Looking for a great dessert or special treat? These make-ahead popsicles will disappear quickly. Learn how to make these healthy Kefir popsicles today.
We all know eating ice cream all the time isn’t the smartest option when it comes to being conscious about our food choices. If you happen to have a weak spot for ice cream or popsicles but don’t want all the yucky stuff that is found in most of them, these popsicles are a great alternative to satisfy that craving. Plus, these healthy Kefir popsicles are a great way to incorporate kefir’s probiotic health benefits into our diet. And sweet or tart, you can adjust the honey to suit your taste.
Whatyouneed for this recipe
3 C. Plain Unsweetened Kefir Cultured Milk Smoothie
1/2 – 3/4 C. Raw Honey
1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
1 C. Fruit
Howtomake this recipe
Place fruit into popsicle molds.
Blend kefir, vanilla, and honey in blender or ninja until smooth.
Pour into popsicle molds, insert sticks, and place in the freezer until frozen.
To unmold the popsicles, hold the mold under lukewarm water for a few seconds until the popsicles release.
Recipe Tips
You’ll need to scale the ingredient amounts to the size of your popsicle molds. The basic formula you’ll want to follow is 2/3 base + 1/3 fruit to fill each mold.
Always taste your mixture before freezing to make sure it’s a little sweeter than what you like. Remember that things are not as sweet to your taste buds when frozen.
I had fresh blackberries, raspberries, and pomergranate so that is what I put in these pops. You can use any fresh or frozen fruit that you enjoy.
I used the smoothie cup that came with my Ninja to blend the kefir mixture. It makes just the right amount to fill my 6 molds.
If the pops aren’t completely frozen, they may break or may not come out of the molds completely.
Make Red, White, and Blue Popsicles: Place 1 pound strawberries, hulled and chopped, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons honey in blender and puree until smooth. Fill the into popsicle molds 1/3 full with the strawberry purée and freeze until it’s firm, about 2 hours. Next, whisk two tablespoons honey into 1 cup Plain Unsweetened Kefir Cultured Milk Smoothie until well-combined. Remove the popsicles from the freezer and create the middle layer by evenly spooning the sweetened kefir into each of the popsicles. Gently push blueberries into the middle layer leaving enough room in the mold for the final puree layer. Place back into the freezer and freeze until firm but still soft enough to be able to put the sticks in. For the final layer finish filling each mold with the remaining strawberry puree. Insert sticks and return to the freezer until all layers are set, preferably overnight.
Fun mix-ins: crushed peanut butter cup pieces, peanut butter poweder and chocolate chips, 2-3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder per cup of kefir, add a pureed banana to the kefir mixture, crushed oreos, replace 1/3 the kefir with chopped mango, strawberries, peaches, or your favorite fruit for a fruity popsicle base,
Make them fancy: Pour melted chocolate into a tall, narrow glass, or something that fits the popsicle with just a little room around and dip your pop into it. Place in freezer on a baking sheet lined with parchment and then dip the next one. Repeat until you have dipped all the pops 3 – 4 times and there is a solid coating of chocolate on your popsicles. On the final dipping, gently roll your popsicle in your topping of choice. Chopped nuts, coconut, tiny candies, sprinkles, or dried fruit bits all make great toppings.
We have been using YS Eco Bee Farms Raw Honey for the last several years because we have found that it offers the maximum level of antioxidants and healing agents. This company is a pioneer in organic bee farming so their honey does not contain any pesticides, herbicides or pollutants. Two places that I know you can find it are on Amazon and Kroger Ship.
What is Kefir? Pronounced like Kee-fer Sutherland or Keh-fer that rhymes with Heifer, it is an amazing yogurt-like drink that has tons of health benefits. One of them being that it is loaded with probiotics that can boost our immune system.
In addition to these great popsicles, I’ve also been doing protein shakes. Have you started using protein powder? Do you know how many scoops you should be using a day? If you’ve got questions about adding protein powder into your diet, you gotta check out this informative post: https://totalshape.com/supplements/how-many-scoops-of-protein-powder/
Weight Watchers Get Healthy Freestyle Journey
GOT CRAVINGS? You Can Banish Them!
It’s been a while since I posted. But I’m back on the wagon and it’s time to continue our journey into health and wellness. Thank you, for joining me as I reflect on the past weeks and explore the new! After my last post my laptop had to be repaired, then I went to my parents to visit, and before I knew it a month had slipped away from me. Last week we received Kiss Your Cravings Goodbye so this post is about how and why it works. Keep reading to learn more.
