Mediterranean Diet Recipes For Weight Loss

The Mediterranean Diet is famous for its many health benefits from lowering the risk of heart disease and Alzheimer’s Disease, to reducing the risk of an unborn child developing asthma. What’s more, the traditional Mediterranean diet has now been recognized as an effective weight loss diet. Read on for meal ideas for the Mediterranean diet and Mediterranean diet recipes. Your waistline and your taste buds will thank you.
These simple Mediterranean Diet recipes are all suitable as main meals. Mediterranean salad recipes have been included as a healthy accompaniment. Alternatively, fresh steamed vegetables would also be great selections for Mediterranean cuisine.
Spinach, Mushroom, Tomato Frittata with Feta Cheese. (Serves 4.)
Many Mediterranean food recipes incorporate plenty of fresh and colorful vegetables. Try substituting your very favorite vegetable and herbs for a more unique and personalized Mediterranean meal.
Ingredients:
1 Tabspn extra virgin olive oil
8 oz, or 3 cups, sliced mushrooms
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tspn pepper
1/4 tspn salt
1/2 tspn oregano, or any fresh herb you prefer
10 oz, or 1 bag, fresh spinach, chopped
1/4 cup milk, preferably reduced fat or skim
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled, preferably reduced fat
6 eggs
2 tomatoes, sliced
Method:
Add oil to non-stick ovenproof pan, and over a medium heat, cook mushrooms, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and herbs. Stir to prevent sticking for approximately 8 minutes, until all liquid is removed.
Add spinach, cover, cook for about 5 minutes until spinach is just wilted.
Whisk eggs in mixing bowl. Add cheese and eggs to pan containing cooked vegetables and stir gently to mix. Turn heat to low. Place sliced tomato on top and cook uncovered for about 10 minutes, until only slight amount of juice remains.
Place under grill for 3-5 minutes until set.
Slice and serve with salad or steamed fresh seasonal vegetables drizzled with a little extra virgin olive oil.
Roasted Mediterranean Style Leg of Lamb With Artichokes. (Serves 10.)
This is a great example of a Mediterranean recipe, featuring such traditional Mediterranean foods as lamb, garlic, and artichokes.
Ingredients:
4lb leg of lamb
1 tspn oregano, chopped finely
1 tspn pepper
2 tspn salt
1 garlic clove, minced
8 oz, or 1 cup of tomato passata
1 cup, or 250 ml, water
9 oz artichoke hearts, tinned, marinated, or frozen
Method:
Heat oven to 325º F.
Rub the combined oregano, pepper and salt into the lamb. Place lamb on rack in shallow baking pan. Bake in oven for 2 1/2 hours.
Remove lamb and baking rack from oven. Drain fat from baking juices and place lamb back in pan without the baking rack.
Combine garlic, passata, and water, and pour over lamb. Place sliced lemon over top of lamb. Place artichokes around lamb in baking dish.
Bake for another 30-60 minutes, basting occasionally with sauce, until meat thermometer reaches 175-180º F.
Serve with salad or roast vegetables, such as potatoes, pumpkin, and sweet potato.
Healthy Greek Salad. (Serves 4.)
Ingredients:
2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped or sliced
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 Spanish onion
4 teaspn fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspn oregano
salt and pepper as desired
8 pitted Kalamata olives, chopped
1 cup feta cheese, reduced fat, crumbled
Method:
Combine cucumbers, tomatoes, and onion in appropriately sized salad bowl.
Combine lemon juice, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper. Drizzle over salad.
Place feta cheese and olives decoratively on top.
Traditional Tabbouleh (Serves 4 as an accompaniment.)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup boiling water
1/4 cup bulgur
1 onion, finely chopped
5 tomatoes, chopped
1 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
juice of 1 lemon
2 teaspns extra virgin olive oil
pinch of salt if required
Method:
Add boiling water to bulgur in small bowl. Mix, then cover. Stand for about 60 minutes. Drain off any leftover water.
Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl. Add softened bulgur and mix well.
Conclusion.
You may have noticed that these Mediterranean Diet recipes use extra virgin olive oil. The reason? Extra virgin olive oil is made from the very first pressing of the olives, and as a consequence contains the very highest levels of anti-oxidants. The Mediterranean Diet is famous for being a rich source of anti-oxidants, which are vital for good health and mopping up dangerous free radicals.

