Diets, Supplements, Resources to help lose Weight and Fat while improving health and fitness. This site does not give medical advise. Consult your physican if you have a medical problem. This is a conversation among people who are finding a new direction in eating and living.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Students complained federal school lunch rules removed their favorites
The Obama administration has reversed some of the new lunch rules
"Children cried" over the loss of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, one director says
Editor's note: The Empowered Patient is a regular feature from CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen that helps put you in the driver's seat when it comes to health care.
(CNN) -- In a battle over healthier school lunches that pitted the Obama administration against school children, chalk up a point for the kids.
Students have been complaining that some of their favorite foods were taken off the plate because of the Obama administration's efforts to make school lunches healthier.
High school students in Kansas made a video called "We Are Hungry," complete with feigned fainting that's been viewed more than a million times on YouTube.
Last week, the administration reversed some of the new school lunch rules, and the kids are happy again, says Dave Porter, superintendent of Wallace County, Kansas, schools.
Elizabeth Cohen
"Even though we're a small town in rural western Kansas, Washington did hear us," he said. "Our concerns were listened to."
Under the original rules, which went into effect at the beginning of the school year, schools couldn't serve spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread because it includes too many grains.
A grilled chicken sandwich with a side order of celery sticks and a bit of peanut butter for dipping was also forbidden because it made for too many servings of protein.
Pictures inspire a school lunch boycott.
Students sing complaint to Mrs. Obama
Now, garlic bread and peanut butter are back on the plate.
"These changes are wonderful. They give us back flexibility," said Sandra Ford, president of the national School Nutrition Association.
Do you agree with the changes?
Some of the original changes just didn't make sense, Ford said.
For example, she had to stop serving her own students peanut butter and jelly sandwiches some days because the bread put her over the federal government's grain limit.
"Children cried," said Ford, director of food and nutrition services at Manatee County, Florida, schools.
"For some of them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are all they would eat."
Video: 'No fat kids at school?'
Schools still have to follow calorie limits and fruit and vegetable requirements that were part of the healthier school lunch changes.
The secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the school lunch program, said it anticipated some modifications would need to be made in the school lunch rules.
"USDA has asked for, and states and schools have provided us with, valuable feedback," Secretary Thomas Vilsack wrote in a letter last week to Sen. John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, who had expressed concern about the changes.
An effective vegetarian weight loss plan must encompass 3 things - a proven vegetarian weight loss diet, a set of sure-fire fat-burning workouts and easy-to-follow weight loss tips. They work just like your brain, heart and kidney. Short of one and your weight loss regimen will likely fail. Let's run through a free sample of vegetarian weight loss plan to show you precisely what you need so that you can use it as a guide to customize your own vegetarian weight loss diet plan.
To make it easy for you to follow through this free vegetarian weight loss plan, I'll insert tips alongside the vegetarian weight loss diet as well as the fat-burning workouts.
Free Vegetarian Weight Loss Plan - Diet
You need 5 vegetarian weight loss meals to power your day - boost metabolism, burn fat, feed energy to fuel your activities. In this meal plan, your breakfast, lunch and dinner should contain about 40 - 60% fibrous food. If you feel too much for your condition, you can do some adjustments accordingly. You'll insert snack in between them to help you remain metabolically active and keep you going.
In each of these main vegetarian weight loss meals, your breakfast, lunch and dinner should each keep you full up to 70% only, while your snack 30 - 40%. When you fill your stomach to the brim in every meal, you'll abuse your insulin level, and over time you'll suffer from diabetic condition. Also, as more blood flows to aid in food digestion, less blood carrying oxygen will flow to your brain, resulting in sleepiness. Therefore , 70% for main meal is the ideal level. Bear in mind.
Here's a brief sample vegetarian weight loss diet to give you an idea.
Breakfast - Oatmeal. You can sprinkle some dried apricots, dried cranberries, pistachio nuts, flaxseeds over to improve its nutritional value and make it look more appealing.
Morning Snack - Mixed fruits.
Lunch - Veggie burger. Use pan-seared Portobello mushroom as the meat substitute (you can prepare this early in the morning before you leave for work). Then top the mushroom with some shredded veggies. Add a piece of vegan cheese and a dash of curried lentil sauce. You can also spice it up moderately with cayenne pepper which produces thermogenic effect to help you burn more fat.
