My Fat Loss Strategies

A Sneak Peak at My Meal Plan

Posted on 26. Aug, 2009 by admin.

So, we’re almost done with the “Manage Your Sugar Cravings Challenge.” I should have written about this earlier but I wanted to quickly give you an idea of how I ate my way through this challenge without triggering some serious cravings. I know that I mentioned my strategies from the previous post but this article will show you how I actually applied them daily. Also, if you are trying to learn new and better nutrition habits, this might also teach you a few good ones.

If you haven’t done so already, I’d like to read my post on food preparation by clicking here before you proceed with the rest of the post. Preparation really is the key when it comes to healthy eating because if you don’t have your meals prepared ahead of time or your vegetables cut up as soon as you buy them, chances are you won’t follow your meal plan. Life has the habit of getting in the way of your goals, no matter what those goals are, so it’s best to be prepared for what it will throw at you.

Ok, so here is a sample of how 2 days of my eating, with a 24 hour fast in between, for the sugar cravings challenge will looked like…

Monday

Breakfast: 1 Ezekiel Bread Toast, 1 Omega-3 egg, 3 slices Hormel Natural Ham, 2 fish oil capsules, and 1 Fields of Greens

Morning Snack (I mix all these together like a Parfait):

• 1 sliced Fuji apple
• 3 tablespoons organic, nonfat, plain yogurt
• Splashes of sugar free Maple Syrup
• 4 pieces Pecans (chopped)

Lunch:

• Salad with homemade dressing
• 4 oz broiled chicken breast
• 3 cups sauteed Kale
• 1 peach

Fast until lunch the next day.

Tuesday

On this day, I’m breaking my fast at lunch.

Lunch:

• 4 oz broiled Salmon
• 2 cups Chinese Brocolli
• 2 tangerines

PM Snack (post workout):

• 1/2 Spinach Bolani with Mint Garlic Yogurt (these are both Persian food staples that I get from the Farmer’s Market)
• Salad greens with 1 Omega-3 hard boiled egg and homemade dressing

Dinner:

• 4 oz Ground Turkey Patty
• 3 cups Garlic sauteed Kale
• 1 peach

So, you can see from this meal plan that my starchy carbohydrates were limited to breakfast and after a workout. The trend to watch out for here is that I have lean meats, green vegetables and a piece of fruit during most meals. During those times when it’s not convenient for me to eat my vegetables such as during a meeting or in between training clients (when I’m in a hurry), I take a tablet of Fields of Greens supplement with my meal. This seems to help to stabilize my sugar levels until it’s time for the next meal.

I hope you got a good idea on how you can manage your cravings. There’s also some room for great snack ideas here. I say if you think some things in your fridge will taste good together, go ahead and try that combination. Most of the time, this is how most of my great recipes are made!

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Manage Your Sugar Cravings Challenge

Posted on 15. Aug, 2009 by admin.

A few weeks ago, I had this period of several days where my cravings for sugar were through the roof. I normally have my sugar cravings under control especially since I eat a pretty well balanced diet. But, I noticed that once I give in to one sugary craving, it triggers a series of uncontrollable cravings which is not a good situation to be in when you’re going for fat loss.

So, since Sunday of last week, I vowed to not give in to my sugar cravings until I completely eliminated the need to grab that chocolate chip cookie or brownie at the next business meeting. How did I do that? I’m glad you asked.

Blood Sugar Levels

Basically, sugar cravings are triggered when your blood sugar levels fluctuate too high or too low. Simple sugars and starchy carbohydrates such as table sugar, honey, maple syrup, high fructose corn syrup, yellow potatoes, bananas, etc. can cause these fluctuations especially when eaten by itself. For example, if you grabbed a starchy carbohydrate such as a cookie for a convenient snack at the office without any other food, your sugar will immediately be delivered to your blood system which will cause that “sugar rush.” Because simple sugars are immediately absorbed by your body, your blood sugar levels will also go down as fast as it went up. Low blood sugar levels will then trigger more cravings for sweets and so on.

Carbohydrates are Your Body’s Main Source of Energy

I also noticed that my sugar cravings are particularly strong when I’m on a low carbohydrate diet. For instance, when I limit my fruit intake and starchy carbohydrates to only the first 3 or 4 meals of the day, I usually feel the sugar cravings coming on either at night or upon waking up. This occurs because our body’s main source of energy is from carbohydrates. Because our body depends so much on them, we use them all up when we’re on a low-carb diet that our body wants more of it. Thus, resulting to your body wanting more sugary goodness.

