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Fiber itself will not help you lose weight fast and control your appetite.  But fiber, in combination with a healthy diet and plenty of exercise can lead you to a trimmer waistline and help you fight some common diseases associated with being overweight.

Fiber occurs in two forms, soluble and insoluble fiber.  Both are important nutrients to include in your diet.  Soluble fiber is quickly broken down by water, while insoluble fiber is not and travels through your system “cleaning” it out.  One reason why fiber is so effective in weight loss is because it takes longer to digest and leaves you feeling full.  Fiber rich foods are low in calories and contain plenty of water leading you once again to feeling full.

So chewing on a carrot or piece of celery will help me lose weight?  Yes!

Fiber rich foods like vegetables take longer to chew therefore giving allowing our bodies to catch up and reach a feeling of fullness.  Due to the water content found in fiber rich foods, we have more fluid in our stomachs making us feel fuller for longer periods of time.   This is a good thing because we will not have the desire to eat more after consuming a snack or meal with plenty of fiber.

Here is a list of some high fiber foods you can enjoy:

Fruits

Raspberries- a one cup serving has 8.0 grams of fiber
Pear (with skin)- 1 medium pear provides 5.5 grams of fiber
Medium Apple with skin- 1 medium apple provide you with 4.4 grams of fiber
Banana and orange- 1 medium banana or orange gives you 3.1 grams of fiber

Vegetables/Beans

Peas (cooked)- 1 cup of cooked peas gives you a whopping 8.8 grams of fiber
Broccoli- 1 cup of boiled broccoli gives you 5.1 grams of fiber
Sweet corn (cooked)- 1 cup of cooked sweet corn gives you 4.2 grams of fiber
Potato with skin (baked)- 1 medium potato baked with the skin gives you 2.9 grams of fiber
Lentils (cooked)- 1/2 cup cooked lentils gives you 6.6 grams of fiber
Navy Beans (cooked)- 1/2 cup cooked navy beans gives you 9.5 grams of fiber

Other foods

Bran Flakes- ¾ of a cup gives you 5.3 grams of fiber
Oatmeal (cooked)- 1 cup gives you 4.0 grams of fiber
Black Beans (cooked)- 1 cup of black beans gives you 15.0 grams of fiber
Almonds- 1 ounce of almonds gives you 3.5 grams of fiber

So next time you are reaching for a snack pick a fruit ,vegetable or other high fiber food to help curb your appetite.     This will help you lose weight fast and maintain that weight loss for years to come. 

Spirulina isn’t just responsible for making your Cravers nutrition bars green, but in fact, has an outstanding nutrition profile that outshines most other plants.

 
Yes, that’s right, spirulina is a plant. More technically, it’s a form of micro-algae that is blue-green in color and rich in vitamins and minerals. This microalgae is the same type of algae that you’d find on freshwater ponds and streams, thermal springs and saltwater lakes. It’s a hearty organism that can adapt to many different environments and thrive where many other organisms cannot, requiring only a drop of water and a beam of sunshine to survive. This heartiness makes it even more nutritious for you.

Spirulina’s popularity comes from it being a rich source of vegetarian protein and natural vitamins and minerals. It’s one of the highest protein-containing plants, being 60-70% protein by weight, and also contains substantial amounts of vitamin B12 and iron (usually only found in meats), vitamin K and beta-carotene.  

For people looking to either reduce the animal protein load of their diet, or for vegetarians, spirulina is a great substitute and source of quality protein and amino acids. It does tend to be lower in certain amino acids than animal proteins, but when eaten in a mixed diet, it compliments other vegetarian proteins, like beans and nuts.

Therapeutically, spirulina has several health benefits. In a variety of different human and animal studies, spirulina has been shown  to improve blood cholesterol profiles, boost immunity, enhance the population of healthy gut bacteria, control blood sugars and help people lose body fat safely.

For your heart health, a study of 30 men with mild hyperlipidemia (high blood cholesterol), took 4.2 g of spirulina each day for 8 weeks, or spirulina only for 4 weeks with 4 weeks off. Those who took it for 8 weeks had a significant reduction of LDL-cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and a significant reduction in their atherogenic index (a measure of fat deposition in arteries). The men who only took Spirulina for 4 weeks and nothing for another 4 weeks also had the same results at the midpoint mark, but then a return to baseline values after they stopped taking this green goodness.

So, if you’re struggling with high LDL cholesterol, spirulina may be one way to lower it and decrease your risk for heart disease.

With its high protein content and rich source of vitamins and minerals, spirulina is a great addition to any person’s diet.  You can get 1 gram of Spirulina in each Craver Spirulina bar.

Click here =>>  Save 15% on Spirulina and all the rest of our great tasting Prograde Cravers!

Attention Spirulina Lovers!

What do you like about Spirulina? Why did you decide to give Spirulina flavored Prograde Cravers a try?

