Here are some pictures of JP’s before and after progress:

Before:

After:

I have to say that I am pretty impressed by the amount of weight he has lost! Though 14lbs. may not seem like a lot, the Isagenix program that JP has gone through is designed for PERMANENT weight loss rather than TEMPORARY weight loss. It is a well known fact that the majority of diet programs today focus on quickly losing weight — a goal that usually causes the dietier to regain lost weight within a couple of months. Look at JP’s body profiles over the past 30 days, I am really convinced that Isagenix is a product worth looking into. I’ve been talking to him over the past month, and he really is much more energetic and lively — plus, he is getting compliments from everyone about his new appearance and personality.

Overall, I think the results of JP’s Isagenix diet experiment are very promising. Don’t forget to check out his blog!

“I’m not somebody who works out,” says Collins, a 31-year-old CPA and accounting manager at BlueCross BlueShield in Chicago. “It’s easier to get me to cut back on food than to get me into a gym. Exercising and walking bore me.”

Dr. Ian Smith, an NBC News medical correspondent, and Rod Johnson, a medical news producer for CNN in Atlanta, say Collins’ way of thinking is on the right track. They agree that the best and fastest way to lose weight is to reduce calories and increase physical activity.

“If you’re doing cardiovascular exercises for 30 minutes, increase the time to 45 minutes,” says Johnson, who is also a certified fitness consultant. “If you’re only doing cardiovascular exercises once or twice a week, increase them to four or five times a week for at least 45 minutes.”

Weight-train the entire body, including all the major muscle groups, at least two times a week. Or do the upper body one day and the lower body the next day. Remember, weight-training burns calories for 48 hours after a workout, and a cardiovascular workout burns calories for 45 minutes.

Johnson, who has helped clients get in shape as a kickboxing instructor and as a personal trainer, says it’s important to develop a regular exercise schedule and then stick to it. Don’t skip days in your routine. Exercise more days a week than you have been to lose weight faster. Avoid excuses and work out with a friend or relative who has similar goals.

But with your zeal to lose the pounds, be cautious. Medical experts say don’t try to lose too much weight too fast. Don’t try to lose 50 pounds in three months. Give yourself time in advance of an event to get the weight off. Without using a fad diet, try to develop good habits in a short amount of time by being consistent, and motivate yourself by thinking about your goals. Think about that dress you want to wear.

Dr. Smith, author of The Take Control Diet: A Life Plan for Thinking People, also recommends sticking to a realistic goal. Don’t try to lose more than 2 pounds per week, he says. When people begin to diet, if they’re not chronic dieters, a lot of weight will come off initially. As their bodies adjust to the diet, the weight will start to plateau. Combining exercising and dieting is the one-two punch that takes the weight off quickly.

But hidden calories found in gravies, dressings and butter can sabotage weight-loss efforts, experts say. Salads should be ordered with no-fat or reduced-fat dressing on the side. Use very small portions, if any at all. Don’t order gravy on mashed potatoes. Another place calories can hide is in alcohol. Smith suggests having no more than one alcoholic beverage a day because alcohol is full of empty calories. Sweets and chips should be avoided and substituted with raw fruits and vegetables.

Fruit and preferably raw or steamed vegetables should be what you eat mostly when you’re trying to lose weight in a short amount of time, experts say. Nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day is best. Each serving should be about the size of a fist. But be careful not to overcook vegetables because it eliminates the nutrients. Also, the serving size of carbohydrates and meats should be reduced. But Smith doesn’t advocate a low-carbohydrate diet or eliminating carbohydrates altogether.

Eating three meals and two snacks at the same time every day is important. Don’t eat heavy dinners. Don’t eat anything two hours before going to sleep, including fruits and vegetables. Everyone’s metabolism slows down when sleeping, so the body burns fewer calories, Dr. Smith says. Calories eaten less than two hours before bedtime turn into added fat.

