Phase 1 Nutrition pg 3

Nutrition pg. 4
*** 90% of your ability to lose weight and keep it off will center on what you eat. ***

What to eat:
Many diets will try to get you to portion your food in an unnatural way (e.g. 30% protein, 20% fat and 50% carbs). Eating by percentages is not a realistic way to eat or live. Keep in mind, gaining or losing weight will not depend on the ratios of protein, fat and carbs. Rather it is the calories you consume. And while refined simple carbs will make it easier for you to gain weight, you will not gain if your calorie content is less than what you use. Again, remember energy balance.

Keep in mind, the better you conform your eating habits to the following list, the better you will be able to lose weight and get healthy.

Lastly, seek to follow the “rule of thumb” guidelines whenever possible to give your body a slight edge at handling your food. But don’t beat yourself up if you can’t follow these guidelines. Eating quality foods is far more important than when you eat certain foods.

Vegetables every meal: Include as many vegetables as possible each meal (only go moderate on boiled or fried potatoes). Rule of thumb: After workouts eat half you plate with vegetables (the other half with lean protein). If you don’t workout, eat about 2/3rds of your plate as vegetables.
Keep in mind that how a food is prepared can add more in calories. Batter dipped French fries that have been deep fried can have twice the calories as fries sprayed with olive oil and baked.

For salads, pay special attention to the dressing. Some dressings have more saturated fat and calories in 2 tablespoons than a half pound of steak! The steak will fill the belly more and keep you full longer than the two tablespoons of dressing ever will. Consider lower calorie vinaigrette, salsa, or other tomato based dressings. Experiment and see what you like.

Also watch out for vegetable juices. They often contain added ingredients and they lack much of the vitamins and all of the fiber. Even homemade juice lacks the fiber.

Best advice: be gluttonous on the fibrous complex vegetables. Consider them calorie free food. Just watch how you prepare them.

Protein every meal: Eat lean protein with each meal - as lean as possible trying to avoid fatty cuts of meat. Rule of thumb: After a workout, you should make half your calories as protein. If you don’t workout, about a fourth should be protein.

Remember, with meat it is not simply the fat round the outside of the cut of meat, but fat in the lean areas of meat. This is called the marbling. Look at the red meat of a New York Strip stake. You will see the marbling lines of fat mix in with the red meat. Then look at an eye of round steak. Notice how the red portion of the meat has noticeably less veins of fat? Less fat means less calories and less artery clogging saturated fat.

For hamburger, use the highest quality of meat you can get (96~97%). Yes it is more expensive, but after you cook it you realize there is actually more “meat” and less grease to deal with. Notice how much more the 70% lean hamburger looks pink and how the 96% looks very red. This is because the more fat (which is white) mixed in with the meat, the lighter the color. Next try cooking a 70% lean hamburger and a 97% lean hamburger to see how much meat left in the pan.

For poultry, remove the skin. Most of all of the fat is concentrated there.
Fish is an excellent source of lean protein. It contains high concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids; a type of polyunsaturated fat.

Eggs and dairy are a great sources of protein. Just remember to consider reduced fat milk (1% or 2% milk fat - skim if you don’t mind the lack of flavor). Cheese should be reduce fat when possible.

Lastly, attempt to eat more skinless chicken, turkey, and fish as your protein sources than red meat due to the amount of saturated fat red meat contains.

Fats: Rule of thumb: Try to keep fat out of post workout meals but eat about 1/8th of your calories with non-workout meals. Fat slows food digestion and the uptake of protein and carbohydrates. Hence limiting it after a workout allows your body to take in nutrients quicker.

Try to focus your fat sources around fish, olive oil, nuts, avocados. But you need to stay mindful of the amount of calories in these food sources (except fish). A little bit goes a long way. Again, this is where fish oil capsules can greatly enhance your diet and health.

Fruit: Eat fruit at least once or twice a day. Rule of thumb: You can eat fruit with or between meals but after a workout is best. Try to select fruits rich in fiber and vitamins (apples slices are a good choice-especially with a teaspoon of cinnamon & sugar sprinkled over top for that apple pie taste).

Warning: watch out for fruit juices! Many juices contain large amounts of added sugar. Also, even with no sugar added juice, it can be extremely high in calories since the juice is the part of the fruit containing all the calories and it takes a lot of fruit to make juice. Stick with whole fresh fruit. It will contain more natural vitamins (some juices add synthetic vitamins to compensate). And with some fruits like apples, you will be missing the good fiber your body needs.

Beware of dried fruit. The drying process causes the fruit to undergo chemical changes that greatly increases the calories and it often loses nutrients. Just compare grapes with raisins to see the difference.

Starches (bread, potatoes, pasta, rice): Rule of thumb: Try as much as possible to limit these to only after workouts and to about 1/4^th of your food. Make sure the bulk of your grains (bread, pasta, rice) are whole grain. The reason for limiting these is due to the body’s ability to convert these to sugar. Also, eating them after exercise gives the body the sugar it needs to replenish its energy stores.

Remember to cut out as many refined carbs and sugars as possible - (white bread, white flower, white pasta, white rice, most breakfast cereal)

Liquids:
If possible, never drink your calories. Liquids do not fill the belly for long and you can drink a lot of calories very quickly. Keep your calories in the solid food you eat.

Next: Nutrition pg5

Quote:
Gaining or losing weight will not depend on the ratios of protein, fat and carbs. Rather it is the calories you consume.