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:

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?

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.

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

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.

The first piece of the puzzle is knowing exactly how much you want to lose or what you want to achieve? 50lbs, 100lbs, 15lbs? What ever it is you need to identify where you are going.

Do you have that number?

Okay. The second piece of the puzzle is identifying your current ‘location’. This counts for both diet and training. In regards to diet, properly identifying where you are nutritionally will make on break you. If you try to make too many changes at once, the likelihood of keeping with your plan greatly decrease. But if you don’t make enough changes to your diet then your progress will slow, you’ll most likely get discouraged, and will lose interest/move to something new. That is why my Stages of Nutrition presentation is so important. I have placed it below for you to watch.

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What stage are you in? Do you need to move to the next stage? What would you need to do in order to move to the next stage? These are all important questions that you need to ask yourself. I am constantly asking myself these questions.

In his article “Your First 21 Days and Faster Fat Loss” Bill Hartman writes about how you can go about losing weight two different ways:

The slow way is to make small, consistent steps forward. Progressively eat better foods. Progressively increase your frequency and intensity of exercise over time and eventually achieve your fat loss goals. It’s been shown to work time and time again.

Then there’s the fast way…my favorite.

When you’re first starting your fat loss program, your mental and emotional energy is at its highest, and you’re focused on the outcome. How your body will look. How you’ll feel. How you’ll perform at your best.

Energy is high, so it’s the opportune time to establish and maintain those habits that are necessary to reach your goals. It’s the time to take massive action.

It’s a common belief that it takes 21 days to establish new habits. In the first 21 days of your fat loss program, let your excitement about your outcome drive your ability to stick to your plan while you establish your new fat loss habits.

To quickly recap. In order to lose as much weight as you want. You need to:

1. Know how much that is.
2. Know where you are with you diet.
3. Aggressively dedicate yourself to your new behaviors

These three things will make your weight loss unstoppable.

Here are some other recommended readings/viewing from the premium content area that will help you stay unstoppable.

Other Recommended Reading/Viewing

• Getting Back on the Fat Loss Wagon
• IJD
• Stages of Change Part 1
• Stages of Change Part 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s today’s new video blog. In this video I discuss how we can be the biggest reason why we fail on diets. Specifically how we ‘talk’ to ourselves and rationalize/justify our eating and/or exercise decisions. What do you think? Are you guilty of this?

-Mike

The best way to lose weight is not one or the other–exercise or diet–the best way to lose weight is a combination of both. Exercise and diet are equally important in the quest to lose weight. Let’s look at both of these two components so you have a better understanding of the most effective and efficient way to lose those extra pounds.

In this first section we’ll take a closer look at diet, or nutrition; the food and liquids that you eat and how they affect your weight. A proper diet is critical to losing weight. For with a proper diet, you can achieve both fat loss and muscle growth. This is what you want. You can run mile after mile or lift weight after weight, but if you are not eating properly, then building muscle and losing fat just isn’t going to happen. You have to look at what you are consuming. This is where the six pillar of nutrition come into play. They are vital in regard to the nutritional aspect of losing weight:

1. Eat five to six times a day.
2. Limit your consumption of sugars and processed foods.
3. Drink more water and cut out beverages that contain calories (beer, soda, wine….)
4. Focus on consuming lean proteins throughout the day.
5. Eat fruits and vegetables throughout the day.
6. Save starch containing foods until after a workout or for breakfast.

These guidelines are the key to proper nutrition and weight loss. It’s not just about counting calories or measuring your food, it is also about what and when you eat. If you are a calories counter, stop it! Counting calories will only add stress to an already stressful time that we all find ourselves in. If you are a “fad dieter”, stop it! No fad will work. What will work is consistent application of the 6 Pillars as they have been born out of years of nutritional research and applied successful principles and results.

The Naked Nutrition System gives you an outline of what and when to eat certain types of food. No calorie counting or fad diet to follow. You pick out the foods you want and eat them according to my system. It’s that simple! By following the above guidelines and using the naked nutrition system, you can rest assured that you have put into place all the necessary nutritional pieces to lose weight.

Just as with proper nutrition, correct and adequate exercise is the other part of the weight loss equation. Legitimate and valid training principles will enable you to spend your exercise time in a way that is most efficient and effective in losing weight. Keep in mind, the goal is fat loss; not muscle loss. In the second part of the article we will look at the guidelines for the correct training principles.

Keep an eye out for Part 2, coming soon.

Inflammation is a very hot topic in the nutritional science and medical communities. When people think of inflammation they often think of swelling or arthritis. Inflammation is much more than that. The more we learn about the human body the more we realize that inflammation is at the center of just about every disease – heart disease, arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and the list goes on.

There is one very interesting (and very new) finding about inflammation and heart disease that you should know about is it could change the way heart disease is treated in the future. A handful of new studies are starting to show that people who have higher levels of inflammation don’t respond as well to the cholesterol lower effects of a heart healthy diet. Let me give you an example from a study that my lab recently conducted.

In the study people were put on put on a heart healthy diet. The people who had higher levels of inflammation received less of a benefit from the diet (i.e. their cholesterol levels weren’t lowered as much as the non-inflammed subjects).

What can you do to control inflammation?

Here are some simple things:

1. Eat more blueberries
2. Take fish oil daily
3. Lose excess bodyfat

Control inflammation and you will be able to better improve your health.

If you are looking for more information about inflammation and it’s effects on your health check out the Anti-Inflammation Zone by Dr. Barry Sears.