Healthy News

Cereal diets are popular for people trying to lose weight quickly. Most people do them for 2 weeks and eat cereal 2 times a day and a healthy meal for the third daily meal with healthy snacks in between.

It’s not a good idea to do this diet long term although the typical range is about two weeks for an average weight loss of about 5-6 pounds.

Here is what a typical menu might look like for a day during a cereal diet

-special K cereal with fruit for breakfast
-extra piece of fruit for mid-morning snack
-raisin bran with fruit for lunch
-vegetable sticks and cereal bar for a mid afternoon snack
-sensible dinner such as grilled lean meat and vegetables plus a small amount of a starchy item such as potato or pasta
-late evening snack: fruit and cereal bar

Be careful to never follow any fad diet for too long and listen to your body’s cues about whether or not you’re tolerating the diet well. If in doubt about your health, have your doctor give you the green light before you start a fad diet.

If you’ve got kids that complain about healthy snacks, it’s time to make healthy snacks more appealing! Here’s a few tips

-Decorate muffins with healthy food such as cream cheese frosting, raisins and peanuts (a great alternative to cupcakes with candy decorations!)

-Make ants on a log with celery, Cheez Whiz and raisins. You can also do this with peanut butter instead

-Make healthy bagel or english muffin pizzas by using chopped vegetables as toppings. You can do the same with fruit for a dessert pizza!

-Make trail mix with healthy stuff but insert just a few treats so the child doesn’t feel completely deprived of junk. Just a few Smarties in with a healthy trail mix or candied peanuts when most of the mix is raisins, nuts, dried fruit, etc can work really well.

A little imagination can help your child eat healthier without their feeling like they’re being deprived of the yummy stuff.

If you’ve come up with great healthy snacks for your kids, feel free to share!