All too often our daily food choices are based upon foods we are used to eating, those that are simple to prepare, or fast foods that are easy to grab.  Unaware of the effects of our food choices on our health and wellbeing, we often experience weight gain, mood swings, decreased energy and attention levels, and cravings for nutrition deficient food. We unconsciously create food sensitivities, accelerate the aging process and repeatedly make choices that contribute to several unhealthy and life weakening conditions that can sabotage our best efforts to eat a healthy diet.

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If your goal is simply to eat more healthfully, or if you are just learning how to cook, cooking classes can be very informative and fun. You’ll learn new and exciting kitchen friendly recipes and culinary techniques, how to have more energy, think more clearly, look and feel better, eliminate cravings and maintain or lose weight—often a by-product of a healthier diet.

Check your local grocer for cooking classes or search the Internet for classes in your area. Your local college may even offer these. The great thing about taking a cooking class is that you always learn something new. From discovering new twists to an old dish or getting informed about new appliances or gadgets, cooking classes can resurrect excitement for cooking like nothing else.

A healthy cooking class is an ideal chance to learn how to utilize key ingredients and make fast, simple and delicious meals with optimum health benefits. Learning a healthier way of cooking can be enjoyable, affordable, quick and easy so as to fit into your active lifestyle.

You’ll learn simple tricks to cut the fat in your meal preparation without sacrificing flavor. Learn how easy it is to follow step-by-step healthy cooking techniques that you can use at home. Bring a friend or simply enjoy the company of like-minded individuals in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. There is a lot of fun to be had at a healthy cooking class.

Cooking the same old meals week after week can make you want to throw a spatula into the air and scream like a crazed chef, that’s why you need to get out of your kitchen and step into someone else’s. And what better kitchen to step into than a commercial kitchen that will teach you some cooking tips and tricks.

The price for classes varies, but most are not too expensive. You’ll probably have to buy the food or pay a fee that covers the food. Usually cooking classes last for 4 to 6 weeks. During those weeks, you’ll normally cook something at each session. Not only will you learn how to cook new dishes, you’ll find out about foods that you might not be familiar with. It’s a great way to pamper your self and learn something new.

Interesting facts about how to select certain fruits and veggies, the best time to purchase fresh meat, and hints on making your dish taste better are all things you will learn at a cooking class. Sharing time with like-minded individuals is also a great advantage. Ask a friend to join you or bring along your spouse.

Men enjoy cooking too, and if healthy eating has been a problem at your home, a couple’s class may be the ideal way to make healthier food choices. Learning tasty ways to prepare these foods might be all the persuasion that’s needed to start eating better foods. Once you join the ranks and learn how to prepare healthy meals, your whole family will benefit.

There are also cooking classes for children. Now more than ever, it’s important to teach your kids how to eat healthy. Nutrition has become a main concern in every home due to the major negative influence of junk foods and fast foods. Children become familiarized with company logos of places that generate unhealthy habits in people and are especially harmful for children, as their development and strength are dramatically diminished by the continuous ingestion of high fats and sugars contained in much of the food.

Tempting toys and packaging go along way in stimulating a child’s emotional button so that they think they want these foods, when in reality their little bodies are starving for healthy and nutritious foods. But sadly, without some intervention by you the parent, the child will grow up adapting to the same bad habits that are generated by these places.

Teaching children how to prepare simple meals that they can put together themselves is an ideal way to get them started eating healthier. Most children are happy to eat what they prepare; so let them make their own sandwich or salad, as long as they are willing to eat it when they are done.

The best way to engage children in important activities and make them care is by allowing them to take active part in the preparation.  Children wish to feel valuable and dependable. When you put them in charge of the salad or the dessert, it gives them something to be proud of. Don’t be surprised if after preparing something for the family, your little one gobbles up most of the dish.

Cooking doesn’t have to be a solo activity, unless you want it to be. Allowing others to take part at least some of the time will bring your family closer together and ensure that everyone is eating healthier.

Every member of your family can benefit from a cooking class, though you may decide that you want to take it alone or with a girlfriend. It’s a great time to socialize with others who enjoy cooking or just looking for some new ideas. If you have a business or service to offer, a cooking class will provide new contacts too. Remember though, the reason you and others are here is because of an interest in cooking, don’t annoy people with your own agenda. Be respectful and enjoy the chance to meet some new people and to learn something new.

