*All these drinks are “diet” drinks because they have no or negligible calories, but you can certainly enjoy them whenever. I also probably would not be able to diet successfully without them.*

1. Holiday Mocha

These taste fantastic. I’ve been drinking one every morning, especially since the weather has turned here in Chicago.

2. Hot Green Tea

When dieting, I take green tea extract (as should you), but I love hot green tea as well. I feel this “heats me up” just as well as the extract. Usually I buy an enormous 100-bag matcha blend from Costco’s Kirkland brand.

3. Yerba Mate Tea

This is a unique tea that contains the full “theo/thea” line of amino acids: theanine, theobromine, and theophylline (you may recognize theanine from green tea and theobromine from chocolate). I think I read somewhere that it is the only known source that has all three, or maybe the only tea, but don’t quote me on that. In any case, it’s not common to find all three together and you get a really smooth energy/alertness from it.

We sell this one, and I’m also enamored with Cruz de Malta Yerba Mate. Finally, there is an awesome offer from Tim Ferriss and our friends at Samovar where you can buy this 4-Hour Workweek Organic Mate Set; 100% of profits go to charity and you can pick the charity of your choice through DonorsChoose.org. The last one makes an awesome holiday gift.

4) SoBe 0 Cal Life Water

Unbelievable taste for something that contains no artificial sweeteners or sugar. Uses stevia and a natural sugar alcohol called erythritol. My favorites are Açaí Fruit Punch and Yumberry Pomegranate.

5) Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi

I’m sure that I’m going to catch a lot of flak for this, but I really don’t think that aspartame is proven dangerous in humans. Before you throw PubMed links at me, remember: humans aren’t rats. Aspartame is irrefutably less deleterious than diabetes, so don’t throw the “regular pop is better than diet” argument at me, either.

Look, the jury is still out and there’s no body count; no coroner has ever pronounced death from acute or insidious aspartame poisoning. And damnit, these are great when you’re starving on a diet. File this last bit under “things I know, but can’t prove”: the carbonation in pop fills you up and blunts hunger, too.

6. Xyience Xenergy Drinks

These things are sinfully good. An indulgence with just enough caffeine to wake you up, but not enough that you can’t drink 3 per day and stack with Cytolean V2. The kicker? These don’t have any aspartame or artificial coloring, either, so if I wasn’t able to talk the anti-aspartame zealots off their pedestal, no worries with these.

Seriously, try one. This list isn’t in any particular order but if it was, these might be my #1, especially Blueberry Pom.

7. Kukicha Tea

This one’s a bit more unorthodox, but it’s an awesome tea that not many of people are aware of.  Kukicha is made from twigs and it has a sweet creamy flavor. It’s also great because it has the lowest caffeine content of all traditional teas so you can drink it later in the afternoon/evening in lieu of undesired snacking. I enjoy Eden Foods’ organic offering.

8. Crystal Light

Do I really need to explain this one? An absolute staple to keep in your refrigerator at all times to fend off moments of weakness and kick a sweet tooth to the curb. Cran-Apple is the best, in my humble opinion.

9. Diet Snapple Iced Tea

There are three great flavors: peach, lemon, and raspberry. Crack one open and pour on ice after workouts to quench thirst. Repeat as needed.10. Water

Like that girl (guy?) you dated in high school you always call when you’re home on break from college, water is comfortable, familiar, and tasty (hopefully). And it’s also always there when nothing else sounds appealing. So drink it (or, you know, death is imminent).

Need help with other products for fat-loss or dieting? Give us a call at 800-499-4810, and we’ll help you find the stack that’s right for you.

Thanks Dave! Hope everyone enjoyed the interview as much as we did.

Dave can be found here, or email him: davevignasse [at] yahoo [dot] com.

The second half of the interview (there’s about 10 minutes left) will air on Friday.

Can’t wait to get in touch with Dave?

Visit him here, or email him: davevignasse [at] yahoo [dot] com.

