I’ve compiled a list of the top 20 kitchen gadgets and equipment I consider “must-haves” in my own life as a busy mom who wants to stay slim and feed my family healthy fare. Please note that if you click on some of the links in this article, as is the case any time I recommend a particular product or service, I may earn a small commission if you place an order. However, my entire livelihood is based on your trust, and I never recommend anything that I don’t feel to be of excellent quality. Most of what I recommend here are the exact products I use in my own LeanGreenMama kitchen, in fact. If you happen to have problems with anything I recommend in this article or elsewhere, I want to know because my aim here is to give you the best of the best resources for leading a healthy, empowered lifestyle that lets you lose weight easily, and I will absolutely adjust my recommendations over time based on your input.

Here’s my personal top 20 kitchen devices for healthy eating and healthy weight loss:

1. A high-quality pressure cooker:
Pressure cookers aren’t exactly the “sexiest” of all kitchen gadgets to look at them. After all, they’re really just large pots with a special lid that you can make beans, soups, stews and other delicious healthy foods with. But I consider my own pressure cooker set to be pretty much THE best investment I’ve made in my household’s kitchen equipment because it saves me that precious resource we moms have in such scarce supply: time. You can cook up a pot of dried beans in under a half hour without even planning in advance (great for moms like me who like to decide rather spontaneously what to eat for dinner some nights – or, also like me, often forget to pre-soak dried beans and still want to have them for the night’s meal). Pre-soaked beans often take less than 10 minutes start to finish!

I highly recommend the model I use personally, the Fagor Duo, because in the smaller 4-qt. pot, you can cook up 1-1.5 lbs. of beans, and in the larger 8-qt. pot you can make 2+ lbs. of beans, throw together a quick stew, steam some veggies using the steamer insert or simply use the pot itself for making a double or triple batch of a healthy soup for the week (or the freezer!). Best brands include Fagor and Kuhn-Rikon (the latter brand is considered top in its class, with Fagor in a close second).

Fagor 5-pc. Duo Pressure Cooker Set
(here’s Amazon’s link to the same pressure cooker just for your reference)

2. A high-powered Vita-Mix blender:
What can I say about this incredible device? I held off personally from buying a Vita-Mix for well over 2 years after embarking on my own journey to health and my ideal weight, and if I could go back in time and do things over, I most certainly would have gotten the Vita-Mix on day 1 and never looked back. You don’t absolutely have to own what I consider the world’s greatest blender (they use the commercial-grade Vita-Mix blenders to make the smoothies at Jamba Juice, to illustrate 1 great use for them — not the same as what we use in home kitchens) in order to enjoy your healthy meals every day; I am living proof of that, after all, having lost all my weight using just an ordinarily department-store blender for my needs.

But the Vita-Mix opens up an absolute world of new healthy food options that make it so much easier to love what you eat every day. I know I’m gushing, but here’s the deal: with a Vita-Mix, you can make the smoothest of all smoothies, the creamiest of all homemade hummus in seconds, simple fruit sorbets in the blink of an eye (well, almost), creamy sauces, soups, nut butters … you name it. You can also grind whole grains into flour in under a minute, and did I mention the sorbets? It’s so much easier to enjoy a healthy lifestyle if you can make yourself healthy “ice cream” daily if you wish without worrying about calories, and it is so quick and simple that you’ll wonder where this incredible device has been all your life. You don’t need the Vita-Mix to lose weight healthfully, of course, but it’s probably the most fun, versatile and powerful addition to a healthy kitchen on the planet. Second in line only to a pressure cooker (and more fun than a PC by far), the Vita-Mix gets my top recommendation!

Vita-Mix 5200 Blender

3. Steamer:
Steaming veggies is quick and easy, and it also ensures that you get a maximum of nutrition as well, unlike boiling, for example. As a result, no healthy kitchen is complete without the ability to steam up a healthy batch of your favorites. I personally use the steamer basket that came with my pressure cooker set LINK, which saves space and also is much larger than many of the steamer inserts sold. You will also find a number of simple options at your local department stores. I personally am more comfortable with a high-quality stainless steel steamer than the silicone models for the same reason I avoid using much plastic in my kitchen; it’s less likely to leech chemicals that may or may not be dangerous. When I researched electric, standalone steamers, I found that none of them are BPA-free, so I strongly recommend against them for your family’s safety unless you can specifically confirm that the model in question is made with different, safer materials. Safety always trumps convenience in a healthy kitchen!

