The main reason that frozen dinners aren’t really appropriate for use as a lean and green meal is because of the way most frozen dinners are processed, they have too much sodium. Often, they don’t have enough protein either. But sodium aside, I thin even if you were to look long and hard at every frozen meal at your grocery store, you would have a hard time finding something suitable to match the ingredients of your lean and green.

Remember, your lean and green meal is pretty simple. It’s 5 to 7 ounces of lean protein, two cups of salad and 1/2 cup to 1 1/2 cups of raw or cooked vegetables. You can check the list of allowed foods on Medifast to get a better idea, but basically most frozen meals have all kinds of additional ingredients that you shouldn’t be eating (mostly fat) and not enough of what you need (protein and healthy carbs).

You’ll actually find that it would be pretty difficult to find a frozen dinner that contained as much protein as you need to eat. Medifast’s suggested serving is quite generous. You would probably need two frozen dinners to even get close to the right quantity of lean protein.

Now this isn’t to say that you can’t use frozen foods in your lean & green meals. You definitely can! Just avoid the the stuff that is packaged as “dinners” or “meals” and stick to frozen foods that are just packaged single ingredients.

There’s nothing wrong with most frozen meats or frozen vegetables. Just keep an eye on the sodium content and beware of any extra fats. So a bag of frozen broccoli or a block of frozen spinach is fine, but you wouldn’t want to get get frozen broccoli & cheese or frozen creamed spinach.

Plain frozen meats, fish or seafood is fine as well. So try some frozen plain salmon, or fish filets that are already grilled and just need to be reheated. How about some frozen shrimp? Frozen turkey burgers are great too. I’ve even seen frozen buffalo burgers at supermarkets like Whole Foods so you might want to give those a try as buffalo is on the Medifast lean meats list too.

For meatless options, Boca burgers are in the freezer aisle and they have lots of varieties and they are also on the approved Medifast list. There’s also Morningstar Farms products or GardenBurger patties. Any of their options are acceptable if the carb serving is under 6 grams. Even if you aren’t vegetarian, you should try some of these options. They are all quite tasty and quick to heat and serve.

Add some bagged salad greens to your shopping cart and you should easily be able to come up with Medifast lean & green meals that are far tastier than the packaged frozen dinners, but just as fast to heat and serve.

If you haven’t signed up for Medifast yet, be sure to check out the Medifast specials for this month.

Disclosure: DietInspector.com is a paid affiliate of Medifast, Inc.

1. Stop smoking or never start
2. Use sunscreen
3. Maintain a healthy weight
4. Develop a good exercise program

Many of us lose strength and bone density as we get older, but by adding some form of resistance training to your workouts you can ameliorate some of the physical effects of aging. Resistance workouts include working with weights, rubber bands, kettle bells, and any other forms of exercise that include some sort of resistance component. What’s great about resistance workouts is that they are also terrific for strength training.

In addition to increasing our bone density and strength, this type of workout is also quite beneficial to the heart. Resistance training can also help improve balance and coordination, depending on the type of workout. Using resistance bands is a great way to work on balance and coordination.

If you avoid exercise completely your body is going to be aging more quickly than you would care for. In addition to losing muscle tone you’ll also lose bone density and your skeletal posture may also be impacted. There are other health problems that also come with aging, such as back pain and arthritis.

It is never too late to start a new exercise program, so if you’ve been a bit lazy about doing this in the past it is time to make a new start. The many benefits of resistance training include increased strength, toned muscles, the higher metabolic rate, skin tightening in some help with preventing diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis. So if you want to slow down the aging process that is time to pick up a couple of dumb bells and get started.

Food selection is very important when losing weight.  There are certain foods that your body needs to stay healthy and there are certain foods that you just need to leave out of your diet completely because they are unhealthy and will cause weight gain.

Whole grains are great for your body because they contain very important ingredients for your body such as vitamin B, fiber, potassium, iron, selenium, vitamin E and calcium.  So you need to select foods like whole wheat breads, oats, grains, brown rice’s and whole wheat noodles.

Fruits and vegetables contain items that will help keep us healthy such as vitamin C, folic acid, fiber, magnesium and potassium. When selecting fruits and vegetable it is very important to stay away from canned goods.  Although these types of foods are easy, they are loaded with sodium and loose much of their nutritional values when going through the canning process.   Choosing fresh or frozen is the best for your weight loss ventures and over all health.

Milk are dairy products are very important for your health but many of them can be very fattening.  These products contain ingredients such as calcium, protein, vitamin B2, B12, zinc, and vitamins A and D. When you are choosing your milk and dairy products, make sure and choose the low fat and reduced fat items.

