Starting the Food Revolution

Of all the things we could use in life, inspiration to make things better for our children is one we can use every day.

If you haven't already signed Jamie Oliver's petition, please do so. This is not about the perfect diet for your child, it's about a better diet for all children. Steps in the right direction need to be made and I hope signing the petition makes your day!

Lack inspiration to make a change in your environment, your kids and their future? Watch Jamie Oliver speak at TED!

A blog that needs sharing

Get inspired. Photos. Colors. Food. Amazing.

Fast Food Snob

I am one. So what?

I remember way back when I watched a John Berardi lecture, where he explained what a perfect day was. You wake up, you have your perfectly planned balanced breakfast, your post workout shake, your prepacked lunch, you afternoon snack in your car, then a great healthy perfectly acid base balanced dinner...and then you think oh I am having a perfect day, and another one, and another one, and then life happens.

Then you come home, starved, dehydrated, you've missed the last three meals, you are so stress ridden from traffic your hands are shaking, your back aches and you can barely remember waking up...was that even today? There are days, when you can't wait to get your veggies out of the fridge and cut them up, where all the meat looks bland, and the thought of an egg sounds like too much work to even start cracking on. If you were a normal person, you would have gone through the local drive through and enjoyed your local choice of fast food. А burger, or two, with fries, or not. Me...I'm a fast food snob, so I go by the store, pick up the best whole wheat bread with apples and cinnamon, a pack of the most delicious gourmet goat cheese, some fresh butter and I am off home, to make two pieces of toast with plenty of great tasting cheese and enjoy it with a glass of very well chilled Pinot Grigio. 100% satisfaction 0% crap 200% fast food.

Buffet lunches, large waistlines and other jiggly thoughts...

This is a small dessert spoon. It's sitting on top of my coffee cup. The small dent in it is all I ate of that artificial tasting cube of jello, one of the desserts at a Sunday buffet. There wasn't really much choice, brownies, ice cream, strawberry mousse, muffins, apples and oranges.

There were all sorts of people at the buffet: families with macaroni and cheese eating kids, moms with lettuce laden plates, dads with two bowls of chili each...and then there were the really really large people next to our booth.

We were starved and exhausted from working out when we got there, so each of us got salad with plenty of cheese, soups with the most meat and some corn bread. We splurged on a piece of bread each, and I had two slices of orange for desert, while my partner had some ice cream. I did want to try the jello and you can tell how great it was from the picture of the leftover of my first and only serving of it. As I was trying to take that photo, I noticed that the girl from large couple sitting next to us was enjoying another serving of dessert, after ice cream. She was having 10 of these same jello things that I had just tried. They were the most nutritionally empty choice she could have made, given there were apples, ice cream and cottage cheese...so I wondered is it that people have no choice. I will admit that I love watching heavier people eat and shop because it gives me an insight into their choices and the power they have to choose what's good for them and what's not. This girl had already chosen a pink sugar drink, baked potato with chili and sour cream and cheese and now was digging into a second desert. Given the metabolic and mental complications most bigger people have to deal with, I can imagine those choices didn't help.

We can argue until tomorrow on the health and genetic origins of being heavier and having a hard time losing weight, but when you watch a couple engaging in the same behavior you can't ignore the strong relationship. Could we be the larger couple? Sure. We would just have to choose to not exercise and eat at much as we want at the buffets we go to. Oh, and I might need to learn to like jello.

No bottomless bowl

During a lecture at last week's Fitness Retreat we were discussing how much is enough to satisfy a craving. In the context of emotional eating, where we are filling a nearly bottomless pit, the answer is closer to infinity. And yes, every conscious eater finds the following to be true:

whether you have a little or a lot, you eventually come to the end

It could be the end of a piece of candy, a red vine, a bar of chocolate, a box of chocolates, the bottom of a box of ice cream, your safe stash of super duper healthy double organic raisins, or a bottle of juice, sooner or later, 50 or 500 or 2500 calories later, it's over, diet goals be damned.