4. Ceramic knives:
There was a time in my life when I thought a knife was a knife. And then I began investing in ceramic knives for my food prep. As you know, I advocate eating plenty of healthy veggies and fruits, and while there are certainly shortcuts, when you want to chop some vegetables, it is nice to have excellent knives. Ceramic knives fill the bill. They are remarkably sharp, and experts swear that because they are made of ceramic rather than metal, foods chopped with them taste better and don’t take on a metallic taste during food prep (apparently a few metal molecules rub off onto food, changing the flavor). I haven’t personally noticed much of a difference in flavor.

However, ceramic knives are considerably more lightweight than regular steel knives (and yet surprisingly sturdy, though you don’t want to drop one very far onto a hard surface because they are, after all, made of ceramic), and when you need to make a large batch of vegetables, the lighter the cutting implement, the better because your hands won’t tire as easily. The knives I own personally and recommend:

Kyocera Ceramic Paring Knife

Kyocera 7-Inch Chef’s Knife

5. Cutting boards:
Though you can certainly thrive while following a healthy lifestyle without investing in some of the more expensive kitchen equipment, a good cutting board or two is invaluable in your healthy kitchen. I personally own at least half a dozen in different shapes, sizes and styles, though all you really need is one or two good-quality boards. In an omnivorous kitchen, it is always recommended to have separate cutting boards for meat/fish versus fruits and veggies to avoid contamination. In my own vegetarian kitchen, I keep one cutting board on hand exclusively for chopping fruit because when chopping onions, shallots and garlic, they tend to leave behind smelly odors no matter how well you clean them. (I throw non-wooden cutting boards into the dishwasher, and this still occurs.) Wooden and bamboo boards are the most natural of all, and wooden boards also have antimicrobial qualities.

6. Large salad bowl:
Toss your green leafies around in a bowl that’s too small, and you end up with a mess instead of a lovely salad. And if there’s one thing that’s really helpful if you want to get thin and healthy, it’s getting in your greens! So while this might sound like a simplistic recommendation, I strongly recommend you make your life infinitely easier by investing in a high-quality, large salad bowl for yourself and perhaps an even larger one for serving to a group. Better housewares stores like Crate and Barrel offer lots of options to choose from.

7. Garlic press:
As a shortcut when you’re in a time crunch (something we moms know a thing or two about), you may wish to keep jarred minced garlic in water on hand, but fresh garlic is so much more delicious. A sturdy, high-quality garlic press is invaluable. Look for one with few seams, nooks and crannies, as lower-quality presses tend to break easily and are difficult to clean. (Hint: To save time preparing dishes with fresh garlic, get your garlic prepeeled at any better grocery store.) The model I personally use and recommend (having gone through several less-expensive models before finding this one, which has held up well to more than 6 years of regular use):

Zyliss Garlic Press

8. Citrus press:
Another useful gadget that my household uses nearly nonstop is a simple, handheld citrus press. Lemon and lime juice are excellent additions to many healthy recipes such as salad dressings and as a simple topping for steamed veggies, and a sturdy citrus press makes it a snap to get all the juice you need in seconds. Here’s the style of citrus press I strongly recommend you pick up:

Citrus Press

9. Juicer:
You don’t have to drink healthy veggie or fruit juices in order to get thin and healthy, but you may want to once you notice how wonderful juicing is for you! To load up on additional nutrients without the bulk of an extra meal, a juicer’s absolutely the way to go. For juicing greens, the Green Star line of juicers is considered the best of the best, and the pricetag reflects that. I personally own a Breville juicer that does what I need it to nicely (green juices, carrot juice, occasionally apple juice), and juicing experts swear that the Breville models are the easiest to clean on the market as well! (Hint: Clean the juicer as soon as you’ve made the juice, and it will clean up quickly. Wait an hour or longer, and you’ll be scrubbing for a good long while.) They’re no longer selling the exact model I own, but this is the next in the same line of great juicers that I recommend:

Breville Two-Speed Juice Fountain Plus

10. Glass bakeware:
There’s not a lot of baking going on in my healthy kitchen most of the time during the warmer months, but when it’s time to roast vegetables, there’s nothing like glass bakeware. Glass is nonreactive and dishwasher-safe to boot. What more could a busy mama ask for? You’ll find a wide range of options such as Pyrex and Anchor Hocking at Target, and nicer department stores often have their own brands available in a variety of styles to match your needs.

