Losing and Maintaining Weight the Healthy Way

Spring break is here! Those of us who aren't stuck on the farm mending fences and feeding chickens might be heading off to some sunny, possibly exotic, locale.  Like Battle Creek. Of course, spring break signals the beginning of bikini season, that mortifying time when your mirror coldly reveals the reality that your big wooly sweater helped you ignore all winter.

Bathing Beauties from GlamourSurf.com

After plowing down a half dozen deviled eggs Easter Sunday, the first step will be to try and get back into some sort of normal shape. Many of us still think a crash diet is the way to do this.  With sacrifice and a soul-crushing diet of tasteless foods the pounds will melt away ...but let's face it.  Very few of us will be happy or satiated by a steady stream of rabbit food for the rest of our days. Or even the rest of the week.

Cheri Bianchini, founder of THE HEALTHY WAY in Santa Cruz, CA realized the cycle had to stop. As a nurse at Stanford Medical center she witnessed the consequences of unhealthy living every day so she developed real solutions for achieving long term results. She's pioneered a cutting-edge approach to permanent weight loss and a new-found vitality by focusing on basic truths and simple strategies.

The cornerstone of THE HEALTHY WAY philosophy is blood sugar stabilization. Cheri explains:

The foods we advocate are those low on the glycemic index (G.I.). These foods illicit a lower and slower blood glucose response. This helps to avoid the “roller coaster effect”—when blood sugar quickly rises, only to dramatically fall a short time later. The glycemic index of a food reflects how fast its carbohydrate content hits the bloodstream.

Foods with a low G.I. (50 or below), metabolize slowly, thus the amount of insulin released is less than eating foods with a high G.I. (70 and above), which release glucose more quickly into the bloodstream.

It has been scientifically proven that the secret to lifelong health is to keep your insulin level stable all day long by eating a low G.I. diet.

Blood sugar concentration can also determine how good or bad one feels. A stable blood sugar level keeps energy up, helps control hunger, and prevents mood swings. A low blood sugar level can cause irritability, fatigue, lethargy, excessive hunger, moodiness, and cravings for sweets—factors which can undermine success! 

Cheri sums up her mission by adding, "our goal has been to assist our clients in stabilizing and balancing their individual body chemistry, as well as teaching life sustaining habits and achieving a positive body image. We believe whole nutrition and a healthy lifestyle are the basic fundamentals of preventative medicine."

Not surprisingly, Cheri recommends an assortment of low fat, beneficial type carbohydrate foods to her clients, including our delectable Wax Orchards Classic Fudge. Because foods like the juice concentrate found in all Wax Orchards products metabolize slower in the body, they won't create a spike in blood sugars and they'll sustain that satiated feeling you just won't get from celery alone.

Yummy Sugar Free Vegan Cupcakes by Faith

One of our customers has sent us a cupcake recipe that's to die for! Faith in Texas made these with a Valentine's Day theme but Iwe think they'd be delicious on any day. Here's her recipe from her blog at SugarFreeFoodie.Tumblr.com

Sugar-free and vegan, these moist and delicious chocolate-frosted banana cupcakes make a perfect Valentine’s Day treat.  We won’t wait an entire year to have these again!
Cupcake ingredients:
2/3 cup liquid fruit sweetener*       1/2 cup canola oil
4 tablespoons water
3 ripe bananas
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3 teaspoons Egg Replacer powder
1/4 teaspoon salt  
Frosting:
1 jar Wax Orchards Oh Fudge! fruit-sweetened chocolate sauce
halved strawberries and Love toothpicks (optional)
Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Use a hand mixer to puree the bananas in a medium bowl.  Add the rest of the liquid ingredients and mix on medium speed until well combined.  Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a larger bowl.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Spoon batter into cupcake pan (I fill until about 3/4 full and use paper liners).  Bake approximately 17 minutes or until cupcakes test done with a wooden toothpick.  Cool completely, frost with the fudge sauce and (optionally) add strawberries and decorations.
*My favorite fruit sweetener is Wax Orchards Fruit Sweet.  It’s a diabetic-friendly concentrated fruit juice blend with pear juice concentrate and unsweetened pineapple juice concentrate.