Healthy Fast Food

Hello Everybody, (Dr. Nick voice for all you ole Simpson's fans),

Breakfast is an important meal (and most people try to eat it in the morning.*)  However sometimes it is hard to eat a good breakfast because one is in a rush and by mid-morning one is eating a Danish or something from a coffee shop. So we are lead to make bad food choices out of a lack of time.

*Unless you are someone who likes to extend their night time fast into the afternoon with certain forms of daily fasting like Lean Gains or the Warrior Diet.

Healthy Fast Food:

My advice is to make a morning smoothie/shake/meal replacement that will keep you full and prepare you for the day. I like to use a Magic Bullet and it has replaced the 2 blenders I used to use in a day. Much cleaner and easier.

Try this:

1. Liquid base. Choose one or mix: Almond Milk, Hemp Milk, Rice Milk or Cows Milk or Water. 1/2-1 cup
2. Fruit:            Choose one or mix: Banana, Pineapple, Berries, Mixed fruit, etc. 1/2-1 cup
3. Fat:              Nut Butter (Peanut, almond, cashew, etc) or Coconut milk or coconut flakes 1-2 TBsp 
4. Fibre:           Flax seed, flax meal, or chia seeds 1-2 Tsp
5. Protein:        1-2 scoops powder (whey, pea, rice, soy, etc) 20-40g, OR 1/2-1 cup egg whites
6. Spices:         Cinnamon, cocoa, nutmeg, apple pie spice and liquid flavour extracts. (vanilla, cherry, etc)
7. Vegetables:  Spinach, broccoli or kale. (handful)

Add ice cubes if not using frozen fruit or berries and add water to shake if too thick before blending.

Experiment with combos!

Sample Shake: Cutler Peanut Colada (you can adjust the quantity of ingredients to suit your caloric needs)


In Magic Bullet blend:

 1  cup Vanilla unsweetened Almond Milk
 1/2   banana
 1/2  cup pineapple
 2 TBsp coconut milk
 2  Tbsp peanut butter
 1/4  cup blueberries
 2  tsp flax meal
 1 scoop strawberry protein powder (whey isolate is good for this)
 1  Fist-full of spinach. 

This drink tastes fantastic and will keep you full for a few hours. It will have a low glycemic load because of all the fat and fibre and so you won't crash from it later like those "Super Juice shakes" you buy at the mall and airports! Most importantly it is loaded with nutrients and energy for the day! Give it a shot and let me know how you like it by posting a comment! Cheers:

PS: I will figure out what the 'nutrition label' would be and will post later!

Andrew

PS: I bought my Magic Bullet at Canadian Tire on sale for $30 

Fat Loss Diets

Bonjour!
Today I will break down some acronyms and diet strategies for many fat loss diets- so people get an idea about all the different types.
1. Fasting. Now called IF or Intermittent Fasting (although all fasting is in fact intermittent.) Intermittent is defined by Merriam Webster  as "not continuous" so the term Intermittent is redundant, since a fast that was in fact continuous would be synonymous with starving to death! We all fast when we go to bed at night and that is why Meal One is called Break-Fast. Fasting however is as old as the Torah and like they say "there is nothing new under the sun." I like fasting by skipping breakfast more then taking full days but if someone had a lot of weight to drop every other day fasting might be the trick.
2. PSMF-Protein Sparing Modified Fasts- this is really not a fast but a protein shake diet that works out to about 500 calories/day and is medically supervised usually. These are great for the obese to drop weight but the premise of just drinking protein might be now a little outdated. Weight training is more important to retain LBM then protein but I guess on such low calories we need Essential Amino Acids and fats and the shakes guarantee this in a easy format. This is also like TNATION's Velocity Diet which is just a PSMF or any "shake diet" and most likly the inspiration for Slim Fast which is horrible stuff.
3. VLCD- Very Low Calorie Diet- this is just eating very few calories and ultimately is the basis of all diets. However just eating skittles (I know girls who have) will only result in nutrient deficiencies.
4. Bodybuilding Show Diets- these are a combo of a PSMF and a VLCD. You eat fish and rice cakes (or maybe green beans)  for 16 weeks and then the day after the competition you gain 30 lbs! That simple!
5. Keto diet- this is the ketogenic diet of Atkins! You know eat bacon lose fat! You actually don't need to be in ketosis (burning ketones for fuel) to benefit from low carbs so refer to next.
6. Low Carb or Glycemic Index Or more accurately glycemic load) diets- South Beach, Zone, 100 G carb limits, etc, these get the carbs and sugars down in the diet and keep insulin under control in order to lose weight. However calories still matter no matter what the book marketing slogan claims! I think everyone can eat less bread and wheat based flour products pushed on us by marketing boards and lobbyists!
7. Low Fat Diets-like the Ornish diet. Think late 1980's - fat free brownies and orange juice-not the best way to lose weight.

Well I have to go train people now and so I will do a second part to this later. Please post comments or questions below and i will answer or defend myself! Have a wonderful day -cause why not?

Andrew 

Supplements

I think we will start to see a lot more regulating of the supplement industry in the near future. However if you want my quick picks of what I do recommend I would say: Fish Oil (liquid) COD liver oil is great if you are tough enough to drink it, Vit D, Vit C, and then occasional herbs, aminos acids, etc for specific purposes.

Email me with questions or add a comment.

ps: the FAT LOSS meal plan is coming next post!