Diets & Weight Loss

Living a long and healthy life is a dream of every person on Earth. But do we really follow a lifestyle that can make our body stay healthy for a longer period of time? The answer is "No". Most of us dont care about our body. Instead we care about Food, Relations, Earnings, Shopping and a lot of other things. We should should care about all these things but we should also give some part of our daily time for our body. Even 30 Minutes are sufficient.

Linus Pauling wrote a book named "How to Live Longer and Feel Better". This was one of the most inspiring book to teach how to live longer. Linus Pauling lived for 93 Years and won Nobel Prize for Chemistry and Peace. He was one of the best known scientists of 20th Century.

Here are a few Tips on How to Live longer and healthier life:

1). Dont Smoke : Smoking is one of the most spread unhealthy practice. Its not only bad for your lungs but it can also cause cancer.
2). Dont Overeat: Most of the diseases start from our digestive system. Overeating can cause overloading of work on any of the organs involved in the process of digestion.
3). Drink Plenty of Water: Never wait for drinking water. Most of the internal tasks in our body need water. We evaporate 10 cups of water daily through sweating or breathing. Our eyes need continuous supply of water to keep them clean and working. Our digestive system needs water for proper digestion of food. Our kidneys need proper amount of water in the body to purify blood, else your urine may become acidic. So Water saves us from a lot of diseases and keep our body healthy.
4). Dont eat fast food on regular basis: Regular use of fast food is injurious to health as most of them contain chemical flavors and other ingredients that may be harmful for our body.
5) . Exercise on Regular Basis: There are some exercises which dont need any equipment and they are good for health. Some of such exercises are:

• Squatting
• Running or Jogging
• Swimming

6). Chocolate, Tea and Red Wine : All of these are antioxidants and minimizes the chances of getting cancer. Green Tea increases metabolic rate, slows down aging, and dont let your weight increase. Green Tea also reduces the chances of Heart Attack. Similarly Red Wine is also good for heart as it maintains the elasticity of arteries.
7). Eat Fruits: They provide good amount of vitamins and minerals as they are eaten uncooked.
8). Reduce Stress:  Stress is one of the main causes of psychological problems. So try to keep yourselves busy and dont take much burden of anything. It will pass.... If you feel stressed then indulge in some activity of have fun like, watching movie or going on a trip. Having a positive attitude can add 7 to 8 years in your life.
9). Educate Yourself: It not only helps you to earn a good salary during your working age, but also provide you self dependency at an old age. You will never feel that you are burden on somebody else and gives you a positive feeling.
10). Sleep Tight: A good sleep is necessary for a healthy body. Sleep heals your body and regeneration of cells occurs. It affects your mental health as well, as your brain gets proper amount of rest.
11). Proper Dental Care: Teeth are one of the most necessary part of body. Brush daily and visit your dentist regularly after an age of 40 Years.
12). Laugh: Its necessary at least once a day. It releases feel good hormones which are necessary for body. It reduces stress and Blood Pressure.
13).Good Partner: Its not only necessary for a good night life but also for sharing your feelings and thoughts on any matter. If you dont do that you will start to feel stressed.
14). Be Happy: You cant live a healthy life if you remain unhappy. Unhappiness automatically reduces years from your life.
15). Meditation or Yoga: It has also made a good impact on life span of a human being. It not only provides physical fitness but also a calmness of mind.
We hope that these things will help you in increasing your life and make it happier.

You might have used coffee to keep you awake at night. Several night shift employees use coffee to keep themselves awake at night. But have you ever tried to know if coffee really works in this case. We will try to find if this fact is true or false.

Does Coffee Keeps you awake at Night ?

Yes, Coffee can keep you awake at night. But its not the complete fact. Coffee will act as a drug. Initially it can keep you awake for 1 to 2 hours. But its effect decreases with time. Your body will build tolerance against caffeine. Its not a healthy practice to drink coffee daily.

How Does Coffee keeps you Awake ?

