Nutrition is the most important factor, outside of motivation and consistency, in a fat loss program. You could be using the best workout in the world (i.e. my Turbulence Training workouts), but you won?t lose fat if you are eating according to the ?Supersize Me? diet.
So if your current nutritional plan is preventing you from losing fat, then it’s time for you to start working on building better eating habits. This can be as simple as committing to one small nutritional improvement per day (such as replacing your lunchtime soda with water) and one large nutritional change per week (such as setting aside time on a Sunday to prepare a weekly menu and meals).
It is the consistent application of good choices that will lead to proper nutritional habits. Once you have established good nutritional habits, you’ll find yourself making better choices on a daily basis.
But you need to have a plan to make this work, just like how you have a plan for your workouts. Your nutrition plan should include the contents of every meal, as well as your grocery list for the week. This will enable you to have meal alternatives for nights when you might need to be running from one event to the other with no time or healthy snack alternatives when you are on the road between meetings.
It’s important that you make your plan something you can follow. If you are currently eating 7 meals per week at the golden arches, it wouldn’t be realistic to plan to replace those meals with carrot sticks and tofu this week. A better plan would be to substitute a couple of those meals with healthier sandwich options and then work on improving things even more in the following weeks.
So here’s a three-step guideline on building a better nutrition plan:
1) Prepare a weekly menu. Outline each meal and snack for every day of the upcoming week. Take into account the possibilities that you might work late or get invited out to lunch. The more options you have and preparations you make, the better you will be able to stick to your fat loss plan.
2) From your menu plan, you’ll now know what foods and ingredients you need to make it through the week. Make your grocery list and stick to it (see mine below). Grocery shopping is your first opportunity to break some bad nutritional habits. You can’t eat chips, cookies, or cakes if you don’t have them in the house ? so don’t buy them and you’ll avoid any future temptation.
3) Prepare the meals or prepare the ingredients so that making the actual meal doesn’t take a lot of time. Like shopping, it’s best to do all of these preparations at one time (such as on a Sunday or another day off).
My shopping list includes:
Fruits
? Apples
? Oranges
? Blueberries
? Melon
? Peaches
? Grapefruit
? Raspberries
Vegetables
? Peppers (red, yellow, green, & orange),
? Spinach
? Asparagus
? Broccoli
? Snow Peas
? Mushrooms
? Frozen mixed vegetables
? Tomato sauce
Protein Sources
? Chicken breasts
? Turkey breasts
? Salmon fillets
? Lean beef
? Skim milk
? Low-fat, low-sugar yogurt
Carbohydrates
? Oat bread
? Oatmeal (no sugar added)
? Whole-wheat pasta
Other
? Green tea
? Fish Oils
? Unsalted, (& sometimes dry roasted), nuts such as Almonds, Walnuts, and Cashews
You’ll notice that most of these foods come without a food label. Most of the foods that you should avoid come in a bag or a box. Building a shopping list that contains very few bagged or boxed items is something to aim for. But when you do purchase something with a label, make sure to avoid two of the unhealthiest ingredients created by man:
1) High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
2) Hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil (the sources of trans-fatty acids)
You might have heard of these two ingredients. They are strongly associated with obesity and other lifestyle-diseases (such as diabetes).
I often ask clients to enter their food intake on fitday.com to allow both of us to evaluate their nutrition. Common problems that I see are:
1. Too many treats per day. As one client said, ?I still have one treat per day such as chips, a chocolate bar, a donut, or a rib sub each day, and sometimes I skip breakfast. But other than that, I think it is pretty good.? If that?s the case, and you are trying to lose fat, then you will have a difficult time. You can?t have too many treats.
2. Skipping breakfast.
3. Not eating enough fiber.
4. Not eating lean protein and low-glycemic, low-fat carbohydrate sources.
5. Not eating all day, and then eating a huge dinner.
Solutions:
1. Set the tone with the first meal of the day by consuming a lean protein source and high-fiber, low-glycemic carbohydrates. Fiber at this meal will help control blood sugar over the morning and can help modify appetite at subsequent meals.
2. Consume mini-meals to prevent starvation-induced meal binges and energy slumps.
3. Choose snacks that contain protein and fiber, such as almonds.
4. Keep your dinner moderate, and avoid high-calorie feasts.
5. Consume calorie-free beverages, preferably Green Tea or water.
6. Consume at least the recommended amount of fiber through vegetables, fruits, almonds, etc. But start adding fiber to your diet slowly and drink more water.
7. Try to improve your nutrition each day. This will help get you into healthy eating habits. Be consistent with your training and nutrition, and you?ll get results.
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