Need To Get Fit?

by Michael Geary – Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

In most of my Lean-Body Secrets Newsletters, I like to provide a healthy snack or meal recipe that not only is delicious and healthy, but also helps to get you closer to that hard-body appearance that everyone is looking for,
while also more importantly, improving your health for life. In this article, I’d like to give you healthy food ideas in a different way. This time, I figured I’d just give you some ideas of what I stock my fridge and cabinets with.

Remember, if you don’t have junk around the house, you’re less likely to eat junk. If all you have is healthy food around the house, you’re forced to make smart choices. Basically, it all starts with making smart choices and avoiding
temptations when you make your grocery store trip. Now these are just some of my personal preferences, but perhaps they will give you some good ideas that you’ll enjoy.

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Alright, so let’s start with the fridge. Each week, I try to make sure I’m loaded up with lots of varieties of fresh vegetables. During the growing season, I only get local produce, but obviously in winter, I have to resort to the produce at the grocery store. Most of the time, I make sure I have plenty of vegetables like onions, zucchini,  spinach, fresh mushrooms, red peppers, broccoli, etc. to use in my morning eggs.  I also like to dice up some lean chicken or turkey sausage into the eggs, along with some swiss, jack, or goat cheeses (preferably raw grass-fed cheeses when I can find them).

By the way I’m talking about whole eggs, NOT egg whites.  Always remember that the yolk is the most nutritious and nutrient dense part of the egg, so only eating egg whites is like throwing away the best part… and no, it’s NOT bad for you because of the cholesterol… eggs actually raise your GOOD cholesterol.  Try to get free range organic eggs for the best quality.

Coconut milk is another staple in my fridge. I like to use it to mix in with smoothies, oatmeal, or yogurt for a rich, creamy taste. Not only does coconut milk add a rich, creamy taste to lots of dishes, but it’s also full of healthy saturated fats. Yeah, you heard me…I said healthy saturated fats!

Healthy saturated fats like medium chain triglycerides, specifically an MCT called lauric acid. If the idea of healthy saturated fats is foreign to you, check out my healthy fats article

Back to the fridge, some other staples:

* Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds – delicious and great sources of healthy fats.

* Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and yogurt – I like to mix cottage or ricotta cheese and yogurt together with chopped nuts and berries for a great mid-morning or mid-afternoon meal.

* Whole flax seeds or chia seeds – I grind these in a mini coffee grinder and add to yogurt or salads. Always grind them fresh because the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and prone to oxidation, creating high levels of free radicals in pre-ground flax.

* Whole eggs – one of natures richest sources of nutrients (and remember, they increase your GOOD cholesterol so stop fearing them).

* Salsa – I try to get creative and try some of the exotic varieties of salsas.

* Avocados – love them…plus a great source of healthy fats, fiber, and other nutrients. Try adding them to wraps, salads, or sandwiches.

* Butter – don’t believe the naysayers; butter adds great flavor to anything and can be part of a healthy diet (just keep the quantity small because it is calorie dense…and NEVER use margarine, unless you want to assure yourself a heart attack).

* Nut butters – Plain old peanut butter has gotten a little old for me, so I get creative and mix together almond butter with sesame seed butter, or even cashew butter with macadamia butter…delicious and unbeatable nutrition!

* Leaf lettuce and spinach along with shredded carrots – for salads with dinner.

* Home-made salad dressing – using balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo’s Choice oil blend. This is much better than store bought salad dressing which mostly use highly refined soybean oil (full of inflammation-causing free radicals).

* Whole grain wraps and whole grain bread (look for wraps and bread with at least 3-4 grams of fiber per 20 grams of total carbs).

* Rice bran and wheat germ – these may sound way too healthy for some, but they actually add a nice little nutty, crunchy taste to yogurt or smoothies, or can be added when baking muffins or breads to add nutrients and fiber.

Some of the staples in the freezer:

* Frozen berries – during the local growing season, I only get fresh berries, but during the other 10 months of the year, I always keep a supply of frozen blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, etc. to add to high fiber cereal, oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, or smoothies

* Frozen fish – I like to try a couple different kinds of fish each week. There are so many varieties out there, you never have to get bored.

* Frozen chicken breasts – very convenient for a quick addition to wraps or chicken sandwiches for quick meals.

* Grass-fed steaks, burgers, and ground beef – Grassfed meats have been shown to have as high as, or even higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids than salmon (without the mercury). Also, grass-fed meats have much higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) compared to typical grain-fed beef.