 Resources:

Current knowledge on potential health benefits of Spirulina. Belay A, et al. (1993) J Appl Phycology 5: 235-41.

Cholesterol lowering effect of Spirulina. Nakaya N, et al (1988) Nutr. Rep. Int. 37: 1329-1337.

People who plan out healthy meals every day might still be susceptible to weight loss sabotage.

The problem is in junk food.

Eating fatty, greasy foods that lack good nutrition every time a person wants it can create an addiction.  Frequently eating these types of food causes the levels of a dopamine receptor in the brain to drop, just like in alcoholics.

Healthy diets that include junk food as rewards for eating healthy meals can create these addictions.

The best way to break or prevent a junk food addiction is to remove the source.  Don’t give yourself the opportunity to fulfill the harmful craving.

Fill your diet plans with healthy meals and snacks to stop the addiction before it even starts.

Following healthy diets before bedtime means avoiding certain foods that could prevent a good night’s sleep.

As we learned before, insufficient sleep contributes to the onset of serious illnesses and diseases, including obesity.

To have a better chance of getting a full night of restful sleep, avoid the following foods close to bedtime:

• Spicy
• Greasy
• Heavy
• Highly refined sugar
• Caffeine (chocolate or energy drinks, for example)
• Alcohol

If you eat before you go to sleep, healthy meals and snacks can make a difference in your health and weight loss.

Coffee, green tea, and cayenne pepper have been proven by science to be actual diet food that can be consumed and lead to weight loss.

There are a few problems.

The amounts of these foods that would need to be consumed in order to be effective are way too big to fit into healthy meals.

Also, these ingredients must be eaten back to back, not spread throughout the day.

Here are the guidelines on how to eat healthy for weight loss purposes with these foods: 9-10 cups of coffee, 7-9 cups of green tea, and 1-5 grams of cayenne pepper.

Now check out this information on eating right with weight loss foods.

You’ve been eating healthy meals for 2 weeks now and tracking your food, drinks, and snacks in a log.

Look at your log and notice the instances in which you veered from healthy eating and good nutrition.  Were these planned on special occasions or did you slip up without thinking about it?

During the times you unintentionally made unhealthy choices, you might have been experiencing cravings.  Use the tricks below to work toward eating nothing but healthy meals and healthy snacks.

Identify and remove

First, look at your food log and determine what type of cravings you experienced.  Then, think about what triggered the cravings (for example, an emotion or an activity).  Finally, remove the focus of your cravings, if possible, from home and work.

Wait it out

When you feel a craving hit you, tell yourself that you will wait it out.  Cravings are mostly psychological, so acknowledge one when you are experiencing it and then make a personal decision to not act on it.  Most likely, the craving will pass within 20 minutes.

Do your best at enacting these tips.  If you don’t have 100% success right away and you need to progress over time, that’s fine.  Just keep working on eating healthy meals and getting good nutrition.

Salmon might be the most well-known source of Omega 3 Fatty Acids, but there are other ways to build these good fats into healthy diets.

One option is to try a different fish.  You could experiment with herring, Alaskan black cod, arctic char, or rainbow trout in your healthy meals.

Another option is to provide your body with good nutrition everyday by taking an Omega 3 supplement.  Prograde’s EFA Icon is a quality Omega 3 supplement that can give you the heart, fat loss, and antioxidant benefits without eating fish.

Whether you like seafood or not, healthy diets should always include Omega 3 Fatty Acids.

If you’ve ever wondered how to eat healthy and still have plenty of flavor, then this information is for you.

Cinnamon is a perfect spice to use when trying to liven up so-called diet food.

Not only does it easily add great flavor, but cinnamon also controls blood sugar levels, maintains insulin sensitivity, decreases belly fat, and delivers antioxidants.

In fact, a study published in the medical journal Diabetes Care found that the fasting blood glucose levels were reduced in all participants, whether they took 1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon per day.

Yogurt, oatmeal, vegetables, cottage cheese, and sweet potatoes can all be delicious additions to healthy meals when you sprinkle some cinnamon in.

Cinnamon is a great example of how to eat healthy by adding foods with different health benefits to each other.

This information about how to eat healthy with one ingredient is short and sweet.

Spinach:  It is a big provider of the amino acid glutamine.

It raises growth hormone levels to increase fat loss.  In the same way, leucine levels are raised, decreasing muscle tissue breakdown and improving the immune system.

Add spinach into healthy meals wherever you can to take advantage of its concentrated good nutrition.

As we’ve talked about before, getting enough protein is an important part of eating right.

Whey protein provides quick nutrition that helps repair and build muscles right after use in, for example, a workout.

Casein protein is digested much slower and provides nutrition to your muscles throughout the day.

So which type of protein is a better choice for those wondering how to eat healthy at night to promote muscle recovery?

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