Street Smart Nutrition

5 Fat Loss Snacks to Keep You Full

2010-09-30T20:03:00.001-04:00

NutritionData.com (now owned by Self) has a cool fullness factor rating for certain foods.

Here are five snacks that rank high on the list

Turkey slices with bread-and-butter pickles Fullness Factor 3.0
Buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes Fullness Factor 2.9
Edamame Fullness Factor 2.7
Subway Turkey Breast Wrap Fullness Factor 2.4
Hummus and carrot sticks Fullnses Factor 2.3

Edamame and Buffalo Mozzarella with tomatoes are perfect for any fat loss diet and fill me up everytime.

Top 10 Snacks (not just for kids)

2010-09-29T17:15:00.001-04:00

The folks at Fooducate put together a great list of top 10 snacks for kids

Ants on a Log – a classic. Celery sticks filled with peanut butter or cream cheese, dotted with raisins, or dark chocolate chips.

(I loved that one as a kid). The list is great but remember they aren't just for kids - these would be great snacks for you as well!

Don't give them this:

Here's one of my favorite fat loss diet snacks

Grilling meat without increasing risk of cancer

2010-09-29T11:23:00.001-04:00

Grilling is one of my favorite ways to cook foods. However, charred meats (and even vegetables) may increase your risk of certain cancers. Here's one way to fight cancer and oxidative stress without putting your grill away before the winter.

Marinate your foods in antioxidant-containing ingredients-such as rosemary, citrus fruits, and green tea-which may reduce HA levels. Additionally, if you are going to brush the foods with oil, use one that has a high-smoke point, such as avocado oil or high-oleic safflower oil, to help lower the extent of oxidative damage to the oil itself.

Remember that food safety is key. Check out 5 more tips for safe cooking on my blog.

What is the Healthiest Way of Grilling? [WHFoods.org]

Read it before you eat it

2010-09-28T17:23:00.001-04:00

Nutrition got you confused? Here is some solid advice extracted from an interview with Bonnie Taub Dix

1. Don’t be fooled by the flashy front of the package — flip the bag or box over to get the real “facts” about what’s in the food you’re spending your money on and putting into your body.
2. Beware of buzz words like “free”, “natural” and “organic”, just to name a few. These terms are not always what they seem. In my book I have a whole chapter on misleading terms because they bug me the most! Bottom line: words like “free” could cost you unnecessary dollars and calories!
3. And of course, most importantly, Read It Before You Eat It (couldn’t help using that line!)

Have you read Read It Before You Eat It: How to Decode Food Labels and Make the Healthiest Choice Every Time

It is now top on my list!

Don't forget to checkout my warnings regarding organic masking

Fat Loss Goal Setting

2010-09-27T03:33:00.001-04:00

Here is some great goal setting advice from Mike Robertson

Whether you have achieved your goals for this year or not is irrelevant. That’s in the past. The only thing you have control over is the present, and by extension, the future.

Always remember The #12 Rule of Fat Loss as well.

Childhood Obesity Facts - just scary

2010-09-24T18:43:00.001-04:00

If you read my blog on insulin resistance and prediabetes then you know it is a huge problem. The scariest part is that it isn't just a big problem among adults

6. Type 2 diabetes: Whereas in 1990 only 4% of newly diagnosed childhood diabetes was type 2, by 2001 the proportion was 45% in adolescents in areas with a large population of African-American, Mexican-American, or Native-American children. Also noteworthy, type 2 diabetes in youth is more common in girls than in boys, with one study showing that up to 80 percent of children who develop type 2 diabetes are female.

You can check out 9 more scary facts about childhood obesity at Diet-Blog.com

Healthy Eating While Traveling

2010-09-23T12:43:00.001-04:00

Eating right on the road can be an utter disaster if you don't plan ahead. This single best thing you can do is to bring healthy food with you as you're not going to find it on the road:

1. Stock up on the healthy stuff. One reason we eat crap on the road is because we're bored. After a long drive of a whole lotta nothing, what's more exciting than injecting a little fat and sugar into old bloodstream? Perhaps what's not so exciting is the size of your rear after several days of that type of behavior. One way to avoid the crap is to have plenty of healthy items available. Stock a cooler with plenty of water, fruit, yogurt and cut veggies to munch on to help you avoid temptation.

Don't forget to read my top 5 tips for healthy eating while traveling either.

Road Trip - Avoid Weight Gain on the Road [About.com]

Insulin Resistance Dangers - Start Fighting Now!

2010-09-23T12:17:00.001-04:00

I recently blogged about insulin resistance and how it is become a huge problem.

Here's some cool info from WebMD about how you can crush your risk of getting diabetes by just some simple diet and exercise hacks

Studies have shown that people with prediabetes can prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes by up to 58 percent through changes to their lifestyle, including modest weight loss (as little as 5 to 7 percent of your current weight) and increasing physical exercise.

If you have prediabetes, do something about it now [WebMD]

Healthy Eating in 3 Easy Steps

2010-09-21T10:08:00.001-04:00

Marion Nestle's tips on healthy eat are right in line with the 6 Pillars of Nutrition.

Tell patients that healthy eating simply means three things: variety, minimal processing and moderation.

Variety means choosing many different kinds of foods from the various food groups: meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, grains. It counts because foods vary in nutrient content. Varying foods within and among food groups takes care of needs for nutrients without having to think about them. People who consume adequate amounts of varied diets rarely exhibit nutrient deficiencies. It’s the most restrictive diets that are likely to be deficient in one or another nutrient.

Minimal processing means that the foods should be as close as possible to how they came from the animal or plant. The greater the level of processing, the less the foods resemble their origins, the less nutritious they may be, and the more salt, sugar and calories get added to disguise the changes.

Minimal processing excludes foods high in salt and sugars and low in fiber, as well as sugary sodas and juice drinks, those popularly known as junk foods.

My definition of minimal processing is only slightly facetious: Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients or an ingredient you can’t pronounce.

Moderation is about balancing calorie intake with expenditure and maintaining a healthy weight through food choices and physical activity.

San Francisco Chronicle column: nutrition advice to doctors [Food Politic s]

Vegetarian Protein and Fake Meat

2010-09-20T13:00:00.001-04:00

Do you eat meat substitutes? According to some new data most people are not big fans of them

According to a survey conducted by Mintel, over half of consumers are disappointed with the variety of meat-free products, with a strong perception of poor taste of these products.

Meat substitute manufacturers need to focus on more exotic and ethnic flavours, as well as more premium products to increase appeal to many consumers, particularly women, says Mintel.

I'm personally not a fan of meat substitutes because they are traditional made with allergenic foods. Check out my video on vegetarian proteins for more on that.

You can read more about the meat substitute decline here.

Calorie Sneak ups

2010-09-17T18:15:00.001-04:00

I've written on my blog before about hidden factors that make you eat more. One way to combat calorie snack attacks is by having your snacks already planned out so you know exactly what you are eating. Another approach (below) from Yahoo Health Tips also works well. My recommendation would be to create a list of 10 'approved snacks' and their sizes so when you head to the kitchen for a snack you have choices laid out for you and know that they will all fit in your plan.

Sneaky Snack Approach
When you know how many calories are in your snack of choice, you're in a better position to adjust your calorie intake of other foods later, so your total caloric intake for the day stays on target. That's right -- you can't snack away without cutting back somewhere else. But knowing how many calories your chosen noshes contain -- be they fruit, veggies, and yogurt or higher-calorie snacks like cereal and savory crackers -- will help you modulate at mealtime.

Diets that dieted (thank goodness)

2010-09-16T10:00:00.001-04:00

You can go on one of two types of diets: a healthy diet or a crazy fad diet. I just came across a great list of the "Top 25 Fat diets from the last 25 Years". Here's a gem known as the Sleeping Beauty Diet (I can't make this up).

The general idea behind this warped sedative-fueled fad diet is, “Take two of these and call me in seven days.” You are supposed to drug yourself to sleep for up to seven days at a time.

You may lose some weight because you didn't eat for a week, but we've got snooze for you: This diet, which was reportedly used by Elvis during those times his trademark jumpsuits became a tad too tight, just won't work. You'll awaken hungrier than a hibernatin' bear and lumber your way to the nearest buffet for a binge to end all binges. Just say no to drugs... and yes to a healthier diet and weight loss plan.

How To Prevent Eating When You're Not Hungry

2010-09-15T14:37:00.001-04:00

I have written before on how it is very easy to sabotage your diet though unknowing snacking (see last week's post as well)

Melaine at Dietterric also posted her top 3 tips on how you can make sure that your aren't eating just because you are bored. Here's my favorite of her list:

#3 Take a short walk
This may seem like a strange way to avoid eating when not hungry, but sometimes just getting the blood flowing through the body, helps you realize you aren’t as hungry as first thought.

Also, exercise itself tends to suppress the appetite, so you’ll probably find that walking around cures any hunger cravings you were having anyway.

Plus, you’ll also burn off some additional calories — great if you’re trying to lose weight.

This is also known as 'delaying the craving' and it a very good strategy for emotional type eating as in these situations your desire for food isn't

Kettlebell Snatches and Fat Loss (Video)

2010-09-14T15:37:00.001-04:00

Download now or preview on posterous

kettlebells012010.pdf (1474 KB)

Here is a good 'how to kettlebell snatch' video. Chris shows you how to make sure you don't beat up your wrists (a problem I had for a while).

You may remember back a couple months there was a lot of buzz about kettlebells and fat loss due to a study published in ACE Fitness Matters. The study showed how kettlebell snatches burned more calories than anyone could have imagined. I'm not sure if this is because of the kettlebells or because of the metabolic acceleration nature of the workouts. Either way I find training with kettlebells fun and they burn a ton of calories.

Stress out? Do some push ups

2010-09-10T12:18:00.001-04:00

I remember as a kid that my wrestling coach always insisted that we practice during final exam periods while most of the other teams were given time off to 'study'. Most of my fellow teammates were stress about missing the time to study but Hutch (my coach) was adamant that it would help us blow off steam and study better (side note: it is hard to blow off steam when you are working out in a room that is steaming!!)

A study from PLoS ONE shows that Hutch was right and exercise does help deal with stress.

...the women who engaged in brief vigorous physical activity -- at least 40 minutes over the three-day study period -- and were stressed had longer telomeres than their inactive, stressed-out counterparts. The authors conclude that 13 minutes or more of vigorous exercise daily appears to be the critical amount correlated with longer telomeres.
“Physical activity is so good for you and stress is bad for you, but the new study shows the stress-buffering effects of physical activity in those who are chronically stressed,” says study author Eli Puterman, PhD, a health psychologist at the University of California at San Francisco.

When life gets stressful often times your fat loss training will take a back seat to vegging on the couch at the end of a long day. Don't get sucked into the couch. Take the extra effort and get in your workouts. Your body will thank you.

Exercise May Buffer Effects of Stress [WebMD]

More Good News About Caffeine

2010-09-09T03:11:00.001-04:00

A new study published in the Journal of the International Society of Nutrition found that:

a moderate dose of caffeine may be sufficient for enhancing strength performance in resistance-trained women.

The women is the study were given 6 mg/kg of caffeine. Which for a 150lbs women is about 400mg of caffeine or 2 cups of coffee. When the women took the caffeine prior to working out they boosted their 1 rep max bench press by just under 2lbs. Not ground breaking strength gains but every little bit helps right? This fits in perfectly with my nutrient stacking concept and one more (small) reason to include some caffeine in your fat loss training program when you energy levels may be a little low.

Caffeine enhances upper body strength in resistance-trained women [JISSN.org]

Do What You Do Better with Caffeine

2010-09-08T10:08:00.001-04:00

I've written before about the benefits of moderate caffeine and coffee consumption. A new review of studies looking at the effect of caffeine intake on shift workers (14% of Americans) show that it will cut down on work related errors and increase productivity.

Depending on the study design, the workers received caffeine through coffee, energy drinks, food, or pills. In most studies, the workers completed neuropsychological tests to gauge their memory, attention, reasoning, and perception skills. Several studies compared the results of neuropsychological testing in participants given caffeine versus a placebo.

