Pimp My Blog: The December Diaries, Part Deux

And now for Part 2 of "Pimp My Blog: The December Diaries," the folks over at FSB Associates sent me ANOTHER great book -- Eat Your Way To Happiness, by Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.
The book is all about various nutrition topics, specificially good vs. bad carbs and how to figure out the right way to eat to maximize your foods!

Below is an excerpt from the book, titled "10 Steps for a Carb Makeover."
Enjoy!

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10 Steps for a Carb Makeover by Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.,
Author of Eat Your Way to Happiness

If you are a carb craver, you need to treat yourself with a little kindness. It's not your fault you can't keep your fingers out of the cookie jar or the bag of chips. You can't "will away" those cravings. They are hardwired in your head. So work with your carb cravings. Make sure each meal contains at least one whole grain. Plan a quality-carb snack at your most craving-prone time of the day (typically midafternoon or late evening). To maximize your mood and minimize your weight, you need to take this quality-carb message seriously. That means tackling the issue with a 10-step plan.

Step #1. Purge the kitchen of all white flour. Open the cupboards and toss the junk. Throw out the obvious: the white rice, the instant mashed potatoes, any cracker or cookie made with anything but 100% whole grain (you are pretty much down to Triscuits and 100% Whole Wheat Fig Newtons), all potato chips, Pop-Tarts, boxes of bread crumbs, Pasta Roni, Hamburger Helper, cans of Chef Boyardi Ravioli, Costco muffins and such. Search the freezer for French fries, hash browns, breakfast foods made from processed grains or other high-calorie/low-quality items like Marie Callender's frozen pasta entrees or pot pies. Definitely toss your carb triggers, junk foods that you are powerless to resist.

Remember, if you have to drive to the store to get ice cream, you will be much less likely to binge. Then read labels on the rest. If wheat flour or enriched flour is in the top three ingredients on a label, you are holding a poor-quality carb. Toss it. Okay, okay, if this cold-turkey approach is a bit over the top, then keep two or three junk carbs and toss the rest. But beware: these items may be "trigger" foods that tempt you to indulge. Also, keep in mind that this is not so much about "giving up" as it is giving to" your health, your mood, and your belly and thighs.

Step #2. Restock the kitchen with the 100% whole grains you like, such as 100% whole-wheat bread, old-fashioned oatmeal, Kashi Autumn Wheat Cereal or GoLean Cereal, Zoom hot cereal or instant brown rice. Experiment with new grains, like barley, millet, amaranth, whole-wheat couscous or bulgur. If you can't imagine your spouse or kids loving whole-wheat pasta or whole-wheat tortillas, then choose the next best thing. For example, try Aunt Jemima frozen Pancakes with Whole Grains, or tortillas or pastas made from blends of whole wheat and refined wheat, such as Ronzoni or Barilla whole-wheat blend pastas.

Step #3. Switch to quality carbs in recipes. For example, if a recipe calls for white rice: use instant brown or wild rice, bulgur, millet or other whole grains flour: use at least half whole-wheat flour bread (such as French toast): use whole-grain bread potatoes: use sweet potatoes, yams, squash and/or corn

Step #4. Plan snacks and bring grains with you. When packing your lunch and snacks for the day, make sandwiches with 100% whole-grain bread, use low-fat cheeses such as Cabot Vermont 50% Reduced Fat Cheese, and include other grains like 100% whole-grain crackers or air-popped popcorn.

Step #5. Create nonfood rewards. Praise yourself with a manicure, flowers, a game of golf on Saturday or a Netflix movie. Follow the "if . . . then" rule: if you steer clear of the junk, then you get the back rub, hour of alone time or bubble bath.

Step #6. Take time. Often we grab food before we even know whether we really want it. That knee-jerk reaction gets us into trouble. Take a 10-minute pause before diving into any snack, from popcorn to leftover doughnuts.

Step #7. Identify the craving. Is it for something crunchy or chewy? Cold, sweet or creamy? Once you have pinpointed exactly what you want, then find a low-calorie food that satisfies that craving. Luckily, the better you eat, the more your cravings for fatty or overly sweet carbs will dwindle.

Step #8. Eat breakfast. As discussed in Chapter 2, eat a nutritious breakfast and you are much more likely to resist junk-food temptations throughout the day.

Step #9. Keep hunger at bay. Eat small meals and snacks evenly distributed throughout the day. This helps keep serotonin levels (and other nerve chemicals like NPY) in the normal range.

Step #10. Out of sight, out of mind. Put another way, seeing is craving. Watch out for temptations at the mall, restaurants and friends' houses. It is easy to overdo carbs when most of the ones offered to you are the low-quality ones. For example, studies at the University of Illinois found that people ate 45% more calories when there was a bread basket placed on the table in restaurants than when the waiter came by and offered them a slice from a basket. Ask that the tortilla chips be removed when dining at a Mexican restaurant and you will save yourself 300 unnecessary calories. Avoid the coffee shop with the display of muffins, scones and croissants.