Here’s a recipe for a great-tasting coffee that packs a fat-burning, focusing wham and is virtually calorie-free (with holiday twists!):

-2/3 cup of coffee (or a small Dunkin’ Donuts black on the way to work =])

-1/4 cup of hot water

-1/4 teaspoon Unsweetened Baking Cocoa

-1/4 teaspoon chocamine (1 to 2 capsules of ChocoLift — you can pull them apart and pour the contents in)

-1 to 2 packets of Splenda (to taste)

-pinch of salt (optional)

Here’s where it gets fun:

-1 cinnamon stick, or a pinch of ground cinnamon (I like the cinnamon stick because you can stir with it!)

OR

-1-2 tablespoons sugar-free peppermint syrup

Now, obviously you can mix either of these last two additions with good ol’ coffee, and I love the addition of the baking cocoa because it’s basically calorie-free (a word to the wise: sweeten it with Splenda — it’s very bitter without), but then it wouldn’t Holiday Power Mocha; enter chocamine.

Chocamine is an extract of cocoa that has a ton of benefits without any of the typical drawbacks of chocolate: sugar, fat, calories, extra belt loops  and, you know, coronaries. No big deal. In all seriousness, I love this compound. It has a slew of interesting things in it: methylxanthines (caffeine, theobromine, theophylline), biogenic amines, amino acids, minerals (magnesium and copper), and phytonutrients. Without this reading as a science paper — it is a recipe, afterall — you can expect stimulant effects and appetite suppresion, and a hefty dose of antioxidants. The “buzz” is smoother and longer-lasting than just caffeine, and for me it gives me a very unique (and desirable) mental feeling.

Leave me a comment if you need help mixing one of these up, or if you just want to debate Starbucks vs. Dunkin’ Donuts. That’s fine too. If you missed my article about minimizing the damage of holiday eating (seems relevant with Thanksgiving days away), you can find that here.

I recently read some interesting research that stated that the “average” American only gains 1lb. per year after the age of 20; furthermore, this 1lb. is only gained during the months of October - January. Thus, the average American ends up 35 years old and 15lbs. overweight (or thereabouts).

This makes sense: October through January is the murderer’s row of the calendar year when it comes to dietary transgressions. I’m reminded of a mug my aunt has that says, “Christmas calories don’t count”. Alas, the research — and Santa’s waistline — says otherwise. It’s time to learn how to play a little defense so you can be prepared when your grandma’s fruitcake mounts a convincing holiday offensive.

1) Make Better “Bad” Choices

This one probably seems obvious, but too many people are guilty of the “well, if I’m going to cheat, I might as well gorge myself until cheesecake comes out of my pores” mentality. Choose desserts that are low in fat, or are conservatively portioned. Perhaps pass on dessert yourself but instead sample the choices of those sitting around you. Ask yourself, “do I really need three bowls of ice cream to be satisfied?”

2) Bring a Dessert to the Party

Most family parties ask attendees directly to bring a dish to lighten the workload of the host; if you’re attending a party that does not require you to bring anything, I’m quite certain your homemade dessert won’t be turned away. Simply do a search for a low-fat or low-cal dessert recipe and whip it up yourself. Most desserts use more than twice as much sugar or butter than is actually needed. Then you can enjoy a serving of whatever dessert you’ve made yourself without the accompanying guilt. You don’t even need to tell anyone that it’s a “healthy” recipe.

3) Load up on Proteins and Veggies before Dessert

Lean proteins (usually turkey is readily available during this time period) and vegetables provide a powerful 1-2 punch for knocking out hunger thereby making you eat less dessert. The proteins have immediate satiating power: they blunt hunger quickly. The fiber from the veggies will slow gastrointestinal transit time (the food will stay in your stomach longer), and the sheer bulk of the veggies in your stomach will send “I’m full” signals to your brain.

4) Exercise with Increased Volume Prior to the Event

Depleting muscle glycogen (stored carbohydrate in the muscle) with a high-volume workout (lots of sets and lots of reps) is like cleaning out your garage: it gives you room to store even more stuff (i.e., glycogen from the carbohydrates you’re going to eat). Two additional bonuses are that training loads of this volume increase protein synthesis and acutely blunt hunger. So you won’t eat as much and what you do eat will be aimed at muscle-building. I recommend doing this either the day before or the day of the event, with immediately before the party being your best option.

