Tips For Weight Loss Archives

How are chronic inflammation and gut health connected? Healing your gut can also help reduce chronic inflammation and heal your entire body.

Inflammation and Gut Health – How Are They Connected

Have you ever thought about how chronic inflammation and gut health are connected? Never? Just me, huh? Well, I might be the weirdo here, but I can tell you, that …

fruit and vegetables - cut out the fluff

How To Lose 2 Pounds A Week (Why It’s Better Than 15)

How to lose 2 pounds a week? I know, I know, losing two pounds a week seems like nothing. Like a joke. Like air. Fairy dust. But it’s the realistic …

How To Eat Clean When You’re Broke

How to eat healthy when you’re broke. Let me paraphrase that if you’re more sophisticated, I meant – how to eat clean on a budget…That’s what I want to talk …

High-Fiber Food List: 52 Fiber-Rich Foods To Eat More Of

Want to increase your fiber intake, because you’re trying to lose weight, prevent cardiovascular disease, improve digestion and say bye-bye to constipation? Start with this high-fiber food list featuring 52 …

ground beef and cabbage stir-fry: healthy dinner idea from the intermittent fasting meal plan

7-Day Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan (16/8 Schedule)

Intermittent fasting comes with many, many AMAZING health benefits. The best thing about it is that it’s super easy to do, as it’s not about what you eat, but when you eat. It’s a dietary pattern that can actually transform your health, especially when combined with a real food diet. So, if you’re new to intermittent fasting, you need to try this 7-Day intermittent fasting meal plan for a 16/8 schedule.

Whether you’re doing intermittent fasting to lose weight, to feel better, to get over your constant food cravings or because you read that it can actually prolong your life and help reduce inflammation…the time to start is now. This diet plan for intermittent fasting is beginner-friendly and includes easy-to-make healthy meals that taste great plus a grocery list to help you shop for the week.

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a way of eating where you restrict the time period during which you eat your meals. You know how sometimes you forget to have dinner and go hungry to bed? Intermittent fasting. Or you skip breakfast and eat lunch at 3 pm? Intermittent fasting. That’s all it is!

The Intermittent Fasting 16/8 Schedule

There are different ways to practice intermittent fasting.

For example, you can eat as usual for 5 days and fast for 2 days during the week and that’s called a 5/2 intermittent fasting schedule.

There are also daily time restricted eating schedules like:

20/4 – this means you fast for 20 hours and eat your meals within 4 hours
18/6 – you fast for 18 hours and eat your meals within 6 hours
16/8 – fasting for 16 hours and eat your meals within 8 hours

For beginners, the most realistic schedule on a daily basis, is the 16/8 intermittent fasting schedule.

16/8 means you will not eat for 16 hours and you will eat during 8 out of the 24 hours we have in a day. For example, you could start eating at 10 am and stop eating at 6 pm. Same times next day. You can adapt the times according to your own schedule and preferences.

It’s Not For Everybody

You need to understand that intermittent fasting is not for everybody and it comes with health risks for some groups of people. For example, IF might not be for you if you’re pregnant or are breastfeeding, have diabetes or have a history with an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia. It’s best to consult your doctor before starting a new eating regimen.

7-Day Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan

The meals in this diet plan are healthy, vibrant and made with real, whole foods. Yes, you do not need to follow a specific type of low carb diet to have success with intermittent fasting. Make sure to eat healthy and a variety of foods to cover all your nutritional needs with diet alone.

Please note that this is my 7-day meal plan for intermittent fasting with the meals and times that fit my diet, lifestyle and schedule.

Take the ideas that you like, but make sure to make the meal plan your own. Make it fit your own schedule and your lifestyle. Add recipes you like, skip ingredients and recipes you don’t like, and make sure to enjoy your food, so you can feel satiated and happy. That’s the way to make this thing work long-term…and we want the long-term, long-lasting results, not the shortcut, short-lived success.

