Eating well deliciously!
A version of this article was originally published on HVMN There are two paths to achieving ketosis. The first is through the ketogenic diet or fasting, which can take weeks or months for the body to produce its ketones. The second is through exogenous ketones Read more
A version of this article originally appeared on MadebyHemp. It’s that time again for a guest post from my friends over at MadebyHemp. I love the many benefits of cannabidiol or CBD and am happy to share this article with you. CBD the non-psychoactive compound Read more
I created this blog to provide quick and healthy meal ideas, recipes, and product reviews for busy individuals looking to lead a healthy but convenient lifestyle. As such, a big part of the mission of staging.quicknhealthymeals.com is to provide information about meal planning and diet choices that can help you achieve optimum health via weight loss.
Obesity is a real problem in this country with nearly 40% of the adult population being overweight or obese. The rates for children and young adults are not much better with nearly 19% of that population being overweight or obese. Increased incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and fatty liver disease are at an alarming rate among both the adult and the youth populations.
All is not lost, however, and while there are tons of diets, pills, potions, and other weight-loss gimmicks, there is only one true way to safely and permanently lose weight. This article will focus on my experience over a lifetime of battling weight gain and how I finally learned how to lose weight naturally.
The first and most important step in losing weight naturally, is to first determine the underlying cause of your current weight. Are you overweight because of the following?
Let’s examine each of these elements one by one to show how they can be overcome to enable you to lose excess weight. We’ll start first with medical conditions then move on to genes and finish up with the main cause of obesity – overeating.
Medical Condition or Disease:
If you have a medical condition that you feel is causing you to gain weight, then you need to research alternative ways to mitigate the side effects of your condition or any medication you may be taking to fight it. Medical conditions that may cause weight gain include:
These are by no means all the medical conditions that can cause weight gain, but they all can be dealt with by taking the correct medication while feeding your body nourishing and healing foods. Work closely with your physician to determine the best course of action for your weight loss process.
Genes:
Next let’s look at genes. We can’t change our genes, but we can work with what we have to enhance our metabolism by eating the right foods and staying active.
It is also important to have realistic expectation for your ideal body size. You will never have the body of Twiggy if your genes are programmed for a larger frame or body type. If you maintain a calorie deficit and add an exercise regimen, you will be able to achieve a healthy weight and toned body.
Overeating
Finally, we’ll look at the most prevalent cause of obesity – over-eating. Many of us overeat for a variety of reasons including:
No matter the cause of over-eating, what most of us need is a blueprint of what to do and what not to do in order to finally stop and be able to lose weight safely and easily.
Bottom Line: To lose weight, you have to do the psychological work to determine why you choose to overeat. Once you have this information, you are halfway to permanently losing excess weight. The second part is to employ what I call my ultimate weight-loss formula.
The ultimate weight-loss formula = Burn more calories than you eat. That’s it!
Barring a medical condition, if you maintain a caloric deficit, your body will have no choice but to use your stores of fat for energy leading to weight loss.
I know this is not ground-breaking information, but so many people get caught up with all the millions of diets, pills, potions and all sorts of other madness in their effort to lose weight that they lose sight of this very basic fact. So how do you employ this formula? The first step is to find out how macronutrients affect your body.
Many of us do not think of the impact that macronutrients can have our bodies, but if you take the time you can easily find out how what you eat affects your metabolism. What do I mean by macronutrients? Very simply, macronutrients are those derived from the three main food groups including:
You can jump-start the macronutrient discovery process by simply looking at your personal and family history. For example, does anyone in your family have diabetes or hypertension? If so, do you know which foods they can and cannot have? Armed with this basic knowledge, you can discover which foods you can eat and the ones you may want to avoid.
Case Study: I’ll give a concrete example here using my own weight-loss journey. My family has a history of diabetes and/or metabolic syndrome. This is evinced by the rolls of fat present around our midsections. What this essentially means, is that while I’m an avowed chocoholic, I cannot just eat all and any chocolate candy or confection that I see.