Meats and proteins contain items such as protein, vitamin B, zinc, magnesium, iron and potassium that are all very important for you to have for a healthy body.  Fish and chicken are the best meats to choose when losing weight.  Beef and pork or not horrible for you though.  Just make sure and pick very lean cuts of the meat.  If you are a beacon lover, you will want to choose something like Canadian bacon or turkey bacon instead.

There are some fats and minerals that our bodies need when it comes to the fatty part of the food pyramid.  Choosing the proper items when losing weight is extremely important in this area.  Virgin olive oil is the best choice for cooking oils. You can also choose canola oil, sunflower soy oil and grape seed.  Look for butters, spreads and dressings that are lower in fat or “light”.

After choosing the foods that are best for you while losing weight you then need to learn to prepare those foods the proper way.  Fruits and vegetables are best when they are raw or steamed.  You can boil them as well but they will lose some of their nutrients this way.  Baking your meats and items such as potatoes is the best choice and the healthiest for your body.  You can also choose to broil them instead as this is almost the same as baking.  Grilling outdoors is also a great choice in preparing your food and it also adds great flavor to your food that you just can not get any other way.  Microwaving foods is also great for losing weight.  Deep frying is one that you absolutely need to stay away from completely.  This way of cooking is horrible for weight loss and you’re over all health.

When cooking for weight loss, there are a lot of great options for substitutions for many items. All purpose flour can be substituted with whole wheat flour.  Usually when using whole wheat flower you will want to use half of what is called for because it is much denser than regular flour.  For butter or margarine you should find a “light” spread.  Also you can use cooking spray instead of butter or margarine in many cases.  There are some great cooking sprays on the market that actually contain the healthier oils and olive oil.

Table salt can cause you to retain fluids so you should use other spices, herbs or salt free seasonings instead.   If you must have salt, get the sea salt as it is much better for you.  There is always controversy over eggs because of the yolks. Are they good for you or not?  So when you want eggs, just use the egg whites instead of the whole egg.   You can use corn flakes or rolled oats instead of dried bread crumbs in recipes that call for it.  Splenda is top choice to substitute sugar.  You can bake with it and use it the same as you would sugar.

Cooking for weight loss really is not that difficult.  There are so many choices in food items and the way you prepare them that has made the task of eating to lose weight easier than ever before.  Eat healthy, eat well and take off the pounds.

Most people are already familiar with Dr. Phil style.  He’s very straightforward about getting to the heart of the manner.  In fact some would say he is rather abrupt, including me, and I’m not that crazy about his methods.  However, if you appreciate his style you may also appreciate his weight loss advice.
good a high
Dr. Phil’s methodology involves helping people get to the root of what makes them act out in the ways that they do.  Basically he is looking for a trigger and once you find the trigger then you have a better understanding of how to deal with that and how to find solutions that stop problems for good.  When it comes to weight loss, that trigger that Dr. Phil is looking for is the one that causes you to eat more.  So his book’s goal is to help you find those food triggers and learn how to control them.

The weight loss diet itself is nothing special.  In fact it is pretty generic.  Most of us already know what types of things we need to eat in order to lose weight.  You know that you need a balanced diet with the right proportions of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats.  But most people are probably not picking up Dr. Phils book for his advice about what food to eat.  His approach is more about your mental state and understanding that.  So if you are looking for guidelines about what exactly to eat then this is probably not the book for you.  If he has specific food triggers that you’d like to work on then he may be able to help you.  

Push-Ups
The good old fashion push-ups are great for working this area of the arm. To do a proper push up you should keep your back straight and go all the way up and down to the point that your nose almost touches the floor keeping your back straight the entire time. If you are not able to do a good push up while being on your toes, then you can bend you legs and do them from your knee.

Bench Dips
Bench dips are an excellent exercise for toning that underarm flab too. To do a proper bench dip you will want to find a study chair or bench to sit on. You will put your hand by your bottom with your palms down on the seat. You then need to walk yourself out with your feet to the point that your bottom is off of the seat. Once your bottom is off the seat you will then use your arms to lower yourself until your elbows are at a 90 degree angle and your upper arms are parallel to the floor. Then you will lift yourself back up and then go back down and keep repeating. Do this for 10 to 20 times.

Chest Flies
The chest fly is a great exercise as well. The best way to do this is to use a stability ball and dumb bells. Your dumb bells should not be very heavy, just 3 to 5 pounds should be fine for tightening and toning up. You can also use a large can of soup in each hand for weights. If you do not have a stability ball you can lay on the bed of something as well. You just will not be able to go back with your arms as far. To do a proper chest fly you will want to have your upper shoulder part of the body and head on the ball and weights in hand. Start with both hands in the air with weights touching each other. Lower them both at the same time slowly and go down as far as you can. Then raise them back up. Repeat this process for 10 to 20 times.

The more often you do these, the sooner you will see the results. Just remember that you might feel some soreness from doing these exercises but do not let that keep you from exercising. The soreness will get less and less as you go on.