1 1/2 cups unprocessed oat bran

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup cooked mashed pumpkin

1/2 cup skim milk

2 egg whites, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Cooking oil spray

Directions

Combine bran, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a large bowl and stir well. Make a small well in center of mixture. In a second bowl, combine pumpkin, milk, beaten egg whites and vegetable oil. Stir until well mixed. Add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Spray 2 muffin tins with cooking oil spray or use paper liners. Spoon into the muffin tins until each is 3/4 full. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from pans immediately; serve warm or at room temperature.

We often lay more importance on abs work out and forget our back workout completely. Due to this an imbalance is caused between your abs and your lower back which leads to severe back pains. So strengthening your lower back muscle is as important as strengthening your abs.

The lower back extension is the best exercise that is recommended by the doctors and the fitness experts to fight your back pain and also to strengthen your back muscles to avoid any future risks. It also helps you in loosening; tight or sore back muscles that may be caused due to over sitting or lack of back exercises. It can be done anywhere as it doesn?t require any equipment and is really simple to perform.

Lower back extension exercise:

As always, start with warm up exercises. Preferably a light aerobics exercise for 10-15 minutes. This is a very good exercising strategy to be followed before getting into your regular exercise regimen.

Lie down straight on the floor with your hands and arms kept flat at your sides and your legs extended like in a standing position. But actually lying down. This will be your starting position.

Now raise yourself slowly above the ground level. By using your lower muscles raise above your upper body part, but do not over extend. Just raise your body up to 45 degrees above the ground level, to the point where you feel comfortable and beneficial. When you raise yourself above the ground level see that you tighten your buttocks and totally exert pressure on your lower back. Hold this movement for a count of 3-5.

After holding the position for a count of 3 or so, lower your body back to the floor in the same manner as your starting position.

While performing this exercise don?t forget to breath. Breathe in as your raise your body and hold your position and then breath out when you lower yourself.

Repeat this exercise until the sets are completed. Each set should comprise of 12-15 reps. Likewise start with 2 sets for the first two weeks, increase it to 3 sets of 15-20 reps in the 3-4 week and then let it progress as per your capability. However one thumb rule to be followed here is do not overdo it, as it may increase your back pain than eliminating it completely. Perform this exercise just 2-3 times a week and the rest of the day?s work out on other body parts.

Initially you might find it difficult to do this exercise. You may not be able to raise your body very high. But that?s totally fine, as you progress you will be able to lift yourself higher. So let?s not waste anymore time, let?s get going.

First of all, let’s look at sources for lose weight recipes. The internet is full of recipes. WebMd, Epicurious, iVillage, and even BeliefNet all have low calorie recipes on them. You can also find recipes for just about any specific dish by typing “dish low calorie” into a search engine like Google.

You also have traditional sources such as low calorie cookbooks to find lose weight recipes. You can find lose weight recipes tied to specific diets such as Adkins or Mediterranean in these books.

Cooking shows on television often feature low calorie recipes. Food network provides details of their low calorie recipes online.

Another thing you can do is use a recipe you love, but swap out some of the ingredients for things that don’t change the texture or taste of the food but lower the calories. For instance, with pancakes, cut the oil and butter, switch to whole-wheat flour, use raspberry sauce instead of syrup, then add more fresh fruit on top. For pasta with red sauce, puree cauliflower and broccoli to mix into the sauce, and add whole vegetables as well to make it more filling and healthier.

But, it’s not enough to know how to make an individual recipe low calorie, you need to have a good idea of what ingredients make a dish off limits. That way, you can plan substitutes.

For instance, whole wheat bread (not reduced calorie) has 70 calories but a low fat bagel has 150. So, eating a “diet” brand isn’t necessarily a cure-all for dieting.

You should also start incorporating the so called “superfoods” into as many lose weight recipes as you can. The superfoods are: blueberries, black beans, spinach, yogurt, tomatoes, carrots, oats, and walnuts.

When a recipe for a baked product such as cake requires oil, substitute apple sauce. It will have no impact on the baking process or the taste, but save a whopping 15/16 of the calories! (1 tablespoon of oil is 120 calories. 1 tablespoon of apple sauce is 6.5 calories).

Other recipe substitutes include:

- Turkey bacon for bacon

- Cooking spray for butter

- Rolled oats for bread crumbs

- Ground turkey breast for ground beef

- Wine or fruit juice for oil based marinades

If you are looking for lose weight recipes, the good news is that you are not alone. There is a wealth of information out there for people wanting to cook healthy at home.

The first tip that I can give you is to make exercise fun and more of a game. This can be done in several ways.

Going for a scenic hike

Playing a game of soccer, volleyball or baseball with your kids

Going for a family bike ride

Going camping for a weekend

Jumping rope

Using an outdoor trampoline

Swimming at the pool or beach

For example if the entire family goes on a camping trip your kids can go looking for firewood, swimming and even fishing. This provides them with exercise and fun at the same time.

Back at home even building a new picnic table or tree fort is exercise. You don?t have to think about running or doing pushups and jumping jacks to get exercise. The more fun and less like a regimented exercise the activity is, the more likelihood your child will enjoy their time and want to do it again.

It really is important to get your children into the habit of exercising regularly. Obesity in children in the Western world is at an all time high. This is mainly due to lack of exercise both at home and because of cutbacks in the education system. Many schools today offer very limited programs when it comes to sports.

Other easy tips to encourage your kids to exercise more are to get them to take the stairs instead of using an elevator. As a family when you visit the mall park your car further away so everyone has to walk further to get to the entrance.

Get into the habit of going for a family walk or go swimming together on the weekends. Depending on where you live you can go ice skating or cross country ski-ing and even skateboarding together. This way you are actually practicing what you preach to your children and this can make a huge difference.

Setting limits for television, video, computer and cell phones is sometimes a necessity in order to get your children active again. As your child becomes more active they will sleep better, have more energy and will probably lose a few pounds in the process too.