In Mindless Eating, a brilliant book I picked up last year, they invariably show that if food is available and easy to see, it will be eaten. If you are one of those people that come home with the intent to eat clean only to finish off a bar of chocolate that was meant to last a week, consider the following no bottomless bowl laws:

1. Sooner or later, you've eaten it all. You'll digest it, assimilate it and some of it will go on top of your hard earned muscle. You'll see abs "some other time" as we say in Bulgarian. Knowing this, choose to beat the quantity, not the quality. Have a piece of chocolate, fully conscious that one more won't add more taste or more satisfaction, it will add more time to your goal. It will add more fat to your body. More dissatisfaction, more sacrifice. You don't want it THAT bad. Limit yourself to 10% of your calories for the day in happy foods and you've had enough.

2. Doughnuts aren't love. We all need to feel good. It just so happens that most feel good foods are not feel lean foods. Face the feelings that overwhelm you at moments when you want to eat. Find alternate ways to show yourself that you love your body and you give it the best it deserves. Some of us want to mask a feeling, by coating it with a thick layer of sugar, others want to make food disappear, because they want to make a problem disappear. Honestly, will it?

3. It's all in your head. Have you even spent the afternoon thinking of going home and destroying whatever is in the fridge. Taking a break. Doing it all for fun. Sometimes the thought of food excites us so much that it paints a picture we crave even more. Try this simple NLP exercise. Imagine your food like it's on a TV screen, watch it and think of how you are going to enjoy it. Then make the image black and white and shrink it to the bottom right of the screen until it's so tiny you almost can't see it. This simple tricks works great. If it doesn't work, go back to law 1 and use the 10% rule.

There is really no magic to beating emotional eating, sometimes it takes months and years to face the real issues behind it, if one is willing and patient, but I have seen the damage from food minimized, until real solutions present themselves.

Easter: West vs East

Easter comes a week later in Bulgaria. In the west of the Christian world, Easter lunches and early family dinners are long forgotten, digested, assimilated and worked off. Here, we are still battling the drama of Easter bread.

It's easy to spot the differences between the typical North American Easter meal and the Orthodox Christian traditional meal. Most people in the US, for example, will have one family gathering, where salad, ham and potatoes and possibly some cake will be present. Less of a feast than Thanksgiving and very similar to Christmas. If you happen to like Peeps, and end up roasting one of the poor things, you might have one before you've had enough.

Here, in the east, the nutritional drama begins with baking the traditional Easter cookies, usually on Thursday, ones rich in lard, butter and sunflower oil, sprinkled with sugar crystals and smelling so good, that all neighbors want to come and exchange recipes with you. Thus, Friday starts with coffee and one two or three of grandma's cookies. Saturdays see the making of traditional Easter bread, a yeast based fluffy, doughy treat, that is both sweet and not very filling, one that you can have a lot of and one that mates beautifully with butter and jam, dunks famously in milk and coffee and is best eaten with a bowl of fullfat plain yogurt. Since most families are serious about their Easter bread, they use the same dough to make mini scones and rolls and fill them with plum preserves, raisins, almonds and walnuts. These are best eaten warm out of the oven, and cause zero satiety. which is why two or more of them are usually what one eats while making Easter Bread. Dinner on Saturday is served after and before a piece of the aforementioned treat and Sunday breakfast is mostly the same bread with boiled eggs that fell victims of egg fights (in an egg fight, you just hit two eggs together, there is no throwing happening, much to the contrary of what some foreigners imagine). Sunday lunch is traditional lamb roast with rice stuffing, also followed by eggs and Easter bread. Of course, tea and coffee in the afternoon are accompanied by each faimily's traditional cookies and Easter breads, but now joined by their neighbors' and relatives's recipes too, since it's a tradition to bring those to people you love and care for...


