Don't Drink Your Calories

One of the first things I tell people who are trying to drop excess fat is to ditch the liquid calories. Here's an excellent reminder article from Alicia & Carrie, The Boot Camp Girls.


Don’t Drink Your Calories

You’d be amazed at how easily calories can pile up in liquid form. There are many “hidden” calories in your favorite beverages, including those that you may think of as healthful.

A tall glass of orange juice has around 200 calories. This may not seem like a lot, but when you convert this to a small boiled potato and several chicken strips, it suddenly seems like just too much, since the solid meal just-mentioned has the same calorie total – and is apt to be far more satisfying. This doesn’t mean give up juice, but if you’re calorie conscious, settle for a small glass.

Do you know the local Starbucks barista by name? If so, this is a warning sign you may be getting tons of calories from your favorite Starbucks concoctions. For example, a Venti Peppermint Mocha with whipped cream and 2 percent milk has 480 calories. You don’t even want to know how much fat’s in it.

Omit the whipped cream and use skim milk, it’s 360 calories. Do you realize how much solid food you can eat for 360 calories? How do two pieces of toast and two eggs sound?

Smoothies
Beware of smoothies prepared at smoothie stands. A lot of calories get dumped in in the form of juice, sherbet and even ice cream. You can make a much lower calorie smoothie at home by blending some berries, yogurt, and crushed ice with a scoop of vanilla protein powder.

Soda
Why not just eliminate soda altogether? One can contains 150 calories of useless drink. Diet soda is not a smart alternative since it contains an artificial sweetener which can trigger hunger.

Coffee and Tea
Cut calories by using Stevia instead of sugar. Stevia has zero calories and is a natural herb with a good safety record.

Alcohol
Many people don’t realize how the calories in alcohol can quickly add up. Just 1 ounce of the following contain around 65 calories: rum, vodka, whiskey, gin and brandy.

Four ounces of sweet wine are 105 calories; 4 ounces of sherry and port are 75 and 90, respectively; a 3.5 ounce martini is 140; a 4 ounce margarita cocktail is about 170. Need you read more to be rudely awakened? You can see how “a small drink here and there” can strongly factor into your daily caloric intake.

Chocolate Milk and Hot Chocolate
One tablespoon of some chocolate powders is an unforgiving 50 calories. This may not seem like a lot, but for anybody who loves chocolate drinks, one tablespoon to 8 ounces of milk is a slap in the face.

For most chocolate lovers (if not all), even three tablespoons don’t quite cut it. This isn’t heaping tablespoons, either, assuming that if it were, the nutrition label would state “heaping.”

Four tablespoons of powder plus 8 ounces of skim milk mean almost 400 calories – all for a beverage that’s gone within moments if it’s cold.

Beware of chocolate syrups; they’re just as loaded with calories. A tall glass (two cups) of chocolate milk with whole milk can pack in 500 calories if you use only four tablespoons of the better tasting powders or syrups, and if you like a richer chocolate flavor, you’ll need to add six tablespoons total (at least) to satisfy your chocoholic requirements: That’s a 600 calorie glass of liquid.

Calories are just as formidable a force in liquids as they are in solids. To get a firm grip on just how many of your calories are coming from beverages and how to cut back on these calories without feeling deprived, call us today.

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Almonds Are Awesome

I know some people stay away from eating nuts because of the high fat content but that's a big mistake. Almonds are nutritional all-stars. Dr. Gary Beecher, of the USDA-ARS, who has analyzed the phytochemical content of almonds states, "I have never seen this diversity of phytochemicals in a single food source."

Almonds are…

• High in protein (1 oz. of almonds contains about 6g of protein) and low in sodium.

• High in heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.

• A good source of calcium, riboflavin, magnesium, phosphorous, manganese, and other minerals.

• Rich in vitamin E. In fact, almonds are one of the best whole-food sources of this important vitamin.

• High in fiber (higher than any other nut or seed).

• Regular consumption of almonds lowers the risk of developing diabetes.

For a tasty and nutritious snack, choose almonds. Or, slice them up and add them to salads, yogurt or veggies.

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Michael Pollan's 7 Rules For Eating

Good nutrition is key fat loss and health but we make it more complicated than it has to be. Below are "Food Rules" author, Michael Pollan's, 7 Rules for Eating.


1. Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as

food. "When you pick up that box of portable yogurt tubes, or eat something with 15 ingredients you can’t pronounce, ask yourself, 'What are those things doing there?'" Pollan says.



