Could an Apple a Day Keep the Weight Away?

 

Fall is my absolute favorite season! Not only do I love the beautiful, bright colors of the foliage, but there’s just something about the crisp air that makes everything feel—fresh and new! I especially love this time of year in North Carolina; it is nothing like the Illinois falls I grew up with. While the colors here aren’t quite as vivid as you’d see at home, there you’re lucky if you can make it to September without bidding your summer wardrobe farewell. In fact, I recall often wearing my “fall clothes” on the first day of school...although on second thought, that may have been due more to my excitement than the weather! Here in Charlotte on the other hand, I started wearing a light jacket only just this week!

 Another thing I love about fall is that it’s the time of year where apples are in abundance! What can I say, my Midwest upbringing has also made me an avid lover of the apple orchard time of year! This season for apples has been especially evident during my recent grocery shopping trips where the plums and nectarines that I usually buy are nowhere to be found, and have been replaced instead by every kind of apple you can think of. While I love a good apple, if I have my choice, I’m truthfully more of a citrus fruit kinda girl, but it seems these kind of fruits are out of season this time of year. So alas, my refrigerator is now nicely stocked full of apples, which prompted me to run a quick Google search on what kind of health benefits apples offer. That’s when I stumbled upon this very interesting article where the author makes the claim that adding 3 apples a day to your diet, without changing anything else will result in weight loss of 1/2 lb a week for the first 8 weeks (aka 2 lbs a month). To give you the gist, the article states that this works for 3 reasons, however, I have summed it up into one sentence because quite frankly all 3 reasons really come down to one thing:

Apples are high in fiber. Fiber keeps you feeling full longer so you’re less likely to snack in between meals and more likely eat less at your meals, and it regulates your digestive tract, cleaning out your system more quickly.

I haven’t tried this in its entirety by adding 3 full apples a day, so I can’t speak for the validity of this “apple diet.” I have, however, tried incorporating apples into my meals more often or eating an apple before a meal to see if it made a difference, and I can say that it helped me feel full sooner.

And since eating plain ol’ apples can definitely get boring over time, here’s a really quick, easy, and delicious apple snack I often eat when I need a little something to hold me over:

Apple Cinnamon Crisp Cake

Directions:

Take a plain, unsalted rice cake, slice apples on top, drizzle with a little raw honey, sprinkle with cinnamon, and enjoy!

This is so simple, yet so satisfying...and very low in calories!

Well, I’m off to bed. We may be gaining an hour tonight, but I’ve certainly squandered that by staying up waaay past my bedtime! I have to be up bright and early to work in the nursery at the church tomorrow. I’m definitely seeing a nap in my future tomorrow afternoon. That brings me to one other thing I love about fall: “falling back!” Goodnight and make sure you set your clocks back!