This intermittent fasting diet plan is for one, so if you decide to make it for yourself and others, make sure to adjust the recipe ingredients accordingly.We will be relying on leftovers for lunch and some of the recipes need to be made ahead of time, the day before you start the 7-day challenge.

Intermittent Fasting Meals Day 1:

10 am Breakfast: Vanilla Chia Pudding topped with fruit and nuts of choice (make the night before)

11 am Snack: Best Ever Green Smoothie

2 pm Lunch: Avocado Chicken Salad (make ahead)

5 pm Dinner: Coconut Curry Shimp Soup

An intermittent fasting schedule comes with many health benefits - intermittent fasting is great for weight loss, your gut health and can help reduce inflammation (great in combination with an anti-inflammatory diet). In this intermittent fasting for beginners guide learn what to eat when intermittent fasting, the 3 types of IF that can help you get results, the intermittent fasting benefits. You’ll also find a clean eating meal plan and a grocery list that you can use when intermittent fasting.

Intermittent Fasting For Beginners: What To Eat & Do

Intermittent fasting has been creeping its way to success for quite a few years now. And, last year it really had it made. Step away kale and keto diet, it’s my time to shine. You had famous people try it and you had your grandma doing it too. So today, let’s talk about intermittent fasting! We’ll discuss (or I’ll monologue my way through) what it is, whether it’s for you and more importantly what you should eat. At the end of this intermittent fasting beginner guide, I will include an intermittent fasting food list that you can use when you do your groceries.

What Is Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is simply a period of fasting followed by a period of eating. It’s not a diet, it’s a way of eating. You basically consume your calories within a certain time window.

There are a few ways to do intermittent fasting, here are some examples I found in this article:

Alternate-day fasting. You eat as you usually would on day one, on day two you eat only once a day and that meal will provide around 25% of your calories. If you’re on a 2000 kcal diet, you get a 500 kcal meal and you’re done for the day.
5:2 Fasting. This is when you fast for two days during the week and eat without food restrictions during the other 5 days. On the fasting days, you can again, consume one 500 kcal meal.
Time-restricted: Examples would be the famous 16:8 split – you eat whatever’s on your meal plan within 8 hours of the day and then don’t eat for 16 hours. For example, if you start eating at 9 am, you stop eating at 5 pm. Other options are 18:6 and 20:4, but I find these more restrictive.

See you can get the results and benefits with all of these schedules, but what you need to do is decide which one works best for your lifestyle. If the 5:2 split is more realistic for you right now than the alternate day or time-restricted fasting, why not start there? The point is to get started, try something new and see what happens.

Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting

While intermittent fasting is new for a lot of people, I knew about it from my grandma who ate once or twice a day and took a multi-vitamin because my dad insisted on it. We just didn’t name it (seriously why would you name it intermittent fasting of all things?).

My grandma’s diet consisted of a croissant and sometimes a baked onion with bread. She was very underweight, but she did have her yard where she grew fruits and vegetables and she would snack on them without tracking her macros or calories. Imagine that life now.

Still, after many health struggles, heartbreaks and three heart attacks my grandma lived the longest out of all her siblings and out of my four grandparents. So when research says eating less might expand your life span, it might be onto something.

Now, here are some more benefits of intermittent fasting according to a great Healthline article I found. Intermittent fasting can/might:

improve cellular repair
promote weight loss
be beneficial for your cardiometabolic health
reduce inflammation and oxidative stress
prevent cancer and Alzheimer’s disease
protect against brain damage
increase lifespan

See there are many benefits to eating this way. But…

Intermittent Fasting Is Not For Everyone

That being said, intermittent fasting is not for everyone. Restricting your calories can affect your hormones and is best discussed with a doctor if you have a health condition. For example, intermittent fasting is not for you if you have diabetes, are pregnant or breastfeeding or have an eating disorder related to restricting calories (like anorexia or bulimia).

Intermittent Fasting: What To Eat

I have a blog post somewhere hidden on this blog, called “How to lose 10 pounds in a month“. I mentioned there that the only time I was able to lose weight was when I cut out eating after 5 pm. Now, I need to mention: I have never been overweight and never made an actual effort to lose weight other than that one time. I still remember feeling very good, confident, very light and energized during that time.