KISS YOUR CRAVINGS GOODBYE is a revolutionary lip treatment that curbs cravings with its all-natural formula made from a blend of essential oils & rare plant extracts. Upon application, this formula induces thirst, redirecting your urge to snack to hydrating with water instead. Additionally, the physical activity of applying the lip gloss temporarily shifts focus away from snacking, helping to modify your behavior with consistent use. It is available on Amazon and directly on their website.
It is currently available in NO-SIN cinnamon™ (cinnamon flavor), they have introduced two new mint flavors, NO-DISCOURAGE mint™ (Peppermint), and NO-REGRET mint™ (Wintergreen). They sent us samples of all three to try!
Ready to break up with junk food?
Try lip sensation FOR TRICKING TEMPTATION.
This product works as a “Behave-Aid” to help you redirect your mind away from junk food, and focus instead on hydration.
HERE IS HOW KISS YOUR CRAVINGS GOODBYE WORKS SO WELL:
This lip moisturizer was formulated with a proprietary blend of essential oils, rare plant extracts and lip-conditioning agents that simultaneously curb your lust for junk food and leave your lips feeling smooth & hydrated.
Using KISS YOUR CRAVINGS GOODBYE changes the methodology of cravings by adding the physical activity of applying the lip moisturizer. This will temporarily shift focus away from snacking and help modify behavior by replacing the urge with a tangible action. Therefore, the more consistently you use it, the more effective it is.
Working the moment you apply it, the moisturizer hydrates your lips and makes you thirsty redirecting your impulse to drink water instead of reaching for junk food.
ORGANIC & NATURAL FLAVORS INGREDIENTS: Natural Flavors, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Bran Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Fruit Butter, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil. CONTAINS: Tree Nut Oil (Almonds).
KISS YOUR CRAVINGS GOODBYE is a Behave-Aid® or a behavior modification tool. Using it changes the methodology of cravings by adding the physical activity of applying the lip moisturizer. This will temporarily shift focus away from snacking and help modify behavior by replacing the urge with a tangible action. Once KYCG is applied, the essential oils freshen your breath and moisten your lips, while slightly drying your mouth. This triggers thirst and your cravings are redirected to water.
I’ve been using the NO-SIN cinnamon since it arrived last week and am loving it! This product really does deliver what it promises. I am huge carb craver and had been working on modifying my behavior. Six months ago I went from eating huge amounts of carbs to eating them in moderation. However, I was still craving certain ones. Like, pasta dishes, artisan breads, and most of all sour candy. Since I’ve been using this lip moisturizer not only do my lips feel and look so much better but doing so has helped me get rehydrated. Even after a visit to the doctor and a concentrated effort to drink more water, I’ve had a long, hard struggle with dehydration this summer. I love having this great tool in my arsenal to battle both my cravings and dehydration.
KISS YOUR CRAVINGS GOODBYE
Stop focusing on the scale! Our weight is just a number and it doesn’t define who we are. Rather than just focusing on our weight, we should be focusing on the bigger picture — on our general health and wellbeing.
Weight Watchers Freestyle Progam – Learn more.
How my freestyle weight loss week went:
With preparations for Hurricane Florence in full swing, and me back on track I stepped on the scale to face the reality of my detour. Yes, it was only a detour because I’m back on the road to success. I was excited to see that I hadn’t done to much damage and can keep moving forward. Since I had gained two pounds, my goal of reaching 50 pounds lost before our trip to Richmond in September may not be in the cards but I’ll be there before and after Halloween. Now, that’s a holiday that diet nightmares are made of. Until next week… Remember to stay positive and keep looking forward.
OnlinePlus – Put the power of Weight Watchers in the palm of your hand. Learn more.
We love hearing from our readers. Please share your thoughts, tips, and insights with us by leaving a comment below or on my Facebook fan page. Facebook fan page.
I am not a medical professional. The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
Weight Watchers Get Healthy Freestyle Journey Week 27
How Much Food Does It Take To Gain Weight?
It’s MONDAY and time once again to continue our journey into health and wellness. Thank you, for joining me as I reflect on the past week and explore the new! This week I as was looking for motivation for this post I started thinking about how I got to where I’m at. This is not the first time that I’ve had 100+ pounds to lose. How did I, after 10 years of keeping all 147 pounds that I previously lost off, did I find myself right back in the same boat? What changed so that I began gaining what I had worked so hard to lose back? Keep reading to learn what I discovered.