* Frozen buffalo, ostrich, venison, and other “exotic” lean meats – Yeah, I know…I’m weird, but I can tell you that these are some of the healthiest meats around, and if you’re serious about a lean healthy body, these types of meats are much better for you than the mass produced, hormone-pumped beef and pork that’s sold at most grocery stores.

* Frozen veggies – again, when the growing season is over and I can no longer get local fresh produce, frozen veggies are the best option, since they often have higher nutrient contents compared to the fresh produce that has been shipped thousands of miles, sitting around for weeks before making it to your dinner table.

Alright, now the staples in my cabinets:

* Various antioxidant rich teas – green, oolong, white, rooibos are some of the best.

* Whole wheat or whole grain spelt pasta – much higher fiber than normal pastas

* Oat bran and steel cut oats – higher fiber than those little packs of instant oats.

* Cans of coconut milk – to be transferred to a container in the fridge after opening.

* Brown rice and other higher fiber rice – NEVER white rice

* Tomato sauces – delicious, and as I’m sure you’ve heard a million times, they are a great source of lycopene. Just watch out for the brands that are loaded with nasty high fructose corn syrup.

* Stevia – a natural non-caloric sweetener, which is an excellent alternative to the nasty chemical-laden artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose.

* Raw honey – better than processed honey… higher quantities of beneficial nutrients and enzymes. Honey has even been proven in studies to improve glucose metabolism (how you process carbs). I use a teaspoon or so every morning in my teas. Yes, it is pure sugar, but at least it has some nutritional benefits… and let’s be real, a teaspoon of healthier raw honey is only 5 grams of carbs… certainly nothing to worry about.

* Organic maple syrup – none of that high fructose corn syrup Aunt Jemima crap…only real maple syrup can be considered real food. The only time I really use this (because of the high sugar load) is added to my post-workout smoothies to sweeten things up and also elicit an insulin surge to push nutrients into your muscles.

* Organic unsweetened cocoa powder – I like to mix this into my smoothies for an extra jolt of antioxidants or make my own low-sugar hot cocoa by mixing cocoa powder into hot milk with stevia and a couple melted dark chocolate chunks.

* Cans of black or kidney beans – I like to add a couple scoops to my Mexican wraps for the fiber and high nutrition content. Also, beans are surprisingly one of the best sources of youth promoting antioxidants!

* Dark chocolate (as dark as possible) – This is one of my treats that satisfies my sweet tooth, plus provides loads of antioxidants at the same time. It’s still calorie dense, so I keep it to just a couple squares; but that is enough to do the trick, so I don’t feel like I need to go out and get cake and ice cream to satisfy my dessert urges.

Lastly, another thing that’s hard to go wrong with is a good variety of fresh fruits and berries. The staples such as bananas, apples, oranges, pears, peaches are good, but I like to also be a little more adventurous and include things like yellow (aka – mexican or champagne) mangoes, pomegranates, kumquats, papaya, star fruit, pineapples, and others. Also, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and cherries are some of the most nutrient and antioxidant-dense fruits you can eat.

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Well, I hope you enjoyed this special look into my favorite lean body meals and how I stock my cabinets and fridge. Your tastes are probably quite different than mine, but hopefully this gave you some good ideas you can use next time you’re at the grocery store looking to stock up a healthy and delicious pile of groceries.

Free Bonus ebook – Training & Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean-Body, by Mike Geary (a $17.99 value):  This ebook, created by Certified Nutrition Specialist & Certified Personal Trainer, Mike Geary, details over 27 specific metabolism-boosting secrets that you can use to strip off your stubborn body fat faster and easier.  Contains unique workout methods and nutritional strategies to slash body fat and take your body to a whole new level of leanness.

To find out more about Mike’s Health & Fitness programs… Click Here!

This one focuses more on weight loss and healthy eating than exercising for muscle gain, and Kay actually uses many of these ideas herself with great success.

The Diet Solution Program promises a complete and comprehensive weight loss program that will not only help you lose body fat, but guarantees you increased energy, health and vitality all at the same time.

With so many weight loss programs out on the market and on the internet today, what makes this program any different than all the rest?

Before we get to the program, let’s take a look at the expert behind this program. Isabel De Los Rios is a nutrition and exercise specialist with 10 years of experience helping clients reach their ideal weight and tackle conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and high cholesterol. Isabel has a very extensive educational background in nutrition and exercise physiology.

Her personal experience with her own weight struggles and her mother’s severe diabetes led her search for the BEST nutrition information available today. The Diet Solution Program is a result of her 15 year study and research.

I’ve also talked to Isabel about her training and education background, and I’ll be honest, it was impressive, unlike other so-called “health experts”, who are just following main stream nutrition programs. Isabel provides her readers with the truth: the facts most people have never taken the time to research, read and decipher.

