Eat more and Do Less Cardio to Lose that Unwanted Weight - Part 2

Continued from Part 1...

3. Rory ate a lot of food all day long. Rory couldn't believe his meal plan when I laid it out for him. He was going to be eating more than he was currently eating and couldn't believe this was actually going to help him lose weight. The biggest difference would be what foods he would be choosing. Every meal was comprised of a healthy protein, carbohydrate and good fat. Lots of eggs (whole organic eggs, not whites), poultry, meat, fruits, whole grains, vegetables, olive oil, and raw nuts and nut butters. In order for his body to burn fat, it had to believe it wasn't starving and the only way to do that was to feed it well.

So what can you do to achieve the same great results?

Incorporate both a good strength training routine and interval cardio routine to your workout regimen. Don't just do one all the time. Your body needs muscle to keep your metabolism high, and it also needs cardio to keep your heart strong, so find a good balance between the two.
Incorporate a strength training routine that focuses on whole body movements. No sitting on machines, please. Unless you are rehabilitating an injury, you want to keep your body moving the whole time. What do you think burns more calories, a squat with a shoulder press combination or sitting on a leg press? Just try to squat and raise your arms overhead a few times and you'll see how quickly your heart rate goes up. Keep your body moving through the whole workout and you'll be sweating just as much as during your cardio.

Eat consistently throughout the day. We've all heard it before: Eat five meals a day to lose weight. Well, guess what? It works, as long as those meals incorporate healthy food. Eat a protein with each meal. That is the biggest mistake I see. People are not feeding their muscles with enough protein. Remember, you want to keep your metabolism cranking all day and the best way to do that is to feed your body and to keep your muscle mass high.
Hopefully, this will help you to reduce those countless hours on the treadmill and stop starving yourself to lose a few pounds. I don't know about you but if eating all day and doing less cardio is going to keep me at a healthy weight and in shape, I say AMEN to that!

Learn "The Top 5 Essential Truths You Must Know Before You Go on Any Diet Ever Again" from Isabel De Los Rios at The Diet Solution Program. Isabel is a nutrition, exercise and lifestyle coach who has helped hundreds of people lose their unwanted weight and take complete control of their health. She is the author of The Diet Solution Program, a complete and comprehensive nutrition program that is helping people all over the world finally reach their ideal weight. For more information on The Diet Solution Program and how it can help to change your life, visit thedietsolutionprogram.com.

Eat more and Do Less Cardio to Lose that Unwanted Weight - Part 1

Is the above statement too good to be true? That's what Rory DeLuca thought. The 42 year old New Jersey resident, husband and busy father of 3 couldn't believe what I was telling him when he came to see me in January 2006. Like most people, after the holidays, Rory was frustrated with his increased weight and was even more frustrated that his previous "weight loss" efforts were not providing any results. He told me he was trying to eat less and run 4 miles every day, but every time he tried to stick to that routine, his back would hurt because of the running and he would end up starving at the end of the day. You can imagine his surprise when I told him that he would have to eat a lot more and do less cardio to achieve the results he was looking for.

Now, 3 months later, Rory has lost a total of 30 pounds and 9 inches off his body. Hi back no longer hurts and he is not starving. He eats tons of food all day and exercises less than an hour 5 days a week. So what is the secret to his success? Three very important weight loss principles that we can all incorporate.

1. Rory started strength training 3x's a week. The key here is Rory was doing the right kind of strength training for his weight loss goal. He was not going from one machine to the next, doing 3 sets of 10 reps on each one. His strength training routine incorporated exercises that used his whole body so his heart rate was up the whole time. Try doing 3 exercises, back to back, using only free weights, stability balls and your own body weight, and you'll see how quickly your heart rate goes up. No sitting on a bench and chit chatting in this workout. We keep the intensity high the whole time and the workout is complete in 45 minutes.

