Cellulite- a bumpy orange peel or cottage cheese-like appearance of the skin found mostly on the hips, thighs and buttocks, is the bane of about 90% women, regardless if they are fat or slim.
Improper diet and lack of physical activity are the leading causes of accumulation of fluid, toxins and waste products in the body that bring about the formation of cellulite, therefore, you have to change to a healthy diet and exercise regularly to get rid of cellulite.
Eat a well balance diet that contains a high amount of fibers, lean proteins and complex carbohydrates, add fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet as well. Researchers have found that Vitamin C, which helps the body rid itself of toxins, plays a role in eliminating cellulite, so make sure you have plenty of it in your diet.

Besides a healthy diet, the most effective and long lasting way of getting rid of cellulite is by performing cardiovascular exercises like jogging, cycling, running, and performing weight training exercises, which increases the amount of blood flowing through your body and helps to flush out toxins in even the most difficult areas. The toner your body is, the better blood circulation becomes and the faster the dimply cellulite reduces.

I have always wondered – “Who wants to cook for ONE ???”   While knowing it is important for my diet and weight watchers lifestyle routine since home made meals are normally the healthier choice, as I tend to enjoy groceries shopping and cooking, doing so only for myself had always made me buying and making more food then I was suppose to in order to freshly satisfy my single little stomach. More then that, I used to feel guilty for wasting extra foods when throwing away the leftovers while there are millions of hungry children out there.  In a recent conversation with my BFF single gey guy, who usually gets to spend dinner time by himself since working late hours, he confessed to really enjoy healthy meals at home, which help his diet, time and wallet.  I was managed to adopt some of his `single person cooking for himself`secrets and this is the outcome:

•  Save time by planning weekly, for cooking 2-3 different meals, then go shopping.

• While shopping, save money by start thinking in terms of portions, rather than recipes.

• Plan on using leftovers in order to create one extra meal.

• Buy only what you Know you`ll eat during that week, considering products you can take to work as well, like fruits, snacks, yogurt and etc.

• Creat more then one dish that build on similar ingredients and cut the fresh vegetables for two meals ahead in order to ease the next day cooking preparation.

• Use your freezer, however split whatever you are about to freeze into small portions put into ziploc sealed plastic bags. Then, you can defrost the correct amount of food you wish to cook that day. 

• Marinate the meat, pork, chicken or fish in the morning, before you go to work. It takes about 5 minuets and save you many more minuets later, when you are ready to prepare your meal.

If you wish to share more great ideas on how to cook for single person while eating right and saving waste of time and money please add your comment and share it with everybody! 

Thanks! 

Dark circles under eyes usually are not necessarily a sign of exhaustion or serious illness, like most people tend to think. They can make you feel old, unhealthy and tired, and medically defined as round, uniform areas of pigmentation beneath each eye, which can affect both men and women.  What appear as shadows cast by puffy eyelids or hollows under your eyes, thinning skin and loss of fat and collagen, which make the reddish-blue blood vessels under your eyes more obvious, can be a result of many sakes:  Allergies, tiredness, part of aging (The loss of fat and collagen is common as you age), normal lifestyle factors (such as smoking and drinking alcohol or too many caffeinated sodas) and last but not least reason- unfortunately- heredity.  No matter what the cause is, you can still reduce the appearance of dark circles, and in some cases, you may be able to get rid of them altogether!

For prevention you should eat healthy, balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables, take daily vitamins supplement if necessary (especially vitamin K and B12), reduce sodium intake and drink plenty of water. If you are a smoker-  quit smoking! Smoking causes vascular (blood vessel) problems that can not only threaten your life, but also make your blood vessels appear more prominent and bluer beneath the skin. However, the most natural, easy way treating dark circles when appear is to apply cool tea bags, or cucumber slices over your eyes for about 10-15 minutes daily, keeping your eyes closed. It will reduce swelling, discoloration, and puffiness then refresh the appearance of skin around the eyes!

One of the most important things you can do to protect yourself from many diseases, illnesses and early aging of the skin is to eat right and keep a healthy diet. It is the best natural powerful defense against cancer, diabetes, heart disease or stroke. Whether or not you have a family history of those diseases, what you eat and how much you eat can help reduce the risk.

