Low Fat Digest Issue 20 - Low Fat Brownie Recipe

3rd of December 2006

Issue #20

Table of Contents

1. Ramblings
2. Low Fat Brownie Recipe
3. 5 Tell-Tale Signs That You Have Hit A Weight Loss Plateau

1. Ramblings

Can you believe that the Holiday Season has already come?

Even though this year it's unusally warm for December, it still looks, smells and feels like Christmas, everywhere.

During Christmas season the temptations to eat unhealthy, fatty foods become overwhelming. But don't despair, you can have low-fat and healthy food AND eat your Chrismas cookies :-)

No need to resign to the sweet Christmas temptations altogether, just bake your own low fat goodies.

2. Low Fat Raspberry Brownies

These low fat raspberry brownies will sweeten your day without the extra fat or sugar.

Ingredients

• 3 oz (90 g) of light chocolate, coarsely chopped.
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup of low fat spread, melted
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup low joule raspberry spreadable fruit

Directions
Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F).

Spray an 8" square baking pan with cannola oil.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water; remove from heat and keep stirring until it goes smooth. Set aside and let it cool down.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric whipper at high speed for about 7 minutes till the eggs and sugar go fluffy. Then beat in the vanilla extract and salt.

Now add the low fat spread and stir it to mix well.

Stir in the flour, mixing well, and pour half of the mixture into medium bowl.

Next, stir the melted chocolate into one portion of the batter and the spreadable fruit into the other portion.

Scrape chocolate batter into the prepared pan. Set aside 1/2 cup.

Scrape raspberry batter over the chocolate batter, and scatter spoonfuls of the reserved chocolate batter over the raspberry batter, using all of the chocolate batter.

With a knife, cut through batter to create a marbled effect.

Bake for about 30 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out almost clean).

Transfer pan to rack; let cool completely and cut into 16 equal squares. That was an easy low fat brownie recipe, wasn't it!?

Serves 8

Serve and Enjoy!

Nutritional Information
per serving

274 calories
12 grams fat
1171 kilojoule
5.5 WW points

Find more low fat recipes at E-Cookbook Library

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3. 5 Tell-Tale Signs That You Have Hit a Weight Loss Plateau

• The scale isn’t moving
• Clothes aren’t getting bigger
• You’re hungry all the time
• Exercises aren’t as difficult
• You’re doing the same things, but not getting any results

What’s most frustrating about these signs is the fact that it might seem like you’re doing everything right. You’re eating what you’re supposed to be eating, working out when you plan to, and even cutting back further than you have to on your chosen diet plan. What’s going on?

What causes a weight loss plateau?

Thankfully you can generally blame Mother Nature for your metabolic frustrations. What happens is that as your body changes, it starts to get ‘used’ to the new weight and wants to settle there. Your body has given you as many results as possible using the current menu and fitness program you’re on.

The reason why your body does this is to avoid starvation. It senses that it’s not getting as much food as it used to and so it tries to hold onto what you’re giving it. Or it’s getting used to the exercises that you’re doing, so it’s not responding in the same way. Basically, your body is leveling out – hence, the term plateau.

What can you do?

But now that you know what a plateau is and what the signs of it can be, you can start to tailor your weight loss routine to prevent or stop a plateau. What you need to do is change up what you’ve already been doing so that your body has to respond. This can include several things:

Increase your calorie intake slightly Increase the intensity of your exercise plan Try adding more protein to your diet Drink more water

These simple steps can sometimes recharge your body and put it back into fat-burning, weight-losing mode. A weight loss plateau is something that every dieter will see at one point or another, so don’t feel like you’re not heading in the right direction. Often, a plateau is that sign that you’re doing a good job already, but that you need to tweak something.

Are you to blame?

Some dieters are anxious to blame their plateau on physiological changes, rather than looking first to see if they are causing the plateau. Ask yourself these questions:

• Have you been watching your calories?
• Have you been exercising at a high intensity?
• Have you been exercising regularly?

If you’re not sure that you can answer these questions in the affirmative, you might want to rethink your current actions before you start blaming the plateau on other things.

You can start keeping a food journal and writing down your exercise minutes to see if you could work a little harder. Maybe you’ve been eating more fatty foods and you just haven’t realized it. Or maybe it’s time that you try to workout out at a faster pace than you have been.

A weight loss plateau is going to happen at one point or another, but instead of sitting still and suffering through it; you know what to do to overcome it and continue on the path to your weight loss goals.

About the Author:

Lynn VanDyke is a master trainer and fitness nutritionist. Her fitness site is ranked within the top 1% of all websites. She has authored the wildly popular ebook, Melt the Fat. It is yielded as one of the best fitness and nutrition ebooks available.