So, I decided to challenge you, my dear readers, to join me in this 2-week, “Manage Your Cravings Challenge.” Mainly, I am going to outline my strategies for keeping my blood sugar levels stable and I’d like you to join me in this experiment. You can use whatever brand of supplements that you already use. I merely state the brands that I like and recommend. Let’s get started…

• Strategy #1: Eat Starchy Carbohydrates and Simple Sugars with healthy fats, lean protein, and green vegetables (complex carbohydrates) at all times – For instance, I will only eat oat meal with chicken breast, and a salad with a bit of olive oil based dressing. If I don’t have access to vegetables, I usually have some type of greens supplements that I take with my meal. The two brands that I prefer are Greens Plus and Fields of Greens. Keep in mind that you don’t want to eat simple sugars by themselves.
• Strategy #2: Take 2 softgels of fish oil or krill oil (I like EFA Icon from Prograde) with your breakfast and dinner – this ensures that your blood sugar stays stable during the the most critical parts of the day – morning and evening. This also takes care of my healthy fat intake for the day especially if I don’t eat a salad or forgot to bring any nuts with me.
• Strategy #3: Drink Aloe Vera Gel – if you’ve read the Fat Loss Primer, this is one of my sure ways to tame my sugar cravings. While I don’t take it as much as I used to, I always keep my fridge stocked with a few bottles, for emergency purposes like this. If you don’t already know, aloe vera in its purest form (which this is), contains 200 nutritional compounds including 20 minerals, 18 amino acids, and 12 vitamins.
• Strategy #4: Don’t give in to your sweet tooth – this is where the saying, “practice makes perfect” applies. For one thing, if you don’t give in to your cravings, you are avoiding any blood sugar fluctuations from happening. At the same time, you are practicing the habit of not giving in to food temptations which will help you practice the first strategy until it becomes a habit. This is also one reason why I am making this a two-week challenge.

Why these 4 strategies?

These strategies will work hand in hand to help your body absorb starchy carbs and simple sugars slowly into your blood delivery system which, in turn, helps stabilize your blood sugar levels. In addition, they force you to eat a more balanced diet so you’ll surely satisfy most of your nutritional needs. The concept is simple enough and yet if I didn’t know about it, I probably wouldn’t have a clue in the world why my sweet tooth tendencies are stronger than normal.

This challenge starts on Monday, August 17th until Saturday, August 29th. So, what do you say? Are you up for the challenge? If so, let me know by leaving a comment below and feel free to add in any of your thoughts.

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More Benefits of ESE Besides Fat Loss

Posted on 07. Aug, 2009 by admin.

The other day as I got done with my first fast of the week, I realized that Eat Stop Eat, by Brad Pilon, has become more than just a way for me to lose weight. If this is your first time reading about ESE, please read this post first so that you can have more background information and read about my previous results from the program. Besides all the amazing and obvious results that I have experienced from this program such as:

• 12% reduction in body fat
• About 10 inches lost in my overall body circumference and
• Continued weight loss,

I have noticed several additional benefits when I do my fasts. I never would have thought that this program would work so well for me but I continue to do so because the longer I practice it, the more benefits I get from it. Here are some of them:

Deeper Sleep

I don’t know what it is but when I do fast and go to ben with an empty stomach, I sleep much better at night. One of my friends have asked me if my stomach growls before bed time. To be truthful, it does but only for several minutes. After that, my body just feels so restful. From a scientific stand point, I figured that my body is calmer because my organs don’t have the interference from food digestion which I would normally have if I had dinner.

Determining Food Allergies that cause Gas and Bloating

Ok, I have to say that this can be a very embarassing topic to talk about but it is a very important subject to talk about nonetheless. Before I practiced ESE, I never really noticed any of my gas and/or bloating issues. I figured that these are both a part of everyday life and I’ll just have to deal with it because that’s just the way it is. However, with the combination of eating healthier and practicing intermittent fasting, I’ve noticed that certain foods trigger these symptoms. So, after identifying those foods, I simply stopped eating those foods and I have greatly reduced this symptoms by about 90% without taking any medication! Some of the foods that I have stopped eating are:

• Cottage Cheese (bloating) – this can be due to the protein found in milk, Casein. Some people can be allergic to it without suffering from any serious symptoms. But, if bloating is bothersome enough then, it might be a good idea for anyone to take it out of their diet for a little bit to see if the bloating stops.
• Wheat/Gluten (Gas) – this is actually a common allergen for most people and probably the cause of the popularity of many wheat and gluten free foods in health food stores. I noticed that I’m not too sensitive to it but I just can’t have too much of it.

Water Retention

One of the most basic principles of practicing Eat Stop Eat was to simply “eat less.” This means that when you fast twice a week, you’re creating a calorie deficit and also reducing your intake of sugar and salt. My reduction in salt intake is probably one of my biggest causes of water retention. At the same time, I am more mindful of drinking water and green tea during a fast. As a result, I get rid of even more unneccessary water from my body. If you don’t already know, the more water you drink, the more water you actually get rid of and not the other way around.

Restart Button

I always say that I feel like I just clicked on the “Restart button” for my whole body after a fast. After having spent most of my adult life constantly eating (and used to eating bad stuff too), I really do feel cleansed after each and every fast. I feel that I’m giving myself and my organs a break from the constant work load that I put my body through after I eat my usual meals.

