FIVE Foods to Burn Fat

FIVE Foods to Burn Fat:

1.  Green Tea
Even if you can’t give up your morning coffee, try adding one or two cups of green tea to your day.  The properties in Green Tea actually help to boost your metabolism, burn extra calories while eating, block fat absorption, and burn fat!  As far as green tea goes, the more the better, so double the bags for an afternoon pick-me-up.  With less than half the caffeine of coffee, you’ll get a boost without the crash.
2.  Spirulina
Spirulina is a micro-blue green algae.  It is a great source of B-Vitamins, Calcium, and Chlorophyll.  With all of the B-Vitamins, it is a natural energy source, plus it helps to speed up your metabolism!  Try adding a teaspoon to your morning smoothie for an extra boost.
3.  Wheat Grass Juice
I would be here all day if I tried to list the many benefits of Wheatgrass Juice.  I recommend doing a search and becoming amazed!  Some of the amazing properties of drinking the fresh juice are that it boosts energy, dissolves fat, and speeds up your metabolism.  Just try it and see for yourself.  This is some powerful stuff.
4.  Radishes
Because of their high magnesium and iron levels, radishes act like a scrub brush for your mucus and fat linings inside.  They literally help to break up and dissolve fat from the inside out.  Add fresh sliced radishes to your salads for an extra fat-dissolving crunch!
5. Lemon Juice
Lemons work for your body in a number of ways.  Because of their acid content, they, too help to break up and dissolve fat in your body, as well as helping you digest fats and oils if eaten together.  They are also great for helping to clean out your liver, which stores fat if not working properly to get rid of toxins.  It is also a natural blood-sugar stabilizer, which leads to less crashing and reaching for sweet snacks and candy.  Try a cup of warm water with lemon to start the day, and squeeze some in the rest of your water throughout the day for added benefits.
Simple Radish Salad:
- 7 radishes, sliced into matchsticks
- 1 large tomato, diced
- 2 slices of red onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- about 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- juice of 1 lime or lemon
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- black pepper, to taste
Combine all ingredients in a glass bowl.  Let sit about 10 minute to let the flavors really develop.  Enjoy as a side dish, or on top of your favorite salad greens.  Enjoy!

Sample 2200 Calorie Meal Plan - Low Carb

Here is a sample menu for low carbs.   Found this on a forum and thought to post it here.  It can be used as a template for phase 1.... although I will be hitting a few calories less and also plan to have shakeology each day along with a whey protein shake.


2200 low carb for men:

meal 1 - oatmeal - 3/4 cup; egg whites (6) with a whole egg; 1 grapefruit = 448 cal, 39.2 protein, 50.3 carbs, 9.6 fat

meal 2 - oatmeal - 3/4 cup; egg white (6) with a whole egg = 402 cal, 38.6 protein, 38.4 carbs, 9.5 fat

meal 3 - yams - 5 oz, chicken - 6 oz, broccoli - 1 cup = 392 cal, 42.9 protein, 42.6 carbs, 5.7 fat

meal 4 - beef - extra lean - 5 oz, asparagus - 10 spears = 326 cal, 47 protein, 6 carbs, 11.3 fat

meal 5 - salmon - 5 oz, green beans - 6 oz, flaxseed oil - 1/2 T (supplement) = 372 cal, 36.5 protein, 12 carbs, 18.5 fat

meal 6 - tuna, water packed - 6 oz, light italian dressing - 3 T, large mixed green salad - 2 cups, flaxseed oil - 1/2 T (supplement) = 297 cal, 39 protein, 13 carb, 8.5 fat

totals = 2237 cals, 243.2 g protein (46%), 162.3 g carbs(32%), 63.1 g fat(22%)

P90X Nutrition – Guidelines

I found this on another blog and wanted to post it here. This is a real good advice to follow along with and in support of Michi's ladder.

Get plenty of lean protein with every meal
Lean sources include fish, poultry, beans and vegetarian alternatives. Protein should be the building block of every meal. It gives you the stamina you need to “bring it” to your P90X workout and make it to the next meal.