The heaviest meal of the day could be lunch or an early dinner. (Even after dinner, it’s suggested that you do some type of physical activity.) Scheduling meals helps your body anticipate when it will be supplied with nutrition. Metabolism and hunger get synchronized when you don’t trick your body by changing mealtimes. Eating breakfast at 8 a.m. one day then 10 a.m. the next throws the rest of the day off.

Fried food is another element that should be avoided. Try to eliminate all fried foods for two weeks, eating only foods that are grilled, seared, steamed or baked.

All of these tips sound good to Collins, who plans to continue eating less and exercising more with aerobics videos at home. She also wants to stick to some guidelines she came up with when she lost 22 pounds, which she has kept off for a year and a half. She plans to drink eight glasses of water a day. She says she’ll eat more vegetables before eating anything else at mealtimes and eat desserts less often.

Despite this success, Collins realizes the hard part is still ahead of her. She knows holiday parties and dinners will make it tough. “It’s hard to resist drinking extra eggnog,” she says. “Sitting around with the family, you eat more because it’s there, not because you’re hungry. Last year, my family brought fruit instead of sweets to be healthier.”

This year, she hopes there will be fruit and healthy snacks at the parties she attends as well.

LOSING WEIGHT QUICKLY

Whether you want to lose weight to wear a new dress or if you just want to shed a few pounds, here are five ways to lose weight quickly.

1. Eliminate hidden calories in gravies, dressings and butter. Have no more than one alcoholic beverage a day. Avoid snacks. Substitute sweets and chips with raw fruits and vegetables.

2. Try to consume mostly fruits and vegetables, preferably raw or steamed. Have nine servings a day. Reduce the serving sizes of carbohydrates and meats. But don’t eat a low-carbohydrate or no-carbohydrate diet.

3. Burn calories. Include some type of physical activity in your daily routine. Increase your amount of physical activity by 30 percent to lose weight faster. For example, if you only walk five blocks to a bus and don’t exercise, you should increase your routine to seven or eight blocks.

4. Schedule your meals. Try to eat at the same time every day. Have three meals and two snacks a day.

5. Eliminate all fried foods for two weeks. Eat only foods that are grilled, seared, steamed or baked.

* Recommendations by Dr. Ian. Smith, NBC News medical correspondent

5 WEIGHT-LOSS TIPS

1. If you know you are going to a party, eat fewer calories during the day. Don’t starve yourself beforehand so that you are not tempted to eat too much at the party. Avoid eating too many starchy foods and solids. Instead, drink more water and eat fruit, yogurt, salad, grains and vegetables. This will help you eat fewer calories at an evening event.

2. Weight-train the entire body. Include all the major muscle groups at least two times a week.

3. Avoid negative talk. Motivate yourself by thinking about your goals.

4. Be consistent. Develop a regular exercise schedule and stick to it.

5. Be realistic. Don’t try to lose 50 pounds in three months. Give yourself time in advance to get the weight off.

* Recommendations by Rod Johnson, CNN medical news producer and personal trainer

COPYRIGHT 2002 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group

The new diet pill forums will be a place where dieters can discuss exercise, diet pills and supplements, nutrition, and the numerous diet regiments that are popular today. This will add an important new element to the Web site, which already has reviews of over 125 different diet pills that are on the market, by allowing members to provide more personalized advice and support to each other.

Diet Pill Reviews

Take this situation as an example. If you consume 500 extra calories per day for one week without changing your activity level, you will gain one pound in weight (7 days multiplied by 500 calories equals 3500 calories, or the number of calories resulting in a one-pound weight gain). Conversely, if you eat 500 fewer calories each day for a week or burn 500 calories per day through exercise for one week, then you will lose one pound over the course of that week. Which would you choose?

