Tips & Tidbits:

Magazines are great sources for little tips and tidbits and these are brought to you by Shape magazine, from my local library:
1. Woman who regularly eat frozen entrees, lose an average of 30-35% more weight.  Why?  The portions or calories are controlled.  I can believe this statement, but I can't stomach frozen foods.  No matter how easy they are and convenient they might be, if they don't taste good-I don't want to waste my money buying them.  I've tried a few, frozen pizza is good-I don't think you can go wrong with a frozen pizza!
2. If you start your meal with a bowl of soup, you will eat 20% fewer calories.  Why?  Your tummy is already full, so you will eat less.  Why not start your one major meal of the day with either a salad or bowl of soup!  I think it's a great plan of attack. 
3. Don't eat in front of the TV.  I may have shared this one already, but it's worth repeating. 
4. Substitute mushrooms for meat and you will eliminate hundreds of calories.   I love mushrooms, never used to, but I do now.  I add them in my salads, with my stir fries and I'll eat them cold out of the frig, as a snack.  No dressing, just plain white mushrooms.  Portabella's are a different story and I'm still trying to find that perfect recipe for cooking that perfect portabella. 
5. Eat nuts-a handful a day and you will likely eat 200 calories less because nuts fill you up with fiber and the protein keeps you satisfied.  Eating 50 pistaschios is a great mid-day snack.
6. Start your day, everyday, with whole grains to help you burn more fat throughout the day.  (Oatmeal is a good source for whole grains.)
7. Just 40 minutes of vigorous aerobics can make your body burn a higher rate of calories, while it's not working out.  Your body continues to burn calories throughout the day, but eventually it will slow down and not burn as many.  I don't know about you, but I refuse to count calories burned by doing X exercise for X length of time.  Why bother-just do the exercise-unless you are banking calories for a binge later, why frustrate yourself!
8. Drink green tea to boost your metabolism by about 4% compared to caffeine drinks.  I'm not a tea drinker, never have been, never will be, but thought I would include this tidbit for those of you who are.
9. Yogurt will help you lose 22% more weight and 61% more body fat.  OK-with statistics like that, I better get use to eating these.  I'm so glad they have improved the variety of choices because this is one food product I really do not like!  I think I'd be willing to try that new Greek Yogurt that everybody is talking about, it's suppose to have honey in it!  I like honey!
10. Olive Oil helps burn more fat.  Probably why the Mediterranean Diet was so popular.

Here's a little math for you: You can burn 25-30 calories just by digesting 100 calories of protein, versus only burning 7 calories while digesting 100 calories of simple carbs.  Who thinks of these things and why do we want to know this?  So, OK, I'm eating more protein!