Eat five to eight fresh fruits and vegetables every day
The P90X philosophy is: Don’t ever hold yourself back from enjoying all the fresh fruits and veggies you want!

Enjoy whole-grain carbs
Ditch white breads, bagels, doughnuts, cookies and the like. Tear into a hunk of all-natural whole-grain bread instead with gusto! You don’t have to eat carbs at every meal, but you should have at least one serving of carbs every day. That’s because your brain relies solely on carbs for its energy source. Sure, you’ll be trim if you don’t eat any carbs, but you’ll come across as a ditz! Your protein serving should always be larger than your carb serving to prevent your blood sugar from spiking, then plummeting. The last thing you want is to feel weak and shaky during your P90X workout!

Enjoy good fats
Good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated; some sources include avocados, olive oil, fish and nuts. The P90X fitness system recommends fish as the most lean source of protein and as the best source of omega 3 oils. Wild Alaskan salmon is best. Saturated and trans fats are bad; some sources include meat, dairy products and hydrogenated oils.

Drink at least six to ten 8oz glasses of water every day.
Water flushes away excess fat. That’s a good thing, because you’re going to crave tons of water after your P90X Cardio X, Plyometrics and Kenpo X workouts!

Avoid these items at all costs:
fast food burgers and fries; hydrogenated oils and high-fructose corn syrup. When you follow the P90X fitness mindset, you don’t even regard them as food. Think of them as poisonous artery-clogging and liver-taxing toxins.

Never, ever skip meals or starve yourself.
This will only slow down your metabolism anyway. You are going to need plenty of energy for your P90X workouts! Never leave the table hungry, and never leave the table miserably stuffed. Eat until you are full, but not overloaded.

Staying in the Box - Michi's Ladder

So what I meant in my previous post about staying in the box is in reference to Michi's Ladder. The full table of Michi's ladder can be found over at BeachBody (http://teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/michis-ladder) . I am essentially trying to stick to the top 2 tiers of this as much as possible with some minor items from tier 3 creeping in from time to time. So anything out of these boxes I should definitely check for the macronutrient breakdown (proteins, carbs, fats, fiber, calories).

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Michi's Ladder provides a simply way to assess and readjust your diet plan for anyone looking for a positive change in their eating habits.

The diet plan works very simply. Michi's Ladder is composed of five different tiers of food and food types. The idea is to receive the majority of your foods from the top tiers, Tier 1, Tier 2, and even Tier 3 of the plan. As you can imagine, Tier 5 is composed of the worst foods you can have while on any diet plan, including hamburgers, fries, pizza - you get the idea.

There is no set serving amount or specific timeline, Michi's Ladder is designed to give you a better assessment of food and which foods would be more nutritious for you.

To start with the diet plan print out a copy of the diet plan for your own reference. It will be handy when you go grocery shopping and a copy tacked onto the front of your fridge may help you to become familiar with the different tiers.

Now you should assess your current diet. Which Tiers do most of your foods fall into? Are you gaining most of your foods from Tier 5? Or Tier 4? Be honest with yourself because that's the only way you are going to be able to use the diet plan as a way to nourish your body in a positive manner.

Once you determine which tier most of your foods come from, it is time to climb Michi's Ladder. Look at tiers above yours and figure out if there are suitable substitutes for foods that are found in your tier. For instance, if you find that you eat a lot of hot dogs (Tier 5), consider switching over to turkey hot dogs (Tier 4). Or if you find that you enjoy a lot of ice cream (Tier 5) how about switching to non-fat frozen yogurt (Tier 3)? The point of climbing the ladder of the diet plan is that you are finding better ways to nourish your body by aiming to move up in the tiers.

There are a lot of little items in the tiers that can be easily substituted for better health. For instance, you can begin using olive oil instead of butter for cooking. Or switching to hummus as a veggie dip instead of ranch dressing. These changes may seem minor, but in the long run even the little changes will be better for your health.

Again, there is not portion size or timeline for this diet plan. You can quickly climb up in tiers or you can move gradually over time. It works to give you the tools to find which foods you should be eating and which foods you should steer clear of.