What does Eating Right mean?!
Making healthy, smart choices whenever it comes to foods, on a daily base. Whether you`re eating inside or outside, gourmet food, or fast food- with today`s variety of ingredients and products, there are always better, smarter choices you can make:

• Eat at least five servings of vegetables and fruits each day!

• Choose whole grains over processed (refined) grains and sugars

• Substitute healthier fats for not-so-healthy fats

• Beware of portion distortion, and help trim down the number of calories you eat.

• Substituting lower calorie and lower fat foods for higher in calories and fats foods to help maintain a healthy diet and weight.

Don’t you just love chewing cookies plus actually eating right and fresh at the same time?! Another helpful diet secret of mine, or if I may say- a great sweet tooth saver, is keeping a box of Whole Grain baked Figs Newtons Cookies in hand. 2-3 cookies aside my afternoon cup of coffee are healthy, delightful choice for my in between meals craving. Contain only 2 grams of fat , 21 grams of carbs and 110 calories per servings, I cannot resist the real figs fill. Seriously- one of the bests tasty, healthy, real fruits and cookies combination I have ever had! A must try product for any weight watchers, dieting lifestyle or simply healthy living smart choices makers. 

Discover more about the health benefits of figs:

Discover more about Whole Grain health benefits:

1) Berries (Especially Blueberries)

Berries

2) Artichoke: 

Artichoke

3) Corn:

Corn

4) Broad Green Beans

5) Almonds:

Almonds

6) Apricot:

Apricot

7) Broccoli:

Broccoli

8) Lemon:

9) Dated:

Dated

10) Chiles:

Chiles

11) Garlic:

Garlic

12) Grapes:

13) Mango:

Mango

14) Squash:

Squash

15) Peppers (Especially Red Ones):

Peppers

16) Spinach:

Spinach

17) Carrots:

Carrots

18) Tomatoes:

Tomatoes

19) Green Tea:

Green Tea

20) Pineapple:

Pineapple

21) Red Beets:

Red Beets

22) Pinto Beans:

Pinto Beans

23) Pomegranates:

Pomegranates

24) Sweet Potatoes:

Sweet Potatoes

25) Whole Grain Brown Rice:

Brown Rice

26) Raw Nuts & Seeds

Raw Nuts & Seeds

27) Olive Oil:

Olive Oil

28) Red Wine:

Red Wine

29) Dark Chocolate:

Dark Chocolate

 30) Coffee:

Cup Of Coffee

One of the healthier, lighter and low in calories breakfast I can recommend is a simple, yet perfect combination of Bananas, Peanuts, Whole Wheat bread and Skin Milk. With this nutritious concept of natural healthy carbohydrates, potassium, protein and fiber you would feel not only full, but keep your blood sugar steady so then you would gain an all day energy!

Try this healthy, high in nutrition -

Banana-Peanut butter Sandwich: 

Add a small cup of skin milk and get your ALL DAY ENERGY breakfast, with only 450 calories, 9 grams of fat, 25 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber !

Ingredients:
1 tablespoons reduce fat peanut butter
1/2 Banana, sliced 
2 slices whole wheat bread, toasted

ENJOY!

When molecules in the body oxidize, they can create free-radicals. Those, create a destructive process in our cells, causing the molecules within the cells to become unstable. They may even be a big player in the formation of cancerous cells by a “chain-reaction” effect, causing other cells to become damaged. Because of the inherent instability of free-radicals, they try to attack other healthy cells to get stable themselves. This then causes the once-healthy cells to react in the same way, attacking others in an never-ending attempt for cellular stability.
 

Antioxidants stop the cellular chain reaction of oxidation by neutralizing the free radicals. Once an antioxidant finds its way into the body, mostly through the foods we eat, it slows down, or even prevents, the oxidation of other molecules. Many experts feel that increased antioxidants in the body can also help slow the process of aging, on top of preventing cancers.

Make sure to keep a large amounts of antioxidants on hand and inside your body on a regular base! But How?!

The secret to expose yourself to more antioxidants is simply through your diet: Eat more organic fresh fruits and vegetables! This is the most effective way. By incorporating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day into your diet, you may be helping your body reduce its chances of heart disease, neurological diseases, cancer and lowered immunity, keeping in mind that organic, raw, fresh and local is always best.

However, new researches shows that what`s good for the heart may not be good for the breast. Recent British studies link alcohol to breast cancer and suggests that a small glass of wine every day may raise a woman`s breast cancer risk by %12 precent!

