02 Feb Five winter weight watching tips for cooks

Continuing with our winter weight watch tips this week, here are some tips to apply in your kitchen.
To add some extra pizzazz to your winter menu, you don’t always have to reach for fatty ingredients to gain comfort.
Here are five tips to adjust your winter meal plan:

1. Serve a big glass of water before a meal – This will help you fill up a little before picking up the fork and drinking water is healthy anyway.
2. Spice up your food – Uses spices and-or peppers to give foods such as chili, casserole, sandwiches, or pizza extra appeal in favor of high-fat toppings.
3. Serve healthy soup – Low-sodium soups such as tomato soup or vegetable beef contain lots of vegetables. Eating healthy soup can help fill you up before the main meal, or even make a good small meal.
4. Cook with lean meats – If you do make chili, casserole, etc. make sure to use lean ground beef or sausage. Turkey sausage is an excellent healthy substitute – I really don’t even notice a different in taste.
5. Keep it lean – Try to eat lean proteins such as chicken, fish and egg whites.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com