To sum up, Orthodox Easter looks like your normal menu with the following additons:

Thursday night: warm cookies
Friday morning: cookies
Friday night in front of TV: cookies
Saturday: warm scones and rolls and Easter Bread
Sunday: now colder Easter Bread with butter and jam and plenty of eggs and lamb

After 4 days like this, most of my clients show up slightly bloated and needing extra training sessions to offset the calories they consumed.

Luckily, it's hard to eat over 4 lbs of Easter bread, which is how much it takes to put on 2 lbs of fat.

100% natural

Double muscle, mmm...some bodybuilders would so take you up on that...

I think it's just scary how "natural" selection produces animals that weigh over a ton...

I have a few questions now...

Do you think they "naturally" select the guys who take care of the cows? It takes a certain kind of attitude to feel good about "shaving the animal to expose the muscle"

Does such "natural" selection happen in the human world? Doubt it.

Where does natural end, is it at the point where they mention artificial insemination or is it where we add the preservatives after we've got a hold of the "lean cuts" ?

Oh, and if the Belgian Blue was grass fed, how many acres of land would it take to grow one in 100 years?

Summer gone breakfasts

I love it when seasons change, for a few weeks you get to see your body adapt so readily to anything nature throws your way. I was just thinking of all the changes that we get to experience in fall. Unlike spring, when everything wakes up, the fall is a time of relaxation, reflection and conservation. The cold of seasonal change gets offset by new preferences for food and drinks. This is also where most of my clients will stop losing bodyfat, unaware that they had two extra cappuccinos, three spoons of honey in their tea and a few extra bowls of hot soup. Your body knows how to call for heat. You rarely think digestion takes energy, but cold foods need to start falling off the breakfast menu. If you've been listening to your body, you probably had something like this today:

PB vanilla oatmeal

1 cup cooked oatmeal
1 tsp pumpkin spice
1 tbsp crunchy all natural peanut butter
1 scoop vanilla protein powder

Once you're done cooking your oatmeal, set your pot outside so it cools off fast, but keep the lid on. It would take about 10 minutes till its the right temperature. Stir all other ingredients into it, then eat with patience. A great way to enhance this would be to heat up two tablespoons of butter (if you have clarified (ghi) butter, it's best), then add the spices for a few seconds and pour on top. This adds extra calories, but it also lets your neighbors know you are serious about your spices.



Other spices for cold weather that you can play with:

anise
cloves
turmeric
cumin
cinnamon
mustard seeds (careful when you heat those up in butter, they tend to explode)
nutmeg
dried ginger
chili pepper

Things that warm you up you didn't know about:

honey
butter (ghi)
sour cream
almonds
walnuts
peanuts

Something else you didn't know:

Oatmeal actually cools you off on its own, so adding any of the above to it will both neutralize and bring it up in energy.

Listen more, eat warm, and if you have no cold mornings where you live, you can always turn your AC up.

Cholesterol

I loved this video on cholesterol. I was reading Paul Chek on cholesterol and inflammation this morning and this video came very timely. After spending a few long weeks in the USA I realize people here are even more confused than Bulgarians about cholesterol. At least we still have some respect for lard back home...

Shaking things up!

I was just writing some shake recipes for a client and I though, why not publish them here!
To me, food is just one more way to experience the world, very much like music. Every now and then you hear a new song and you play it every day until it gets old. These shakes have had the exact same effect on me, that's why they are my favorites!

All you need is a blender and 30 seconds :)

Coffee Delight
1/2 cup cold coffee
½ cup milk or 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
½ pear
1 tbsp walnuts
dash of cinnamon

Green tea rise and shine
1 cup strong green tea - cold
4 cubes of ice
1 scoop protein powder
1/2 apple

Berry Burst
1 cup yogurt
1 dash vanilla extract
1 tsp sweetener (Stevia)
½ cup frozen berries
1/3 cup ricotta cheese

Mint lemon shake
1 cup yogurt
Zest of 1/3 lemon
1 tbsp mint leaves
½ cup ricotta or cottage cheese
1 tsp Stevia

Strawberry and protein bar shake
1/2 protein bar (chocolate)
1 cup strawberries
1 cup yogurt

Enjoy shaking things up :)

THE HEALTHY FOOD BANK

I am both happy and touched by the new initiative that John Berardi and the PN team have started. The least I can do, is spread the word!