The study authors say that, compared to doing nothing at all, the caffeine helped shift workers improve their cognitive performance and reduced job-related errors. None of the studies reviewed assessed the effects of caffeine on work-related injuries.

Caffeine Reduces on-the-Job Mistakes [WebMD]

Drink this to Sabotage Your Weight Loss Plan

2010-09-07T12:00:00.001-04:00

The 4th Pillar of Nutrition is to "Drink more water and cut out calorie-containing beverages (beer, soda, etc.)." One of the fastest ways that I see people sabotage their fat loss diet is by drinking to many calories. So you can image that I was horrified (but not shocked) to see that Cold Stone has a shake that is just over 2,000 calories. While that is utterly ridiculous, I don't understand why companies have to make such calorically dense products? Who in their right mind would volunteer to drink 2,000 calories in one setting? Food scientists are pretty amazing now-a-days, you're telling me they could make the drink taste pretty much the same if it contained 1,000 calories?

I'll stick to drinking water and tea.

A milkshake containing 2,010 calories - equivalent to eating 68 strips of bacon or 30 chocolate chip cookies — has topped a list of the 20 worst drinks in America compiled by Men's Health magazine.
The Cold Stone PB&C milkshake, made with peanut butter, chocolate ice cream and milk, contains 68 grams of saturated fat and 153 grams of sugar, according to nutritional details on the company's website.

"In terms of saturated fat, drinking this Cold Stone catastrophe is like slurping up 68 strips of bacon," the magazine said.

Here's a recap of the 6 Pillar of Nutrition for you

2,000-calorie shake tops list of worst drinks [MSN Health]

Rice Krispies Boost Immune Function?

2010-09-06T14:00:00.001-04:00

Several months ago when buying some cereal for the kids I came across the a box of Rice Krispies promising to boost Peter and Grace's immune system. I thought it was funny and snapped a picture with my phone. Apparently Kellogg's got in trouble for this.

The Kellogg Company will change immunity claims for Rice Krispies after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruled the claims misleading – but ruled out a financial penalty.
Instead the agency hit the $13bn food giant with an expanded settlement order that applies to all Kellogg’s products and associated health claims, along with a stern and somewhat unusual “dissenting statement” from FTC commissioner Julie Brill, and chairman Jon Leibowitz.
The letter accused Kellogg’s of irresponsibly conceiving and engaging in the multi-million dollar immunity campaign conceived last year at the very same time it was settling another misleading mental health claims conviction with the FTC.

But not enough trouble according to some people.

“What is utterly befuddling about this action is that Kellogg’s have hit the Daily Double with this – immunity and misleading claims aimed at children – and still the FTC won’t fine them just because they are Kellogg’s.”

“Here is a company that has breached a prior order [in relation to the mental health claim action] and still the FTC won’t take money from them. Even if that prior order didn’t exist the FTC has the power to disgorge a company of all of its ill-gotten gains. Kellogg’s has shown itself to be a repeat offender and it should have been punished accordingly.”

Dan Fabricant, PhD, the Natural Products Association’s vice president of scientific and global government affairs, agreed, "it was bizarre the FTC didn't hit Kellogg's with a fine".

I've written before about using caution when believing health claims on foods. What do you think?

Kellogg’s escapes FTC fine over false immunity claims [Food Navigator]

Foods that make you feel better fast

2010-09-05T14:36:00.001-04:00

I'm convinced that food is one of the most powerful drugs out there. Aside from it making or breaking your fat loss goals what you eat can greatly effect your mood and wellbeing. the Real Age folks posted a list of their top 3 mood boosting foods (my favorite below) over at Yahoo Health Tips.

Tea: A spot of tea may give you just the mood and performance boost you crave, thanks to the caffeine. Plus, research links tea drinking to lower rates of depression. And studies show that the very act of preparing tea may soothe nerves.

Supplement Dangers

2010-08-24T14:00:00.001-04:00

With the recent expose from Consumer Reports regarding dangerous supplements, there has been a lot of buzz about what's good, what's bad, etc. Marion Nestle recently blogged about this and provided a good summary of what Consumer Reports advises people to do:

Beware of these categories. Supplements for weight loss, sexual enhancement, and bodybuilding have been problematic, the FDA said, because some contain steroids and prescription drugs.
Don’t assume more is better. It’s possible to overdose even on beneficial vitamins and minerals. Avoid any product that claims to contain “megadoses.”
Report problems. Let your doctor know if you experience any symptoms after you start taking a supplement…do it yourself at www.fda.gov/medwatch or by calling 800-332-1088.
Research in the right places. Be skeptical about claims made for supplements in ads, on TV and by sales staff. If a claim sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Here's an oldie (but a goodie) sample from my former Fat Loss Accelerator program talking about some of my recommended supplements:

Also check out my post on Whey Protein Isolate vs. Whey Protein Concentrate.

Fat Loss Diets Not Just for Fat Loss

2010-08-23T09:09:00.001-04:00

A key factor to maintaining the fat you have lost is not to have 'dieting' vs. 'regular eating' mentality. If you are on a properly structured fat loss diet then you will be eating a lot of the same foods, in the same ways that you would if you weren't dieting. The main difference is just portion size. Martha Shulman at the NYT Health blog posted about this inadvertently while talking about how she likes cottage cheese.

Most days, I make a quick, no-nonsense lunch out of cottage cheese and vegetables — tomatoes and cucumbers in the summer, avocado and/or leftover cooked vegetables (roasted sweet potatoes are a favorite) when summer gives way to fall. Friends have accused me of eating “diet food,” but I take great pleasure in these lunches. Besides, I’m never on a diet.

This kind of mental shift is very liberating and essentially eliminate the yo-yo effect of dieting because you don't see yourself as on or off. Check out my post on Stage 4 Surges for more on this topic (the Stage 4 Surge idea is more about tightening your dietary control rather than drastically changing your diet).

Best Way to Lose Weight

2010-08-19T20:31:00.001-04:00

If you are in search of the best fat loss diet then here is a great summary of exactly what you need

It's the healthy eating plan that not only creates a caloric deficit but also feeds you the variety of healthy, delicious foods that keep you engaged and feeling satisfied!

Thanks to John McGran for the quote.

4 Ways to Quench the Summer thirst

2010-08-19T11:21:00.001-04:00

Staying hydrated is very important (so important that it is one of the 6 Pillars of Nutrition - see below) but if you aren't drinking water then it is easy to mistakenly get some added calories quickly. Here are 4 good options (the first is my personal favorite - lemon not lime please)

Plain old water. If you just don't like water, add a squeeze of lemon or lime juice, or a tablespoon of True Lemon powder.
Beverages containing artificial sweeteners--but drink them in moderation and then only if they don't bother you, and if they contain no more than 10 calories per serving.
If you're craving a refreshingly icy drink but don't want to ingest a sugar blast like my "Koffee Cooler," try putting your favorite low-calorie drink in the freezer. After you've taken it out of the freezer and scraped it with a fork to simulate an Italian ice dessert, pour it into a margarita glass to make it festive and throw in a sprig of mint.
Sports drinks may be indicated if you're running marathons, out in the hot weather for long periods, or if you're sweating profusely. But many people may not need them, and may be just fine with plain old water instead. [Quench Your Thirst]

If you need a refresher here are the 6 Pillars...

The 6 Pillars of Nutrition - The 6 Pillars of Nutrition drive our day to day eating. If you want to lose weight, get healthy, ward off heart disease, or muscle up your body so you don’t feel embarrassed to take off your shirt at the beach then the 6 Pillars need to be your mantra.

i. Eat five to six times a day.
ii. Limit your consumption of sugars and processed foods.
iii. Eat fruits and vegetables throughout the day.
iv. Drink more water and cut out calorie-containing beverages (beer, soda, etc.).
v. Focus on consuming lean proteins throughout the day.
vi. Save starch containing foods until after a workout or for breakfast.

#1 diet tip (someone else agrees with me)

2010-08-17T10:01:00.001-04:00

This is tip 1 from a list of 25. They are dead on (especially 1). Remember a food journal and a meal plan are two different things. Meal plans are proactive fat loss diet plans while food journals can turn into a reactive diary of your ill eating fast.

1. Create a food menu
Like most things in life, having a game plan is vital. And, weight loss is no different.

Always start your week by figuring out what meals you’ll have ahead of time, and then prepare a grocery list that will guide you in what to purchase.

When you stock only healthy foods in your home, it’ll be so much easier to stick to your program.

Here's the rest of the list - 25 tips to Get You In Shape

Salt, Weight Loss, and Health

2010-08-16T14:55:00.001-04:00

I'm not convinced that salt is the devil. I love salt. Salt makes your food taste better. Unfortunately salt is under attack. The recent dietary guidelines have set salt recommendations so low that you can forget adding salt to your food. My argument is that if you are eating whole foods, fruit, vegetables, etc then adding a little extra salt to your diet isn't going to kill you (literally). I've never adding salt to a dish effect any of my clients fat loss. However, not everyone agrees. Here are 6 reasons why people think you need to cut out the salt

6 Reasons to Drop the Salt

1. Salt increases the number of fat cells in your body

2. It makes the fat cells you have fatter

3. Salt prevents your metabolism from burning fat as it should

4. It increases insulin resistance

5. It makes you hungrier and thirstier

6. Salt makes it more difficult for fat-burning oxygen to blast the fat in your fat stores

Read the rest on why the Nutrition Twins think salt stinks.

Maca might be useful...but tastes awful

2010-08-16T12:26:00.001-04:00

I've never had anything contaminate the taste of a shake like this stuff

Mindful or Mindless Eating - Which do you do?

2010-08-16T11:15:00.001-04:00

Mindful eating is a great concept. You could be on the best fat loss diet in the world but if you are eating your meals it in the time it takes for a hulu commercial to pass only to find yourself still hungry? This is a perfect example (I know she's talking about ice cream but you get the point):

This is also very true of our eating. We eat meal after meal, snack after snack, barely aware of when and why we are eating, what we’re eating and how much we’re actually consuming. This is mindless eating and we are all guilty of it.
I remember one particular incident of mindless eating. My sister was going through a very difficult time and we were talking on the telephone. As we chatted, I took a pint of ice cream from the freezer, grabbed a spoon and dug in. An hour later, when I hung up the phone, I realized I had eaten the entire pint of ice cream!

Read the rest of the post here http://diettogo.com/blog/eating-mindfully-weight-loss-you-can-do-it

Spice up Your Fat Loss Diet

2010-08-16T09:20:00.001-04:00

Adding spices to your fat loss diet is essential for survival. Just because you are trying to lose weight doesn't mean that you need to suffer through bland tasteless foods. While there are countless premade spice combinations available at your local supermarket you can save a bunch of money while cutting out preservatives and additives by making your own. The Cheap Healthy Good blog has a great list of DIY spice combinations

Taco Seasoning

Ingredients
    * 1 tablespoon chili powder
    * 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
    * 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
    * 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
    * 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
    * 1/2 teaspoon paprika
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
    * 1 teaspoon sea salt
    * 1 teaspoon black pepper
Directions: In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Store in an airtight container.

Rapid Weight Loss Better than Slow Weight Loss

2010-08-15T17:34:00.001-04:00

I have long believed that for many people rapid weight loss, when done correctly is better than slow fat loss because people like results and fast results keep you motivated. Right? Here's a blurb from a study that showed just that. It is always good when science proves your point :)

"Surprisingly, and against current beliefs, this study shows rapid weight loss appears to be superior to gradual weight loss in achieving target weight," she said of the study conducted on subjects weighing around 100 kilos.
Her results showed that 78 per cent of those on the rapid diet achieved the target of losing 15 per cent of their body weight within the determined period, while only 48 per cent of those on the gradual diet met the target.
One of the reasons, she said, is psychological and has to do with motivation.
On the rapid diet, "subjects lose 1.5 kg a week and that keeps them going. On the gradual diet, when you lose 0.5 kg now and then" motivation is harder to keep, she said.
In fact, four of the participants following the gradual diet gave up before the end of the experiment, against only one in the rapid diet group.

Read the whole article here: http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Rapid+weight+loss+better+than+slow+studies+show/3276737/story.html#ixzz0wiDXUXfw

If you have any sort of shoulder pain...