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You’ve probably heard before that seafood is good for your sex life. But does that apply to all seafood? I went on a discovery mission to find out the truth. I wanted to know whether it was about what the seafood contained or the way that it looked? You know oysters and other mollusks have a very sexual appearance when you crack them open.
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I searched the Internet and consulted my nutrition books and it looks like most experts agree. The omega-3 fatty acids contained in most seafood has the ability to enhance your mood and sometimes that’s all it takes to make sex better.

You know the biggest sexual organ is our brain. Yep, that’s right and everyone; men and women have this big ol sex organ called the brain. If the brain ain’t ready for sex, nobody is going to be happy in the end. And the funny thing is, people have known this fact for centuries.

As a matter of fact the word horny most likely came from eating rhinoceros horn, which many claimed would help elevate the sexual sensation and make you “horny.”

Seems people have been searching for aphrodisiacs for a long time. Eating seafood has always been believed to get you in the mood. Plus, the delicacy of seafood, along with the higher price, makes eating seafood a luxury rather than everyday eating. This might be another reason that it may have gotten some of its acclaimed fame.

Throughout history, people all around the globe have tried certain foods, beverages, drugs, and even medicines in the hopes of being bestowed with some magical aphrodisiac powers. The fact that some foods look similar to men’s and women’s genitals, or are even derived from animal sex organs, was no accident. Named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, aphrodisiacs are substances that are said to elicit sexual desire and arousal, enhance sex drive and sexual “performance,” and extend sexual energy.

However, there is proof even today, that there is a connection between eating seafood and having good sex. After being treated to a nice dinner, couples find themselves happier and sometimes a bit more affectionate. We set aside some of the stress of the week and focus on the good tasting food and the company of our companion. This leads to a much more agreeable sexual encounter.

Another reason that seafood might have gained such fame; is the fact that it is lighter on the stomach than other meats. It’s easy to digest and doesn’t lay in the stomach the way red meat tends to do. It’s hard to feel sexy or even want to get into rocking and rolling if your belly is full of food. It just kind of interferes with any lovemaking you have in mind.

Eating foods that are good for you combined with regular exercise can also go a long way to enhance your sex life. The better your health, the more energetic you will be in the bed. Plus, with exercise, you increase your flexibility and stamina so you can perform better in the bedroom and enhance the sensual feelings of desire.

And don’t think your partner won’t notice the changes that exercise provides for your sex life. He’ll become your own private cheerleader as you work toward your fitness goals. So don’t be surprised if he wants to have seafood more often. He’ll associate that wonderful liaison with the scrumptious taste of succulent seafood.

Reducing the size of your belly also helps to make sex more enjoyable. You feel more like making love when you don’t have a big gut to deal with. However, for men, an oversized stomach can cause sexual problems. The more fat cells that a man has on his body, the more estrogen is released in his body with a decrease in testosterone.

For overall health, sex is very important. For men, a dip in sexual desire or performance can indicate other underlying health problems. Sex is an important part of our lives, so our sexual organs need to be in optimum condition. We need to give careful consideration to any changes in our body and consult a physician for regular check ups in addition to seeing them when you are ill.

If you see a doctor regularly, they have a much better chance of catching illnesses or conditions before they become worse. Things like your blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol levels need to be checked at least once a year, if not more often.

If you are on blood pressure medication, you need to have it checked weekly until it is under control and then at least keep it checked monthly. Many stores have free blood pressure checks and although those are not as accurate as your doctor’s device, it can signal an alert and let you know if you need to see a physician sooner than later.

As far as blood pressure goes, you might find it advantageous to purchase a monitoring system of your own. That way you can monitor whether certain foods, with say high levels of sodium are causing any fluctuations in your pressure. This information is very valuable to your overall health picture.

That’s where seafood comes back to the forefront. Not only are those omega 3 fatty acids useful for elevating your mood to improve your sex life; they are excellent for protecting your heart from disease or stroke.

You see, our own bodies cannot produce these essential fatty acids; however we need them in our diet. That’s why there is so much attention given to foods containing omega 3’s. So whether you go out to a nice restaurant or visit your local fishmonger, add seafood to your diet for many health benefits that will keep you living happier and longer.

Remember the better your sex life, the longer you will live. It really is a source of life.

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One of the key factors in using the five meal a day program instead of the traditional three meals per day, is portion control. If you switch to eating five meals a day, then obviously you realize that you cannot eat the same amount of food at each meal. Therefore portion control is the key to weight control.
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While I truly believe in the five meal a day program, I can’t emphasize enough the need to cut back on portions in order to lose weight. For instance, for lunch you could have half of a sandwich with a salad, then for snack, eat the other half of the sandwich, this way of eating should keep you from getting hungry in between meals.