2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can’t pronounce.

3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store. Real food tends to be on the outer edge of the store near the loading docks, where it can be replaced with fresh foods when it goes bad.


4. Don’t eat anything that won’t eventually rot. "There are exceptions — honey — but as a rule, things like Twinkies that never go bad aren’t food," Pollan says.


5. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. "Always leave the table a little hungry," Pollan says. "Many cultures have rules that you stop eating before you are full. In Japan, they say eat until you are four-fifths full. Islamic culture has a similar rule, and in German culture they say, 'Tie off the sack before it’s full.'"

6. Families traditionally ate together, around a table and not a TV, at regular meal times. It’s a good tradition. Enjoy meals with the people you love. "Remember when eating between meals felt wrong?" Pollan asks.


7. Don’t buy food where you buy your gasoline. In the U.S., 20% of food is eaten in the car.


If we all ate this way we would definitely be healthier and slimmer.

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Why You're Not Getting The Results You Want, Part 3

One of the reasons people get mediocre results from their exercise program is that they don't pay enough attention to their nutrition (or they've been misled about what constitutes good nutrition).

Remember, you can't out-train a bad diet.

Reason #3: Your nutrition is not on track.

Here are some basic fat loss guidelines...

• Eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) liquid calories, including fruit juice.

• Start every day with a nutritious breakfast.

• Eat 5-10 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

• Do not skip meals to "save" calories.

• Eat fresh food; eliminate consumption of sugar and as many processed / packaged foods as possible.

• Make sure you drink enough water.

• Eat some lean protein at every meal.

• Dump the "all or nothing" mentality. Don't give up just because you made some poor choices. Just start again with your next meal. You can succeed with 90% adherence to good nutrition.

• Plan your meals and cook in bulk. Don’t put yourself at the mercy of vending machines or fast food joints.

• Exercise regularly. Perform challenging total body workouts, cardio intervals and bodyweight circuits for best fat burning results.

The best plan is the simplest because it needs to become a lifestyle rather than a diet. However, if you’re already following the above guidelines and still having problems...

• Keep a food log and record your calories for a week or two. Most people severely underestimate their caloric intake. A food diary will help you see exactly how much you are consuming; studies have demonstrated that using a food log can double your weight loss. Do it old school with a notebook or go high tech and use one of the many free online food journals.

• Consider limiting starchy carbs (potatoes, rice, bread, etc. – even whole grain versions). Concentrate on fibrous veggies and fruits along with raw nuts for your carbs.

If you missed any of the previous parts of Why You're Not Getting The Results You Want, you can find them here...

Part 1
Part 2

Check out this video from Scott Colby. He addresses some of the misinformation about "healthy" choices.



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My #1 Rule For Eating Healthy by Mike Geary

I recently received this via email...

My #1 Rule For Eating Healthy
by Mike Geary

Whenever I tell people this simple rule for eating healthy, they are always shocked by it's simplicity, and that they never thought of it like this before.

First, we need to come to the realization that food science and marketing in recent decades has crowded all of the REAL food out of our grocery stores to the point that at LEAST 90% of everything in a modern-day grocery store is NOT true food anymore...

The so-called "food" that lines our grocery store shelves nowadays is better termed -- "Edible Food-Like Substances", as the highly respected nutrition journalist Michael Pollan calls it.

I absolutely love that term and think it is SO very true!

Our food supply has become so overly processed, that it's not uncommon for a simple snack food to contain a list of 20-30 ingredients of additives, chemicals, flavorings, colorings, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, artificial sweeteners, and more.

However, it CAN be easy to avoid ALL of this junk by following my 1 simple rule of eating healthy... and that is:

>> Eat only foods that are 1 ingredient.

Drop dead simple!

This means sticking almost solely to these:
eggs, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, berries, and meats (only meats raised in a healthy manner)



For example, almost everything I ate today was 1 ingredient, although perhaps mixed together:

* eggs with veggies for breakfast
* snacked on fruit, berries, and nuts all afternoon
* home-made guacamole (made fresh with all single ingredients) and veggie sticks
* cooked mixed veggies, side salad, and grass-fed bison steaks for dinner

Now THIS is fat-burning nutrition made easy!

Pretty simple stuff, and all made from single ingredients instead of processed food packages with 30 ingredients or more.

Do I eat like this 100% of the time... admittedly no... BUT, if you can stick to this 1-ingredient rule at least 90% of the time, it is actually VERY simple to get as lean as you want!

