The Infonian

Tony Jaa – Tom Yum Goong Fight Scene

MORE TO COME. CHECK BACK SOON. ANY SUGGESTIONS APPRECIATED.

1. Before you eat something, ask yourself: “Did God make this?” If the answer is “no” do not eat it.

2. When grocery shopping, stock up on items on the outside perimeter. That’s where you will find the dairy, eggs, yogurt, meats, deli meats, fruits and veggies. I know the bakery is on the outside too, but avoid the cakes and cookies. Venture to the nuts aisle to get some roasted or preferably raw almonds. Nuts make a great snack, but be sure to not eat them by the hand full. They may be packed with healthy fats, but it’s still excess calories if they’re not burned off. Your meats should be baked or grilled only. However, low fat jerky is acceptable too.

3. I can never state this enough… PORTION CONTROL!! This is why I like fresh fruits and veggies. Most of them are already in correct potion sizes. You can have your fill of non-starch veggies like lettuce, celery, carrots, etc. all day long. Average portions are as follows: Meat – the size of the PALM of your hand, not the whole thing, Veggies – the size of a fist, Cheese – the size of a die, Starchy Carbs (potatoes, rice, etc) – portions are the size of what you can fit in your hand.

4. Eat small meals and EAT FREQUENTLY!! Did you know that skipping meals actually lowers your metabolism?? Well, it does. Here’s how: when you skip a meal, it tells your body that food is scarce. This triggers your body into conservation mode. It conserves the fat for later fuel source and insulation and begins consuming healthy, lean muscle for fuel.

I don’t know why everyone has to make it so hard. Here’s a sample day:

Breakfast:
Milk
Eggs (Eat 1 yolk per 3 whites)
Toast
Grapefruit

Snack 1:
Lean Jerky
Fruit

Meal 2:
Grilled Chicken Salad
Low/Fat Free Dressing
Fruit

Snack 2:
Turkey wrap with lettuce, tomato

Meal 3:
Fish or Steak
Baked Potato
Salad

If you need another snack, try some low butter popcorn. The whole idea of eating clean is to eliminate the processed foods (or at least limit them) from your diet and begin eating nutrient rich ones. Simple steps are all it takes. I understand you not want to swap to this type of diet overnight. Ease into it. Replace one of your current meals per week with something more clean and healthy. Before you know it, you’ll be eating better than everyone around you and feeling much better too.

Drop the sugared sodas. They’re empty calories by the dozens. The average 8 ounce soda has 90 calories. If you have 4 of them a day, that’s 360 calories that you could have had… That’s another snack or meal you could add and get something with nutrients.

The big picture is to eat foods that are nutrient rich. Processed foods are full of refined sugar, carbohydrates, and fats.

You are what you eat.

You read and hear about it everywhere. Everybody is ditching the carbohydrate for the proverbial protein. To illustrate that many people will follow a fad diet, I always ask the dieter WHY they are eating protein only. I love it! I’ve even had people tell me that they are eating bacon and sausage because it has protein and no carbohydrates.:laughing: What many people fail to understand is why carbohydrates are called “bad.”

Carbohydrates are not bad. They are the best fuel source for energy. If you don’t have a good source of carbohydrates, your body will take from the protein and fat you eat to supply glucose. This is the reason people go for the protein diets and starve their body of carbs. The problem is when you’ve depleted your stores of glycogen (stored glucose in muscle and lean tissue), your body turns to burning muscles or organs to supply energy needs. Have you ever gone on a protein only diet and felt really sluggish? You can’t think straight can you? Well, there you go.

This is also why protein only diets don’t provide for good muscle tone. Your body is burning the protein you eat and burning the glycogen in your muscles for energy. Not good. When this happens, your metabolism actually slows down because you have less lean muscle tissue burning calories (muscle burns calories) and your body thinks its starving and cuts back on energy requirements. So really, because your body thinks that there is a famine in the land, it will hold on to as much fat as it can to keep you alive. Do you see the problem?