Caffeine blocks some sleep-inducing chemicals in the brain and also increases the adrenaline production. Its sufficient to keep you awake for at least an hour. However the exact time differs from person to person. It is better to avoid coffee several hours before you go to bed.

Does it harm your body, if you use coffee to avoid sleep on a regular basis?

Yes, if you are having coffee above the certain limit then you are prone to sleep disorders.

How much coffee should you drink per day?

This limit depends on person to person as several factors play an important role in deciding the maximum limit of caffeine. These factors are your age, gender and weight.  A healthy human being should not take more the 2 to 4 cups of brewed coffee, i.e. 200 to 300 mg of coffee powder.

What are the side effects of having too much coffee ?

Caffeine can cause several bad effects on health if you are taking it above the prescribed limit. It can make you nervous, irritable, have trouble sleeping or develop an upset stomach, irregular heart beat or tremors.

Tips for Coffee lovers

• You can drink coffee to get rid of sleep for 2 to 4 hours, but only if you are not a regular drinker of coffee. So dont make it a habit of drinking coffee daily, otherwise it will not work on your. Drinking too much coffee will make you an addict of it.
• If you are using coffee in morning to get rid of sleep then your are just masking your sleep and you are prone to sleep disorders.
• Its better to sleep and getup at the same time every day. It will keep you away from sleep disorders and make you biological clock healthy.

There are number of health care websites on Internet which provide deep knowledge about diseases and their symptoms. Some of them even provide the functionality to diagnose your disease with the help of the symptoms that you provide. However these websites cant replace the need of a doctor but they provide good results up to some extent and help you in understanding your situation better.


We have found two such websites which help you to know your disease by symptoms

• Webmd.com: http://symptoms.webmd.com/#introView
• Bettermedicine.com : http://www.bettermedicine.com/symptom-checker/?redirect=beme 

Both of these website can help you in finding your disease by telling the symptoms. Just go through these webpages and you will understand how they work.

Sometimes you dont want to visit a doctor as you think that your symptoms are not critical. In that case you should visit the webpages mentioned above and find your disease by telling your symptoms. If you find some disease then you should visit a doctor and let him/her examine you.

Classics! Thanks, Laura. The only thing is, you didnt leave me your email so I have no way of contacting you for your mailing address or raw cookbook selection. Please leave me a comment below this post and include your email in the form this time. If I dont hear from you by the end of the day, Ill have to ask Mr. Random Number Generator to select another winner.

Ill be having a couple more yummy giveaways coming up. In the meantime, please check out some of my friends in the blogosphere whore just itching to give things away:

I also want to remind everyone that the worlds largest empowerment party for women – Womens International Summit For Health – kicks off this evening with a juicy topic: Sensuality. Ooh la la! Todays the last day to register for FREE, so get over there now and sign yourself up.

Hoppin John is traditionally made on New Years Day to bring good luck and prosperity throughout the entire calendar year.

Today isnt January 1. Instead, its September 21, the first day of fall. You remember the song from the musical, Mame? The one where it says "we need a little Christmas, right this very minute..." I think we could agree that we ALL could use a little good luck and prosperity right this very minute.

[edited 5:24 pm: okay, theres some disagreement over whether or not its actually the first day of fall. It looks like Im wrong---but the sentiment is still good!]

so here you go: Hoppin John. If you win the lottery after eating, buy some crockpot books!

:-)

serves 10--freezes nicely!

1 pound dry black eyed peas, soaked overnight

4 cups chicken broth

1 pound smoked sausage, sliced

1/2 cup instant rice (or use 1 cup already cooked rice, and stir it in at the very end)

1 (10.5-ounce) can Rotel

1 bunch of collard greens or kale, chopped

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Soak your beans overnight in a bunch of water and drain well in the morning and rinse in cool water. Put the beans directly into your slow cooker. If you dont have time to soak the beans overnight, thats okay! Instead, put them in a pot with a bunch of water and boil rapidly on the stove for 10 minutes. Then turn the heat off, and cover the pot. Let it sit for one hour, then drain and rinse and plop into the pot.

easy-peasy!

