Hello, everyone! With no further delay, the exciting conclusion of “An Apple A Day”.
7. Stick to the 90% rule.
The 90% rule states that we eat clean 90% of the time. That means if we’re eating 5 meals a day, or 35 meals a week, three or four meals can be what I call reward meals. If we’re eating three meals a day that means two meals can be reward meals. These are the meals that reward us for eating clean the rest of the time. If you are in a caloric deficit, these reward meals can also help jump-start your metabolism which may have slowed during your diet.
8. Don’t go crazy with your 10%.
Just because you get 10% to go off your diet, don’t go crazy! If you are eating in a 500 calorie deficit each day, that comes to 3500 calories a week. That would equal about a pound of fat loss. If you eat a pizza with an ice cream sundae for one of your reward meals, that could easily equal 1500-2000 calories and would cut any gains you’ve made by more than half. Eat one more meal like that and have a drink on Saturday night and you’ve gained weight for the week. Your 33 good meals during the week are completely counteracted by two bad ones.
9. Eat for your activity.
People are afraid of carbohydrates these days, but they really shouldn’t be. Carbs are a primary source of energy for our body. That being said, you should eat most of your carbs before and after exercise. If you are going to be sitting behind a desk your body is not going to need all that much energy and the carbs you don’t use will be stored as fat. The same goes for eating potatoes or grains, such as rice, with dinner. These are great foods when eaten at the right time, but again, your body doesn’t have anywhere for that energy to go if you are just going to relax and watch CSI Miami after dinner. You must remember that many of our eating habits were developed when most people worked at some sort of job that involved manual labor or, at least, more activity than most people get at work now. We have to make adjustments to our current activity levels!
10. Don’t buy junk.
This is pretty simple. If you don’t have junk food in your house, you won’t eat it.
I hope this series has helped give you a sense of some pretty simple things you can do to get your diet in order. As always if you have any questions or comments, please drop me a line and let me know. Happy and healthy eating to you! – from the Castro Valley Forum, March 24, 2010 Mitchell Rothbardt MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com 510-754-7113 Discover Your Strength!
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