That’s it for part 1 of my recommendations. How does your healthy kitchen currently stack up? It’s not that you have to get every detail right from the start, nor do you have to make a huge investment in new gadgets to take care of your body better. But there are absolutely tools that make your life easier and often safer to boot. Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon!

As you know, I’m all about healthy weight loss — meaning eating a nutrient-dense, mostly plant-based diet full of delicious, nutritious whole foods. If I had my way, Memorial Day and all other major holidays involving food wouldn’t be the free-for-alls that they tend to be here, and it wouldn’t be an issue for you to eat healthfully on these special days. But the reality is that even if you want to follow a healthy eating plan or achieve healthy weight loss, you may deal with complications over the holidays that make it harder to stay on track.

Here are some important principles in mind as the holidays come nearer so that you can keep your healthy weight loss plan moving full speed ahead.

For starters, fill up on the good-for-you stuff first. Ensure that there’s something healthy and filling for you to eat at holiday meals even if you have to make it yourself, and eat that food first before branching out to other “extracurricular” foods. That way you’re less tempted to overeat. This is always a good idea, not just for holidays. In fact, when I sit down to eat, I always start with the food I enjoy least so that I have plenty to look forward to. I don’t actually make any meals that I don’t enjoy, but I certainly still have favorite foods that I like to eat really mindfully and enjoy to the fullest.

Another approach to consider: Have a small amount of exactly what you want. If and only if this works for you, decide that this special occasion is OK to make a small exception to your healthy weight loss plan, and have a small amount of whatever food you wish to have. A good rule of thumb is to have either 5 bites of a particular dish or a couple hundred calories — whichever is easier for you to remember.

In order to handle this, though, you still need to have several delicious healthful options to choose from to fill up on before giving in to the foods that are problematic for your waistline. (Bear in mind that if you have been eating healthfully for a while, your tastebuds may not like the old foods nearly as much as before, and your body may not handle the old, unhealthy foods as well either.) Please note that I only recommend this if taking this approach will not derail your healthy weight loss efforts beyond a single meal or single day at most! I strongly recommend that you decide to go this route solely if you have handled such situations easily in the past. If one meal or one taste of particular foods has been known to trigger overeating or threatens to derail your healthy weight loss entirely, run, don’t walk away from this method. Again, this is only for you if you’re truly able to handle it well.

Watch out for yourself. One of the bigger problems you might encounter is a lack of healthy eating options at holiday meals. In these cases, I typically advise my clients to take a different tack and take care of themselves first — even though we moms tend to look out for everyone else before considering our own needs.

By taking care of yourself first, what I mean is to develop the menu based first on YOUR needs and then on everyone else’s. Whenever possible, if you can plan a couple delicious healthy recipes to include as integral parts of holiday meals (large salads, vegetables you might eat as an entree while others eat it as a side dish), other members of your family will gladly enjoy your healthy fare. You might even convince them to give healthy weight loss a chance to work for them too if you choose your foods wisely!

As for healthy eating recipes, you can often get by making a healthy lasagne with whole wheat pasta, a tomato-based sauce and all veggie layers for yourself and other health-conscious guests, while serving up the unhealthy traditional version to finicky eaters. Likewise, healthy Mexican — think fajita vegetables, beans, brown rice and salsa — can easily have some less-healthy condiments added for a larger guest list.

Leave room for a healthy, delicious dessert. Create a beautiful fruit salad for dessert and get an elaborate candle, floral or fruit arrangement for your centerpiece. Think impressive Edible Arrangements style displays, place slices of colorful fruits in a spiral pattern on a huge platter or even just arrange fresh fruit in vases beautifully. The more attractive and special you make your table without adding unhealthy cakes and “treats” (which I write with quotation marks because junky “treats” only treat your body to less than optimal health and excess weight), the more inclined everyone involved will be to eat the healthful fare.

