Archive for March 9th, 2009
Get In Shape By Summer
It is important to know that a well-rounded diet is 70-80% of your progress in achieving a leaner more muscular body. So as we get ourselves into the habit of eating smaller and more frequent meals, we should update our dietary regime with the following suggestions:
1. Set your goal at eating every 2.5-3 hours throughout the day; this would entail consuming up to 5-6 meals instead of the traditional “three-square”.
2. Your target should be to lose about 1.5-2 pounds of body fat per week.
3. Start heavily cutting back and eliminating milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, hard cheeses, all forms of white flour, fruits and fruit drinks, sodas, fast food, and anything else containing sucrose. Instead, choose from protein sources like poultry, fish, lean red meat, eggs and maybe tofu (if you choose not to eat meat). Along with carb sources like oatmeal, sweet potatoes, beans, brown rice and high-fiber cereals.
4. Continue to eat your biggest meal in the morning and slowly taper off the calories as the day moves on.
5. Slowly start eating more green, fibrous carbohydrates and at the same time, taper back the portions on starchy carbohydrates. This will also allow you to decrease your daily caloric intake 200-500 calories to achieve additional fat loss. Instead of eating only protein and vegetables at your last meal, make your last three meals of the day consist of only a protein source and a green vegetable. Examples are: broccoli, green beans, asparagus, zucchini or brussels sprouts. These vegetables will give you the recommended fiber you need daily and also help speed up your metabolism. Even though you will be eating a larger volume of food with all those vegetables, the vegetables give you about one fifth the calories of a regular carbohydrate. This will help to keep your progress moving nicely.
6. Drink plenty of water! If possible, as much as one gallon a day, over time it will help to maintain that amount or even increase it, if you can.
7. Don’t eat within 2-3 hours before going to bed.
If followed, these suggestions will definitely help to reduce unwanted body fat.