A simple weekend anti-inflammatory meal plan! This is a two-day reset to reduce inflammation by adding more anti-inflammatory foods like fresh vegetables and fish into our diet and leaving out inflammatory foods like red meat, sugar and oils. This healthy meal plan is a great start to the anti-inflammatory diet.

Anti-Inflammatory Meal Plan (Weekend Edition)

Use this compact anti-inflammatory meal plan to reset over the weekend or whenever you need it – it’s also a great way to start the anti-inflammatory diet! Hello, 2020! It’s …

How to eat healthy without letting it become an obsession! How to eat clean and feel good without obsessing over calories and macros.

How To Eat Healthy Without It Becoming An Obsession

Something I know many people struggle with is creating a balance of eating healthy without becoming obsessed. Without it becoming unhealthy.

In the past I could never relate to this – I’ve always eaten whatever I was craving and most times it was the nourishing types of foods. Then I would eat pizza when I was out with my friends. Thankfully, it’s still like this.

However, I did go through a season in my life, when eating healthy had become a bit confusing and honestly, draining. It was around 5 years ago when I really started learning more and more and more about “good foods” and “bad foods”. I never counted calories or macros or anything like that, but slowly it was becoming a thing.

Suddenly, there were all these videos on Youtube of models talking about “What I Eat In A Day”, drinking 3 smoothies and eating salads without oil. People talking about supplements, gut health and how you should avoid this and that to feel like a superhuman. And I’m not just talking pizza or burgers. I’m talking major food groups like fruits, grains, legumes or animal products.

On the other hand, I’d see crazy mind-numbing cheat days with millions of calories.

And then – the next thing – people who talk about how dieting turned into an unhealthy fixation that ruined their relationship with food.

I do have my own experience and a few thoughts on eating healthy and how to let it work for you, without it becoming an obsession. What you eat does matter, and don’t get me wrong – food is great, but it should not be the center of the universe.

How To Eat Healthy Without Becoming Obsessed

1. Know Your Motivation

When you have a deeper why behind why you’re eating healthy, I’m 99% sure you’ll be able to stay healthy without becoming obsessed.

Here’s my why. I want to eat healthy, because it makes me feel good. Because I have more energy during the day to run faster, to have fun, to play with my nephew and to be present around the people I love. I eat healthy, because it allows me to have the focus to work on the things I want in life. Things that are different than eating everything I want or being super lean and looking a certain way.

I know how I feel when I don’t eat healthy. I feel sluggish, distracted and like I want to take a nap. My head is foggy. And the fact that my jeans are too tight around my waist doesn’t help. I want to put on sweat pants and sit on my couch. But that’s not what I want out of life. It’s not the life I want.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting abs, but is it something that will make you want to eat a healthy nutritious salad? No.

Doing things because you have to achieve something, well let’s call it what it is – superficial, can easily wake up that voice of “That’s not enough…”. Thus leading to obsessing over unimportant things like whether you ate 10g more carbs (even if those were from lettuce!) today or not.

You might say, I want to look good, so I can be more confident. This is a deeper why, but confidence doesn’t come from looking a certain way.

It comes from within. It comes from taking the right actions and from staying true to yourself. Food has nothing to do with confidence. Having abs has nothing to do with confidence.

Decide what you want and don’t want in your life, and what you’ll be okay with, then make the everyday choices that will support that decision.

2. Bye, Guilt.

On the other hand, I know that the occasional slice of pizza (or three of those!) or a donut won’t kill me. Whenever I crave these foods, I have them and I’m fully comfortable with my choices.

It’s fully okay that I had those mini burgers, the cake, the macaroons, the chocolate covered fruit at my friend’s wedding. And that I drank champagne as if it was water that day (it’s quite sneaky!). It’s her wedding, I’m not going to eat this way every single day. What happens, happens.

