There’s no reason to be afraid of Super Bowl Sunday with these healthy makeovers of popular game time snacks!  If you are hosting a party or have signed up to bring a dish to a friend’s house we’ve got some great alternatives!

Here are some of our favorites…check out the entire collection here!

Avocado Dip

• 1/2 large avocado, peeled and stoned (5 oz)
• 1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1 tsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp ‘Lite’ or table salt
• 3 drops hot chili sauce, or to taste
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper, or to taste

Mash avocado with a fork until very smooth. Add ricotta cheese, tomato paste, salt, chili sauce and black pepper. Blend until smooth. This may be done in a food processor or blender.

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Stock Photo by Sean Locke/ www.digitalplanetdesign.com

It’s Super Bowl time again when we all gather with a single-minded focus to support our favorite team. Whether we are in front of the TV at home or out at a bar there’s bound to be plenty of food to tempt those of us who have resolved to get healthy in the New Year. In addition to the sheer amount of food, the offerings are likely to be loaded with calories and fat, which we could easily munch mindlessly without a plan.

With that in mind we’ve created some tips to guide you through the minefield of a Super Bowl party and come out safe and smiling.

• Remember, the mission is to watch the game, not demolish the snack buffet! Several hours of non-stop snacking and drinking can add hundreds of – if not a few thousand – excess calories that could sabotage your dieting goals.

• Never go to any party on an empty stomach. Hungry people don’t make wise eating choices. Before going, have a snack like an apple together with a higher protein food such as a hard-boiled egg, string cheese, small handful of nuts or yogurt. Read More »

If you have difficulty saying no, especially, when people offer you food, you are not alone. It’s a problem for many people.  It’s especially problematic at parties or other events where it’s a ritual to accompany the event with large quantities of food and drinks. A Super Bowl party is a prime example.  It’s unthinkable to watch the big game without lots of food everywhere.   So, be prepared.

Why do you say yes when you really want to say no?

There are two pieces to this puzzle – one is that some people make it really tough and won’t take no for an answer.  What they want is more important than what you want. There are a myriad of conscious and unconscious reasons people sabotage, insist, or override your choices.  Some people are willfully sabotaging your efforts, others have a pushy or controlling personality, others believe you aren’t having fun unless you are eating, and some think if they are overindulging so should you.

If you are living with someone or have friends who constantly sabotage you it is important to understand what makes them tick and why they may want to undermine you. However, for the Super Bowl party, let’s focus on the second and most important piece of the puzzle – you.

Why do you say yes when you mean no.  How can you turn that around in your favor? Read More »

Super Bowl celebrations don’t have to be scary for dieters!  Even though there are tasty treats around you, if you are prepared with a plan for smarter choices you can come out of it a winner.  Here are our Best Choice suggestions:

Appetizers:

Most Super Bowl parties will have a lot of appetizers on offer.  If you can’t make a smart swap then plan ahead to limit portion sizes.

CalorieKing Best Choice:

3 oz. vegetable sticks and 1 oz. fat free ranch dip

55 calories, 0g fat and 12 carbs

Instead of:

1 oz. tortilla chips and 1 oz. salsa con queso

176 calories, 21g fat and 24 carbs

You’ll save: 121 calories, 21g fat and 12g carbs. Read More »

The weight loss plateau is one of the toughest challenges facing those on a weight loss journey.  It is so disheartening to feel like you have been doing everything right – eating healthy, staying fit and avoiding temptation – and yet the scale has stopped moving. What is going on here??

As Allan Borushek explains, “A plateau is nature’s way of making sure that we don’t waste away too rapidly during times of famine. By slowing down the body’s metabolism we are given a chance to survive until food becomes available.

At one point in our history, being able to store fat during times of famine gave us a survival advantage when food was scarce.  The problem is, now that was have access to food all the time, it becomes a decided disadvantage when we try to diet.”

So what can we do to get over the hump and hit your goal?  Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Are you still logging?

Stop and think for a second. Have you been logging your food or are you relying on your memory?  You may be suffering from “calorie amnesia” and not recording everything you take in.  Make sure you are still accountable.  If you are logging, have you changed anything recently? Make sure you read food labels and check serving sizes.

Break up your exercise routine:

Have you forgotten that you’ve become more fit? It could be your body is getting used to your exercise challenges. Evaluate your routine and consider changing your cardio plan or try shifting to a new fitness class. Or, consult a fitness trainer to see if there is a new routine that suits your new level of fitness and weight given you are more fit and lighter than you were at the start. You might just need to amp it up or add weight training. Read More »

Remember the lemon juice, cayenne and maple syrup diet? How about the Caveman Diet? Or the 15-Day Cleanse? Every year we hear about a new fad diet claiming to detox you or help you drop the weight fast. And every year we consider one of them. Why do we do that?

It’s simple. The fad diet tells us that with a simple pill or liquid or plan that we’ll lose the weight without the hard work. It promises to “reset” our system and that we might look like the incredibly thin, perky person that peddles it.