Incorporating strength training and reducing the amount of aerobic cardiovascular training was integral to his success. The ONLY tissue in the body that burns fat is Muscle. So the more muscle you have in your body, the more fat you're burning at any given time during the day. The amount of muscle you have in your body also greatly affects your metabolism. So someone with more muscle mass will have a higher metabolism (This is why most men can eat a lot more than women). For example, one pound of muscle in your body requires approximately 50 calories per day. So if I had two people, both weighing 150lbs, but one was comprised of 100lbs of muscle while the other was comprised of 120lbs of muscle, the one with the more muscle mass is burning more calories all day long. That means that this person can eat more during the day and still maintain their weight and will also have an easier time losing weight. Aerobic training does burn calories while you're doing it, but it does not do anything to increase the amount of muscle in your body, thus it does not help you to continue to burn calories when you're done

2. Rory only did aerobic cardiovascular exercise using interval training. This concept could encompass a whole article unto itself, but basically, your body becomes accustomed to anything that you expose it to for long periods of time. Aerobic cardiovascular exercise makes your body more efficient at burning fat. But that's exactly what you don't want (If your car was more efficient at burning gas, you'd use less of it). Same with your body. If your body becomes efficient at burning fat, you burn less of it for the same amount of work. So instead of burning 200 calories for your 2 mile run, you may burn 150 calories for the same distance in 2 months. So you'll have to increase the distance and continue to do this, just to burn the same 200 calories. This can eventually turn into running for an hour just to burn the same number of calories! I don't know about you, but this is exactly what I don't want to do.

Interval training refers to a series of intense activity separated with short rest periods. You want to make sure that you are constantly changing the intensity of your cardio workout during the whole workout, alternating from high intensity to low intensity. So a typical workout on an elliptical machine would be 5 min warmup, 1 minute at a high intensity (level 9or 10), then 2 minutes at a lower intensity (level 3 or 4). You would repeat this 3 minute round 3 or 4 times, gradually increasing the intensities once you feel like it's getting easy. Cool down for 5 minutes, and that is a total of 19-22 minutes of cardio, not 1 hour! Keep your body guessing the whole time and it will not become accustomed to the same cardio workout.

Stay tuned for Part 2

Guava – The wonder fruit for Diabetics and Dieting!

Fruits are always great to eat. Especially if they grow right off your garden. Living in a city, having a garden with lots of fruit trees are such luxury! I remember those days, back in those smaller towns having these lovely guava trees, banana and mangoes, including many other delicious fruit bearing trees.

When it comes to fruits, guava undoubtedly tops in taste if you get the right one! It is especially recommended for people who are on diet or for diabetics.

Guava controls diabetes and it is good for constipation. Guavas are high in vitamin A and vitamin C and contain high amounts of dietary fiber. This fruit is a reasonably good source of potassium, which can assist in regulating blood pressure.

Scientists in India have come to the conclusion that guavas consumed with the skin can actually raise blood sugar levels almost immediately. For people suffering from diabetes, it is best to peel off the skin.

Nutritional value:

This is a relatively inexpensive fruit and is a rich source of vitamin C. It has maximum amount of vitamin C compared to other fruit except Indian gooseberry. It contains four to ten times more vitamin C than do some citrus fruits. The vitamin C is an antioxidant helping to neutralise potentially harmful free radicals. 100 gms of country variety of guava provides 212 mg of vitamin C where as hill variety have only 15 mg of vitamin C per 100 gm. The guava contains very little vitamin A or carotene but it is fairly rich in most other mineral elements. Even though country variety have small amount of carotene (pro vitamin A) it is of alpha type (poor variety).

Country and hill varieties of guava give 51 kcal and 38 kcal of energy per 100 gms. The relative less content of calories in guava makes it suitable for diabetes and weight reducing programmes.

Gauva is the only fruit that can be had by Diabetic patient on daily basis.

Source: Nutritional values taken from Internet.

Simple and Quick Potato Sandwiches!

Sunday breakfast was different from the usual this weekend. Every Sunday, its always Poori that adores the table along with different gravies. But since we had an outing planned and hubby dear insisting on not eating pooris, I thought given the time and scope, Sandwiches were the best bet. I was reminded of the many varieties, that I used to make for myself, during my early years of cooking. I have always been very fond of bread and experimented with different varieties. But hubby dear was not so keen bread in the early years, as its tagged as a food to eat during illness. Only the last decade, has seen a great change in approach, to many towards bread.

Now hubby dear prefers bread for most days and on top whole wheat loafs. We discovered a bakery near our house, from which we get our bread fresh from oven. Given my distance with baking these days, getting freshly baked loafs are a boon! So having decided on sandwich, I remembered Mint stuffing that I used to love, then I knew I may not be able to convince Konda to eat this. These days she has been such a darling, eating most things when I tell her that I am saying she eats without fuss in the blog. So resorted to that tagline, she even said she wanted to see where I mention that!