I was inspired to write this article because I really do feel that the additional benefits, not mentioned in the book, that I have discovered through intermittent fasting are very important to our overall health. If you have not read the book and have always wondered why fasting is so effective for fat loss, Brad Pilon does a great job of explaining the hormonal effects and the fat burning responses from those effects during a fast in a way that everyone can understand.

I couldn’t recommend this book enough. In fact, I encourage my adult clients, the ones who do not have any serious medical issues, to practice intermittent fasting. To me, it is by far the easiest and most efficient way to burn fat without the hassle of counting calories or what Brad calls “obsessive compulsive eating.”

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Top 7 Health Food Lies You Must Know About

Posted on 26. Jul, 2009 by admin.

Are you confused about which foods are really healthy? Each day we are so inundated with health food lies that we have become immune to them. To make matters worse, the government makes it easier for food manufacturers to falsely label food products because there are many loop holes in labeling laws. At the end of this post, you will be able to spot and smell a health food lie when you see it.

While many people have the common knowledge that fast food, sweets, and other common junk foods are not good for our health, it is the so-called healthy foods that are tricky to identify. During the little time that I spend watching t.v., I see so many health claims from the food industry that I decided to create a list of the most common ones and show you how to detect a health food lie. This post does not even include the lies from the supplement industry. But, if you want to read up on that, JC from JCD Fitness wrote a recent article about that and you can read it by clicking here.

Now, for our list. Pay careful attention because I want you to be able to spot these health food lies the next time you visit the grocery store.

1. Cereals are Healthy

This is a common lie that a lot of people generally believe to be true. Cheerios is probably the most popular “healthy” cereal because of their heavy marketing slogan which claims that it “can lower your cholesterol.” Notice how the word “can” conspicuously made its way to their slogan. That means that there’s a possibility that it can lower your cholesterol but it’s not for sure. When I researched the ingredients of Cheerios online, I found out that most ingredients contained “starch” in its name and the third ingredient is sugar. This means that Cheerios is basically made up of mostly carbohydrates with a little bit of fiber and protein. Don’t get me wrong, if you used to eat bacon and bagels for breakfast or not used to eating breakfast at all, having Cheerios for breakfast is a relatively healthier option but it’s not the cereal of choice for optimum health.

If there is one cereal that I would recommend to my clients, it would be Fiber One Cereal but I would only recommend the Original Bran flavor and not the other ones because it has the highest fiber content and has zero calories from sugar. The ingredients in this cereal are mostly made from bran which is the part of grains that contain the most fiber which in turn gives our bodies the most health benefits.

2. Sugar Free

Besides diet drinks and other zero calorie drinks our there, most products that are touted as “sugar free” are usually high in fat and carbohydrates. You can mostly see “sugar free” claims on candies, salad dressings, and baked goods. For example, Hershey’s came out with a new line of sugar free chocolate. When you look at the nutrition information for their Sugar Free Special Dark Chocolate, you can see that 5 square pieces (one serving) of it contains, 15 g of fat with 9 g of it coming from saturated fat and 23 g of carbohydrates. That’s a whopping 140 calories from fat alone. This signals a red flag in my head so I’d rather have 85% dark chocolate than eat this so called “special dark chocolate.” It makes me wonder what makes it really special.

3. Fat Free

The fat free claim in health foods is the opposite of the claim sugar-free. Most fat free foods are heavily laden with sugar. This includes fat free ice cream, fat free cookies, fat free cakes, etc. A lot of people seem to think that eating fat free foods is the answer to losing weight but in fact, it is quite the opposite. Eating healthy fats such as omega-3 fatty acids can actually help you lose weight.

Another type of food where the fat free claim is used a lot is in meats like hotdogs, ground beef, deli lunch meats, etc. Let’s take Oscar Mayer’s fat free hot dogs for example. Here are the nutrition facts:

• Serving size: 1 link
• Calories per serving: 39
• Calories from Fat: 2
• Percentage of Calories from Fat: 4.6%
• Total Fat: 0.2 g

So, how can it contain 0.2 g of fat and still be labeled fat free? The FDA says that as long as a food product has less than .5 g of fat, it can be labeled fat free. While 0.2 g of fat may not look like a lot to you, I don’t ever remember eating just one hotdog in one sitting. Most people would probably eat 3 hotdogs on average so the fat definitely adds up.

4. Portion Control Meals or Snacks

To a dieter’s ear, 100 calorie packs or snacks are probably music to their ears. You mean, I can eat a chocolate chip cookie and only consume 100 calories? Yey!….Nay Again, the sugar in these so called portion control snacks can wreak havoc to your insulin levels which means that they trigger even more sweet cravings later on. You’re better off spending those calories on a fruit which helps stabilize your blood sugar levels.

