Top 10 Foods That You MUST Have

There are foods that are healthy and then there are foods that are powerhouses. I’ve got 10 here that are supersonic super foods that you absolutely should include in your diet if you want to lose weight, get as healthy as you can and look your best!

Here they are:

1—Tomatoes. The all-powerful tomato can do all kinds of things, besides make your favorite spaghetti sauce. It’s rich in lycopene, an important nutrient that may lower the risk of all kinds of cancer, prostate included. Plus the vitamin C factor is an added bonus!

2—Greens. I love braised greens (steam them till bright green, then sauté in olive oil and garlic, put a lid on them and let them finish cooking after I turn off the heat). Any kind of green will do, from Swiss chard, to kale, to collard greens. They’re all delicious. I can eat 1/2 a pound in one sitting!

3—Almonds. I’m a huge fan of nuts, especially raw almonds (and walnuts, too). I place 10 of them in a ramekin and munch them at my desk, lingeringly (it’s too easy to eat too many, so I measure them out). I take my time and they seem to last. I also make up little zip lock bags of almonds to have on hand. One bag of these nuts is always in purse for an emergency snack!

4—Salmon. I absolutely adore grilled salmon. It’s gotta be WILD though, if you want the benefit of the omega 3 fatty acids (farm-raised salmon doesn’t cut it). My absolute fave is wild Alaskan Sockeye. I just had it for dinner tonight (with some braised greens) and I’m in love. I heat up the barby (I have a gas one), throw the frozen salmon on, skin side down, sprinkle some salmon seasoning from Paul Prudhomme (generously, I might add) and that’s it! EASY BUTTON and absolutely delicious; no planning necessary!

5—Frozen berries. I make my smoothies from frozen berries every morning. I buy the wild blueberries and blackberry/raspberry mix. Blueberries are especially healthy and have more antioxidants in 2/3 of a cup than FIVE servings of broccoli!

6—Kefir and Yogurt. Kefir is like liquid yogurt. Chocked full of probiotics, kefir helps your body balance in the gut. Remember those stories of people living to be 120 years old in Russia? Yogurt and kefir were what they credit their longevity to -- and that’s nothing to sneeze at! I use kefir in my smoothies and eat yogurt with a splash of vanilla and a squeeze of honey, yum!

7—Onions. The lowly onion seems to find its way into most everything you make, especially come dinnertime! Eating onions is a cheap way to get your flavonoids in. Flavonoids are important nutrients that help protect your lungs from cancer and your gut from ulcers. Not only that, but they help prevent heart disease and raise the “good” cholesterol in your blood.

8—Oats. Fiber rich, oats help your body to stabilize blood sugar levels and reduce cholesterol. A perfect breakfast is a bowl of oatmeal with about 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries stirred in, yum! Fiber is critical for important bodily functions, if you know what I mean -- and oatmeal is a great way to get it.

9—Dark Chocolate. HALLELUJAH!!! At last, my dream came true! When some girls were singing, “someday my prince will come,” I was humming, “someday they’ll discover chocolate is healthy”. Well, I may not have gotten my Prince Charming (yet), but I can have my chocolate and eat it too! Dark chocolate is rich in catechins and flavonoids, giving you a big dose of antioxidants and helping to boost the good cholesterol, too. An ounce a day is more than adequate and it needs to be dark - the darker the better.

10—Oranges. While we may no longer suffer from scurvy, a lot of us have marginal levels of vitamin C in our blood and some of us have a deficit. When you consider the fact that oranges in their flavonoid richness have the ability to fend off cancer and cardiovascular disease and protect one’s DNA, it’s amazing that most of us aren’t chugging a glass each morning of OJ! Get the pulp-rich variety and you’ve got extra C to boot.

Leanne Ely is New York Times Bestselling author and the Dinner Diva at SavingDinner.com. For more information, check out the website, www.savingdinner.com

May 14, 2012

Hula Hoop Your Way to Lean, Sexy Abs

By: Angelique Millis International Fitness Expert

Chances are you had a hula hoop as a child and you spent many a summer's day swinging it around your hips! Little did you know that in your tireless abundance of energy, you were doing what adults refer to as "cardio". Hula Hooping can help you to reconnect with your inner child while helping you tighten and slim your body. Even celebrities like Shakira and Beyonce use the hula hoop as a cardio activity.