Afternoon Snack - Mixed grains, nuts and seeds.
Dinner - Rainbow salad. Include any salad vegetables and chopped fruits of your favorite. Mix 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar and 2 tbsp virgin coconut oil as salad dressing.
You should make your dinner rich in fiber so that you won't crave for supper or night snack, and should last you till the following morning.
Free Vegetarian Weight Loss Plan - Exercise
You can go with any exercise so long as you feel comfortable. But if you want to maximize your vegetarian fat loss, you should do high-intensity interval training. For example , you'll cycle at normal speed for a minute, and then on next minute you increase the speed. After a minute, you drop your speed back to normal again. Scientists and researchers have proven that such low-high-low intensity pattern will help you burn more fat.
For best fat loss effect, do it in the morning, preferably before 7 A. M. Any other times in the day works fine if you can't make it so early. The truth is, you'll still burn fat, albeit lesser.
Bonus Vegetarian Weight Loss Tips
Take this free vegetarian weight loss plan and do some customization to fit into your own needs and schedules. You may need to find out the list of foods available in your nearby stores to make sure you always have the ingredients at your disposal to whip up delicious fat loss meals.
For fat-burning workouts, you need not buy expensive equipment or gadgets (if you want to save on that). You can use full bodyweight exercises such as jumping jacks, plank, side plank, pushups, lying hip extension, step-ups, bicycle crunch, mountain climbers, Spiderman climbs, prisoner squat etc . You can perform them in the comfort of your own home. You'll lose fat just as effective.
Last but not least, your vegetarian weight loss plan should also include getting quality sleep and consume adequate amount of water for proper hydration, so that you can detox optimally and lose weight effectively as a vegetarian with half the effort and time.
weight loss is becoming an unhealthy obsession dealing with body images, but in some cases can improve health and fitness. When weight loss is a result of eating healthy, exercising and/or taking natural weight loss supplements in contrast to synthetic prescription drugs with the risk of harmful side effects, weight loss can be effective, rewarding, and greatly improve overall health.
Extra weight, especially extra fat on a person's body, applies significantly increased stresses on the heart, joints and back. These stresses can be extremely detrimental to one's health. Healthy weight loss can reduce the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, arthritis and other health problems, as well as generally extending an otherwise average life span. Recently, the scientific root cause or explanation of obesity has been revealed as being part of one's physiology. The internal functions of an obese person are different than those of a healthy person, and cause intense hunger pains and food cravings.
Natural weight loss supplements can help counteract this constant hunger and lead to healthy weight loss. Unbalanced hormones are a common cause of weight gain, therefore taking natural hormone balancers and herbal supplements would help to create a healthy weight loss regimen. Restoring your health allows you to lose weight naturally, without excess frustration and effort. It's all about losing weight from the inside out.
Emotional issues always accompany change, especially changes in our bodies e.g. natural weight loss. weight loss affects our perception body image, our sense of identity i.e. who am I?, and how we feel about ourselves in general. weight loss also effects our social relationships in that there may be people in our family or social contacts that are emotionally invested in our remaining the same i.e. overweight with all that it symbolizes e.g. friendliness, non-threatening, protective, jovial, helpful, etc. Beyond our physical health, it can be said that "size matters" cognitively and emotionally to ourselves and others. Eating and food have come to symbolize being accepted, being cared for and comfort. Having the support of others in our efforts to naturally lose weight and regain our health is a huge advantage.
We have been "conditioned" to fear any kind of loss, including weight loss. Especially if what we may lose is something with which we identify i.e. use to tell us who we are.
The emotions of fear, anger, anxiety and depression effect our weight. We often tend to "stuff our feelings" or numb these emotional feelings or stress by overeating. We may even overeat, thinking that will ease the physical discomfort caused by excess weight e.g. physical pain, lack of sleep, and lack of energy caused by moderate depression. To improve our overall health and support us through the process of natural weight loss and the emotional dynamics around it, we can take advantage of natural sleep aids, natural depression relief and natural pain relief health care products.
Our weight and health is greatly dependent upon our having a healthy digestive system or metabolism. Our digestive system converts, on a cellular and muscular level, the foods we eat, eliminates toxins, and uses and stores glucose for energy. Natural enzymes trigger hunger signals and facilitate absorption of nutrition. Good digestion with the help of natural enzymes aids in the conversion of fat to muscle.