Another food in the portion control category are the frozen dinners or meals. This may sound like a good option for “busy” people because it requires less preparation time but what’s hidden inside all these convenient little packages is a LOT of sodium. In order to preserve the food and add more flavor to frozen meals, the manufacturers add an insane amount of salt which can cause serious health problems such as high blood pressure, kidney disease, etc. when eaten regularly.

5. Healthy Fats

I’m all for eating healthy fats – no doubt about it. But, keep in mind that when you do eat healthy fats from Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Almonds, Pecans, etc, that fats are still high in calories. Time and time again, I will watch a health food channel and see the host put lots and lots of olive oil in most of their meals. Yes, it’s healthy but if you eat too much of it, you’re still taking in a lot of calories. To give you an idea about the calorie content in healthy fats, here is a list of common sources:

• 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil: 119 calories
• 20 pieces Pecan Halves: 196 calories
• 24 Whole Almond Kernels: 163 calories
• 2 tablespoons Natural Peanut Butter: 190 calories
• 14 pieces Walnut Halves: 185 calories

One important lesson from this: healthy fats are good for you but enjoy them in moderation.

6. Organic

Ok, you have to read this one carefully. Personally, I love to get my organic fruits and vegetables from the farmer’s market because they are oh so fresh and grown locally. However, the “organic” label has been misused so many times that it kinda loses its real meaning. For instance, on my trip to the grocery store the other day, I was so surprised to find organic potato chips and organic ice cream. I’m fine with foods being labeled organic but don’t assume that it’s automatically good for you just because it’s lableled as such.

7. Fruit Juice and Diet Sodas

But it’s fruit juice! Let’s keep this in mind: we eat fruits for its fiber and natural sugar content. Fruit Juices are nothing but pasteurized/processed sugar and is probably not any better than diet sodas. If you want fruit, eat a whole one from the farmer’s market – you can thank me later and so will your body.

Take Away

Normally, I wouldn’t rant here in my blog. But, there are certain things such as these health food lies that have been bothering me for a long time. The lesson of the whole post is this: if you are buying anything that is packaged, boxed, or processed, check the ingredients first and really look into the nutrition facts. Usually, if a product has less than 3 recognizable ingredients (not some weird name you can’t pronounce), you will be fine. Otherwise, we will all be better off with eating more whole foods and buying from local farmers. It’s a rule that is simple enough and yet many people fail to follow because we’re so caught up in believing that there are magical foods out there that will solve all our health and weight loss problems. Big news ==> there aren’t.

While it’s fine to have these types of food once in awhile, don’t buy them in the false belief that they will help you reach your fat loss goals because you will face a huge disappointment.

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Top 3 Healthy Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth

Posted on 17. May, 2009 by admin.

When you’re going for fat loss, the word “dessert” is usually the first one out of the window. But, when you see dessert in a whole new light, you can satisfy your sweet tooth and achieve your fat loss goals in no time. So, I came up with my the top 3 foods that I eat when I want to finish my meal with something sweet without breaking the calorie bank. I’m sorry to disappoint those of you who love traditional sweets like ice cream, candy bars, or baked goods because this list doesn’t include muffins, cookies, Snickers, Gelatto, etc. but you probably already know that (this is a fitness blog after all).

But, you won’t be disappointed to know that this list does include chocolate. Yes, chocolate! Sweet!

Sweet Food #1: Dark Chocolate

Green and Black's 70% Dark Chocolate

Ok, so maybe it’s not the chocolate that you would normally eat but being able to eat dark chocolate is a nice compromise for me. I’ve got to say that I had to get used to eating dark chocolate at first because I was so used to eating sugary candy bars. Although I’ve always known that dark chocolate is good for me, I didn’t really put that knowledge into practice until I came upon this article by Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple Blog. It was through his recommendation that I finally decided to try it. So, during a trip to BevMo, I got a bar of Lindt’s 70% Dark Chocolate. Since then, I’ve also tried the one with 85% cocoa. My most recent dark chocolate adventure was Green and Black’s Organic which was Mark’s preferred brand. Overall, I was very delighted with the experience that I would be keeping dark chocolate in my pantry.

Besides satisfying your sweet tooth, dark chocolate also has high antioxidant content. If you don’t already know, antioxidants fight free radicals. Basically, free radicals exists as part of our normal body processes and also when we encounter pollution, cigarette smoke, etc. When they are present in the body, they cause cell damage. When we eat foods with antioxidants, the antioxidants neutralize these free radicals so that they won’t cause cell damage.

I would usually eat one square of dark chocolate after I eat my dinner.