Weight Loss Recipes

Planning on losing weight but don’t know where to start? Don’t sweat it! The easiest way to start losing weight is by improving your diet. Switching to eating healthier foods can be the key to your success. And remember, just because it’s called diet food doesn’t mean it tastes bad. That’s a common misconception that needs to be corrected.

There are lots of weight loss recipes out there that are both filling and tasty. Keep in mind that healthy foods are more common in your diet than you might think. Take for example this simple tuna salad:

tuna salad

Tuna Salad Recipe:

Tuna, low-fat dressing (you can make this yourself), onions, chili (optional), celery.

Mix together in a bowl and enjoy!

Sometimes, it’s the things like dressings that we add to our food that make them unhealthy. If you cut down on fat, salt and sugar and other bad stuff, then you’d have a healthier diet.

At other times, it’s the way we cook food that could make it low-fat. Instead of frying chicken, why not try grilling it like this easy grilled chicken recipe.

Grilled Chicken Breast Recipe:

Cook boneless chicken on a grill sprayed or brushed with vegetable oil. On a small bowl, mix together honey, lemon, soy sauce, garlic and onions. Brush the mixture on the chicken breast during the last two minutes of cooking. Remove the chicken from the grill, serve and enjoy!

This grilled chicken is a lot healthier than chicken covered in flour, fried, and topped with gravy. There are other recipes like this one on the internet. They’re not only tasty, but they are actually food that you eat regularly—just prepared or cooked in a healthier way.

Fasting Tips for Weight Loss

Fasting--or consuming nothing but water for a specific period of time--seems a quick and easy way to drop a few pounds quickly. Most major health organizations, including the American Heart Association, do not recommend taking drastic measure to lose weight. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics warns that fasting for any period of time will slow down your metabolism and when you return to eating regular food, your body will be tempted to store every calorie as fat to store up for the next fasting event. Despite the problems associated with fasting, a short fast--lasting one to three days--may help you break from eating poor-quality processed food and fast food and help you embark on a healthy weight-loss regimen that includes healthy foods and increased physical activity. If you are committed to a fast for weight loss, use the following tips to make it a safe process.
Some People Should Avoid Fasting
Certain people should not attempt a fast for any period of time. Pregnant and nursing women, children and the elderly have nutritional needs that must be met. People who have certain illnesses or on certain medications also should check with their doctor before attempting a fast.

Reduce Physical Activity
One reason fasts are not recommended for weight loss is that they rob you of energy. Increased physical activity is usually recommended to spur weight loss, but if you are fasting you should lie low. You may find yourself becoming exhausted during exercise or unable to complete a workout with good form, potentially causing injury. Your body will also dip into lean muscle for energy.
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Minimize Your Expectations
After a few days of fasting, you will most likely lose weight. Do not expect the weight loss to last for the long run, however. You have lost significant water weight that will return when you begin to eat again. You may have trouble adhering to a complete fast and end up binging because of extreme hunger. If you decide to fast for a few days, limit your social functions so that you are not exposed to tempting meals.
Hydrate
While fasting, be sure to keep drinking plenty of water or herbal teas. Do not allow yourself to become dehydrated because that may lead to health problems.
Side Effects
Be prepared to suffer side effects of your fast. If you are giving up caffeine, alcohol and excessive amounts of sugar, you may experience headaches. Hunger can cause you to feel nauseated and dizzy.
Break Slowly
Following your fast, introduce foods gradually as recommended by the Healing Daily website. Instead of shocking your system with a huge, fatty meal, begin by eating light meals that contain whole foods like fresh produce and lean meats. Your digestive system needs time to adjust to going back to working full-time.
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Holiday Weight Loss Secret: A Red Plate?