I know for myself, whenever I start feeling even the slightest guilt around food, I start setting these crazy rules and I tend to overeat more and more. So whatever I do, I try to enjoy it, wholeheartedly and to not feel bad about it.

3. Understand What Your Body Is

Learn to appreciate and love your body for what it is: the reason you actually exist on this planet.

I think sometimes we forget that the body is not a doll that needs to look a certain way. That needs to be lean, curvy or skinny to be good enough.

Workout Motivation! My motivating music playlist for running and working out! These songs will make exercise way easier!

My Playlist For Running & Why I Started Running

If you’re lacking workout motivation, you probably haven’t found the right music yet! Today I’m sharing my running playlist with the music I like to work out to and it’s so scary, I’m basically crapping my pants sitting in the chair I just bought.

Believe it or not, there’s never been an article I’ve been more afraid to post in my life.

Why?

Because when it comes to music, people get very judgemental. Based on your taste in music many people would draw conclusions about your intelligence, your job, hobbies, and lifestyle.

But music is just music. Someone who’s listening to Mozart isn’t a better person than someone who listens to Taylor Swift.

Now, this here is my playlist and if you’re thinking: Wow this playlist is from 2013, you might be right. I do not remember when I made it, but I found it recently on my phone and it motivates the crap out of me to run as fast as I can.

Why I Started Running

Don’t get me wrong, when I say I started running I don’t mean I do it every day. I even skip weeks, but I come back to it and I love it.

So the reason I did it was that I was sick of all the other workouts. I was sick of doing 12 repetitions of everything and I missed simply playing outside as if I’m a kid.

I love basketball, I love badminton, but with all of these I depend on other people. I needed something I could do every time when my head was about to explode or I needed an energy boost.

And running became it.

But I didn’t just want to run, I wanted to challenge myself. See how fast I can go. See how far I can go. I wanted to feel free and like I can fly. I know, I sound crazy, but I haven’t felt this good working out in a long time.

31 Easy Healthy Breakfast Recipes

You’re going to love these easy healthy breakfast recipes! Whether you’re looking for sweet or savory wholesome breakfast food ideas to start your day in a healthy way, you will find what you need here.

There are sweet breakfast muffins, cookies as well as breakfast burritos, egg muffins, quesadillas and overnight oats, basically, all the healthy breakfast inspiration you need to start your day right!

You can eat many of these nourishing breakfasts on the go, in the car, over the sink, on an airplane, when you’re walking, while you’re sitting in the office, sneak them into the cinema…The sky is the limit.

We’ve been told for years breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But since 2019, with the rise of intermittent fasting, breakfast is a thing of the past. It’s not cool anymore.

“You’re having overnight oats? At 9 am? What a loser.”

I’ve never been a big breakfast eater myself, as I naturally get hungry at around 11 am. But there were a few years when I was working a desk job and having 3 croissants and a latte at my desk at 9:30 am just felt like the right thing to do.

Over the years, once I got a bit more responsible, I changed my eating habits to be healthier and I now enjoy my breakfast time so much.

To inspire and help you start your day in a healthier way as well, today I’m sharing 31 days’ worth of easy healthy breakfast recipes that are super tasty!

Easy Healthy Pancakes And Muffins

We’re starting off this list of healthy breakfast ideas with my personal favorite category. Surprise: it’s pancakes and muffins. I love muffins and pancakes in the morning and luckily there are many ways to make them healthier.

1. Healthy Oatmeal Banana Pancakes. These oatmeal banana pancakes have hundreds of great reviews on Pinterest, people just love them! I get it, they’re fluffy, healthy and absolutely delicious…The perfect healthy breakfast for any day of the week. And they’re ready in 10 minutes).

2. Healthy Breakfast Streusel Apple Muffins. The name says it all. Oh, and these breakfast apple muffins are – flourless and made with oats.

3. Almond Flour Pancakes. If you’re sensitive to gluten, you will want to try these super fluffy healthy pancakes for breakfast! Made with almond and coconut flour these almond flour pancakes won’t spike your blood sugar early in the morning, which is important if you’re insulin resistant. Also, they’re incredibly tasty!

4. Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

Make your favorite type of breakfast muffins flourless with this healthy oatmeal blueberry muffins recipe. They’re toddler-approved and so tasty!

5. Fluffy Oatmeal Pancakes. Look, I wasn’t trying to tell you you can make anything using oats, but here we are. This is one of my go-to pancake recipes and is always a hit at breakfast.

6. Flourless Banana Oatmeal Muffins. These banana oatmeal muffins come with a delicious crumbly top. This is a super easy breakfast recipe and it comes together in about 40 minutes. Perfect for meal prep and super delicious too!

7. Healthy Oatmeal Crepes Did you know you can make absolutely amazing crepes using oats and no flour? Practice your flipping skills and get these crepes on your breakfast table in about 10 minutes.

Healthy Meal Prep Breakfast Recipes

Now, if you don’t have much time during the week to make food in the morning, try these simple meal prep healthy breakfast ideas.

8. Healthy Breakfast Apple Cake. If you’ve never eaten cake for breakfast, you should start with this apple cake. It’s flourless and made with apples, oats, yogurt and honey and is loved by kids too!

9. Homemade Healthy Granola. What do you envision when you think of super easy healthy breakfast recipes? To me, it’s this homemade granola. My favorite way to serve it is with yogurt or dairy-free milk and fresh fruit.

10. Healthy Breakfast Cookies. I never knew breakfast cookies are actually a thing, but I love it. Make your own with this super easy healthier no-bake version.

11. Crustless Tuna Breakfast Quiche. I know it might sound weird, but don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. This crustless tuna quiche makes a tasty high-protein breakfast filled with eggs, tuna and vegetables.

12. Oatmeal Blueberry Cake. This delicious breakfast blueberry cake is made with gluten-free oats, eggs, butter and fresh blueberries. It honestly just melts in your mouth.

13. Breakfast Peanut Butter Chocolate Cups. If you like peanut butter cups and want to start your days eating one or two, you can with this super easy recipe.

14. Breakfast Egg Bake. Make this high-protein breakfast egg bake ahead of time. You can serve it as it is or in a sandwich. It’s easy to make, easy to pack, tasty and great for breakfast on the go.

15. Oatmeal Chocolate Cake. Feel free to skip this healthy chocolate cake if you’re not into chocolate for breakfast. If you are, you’ll love this simple oatmeal cake. It’s flourless, made with oats, cacao powder, coconut sugar, eggs, fresh pitted cherries & more.

Savory Healthy Breakfast Ideas

If you like to start your day with more savory recipes, you’ll love the filling healthy breakfast ideas in this section!

16. Healthy Breakfast Quesadilla. Amazing! Filled with spinach, eggs, zucchini, garlic and some mozzarella cheese, I could seriously eat this healthy breakfast quesadilla every morning. I’d even have it for lunch, or dinner, every single day.

17. Mediterranean Breakfast Avocado Egg Toast. Sometimes you just want to keep things really simple in the morning and need easy healthy breakfast recipes like this one. Toast a few slices of bread, take an avocado, tomatoes and basil and fry some eggs for a delicious avocado egg toast.

How To Start Working Out For Beginners

Exercise makes us feel good, is good for us, but if you’ve never had an exercise routine in your life, getting started can be a bit confusing. And it doesn’t have to be, it’s actually pretty simple. All it takes is a decision, your body and 20-30 minutes a day. So today, if you don’t have a workout habit yet, let’s talk about how to start working out for beginners!

Just to make something clear: I’m not going to show you how to equip a gym at home. You know what you need to start working out? The very basics? A functioning body. Even if you want to exercise at home, anyone can look up a beginner workout on Youtube and try it. So, let’s lose the excuses and find some ideas here.

The Mindset: Make Working Out Fun

Exercise is not that hard thing that you have to do to get fit, so you can look good and tell people look at me now and laugh at them.

