Still lusting after a tasty meal?

Wondering if a healthy meal can really pack much flavor?

Well, I just came across a post which you’ll want to check out. It presents “5 Small Meals With Big Flavors”

Nutritious meals that are simply delicious.

I knew I had to share this with you after reading comments like:

“Hmmm those small meals with big flavors are a great idea. For the longest time I have been trying to lose the remaining 5 pounds of my 20 pound fight, but they just won’t away. I think I will try this and see how that works for me. :)”

And…

“All of these look amazing! I’m not sure which one I want to try first. I try to cook healthfully but sometimes it’s tough.”

Well, check it out (see it here) and let me know what’s your favorite pick ‘-)

M. Jamal

P.S. If you’re into grills yet worried about nasty HAAs and HCAs… (unhealthy substances resulting from high heat of grilling meats)… then you ought to see this…

It goes into:

• A simple way to reduce HCAs by 80% revealed by Kansas State University (plus, you probably already know this improves flavor. Now you got another reason to try it.)
• A quick way to add flavor to your grills, use any of these 3 ‘Simply Organic’ ingredients.
• 8 quick tips for healthy, tasty grills (yet I don’t agree with the ‘microwave’ tip)

Have a look, click here.

• How to start your morning? Breakfast. Some of the food choices here will surprise you.
• Lunch, one ingredient to avoid. And, another delicious meal you can sneak into your diet.
• Dinner time? Skip this food ingredient and load up on this other one (those who did lost an average of 30 pounds in 6 months)

M. Jamal

Eating healthy doesn’t have to be flavorless.

Gone are the days when “healthy” meant “no sugar, no salt, and no flavor.”

Now, you don’t have to struggle through your meals just to detox. Here are a few creative ways to make your healthy meals tastier and more appealing.

1. Think of your favorite foods and look for the healthier alternatives.

   For instance, if you are fond of the sumptuous goodness of meaty sausages, you can try Italian-style vegetarian sausages instead.They only contain 3 grams of fat per link but can compete side-by-side with all-meat sausages in terms of flavor.

2. If you just can’t say no to meat, make sure that you get the leanest cuts.But if you can’t buy them without the fat, then trim the fat off as much as possible before cooking. Ground beef or lamb can be replaced with ground turkey, although the taste would differ.
3. The fats in oil can wreak havoc to your diet.

   Although olive oil is high in fat, it is much healthier for your heart than those founds in animal oil, margarine, or butter. In addition, olive oil adds a wonderful flavor to your dishes.

4. When sauteing veggies, sprinkle a little salt. This will bring out their juices and will then require less oil to cook.
5. To keep salt to a minimum, take advantage of the availability of fresh and dried herbs and spices in the market today.

   Herbs add a lot of flavor without putting your health in jeopardy.Veal, for instance, is tender and tasty and can be made even more delicious when seasoned with marjoram, ginger, oregano, bay leaf, or curry powder.

   Poultry is spiced up with thyme, tarragon, sage, rosemary, paprika, oregano, marjoram, and ginger. As for fish, its flavors can be enhanced with the use of dill, lemon juice, marjoram, paprika, or pepper.

   

6. Instead of having calorie-packed pastries for dessert, go for fresh fruits.

   If your favorite fruits are not in season, their canned alternatives are the next best thing. Choose those that are packed in light syrup or fruit juice.

   Since they’re canned at their best, you’ll still get that fruity goodness that’s perfect for capping a meal.

7. Try vogue Asian ingredients.Asian foods are making waves globally.

   This is because most dishes, particularly Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, are diet-friendly but still have that irresistible exotic flavor.

   Here are a couple of these ingredients.Nam Pla, or Thai fish sauce, which is made from fermented salted fish. It gives off a pungent and briny aroma to your dishes and can also be used as a dipping sauce.Hoisin sauce is made from fermented soybeans. It has a dark brown color, is sweet, and gives off a flavor similar to five-spice powder. It’s used for glazing meats, spicing up stir-fried dishes, and as a dipping sauce as well.

8. Stock up on mushrooms.

   Like herbs, they’re now more accessible and come in more varieties.

   Fresh mushrooms last only a few days in the refrigerator, so fill your pantry with the dried kind for when you need to flavor soups and stir-fry dishes.

   Some say mushrooms are an acquired taste, because their odors range from pungent to woodsy to fragrant. But with the wide variety you’ll find in supermarkets – button, shiitake, abalone, Black Trumpets, Portobello, and a host of others – you’ll ‘acquire’ the taste for them soon enough.

