The Amazing Power of Avocados

From Health​.com

Love avo­ca­dos?

Well you’ll love them even more when you dis­cover their amaz­ing ben­e­fits: they keep you thin, pro­tect your vision, and may even pre­vent cancer.

Eye opener
Pro­tect your vision with a few slices of avo­cado at lunch or din­ner. Avo­ca­dos are rich in lutein and zeax­an­thin, antiox­i­dants found in the retina that keep eyes healthy; they also may help pre­vent age-related prob­lems, like cataracts and mac­u­lar degeneration.

Can­cer fighter
Extracts from avo­ca­dos kill or stop the growth of pre­can­cer­ous cells that lead to oral can­cer and may have a sim­i­lar effect on other can­cers, accord­ing to a recent study. Researchers credit the fruit’s unique combo of nutrients—which include folate and vit­a­mins C and E.

Nutri­ent booster
Add avo­cado to salsa for a big­ger health pay­off. A study from The Ohio State Uni­ver­sity found that peo­ple absorbed four-and-a-half times more of the cancer-fighter lycopene from the toma­toes when avo­cado was added; the healthy fats help you absorb more nutrients.

Health­ier fat
Skip the mayo, and go for creamy avo­cado on your sand­wich. It packs 4 grams of heart-healthy monoun­sat­u­rated fat (which low­ers cho­les­terol), 2 grams of fiber, and 1 gram of pro­tein per ounce, mak­ing it a lower-fat, more-filling sub­sti­tute for the white stuff.

What are your favorite ways to enjoy an avocado?

Log and Blog

Con­grat­u­la­tions! You’ve com­pleted Day 1 of March boot camp. Only 15 (or 25 depend­ing how you’re count­ing) days to go…

Make the most of this month by fol­low­ing two sim­ple rules:
Log and Blog!

Log: You’ve prob­a­bly heard it hun­dreds of times: write your goals down. But do you know why this step is so impor­tant? When you put pen to paper, you turn your thoughts into some­thing tan­gi­ble. That’s why we strongly encour­age you to track your diet and fit­ness goals by writ­ing them down. You will quickly see how the act of writ­ing these things down helps keep you moti­vated. Here’s a handy PDF that you can print to track your meals, goals and progress (print page 11 to track your meals)…

Down­load and print log book (PDF)

Blog: Have you ever heard that work­ing out in a group is one of the best ways to stay moti­vated? It’s true! Hav­ing peo­ple there along­side you to share in your expe­ri­ence and encour­age you along the way is often­times the dif­fer­ence between a suc­cess­ful exer­cise plan and one that tends to fiz­zle out over time. Share in your chal­lenges and your suc­cesses with your fel­low BC4Cers, and be sup­port­ive of their efforts as well by check­ing this blog after every workout.

You can also stay in touch with your fel­low BC4Cers via our Face­book page. Go ahead… go there and Like us today!

Read on to learn more about track­ing your meals…

We at BC4C would like you all to take a few moments and con­sider where and how you are get­ting the food you eat today.

• Do you plan to grab break­fast while hang­ing out your car window?
• Do you plan on grab­bing a hand­ful of M&M’s from your co-worker’s desk and call it a mid-morning snack?
• Do you plan to stand in line for lunch and order the fastest item that can be prepared?
• And do you plan to eat what ever is left on your child’s plate and con­sider your din­ner taken care of?

When we were in school we were forced to do a num­ber of sim­ple cal­cu­la­tions in order for us to add and sub­tract like sec­ond nature; the same prin­ci­pal applies for our nutri­tion journals.

Log­ging your meals — though tedious like math — will help you devote some time and energy to plan out where and what you eat. We ask you to eat five meals a day — not three meals and two snacks — because each time you eat you should use it as an oppor­tu­nity to get in the nutri­ents you need. The five meals you eat should be the vehi­cles for you to obtain your 9 serv­ings of grains, 4 serv­ings of veg­eta­bles, 3 serv­ings of fruit, 2 serv­ings of dairy, and 5 serv­ings of pro­tein the USDA rec­om­mends we eat every day.

While using a nutri­tion jour­nal, we hope that when you walk out the door every morn­ing, you do so with a plan of how you will get the nutri­ents you need to stay active and healthy — which will even­tu­ally become sec­ond nature.

Remem­ber, print page 11 to track your meals…

Down­load and print log book (PDF)

Tell us how you’re doing on Day 1. Leave a com­ment by click­ing the “Com­ments” link at the top of this post.

Recipe of the Week: Cheesecakes in Jars

From the author: I like the idea of serv­ing lit­tle indi­vid­ual desserts at get togeth­ers and these lit­tle cheese­cakes do the job. Peo­ple can just pick one up and go — no slic­ing and serv­ing required. These lit­tle cheese­cakes are in the smaller 4-ounce jelly jars. You can find them eas­ily at your gro­cery store. They are just about the per­fect serv­ing size for all those peo­ple who say, “Oh, I shouldn’t eat dessert. Well, maybe just a few bites.” The top­pings that you can use are endless.