Sweet Food #2: Fruits

Fruit is a common dessert substitute that is recommended by nutritionists. When I didn’t eat fruit regularly, I didn’t really appreciate the wholesome, sweet goodness of most fruits. But, as I got into the habit of eating fruits along with my meals, I find that it gives my meal a nice finish. I like all kinds of fruits now and it’s really difficult for me to narrow down my list but if you’re looking for something particularly sweet, I would go for these choices:

Manila Mango

• Mangoes – yellow, ripe, skinny Manila mangoes – not the the green, reddish, and fat ones that you will see at the grocery stores. These are the ones I was used to eating when I used to live in the Philippines but I recently found these at Whole Foods and you can usually find them at Asian grocery stores. I would eat one mango after a meal (I can seriously eat more of this but I have to stop myself…haha).
• Pineapples – look for the one with yellowish eyes and the sweet smell when you’re choosing one at the grocery store. I usually eat 2 1-inch thick slices of pineapple after meals.
• Kiwis – it’s not difficult to pick Kiwis. Just make sure you get the firm (not soft) ones. Eating 2 pieces of Kiwis is usually enough for me.

Sweet Food #3: Prunes or Dried Plums

Seriously? Aren’t Prunes for my grandparents? That’s what I used to think too but that t.v. ad from Sunsweet made these snacks very attractive to me that I just had to try them. After my very first bite, I was hooked! I may be cheating a little bit here because I’m giving this a separate category even though they really should be part of sweet food #2 because they are, after all, fruits. But, they deserve this much attention because on the day that I bought the 60 Calorie Packs, I devoured 3 of them…haha. It’s not a smart move because my aim was to not eat too much in the first place but I was able to get it down to one pack a day after that.

Sunsweet Prunes (Dried Plums) - Yummy!

My first encounter with Prunes was the Kirkland Brand from Costco and I don’t remember liking them at all. If I didn’t take the chance to try these sweet little fruits again, I may have never found out that they can be this good. Seriously, go get yourself some Prunes at the grocery store this weekend and find out how good they are for yourself.

So, there you go. Now, you have an army of sweet foods to choose from for the next time you are in the mood for something sweet. I hope you enjoyed this post as much I enjoyed writing it. Can you tell I like sweets?…haha.

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How to Calculate Your Calorie Deficit

Posted on 06. Apr, 2009 by admin.

When I had my measurements taken last week, I also had to re-adjust my calorie intake because it changes with my body composition. Because of this, I also had to re-calculate my calorie deficit. If you’ve been trying to lose weight for awhile, you’re probably familiar with this concept. But, a lot of people are either doing it wrong (eating too much or too little calories) or just don’t know how to calculate their calorie deficit at all.

The concept behind the calorie deficit is simple. You figure out how much you need in order to maintain your current weight (this is your maintenance level) then, you reduce the amount of calories that you eat in order to lose weight. In his book, Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle,” Tom Venuto says that you should have, at most, a calorie deficit of 30% under maintenance level. This would mean that if your maintenance level is 2,000 calories then, you can eat 1,600 calories to lose weight but not less than that because it slows down your metabolic rate if you reduce your calorie intake even further. Take note, that Tom also mentioned 7 reasons to not undereat when you’re dieting and this is only one of them.

Ok, if I haven’t confused you already, let me give you an example of how to calculate your calorie deficit. Keep in mind that a lot of factors affect your maintenance calorie levels but, to simplify the discussion, I will just focus on the formulas.

The first, simple formula is by using multipliers of Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE also known as maintenance level):

• For Fat loss: multiply by 12 to 13 calories per lb. of bodyweight
• Maintenance (TDEE) = 15-16 calories per lb. of bodyweight
• Weight gain = 18 to 20+ calories per lb. of bodyweight

So, if I wanted to lose weight, I would multiply my weight by 12. Let’s say my weight is 117 lbs. My TDEE would be 1,755 calories (117 lbs x 15) so I’d want to eat 1,404 calories (117 lbs x 12) in order to have a calorie deficit. Take note that this formula is suitable only for people who are “average” which means that they are not grossly overweight or thin. Also, it doesn’t take into account the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) which can vary greatly among the general population depending on your body composition, height, age, etc.

This leads me to the next discussion: the Harris-Benedict formula. This takes into account the BMR which means that it will apply to the general population and a lot of people can calculate their calorie deficits this way.

Before I proceed, you can download the calculator that I use here:
Calorie Deficit Calculator

Back to the calculation…

Men: BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) – (6.8 X age in years)
Women: BMR = 655 + (9.6 X wt in kg) + (1.8 X ht in cm) – (4.7 X age in years)

So, if I have the following statistics:

• Weight: 117 lbs = 53.18 kg
• Height: 5’4″ = 162.56 cm
• Age: 27 yrs old

My calculation would look like this:

BMR = 655 + (9.6 X 53.18 kg) + (1.8 X 162.56 cm) – (4.7 X 27) = ~ 1,331 calories

Because my BMR is my calorie expenditure if I didn’t perform any exercise, I have to multiply it to an activity factor depending on how active my lifestyle is or how much exercise I perform in a week.

