calories burned. Below is a list of yoga classes and how it compares to one hour of cardio.

* Hatha Yoga burns 175 calories, similar to a slow walk

* Ashtanga Yoga burns 300 calories, similar to a brisk walk

* Power Yoga burns 300 calories, similar to a brisk walk

* Vinyasa Yoga burns 445 calories, similar to moderate bike riding

* Bikram / Hot Yoga burns 630 calories, similar to one hour of jogging

Yoga is a great alternative workout to mix up your daily routine, but cardio is not all about calories. While you are going to burn the calories to lose weight, you won’t get the same benefits in other areas of a cardio workout. If you are wanting to lose weight, I would suggest not replacing cardio workouts all together, but incorporating yoga into your weekly workouts.

What is your your favorite Yoga Pose?

Let’s face it, some days it’s just too hard to fit the gym into our busy schedule when trying to juggle work, family, school, and or attempting to have a social life. There are ways thought to burn calories without hitting the gym. Here are several ways to burn up to 200 calories throughout your day. The best part is that many of these can be done while spending quality time with family and friends. Pick a few to do throughout the day and you have burned off the same amount of calories you would have if you went to the gym.

* Stop avoiding the clutter of those closets or worse… the garage. Organize and get rid of clutter for 25 minutes

* Shoot some hoops for 20 minutes

* Stretch out those muscles after a hard workout for 30 minutes

* Save some energy and wash your dishes the old school way… by hand for a full week

* Video games are not for couch potatoes any more… Nintendo Wii will torch 200 calories in 55 minutes

* Tired for the way your house looks, rearrange the furniture for 25 minutes

* Play dress-up with your little girl for an hour

* Pull the family away from the TV for an hour and go bowling on Friday night

* Cleaning out your garden for 40 minutes will not only burn 200 calories but will work all sorts of muscles you never knew you had while pulling weeds and racking leaves.

* Play a game of golf for 50 minutes… care your clubs and walk the course

* Hiking for 28 minutes is a great way to get outside and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation… you will be surprised at the beauty you pass by everyday unnoticed.

* Jogging for 25 minutes with a buddy or even better, your dog

* Walk briskly at 5 mph for 30 to 35 minutes… perfect amount of time to do while on your lunch break at work.

* Go back to your childhood and jump rope for 15-20 minutes

* Enjoy a bike ride one evening after dinner for 30 minutes

* Take your dog to the park and throw around a Frisbee for an hour

* Give your car a deep clean… bust out the vacuum and scrub down the rims for about 35 minutes

* Great excuse to go shopping… just one hour will torch 200 calories

* Hit the sand for 25 minutes with beach volleyball

* Have a two-story house? Climbing up and down the stairs throughout the day can burn over 200 calories in the end

* Jump on the swings at the playground for an hour… your kids will love you for taking them to the park!

* Jump on the elliptical for 15 minutes

* Splash around in the pool for 25 minutes

Many times I grab a hand full of chips or a few M&Ms and figure it don’t count in my food intake, but small amounts can add up to hundreds of calories if you don’t watch it.

Keeping a food diary forces you to be honest with yourself and what you eat. But let’s face it, we don’t have time to sit down every time we pop something into our mouth to pull out our diary and write it down… let alone most of us don’t even have our diary on us and we forget what we ate by the time we do have it. Although the one thing people always have on hand and have time for is their phone. I found this new twitter application called “Tweet What You Eat.” All you need is a Twitter account to use the website, and it’s really easy. Whenever you eat something, you just send a direct private message to @d twye and it logs your food for you. You can also create a “DO NOT EAT” foods list that reminds of you foods to avoid as well as a weight-loss tracker.

Sounds too good to be true?

The only down fall to Tweet What You Eat is that the calorie count on food items are not set. When first setting up my account I noticed that the calorie count would not show up on my food items unless another user had previously entered in a number for that particular food item or I enter a number myself. Maybe I have trust issues, but most people have a skewed concept of how many calories are their foods. If you are planning on using Tweet What You Eat I highly encourage you to look up your own food items on TheDailyPlate.com. This website gives accurate calorie counts and has every food item imaginable.