Since there was a time constraint, I pressure cooked potatoes before leaving. We went for a temple visit and we really enjoyed seeing the kids being so religious. Three of them were having their hands folded and ready to prostrate in front of every deity. We planned for a picnic at the temple place for the twins as we thought they will eat fast in a new place. So I was running around them, to feed. Finally after they finished their breakfast, we returned home. As expected the rest of the folks were hungry the moment we reached. So fixing their sandwich was a matter of minutes job.

Konda really enjoyed eating and was trilled at the crispy sandwiches. I made these in sandwich maker, but I normally make it over the pan, which comes out equally crispy.

Preparation time : 15 mins

Ingredients Needed:

Potatoes - 3 medium
Bread Slices - 12
Onions - 2 medium
Green Chillies - 2 long
Mint leaves - 4 -5
Salt to taste
Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp (opt)
Oil - 1 tsp
Ghee - for greasing the bread slices.

Method to prepare:

Pressure Cook Potatoes to tender. Cool and peel the skin. If you have potato masher, use it to mash it to a smooth paste. You can use your hands to mash if its well cooked.

Heat a pan with oil. Sauté the onions, finely chopped green chillies. Fry till the onions are pink. Then add the mint leaves and fry for another 2 mins.

Then add the cooked mashed potatoes, salt and garam masala if you are using.

Simmer for 2 mins. Allow it to cool.

Meanwhile, if you don't like the sides of the slices, trim them

Then top a slice with the aloo stuffing, spread well. Then press another slice over it. Grease both sides with ghee and roast either on hot tawa or in a sandwich maker.

Serve with Tomato ketchup.

Note: Remove the chilies from the stuffing for the sandwiches that you are serving your child.

The mint adds a nice zing to the sandwich. Enjoy with choice of your likings.

These are very quick and ingredients needed are not much. So another simple recipe for the Bachelors and a tasty breakfast for kids.

Mixed Vegetable Curry ~ A Bachelor's Guest Post!

When I wanted to start Spice your Life, I only wanted to concentrate on Parenting and Kids. But I was getting so many requests for Bachelor's recipes, I thought I might be able to cover it in this blog. Now what's more interesting and encouraging than getting a post from a bachelor, who is going to showcase the dishes he prepared on his own.

Sanjay Keswani is from UK and is Alka's brother in law. Now what more proof do I need to know, that recipes from Sanjay would be awesome. Alka's blog is a great resource on Sindhi cuisine and her pictures are breathtakingly beautiful. I am not kidding you can check it out yourself. So I jumped the gun when she said her BIL cooks.

Ok I don't want to crowd his post, lets go straight to see what's been simmering in our bachelor's kitchen! I have not modified anything.

Mixed Vegetable Curry - By Sanjay Keswani

Ingredients:

Onions 3
Tomatoes 2
Green chillies 2 or more
2 or more cups of chopped Mixed vegetables like cauliflower,potatoes,sweetcorn,peas,carrots etc)
Turmeric powder 1/4 tspn
Coriander powder 1 1/2 tspn
cumin powder 1/4 tspn
Garam masala powder 1/2 tspn
Kitchen king masala(optional) just a pinch
Oil 1 tbspn(or less if cooking in nonstick pan)
Salt as per taste

Method:

Peel and chop onions finely(A daunting task)
Take 1 tbspn oil in a nonstick pan or handi
Sauté onions in this oil till they turn brownish in colour
Add tomatoes and all dry masalas and fry well
Add small chunks of potato,mix properly and then add water
Add salt ,mix properly and let it cook for sometime till potatoes are half done
Then add all other vegetables(The frozen pack of mix vegetables available in UK is very handy and also get cooked fast,but you can use fresh vegetables cleaned and chopped,and saute them for few seconds before adding them to curry)
Let the vegetables cook,on minimum flame and adjust consistency of curry as per your requirements
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with Rotis or Pita bread or even bread.

All bachelors out there, do try this as its sure Sanjay enjoyed his meal.

Making breakfast interesting for kids ~ Mini Breakfast dishes!

Getting kids to eat is always a constant complaint I hear from most mothers. Young adults, as most of us, are most interested in junk food rather than healthy food based on vegetables or lentils.And including fruits in their diet is even more difficult. My daughter, who is now 7 years old, has always been very picky eater. She was only on milk till she was 6 months, then when it was time start weaning, we started including dal and fruits. We tried Nestum Rice, Farex but she didn't like them. Finally we settled supplementing her diet with Cerelac. She was on Cerlac for almost till she was 10 months old.