Based on the following activity factors:

• Sedentary = BMR X 1.2 (no exercise)
• Lightly active = BMR X 1.375 (light exercise 2-3 times a week)
• Mod. active = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise 3-5 days a week)
• Very active = BMR X 1.725 (rigorous exercise/sports 6-7 days a week)
• Extr. Active = BMR X 1.9 (rigorous daily exercise/sports & physical job)

So, if I just go to the gym 3 times a week with strength training and intervals, I would multiply my BMR by 1.55 which will give me about 2,063 calories (1,331 calories x 1.55). Now, I just have to figure out what is 30% of 2,063 which is about 619 calories. I would then subtract 619 from 2,063 in order to give me my calorie deficit of 1,444 calories. If I don’t want to lose that much weight, I would reduce the 30% to 20% and so on.

Again, this formula will not apply to people who have extremely low body fat or extremely high body fat (overly obese) but it will be fine for the general population. For the purpose of this post, this should help a lot of people figure out their calorie requirements in order to know their calorie deficit. There is another more specific formula that takes into account the lean body mass when calculating caloric needs but that one deserves a post all by itself.

Here is the file again. I created this for myself and I’m making it available to you in order to make the process a lot easier. Enjoy!

Calorie Deficit Calculator

To dowload the file, right click and save as.

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3 Powerful Strategies to Resist Cravings

Posted on 03. Apr, 2009 by admin.

One morning as I woke up to get ready for work, I realized that I forgot to prepare my breakfast which is usually my Wake Me Up Pancakes that I wrote on this post. Another breakfast favorite is Ezekiel bread and one, whole Omega-3 egg but I would eat these whenever I only have one pancake left and I’m not used to eating them without one. So, I had a dilemma about whether to eat my husband’s cereal or not to eat breakfast at all. As I stated in the post for my TT transformation results, I kicked the cereal habit for about 6 months now and, quite frankly, I don’t want to go back to eating it again — I don’t even crave it one bit.

#1 Keeping a Safe Home Base

So, I decided to cook some Oatmeal instead (not the quick cooking ones but the regular kind that you can find in the bulk bins at health food stores) and I ate it with a piece of Ezekiel bread slathered with some Peanut Butter (Yum!). I always keep Oatmeal and other healthy stuff at home for times like these. You’ll just never know when hunger or cravings will strike and I like to be prepared when they happen. The strategy is basically to keep a safe home/kitchen base that is free from processed foods, baked goods, or anything that might impede your fat loss goals and your healthy eating habits. While I try not to label some foods as “evil,” I’d rather not have them in my kitchen so that it won’t be easy for me to grab them when I want to eat them.

I originally got this idea of having a safe home base from Precision Nutrition. If you think about it, it really seems intuitive but, some people, like me, would probably think that they can resist the temptation when it comes so it’s ok for them to keep “unhealthy” foods in the kitchen cupboards. Unfortunately, this is not usually the case. Your will power can only go so far. When hunger pangs start, guess what, your stomach probably doesn’t send signals of eating fruits and vegetables in your brain. I find that when I’m hungry or having a strong craving, it’s really difficult to resist eating that chocolate bar or that sugary cereal that seems to be calling my name and waiting to sabotage my healthy eating efforts.

#2 Develop the Habits

Writing about cravings just now reminded me about the Kashi commercial that I saw on T.V. the other day. The girl in the commercial said that her mission is to turn healthy eating from “have to” to “want to” (or something along those lines). I believe that this can happen because I’ve actually been experiencing some healthy cravings lately. I never would have thought that this was possible but it is. The healthier I eat, the more I don’t want sweets anymore. I actually surprised myself one day when I walked into the grocery store during winter and I was so excited to have found peaches from Chile. I mean who gets excited about fruit? I do!

I also realized that since I’ve been eating fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, it has become a habit that I don’t even think about it anymore. This is a very powerful strategy! You know how they say that habits are hard to break? Well, why not develop a healthy habit so you don’t have to worry about breaking it? Again, this is one of those things that would seem very apparent to some people and yet we’d rather eat fast food or have dessert after dinner etc. Sure, it was difficult for me to develop these habits at first but, the more I practiced it, the easier it went. So, if this something you want to experiment with, try adding just one healthy habit and keep doing it for 3 weeks straight, you’ll find that you’ll have a different take on things compared to when you first started.

#3 Keep them Out of Sight

“Out of sight, out of mind.”

For some people, completely getting rid of junk food may be difficult especially if you live with a big family who doesn’t want to join you in the healthy band wagon. If you’re forgetful like me, you’ll find that the simple act of keeping foods out of sight can be really powerful. Even if you’re not forgetful, you’re less likely to snack on these foods if it’s not lying around on the kitchen counter or the coffee table. On the other hand, if your kitchen is cluttered with visual cues of brownies, potato chips, cookies, etc. then you may just find yourself mindlessly snacking on those foods even though you’re not hungry. Of course, keeping a safe home base would be the ideal strategy but if this situation applies to you, you’re better off not getting those visual cues to keep yourself out of the danger zone.