Find me on twitter… shefit

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I have to admit… I am a recovering frozen yogurt addict soley on the fact that frozen yogurt is a half hour away. Stating that I have an obsession with frozen yogurt would be a huge understatement. At one point I had it every day. Soon enough I just ended up getting a frozen yogurt machine to save me money.

Frozen yogurt has become the new starbucks craze for many areas. Many people are talking about Golden Spoon, Pinkberry, Yogurtland, Red Mango, and Mojos. Some are served for you, others you serve yourself, and the latest one I found had a coldstone feel where they mixed in your toppings for you. You can get sweet flavors, fruity flavors, or the tart ones.

I love how there are so many options at each place!

With all the talk of frozen yogurt, the best part is that there are so many health benefits to them. Here are some to name a few:

* Aids in digestion

* Boosts immune system

* Has Beneficial Metabolic effects

My dad and I always go to Golden Spoon when I come to visit!

* Lowers cholesterol

* Low in sodium

* Low in calorie

* Overcome lactose intolerance

* High in calcium for strong bones and teeth

* A good source of protein

* Stops acne

* Contains the vitamins B12 and riboflavin.

* Contain live and active bacteria cultures including S. thermophilus, L. bulgaricus, L. lactis and L. acidophilus

So, with all these health benefits, is frozen yogurt

any healthier than ice cream?

Frozen yogurt’s nutritional content is different for each place, so be careful. While most are fat-free, there are several out there that are not. Many frozen yogurts are high in sugar as well, so look for those sugar-free signs.

A normal serving of ice cream is anywhere from a half to a cup of ice cream,  but when it comes to frozen yogurt, many people are getting double to triple  the amount, especially with those self-serve places. A large frozen yogurt can  add up to anywhere from 225-325 calories! It might be the fact that frozen  yogurt has been coined “healthy” so people feel that they can eat more.

Personally I think the frozen yogurt industry has taken the word “yogurt”  and stretched it as far as it can to make people think that they are eating  natural yogurt, so people tend to over eat it and consume way too much

… speaking of myself, I can consume 32 oz of Golden Spoon in one sitting!

So, in conclusion, yes frozen yogurt has many health benefits and yes it is much lower in calories and fat in comparison to ice cream. But like everything, it is good in moderation… so swap that large cone for a small.

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Have your mexican food and eat it too!

Mexican food doesn’t have the greatest reputation in the health realm. With those deep fried tortillas, sour cream, guacamole, and greasy cheese you are destined to a heart attack at an early age! But wait one second before you throw all mexican food out the window and avoid it all together.

I found these great low calorie tortillas called the Low Carb/Low Fat La Torilla Factory Tortillas for a whopping 50 calories. They are also loaded with fiber and protein to keep you full longer.
As for the taste, they are amazing!

I love them… and there are so many different ways to use with them.
Here is one of my favorite taco recipes that I make with them… more recipes are to come!

Click HERE to find Low Carb La Tortilla Factory Tortillas Nearest You!

The Skinny Taco

Ingredients:

* 1/2 original boca burger patty- 50 calories
* Low Carb La Tortilla Factory Tortilla- 50 calories
* Shredded Lettuce- 15 calories
* Taco Sauce- 10 calories

Directions:

* Heat tortilla in skillet for a few seconds
* Cook boca burger in skillet and ground up
* Spread laughing cow cheese over tortilla and add rest of ingrediants

This is a great home-made taco that is huge and filling for only 125 calories!

Add some fruit with light yogurt and you have one great healthy meal

…ENJOY!

Don’t think about getting a salad at taco bell if you are watching your waist line! Salads are nowhere close to a healthy option at Taco Bell!
The lowest calorie salad option is the fiesta taco salad without the shell, calculating at 470 calories and 23g of fat
… add that shell and you have 840 calories and 43g of fat!