2010-08-12T18:31:00.001-04:00

If you have any sort of shoulder pain this is a great article http://backtoformfitness.com/5-quick-tips-to-save-your-shoulders-in-the-gym/

Insulin Resistance The Real Health Epidemic

2010-08-09T11:50:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/insulin-resistance-the-real-health-epidemic/)
Insulin resistance, also known as pre diabetes, is an every growing problem in the American. In fact it is estimated in 2007 that 23.6 million people in the U.S. have diabetes with more people upgrading from insulin resistance everyday (that number has only gone up since).

What is amazing is that preventing diabetes and warding off insulin resistance is acutally pretty simple. A massive study called the Diabetes Prevention Program found that if you make some basic lifestyle changes then you can reduce your risk of developing diabetes by 70%! This is great because taking insulin sensitizing drugs only decreased risk of developing diabetes by less than half of that.
Over the past decade the rate of new diabetes cases has doubled and it is on track to do more than that in the next decade. What are some things that you can do to make sure that you arenâ€™t of the unfortunate millions caught in the blood sugar tsunami?

Here are 7 ways to get you started.

Eat a Healthy Fat Burning Breakfast

Focus on Eating Nutrient Rich Power Foods

Avoid Dietary Displacement

Lose Visceral Fat (The bad stomach fat)

Eat an Anti-Inflammatory Diet

Make Small Changes to Your Diet and Maximize Nutrient Stacking

Don't Let Traveling Be an Excuse for Eating Bad

Another Vegetarian Protein Packed Salad

2010-08-03T11:12:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/another-vegetarian-protein-packed-salad/)
I eat a lot of salads (and hopefully you do to). One problem with eating lots of salads is that it is easy to get bored with what you are eating:

spinach, grilled chicken, olive oil....ugh

That is why I'll go weeks at a time on a spinach boycott. This forces me to great creative with tastes and flavors. One of my favorites is a Mediterranean Salad (Naked Nutrition Insiders can get the recipe here) which is made up cucumbers, pine nuts, tomatoes, and other goodies (but not spinach or lettuce). I came across a great vegetarian protein packed salad recipe that you're sure to love if you are getting tired of the same old chicken and spinach dance. To make this recipes a little simpler you can skimp on stuff like mint and chives but know that the flavor will suffer a little.

3 cups cooked large limas or Christmas limas

1 pound ripe tomatoes, cut in 1-inch dice or wedges (it looks nice if theyâ€™re cut about the same size as the beans)

1 green pepper, cut in 1-inch slices

1 small cucumber (preferably a Persian cucumber), sliced (peeled if waxed)

2 tablespoons chopped chives

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or mint

2 ounces feta cheese, diced or crumbled

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cups arugula

I'm notÂ a huge lima bean fan so replacing them with canned low sodium Cannellini beans is a great option. This salad also uses arugula with is one of my favorite leafy greens. It has a distinctive taste that is great with just a little lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil.

The above recipe can make 4 servings which are about 350 calories a piece containing 12 grams of fiber and 15 grams of protein.

For more vegetarian protein options check out the vegetarian protein page.

Greek Salad With Giant Beans and Arugula [NYT Fitness & Nutrition)

Vegetarians don't make this big mista...

2010-07-21T19:22:00.001-04:00

Vegetarians don't make this big mistake http://su.pr/2EmKWT

Vegetarian Protein Rules: Don't Make This Mistake

2010-07-21T19:21:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/vegetarian-protein-rules-dont-make-this-mistake/)
Vegetarian protein sources and getting enough protein is a common concern with people following a vegetarian diet. But getting enough protein isn't always the issue - eating too many carbs is! Here is another excerpt from my Naked Nutrition for Fat Loss seminar. Watch and make sure you don't make the big mistake I talk about regarding your body's biochemistry.

Special Deal - Get This Entire Presentation for Free

This presentation is getting released as a 2 DVD set on September 15th. You can get the entire Naked Nutrition for Fat Loss set for free (just $4.95 pay S&H) when you become a Naked Nutrition Insider today. Learn More Here (Offer Ends 7/23/10)

Special Deal - Get This Entire Presentation for Free

Inactivity & Obesity - Chicken or Egg?

2010-07-21T09:05:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/inactivity-obesity-chicken-or-egg/)

In health and fitness there are so many polarizing opinions:

Are All Calories Equal?

Need to Lose Weight - Diet or Exercise?

Do Types of Carbs Matter?

I could go on and on....

Yesterday I read an interesting article on childhood obesity. As you know it is a problem. Kids are getting fatter (let's not forget that their parents are as well) and fatter at younger and younger ages. This next part may or may not be surprising to you...exercise doesn't help.Numerous studies have shown that exercise interventions don't impact weight loss. It is just too easy to out eat the calories you burn from exercise. As a nutritionist, this warms my heart - diet is king (or queen). These were some of the conclusion in a paper published from the EarlyBird Diabetes study.

It is well known that less active children are fatter, but that does not mean -- as most people assume it does -- that inactivity leads to fatness. It could equally well be the other way round: that obesity leads to inactivity.

The interesting part is that the researchers from the EarlyBird study also found that while being inactive didn't impact weight loss, being fat lead to more activity. This is a circular argument if I ever saw one.

Here is the conclusion from the paper :

Physical inactivity appears to be the result of fatness rather than its cause. This reverse causality may explain why attempts to tackle childhood obesity by promoting PA [physical activity] have been largely unsuccessful.

What do you think? Is being inactive a side effect of being fat?

Inactivity 'No Contributor' to Childhood Obesity Epidemic, New Report Suggests [Science Daily]

Fatness leads to inactivity, but inactivity does not lead to fatness [Archives of Disease in Childhood]

Processed Organic Foods and Organic Masking

2010-07-20T13:46:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/processed-organic-foods-and-organic-masking/)
Here is a clip from my upcoming Naked Nutrition for Fat Loss DVD set. In the video I talk about the importance of moving your diet from bar codes to bags, that is eating less foods that come with bar codes and more food that you need to put into bags while shipping. Moving from bar codes to bags will automatically improve the quality of your diet. When your diet quality goes up, your heath and weight loss will also increase.

In this video I also talk about organic masking. With the popularity of organic foods increasing daily more and more companies are coming out with organic junk food. You'll find cookies with organic labels on them. Here's the truth - organic sugar is just as bad for you as regular sugar - don't be fooled. Companies are trying to mask the detrimental effects of junk food by sticking organic labels on then. The worst part is that it will cost your 2x as much!

Special Deal - Get This Entire Presentation for Free

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2010-07-20T11:30:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/scribefire8qdivompzkscribefire/)
SCRIBEFIREL0nJTr9eSCRIBEFIRE

Strength Training Without Weights - Work Capacity

2010-07-20T11:08:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/strength-training-without-weights/)
In this video 2006Â NSCA Strength Coach of the Year, Robert Dos Remedios talks about work capacity and how it is a key component to your strength training and fat loss workouts with or without weights. When training with just your body weight it is extra important to increase the stress on your body by decreasing rest times and pushing your work capacity to the limit.Â Here is a simple strength training workout without weights that Coach Dos described in the video is as follows:

Clap Push Up x 10

Burpee x 10

Squat Jumps x 10

Plank to Push Up x 10

Repeat 3 times with as little rest as possible.

See how long it takes for you to complete all 3 rounds. Repeat this circuit at least weekly trying to improve your time each time through.

For More Workouts Like This Check out CoachDos.com Premium

Fat Burning Breakfast in Less Than 5 Minutes

2010-07-20T08:45:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/fat-burning-breakfast-in-less-than-5-minutes/)

Do you eat breakfast everyday? I hope so. Surprisingly the actual research on eating breakfast isn't that robust and some nutrition experts don't think that breakfast is that important. I really believe that a good healthy breakfast sets the stage for your day. It sends the message that you're going to do what it takes that day to eat right and do what you need to do in order to reach your fitness goals. Here what I had this morning (a slight variation on one of my long standing breakfast staples). This shakes comes in at just over 400 calories and can be consumed while driving to work or chasing around 2 year old twins trying to get them to put their diapers back on.

1.5 Cups Blueberries

1.5 Scoops Vanilla Protein Powder

1 TBSP Flaxseed Oil

A Handful of Ice Cubes

Put it all in a blender, add 1-2 cups of water (less if you like a thicker shake), and blend until the ice is all crushed up.

2010-07-19T18:38:00.001-04:00

Good Sale for you. Save 17% on BCAAs http://su.pr/1S2Rlb

7 Day Kettlebell Fat Loss Routine

2010-07-19T17:13:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/7-day-kettlebell-fat-loss-routine/)
You have to admit it...kettlebells are very hot right now, especially for fat loss and metabolic training. Ever since I ditched my gym membership, I have found them to be an indispensable tool along with my TRX.

Here's a full kettlebell workout that you can use courtesy of kettlebell lover Chris Lopez. (Note: Chris uses the blast straps in some of the movements, you can use a TRX here as well).

Monday

1a) KB Clean & Press (3 x 5-8)

1b) Blast Strap Reverse Fly (2 x 15)

2a) Renegade Row x 20

2b) KB Windmill x 8/side

2c) Ab Wheel Roll Out x 20

3) 2-Arm KB Swings x 100

Tuesday

1) Turkish Get-Ups (3 x 5/side)

2a) Close Grip Chin-ups (3 x AMRAP)

2b) Pistols (3 x AMRAP)

2c) Blast Strap Push-Ups

3) KB Snatches (AMRAP in 7 minutes)

Wednesday AND Saturday (optional)

1) Early AM Hill Sprints

2) Stretching, planks & bridges

Thursday

1a) KB Military Press (3-4 x 5)
1b) KB Row (3 x AMRAP)

2a) Blast Strap Dips
2b) Blast Strap Tricep Ext
2c) Blast Strap Ab Fall-Outs

3) 2-Arm KB Swings x 100

Friday

1) 1-arm KB Snatches (AMRAP)

2) Turkish Get-Ups

2) Chin-up Variation

SUNDAY - OFF

Kettlebell Qâ€™n'A: My Current Program & The RKC [Kettlebell Workouts.com]

Today is also the release of the TRX Kettlebell DVD (which I'm personally excited about). Check out the video
below. The guy doing the advanced movements is really working on the overhead single leg lunges!

Your Mind is Continuing to Sabotage Your Weight Loss Efforts

2010-07-19T16:35:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/your-mind-is-continuing-to-sabotage-your-weight-loss-efforts/)
Just a week or so ago I wrote about how there are lot of different factors that influence how much you eat during the course of a meal. In this post, I shared with you research on eating with other people and how who you eat with and the number of people that you eat with has been shown to influence how many calories you'll consume at a meal (bad news for men with more than one wife who like to eat as a family - read the post and you'll see what I mean).

Research along these same lines was just presented at Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior by Dr. Jeff Brunstrom of the University of Bristol UK and colleagues. In the study by Dr. Brunstrom, they showed study participants either a small amount of fruit or a larger amount of fruit and told the participates that is what they would be getting in their smoothie (in actuality they were both give the same amount).

They study participants they rated how satisfied they thought they would be after the smoothie and then again rated their satiety 3 hours after drinking the smoothie. The people who were shown the smaller amounts of fruit were significantly less satisfied despite acutally consuming the same amount of food.

If you are a regular reader of my blog this should come as no surprise to you, but just more evidence to support the fact that if you want to be more satisfied while eating less calories you need to bulk up your diet with more fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables give you the visual appeal of eating a lot of food without the high calorie backlash.

Could Our Minds Be Tricked Into Satisfying Our Stomachs? [Science Daily]

Beef Makes Things Taste Better?

2010-07-13T23:28:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/beef-makes-things-taste-better/)
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Please ignore that random string of numbers above. I'm just trying to prove to the site Technorati that I do indeed own my own site :)

I've recently been doing some beef research (well my PhD has to do with lean beef and CVD so technically I've been doing beef research for 4 years now) for an upcoming magazine article and have come across some really interesting info regarding beef and Umani (the new official 5th taste).

Check this out:

When you combine umami-rich foods, it's not like one plus one equals two in terms of flavor,â€ Zino says. Instead, a 50-50 mixture of two umami compounds can produce eight times as much flavor as either one of the compounds alone. So, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

This synergy is part of umami's crave-creating power, and it explains why certain flavors pair so well with beef.

Aged cheeses, bacon, barbecue sauce, mushrooms, red wine, sour cream, soy sauce, tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce are among the top flavors to pair with beef, and they are all rich in umami.

How can you not love synergy? here's the link to the original article.

If you haven't already make sure to check out my new Naked Nutrition Insider program. Here's a video that explains it all.

how to get the most out of green tea ...

2010-07-13T16:55:00.001-04:00

how to get the most out of green tea http://su.pr/1Se4ws

just went up. See you in the forum ht...

2010-07-13T16:35:00.001-04:00

just went up. See you in the forum http://su.pr/2UXSwI

Naked Nutrition Insider is LIVE

2010-07-13T16:11:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/naked-nutrition-insider-is-live/)
Hi. It has been months in preparation but the new Naked Nutrition Insider Program is now LIVE.

You can learn about everything in this video.

Check it out. Let me know what you thinks. I'm really excited for this and to work with you.

If you are a fit for the program and join by Friday then I'm throwing in a couple extra special things for you.

1) Fat Loss Experts Audio Series

2) Truth About Carbs Audio

3) Free instant upgrade from GOLD to GOLD+ Status (Saves you 33% every month)

See you in the forums,

Mike

Deadly Guacamole!! http://ow.ly/2aUrN

2010-07-13T15:50:00.001-04:00

Deadly Guacamole!! http://ow.ly/2aUrN

30 Foods that you should be eating ht...

2010-07-13T14:50:00.001-04:00

30 Foods that you should be eating http://su.pr/1Rw38D (what did I miss?)

Support Cancer Research http://su.pr/...

2010-07-13T13:50:00.003-04:00

Support Cancer Research http://su.pr/18wf34

Green Tea gets a lot of hype and many...

2010-07-13T13:50:00.001-04:00

Green Tea gets a lot of hype and many people forget this is just as good of an alternative http://su.pr/1HCNqE

2010-07-12T14:22:00.001-04:00

thinks my cottage cheese snack is making me stuffed up...not happy about that.

2010-07-12T11:29:00.001-04:00

A body transformation roadmap --> http://mikeroussell.com/body-transformation-roadmap/

Body Transformation Roadmap

2010-07-09T14:50:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/3vOmK)
So I've been a little delayed with technical problems for the release of the new Naked Nutrition Insider. But every will get fixed this weekend so we'll be a go on Monday. In the meantime I wanted to share with you the featured article from Janurary's issue. The article focuses on how to achieve your New Years Resolution Weight Loss Goal and since we are a little over 1/2 way through 2010 I thought it would be a good one to share. Maybe you need a shot in the arm to refocus on the goals you set Jan 1st of this year or maybe you never set any...either way this article will give you a road map on how to achieve what you want.

Resolution Roadmap

Strong, Fit, & Healthy Featured Article by Mike Roussell

Things are going to be different now right? 2010, you're going to lose those last 10lbs, create a new positive routine, end an old negative habit. While new year resolutions may be clichÃ© and lots of people make fun of them, saying that they are bound to fail so why bother setting them - I think new year resolutions are the most powerful motivation injectors that you will receive this year (second maybe only to your birthday). Why, because as Billy Crystal's character in City Slickers told Daniel Stern, you get a do-over.

Identification

In the opening editorial of last month's issue of SF&H, I encouraged you to audit your life and figure out what isn't working. If you remember I shared two things that weren't working in my life. One of these was my inability to consistently accomplish my professional writing first thing in the morning when most fresh and alert. After identifying this problem my resolution was to get up before my family does and write for 60-90 minutes each day. I'm happy to tell you that I'm writing this article at 5:37am.

So, what isn't working for you? I had a client once who was in sales and spent a good portion of his day driving around from sales presentation to sales presentation. The problem that he was having was that as a result of all the driving he either ate out or on-the-go in his car, with both options resulting in him consistently making bad food choices. Once we identified this problem we were able to make a specific plan to deal with this road block. All the excellent nutritional advice in the world would not have worked with this client had we not first addressed the primary issue of his unique daily schedule and how to incorporate good foods into it.

If you haven't already, then sit down to do a quick audit of your life and identify what is not working. Once you have your list, I'll help you move forward and problem solve three main areas of your life, mindset, diet, and training streamlined so that you can reach your 2010 goals.

Mindset

When it comes to diet and losing weight (a very popular New Year's Resolution of course), the mindset that you need to be successful is often overlook and rarely given enough attention (not nearly as much time as you would spend on your diet or training). This is a mistake as your thoughts frame your feelings and inevitably your actions. If you think of yourself as an overweight person that eats fast food and other junk, then in the end you are going to revert back to that behavior as it is continuous with your own mental image of yourself. World famous speaker and author Brian Tracy refers to this phenomenon constantly in his teaching. He encourages people to identify habits of lean people and do those things, make these your habits and image of yourself and you will create a lean physique. I call this the principle of inevitable results.

In Your Naked Nutrition Guide I talk about people in fitness and advertising professions that plan and pack all their meals at the beginning of the week so that as the week goes on all they need to do is pull out that predetermined meal and eat it. This is without a doubt one of the behaviors that allows them to maintain such low body fat percentages. See yourself as that person, or the person you are striving to be, maybe itâ€™s an old picture of yourself much thinner. Research has shown that one strategy of people who successfully lose weight and keep it off, is always having a mental image of what they want to look like to keep them on track and moving toward their goals.

If in your life audit you find that you lose steam on your goals after 2-3 weeks or you find that you are constantly doubting your ability to lose the weight, focus on putting the 'inevitable resultsâ€™ principle into action. Resources:Goals by Brian Tracy and The New Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz.

Diet

As a reader of this newsletter, hopefully you have a pretty good grasp on your diet. However, you'll undoubtedly be able to identify 1-2 areas where you are having problems. I would feel comfortable in assuming that if you are having trouble reaching a weight loss, muscle building, or health related goal then nutritional compliance is an issue. Please start tracking how well you are sticking to your plan. On page 11 (in the Key Concepts section), or issue 3 of SF&H, I included a link to a downloadable compliance tracking sheet. If you haven't already, then download that file, print it out, stick it to your refrigerator, and start tracking. This one habit will probably make a bigger impact on your success than anything else.

The next piece nutritionally is to identify where you are in the Stages of Nutrition. This is important as it will let you know what kind of nutrition plan you need to develop based on your current nutritional habits. I have made my 50 minute Stages of Nutrition presentation available to you as an added members bonus in the Strong, Fit, and Healthy members section at MikeRoussell.com

Training

Regardless of your health goal this year, whether it is to decrease your risk for heart disease, lose 10 lbs, or gain 20 lbs of muscle, exercise needs to be an integral component. Not only will exercise help you burn more calories and build more muscle it will also keep you invested in your plan. While I don't have scientific studies to support this, my own experiences and observations have shown me that people adhere to their diets better while involved in an exercise program. I believe that it has to do with supporting your commitment to one goal in several different areas of your life. If you are staying on your diet AND training hard, why would throw your diet out the window on Wednesday night for a medium pizza when you just spent 60 minutes at the gym working to burn calories and fat - the two actions do not jive.

The Metabolic Workout of the Month is a great place to start getting ideas and variety for your workouts. Most of the workouts in this section can be added to your current training program in place of traditional cardiovascular activity (running, biking, etc). When picking a training program two very inexpensive but very effective options you should look at are â€˜Power Trainingâ€™ by Robert Dos Remedios, â€˜The New Rules of Liftingâ€™ and â€˜The New Rules of Lifting for Women,â€™ both by Alwyn Cosgrove and Lou Schuler with the later also co-authored by Cassandra Forsythe, and finally â€˜The Female Body Breakthroughâ€™ by Rachel Cosgrove. These books are readily available at Amazon.com or Barnes and Nobles and will provide you with top notch training programs to help you reach your health and fitness goals in 2010.

Regardless of what you choose for an exercise program, the one thing that you must vow to do is MOVE MORE. Over the Christmas/New Yearâ€™s break when my family traveled back to Vermont, I had the chance to meet up with a previous mentor at the University of Vermont. She has recently lost 25lbs, looks and feels great. In addition to tracking everything she ate, she attributed her weight loss to moving more. She set a goal of taking 10,000 steps everyday. I commented on how that must be really hard if not impossible as her job requires a lot of desk work. She replied that she realized that but had to make it work so she forced her self to take breaks during the day to go on short walks. It is these kinds of actions and commitments that make the difference. Move More this year. Go to the nearest sporting goods store and pick up a pedometer, track your activity levels. While pedometers are not the world's most accurate devices they will give you a good idea of how much you move each day relative to the previous one. If you need more convincing read the "Key Concepts: NEPA" article at the back of Issue 3.

Action

The one thing left for you to do is IT, or as Nike's slogan commands "just do it." Identify what isn't working in your life in the areas of your Mental Muscle, Diet, and Exercise programs. Practice the principle of inevitable results. Vow to track your dietary compliance all 52 weeks this years. Find out where you are in the stages of nutrition and build your nutrition plan accordingly. Finally commit to a top quality exercise program and move more everyday.

Free Issue of Strong, Fit, & Healthy to Download

2010-07-06T08:48:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/rHvML)
I hope that everyone had a great holiday weekend. We had a classic 4th of July Weekend full of BBQ, the twins running around in the backyard and playing in the kiddie pool, and lots of sun (I needed a good vitamin D infusion).

Before I get into the free download info I wanted to make sure that you checked out my last 2 blog posts (they are a 2-part series) on Stage 4 Surges. I think that it is one of the best blogs of the year here at the site and hope that you will find it extremely useful. Check it out here --> Stage 4 Surges.

Onto today (and tomorrow). Starting tomorrow, I will be re-opening and re-releasing my Naked Nutrition Insider Program. I have been working on this for several months and if you have been a reader for a long time then you will really like the updated program. The flagship component of the Naked Nutrition Insider Program is the Strong, Fit, & Healthy Newsletter. I'm kind of a put your money where your mouth is kind of guy so I figured that the best way to see what the Strong, Fit, & Healthy newsletter was all about would be to give you a copy. So below you can download the first ever issue of Strong, Fit, & Healthy.

Over the next couple days I will be posting some more great health and nutrition info to build on the this free issue and other benefits of being a Naked Nutrition Insider. So look for my email tomorrow as I have put together an amazing deal for you. In the meantimeÂ download Strong, Fit, & Healthy below.

Enjoy!

Download Here

Stage 4 Surges - Minimizing Body Fat the Fastest Way Possible & Keeping It Low

2010-07-05T21:21:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/stage-4-surges-minimizing-body-fat-the-fastest-way-possible-keeping-it-low/)
In the previous post I started talking about the idea of timed periods of intensity built into your year long training program called Stage 4 Surges. The name comes from the fact that you would move from the 3rd Stage of Nutrition to the 4th Stage of Nutrition. These surges center on your current life situation and motivation levels.

Let's finish this discussion by looking at a different approach to peaking so that instead of peaking you will instead plateau at your idea body weight.

When you are ready, when your motivation is high, when your plan is set...move up to the 4th Stage of Nutrition, count calories or portions, be perfectâ€¦.but only do it for a finite period of time. 4, 6, 8, or 12 weeks. Donâ€™t diet until you are burned out. Lose the weight and leave on a high note. Maybe your goal is to lose 30lbs and after 4 weeks youâ€™ve only lost 15lbs but you are completely spent. Your compliance is slipping, your motivation is low - Donâ€™t force the issue. No one can keep up that level of intensity and focus forever without losing ground in other aspects of their lives. Plus, you donâ€™t want to stop dieting because you just â€œcanâ€™t stick with it anymore.â€

To steal from the overused sports phrase, it isnâ€™t â€˜Go Hard or Go Homeâ€™ it is â€˜Go Hard then Go Home.â€™

Transition back to a healthy but less rigid approach (i.e. the 3rd Stage of Nutrition), instead of reverting to eating garbage food as many people end up doing, until youÂ feel your fire comeback (and it will a lot sooner if you keep the weight off and donâ€™t gain it back). When it does, move back up to Stage 4 and get back into attack mode.