Why Hula Hoop? This has become popular form of exercise because it includes multiple elements that contribute to a fun cardio activity. It's creative, portable & provides both muscle toning and cardio.

Getting Started Begin by hooping for ten minutes twice a day -about as long as it takes to listen to three songs on the radio or your mp3 player -and then build from there.

Whittle Your WaistlineTo get the ultimate benefits from hooping, it is best to do a hoop routine starting with 30 minutes three times a week, pushing that to 40 minutes until you can hoop for an hour at a time. The physical benefits of hooping are incredible and will whittle your waistline. In addition to strengthening your abdominal muscles and lower back muscles, this kind of shimmy provides an intense cardiovascular workout & enhances your coordination. The best part is that you put little to no impact on your joints!

Hula Hooping for Flat Abs As many crunches as you can do, there is no other ab exercise that moves your waistline in a circular pattern. This simple and contrived motion allows you to move your hips & control your abs while keeping the hoop spinning.

If you need help, feel free to ask me any questions by clicking here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Angelique-Millis/129125997128841 or visit www.AngeliqueMillis.com to subscribe to the newsletter!

March 15, 2012

Get a Gym Quality Workout at Home

By: Angelique Millis International Fitness Expert

Let's face it - there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish nearly half of the things on our "to-do" lists - we're lucky to even cross off 1/3 of them! Most Americans are so stressed out and overwhelmed that driving to the gym and working out is the last thing they want to do! Demands from a job, spending time with the family and household duties overcome one's need or desire to commute to a crowded neighborhood gym. Learn how to save time and work out in the comfort of your very own home!

Designate a home workout zone. Create a special area in your home where you can exercise on a daily basis. Make sure there is a TV nearby so you can watch your favorite programs while you workout. Maybe you would prefer to set it up in a calmer part of the house, perhaps by a window where you can enjoy the scenery as you stretch! Depending on the space that you choose you may want to put up some motivational posters, mirrors and a sound system if you want to be really fancy.

Equipment. Now that you have thought of a place to set-up your in-home gym, there are certain pieces of equipment that you should invest in. You will need some free weights, a workout bench, workout matt, stability ball and a piece of cardio equipment. Do not worry about spending thousands of dollars on a Bowflex or any other at-home gym equipment because believe it or not you can achieve just as an effective workout with these minimal supplies! It's all in the way that you use what you have.

Stay Motivated & Motivate Others
Those that think that they need to go to a gym in order to get an effective workout are living in the dark ages! They have been programmed to believe that they need all of those bulky and sometimes intimidating exercise machines to get in shape although it's quite the opposite! Stay on track and follow your intuition to want to save time and money by working out at home; don't let yourself make excuses! You know the old saying "Out of sight, out of mind." Don't let that happen to your at-home gym equipment! Don't "hide" your workout equipment or put it in a room that you normally would not want to be in, because unless you have already formed a terrific at-home workout habit, you will forget about it!

In many cases you will end up NOT wanting to go to the smelly dark grungy basement or garage and you only end up doing everything else except workout!
If you have limited space in your home for your workout zone, get creative and store everything (with exception of stability ball) in a medium size storage bin underneath the bench.

• Understand that fitness is a journey to be enjoyed, not a one time event. Like the old adage goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day." Your body, too, is a masterpiece in progress. Take it one day at a time, and enjoy the process.

• Don't over train! If you over train, your appetite will increase and you will start eating like a 250 pound football player and not a bikini model. Rather, do just enough to blast fat, and not to hit a plateau. Again if you over train, your body will "lock up" and not allow you to burn the fat off that you need too, because it will reach a state of "shock", thus holding onto the fat.


If you need help, feel free to ask me any questions by clicking here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Angelique-Millis/129125997128841 or visit www.AngeliqueMillis.com to subscribe to the newsletter!

March 14, 2012