PEERtrainer

Welcoming Kim Komando Subscribers and Listeners To PEERtrainer!

We got a heads up from the people at Kim Komando that PEERtrainer is being featured as a "Cool Site Of The Day" and we want to return the favor by creating some dedicated resources for you all.

We have started a new weight loss support community for you, called "Komando's Commandos" and you can join it via this link:

Komando's Commandos Weight Loss Support Community

We are in the group right now welcoming you all, answering as many questions as we can. Again, great to have you all here. And make sure to join our Tip Of The Day weight loss coaching program if you have not already.

Things To Keep In Your Freezer and Fridge

This is another video I put together to show you the kinds of staples I like to keep in my freezer and fridge. I have multiple objectives here.

1. Foods that fill me up and help me lose weight

2. Things that I can give the kids easily and quickly that are also good for them

3. Foods that are nutrient dense and help my family get as many micronutrients as they can.

I only featured five foods- another staple of our fridge is Bolthouse Farms Vedge Juice. It tastes great, is packed with micronutrients and phytochemicals and makes it really easy for members of my family to consume high doses of nutrients, quickly.

Easy and Healthy Low WW Point and Calorie Snack Idea

We were just in a Whole Foods with the kids, and we met a woman who was giving out samples of a new line of almond butter and peanut butter called Justin's Nut Butter. It is a new company started by someone named Justin. As it turned out, his mom was the woman giving out the samples. Nice mom!

There are a lot of makers of various nut butters, and we buy the Whole Foods brand cashew butter regularly. It tastes great and it is cheap. But what struck us about Justin's Nut Butter is that they make 100 calorie squeeze packs that are flavored with things like organic maple sugar and organic honey. So they taste really good, and it is sometimes hard to get peanut butter to taste good without a ton of jelly.

The Maple Almond Butter was particularly good. (Almond butter is relatively high in calcium, so for people who are allergic to dairy and are looking for added sources of calcium, Almonds and almond butter are something to always keep in mind.)

I always tell people to always have healthy snacks handy, to prepare ahead of time for emergencies. These little packs seem like a great idea to keep in your desk or purse or glove compartment. If you can get your hands on an apple or a banana, squeeze one of these packs on the apple or banana and you have a great healthy snack. It will give you energy, you know exactly what the portion is, you get the benefit of an organic product, you get a piece of fruit in.

I think Justin's mom mentioned that each pack was about .59 cents. Add that to the cost of a banana or an apple and you have a pretty cheap snack as well. People always want to know how to eat healthy for cheap and eat organic for cheap. If you know where to look you can always find things that fit this requirement.

Getting a portion controlled product that tastes great and is super healthy can be one of those nice small wins I always talk about. So next time you are in Whole Foods or near one, get some of Justin's squeeze packs and add them to your emergency food stash. It is also a way to support a small business owner and kudos to the people at Whole Foods who brought Justin and his products in.

I also broke out my copy of Joel Fuhrman's Eat For Health to look up what he thinks about nut products. He pointed out that you don't want to overeat them, but that there are studies that show an inverse relationship between nut consumption and body weight, and that nuts and seeds help suppress the appetite. 

Making sure to add an apple or a banana to the mix in the snack makes it taste great. Fruit in the morning for energy and then fruit with a little nut butter in the afternoon to help keep you full and energized is a great strategy. The squeeze packs themselves are 2 Weight Watchers points even with the added oil and fruit is minimal points impact. So this could be one of those things that you incorporate on a regular basis.

I'll keep an eye out for things like this, and if you see something, let me know in the comments section or email me if you are getting the Tip Of The Day newsletter

How To Get Started Or Restarted On A Diet

We continually are looking for ideas that work and also are looking to communicate those ideas. This post features an experiment with the You Tube video format. This clip was shot for the Tip Of The Day free coaching series. I'd love to know what you think of the clip, the format, because we want to present these in the way that you like. 

Do you like the informality- do you want it more formal? Does it resonate? Is it too long or too short? What other clips would you like to see. Feel free to email me if you get the Tip Of The Day Newsletter, or you can comment on the You Tube clip itself or on this blog post. As you know, we tend to respond to most of our email quickly. The feedback and interaction helps us all.

The idea or "Tip Of The Day" is that whether you are getting started or restarted on your diet, you might want to think about finding the one thing that is getting you off track, and just focus on that one thing. There are two other key ideas presented, that we think will really help you start your diet or get back on track:

Cabbage Is Cheap And Really Really Good For You

I was reading an article on food allergies in the New York Times just now and came across a great article on Cabbage that serves as nice summary of why it is good for you. They are doing an excellent job covering nutrition overall btw.

"The family of vegetables that cabbage belongs to is called the Cruciferae family or the Brassica family and related vegetables include kale, broccoli, collards and Brussels sprouts. Johnny Bowden, a nutritionist, calls cabbage “the most important [vegetable] in the world from the point of view of nutritional benefits and cancer-fighting ability.” 

Cabbage possesses phytochemicals including sulforaphane, which studies suggest protects the body against cancer-causing free radicals, and indoles, which help metabolize estrogens. It’s also an excellent source of vitamins K and C, and a very good source of dietary fiber, vitamin B6, folate, manganese and Omega 3 fatty acids.  "

Basically every vegetable you read about has different health promoting properties, different weight loss promoting properties. This is why we place such a heavy focus on vegetables and fruit in our PEERtrainer Tip Of The Day series. 

So, next time you are out at the grocery store just throw a cabbage in there, take it home and take the knife to it!