Perhaps before you start thinking about losing weight you should take a moment to examine what you eat. Sometimes it is not just about reducing your calorie intake, but it is also about changing what you eat – decrease fatty foods and increase your intake of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Examples of some high calorie popular foods and beverages include:

1 slice original-style crust pepperoni pizza – 230 calories
1 glass of dry white wine – 160 calories
1 can of cola – 150 calories
1 quarter-pound hamburger with cheese – 500 calories
1 jumbo banana nut muffin – 580 calories

Are any of these in your regular diet? If so, maybe it’s time to make some changes!

When it comes to weight loss, crash diets are never a good idea. Most health and well being experts will agree that a safe, healthy rate of losing weight is usually around one to 1 ½ pounds per week. Anything more than this means that you are more likely to put your weight back on, down the track. By modifying your eating habits and adding in a little regular exercise, you will be embarking upon the most effective way to lose weight in the long term. It is also the ideal way to ensure that the weight stays off.

Starvation diets may result in rapid weight loss and give you immediate results, but this loss of weight is really hard to maintain over a long period of time. When food intake is severely restricted to something below 1200 calories per day, the body begins to think that it is poor nutrition, so it begins to shut down its metabolic rate. This can make it even more difficult to lose weight in the long run. Candidates who crash diet can also experience hunger pangs, bouts of hypoglycemia, headaches, and mood changes from overly stringent dieting which can all result in binge eating and weight gain.

Since a highly restrictive diet is almost impossible to maintain for a long time, people who attempt to starve themselves thin often start to gain weight again when they stop dieting. Hence, the reason for embarking on a gradual, long term program that increases physical fitness and well being, at the same time.

By Lana Hampton

We all know sugar sweetened soft drinks are empty calories and help contribute to the overall obesity problem in the western world. What most of us don’t know is how much of an impact these have and how switching to diet drinks may be an even worse choice.

In 2000 Americans alone spent $60 billion on carbonated soft drinks and billions more on non-carbonated “fruit” beverages. During the same year the average American consumed more than 53 gallons of soft drinks. (Source: National Soft Drink Association). Those 53 gallons are equal to over 283 12 ounce cans each on average.

In 2004, soft drink companies produced enough non-diet soda to provide each U.S. resident with about 395 12 ounce cans, and enough diet soda for about 160 cans each, says the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

North American consumption represents more than 44% of worldwide consumption, Europe, with a per capita average of 12.7 gallons per year, represented 31%. The fastest growth in soft drink consumption is in Asia and South America. (Source Beverage Marketing Press Release June 15, 2001).

During the late 1950’s the typical soft drink order in a casual or fast food restaurant contained about 8 ounces of soda. Today a “child” order of Coke at McDonalds is 12 ounces. A “large” Coke is 32 ounces and about 310 calories.

The average 12 ounce can of soda contains about 40 grams of refined sugar. That’s about 8 Teaspoons! Did you ever consider you were eating 8 teaspoons of sugar with every can of soda pop? For comparison the USDA recommends that for a 2,000 calorie per day diet we should not consume more than 40 grams of refined sugars per day. In addition each can contains about 150 calories with zero nutritional value per 12 ounce can.

You can see how an extra 300 to 400 calories per day can contribute to weight gain.

Dr. Caroline Apovian, an associate professor at the Boston University School of Medicine and director of the Weight Management Center at Boston Medical Center, says one study found that the chance of becoming obese increased 1.6 times for each sugar sweetened drink consumed per day.

In addition to the calories, the sugar and the impact on weight gain and obesity, soda contains caffeine. Caffeine as we know is a mildly addictive stimulant drug that keeps us coming back for more. Research has shown that the caffeine delivered in a single 12 ounce can of soft drink is enough to produce mood and behavioral effects. (Source: Dr. Roland Griffiths in Eileen O’Conner’s “A sip into dangerous territory,” Monitor on Psychology, 32, June 2001.

Fruit Drinks:

Like I said repeatedly in my book “Living To BeYounger”we are literally being marketed to death. I go into great detail about how ad agencies and food companies are packaging products as a healthy alternative to junk foods.

