Boil, Boil, No More Trouble...

After a long weekend of barely any sleep I am ready to begin my cooking again.  However, throughout the weekend I began wondering the effect sleep has on weight loss.  Of course I know that sleep is essential to healthy living, but I was unsure of how it directly relates to losing weight.  I began researching and found that the quality of your sleep harmonizes with your hormonal activity tied to your appetite.  This is because the hormones leptin and ghrelin (they both are known to affect appetite) are influenced by the amount of hours we sleep.  The less sleep a person gets, the lower the levels of leptin, and the higher the levels of ghrelin, causing you to be less satisfied after a meal and wanting more food.  Obviously, eating more after a meal can cause weight gain.  Research shows that those who sleep less often tend to be more overweight than those who get the right amount of sleep.  After finding this research, I have made a promise to myself to never lose too many hours of sleep.  If I want to be successful in losing weight and living a healthier life, I need to get about seven hours of sleep daily.

However, sleeping is not the only way to lose weight.  Obviously, food is a critical component.  For this week, my mentor as challenged me complete three recipes, side dish, main dish, and dessert, using the three healthy B's of cooking: Boil, Broil, and Bake.  Today I decided to begin with "boil."  I cooked a Minestrone soup using many vegetables such as eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, yellow squash, bell peppers, and onion.  The main ingredient that I used which is different from most Minestrone soups is Chickpeas.  I also used vegetable broth as well as pesto, and a variety of fresh herbs.  This soup was amazing, and had about 100 calories less than the average Minestrone soup.  This soup has about 133 calories per cup, and only 3.1 grams of fat.  It turned out great!

As the week continues I will try broiling and baking in order to experiment with the three healthy B's of cooking!

RANDOM FACT: In order to increase weight loss, it is important to get about 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night!