10 Foods That Help Boost Your Metabolism!

Everyone has a metabolism that works at a different rate. Metabolic rate is often determined by genetics, but there are actually certain foods that will give your metabolism an extra boost which can help regulate your digestive system and allow you to burn fat faster.

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1. Spinach: It not only speeds up your metabolic rate, but is also full of important nutrients and minerals your body needs.

2. Water: DRINK A LOT! Drinking water helps to speed up weight loss and remove toxins from your body.

3. Grapefruit: It is a great source for Vitamin C, but also reduces insulin, which helps boost your body's metabolism.

4. Blueberries: These are full of antioxidants that help increase metabolic rate. 

5. Broccoli: Broccoli contains high amounts of Vitamin C and Calcium, which work together to help increase your metabolism. It is also full of Vitamin A, folate, and fiber. 

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6. Green Tea: It contains an antioxidant called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which speeds up the nervous system function and causes your metabolic rate to increase.

7. Lean Meats and Proteins: These can include turkey, beef, chicken and poultry. When you consume lean meats, you burn calories during digestion because it takes a lot of energy to break them down in your body.

8. Oatmeal: Oatmeal is a high-fiber food which requires a lot of energy to break down. Like with lean meats, this means your burn calories during the process, which in turn raises your metabolic rate. Oatmeal also has other heath benefits, including lowering levels of cholesterol and reducing chances for heart disease.

9. Almonds: They are high in calories, but they are also full of fiber and fatty acids that help boost your metabolism.

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10. Hot Peppers: Capsacin, a chemical found many hot peppers such as jalapenos and cayenne pepper, helps to speed up your metabolic rate.

This list was generated with information from two articles: 

"10 Foods To Boost Your Metablolism" from LiveStrong.com

"10 Foods That Boost Your Metabolism" from IngredientsInc.net

For more detailed information, read the full articles!

I like coming up with ways to increase my intake of these foods. One great way to do that is to make eating spinach salads a habit! I try to eat spinach everyday, and often include broccoli and blueberries along with other fruits and veggies. If drinking water gets boring, try naturally flavored water or vitamin water! Also, maybe try oatmeal for breakfast sometimes! As you read in my earlier post, that is my usual morning meal. There are many ways to increase the amount of metabolism boosting foods in your diet! Have fun coming up with your own creative ideas and recipes! 

If you're interested in learning about more ways to increase your metabolism, the article "10 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism" from WebMD gives great advice!

Results Of My Juice Cleanse!

Hey everyone!

My juice cleanse definitely did not go as planned. I won't say too much because I would really like you to watch the video! I made a short video during each day of the cleanse and then put them all together into one. I know it's a bit lengthy, but if you are at all interested in this topic I think that you'll find it enjoyable and informative. I learned a lot during this process, and I hope watching this video will teach you something new as well! Please feel free to ask me any questions that you may have.

                            

7-Day Juice Cleanse!

Hey everyone! Listen to my podcast about juice cleanses and the 7-day cleanse I'm starting this morning.

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Here is a link to the Naked Juice website: Naked Juice

This is what my refrigerator currently looks like! I threw out all of my other food so I won't be tempted.

Reading Nutrition Labels

If you want to purchase healthy food products, it is important to know how to properly read and understand the information presented to you on nutrition labels. This can be quite a challenging and confusing task if you don't know what to look for. Sometimes people just skip it completely. I want to provide you with several tips that I've gathered over the years and also share some links to helpful sites with more information that you might find useful the next time you go grocery shopping.

1. Be sure to look closely at the serving size, number of servings, and calories.

- If you don't do anything else, do this! Sometimes people look at ONLY calories, and assume that's how much is in the whole package/product. This not not true! Calories, and all other information on nutrition labels, is based on one serving. Many packages contain MORE than one serving. Make sure to look at the serving size and be aware of much you will actually be consuming. This information is usually located at the top of nutrition labels.  

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2.  Pay attention to the Daily Value percentages. 

- This is based off of a 2,000 calorie diet, so it may not be exact for you.

- Foods are considered to be high in a nutrient if they are 20% of the Daily Value or more. They are considered low in a nutrient if they are 5% or less.

3. Look for products that are low in: saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium and added sugars.

- Sodium and unhealthy fats are bad for your heart. Sugar only adds calories, and no other nutrients.

4. Look for products that are high in: potassium, fiber, vitamins (A and C), calcium and iron.

5. Look for sources of lean protein.

- Get the most protein for your calories and fat by comparing how much protein you get from one serving with the total amount of calories and fat. Generally, look for low-fat or fat-free products.

6. Be sure to check out the list of ingredients.

- If you're looking for a whole-grain food, it should appear first on the list.
- The article, "9 ingredients to avoid in processed foods", provides a list of 9 ingredients you should always try to stay way from. It also gives information on why they're used and why they're bad.
- The article "Harmful Food Ingredients to Avoid at all Costs", provides some similar information, but includes an extended list of ingredients to avoid as well as more tips on reading nutrition labels.

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This list of tips does not include every bit of information that is provided to you on nutrition labels, but it has some of the main things to look for and what I use at most frequently to help me make decisions when grocery shopping. I learned a lot of this information during my Lifetime Wellness course last year, and some of it I've picked up doing research in my free time. 

If you're interested in learning more in-depth information, check out these articles for further reading:
"Reading Food Nutrition Labels" from the American Heart Association
"How to Understand and Use the Nutrition Facts Label" from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration