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Cheesecake Parfait with Blackberry Sauce

Recipe Rehab with Tanya Zuckerbrot, Nutrition & Supplements


parfait

Recipe may vary from photograph
Photo: Getty Images

Who doesn't love dessert? From brownies to cookies and cakes, I could eat them all. I especially love cheesecake, but at more than 500 calories per slice and 36 grams of fat, it's an infrequent indulgence for me. Since I feel that you should enjoy dessert without the guilt, I created a low-fat, low-calorie version of this treat. I call it my Cheesecake Parfait with Blackberry Sauce.

I switched out the full-fat cream cheese for the fat-free version and traded the white sugar for a zero-calorie sweetener -- this reduced the fat and sugar content tremendously. For a kick of fiber, I included raspberries and blackberries, which also contain high levels of vitamin C and potassium. By swapping traditional cheesecake for my low-fat version, you are not only eating a fraction of the calories and fat, you are also getting a full serving of fruit from the berries. Sneaking a serving of fruit into your meal may not seem like a big deal, but most adults and children do not meet their daily recommendation of fruit and vegetables.

Want a better way to help meet your requirements? Try my delicious dish and satisfy your cheesecake craving!

Guilt-Free Fettuccine Alfredo

Recipe Rehab with Tanya Zuckerbrot, Nutrition & Supplements

fettuccine alfredo

Recipe may vary from photograph. Photo: Getty Images


When I go to an Italian restaurant, I often pass on most people's favorite pasta dishes and opt for a piece of fish or grilled chicken and veggies. I know that Fettuccine Alfredo can be up to 800 calories! Although it is delicious, the calories, saturated fat and carbs are through the roof. In addition, there is barely any fiber in the dish. Rather than give into temptation, I make my own low-fat, low-carb Fettuccine Alfredo that is sure to satisfy even the biggest pasta lover.

I replace the pasta with Shirataki noodles, which have only 20 calories per serving (pasta is 120)! Instead of cream, butter and full-fat cheese, I use laughing cow light spreadable cheese, low-fat ricotta and Parmesan to add extra flavor and protein. In order to add fiber to the dish, I throw in some spinach, onion and mushrooms. Spinach is high in calcium, which helps prevent osteoporosis.

Try my delicious, guilt-free Fettuccine Alfredo that is low in calories and fat, but full of flavor.

Dine Out Without Breaking the Diet Bank

Diet & Weight Loss

Celebrity dietitian and motivational life coach Tanya Zuckerbrot, author of www.ffactordiet.com and founder of www.skinnyandthecity.com, has helped thousands of people lose weight and keep it off with her program. Her philosophy? Tanya believes you should never sacrifice taste, even when you're eating healthy foods.

dining out

Photo: Getty Images

Dining out should be a leisurely activity. If you are on a diet, do not stress at the glance of a menu. Follow these simple suggestions, and you can enjoy eating out without sabotaging your diet.

If you eat bread, dessert and have a few glasses of wine during dinner, you could be consuming up to 1,000 extra calories at your meal -- that's not even counting the appetizer and main course! Lets face it, who stops at just one dinner roll? At around 120 calories a pop and another 130 calories for a dip or two of olive oil, the calories add up quickly. In addition, most people have at least two glasses of wine at dinner (approximately 90 calories per glass). If you give in to the temptation of dessert, it could cost you anywhere from 200 to 600 calories. This is a dieter's nightmare!

Because I dine out often, I have learned to choose my poison, so to speak. Rather than go all-out and reach for the bread basket, a glass of wine and dessert, I choose one. I always tell my patients to order a soup (non-cream based) or garden salad with dressing on the side as an appetizer -- this way they won't be tempted by the bread. And, if you choose a decadent dessert, just a few bites should suffice. I call it the three-bite rule; it's all you need to feel satisfied. After all, you shouldn't be eating dessert out of hunger, it's all about the flavor. The first three bites are the most flavorful and will satisfy your sweet tooth. If you choose alcohol, it does not mean you need to binge drink. Have one or two glasses of wine or vodka with club soda, and you will be able to take the edge off with few calories. By following these simple rules, you can cut around 800 calories from your next dinner!

Think calories don't count? Think again, because they do.