Yesterday I ate 7 meals and 4,500 calories.

Yet millions of people in the US and Canada didn't eat one.

What a contrast!

And trust me, the irony isn't lost on this big eater.

Most people think of hunger as something that only affects
remote areas of the world, or the homeless you see living on
the streets.

Call me a slow learner, but I recently realized that this
is FAR from the truth.

Recently, I learned that tons (millions, in fact) of
everyday people, especially children, single parents, and
the elderly, go hungry each day right here in our own states
and provinces.

The amazing thing is that these children are kids we know,
these parents include some we hang out with, and these
elderly are your peers, your parent's peers, and your
grandparent's peers.

Sure, they hide it well. But that doesn't make them any
less hungry.

Learning all this, and being touched personally by hunger,
inspired me to take action.

As a result, for the last year, the entire Precision
Nutrition team and I have spent a lot of time thinking about
how we can help bridge "the gap."

What gap?

>>The gap between those who buy and eat the best
>>foods . . .

>>. . . and those who can barely afford to buy any
>>food at all.

In the end, we came up with something we're very proud of:

>>The Healthy Food Bank.

And although we've been working hard behind the scenes for
nearly a year on this project, this month we're officially
spreading the word.

So, what's the Healthy Food Bank?

>>The Healthy Food Bank is a registered charity that
>>purchases nutritious staples - good food - for local
>>food banks and shelters around North America.

And today, I'd like to send you to our new web site:

http://www.healthyfoodbank.com

In doing so, we'd like you to know about the new project
and we'd also like to give you access to some food articles
we think you'll find very interesting.

Further, we'd like to announce something special.

>>For the next 45 days, if you purchase a copy of our
>>highly acclaimed Gourmet Nutrition cookbook, 10% of
>>the sale will go directly to the Healthy Food Bank.

What this means is that by boosting the health quotient of
your own food, you'll also be helping to boost the health
quotient of the kids, the single parents and the elderly in
your own city who can't afford to eat tonight.

Hey, I hate clichés, but if there ever was such as thing as
a "win-win," this is it.

So pick up a copy of Gourmet Nutrition today, and let's help
do some good for a lot of people in need.

http://www.gourmetnutrition.com

What to do with a whole salmon?

Why eat salmon? For me, it combines almost everything I need out of a meal: high quality protein, sufficient fats (hopefully most of the Omega 3 stay after cooking), high satiety and less fishy taste than most other fish. Cooking it is clean and easy and leaves your kitchen smelling good, unlike other types of fish.

It seems like a waste to just bake a whole salmon. First, I don't see 6 lbs of meat go in one day, because we are a one fish eater household, second, there is something to steamed salmon fillets that I just love. So there I had it in front of me, shiny, cold and ready to go.

I found a great link that shows how to cut salmon fillets.
I took it a step further, and cut a couple of cutlets, too. Once you get to the thickest part of the fish, you can cut beautiful cutlets, and save the rest for fillets.

What I had left in the end was 4 cutlets, 6 fillets, two smaller fillets from around the head and the spine, tail and head. The last three are turning to soup in a few hours and all the rest went in ziplocks to be frozen for easy cooking during the week.

I usually cook all my meals the night before, so here are two simple steamed one person salmon recipes:

Ginger salmon

Put the fillet in steamer, cover and steam for 12-15 minutes. You can do this directly with frozen fillets, and it takes a few minutes longer. While the fish is steaming, prepare the sauce:

1/2 cup pineapple (chopped up)
2 tbsp fresh ginger (chopped up)
2 tbsp coconut milk
1 tbsp butter (or ghi)

Melt the butter and quickly stir in the pineapple and ginger. Simmer with the coconut milk for 2-3 minutes on medium heat, occasionally stirring.