How can you improve your next special occasion so that you get to eat the best, healthiest foods possible and show your body the respect it truly deserves? With a little advance planning, you can ensure that you will continue to achieve healthy weight loss even over the holidays.

To ensure that you stay focused on even the toughest days, it helps to have weight loss motivation tips on hand that remind you why you’re doing all this great work to get your body healthy, fit and fabulous.

Here are 3 powerful weight loss motivation tips to guide you:

1) Make the time you spend concentrating on losing weight as fun and interesting as possible. Whether you’re a single mom with little outside help with your children or you’re a married mom simply juggling the busy schedules of multiple kids, losing weight tends to be pretty low on the priority list of things to accomplish every day, which is why it’s likely been a problem in the past. However, my favorite weight loss motivation tips involve fun because if you can find ways to ensure that you’re enjoying yourself, you’ll find ways to want to press on even on tougher days.

Combine food prep with kid time. Recruit little ones to “help” you in the kitchen by chopping fruit or veggies with a dull knife while you’re making a healthy dish. Use small kids’ body weight in your workouts instead of barbells, or let the kids be your spotter during your routine if you are using small, safe weights. Or simply turn on some music and dance away with your kids or on your own. The best part is that being active helps you feel better, manage stress and increases your energy level, so find ways to be active that you love, even if it’s not a normal gym workout.

The simplest weight loss motivation tips are often the very best ones, and this one alone can be all it takes to get you focused.

2) Set a goal to simplify your focus. Do not simply say, “I want to lose weight”. Be specific so that the goal is attainable and personalized to your needs. You will also need to set a time frame. Saying ambiguous things like “by my birthday” or “by the winter” will not help you achieve your goal. The less specific you are, the more weight loss motivation tips you’ll need because you’re not telling your mind which direction to go – which is the equivalent of saying “I’d like to go to the grocery store” and then driving around aimlessly trying this road and then that one without necessarily getting even one mile closer to your goal.

I don’t typically recommend goals like losing a particular number of pounds in a week simply because we cannot control the rate at which our bodies lose weight healthfully, but at the same time, we can absolutely set and achieve goals like taking care of our bodies with healthy, weight-loss-promoting foods for 6 weeks. Aim to achieve things you can control rather than things that are out of your hands, and you’ll feel more steady throughout the process.

This is one of the most powerful weight loss motivation tips of all because if you can get focused on a specific goal, it’s much easier to achieve success.

3) Partner with a friend who’s also looking to slim down and you’ll find that your motivation stays much stronger due to the accountability factor alone, much less having someone to keep you company. You may even be able to ask your husbands to take turns watching the kids while you and your buddy work out, prep food or brainstorm how to handle tough situations. You can also share recipes and weight loss motivation tips, as well as information on local resources that support your weight loss.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you want your healthy new habits to become part of The Flow – which is what I call it when you hit your stride, and suddenly it seems much easier to stay on track without needing a lot of outside weight loss motivation tips.

Following these weight loss motivation tips should help you reach The Flow even sooner. Give each idea an honest try even if it initially seems too simple to make a difference, and you’ll be getting results in no time!

Seriously. Fear of actually becoming the better version of yourself, not just because you’re getting thin and healthy, but because it can seem scary to step into your own greatness. (Yes, greatness. I believe we each have greatness within us.)

When we decide we want to lose weight (or be successful in business, get a better job, run a marathon, you name it), it seems exciting to many of us. When I finally decided to bite the bullet and get my own excess weight off for good, one of my key motivators was simple: I wanted to feel a certain comfort in small sized clothing, and I’d visualize it (before I even knew what visualizing was) every time I’d find myself wanting to stray. How did those size 6 jeans feel on? In my mind’s eye, I felt like a rock star. :) (Turns out I’m naturally a 2/4, but those 6s in my daydreams felt awesome at the time.)

In fact, in my own life, nothing could have kept me from feeling great at a lower weight.

But you might fall into the opposite camp, even if you’re not aware of it.

Who are you when you’re thin? Are you afraid of becoming someone else? Are you scared of having to embrace a life in which you get more attention/different attention/better attention from others? (It’s not that being thin does this on its own, necessarily, but gaining confidence does tend to attract situations where you’re in the spotlight more.)

And when you’re getting more attention, that means you feel like there’s even more risk involved in just being you.

