Easy Garlic Chicken and Pepper Skillet

In my book there’s nothing better than an action-packed meal that is full of flavor and doesn’t take a long time to make.
What also makes it better is not having a million dishes to clean up or having my food stick to the bottom of my pans. That is seriously the worst.
I have started cooking a lot with a new non-stick wok-ish pan that I bought online.
I love it for two reasons: Number one is that nothing will stick to it AND it is super easy to clean (okay, maybe three reasons, but who's counting). The second reason is because it is shaped like a wok, it works wonders in locking the flavors.

(Paleo and Vegan) Edible Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

When I was a kid I always ate raw dough when my mother was making cookies (just as I ate raw cake batter). I used to beg my mother to let me have a whole bowl of cookie dough when she was making cookies — just for the record, my mother made the Toll House cookie recipe on the back of the chocolate morsels bag.
She never let me. I had to be content with spatula, the beaters, the bowl, and whatever I could spoon off with my finger when her back was turned.

Homemade Blueberry Muffin Lärabar Balls

A great many people rightfully find the “make your energy bars at home” trend both unnecessary and incomprehensible.
Why spending (read this as wasting) time making like 100 bars when you can just buy the one you want in a easy-to-carry single-serving package?
I totally get it.
But I believe that there’s a time and place for everything and for me that time and place (currently trying to save a few bucks) is right now.

What I'm Reading: Cooked, A Natural History Of Transformation

I’ve read every one of Michael Pollan’s books and enjoyed all of them; he’s arguably one of my favorite authors.
His latest book “Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation” did not fail to impress me once again. His ability to take the mundane (in this case cooking) and make it interesting has - in my humble opinion - no match.

Dieting? Better Have Someone Hide The Chocolate

Common wisdom tells us that willpower is key in losing weight. That there’s only one way to succeed, you need to set your mind to it and fully commit: clean food, calorie restriction, exercise and healthy lifestyle.
If you don’t have the mental strength to do it, you’re doomed to fail. End of the story.
However, the concept of willpower in diet has been the subject of much criticism. Researchers have long rejected the idea that there’s some innate force that will keep you from resisting bad habits1.
To attribute dieting success or failure just to willpower - researchers say - is a simplification that ignores details of the numerous mechanisms in play behind a successful weight loss program.
Believing that only willpower can do the magic trick entails a further risk. If you assume that it’s just a matter of mental strength, you can feel less in control of your eating habits and conclude that, if it’s not your DNA, there’s nothing you can do about it.
That’s not it though. The success of dieting is made by the sum of several behavioral changes. Willpower is one of them but it’s not the only one. There’s the interaction of brain chemicals, behavioral conditioning, hormones, heredity and the influence of habits. All these factors are part of the diet equation2.

Let's Talk About Carb Cycling

Carb cycling is a fat loss strategy commonly used by elite bodybuilders which is recently getting a lot of attention. It promises to make you lose fat and build muscle by keeping your metabolism in top form through a rotation between low carb and high carb days1.
In fact, carb cycling - scientifically referred to as the Cyclic Ketogenic Diet or CKD - is nothing else but a low carb diet with intermittent periods of high or moderate carbohydrate consumption. In other words, periods of low-carb, high protein and high fat intake are cycled with periods of high carb, high protein and low fat2.
Turns out, carb cycling might be one of the most effective ways to lose fat and build muscles.

The Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Hollywood’s new diet craze is nothing like the usual offerings. It’s not even a diet; there’s no counting calories, carbs forbearance or faddy detoxing. It’s a scientific based eating regimen that focuses on your body cells not your waistline. It seeks to operates on a biochemical level and it's designed to neutralize the inflammation that occurs inside your body. 
The anti-inflammatory diet got Hollywood hooked promising big benefits such as a clearer mind, fewer cravings, glowing skin and slimmer waist1.

Credit: Image courtesy of drweil.com

Getting All The Nutrients Without Consuming Too Many Calories

When trying to control calories while balancing the diet, some foods can be especially helpful. Foods that are rich in nutrients relative to their energy content.

It is well established that some foods deliver more nutrients than others do for the same amount of calories, as they have a higher nutrient density.
Those nutrient dense foods give you the "biggest bang for the buck." You get lots of nutrients, and it doesn't cost you much in terms of calories1.
Let’s take for instance ice-cream and fat-free milk. Both supply calcium, but milk is much more calcium dense than ice-cream. The latter having over 300 calories per cup versus 80 calories for a cup of milk2.

Let's Talk About Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a topic that I find fascinating. The more I read about it, the more I want to know.
Chances are that you have already heard about IF. The hype has been booming recently. But don’t think of it as a new "it" thing; in fact the first study on IF dates back to 1943.
The growing interest is due to new found evidence suggesting that IF can bring many health benefits, including a potential increase in human lifespan.

The 2013 Ranking Of Best Diets

We love rankings in the U.S., don’t we? It’s not only about music charts, box office or sports. We also like to rank universities, hospitals, restaurants, bars, law firms, etc.

We always want to know who’s the best at doing something. It has something to do with our inner competitive nature but also with some sort of latent insecurity we have. A ranking brings order to chaos. It makes us feel safe.
So it was only a matter of time before somebody would put their hands in the “diet world” and provide us with an official ranking.
Needless to say it, the almighty experts at U.S. News “took the bullet” and delivered a comprehensive evaluation of 29 different diet plans for 2013.