I find that there’s always a time and place for indulgences especially when it comes to food. Finding the right balance in living a healthier lifestyle can mean the difference between obsessing about macronutrient ratios (which might lead to eating disorders) and just simply being satisfied with the fact that you’re nourishing your body each time you eat a healthy meal.

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Wake Me Up Pancakes Recipe

Posted on 24. Mar, 2009 by admin.

I thought that sharing my healthy pancake recipe with you would be a great idea because a lot of people may have trouble replacing their usual cold, sugary breakfast cereals. I know that I used to be a big cereal fan and I used to think that I couldn’t live without them until I found this recipe in the Turbulence Training Forums. It was originally posted by a TT member, Tabitha, who won 3rd place in the last transformation contest. I have made some modifications since I first got this recipe and I’m sure that anyone, even non-pancake lovers, will love these yummy protein pancakes. They definitely give me the extra motivation to wake up at 5 a.m. in the morning whenever I have to get ready for work.

Pancakes in the blender

The foundation of these pancakes lies in a melange of wholesome oatmeal base, egg whites, and cottage cheese. I didn’t think that I’d like the cottage cheese but I decided to give it a try anyway. Since then, Tabitha suggested adding Bananas and/or blueberries for a hint of sweetness, flavor, and texture. These pancakes tastes just as sinful as regular diner-style pancakes but it is oh so good for you.

Turn Panckes when Bubbles Appear

These pancakes smell as good as they are delicious because the recipe calls for nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla which reminds me of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Ever since, I kicked my cereal habit, these pancakes have been my saving grace without having to make any compromise at all. They can also satisfy my sweet cravings because I use very ripe bananas which also saves me money because I used to just throw the bananas away before I found this recipe. If you have room for more calories in your diet as during a high calorie day or during a muscle gaining phase, add some Turkey Bacon and Turkey sausages to get that homemade “diner” style breakfast.

They're ready to eat!

This recipe makes 5 healthy protein pancakes and this is the calorie and macronutrient breakdown per 1 pancake:

• Fat 1.4 g
• Carbs 21 g
• Protein 13.7 g
• Calories 146




Misto Olive Oil Spray




Note: Depending on my mood, I top these with a bit of Sugar Free Maple Syrup or a thin layer of Almond or Peanut Butter

1 cup Oatmeal (I use Quaker Oats, not instant)
1 cup Cottage Cheese
1 cup Egg Whites
1 large Banana and/or 1/4 cup Blueberries
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 packets Truvia (Stevia, optional)

Cooking Directions:

Put all the ingredients in the blender and puree until smooth and creamy. This makes up the pancake batter.

Heat a small pan over medium heat and lightly spray it with Olive Oil (I use Misto Spray).

Pour enough batter into the pan so that it covers most of the pan’s suface.

Turn the pancake once bubbles appear – about 5 minutes. When one side is cooked, the other side should only cook for another 3 minutes.

You can eat them straight from the pan or put them in the refrigerator overnight so that you can heat them up in the toaster for a quick, convenient breakfast the next morning. They can store in the fridge for up to 4 days.

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The 90% Rule

Posted on 04. Mar, 2009 by admin.

Lately, I have been reading in other blogs and forum threads about nutrition mishaps – meaning that they either binged or just made some bad food choices. Just like them, I also have a bit of trouble in this deparment (don’t we all?) and so as one of my strategies in approaching this issue is to closely monitor my “cheat meals” by following the 90% rule.

What is the 90% rule?

I originally heard of the 90% rule from Dr. John Berardi, creator of Precision Nutrition. The rule states that you can still have amazing results if you follow a good nutrition plan 90% of the time. To be more specific, I’ll give you my example.

On the nutrition stand point

I routinely eat 5 meals a day (on the days that I’m not fasting – that is) which give me a total of 35 (5 meals/day x 7 days) meals per week. I just use this number even on the days that I fast. So, this means that I can eat 3.5 (35 x .1 or 10%) cheat meals and still get great results! The idea is the 10% leeway will not affect your results heavily because you are in 90% compliance anyway. Isn’t that great news? I mean even the most disciplined person in the world needs a little wiggle room every once in awhile right? So, why do it 100% when you can still get the same results at 90%? The one problem with this though is that some people will take this 10% and make it into 20% or even 50%. This is one reason why I want to track my meals in some way (more on this later).

From the workouts stand point

The 90% rule applies to your workouts as well. Since I go to the gym 3x a week and follow a specific program for 4 weeks, I can miss one workout and still see some nice changes. Now, working out and eating are two totally different creatures for me. I love working out – I like the high that I get from it. I see it as a way for me to keep the stress levels down as well. Even on some days when I’m just feeling blah and not really motivated to get my butt to the gym – I still end up going because I look forward to that feeling after a great workout. Now, if you talk to me about the nutrition side of things – that’s totally different story, my friend.

