Super Foods, what are they and are they really super?

With the snow already here and winter upon us we all are smelling our favorite comfort foods .  We started Fitness takes no Holiday's Here at Strollerfit as Halloween approached and now the New Year is just around the corner.   I am willing to bet 90% of you told yourself you would eat healthier, or something like that. You can (and should) eat only your favorites in small amounts. But you should also add some superfoods to your daily regime to keep you full and satisfied!

So what are super foods.  A lot has been written recently about so-called Super Foods. You know, the ones that if you believe all the hype you eat and they somehow magically work in your system to burn fat off your body. Well, the truth is that no food is a Super Food in that sense. Nothing you can eat will magically burn fat from your body! Your body will burn the calories contained in the food, but those foods won’t go on to set off some magic metabolic chain reaction that will send the fat from your hips and thighs (wouldn't that be nice though?)
Sorry for that bad news.
So we need to eat High Volume Foods. In my mind, they are the fat-burning Super Foods. These foods are full of fiber, water, and other nutrients. They make you feel full faster and therefore you consume few calories of them. When you consume fewer calories and increase you caloric consumption, your body eventually goes to your fat stores to get you the energy you need.

Think of it this way: your fat stores should be like your local convenience store where you go to pick up a couple of essentials on an as-needed basis. Unfortunately, for too many of us, our fat stores are more like giant supermarkets or price clubs where we stock too much of our reserves.
High Volume Foods will have your body shopping at those fat stores, eventually reducing their stock to convenience store size portions.
What are some other High Volume Foods? Think greens. Salad greens—minus the cheese, fatty dressings, etc—are a great source of fiber, water, and minerals. There are so many more varieties of lettuce available to us today that the usual run of the mill iceberg variety shouldn’t have to dominate your salad intake. They range in flavors from buttery (like Boston) to spicy (like Arugula) and have the same caloric value as the tried and true iceberg.
Beans are another High Volume Food that will enable you to tap into your fat reserves. As an added plus, they are great source of protein. Studies have shown that since protein takes longer to break down chemically, they stay with you longer and keep you feeling fuller longer. That’s a definite win-win situation.  This are a favorite of mine, and I put them in salad so I get the protein, fiber and lots of High Volume foods.
Green Tea. It’s going to take a lot more study to convince me that green tea is actually stimulates your body to burn more calories. But it is a great after dinner treat to ward off the calories!  And although they have many other great qualities like lowering cholesterol, suppressing your appetite and aiding in digestion with fiber they do not burn fat, they are simply healthy options.

So here are some other great high volume foods:
Tea/coffee (careful on the caffeine)

Low-fat Cottage cheese

Chicken, shrimp, salmon

Soup, especially broth-based soups like vegetable and chicken noodle

Barley

Whole grain products like oatmeal, whole wheat pasta and whole wheat flour products

Beans

Apples, berries, melons
 
So ladies my challeneg to you is to do two things, eat more High Volume Foods and journal everything you eat from now til the end of the year.  For everyday you journal you will get a bonus point in the challeneg and see the weight come off.  (the journal does not have to have points or claories but needs to list everything you eat and its quanity, even BLTS (Bites, Licks & Tastes) At our new Years Eve class you will turn in your journal to see how many days you journaled.  then we will put all the journals in a bag and pick a journalling winner for a great prize to help you continue on your fitness and weighl loss.management journey!