5) Eat a Snack Before the Party

If for some reason #3 is not feasible, e.g., late-night party with just hors d’oeuvres and drinks, have a snack before you leave for the party similar in composition to what is described in #3. Fruit wouldn’t hurt, either.

6) Fast on the Day of the Event

This is likely to be a controversial topic, but stick with me. Research shows that fasting for up to 72 hours yields no muscle loss. If you know that there’s an evening party where there’s going to be some delicious food and you don’t have a lot of will power, then simply don’t eat up until when you arrive at the party. You aren’t going to die, and you’ll be able to enjoy yourself and partake in the food. If you’re on a diet that allows 2400 calories in a day, you’ll be hard-pressed to blow that number if you attend a party that starts at 8PM. If you can maintain even a modicum of self-control, you’ll be able to indulge and still not exceed your caloric intake for that day. Obviously this isn’t something that you should do very often, but it’s not as bad as people think and it’s certainly the lesser of two evils if the alternative is eating 4800 calories on a 2400 calorie diet.

7) Do a Mini-diet a Few Days Before the Party (Parties?)

This approach works even better if you’re going out of town for a weekend or something of that nature: an environment where the eating is going to be extremely unstructured and probably just as unhealthy. By setting calories extremely low during the week (something like 8-10 times body weight in calories) with the majority of those calories coming from protein and a tiny bit of essential fats, you’ll have the perfect opportunity to undo all the of the progress you’ve made during the week with a weekend of dietary licentiousness. All kidding aside, that’s probably the harsh reality, but if you’re doing it to simply break even, i.e., in order to not gain any weight, this approach will work well.

One thing I can’t emphasize enough — one thing that trumps all others above — is that if you do decide to indulge, KNOW WHEN TO STOP. You can bend a diet without breaking it, but people seem to consistently disregard that idea. There is a pervasive mentality endemic to dieters that defies conventional logic: most dieters think that if they commit even the most minuscule dietary infraction, it is an excuse to cheat for the rest of the day (week, month) and make absolute gluttons of themselves. Again, you can bend a diet without breaking it. One cookie will not a fat-ass make, but the entire bag followed by a run to the nearest drive-thru — multiplied by every time you slip up — will. If you fall off the horse, get right back on. Simple as that.

And hey, if all else fails, start off the new year right with a little Cytolean V2, one of my absolute favorites:

People throw out the “all-important” glycemic index or glycemic load a lot as a counter-example to why a calorie is a calorie. True, these are real phenomenon. But how many people really understand it?

Insulin response is fairly simple, at least topically. Insulin secretion is dictated by:

1. The amount of non-fibrous (i.e., digestible) carbohydrate eaten &
2. The rate at which these carbs (the sugar derived from them) reaches the bloodstream.

Number 2 is where the glycemic index comes from, and the product of number 2 and number 1 is where we get glycemic load. Therefore glycemic load is more accurate than glycemic index (carrots, for example, have a high glycemic index but a very low glycemic load). It is also important to note that these measures do not take into account what happens to the food when it is eaten with other foods, especially proteins, fats, and fiber. The same white rice that is such a “dangerous” food for body composition looses its edge when combined with some steak and veggies. This IS why glycemic measures above don’t have the real world application you would think; how many people eat carbohydrates by themselves? (If you do this, stop immediately, or you really will die).

So this isn’t quite the handy pocket bible people make it out to be. Ice cream, for example, has a low glycemic index and a moderate glycemic load. “Wait,” you cry, “ice cream isn’t good for you! It’s got tons of calories.” Or, “there’s no protein in it!” People know this! They inherently know CALORIC load is bad when it’s presented in that framework. Then why, oh why, do they not understand that the type and amount of carbohydrates and fats (excluding trans fats) matters little when compared to total caloric intake and protein intake?

Let me play devil’s advocate (again). Here’s a picture of Martin Berkhan:

Martin is a really smart guy from Sweden that I’ve corresponded with on some message boards. Martin got to 8% bodyfat (just a little bit less conditioned than the picture above) eating a moderately sized bowl of ice cream every night before bed. “Impossible!” those same naysayers decry. It’s entirely possible, however. Why?

