5 Must-Have Foods to Aid Weight Loss

5 Must-Have Foods to Aid Weight Loss

Choosing the right foods will help you lose weight faster and then keep it off. These foods help in a variety of ways to ensure that you will be able to lose weight. When put together along with an overall healthy diet, then these five foods will aid in weight loss.

Here are 5 must-have foods to aid weight loss:

1. Leafy Greens

There are a number of plants that fall under this category that all work the same way to help you lose weight. The best are spinach, kale, swiss chard, and collards. The first way they help you lose weight is by providing you with a number of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. These work together to make sure your body is working the way it should.

The other way that these help you lose weight is because they are high in fiber. Fiber keeps your digestive system working the way it’s supposed to which helps you lose weight. It also makes you feel full for longer, which keeps you from eating too many snacks in between meals and can prevent you from eating too much as your next meal.

2. Whole Eggs

Contrary to what was believed for a while, the yolks of eggs are beneficial to people that want to lose weight. Recent studies have proven that whole eggs don’t increase cholesterol or increase your risk of heart attack. In fact, eating eggs will help you lose weight and are a vital part of low-carb diets since they are low in carbs but high in healthy fats and protein.

3. Cruciferous Vegetables

This family of vegetables include cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. Like leafy greens, they are high in fiber but low in carbs. They also contain surprisingly high amounts of protein compared to other vegetables, making them an excellent choice for people who want to lose weight. Additionally, they have a number of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

4. Salmon

Salmon, along with other oily fish like trout, mackerel, herring, and sardines are excellent for losing weight. The first way they can help you lose weight is by providing you with a good amount of healthy fat. These will help keep you feeling full for longer, and also do a lot for different processes in your body, especially your brain.

Another way that salmon and other fatty fishes can help you lose weight is the amount of iodine they contain. Many people don’t get enough iodine from their diets which can lead to low thyroid function. Because the thyroid controls metabolism, it’s important to keep it running the way it’s supposed to if you’re going to lose weight.

5. Chicken

Along with other white and lean meats, chicken can help you lose weight. This is because of the amount of protein it contains. Protein is a vital part of weight loss because of how much a high-protein diet can contribute to weight loss. In fact, studies have shown that by getting between 25 and 30 percent of your calories from protein, you can lose up to a pound a week just by reducing cravings.

Eric Dempsey

MS, NASM Specialist in Fitness Nutrition

Chaplain Paul Voorhees Ministry

Natural Remedies for High Cholesterol

Natural Remedies for High Cholesterol

Having high cholesterol levels may prelude the existence of several heart diseases. However, you can take control of lowering your levels with natural remedies. Here are just a few.

Artichoke Leaf Extract
Studies reveal that artichoke leaf extract can help lower an individual’s total cholesterol levels by as much as 18.5%. It can also lower bad cholesterol levels – LDL levels – by up to 22.9%. These results can be achieved by taking 1,800mg of artichoke leaf extract every day for up to 16 weeks. Its active compound known as cynarin (or cynarine) is believed to be responsible for increasing the production of bile in the liver and speeding up its flow from the gall bladder. These occurrences all contribute towards faster excretion of cholesterol from the body.

Olive Oil
Research reveals that those people who use olive oil daily are at a lower risk of developing cardiovascular problems and heart disease. Even consuming 2 tablespoons of olive oil every day for a week can help lessen the oxidation of bad cholesterol levels.

Cinnamon
Cinnamon is not only delicious, but it can be helpful for those wanting to lower high cholesterol levels. Taking half a teaspoon of cinnamon every day is enough to keep cholesterol levels low.
Cinnamon can also be a good replacement for sugar. You can try mixing it in your coffee or tea, or blending it in your morning cereal. Basically, you just have to sprinkle it on everything you can to achieve the heart healthy benefits.

Garlic
Anyone who loves natural remedies has probably been waiting to see if garlic is on the list, and yes, of course it is. Garlic can be taken raw, in powder form, or in supplements or capsules. Experts confirm that eating one clove of garlic every day can help lower cholesterol. Garlic has long been known as a great help for people who have high cholesterol levels. Garlic contains certain compounds that act as blood thinners, thereby reducing the risk of heart disease.

Alfalfa
The active compounds found in alfalfa leaves, such as saponins, have the ability to block cholesterol absorption and prevent atherosclerotic plaque formation. Both alfalfa leaves and sprouts are beneficial for lowering high cholesterol levels. An infusion of alfalfa leaves, boiled in one cup of water can be taken as a tea. To add a little flavor, add some lemon grass, honey or mint.

Oatmeal
Oatmeal is full of soluble fiber. When digested, this fiber becomes sticky and gluey, thereby allowing the cholesterol to stick to it as it passes through the digestive tract for faster excretion.

Broader Dietary Modifications

Diet naturally plays a major role in maintaining healthy cholesterol levels. As well as selecting the specific foods above, make broad-based selections of food types to improve your cholesterol balance.

Choose monounsaturated fats - Olives, avocados, canola oil, walnuts, almonds and peanuts are some examples of foods that contain monounsaturated fats.