If you’re looking for a way to fight the inevitable holiday bulge, the treadmill may not be your only ally. Mindless snacking is a problem that, at some point or another, has afflicted even the best of us. Suddenly, “one more” chip or cookie turns into throwing the empty bag in the trash.
But there may a new, and surprisingly easy, way to curb your overeating tendencies.
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According to a new study, people cut back on their food intake when it is placed on a red plate versus a white or blue one.
The study departs from sizable bodies of evidence that show fast-food restaurants use the color red so often in their logos because the color actually promotes appetite. Researchers from the University of Basel’s Department of Social and Economic Psychology gave test subjects the option to snack on pretzels while they filled out questionnaires. Depending on the experimental condition, the pretzel plate was white, blue, or red. Overwhelmingly, the subjects who were offered pretzels on the red plate ate the fewest number of them.

The researchers also had participants drink out of red or blue cups as part of the experiment. Red cups were preferred over blue cups.“In line with our hypothesis, participants drank less from a red labeled cup than from a blue labeled cup (Study 1), and ate less snack food from a red plate than from a blue or white plate (Study 2),” the team wrote. “The results suggest that red functions as a subtle stop signal that works outside of focused awareness and thereby reduces incidental food and drink intake.”
Much like the responses we’ve been conditioned to observe since childhood — yielding to stop signs, red lights, and, well, yield signs — the team’s findings suggest eating off a red plate induces the same compulsions. A separate 2011 study found that monkeys behaved more submissively when experimenters delivered food while wearing a red cap, while blue and green caps had no effect. The findings led Dartmouth researcher and neuroscientist Jerald D. Kralik to link the color red to evolutionary signs of danger, or “No.”

“The similarity of our results with those in humans suggests that avoiding red or acting submissively in its presence may stem from an inherited psychological predisposition,” he said in a press release. Given how social humans and monkeys both are, seeing redness in others’ skin or knowing which foods are safe to eat lets scientists “see that color may have a deeper and wider-ranging influence on us than we have previously thought.”
Conflicting data has less science behind it for why red induces appetite. Often, experts will point to the bevy of fast-food logos that employ red in some capacity: Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC, Tim Horton’s, Wendy’s, Domino’s Pizza, Chik-Fil-A, Pizza Hut, Sonic, Dairy Queen, Arby’s, In-N-Out, Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s — the list goes on. And the interpretations profess the same one-two punch. The color yellow signals quickness while red makes you hungry — the perfect combination for restaurants that want the most customers in the least amount of time.

What could ultimately affect a person’s cravings is the location in which eating takes place. Out and about, the sensation of hunger may be heightened due to being in an aroused state. This would explain the fast-food logo pattern. Meanwhile, at home, in more of a resting state, the color red resumes its role as an avoidance motivator, making snacking seem less appealing.

Using Meditation to Promote Weight Loss

Every day it seems, more research comes out about the widespread benefits of meditation, from helping to manage chronic pain to its ability to help us naturally deal with and reduce stress. Much as meditation helps you calm your mind to promote tranquility and peace, it can also be used to help you combat cravings and focus on your weight loss goals. If you’ve tried everything and you still have stubborn weight that refuses to drop off — or you want an all-natural and safe approach with absolutely no risk of side effects or interactions — it may be time to consider meditation.

Woman Doing Yoga


How It Works

By practicing daily meditation, you can enjoy a greater sense of individual, inner focus and help both your mind and body recover from the constant stress of daily life. Meditation will most likely be effective for you if you’re an emotional eater, who eats not out of hunger but boredom, anxiety, stress, anger or just to fill some type of void. This void could be from fear, an argument you had with someone you love, disappointment or bad news or just about anything that brings out powerful emotions.

What Science Has to Say

A number of studies into the effects of meditation on weight loss efforts have been conducted, some very recently. If you’re the type of person to hold back until you’re sure something is real and proven, here’s what you need to know:

A team of researchers from UC San Francisco found that meditation can help people control dietary habits to lose weight. This small-scale study took a group of overweight woman and put them into two groups: both groups received basic diet and exercise education but neither group was assigned to a diet. The experimental group of women receive meditation and mindful eating sessions once a week, which taught them to experience the sensory experience of eating during each moment. The results of this study were successful, showing that these women actually maintained their weight  and experienced reductions in in cortisol levels, compared to the control group, which gained weight.
A study conducted at Indiana State University discovered that meditation can also help combat binge eating. People in this study who used meditation were better at moderating their emotions under stress to eat less.
Past studies on brain scans show that meditation actually produces changes in the brain associated with bodily sensations, particularly those related to cravings and hunger.
How to Use Meditation for Weight Loss

There are a number of ways you can easily incorporate a meditative practice into your weight loss efforts.