Because Martin:

1. Accurately set his calories to lose weight at an appropriate rate.
2. Ate adequate amounts of protein.

(More here if those rules seem like blasphemy to you.)

Please understand that I’m not openly condoning this approach, but I’m not against it either. Many roads lead to Rome.

It works simply because Martin fulfilled the two requirements above and everything else he did in his diet paled in importance compared to those two overriding principles. Those insulin “fluctuations” Martin may have gotten from his bowl of ice cream were not enough to offset the main principles of his diet (hint, hint: see items 1 & 2 above), and I’m sure the mental relief he got from his bowl of ice cream was a pleasant reprieve from the doldrums of dieting.

So that’s it. Insulin, the “omnipotent” hormone, fails to overthrow sound dieting principles and adequate protein intake. Hopefully you learned how glycemic index differs from glycemic load, and why they may not be as useful as once thought.

Finally, a legal disclaimer so I can avoid all subsequent lawsuits: If you eat carbohydrates by themselves you won’t die. Just don’t do it (exception: during training, although it is still preferable to take them with amino acids).

Quick blog post today as I am fighting a cold and hoping that you are not!

If you are, let me lend you some of my favorite tools. Here’s what we sell that can help — immensely. I barely ever get sick and when I do, I kick the colds in days, not weeks, largely because some or all of these items:

-Vitamin D-3 Softgels

-Reacta-C Vitamin C

-Vector V2 Na-R-ALA (alpha-lipoic acid) Antioxidant

-Primal Defense Ultra Probiotic

-RM-10 Ultra Immune Health Mushroom Formula

-Oreganol Super Strength Oil of Oregano

-Garlinase Allicin Garlic Tabs

-Dr. Dunner Sambuguard // Dr. Dunner Sambuguard for Kids

-Sovereign Silver Fine Mist Throat Spray

I’ve got some interesting research about these so if anyone is curious about them let me know in the comments and I’ll whip up some facts as to why they work. Stay healthy everyone!

Are all calories created equal? I’m here to end the debate.

I’ve referenced this debate numerous times in previous blog posts, so I figured it was time to justify my feelings on the topic.

Herein lies the discrepancy, and also the fundamental reason that people can find a preponderance of evidence to support both sides of the argument: how strictly the caloric intake was controlled in the study. Let me specify further: was there adequate protein intake in the diet and were the subjects allowed to auto-regulate food intake or were their meals prescribed for them?

As you can imagine, when the two factors above are manipulated, the results of the study can vary wildly.

First off, as I’ve stressed time and time again, if protein intake is not kept at adequate levels (i.e., .8 g/lb. as a bare minimum), then the results of dieting efforts will be severely compromised. I’m ready and willing to concede that if you compare higher and lower protein intake diets, then the higher protein diet will almost always trump the lower — given that the calories are isocaloric, i.e., the same intake. In that case — the case of calories from protein vs. other macronutrients — a calorie is not a calorie. This is exactly why setting protein intake (after setting total caloric intake) is such a vital part of an effective fat-loss diet.

After establishing that protein calories are the most important calories and are relatively inflexible fixtures of effective diets, we can then examine what happens when the other macronutrients (carbohydrates and fats, and content thereof) are manipulated. The answer, (not) surprisingly, is very little. Assuming calories and protein are held steady, where the rest of the deficit comes from doesn’t really matter. Weight is lost at the same rate; furthermore, the composition of the weight lost remains the same. Kind of makes all the “brown rice and sweet potatoes or YOU’RE GONNA DIE!” people look silly, right? I wanted to point out that this occurs in situations where calories are very tightly controlled, i.e., people are not allowed to eat at will. Sure, fibrous carbs like brown rice may slow gastric emptying time, but research has also shown that the most satiating food is white potatoes. I don’t know about you, but I like feeling full while dieting. Again, this is not to say that sweet potatoes don’t work while dieting, but they certainly don’t make you lose weight any faster when calories are equal. Seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how angry asserting fact this makes people.