I had to discover this sensitivity to sugars and carbs the hard way. After a lot of trial and error with different foods and diets, I’ve discovered that if I consume too much sugar or too many carbs, my ankles will swell up to the size of tennis balls the very next day. This was a rather unorthodox way of my discovering that I’m carb-sensitive. And before you ask, yes, I have had medical tests to make sure that my heart, kidneys, and lymphatic systems are functioning properly. My swollen ankles really are a direct result of eating too many carbs.
This physical reaction to carbs led me to seek out a way of eating that would keep carbs to a minimum while keeping me sated and satisfied. I tried, Paleo, Vegan (very briefly!), Whole 30, and the Keto Diet. I ended up gaining weight on all of these diets except for one important variant – I lost inches from my waist, thighs, and arms while on the keto diet.
As you can imagine, I was quite excited when I noticed that my clothes were starting to fit loose and I had to draw in my belt buckle up another notch. I was losing inches yes, but I still wanted to see actual weight loss on the scale. I still had to find a plan that would give me the inch loss I experienced on keto while also showing actual weight loss on the scale.
To recap: I was doing keto and losing inches but not weight. Then I tried monitoring my caloric intake but failed to be consistent with it. This grounded my weight loss to a halt because I was overeating every other day. I needed something else to keep me on track.
I know myself enough to know that I need structure and guidance to succeed at any endeavor I undertake. This means that I needed something else to keep me within the confines of my caloric requirements, I needed a magic bullet.
Enter IF or intermittent fasting. Combining keto with IF was the key that finally unleashed my fat-burning furnace. It really is the perfect way of eating for me because it provides the tools I need to consistently lose fat. I made a minor tweak to my weight loss formula making the final version:
Caloric deficit + 8-hour eating window = 1 to 2 pounds of consistent fat loss every week!
I’m by no means suggesting that Keto-IF is the ultimate weight loss diet for everyone, but it sure is for me. It’s my ultimate magic bullet for consistent weight loss. You will have to find out which diet is best for your body type, be it:
The main thing is to remember the following rules:
By following these basic steps you will lose fat and excess weight in the safest way possible. It’s not fast but it’s sure and steady.
If you follow the recommendations listed above, you will be well on your way to losing weight. You can greatly increase your chance of successfully losing weight by using a few tools to make the process easier and more streamlined.
Knowing yourself is very important to losing weight. As I’ve mentioned, I know that I need step-by-step guidance to tell me what to do and when to do it. Having a plan of action puts my weight-loss on automatic and helps to keep me on track. Using proven weight-loss plans, tools, and trackers gives me an even better chance of succeeding.
There are literally thousands of meal plans and apps available for anyone that needs help to lose weight. They help to:
My first fitness tracker was Myfitnesspal because it allowed me to enter my own recipes to come up with accurate caloric and nutritional information. I’ve since moved on to Cronometer because it has a multitude of features and it even allows you to enter the diet or way of eating you’re currently following.
Cronometer also tells you exactly how many calories to eat every day depending on how much weight you want to lose and how fast you want to make it happen. It also tells you how many calories you’ve burned from any type of exercise or workout you do. For me, it’s the best diet and nutrition tracker in the market today.
After years of trial and error, I’ve put together this easy-to-follow blueprint for effective and lasting weight loss for anyone who has lost hope. If you follow the method I’ve outlined you will finally lose excess weight once and for all. To summarize, do the following to crank up your fat loss:
I challenge you to really listen to your body to find out which foods make you gain weight. From there follow a diet that you like and incorporate some exercise into the mix. Give this process and yourself an honest try for at least a month and let me know what happens. I guarantee you will lose fat and weight.
Have you struggled with losing excess weight? Did you succeed? Let me know in the comments.
Since I started eating Keto-IF, I’ve found meal preparation to be infinitely easier. Many of my main meals only include a lean protein with a vegetable side dish or two. I always aim to make meal planning quick and easy, so I make sure Read more
I used to love this dish as a little girl. Cured cod, desalted and stewed with colorful peppers, onions, and loads of spices. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water! If you’re looking to shake up your breakfast routine with something hearty and full Read more
What is the best fish to eat? I’ll be the first to admit that any answer to this will be subjective. We don’t all have the same likes and tastes so the idea of what the best fish to eat is dependent on personal preferences. That said, several varieties of fish are enjoyed by a broad spectrum of people with varying eating traditions.
