Hungry? Eat as much as you want
Let me be a little clearer: eat as many fruits and vegetables as you want. You cannot eat too many fruits and vegetables. You cannot eat too many fruits and vegetables. You cannot eat too many fruits and vegetables. If you’ve heard you need to limit your intake of fruits and vegetables, don’t listen. You cannot eat too many fruits and vegetables.
I dare anyone to overeat on fruits and vegetables. It’s just not possible. Here’s the key: they’re made mostly of water and fibers, which both don’t have calories. Even if you ate fruits and vegetables on end, you wouldn’t even come close to how many calories you normally eat. And you’d probably stop way before simply because you’d start getting full anyway. On any diet, don’t hesitate to eat fruits and vegetables. If you’re hungry but don’t want to put on too many calories, fruits and vegetables are the perfect option. Plus, while you’re eating them, you’re not eating another food with more calories. They are also high in health benefits too. Besides containing plenty of vitamins and minerals, they lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death in the U.S.
You cannot eat too many fruits and vegetables.
ACTION STEP
Eat a fruit or a vegetable. Right now. Then grab a bowl, put in on the kitchen’s table, and fill it with fruits and vegetables. Aim for 5 daily.
ACTION STEP REVISITED
Aim for 10 fruits and vegetables daily. This will actually keep you full and make you eat less of other foods, thus lowering your overall intake of calories. Carry them in your schoolbag, your briefcase, and/or your jacket. Put a bowl on the office’s desk. Frozen fruits and vegetables count and will help you reach that goal.
Get Enough Protein
What is the best diet? There is much disagreement among scientists and practitioners since diets came about. They, however, do all agree that the best diets are protein-rich ones. Whether you go high carb or low carb, high fat or low fat, you must get enough protein – that should not change. How much is enough? Lyle McDonald, physiologist and protein authority, recommends 1.5 grams per pound of body weight per day*.
Protein quality is a concern. Not all proteins are the same. The best sources are animal: meat, poultry (including eggs), fish, and dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese). Vegetable proteins, on the other hand, are less digestible (up to 15% less, depending on the source). If you’re completely vegetarian, you’ll want to aim for 1.73 g per pound of body weight per day to balance it out.
How do you know how many grams of protein you’ve eaten in a day? The Nutrition Facts label helps, but here’s a neat tip: a portion of animal protein the size of a deck of cards contains about 16 g of protein. If you eat a medium-sized steak (roughly two decks of card), that’s 16 x 2 = 32 g of protein. Using the Nutrition Facts label and the deck-of-cards conversion, you should be able to calculate how much protein you eat daily.
These tips will help you meet the 1.5 g per pound daily objective: Include an animal source with every meal (e.g., eggs at breakfast, chicken at lunch, and steak for dinner). Snack with proteins (e.g., yogurt, nuts)
ACTION STEP
List everything you’ve eaten today. For animal protein sources, use the deck-of-cards conversion to calculate how many grams of protein you ate. For other sources, check the Nutrition Facts label, or guesstimate it. Are you eating enough protein?
ACTION STEP REVISITED
Starting right now, record everything you eat for 3 days. At the end of each day, calculate your total protein consumption and compare it to the recommended value. Try reaching that value on a daily basis.
*Few people impress me with their knowledge. Lyle does, and knows more about protein than anyone I’ve heard of. I highly recommend his work, The Protein Book. I bought it the day it came out.
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