This I get as well. And I mention it because I’ve been dealing with something similar lately, just not about weight loss. As you likely know as a reader of this blog, I’m in the process of launching a huge national event (see details on ThriveMom! Telesummit here and register now). Tons of people involved. Huge numbers of signups. It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever tried to pull off on my own. And I’m loving it but … it can be scary at times. Especially when you’re putting yourself out there, doing new things, getting more attention. You don’t know if everything will go to plan.

I won’t lie and say that this whole process has been painless because it hasn’t. I’ve felt overwhelmed a few times. I’ve wondered if I tackled more than I could handle. I’ve been exhausted and had to take a break. And I had to sit myself down and give myself pep talks like the one I’m about to give you. :) Yes, I’m aware that I probably look crazy when I talk to myself. But it works!

And here’s what I want to share with you: The problem with living large, with losing the weight and becoming a more excellent version of yourself is that it’s scary because it’s unknown. (And no, I’m not saying you can’t be excellent if you’re overweight. But if you’re not feeling your best, if you don’t like how you look with excess pounds on your frame, the weight is holding you back from being the full-on, most awesome you that you can be.)

But the problem with staying small is worse because staying small is an absolute soul killer. The moment we decide NOT to step into the bigger challenges, the moment we choose NOT to do the things we dream of, we lose energy, lose momentum, lose a certain lift in our step and sense of happiness about the world at large. We begin to feel limited and helpless.

If our kids want to go out and do amazing things, which I know most of us moms want for our children, they have to take risks, make mistakes and keep plugging. And to inspire them, we have to get out there and do things we think are amazing too. And amazing very, very often = a little bit scary. But the scary stuff is worth it because it allows us to learn and grow as people. And if losing weight is frightening to you, let me ask you this: How scary is it to you to go on living the way you currently are, unhappy with how you look and feel, low energy, less healthy than you otherwise could be?

For me, the answer was simple (not easy to make, just simple) after not committing fully for many years. If you could choose how you look and feel 1 year from today (or 6 months from today), how would it be? And are you ready to do what it takes to get there?

If fear has been holding you back, I strongly urge you to consider expanding your horizons. Think big. Live large. Go outside your comfort zone and embrace the fact that you can BE thin and healthy and you’ll find a way to grow into (no pun intended) the stronger, more powerful you that you uncover as you lose weight. It may be scary at times. You might feel shaky now and then. But that’s how you get to do ALL that you dream of. And I know you can do it. Because neither I nor my amazing clients are any more special than you. We just decided to plunge into scary territory, and the rest is history. So why don’t you go make some history of your own?

• Feel blah and like your life isn’t all it should be? Cindy Ashton will be sharing the 4 steps it takes to release your inner superstar.

• Wonder why you’re not feeling as energetic as you’d like? Want help to get healthy? Renowned natural health physician Dr. Joel Fuhrman will tell ThriveMom! participants simple foods you can include in your diet that will get you back on your feet and prevent diseases like breast cancer, PCOS and more.

• Are you a mom entrepreneur? Find out what you can do to be more successful with your small business when I interview Maruxa Murphy.

I’ll also be interviewing other nationally recognized experts on how to look your best, gain more confidence, get organized and find balance in your household — all the major aspects of your life as a super busy, stressed-out mama (in other words, a normal mom!). (And almost forgot — I’ll be sharing some killer weight loss tips that get you healthy as you go!)

So unless you’re *completely* satisfied with every area of your life and nothing needs a single bit of improvement :) I highly recommend you get on board with ThriveMom! It’s absolutely free, and all you have to gain is a happier, healthier life in 2010. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to take care of YOU for a change!

Get all the details and sign up now at http://www.ThriveMom.com

I’ve been known myself to react to miscellaneous pollens out there blooming this time of year. In fact, when I lived abroad, what I was most allergic to bloomed from March to September, so at one point I literally swapped continents in hope of getting relief from a different growing season. At least if the stuff didn’t grow for half the year, I wouldn’t be miserable for as long, right?

But I didn’t know some basic things about allergies that actually have everything to do with healthy weight loss, and if you’re a mom dealing with hay fever of your own or your kids suffer this time of year, you’ll want to listen up because what I’m going to share is killer:

The same strategy that helps you lose excess weight also helps you with your allergic symptoms.