So why did I bring up the 90% rule?

Partly because, I really want to start actually marking off my meal chart with my cheat meals so that I’ll know that I’m really in 90% compliance and not 85% or 75%. I got a chart from my Precision Nutrition purchase but if you want a poor man’s (or woman’s) version, Maggie Wang, created one here. You’d have scroll to the bottom of the post to download the pdf file. I need a chart like this because I have a hard time remembering what I eat/ate unless I write it down or track it in some way (can’t imagine how sharp I would be several years down the road…lol). It may sound tedious but it really isn’t. Think of it as a way to see your progress just as you would your % body fat or other measurements.

Before I conclude, I’d like to add that the 90% rule is helpful in terms of eating healthy and not thinking of fat loss in terms of “dieting.” Incorporate the 90% rule all the time and not just when you’re trying to lose weight. This way of thinking makes it a longer term plan instead of having the “yo-yo dieting” mindset. Remember that losing the weight is just as difficult as maintaining it so keep the rewards forever – you already worked hard for it, you might as well keep it.

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Eat Stop Eat and Protein

Posted on 23. Feb, 2009 by admin.

If you have been following my blog for some time now, chances are you’ve probably read about my amazing results with Eat Stop Eat (ESE). But, it just dawned on me that I actually haven’t talked about my actual experience with intermittent fasting as described by Brad Pilon in this e-book.

Eat Stop Eat

While I can’t go into details as to how the ESE style of intermittent fasting is carried out, I will talk about how I incorporate this lifestyle into my daily life and what feelings/effects I experience during the process.

Here we go…

On my fast days, I usually plan to fast from lunch to lunch. This means that if I plan to fast on Monday until Tuesday, my last meal on Monday is lunch. Then, my next meal on Tuesday is not until lunch time. So, if I normally eat breakfast, a morning snack and a lunch, I would eat these meals as usual. In the same sense, if I normally eat lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner, I would resume this normal eating schedule after my fast.

While the situation I just described seems simple enough, a lot of people are afraid of the fact that they would go for several hours without eating anything. I was one of those people. Knowing myself and how much I loved food, I didn’t think I can do it either. Fortunately, I already knew some people in the Turbulence Training Forums who were actually doing it so I thought that if they can do it, so can I.

My first fast was no problem at all. I wouldn’t say that it was easy but it was definitely doable. My day would go like this:

• Afternoon – start to get hungry
• Late afternoon to dinner time – hunger would go away
• Before bed time – my hunger would return but it’s tolerable
• Early morning (right after I wake up) – not hungry at all
• All morning – I don’t even get the chance to think about/feel my hunger because I’m busy too with work

For me, hunger really is not a problem during my fast days. I even cook dinner for my husband while I’m fasting. So, it is definitely something you can get used to. The one big problem for me is that my extremities (hands and feet) get cold during the last few hours of my fast. Usually, if I fast once a week, the cold is not bad. But, if I fast for a second time during the same week then, I get really cold. I find this to be a problem for me especially during the winter time as I get cold easily to begin with. But, because I know and expect to be colder than usual, I usually try to wear something warm or bring a scarf or fingerless gloves with me during my second fast. Other than that, my fast days usually go pretty well and have some pretty nice benefits because:

• I have some extra time in the morning because I don’t have to prepare and eat breakfast.
• I prepare fewer meals since I won’t be eating my usual number of meals.
• I save money on food.
• I save time on food preparation and meal planning for the whole week.
• I sleep better at night – this is a nice effect. I’m not sure why but I do get tired during my fasting nights.

As for my results with ESE, the pictures in my video really do speak for themselves. But, if you want some concrete numbers, I have lost 14 pounds and 8.2% body fat since I started practicing intermittent fasting on a regular basis. Of course, I still had to go to the gym 3 times a week and do my Turbulence Training workouts on top of intermittent fasting but ESE really helped make fat loss an easier goal to achieve. While, I also try to eat healthier on days that I’m not fasting, ESE gives me more room to “cheat” or eat “normal” foods than any other eating lifestyle available out there.

So, other than an easier way to lose fat, what more can a girl ask for? Well, I would like to know how much protein I really need to feed my muscles or which foods are the best sources to get it. To my delight, Brad wrote another e-book entitled, “How Much Protein?” and he even sent me a free copy through my e-mail just because I already purchased ESE. I was busy this past weekend and I didn’t get the chance to read the book yet but I know for sure that Brad has some great stuff to say.

How Much Protein?

If you have been on the fence about Eat Stop Eat, now is the time to finally try it for yourself. Besides myself, other TT Members and fitness bloggers have also found success with Eat Stop Eat. So what do you have to lose? A a few (or several) pounds of fat maybe?

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