10 Healthy Snacks For Weight Loss and Wellness

Paleo Diet:

Contrary to popular belief, snacking is actually very beneficial. It helps to refuel your body, maintain blood sugar and energy levels and control your appetite.

10 Healthy Snacks For Weight Loss and Wellness

Healthy snacking will help your body get the nutrients it needs and help you avoid overeating at meal times.

Indulge in these guilt-free snacks. Remember we encourage an anti-inflammatory, low-glycemic, paleo-style diet for weight loss and wellness. A body must get healthy before it can lose weight.

1. Fruit and Yogurt Parfait.Organic plain yogurt is best. Yogurts with added flavors are higher in sugar. Instead, flavor your yogurt with fruit. Blueberries are an excellent choice as they have a lower glycemic content that will help balance blood glucose and insulin levels.

2. Romaine Lettuce Wrap With Organic Turkey and a Slice of Raw-Milk or Skim Mozzarella Cheese.

Romaine lettuce contains the highest nutritional and fiber content of all lettuce. Turkey is 94% protein which helps you to lose weight by boosting your metabolism and decreasing hunger. Adding raw milk grass-fed cheese not only adds flavor but also adds calcium without any harmful hormones or preservatives. A great source for grass-fed wild meat, game and poultry is at U.S. Wellness Meats.

3. Veggie Sticks With Cottage Cheese Dip. Non-starchy vegetables contain almost eight times the amount of fiber found in whole grains. Fiber is essential for a healthy digestive system. Fat-free organic cottage cheese makes an excellent low calorie snack.

4. Shrimp Cocktail Shrimp is 90% protein. Try dipping it in some cocktail sauce for a low calorie, high protein snack.

5. A Handful of Nuts. Walnuts are the best choice as they're rich in protein and fiber but they also contain a high dose of omega 3 fatty acids (good fats) as compared to other nuts. Healthy fats help lower your risk of disease. Omega-3s are anti-inflammatory, meaning they help prevent inflammatory diseases such as stroke or heart disease. People who are overweight are actually suffering from an inflammatory condition.

6. Celery Sticks and Almond Butter. This is a great combination of protein, monounsaturated fat and energy. Almond butter is a healthier alternative to peanut butter as it contains no added ingredients or preservatives and better fats. (peanuts are a legume not a nut)

7. Deviled Eggs. Eggs are very high in protein which makes them a great snack. My Guacamole Deviled Eggs are a great high-protein healthy snack with good fats.

8. Herring Wraps. Buy a few tinned containers in a few different flavored sauces such as tomato or tangy mustard, herring fillets are high in omega 3 fish oils. Don't but if they are in soybean oil. Try wrapping them in a few leaves of romaine lettuce.

9. Banana Nut Pop. Dip a banana in plain organic yogurt and roll in walnuts or coconut. Freeze. Yummy!

Bananas are a great source of fiber and potassium. They do have a high sugar content so eat in moderation. Coconuts have anti-microbial, anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties and are one of the best sources in the world for MCFA (medium-chain triglyceride fatty acids)

10. Lemon Tuna Avocado Snack. Halve an avocado and scoop out the flesh. Mix with lemon juice and tuna. Serve in the shells. Good protein, good fat.

Avocado's are high in monounsaturated fat and potassium. Tuna is a great source of protein, omega-3 fatty acid and is very nutrient-dense. Protein builds muscle which in turn burns more calories to help you lose weight.

And here's your BONUS snack idea....

***Smoked salmon.

Don't get salmon that's been smothered in brown sugar. Salmon is one of the best sources of protein and healthy fats on earth. Always try to buy wild-caught and not farmed raised (fed grains).

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Wellness Coaching - Benefits of a Gluten-Free Diet

Paleo Diet:

The Serbian tennis player, Novak Djokovic is on fire. After winning 43 straight matches, including 41 in 2011-- something that hasn't been done since 1984 -- he plowed through the quarter finals then the semi-finals at Wimbledon this year. Even hadn't won Wimbledon, his winning streak would have rewarded him with enough points to put him in the top spot, ranking him as the #1 men's tennis player in the world. But, of course, he did win.

Wellness Coaching - Benefits of a Gluten-Free Diet

So what did Djokovic do to initiate such a dramatic energy boost? A gluten-free diet has been credited for the recent success, according to the Wall Street Journal. As recent as last year, his on-court struggles were evident when closing out matches. His serve became sloppy and his movement lacked the energy to hit closing shots. The shift to a gluten-free, low starch diet has left Djokovic feeling energized throughout his entire matches. As a result, he is not only sharper physically but, more importantly, mentally.

Even if you are not gluten sensitive, when you eliminate starch-based, refined and processed non-foods such as pizza, bread, pretzels, chips, pasta, potatoes, legumes, rice, and other high carb foods, you allow the body to reboot itself metabolically. As a result, it stops drawing it source of fuel from sugar (all starchy carbs are converted to sugar in the bloodstream), and begins to extract its source of fuel from ketones, the energy units found in healthy fats. The body (especially the brain) operates much more efficiently on ketones -- so much so -- that your energy levels tend to skyrocket after you make the dietary shift. It takes time, however, usually about four to six weeks before the carb (sugar) cravings subside, but when it happens, don't be surprised if you'll feel as if you've transformed into a superhero.

If you are gluten sensitive then you'll not only want to eliminate all foods containing gluten (such as all wheat-based products), but it would be wise to eliminate "cross-reactive" foods to gluten as well. Cross-reactivity is the reaction to substances that are either genetically or structurally similar to gluten because your immune system tends to associate them with gluten. Some of the most common cross-reactive substances are: casein (found in milk and cheese), oats, rye, barley, spelt, kamut, yeast products, coffee, and milk chocolate.

Other common food sensitivities can result from foods that people usually substitute for the wheat-based gluten products such as: corn, buckwheat, sesame, quinoa, sorghum, millet, tapioca, amaranth, rice, and potatoes. And of course, they are also starchy foods that turn into glucose after ingestion. Sugar is always sugar no matter what it looks like before you eat it. All starchy foods such as grains and legumes will be metabolized by the body as glucose.

Here's the bottom line. When we return to the diet of our paleo ancestors, the diet that we, as a homo sapiens species followed consistently, day after day, for over 250,000 years, our body's metabolism will become more compatible with our genetic physiology. It's all about the genes folks. The human body is simply not designed for this type of onslaught. No wonder see the epidemic proportions of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. And not surprisingly, the United Health Organization ranks the U.S. a pathetic 39th out of the top 50 healthiest countries on Earth.

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