So what should we do? Is red wine good or bad for us ?

For all of you out there, who loves unwinding with a glass of wine like myself, read this: 

According to Dr. JoAnn E.Manson, MD, Professor of  medicine at Harvard Medical School, If breast cancer runs in your family, you may consider abstaining. But- if you maintain a healthy weight, exercise, eat lots of fruits, veggies and whole grains, and- do not smoke, your increase in risk from a few glasses of red wine per week will likely be very small. As long as you accept the fact that alcohol does carry some risk, it may still be worth it for you, since its large amount of healthy benefits: Reduces the risk of heart disease since certain antioxidants substances in red wine called  polyphenols helps protect the lining of blood vessels in your heart therefore may help prevent heart disease by increasing levels of “good” cholesterol and protecting against artery damage. Red wine can also slow the progression of neurological degenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease.

One glass of Red Wine Nutritional and calories Facts:

A Glass of Red Wine- Only 25 Calories!!!

In this post, I will explain how to choose the best oil for each purpose, keeping in mind flavor, health benefits, and cooking secrets.

A little about OILS :

Oils are mostly liquid at room temperature. They come from plants such as seeds like Grape or Sun-flower, fruits like Olives, nuts like Peanuts and legumes like Soybeans. Oils are %100 percent fat, however their fat is made up of various pro-portions of few fatty acids:

• The “GOOD” Fats: Poly-unsaturated and Mono-unsaturated. Those can help improve blood cholesterol profiles, ease arterial inflammation and stabilize heart rhythms, which result in a healthier cardiovascular system. 

• And, the “BAD” Fat: Saturated, which can elevate harmful cholesterol. Another “bad” fat in oils is: Trans fat, which is created by manufactures by altering the chemical structure of oil in order to increase its shelf life.

An Ideal all purpose oil will be, of course- low in Trans fat and Saturated fat and high in Mono/Poly-saturated fat. In addition, look for a “Cold-Pressed” processed since it means- preserving antioxidants and vitamins, therefore worth the extra cost.

It is very important knowing what is the Smoke Point of each oil you consume since the smoke point is the temperature at which oil burns, becomes health-risky and can easily start a fire. That is the main reason why certain oils are better for high heat cooking then other.

A number of factors can impact the smoke point of any fat: presence of sodium, number of times oil is used, length of time oil is heated or storage of oil (exposure to oxygen, light, temperature). Fats that have gone past their smoke points contain a large quantity of free radicals which contribute to risk of cancer.

Oils such as: extra virgin Olive, Peanut, Grapseeds and Seseme have mid-low Smoke-Point at approximately 320F / 160C degrees, therefore recommended for dressing, low-heat cooking or beauty products. However, oils like Canola and Sunflower or Soybean can be used for high-temperature cooking as deep-frying. 

Olive Oil

Canola Oil

 

Blueberries are one of the most nutritious and powerful fruit in the world. It has been proven to have certain health benefits such as help regulate blood sugar levels- Important for those who want to slow down their aging process and preventing diabetes, reduce obesity, wrinkles and a host of degenerative diseases. Blueberries are chock-full of antioxidants as well, because of their dark color (most foods with dark colors in them have some of these really protecting antioxidant chemicals.

Click here to learn more about Blueberries: 

Blueberries: Natural Beauty

One of Oprah`s major Diet Secret is not to eat close to bedtime, and another secret is including BLUEBERRIES in her everyday diet routine since they are favorite and most nutritious, anti-aging fruits. 

Discover more about the Secrets Of Blueberries:

There is no doubt that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle diet we should all eat low fat food and drink a lot of water on a regular daily base, right?!  It is also known that baked is better then fried, that sweets normally contain too many carbs and “empty calories” and that cholesterol is bad. We do remember that whole grain is much better then white and that fruits and vegetables are always the best preferable snacks.  When it comes to a diet, there are many well known “roles” as some of the above and one important rule is less sodium. However, many of you must have asked yourself at some point- Why Salt? Is Salt Really Bad for us? What is there to Sodium that is restricted to weight watchers and many diet programs?  True, for years we were told that salt can higher our blood pressure, though new and recent studies claims that salt by itself is not enough to higher blood pressure and does not necessarily raise the risk of heart disease. Sodium is naturally being balanced by another mineral- Potassium. Banana, for example, is high in potassium.  Make sure you get enough of that mineral.  

