Today’s Figure Friendly Recipe comes from The Food Network. It’s Rachel Ray’s take on the Cobb Salad. Now traditionally, a Cobb Salad includes lettuce, however, not this one! If you’re doing the whole low-carb thing, this recipe is for you. It’s a Cobb Salad – but it’s Double the Meat and Hold the Lettuce!

All You’ll Need (it looks like a lot, but it’s really not that bad):

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons grill seasoning blend (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick)
2 tablespoons hot sauce, eyeball it
4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, eyeball it
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus some for drizzling
2 pounds flank steak
8 pieces “thin cut” chicken breast cutlets
2 slightly under ripe Hass avocados – dark skinned, but still firm
2 vine ripe tomatoes cut into wedges
2 bunches watercress, trimmed and roughly chopped
8 strips bacon, thick sliced
1 lemon, zest and juiced
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
1/3 pound blue cheese, crumbled (recommended Maytag Blue)

All You Do:

Heat a grill pan or outdoor grill to high heat.

Mix garlic, steak seasoning, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and vinegar. Whisk in the extra-virgin olive oil. Divide the mixture between 2 shallow dishes. Add the flank steak to one and the thin chicken cutlets to the other. Toss to coat all of the meats thoroughly and marinate for 5 minutes.

While the flank steak and chicken are marinating, cut the avocados in half lengthwise cutting around the pit. Separate the halves then, using a spoon, scoop out the pit, then use the spoon to scoop the avocado from its skin. Chop the avocado flesh into bite size pieces add to a mixing bowl. Add the tomatoes, watercress and crisp chopped bacon. Dress the salad with the juice of 1 lemon and a generous drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Grill flank steak 6 to 7 minutes on each side. Grill the thin cut chicken cutlets 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Remove both meats from the grill to a cutting board to rest for about 5 minutes. Thinly slice the flank steak on an angle, cutting the meat against the grain. Cut the chicken into thin strips. Add both meats to a platter or dinner plates. Top the meats with a mound of the salad. To make the dressing, combine in a small bowl the lemon zest and juice, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, crumbled blue cheese, whisk in 3 tablespoons EVOO. Pour the dressing over the salad. Eat and enjoy the lack of lettuce getting in your way!

A Cobb Salad is usually a big mound of lettuce topped with strips of chopped chicken, bacon, avocado, tomatoes, hardboiled egg and blue cheese. I love it, but I’ve noticed that once I mix it up and start eating, my fork is busy fishing around the lettuce trying to catch all the chicken and bacon. So, I decided to hold the lettuce. I did add some watercress, but that’s for its great peppery flavor!

Enjoy!

You know by now that vegetables are your friend when it comes to losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle, but how many servings should you eat each day? Well, really, it varies. According to the new food-guide pyramid, the amount you should eat will vary based upon your age, sex, and level of physical activity. However, I’ve always stuck to the rule of getting at least four servings of vegetables in each day no matter what.

Changing up the vegetables that you eat is also important. That means eating a variety of dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, dry beans and peas, and starchy veggies. The website mypyramid.gov gives examples of all of these different vegetables, so go take a look!

Here are some of my favorites:

Of course there are tons of other vegetables as well that you can incorporate into your diet like artichokes, asparagus, cauliflower, cucumbers, mushrooms, onions, and the list goes on. Also keep in mind that while frozen veggies are good for you and will count towards your daily servings, fresh are always better and worth the extra effort it may take to prepare them.

Not all carbohydrates are created equal. Some are friendly and good for your bodies, others, not so much. Our bodies need carbohydrates to give us energy so it’s important that you choose the “good” carbs and work on eliminating the “bad” carbohydrates from your diet.

First, what is a carbohydrate? Simply stated, carbohydrates are the sugars and starches found in breads, cereals, fruits, and vegetables. During digestion, carbohydrates are changed into glucose which is a simple sugar.  Glucose gets stored away in our liver until cells call upon it to provide them with energy. See why we need carbohydrates?