Hereâ€™s whatâ€™s going to happen, despite the fact that you will back off on your dietary control moving down from Stage 4 to Stage 3, you are probably still going to lose some weight. This makes you different than 99% of other people that just â€˜finished dieting.â€™ After a couple weeks of maintaining or losing more weight youâ€™ll really become motivated. I'm willing to bet that the normal course of events after you finish a diet is to slowly gain the weight back, imagine how motivated you would be if the weight kept coming off.

Take that motivation and energy, re-commit yourself to a Stage 4 Surge and youâ€™ll take another huge leap towards your goal. This stair stepping approach to long term and permanent weight loss success is much more effective than the usual 2 steps forward, 3 steps back approach that plagues most people.

Iâ€™m not telling you to start tomorrow, tighten your dietary control and go at it. Iâ€™m telling you to listen to your body, look at how your life (family, job, etc.) is going, and when you see an opening for when you can triple your efforts and focus DO IT.

If you are ready to ratchet things up then the best resource I have for you is Warp Speed Fat Loss 2.0 but it isnâ€™t for everyone and it isnâ€™t for you until you see that opening in your life and are ready to go for it. When it is over, donâ€™t go back to eating junk, scale it back to consistently making healthy choices, until you are ready for another sprint. It is the middle of the year now. When December 31st comes around you are going to look at how much weight you lost between Jan 1st and December 31st. It isnâ€™t going to matter if you lost 20lbs during May but gained it all back by November. Trying to force the issue with unnecessary dietary control 24/7/365 is how you do that. If you want to be 10, 20, or 30lbs lighter on December 31st then maximize your winners.

Stage 4 Surges & Maximizing Your Winners

2010-07-01T13:49:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://mikeroussell.com/stage-4-surges-maximizing-your-winners/)
In regards to health and weight loss what is everyoneâ€™s actual goal? Lose the weight AND keep it off. The â€˜lose the weightâ€™ part is easy. It is the â€˜keep is offâ€™ part that isnâ€™t. The scientific community, nutrition community, and fitness community have all been woefully unsuccessful at helping you keep it off. I think this is for several different reasons. Over the next two days I want to explore a solution to one of these reasons that I call â€˜Stage 4 Surgesâ€™ and while doing so expose a major flaw is most peopleâ€™s approach to dieting.

As a primer to this post watch this quick recap on the Stages of Nutrition

The Stages of Nutrition:

Nutritional Freestyling: You eat whatever you want whenever you want.

Proper Food Choices Varying Compliance: You try to eat the right stuff but you just donâ€™t do it consistently.

Proper Food Choices 90% Compliance: You eat the right stuff and you rarely falter (this is the target stage for most people).

Calorie/Portion Counting, Proper Food Choices 90% Compliance: You need to fine tune your diet more for a specific purpose (weight loss, health, performance) so you start counting calories or portions and you stay on your plan just about all the time.

So as you can see what your diet approach looks like should depend on where you are. If you are just starting out and nutritional freestyling then there is no need to worry about how many grams of protein, carbohydrates or fats that you are eating. In fact this could hinder your progress. What you need to be doing is focusing on consistently eating more fruits, vegetables, and lean proteins throughout the day. The key word in that phrase was consistent.

If you canâ€™t consistently do this then the gram quantities of anything donâ€™t matter as you probably wonâ€™t have the discipline or skill set to consistently hit those targets.

The best part is that once you DO start consistently eating better (better defined as in line with the 6 Pillars of Nutrition â€“ video below), your body is going to start changing for the good. It will probably change so much for the good that youâ€™ll think â€˜Jeez, why bother counting calories when I can just eat in line with the 6 Pillars of nutrition and get the body that I wantâ€™ (Okay, you may not choose those exact words when talking to yourself but you get what I mean).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mkAQGr8sAE[/youtube]

The key point and one that I stress again and again in my seminars is that the 3rd Stage of Nutrition should be your target Stage.

A couple months ago I was giving a seminar at the Fitness Circuit in State College, PA. During this seminar I introduced the attendees to the Stages of Nutrition and the 6 Pillars of Nutrition. After the presentation, I got into a conversation with the gym owner, Scott Ludwig, he loved the idea of the Stages of Nutrition - obvious heâ€™s a smart guy :).Â He went on to talk about how he could see the Stages being used in a back and forth type fashion. Exactly! (told you he was a smart guy)

Let me digress from my conversation with Scott to emphasize that nothing in life in linear. Not your weight loss, not your progress through the Stages of Nutrition, nothing. You will find yourself moving from Stage 2 (good food choices, less than optimal compliance) to Stage 3 (the target stage â€“ good food choices, optimal compliance) and then maybe back to Stage 2. Hopefully never falling all the way back to Nutritional Freestyling. This ebb and flow of your compliance will most likely change depending on what is going on in your life. That is fine, it happens. When you find yourself slipping just step your game up, re-align your focus and achieve your compliance goals. Simple.

Back to my conversation with Scott. He wasnâ€™t talking about the movement from Stages 2 to 3 to 2 and such but more using Stage 4 (Counting calories/portions, and optimal compliance) as a means for peaking. Good idea, right?

Think about the past 12 months. There have been times where you have been uber motivated to eat right and train, correct? There have been other times when you have been less than motivated or preoccupied with other things in your life such that you diet and training had to take a back seat (hopefully this wasnâ€™t too far of a back seat and you were still hitting your compliance and training goals but they were just not as aggressively set).

Think about those highly motivated times. What could you have done if you really would have stepped your game up? How much extra weight could you have lost? How much extra muscle could you have built? There is a phrase that a business coach once told me that has always stuck with meâ€¦.

â€œMaximize your winners.â€

That is what I want you to do. Maximize your winners. Maximize those periods of high motivation and drive. Maximize the amount of calories you can burn. Maximize your ability to get that extra rep and burn off that extra layer of fat. Maximize the extra will power that you will have to ratchet down and tighten up your diet.

Tomorrow, Iâ€™ll finish up this post/article with what exactly is Stage 4 Surges how you can use them, and a major flaw is most peopleâ€™s approach to dieting.

3 More Ways to Help Control Appetite

2010-06-30T06:40:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/Ni1GV)
Today I'm going to continue on with sharing with you some of the ways that Naked Nutrition folks on Facebook

5. Sugar Free Gum - While often laughably touted on the TV show The Biggest Losers as the ultimate weight loss secret, chewing gum is a very effective option for many people - especially if you are prone to snacking.

6. Eating More Often - Increasing how often you eat is an extremely effective way to curb appetite. This again plays to the mental aspect of hunger, if you are constantly eating (or every 2-3 hours), your brain gets a different message about food and its availability than if you were only eating once or twice a day.

7. Exercise - I have seen this work both ways for people. Some find that exercise makes them more hungry while others find that it takes their appetite away. It is good know find out which type of person that you are so that you are prepared because you need to exercise regardless. A recent study showed that exercising in hotter temperatures results in people eating less. I'm not sure the answer to the exercise/appetite question requires that you pretend you are a high school wrestler and workout in a 95 degree room, but exercising in hotter temperatures did lead to the release of more peptide YY, a compound released by your intestines which reduces appetite something is going on at a biochemical level.

I wish I could tell you different, but there isn't a magic bullet to zapping appetite and you aren't going to 'get over it.' Hunger pangs will always be there while dieting. My best advice is to diet and get it over with. Lose the weight that you need to lose and then stop dieting and eat lots of healthy calories while maintaining your new weight. If you haven't already make sure to read my Lifetime Fat Loss post as Jack's story has rung true with many people.

4 Ways to Help Control Appetite

2010-06-29T10:34:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/z7K6n)
Sometimes you just need to eat less. While I do everything possible in my writings and research to find ways to help you eat more food, still lose weight, improve your health, there is a limit to this. If you are not losing weight and want to lose 5, 10, or 15lbs you will need to eat less food than you currently are to make this happen.

The biggest stumbling block for most in this area is appetite and how to curb it. The bad news is that when you are dieting and eating less food you will always be hungry.Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here.

In a perfect world our body's would get used to the concept of eating less food and your brain would stop sending the 'I'm hungry' signal. Sort of like when you get a cut, it hurts for a little bit but then after a while your body stops transmitting the pain signal. Unfortunately, the human body's response to hunger is not the same as its response to a paper cut.

If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know that when looking at scientific research for an answer to a question, I like to use human research. Unfortunately, it is prohibitively difficult to continually restrict a group of people's calories and measure their appetite and hunger signals/cues in the brain to see how long they last. People have a tendency not so enroll in studies that would force them to under eat for decade.

So the best data we have to go on comes from animals. Studies from mice show that even after being underfed the equivalent of 7 human years (I say 'human' years because the lifespan of a mouse if much shorter - same concept as 'dog years'), the area in the brain responsible for sending the 'I'm hungry' signal is working just as hard sending that signal as it was on day 1.

Since it looks like our desire to eat more when we are eating less is always going to be there and considering that the brain is the driving force behind these feelings, we need to revert to tips, tricks, and other strategies to fool the brain into thinking we're not eating less. I took an informal poll on the Naked Nutrition Facebook page to see what people are doing to suppress appetite and fight this hardwired hunger response. Here's what's working for people:

1. Drinking Lots of Tea (Green, Black, Mate, etc) - While probably not as effective as all the ads on the internet claim, but tea has been used for hundreds of years as an appetite suppressant.

2. Fiber, Fiber, Fiber - Taking advantage of the satiating effects of fiber is also very important. One person adds ground flax to meals throughout the day. This is a great tip. Ground flax can be easily added to lots of things, it full of fiber, omega-3s, and other phytonutrients. In addition most fiber rich foods are generally not calorie dense foods which means that you can eat more without eating more calories.

3. Drinking More Water - While drinking water at a meal has not really been shown in scientific studies to make people eat less calories, it is still a widely used strategy by many people. What is really interesting is that if you take that same glass of water and use it to make a soup with the vegetables at that meal (so you are basically eating the same things just in a different form), studies show that you will then eat less - wild huh? Researchers think it has to do with visual cues and a glass of water just does not scream 'I'm going to make you full' to the brain (I know that it doesn't to mine).

4. Sugar Free Jello - This tip also fall under the category of eating foods that aren't calorie dense. Sugar free Jello is devoid of calories but the act of eating itself can help signal the brain that you should not be as hungry because you just ate. If there is one thing that research has shown us about eating behaviors, it is that calories don't matter. We are a very visually driven species, so seeing a big bowl of food that is low in calories (like Jello or a salad) will result in us thinking we ate a lot despite the fact that the actual amount of calories we ate weren't that much.

Tomorrow we'll look at the last 3 tips. If you have something that works for you that wasn't mentioned above please post a comment below so we all can benefit.

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Effects of Energy Drinks & Functional Foods - Fact or Fiction?

2010-06-25T19:04:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/HRLgU)
The label reads "improves brain function."

I don't know if it is sleep deprivation causing a reduction in my brain function or the fact that I'm very trust, either way I reach into the cooler and grab a can of Brain TonIQ (pronounced tonic).

: Image via Wikipedia

The newest energy drink in an ever growing class of $2 miracle in a can products promising increased energy, fat loss, and improved brain function. It is amazing to think that Red Bull used to be the only game in town and before that the only drink you could by which promised anything was Jolt Cola (and that just promised to have 2x the caffeine of Coke - which12 year old Mike Roussell thought was both a scary and cool proposition).

Now there is Red Bull, 5 Hour Energy, 6 Hour Power Energy (apparently the makers of 6 Hour Power Energy took the advice of Harland William's character in There's Something About Mary regarding 7 Minute Abs and applied it to energy drinks, Rock Star, Monster Energy, Full Throttle, Crunk, NOS, and my perennial favorite for long driving trips -the Spike Shooter. While many of the products that I just listed only promise an instant surge of energy, which is easily accomplished by stuffing the can full of sugar and caffeine, more and more products are being placed on store shelves, like Brain TonIQ, that seemingly promise a short term benefit that could only be accomplished via long term consumption.

The great promises of physiological superiority are not limited to the energy drink aisle of your local convenience store or super market. It is a growing trend in functional foods that people like us need to be aware of in order to prevent being sent to the poor house due to our quest for good health without even the consolation of better health (more on that in a minute).

Instant Benefit Through Chronic Use

One of the reasons that energy drinks like Red Bull are so popular is because you get an instant result.

Drink it, get energy.

You feel different after to drink it almost instantly. Due to the miracle of caffeine this is not the placebo effect, you actually have more energy. The problem for food and beverage companies arises when they try to develop products that cannot rely on the instant feedback that caffeine gives in order to convince you, the consumer, that the food or beverage is working.

So with the caffeine angle out the window, the next trick in the tool box is scientific research. Add a bunch of stuff to product that has been shown or theorized to have a benefit in a can or tub, sprinkle on the label some technical jargon, and you're good to go. With the ridiculous popularity of energy drinks Field of Dreams 'formulate it and they will drink' mantra actually works! But I want you to stop and think next time you go to shell out $2 in hopes of thinking more clearly.

Let's look at Brain TonIQ for a minute to illustrate my point. The tag line for this product is "Fuel Your Cranium. Get Thinking Again." So what is in this can that is going to make you start thinking more clearly?

Sugar. Organic Agave Nectar to be exact.

DMAE,

Choline (a classic ingredient in 'brain' drinks),

blue green algae,

eleutherococcus extract (aka Siberian ginseng)

rhodiola rosea

I'm not going to get into the details of the formulation, I just want to point out the flaw in our thinking as consumers. The though process we go through is this. I need to improve my brain function. Brain TonIQ says it will do this. It contains Ginseng and Rhodiola Rosea both should help with this. I'll drink it and be on point for my test/presentation/[insert reason for needing to think better].

The problem with this mentality/thought process is that things like Ginseng, Rhodioloa Rosea, or just about anything except caffeine don't work instantly and don't work after one dose and they may not even have enough of the active ingredient to make a difference.

Not to keeping going at the nice people that make Brain TonIQ (I just happen to have the can in front of me) but, there are 1.8 grams of the proprietary herbal blend with the ingredients that I listed above in each can. Studies looking at the effect of Siberian Ginseng use 1-3 gram per day for up to 12 weeks. So it is important to ask yourself, for any supplement you are taking,

'Is there enough active ingredient in here to make an impact?'

and

'How long do I need to take this to see the effects?'

Functional Foods - Looking Beyond Energy Drinks

As I alluded to this 'now contains [insert hot nutrient of the week]' phenomenon is running rampant in our supermarkets and the end result could be you just paying more but not getting any added benefit. Another example that we can look at is Benecol. Benecol is a butter substitute/margarine product that contains plant stanol esters. Plant stanols/sterols have been shown in several different clinical trials to reduce your cholesterol levels.

1 TBSP of Benecol contains 0.85 grams of stanols. You need at least 2 grams/ day of stanols to get a cholesterol lower effect. This means that you need to take 2-3 TBSP per day to reap the benefit of this product. The company behind Benecol clearly state this on their site but that is the kind of stuff we often ignore and chalk up to the company trying to make us consume more of their products ('rinse and repeat' anyone?).

The take home message here for this article is to not get sucked into purchases because of buzz words or 'Instant Benefit Despite Chronic Use Needed' promises. If you are going to go the route of using functional foods (which I do recommend as they can be beneficial), make sure that you know the usage needed to get the desired effect so that you aren't wasting your money.

I'd love to hear your thoughts?

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Overlooked Weight Loss Factors Pt 1: Eating with Others

2010-06-17T10:23:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://nakednutritionnetwork.com/overlooked-weight-loss-factors-pt-1-eating-with-others/)
[caption id="attachment_2758" align="alignright" width="127" caption="One of the best books you'll read this year"][/caption]

There is always a lot of talk about diet and exercise when it comes to weight loss. Certain ratios of protein and carbohydrates seem to be important. Whether or not you need to be doing 4, 10, or 20 minute metabolic workouts is currently a much talked about topic. Last night I started re-reading Tom Venuto's "The Body Fat Solution" and the introduction got me thinking about the factors that are over looked in most weight loss programs. These overlooked areas (many of which Tom does an excellent job of covering in his book) are really the key to success.

As I have said before, losing weight is self isn't that hard. Keeping the weight you lost is difficult. What are the overlooked factors in both the areas of weight loss and weight maintenance that if you were to just pay a little bit of attention to could make all the difference? Over the next couple posts I'd like to explore some of theses with you to better your chances of permanent success and living a strong, fit, and healthy life.

Environment

I"m not talking about the feng shui of your dinner plate but factors that drive your eating environment. Researchers have identified 4 key factors in your eating environmental:

Eating Atmospherics (Lighting, Noise & Music, etc)

Eating Effort

Eating with others

Eating distractions.

For the most part I recommend that you do your best to control what you eat through proper planning and preparation which can take eating atmospheric influences such as "people will eat more in colder rooms and drink more in warmer rooms" (I didn't make that up) out of the equation as you just eat what you had planed regardless of the humidity level in the room.

But even with all the best planning in the world you can't (and wouldn't want to) eat alone; thus it is important to recognize the under the radar factors that come into play when eating with others. Combine this with the fact that a lot of eating in larger groups occurs at restaurants or parties where the food selection can be less than ideal and it is pretty easy to fall off the wagon.

Now, I don't have to work very hard to convince you that the presence of other people will influence both what and how much is eaten.Â I'm sure you've had the experience where you were going to order one particular dish but the person you were with orders a different dish and you end up saying something like "oh, I'll have that to."

What I find really interesting is that research from Georgia State University shows that people can eat up to 33% more when eating with someone else compared to eating alone and that percentage increases as the size of the group increases. Brian Wansink, author of Mindless Eating, has also pointed out that the variance associated with how much is eaten in these group situations becomes smaller as the group get bigger; which basically means that people are more consistent about eating more food as the size of the group they are in gets bigger.

Here are some other stats from Dr. de Castro at Georgie State University. We eat more people close to use compared to just having random people around:

Spouse - 22% more

Family - 23% more

Friend - 14% more

But we eat less around coworkers (16% less).

[caption id="attachment_2764" align="aligncenter" width="298" caption="Do you eat more with certain people?"][/caption]

While some may argue the exact percentages and statistics, go ahead as those don't matter as much to me. Look at the big picture. Are you unknowingly eating more around certain people? Are you unknowingly making different food choices when you eat with certain people. Just take a couple minutes today to think about this and apply it to your life. Recognizing these situations in your life and making sure that you don't succumb to under the radar influences will help you live a strong, fit, and healthy life while maintaining the body weight you want.

Ketogenic Diets - Effective, But Are They Healthy?

2010-06-16T12:30:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/95TC3)
There has been a lot more QnA going on at the Naked Nutrition Facebook Page (If you haven't already, make sure to head over, click image below, and 'Like It') and so I'll start answering some of the questions in more depth here on the blog.

Today's question comes from Shawn and it is about the ketogenic diets and if they are healthy?

"I know that keto diets are effective for losing fat, but is it a healthy way of eating otherwise? After staying true to the WSFL diet for a while, I may have lost some weight, but I just don't feel like I'm giving my body what it needs to be healthy (specifically, enough vegetables; for one, I don't feel like I get enough dietary fiber on this diet, not to mention all the other good stuff veggies bring to the table). I'm completely off the starchy and grainy carbs, but do fibrous carbs actually prevent ketosis as well?"

Let me answer the second part of your question, then the first. The normal timeline of a ketogenic diet is a 2 week 'induction' followed by several phases (of in determinant length) with increased levels of carbohydrates. During the induction phase you would only take in <20g/d of carbohydrates. This is really the only time you would need to worry about monitoring whether or not you are in ketosis. You can monitor your ketotic status (I don't think ketotic is an actual word but you know what I mean) with Ketostix. During this time period you really do need to be careful about your carbohydrate intake and the ketostix are useful at monitoring your ketone production.

[caption id="attachment_2749" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Ketostix Bayer Reagent Strips for Urinalysis"][/caption]

After the two week period you can increase your carbs up to 50g/d. These carbs should come mainly in the form of vegetables so you shouldn't feel like you are restricting you vegetable intake too much because 50 grams of carbs give you...

12.5 cups of broccoli florets or

7 cups of cooked spinach or

1 head of cabbage or

7 medium size red bell peppers or

8 cups of cherry tomatoes

So the answer to the second part of your questions is...No, you don't need to restrict your intake of fibrous carb because as you can see from the list above it would require a lot of fibrous carbs to top 50 grams/day. You don't need to worrying about monitoring urinary ketosis beyond the induction peroid anyway, just monitor your fat loss.

Now to transition to the first part of your question regarding getting ample antioxidant and 'goodies' from vegetables.Â 1 serving of broccoli is acutally only 1/2 a cup so if you ate only broccoli you would be getting 25 servings of vegetables per day (not that I'm recommending eating only broccoli - the math is just easy with that as an example). The current recommendations for vegetable intake is only 5 servings (2.5 cups) per day!

My clients and other people that use Naked Nutrition always eat way more fruits and vegetables than are currently recommended even when on lower carbohydrate diets. Also Dr. Jeff Volek anecdotally told me once that the people whom participate in the low carb diet studies he runs at the University of Connecticut always find themselves eating more vegetables on the low carb diets compared to their normal eating habits.

As you transition away from weight loss to a diet maintenance phase you will increase your carbohydrate intake even more. I recommend that you do this by adding more fruits and vegetables as well as fiber rich grains (for breakfast and following workouts per the 6th Pillar of Nutrition). For more specifics on this transition check out my chapter in the Warp Speed Fat Loss Nutrition Manual called "Life After Warp Speed Fat Loss."

Dead-On Weight Loss Advice From an Unusual Source

2010-06-04T09:26:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/1D5aV)
The other day on some social networking site (Twitter, Facebook, I don't remember exactly) someone made a post.Â It post was titled "The Public Humiliation Diet." I had to read it. How could you not?

So I clicked the link.Where does it take me?

Deadspin.com (not necessarily a site I would tell my mother to read)

I read on.

The article was by one of the sites editors, Drew Magary, who has lost 60lbs in the last 5 months. Here's brief excerpt that describes his story and rationale for his diet.

I've struggled with my weight for my entire life. I went to hospital fat camp in seventh grade. I have stretch marks all along my sides and gut (fire belly!). I spend the majority of my day thinking about food, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon, even now. I love eating and have a hard time controlling myself when presented with cakes and pies and bags of Doritos. Oh, Doritos. Oh God, how I adore you. You hear about alcoholics who can't stop drinking until they're blackout drunk. I'm that way with food. I can't stop eating until I'm blackout fat.

So I needed to set some ground rules for myself to lose weight, ground rules that I felt were reasonable to follow for the rest of my adult life.

Here are 2Â key strategies that Drew used to lose 2.5 toddlers worth of weight from his midsection (with my comments).

4. I never ate after dinner. 6 p.m., to be precise, because I eat with my kids. That may not be realistic for you. But there are plenty of people out there who advocate not eating too much at night. For me, it used to be that dinner was the start of my nightly eating. There'd be dessert. Then the after-dessert dessert. Then a bowl of cereal. Then shots of ranch dressing...This rule...I really stuck to. The only times I ate dinner late were when I was out with friends or whatever and had no choice.

This is great. I've written before about not eating after a certain time at night, not because of some magical fat burning property but because of the exact reason that Drew illustrated above - post dinner snacking. Drew was able to identify that for him, a huge caloric load was being consumed after he ate dinner. A simple way to curb that was to allow no wiggle room and just make the 'rule' that he wasn't going to eat after dinner.

Oftentimes, identifying a particular bad habit and making a hard and fast 'life rule' to stop it is a great way to instantly change your behavior for the best.