Top Four Reasons Why Diets Fail

Losing weight is one of the top resolutions made every year, yet few achieve successful weight-loss and maintenance. Why almost all get sidetracked? According to researchers at Loyola University dieting is a skill that requires practice and good instruction. Chances are that you’re going to fall over and feel frustrated, but if you stick to the original plan you’ll eventually succeed; and the more you do it, the easier it will get.

Researchers have also identified what they believe are the top four reasons why dieters fail.

Why It's Easy To Store Fat And Hard To Lose It?

Once upon a time we were cavemen. Every single day we struggled to find food. We needed to eat what we could when it was available, storing any surplus because the next meal could be a long way off.
The fight would start anew each day: hunting and gathering food in order to avoid starvation.
As a consequence, our bodies’ metabolism was set in a “waste not” mode: accumulating all calories that were not burned.

When You Eat Is As Important As What You Eat!

If you’re one of those people always keeping an eye on what you’re eating, you might want to consider also when you’re eating.
In a study published this week in Nature Medicine, two researchers at the University of Pennsylvania by investigating fat cells in mice, were able to identify the existing link between daily rhythm and metabolism.
In particular, their findings showed that when a species' typical daily rhythm is thrown off, changes in metabolism also happen. These results shed light on the complex causes of obesity in humans.

The 80% Diet - 20% Exercise Rule

It is well established that when trying to lose weight a combination of both exercising and dieting provides best results.
Alone, neither of them is sufficient.
Some people are able to shed pounds just by cutting calorie intake, but the results are unlikely to last without some physical activity. Conversely, you can spend hours in the gym, but if you’re stuffing your mouth with high-caloric and unhealthy food you won’t go far.
To put it differently, both factors are necessary to achieve optimal weight loss.
Exercising without a healthy diet is futile, but an healthy diet is per se not enough.
However, it’s not always apparent how much these two factors plays in the weight loss equation.
In other words, how much should you exercise? How much you should restrict calories?

Hitting Plateau In Losing Weight? Don't Give Up, Mix It Up!

This happens to everybody on a weight loss journey: you begin a diet, at first it works perfectly, pounds drop consistently, you can see and feel the changes in your body but then everything STOPS. You hit the wall, nothing happens anymore and that number on the scale just stays the same. And what’s the first reaction? Throwing the towel and giving up. 
You start believing that the diet just doesn’t work anymore and might start wondering if there’s any diet that is going to actually work for you. But stop right there, most of the times is not the diet that is not working, more likely it’s just your body that it’s getting used to it and causes what it is usually referred to as “plateau”.

Wanna Lose Weight? Keep A Food Journal, Don't Skip Meals And Eat Out Less Frequently

Losing weight is not a simple task. Even the most fit people may struggle when it comes to shed a couple of pounds. For instance, my target weight is 175 pounds, but in the last two weeks for some reason I have reached 178. It’s no big deal but in a triathlon race, when I push myself to the extreme those 3 extra pounds might make a difference. Thus I need to lose them. Now, I might be able to do it in just a couple of days but even I will need to stay focus and not indulge if I want to do it properly.
And that’s precisely what a recently published study claims: losing weight is no joke, and does not happen overnight. It takes focus, dedication and perfect planning.
In particular, researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle have discovered that the recipe for success is faithfully keeping a food journal, avoid skipping meals and eat less out, especially at lunch time.


The above food journal can be downloaded from www.theprojectgirl.com

"Crowding Out" Instead Of "Cutting Out" When Dieting

When dieting, it’s pretty common to feel deprived (or hungry, at the least) as you parse out calories in order to lose weight.
It’s called “cutting out” and it’s the standard (and far too popular) approach to any form of dieting: cut your food intake, get into a calorie deficit and lose weight.
However, there’s an alternative way to just cut calories (and feeling miserable): it’s called “crowding out”, and it’s a different approach to the old “cutting out” method.
Crowding out involves adding more healthy food to your diet rather than cutting back on foods you enjoy.
Supporters of this method believe that over time, cravings for unhealthy foods are likely to disappear (or diminish), leaving you healthier and leaner.

Some Thoughts On The Alkaline Diet

My post on green juice has raised some question about why I believe it is important to integrate more alkaline foods (such as a green juice) in the diet.
Personally, even if I don’t follow the Alkaline diet; I think its proponents have made some valid points, and there are few valuable lessons we can learn from it.
But let’s make one step at the time...

All On Sweet Potato Diet

Since I’ve posted the article on sweet potatoes, many readers have been asking more information on Glee’s star Matthew Morrison sweet potato diet.

Let’s start by saying that there is no such thing as a sweet potato diet. What Matt Morrison did was to eat only sweet potatoes for three days before the photo shooting in order to get rid of all water weight, thus look super ripped in the pictures.
Let’s not hide it, this guy is not an health rookie.
He follows a rigorous working out routine (even when he’s busy filming all day on the set he still finds at least 30 minutes to exercise core and abs) and sticks to a very strict eating regimen. According to the interview published in Details magazine, he avoids carbs and sugars as much as possible, never eat fruits after dark and so on.
You might have figured it out by now that the sweet potato diet was, for Matt Morrison, just the icing on the cake - that is to say the last trick in order to look as good as possible.