How to limit the bad carbs:

Now how do you limit the “bad” carbs? Well first you need to know where you’d find the bad carbs so that you know how to limit them. Examples of bad carbs would come from foods like:

• Sugary cereals
• Candy
• Soda
• Desserts like cakes and pies
• White rice
• White bread
• Some pastas
• White flour
• Table sugar

So limiting the bad carbohydrates is as simple as switching from a sugary cereal to one that’s made from whole grains with no added sugars like Oat Bran, Raisin Bran, Shredded Wheat n’ Bran, and the list goes on. Other options for “good” carbs include:

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Brown rice
• Whole grain breads
• Whole grain pastas
• Beans

A few additional tips:

• Most desserts like cakes, cookies, and pies are going to be filled with sugars that our bodies don’t need.  If you have a sweet tooth, try eating a piece of fruit or sugar-free sorbet. It’ll satisfy your need for something sweet, and you won’t feel guilty for eating it.
• Eliminate soda. It’s bad for you. It’s as simple as that, really. I like to stick to water, and on occasion, 100% fruit juice, although I’d rather eat the actual fruit instead of the juice.
• Make the switch from white bread to whole grain breads.

Limiting bad carbohydrates is one of those things that may not be easy to do if you’re used to eating them, but it’s definitely doable.  Like I said, carbohydrates aren’t created equal.  When you eat too much sugar, you’re putting yourself at risk for diabetes, heart disease, and even some kinds of cancers. Pick one “bad” carb that you can work on eliminating and once you’ve been able to eliminate it, pick another. Before you know it, your intake of “bad” carbohydrates will nearly be gone!

I don’t know about you, but some days it feels like I could eat and eat and eat! When I was flipping through Bob Greene’s Best Life Diet Book, he offered some suggestions on different things you could do to curb your appetite. You know who Bob Greene is, right? He’s best known as Oprah’s personal trainer, and appears on The Oprah Winfrey show quite often offering fitness advice and weight-loss tips. I’ve followed some of these suggestions, and I’ve found that most of them really do help to curb my appetite.

1. Eat every three to four hours  – this helps keep your blood sugar at steady levels so you won’t feel the urge to pig-out. This is one of those tips I regularly follow. I usually eat about every three hours.
2. Load up on foods high in fiber and water – Fiber keeps you feeling full!
3. Make every meal and snack a combination of protein, fiber-rich carbs and fat – This is one of those I need to continue working on. It’s not always easy for me to get protein into every meal and snack, but I do it the best I can.
4. Wait 20 minutes before having seconds or another course – Your brain needs time for it to realize that you’re full! 20 minutes isn’t much of a wait, and chances are, you’ll realize you’re full and you don’t need that second helping or dessert.
5. Avoid being around food when it’s not time to eat – If there’s food in front of your face, in particular, unhealthy foods, you’ll be tempted to eat it.
6. Get some exercise – Chronic overeaters are believed to have less pleasure receptors. This means it’ll take more food for them to be satisfied. Exercise fits in the picture because research has found that physical activity can actually increase those receptors in the brain.
7. Resolve emotion issues that trigger you to eat – I’ve mentioned it before… often times I’m one of those emotional eaters. If you find that you are too, find ways to cope when you’re emotional like listening to music, going for a walk, talking to a friend, etc.
8. Go to bed – You need sleep! Not getting enough sleep has been linked to being overweight. Make sure you are getting adequate sleep!

Out of all those suggestions to curb your appetite, the ones that I follow regularly include eating every three to four hours, getting exercise, resolving emotional issues that trigger me to eat, and getting adequate sleep. What do you do to curb your appetite?

USA Today has an article today about how obesity rates in the United States are climbing. Surprised? Me neither. Many people who are obese according to their body mass index don’t even know it. I know when I weighed my highest, I certainly didn’t think I was considered obese. Overweight, sure. Obese, no. But I was obese. I assume that many people just think of themselves as overweight because they paint a picture of an obese person as someone who can hardly walk because of the weight, or someone who has a hard time getting themselves out of bed if they’re even able to do that. Those images translate into someone who is morbidly obese, or someone who has a BMI well over 40.

To give you an idea of how BMI works, I’ll use my height as an example. I am 5’4” tall, and below I list where I’d fit in the different BMI categories, but first, what are the BMI categories?

• Underweight = BMI of less than 18.5
• Normal weight = BMI of 18.5–24.9
• Overweight = BMI of 25–29.9
• Obesity= BMI of 30 or greater
• Morbidly Obese= BMI of 40 or greater

For my height, here’s where I’d fit in:

• Underweight at 5’4” would be 108 lbs or lower
• Normal weight at 5’4” would be 109lbs – 145lbs
• Overweight at 5’4” would be 146lbs – 174lbs
• Obesity at 5’4” would be 175lbs – 232lbs
• Morbidly Obese at 5’4” would be 233lbs and above

For some of you, these numbers are really going to come as a surprise.  If you’d like to determine your own Body Mass Index (BMI), there’s a website that you can go to where all you have to do is enter in your height and weight, and it will calculate your BMI for you. The BMI calculator can be found here.

