Spicy Chicken Tomato Soup

Spicy Chicken Tomato Soup

4 packages T&H chicken bouillon supplements
2 cups frozen corn
1 can (10 ounces) diced tomatoes and green chilies
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon light salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 can (10-¾ ounces) tomato puree
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 teaspoons ground cumin
½-1 teaspoons chili powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 white or yellow fat-free corn tortillas (6-inches) cut into ¼-inch strips

In a slow cooker, combine the first 13 ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. Place the tortilla strips on an un-greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 5 minutes; turn. Bake 5 minutes longer. Discard bay leaf from soup. Serve with tortilla strips.

Serves:  8                                                        Fat grams: 4.3
Phase:  3, 4                                                     Protein:  25

You may substitute 2 cans (14-½ ounces each) chicken broth in place of T&H supplement, although best results are achieved using supplements.

This recipe can be found in our Thin&Healthy Forever Cookbook. Pick up your copy from your local Thin&Healthy Center or order it now by clicking here

About Face, Backward March

Face the other direction on a stairclimber or treadmill-for all or part of your workout. It may look or feel funny, but the results are anything but. You’ll seriously strengthen your legs from a whole new angle. Just be careful and start out slowly-you don’t want to take a spill and injure yourself.

When to Snack

You’ve always heard it’s better to eat small frequent meals to stave off hunger, as a way to include foods from different key food groups, and to steady blood sugar and energy levels throughout the day.

But if you snack when you’re not really hungry, your body is apt to store some of those excess calories as body fat.

What to do: While it’s never a good idea to wait until you’re ravenous to eat, make sure you snack only when you’re hungry – not when you’re bored, or lured by the sight and smell of tempting food. This is especially important if you are overweight and if your snack choices are high in calories, sugar or fat.

Your little bowl of chips, cookies or candy may look too small to do much damage to your diet, but beware: Typical snack foods are energy dense – they pack in a lot of calories, fat and/or sugar in a small portion.

These foods may taste great, but they won’t fill you up and may leave you feeling sluggish, especially if they’re quickly digested because they’re high in sugar and low in protein and fiber.

What to do: Before you dive into that snack bag, read the nutrition label for calorie load. Portion out one serving into a small baggie or on a small plate. If there’s a type of goodie that you tend to overeat, don’t keep it in the house. Buy a single serving if possible and make it a once-in-a-while treat.

The popular 100-calorie snack packs (which rake in an estimated $200 million per year) can satisfy your sweet tooth or craving, but stick to only one pack a day to keep calories down and leave room in your diet for more nutritious foods.

Beat Overeating Triggers

Emotions can drive you to overeat. So, too, can other triggers. Learn how to spot them, and you’ll learn how to beat them.

• Dim lighting: The dimmer the lighting, the higher the likelihood of overindulgence, says a study from the University of California at Irvine. Why? “Brighter lighting forces you to be more aware of what you’re eating,” says Joe Kasof, Ph.D., lead study author.

Beat it by: Sitting outdoors or near windows, using brighter bulbs in your lamps, adding lighting to eating areas, or moving to a brighter room.

• Distractions: In another study, when women who normally watched what they ate listened to a taped detective story, they consumed more calories. Researchers suspect the story interfered with the women’s focus on keeping calories in check.

Beat it by: Clearing all distractions; let the enjoyment of the meal provide your focus.

• Low energy: “When your energy’s low, you may look for food to pick you up,” says Robert E. Thayer, Ph.D., professor of psychology at California State University at Long Beach. Unfortunately, most people reach for calorie-laden treats instead of an apple or banana.

Beat it by: Identifying your low-energy times of day and substituting other activities for eating. Take a 10-minute walk or a water-cooler chat break.

Cornbread Chicken Pot Pie

Cornbread Chicken Pot Pie

1 package frozen Green Giant Select broccoli, carrots, and water
chestnuts, thawed
2 cups cooked chicken breast, cubed
2 packages T&H cream of mushroom soup supplement
1 can (10-¾ ounces) low-fat cream of celery soup
1 package Jiffy cornbread mix
Egg Beaters

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and put into a 13×9″ baking pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Mix cornbread mix as directed on package using eggbeaters to replace the whole egg.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until cornbread is done and browned.

