Simpleweight Upgrades Completed

Last Night, we pushed out some new simpleweight upgrades. Again, most of the features are behind the scenes.

We did have a couple of recent feature request. Specifically, one of our users asked to sort favorites. Consider it done.

All you have to do is drag and drop your favorite foods in the order you want. They will save automatically.

What does the work behind the scenes mean for our users? It means, we will be able to continue implementing features on a quicker basis with easier testing.

We have noticed simpleweight is a little slower since the recent upgrades. It’s due to our popularity increasing. We’ve had a lot of viewers and page hits recently. We’re working on improving performance. We appreciate your patience.

Thank you again. If you like what you see, please click on advertisement or two to help sponsor us or of course. we ask you to recommend your friends, and we’ll pay you for your referral just Refer your friends to Simpleweight.

As always, What is the one thing we need to do to simpleweight to help you join our weight loss club?

How to add MUFA to Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner for weight loss?

After writing my Flat Belly Diet Eat MUFA for Weight Loss post, I continued to do more research. Some people asked me,

How do I add MUFA (mono unsaturated fat) at every meal?

Basically, try to add: Avocado, Canola oil, Olive Oil, Nuts like almonds, cashews, pecans, and peanuts, Olives, Peanut butter and peanut oil, or Sesame seeds to your diet.

One of the best ways is to try to mix and optimize those ideas. For example: Traditional pesto is made from pine nuts, olive oil, basil, parmesan cheese. What a tasty way to get MUFA.

Here are some more specific ideas for each meal:

MUFA Breakfast Ideas for weight loss

• Add Avocado in omelet
• Spread Peanut butter on toast, bagels, english muffins, or apples
• Sprinkle Almonds (nuts) on top of pancakes, waffles, and even french toast
• Mix nut-based granola in your yogurt
• Blend Flax Seed Oil with your favorite fruit smoothie
• Add Sunflower seeds, Walnuts, or Pecans to your cereal or oatmeal

MUFA Lunch & MUFA Dinner Ideas for weight loss

• Toss sliced avocado, chopped olives, or sliced nuts in your green leaf salad
• Pour Oil Based Dressings on top of your salad specifically Olive Oil, Sun Flower, or Peanut Oil
• Add avocado to a Mexican chicken or black bean soup
• Instead of croûtons, add nuts and seeds to your or soup or salad
• Add nuts to stir fry dishes
• Ask for Olives in your Enchiladas or other Mexican Food.
• Dribble Pesto sauce over a small bed of noodles
• Add a dollop of pesto to dishes such as tomato soup or baked potato
• Stir olives into your red pasta sauce
• Sprinkle nuts on cream-based soups like tomato-basil, butternut squash soup, etc.
• Add Avocado to your deli sandwich (Jimmy John’s is great for this)
• Top your Chicken Sandwich, Turkey Burger, or Small Hamburger with Guacamole

MUFA Snack Ideas for weight loss

• Eat Raw Nut based Trail Mix.
• Spread Olive tapenade on a cracker or crostini
• Spread Avocado and cheese on a cracker
• Dip apples or celery in Peanut or almond butter
• Have an Olive Loaf Bread slice with olive oil

Remember, the key here is you need to keep your quantity of calories down for maximum benefit.

As I detailed in my MUFA weight loss article, Nuts, Avocados, and Oils are all high calories foods. Yet, they are very filling so you need less food at your meal. Try to strive for 400 calorie meals with a vegetable and protein rich diet.

Now that you know my MUFA ideas, What’s your favorite MUFA meal idea?

Photo Credit: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner via Flickr, by: Jeff Kubina

Here are some other articles that you might like to read:

• Flat Belly Diet:  A Skim Review
• Top Three 5 minute MUFA Snacks

Food Search Available Again

Food Search is back and ready for your use. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you for your patience.

Food Search down for upgrades.

Food Search is currently down for upgrades. We apologize for inconvenience. We hope to have this service up and running by morning 1/14/2008. Thank you for your patience.

Flat Belly Diet for weight loss, eat MUFA

One of my goals with this blog is I hope to browse the internet to read diet and fitness articles and give you the low down so you don’t have to search all over the place.