However, what is there to salt and loosing weight?

Everybody loves to sprinkle a dash of salt on their meals so then why is Sodium being restricted? Salt does not cause your body to gain or lose fat. In fact, salt has no calories. Basically, high consumption of salt can results in temporary weight gain as it causes your body to retain water. Conversely, low consumption of salt can result in temporary weight loss as it causes your body to expel water. You would find many crash diets which boast quick weight loss rely on foods with little or no salt content. The weight loss achieved by these diets is mostly water, and as soon as you eat foods containing salt again you regain the weight.

Sodium darkest secret is that high levels of salt in our diets usually come from calorie dense and fiber poor. You may be surprised to find that what you think are healthy food products may be high in sodium. Did you know that a bowl of Cheerios has more sodium than a serving of Ruffles potato chips? Processed and manufactured foods like those found in fast food restaurants or on supermarket shelves such as tomato sauce, soups, condiments, canned foods and prepared mixes are high in sodium and bad for our diet.  Therefore, as a result, if you adhere to a low salt diet, it will likely consist of the lower calorie, healthier foods associated with weight loss.

Fresh figs are well known for their high fiber, calcium, potassium and iron more then most other common fruits. Unfortunately they only have a short window of availability, during mid- to late summer and are incredibly delicate as well, with a shelf life of three days or less. Figs are not only healthy and contain disease-fighting antioxidants, but versatile in recipes. Even though they are nearly perfect eaten out of hand, fresh figs make delightful addition to salads, pan sauces, meat and desserts.

My Endless-Summer Fresh Figs Salad :

This Mediterranean style, contrasting tastes and texture salad, creates an amazingly main course for all of you weight watchers out there, or for anyone who can enjoy a fun, fresh taste of summer salad, all year round. The secret is simple: if you cant find fresh figs: use dried ones!

 Salad ingredients:

5 fresh figs- washed, and cut into quarters.

½ cantaloupe melon, peeled, seeded and diced.

300g washed salad mixed green

200g low fat feta cheese, cut into small pieces.

For the dressing, separately mix:

 ½ red onion, diced

1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon of honey

1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:   Place all salad ingredients in a large salad bowl and add dressing mix just before serving.  Toss all delicately and serve!

Now, it is very much true that even though guacamole is really nutritious, it is still loaded with calories and fat, comparing to most other fruits, however, that is the healthy, mono-unsaturated fat, therefore it can contribute to the nutrient quality of your diet!

 For all of you smart choices makers out there, who are addicted to this delightful fruit, though trying to watch your weight like I do, try this amazing Low Calorie Guacamole Salad Recipe! The key to this much loved dip salad is to bulk it up with other low calorie ingredients, and my secret one is simple hard-boiled eggs!  You can even use the egg-white only if you wish, you will get a great flavour and lower the calories and fat per servings!  I always get compliments on this So simple-to-make dish, and the hottest new thing is serving it with Baked Pita Chips!  

Best, Any-Occasion Low Calories Guacamole Salad:

Ingredients:  (3-4 Servings)

2 large `Hass` Avocados- mashed (Their skin turns from green to purplish-black when it becomes ripe and they are available all year round)

 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped.

½ medium size red onion, chopped.

1 table spoon fresh lemon juice.

Salt, as desired.

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, and serve with Baked whole grain Pita Chips (from Trader Joe`s) and sliced Tomatoes!

Enjoy!

Boost of Healthy Energy!

Banana is full of fiber, vitamins, proteins and minerals. It is the number one fruit with the world’s leading athletes and you could benefit from it in so many ways, since it contains all of these great nutrition:

• Three natural sugars combined with fiber- boost of energy.

• Type of protein that the body converts into Serotonin- for relaxation and good mood.

• The vitamin B6 regulates blood glucose levels- help reduce PMS (Premenstrual syndrome)

• High in Iron which can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood- help in preventing anemia.

• B12 vitamin, the potassium and the magnesium this great gift of nature contain, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal- if you are trying to give up smoking.

• A mineral called- Potassium, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body’s water balance.

Research published in “The New England Journal of Medicine,” concluded that eating bananas as part of a regular diet reduced the risk of death by strokes as much as 40%!
Some cultures see bananas as a “cooling” fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.