It can be a very fun thing. It’s something you do because you want to make your life better. Not because someone’s gonna applaud when they see your abs. But because it makes you feel good. Because it’s a completely natural part of your day that brings you back to who you really are.

We are made to move, to play and to be active.

Think about children. Nobody makes toddlers move. Young children don’t know or care about the benefits of exercise. They’re not trying to lose weight or get abs. But if you try to stop them from running around all day…well prepare to be screamed at and possibly bitten.

When I was a kid, my mom put me in a gym class and I was a little gymnast for a little bit. I loved it. I could bend my body any way I wanted and I was really quick. Then I became a teenager and suddenly hanging out in coffee shops and talking about guys became the cool thing to do. Another cool thing back then was to start smoking. Thankfully I didn’t start it, but I had fallen out of love with exercise for a while. I only worked out because I wanted abs, or…No that’s it. I wanted abs. Well, I never got them, because I was eating pizza every day. But at some point, I changed my perspective and started actually craving exercise.

When you think of exercise as something you like, something that brings you joy, you start wanting to do it more often. You start looking forward to it. You want to make it a part of your daily routine.

How Much Exercise Should You Do?

Officially, we need between 150 and 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise every week. This means, at least 30 minutes five days a week of brisk walking, light jogging, dancing, swimming, or water aerobics.

Another way to get enough exercise is to do 75-150 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise. That’s 15 minutes five days a week of running, cycling, hiking uphill, basketball, soccer or even intense gardening.

Now imagine your days having these activities in your life! I don’t know about you, but it sounds pretty good to me. It doesn’t sound like the treadmill five days a week. It sounds like a lot of fun. Sounds like doing a variety of memorable, fun things.

The WHO also wants you to add 2 strength training sessions to strengthen the major muscle groups in the body. And if you don’t have a gym – you can do that too. I’ve seen people do it using tires or even cement blocks outside. I personally have some dumbbells and a kettlebell.

The Benefits Of Exercise

Cardio and strength exercises are shown to improve sleep, reduce depression, prevent diseases like diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, some cancers, prevent fractures and help maintain weight loss.

Strength training can not only make you look super hot, so you can create an Instagram profile, but, almost as importantly, – preserve bone mass, prevent fractures, reduce the risk of osteoporosis, improve sleep and help you burn more calories even at rest. (source)

If you’re feeling unmotivated, chances are, once you start working out regularly for at least a few weeks – you’ll become more motivated by the action itself. Not just to exercise, but in life in general. You might even want to start eating better in order to move faster and perform better.

Banana Oatmeal Waffle and 4 more healthy breakfast ideas that are quick, easy and delicious! Enjoy these wholesome recipes for breakfast or as a snack.

5 Easy Healthy Breakfast Ideas, Ready In 5 Minutes

I’ve got some news for you. Breakfast is not only for spoiled people. I know, I was shocked as well. The reality is, today anyone can make time for breakfast, you just need some easy healthy breakfast ideas that are ready in like 5 minutes. Well, that’s what we’ve got here today. I’ve rounded up 5 nutritious simple breakfast recipes that are super quick to make. These can help you lose weight, maintain your weight, keep you from starving in the morning and help you avoid a sugar rush that early in the day.

Which foods are good for breakfast?

In the morning, you want to get a variety of foods that are rich in essential nutrients, antioxidants, fiber, protein, and healthy fats. You want your breakfast meals to be filling and satisfying. Great breakfast foods are oats, whole grain bread or muffins, fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, eggs.

Benefits Of Eating A Wholesome Breakfast

Last year I was gaining some weight – long hours at the desk, overeating at night…all that fun stuff. I did some research and found out, you do need breakfast to maintain a healthy weight and to not feel hungry all the time, especially later in the day.

Turns out, people who skip breakfast actually have a higher BMI than people who eat a nutritious meal in the morning. (sadly, the 3 croissants and the latte I was having every morning didn’t count!)

Breakfast can help you maintain a healthy weight, keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day and, when you choose the right foods, to provide your body with the nourishment it needs to stay alert at work or school.