Once the beans are in the crock, add broth and sliced sausage. Stir in the rice and rotel. Add greens, and sprinkle on the salt and pepper. Cover ( you may need to shove in greens to get the lid on nicely) and cook on low for 8 to 12 hours, or until the beans are soft. Stir well before serving.

Weve got 101 days left in the year---lots of time for good luck to happen!

 This tastes wonderful. It has more of a casserole consistency than a soup or stew, and my whole family enjoyed this meal. I liked how the smoky sausage flavored the beans and the kale I used just kind of shriveled up and disappeared----we got a great punch of iron without notice.

the first time I made black eyed peas, I wasnt impressed

but then I made this totally awesome black eyed pea soup

and guess what? I just plopped in Barbecue Beef and Beans to put on top of toasted Udis white bread (LOVE THIS BREAD) for dinner, and check out the date on this post: 2 years ago today! ack! totally trippy.

Eat your greens and all the flavors that make Greek salad so popular in this Meatless Monday Spinach and Kale Salad with Greek Flavors and Feta-Lemon Vinaigrette!

It's not hard to tell how much I love the Greek Salad flavor combination of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olives, and Feta, and recipe ideas with those ingredients are always popping into my head.  This Spinach and Kale Salad with Greek Flavors and Feta-Lemon Vinaigrette was inspired by my love of those traditional Greek ingredients combined with the need to use up two big containers of baby kale and spinach that somehow ended up in the fridge at the same time.  But what really moved this salad into the wow category for me was the idea of dressing the greens with a tangy Feta-Lemon Vinaigrette so all those flavors were well-distributed in the salad.  I could eat this over and over for a Meatless Monday lunch or dinner salad; hope you enjoy!

(Updated with new photos and step-by-step directions, August 2013)  This Summer Tomato Salad with Goat Cheese, Basil Vinaigrette, and Fresh Herbs is something that's been appearing on my table for as many summers as I can  remember, and as long as you have fresh tomatoes and goat cheese, there are several ways I've found to enjoy this salad. If you don't have fresh basil, I've even used store-bought basil pesto with vinaigrette dressing to make the basil vinaigrette, and the salad was still amazing. Of course, fresh basil and fresh herbs sprinkled on top will make the salad even better!

This Easy Turkey Chili with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives is my favorite new chili recipe!

I first made this Easy Turkey Chili with Peppers, Mushrooms, and Olives nearly three months ago, and I put a few containers of it in the diet-friendly section of my freezer.  Then every single time I pulled one of those containers of chili out of the freezer and heated it up for a quick lunch, I was reminded of just how much I loved this chili with ground turkey, green pepper, mushrooms olives, diced green chiles, and two kinds of beans, especially with a little sour cream and grated cheese, which I think is the best way to eat chili.  

Of course I already have a bunch of Healthy Chili Recipes that you could make for the big football game that's coming up (including my long-time favorite Black Bean and Beef Chili with Lime, Cilantro, and Avocado Salsa) and any of those chili recipes are good, I promise.  But even if you don't make it for Superbowl Sunday, I hope you'll try this new chili recipe soon to see if you like it as much as I do.  I still haven't decided what I want to make for the Denny Superbowl Party that's always at my brother Mark's house, but this chili is a serious contender.

A tasty Phase One stew with ground turkey!

(Things were going along smoothly for A Month of Daily Phase One Recipes, and then today I fell on the icy steps and broke my arm.  Ugh.  I'm going to try to corral my cooking assistant/nephew Jake to type posts for me, but if you don't see a post every day you'll know why!    For now, here's a tasty Phase One Stew with ground turkey and chickpeas.)