10. I made sure everything I ate was AWESOME. If I'm only getting three legit meals a day, they better be good. So I made sure of that. Did you know two slices of bacon only have 70 calories? Combine that with a fried egg and you've got a breakfast of less than 200 calories, far less than a bowl of granola. So I went the bacon route. I also learned to braise short ribs,Â make my own pulled pork, make Thai steak sauces, and all this other crazy stuff because I wanted to lose weight and still enjoy what I was eating. None of this grilled-chicken-breast-every-night crap that NFL players do. I still love food and I LIKE it that way. (Note: This is not an exact quote as I editted out the f-bombs)

Diet foods or the foods that you eat when on a diet do not often conjure up images that make your mouth water. For whatever reason many people feel that the only way to eat healthy is by consuming the same bland food day in and day out. It does not have to be that way. You just need to learn to eat less of certain things that you love (like Drew did with Bacon) and cook differently (also like Drew did with homemade BBQ sauce) so the food that you do eat fits in with your plan.

I personally love cheese. There is no way that I'm cutting cheese out of my diet, even if my calories are low because I'm dieting down. A year or so ago I was teaching a nutrition course and got into a conversation with the class about this exact topic. They were surprised that I didn't recommend you eat low fat cheese,instead just less full fat cheese. Let's be real here, low fat cheese is disgusting. Maybe (let me repeat...Maybe) I'll use a low fat shredded cheddar cheese in a recipe but as a general rule reduced fat cheeses taste like rubber.

Why would you want to eat that? Wouldn't you much rather eat 1/2 an oz of delicious full fat Vermont Cabot Cheddar Cheese than suffer through a full ounce of fat free Kraft Cheddar cheese?

Losing weight needs to involve a calorie deficit, which will require you to eat less calories. It does not require that you deprive yourself of food that tastes good.

Take a look at your diet. Are you suffering through any meals? How can you make them better?

Here is the link to theÂ original article (again, there is a bunch of 'colorful' language in the post so if that bothers you then I wouldn't recommend clicking the link).

Post a comment and let me know your favorite delicious diet food or recipe.

Fat Loss Essential- Protect Yourself From Yourself

2010-05-25T15:15:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://nakednutritionnetwork.com/fat-loss-essential-protect-yourself-from-yourself/)
Yes, I'm back after a long blogging hiatus. My PhD studies combined with a lot of movement behind the scenes at Naked Nutrition has been just about all my time over the past several weeks but I should be back blogging on a regular basis now.

Last weekend I made a trip up to my alma mater, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, (which I have since learned made the list of America's 50 Most Expensive Colleges) as my little sister (who is slowly becoming not so 'little') was graduating. The weekend festivities were great, especially because I got to catch up with a lot of family that I hadn't seen in a while. One conversation was especially relevant to the Naked Nutrition Approach and knew I wanted to share with it you right away.

I was talking with a family friend about his sleeping problems and if he had been able to crack the insomnia code to get more sleep. He said he was getting better but hadn't reconciled the problem completely. He did say that the one strategy that had provided him the most benefit was a sleep journal. What he did was each morning, upon waking, he recorded that nights events - about when he fell asleep, when he woke up, how long he was up, when he fell back asleep, etc.

This was so powerful because he realized that he actually was sleeping more than he thought. Knowing this relieved a significant about of anxiety surround his insomnia.

I instantly saw this as a perfect analogy for compliance charts. I've written about the 90% rule and compliance here, here, here, and numerous other places and I keep bringing it up because it is a make or break strategy that I don't see enough people using.

Just as my friend was under the impression that he was hardly sleeping at all, I have never met something who didn't think there diet was better than it really was. Once my friend took the time to quantify his sleeping habits he was able to see the truth of the situation and then employ more strategies that were appropriate for his actual situation.

Until you take the time and quantify your nutritional compliance, you really have no idea how well or poor you are adhering to your diet. If you don't know how well you are following your plan then any adjustment or 'fixes' that you apply to your diet is essentially throwing darts in the dark at your weight loss target.

Do yourself a favor, save yourself a lot of frustration and this week take the time to track your compliance before you try any new exercise plans, diet modifications, or supplements.

Apple Cider Vinegar

2010-04-14T13:06:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/ARAik)
Before we get into today's post I wanted to follow up on Monday's contest. In response to my "3 Foods To Always Stock in Your Cupboards" post

The winner is Petra with her post :

Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of most grains, but I do like oatmeal, so my cupboard is always stocked with oatmeal. In addition, I have raw nuts, mainly almonds and walnuts, and raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar. I don't know if it provides all the health benefits that I have heard about, but it makes a great vinaigrette when mixed with olive oil, garlic, herbs and spices.

(Petra - email me at support [at] nakednutritionnetwork.com and I'll send you the Fat Loss Edge Audio recording)

In regards to her question about apple cider vinegar...there are some amazing claims about this floating around the internet from its ability t0 slice open fat cells so that the fat drains out to and curing the flu (yes, the flu).

Most of the claims are completely unsupported and some are rather misleading. A perfect example of this is the claim that apple cider vinegar reduces cholesterol levels. The support for this uses one of my favorite tactics, the good ol' if it worked in rats then it'll work in humans justifications. Unfortunately if it works in rats, it does not mean that it will work in humans. Let's be a little reasonable here, even interventions that work in some humans don't work in all humans.

Back to the cholesterol issue.

WebMD.com summarizes this for us:

High cholesterol. A 2006 study showed evidence that vinegar could lower cholesterol. However, the study was done in rats, so it's too early to know how it might work in people.

So is apple cider vinegar good? Definitely. As Petra pointed out, it makes a great vinaigrette. For a while I was Balsamic vinegared out on my salads and apple cider vinegar is a good change of pace.

Despite all the unsupported claims about apple cider vinegar, don't let that turn you off completely from its health benefits as vinegar in general (not unique to apple cider vinegar) can slow the rate in which food leaves your stomach, helping your better control your blood sugar levels.

Also, in regards to salad dressings. I'm in the final stages of my first Naked Nutrition Cookbook and would love to include recipes from readers. If you have a salad dressing that you would like to have featured in the book post it below.

I look forward to your recipes and have a good one!

-Mike

3 Foods To Always Stock in Your Cupboard

2010-04-12T21:29:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://nakednutritionnetwork.com/3-foods-to-always-stock-in-your-cupboard/)
Having healthy fat burning food on hand at all times is essential for success with your diet. In order to hit the 90% percent rule week after week you need to make your nutrition be automatic and delicious. If you are truly going to change the way that you eat for the rest of your life and adopt the Naked Nutrition eating plan as a permanent change and not just an 'I need to lose a couple pounds so I'll do this for a couple weeks' then eating delicious food is another must

Today I wanted to share with you 5 foods that I always make sure that we have on hand in our cupboards.

1. Quinoa - Quinoa is second favorite grain (second to oats - my favorite is the steel cut variety). This 'ancient' grain has found main stream popularity over the past couple years. In has all but replaced brown rice in my diet. Compared to brown rice quinoa has a lighter, nuttier flavor. In addition it one of the only grains that is a complete protein (meaning that it has all the essential amino acids). Plus, if you are a busy person you'll love quinoa as it cooks in half of the time it would take for you to make brown rice.

2. Walnuts - Walnuts are hands down my favorite nut. They contains a wide spectrum of health boosting fats, including the ever popular omega-3 fat alpha linolenic acid. Walnuts are great in shakes as they blend up and dissolve into your shake with out a trace (unlike almonds which often will settle to the bottom of the blender). If you aren't going to use walnuts in shakes, they go great on salads and you can crush them into a powder (they make a texture similar to moist corn meal), and stuff chicken breasts for a great twist on an old stand by protein.

3. Chickpeas - Like walnuts, chickpeas are very versatile. Whether you are eating them blended up with olive oil and tahaini in the form of hummus, added cold to your salad for extra fiber and protein, or in chili in place of black beans - Chickpeas are my favorite legume.

What else do you consider essential for your fat burning cupboard? Post below and the person with the best top 3 get a copy of my Fat Loss Edge Seminar Audio Recording.

Resource: In each issue of Strong, Fit, & Healthy I share with you 2 new delicious Naked Nutrition approved recipes - you can become a member and get instant access to the entire Strong, Fit, & Healthy archives here.

7 Personal Lessons for Losing Fat

2010-03-30T15:46:00.001-04:00

(My Original Blog Post: http://ping.fm/oQ5EV)
There Are 7 Lessons From My Story That You Can Use Yourself To Lose Fat or Even Get Ripped Like I Did... - Guest Blog from Jason Ferruggia

I want to share these with you because even if you have a different personal history than I do (most of my readers are NOT bodybuilders), these 7 lessons are the keys to achieving any previously elusive fitness goal for the first time and I know they apply to everyone.

1. Set the big goal and go for it. If your goal doesn’t excite you and scare you at the same time, your goal is too small. If you don’t feel fear or uncertainty, you’re inside your comfort zone. Puny goals aren’t motivating. Sometimes it takes a competition or a big challenge of some kind to get your blood boiling.

2. Align your values with your goals. I understood my values and made a decision to be congruent with who I really was and who I wanted to be. When you know your values, get your priorities straight and align your goals with your values, then doing what it takes is easy.

3. Do the math. Stop looking for magic. A lean body does not come from ONE "magic" type of exercise or one "magic" type of food or food group, it’s the calories burned vs calories consumed that determines weight loss or weight gain. Don't get me wrong - the strength training is crucial for optimizing body composition, and you might do better by decreasing the calories consumed, whereas I depended more on increasing the calories burned, but either way, it’s still a math equation. Deny it at your own peril.

4. Get social support and social accountability. Support and encouragement from your friends can help get you through anything. Real time accountability to a training partner or trainer can make all the difference.

5. Be consistent. Nothing will ever work if you don’t work at it every day. Sporadic efforts don’t just produce sporadic results, sometimes they produce zero results.

6. Persist through difficulty and self doubt. If you think it’s going to be smooth sailing all the way with no ups and downs, you’re fooling yourself. For every sunny day, there’s going to be a storm. If you can’t weather the storms, you’ll never reach new shores.

7. Redeem yourself. Non-achievers sit on the couch and wallow in past failures. Winners use past failures as motivational rocket fuel. It always feels good to achieve a goal, but nothing feels as good as achieving a goal with redemption.

Note from Mike: This is flat out great advice. #6 and #7 are my favorite of the bunch and are rarely talked about.

Additional Resources from Jason

Two years ago I decided to start experimenting on a large number of my clients and coaching group members. I wanted to see if I could create an athletic based muscle building system and help average guys get the same kind of results elite athletes get from their training. The only difference is the average guy doesn’t have the genetics, recovery ability or schedule of a professional athlete. But they all want to look like them.

So I took it upon myself to create the ultimate system that would help Average Joe’s and weekend warriors get a little bit closer to looking and performing like Reggie Bush or Georges St. Pierre.

I know how to help skinny guys get jacked. That’s old hat to me. I can do it in my sleep. As long as someone listens and does what I say they will pack on size.

But Triple Threat Muscle is a little different. Not only is the program focused on size gains, but also the development of explosive power and unrelenting endurance. So you get the jacked, muscular physique and the athleticism to go with it.

Get Triple Threat Muscle now and save $30. Click Here to Get Started Now

2010-03-11T16:33:00.001-05:00

In the process of updated my Naked Nutrition for Fat Loss Program - It is going to be so much more comprehensive.

2010-03-09T14:08:00.001-05:00

Bodybuilding.com delivered my order in less than 24hrs! Wow

2010-03-09T11:29:00.001-05:00

just answered some rapid weight loss diet questions in regards to carbohdyrates http://readnow.at/18mm3

2010-03-06T21:31:00.001-05:00

Testing out ping.fm. Hope you're having a great weekend

We're Moving!!!

2007-05-30T09:47:00.000-04:00

Well my wife and I aren't moving (yet). But this blog is. The entire contents of this blog have been moved over to a new site --> http://blog.nakednutritionguide.com

If you have subscribed via RSS feed don't worry about changing your feed or re-subscribing as I've already taken care of that for you. Head over to the new blog's home and let me know what you think!

This will be the last post here at the blogger account so if you have linked to the blog on your blog or webpage please update the link to http://blog.nakednutritionguide.com

See you over there,
Mike

Video Friday - Bob Paris

2007-05-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

I'm going to be traveling tomorrow for Memorial Day Weekend so I thought I'd post the video for Video Friday early.