WOW! Eating this salad is like eating about 6 tacos!

  

Not too sure what healthy options they have? Not to worry, Taco Bell has created their very own healthy choice menu!

Taco Bell has a “Fresco Style” menu, containing 9 healthy food choices with less than 20-100 calories than the original item and fewer than 9g of fat. These “Fresco Style” food items replace cheese and sauces with a fiesta salsa made of diced tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. Here are those 9 healthy options:

Fresco Crunch Taco: 150 calories, 7g fat
Fresco Soft Taco- Beef: 180 calories, 7g fat
Fresco Burrito Supreme- Chicken: 340 calories, 8g fat
Fresco Burrito Supreme- Steak: 330 calories, 8g fat
Fresco Fiesta Burrito- Chicken: 340 calories, 8g fat
Ranchero Chicken Soft Taco: 170 calorie, 4g fat
Grilled Steak Soft Taco: 160 calories, 4.5g fat
Bean Burrito: 340 calories, 8g fat

I always ask for extra lettuce to my tacos. Not only does it add a little freshness to them but it adds bulk to your meal… keeping you full longer!  

Want to add a side to these healthy options? The rice and beans is your best bet. The beans are 180 calories with 7g of fat and the rice is 130 calories with 3.5g of fat.

Other than these food items, I highly suggest staying away from those gorditas, burritions, and chalupas… they are high in calorie and fat!

If you want the nutritional information on your favorite food items Taco Bell, click HERE

Enjoy Taco Bell… Fresco Style!

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Are you noticing that your cardio workouts are getting harder than they normally are?
You could be doing too much cardio. Yep, I said it… too much!
   

Your body perceives exercise as a stressor, therefore too much exercise can have a negative effect on it. Your metabolism will shut down, holding into your fat and burning everything else. You are also opening up a door to injury with all the wear and tear you are doing on your body.     

If you start to feel general fatigue, irritability, physical soreness, insomnia, headaches, or you find that your workouts are much harder than they normally are you probably are overdoing it on the cardio.

Obviously everybody is going to be different when it comes to over doing it with cardio, but it is recommended that you do no more than 60-90 minutes of cardio a day. This depends on a variety of things such as intensity, activity, and the amount of food you are in taking that day.

 

It is also recommended that you give your body at least one to two rest days throughout the week. This gives your body time to heal itself and your cells can regenerate. If you are like me, you find it hard to not exercise on your days off… I sometimes feel a little guilty. So instead of heading to the gym I find activities throughout my day that keeps me active, but gives my body a rest, such as going shopping at the mall, working in the garden, or playing in the pool.

So allow your body the rest it needs… you will probably burn more calories the rest of the week because you will have more energy!

When being on a diet it is easy to just stick with the same old stuff day in and day out. I feel like breakfast has become so boring these days, oatmeal, yogurt, fruit. There needs to be a little excitement in one’s diet in order to stick to your plan. Weight loss and diet is a life long change… and I don’t want to be eating oatmeal every morning for the rest of my life!

After passing by McDonalds one morning, I started craving their bacon, egg, and cheese McMuffin, so instead of secretly going through the drive-thru, I decided to make it myself at home.

Here is my favorite Bacon, Egg, and Cheese McMuffin:

- 100 calorie English Muffin toasted

- 1 Fat Free Cheese Slice

- 1 strip of turkey bacon

- ¼ cup Egg Whites or Egg Beaters

- In order to cook the eggs so that they fit perfectly in my McMuffin I throw them in a coffee mug and cook them in the      microwave for a few minutes. Scooping the egg out of the cup gives you a perfectly round egg that doesn’t fall apart while you are eating your sandwich!

Calories: 195 calories Fat: 3.5g

Voila… a Bacon, Egg and Cheese McMuffin with half the calories and nowhere near the fat.

Say good-bye to McDonald’s this morning and go make your breakfast this morning exciting. . . cook yourself a McMuffin