Rosemary salmon

Put the fillet in steamer and cover with fresh or dried rosemary leaves on top and bottom. Steam for 7 minutes. Open, cover with 2 tbsp of sour cream, sprinkle some black pepper on top and cover again to cook for another 5-7 minutes.

I intend to cook my mother's fish soup later, that includes carrots, peeled tomatoes, onions and celery, depending on the outcome, I will be posting the recipe here later :)

Omega 3 fats fight weight gain

We have to thank mice, again. Researchers in Japan, fed overweight mice a diet that was 30% fat. One group of mice received 8% of that in the form of fish oil. 5 months later, the mice that were given fish oil had significantly reduced weight gain than the poor fellas that were given no fish oil.
The cool thing is that the fish oil had an effect on lipid metabolism genes, as well as lipid metabolism related enzymes. The fish oil group also had higher levels of fatty acid ß-oxidation. Even though this study was looking at one of the mechanisms in which fish oil could lower body fat, namely intestinal lipid metabolism, it's another piece to the puzzle that will let us appreciate the many ways fish oil reduces fat levels.

abstract here

Lyle McDonald Speaks

When I first got acquainted with Lyle's work, I was avidly interested in anything low carb, figuring whether PSMF was better than CKD or TKD, going crazy over what went wrong with my calculations, asking why my body fat was not rapidly approaching the zero mark. Funny now that I think back, since human physiology is a lot more complicated than that and there is a lot more to the "thoughts in and food in" side of the equation. I was over at the bodyrecomposition forums, reading, soaking in the information and becoming very critical of notions that were very black and white before I heard Lyle speak about them.
I am glad Lyle has a blog now, where I can get more critical insight into topics that move me. He makes it a light read, and certainly one that you cannot regard as blogging for blogging's sake.

My favorite so far:
How many carbohydrates do you need?

Coconut chicken lemongrass soup

Intuitive eating led me through a spice filled counter, where I found a few attractive stalks of lemon grass. Then I thought how wonderful, there are no lime-leaves in Bulgaria to make Thai coconut chicken soup, but I can modify and see what happens. An hour later, we ate an absolutely mouth watering-second-helping-for-everyone soup, the recipe follows:

1 lb. raw chicken breast, diced
3 tbsp butter
2 cans coconut milk
2 fresh lemon grass stalks, white part only, chopped
1.5 tbsp. chopped fresh ginger
1 tbsp lemon pepper
1 cup hot water
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1 lime
sweet salt to taste (I used Himalayan pink salt)
fresh cilantro

Melt the butter and cook the chicken in it. Add all the spices and the lime zest. Stir. Add the coconut milk and water, cover and boil at medium heat for 20 minutes. Serve with cilantro on top.

I love coconut and coconut milk, because the fats are very nutritious, while the chicken is too lean, so these two complement each other wonderfully. Medium chain fatty acidsfgive me a lot of sustained energy, lemon grass is antibacterial and antifungal and chicken is very calming. I claim this the perfect anti-stress food.

It's not what Stevia can do for your sweet tooth...

...it's what it can do for your blood sugar!
When a 200-some lb. guy says half a packet of Stevia gave him low blood sugar after a meal high in protein and fat you can't but think twice about all the research you've read. I truly like to sum it up like this:

- Stevia is sweet. Sweeter than sugar.
- Stevia is safe compared to other sweeteners like aspartame.
- Stevia has an effect on pancreatic beta cells, thus lowering blood sugar (both acute and in long term studies)
- Stevia can lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure
- It has a mild diuretic effect

Any or all of the effects could have caused him to feel hypoglycemic, he could have been had low blood pressure, but never checked.

In addition, Stevia is known to have anti-inflammatory properties, to kill fungi, bacteria and viruses. It's also known to help ward off caries. Coming from a cavity-prone genetic tree, and a culture where Calcium was not added to anything in my young years, I find this pretty cool.

I have used Stevia many times, in food preparation (it's heat stable), and in drinks (lemonade, shakes). I have never ever experienced any acute blood glucose lowering effects.