Breathing Exercise
One option is simply going through a quick breathing exercise whenever you’re about to snack. Clear your head by counting your breaths to five, then ask yourself, “Am I really hungry or is there some other reason I’m about to eat?” This will help you build good habits and eventually eating will become a conscious choice instead of some thoughtless habit you turn to.

Guided Meditation
Guided meditation is another option that has helped many people tap into their natural inner resources to overcome bad habits. A guided meditation for weight loss program may include not only a guided meditation — which can be thought of as meditation with a guide — but affirmations, subliminal affirmations and instructions.

Mindful Eating
Finally, another technique you can try is mindful eating, which was described briefly in terms of the study mentioned above. Mindful eating training teaches you to focus on every moment of the experience of eating and often includes instructions to stop eating as soon as the food stops tasting fantastic. This mindful eating can help you prevent overeating and combat comfort eating by letting you notice the moment you are actually full and learn to pay attention to how you feel while you eat.

While meditation won’t work for everyone — after all, what can? — it may be a good option for you if you find you succumb to emotional eating, binge eating or overeating when your emotions run high. Meditation has absolutely no side effects or drug interactions to worry about, which can’t be said of herbal supplements or prescription medications, and it’s safe and easy to use for people of all ages. If you want to boost your weight loss efforts, try using one of these techniques today.

8 ESSENTIAL FAT LOSS HORMONES

Many people don’t realize that our bodies actually produce many secret weight loss weapons all on their own, and when properly used, they are a major key to success with fat reduction. Let’s take a look at 8 very important hormones related to fat loss, and how each and every one of them play crucial role’s not only within out day to day lives, but also within weight loss in one way or another.

Ghrelin
Ghrelin is that little person inside of your stomach that controls the conscious thought of hunger. This fat hormone is produced by your stomach and works alongside your brain to signal your body when you’re hungry. A big shocker, and something that many of us were unaware of until now, is that limiting your calorie intake, in efforts to shed a few pounds, causes an increase in this fat hormone. Studies have shown that even after up to one year of dieters using a reduced calorie diet, levels of ghrelin steadily stayed higher than those who didn’t follow this weight loss method. So when we boil it all down, it appears as if your body cannot and will not adapt to eating less as a means to a new lifestyle. You will never be able to trick that little ghrelin gremlin to stop sending hunger signals to the brain. Instead, to maintain a great physique, you can partake in a few intense exercise sessions per week to help decrease ghrelin levels. Since this fat hormone is a key factor to fat reduction, you may want to stick to exercise rather than skipping out on important meals.

Leptin
Leptin the hormone also known as adipokine, is released solely from the fat cells in your body. This wonderful hormone interacts with your brain and promotes less hunger, and an overall heightened calorie burn. In order to heighten leptin sensitivity, you must ensure adequate sleep and an antioxidant rich diet loaded with berries, and red and green vegetables. As you lose weight, your leptin levels will become enhanced, causing more momentum and sensitivity. As you continue to lose weight and continue down a healthier path to success, leptin will become even more effective within your body.

Adiponectin
Adiponectin is yet another adipokine hormone, but unlike leptin, as you become thinner, your fat cells will release more adiponectin. This hormone better enables the muscles in your body to speed up the production of body fat being broken down, turns carbohydrates into energy, boosts your metabolism, and curbs appetite. Maximize your adiponectin levels by replacing carbohydrates with monounsaturated fats such as; olives and avocados, also moving around more during the day (get up from your desk at least hourly to take a quick stroll around the office.