The article also talked about how the lack of exercise is such a huge factor in obesity rates as well as poverty. So why is it that those living in poverty are more likely to be obese? A lot of it has to do with the fact that healthy foods like fruits and vegetables are more expensive than other foods that aren’t so healthy.The five poorest states were all in the list of the most obese states.

With obesity rates climbing, I’d like to see more attention placed on living a healthy lifestyle and I think part of that attention can come on the local level within our communities or even throughout our states. The state of Iowa, where I reside, has a great program in place that other states could learn from. It’s called Lighten Up Iowa, and it’s a “statewide,web-based, and teamwork driven wellness program designed to help participants make positive and lasting changes over the course of four months that will enable participants to lead a healthier lifestyle. Our goal is to teach participants how to incorporate health into everyday life to create a culture of wellness.”

I love the last few words, “A culture of wellness” because it sounds all-encompassing. There are so many different ways that we all can create a culture of wellness that would help those obesity rates drop. It’s just a matter of doing them, which we know, is the challenging part. If you have ideas on how we can create a “culture of wellness” around us, feel free to share.

When I’m at the grocery store, I always like to take a look at what others around me are buying. Anybody else do that? I’ve just been fascinated with what people buy and try to determine what they’d make out of the ingredients they have. Maybe part of that is because sometimes I feel like I make the same meals over and over again, and I like to know what other people are making. Given that, you’ll understand why I was so excited when I came across GroceryLists.org.

GroceryLists.org, as you can imagine, is a site filled with other people’s grocery lists. It was started by a guy back in 1997 who found an abandoned grocery list in a parking lot, and it seemed interesting, so he kept it. Every time he came across another list, he kept it. The site now has over 1600 grocery lists due in part to others who have sent in the abandoned grocery lists they’ve found.

I found the best way to get started is by taking a look at their “Top 10” lists. Otherwise, you can browse on your own through the 1600+ lists.  They’re all images that were scanned in, so what you see is the real thing! I must admit, it’s also funny to see all the spelling mistakes people have made. On one list, someone needed “close hangers.” I think they meant “clothes hangers.”

Today’s Figure Friendly Recipe, Herb-Roasted Chicken, comes from the June, 2004 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. To go along with the chicken, the magazine suggested oven fries. If you’re limiting your intake of carbs, you could certainly substitute a fresh green salad or some steamed veggies. Enjoy!

All You’ll Need:

• 1 chicken (3 to 3 1/4 pounds)
• 1 bunch thyme
• 1 bunch sage
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

All You’ll Do:

Preheat oven to 425°F with a 10-inch cast-iron skillet inside. Remove giblets and neck. Rinse chicken with cold water; drain, then pat dry with paper towels. Butterfly by cutting along both sides of the backbone with kitchen scissors; discard backbone. Lay chicken out flat, skin side down. With the heel of your hand, firmly press breastbone to flatten chicken; turn skin side up.

Divide thyme and sage each into 4 equal portions. Loosen skin from chicken over breasts and thighs; insert thyme under skin over each breast and thigh.

Over medium-high flame, heat a 12-inch cast-iron skillet. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Place chicken skin side down in skillet with leg portion closest to the handle. Cook until skin is lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Turn chicken over; place sage on each breast and thigh. Remove 10-inch skillet from oven; place on top of chicken (bottom down) so handles match.

Pan-roast chicken 30 minutes. Remove top skillet. Cook chicken 10 more minutes. It is done when meat thermometer inserted in thickest part of thigh (without touching the bone) reads 175° to 180° and juices run clear when pierced with a sharp knife. Let chicken stand 10 minutes before carving.

There are so many myths out there that can lead you easily get discouraged and give-up on your goal of losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. That’s why you need to know the difference between the myths and the facts, so here we go…

You can lose 20 pounds in one week!

Don’t get too excited, chances are you won’t be able to lose 20 pounds a week. Not only is it near impossible for your body to drop that many pounds, it’s unhealthy as well.

