CLEAN Eating – PART 1 (your metabolism)

Diets SUCK!

I’m sorry but they do… and of course many result driven diets are the most unrealistic way to live a life.

I tell my students all the time-

On a sever diet?-  it will be very hard to have a long term boyfriend, he’ll find you super cranky and moody!  Fun night out with the girls or a great weekend in with the family will result in calorie counting, carb fearing, juice drinking hell!  Want to have a baby? you wont be able to have a healthy lifestyle on a juice or no carb diet… Life is simply about SO MUCH MORE then starving yourself!

The key to Clean eating is understanding your metabolism. Ever see those people that can eat anything and look great- they have a fast metabolism. Metabolism is the reason your body is able to grow, maintain and function- it is the key to life. In the metabolic process your body converts food into fuel and dictates the efficiency in which you use that fuel. Your metabolism will change with your environment. as an example, starving the body will teach it to slow its metabolic process – YES, your metabolism will dictate how many calories you burn and how much fat you store. This is why training with weights is so important – the more lean muscle you have the more your metabolism must burn.

Understanding your metabolism, the keys to your health and the idea of a body that uses food to create a strong, lean, functional and beautiful body is key. CLEAN EATING is exactly what figure models, actresses and over all athletic and healthy people look to on a daily basis. CLEAN eating is eating and enjoying, but also understanding what that entails.

CLEAN eating is a lifestyle that is healthy, easily maintained and has a great idea of variety…

so before the Holidays send you haywire and you YO YO between three pieces of pumpkin pie and a juice cleanse- please READ ON and benefit!

YOUR METABOLISM is made up of factors you can and can’t control:

Can control:

  • DIET   (how often you eat, what you eat)
  • WORKOUT / ACTIVITY  (active lifestyle and workout)
  • SLEEP
  • STRESS
  • BODY COMPOSITION

Can’t control:

  • AGE – ( yes the younger we are, the faster it is)
  • GENDER – (men have faster metabolism then women)
  • GENETICS – (thank mom and dad)

So, if you SPEED up your metabolism you can BURN BURN BURN and use calories and fat up by burning what you put in, feeding the muscles to build a toned body. You will also have more energy and be a healthier, happier (well fed) person.

People typically equate eating with FAT! This is so wrong: if you skip meals or eat poor quality food (expel: hey I will eat a fried food for lunch but skip dinner to make this up in calories you will do more harm then good).

With abnormal eating, or eating just twice a day  (once is suicide) the body tells itself to store fat and food and NOT burn. If you just left a great training session you MUST eat something with in an hour post training, or the body will not use the food for recovery and lean muscle, but instead consider the workout a huge stress and decide to store fat and not burn and build muscle (otherwise, the body is scared that you might not feed it again for a while, so it stores food).  If you eat poorly, lean muscle will be an impossibility- muscle requires food. better yet, t requires high quality food that will build long, lean, strong figure.

Furthermore, if you starve yourself your circulation will be damaged and even if you do loose weight because of extreme caloric deficiency you will have a ‘fat/ flabby/ cellulite prone’ body.

FLIP SIDE!

If you eat steady CLEAN, produce based food 5-6 times a day – in the variety of mid small meals and snacks the body knows that it can expect food and so it burns burns and uses- giving fuel to your life and energy to your day. It will use your training as a way to burn more and build lean firm muscles also, over time , with exercise letting fat deposits go.

(next blog entry on nutrition will discuss : what is – CLEAN EATING… PRODUCE shopping for CLEAN EATING and Restaurant Eating: CLEAN EATING)

For now CONSIDER THIS:

Just one nice example of a perfect daily diet for LIFE…

Water 

  • At least 64 ounces of water a day

Breakfast 

  • Eggs:
  • • 1 whole egg plus 2 egg whites
  • • 1 oz of cheese (~1 slice)
  • • 1 cup of berries
  • coffee or green tea

Snack 

  • 100 calorie pack of nuts
  • Cold green tea pure
  • Add an apple / none fat greek yogurt to the mix (if you are training today!)

Lunch

  • Power Salad
  • • Quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice
  • • Add in beans
  • • Chopped chicken breast
  • • Lots of vegetables

Dinner 

  • Tacos
  • • Ground turkey or lean meat
  • • 2 whole wheat tortillas
  • • top with ¼ cup Low fat shredded cheese
  • • lettuce, tomatoes, onions
Snack/ Reward 
  • PICK one/ Two
  • 1 glass of red wine
  • 5 Hersey kisses
  • None-fat ot chocolate
  • Fruit and whip cream
  • None-fat greek Yogurt (if you trained today!)