True Lemon Healthy Living Challenge
Tips for Success
By Zonya Foco, RD

1. Happy New Year! Everyone loves to set New Year resolutions, many that never make it to February. Wouldn’t you love to make this year different? May I suggest trying on a “two-word mantra” for the entire year? Just two words that help guide you in an area or areas that you’d like to improve. Nothing complicated, just two words. Suggestions might be: fit & efficient, light & easygoing or nutritious & active. Resist the temptation to pick more than two words. Pick the words that can change your life the most and represent what you are ready to change the most. And go for it. Tape the written words to your refrigerator, bathroom mirror, computer monitor or coffee cup. Perhaps program them to be the opening greeting on your cell phone, computer or PDA. Chant your mantra often and watch your New Year resolution come true!
   
   
2. Let the miracle begin with a giant pot of Miracle Soup (go to Zonya.com and click on Recipes and Menus to download this recipe). In addition to being a delicious cancer and heart disease fighter for everyone, this recipe is a great weight-loss aide. You see, the calories are so low that in order to digest it, your body burns as many if not more calories than the soup itself yields (therefore a “negative calorie” food). Isn’t that great? Include a bowl along side your sandwich at lunch and entrée at dinner (replacing chips or fries or pretzels, etc.) to effectively drive down the calories of your meal. Weight loss guaranteed! Just don’t get the idea that you’re going to eat the soup exclusively and melt down to nothing in half the time. Remember? You already tried that and it didn’t work long term! But what we ARE doing is taking what was good about that “cabbage soup diet,” and molding it into a healthy lifestyle.
   
   
3. “Think before you drink” and do a soda pop/lemonade, fruit punch check. Did you know that according to a recent study, consuming just ONE regular soda or fruit punch a day doubles the risk of diabetes? It seems the liquid form of simple carbohydrate with no protein, fat or fiber present over-taxes the pancreas for instant insulin production. So how much soda or punch do you think is a safe amount for you and your kids? One a day, one a month or one a year? You decide. And for every can of regular soda per day you forego and enjoy water with True Lemon instead -- you’ll lose 16 pounds in a year!
   
   
4. Using the scale as your record of progress? Consider NOT weighing yourself every day while trying to lose. A healthy rate of weight loss is one pound per week (don’t fret, that’s 52 pounds in a year). And since your scale is probably NOT ABLE to measure changes of 1/7th of a pound, then weighing every day can be futile and depressing. (Especially for women when you consider fluid shifts.) As long as you are attempting to lose weight, weighing once a week, or better yet once a month, may be better for you psychologically. And a tape measure trumps the scale any day for an accurate gauge of success, so make sure you keep one of these handy.
   
   
5. Faced with a yummy dessert, fried food or Valentines Day chocolate? HALVE IT and you can HAVE it! Go ahead and erase that old mental tape: “I’ve wrecked my perfect diet day; I may as well eat the whole thing!” Now you have a whole new way of thinking!!!! More effective at cutting calories than the use of any artificial sweetener or fat replacer, this simple trick will work anytime, anywhere. Performed once a day, you can quite possibly shed 26 pounds in a year, while never being deprived!
   
   
6. Did you know the new dietary guidelines say to eat 2 cups of vegetables and 2½ cups of fruit every day? How are you doing? That equates to 7 servings of fruits and vegetables every day, which pretty much means at least one serving at every meal and snack. This week’s mantra is: “Eat a fruit or vegetable with every meal and snack.” This might require an extra stop at the grocery store or corner produce stand after work, cleaning them so they are ready and available, and taking fruit and vegetables to work. The Bonus: Watch your sweet cravings subside (the magic of eating more fruit) and be ready for your weight to go down!
   
   
7. Come home to dinner made for you….Crock-Pot Fajitas! (Go to Zonya.com and click on Recipes and Menus to download this recipe.) Your schedule is hectic and demanding, with family members all coming home and leaving again, all at different times. Even if you did get home in time to make dinner, schedules make it difficult to all eat together. Well here is a great, time-saving crock-pot recipe that helps dinner fit into any schedule, and will please any crowd, family or company alike. You can prep it in the morning, turn on the crock pot, and dinner makes itself! Just have the whole-wheat tortillas, chopped lettuce, tomatoes and light sour cream ready to go in the fridge. No matter what time someone comes home, they can quickly assemble their own hot and delicious fajita. Enjoy!
   