Avoid trans fats - If you are a lover of baked goodies, now is the time to review your habits. Baked goods mostly contain trans fats that will not only increase your bad LDL cholesterol levels, they will also lower your good HDL cholesterol levels. You need good HDL cholesterol to keep your LDL under control!

Eat plenty of fish, fruits and veggies – Fish, especially oily varieties, is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids which help improve your heart health. Veggies and fruits are rich with dietary fiber to help you get rid of excess cholesterol.

If you have been diagnosed with high levels of cholesterol, congratulations on looking for ways to lower it naturally. Relying on statins will likely cause more problems to your health, so it is important that you first exhaust all natural means of lowering your cholesterol levels.

Eric Dempsey
Master Sergeant, US Army Retired
MS, NASM Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Chaplain Paul Voorhees Ministry

Pemmican the Ultimate Survival Food

The next survival crisis, which we may face soon, will be nothing more than what our ancestors called daily life.

The grid could go down and then we would have no electrical power, no refrigerators, no Internet, no computers, no TV, no hyperactive law enforcement, and no Publix or Walmart.

When the grocery stores close down, and the food shelves go empty, food will become a serious issue for most people.

Except for those who know how to make pemmican!

Pemmican was created by the natives of North America, and was used by Indian scouts, as well as early western explorers.

These people were highly mobile, and covered a lot of distance. They needed food that was nutritious and would not spoil.

Pemmican answered the call. You can store it for a long time without refrigeration. And it can be packaged in any way that you need, so that it can be carried easily during movement.

Learning how to make pemmican is just one of the many survival techniques used by our forefathers.

These precious life saving techniques are becoming lost to time.

When things go bad in today's world, we will all become frontiersman and pioneers again.

And we will need to learn the same skills that our grandfathers, and great grandfathers knew before us.

Click this link and watch this super informative video on how to make pemmican.

Start learning the skills that you, and your family, will depend upon during the next dark times.

We all have much to learn from our ancestors.

Pemmican is a great place to start.

And if you want to learn more about old school frontier and pioneer survival techniques, check out this great book:

The Lost Ways.

Stay safe,

Eric Dempsey

Master Sergeant, US Army Retired

ILRRPS Survival with Resistance to Interrogation Course Graduate

Can You Lower Cholesterol Quickly Following a Healthy Diet?

If you are looking for a stock answer to the question of how long it may take to lower your cholesterol with a healthy diet, well, there is no such thing. Everyone is uniquely and marvelously different.

There are so many factors in your life that may or may not apply to someone else. Your body weight, the amount of exercise and physical activity you get, your age, environmental influences, heredity and so many other factors all come into play. These make you not only the person you are, but determine how you respond to various inputs and changes.

Diet - the Biggest Factor

That having been said, you can actually lower high cholesterol levels rather quickly with simple dietary changes.

Multiple studies have shown that a smart approach to nutrition is as effective as, and sometimes more effective, than statins and other drugs for lowering high cholesterol. That is marvelous news for anyone concerned about their health, and looking for defective ways to improve it.

Statins Carry Risks

As you probably know, a lot of medications carry with them unfortunately negative side-effects for some people. Recent research into the effects of statin drugs paint a very concerning picture for patients. In many cases a medication prescribed by your doctor may cause more concerning health problems than the condition you are trying to treat.

With diet, that is not the case.

If you eat too many beans you may get gassy, and if you take a fish oil supplement you may or may not get a case of bad breath. However, thee effects don't have lasting negative impacts on your health, wellbeing and longevity.

All in all, there isn't a real downside to eating smart. Given that all people are different and your time-frame may be greater or shorter than global averages, here is the good news ...

How Quick are Dietary Effects?

In as few as 2 to 3 weeks the right diet plan can significantly reduce an abnormally high cholesterol level.

Your body wants to be healthy. It really does. All it wants you to do is give it the things it needs to be as healthy and strong as it possibly can. Your emotional, physical, mental and hormonal health levels will all regulate themselves naturally for your best possible performance, if you let your body do what it does automatically.

Steps to Take

This means eating more high-fiber foods like beans and whole grains. Avoid processed meat, fried foods and fast food. Eat only small amounts of whole milk, cheese and butter.

Drastically limit the amount of added sugar that is present in your diet. Reducing the intake of sugary foods and other simple carbs is essential to cholesterol balancing.

Consuming too much sugar not only raises your cholesterol level, but it puts you at risk for a number of health problems including overweight, obesity, diabetes, cancer and neurological problems like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Eat Whole and Fresh

Start eating more fruits and vegetables, organic and raw or at least minimally cooked, whenever you can. When you are hungry and are contemplating an unhealthy snack, grab a handful of high-protein, high-fiber almonds, walnuts or other nuts instead, foods which also deliver high levels of healthy fats. Drink water throughout the day and wait until thirsty.

That simple diet plan can be extremely effective for lowering high cholesterol, and it begins to work immediately. When you combine a cholesterol-beating diet with at least 150 minutes of moderate to intense aerobic exercise every week, you can see truly miraculous things happen to your cholesterol levels.

Eric Dempsey
MS, NASM Specialist in Fitness Nutrition
Dempseys Resolution Fitness