The above is an excerpt from the book Eat Your Way to Happiness by Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2009 Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., author of Eat Your Way to Happiness

Author Bio:
Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D., author of Eat Your Way to Happiness, is a registered dietitian and author of several books, including 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman's Diet, Food & Mood and Age-Proof Your Body. She is a member of the editorial advisory board of Shape magazine and editor in chief of Nutrition Alert, a newsletter that summarizes the current research from more than 6,000 journals. She appears frequently on NBC's Today and other national television shows. For more information please visit www.EatYourWayToHappiness.com.

Pimp My Blog: December edition of Jescipes!

From time to time, the good people over at FSB and Associates send me a health / weight-loss related book to promote on this blog -- in compliance with FTC regulations, I am required to reveal that I did recieve this book for free! But I also loved it! As you all know, altering recipes is something I love to do, and it has been a huge part of my weight loss success over the years. This book came with a handy-dandy little spiral bound journal, designed for tracking your food intake, thoughts, calories, etc. throughout the day. To the left, you can click to open a PDF with helpful tips on how to alter ingredients in a recipe for improved nutrition / decreased fat & calories.

Without further ado... The Mayo Clinic Diet.

Healthy Cooking

By the weight-loss experts at Mayo Clinic and Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H.

Authors of The Mayo Clinic Diet: Eat well. Enjoy life. Lose weight.

Healthy cooking doesn't mean you have to become a gourmet chef or invest in special cookware. Simply use standard cooking methods to prepare foods in healthy ways. You can also adapt familiar recipes by substituting other ingredients for fat, sugar and salt. Use these methods

These methods best capture the flavor and retain the nutrients in your food without adding too much fat or salt.

• Baking. Besides breads and desserts, you can bake seafood, poultry, lean meat, and vegetable and fruit pieces of the same size. Place food in a pan or dish (covered or uncovered) and bake. You may need to baste the food with broth, low-fat marinade or juice to keep the food from drying out.

• Braising. Braising involves browning the meat or poultry first in a pan on top of the stove, and then slowly cooking it covered with a small amount of liquid, such as water or broth. In some recipes, the cooking liquid is used afterward to form a flavorful, nutrient-rich sauce.

• Grilling and broiling. Both grilling and broiling expose fairly thin pieces of food to direct heat and allow fat to drip away from the food. If you're grilling outdoors, place smaller items, such as chopped vegetables, in a long-handled grill basket or on foil to prevent pieces from slipping through the rack. To broil indoors place food on a broiler rack below a heat element.

• Poaching. To poach foods, in a covered pan gently simmer ingredients in water or a flavorful liquid, such as broth, vinegar or juice, until cooked through and tender. For stove-top poaching, choose an appropriate-sized covered pan and use a minimum amount of liquid.

• Roasting. Roasting uses an oven's dry heat at high temperatures to cook the food on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan. For poultry, seafood and meat, place a rack inside the roasting pan so that the fat can drip away during cooking.

• Sautéing. Sautéing quickly cooks small or thin pieces of food. If you choose a good-quality nonstick pan, you can cook food without using fat. Depending on the recipe, use low-sodium broth, cooking spray, water or wine in place of oil or butter.

• Steaming. One of the simplest cooking techniques to master is steaming food in a perforated basket suspended above simmering liquid. If you use a flavorful liquid or add herbs to the water, you'll flavor the food as it cooks.

• Stir-frying. Stir-frying quickly cooks small, uniform-sized pieces of food while they're rapidly stirred in a wok or large nonstick frying pan. You need only a small amount of oil or cooking spray for this cooking method.

Find new ways to add flavor

Instead of salt or butter, you can enhance foods with a variety of herbs, spices and low-fat condiments. Be creative.

Poach fish in low-fat broth or wine and fresh herbs. Top a broiled chicken breast with fresh salsa. Make meats more flavorful with low-fat marinades or spices -- bay leaf, chili powder, dry mustard, garlic, ginger, green pepper, sage, marjoram, onion, oregano, pepper or thyme.

To bring out the sweetness in baked goods, use a bit more vanilla, cinnamon or nutmeg.

The above is an excerpt from the book The Mayo Clinic Diet: Eat well. Enjoy life. Lose weight., by the weight-loss experts at Mayo Clinic and Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Reprinted from The Mayo Clinic Diet, © 2010 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Good Books (

www.GoodBooks.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

About Donald Hensrud, M.D.
Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H., is chair of the Division of Preventive, Occupational, and Aerospace Medicine and a consultant in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. He is also an associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic. A specialist in nutrition and weight management, Dr. Hensrud advises individuals on how to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. He conducts research in weight management, and he writes and lectures widely on nutrition-related topics. He helped publish two award-winning Mayo Clinic cookbooks.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy that the needs of the patient come first. Over 3,600 physicians and scientists and 50,000 allied staff work at Mayo, which has sites in Rochester, Minn.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, Mayo Clinic treats more than 500,000 patients a year.

For more than 100 years, millions of people from all walks of life have found answers at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic works with many insurance companies, does not require a physician referral in most cases and is an in-network provider for millions of people.
For more information, please visit www.goodbooks.com/mayoclinicdiet and www.mayoclinic.com/diet.