Three Key Healthy Foods to Eat More of..

In this quick and to-the-point video the beautiful nutritionist suggests we eat some of these three incredibly healthy foods each day. They are leafy greens, sea vegetables and flaxseeds. Have you had some of at least one of these foods today?

I had some steamed spinach with my scrambled eggs this morning, but this video reminded me that I need to stock up on some dried seaweed (my son loves it and it makes a great school lunch snack).

Going From XXXXL to Medium Size Shirt

Shawn Before Losing 140 pounds

At 205 pounds (after losing 140 pounds)

Shawn used to wear an XXXXL (4XL) shirt but now wears a medium size shirt. He's lost 140 pounds. It took him just six months to lose the first one hundred pounds. Another thirty pounds got pounded away by the end of the first year - in Janurary 2010. He got down to under two hundred pounds at one point soon after but is now wavering at a pretty happy 220 or so..

Shawn lost his weight by counting calories. He allows himself cheat days and junk food on a regular basis but says the key is to keep within your calories for most days. His exercise of choice is basketball and the gym.

He started a blog - 344Pounds.com - when he first set out to lose the weight. He sent the 'before' pic and link to all his friends and relatives. This was embarrassing for him but he felt it would be pivotal in motivating him to stick to his goal.

Check out his site, he has some very inspiring posts including some great before and after pics and his first year weekly weight loss progress chart.

There are a lot of people who like to lose weight by counting calories. I've always thought this weight loss method appeals more to women than men. (Weight Watchers is based on this, and seems to be much more popular with women than men, see some success stories on this site about Weight Watchers...) My personal opinion is that whether this is a successful long-term strategy depends a lot on the type of personality you have. For example, in my case, I'm too much of a rebel type, I could never stick to this kind of detailed regiment of watching my calorie consumption all the time. I also think you'd be much more prone to experience hunger and discomfort if you are keeping to your calorie count, but it is based on foods that are not filling and nutritional. My personal preferred route is just to stick to exceptionally healthy foods most of the time. I believe you can eat a great deal of deliciously cooked vegetables, beans and brown rice, never feel hungry and consistently lose weight. I'm the type who would much rather educate myself on the healthiest foods and focus on eating those rather than on counting calories. (See some great info about healthy food here. )

But different methods work better for different people. Congrats to Shawn! Please visit his site.

Swimming to Lose Weight - 100 Pounds Lighter Now

Matthew at Start of Weight Loss

Matthew after losing 100 pounds

Matthew weighed 469 pounds about five months ago. He's lost an incredible 104 pounds since then. He still wants to lose another 150 pounds but realizes this may take quite a bit longer.

Matthew did this by completely overhauling his diet and exercising almost every day.

His exercise of choice is swimming and his almost daily schedule includes 225 yards easy freestyle, 100 free sprint, 50 easy free, 100 butterfly sprint, 75 easy free, 100 backstroke sprint, 50 easy, 100 sprint free and 200 more yards to cool down.

I'm not sure what this means in terms of mileage and whether it would be something like a one hour workout or much more? (Please let me know in the comments).

He's limited animal products to less than 20% of his daily diet. He also cut out all sodas and now just drinks water. He's got a really good suggestion about adding nutritional yeast to your diet. Nutritional yeast has no sodium or gluten and is loaded with B vitamins. One of his favorite new meals is to use premade wheat crust, throw some tomato sauce and olive oil on it, pile it high with vegetables and then liberally top it with nutritional yeast. Bake it and you have a very nutritious pizza. He also recommends using nutritional yeast as a spaghetti sauce topper.

Congrats to you Matthew! Hope we hear another progress report soon!

Dinner on Main Street

Slickity Jim's at 19th and Main, Vancouver, Canada

I guess almost every city has a Main street. I live really close to Main and 19th, in Vancouver, Canada. About once a week I go have dinner at a nearby diner.

On my way there, I pass by two international fast food joints, one for pizza and one for fried chicken. The meals at the Slickity Jim's diner cost a couple of bucks more, but the food is so much tastier. (Not to mention that the seating and lighting/music atmosphere is infinitely nicer).

One neat thing about this place is that there's a surprise item on the menu. If you order it, (the Abstract Notion) then you are giving the chef complete discretion as to what to whip up for your dinner.

I almost always order this surprise (though i ask for gluten free..).

So the other day I did my first restaurant 'flash food' photo. I know it's very poor quality and doesn't give you an idea of the wonderful meal I enjoyed. The meal consisted of a grilled chicken breast (which was then quickly fried in an apricot, clove, herb barbecue sauce) a mixed brown rice (with olive oil, red onions, apple and hazelnuts) a boiled egg and pear and avocado slices.

It was a delicious and very filling meal but I'm quite sure it was under 700 calories. (The chef guessed less than 650 calories).

So this place is tiny, and easy to miss if you are walking by. I wonder how many of the people eating their deep fried factory chicken/deep crust gluten pizza at the fast food joints nearby even realize that this place exists as a startlingly better option..

If you have a favorite regular restaurant in your city, would love to hear about it below!