If you are suffering from treated diabetes whether it's type 1 or 2 I would suggest you measure your blood glucose after ingesting Stevia, and check with your endocrinologist about the dosage of your medication. If you are healthy, see if having a non caffeinated drink with Stevia causes you to feel sleepy, lethargic, or weak, nauseated and shaky. If it does, check if drinking it on a full stomach makes a difference. I think feeling low after Stevia would be a concern for people following either a low carb or a lower carb low calorie diet, as it naturally causes them to have lower blood glucose. Then again, I have been following a lower carb plan for over 4 years and have never been hypoglycemic because of Stevia.

I believe that if used in moderation, Stevia extract is a great alternative to sweeteners and sugar, but like everything else, bear in mind that individual reactions may vary.

To read more about Stevia and check out a list of studies, follow this source!

The Stevia product I enjoy most for taste and convenience is made by Now Foods.
The box has little packets you can take anywhere, they are flavor free, which makes them great for cooking purposes too. I am not a fan of the liquid versions as I like containers I can transport safely and easily.

Faster Fast Food

Just when you think you've seen fast food. Forget your drive through. The 3 calories you spent оrdering from the comfort of your vehicle can now be spent on opening this!

It's a no-kidding-cheeseburger-in-a-can. The world has officially gone crazy, my friends. There is always balance. To every bag of organic spinach bought, I am sure somewhere a cheeseburger can pops open.

It's got a whopping 14 grams of protein, 12 grams of fat, and 21 grams of carbs. I am sure it's as satisfying as 257 calories get.

Next time your McDonald's eating buddy goes camping, you know what to get him :)

Intuitive eating or new age BS?

Is there a way that our bodies know what they need at a particular time?

Part of me has heard 'Oh, I just need something sweet in the afternoon" and answered "No, you just need real food, because you're hungry for nutrients" so many times that it wants to say c'mon, leave the new age BS behind. Another part makes interesting spontaneous choices at the grocery store or the fruit stand.

Consider these occasions.
Last winter I was walking home feeling a bit nauseous. I walked by the fruit stand and saw a pineapple. I hadn't bought one in a year. I ate pineapples all week, then got tired of them. At the time of choice I was convinced I needed it. After eating it, I felt great.
A few days ago I bough salmon and spinach. Just like that. There was nothing else I wanted. There were plenty of options.
Today I bought eggplant and garlic and made a rich and quite smelly salad that tasted great. I hadn't made it in 6 months. I had the conscious conviction that this was the best for me at the moment.

So here comes the question? If part of me believes that the need for "something sweet" in the afternoon means that you are just hungry and if a part of me believes that you cannot 'need" processed foods, then does another part believe that you can intuitively choose what's best for you at the moment.

Is there a way that food may connect us to past experiences. When your brain says "pear", does your memory say " eating a pear with Peter on the bench and feeling happy!". When your brain says "pineapple" does it need the digestive enzymes or your childhood memories of feeling safe and cozy?

Is there a map in our subconscious minds of what foods are good when, and if so, is it possible that we can only read it when we don't abuse our bodies with processed foods, alcohol, sodas, etc?

Does the map change with our beliefs?

No need to feel low about low carb

Most people cringe at the thought of cutting out carbs drastically. They report initial weakness, tiredness, feeling a lack of energy in the gym, loss of muscle tone and a general feeling of no well-being.
Our studio is a huge low carb lab. We have the rare chance to watch hundreds of compliant and not so compliant people that have chosen to follow the low carb approach and have modified it to suit their lifestyles. Very often, while explaining the benefits of a low carb approach to a new client, I get...well, I did the protein thing and it didn't work. I got so and so side effects, I lost some weight, but I felt terrible. When did the low carb approach become high-protein?



Let's look at the composition of a low carb diet:

* low carbs
* moderate protein
* high fat

It's as simple as that, yet many people disregard it's simplicity. They fight against the fat that is going on their plates harder than they fight the stubborn fat on their abs.

