Diet No-Brainers

Even if you already know everything there is to know about losing weight, it doesn't hurt to get reminded, once in a while, of some very obvious strategies. Losing weight CAN be a simple proposition. You just need to follow the rules. But what are the rules?

How do you lose weight? A super easy formula might be EAT LESS and EXERCISE MORE.

DUH. But the details are not clear. Eat less of what? And do more of what kind of exercise?

Today, I hope to clarify these points so you can start losing weight NOW. TODAY.

EAT LESS: empty calories. The stuff you want to cut back on is refined carbohydrates. Anything made from mostly sugar, flour, corn syrup, and cheap vegetable oils. Packaged, processed foods are high in calories and low in nutrition. They are quickly digested, cause a spike in blood sugar, give you a brief high, then a crash. These foods do nothing to help your mood, cause inflammation in the body, and basically wreck your waistline.

EAT LESS: soda, candy, cake, cookies, ice cream, muffins, bagels, breads, crackers, pasta, cereal, chips.

Once you have removed these foods from your diet, you may need to add in new foods! What to eat instead?

1) Select some type of high quality protein. How much exercise you do each day will determine how much protein you need for repairing and building muscle. A minimum is about a half a gram per pound of body weight. If you are pregnant, nursing, or training for an athletic event, you might need twice as much! Choose the best quality protein you can afford: wild caught fish, wild game, grassfed meats, pastured chicken and eggs, grassfed dairy products.

2) Choose your carbs for NUTRITION. This means veggies! Darker colors have more vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Eat the rainbow for the widest variety of flavors and nutrients. Best choices: kale, collards, spinach, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, butternut squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, green beans, peas, onions, garlic. Don't forget your berries. They make delicious desserts, raw or cooked!

3) Never skip the healthy fats. You can find good fats in wild caught fish, wild game, grass fed meats and dairy products. Also coconut, avocado, olive, and various nut oils. Eating nuts and seeds is another way to get your healthy fats. (Avoid cheap vegetable oils like soy, canola, corn, and cottonseed as well as trans-fats.)

4) Get plenty of plain water! Zero calories! It fills you up for free. This is KEY to losing weight. Stay well hydrated. All your cells will thank you. If you are exercising, sweating, or breathing dry air, drink MORE!

And this leads us to the subject of exercise.

An extremely important point to remember is: no amount of exercise can correct a bad diet. Except if you are Michael Phelps, i.e. young, male, swimming 8-12 hours per day training for the Olympics. Then you can eat anything you want. Otherwise, calories add up way too fast. A single fast food meal can easily contain over 2000 calories. It would take about 4 hours of INTENSE exercise to burn that.

But we all know exercise is more than just burning off the calories we consume. Exercise builds muscle, makes you stronger and fitter, improves your immune system, strengthens your heart and lungs, reduces the chances of diseases from cancer to diabetes to heart disease and Alzheimer's. Exercise helps you live longer AND BETTER.

What kind of exercise should you do? The kind you enjoy. Any kind is better than sitting on your butt. Every type of exercise has benefits. I like to include a wide variety of different kinds over the course of the week, including dance, Pilates, bootcamp, yoga, and qi gong. The best exercises will build muscle and make you stronger, increase balance, improve flexibility, make you sweat, make you smile, make you want to do it again. If you hate it, drop it and pick up something new. I personally cannot stand running, but PLENTY of people love it. Listen to your body. If you feel exhausted and abused after your workout, you are pushing too hard and need to scale back. Do enough, but not too much!

If you are starting a new diet and/or exercise program and needs some support, please leave me a message. I am available for one-on-one personal training, weight loss coaching, or a combination of the two. I can coach face-to-face, online, by email or skype, or over the phone.