The article I saw tonight was by MSN and Prevention magazine titled:
Lose Inches of Belly Fat Now
Here’s what you need to know:

1. Include Monounsaturated fats (MUFA) at each meal
2. Have a clear calorie goal
3. Eat Often
4. Improve your attitude towards food. ( In other words, Think to lose weight.)
   Examples:
   • Manage Stress
   • Ask for help
   • Control Emotional eating

It seems that Omega 3 fats (Fish Oil and Flax seed) are the ones that have been getting all the buzz in 2007, but other oils such as MUFA’s are healthy too.

What are examples of MUFA’s (monounsaturated fats)?

• Olive Oil, 9.8g MUFA in 1 Tablespoon, 119 calories
• Peanut Oil, 6.2g MUFA in 1 Tbsp, 119 calories
• Canola Oil, 8.2g MUFA in 1 Tbsp, 124 calories
• Almonds, 12g MUFA in 1/4 cup, 212 calories
• Peanuts, 9g MUFA in 1/4 cup, 207 calories
• Most Nuts.
• Avocado, 19.7g MUFA in 1 avocado, 322 calories
  (mmm, another reason to eat guacamole)

Now I notice one problem with this. Notice the quantity of calories for these foods. They’re high in calories Some people read, I have to eat more Fat to lose weight. Well, it works great, BUT, you must watch your calorie intake.

Notice Step Number 2.

Have a clear Calorie goal.

For the average woman, 1600 calories a day is a decent goal. For the average man, 1800 calories a day is a decent goal. Now, if I eat a MUFA at each meal, that does not leave much for other items such as Protein and Carbohydrates. Before I know it, I am at my calorie goal for the day, but I don’t feel full. What can I eat? Eat Vegetables! Many of these have very little calories. The key here is Journal your Food.

Eat Often

In Jorge Cruise’s book, the Three Hour Diet, he recommends eating every 3 hours. It’s the same in the Abs Diet, and Cardio Free Diet, and almost all other diets. The idea is to eat often to prevent you from getting starved. You also feel full, because you are eating all the time. Some people like to do 4 400 calorie meals. Some people say 5 300 calorie meals. Other people like to do 3 bigger meals and 2 smaller 100 calorie snacks. Regardless, by eating often, your body can easily burn the food into energy rather than eating a one or two huge meals. The body can not burn it all once. So, it stores some as fat.

Improve your attitude towards Food

Most of us are emotional eaters. When we meet friends, we meet for coffee, drinks, dinner, lunch, or parties. All Social events where eating is concerned. We’re having fun when we eat a beautiful big meal where we’re stuffed. Come On, think about it. The Super Bowl, Thanksgiving Day, and July 4th Barbecues are all events with huge eating. We equate happiness with eating. So, what can we do? Change the equation!

Friends + Eating = Happy.

Couldn’t we change it to:

• Friends + Morning Walk = Happy.
• Friends + Hiking Trip = Happy.
• Friends + pick-up soccer game or basketball game = Happy.
• Friends + Ski Trip = Happy.

Notice the change? We’re social creatures. Making exercise a social event instead of making eating a social event. There is a strong correlation between living in an active community and physical fitness vs. a lethargic community and obesity. The obesity rates are higher in areas where exercise is not as social. So, Improve your attitude towards food. One way to do so is by making your exercise social.

Another way to do so, is by journaling. If you write what you eat, and then also write how you felt when you ate it. you can look back and help determine what caused your bout of emotional eating. Life is an experiment. We all need to find what works for us. The key though is to learn from others. Researchers are finding out what works for the majority, and that’s where you should start.

So, the Flat Belly Diet to me sounds like every other successful diet.

• Eat less food than you Burn. (Food in < Food Out)
• Eat the Right Foods.
• Learn to control your Emotional Eating.
• Measure your Goal Progress.
• Make it social.

Photo Credit: Avocado via Flickr, by: ingserban

Photo Credit: Day 161 - Losing It, by: gotplaid?

Update:  If you like this post, you might like: How to Add MUFA to breakfast, lunch, and dinner for weight loss?