I stumbled upon this formula while making some improvements to my own dietary habits.  Within 2 and a half weeks, I had lost 10 pounds without having to do  single push-up.  Here’s exactly what I did:

1.  Reduce the amount of MEAT in your diet – especially RED meat.  This does NOT mean you need to go all vegetarian (although that’s not altogether a bad thing).  Just quit going to the local Sizzler Steak House and getting the 12 oz T-bone with the “loaded” baked potato and thinking you’re eating healthy – you’re not.

“Reduce” does not mean I eliminated all meat from my diet.  I still eat chicken and fish.  HOWEVER, these meats are NOT the biggest portion on my plate.  If you do continue to eat meat, make sure it’s a side dish, not the main course – and eat a big salad with every meal you can.

You see, when you reduce the amount of meat you eat, you automatically increase the amount of vegetables.  As a result, your overall diet naturally becomes higher in fiber and lower in fat.

2.  Reduce the amount of WHEAT products in your diet – especially PROCESSED wheat.  Again, this does not mean totally eliminate them, although the more you take out, the better.  Reducing the amount of processed wheat products in your diet will take out most of the cakes, white breads, cookies, cupcakes, and so on – none of which are good for you.  Remember to also take it easy on any wheat-containing gravies or stuffings.

3.  Reduce the amount of DIARY in your diet.  I know what you’re going to say:  ”Where am I going to get my calcium?”   You’ll get plenty of calcium from eating dark green and leafy vegetables, a natural byproduct of eating less meat in Step 1.  Reducing the amount of dairy in your diet will force you to cut down on whole milk, cream filling, ice cream, and cheese.  Again, you don’t have to totally eliminate it – just take it easy.  Quit thinking of milk as a beverage.  It’s a food with calories and fat content, just like any other food.

Now use some common sense with this one.  Diary can be an important part of your diet if you’re nursing or are making changes to your kid’s diet.  I didn’t say eliminate, I said reduce.

4.  Reduce the amount of SUGAR in your diet – especially PROCESSED sugar and HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.  In fact, even if you skipped the other 3 steps and only did this one, you’d probably still 7 or 8 pounds easy.  Obviously, this one is the most important.  In order to lose weight, you’ve got to significantly reduce the amount of processed sugar and high fructose corn syrup in your diet.  This means no soft drinks, no fruit juice drinks (100% juice is OK), no cookies or cakes with frosting or creamy centers, no candy, no fudge, none of that stuff.

If you’ll make these 4 changes to your diet, I guarantee that you’ll lose anywhere from 6 to 12 pounds pretty much automatically, with no physical effort at all.  Better yet, as you reduce the amount of processed wheat and sugar in your diet, you’ll find that food begins to taste differently – more flavorful and filling.

Give it a try and see for yourself.  What have you got to lose except a couple of ugly pounds?

Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach andPersonal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

P.S.  Be sure to get my latest Fitness Blueprint called “Little Things That Improve Your Health.”  This ebook is packed with loads of helpful information on how to build a better body and you can get it FREE – no email, no cookies, no catch.  Download and enjoy!

Technorati Tags: diet, nutrition, health, sugar, meat, processed, wheat, weight loss

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Now, I can understand someone saying “cut out all dairy for a week and then come back and we’ll see how you feel” or something similar.  Or maybe “that rash might be caused by a food allergy so cut out all wheat products for a week and see if it clears up.”  But to be told to arbitrarily cut out an entire food group for no reason whatsoever just doesn’t make sense to me.

Let me explain why.

There are two things that make up the Field of Nutrition:

1.  The Science. These are the cold, hard facts that can be repeated in a laboratory so it sounds like that should settle the matter about which foods are best for you, right?  Unfortunately, it’s not that easy.  In fact, science holds very few of the answers to the nutritional questions we all have.  The reason is that science can only study one thing at a time, the amount of Vitamin D in milk for example.  Although science can tell you exactly how much Vitamin D is in a glass of milk, what it can’t do is tell you is how this vitamin is affected by the presence (or absence) of the other components in the milk.  In other words, science can’t study synergistic effects, and “nutrition” is essentially composed entirely of the synergistic effects of all the foods we eat.  Science can only study and measure discrete items, and therein is its problem – science is too exact.

This leads us directly to the second part of nutrition:

2.  The Art. This is how the individual bits and pieces of scientific information are combined and packaged into “nutritional advice” that you and I try to follow when we plan our meals.  Because it’s an “art,” there are lots of different ways to combine the information that science produces, and therefore, lot’s of different advice offered by lots of Nutritionists.  I’m sure you’ve wondered why it is that you can ask 3 different professional Nutritionists the same question and get 3 completely different answers, some of which actually contradict each other, and yet because their advice contains some scientific bits and pieces, all 3 of them can be technically correct to some degree.  The fact that nutrition is both art and science is the reason this happens.  Unfortunately, this creates a lot of confusion for you and me.

So how do you make sense of it all?  How can you navigate through all the “scientifically correct” but yet conflicting advice that’s out there?  Here’s the criteria I use:

First, It’s Got to Make Sense

First of all, any nutritional advice you get needs to make sense.  It’s got to be logical.  If it doesn’t pass this first test, go elsewhere.

Let’s go back to the advice that started me on this rant:  “Cut out all dairy and wheat products.”  That doesn’t make sense to me at all.  Why?  Well, for starters, mankind has been living on dairy and wheat products for, what, over 3,000 years and now it’s a nutritional problem?  Come on.  The Maasai tribe of Africa subsist almost entirely on maize-meal and cow’s milk, and now dairy is bad for you?  Please.

Something’s wrong if you’re being asked to cut out an entire food group or food type.  Humans are omnivores.  We thrive on a variety of foods so be suspicious if you’re advised to completely cut out this food or that food.  Make sure you ask:  “Why?”,  “For how long?” and “What should I eat instead?”  Keep asking questions until you get an answer that makes sense to you.

Second, It’s Got to Be Practical

Hey, I’m really glad that Passion Fruit is loaded with super-antioxidants and all kinds of good healthy stuff, but I’m not exactly going to find something this exotic at my local supermarket.  And it’s great that I should avoid restaurants for lunch but I work in an office and meeting at a restaurant for lunch is a big part of doing business.  So give me some nutritional advice that I can actually incorporate into my lifestyle, right here in my hometown, and on my schedule.  Give me something that’s practical.

Third, It’s Got to Actually Work

This is the bottom line, but let me clarify it even further.  It not only has to work, it has to work FOR ME.  I really don’t care whether it works for the nutritionist (they may not have a day job) or for the celebrity that’s pushing it on TV (they’re getting paid for the endorsement).  It’s got to work for me, for my body type, on my schedule, as part of my lifestyle.

It’s That Simple

That’s pretty much it.  If you’ll follow these three basic guides, you should be able to take any type of nutritional tip or advice and tell whether or not it’s for you.

Lastly, please do yourself a favor and run down to your local library or to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of Michael Pollan’s book “In Defense of Food.”  It’s the best commonsense book I’ve found on nutrition.  The information in it makes sense, is practical, and it actually works.

Hiram
The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach (NESTA)

Technorati Tags: nutrition, nutritionist, nutritional, food allergy, food group, diet, balanced health, food science, advice, dairy, wheat

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