Deliciousness Abounds! Grilled Cheese Invitational

I love grilled cheese sandwiches. I reallly love grilled cheese sandwiches. On March 14th Austin will have it's 2nd Annual competition. I am so there! I want to compete but I'll probably wait until next year. My friends "The Lunch Ladies" will be there SERVIN' IT UP! Check it out. Link

Food Labels Explained

What does light really mean? What can Fat Free do for me? Here's the skinny on why it's not as great as you think:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows the following definitions on food labels:
FAT-FREE: The product has less than .5 grams of fat per serving.
LOW-FAT: The product has 3 grams or less of fat per serving.
REDUCED or LESS FAT: The product has at least 25% less fat per serving than the full-fat version.
LITE or LIGHT
:
# The product has fewer calories or half the fat of the non-light version.
# The sodium content of a low-calorie, low-fat food is 50 percent less than the non-light version.
# A food is clearer in color (like light instead of dark corn syrup.

CALORIE-FREE: The product has less than 5 calories per serving.
LOW-CALORIE: The product has 40 calories or less per serving.
REDUCED or FEWER CALORIES: The product has at least 25 percent fewer calories per serving than the non-reduced version.

Leptin- I will balance you

My best friend is a personal trainer and massage therapist. She looks great, so she has to have the answers. I've been complaining about my overeating and general malaise and she told me about this book. Here's a tidbit about Leptin:

The Five Rules of Mastering Leptin

1. Never eat after dinner. Never go to bed on a full stomach. Leave a gap of 11-12 hours between dinner and breakfast as the best fat burn zone occurs 8 and 12 hours after eating. If you snack before bedtime, the leptin tells your brain that no energy is required and therefore no fat burning will occur during the night.

2. Eat 3 meals per day. Allow 5-6 hours between meals with no snacks inbetween. Snacks would only stimulate the relase of insulin and while that happens, the body is not burning fat. If you find it difficult to eat only 3 meals per day, start with 4 per day. In time, with regular exercise, it will be easier and easier for you to leave 5 hours between meals.

3. Do not eat large meals. If you provide your body with more fuel than it needs, leptin and insulin resistance can result. You can learn to reduce meal sizes by eating slowly and chewing properly, also by putting the fork down from time to time. This will give your appetite the chance to catch up with your food intake.

4. Eat a high-protein breakfast. This supports blood sugar levels throughout the day and will minimize afternoon energy crashes. These energy crashes in the afternoon are often due to eating a breakfast with too many carbohydrates and too little protein. People who eat a high carbohydrate breakfast and who are leptin resistant are more likely to overeat.

5. Reduce the amount and glycemic index of carbohydrates eaten. This doesn’t mean that you can only eat very low or very restricted carbohydrates, but that you should match the amount of starchy carbohydrates with the same portion of proteins. You may eat fibrous vegetables in abundance. There’s an easy way to find out if you are eating too many carbohydrates. Weigh yourself in the morning and at bedtime. If your bedtime weight is more than 2 pounds over your morning weight and if you followed rules 1-4 during the day, then you consumed too many carbohydrates that day.

The authors developed these five rules after making an in-depth stuy of all the leptin research studies so far (approximately 9000) and combined this with experiences with clients. The aim of these rules is to restore the body’s sensitivity to leptin and by that re-establish the body’s ability to efficiently produce energy from food which will lead to weight loss and better health.

Monkey Bread

My mom used to make this when I was little except with garlic and butter. I can't wait to try it and add the bacon and cheesy goodness. Here is the link from Ridiculous Food Society of Upstate New York.

Would wearing this body scent just make me hungry?

Burger King has just released a body spray that makes you smell like meat. Here is the description:

The WHOPPER® sandwich is America’s Favorite burger. FLAME™ by BK® captures the essence of that love and gives it to you. Behold the scent of seduction, with a hint of flame-broiled meat.

I bet J would love it.
Here's where you can buy it online - Link

The Coolest Cake ever!

found on cakewrecks.com by www.letthemeatcake.net

Sushi Maker for Kids

This makes sushi in shapes for kids. I want it. It's not available in the U.S. yet. The company that makes it is Bandi. The site is in japanese. Link

I feel like I'm always wearing a fat suit

I get emails from ediets about tips and tricks to rev my metabolism I found these particularly interesting.

8. Boost your metabolism by reading instead of watching TV: Researchers at Memphis State University monitored 32 girls as they watched a half-hour television program. They found the metabolic rates dropped as much as 16-percent below resting metabolic rate. In other words, they burned fewer calories watching TV than they did just by reading!

9. Drink green tea: Green tea is a popular tea from Japan that has numerous health benefits, including weight loss. It's not 100 percent certain how green tea helps one to lose fat, but it appears to increase the amount of calories the body burns -- not necessarily because of the small amounts of caffeine it contains, but due to a compound abbreviated as EGCG. When purchasing green tea make sure the label states that the green tea used is standardized for caffeine and EGCG.

10. Practice hydrotherapy: This could have been placed in the "drink lots of water" section but deserves its own section due to its efficiency. First thing in the morning, drink 32 ounces of very cold water on an empty stomach. Don't eat breakfast for at least 30 minutes. The cold water will force your body to raise its core temperature, thereby stimulating your metabolism and excreting any excess water. You may find that you lose two pounds the first month you try this. If you want to take it a step further, do the same thing at lunch. Just make sure to wait the 30 minutes prior to eating. Remember though, if you're consuming excess calories each day, this tip won't work.

Here is the link to the whole article.

Lunch Time! Japanese Food Recipe Blog

More along the Japanese theme. I found www.justhungry.com I'm totally hungry and the food and recipes on this site look really good! When I was a little girl I used to say that I was hungry whenever we were in the grocery store so I could get a treat. My mom's response to this was: "Hi Hungry, nice to meet you."