Yes, you read that right. If you follow my recommended weight loss approach, which is ALL about getting you healthy, it will help your immune system stop freaking out so much at all the springtime pollen, and you will very likely find yourself dealing with greatly reduced hay fever symptoms.

Here’s why:

(Perhaps before I go any further, I need to note that I am not a medical professional and am not providing medical information here! But what I am sharing has helped my entire family, as well as many clients and friends, so I feel it’s important to share what I know.)

A healthy immune system mostly works the way you read about. You get exposed to a virus or other pathogen, and it kicks in to ensure that your body gets well. Repeat cycle until illness is over.

A compromised immune system, on the other hand, will freak out at will, flailing around and “shooting bullets” at anything it finds to be the enemy (often incorrectly, as is the case with pollen and other environmental allergies), using up tons of your body’s energy reserves and working much harder than your body actually needs to.

So what causes this?

Our immune systems don’t tend to freak out much when our bodies are nourished with the right foods. And when I say the right foods, I mean foods that are full of phytonutrients (plant nutrients) such as greens, beans, seeds, fruits and veggies, which are truly health-promoting. (For a resource that explains how this works in much greater detail, head here. Full disclosure: I receive a small commission if you order from the link, but I wouldn’t recommend this book if I didn’t stand behind it 100%. My livelihood is based on your trust, and I won’t do anything to endanger that!)

Certain other foods can be OK in small amounts, but provoke inflammation in the body or don’t create an environment for the body to heal, such as refined sugar, animal products such as meat and dairy, and processed foods of all kinds. So these not-so-healthful foods actually detract from our health on a day-to-day basis. I advise skipping the refined and processed stuff completely and limiting the animal products to a small amount per week.

Furthermore, if you continue to eat foods that your body is sensitive to, which can be anything from the very commonly seen wheat, soy and dairy sensitivities to any number of other things, you’re making your body work harder than it needs to. Your body is reacting each and every day to that food, which again adds more fuel to your compromised immune system’s madness. This leads to a stronger allergic reaction to environmental sources. I help clients figure this out all the time, and I was shocked myself several years ago to find out that I was extremely reactive to wheat after 30 years of severe health issues, including asthma. (Eliminating wheat literally cured my asthma entirely along with a whole host of other smaller issues. And yes, I’d had every allergy test in the book and showed no allergy to any foods in them. But 1 3-day elimination diet and I was suddenly symptom-free after years of suffering and constant medication. Not everyone will have such dramatic results, of course, but it is often remarkable what we don’t know about symptoms we’re having because we’ve just always had them.)

What I mean here is that if you’re not fueling your body with the healthiest healing foods and you’re giving it a steady diet of unhealthy foods that it may in fact be sensitive to — even if you don’t know you’re sensitive to the foods — you are very likely having a stronger allergic reaction right now than you would if you were in better health. And though it probably doesn’t need to be said, if you’ve struggled with your weight, you’re not in perfect health yet, but it’s possible to get back to a much healthier state making some simple changes in your lifestyle. Meaning if you eat and live more healthfully, you’ll be thinner and very likely stop having as many allergy problems too!

I don’t know about you, but it is an incredible motivator to me to feel good year-round instead of feeling compromised for a large chunk of the year healthwise. (And on the weight loss front, it sure is great to look the way I want, too.)

Now, again, I’m not a medical expert, and I’m not suggesting that every human on the planet will get immediate relief from allergies if they change how they eat and how often they’re physically active, but most do.

I did. I used to refer to myself as “the girl in the bubble” because I literally spent every second indoors during that 6-month pollen season abroad. Always in air conditioning. Always running an air filter. Always tanked up on meds to help me stop itching and be able to breathe. And yet here I am now, having switched to a healthy lifestyle several life-changing years ago, and I haven’t need any meds since. I’ve sneezed a few times each day for the past 4 days, and that’s not likely to stop for a little while, though every year it’s been easier than the last since I changed my lifestyle. My eyes were itchy the other morning, but it passed. I’ve taken (and needed) zero meds. And otherwise, despite missing quite a bit of sleep this past few weeks, I feel great. Couldn’t be better.

