Tag Archives: healthy eating

Food & Drink, Health & Fitness

Health Benefits of Meal Prepping You Should Know

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Everyone is in the pursuit of health. Whether you are trying to lose weight or just want to bolster your health, meal prepping is an easy and delicious way to stay organized and get all the vitamins and minerals that you need. Invest in food containers and set aside an evening per week to commit to your meal prep.

Preparing delicious meals that you can eat throughout the week means that you can spend less time making each meal and more time enjoying your mealtimes with your family. Keep reading to learn about all the health benefits you can get from prepping your meals.

1. It is More Cost Effective

A lot of people think that eating healthier is more expensive, but when you plan menus in advance, it does not have to be. Buy healthy ingredients in bulk and store them in your freezer. Meal preparation means that you always have a lunch to bing with you so you never have to spend a lot on your lunch while you are at work. Planning meals and purchasing ingredients at once means you never have to go out at the last minute to buy missing ingredients. Stay prepared and create scrumptious meals that you can eat all week long.

2. Meal Delivery Makes it Simple

Having meals delivered to your home cut down on the time that you will spend shopping for ingredients and it can introduce you to new flavors, cuisines and styles of cooking. When your meals are delivered by a service company, you do not have to spend an exorbitant amount of time planning out each week’s menu.

3. Learn About Proper Portion Control

Separating each meal helps you discover how to break each meal into the perfect portion size. As Americans, our idea of the proper size of meals is skewed. We believe that we need more food than we do. Meal preparation can help you learn balance. By putting each meal into a container, you will not be reaching for more once each meal is finished. Regulating the volume that you eat is one of the most basic and crucial steps to leading a healthier life.

4. Lessen Your Stress and Anxiety

Stress can negatively impact your life in various ways. Not only can it disrupt your sleep schedule, but it can also have detrimental effects on your immune system and how well you recover from illnesses. Wondering “What can I have for dinner?” is made an easy decision when you only must heat up a meal that you have already made. Breathe easy and feel better about mealtimes by planning your meals in advance and preparing them just once a week.

5. Eat For Health

By far the coolest part of preparing your meals is that you get to decide your food ahead of time. It will be easier to eat a cleaner, healthier diet with little effort on your part. You will not choose your food when mealtimes come around and you will not deal with the temptation of eating “junk”. Each meal is already made, and it has all the vitamins and minerals that you need to be your healthiest you. Planning your meals can not only help you lose weight, but it can contribute to your overall health.

6. Save Time and Effort

Sure, it takes time to plan your meals and cook them for the week before you plan to eat them, but it will save time in the long run. Consider how much time is wasted pondering a meal you can cook with your available ingredients. Purchasing ingredients and making meals at a single time cuts down on this sort of guessing game. Having your meals planned and prepped for you means that you just take them out of the refrigerator and heat them up.

7. You Can Lose Weight

No matter what your goals are, meal prep can help you shed pounds while getting healthier. In addition to planning meals that contain all the vitamins your body needs, yo can control the amount of food that you eat. Planning your meals in advance can help you understand better exactly what you are putting into your body. While there are many factors that go into controlling your weight, one of the main ways to do so is to watch how many calories you are eating. Decide how much you want to eat in a day and plan out meals that contain all the nutrients you need.

Whether you want to lose weight or are just trying to become healthier, preparing your meals in advance can help you get to a healthier place and save you time and effort over time. Sourcing your ingredients from a grocery store or a meal delivery kit can make your meal prep delicious and nutritious.

Not only can planning your menus make it easier to decide what to eat on a given day, it can cut down on the stress and anxiety you will feel. Improve your mental health while you improve your physical health. It will help you stay organized and learn about the food you are eating and can also be less expensive in the long run. 