If you’ve ever eaten a ridiculously huge meal and ended up feeling that you were ready to explode, you’ve probably thought that you instantly gained weight. Well, there’s good news and bad news.
Good News
What you eat or overeat does not instantly turn into weight gain.
Bad News
How much you eat over the course of a few days or a week, however, can result in weight gain.
“Weight gain simply happens when we have an imbalance between the kilojoules* we’re eating and the kilojoules we’re burning off,” Jemma O’Hanlon told HuffPost Australia. “It doesn’t occur just from one meal — it’s when this imbalance occurs over a period of time that weight gain can creep up on us.” – Huffington Post Australia
If you’re moderately active, you need about 15 to 16 calories per pound of body weight to maintain a healthy weight, according to the University of Washington and Harvard Medical School. However, as with anything related to the body, the amount of food we need to eat before it ends up as body weight depends on the individual. Each person has their own energy requirement which varies depending on numerous factors such as age, height, illness, and activity. Also, the rate at which we burn calories, otherwise known as your metabolism, varies from person to person.
Not surprisingly, since weight gain occurs when we don’t burn off the calories we consume the amount of food it takes to gain weight varies from person to person. One pound of stored fat comes from 3,436 to 3,752 extra calories. You can gain 1 pound per week by consuming roughly an extra 475 calories each day. That’s the equivalent to two slices of pizza or two iced doughnuts!
*1 Calorie = 4.2 Kilojoules
Reality Check ~ Lifestyle Changes
Eat Until Your Full. It’s often when we eat past the point of being full that we’re likely to gain weight. Eat slowly and listen to your body. Stop when you feel comfortably satisfied. If you’re eating until you’re stuffed full, chances are you’re eating more than your body needs.
Eat In Balance. When it comes to eating in balance, one meal can’t ruin your weight loss efforts. The key is to enjoy all foods in the right balance. Keep portions lean and focus on eating smart.
It’s much easier to gain weight than it is to lose weight. It takes almost 20 minutes of jogging to burn 80 calories. That glass of wine you drank with dinner takes approximately 40 minutes of brisk walking for your body to burn off.
Weight is influenced by what and how much you eat. You gain weight immediately when eating food or drinking liquids. You initially gain precisely as much as the food or the drink weighs. What happens after that depends on what you ate and on your energy-balance. Whether you’re taking in more energy than you’re spending or using more energy than you’re taking in will determine if you gain or lose weight.
Timeline for weight gain. The process of ingestion, digestion, and egestion occurs over a span of roughly 12 hours on average. That’s the time it takes for the residual waste of food to pass out of us. The useable parts have all been put to use for energy expenditure, as heat generation, or placed into storage, as either glycogen or fat.
Although the question seems extraordinarily simple one, there is not a simple answer to it. While it is easy to say how long it takes for your body to digest food, it is very difficult to answer the question, how quickly does it add weight to my body? That’s a very individual phenomenon, based not only on the make-up of someone’s diet but on their unique hormonal and physiologic response to it.
I gained the weight back because not only did I quit being active and kept eating the same way I did when I was burning lots of extra calories. But, I also started to eat lots of the wrong types of the foods. The weight gain didn’t happen overnight. It was years of eating poorly and sitting in front of the computer for hours. Now, I am working on finding a proper balance in my life.
Stop focusing on the scale! Our weight is just a number and it doesn’t define who we are. Rather than just focusing on our weight, we should be focusing on the bigger picture — on our general health and wellbeing.
Our weight is just a number and it doesn’t define who we are. Rather than just focusing on our weight, we should be focusing on the bigger picture — on our general health and wellbeing.
How my freestyle weight loss week went:
I am still struggling to get and stay hydrated so the battle continues to drink and eat more water. With the two teens gone, this week was very quiet! Just two trips to Charleston for physical therapy and the pain specialist. We stopped by the store and restocked I was shocked at how much yogurt and cereal they ate. I sure do miss them though.
With preparations for back to school in full swing, before we knew it Sunday was here and it was time to step on the scale. I was excited to see that I had lost two pounds this week. I am two pounds closer to my goal of reaching 50 pounds lost before our trip to Richmond in September. Until next week… Remember to stay positive and keep looking forward.
OnlinePlus – Put the power of Weight Watchers in the palm of your hand. Learn more.