And if you could have even a fraction of my success, it would be worth it to try, wouldn’t it?

Besides, you know you’ve wanted to get the weight off for some time now, so why not use this added incentive to motivate you? It could lead to great things. I dare you. :)

What’s your secret to weight loss?

The implication right away is that there must be something magical that I know that only a select few do about weight loss. And while it’s true not everyone knows the steps in the process to getting your bod back in pre-kid shape (or maybe in better shape than you’ve ever been in), there’s no magic involved. It’s completely possible for anyone — and certainly any mom because we’re the hardest-working folks on the planet … or at least in our culture :) that I know — to lose weight, though it can certainly help if you have a mentor to guide you (like me!).

Certainly I have a process to healthy weight loss that I used myself and that I have since refined and now use in my work with my clients (I’ll be revealing it in more depth in my upcoming 6-week weight loss bootcamp that’s going to start in early June. More details to come!). It’s the LeanGreen BALANCE System, and it’s a powerful 7-step process to shift you from stressed out and overweight to healthy, thin, energetic and empowered. Very cool, simplifies the process and builds in healthy habits in a way that lets them “take” so that you’re not struggling a month or two down the road to maintain an unrealistic set of lifestyle changes. And of course I highly recommend checking out my new program when I announce it very soon.

But while I love talking about healthy weight loss techniques and am fortunate to be able to make my living helping other moms in such an incredible way, truly, there’s no magic pill or single secret to weight loss that if you just knew the key, you’d magically lose the weight and in 3 days, you’d walk around loving your newly thin bod. Sorry, ladies. It just doesn’t work like that.

The biggest secret that no one seems to want to hear (OK, scratch that — most don’t want to hear, but if you really listen, it’s the answer you need) is that if you combine healthy eating over time with the right mindset and some physical activity, you’ll lose all your excess weight, feel great and be able to keep the weight off if you don’t drastically change your new healthy habits. Period. It’s actually that simple.

Now, that’s not to say that I think “simple” means “easy.”

I know you may have struggled with your weight for many years, and I’m not undermining your pain or struggle for a second. I certainly didn’t have an easy time losing weight. It took me struggling all through my teen years and twenties and getting good and mad when I turned 30 and was still inhabiting a body I just plain hated (a sick, energiless, miserable body that struggling to climb a flight of stairs and didn’t look good in anything I wore) … and then I figured out the steps in the process that it really takes (no magic pills, just following some simple steps over time mostly correctly) and lost all the excess weight in less than a year. 53 lbs. gone in under a year after decades of struggle.

What I’m getting at, though, is that if you’re telling yourself that you need the latest “secret” to weight loss to make it happen, you’re looking for the wrong thing.

It’s far easier to lose weight by watching what you eat, getting your body in motion and being mostly consistent than you might think. Whereas it’s mentally exhausting to chase after the next magic pill all the time, telling yourself that weight loss is this elusive thing that you can’t manage to do without “the secret” — and it sets you up for failure. If you’re always looking for that elusive thing, you can’t find the real answer, which is right there in front of you.

So let me ask you this: Have you (be honest with yourself here) been guilty of looking for the “secret” to weight loss that’s healthy? Has it kept you from being honest with yourself about what it really takes? Has it kept you from taking steps toward your goal of a thinner, healthier body that looks good in whatever you wear?

If your answer is yes, I strongly urge you to consider ending your search for the holy grail of weight loss and give in to the fact that you can start taking small steps in the right direction right now. Make some of the recipes I share on this site. Take the steps instead of the elevator. If you don’t eat as well as you hope at a meal, just do better next time. That’s all it takes to get started, and you WILL see results if you just make mini-moves in the right direction.

And one more quick thing: I noted that you need to be mostly consistent. The reality is that most of us mess up now and then when it comes to lifestyle changes, particularly at first. Don’t let a single mistake mean you give up on yourself and your dreams. If it was your child, you’d advise him/her to shake it off and try again. And that’s my best advice for you too. In fact, that may be the best healthy weight loss secret of them all. Just press on, fellow hardworking mama, and you’ll get there.

Though I’m obviously a big fan of healthy eating, I’m a busy mom like anyone else with little time to prepare food beyond what’s absolutely necessary. I’ve been known many a time simply to heat some Sunshine burgers from the frozen section at the health food store, toss a quick salad and call it a meal. But sometimes I want another option for veggie burgers that’s equally delicious and nutritious, which is why I developed this recipe for black bean burgers.