Serves:  4                                                        Fat grams: 14.2
Phase:   4                                                        Protein:  39.4

You may substitute 1 can cream of mushroom soup in place of T&H supplement, although best results are achieved using supplements.

This recipe can be found in our Thin&Healthy Forever Cookbook. Pick up your copy from your local Thin&Healthy Center or order it now by clicking here

Is MSG Making You Fat?

Many people still avoid MSG as the culprit in “Chinese restaurant syndrome”, even though no scientific studies were ever able to show that MSG causes headaches, flushing, tingling or anything else.  However, a recent study of Chinese peasants suggests that MSG may cause weight gain (Obesity, August 2008).

The subjects were divided into three groups, based on the amount of MSG used, and those in the group that ate the most MSG were nearly three times more likely to be overweight than non-users.  Previous studies on mice and rats found the same effect.  Dr. Ka He, the lead author of the study at the University of North Carolina, concludes that MSG makes food taste better so people eat more.

It’s not easy to avoid MSG even if you read food labels.  Everyone eats significant amounts of monosodium glutamate because all foods that contain protein have a building block amino acid called glutamic acid which is converted in the body to glutamate.

Exercise and Cancer Prevention

How does exercise help prevent cancer?

We do not really know how exercise helps to prevent cancer, but the most widely accepted theory is that exercise helps to keep the mitochondria in cells from producing as many free radicals.

Free radicals, produced when mitochondria convert food to energy, can attach to the DNA and damage it to cause uncontrolled cell growth.

More than 50 studies associate regular exercise with lowered cancer risk   One of the latest, from Tokyo, followed almost 80,000 men and women for ten years  (American Journal of Epidemiology, August 2008).   The more these men and women exercised, the less likely they were to develop cancer.

The decreased risk was greater in women than men, especially among the elderly.  Exercise appeared to be particularly associated with reduced risk for cancers of the colon, liver or pancreas in men and for cancer of the stomach in women.

Source: Gabe Mirkin, M.D

Want to Get Rid of Belly Fat? Burn this into your brain:

If you want to burn off the belly fat you need to burn this into your brain first.

Eat breakfast.

And don’t worry, we know you’re busy. Everyone is. So here are some easy options for breakfast on the run:

1.  Cottage cheese mixed with fruit

2.  Hard-boiled egg and yogurt mixed with fruit

3.  2 pieces of fruit and a scrambled egg wrap

Need more help? Go to www.nomorebellyfat.com

Mexican Pork Tenderloin with Rice

Mexican Pork Tenderloin with Rice

4 (4 ounce) pork tenderloin steaks (all visible fat removed)
1 (16 ounce) jar chunky salsa
1 (8 ounce) can red kidney beans (not drained)
1 (8 ounce) can whole kernel corn (not drained)
½ cup instant enriched long grain rice

Add the next two ingredients only if you like spicy, hot Mexican food
1 (4-ounce) can mild green chili peppers, chopped
2-3 dashes of Tabasco sauce

Cook pork steaks with salsa in a 12-inch non-stick skillet that has been sprayed with non-fat cooking spray over medium heat for 5-7 minutes. Turn steaks over. Cook 5-7 minutes or until no longer pink in center. Remove meat from skillet and set aside.

Add remaining ingredients to skillet. Stir until well mixed. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Cover and let sit 5 minutes.

Put cooked meat on top of rice. Serve with taco sauce on the side if desired.
This can be made days ahead of time, refrigerated and reheated in the microwave, or freeze and reheat.

Serves:  4                                                        Fat grams: 4.5
Phase:  3, 4                                                     Protein:  29.6

This recipe can be found in our Thin&Healthy Forever Cookbook. Pick up your copy from your local Thin&Healthy Center or order it now by clicking here

Michelangelo’s David after a 6-month sabbatical in the U.S.

Nutrition Hint– Michelangelo’s David after a 6-month sabbatical in the U.S.

Need we say more?