Healthy Substitutions

Easy, Healthy Food Substitutions

I wanted to share 24 of my favorite substitutions from Health Magazine.

1. Always substitute whole wheat bread for regular sourdough, ciabatta, white. Or anything that is not whole wheat or whole grain

2. Always use low fat or fat free milk instead of full fat milk

3. Try to use low fat cheeses instead of full fat, regular cheese

4. Baked potato or tortilla chips instead of regular, fried!

5. Whole wheat, whole grain cereal with at least 3g fiber per serving instead of …No cocoa puffs or lucky charms

6. Carrot sticks or a salad instead of fries

7. Laughing Cow Cheese instead of cream cheese!

8. Veggie burgers or turkey burgers instead of regular full fat, beef burgers

9. Refried vegetarian, low fat black beans instead of regular refried beans

10. Fat free sour cream instead of regular

11. Ketchup & mustard instead of mayo, dressings, oil, vinegar.

12. Hummus as a spread in sandwiches instead of cream cheese, mayo, mixed creamy spreads, etc.

13. Honey, brown sugar instead of refined white sugar (or if you’re trying to cut calories – Splenda instead of Equal or any sweetner with Aspartame)

14. Diet soda or sparkling flavored water instead of regular sugary soda

15. Fat free salad dressings or a tiny bit (1-2 tsp) of olive oil/vinegar/salt/pepper instead of regular creamy salad dressing

16. Broth based soups (tomato, vegetable stock, etc.) instead of cream based soups

17. Red wine instead of hard alcohol/mixed drinks (1 glass of red has ~100 calories compared to 300-500 in mixed drinks!)

18. White meat (chicken, turkey, fish) instead of red meat (beef, lamb, pork)

19. Whole wheat couscous instead of regular, or brown rice instead of white rice

20. Regular Oatmeal instead of pre-sweetened,sugary oatmeal or cream of wheat (you can make your regular oatmeal flavorful on your own with dried fruits, nuts, brown sugar, honey, fresh fruits!)

21. Use soy milk or yogurt in smoothies instead of frozen yogurt or ice cream

22. Fage non fat Greek yogurt instead of sweetened yoplait (1 container of sweetned Yoplait can have up to 200 calories, 1 container of Fage sweetened with splenda will have only 90-100 calories and TONS more protein!)

23. Baked sweet potatoes, yams instead of regular potatoes

24. Olive or canola oil instead of other cooking oils (and I only use a very tiny amount! no more than 1 Tbsp in most recipes)

Healthy Workday Snacks

Having to spend your day in front of a desk or teacher should not keep you from enjoying some snacks. These snack will help you focus, stay healthy and drop any unwanted fat. Here are a few that i have found to be very filling and satisfying.

Walnuts

Grab handful of walnuts with your favorite fruit, or a bowl of oatmeal for a boost of fiber can be a great morning snack that will help you feel full longer.

Walnuts are high in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants.

Apples

 Apples have tons of pectin, this helps suppress your appetite.

Eat your apple with a mid-day snack. Apples will control your blood sugar, and minimizes the amount of sugar that is digested in your meal. Have it with a tablespoon of almond, cashew, or peanut butter for extra protein.

Greek Yogurt

 Non fat Greek yogurt has two times the amount of protein of regular yogurt. It contains healthy bacteria, or probiotics, keeping your digestive tract healthy.

Take one half to one cup of yogurt with a small handful of granola for a great mid-day snack.

Apricots

For a great waking up snack, cut up 6 small dried apricots, cranberries and a small handful of granola.

Energy Bars

For another great mid meal snack, wake up with a "Clif Bar". There are satisfying flavors from apricot, chocolate fudge, peanut toffee buzz, mint chocolate, to banana nut bread.

Slow Roasted Lemon Chicken

• 1 onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 cups carrots
• 8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1. Chop 1 onion and mince 3 cloves of garlic
  2. Place onion and garlic in the bottom of a 4-quart Crock-Pot.
  3. Top with 2 cups of sliced carrots.
  4. Place 8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts over the carrots.
  5. Add 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 cup of lemon juice to the Crock-Pot.
  6. Sprinkle chicken with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.
  7. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or until chicken is tender).

Doze off and sleep well, while keeping your metabolism burning.

Ingredients
1 cup tart cherry juice
1/2 banana
1/2 cup soy milk or 4-6 oz soy yogurt (if using soy yogurt, add an additional 1/2 cup fat-free milk)
5 ice cubes
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
by dr. oz
Directions
Combine the cherry juice, banana, milk or yogurt with fat-free milk, ice and vanilla in a blender. Blend until smooth.

Soy milk is high in tryptophan, this is an amino acid that helps you sleep.

A day in the life of...

Waking up at 9am is definitely one upside of summer. Although getting up to have breakfast around 6 or 7am is much more realistic for giving yourself a fair amount of time to wake up before dealing with daily chores, and or workouts. Since I woke up at nine, I made sure to take my vitamin, brush my teeth, go downstairs and say good morning to the fam, and get some breakfast. Like every other morning, I had a serving or Berry Crumble Kashi cereal with some skim milk. Even though it does not seem to exciting, it's low in fat, high in potassium, and has as much fiber as a serving of blueberries. Any of the Kashi cereals are perfect for a healthy diet. After watching some news, I helped clean the house, even though most of the rooms we have are not even used. After watching the neighbors kids for two hours (3 and one half hours after breakfast), I had a low sodium turkey breast sandwich on Arnold Whole Wheat Bread with hummus lightly added to the bread. I also had a glass of water and an apple. After going for a weekly food shopping trip, I had my Clif bar 3 hrs after lunch. Around 5:30 I did a hill workout, running up my 400meter hill atleast eight times before going in and getting a huge drink of water. Three hours after my bar, I had left over slow roasted chicken with carrots, and a banana. Around 9pm, I did my weekly 500 crunches, with 3 sets 3x of any other ab exercise i wanted to do. And at 10 (3hrs later), I had one cup of nonfat yogurt, granola  mix and 3/4 cup of grapes. This is just a sample of my day, soon I will post all my recipes and workouts so you can start your goals.