There is no better example than the “healthy alternative” fruit drinks marketed by the soft drink companies. These companies market non-carbonated drinks that pretend to be rich in fruit juice and nutrients, but are basically sugar water. Coca-Cola Co.’s Fruitopia and Hi-C, for example contain only 5% to 10% fruit juice but they contain as much (or more) sugar as the carbonated soda pop. Don’t be fooled by the claims of added vitamins and minerals on these products packages, they are still junk food.

The sweetener commonly used in soft drinks and other foods may lead to more body fat than drinks sweetened with plain sugar. A new study shows that fructose may alter the body’s metabolism in a way that prompts it to store body fat.

Fructose is a sweetener found naturally in fruits and honey and is widely used as a sweetener in soft drinks, fructose is usually found in the form of high-fructose corn syrup which contains 55% fructose.

Researchers say the findings may help explain the recently established link between rising soft drink popularity and obesity rates in the United States and other parts of the world.

In the study, researchers led by Dr. Matthias Tschop of the University of Cincinnati compared the effects of feeding mice fructose-sweetened water, a soft drink flavored with table sugar, a diet soft drink or water. The mice were allowed to drink as much as they wanted of their assigned beverage.

The mice that drank the fructose-sweetened water gained significantly more body fat than the others, even thought they decreased the amount of calories they ate from solid food.

” We were surprised to see that mice actually ate less when exposed to fructose-sweetened beverages and therefore didn’t consume more overall calories,” says Tschop, “Nevertheless they gained significantly more body fat within a few weeks.”

Body fat increased 11% in the fructose group, 5% in the water group, 7% and 8% in the diet and sugar water groups.

Researchers say the findings suggest the body metabolizes fructose differently than other sweeteners or carbohydrates and in a way that favors fat storage.

Between 1970 and 1990 high-fructose corn syrup consumption increased by more than 1000% largely because the nations soft drink producers switched from sucrose (sugar) to high-fructose corn syrup.

Making syrup is the second largest use of corn in North America, feeding livestock is the largest. On average Americans consume 48 pounds of corn syrup a year. (Source Anan Duming, “Junk Food, Food Junk World Watch September / October 1991)

A 2004 report showed that Americans eat 132 calories each day of high-fructose corn syrup and that figure is closer to 300 for the top 20%of Americans.

Number who are obese goes from 12% to 17.9%.

The number of Americans who think about dieting and losing weight is probably at an all-time high. But surprisingly, so too are the number of Americans who are overweight (BMI >25) or obese (BMI >30): at least 30% of the population. The percentage of children and adolescents who are overweight has doubled since the early 1970s, raising concerns for long-term health effects. Excess weight is a health risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. By mid-1999, there were 7.1 million physician visits related to weight concerns.

Let’s see high-fructose corn syrup production up 1000% from 1970, obesity and overweight doubled since 1970? Tripled in England during the same period?

To my simple way of thinking, “It ain’t the whole answer, but it’s a big part of it”!

For then full FREE Special Report on Soft Drinks and Astounding information Diet Drinks visit this link.

I felt this information was important enough to provide a free excerpt of this chapter of my book, “Living To Be Younger”. People need to know the facts about what their consuming and the impact on their health.

We simply are not getting good information, and the result of that lack of knowledge is becoming more and more evident.

MAKES: 16 servings

3 1/3 cups cake flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup butter, at room temperature
3 cups sugar 6 large eggs 1 cup sour cream 2 teaspoons almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 325[degrees]. Butter and flour a 12-cup bundt pan. In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder.

2. In a large bowl, with a mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each, then add sour cream and almond extract. Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing well after each addition.

3. Pour batter into bundt pan. Bake until a knife inserted in center comes out clean, 75 to 90 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack to cool completely.

Per serving: 414 cal., 37% (153 cal.) from fat; 5.3 g protein; 17 g fat (9.8 g sat.); 61 g carbo (0.5 g fiber); 234 mg sodium; 117 mg chol.

