The Ultimate Eating Strategies for Health, Weight-Loss & Fat Reduction

Staying with this weeks theme of "functional nutrition" and body composition improvement... let's continue to keep it real...

The new buzz word on nutrition is the Ketogenic, or KETO Diet.. a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet... round 2 of Atkins if you will... here we go!

But let's not focus on the "fads"... let's focus on the "real".. and what it takes to clean it up... once and for all.

Bottom line is this.. as Americans.. we overindulge in sugars and carbs.. we know it.. sweets, sugars, breads, cookies, muffins, and baked goods and our palate have an ongoing love affair that is hard to stop...

There is another camp.. that has a love affair with salt... both camps are in trouble if they run this play for an extended period of time... so what do we do? 

#1: Acknowledge you have a problem.

#2: Realize.. although you feel decent now.. your state is only going to decline over time if you continue along your treck of dietary destruction.

#3:Fruits and Vegetables must become the BASE of your personal food pyramid.. reprogram yourself to say: Crave Sweets = Eat Fruit... Crave Salts = Eat Vegetables or Lean Meats...

#4: Eat when you are hungry.. food is meant to be consumed in greater quantities when training, exercising, and burning calories.. and consumed in much lesser quantities when not doing anything!

#5: THINK ABOUT ADDING... not subtracting... Add fruits, add vegetables, add healthy fats (nuts, seeds, avocados), add more water.. do these things first.. eat these A+ foods first..before you even give the bad foods a chance to make their way to your mouth... eat slightly larger quantities of the good foods.. and this will naturally push the bad out..

#6: WATER. Drink water all day, everyday... making this the only dietary substitution... water as the #1 beverage you consume... want flavor? Have a HINT Water.. add natural fruit to your water.. 

#7: NO EATING 2hrs BEFORE BED... this is huge.. think about it.. food is meant to provide the energy for activity..so why would you power up your body with hundreds of calories pre-bed? This never made any sense to me... even when people say sleep requires energy.. yes it does.. but if that energy is spent on digestion rather than restoration... you will come up short in either digestion or recovery or both!

#8: YOU ARE THE CUSTOMER AT THE RESTAURANT.. this means.. you can modify your food... at dinner with AROD last night.. he ordered a steak.. they put a cream sauce on it.. he asked for no cream.. they put cream.. he sent it back.. it came back with no cream, less calories, and a much healthier meal. Request no cream, no salt, no butter, and "Dry" at restaurants... they will happily take the request... and always double the vegetables.. subbing the carbs...

#9: SIMPLE WORDS OF WISDOM FROM A 55+ COMMUNITY... down in Florida I was at a 55+ community talking to one of the residents... I said, "how do you go out to eat everyday and stay lean?"... he said that he uses a very simple formula..."No bread, no dessert"... that simple...I cut the sugars... pretty simple.. pretty easy... I like it.. we should all keep it this simple..

#10: LESS INGREDIENTS... THE HEALTHIER THE FOOD (TYPICALLY).. find foods that have 1-3 ingredients.. if you can consume a diet of foods containing few than 3 ingredients.. you will typically be eating more natural foods.. less stress on the body to process..and more bang for your buck... look at any boxed products, deli meat, or any processed food for that matter.. you will see dies, additives, sugars, salts, and many other "fillers"... all foreign to your body... keep it simple! 

These are simple tips... but the bottom line is KEEP IT NATURAL... eat when you are hungry and based on activity level, limit starchy carbs or cut them out... sub all beverages for water... fruits and vegetables as the base of your eating plan.. and lean meats for your proteins.. but only making up 10-15% of your daily intake... that is it folks! Simple and most effective when combined with a solid training program... KEEP IT SIMPLE. #EatLikeAPro