Mediterranean Salad
February 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Today I have a great recipe for you guys. Here’s why you’ll love it…One of the main complaints that I get from people that use Naked Nutrition is that they get bored with eating salads all the time – lettuce or spinach, olive oil, chicken, etc.
Trust me this does NOT have to be the case. Just because you aren’t eating starchy carbohydrates (sandwiches, rice ,pasta, etc) that doesn’t mean your default meal needs to be a plain boring salad.
This no lettuce/no spinach Mediterranean Salad that I came up with for you is the perfect way to break the monotony of your diet and inject some new flavors, tastes, and textures. Plus it is fast to make and it will keep the fat melting off your body.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 Cup Pine Nuts
- 2 Cups Sliced Cucumbers
- 2 Cups Chopped Tomatoes
- 1/2 Cup Sliced Red Onions
- 1 TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 TBSP Finely Chopped Cilantro
- 1-2 Pinches of Salt and Pepper
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Ideally you’ll let sit in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours before eating but if you are like me you won’t be able to wait.
Nutrition Facts:
3 Simple Steps For More Weight Loss & Better Health
January 22, 2010 | 13 Comments
Several weeks ago I wrote about having a ‘Nutrition Belief System.’ The idea behind this is that you were to come up with a simple set of beliefs regarding your diet that you could follow. I wanted to continue on this theme today with some more very simple strategies that if you implement you will lose more weight and improve your health.
1. Weigh Yourself Everyday – This is such an easy habit to get into. Wake up, go to the bathroom, step on the scale, and record your weight. I recently read a review of 11 studies that showed this simple action can give you up to a 6 pound weight loss advantage over people who do not regularly weigh themselves. (For more on Self-Weighing see the Key Concepts section in this month’s issue of Strong, Fit, & Healthy).
2. Stop eating after 7pm – This is a classic weight loss tip that is often overlooked. There is nothing magical about not eating after 7pm (some people eat dinner late due to their schedule so the 7pm cut point might not work) but if you are prone to snacking (see 3 Ways to Sabotage Your Weight Loss for more on this) then this is a easy way to stop it all together – just don’t let yourself start.
3. Drink 2 Cups of Water Before Your Morning Coffee – As I’ve mentioned before, there is nothing wrong with coffee. The problems arise when drinking coffee prevents you from drinking other things; this is also known as dietary displacement. You don’t want your coffee habit to prevent you from drinking water; this is an all too common occurrence. To avoid this just make sure that you drink 2 cups of water each morning before you cup of joe.
Do you have any simple tips/rules that help you stay lean and healthy?
4 Mental Tricks for Permanent Weight Loss
November 10, 2009 | 3 Comments
Yesterday I went to a really interesting seminar that was discussing how to identify the specific actions that people use to lose weight and maintain their new weight. There was a lot of information shared and I’ll be writing about it over the next week or so but today I wanted to give you 4 action items that were used by people who kept the weight off for a year or more.
1. Reward Yourself For Sticking To Your Diet Or Exercise Plan – This doesn’t have to be food either. Setting rewards linked to milestones is a great way to keep yourself engaged and committed to your goals.
2. Remind Yourself Why You Need To Control Your Weight – I talk about this a lot in Your Naked Nutrition Guide. Having an emotional reason for why you want to lose the weight (or in this case keep it off) is essential for long term success and commitment.
3. Think About How Much Progress You Have Made – I’ve previously written about tracking and measuring progress. This is great to keep yourself on track but it is also a very powerful motivator when you look back and see how far you’ve come.
4. Look At Older Pictures of Yourself to Motivate You – This is even more powerful than #3. Taking before pictures is painful but the excitement and motivation you’ll receive when you are looking at them beside your after pictures is incredible. Take pictures. Document your success and use it to drive yourself even further towards your goals.
Have you been able to keep the weight off? What kind of mental ‘hacks’ to you use to stay on track? Post them below.
How To Lose Body Fat Without Losing Muscle
September 15, 2009 | 9 Comments
Q: Hi. I’m wondering about how to lose body fat without losing muscle. In your manual for losing fat [Warp Speed Fat Loss] you said you never witness someone losing muscle mass while on a diet if he / she were working out at the same time. and you brought some studies to support it. What about “Starvation mode”? How do you prevent your body from keeping the fat and burning muscle for energy.
A: Good question. It is possible to lose muscle while dieting but if you do it right then you don’t have to worry about muscle loss. I’ll use what we do in Warp Speed Fat Loss as an example of precautions that you can take to prevent muscle loss but the strategies are really applicable to any weight loss diet and training program. First let’s look at why your body would breakdown muscle to use as fuel when dieting. There are three main reason.
- Body’s Problem: Needs energy.
- Body’s Problem: Needs enough amino acids to maintain important bodily functions.
- Body’s Problem: Energy is low thus needs to only keep around essential parts that require calories.
You have your own set of problems in regards to how your body acts when it comes to functioning on low calories.
- Your Problem: You want it to specifically use store fat to fill the energy void.
- Your Problem: You want the body to get amino acids from places other than hard earned muscle.
- Your Problem: Need to convince your body that lean muscle is essential.
Fortunately it isn’t to hard to make sure that you and your body have their needs met and everyone is happy. The truth is that you have enough stored energy in the form of body fat to last a very long time . Lack of energy isn’t the issue. What we need to do is show your body how to access that energy(i.e. your body fat). To do this we use a low carbohydrate diet. This controls insulin levels and allows your body to access its essentially unlimited supply of energy whenever it needs.
Photo Courtesy of baostar
We don’t want your body to start using lean muscle to meet its amino acids needs so we just simply add more protein to the diet to meet any increased need your body have (or may think it has). This is a dieting technique that has been around forever but it is still just as effective as it ever was.
The final problem is the trickiest and it can’t be helped with diet. How do we convince your body that your muscle is essential so that it keeps it around? This is where your training comes in. My partner in crime Alwyn Cosgrove has found that the addition of heavier weight training not only forces the body to hold ont0 the muscle that it has but in some cases people actually get stronger (while dieting!). What is heavier? 2-4 sets of 4-6 reps seems to be the sweet spot between lifting heavy enough weight but completing enough reps so that you are burning sufficient calories.
Those are the three ways that you can ensure that you beat ’starvation mode’, lose fat and not muscle. I recommend that you put all these tips into action at once. You can do it yourself or you can use Warp Speed Fat Loss where Alwyn and I have integrated all these techniques into a 28 day comprehensive rapid weight loss plan.
–> Click Here to Learn More About Warp Speed Fat Loss
How to Lose as Much Weight as You want
August 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment
We have gotten a lot of feedback from members saying that they don’t know where to start with all the articles and videos in Premium Content Area. To help with this we are going to be putting together a series of Getting Started articles to help guide you to some of the best content in the Faster Fat Loss Zone Area. This is the first article on getting your action plan and mindset ready.
What many people don’t realize is that they can lose as much weight as they want. The genetic limitations for most people in regards to what their normal body fat should be is far less than most think – meaning if we were going to list in order of importance the things that are holding you back from your ideal weight/body, your genetics would be far down the list.
The most important piece of the puzzle is consistent application of your fat loss plan. This is tougher than is seems as life is full of distractions, we are very good as convincing ourselves that what we are doing isn’t working, and we can easily be swayed to try the newest and greatest technique.
In this article I want to focus on developing a strong mindset and set of goals to keep you following through with your plans day after day so that you get the body you want. There is already a large amount of information here in the Faster Fat Loss Zone about goal setting so we’ll look at some of that as well. Read more
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