Given the myriad of fish available for our consumption, I will only focus on fish that come with the perfect trifecta of flavor, texture, and ease of cooking. I will break down the nutritional profiles of the fish I select for this list and detail why they are among the best fish to eat.
In my opinion, salmon will always be at the top of any list of the best fish to eat. I’m referring specifically to wild-caught salmon because farmed salmon is not in the same league, health-wise or nutritionally. I’ll get into why later on in the post.
There are several varieties of wild-caught salmon but I’ll stick with the well-known kinds like:
So exactly why wild-caught and not farmed salmon? There are several reasons why wild-caught salmon is better than farmed salmon, namely farmed salmon has:
The flesh of wild-caught salmon is firm and buttery with a reddish-orange color. It is a great source of protein, has balanced levels of omega-3s vs omega-6s, and contains more minerals than the farmed varieties. It’s worth it to spend the extra money to get the best salmon for you and your family. Salmon also has few bones and can be quickly prepared for a flavorful lunch or dinner.
I feel like most of us overlook kingfish or king mackerel in favor of more commonly recognized fish like salmon or tilapia. This is unfortunate because the flesh of kingfish is delicious! Moreover, kingfish has a meaty texture that makes it a filling and satisfying source of protein.
Kingfish is low in fat and is a powerhouse of great nutrients including:
Kingfish is best prepared fried (can be air-fried), baked, grilled or smoked. This makes it a versatile ingredient for many kinds of cuisines.
There is one important caveat for kingfish – it’s on the Environmental Defense Fund’s warning list for high levels of mercury. Children and pregnant women should avoid eating kingfish due to the potential for mercury poisoning.
Don’t let the mercury warning deter you from enjoying this flavorful fish. Eating kingfish every once in a blue moon will cause no harm and you get to enjoy a different and unique flavor in your soups, stews, or grilled kingfish steaks.
There are about 17 well-known varieties of snapper fish, but the Atlantic Red Snapper is, in my opinion, the best-tasting of them all. The red snapper is a perciform (perch-like) fish that is found in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. The flesh of this fish is white with a lean and firm texture and it also has lots of bones!
It’s important to make sure you get the real thing when shopping for red snapper, as other red-fleshed fish, like Pacific rockfish are sometimes sold as red snapper. There are other, differently colored snapper fish including yellow snapper and blue snapper that are also excellent choices for tasty lean fish.
Red snapper contains the following nutritional qualities:
I prefer fried red snapper topped with stewed tomatoes and onions but you can prepare this flavorful fish using many techniques. You can grill, braise, roast or stew red snapper, no matter how you prepare it, it will be delicious just watch out for the bones!
Atlantic cod is a lean, white-fleshed fish that is one of the more commonly available fish. Cod is not as fatty as other fish like salmon and has fewer omega-3s however it is packed full of other nutrients like:
Codfish can be prepared in several ways like roasting or frying. In my culture, we enjoy a dried and salted version of cod that we call saltfish buljol. Buljol that is a stew made with flaked, desalinated cod cooked with onions, tomatoes, garlic, and other spices with a squirt of lime juice. Delicious!
In New York City where I live, we are fortunate to have access to many varieties of fish. I recognize that towns and cities throughout the country may or may not market the types of fish listed in this article. Keep the faith, because you can still enjoy the benefits of fish by sourcing what’s available in your city.
If you can’t get fresh fish then I recommend you get healthy canned fish that can provide the same benefits of high protein, omega-3s, B vitamins, calcium, selenium, and other trace minerals. Some good options include:
This is by no means an exhaustive list of the available varieties of canned fish. Shop around online and in your local stores to see what’s available.
So, which is the best fish to eat? That’s all up to you, just experiment and explore to find the species you and your family enjoy. You’ll be making a good choice for your general health and well-being. Eat more fish!