Bob Paris is one of my favorite bodybuilders of all-time. He isn't a mass monster. Bob has the kind of physique that many men would aspire to - symmetrical, proportional, and not over the top. Today's video is a great as it is one of Bob's posing routines. If you have read Bob Paris' book Gorilla Suit then I highly recommend that you check it out. It is one of the few good books written on bodybuilding.

Rooibos - Better Than Green Tea??

2007-05-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

I've been getting a lot of emails lately about Rooibos tea. People are wondering what it is and if it is better than green tea (especially because a talk a bunch about Green Tea in Your Naked Nutrition Guide).

Rooibos (pronounced Roy-bus) isn't necessarily better than green tea but it is good. Rooibos comes from a South Africian legume. It is naturally caffeine free and brews up a dark rich red cup of tea. Rooibos is also loaded with antioxidants. Many of the health claims surrounding Rooibos tea and Rooibos extract are from animal and cell culture studies and thus should be taken as suggestive and not definitive.

While reading up on the research regarding Rooibos, I found a study that showed that Rooibos tea inhibited the activation of the COX-2 enzyme in human cells. The COX-2 enzyme is a major gateway for inflammation. Aspirin, Advil, and DHA (one of the fatty acids in fish oil) all also exhibit anti-inflammatory actions through inhibiting COX-2. This research is interesting as it suggests that Rooibos has anti-inflammatory properties.

So should you throw out your green tea for Rooibos?? Nope. Drink them both. Because Rooibos tea is naturally decaffeinated and Green Tea is naturally caffeinated they both can find a place in your day. Green Tea in the morning and Rooibos at night. Plus they both contain different types of antioxidants so drinking them both will give you a nice blend of antioxidant in your diet.

On a completely different note - NSCA Strength Coach of the Year Robert Dos Remedios has just launched a blog and website - www.CoachDos.com

Black Cohosh - uber Supplement For Women or Not?

2007-05-22T10:00:00.000-04:00

One of the most popular supplements for females is Black Cohosh. Black Cohosh is a member of the buttercup family and was originally used by Native Americans. Black Cohosh is now commonly sold as a dietary supplement with the claim of increase estrogen production/action. As a result Black Cohosh is popular among women under undergoing menopause.

However, a recent study from the Annals of Internal Medicine showed quite the opposite result. 351 women ages 45-55 who had reported getting hot flashes at least twice a day were given 1 of 5 treatments. The treatments ranged from 160mg of Black Cohosh to multi-herbal mixtures containing 200mg of Black Cohosh to Estrogen replacement therapy, to nothing (placebo).

After 1 year none of the herbal treatment groups had any reduction in symptoms while the estrogen replacement therapy group did.

Workout Music - myTunes Part II

2007-05-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

My last entry prompted a lot of messages into my inbox wondering what else is on my training muscle playlist. Here are some more songs that will boost your workout intensity.

Blood Pressure - LOX
Where the Hood At (Remix) - DMX
There It Go (The Whistle Song) - Juelz Santana
Last Ones Left - Tupac
Bump Heads - Eminem feat G Unit
So Much Pain - Tupac (this is hard to find)
Is That Yo Chick - Memphis Bleek, Jay-Z, Twista
Trill Recognize Trill - Bun B
Touch It (Remix) - Busta Rhymes & DMX
Rite Where You Stand - Gangstarr & Jadakiss
Wu-Gambinos - Wu-Tang Clan
Certified Gangsta - Jim Jones
It's Mine - Mobb Deep feat Nas
Triumph - Wu-Tang Clan
I'ma Hustla - Cassidy
Blaze of Glory - Bon Jovi

...now that's good music.

Workout Music - myTunes

2007-05-18T12:42:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned it previously on this blog that I currently workout at one of the gyms on the Penn State campus. It has A LOT more equipment and space that when I worked out in our basement in Vermont but I would give anything to be back in the basement with a wobbly squat rack, 450lbs of weight, 1 olympic bar, and two plate loading dumbbells. It was low budget but the atmosphere was amazing. Fast forward to now. The gym is full of fancy machines, guys in polo shirts talking on their cell phones between sets, other guys talking to girls during sets of dumbbell curls (I'm not making that up!), and the music...don't get me started.

Fortunately, I have Maximus. Maximus is my red 8GB iPod Nano. I currently have 86 songs on my Training Music playlist with more songs being added everyday. Here are some of my current favorites:

Ebonics - Big L
Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2
Hoody Hoo - TRU
The Ruler's Back - Jay-Z
Diamonds Is Forever - Jay-Z
Tell Me Where to Go - E-40
Break Ya Neck - Busta Rhymes
Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
Deliverance - Bubba Sparxxx
Built this City - Diplomats
Quiet Money Anthem - AZ
Black Repulbican - Jay-Z & Nas
Blackout - DMX
Keep It Thoro - Prodigy (from Mobb Deep)
Why We Thugs - Ice Cube
Let's Go - Trick Daddy
Paradise City - Guns and Roses

Have a great weekend! Remember to take time to plan your meals this weekend. It will greatly improve your chances of success.

Plan Your Nutrition Ahead

2007-05-17T10:53:00.000-04:00

A key component to nutritional success throughout the week is making your nutrition a no brainer. When I was in Washington DC at the Experimental Biology conference I came across a poster presentation by the graduate students of Brian Wansink (the author of Mindless Eating)

They were reporting the results of a study that showed how people think they make ~15 food decisions a day but in reality they make >200. Whether or not these numbers are accurate is debatable but you get the point. We make a lot of decisions about food whether we like it or not.

This is why planning your meals ahead of time is so important. It takes all the thinking out of nutrition for the week. In the morning you get up, pull your pre-prepared meals out of the refrigerator or freezer, put them in your mini cooler and you're off. No cooking, portioning, or thinking.

Take the time on Sunday to cook and prepare your meals. You will find that your nutrition is much more consistent and you'll stay on track during the week as a result. Here's a picture of what I grilled up this past Sunday.

If you want more information about nutrition planning and strategies for success check out my new manual Your Naked Nutrition Guide.

Resveratrol Does Damage Control

2007-05-14T08:02:00.000-04:00

Resveratrol is one of the hottest up and coming antioxidants. Resveratrol is a polyphenol that is most notably found in grapes and red wine. For a long time many people believe that red wine was a superior type of alcohol because of its high resveratrol content. Recently I co-authored a scientific manuscript in which we found that resveratrol has little to nothing to do with the increase in "good" cholesterol found with moderate red wine (or any alcohol for that matter) consumption.

Regardless of resveratrol's lack of influence on HDL cholesterol it has been shown to have powerful anti-aging and anti-inflammatory effects in animal and in vitro studies. This is where I see the main problem with Resveratrol research to date. There is a complete lack of direct human data. The amounts of resveratrol being given to mice and rats in the animal studies far exceeds the amounts one can consume by drinking red wine. Resveratrol supplements are now becoming more popular and those dosages are more comparable to the ones used in animal studies.

Most recently I came across a new study from the Journal of Applied Physiology in which researchers found that when human endothelial cells were exposed to oxidized LDL cholesterol (oxLDL) particles (these are thought to be one of the molecules that begins the cascade of events leading to heart disease) in the presence of resveratrol. The oxLDL had a decreased ablilty to cause the generation of reactive oxygen species. Reactive oxygen species are molecules turned rouge that fly around our system causing cellular and DNA damage until are quenched by anti-oxidants. From this research is seems that resveratol can protect against oxidative damage by

1. Quenching reactive oxygen species
2. Slowing down the cellular machinery that produces reactive oxygen species

This is just another feather in the cap of resveratrol and with data like this being produced every month you can bet that resveratrol will have a central role in the prevention and treatment of many diseases in the future.

Crockpot Questions

2007-05-10T15:41:00.001-04:00

On a previous edition of Max-Out Radio I featured a recipe remix using a crockpot. Crockpots are a great tool for busy people as you can prepare the food ahead of time, leave it to cook during the day, and then when you get home your house smell great and dinner is ready. Here are some questions I received from a listener regarding using crockpots.

Can you prepare the food the night before? Yes, definitely. That is the beauty of using a crockpot. You can prepare all the food, put it in the crockpot liner, and stick it in the refrigerator until it is ready be used.

Is it only a matter of an hour or two longer cooking time if you do so? Yes. Because I leave the crockpot in the refrigerator over night it is a little cold and that may require a little longer cooking. What I do is remove it from the refrigerator when I get up and just put it on the counter. When I’m ready to leave the house I'll put it on the base and it is usually cooled down to room temperature (or close to it)

Does the crock-pot have a timer so you can put it to turn on itselfe, say 3 hours after you left home? They do have timers usually 8 and 10 hours. If you leave it longer than that then they will just go into warm mode. So if you are out of the house for 11 hours it won't matter.

What people are saying about Naked Nutrition

2007-05-10T12:03:00.000-04:00

The launch of Your Naked Nutrition Guide has definitely generated some buzz. Here are some links to what people some people are saying:

http://forums.jpfitness.com/showthread.php?t=25142

http://alwyncosgrove.blogspot.com/2007/05/six-pillars-of-naked-nutrition.html

http://tonygentilcore.blogspot.com/2007/05/your-naked-nutrition-guide.html

http://billhartman.blogspot.com/2007/05/get-naked-nutrition-now.html

It is time!

2007-05-10T10:00:00.000-04:00

After months and months of writing, rewriting, planning, and drafting...Your Naked Nutrition Guide is now available at

http://www.NakedNutritionGuide.com

Click on the link and go pick up your copy.

Street Smart Nutrition

5 Fat Loss Snacks to Keep You Full

Top 10 Snacks (not just for kids)

Grilling meat without increasing risk of cancer

Read it before you eat it

Fat Loss Goal Setting

Childhood Obesity Facts - just scary

Healthy Eating While Traveling

Insulin Resistance Dangers - Start Fighting Now!

Healthy Eating in 3 Easy Steps

Vegetarian Protein and Fake Meat

Calorie Sneak ups

Diets that dieted (thank goodness)

How To Prevent Eating When You're Not Hungry

Kettlebell Snatches and Fat Loss (Video)

Stress out? Do some push ups

More Good News About Caffeine

Do What You Do Better with Caffeine

Drink this to Sabotage Your Weight Loss Plan

Rice Krispies Boost Immune Function?

Foods that make you feel better fast

Supplement Dangers

Fat Loss Diets Not Just for Fat Loss

Best Way to Lose Weight

4 Ways to Quench the Summer thirst

#1 diet tip (someone else agrees with me)

Salt, Weight Loss, and Health

6 Reasons to Drop the Salt

Maca might be useful...but tastes awful

Mindful or Mindless Eating - Which do you do?

Spice up Your Fat Loss Diet

Rapid Weight Loss Better than Slow Weight Loss

If you have any sort of shoulder pain...

Insulin Resistance The Real Health Epidemic

Another Vegetarian Protein Packed Salad

Vegetarians don't make this big mista...

Vegetarian Protein Rules: Don't Make This Mistake

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Inactivity & Obesity - Chicken or Egg?

Processed Organic Foods and Organic Masking

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Strength Training Without Weights - Work Capacity

Fat Burning Breakfast in Less Than 5 Minutes

7 Day Kettlebell Fat Loss Routine

Your Mind is Continuing to Sabotage Your Weight Loss Efforts

Beef Makes Things Taste Better?

how to get the most out of green tea ...

just went up. See you in the forum ht...

Naked Nutrition Insider is LIVE

Deadly Guacamole!! http://ow.ly/2aUrN

30 Foods that you should be eating ht...

Support Cancer Research http://su.pr/...

Green Tea gets a lot of hype and many...

Body Transformation Roadmap

Resolution Roadmap

Identification

Mindset

Diet

Training

Action

Free Issue of Strong, Fit, & Healthy to Download

Stage 4 Surges - Minimizing Body Fat the Fastest Way Possible & Keeping It Low

Stage 4 Surges & Maximizing Your Winners

The Stages of Nutrition:

â€œMaximize your winners.â€

3 More Ways to Help Control Appetite

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