If you're like me, you probably get sick of eating the same thing all the time. I try to keep a variety of healthy snacks in my house at all times just in case. A good snack is one that takes less than 5 minutes to prepare, is easily portable and fills me up. These are my favorite most convenient healthy snacks:

 A handful of raw almonds: I like to keep a zip lock baggy full of the protein filled nuts in my purse, just in case hunger strikes while I'm out and about. Being vegan makes it very difficult to find food on the go, so it's best to be prepared.

 A bowl of fresh fruit: I use a variety of fruit found in my kitchen, slice it up and put it in a Tupperware. Fruit is full of filling fiber and sweet tooth satisfying all at the same time.

 Veggies and hummus: Studies have shown that veggies lose nutritional value when they're cooked, so eating them raw with hummus is great for you. I like to use baby carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini. On top of that hummus contains all 9 essential amino acids for a complete protein.

What are your favorite quick and healthy snacks?

I just started to keep my very own journal for logging everything I eat, in efforts to find out what foods have been upsetting my tummy. Although I didn't necessarily start the journal for weight loss reasons, I have noticed myself picking less in between meals. So could keeping a food journal be the next craze in the diet industry? Even American Idol winner and vegetarian, Carrie Underwood admits to writing down everything she eats! Well according to a newly published study, the benefits of keeping a food diary are far overlooked.

Keeping a food diary is a powerful tool in helping dieters lose weight, scientists said yesterday.

Those who compiled a detailed account of what they ate and drank and the calories it contained lost about twice as much weight as those who did not, they found.

The six-month study involved 1,685 middle-aged men and women from four U.S. cities – Portland, Oregon; Baltimore, Maryland; Durham, North Carolina and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Their average weight loss was about 13lb. But those who kept food diaries six or seven days a week lost about 18lb compared with 9lb for those who did not.

Those taking part in the study, whose average age was 55, were asked to eat less fat and more vegetables, fruit and whole grains. They were also told to exercise for three hours a week, mostly by walking, and attend support group meetings.

One of the study’s leaders, Dr Victor Stevens, of Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland, said: ‘For those who are working on weight loss, just writing down everything you eat is a pretty powerful technique.

SOURCE: Daily Mail

Now that you know how helpful keeping a food journal can be, will you start your own?

I'm constantly raving to friends and family about the positive effects of doing yoga and eating a vegan diet. And to my satisfaction I've found a tidbit of evidence supporting my case:

If you are a vegan-yogi, you are already well on your way to fighting prostate cancer. Researchers found that this combination "seems to switch on genes that fight disease, while effectively turning off others that can promote cancer," reports the U.K.'s Telegraph. The findings were reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Dr. Dean Ornish, working with Dr. Christopher Haqq and Prof. Peter Carroll. How has a vegan diet and yoga affected your health?

SOURCE: Yoga Journal

 Red meat and wine never went better together. Now you have another excuse to eat red meat and drink wine. Scientists have found that the alcoholic drink cancels out some harmful substances produced by the meat in the stomach. The chemicals - released during the digestion of fat - are linked to a host of illnesses, including cancer, hardening of the arteries, diabetes and Parkinson's disease. It is thought the stomach acts as a 'bio-reactor' in which red wine's health benefits neutralize some of the dangers of the meat.

 Green tea hearts you. A cup of green tea a day could help keep your heart healthy, a study shows. The drink was found to widen the artery which runs from the shoulder to the elbow by 4 per cent within 30 minutes - reducing the risk of blood clots. This is a good indicator of improved blood flow around the body, says a report in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation.

 Eat your veggies. Broccoli may combat prostate cancer by altering the genes involved in tumor growth, a study has shown. The results found that a diet rich in broccoli produced changes in gene activity that were likely to stop or slow cancer growth.

SOURCE: Daily Mail