We love hearing from our readers. Please share your thoughts, tips, and insights with us by leaving a comment below or on my Facebook fan page. Facebook fan page.
I am not a medical professional. The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
Weight Watchers Get Healthy Freestyle Journey Week 24
How Long Does it Really Take to Form a Habit?
It’s MONDAY and time once again to continue our journey into health and wellness. Thank you, for joining me as I reflect on the past week and explore the new! I started my journey January 24th so I will hit the 6-month milestone soon!! With this milestone on the horizon, I wanted to see how long it would take for the changes I had been making to become a habit. How long before my new behaviors become automatic?
Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon in the 1950s. He began noticing a strange pattern among his patients and wrote about these experiences. He wrote that “These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.” In 1960, Maltz published that quote and his other thoughts on behavior change in a book called Psycho-Cybernetics. The book sold more than 30 million copies. And that’s when the problem started.
In the decades that followed, Maltz’s work influenced nearly every major “self-help” professional from Zig Ziglar to Tony Robbins. As more people cited Maltz they began to omit the part where he said “a minimum of about 21 days” and shortened it to, It takes 21 days to form a new habit. If enough people say something, then everyone starts to believe it.
It makes sense why the “21 Day” myth would spread. It’s easy to understand and the time frame is short enough to be inspiring but long enough to be believable. Who wouldn’t like the idea of changing their life in just three weeks!?
How Long it Really Takes to Build a New Habit
Phillippa Lally, a health psychology researcher at University College London and her research team’s published study in the European Journal of Social Psychology, How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world examined the habits of 96 people over a 12-week period. Each person chose one new habit for the 12 weeks and reported each day on whether or not they did the behavior and how automatic the behavior felt. While some people chose simple habits like drinking a bottle of water with lunch, others chose more difficult tasks like running for 15 minutes before dinner. At the end of the 12 weeks, the researchers analyzed the data to determine how long it took each person to go from starting a new behavior to automatically doing it.
They found that on average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic. 66 days to be exact! How long it takes a new habit to form can vary widely depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances. In Lally’s study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit. Thus, indicating considerable variation in how long it takes people to reach their limit of automaticity. For some, it can take a very long time.
If we want to set our expectations realistically, the truth is that it will probably take anywhere from two to eight months to ingrain a new behavior into our life — a new habit is not created 21 days.
However, even though there is no 21 day fix, there is some GOOD NEWS! The researchers also found that missing one opportunity to perform the behavior did not materially affect the habit formation process. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you mess up every now and then. Building better habits is not an all-or-nothing process.
Finding Inspiration
Learn to love the journey. There is no reason to get down on yourself if you try something for a few weeks and it doesn’t become a habit. It’s supposed to take longer than that! Embrace the long, slow path to greatness and focus on each step.
You don’t have to be perfect. Give yourself permission a mistake once or twice as it has no measurable impact on your long-term habits. Treat failure like a scientist and develop strategies for getting back on track quickly.
All of the 21 Day hype can make it really easy to think, “Oh, I’ll just do this and it’ll be done.” But habits never work that way. Understanding this from the beginning will make it easier to manage your expectations and commit to making small, incremental improvements. Rather than pressuring yourself into thinking that you have to do it all at once, embrace the process of change.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how long it takes to form a particular habit. Whether it takes 21 days or 500 days, you have to put in the work either way.
Everything from eating well to responsible spending to task completion and beyond requires habits that make such behaviors part of our daily life. — Jason Selk Forbes.com
Weight Watchers Freestyle Progam – Learn more.
? SELF LOVE ? When you love yourself more things simply become lighter and easier.
Increasing self-esteem and self-love makes you feel more deserving of good things in life. You’ll self-sabotage less and go after what you want with more motivation and focus
How my freestyle weight loss week went:
I am still having a hard time staying hydrated so this week was spent once again drinking water and eating foods with high water content, and drinking more water. In addition to spending some time working on our blog and tending the garden, I spent several days helping my aunt with her place (The new floor is going in today.) and we did our monthly shopping trip along with two medical appointments. With so much time spent at her place and on the road, I’ve not had time to prepare meals. Several lunches and dinners have been frozen meals or sandwiches. I wish our local IGA had a healthier selection of them. With a busy week and my poor eating, I knew it it was was not going to be a good time when I stepped on the scale. This week I gained the two pounds I lost last week back. Not the end of the world but NOT something I plan on repeating this week either! Until next week… Remember to stay positive and keep looking forward.