If you practice eating only until you are satisfied, and not continue eating until you are full, you can control your eating habits too. Once you allow yourself to eat past that full feeling, you become distended, and are usually forced to lie around sluggishly until your food begins to digest. This is a terrible way to end your meal, even on a holiday.

Do you sometimes eat as if you have been stranded in the dessert starving for food? If you switch over to the five meal a day plan, you can always rest assured that your next meal is only a couple of hours away. That’s one of the many benefits of eating five meals a day. You don’t have to eat as if this is your last bite.

Eating reasonable servings doesn’t have to be difficult. Just measure smaller amounts to dish out on your plate. Remember, if you are still hungry and don’t feel as if you have eaten enough for one meal, you can always go back for seconds. However, if you begin with a large serving, chances are you’ll end up eating whatever is on your plate.

If you do still want more food after eating what’s on your plate, try waiting for a few minutes before returning for seconds. Give your brain and stomach a chance to connect to determine whether or not you really are hungry. Many times the brain is still sending out hungry messages, when the stomach has indeed satisfied its hunger.

This little bit of waiting time can save you many calories throughout the day. Small changes such as these go a long way to helping you lose weight and keep it off. And that’s the important thing with any weight loss program. It’s not too lose weight fast, but to lose weight permanently.

Sure you might gain and lose a couple of pounds here and there, but as long as you eat healthy without overeating, you should be able to lose weight and maintain that way of eating.

Be sure to eat protein at every meal. You can get protein from some fruits, vegetables, and beans too, as well as from meat. Fruits like avocado and banana are good sources of plant protein and should be eaten regularly.

Don’t be afraid of these fruits just because you have heard they are fattening. While they may be higher in calories than other fruits, they supply a bevy of nutritional benefits that should not be ignored.

The foods you should be careful of are those that are processed. You need to examine the food label on all of the foods that you eat from a box or package. Many of these foods are loaded with added sugars, fats and preservatives that are just not good for your body. And when you are trying to lose weight by cutting calories, you need to be aware of these foods.

With fruits and veggies, portion control and any added sauces are the only things you have to weigh in when you are determining the nutritional value of these foods. However, with processed foods, the calculation becomes more difficult. Sure the package states the calories, but what about all that other information on that label?

Saturated fats and cholesterol are two factors that you will want to be aware of on any food label. Also, pay special attention to the sugar content of the food that you are eating. For instance, sugary breakfast cereal is so full of sugar and fat, that it is more like having junk food than giving your body a nutritious start to the day.

I believe it is possible to effectively lose weight and keep it off without the annoyance of counting every calorie. This doesn’t however mean that I just go off “willy nilly” unaware of the high calorie content of some foods.

The problem with strict calorie counting is that it is impossible to do with any accuracy and I think common sense is a better measure for everyday eating. For instance, if you do believe in counting calories, do you count every single calorie that you consume? While you need to write down everything you eat in your fitness journal, trying to calculate the calories in your food may prove difficult.

That’s why using your fitness journal to help you control your diet works so well. Making meal plans well in advance, purchasing the healthy foods and leaving the foods behind whose nutritional value is just not up to par.

That’s the attitude you want to take with these packaged foods. While some of them are fine nutritionally, you have the wonderful advantage of reading package labels to determine if this food cuts the muster for your diet plan. If it doesn’t keep rolling your grocery cart right on past. If that food doesn’t make its way into your pantry, chances are you won’t be eating it.

But after a nice meal out, you might decide to indulge in a wonderful dessert. By watching what you eat and practicing portion control on a regular basis, you’ll be able to enjoy that dessert with ease. And that’s the way eating should be. You should not have guilty feelings mixed in with your meals.

Food, food fabulous food. Keep your portions controlled and you’ll be able to control your weight for the rest of your life.

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Jeannie had been overweight for most of her life. Even as a teenager, she struggled with her weight. Her girlfriends were tiny compared to her extra large size. She hated going shopping with them, because she could not wear the same styles as the rest of the girls.

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This was painful for Jeannie. She wasn’t very tall, but she had an appetite like a giant. Or at least it seemed that way. No matter how many times she tried to diet, she never felt satisfied with low calories foods.

Now as an adult, Jeannie was finding that losing weight was near to impossible. She would try one day to cut back but found herself feeling deprived and then the following day, would want to eat everything in sight. Instead of losing weight, she found each year of her adult life that she was gradually gaining weight a little each year.