The fact is while you may indeed drop some weight, there is nothing in a fad diet that will help sustain your weight loss goals.  Here are just some of the reasons why they fail us:

They don’t change your habits:

A fad diet is usually formed on replacing real food with either a pill, tonic or special meals. While, you might drop some weight initially, there is nothing that helps you change your habits to support a healthy lifestyle over time. When the prescribed period of the diet ends there is no guidance on how to sustain your initial weight loss leaving the dieter open to putting the weight back on. Read More »

We’re only a few weeks into the new year, and chances are most of us have already broken our resolutions.  Here are some top tips from Allan Borushek, the Calorie King himself, to help get you back on the straight and narrow:

• Enlist the Support of Family and Friends

With family and friends in your corner they can help keep you accountable and validate your wins.  If they know your goals they may also be less likely to sabotage your efforts. You might also want to join a support group or program, share your progress on your favorite social media site or consult with a dietitian for personalized instruction. All of these outlets can help you stay on track.

• Make a Friendly Bet

Tell your friends you will still be on your healthy living program in four weeks time. Even better? Make the bet with someone to whom you would hate to lose.

• Steer Away From Fad or Crash Diets

They don’t change your habits long term; the weight will go right back on when you stop the diet. And face it, you can’t eat cabbage or drink lemon juice and cayenne pepper forever. Maintain a low fat, high protein plan of around 1200 to 1500 calories like the kind in provided in the CalorieKing Program. An average weekly loss of 1 lb. per week is ideal – remember that initial weight loss may be greater due to fluid loss.

• Eat Three Moderate and Well Balanced Meals Each Day

Don’t skip meals – you’ll only end up snacking on high calorie items. Carefully plan each meal rather than just grazing or grabbing whatever is in front of you. Don’t keep high calorie foods in the house. Read More »

Ever had a conversation with someone and didn’t remember a word they said? Or driven five miles past your house and were surprised that you’d driven that far without seeing any of the exit signs?  What about eating while doing something else and were totally unaware that you had devoured so much? You know those times when you think – “where did the food go?” It was as if the food had vanished mysteriously.

These examples have one thing in common. We did them mindlessly. Seems like a harsh word. But, it just means being preoccupied with other thoughts, being distracted, and not paying attention to what we were doing.

Mindless overeating is a huge stumbling block to sticking to our weight loss resolutions because it’s habitual. We do it over and over. Food is the last thing on our mind and by the time we do take notice, the overeating has taken its toll in added weight and loss of confidence in our ability to achieve our goals.

Mindless overeating is not the same as emotional overeating. It doesn’t carry the same unconsciously motivated charge. Although not exactly the same, it can be compared to some types of triggered overeating (such as the sight or smell of food, or a trip to the movies). Of the three – emotional overeating, triggered overeating and mindless overeating, the latter is the easiest to overcome. Read More »

It’s a few weeks into the new year. I hope you are all doing well with your renewed commitment to fitness. You often hear that it takes three weeks to develop a new habit. So, after three weeks…Are you in a fitness routine or a fitness rut?

It is often so much easier at the beginning: there’s the rush of enthusiasm, and many of your responsibilities (at work or home) are not yet ramped back up to full speed from the holidays. But, a few weeks later, the spark of enthusiasm is gone, routines return, job and family responsibilities rise to normal levels…and consistency can waver.

If you’re in a fitness routine in the new year, congratulations. You should be settling into a routine that allows you to live your life while making it better through fitness. It may be a nice realization that you can live healthier and not have to clear everything else off of your calendar to do it!

If you’re in a fitness rut, know this: It will happen to all of us at some point. (Yes, even me!) There have been (and will be) times when for one reason or another, I don’t get all my workouts in. It will happen to you, too (whether you’ve had a perfect first three weeks or a bumpy ride.) The important thing to focus on is not WHAT HAPPENED, but what your response will be to what has happened.

If you started great, but have let things slip, you no doubt FEEL a loss of fitness after a couple weeks that got away from you. (It would be great if everyone were so in tune with their bodies that they felt a drop off in their fitness levels after only a couple of bad weeks – instead of letting things go for years.)

Instead of beating yourself up with the guilt over not doing what you planned, stop for a moment, assess what you have done well and what you didn’t, then lay out a strategy to get re-focused. Read More »

The CalorieKing Calorie, Fat and Carbohydrate Counter contains a fully searchable index.

At last! America’s #1 Calorie Counter in a user-friendly Kindle format!

Ranked #1 in food counters by Amazon and in major bookstores, The CalorieKing Calorie, Fat and Carbohydrate Counter has sold more than 15 million copies.

The book has received the highest average reader-rating of all food counters. It’s also the most recommended by doctors, dietitians, diabetes educators and other health professionals.

Now, this national best-seller is available on Kindle, and is designed with ease-of-use in mind. You’ll find the same extensive food listings you have come to rely upon – even more with bonus content as well as being more up-to-date.

However, it is its user-friendly features that make the CalorieKing Kindle edition stand out from the rest:

• Fully searchable – your choice is only a few taps away

• Fully indexed by food category and A-Z

• Zoomable text sizes so you never have to read small print

• Available on iPad and Android tablets via your Kindle app Read More »