OnlinePlus – Put the power of Weight Watchers in the palm of your hand. Learn more.
Make it a habit to leave a comment below or on my Facebook fan page when you stop by.
I am not a medical professional. The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
Weight Watchers Get Healthy Freestyle Journey Week 23
How Gut Bacteria Influences Your Weight
It’s MONDAY and time to continue our journey into health and wellness. Thank you, for joining me as I reflect on the past week and explore the new! Like me, many people have trouble losing weight. For us, it comes off slowly or not at all. We often find ourselves blaming our lack of willpower, poor genes, age, or any number of other excuses in an effort to explain and accept why. One cause that I hadn’t considered until reflecting on a recent visit to the doctor was the health of my guts. You see, he stated that there are very few supplements that he recommends his patients take. And probiotics and fish oil are two of them. So I set out to discover if there was a correlation between gut health and weight loss.
Did you know that your body contains trillions of bacteria? It does and the majority of these bacteria are located in your intestines. So it’s no surprise that gut bacteria plays several important roles in your health. I00
They Affect How Your Food Is Digested
Since your gut bacteria line your intestines, they come into contact with the food you eat. This may affect what nutrients you absorb and how energy is stored in your body.
Humans can’t digest fiber but certain gut bacteria can. By digesting fiber, these gut bacteria produce a number of chemicals that benefit gut health and possibly promote weight loss. A number of studies have shown that people with a high fiber diet have a lower weight and a recent study found that the ratio of two types of bacteria in your intestines may determine how much weight you lose when given a particular diet. These two bacteria are Prevotella, which digests fiber and carbohydrates, and Bacteroidetes, which people who eat more animal protein and fat have more of.
Also, gut bacteria digest certain antioxidants known as flavonoids that are found in plants. Which may help prevent weight gain. Finally, your gut bacteria can influence how dietary fats are absorbed in the intestines, which may affect how fat is stored in the body.
Your gut bacteria play an important role in inflammation.
Inflammation not only occurs when your body activates your immune system to fight infection. It can also be caused by an unhealthy diet. A diet containing too much fat, sugar or calories can lead to elevated inflammatory chemicals in the bloodstream and fat tissue, which may contribute to weight gain. Some species of bacteria produce chemicals like lipopolysaccharide (LPS) which cause inflammation when they pass into the bloodstream. In fact a National Center for Biotechnology Information publication, Metabolic endotoxemia initiates obesity and insulin resistance, states that when mice are given LPS, they gain as much weight and have similar increases in blood sugar and insulin as mice fed a high-fat diet. Therefore, certain gut bacteria that produce LPS and cause inflammation may contribute to weight gain and even insulin resistance.
However, Bifidobacteria and Akkermansia are beneficial species of bacteria that help prevent inflammatory chemicals from passing from the gut into the bloodstream. Increasing these species of intestinal bacteria may reduce inflammation and prevent weight gain. They can be grown outside the body and then taken by mouth as medicine. Bifidobacteria belong to a group of bacteria called lactic acid bacteria. You can get these Lactic acid bacteria by eating fermented foods like live-cultured yogurt and cheese. In addition to taking a probiotic, Akkermansia can also be increased by consuming polyphenol-rich foods, such as pomegranate, grape polyphenols like grape seed extract, and cranberries.
Chemicals That Help You Feel Full
Your body produces hormones that affect your appetite, including leptin, ghrelin, peptide YY (PYY). Some studies have shown that different bacteria in the gut can affect how much of these hormones are produced and whether you feel hungry or full.
Short-chain fatty acids are chemicals that are produced when certain species of gut bacteria break down fiber. One of these is known as propionate. In one study it was found that taking propionate for 24 weeks significantly increased levels of the hormones PYY and GLP-1, both of which influence hunger. Other studies have shown that prebiotics supplements, which contain compounds that are fermented by gut bacteria, can have a similar effect on appetite.
Additionally, a study by the Louvain Drug Research Institute found that people who took 16 grams of prebiotics per day for two weeks had higher levels of hydrogen in their breath. This increase indicates gut bacterial fermentation, resulting in less hunger and higher levels of the hormones GLP-1 and PYY, which make you feel full.
Top 10 Probiotic Foods to Add to Your Diet
Live Cultured Yogurt. Look for brands made from goat’s milk which are particularly high in probiotics like thermophillus, bifudus, and bulgaricus. They can also be infused with extra forms of probiotics like lactobacillus or acidophilus.
