Stacy Berman, of Stacy’s Boot Camp in NYC, offers these quick tips:
Be Prepared to Prep!
The place where money is wasted the most is in the pre-packaged food aisles, says Stacy. “Spending extra money on things like pre-washed and pre-cut lettuce, for example, is a huge money pit,” says Stacy, “buying whole foods and preparing it yourself will not only cut back on costs but it will ensure you are not eating extra preservatives or additives in packaged foods.”
Every Little Bit Counts
The world is your playground – literally! Stacy is a big fan of using everyday activities to burn extra calories. She runs her out outdoor boot camp, Stacy’s Boot Camp, in the public parks of New York City, and her classes use no more than their bodies and a few water bottles to garner outstanding results. “You don’t always need fancy gym equipment to get into great shape,” says Stacy, “just a set of dumbbells and a chair can get you to your fitness goals without breaking the bank.” As the holiday season approaches, take advantage of calorie burning activities like raking leaves, building snowmen and ice skating!
For information on Stacy’s Boot Camp, including registration details and full schedule, visit www.stacysbootcamp.com.
If 10,000 people prepare a vegetarian meal for their family once a week, in a year we’ll save enough water to fill 2,423 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Why?
Because one pound of grain uses less than 1% of the water needed to produce a pound of beef.
Think about cutting back just a couple times a week on the meat you eat, multiply that by the number of people at your dinner table, and think of the change you could make! Some meat free dinner ideas: spinach lasagna, Thai peanut noodles, pancake night, pasta primavera, veggie avocado wraps, burritos stuffed with cheese, beans and salsa, baked potatoes filled with veggies and sour cream, matzo ball soup…
Statistics from idealbite.com.
Here is some interesting information about substituting sugar when baking with a natural sweetener from Sparkpeople.com:
Honey, made by bees from the nectar of flowers, is a ready-made sweetener that contains traces of nutrients.
Cooking notes: To replace 1 cup sugar with honey in baked goods, use about 3/4 cup of honey and lower the oven temperature 25 degrees and reduce liquids by about 2 Tablespoons for each cup of honey.
Maple syrup comes from the sap of maple trees, which is collected, filtered, and boiled down to an extremely sweet syrup with a distinctive flavor. It contains fewer calories and a higher concentration of minerals (like manganese and zinc) than honey. Don’t be fooled by ”Maple-flavored syrups” which are imitations of real maple syrup and contain many artificial ingredients. To easily tell the difference, read the ingredients list on the nutrition label. True maple syrup contains nothing but “maple syrup.”
Cooking notes: To replace 1 cup sugar with maple syrup in baking, use about 3/4 cup of maple syrup and lower the oven temperature 25 degrees and reduce liquids by about 2 Tablespoons for each cup of maple syrup.