Health & Fitness

6 Effective fat burner foods you should try

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Fat isn’t good for the human body. Having accumulated fat in your body can put your body at a high risk of getting diseases. The probability of getting type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases is the highest. Consuming certain food items, especially junk food, can cause the accumulation of fat in your body. To control fat accumulation you must add fat-burning food products in your diet. Your weight will remain in control, and your body’s health will remain intact. 

The term ‘fat-burning food’ applies to those food items that stimulate metabolism or reduce overall calorie intake. Eggs, nuts, fish oil, pepper, etc. are some food items that fall into this category. In this article, we have compiled a list of fat-burning food items that will help you with weight loss.

Eggs

Whole eggs are a nutritional powerhouse. Eggs are known to protect heart health and help in weight loss. Egg-based breakfast reduces hunger and you feel almost full for several hours. Thus, you tend to eat less during the day. Eggs are also a good source of protein which increases metabolic rate by around 20 to 35 percent. This happens because calorie digestion increases during protein digestion. Avoid eating egg yolk as it has high cholesterol content. Scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, omelet, etc. are very easy to make and make for a nutritious breakfast.

Green tea

Green tea is the best choice in beverages if you are focused on improving your health. It is known to reduce the risk of heart diseases and cancer. It consists of caffeine and epigallocatechin gallate that are rich in antioxidants. These antioxidants help in burning excessive body fat. Drinking up about 3 to 4 cups of green tea in a day is recommended by doctors. Green tea bags are readily available that can be used to make tea anywhere at any time.

Greek yogurt

Greek yogurt is a nutritious food product that is rich in protein, potassium, and calcium. Since it is a high-protein dairy product, it boosts fat loss. The protein present in yogurt also protects muscles during weight loss. Yogurt is also rich in probiotics that are known to keep the gut healthy and improve metabolism. Full-fat Greek yogurt contains conjugated linoleic acid that helps in burning fat in obese people. Due to all these health benefits, you should include Greek yogurt in your daily diet. 

Coffee

Coffee is the most popular drink in the world. It is rich in caffeine that consists of antioxidants. These antioxidants kill free radicals, refresh the mind, and improve the mood. A study done by the National Library of Medicine, states that people who took caffeine before exercise burned twice as much fat as those who didn’t. Another research shows that caffeine increases metabolic rate by 3 to 13 percent based on individual response. Thus, you must drink 3 to 4 cups of coffee per day to reap its health benefits. If you find the coffee brewing process time consuming, then you can buy coffee pods. The coffee pods come in a variety of flavors, and one pod makes around 40 ml of espresso. Moreover, these pods are biodegradable that reduces the waste also.   

Fatty fish

Fatty fish is a tasty delicacy and good for health. Fishes like Salmon, sardines, mackerel, etc. contain omega-3 fatty acids. This acid is known to reduce inflammation and decrease the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Omega-3 fatty acids also help in reducing body fat. Moreover, these fishes are rich in protein that helps in increasing the metabolic rate as well. To boost fat loss, you should eat around 100 grams of fatty fish in your diet twice a week. 

Apple

Apple is one of the most popular fruits that many people love eating. It consists of flavonoids that are a natural chemical found in plants. Flavonoids are rich in antioxidants that help in removing body toxins. Your body stays healthy, and the risk of chronic diseases reduces. Flavonoids also reduce weight and cholesterol levels in the body.  

These are certain food items that help burn fat and reduce weight. To enjoy the health benefits of these food products, you should include them in your diet. Simultaneously engage in physical activity to amplify their health benefits.

Food & Drink

How to Smoke the perfect Smoked Salmon

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Two years ago, after my husband and I sold our home, we wanted to spend a small budget on ourselves to buy something. For some time we had been eyeballing a big smoker in the backyard and decided to splurge a little and buy the smoker of our dreams. Since then, the smoker has replaced our barbecue in the backyard, and we cook year-round on our smoker, often several times a week.