The other side of the coin is the studies where people are allowed to eat whatever they want given certain guidelines. What’s interesting about these studies is that we are actually able to derive why certain dietary strategies indeed work if we peel back the layers a bit.

For example, let’s examine what happens when someone is asked to reduce dietary fat to a certain level, but no other recommendations are given. Inevitably, that person loses weight because fat is the most calorically dense of all the macronutrients. For every gram of fat slashed from the diet, the person is giving away the accompanying roughly 9 calories that go with it. In long-term low dietary fat diets, however, most people end up gaining the weight back because that newly absent dietary fat has been replaced with a commensurate amount of carbohydrates, and excessive consumption of carbohydrates (especially simple carbs) has been linked to overeating.

Similarly, tell someone to reduce or remove carbohydrates from their diet and there is the initial weight-loss effect of removing a large portion of calories from the diet, as well as a marked reduction in water weight because the body holds less water on a low-carbohydrate diet. Most people eat less initially simply out of lack of options due to the removal of an entire food group (the most common food group in a typical American diet to boot; sometimes more than 50% of caloric intake). Another common mistake is confusing the quick loss of several pounds after embarking on such a diet for fat-loss. Quite simply, it’s not. It’s just water, as mentioned above.

I just wanted to note that individual variances in rate of weight-loss from diet to diet and differing levels of caloric intake are more than likely due to individual metabolic idiosyncrasies. Just because your best friend tried diet X and found it superior to all others doesn’t mean it is, per say. I’ll tell you one thing, though, more than likely diet X — if it worked for your friend — had adequate protein intake and caloric intake below maintenance.

So are all calories created equal? Is a calorie just a calorie? Strictly speaking, no, but for practical application I say YES! With a few caveats (c’mon, there’s always a catch):

1) Sufficient protein intake always trumps lack thereof. If you’re not eating enough protein and not meeting your physique goals, start here.

2) When tightly controlling caloric intake (along w/ #1, of course), the breakdown of the rest — carbs and fats — doesn’t really matter. Not enough to be statistically significant.

3) For folks seeking extremely low levels of body fat or the seriously obese, there may be exceptions to these rules, but these are outliers and shouldn’t concern the average dieter.

This post, coupled with my previous post, should give you all the information you need to set up an effective fat-loss diet. If you still need clarification on anything, just ask!

Okay guys, we’re going to take a look at a bare-bones approach to dieting for fat-loss: the essential details. No fluff, no repartee, no psuedoscientific debate.

Here’s what you need to do:

1) Create an appropriate caloric deficit. Not too much (no deficit), not too little (starvation = unsustainable).

2) Set protein intake based off of #1. Protein being the most essential nutrient to any type of diet.

3) Set dietary fat intake. More important than carbs for numerous reasons, also set off #1 & #2.

4) Everything else. From carbohydrate intake, to meal volume/frequency, to nutrient timing, all of this is minutiae compared to numbers 1-3.

*NOTE: This list is arranged in order of importance, if I didn’t make that clear.

Let me just quell the “not all calories are created equal” uprising that I can see brewing on the horizon with a big GRANTED; I’ll give you that (but it’s still minutiae, and for more on this, I really like Gary Taube’s Good Calories, Bad Calories). But, the calories in vs. calories out equation (the energy balance equation) is unequivocally the ONLY factor (that matters) when determining if a diet will yield fat-loss. If expenditure doesn’t exceed intake, you’re not going to come up on the right side of the equation (for fat-loss). Again, let me make this explicitly clear: YOU MUST BURN MORE CALORIES THAN YOU TAKE IN; this is obvious, right? Hundreds of times per month I see Internet fitness “pundits” arguing this fact. I know that eating certain foods make you less/more likely to eat more and certain foods cost more/less to digest than others (truths clung to by said pundits as the ultimate trump card against the calories in/calories out philosophy). The fact is, the practical, applicable effect of these strategies is a drop in the bucket compared to the effect of eating less than your caloric output. Don’t miss the forest for the trees. I know, I’ve said that before, but sometimes everyone in the fitness industry seems to be planted in front of the same damn tree, desperately trying to get out of the forest.