You need a food processor or small food chopper (I have the latter) to prepare this recipe, and the burgers hold together better when made with homemade black beans and freshly made brown rice (takes under 1 minute to prepare in terms of actual food prep time if you have a rice cooker); however, you will still get delicious, albeit slightly less firm and attractive burgers from canned beans and premade rice. (If using frozen rice, thaw it before mixing in.)

Here’s what you need:

1 lb. dried black beans, cooked or 4 cans unsalted black beans (Eden Organics is preferred)
2 c. cooked brown rice
1 lg. onion, chopped finely
2 tsp. ground cumin
2 oz. raw walnuts, sunflower seeds or pepitas (pumpkin seeds), or a mixture, finely ground in food processor
Brown rice flour, corn meal or whole wheat flour for sprinkling on pan

Optional ingredients:
1/2 bell pepper (more than this makes burgers too soft to hold together well)
1 c. carrots, finely ground in food processor
1 tbsp. chili powder
1-2 tbsp. of low-sodium ketchup or BBQ sauce (in which case don’t use chili powder)
1 clove garlic, minced

Drain beans well, reserving bean liquid. Add beans, 1 cup of rice and 1/2 onion to food processor. If desired, add bell pepper at this time. Process till smooth; if needed, add in 1 tbsp. of bean liquid or water at a time so that mixture is fairly smooth. (It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, just mostly so.)

Put bean mixture into large mixing bowl. Add rest of chopped onions, second cup of rice, cumin, ground nuts/seeds (and optional ingredients if desired) and stir until well mixed.

To prepare:

Pan-saute method: Sprinkle a small amount of brown rice flour, corn meal or whole wheat flour on pan; this prevents sticking and should not be skipped. Place tennis-ball sized spoonful of burger on nonstick griddle pan or well-cured skillet and press into burger shape with hands. Sprinkle small amount of flour on top of patty as well. Cook over low-medium heat for approximately 7 minutes; flip burger and heat another 7 minutes. Serve and enjoy. (If burger isn’t done after this initial cooking time, add another 3-4 minutes per side until patties are firm enough to serve, taking care not to burn.)

Oven method: Place parchment paper on baking sheet and sprinkle with a small amount of brown rice flour, corn meal or whole wheat flour on pan; this prevents sticking and should not be skipped. Sprinkle small amount of flour on top of patty as well. Bake at 450 F for 20 minutes; flip patties. Bake for another 20-30 minutes until firm.

Makes approximately 15 burgers (can easily be doubled)

Healthy eating notes:

Serve these burgers with low-sodium ketchup, BBQ sauce or salsa by themselves or in a whole-grain bun. (When buying buns, look for brands at the health food store containing no “mystery” ingredients.)

You may also enjoy these burgers as a delicious healthy taco filling.

You can experiment with spices and flavoring in these burgers. The onion, bell pepper, cumin and chili powder combo is fabulous and highly recommended, and carrots add sweetness and nutrition too!

As always, there is no salt added to this recipe because we get enough sodium from whole foods, but you can add a pinch (if you must). ;)

Copyright 2010 Jennifer McCay

www.LeanGreenMama.com

If you’re looking for the right tools to improve the most important aspects of your life — your health, weight, relationships, confidence, stress level, time, money and more! — I’m thrilled to share an event with you that can help you succeed in improving your life: the ThriveMom! Telesummit, a virtual conference that will be held May 3-27, 2010, and is dedicated to helping busy moms just like YOU.

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The ThriveMom! Telesummit is a project I’ve wanted to do for some time because despite the fact that we moms seem to have more stress and responsibilities than almost anyone else, no one out there is talking directly to US to help us out. There is literally no other event like this designed to help us moms create a happy, balanced life.

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I work with busy moms every day and am a mom myself, and I know too well how difficult it can be to rearrange your schedule to accommodate your own needs. So ThriveMom! is set up to ensure that you can fit it into your life — allowing for homework help, activities and bedtime with the kids. In fact, you don’t have to leave the house to join in on this event — you can listen to every expert session from the comfort of your own home computer.

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