SMOKING MEALS AT HOME 

The basics from smoked chicken to ribs and even brisket were mastered. We stayed away from smoked seafood for a long time, regardless of where we live. Living in the landlocked midwest is difficult to get by with fresh, high-quality seafood. We have found that food delivery services are becoming increasingly common in our region, so we decided to look into food delivery.

You see, we both grew up by the ocean, and since we were kids, we both had eaten seafood. Unless you were to ask both of us what we miss out on living by the coast, I can tell you that we will both say “eating seafood!”

We were pleased to hear that we no longer sawfish as a distant memory. We could place an order for high-quality, wild-caught seafood online and it would still arrive frozen at our doorstep.

Locally, we can buy frozen seafood but it is never clear where the seafood comes from, and how fresh it is. I want to know if I’m getting coho or chinook salmon fillets from the freezer section of my grocery store and not generic pale-colored, thin frozen salmon.

Instead, we can now order beautiful and tasty fresh-caught and flash frozen seafood from Global Seafood that ships fast and get frozen still.

So, we have.

Now that we’ve worked out how to source seafood of high quality, we’ve decided to perfect our home salmon smoking techniques.

HOW TO SMOKE A SALMON FILLET: 

Grilled salmon is great in and of itself, but it can take your home-cooked salmon to the next stage to learn how to hot smoke. Hot smoked salmon is a bit sweet, a bit smoky and a lot of delicious.

Smoking needs lower grill temperatures and the use of wood, wood chips, or sawdust that burns slowly while creating plenty of aromatic smoke when cooking your meat. The smoke penetrates your meat or fish while infusing your food with a delicious smoky taste. Smoking salmon is a tasty and special way to integrate this great, balanced food into your diet.

SMOKING SALMON RECIPE: 

Since hot smoked salmon is the most common and easiest way to smoke salmon, we’ll share our recycling of hot smoked salmon with you.

The first thing you need to do is decide whether you would like to use a dry brine or a wet brine. Either one has no major benefits, but a wet brine would do better for more tender forms of meat, such as fish. Cold brining helps tougher meat cuts but some backyard smokers adhere to smoked salmon by cold brining. The decision is completely yours. We’ve tried both and think wet brining gives you a slightly better taste. A wet brine requires more room, and more time to prepare.

TO PREPARE FOR A WET BRINE, YOU WILL NEED: 

Broad Sauce Pan 1/3 cup Cosher salt 1 Cup Brown sugar (preferably dark brown sugar) 1 Quarter of water 3-5 cups of ice INGREDIENTS FOR SMOKED SALMON: 5lbs of salmon (variety of choice). Rinsed and washed.

There’s something sweet, honey or real maple syrup to baste your salmon when it’s smoky. About 1/2 cup.

DIRECTIONS: 

1 Prepare your wet brine by mixing water, salt and brown sugar together in a large saucepan over high heat, stirring frequently. Put the salt and sugar into the water just to a simmer.

2 Move the hot brine to a large bowl or glass platter and add the ice to cool the brine down.

3 Add the salmon to the brine until cooled, cover and refrigerate for 12-24 hours. Depending on the time frame for smoking you can get away with as little as 6-8 hours in the brine.

4 Extract the salmon after your brine period, and discard your brine.

5 Rinse off your salmon, and dry hold. Place the salmon on a cooling rack and allow for 2-4 hours of air dry in the refrigerator. You want your salmon outside to dry to the point that it has a slightly tacky, shiny look.

6 Get your smoker ready while the salmon is drying. Smoker begins at about 120 degrees.

7 Placing the salmon on a smoker’s rack. If you smoke fillets make sure they don’t hit each other.

8 Smoke the salmon for about two hours, at 120 degrees. After the first two hours test and baste your salmon with honey.

9 Raising the temperature to 140 degrees within the first two hours. Gradually heat up every hour or two before you get the smoker up to 175 degrees. Honey basting forever 1-2 hours. * Raising the temperature on your smoker slowly stops any of the white liquid protein from flowing out of the salmon. * * 

10 You’re looking at about 5-6 hours of total smoking time. Your salmon will reach an internal temperature of between 130 and 140 degrees.