What you can do is focus on losing 1–2 pounds each week which is completely doable, and healthy.

You can eat all you want and still lose weight!

Have you seen that line before in commercials? I have. If you’re eating everything you want and expect that the pounds are going to come off, you’re probably going to fail. Yes you can really eat just about anything you want in terms of food – but not in large quantities as in an all-you-can-eat buffet where you go back to fill up your plate 3 times!

Everything in moderation is something I live by, even while losing weight. Sure I try to limit my intake of some of the refined carbs, but really, I eat just about everything I’d want, healthy foods of course, but in moderation.

No exercise required!

While this isn’t exactly a myth, you can lose weight without exercising, it’s definitely not something the experts recommend. Exercising helps you build muscle, and muscle burns fat. The more you exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle, the easier it will be for you to lose weight.

Last year I had a lot going on as I was finishing up my degree, and it seemed as though I had no time for my normal exercise routine at the gym. While I didn’t make my daily trips to the gym, I still took a walk each night with my husband. It wasn’t vigorous exercise by any means, but between my walk, and eating healthy, I was still able to drop a few pounds over a couple of months.

Metabolism is one important key to losing weight – there’s no question about that. It helps you burn fat, and who doesn’t have a little extra fat that they’re wanting to get rid of? I have a few simple suggestions of ways that you can boost your metabolism in the morning, and keep it going all day long.

1. Eat breakfast! Everybody knows this, but some people like to think that by skipping breakfast, they’re saving themselves a few hundred calories. WRONG. You’ll hear this over and over again. You need food to keep your metabolism going strong. If you skip breakfast, your body doesn’t have the food that it needs and slips into “starvation” mode where you’ll burn far fewer calories.
2. Have a Mid-Morning Snack – Not chips, not a donut, a healthy mid-morning snack. Something like a piece of fruit, yogurt, even a low-fat smoothie. Did you know that every time you eat, your body ends up burning additional calories to digest the food? Eat every 3–4 hours to keep your metabolism going strong.
3. Take a Stroll in the Sun – There are so many good things about sunlight, but one of them is that the sunlight really lets your body know that you’re awake. The light from the sun increases your serotonin, and the result is that your metabolism gets movin’.
4. Listen to Relaxing Music – On your way to work, listen to a CD filled with relaxation music – whatever calms you or soothes your soul. Once you feel relaxed, put on music that has more rhythm and a beat to it. This type of music raises your heart and breathing rates which in turn raises your metabolism.
5. Sip on a cup of tea – A cup of tea or coffee can actually help you burn some extra calories.  The reason? Caffeine. While we know that lots of caffeine isn’t exactly good for us, one cup of coffee or tea is. Caffeine is a stimulant which will give a little boost to your metabolism.

Each of the five suggestions listed really are simple, aren’t they? And once you incorporate them into each and every morning, you’ll find that you’ll have more energy, and you’ll burn fat much easier.

Scientists have been working on robots for years that are able do things like dance and play soccer, among many other things. And now a team of people from The MIT Media Lab are working on a robot that would act as your own personal weight loss coach. They’re building a set of these weight-loss robots that will be going into homes of those living in the Boston area so that they can study if and how well the robots work, and how people interact with them.

Once the robots are in the homes, the Scientists are hoping to see what the impacts of using a robot versus just the software would be, and if people would actually like using it to guide them along and help them reach their goals.  The robot will ask you how much exercise you’ve gotten, and then you’d use a touch screen to input how much exercise you got, and what you’ve eaten. The robot also has a camera for face tracking, and its eyes will follow you as you’re talking to it so that it will be a more personalized experience.

A conversation with the robot would go something like this:

Hi, I’m ready to work with you to help you meet your goals.  Thank you for coming back. I hope you’ve had a good day so far. It’s helpful for us if you’ll tell me how much exercise you’ve gotten today. Would you do that now?

To me at least, it doesn’t seem like this robot would be doing anything for you that you wouldn’t already be able to do on some of these weight loss sights that allow you to keep a weight-loss journal. But the difference may be that the robot will always be there to ask you how you’ve been doing with exercise and what you’ve eaten, whereas with a website or another method, you’d have to take the responsibility to go to it to enter in the information. And if the robot can say “FREEZE, drop the cookies and get yourself some carrots instead,” lots of us would benefit.

If you’d like to see the robot in action, The Media Lab has a video demonstration.

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