Hungry? eat as much as you want
Let me be a little more exact: eat as many fruits and vegetables as you want. You cannot eat too many fruits and vegetables. You cannot eat too many fruits and vegetables. You cannot eat too many fruits and vegetables. If you’ve ever been told not to eat too many fruits and vegetables, ignore it. You cannot eat too many fruits and vegetables.
I challenge anyone to overeat fruits and vegetables. It’s just not possible. Here’s the key: They’re made mostly of water and fiber, which have no calories. Even if you ate fruits and vegetables non-stop, you wouldn’t even come close to the number of calories you normally eat. And it would probably stop much earlier simply because it would start to fill up anyway. In any diet, feel free to eat fruits and vegetables. If you’re hungry but don’t want to eat too many calories, fruits and vegetables are the perfect option. Also, while you are eating them, you are not eating another higher calorie food. They are also high in health benefits. In addition to being high in vitamins and minerals, they reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death in the US.
You cannot eat too many fruits and vegetables.
ACTION STEP
Eat a fruit or a vegetable. Right now. Then put some fruits and vegetables on the kitchen table in a bowl. Try to consume 5 a day.
REVISED ACTION STEP
Try to eat 10 fruits and vegetables a day. In fact, this will keep you full and cause you to eat fewer calories, thus lowering your overall intake. Throw them in your bag, your briefcase, and whatever else you carry with you. Have some available where your work. Frozen fruits and vegetables count, too, and can help you reach your goal.
get enough protein
What is the best diet? There has been a lot of disagreement between scientists and professionals since the diets emerged. However, everyone agrees that the best diets are those rich in protein. Whether you’re eating high or low carbs, high fat or low fat, you should be getting enough protein, that shouldn’t change. How much is enough? Physiologist and protein authority Lyle McDonald recommends 1.5 grams per pound of body weight per day*.
The type of protein you get is important. Not all proteins are the same. The best sources are animals: meat, poultry (including eggs), fish, and dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese). Vegetable proteins, on the other hand, are less digestible (up to 15% less, depending on the source). If you’re completely vegetarian, you’ll want to aim for 1.73 g per pound of body weight per day to make up for your digestibility.
How do you know how many grams of protein you have eaten in a day? The Nutrition Facts label helps, but here’s a simple method: A deck-of-card-sized serving of animal protein typically makes up 16 g of protein. If you eat a medium-sized steak (about two cardboard decks), that’s 16 x 2 = 32g of protein. Using the Nutrition Facts label and the deck of cards conversion, you should be able to estimate the amount of protein you are eating.
These tips will help you reach your daily goal of 1.5 g per pound: Include an animal source at each meal (eg, eggs for breakfast, chicken for lunch, and steak for dinner). Protein snack (eg yogurt, nuts)
ACTION STEP
Make a list of everything you’ve eaten today. For animal protein sources, use the deck of cards conversion to estimate how many grams of protein you have consumed. For other sources, check the Nutrition Facts label or make your best guess. Are you eating enough protein?
REVISED ACTION STEP
From now on, record everything you eat for 3 days. At the end of each day, calculate your total protein intake and compare it to the recommended value. Try to reach that value daily.
*Few people impress me with their knowledge. Lyle knows this and he knows more about protein than anyone I’ve ever heard of. I highly recommend his work, The Protein Book. I bought it the day he came out.