Ingre­di­ents

• 2 cups gra­ham cracker crumbs (16 whole gra­ham crack­ers, ground)
• 2 table­spoons sugar
• 8 table­spoons but­ter, melted
• 4 8-ounce pack­ages of cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tea­spoon vanilla extract (I used 1/4 tea­spoon vanilla paste)
• zest of 1 lemon

Rasp­berry topping:

• 2 pints of fresh raspberries
• straw­berry or rasp­berry jelly

Other top­pings: I used mini choco­late chips. You can really do any­thing you like for the top­pings. All kinds of fruit would work, caramel sauce, meringue, etc.

Instruc­tions

1. Pre­heat your oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Spray the jelly jars with non-stick cook­ing spray, mak­ing sure to spray the bot­toms so the crust doesn’t stick. Blend the gra­ham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted but­ter in a bowl. Place about 1 heap­ing table­spoon of the crumbs into each jelly jar and tamp down to make the crust (I used a wine cork).
3. In a large mixer bowl, mix the room tem­per­a­ture cream cheese with the sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well. Add the sour cream, vanilla and lemon zest and mix until well incor­po­rated. Fill each jelly jar with about 1/3 cup of the fill­ing, leav­ing room at the top for your topping.
4. Place the jars in a large roast­ing pan or two deep bak­ing dishes. Fill the pan with hot water halfway up the jelly jars. Place in the oven and bake for 30 min­utes. Remove jars with tongs and place on a wire rack to cool.
5. For the rasp­berry top­ping: pick over the rasp­ber­ries and dis­card any that are moldy or bruised. Place 7 rasp­ber­ries on top of each cheese­cake. Heat about 1/3 cup of the jelly in a microwave and stir so that the jelly is spread­able. Brush the tops of the rasp­ber­ries gen­tly with the jelly to glaze them.
6. Refrig­er­ate cheese­cakes until ready to serve. Can be made the day before.

25 Little Tips for Big Weight Loss, Part 1

1. Good things come in small pack­ages.
Here’s a trick for stay­ing sat­is­fied with­out con­sum­ing large por­tions: Chop high-calorie foods like cheese and choco­late into smaller pieces. It will seem like you’re get­ting more than you actu­ally are.

2. Get “water-wise.“
Make a habit of reach­ing for a glass of water instead of a high-fat snack. It will help your over­all health as well as your waist­line. So drink up! Add some zest to your six to eight glasses a day with a twist of lemon or lime.

3. Herb it up.
Stock up your spice rack, and start grow­ing a small herb gar­den in your kitchen win­dow. Spices and herbs add fan­tas­tic fla­vor to foods with­out adding fat or calories.

4. Slim down your soup.
Make a big batch of soup and refrig­er­ate it before you eat it. As it cools, the fat will rise to the top and can be skimmed off the surface.

5. Doggie-bag that din­ner.
At restau­rants that you know serve large por­tions, ask the waiter to put half of your main course in a take-home box before bring­ing it to your table. Putting the food away before you start your meal will help you prac­tice por­tion control.

6. Lis­ten to your crav­ings.
If you’re crav­ing some­thing sweet, eat some­thing sweet—just opt for a health­ier snack (like fruit) instead of a high-calorie one like ice cream. The same goes for crunchy cravings—for exam­ple, try air-popped pop­corn instead of high-fat chips. It’s just smart substitution!

7. Ease your way into pro­duce.
If you’re new to eat­ing lots of fruits and veg­eta­bles, start slowly. Just add them to the foods you already enjoy. Pile salad veg­gies into your sand­wiches, or add fruit to your cereal.

8. Look for high-fat hints.
Want an easy way to iden­tify high-calorie meals? Keep an eye out for these words: au gratin, parmi­giana, tem­pura, alfredo, creamy and car­bonara, and enjoy them in moderation.

9. Don’t multi-task while you eat.
If you’re work­ing, read­ing or watch­ing TV while you eat, you won’t be pay­ing atten­tion to what’s going into your mouth—and you won’t be enjoy­ing every bite. Today, every time you have a meal, sit down. Chew slowly and pay atten­tion to fla­vors and tex­tures. You’ll enjoy your food more and eat less.

10. Taste some­thing new.
Broaden your food repertoire—you may find you like more healthy foods than you knew. Try a new fruit or veg­etable (ever had plan­tain, pak choi, star­fruit or papaya?).

Guide to Sensible Serving Sizes

This much	is the same as
	3 ounces 1 serv­ing of meat, chicken, turkey, or fish
	1 cup 1 serv­ing of: – cooked veg­eta­bles – sal­ads – casseroles or stews, such as chili with beans – milk
	½ cup 1 serv­ing of: – fruit or fruit juice – starchy veg­eta­bles, such as pota­toes or corn – pinto beans and other dried beans – rice or noo­dles – cereal
	1 ounce 1 serv­ing of: – snack food – cheese (1 slice)
	1 table­spoon 1 serv­ing of: – salad dress­ing – cream cheese
	1 tea­spoon 1 serv­ing of: – mar­garine or but­ter – oil – mayonnaise

National Dia­betes Infor­ma­tion Clear­ing­house (NDIC)