Back to #1, because I promised no fluff; how do you create an appropriate deficit? For the purposes of this article, use 10-12 calories/lb. of body weight. This may seem like one of those old wives’ tales numbers that is seemingly conjured out of convenience, but it is scientifically validated. Please understand that this is a starting point and adjustments are going to need to be made along the way. Also, the less active and more out of shape a person is, the lower the calories are going to have to be.

With regards to #2, we again find that one of those old rules of thumb has scientific backing: 1 gram of protein/lb. of body weight. When dealing with lean(er) individuals, I tend to recommend closer to 1.5 g/lb. With extremely overweight and inactive individuals, as low as .7 g/lb. may be all that’s required. In rare cases, such as a PSMF (protein-sparing modified fasting) diet, the recommendation may exceed 1.5 g/lb. The vast majority of people will find themselves within the 1 - 1.5 g/lb. bracket.

There is a strategy to automatically take into account an individual’s degree of leanness: use 1.5 g/lb. of lean body mass, not body weight. A 150 lb. woman with 20% body fat, for example, is left with 120 lbs. of lean body mass. This woman would require 180 grams of protein per day using the formula in this paragraph. Using the strategy in the previous paragraph (1 - 1.5 g/lb. of body weight), the woman would require anywhere from 150 - 225 grams of protein per day. Our recommendation of 180 grams is wholly consistent with this range.

Fat intake (#3) is fairly straightforward. I favor a moderate intake: enough to satiate and slow the rate of gastric emptying, but not enough to glut the total amount of calories; fat is more calorically dense than protein or carbohydrates. .22 - .33 g/lb. of fat is the normative range; this usually gives 10-15 grams of fat per meal if eating 4-6 times per day (which I recommend).

#4 is reserved for everything else. What’s obviously left over is carbohydrates, oddly something that people put a ton of emphasis on. As you can see from the importance hierarchy, they are last on the totem pole. Again, this is not to say they aren’t important; rather, they are less important than protein and fats. There’s a reason why there’s no such thing as an essential carbohydrate (whereas there are essential proteins and fats). What’s also left over is the logistics: how and where you distribute these calories & macronutrients throughout the day. Obviously, the logistics aspect will be what varies wildly based on personal preferences. Want to see this in action?

Let’s use a hypothetical 200lb. dieter with 15% body fat:

1. Calories: 200 lbs. x 12 cal/lb. = 2400 calories/day
2. Protein: 170* lbs. x 1.5 g/lb. = 255 grams/day (1020 calories/day) *Note: I used the lean body mass variation I presented.
3. Fat: 200 lbs. x 0.33 g/lb. = 66 grams/day (594 calories/day)
4. Carbohydrates: 2400 calories (#1) - 1614 calories (#2 + #3) = ~200 grams/day (~800 calories/day)

Translate that into something like this:

Meal One: 50g protein, 50g carbohydrates, 16g fat

Meal Two: 50g protein, 16g fat

Meal Three (pre-workout): 50g protein, 50g carbohydrates, 16g fat

Meal Four (post-workout): 50g protein, 100g carbohydrates

Meal Five: 50g protein, 16g fat

Totals: 2376 calories, 250g protein, 200g carbohydrates, 64g fat

There you have it. The essential details of how to set up a fat-loss diet. Good luck! I’m here for questions, as always.

(*Quickly while I have your attention: Apologies for the hiatus from posting — we’ve been trying to drive more readership to the blog. If you know someone who would benefit from this article, forward it along! We’d appreciate it very much. And feel free to ask us anything in the comments section! We’re at your disposal!)

Just getting into working out? Want to lose weight on your terms with no strict regimented diet - eating the same things over and over again? Confused about how to set up a “healthy diet”? We’re here to help, as always. Stick to these principles and although you won’t always be right, you’ll be doing better than 99% of the rest of the American populace.

1)      Eat every 2-4 hours, no matter what.