Allergy and sensitivity to food, parasites, yeast overgrowth and emotional stress are signals of digestive disruption and inflammation. Natural essential fatty acids work to reduce intestinal inflammation, decrease harmful acids, help the liver process proteins that grow muscle, balance hormones and facilitate the elimination of toxins. Natural essential fatty acids help clear our digestive system of heavy metals, harmful bacteria, pesticides that we are increasingly encountering in our environment. Essential fatty acids along with natural fiber help us clean out the intestinal debris that harm our health and often lead to weight gain. Essential fatty acids also help our brain's neurotransmitters to function properly in order to deal with stress, emotions, and cravings that can lead to overeating and weight gain.
Natural amino acids are the building blocks that make up proteins. Next to water, protein makes up the greatest part of our body weight. Amino acids help increase metabolism, build muscle, ease moderate depression, and help burn fat. Natural antioxidants help carry more oxygen to cells and muscles to help increase energy, burn fat, build muscle and process the foods we eat.
Hormone balance is essential for natural weight loss. Our metabolism slows as we get older because of the decrease or imbalance of hormones. This contributes to weight gain. Hormone balance also helps us deal with stress that leads to weight gain. Proper hormone balance helps to decrease cravings and binge eating. There are many natural hormone balancing products available, e.g. natural progesterone, promensil, soy isoflavones, essential fatty acids and hormone balancing formulas.
Our metabolism's primary task is to nourish our brains. We need healthy neurotransmitters to help us curb craving, ease depression, and deal with stress that lead to weight gain. Balancing our natural brain chemistry has a calming effect and allows us to feel a sens of well being and safety. There are many natural health care products to help balance brain chemistry, e.g. essential fatty acids, natural depression relief products, natural products to increase serotonin, and more. When our brain feels well and safe, it is prone to change our metabolism from calorie saving to calorie burning.
Our bodies were designed to move and be active. Movement requires muscle activity. Muscle activity uses the glycogen supply found in our muscles. When this glycogen supply stored in our muscles is used, our body is forced to use stored fat as an energy source. Using this stored fat through movement and exercise, results in natural weight loss. There is no reason for us to become athletes to accomplish natural weight loss. Low impact exercise like swimming, walking, etc, can be done slowly and without strain. In order to lose real weight rather than "water weight", it is important to drink extra amounts of water when exercising. Drinking more water will also help our digestive system and metabolism to use and eliminate extra weight.
Remember, the first objective, accomplished through natural weight loss, is to improve our physical and emotional health. This involves having a healthy digestive system, a healthy emotional system and a healthy nutritional system. We can build these healthy systems with natural vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants, natural digestive aid, pain relief aid, natural sleep aids, natural emotional and mood aids, essential fatty acids and many more helpful natural health care products. We need to concentrate on improving our general health, feeling good, and living well through natural weight loss, rather than constantly comparing ourselves to someone else's idea about appearance from some magazine. Physical and emotional health is primary. Appearance may be important to us, but it is secondary. Through natural weight loss, we can live well and live long.
Nearly everyone is concerned about too much fat in his or her diet. We are constantly hearing about the link between fat and heart disease and other life threatening diseases such as diabetes. But how much do we really know about fats and the effects of fat on our health. Did you know that you actually need fat to metabolize fat? This is why low-fat diets do not always result in weight loss. Therefore , should we add fat when we are preparing healthy meals or leave fat out? It all depends on the type of fat and how we use it. We need our meals to be a good source of health food and vitamins. Here is the skinny on fats and what you need to know when preparing healthy dinner recipes.
There are three basic types of fat: saturated, unsaturated and trans fats. Generally, we should get about 20-30% of our daily calories from fat and only 10% of that should come from saturated fats.
Saturated fats come from animal or diary products and are the least healthy choices to include in your diet. The reason for this is they increase the levels of triglycerides in your bloodstream, which is what causes blockage in the arteries over time. The general rule to remember is the redder the meat the higher the saturated fat content will be, hence the higher the triglycerides in the bloodstream. When eating beef or pork be sure to choose the leanest cuts and remove any visible fat before cooking. It’s always best to include more chicken, with the skin removed and fish in your diet because these are lower in fat. When buying yogurt, or other dairy products choose 1% or 2% fat or those made with skim milk.
Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats come from certain nuts, fish and oils such as olive, canola and flaxseed oil. These fats are known to actually reduce triglycerides by producing good cholesterol referred to as HDL. Polyunsaturated oils are also found in beans and soy products. These are important health foods for vitamins and nutrients because they contain omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids. These oils are important for maintaining healthy blood and helping to prevent the development of plaque. The best oil products to use when serving salads is a first cold pressed virgin olive oil because it contains the freshest of nutrients. Regular olive oil (not cold pressed) can be used when cooking at heats less than 600 degree F. Other alternative choices when baking or frying are shortening or vegetable oils.
Trans fats (or hydrogenated) are the worst fats of all because they increase triglyceride levels and hence bad cholesterol (LDL). Trans fats are commonly found in commercially produced foods and vegetable oils, hydrogenated margarines and spreads. Products are now being developed and easier to find with No Trans Fats written on the packaging. Try and reduce the amount of processed foods in your diet and you’ll avoid most of this type of harmful fat.
A health food diet will always include the essential vitamins and nutrients. At your next dinner start out with a fresh salad using an olive oil based dressing. Then a serving of fish, chicken or lean red meat along with some whole grain breads or pastas and steamed vegetables. Finish up your meal with a light dairy product or low-fat ice cream or yogurt topped with fresh fruit. Remember, we need fat to metabolize fat and by choosing the good fats in olive oils, fish, chicken and nuts we can help our bodies slim down and prevent diseases all at the same time.
Years ago I found myself weighing 250 pounds, constantly squeezing rolls of fat on my stomach, and just all around unhappy with myself in the mirror. Personally, I know what it feels like to suck your stomach in and wonder what it would be like to be shredded. Now, my job as a fat loss and fitness expert allows me to use my empathy and knowledge to train numerous clients and help them achieve unbelievable success in reaching their target body in my boot camps. It takes a lot of work and a lot of training. It has been proven again and again, the best training program for fat loss and lean muscle gain activates as many muscle groups of the total body in the shortest amount of time. While interval training is hands down the best protocol to use during an exercise session to build muscle and lose fat, compound movements efficiently provide total body workouts and give you an amazing boom for your buck in a single exercise.
Compound movements or combination lifts combine two or more movements performed uninterrupted and in succession into one exercise. For example, take two familiar exercises. The squat, which is notorious for its fat blasting and lean muscle packing effects. Now throw in an overhead press and the squat/press compound includes even more of your total body and becomes downright merciless. Simply put, compound movements explosively burn fat and build lean muscle because they activate more muscle in a shorter amount of time. Prioritize your personal workouts with compound movements like these instead of single joint exercises to supposedly "isolate a muscle" and your good to go. Remember this Power Body Reaction:
↑Muscles Involved�"(↑Calories Burnt + ↑Muscle-Building Stimulus )�"↑Fat Lost + ↑Muscle Gain
Confession time. I have a love-hate relationship with exercises like this. Love because of the ridiculous results they provide for fat loss, muscle building, and conditioning. Hate because they turn on that voice in my head saying, "Do you really need to do this?" and wondering whether I'm laying in a pool of sweat or tears every time.
By now your saying "Get on with it. I'm sold. What are these crazy exercises I need to be doing right now!?" Let's lift veil of suspense. Here is my official top 10 list of favorite exercises in the world for fat loss and lean muscle gain (in no particular order):
Exercise 1 - Power Clean + Thruster Combo - Kettlebells, Dumbbells, Bands, or Sandbags
Exercise 2 - The Swing - Kettlebells, Dumbbells, Med Balls, or Sandbags
Exercise 3 - Alternating Lunge + Curl to Press
Exercise 4 - Mountain Climber Push-ups - Valslide or Bodyweight
Exercise 5 - Woodchopper - Dumbbells, Kettlebells, Med Balls, Bands, or Sandbags
Use my advice jack up your training by introducing these 10 powerful compound exercises we use in my boot camps to work the total body. You are guaranteed better results in less time by consistently employing these movements into your workouts. Of course it's ultimately up to you to do what it takes to take your training and your body to the next level!
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Lou Kristopher, CSCS, RKC is a Walnut Creek personal trainer and body transformation expert who helps his many clients discover their best shape ever by burning pounds of unwanted body fat and gaining muscle using cutting edge training techniques. Qualify for a free 1-week trial at Power Body Boot Camps by visiting www.totalpowerfitness.com.