Jeannie worked a job that required her to sit behind a computer for most of the day. She occasionally had meetings to attend, but most of the day was spent sedentary with her mind doing all the work and her body sitting suspended in her chair.

At lunchtime, Jeannie and her buddy, a coworker who also struggled with her weight, would head off for a bite to eat. This is where the trouble really lay. A couple of times a week, they ate at fast food restaurants because these places were generally cheaper. However cheap food does not mean nutritious.

Other days, they would splurge and go to a better restaurant. The problem there was that because the food was more expensive, the servings were oversized too. Once paid for, neither ladies wanted to leave any food on the plate, it was too expensive. So they would shovel the food in until they were beyond full.

Returning to work, she would find herself so sleepy, with her stomach distended and no way to walk it off. She needed to make some changes but nothing seemed to work. It wasn’t until her buddy began to change her eating habits that Jeannie could see the light at the end of the diet tunnel.

One Monday morning, her friend came into the office and told Jeannie about a new diet she was starting. No more fast food, her friend had brought in a nice salad for the two of them. After they ate their salad, they did some nice stretches behind their office building and vowed the next day to bring appropriate clothes and shoes for walking.

And that’s how it started for Jeannie, a couple of little changes and she broke that chains that bound her to an unhealthy lifestyle. It didn’t mean that she had to give up anything, especially her lunches with her buddy. They still laughed and talked just as much as they did before their diet endeavor, but now they both felt happier and confident that they were on the right track.

After a couple of months, others in the office began to notice the changes in both girls. Coworkers were asking what the secret pill was that these girls had gotten a hold of. Both ladies felt great about their accomplishment.

As the seasons changed and the girls were still committed to their program, they added a shopping trip to their lunchtime schedule each week. They might not purchase anything but it was nice to try on smaller clothes and go for styles that in the past had just not worked for their figures.

But it wasn’t just the aesthetics of weight loss that Jeannie was after. Prior to joining her friend on this diet trend, she had been warned by her doctor of her rising blood pressure and the danger of carrying around excess weight. These warnings just added more stress to Jeannie’s already stressful life. She knew she needed to lose weight, she didn’t enjoy being overweight, it just seemed so difficult before.

Now, with her lunch buddy turned fitness buddy, she had a planned activity and meal plan every day. When she returned from lunch, she didn’t feel all sluggish and sleepy and could actually remain awake and productive during afternoon meetings.

Everything seemed to be going well, until her friend turned in her notice at work. She had just found out that they were going to be transferred to a new town, so she was going to go ahead and quit. Jeannie was heartbroken that her friend was leaving, but deep down she was frightened. She felt afraid that without the encouragement and reinforcement that her friend provided that she would fall back into the same old eating patterns.

It was going to require a whole lot of willpower to keep her from falling back into the same old bad habits. But she was set on keeping to her diet plans and goals. She had also started investing money in new clothes to fit her newly slim figure, so she certainly didn’t want to gain all that weight back again and not be able to wear those outfits.

“Been there, done that,” she said to herself. I refuse to have beautiful clothes in my closet that I cannot wear because I made bad choices. I can control my weight and I cannot depend on others to keep me on task.

What Jeannie needed was a new plan. Her old plan, wasn’t going to work as well, not that her fitness buddy was moving away. She had to come up with some new things to do, to keep her from falling back into old habits of grabbing any old thing to eat, skipping meals, binging and all of those unhealthy ways of eating.

These sort of challenges have to be met head on. Without a plan of how you will continue to eat foods that provide nutrition without added fats and sugar, you might be tempted to fall into old ways. That’s because most of the easy accessible foods out there are high in fats and sugar with low nutritional value.

However, bringing in her lunch and eating alone, wasn’t something she was looking forward to either. Eating alone everyday made it hard to feel satisfied, the conversation was as important as the food she was eating.

Jeannie made some proactive choices. She asked another coworker if she would like to join her every Wednesday for a healthy lunch. She made plans to go to the gym twice a week, trading some lunch hour time for the benefit of gym time. The other two days she took a shorter lunch break, bringing in healthy foods from home, like salads and small portions of leftovers.

If life is getting in the way of your fitness plan, you might have to amend your plans for success. The important thing is that you make weight loss and fitness a priority in your life and this will help to keep you on track.

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One in four Americans comes down with some kind of illness that is related to contaminated food each year. Are you doing everything you can to keep your family safe from toxic food? Learn the rules of safe food preparation, cooking, clean up and storage.