I recently spoke with someone who I consulted with about a month ago. Right when I walked through the door, she said,

“Critical Mass! ( I let her call me Critical Mass:D ) I cut my calories down to 1200 calories a day and I’m eating almost no carbohydrates and I put on a pound!”

She was surprised when I told her to slightly increase her complex carbohydrate count. Then I explained how her body was probably storing up everything it could because it thinks she’s starving to death.

Do you understand what I’m saying to you?

The carbohydrates you eat should come from carbohydrate-rich foods that are close to the form that occurs in nature. These are called “complex carbohydrates.” The closer the carbohydrate food is to what nature provides, the greater the density of vital nutrients in that carbohydrate. Your body will burn these carbs slower than the “bad” carbs, and will indirectly cause your body to store less fat. (just keep reading on and I’ll explain.)

You can also get carbohydrates from processed foods such as soft drinks, cookies, chips, white bread, and alcohol. These generally are called “simple carbohydrates,” and are considered to be a poor food choice that should be eaten rarely. These simple carbohydrates have been highly refined and processed. If your diet consists mainly of the above listed foods, you should be warned that eating a diet like this has been associated with heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and uhhhh….. oh yeah, being FAT!

These “bad” carbohydrates are those that cause an immediate high rise in blood sugar levels. “Good” carbohydrates do not do this. Remember, good carbohydrates are those that are found in nature and usually do not cause a high rise in blood sugar levels. Remember? They burn slower, and keep insulin levels more steady and level. Bad carbohydrates are usually created by refining grains or other plants into “pure” starches or sugars (i.e., flour, white rice, cornmeal, and table sugar.)

You may ask, “what’s so bad about high blood sugar levels?” Well, high blood sugar and insulin levels go hand-in-hand with your body storing up fat. If a carbohydrate burns quickly like simple ones do, it basically tells your body to store up fat. If the carbohydrate burns slowly like complex carbs do, the insulin and blood sugar levels stay lower and more steady, thus not triggering your body to store up as much fat. The mechanics of these two opposing reactions can be more technical, but this is the explanation in layman’s terms.

If you are trying to lose weight, it is perfectly healthy to eat a variety of the good carbohydrates: fruits, vegetables, brown rice, whole grains, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, beans, seeds and nuts. The carbohydrates to avoid are foods made with flour, milled corn or white rice, fruit juices, sugared soft drinks or other beverages with sugar, and processed foods that contain added sugars. You may want to eat a low-to-moderate amount of complex carbs to limit your total calories, but you can eat some nonetheless.

Not all carbohydrates are bad.

Condiments:

Mustard
Worcestershire Sauce
Teriyaki Sauce (reduced sodium)
Sweet and Sour Salsa(check brands!)
Salsa
Nonfat Mayonnaise
Barbecue sauce
I Can’t Believe it’s not Butter – Spray
Molly McButter
Relish
Ketchup
Tempura Sauce
Fat Free Dressings(to an extent)
Heinz 57
Fat Free Sour Cream

Fat Substitutes for Cooking and Baking

Brown Sugar
Canned Pumpkin
Egg Whites or egg substitute
Broth
Non-fat cooking spray
Jam or Jelly
Prune Butter
Apple Butter
Olive Oil
Applesauce
Honey
Fruit Juice
Fruit Puree
Fat Free/sugar free yogurt
Fat Free cream cheese

*Two egg whites can be used to substitute one whole egg
*When a recipe calls for vegetable oil, substitute w/ double the amount of apple sauce.

[B][U]HEALTHY ”CHEATS”[/U][/B]
*Fat free/ sugar free pudding and Jell-O. Pudding is only 35 cals, Jello is 10, and add fat free cool whip for only 10 additional calories
*Buy sugar free popsicles and fudgesicles. Or, make your own sugar free pudding pops.
*Fat free/sugar free frozen yogurt.
*Make your own dip for veggies and baked chips w/ fat free sour cream, only 10 calories!