Plus, Isabel has been a nutrition and exercise specialist for the past 10 years and has personally worked with hundreds of clients in her own private facility, overseeing successful weight loss programs. This hands on experience with real people solidified the facts and principles she had learned in books, journals and from other health professionals. The proof was really in the results of real people.

In fact, Isabel’s articles are pretty radical when it comes to her nutrition principles which is why her approach works when main-stream nutrition fails. So if you are looking for the same old nutrition theories taught in every other book and program on the market today, this is not the program for you.

Now one of the biggest questions about the program is simply, “What is The Diet Solution Program?” Well according to Isabel, it is the most comprehensive and detailed nutrition manual available on the market today.

Not only does it teach you exactly what principles you need to follow to finally reach your ideal weight, it gives you the meal plans, shopping lists and recipes to do so. It does not push some extreme, unreasonable way to lose weight. It actually teaches you how you can make this healthy way of eating into a lifestyle. And if you have ever attempted to lose weight in the past, you know that the only way to maintain it is to make it a way of life.

The best part about Isabel’s program is that this new way of life is not some torturous eating regimen. She really shows you that you can eat delicious food, combined the right way, to lose weight and maintain it.

One of the best side effects of the whole program is the increased health and vitality that every participant experiences. Decreases in blood sugar levels, lowered cholesterol, increased energy, elimination of digestive discomfort and cleared skin conditions are just some of the few benefits other people have already experienced.

Frankly, as I said before, Kay’s used the program herself and recommended it to many others. She won’t appreciate me telling you this, but her “before” pics are much worse, so she won’t show them…

Why does she like this? Because she was sick and tired of following nutrition plans that either did not work or made her lose weight but feel terrible. Yes, she wanted to be at her ideal weight but also wanted to maintain a healthy body at the same time and not have to resort to extreme, radical methods. The Diet Solution Program helped her lose weight and feel healthy and energized at the same time.

Now realize that some effort from you will be required, but Isabel has really done all the hard work for you. Included in her program is:

* Step by step action steps telling you exactly how to put the principles in place
* Detailed daily meal plans that make everyday eating easy
* Shopping Lists to make food shopping a snap
* Delicious Recipes to make everyday meals tasty

The manual is comprehensive. Jam packed with incredible and valuable information. But you don’t need to wait to get through the whole thing before you can start. You can use Isabel’s Quick Start Guide to start the program ASAP. Some people have even just used the quick start guide and lost 10-15lbs in a little as 6 weeks.

The Diet Solution Program is not just another weight loss scheme or extreme diet. It is truly the only way to lose weight and enjoy a lifetime of health.

The Diet Solution Program is perfect for people who have struggled with their weight their whole life and are sick and tired of programs that just don’t work long term. The DSP is also perfect for people who want to take control of their health and reverse health conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease.

If you’re in the slightest bit curious, I recommend you look closely at Isabel’s program. I was very impressed with all of The Diet Solution Program meal plans, the bonuses, the guarantee, and Isabel’s expertise. For the money, it’s the best deal in the weight loss industry – so much better than diet pills!

And remember…

Isabel De Los Rios’s The Diet Solution Program is backed by a 90 day money back guarantee. And this is a real guarantee… if you are not completely satisfied, you will receive your money back, no “ifs,” “ands,” or “buts.” So you really have nothing to lose… Except the fat!

Check it out here…

By Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

This is always tough to admit, but nutrition is more important than your workouts when it comes to fat loss.

And since diet is more important than exercise, I’ve decided to spend a lot time sharing nutrition tips this week, starting with these 5 diet secrets:

1) Your nutrition program doesn’t have to be extreme.

Hold up on making any extreme diet changes. Make sure the nutrition plan you’ve chosen is sustainable. Simple diet changes go a lot farther than you might think.

Why not just eat more whole, natural foods rather than trying to go on an impossible-to-stick-to ultra-low carb extreme plan?

2) Get the junk out of the house.

If it’s in your house, you’ll eat it…and trust me, this goes for me too. When I visit a relative’s house for holiday, I always eat the treats they have sitting around. That’s why I keep the junk out of my house.

So whatever your weakness is, keep it out of your home. Success is that simple.

3) Fill in the “diet-killing” gap.

For some folks, the diet-killing gap is between work and dinner. For others, it’s between dinner and bedtime, but for almost everyone, there is a point in the day when we suffer from mindless eating.

So make sure you have alternatives…as soon as you come home from work, cut up vegetables and dip them into hummus. That will keep you full on a small amount of calories.

After dinner, if you need something sweet, stir up chocolate protein powder into a small bit of plain yogurt. That will satisfy you.