2 Eighty percent of breast lumps are not cancer. Many are simply fibrocystic changes: Sacs in your breast fill with too much fluid and become hard and may be painful. These changes are common among women of childbearing age, and often fluctuate during the menstrual cycle.

Fibroadenomas are benign tumors common among women in their 20s and 30s. There is usually no treatment for them if they do not grow; if they do, some doctors recommend removing them surgically. A malignant tumor tends to feel like a fixed, hard object and is more irregular in shape, says breast surgeon Gregory Senofsky, M.D., author of The Patient’s Guide to Outstanding Breast Cancer Care (Perigee, 2002). A benign lump is often more round and moves easily from side to side. All lumps, however, should be checked by your doctor.

3 Doing monthly breast self-exams is always a good idea. “Despite the fact that [research] doesn’t statistically show that breast self-exams save lives, I’ve seen cases where young women are the first ones to pick up a breast mass,” says Marleen Meyers, M.D., assistant professor of medicine in oncology at New York University Medical Center in New York City, who encourages all her patients to perform regular self-exams. To see a short video clip about the best way to examine your breasts, visit komen.org/bse.

The American Cancer Society recommends that women 20 and older examine their own breasts every month and that women in their 20s and 30s have their breasts examined by their doctors every three years. Because risk rises with age, women 40 and older should have their breasts examined by a doctor annually and begin getting annual mammograms.

4 About 80 percent of women who get breast cancer have no known risk factors for it. The best way to deal with this is to do what you can to reduce your known risk factors and not worry about what you can’t control. Proven lifestyle factors that increase breast-cancer risk are drinking two to five alcoholic drinks per day, being overweight (particularly if the added weight was put on after age 20) and not exercising.

Risk factors that you can’t control include being a woman; being older than age 50; having a mother, sister or daughter diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age; being Caucasian; getting your first period before age 12; having one of the two breast-cancer genes; and not having children or having them after age 30. To calculate your own individual estimated risk, try the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool at bcra.nci.nih.gov/brc.

5 You can find out if you carry the breast-cancer gene. But should you? About 211,000 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, but only 5-10 percent of them are carrying one or more of the inherited altered genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2, according to the Bethesda, Md.-based National Cancer Institute. A woman with one of these altered genes has an 80 percent chance of developing breast cancer sometime in her life.

Getting this test can have repercussions: A positive result could be emotionally difficult for you and your family. You will need to talk to your doctor about more monitoring (e.g., more frequent mammograms) and cancer-prevention choices (taking the drug tamoxifen, for instance, has been shown nearly to halve the number of breast cancers in high-risk women). Plus, a negative result may give you a false sense of security. To learn more about genetic testing or to find a genetic counselor near you, visit the National Society of Genetic Counselors at nsgc.org.

6 Your breast-cancer risk factors should be considered when selecting birth control. Studies are mixed on whether use of oral contraceptives increases breast-cancer risk. (The two kinds of oral contraceptives available in the United States include a combination of estrogen and progesterone and the minipill, which contains the synthetic form of progesterone only.) “Although there is no hard evidence that women who use oral contraceptives have an increased risk of breast cancer, if my patient has a family history of breast cancer or a relative with the breast-cancer genes, I suggest that she find another birth-control method to avoid possibly compounding her risk,” Meyers says.

7 Breast size has nothing to do with risk, but height and weight do. Excess weight, not breast size, is a risk factor, particularly in postmenopausal women–and not just for getting breast cancer, but for dying of it. Thirty to 50 percent of all cancer deaths among postmenopausal women in America may be attributed to being overweight, according to the American Cancer Society. Estrogen is stored in fat tissue, so heavier women produce more of the female hormone which can spur developing cancers. And, because breast tumors are harder to detect in obese women, cancer is often found at later stages.

The risk of dying of breast cancer is also associated with height, which may be related to growth factors early in life. Women who are 5 feet tall or shorter are at less risk of death from the disease than those who are taller.

