Eliot's 6 Diet Secrets

By Craig Ballantyne

Even people who work out consistently fail to achieve the changes they are looking for. What's holding them back from losing fat and building their best body ever? Poor nutrition - and, as I've taught many of my clients, it's much easier to eat healthfully when you plan ahead and prepare the food yourself.

Eliot, for example, was eating a lot of take-out fast food, drinking eight glasses of soda per day... and gaining body fat. I suggested that he switch to eating freshly prepared natural foods, but he was afraid it would take too much of his time. He continued to gain body fat until he finally decided to give my suggestion a try.

In less than six months, Eliot went from 210 pounds and 20 percent body fat to 175 pounds and 10 percent body fat. Plus... before he started on his new diet, he'd been sleeping about 10 hours a night, taking an hour-long nap each day after work, and still felt tired. Now, he is able to sleep seven to eight hours a night and has enough energy to last all day.

How did Eliot do it? How did he find the time? Here are his six diet secrets for success:

1. He plans his meals for the week on the weekend, and buys a week's worth of fresh produce in one visit. Then he cuts up a week's worth of vegetables and stores them in the fridge.

2. He starts his day with a high-protein meal by eating an easy-to-prepare omelet made with his pre-cut vegetables.

3. He grills, bakes, or BBQs chicken, salmon, and other lean protein that he adds to gourmet salads prepared with fresh vegetables and spinach leaves. This makes his meals nutritionally dense, low in total calories, high in appetite-suppressing fiber, and full of protein to support muscle growth and a fast metabolism.

4. He snacks on raw almonds - not those roasted in vegetable oils and smothered in salt. Research shows that almonds, which contain healthy fats, fiber, and protein, help you lose weight and control cholesterol.

5. He drinks green tea and water instead of high-calorie soda.

6. By planning ahead, he finds that he eats right 90 percent of the time. He doesn't worry about the 10 percent of the time when he may enjoy a slice of pizza or another food that would otherwise get in the way of his fat-loss efforts.

[Ed. Note: Craig Ballantyne is a world-renowned Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist.]
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It's Good to Know: If You're Caught in a Rip Current

Rip currents (or rip tides) are powerful currents that flow away from the beach. They can occur wherever there are breaking waves. If you are caught in a rip current, stay calm and don't try to swim against it. Instead, swim parallel to the shore until you're out of it. If you can't do that, tread water until it dissipates.

(Source: The National Weather Service)
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Word to the Wise: Portmanteau Words

A "portmanteau" (port-MANE-toh) - from the French for "to carry" - is a large suitcase.

A "portmanteau word" is a new word that is created by combining two other words and their meanings. Lewis Carroll coined the term for the sort of words he used in his poem "Jabberwocky." For example, he joined "slimy" and "lithe" to create the portmanteau word "slithy." Familiar portmanteau words include "smog" ("smoke" and "fog"), "brunch" ("breakfast" and "lunch"), and "motel" ("motor" and "hotel").

Michael Masterson
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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2043, 05-16-07], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.