This flavorful stew with ground chicken or turkey, chickpeas, tomatoes, yogurt, and curry powder was one of those recipes that end up tasting a lot better than they look, and I thought this was a delicious quick dinner option. I spotted the recipe for Chicken Chickpea Curry Bowls on Everything Rachel Ray, but I skipped the rice and served it as a stew. I did change the preparation method a little, simmering the meat, chickpeas, tomatoes, and curry powder for a few minutes before I stirred in the yogurt.

This is the third time I've experimenting with cooking eggs in the slow cooker and this Slow Cooker Frittata with Broccoli, Swiss, Cottage Cheese, and Parmesan was creamy and delicious, although it did take me three tries to get a combination with broccoli that I thought was enough of a *wow* recipe to share it on the blog.  I did like one version with broccoli and mushrooms that tasted quite good, but the mushrooms turned the eggs kind of gray after the long cooking time, and in the end I decided it wasn't a keeper.  What made this particular recipe appeal to me was how the strong flavor of the Swiss cheese balanced out the broccoli, and the low-fat cottage cheese added a nice creaminess.  Have you tried a slow cooker egg dish yet?  I recommend it for an easy breakfast option, and there are more ideas below after the main recipe.

In more than eight years of food blogging I've probably tried about 50 different variations for low-sugar or sugar-free cookies, and yet only 15 cookie recipes have been posted on Kalyn's Kitchen.  That might be partly due to my poor baking skills, but it's also because I feel there's not much sense in making a low-sugar or sugar-free cookie if it doesn't really taste good.  Admittedly, nothing tastes quite like real sugar, which I'm sure is why so many people have a hard time avoiding it.  But these fifteen cookies are all delicious, and all of them can be made with either Stevia-in-the-Raw Granulated Sweetener or Splenda (or sugar, if you don't care about the whole low-sugar thing.)  Many of the cookies are also flourless, which makes them gluten-free as well.  Of course making a cookie that's low-calorie is another matter indeed, so use portion control when indulging if you're trying to avoid holiday weight gain!

I've been a seriously bad blogger this year when it comes to ideas for Valentine's Day (although there are lots of ideas on my Pinterest board for Low-Sugar Valentine's Day Treats if you're looking for desserts.)  But if your Valentine likes mushrooms, maybe I can redeem myself a little with this super-easy and tasty idea for Baked Eggs with Mushrooms and Parmesan.  When we tested this recipe Jake and I both agreed it would make a lovely Valentine's Day breakfast, and it's even easy enough to make in the morning before work!

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, February 2014.)  All winter I've been making some of my favorite soup recipes from the past and updating photos for the blog, and this delicious White Bean and Ham Soup with Chard was first posted in February 2007 when my friend Alanna of a Veggie Venture was collecting soup recipes.  I made a couple of different soups for Alanna's month of soup, and since I have a weakness for soups that combine beans with greens, this is one I've made many times since.  If you don't have chard, any kind of greens will work, but I do think chard deserves more respect, and I love it in this soup.

A few weeks ago I had a couple of avocados on my counter that were crying out to be used, so I started thinking about how to use them.  I improvised with inspiration from this salad and the lemon-Feta vinaigrette from this salad, and the resulting combination of flavors in this Cucumber, Avocado, and Garbanzo Salad with Feta, Lemon, and Mint was really a wow for me. The first time I made the salad I didn't take photos, so the next time my nephew Jake came to cook we made the salad again, and this time we marinated the garbanzo beans in the dressing for a couple of hours before we tossed the salad together, which probably doubled the wow factor!  Jake loved the salad as much as I did; in fact it was his favorite dish in a long day of trying out new recipes.  If you're lucky enough to have some cucumbers from the garden, this salad will be even better; hope you enjoy!

Both times we tested the recipe we swooned over this Sweet Potato Gratin with Goat Cheese, Parmesan, and Thyme!