Post-Baby Belly Moves

Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Fit or Fiction

Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and co-author of "The Fat-Free Truth." She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider. You can also follow her on Twitter @lizzyfit.

rebecca romijn

Photo: Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

I just had a baby. Is it true I can kiss my flat stomach goodbye forever? – Barbara Carlson, Kingston, N.Y.

If you think your baby bump instantly deflates the moment your bundle of joy pops out, then you need a wake-up call, which is ironic considering how little sleep you'll get after having a baby. You can get your pre-pregnancy belly back, but it takes some hard work, patience and dedication. Even those Hollywood starlets like mom-of-twins Rebecca Romijn, who seem to snap back into shape so quickly, need at least a couple of months to tighten and tone the tummy.

For the best advice on postpartum abs, I turned to Tracey Mallett, author of the new book "Super Fit Mama." She offers these three must-do moves for every new mom, as well as some basic tips on the best ways to work your post-baby middle safely and effectively. Mallet, who has had two children, says these exercises aren't necessarily the belly-crunching gut busters you used to do before you got pregnant, because your aim is to restore any abdominal muscle separation that has occurred during pregnancy and labor, and to re-educate your entire core. (If you want to know more about Mallet's workouts and programs, surf on over to her website.)

Thin Ain't Cheap

Nutrition & Supplements


Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and author of 12 fitness bestsellers. She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider.

For those of us who live in lower Manhattan, Whole Foods is the only game in town. Not that I'm complaining; I'm certainly grateful for the first real supermarket in the neighborhood. After a decade of shopping in cramped, dirty delis where a carton of juice costs double the national average and there aren't any of the good kinds of cereal, Whole Foods is Mecca.

I was pondering these facts as I was grocery shopping the other day. Blueberries were "on sale" for $2.99 a pint. For that same $3, I thought, I could have walked the six steps to the nearest McDonald's (rather than the 10 blocks to Whole Foods) and ordered up a double cheese burger, medium fries and a small Coke. That's three large for two small handfuls of fruit -- or a meal fit for, well, a Burger King.

That's Fit Club: Janeen Glenn

That's Fit Club, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Nutrition & Supplements

That's Fit Club is our feature devoted to you, the reader! We have all learned so much on our paths to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! That's Fit Club members are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect; some are not. But all have health on the mind. Besides showing you off, we want to reward you for all of your hard work! Everlast and Everlast Woman are giving gorgeous workout T-shirts to each featured member! To join, please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Janeen Glenn

Age: 35

Occupation: Retail Management and Mom

How often do you exercise? Five times a week.

What type of exercise do you do? Running and working out with exercise DVDs.

To see how Janeen's fitness level landed her a spot in televsion production read on!

Source

That's Fit Club: Dr. Evelyn R. Wells

That's Fit Club, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Reviews & Products

The That's Fit Club is our feature devoted to you, the reader! We have all learned so much on our paths to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! That's Fit Club members are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect; some are not. But all have health on the mind. Besides showing you off, we want to reward you for all of your hard work! Everlast and Everlast Woman are giving gorgeous workout T-shirts to each featured member! To join, please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Evelyn R. Wells, MD

Age: 37

Occupation: Physician

How often do you exercise? Four to five times per week.

What type of exercise do you do? Everything, including jogging, running, lifting weights, boxing, kickboxing, yoga, etc.

To see Evelyn's "before" photo, as in "before she lost 70 pounds in one year" read on!

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Week in Review: September 8 to September 14

If you missed our daily postings this past week, we invite you to take some time to catch up on our prior week's news and gear up for a new week of healthy living information and inspiration.

It's a new week and a new look for That's Fit! Have you noticed our new feature boxes on the right-hand site of the page? Make sure to click through to read some of your favorite columns -- The Good, the Fat, and the Hungry, Celebrity News, Fit Kicks with Fitz, and of course don't forget to check in with our experts. And if you're striving for a new look of your own, check out this week's posts for the latest in diet and fitness.

Have a great week everyone!

Artificial health

Womens Health, Obesity, Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health

If you recall, not very long ago there was a great deal of fervor over a report linking diet soda to an increased risk of obesity. The story appeared everywhere; on the AOL homepage, in the New York Times, and yes, here on That's Fit. I'll admit, at first I was a bit skeptical; to me it seemed more like an issue of correlation than causality. At the time, there really wasn't any explanation for the statistically significant relationship between diet soda and obesity rates -- all that was known is that there was clearly some sort of link.