   
8. Did you know that unconsciously slurping down calorie-filled beverages can account for 5 to 50 pounds of the extra weight you may be carrying around? The worst part is that these calories often sneak in without registering anything consumed on the satiety scale. That spells double trouble! So making a commitment in this area can rid you of major excess weight for a lifetime AND help people with diabetes. So think before you fix that morning coffee with cream and sugar, “Do I want to eat my calories or drink my calories?” Instead, heat up a refreshing cup of hot water with True Lemon and save your calories for chew food!
   
   
9. A Sausage Switch to Live By: Grabbing for the bacon or sausage for your weekend breakfast? Consider making low-fat, Homemade Turkey Sausage instead (go to Zonya.com and click on Recipes and Menus to download this recipe). You can make a large batch, make into patties, and enjoy a couple of patties every Sunday morning for months. The reduction in saturated fat, plus no sodium nitrates (a proven cancer causing agent) makes for a MUCH healthier option! And it is unbelievably delicious! Make this your new Sunday morning ritual and this step alone will not only decrease your risk for heart disease and cancer, but will also help you lose 3 pounds this year!
   
   
10. Metabolism Booster: Got stairs in your home or workplace? Double the times you climb them. Not just once in the morning and once at night, or a couple times a week for laundry. Take the stairs just to feel your heart pump and your breathing pick up. It’s the metabolism wake-up call your body needs every couple of hours! Especially perfect after a period of sitting at the computer, reading or (I’m afraid to say it) watching TV. As Nike® says, “Just Do It!” Your body will thank you for it!
    
    
11. Studies show that eating cooked dried beans 4 times a week equals a 19% lower incidence of heart disease compared to eating beans only once a week. (Thank the B-vitamin folacin that lowers troublesome homocysteine and gummy soluble fiber for sopping up the nasty cholesterol.) No time to cook beans? With low-sodium canned beans, eating more beans couldn’t be easier. Opt for minestrone soup instead of chicken noodle, top salads with garbanzo beans instead of cheese, and choose recipes with an assortment of beans 4 times per week. A great recipe to start with is Hearty Bean and Pasta Stew (go to Zonya.com and click on Recipes and Menus to download this recipe).
    
    
12. Got sweet cravings? Who doesn’t! The question is, how many servings of fruit are you eating each and every day? Many people may THINK they get in 2 to 3 servings per day, when in all actuality, it’s more like 1 to 2, with some days scoring a big ZERO. And you need to know that your brain requires simple (sweet) carbohydrate to function. If it doesn’t get this simple carbohydrate, it sends you a fruit craving. How do you read your fruit cravings? Chocolate? WRONG ANSWER! Why not reach for fruit? A juicy orange or dried fruit can be just as satisfying. And if you’d like to prevent sweet cravings from happening in the first place, try my Sweet Cravings Cure: Eat a serving of fruit and a glass of water (with delicious True Lemon of course) every 4 hours…Guaranteed, no more sweet cravings. You’ll be 14 pounds lighter by the end of the year!
    
    
13. Creamy Chicken Enchiladas. Ready to fit your exercise in AND cook a healthy meal -- all in the same evening? Welcome to “Oven Exercise Eat” night, and your mission, should you accept it, is to do exactly that. (See YUMMY recipe for Creamy Chicken Enchiladas that you will swear can’t be healthy because it tastes SO GOOD! Go to Zonya.com and click on Recipes and Menus to download this recipe.) Put dinner in the oven, do some exercise, and then eat. You can walk, do an exercise tape, pull weeds, ride your bike, you name it! Just be sure to refrain from doing any other seemingly important household chores like laundry or the mail. These chores will all wait, but your health will not! “Oven Exercise Eat” -- it’s brilliant, but then again, so are you.