Enjoy This Snack to Lose Weight and Get Healthy

Are you looking for a snack that tastes great and can help your lose weight. Try cashews!

Packed with protein and heart healthy oils, cashews are a great choice for a mid afternoon pick-me-up. One ounce of cashews contains 5 grams of protein and only 155 calories. What’s more, because they are nutrient rich, am afternoon snack of a handful of cashews fills you up, keeping hunger at bay until dinner.

Many people who are trying to lose weight avoid nuts, fearful of the calories and fat they contain. But studies have shown that people who eat nuts at least twice a week are 31% less likely to gain weight than those who almost never eat nuts.

Here are a few ways to add nuts back into your diet:

• Spread some cashew or almond butter on your morning toast or bagel.
• Remember how great peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are? Enjoy one for lunch today.
• Fill a celery stick with nut butter for a great afternoon snack.
• Add a handful of nuts to your morning cereal for some heart healthy crunch.
• Replace the meat in your stir-fry with raw cashews.

Go nutty and enjoy!

Using Your Metabolism to Lose Weight

Are you trying to lose weight, but it feels like your body is fighting you every step of the way? It’s frustrating when you get off to a great start, losing a few pounds, but then you hit a plateau. Even if you keep doing all the “right” things - cutting calories and exercising, sometimes your body just won’t cooperate.

Maybe the problem is your metabolism.

Your metabolism is the engine that keeps your body going and depending on how it’s running, it’s either burning calories and fat or storing them for later use. Knowing how to keep your metabolism in fat burning mode is the key to weight loss.

When most people start a new diet program, they drastically cut back on the calories they take in. This does  results in weight loss, but your metabolism quickly adapts, burning fewer calories as it tries to save up for the lean times to come. This is why you plateau.

Don’t cut too many calories. Eating less than 1200 calories a day puts your body into starvation mode and shuts your metabolism down. Keep your metabolism running high by eating 5 or 6 small meals a day. This will burn the maximum calories and fat, resulting in a new and slimmer you!