8 Exercise may lower your breast-cancer risk, and will help prevent a recurrence if you do get it. “In premenopausal women, exercisers have lower levels of estrogen and progesterone,” says Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Prevention Center at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and co-author of Breast Fitness (St. Martin’s Press, 2001). Similarly, a woman’s cancer risk may be higher if her estrogen level is extended during her lifetime (in other words, if she began menstruating early, had no pregnancies and/or experienced delayed menopause). Progesterone, too, may have an effect, as it was recently discovered that postmenopausal women taking hormone replacement therapy that consisted of synthetic estrogen and progesterone had a higher cancer risk than women who took estrogen only.

Even a small amount of exercise offers protection–one study showed that as little as 1 1/4-2 1/2 hours of brisk walking a week reduced a woman’s breast-cancer risk by 18 percent.

9 Having dense breasts when you’re older is a risk factor. Women who are 40 or older with dense (highly glandular) breasts do have an increased breast-cancer risk. “There are more lobules and cells that are active in dense breasts than in fatty breasts, and a greater prevalence of cancer in that type of tissue,” says Wendie Berg, M.D., Ph.D., a radiologist in Lutherville, Md. Most young women have dense breasts, but as they get older, their breasts become more fatty. Breast density can only be measured on a mammogram, says Berg, who is leading a clinical trial of ultrasound screening for women at high risk for breast cancer.

10 If you have dense breasts or a high risk of getting breast cancer, ultrasound may be used as a supplement to mammograms for screening. Women who have known cancer risk factors, or who are 40 or older with dense breasts, may want to get an ultrasound as well as a mammogram as often as every six months to a year (it’s increasingly being covered by insurance), Berg says. “A screening ultrasound has been shown to detect small (1-centimeter), invasive breast cancers not seen on mammography, usually before they have spread to the lymph nodes,” she says. “In extremely dense breast tissue, at least half of invasive cancers are not seen on mammography.”

COPYRIGHT 2005 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

Lungs are an important part of our body. We breathe in and out a massive amount of air each day, and the lungs process it to supply oxygen to our blood. Poor breathing habits and lack of exercise may result in poor oxygen supply to the blood, which in turn means less energy to our body tissues.

The various lung exercises expel the air in the lungs, including the bad air that remains languishing due to poor breathing. Aerobic exercises, including just a morning jog - are a good way to keep fit. Breathing exercises done regularly exercise lungs which provide a steady stream of oxygen-rich blood to our brain and muscles.

Being in good health is the first step in living a good life. Getting fresh air everyday, with proper breathing that goes deep down in the lungs is what the author has found rejuvenating and de-stressing. The lung exercises expel the bad air, and fills up the lungs with good, fresh air. The effects can be felt immediately - lightness, refreshed mood, and loads of energy.

The various drug-related habits are sometimes just a byproduct of other problems and issues that are left unsolved. These could be personal, family related, or social. A resolution of these issues may allow the user to come out of such habits. Recreational use is of course a different issue.

By Tima

The fat burning foods are foods that burn more calories than the calorie content of the foods itself. There are certain foods which actually burn more fat than the calorie content of the food itself. These fat burning foods or so called negative calorie foods are natural plant foods.

Fruits rich in vitamin C like limes, lemons, oranges, grapefruit and tangerines have fat burning properties. Some of the other fat burning foods are asparagus, beet root, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, apple, blueberries, and watermelon. It you eat these fat burning foods and do some exercise, it will boost your metabolism and burn calories at a faster rate for several hours even after exercise.

A recent research reports that calcium in dairy products can boost weight loss by increasing fat breakdown in fat cells. If you compare a dairy-rich versus a dairy-poor diet you can nearly double the rate of weight and fat loss with the same level of calorie restriction.

Not eating enough will slow your metabolism and deteriorating your health. Note that in order to lose weight you have to burn more calories than you consume. This can be done by eating negative calorie foods. This will help your body burning up the excessive stored fat.