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Hope this helps!
//jsk

Survive any Restaurant

Here's a quick list of things that'll help you survive any restaurant.

1. Go for the chicken or fish.
2. Avoid fried food.
3. Unless it's veggies, salad, or fruit, skip the side dish.
4. Pasta? Avoid cream sauces and just eat half your portion.
5. No bread, except if you're having a sandwich. And get whole wheat.
6. Ask for the salad dressing on the side and use it sparingly.

Power 90 - Day 90 Results

Here are the results from finishing up Power 90. I am planning to start p90x on March 30, 2009 if all goes well next week in India. Overall I am really pleased with all of the changes. I had hoped I would have excelled a bit more and grown more in strength, but what I did do was amazing really. My last Sculpt routine I did 140 push-ups and 2 sets of 20 reps of the dips. I was able to almost do my 3rd pull-up afterwards as well! I definitely am way more fit and healthy than ever before. Now, onto p90x which will take this to a whole new level I am sure! I am very excited to get started and can't wait to get back from India.






Peace!
//jsk

How to change!

Habit formation, How to change!
by Aileen Ludington, MD and Hans Diehl, DrPH

Hard to get up in the morning? Hate to exercise? Can’t shed those extra pounds? Most of us long to be different—to live healthier, more disciplined lives. Yet our most determined efforts to change too often come to nothing.

Why is it so hard to change?

Habits are what tie us down—and our lifestyles are often little more than the sum total of our habits. True, they can oil the machinery of our lives, helping us glide through our days, saving time and energy. (Who would want to have to stop and think how to tie a pair of shoelaces, after all?)

But habits can make our lives more difficult as well—and if you doubt that, try changing sides of the bed with your spouse tonight!

The repetition of anything—good or bad—
causes the habit to become confirmed in our lives:
and fixed habits determine our character.

How are habits formed?

As you’re probably aware, your brain sends messages to the rest of the body through nerve cells. Each nerve cell has a central processing headquarters and a long sending fiber (or axon) over which it relays messages. Nerve cells also have lots of tiny receiving fibers (or dendrites) for incoming messages.

Frequently used axons form tiny bumps; scientists call these bumps boutons, from the French word for buttons. And the more boutons a nerve cell has, the more easily and quickly it’s able to transmit messages.

This helps us understand how habits are formed in the nervous system. Any thought or action repeated over and over builds little boutons on the ends of the affected axons, making it easier to repeat the same thought or action. It’s almost as though the repetition wears a groove in the brain, much as the repeatedly walking over the same place in a lawn will wear a path in the sod.

Once these pathways are formed, can they be changed?

Boutons, unfortunately, do not go away when they are no longer used. And because the old pathways are still there, the chance of falling back into a bad habit is always present, as when an alcoholic “falls off the wagon.”

But people can change, can’t they?

Yes, but only by building new habits that are stronger than the old. The new choice must be made repeatedly, over and over.

That sounds tough!

It can be at first. But in time more boutons will appear on the new pathway than on the old one, and the “path” will wear deeper. As it becomes easier to take the new route, the new habit is being established.

How long does this take?

Most people find it takes about three weeks to form one new habit. A few years ago, for instance, a woman named Anya Bateman decided to start flossing her teeth. What had been a tiresome chore, she learned, evolved into a bedtime ritual in less than a month. Encouraged, she applied her three-week plan to breaking her habit of eating too many sweets. Next she broke her habit of criticizing her husband, then formed a new habit of praising her kids. The results were so astounding that they were published in Reader’s Digest.*

Likewise, just as some people become accomplished musicians by so many hours of daily practice, we can become a better person by consistently making good moral choices. And even if we lose a battle now and then, we won’t lose the war—not as long as we get right back onto that new “path” we’re trying to form.

So if you’ve always wanted to get some more exercise, try starting tomorrow. Get up a half hour earlier and hit the pavement with a brisk walk or jog. Sure, it may be tough at first—but in three weeks you’ll have shed a few extra pounds, and you’ll be on your way to a healthier lifestyle.

I can do everything through him
who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13