M. Jamal

As most doctors will tell you, weight problems emerge when the calories you burn are no longer enough to compensate for the calories you take in.

It can happen that you’ve religiously worked on burning off extra calories through regular exercise, and this may have worked for you for several years.

However, did you know that you’ll reach a point when no matter how much you diet and exercise, you may have a hard time maintaining your weight?

That’s because losing weight is not as simple as correlating it with your metabolic rate.

A number of other factors affect the process by which the food you eat is converted into energy. Age, for instance, causes metabolism to slow down by 5% each decade.

As you grow older, your muscle mass diminishes and your metabolic rate dips accordingly.

But should you allow yourself to be defeated by the aging process?

Of course not.

There is a lot of hope for figure-conscious women to still increase their metabolism rates. Below are six simple and easy ways to do so:

1. Take Small But Frequent Meals:

   Crash diets generally fail to work because instead of speeding up your metabolism, which is a guaranteed method to shave off excess pounds, it even slows down in order to conserve energy.

   In the process, your body also tends to accumulate fat to be used as an energy source.

   When you take small portions of food at regular intervals, say, 6 meals a day every 3 hours, your body will soon realize that there’s no sense in storing fat since there’s a regular supply.

   (For more on this be sure to check out my earlier blog post Video: Why you shouldn’t cut back on calories for weight loss? )

2. Exercise On A Daily Basis:
   
   This eats away at the fat lingering in unwanted places. Running, swimming, or doing 15-minute sessions on your elliptical or treadmill if you can’t venture outdoors can all help activate your metabolic rate.

   (And… if you’ve missed these simple exercise videos earlier… check em out:
   10 Resistance Band Exercises You Can Do At Home
   3 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Walking Exercise
   3 Simple Office Exercises for Busy Women

   you’ll find plenty more by searching past blog post, simply scroll to the top of this page & enter a topic in the search box — right-hand-side)

3. Have Metabolism-Boosting Drinks:
   
   Drink lots of water as it increases metabolism and is also an appetite suppressant.

   (For more about the magic power of water check out: Dr B. Discovers The Root Cause Of Most Pains And Diseases In An ‘8 Minute Lucky Accident’)

   Both green tea and coffee contain caffeine which speeds up your heart. The faster your heartbeat, the higher your metabolism rate.

   However, if you are not keen on the occasional cup of Java, go for green tea which is said to contain epigallocatechin gallate (ECGC) – a powerful antioxidant. Thus, not only will green tea help improve your metabolism; it can help prevent cancer as well.

4. Eat Metabolism-Boosting Foods:
   
   Fruits and vegetables, as we know, are packed with nutrients and fiber.

   The more nutrient-dense your food is, the more your body has to work to digest it and extract its precious nutrients.

   Apart from aiding metabolism, fruits such as oranges and grapefruit are rich in Vitamin C which has been shown to facilitate the burning of fat.

   Cereals, pasta, and bread from whole grains are rich in fiber and improve metabolism by slowing down insulin release. Lean beef, pork, turkey, and chicken, as well as salmon and tuna, are excellent protein choices.

   Proteins are harder to digest than carbs or fats and having them in your daily diet would keep your metabolism active.

5. Take advantage of the “after-burn effect” and lift weights when you can. Did you know that a single weightlifting session can improve your metabolism for up to 2 days post-workout?
   
6. Have A Medical Check-Up:
   
   Metabolism is affected by your thyroid gland activity.If there is some deficiency, you’ll be carrying excess weight no matter how much you follow the other tips. Ask your doctor about herbal dietary supplements that are formulated to improve your thyroid gland activity.

Have a great metabolism-boosting week

M. Jamal

If you’ve checked out my last blog post “Metabolism – What Is It and Why Should It Matter?” you’re probably searching for simple ways to boost your metabolism. Every little helps.

Well, I’ll share with you 6 ways to boost your metabolism in my next blog post… for today, here’s a video that covers the same topic and goes into things like:

• How to use spicy foods to boost your metabolism (at 00:20)
• Drinking an extra 1.5 liters a day of this can burn an additional 17000 calories (equivalent of 5 pounds) in a year (at 1:20)
• Try this to boost your metabolic rate for 3 to 5 hours (at 3:00)
• Foods that sabotage your metabolism – avoid these metabolic busters! (at 4:15)

M. Jamal