10 Nutrition Strategies To Help You Get Sexy-ier – Part 2

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I hope you guys enjoyed the first installment of this article. Today I’m serving up Part 2…

6. Don’t Be A Food Racist

Come on people it’s 2011…there is no need to strictly limit yourself to one color of vegetables anymore!

I don’t know about you but I REFUSE to eat broccoli every friggin day. If that’s what it takes to get ripped, I quit!

I mean, let’s face it, eating greens all of the time starts to suck after a while, and that’s why I always eat a wide variety of colors from fruits and vegetables every day.

And you should too!

This not only keeps things interesting, but it also helps ensure you prevent any nutritional deficiencies that can occur from not getting the full spectrum of nutrients.

We need to UNITE together and END this widespread veggie discrimination! Doing this will give you a wider range of nutrients and antioxidants that you wouldn’t normally get if you just pound greens all of the time.

Red fruits and vegetables, such as raspberries, radishes, red peppers, and cherries are chock full of nutrients such as lycopene, ellagic acid, quercetin, and hesperidin, to name a few.

Purple & Blue fruits and vegetables, such as plums, blackberries, purple cabbage, and blueberries contain powerful nutrients like lutein, zeaxanthin, resveratrol, vitamin C, fiber, flavonoids, ellagic acid, and quercetin.

Orange & Yellow fruits and vegetables, such as mangoes, papayas, yellow squash, yellow peppers, and carrots are loaded with beta-carotene, zeaxanthin, flavonoids, lycopene, potassium, and vitamin C.

White fruits & vegetables, such as dates, onions, shallots, garlic, bananas, and ginger are typically rich with beta-glucans, EGCG, SDG, and lignans that provide powerful immune boosting activity.

And lastly, green fruits & vegetables (our favorite), such as spinach, leafy greens, zucchini, broccoli, asparagus, green pears, and kiwi fruit typically contain important chlorophyll, fiber, lutein, zeaxanthin, calcium, folate, vitamin C, calcium, and Beta-carotene.

So next time you hit up the grocery store be sure to add more colors to your shopping basket! Discrimination is not cool!

7. Spice It Up

Healthy cooking doesn’t have to suck. There are literally hundreds of spices you can use to add flavor to your food…and that doesn’t even include the herbs and spice blends! Two of my favorite ‘fat burning’ spices are kitchen classics; Cinnamon and Capsaicin (hot pepper).

Cinnamon does not directly increase fat burning (such as by increasing metabolic rate, etc), but it CAN actually help you to burn off abdominal fat and get leaner because it has the amazing ability to control blood sugar levels. So if you eat a meal that is high in carbs, try eating a dash of cinnamon with that meal. Cinnamon has been shown to help reduce the rise in blood glucose normally experienced after a high carb meal.

Capsaicin, aka hot red pepper is very hot. Duh right?

So it should come as no surprise to you to learn that deep inside the body capsaicin can increase your calorie-burning rate by stimulating a process known as thermogenesis.

So sprinkle some hot pepper on your favorite dish next time, it will be one of those good burns…trust me!

8. Stop Dieting

When you begin a diet, you have failed on day one. Why?

Because a diet is a short term solution to a long term problem.

You see, most people that begin a new diet usually say something like, “I am going to lose 10 pounds in 30 days” or “I need to lose 5 pounds before such and such a date.”

This temporary solution mindset is the main reason so many people get on the ‘lose 10 pounds and gain it right back cycle’ and hop around from diet to diet forever.

A diet is not the solution. In order to burn fat over the long term and keep it off for good you need to use a long term approach; and that requires a long term mindset.

My dietary approach to fat loss is basic and not too unrealistic and extreme. It is simple, to the point, and it has given me a ton of success.

So if you want to be healthy, fit, and SEXY you need to end the vicious cycle of diet hopping and start eating foods that are whole, natural, and rich in nutrients.

9. Don’t Acid Trip Stay Alkaline

When training to build a sexy physique, we SO OFTEN get caught up with eating proteins and trying to build muscle, that in the process we disrupt the natural acid/alkaline balance in the body and become overly acidic. It is hard to train and recover effectively when suffering with the annoying effects of acidosis.

Proteins and starches are acid, and just about all of the metabolic wastes of the body are also acids so we need to eat alkaline forming foods like fruits and vegetables to help neutralize these acid wastes.

Finding a perfect balance is tough, but a good way to approach it is to try to maintain an 80% alkaline and 20% acid ratio. So be sure to load up on alkaline foods such as broccoli, cabbage, onions, spinach, tomato, grapefruit, and avocado…and limit acid forming foods such as asparagus, brussels sprouts, coffee, most meats, milk, and shellfish (to name a few).

10. Ditch The Microwave

It is so easy to just fire up the microwave because it is quick and convenient…but are microwaves actually safe? Some research has shown that cooking food in the microwave causes severe molecular damage to the food. So when eaten, the food can cause abnormalities in human blood and immune systems.

While this research isn’t “100% proven”…microwaves do produce radiation, which is absorbed by water molecules in the food. This makes the water molecules vibrate and produce heat, which essentially heats up the food.

Regardless of the safety issue, microwave cooking kills most of the nutrients in the food anyway so if you are trying to eat healthy…heating your food up in the microwave defeats the entire purpose. Try steaming your veggies or eating them raw. Perhaps our grandparents had it right when they used to heat our food up in the oven.

Here’s what I’m making for dinner tonight. It is a REAL FOOD recipe straight from from my buddy Dave Ruel’s Metabolic Cooking recipe book. No microwave necessary!

Thai Chicken Basil Stir Fry

INGREDIENTS
(Recipe makes 4 servings)
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (4oz each) I like to use free range chicken.
• 2 tablespoons thai fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• Pinch of stevia
• 2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons coconut oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 3 cups green beans (cut each bean in 3-4 pieces)

DIRECTIONS
1. Combine the fish sauce, soy sauce, and stevia in a blender. Blend for several seconds, then turn off the blender. Add the basil and red pepper flakes, set aside.
2. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a wok or skillet over high heat and add the garlic, chicken, and onion and stir-fry for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the green beans and continue to stir-fry until the chicken is cooked through.
3. Stir the fish sauce mixture into the stir-fry. Turn the heat to medium, cover, and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes (the beans should be tender-crisp).

Nutrition Facts Per Serving
Calories: 198
Protein: 31g
Carbs: 5g
Fat: 6g

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I’ll be posting more tips soon so stay tuned. In the meantime, help me out and hit the Like button below if you enjoyed this post…and please leave me any comments or questions you may have below.

Jamin

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