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Cross contamination is one of the major factors in food-borne illnesses. You might be surprised how easily bacteria can spread in a kitchen. Everything from your cutlery to your cutting boards to your countertops can be a secret haven for serious bacterial contamination.

When you handle raw meat, chicken or uncooked seafood, you open the door to bacteria. In order to keep your kitchen at its safest, you want to use separate sides of your cutting board for meats and vegetables. Some boards make it easy for you by adding a green dot on one side and a red dot on the other. The green is for veggies, the red for raw meat.

Once you use the cutting board for raw meat, you’ll want to scrub it clean and carefully dry it completely before using it again. If you need to cut vegetables next, clean the board, then turn it over to the opposite side. That way you will be certain not to cross contaminate the veggies with the bacteria from the meat.

You see, contaminants such as e Coli come from the feces of humans and warm-blooded animals. That’s why hand washing is so important when you are talking about food safety. That means cleaning under your fingernails too. Dirt and bacteria, especially if you have been cutting meat, can hide under your beautifully painted nails, be sure to use a hand scrub brush to clean under these delicate hiding places.

The cutlery that you use for peeling, chopping, slicing and dicing needs to be cleaned and sanitized too. Be sure that you clean the entire knife in warm soapy water. Fine cutlery shouldn’t be cleaned in the dishwasher in order to preserve them, so it is suggested that you hand wash these carefully.

Finally you will need to clean and sanitize the countertops or anywhere in the kitchen that has come in contact with the raw meat. Remember, e Coli and other bacterias exist naturally in meat since it comes from animals, that’s why keeping it separate from your produce is so important, especially produce such as salads that you eat uncooked.

Be sure to wash your produce carefully to remove bacteria from others handling your fruits and veggies. Don’t allow them to air dry either, always use a clean paper towel and carefully wipe them off after washing.

Another factor in keeping your kitchen safe is to carefully monitor the temperature of foods and the surrounding ambient temps. Bacteria grows at an accelerated rate at temperatures above 42 degrees to 180 degrees. This is called the critical time when food can become contaminated and if stored in the refrigerator too soon or too late, can make a person sick who tries to eat the food.

In restaurants after service is over, the cooked foods all have to be stored or discarded. In order to bring the temperature of the food to a safe storing temp, the restaurant uses a cold paddle to lower the temp of the food. That’s because if you wait for the food to cool by itself it will enter the critical time warp and become contaminated and restaurants can risk that for the health of their customers and their business.

You can adapt this same practice in your home. Simply fill a water bottle up with water and put it in the freezer. When you have soup or stew and everyone has been served, allow the food to cool for about 15 to 20 minutes. Then place the frozen plastic bottle in your food and it will help to lower the temp. Make stirring motions with the bottle to effectively cool the entire pot of food.

Some people think that with an air-conditioned house, you don’t have to worry about the food being left out. Some might say they have been leaving food out without any problem with illnesses in their family.

While this may be true, someone with a weakened immune system might get contaminated very easily. If you or other members of your family have problems with intestinal problems it very well may be the result of contaminated food.

When dining out and taking home a doggie bag, it’s important that you go straight home. Holding onto food and then leaving it in your car for a couple of hours is just not safe. If your planning to go to the movie after dinner leave the food behind, don’t take any with you, you’ll only have to toss it out later.

That’s the important thing, just because the food looks okay from the outside, doesn’t mean that it’s safe to eat. If after leaving it out, you place it in the fridge, you won’t be able to use your nose to determine if the food has gone bad. Refrigeration merely puts bacteria to sleep for a while, but it’s still present in your food. If it got in there before the food went into the fridge, then it remains alive in the food.

When eating out at buffets, you’ll want to be careful too. Not everyone has the best hand washing practices, so anything like buffet spoons or other objects that are shared, could possibly be contaminated. It’s also smart to pay attention to things like the temperature of the food in a buffet. The temperature for holding food should be around 215 degrees for best condition.

Back in your kitchen, foods stored in the refrigerator should be covered completely. Keep deli meats and raw meats separately as well as vegetables and fruits. Most fruits should be kept out of the refrigerator for the best taste.

Launder all dish rags, towels and potholders used in the kitchen regularly to keep down on cross contamination too. You might be surprised at the number of bacteria that can live on a wet dish rag. All in all, don’t let your kitchen practices make your family sick. Use this information to create a safe and healthy place to prepare your family’s meals.

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