Recipe: Pomegranate & Cantaloupe Salsa

The Fat Resistance Diet emphasizes lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, especially in Phase 1. This delicious salsa makes a wonderfully flavorful topping for grilled fish or chicken, and is packed with healthy vitamins and fats, along with lots of flavor! Give this one a try to add some zest to your meals.

Pomegranate Seed Cantaloupe Salsa

Ingredients:

1 lime, zested and juiced
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup finely chopped sweet onion
1 small jalapeno, seeds removed and finely chopped
1 ripe avocado, peeled and diced
1 cup diced cantaloupe
1 cup pomegranate seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• In a glass bowl, add all the ingredients and lightly toss.
• Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
• Lightly toss again before serving.
• Serve as a dip with whole-wheat tortilla chips or as a relish with grilled fish or chicken, depending on your diet.

For more information and recipes, check out The Fat Resistance Diet: Unlock the Secret of the Hormone Leptin to: Eliminate Cravings, Supercharge Your Metabolism, Fight Inflammation, Lose Weight & Reprogram Your Body to Stay Thin, by Dr. Leo Galland.

In this book, you'll find cutting-edge research showing that losing weight is not about carbs, calories, fat, or even willpower.  Weight loss is all about a hormone called leptin and how it functions in your body. Leptin curbs your appetite, jump-starts your metabolism, and when working properly makes you literally fat resistant. If your body no longer responds to leptin, it may be impossible for you to slim down. This diet reprograms your body to start melting away the pounds. Using a combination of anti-inflammatory and hormone-balancing foods, the 3 phase regimen claims a quick weight loss, then an easy to maintain steady reduction as you enjoy over 100 delicious recipes designed to transform your body into a lean, fat-fighting machine.

Smoothies For Weight Loss: Fact or Fiction?

Starting off the New Year is a great time to set a plan to reach your goals for obtaining a healthy weight. While you may hear some debate as to whether drinking smoothies can really help with weight loss, just like every other weight loss program, the results depend on many factors: how often you exercise, what else you eat, how much you eat, etc..

We’re not going to get into all the factors involved in a weight loss program, but we are going to take a look at how smoothies can help with weight loss.

Breakfast

Skipping breakfast will almost guarantee weight loss failure. When you wake up in the morning, your body is waiting for you to 'break fast' and replenish the nutrients. When you don't break that fast (you just slept without eating, so you were fasting) your body thinks it's going into starvation mode and it must start storing fat for survival. If you make smoothies a morning habit, you have already given your body a good reason to burn fat, resulting in weight loss.

Metabolism

When you blend up a healthy mixture of dietary fiber, protein, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals for breakfast, you naturally give your body a jump-start for the day. Not only are you consuming a large amount of nutritious foods, you’re keeping your body's fuel stoked, burning fat, which is exactly what you need to do to lose weight.

Nutrients

When drinking smoothies to lose weight, you'll be making the healthiest food choices, and drinking these foods raw. No nutrients or fiber will be lost cooking your food. Fruits and vegetables that are high in fiber will stand out in many of your recipes. Some of the better choices include kale, spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, apples, berries, celery, and cucumbers. And that's just the beginning! Of course, you'll be adding some calcium and protein, along with nuts, seeds, and whole grains, too. Sounds like a tasty recipe for weight loss to me.

Replace

Losing weight with smoothies can also simply be a matter of replacing unhealthy snacks with healthy smoothies. Replace high calorie, high fat, high sugar snacks with low calorie, low fat, low sugar smoothies and you are bound to see promising weight loss  results. Also, many snacks tend to be high in 'bad carbs' which can lead to a blood sugar spike, then drop, resulting in a raid on the candy machine. It's easy to see how replacing unhealthy snacks with nutritious smoothies will give your body what it needs for energy and nutrition, and avoid all those things your body doesn't need.

So, yes, you can lose weight drinking smoothies, but only if you follow a complete weight loss and fitness program. It's not magic, but by making healthier food choices, many made easier by drinking smoothies, you can see weight loss results. Of course, as with any weight loss journey, check with your own health care provider before you change your diet and exercise program.

And be sure to check back throughout the month, as we will be posting lots of delicious and tasty smoothie recipes to help you get your weight and fitness goals off to a great start for 2015! In the meantime, here are some recommended recipe books:

   

Debunking The Myth Of Eating Less To Lose Weight

One of the biggest myths about losing weight is the idea that you need to skip meals, starve yourself, or at least eat a lot less than you want to - in order to shed pounds. New studies have shown that this is simply not the case.  As a matter of fact, it's just the opposite. Let's take a look at why you need to eat if you want to lose weight.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Scientific Benefits of Breakfast

People who eat breakfast on a daily basis tend to lose weight more easily - and faster. The National Weight Control Registry performed a study that showed people who eat breakfast have a better chance of maintaining a 30-pound or more weight loss for at least a year. Studies in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association showed similar results.