Kefir. This fermented dairy product is similar to yogurt and is a combination of goat’s milk and fermented kefir grains.
Dark Chocolate. While chocolate itself doesn’t contain probiotics, it has been found to be a very effective carrier for probiotics. Yes, one more reason to eat chocolate!!!
Microalgae. While not a probiotic itself, microalgae can act as a prebiotic. This means that it feeds and nourishes the probiotics already in your gut.
Pickles. Most vegetables can be pickled and they are packed with prime probiotics.
Cultured Vegetables: Sauerkraut and Kimchi. Made from fermented cabbage, and sometimes other vegetables, sauerkraut is extremely rich in healthy live cultures. If you can handle the spice of an extremely spicy and sour fermented cabbage, kimchi is one of the best probiotic foods you can add to your diet.
Miso. Made from fermented rye, beans, rice or barley, miso is full of lactobacilli and bifidus bacteria. Add a tablespoon of miso to hot water for a quick, probiotic-rich soup.
Tempeh. Tempeh is a fermented, probiotic-rich grain made from soybeans. It is a great substitute for meat or tofu.
Raw Cheese. Goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, and A2 cow’s soft cheeses are particularly high in probiotics. Make sure that you buy raw and unpasteurized cheeses to receive any probiotics.
Kombucha Tea. This fermented tea contains high amounts of healthy gut bacteria. For centuries, this probiotic drink has been used to help increase energy and enhance well-being.
On the other hand, eating some foods in excess may harm your gut bacteria. These are:
Sugary foods. A diet high in sugar can stimulate the growth of certain unhealthy bacteria in the gut.
Artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharin reduce beneficial bacteria in the intestines and may contribute to high blood sugar.
Unhealthy fats. While eating healthy fats such as omega-3s helps support beneficial bacteria in the intestines, eating too many saturated fats may contribute to the growth of disease-causing bacteria.
Fried and Processed Foods. Like sugar, they break down into components that feed the less hospitable bacteria in your gut
Gluten. Even if you’re not gluten-sensitive, eating gluten can have significant, long-term effects on your gut bacteria. Gluten is a type of protein that’s found in many grains, including wheat, rye, and barley.
Red Meat. While having the occasional steak isn’t likely to throw your whole system off, eating a diet that’s meat-heavy can be tough on your body. Research has shown that eating a lot of red meat affects your gut bacteria fast. Also, chances are that it’s got some antibiotics in it since 80% of antibiotics used in the U.S. are given to livestock!
Don’t worry that if you can’t avoid all of these things all the time. You’re not doomed to poor gut health. Do what you can to live a gut-healthy life by eating from the top ten list and giving your microbiome the support it needs to thrive by taking an effective probiotic to repopulate your beneficial gut bacteria. While we are just beginning to understand the role of gut bacteria in obesity and the science hasn’t led to treatments that will make it easier to lose weight, I believe that day is coming.
If our gut has more bad bacteria, it can be harder to lose weight.
When we eat food, our gut breaks it down into small pieces. Only the smallest pieces get absorbed into our blood. The rest is eliminated as waste material. In other words, not all of the calories in the food we eat get into our body and increase our weight. Some bacteria are better able to chop food into those smallest pieces that get digested, add calories to our body and thereby tend to increase our weight.
? SELF LOVE ? Nothing can stop you from achieving your goal if you have the right mental attitude.
Believe in yourself, listen to your gut, and do what you love. -Dylan Lauren
How my freestyle weight loss week went:
This week was spent drinking water and eating foods with high water content, and drinking more water. In addition to spending some time working on our blog and tending the garden, I spent several days helping my aunt with her place. Marcus got into the pickles I made last Monday. He couldn’t wait the two weeks they needed to “mature.” Even with all the physical work at my aunt’s place, I continued to do my new exercise routine. With a busy week before I knew it it was time to step on the scale once again. This week even with all that water I drank, I lost two pounds. Hopefully, with continued hydration, I’ll keep seeing negative numbers. Until next week… Remember to stay positive and keep looking forward.
OnlinePlus – Put the power of Weight Watchers in the palm of your hand. Learn more.
Spill your guts by leaving a comment below or on my Facebook fan page.
I am not a medical professional. The contents of this website are for educational purposes and are not intended to offer personal medical advice. You should seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