• I’ve seen the research about fasting (notable points: no muscle loss for the first 72 hours, increased metabolic rate and fat oxidation) and it’s great. It really is. But I feel that it’s left for those more experienced or those who have tried a simpler approach already. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that the every 2-4 hour feeding pattern is better for blood sugar levels (it’s not), or that you’ll lose fat faster this way (you won’t). I certainly won’t tell you that you can’t eat anything after 8PM* (*insert arbitrary time here - c’mon people, your stomach doesn’t know what time it is and calories after 8PM don’t magically double). All I’ll say is that after years of observing people/clients struggling through diets, NOT adhering to this approach leads to binging or cheating most often, e.g., “the day got hectic and I hadn’t eaten for six hours and then I realized I was famished so I had a cheeseburger. Sorry.” I’m the first one to tell you that many roads lead to Rome, but try this one first. It’s a willpower issue, so why make it any harder on yourself?

2)      Eat complete, lean proteins with every meal.

• Self explanatory. A meal is not a meal without protein. Protein is satiating (i.e., it keeps you full), and of all the macronutrients, it has the greatest TEF (thermic effect of food/feeding). TEF is a fancy way of saying cost of digestion. Protein costs your body more energy (calories) to break down than carbohydrates or fat. Remember the guy who told you to eat celery because “it’s a negative calorie food”? The ultimate negative calorie food, in terms of net calories lost, is protein - not celery. One other thing I think people often forget is you can’t effectively build or repair tissue (i.e., muscle) without protein. It’s important. Eat it. As an aside, aim for 1g of protein per every lb. of bodyweight once you have ingrained the habit of eating proteins at every meal. Oh, and “complete” proteins denotes that the proteins contain all eight essential amino acids (animal proteins). If you’re a vegetarian, learn which food combos yield complete proteins (e.g., beans and rice).
  

  Courtesy of foodistablog

3)      Eat fruits and vegetables with each meal.

• Start getting into this habit ASAP. It may seem odd or unappetizing at first, but you will acquire a taste for them as you go along. Nothing is healthier or makes you feel better than fruits and veggies; they’re loaded in phytonutrients and antioxidants, among other things. If you’re easing your way into it, get two veggie meals and one fruit meal per day, MINIMUM.

4)      Ensure that the vast majority of your carbohydrate intake comes from fruits and vegetables.

• This goes hand in hand with #3, and yes, this means you cut out breads, cereals, pastas, pastries, etc. If it’s a carbohydrate and it comes in a wrapper, you probably shouldn’t eat it. The exception to this rule is post-workout, where you can have a recovery beverage or meal containing simple carbohydrates. NO WHITE FLOUR!

5)      Aim for about 30% of calorie intake from fats.

• Avoid saturated fats and trans fats (hydrogenated oils often found in baked goods, crusts, sweets) for the healthier monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Sources include extra virgin olive oil, macadamia nut oil, fish oil, and flax seeds/oil. A healthy saturated fat is coconut oil.

6)      Drink only non calorie-containing beverages.

• Again, simple enough. If it has calories in it, don’t drink it. Water, tea, coffee (no sugar/cream), diet soda, and crystal light are fine. I don’t want to get into the diet soda debate here. If you’re against it, avoid it; I’m neutral. This does mean no milk, juice, soda, sugared teas, etc.

7)      Eat whole foods (except during- or post-workout drinks)

• As a general rule, whole foods are healthier, more satiating, and nutrient-dense. Post-workout drinks can be liquid because liquids digest more rapidly - exactly what we want post-workout!

A parting note is that you might want to limit dairy intake when dieting (or try it, at first). Many people have mild, undiagnosed sensitivities to dairy. Cut down on milks and cheeses (you shouldn’t be eating pizza or ice cream, anyway) and see how you feel (eggs are always okay). This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, however, so it didn’t earn its own shiny bullet point like those above, just something to consider.

Alright people, now you have no excuse! Start eating healthier using the guidelines above today. Following these sound principles will usually lead to healthy weight loss and increased sense of well-being, as well as clear up many digestive issues. And as a disclaimer, these are general principles - feel free to make them your own!

Any questions/comments? Drop me a line below in the comments section!