Another research group analyzed government data on over 4,000 adults and found those who ate a regular breakfast tended to take in fewer calories during the day and had a lower fat intake. They also noted that regular breakfast eaters were more likely to engage in routine exercise.

Eating breakfast also jump-starts your metabolism, says Elisabetta Politi, RD, MPH, nutrition manager for the Duke Diet and Fitness Center at Duke University Medical School.  She states; "When you don't eat breakfast, you're actually fasting for 15 to 20 hours, so you're not producing the enzymes needed to metabolize fat to lose weight." In fact, sumo wrestlers don't eat until late in the day for the sole purpose of gaining weight(!).  If you don't eat breakfast, you are actually following the sumo wrestler diet.  Now, that is a scary thought! :-)

Keep Your Metabolism Going All Day

With the right mechanisms in place, your body will naturally burn fat.  But, what are the right mechanisms?  That's your job - to find your body's balance between energy consumed and energy burned.  (This can take a bit of focused effort, which may scare some people off, but if you can put in the time to figure it out, it's definitely worth it.) Metabolism is the name of the game.  When you eat healthy small meals, starting early in the morning, your metabolism is set in full swing, mobilizing and converting fat stores into energy.

When you eat breakfast along with regular snacks and small meals throughout the day, your body gets the nutrition it needs and goes to work, breaking down your food into energy.  If you wait until you're starving before you eat anything, that gnawing feeling in your stomach is telling you something. Your body will start by robbing your muscle tissue of anything it needs first, like protein. Then it will actually start to store fat because it thinks it's in famine mode - the opposite effect of what you're looking for. By eating early and often, not only are you protecting the muscle that supports your frame and allows you to walk, sit, and stand, but you are also keeping your metabolism going so it works all day to give you energy.

Simple Weight Loss Tips to Get You Started:

• Eat slowly. It takes about twenty minutes for your stomach to tell your brain you are full.  Don't eat and run.  When you gulp food down, you'll end up eating way more than you need to at one sitting.

• Choose foods you'll need to chew. Try apples, whole grain hearty breads (sprouted are the healthiest and easiest to digest - and very chewy), celery, and other raw vegetables. These foods will slow down your eating and satisfy your chewing instinct. Raw nuts are another option. Just be sure to monitor the serving sizes as you snack.

• Drink 6 to 8 glasses of cool or cold water per day. This helps you to feel full and as your body works to raise the temperature of the water, you are burning calories.  And keep in mind you don't have to gulp them down all at once! Sometimes I think when people hear "6 to 8 glasses" they are thinking of drinking a gallon of water in one sitting - all you need to do is keep bottles of water filled in the refrigerator and sip, sip, sip. (Note: If you suffer from indigestion, you may want to try unrefrigerated water, as really cold water can upset your digestion if you drink with your meals.) I keep a glass or bottle of water near me at all times when I'm at work, or on the computer - then I just naturally drink whenever I'm thirsty, instead of having to get up and go get some water, which then would tend to make me put it off.

• Eating oranges is much more satisfying than just drinking the juice. Keep this thought when choosing other fruits and vegetables.  Whole is usually better. It contains more nutrients, tastes better, and fills you up more.

• Have a small healthy snack before you start cooking dinner. This will help with overeating while preparing the meal, and after.  Munching on celery is the perfect way to keep you satisfied while cooking.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• Fill up on veggies. Vegetables have lots of nutrients that your body needs, and they also contain a lot of fiber and water, which help you feel full, and keep blood sugar stable for longer.

• If you need a sweet treat, just remember that frozen yogurt, fruit, and sherbet are all low fat.  Or try a tiny piece of dark chocolate. Chocolate is full of antioxidants plus flavor, and the dark kind has less sugar. This may leave you satisfied without all the sugar or carbs.  You may have to experiment to find the right treat for your sweet tooth that fits your diet.

The less you eat, the more your body protects itself and begins to go into starvation mode, holding on to more food, storing it as fat and robbing your muscles of nutrients. Make sure you eat a good breakfast to start your day right. Then, keep your metabolism working throughout the day with small meals and healthy snacks.

Stop starving yourself so your body can relax and start to lose that weight naturally.  Give your body the nutrients it needs to stay satisfied and achieve the right balance. Adding foods instead of subtracting foods?  It's so crazy it might just work.

Check back Wednesday for some surprising foods that can help you lose weight faster - butter anyone?? You've got to see this list to believe it!