Insulin
Insulin plays a key role during recovery periods after exercising, muscle building, and maintaining blood sugar levels. Insulin does however have it’s nasty down side. When your body’s carbohydrate intakes are high, insulin has free rein inside your body, it can slow or even completely stop the burn and breakdown of stored fats. As you may not have known, the link between carbohydrates and insulin is extremely strong.

Let’s look at it this way, the more carbohydrates you ingest into your body, the higher the levels of insulin being released into the body. In order to keep your insulin levels under control, try and work toward getting the majority of your daily carbohydrates from your fruits and vegetables.

Glucagon
The hormone glucagon is on the opposite side of the spectrum from insulin. As we already know, insulin is involved in the storage of carbohydrates and building up fat. Glucagon’s job is to release stored carbohydrates and fats into the body so they can be better used for energy purposes. Looking to maximize this wonder hormone? The best way to maximize your body’s glucagon release is to go for a low carbohydrate, protein rich, diet.

Cholecystokinin
Cholecystokinin, also known as CCK is a hormone which is released from cells found inside of the intestine when you eat fats or protein. CCK has the ability to communicate with your nervous system and slow the overall rate of digestion. CCK creates that sought after feeling of being fuller for longer. In order to take advantage of this hormone, you must make sure you have a sufficient amount of fats and protein in each and every meal throughout your day.

Epinephrine
This fight or flight hormone, takes charge of the burning of fat and is released into the body as means of energy. A great attribute that epinephrine can offer, is it’s proven success with suppressing appetite for periods of time. Regular exercise is recommended to really get the epinephrine kick started in your body.

Growth Hormone
Also known as “the fountain of youth”, this powerful hormone helps with total body fat reduction. The growth hormone collaborates with the body’s fat cells and persuades them to first break down, then ultimately burn fats that have been stored for energy. It is 100 percent possible to increase your body’s levels of growth hormone through a healthy balance of intense intervals of exercise and regular sleep.

Now that we have taken a look at how we can aid in weight loss from inside the body, it becomes far more obvious that our hormones play a huge factor in the body fat burning and gaining process. All and all, we must first become familiar with our insides before we can become successful on the outside.

5 WEIGHT LOSS TIPS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD BEFORE

If you’ve been trying to lose weight for a while, chances are you’ve waded through the diet plans and gruelling exercise regimes for years. You’ve run yourself into the ground over and over but you’re still not seeing results! Here are some tips to help you stop working so hard, and start working smart:

 1. If you're strength training for your upper body, make sure you use equipment with thick handles. To effectively work your upper body muscles and get better results faster, you need to have a strong grip, which means having strong wrists, fingers, thumbs and forearms. Working with thick-handled equipment is the best way to develop these muscles. Don't have this type of equipment? Just wrap a hand-towel around normal-sized equipment to make the handles extra thick!

 Thick-handled equipment also helps to correct strength imbalances. The technical term for this is "bilateral deficit," which means that everyone is slightly stronger on one side than the other.

 2. Experiment with food substitution. Protein is particularly important if you're doing strength exercises. Luckily, there are plenty of creative but easy ways to incorporate tasty protein sources into your diet. Haloumi cheese, for example, makes a great substitute for toast or pancakes, because it doesn't melt when you grill it. Just pop a slice under the grill for a few minutes until it begins to brown.

 3. Take out your body piercings. It may sound strange, but it's true! Body piercings can disrupt your body composition by affecting your internal energy flow. If you're measuring your body fat levels, make sure you remove any body piercings to get an accurate result.

 4. Use a stainless steel water bottle. Get yourself a good water bottle, preferably stainless steel, and a water filter. Not only is it healthier to drink from stainless steel, which is free from xenoestrogens, it's also more environmentally friendly.

 5. Try acupuncture before exercising. Acupuncture is a great way to activate your nervous system before a workout. It helps release chemicals in your muscles and central nervous system, which means you'll be able to train harder and ultimately see better results.

 For more healthy weight loss advice check out my weight loss ebooks – or for a more guided approach join my online weight loss program, Love Your Weight Loss. You’ll learn how to lose weight, love the process and most importantly, keep it off! Start a free trial today and lose weight online, now!