The people that report feeling low on low carbs usually have done one or more of the following:

* limited calories and carbs at the same time
* did not eat high fat
* ate too much protein
* ate too rarely and too little

There is an inherent need to do things right when cutting out carbs:

* eat at maintenance at first and only lower calories if fat loss does not happen for 2 weeks
* set your protein anywhere from 0.75 to 1.25 grams of protein per lb of bodyweight depending on physical activity and gender
* set your fat intake above 65% of total calories
* choose highly nutritious foods that naturally contain both fat and protein
* do not rely on dairy to fill your protein and calorie needs at least at first, since most people report unwanted digestive trouble when they do that; use dairy as a flavor, not as a main staple of your meals
* follow the approach for a long time, e.g. 3-6 months before you judge how you feel

Here are some of the benefits on eating lower carbs that I have experienced during the past 4 and a half years:

* improved body composition
* improved immune system status
* higher amount of muscle
* better mental clarity and improved concentration
* less frequent blood sugar drops
* improved digestion
* improved sleep
* improved joint health

I have frequently asked does one need to stay in ketosis to reap the benefits of low carb? I believe it is not so. I think the only times we need to drastically reduce carbs (e.g. <20-30 grams a day) is when we want to remind our bodies they need to rely on fat as a fuel source. Appropriate times are:

* after a number of days with higher carbs
* after a high carb cheat meal
* during a fat loss plateau
* before periods when discipline eating will not be possible
* in the beginning of a longer dietary cycle that includes calorie restriction

I also believe that the food choices are what makes the low carb approach successful. I constantly see frustrated people that have eaten nothing but chicken breast and white fish and greens and feel terrible.

Here are my top favorite low carb staples:

PROTEIN:

lamb
pork
salmon
beef
liver
cod liver
whole free range eggs
parmesan cheese
feta cheese
cottage cheese
whole yogurt

VEGGIES:
celeriac
celery
broccoli
spinach
cabbage
zucchini

FATS/OILS:

butter
olive oil
coconut oil

A typical day would therefore include:
(for a 125 lb female on a weight/fat loss cycle)

Breakfast:
3 eggs
cup of yogurt
broccoli

Lunch:
salmon
cabbage salad

Snack:
cod liver

Dinner:
spinach with butter
cottage cheese

I have recently discovered the convenience of canned raw cod liver, which is extremely rich in vitamins and essential fatty acids and ranks very high on the satiety scale.

A lot of people like to take a meal off a week, and I think that is perfectly fine if you are reaching your goals. If not, I find that strict dieting can still be fun with foods like:

peanut butter
coconut milk and cream
sour cream mixed in with protein powder
all natural hot cocoa

Last, but not least, limiting carbs still leaves place for limiting calories. Since most low carb foods are also rich in nutrients and energy, measuring and weighing becomes an important factor to success. Truth be told, 80% of my clients have great results without ever tracking quantity and relying on their body's ability to self regulate. Those of us that have a long history of dieting and hard time shedding body fat should definitely respect the calorie law. We are also the ones that would mostly benefit from refeeds, calories cycling and other approaches we can integrate withing the low carb lifestyle.

Still not losing fat?

I spend at least an hour a day explaining to frustrated people why their fat loss has stalled, slowed down or not ever happening. I see a lot of explaining, complaining and meet a lot of resistance when people find out they need a pretty accurate estimate of how much they are eating! I loved this video that Leigh Peele shot to portray just how easily we can fall into the trap of thinking we are doing everything right!


Here is my list of foods that people love to measure more of!

* olive oil

* peanut butter

* nuts

* cheese

* butter

* sour cream

* fruit

* honey

* cream or milk in coffee

I have been measuring and eyeballing food for more than 12 years now. While some people might find it obsessive, I feel that being aware of not only what you eat, but also how much you eat is a key to maintaining or changing your physique. If you're not progressing toward a goal, the quantity of your otherwise healthy food might be where you need to look for an answer!