Disclosure: This is a compensated campaign in collaboration with Las Fabulosas and Studio One. However, all opinions are my own.
As you know, I’m always in search of ways to lose weight (perder peso for my Latina friends) and to keep it off the healthy way. Lately I’ve been learning a lot about clean eating and have taken an interest in the right food combinations. To that end I hope to share with you everything I learn along the way.
Below is the first article I’d like to share with you. Because I’m bilingual I don’t limit my searches and found a wonderful article in Spanish. But no worries my English speaking friends, I took the liberty to translate it for you and linked the Spanish version for the rest of my Latina friends. Enjoy, it has great information!!
Las Fabulosas: Beauty and style
“Small But Powerful Ways To Lose Weight”
Written By Shirley Velásquez for Las Fabulosas & Translated by Rocio Chavez for Your Sassy Self
Let’s be clear, when it comes to losing weight, we want to make it quick. But there are many factors beyond our control that prevent us from maintaining the weight we want longer. Three experts collaborated with Las Fabulosas to reveal several simple tips that will help keep us at the weight we want.
Portions
1. “Eat small meals every three hours”, indicates Jenny Patrizia, author of Big Taste, Little Money: Healthy & Delicious Family Meals For Under $10. “We can have snacks. It helps us maintain balanced sugar levels and at the same time helps us control hunger.”
2. Serve meals on salad plates. “This helps control the size of the portions and the number of calories we eat,” said Patrizia. “It also helps you stop when you’re full and helps us avoid eating too much.”
3. Set a goal to consume 80 to 90 grams of protein per day (this if there are no kidney conditions). “Protein digestion requires more energy than the digestion of carbohydrates”, explains Lauren Minchen, RDN,CDN; who adds that by simply ingesting protein, we burn calories. She also stressed the importance of eating protein, especially as we try to lose weight, to prevent the removal of muscle mass.
Exercise
1. According to Minchen, weight lifting, two to four times a week for half an hour, helps keep us slim and toned. “Many women avoid training with weights because they fear developing pronounced muscles”, she says. But since women do not produce the same amount of testosterone as men, weights will not affect their muscles with the same magnitude. “A pound of muscle burns 40 to 50 calories per day”, a greater muscle mass means we burn more calories when we are at rest.
Meals calendar
1 Start your day with a balanced breakfast, one hour from when you wake. According to nutrition expert, Manuel Villacorte, MS, RD, breakfast is the meal that provides energy for the whole day. A full, healthy breakfast “determines how much you will eat until 4:00 pm”, says the author of Eating Free: The Carb-Friendly Way to Lose Inches, Embrace Your Hunger, and Keep the Weight Off for Good, based in San Franciso. Villacorte also points out that a balanced breakfast regulates the levels of ghrelin, the hormone responsible for “controling hunger and appetite”.
2. According to Villacorte, combining carbohydrates and protein at each meal offers a “blend of nutritional elements that prevent cravings, control hunger, add energy and satisfy the appetite”. Carbohydrates, for example, decrease ghrelin, help neurological function and avoid cravings. On the other hand, protein “speeds up the metabolism and keeps the ghrelin low”. Villacorte recommends salads with chicken or fish for lunch. “Add carbohydrates such as quinoa, chickpeas, lentils or brown rice”, he explained. For snacking he recommends, “an Apple with a slice of ham, Turkey, low fat cheese, or a boiled egg”.
Shirley Velásquez is editor and writer for ELLE magazine. She has contributed to Woman’s Day, Glamour, InStyle, Latina, The New York Sun, y Border-line Personalities, an anthology of essays by Latina writers.
What healthy habits are you reaching for this year?
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very good
Thanks Liz!