A 2nd simple rule:

If your great grandparents 100 years ago wouldn't have recognized the food you're eating, don't eat it!


Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
http://TruthAboutAbs.com

5 Nutrition Tips for Fat Loss - Craig Ballantyne

5 Nutrition Tips for Fat Loss
By Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

This is always tough to admit, but nutrition is more important than your workouts when it comes to fat loss.

And since diet is more important than exercise, I've decided to spend a lot time sharing nutrition tips this week, starting with these 5 diet secrets:

1) Your nutrition program doesn't have to be extreme.

Hold up on making any extreme diet changes. Make sure the nutrition plan you've chosen is sustainable. Simple diet changes go a lot farther than you might think.

Why not just eat more whole, natural foods rather than trying to go on an impossible-to-stick-to ultra-low carb extreme plan?

2) Get the junk out of the house.

If it's in your house, you'll eat it...and trust me, this goes for me too. When I visit a relative's house for holiday, I always eat the treats they have sitting around. That's why I keep the junk out of my house.

So whatever your weakness is, keep it out of your home.

Success is that simple.

3) Fill in the "diet-killing" gap.

For some folks, the diet-killing gap is between work and dinner. For others, it's between dinner and bedtime, but for almost everyone, there is a point in the day when we suffer from mindless eating.

So make sure you have alternatives...as soon as you come home from work, cut up vegetables and dip them into hummus. That will keep you full on a small amount of calories.

After dinner, if you need something sweet, stir up chocolate protein powder into a small bit of plain yogurt. That will satisfy you.

(Mickey's note: If you want a protein that actually contains what the label says and doesn't taste like chalk, check out Prograde Nutrition at www.GetPrograde.com. They sell a high quality and very tasty protein powder.)

4) Chew your food 5-10 times before swallowing.

Most people eat so fast they only about 1-2 times. You'll really notice a difference and you'll slow your eating so you feel full.

5) Have a bowl of broth-based vegetable soup before a meal.

American researcher Barbara Roll has published a lot of studies showing that this will help you reduce the food you eat. Surprisingly, consuming just water doesn't seem to do the same trick.

So those are just 5 of the diet secrets we have for you this year.

(Mickey's note: I know Craig didn't mean this to be an all encompassing nutrition article but I feel the need to add a very simple but important tip...

* Ditch the liquid calories. Soda, ice tea, lattes, "energy" drinks, etc. are just full of nutritionless, empty calories.)

Stay tuned for proven secrets to help you lose fat in 2010.

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

About the Author

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Muscle and Fitness Hers, and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked Turbulence Training fat loss workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and Maximum Fitness magazines, and have helped thousands of men and women around the world lose fat, gain muscle, and get lean in less than 45 minutes three times per week. For more information on the Turbulence Training workouts that will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment, visit www.TurbulenceTraining.com

Sugar, Sugar

No, this isn't a post about that annoying Archies song. Then again, it wasn't as bad as Seasons in the Sun. :-p

Anyway...

Although sugar consumption has been linked to raising levels of obesity, tooth decay and diabetes, food companies are continuing to increase the amount of sugar they add to many of their products. Processed foods contain some of the highest amounts of sugar, often with levels closely approaching or even higher than 20 grams of sugar per 100 grams of food.

When you think of sugary foods, you may think of cupcakes and pies but breakfast cereals, bread, and even soup have seen large increases in added sugar. It’s now routine to find whole grain bread that contains almost a teaspoon of sugar per 3 slices. In 1978, tomato soup had less than 3 grams of sugar; today it has more than 6 grams. In that same time period, Kellogg’s Special K went from approximately 10 grams of sugar for every 100 grams of cereal to 17 grams, almost equal to the sugar level in vanilla ice cream.

U.S. sugar consumption has climbed dramatically over the years. At the end of the 1800's it averaged about 20 pounds per person per year. Current estimates range from 142-170 pounds per person per year!

The average American eats 20 teaspoons of added sugars per day, twice the USDA recommended limit of 10 teaspoons for people eating a healthy 2,000 calorie diet.

People are always looking for the latest diet. No fat, low fat, low carb, no carb, cabbage soup, etc. If you did nothing else but limit your consumption of processed foods (most anything that comes in a bag or box) and added sugar, you would lose weight.

And it's not just a matter of expanding waistlines. For information on the negative effect on excess sugar on your health go to Sugar's Effect on Your Health
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