Note: If you’re a vegetarian, this rule still applies –
you need complete protein and need to find nonanimal
sources.
3. Eat vegetables every time you eat.
That’s right, in addition to a complete, lean protein
source, you need to eat some vegetables every
time you eat (every 2-3 hours, right?). You can
toss in a piece of fruit here and there as well. But
don’t skip the veggies.
4. Eat carbs only when you deserve to.
Well, not ALL carbs – eat fruits
and veggies whenever you want.
And if you want to eat a
carbohydrate that’s not a fruit or a
vegetable (this includes things
like simple sugars, rice, pasta,
potatoes, bread, etc.), you can –
but you’ll need to save it until after
you’ve exercised. So, reward
yourself for a good workout with a
good carbohydrate meal right
after (your body best tolerates
these carbohydrates after
exercise). For the rest of the day,
eat your lean protein and a
delicious selection of fruits and
veggies.
5. Learn to love healthy fats.
There are 3 types of fat –
saturated, monounsaturated,
and polyunsaturated.
Forget about that old saying that
“eating fat makes you fat”.
Eating all three kinds of fat in a healthy balance can
dramatically improve your health, and even help you
lose fat. Your saturated fat should come from your
animal products.
Your monounsaturated fat should come from mixed
nuts, olives, and olive oil. And your polyunsaturated
fat should come from flaxseed oil, fish oil, and mixed
nuts.
6. Ditch the calorie containing drinks (including
fruit juice).
In fact, all of your drinks should come from non-
calorie containing beverages.
Fruit juice, alcoholic drinks, and sodas – these are all
to be removed from your daily fare. Your best
choices are water and green tea.
7. Focus on whole foods.
Most of your dietary intake should come from whole
foods. There are a few times where supplement
drinks and shakes are useful. But
most of the time, you’ll do best
with whole, largely unprocessed
foods.
In the end you have to Balance
daily food choices with healthy
variety.
Let’s face it, when you’re busy
during the week, you’re not going
to be spending a ton of time
planning and cooking gourmet
meals.
During these times you’re going
to need a set of tasty, easy to
make foods that you can eat daily.
However, once every day or a few
times a week, you need to eat
something different, something
unique and tasty to stave off
boredom and stagnation.
Here is where the 90% rule
applies; you can allow yourself “10% foods” – foods
that break rules, in which you’ll allow yourself to eat
(or drink, if it’s a beverage) 10% of the time.
Just make sure you do the math and determine what
10% of the time really means. For example, if you’re
eating 6 meals per day for 7 days of the week – that’s
42 meals. 10% of 42 is about 4. Therefore you’re
allowed to “break the rules” on about 4 meals each
week.
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