4) Chew your food 5-10 times before swallowing.

Most people eat so fast they only about 1-2 times. You’ll really notice a difference and you’ll slow your eating so you feel full.

5) Have a bowl of broth-based vegetable soup before a meal.

American researcher Barbara Roll has published a lot of studies showing that this will help you reduce the food you eat. Surprisingly, consuming just water doesn’t seem to do the same trick.

So those are just 5 of the diet secrets we have for you this year.

Stay tuned for proven secrets to help you lose fat in 2010.

Many people end up abandoning perfectly good fitness programs and weight-loss regimens before they even lace up their sneakers.

Why? Because in a world filled with fast food, instant messaging, and a five-second disease-tracking device, anything without a quick payoff goes against the grain of the typical American instant gratification ethic. While it would be nice to actually drop inches in just a few days like what most miracle ads proclaim, managing weight and losing weight through physical fitness is a slow and steady process that takes time and commitment.

Setting weight management goals for yourself can be a good motivator. Gradual weight loss, for those people who wish to shed off some extra pounds, is usually the safest.

That is why health and fitness experts had come up with the idea of lifetime fitness in order to teach people set realistic goals. These lifetime fitness programs generates dietary regimens that cut your normal calorie consumption for your weight by 500 to 1,000 per day, so will burning the same amount with exercise. In turn, this will definitely encourage healthier weight loss.

Good fitness programs teach you how to maintain a physically fit body at the same time enjoy and live a happy, contented life. It gives you the chance to strike a balance between the two (exercise and diet), and make exercise, be it team sports, cycling, or walking, something you will truly enjoy.

That is why good fitness exercises embody the concept that making a long-term healthy lifestyle change is essential to keeping the pounds off once they are gone.

These fitness programs provide you the right method in maintaining health, build up and encourage your competence, and can help you take care of your family’s physical fitness as well.

To know more of the advantages and benefits that fitness exercises can bring, here are some facts that you need to know:

1. Because the goal of lifetime fitness is to provide you with long-term achievements as far as physical fitness is concerned, these programs utilizes numerous fitness exercises that will tone and manage your health and the different parts of your body.

2. There are fitness exercises that will give your cardiovascular system a lift. You can also try some sports that will provide you with an alternative way of being physically fit.

3. Good fitness programs also provide nutritional advice on diet, such as food supplements that will aid in the formation of good blood cells and tissues thereby making your body at its peak of health.

Indeed, staying fit and healthy can be a long and winding road and there are instances wherein you may find your enthusiasm fading occasionally. Nevertheless, with the information provided by good fitness programs, you can start heading back on the right track to a healthier you.

Do YOU need a good fitness program?  Click Here!

Wow, I just heard from fat loss expert Craig Ballantyne and he is kicking off his 7th Turbulence Training Transformation Contest by having his FIRST EVER 50% off sale on his world-wide best selling program, Turbulence Training.

Plus, you can win up to $1000 in the Transformation Contest just for losing your belly fat, so here are 3 amazing reasons to get started with Turbulence Training today.

Reason #1 – Turbulence Training is guaranteed to help you lose fat (and you get a 60-day guarantee so you can try out the program for 2 months to judge for yourself).

Reason #2 – In the 7th TT Transformation Contest, the winners of the male and female divisions get $1000 cash PLUS a 3-year Platinum Turbulence Training Membership. It could be YOU!

Reason #3 – The most important reason to get started with Turbulence Training immediately is the fact that it’s on sale for the FIRST time ever. Until Friday, January 1st at 9pm, EST, the price has been slashed by 50% in order to get as many people as possible started on their Turbulence Training Body Transformation.

So here’s what you need to do now:

Go to  http://tinyurl.com/ttsale

Click on the Get Started Link under the Big Yellow Start Button

Download your copy of Turbulence Training and all of the workout bonuses and start using the workouts and nutrition advice today to lose that holiday blubber and get a headstart on your New Year’s fat loss program.

Create your username and password for the TT Member’s area.

Post any personal workout and nutrition questions on the TT forum and Craig Ballantyne will answer those for you within hours.

That’s all you have to do to get started losing fat today!

But hurry, the 50% Turbulence Training sale is only available until Friday, January 1st.

It’s the perfect way to start your body transformation and kick-off the New Year to make 2010 your best year ever!

(And you could win up to $1000 in the Transformation Contest!)

Please don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity to lose fat for good – without doing long, slow, boring cardio workouts. That means you won’t have to wait in line at the gym to do cardio when everyone goes back to the gym as a New Year’s resolution.

Click here to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime sale!

Dan.