I've been trying to share all my new ideas for Carb-Conscious Thanksgiving Recipes before the big day, and when I posted the amazing Brussels Sprouts Salad with Bacon, Dried Cranberries, Almonds, and Parmesan I told you it might be my favorite new Thanksgiving recipe this year.  But now I'm not sure because you know how I love Savory Sweet Potatoes, and when I tested this recipe for Sweet Potato Gratin with Goat Cheese, Parmesan, and Thyme (once with Jake and once with Kara), we absolutely could not stop eating these creamy sweet potatoes!  So even if you don't make it for Thanksgiving day, if you like savory sweet potatoes I'd say this is a *must try* recipe!

At my house it's unseasonably cool and gloomy today, and on a day like this I would happily turn on the oven for these Spicy Roasted Shrimp with Garlic, Sumac, and Aleppo Pepper.  But soon enough it will be too hot to think about roasting anything, so if you like shrimp I urge you to hurry and try this ultra-easy and quick recipe before the hot weather gets here!  Despite the Aleppo Pepper in the recipe this is only slightly spicy, and the Sumac adds a delicious citrusy note that's great with the shrimp.  You can eat this with a squeeze of lemon for a Paleo version, or try the Sour Cream and Tahini Sauce that's shown in the background.  I made this twice in a week and the shrimp disappeared quickly both times; hope you enjoy!

We're chugging along with A Month of Daily Phase One Recipes, and for anyone who likes tofu this delicious Stir-Fried and Marinated Tofu with Mushrooms is something you can enjoy for Phase One if you have a moderate serving with the rest of the plate filled with something like World's Easiest Garlicky Green Beans Stir Fry that's not limited in serving size.  This recipe calls for marinating the tofu  before frying it in the hot wok, a technique which makes the tofu slightly softer than a recipe like this one where the tofu is pressed and then fried.  If you like firmer chewy tofu, you could skip the marinating step.

(For Friday Favorites I highlight recipes from the past that you may have missed, and this delicious soup with leftover corned beef is a great way to use leftover corned beef from St. Patrick's Day.  I've been so moving to my new house this year that I haven't even cooked any corned beef, but I have happy memories of this from other years.)

By the time most people read this it will be St. Patrick's Day, and I'm guessing you might be cooking Corned Beef in the Crockpot.  I've been experimenting with recipes for leftover corned beef, and this soup is the happy result.  This recipe was inspired by Ground Beef and Sauerkraut Soup, but the finished soup was quite different in flavor.  I ate it with some Swiss cheese sprinkled on top (to continue the decomposed Reuben Sandwich theme) and drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar.  And I didn't have any, but 100% Whole Wheat Irish Brown Bread would have been the perfect thing to dip into the soup.  Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

I'm always on the lookout for healthy options for a snack because I'm one of those people who nibbles all day long, and those nibbles can really add up if you're snacking on the wrong things!  Of course I've loved Hummus as a healthy snack for years, but I did a little double-take when I spotted this Edamame Hummus from Eat Well Embrace Life (at Costco, where else?)  First of all, don't you love Eat Well Embrace Life as the name of a food company?  But what really got me excited about this product was the nutritional information on the label showing two tablespoons of this hummus has only 2 carbs.  That's really great news because after all, who actually eats only two tablespoons of hummus?   The hummus is also gluten-free and sugar-free, and although it has 7 grams of fat in 2 tablespoons, it's good fat like sesame oil and olive oil.  Best of all, I think this stuff is really good with vegetables, and anything that gets me to eat more veggies is a winner in my book!

(For Phase One Fridays I feature Phase One Recipes from the past that have been my personal favorites.  Phase One Recipes are also Low-Carb and Gluten-Free.  I love this method of making lasagna with thick slices of barely-grilled zucchini replacing the noodles, and this is a favorite zucchini dish I look forward to every fall.  This post was updated with better photos and instructions in September 2014.)