11 You will quickly enjoy some of your salmon and let the leftovers cool off.

12 Wrap your leftovers in plastic wrap after they’ve cooled. Your salmon can hold for up to 2 weeks in the fridge and can be frozen for up to one year.

Now your Alaskan is ready to serve to family and friends!

Health & Fitness

Important Nutrition Facts Every Student Needs To Know

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Most students in college are more concerned about their academic performance, assignments, and experience in college. They hardly pay attention to what they eat. But unknown to them, nutrition can also affect these factors too.

If you pay attention to your nutrition, you will maintain a healthy body. Hence your grades will not only improve, but learning also becomes easier, essay writing takes less time, and homework seems easy and you will not need any college writing help. On the other hand, poor nutrition will affect your health and give you a worse college experience, such as low grades and low energy for a pleasant life.

A student that indulges in proper nutrition would see not just his heath improved but also his social and personal life will equally improve. Below are nutritional facts that each student should be aware of. 

Always Take Your Breakfast

Many students skip their breakfast due to the Morning rush. This is not good as your body and mind will start the day without the energy needed to maintain a rigorous shape throughout the day. 

Eating in the morning will boost your performance in the classroom, social activities, and also motivate you to pursue personal goals. Also, your morning meals should be a balanced diet. This is to ensure that your body has enough energy and the nutrients it needs.

Natural Or Organic Foods Are Better

Most students seem to have preferences for junk. This habit can as a result of peer pressure or from spending a lot of time spent outside the room where there is little or no time to cook food. However, consume, as far as possible, natural foods as opposed to the several processed foods variety.

It’s important to know that processing removes some of the essential nutrients. It also adds chemicals, such as preservatives, that would be harmful to your health. Natural or organic foods give you enough to guarantee good health.

Drink A Lot Of Water

Water is needed by the body to helps maintain or regulate its optimum temperature. It also enables the transport of nutrients to different parts of the body. Furthermore, water can as well remove waste materials from the body system. 

Lack of water in the body would prevent the brain from functioning effectively. Hence your brain function would be limited. And it will also affect the flexibility of your joints. Therefore, you must drink enough water to keep your body healthy.

Add A Pinch Of Salt

Salt is perceived in a negative light by food nutritionists and other health practitioners. But then it is one of the essential ingredients of a meal to make a student stay healthy. Salt contains sodium, which helps to regulate blood pressure. 

Insufficient supply of sodium to the body will expose it to serious health complications such as kidney problems, stroke and heart attack, and other health-related issues. Besides, lack of salt can also hinder the effectiveness of the brain function.

Plan Your Diet

A student must learn to plan their diet. This is the secret to proper nutrition. That’s to say; you thoroughly assess the kind of foods you take for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to ensure they are balanced. As we all know, a balanced diet contains all the six classes of food in their correct proportions. Hence before you eat any meal in a restaurant, its nutritional and dietary composition must be evaluated to ensure it is balanced.

Conclusion

In summary, every student must endeavor to take his or her nutrition seriously. Proper nutrition ensures good physical or mental health. And being in the right state of mind is necessary for an excellent academic performance. 

Food & Drink, Health & Fitness

How Your Diet Affects Your Wellbeing

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There is so much focus in society on dieting in order to lose weight, supported by an overwhelming pressure to achieve an impossibly ‘perfect’ figure thanks to social media, that we have lost sight of other reasons why we need to be careful what we eat. The notion of ‘self-care’ is another current viral trend which has a good message at its heart but is also going in some questionable directions. Diet and exercise can be forms of self-care, however only if you are doing it for the right reasons. Your focus should be on fitness and psychological wellbeing rather than losing weight; a healthy body weight is a natural result of a healthy diet, not the main aim. So, what is a healthy diet? Continue reading How Your Diet Affects Your Wellbeing →