By P. Mehta

4 6-ounce portions salmon filet

Mango Cilantro Salsa 1 ripe mango, peeled and ½-inch diced ¼ cup chopped scallion, green part only ¼ cup diced red bell pepper 1 tablespoon finely diced fresh jalapeno 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro 1 small clove garlic, minced 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice ¼ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

Bake salmon filet at 400ºF for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the salmon. For Mango Cilantro Salsa, lightly toss all ingredients in bowl. Chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour for flavors to meld. Serve salsa as an accompaniment to salmon. Mango Cilantro Salsa also goes nicely with grilled meat or chicken.

Yield: 4 servings

Nutrition Information: 245 calories, 7 g fat, 35 g protein, 11 g carbohydrate, 2 g dietary fiber, 88 mg cholesterol, 251 mg sodium

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Chicken Corn Chowder

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces 1 tablespoon lime juice 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup diced yellow onion 1 cup chopped green onion 2 tablespoons pure olive oil or butter 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 cup diced celery 1 cup diced red bell pepper 1 or 2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped fine 1 16-ounce bag frozen corn kernels 1 4-ounce can green chilies, diced 1 quart chicken broth, preferably natural 1 cup cream ½ teaspoon ground black pepper 1 cup grated potato, preferably Yukon Gold, grated just before using 1 teaspoon cornstarch ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Marinate chicken in lime juice and ¼ teaspoon salt. Set aside. In soup pot, sauté yellow and green onions in olive oil over medium-high heat until soft, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté an additional minute. Add celery, bell pepper, jalapeño, corn, green chilies, chicken broth, remaining salt, cream, and black pepper. Bring soup to a simmer. As soon as soup starts to simmer, grate potato and add directly to pot. Mix cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water and add to pot. Continue to simmer for 20 minutes. Add chicken and juice to the pot and simmer for an additional 10 minutes. Stir in cilantro. Serve hot.

Yield: 6 servings

Nutrition Information: 358 calories, 16 g fat, 27 g protein, 31 g carbohydrate, 4 g dietary fiber, 70 mg cholesterol, 870 mg sodium

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Roasted Vegetables

6 cups 1-inch chunks small red potatoes and/or other vegetables (Parsnips, carrots, and squash work especially well.) ¼ cup pure olive oil Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (not necessary but helps stop burning and helps cleanup). Put vegetable chucks on pan, sprinkle with olive oil, and toss. Roast until tender; about 10 to 15 minutes. Insert fork or sharp knife to test for doneness. Add salt and pepper.

Yield: 6 servings

Nutrition Information: 155 calories, 9.22 g fat, 1.52 g protein, 18.8 g carbohydrate, 3.25 fiber, 0.0 mg cholesterol, 656 mg sodium

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White Bean and Kale Salad

1 cup great northern beans, soaked overnight in 1 quart water ½ medium sweet onion, cut into thin half-moon slices ¼ cup pure olive oil 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 6 cups coarsely chopped kale 2 tablespoons currants 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon crushed red chili pepper Ground black pepper to taste

Drain beans. Add 6 cups of water and cook over medium heat until tender, approximately 40 to 45 minutes. Sauté onion in large pan in 1 tablespoon olive oil until soft, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar and cook for an additional minute, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Sauté kale in large pan over medium-high heat with 1 tablespoon olive oil until tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir while cooking to avoid sticking. Just before removing kale from pan add the remaining 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar. Set aside in a medium-sized bowl. When beans are tender, remove from heat, drain, and place in refrigerator to cool. Once beans have cooled for 10 minutes, toss them with kale, currants, lemon juice, salt, chili pepper, and sautéed onion. Add black pepper and additional salt to taste.

Yield: 4 servings

Nutrition Information: 345 calories, 15 g fat, 14 g protein, 44 g carbohydrate, 12 g dietary fiber, 0 mg cholesterol, 185 mg sodium

Copyright © 2006 Felicia Drury Kliment