September 2012 Tips and Recipes

Reap What You Sow

With the month of September comes the fall harvest with lots of flavorful foods to brighten up any meal. This month's ezine is all about “reaping what you sow”. Reaping what you sow is another way of saying you get what you give.

So if you have given it your best by eating healthy, exercising and sticking to your weight loss plan, then this month is all about reaping those benefits with a new healthier, skinnier you.

Weight Loss Tip

This month's weight loss tips are all about eating healthier. Using the nutritious goodness from your garden, selecting healthier foods and trying new recipes.

Garden Goodies

As you harvest your garden, look for ways to utilize all those delicious and nutritious foods. Instead of the typical zucchini bread (while yummy it can add more to your tummy than you want) try something different.

Make some zucchini rounds. Simply cut the zucchini into small round circles, top with some healthy foods like tomatoes, low fat cream cheese and spices, and serve. These will make a great appetizer or snack anytime of the day.

Use your pumpkins for more than Halloween. Save the seeds and the pulp and make some healthy snacks, soups or meals. Pumpkins and pumpkin seeds have lots of health benefits. With the cooler weather coming on, try some pumpkin soup or pumpkin turkey chili. These are healthy ways to use up your garden fare.

Warm Up Weight Loss

With the cooler weather coming on, it's now time to start using the oven for some healthy casseroles. You can also use the crock pot with the cooler weather. Throw in a pork roast and add lots of the veggies from your garden.

Instead of using the oven to bake cookies, try cutting up some slices of tomatoes, season them and roast them in the oven. You can add some low fat cream cheese or some lean cuts of meat to top these healthy snack ideas. Put them between some whole grain mini bread slices for more flavor and bulk to your snack.

Spice it Up

Add lots of flavorful spices to your meals to warm you up on the inside and get your metabolism revved up. Spices like jalapeno, habanera and cayenne peppers have a thermagenic property that heats up your body. It takes energy to cool your body back down. This extra energy means extra calories burned.

Reaping what you sow means getting what you give. So now's the time to give it your all when you do your workouts.

Strength Training

If you have been using only your body weight, resistance bands or dumbbell weights to tone up your body, kick it up a notch and use some weight lifting equipment.

Trade in that 5 lb dumbbell for a 10 lb barbell set. Do your regular exercises with the higher weights. Instead of 3 reps of 10 each, try 2 reps of 10 or 3 reps of 6. Since you are using more weight, you can do less and still get more out of your workout.

If you don't have access to weight lifting equipment, try adding more resistance to your workout. You can wrap the resistance band around your hands one more time to add additional resistance. Instead of using your 2 lb or 3 lb dumbbells, move up to the 5 lb dumbbells for more resistance.

Be sure to do at least 3 days of strength training during the week. Building lean muscle increases your metabolism. With the higher metabolism you will burn more calories.

Aerobics

Aerobic exercises can really get your fat burning furnace fired up. If you generally do just a brisk walk, try adding a few minutes of jogging. You can alternate between walking and jogging. The extra effort it takes to jog will burn more calories in your workout.

If you tend to use the elliptical machine mix it up by adding additional resistance. Simulating hills up and down on this machine will burn more calories due to the extra resistance. You can even try to pedal backwards to work different muscles in your legs.

Get the most out of your workouts by giving it more and in return getting more in terms of a leaner and thinner body.

Here’s a pumpkin pudding that is tasty and has only 3 points plus value. So you can reap your harvest, enjoy a dessert and still stay within your allowance.

Quick Pumpkin Pudding

This creamy goodness is a great way to enjoy the fall taste of pumpkin.

What You Need:

• 1 package sugar free instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
• 1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 8 oz Whipped Cream

If you have pumpkins in your garden, try making your own pumpkin puree for this recipe.

How to Make It:

1. In a large bowl, beat pudding mix and evaporated milk according to directions on package.
2. Refrigerate for about 5 minutes.
3. Add pumpkin and pumpkin spice and mix well.
4. Spoon into dessert dishes and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.
5. Remove from refrigerator and spoon on 1 oz of whipped cream on top of each pudding cup and serve.

Number of Servings: 8

Nutrition Information Per Serving

106 calories, 5g total fat, 3g saturated fat, 2g fiber, 4g protein, 11g carbohydrates, 240mg sodium, sugar 7g.

Org Pts 2; Pts Plus 3

I've decided to add this section to give you quick updates on the website.

Mobile App

I am still working on getting all existing restaurants into the iPhone app. We now have 262 restaurants in the app (with the last 15 coming with the next release). The website has 315 restaurants, so 53 more to go. I expect these last 53 to be in the app by end of November at the latest.

I want to thank everyone once again for your continued patience while I work hard to get everything done.

As for the android version, great news! We have the first draft of the application completed and are currently testing it. While there are a few changes we found so far, it looks good and is working. We will have the changes needed to the programmers by end of this week.

Then we will wait for these changes for the next round of testing. Based on the estimates, we should have it to the android store for approval about the middle of October. We are not sure how long the approval process takes, but keeping our fingers crossed that it will be available for purchase before the end of the year.

Again, to all you android users, thanks for your patience. It has been a long process but it’s so close now I can almost taste it – and it tastes yummy!

Restaurants

All existing restaurants are currently being updated with nutrition information and the new page format. Restaurants that begin with a number and the letters A - M and T - W are completed.

We are making progress but at a much slower pace than I had hoped. Making the nutrition updates takes enough time alone, but adding the new page layout as well has slowed the process down.

I am grateful that everyone has been so patient while we get things done. Thanks again for being so patient.

Recipes

You may have noticed that there have been a few new recipes added lately. While I continue to work on updating existing restaurants with nutrition, points and page layout, I thought I would start diving into the recipe world. I hope to add at least 10 – 20 recipes each month, so keep your eye out for something new to try for your meals.

Exercise 4 Weight Loss 2 Achieve Fitness and Health

From your Diet Buddy