Its been the same with my twins.We took the twins for monthly checkup which involved vaccines and discussions on their diet. I was more lucky that the doctors were my Dad's colleagues. I felt the difference because friends used to say they were never told on such things. That's when I thought I should record all these informations to help young mothers better. My twins are now 23 months and its been a journey of sorts when it came to their food habit. Luckily they were not so fussy with food, when compared to my daughter. The reasons could be that since she was the only child then, she had almost attentions of five adults. Now with the twins, since we were boggled with so much work, we just about went taking care of them, though the attention was no less, it may not have been so intense as the first and only child gets.

I plan to write about the food habits and how we managed. Suggestions and ideas on those will be most welcome. For now let me kickstart this with a simple topic on making food interesting and exciting for young adults of age group 3-10 years. No matter which age group they belong, if the child knows that the food is prepared specially for him/her, tends to take interest in eating it. I have found this works always atleast with my daughter. Till she was about 3 years, we used to prepare dal specially for her, which she used to eat without fuss. We tried different ways to include vegetables. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not.

When she started going to school, she had to take packed lunches. I literally used to get nightmares, thinking what to pack. So Amma got these mini idli moulds, which was really exciting for my daughter. She used to ask specifically for those idles. I even sent two plates for my SIL kids and was happy to know they were packing these with gusto!

What you see in this post are few of the breakfast items that I make in small size, to make them look more interesting.

Simple Dal powder smeared with ghee over the mini idlis or mini Dosas make it so interesting. I even allow my daughter to make the dosa while I am overseeing it. I don't normally allow her, but am planning to involve her more going forward.

Small Pooris are so much interesting, though it might be hard to roll them out, my daughter proudly says she ate 3-4 pooris.


Trying to give small servings in frequent intervals makes it more easy for the kids, rather than forcing them to eat three full meals. And making it more interesting by doing these and also involving them, makes things easy for us.

Looking forward to your ideas on this topic. Do share with me what you do with your kid's breakfast!

Potato Masala ~ Delightfully Simple Feast!

Poori Kelangu is a term that evokes fond memories! I never knew this term almost until few years back and when I heard this being referred it almost reflected the attachment this dish has for many. It was in the hills of Kodaikanal that I heard the potato masala served with Pooris, being referred as Kelangu. The road side shops excelled in serving hot pooris with yummy kelangu. The chill mornings did nothing but added more joy being treated with this combo for a breakfast.

Pooris on Sundays have always been the way at home for many years. I guess almost ever! Only for a while it got alternated with Appam. But we are back on track. At parents place, its always Potato Masala or Channa Masala or Pessarappu Kura. I have continued the tradition after marriage. Though I don't really like potato much, this simple dish is something that's much cherished.


The first in the series for simple quick dishes for Bachelors, is Potato Masala. Of course, this is well known to all. Still I have tasted so many different varieties. It was to my utter disbelief I found recently that I had blogged on this simple dish. I make this in different ways and I believe all of them are simple, yet this variety gets done in 10 -15 mins of time. This is almost the same way its done for Masala dosa, yet sightly different when its accompanying Pooris.

Another thing that I am very particular is, the amount of Onions added. I like more of Onions in the potato, that it could well be called an Onion dish. Plus I like it as juliennes. It gives a distinct taste to the dish when you munch on the onion chunks while you sap up the hot pooris in it. This version is not very spicy, so makes it a great Kids dish too!

Preparation Time : 10 mins
Cooking Time : 10 mins
Serves :

Ingredients Needed:

Potatoes - 250 gms
Onions - 250 gms
Green chillies - 4 long chopped in middle
Cashew Nuts - 5 whole
Curry leaves - 5-8 leaves
Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tsp
Turmeric a pinch
Water - 1/2 cup

Method to prepare:

Wash and cut the potatoes to half. When you are pressure cooking Potatoes, its always best if you chop them in middle and cook. This way it gets cooked fast. Once its done, peel the skin and roughly mash them. You will have small to big chunks of pieces.

Chop onions as juliennes. Heat a pan with oil. Add mustard seeds, curry leaves, then add cashew nuts. Saute well. Add onions and fry for 2 mins in high flame.

The Onions should not turn brown. When it starts turning pink, add the salt and turmeric. Mix well.

Then add the potatoes and combine all together. Simmer for 2 mins. Then add the water and bring to boil.

It should not be too thick or running. Since you mash few potato pieces to almost paste, it will give thickness to the gravy.

Serve with deep fried delights, there is no words to describe this yummy combination. Puffed Pooris served with this yummy potato masala, sure makes you giddy with delight!