Since then, a number of studies have produced information to explain how and why there may be validity to this connection. Most recently, a Purdue University study published in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience revealed that rats that consumed yogurt sweetened with an artificial sweetener gained 20 percent more weight over time than rats fed yogurt sweetened with natural sugar.

Evidently, the artificial sweetener caused the body to falsely believe that it needed to increase metabolism to digest more calories than were actually contained in the yogurt. Then, over time, when the rats were fed sweet food that was also high in calories, they tended to overeat in order to compensate for what their body mistakenly perceived to be an insufficient amount of calories.

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The 5: That's Fit Thanksgiving dinner guests

Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Celebs & Entertainment, Nutrition & Supplements

In less than two weeks, Thanksgiving dinner will be served in millions of households throughout the U.S. As a variety of dinner sides are shared, so too will some interesting bits of conversation. In most cases, they're basically the same conversations you have every year. Sometimes they're funny, sometimes they're dull, but for the most part they're always worth listening to.

But, what if you found yourself at a dinner table filled with a whole new group of people? And, let's pretend for a second that you could choose five people who would be at that table and whose conversations you would like to listen in on. Who would you choose? The one ThatsFit stipulation is that your five people have to be related, in some way, to health and fitness.

Playing along myself, I think these would be the five guests at my ThatsFit Thanksgiving dinner table:

5 - Arnold Schwarzenegger. If we could check all political conversation at the door, I'd be fascinated to hear the Austrian Oak speak candidly about his bodybuilding career. Having Arnold at the table would be akin to having someone read directly from a health and fitness encyclopedia (which, incidentally, Arnold wrote).

4 - Bill Phillips. As the owner of EAS and the guy behind the "Body for Life Challenge," this fitness expert and author would presumably have some great fitness tidbits to offer up. Plus, if he can pay someone $1 million each year for winning his challenge, he could probably spring for dinner.

3 - Kim Lyons. Known best as one of the personal trainers on the TV show "The Biggest Loser," she not only would add some much needed femininity to this testosterone-filled dinner table, but a great deal of fitness knowledge, as well. In addition, I think it would be quite interesting to hear her personal success stories with some of the contestants.

2 - Kevin Trudeau. Yup, the guy that tries to hawk those books in his infomercials. You know, the Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About guy. Having never read any of his books, I would at least be interested to decide for myself whether this dude is for real or just full of ... stuff(ing).

1 - Dr. Andrew Weil. In case the name doesn't jump out you (don't feel bad if it doesn't - I just spent about 10 minutes Googling it), the face probably will. In the event that Kevin Trudeau doesn't bring much to the table (no pun intended), I'd hope that Dr. Weil could offer up some natural health conversation. But, if he too turns out to be a dud, maybe he'll at least bring some healthy desserts.

Those would be my esteemed guests. Who would be yours?

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Why women tolerate their husbands

Diet & Weight Loss, Motivation

Reading the recent blog here on That's Fit about "Why men ignore their wives" prompted me into a little fun research myself. So if men ignore their wives, why do women put up with it? The websites were endless. WOW. It seems that women tolerate a lot of certain behaviors from their spouses like being ignored, being fussed at or looked down upon and even being abused physically because of cultural beliefs, economic factors and personal fears. There is the disgrace of being a statistic, of being a divorcee. With our divorce rate hovering somewhere between 50 percent and 60 percent it is not hard to see that men and women really can not get along. Maybe the high divorce rate can be contributed to being ignored. wink wink...

But one study in particular stood out to me on why divorce rates are climbing. It emphasized that attraction in the work place between men and women has always been relevant but men had always held the dominant jobs in the work force. But that statistic is changing with women bosses increasing and more jobs like doctors, lawyers, police officers, fire fighters, and even politics with many women now leading in congress and the senate. Women are beginning to have equality in leadership roles. Many women who do well professionally find few men who are secure enough to be with them.

Being a man and being masculine are two different things. A man is a boy who has reached a certain age. A masculine man is a boy who has finally matured as an adult. Some men never reach that maturity. So I guess women have to look at being ignored by their husbands the same way they look at their children that ignore them when asked to do their chores.

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