This recipe is for vegetable gardeners in the northern hemisphere who might be wondering how to use those huge zucchinis that suddenly seem to appear overnight when the garden is winding down. For years I've been making "lasagna" using zucchini in place of the lasagna noodles, and this is one of my favorite uses for those monster zucchinis that are inevitable if you have a garden.  Now that I am temporarily without a garden, I buy giant zucchini at the farmers market to make this!

Grilling the zucchini removes some of the liquid that might otherwise make the lasagna too watery, and if you don't have an outdoor grill you could certainly do this on a stove-top grill pan. Of course, using zucchini instead of pasta makes a version of lasagna that's low-carb, gluten-free, and South Beach Diet friendly, (and could easily be vegetarian without the sausage in the sauce) but it's delicious as well!

I'm old enough to be able to remember when pasta salad burst onto the U.S. culinary scene, and sadly I've come across some pretty flavorless pasta salads since then.  Maybe it's all those lackluster pasta salads I've seen that make me determined to create pasta salads that are truly memorable, and every one of these 10 Favorite Pasta Salads are loaded with flavorful ingredients.  I also like to use less pasta in proportion to the other ingredients, which can make pasta salad into a lower-glycemic dish.  The last few years I've been a fan of whole wheat pasta, but some of my salads use Dreamfields Low-Carb Pasta.  You can use either of those in these recipes (or just use regular white-flour pasta if you prefer.)  There's a big holiday weekend coming up and any of these pasta salads would be well received at a pot-luck or as a barbecue side dish.  Enjoy!

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, September 2014.)  For a few weeks now I've been ignoring my gardenless situation and buying zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers at the farmers market.  Since I grew my own veggies for so many years, the archives on Kalyn's Kitchen has a lot of recipes for those garden veggies, and I've been making some of my favorites and updating the photos.  It's been fun eating those old favorite dishes again, but now there are only a few more weeks until the arrival of fall, and I'm realizing I better get some of those updated recipes posted while summer vegetables are still abundant!  

This delicious Rustic Pasta Sauce Recipe with Italian Sausage, Zucchini, and Sage doesn't need a lot of pasta; when I took these photos I only used 5 oz. of Dreamfields Rotini to make 6 servings of pasta with sauce.  I'm still a Dreamfields fan despite the legal issues they've had, and it's never caused me to gain weight, but this would be delicious with whole wheat pasta if you prefer.  If pasta is just not going to work for you, this sauce could be eaten with sauteed Zucchini Noodles, or just eat the sauce plain without any pasta.

It's Superbowl Sunday, undoubtedly one of the most indulgent food holidays of the entire year.  I realize most people are probably looking for Superbowl Recipes and here I am sharing my once-a-month round-up of South Beach Diet Phase One Recipes.  And although there are certainly some recipes here that would make fine Superbowl-watching food, the real reason the round-up is coming today is that after I finished posting Daily Phase One Recipes for the whole month of January (whew!) I just had to have a little break, even if it meant that the Phase One Round-up didn't come out on the first day of the month like it usually does.  Yesterday I puttered around the house, went to a movie with a friend and mostly forgot about my blogs for the day.  But the Superbowl only lasts one day and this round-up has some deliciously healthy recipes that I know you'll want to make over and over again, so I hope you'll take a look and pick something to try even if I'm a day late sharing it! 

If you look around in the category for Breakfast Dishes on Kalyn's Kitchen, you'll notice lots and lots of variations for breakfast casseroles.  There's even a popular post with Basic Instructions for Breakfast Casseroles.  I make this type of dish often to keep in the fridge for a quick breakfast during the week, and most of the time I just use what's in the fridge without following a real recipe.  But after I'd ad-libbed this Kale, Mushroom, Feta, and Mozzarella Breakfast Casserole twice for guests and people raved about it both times, I decided this was a recipe I needed to post on the blog, and it's a perfect new recipe for the month of Daily Phase One Recipes.  (You can see all the recipes from the month by clicking Daily Phase One Recipes.  Check after the recipe for Phase One Flashbacks from this day in 2012 and 2013.)