26 Foods to Avoid if you want to lose belly fat

Some foods are good for you health. Some foods are good for your waistline. The following is a list of foods that are neither.
These foods either contain trans fats, are high in animal saturated fats, are highly processed, are highly refined or are full of sugar.

* Anything that has been deep fired (yes, this includes Mars Bars!)
* Margarine (Can you name the ingredients in maragrine?)
* Non lean cuts of meat (Pork, Porterhouse)
* Lollies (Sugar in different shapes is still sugar)
* Chocolate (Some 70% or higher cocoa is OK)
* Cookies, Cakes and biscuits (Danger. All calories, no fibre, no nutirents)
* Soft Drink and Cordial (Liquid sugar goes straight to the waistline)
* Pies (Fatty pastry with fatty ‘meat’ = Bad News)
* Donuts (You know they’re bad)
* Croissants (Just because they are European doesn’t make them healthy!)
* Alfredo Sauces (Cream, butter and some flavour. Generally added to pasta for a double kick)
* Potato and Corn Chips (Refined, fried with added salt. Not even closed to a healthy choice)
* Hot Dogs (What’s really in a hot dog? Who knows, but it’s not pretty)
* Take Away Burgers (Cheap, fatty and nasty ‘meat’, normally with added cheese and bacon!)
* Pretend Peanut Butter (Anything but the natural type)
* Flavoured Full Fat Milk (Too much sugar, especially when combined with th fat content)
* Processed Lunch Meats (Pretend Ham, chicken, turkey)
* Salami (See hot dog.)
* Sausages (They’re cheap for a reason)

Do what you can to avoid these foods. There are so many great tasting, healthy options out there that don’t really take any more work to make. Over time the less you eat from this list the healthier and leaner you will be.

8 More Ways To Instantly Improve Your Eating

As you probably know I am not a big fan of making massive dietary overhauls in one step. Instead I favour the approach of making small, consistent improvements. I think this is a better approach because it leads to much greater sustainability and long term success.

The chances of succeeding when you try to chance long term habits overnight are very slim. If instead you replace the old, bad habits with new, healthier ones over time, you will be able to sustain these new habits just like you did the old ones. The main difference being that you will be healthier and leaner as a reward for the effort.

“What are the 8 C’s?” I hear you asking. Well they are 8 foods that have no health benefits, packed with sugar, fat (or both) and will lead to extra kilos and extra inches on the waistline.

Alright, you’ve waited long enough, here they are.

1. Cereal. Any processed breakfast type cereal has to go. If you want, go for whole rolled oats instead.
2. Colas. Without being brand specific (none of them are good for you) opt for green tea, black tea or flavoured teas.
3. Cakes. If this needs explaining we’re in trouble.
4. Cookies. See cakes.
5. Candy. Basically sugar in different shapes. And the ‘sugar free’ versions are packed with modified alcohols.
6. Crackers. Not only are they a poor quality, processed food, chances are you will add some cheese, dips etc to them.
7. Cream. Throw ice cream in here as well. They are a sure fire way to pack on the pounds.
8. Chocolate. Sure one piece of 80% cocoa chocolate might be alright, but every otherwise chocolate isn’t your friend!

All I want you to do is reconsider your intake of the 8 C’s. If all you were to do this week was to drop the 8C’s, increase your green vegetable intake and read this, then you would be doing better than 95% of the population.

What other ‘C’ foods can you think of that should be avoided? Leave a comment below.

Five Tips for Healthier Eating at Restaurants

Eating out can be a large part of people’s lives. Today’s lifestyle of entertaining clients, social gatherings and traveling means that you will have some huge barriers to overcome to maintain your healthy, lean body lifestyle when eating out.

To make life easier for you I have put together a list of some easy-to-implement tips to keep your diet on track even when you aren’t in charge of the food preparation.

1. Keep the liquid calories to zero. This means no soda (soft drinks), juices or alcohol. For maximum benefit stick to water and green tea.
2. Minimise starchy carbs. Go for salads instead of potatoes, rice or potatoes.
3. Avoid the fry up! Anything deep fried is going to be full of unhealthy fats and calories that will take forever to burn off back in the gym.
4. Say no to desert. Whist there are some balanced, nutritious deserts available, 99% of the time you will have to make them yourself. At the restaurant  they will be full of sugar and saturated fats which won’t help your waistline.
5. Be smart with portion control. Eating out doesn’t always have to be about getting the best value for money! Getting the all you can eat buffet will cost you more time and effort in the long run. Be sensible and don’t be afraid to leave some food on the plate.

So putting this all into practice means that you will be having a moderate sized (lean protein/meat based) main accompanied by a glass or two of water. Always try to get the inevitable side of fries changed over for a serve of salad or vegetables. You want to skip the free bread, garlic bread or herb bread whilst  you are waiting for your meal. This is a surefire way to add processed calories to your diet and inches to your waistline.

If we have a look at the improvements you have made with meal selection, you will see how much of a positive impact it will have on your body.

Option A – The regular menu

• Garlic Bread
• Burger or pasta dish
• Chips / Fries
• Soft Drink (soda), beer or other sugary / alcoholic drink.

If you care about your health and your body, a much smarter alternative would be:

• Lean meat or chicken dish
• Salad or vegetables, or both
• Water and green tea.

These small changes will result in a saving of between 400 and 800 calories every time you eat out. Even more if you tend to have more drinks or upsize all the options. You will also be eliminating almost all of the bad fats and processed carbs along the way.

It doesn’t have to be hard, and you don’t have to go without. Just a few small changes applied frequently will make a massive difference in the long run.

What tips or strategies do you use? Share with us by leaving a comment below.

Is Chocolate The New Superfood?

With Easter on the horizon and the consumption of chocolate sure to increase, I thought it would be a good time to look into the research.

There is a lot of data surrounding the health benefits of chocolate and these are regularly brought up in the defense of eating swags of it.

Chocolate is made from the fruit of the cocoa tree, the cocoa bean. So that makes chocolate a fruit right!! Just like many other plant based products it contains a variety of vitamins and essential minerals. Also, the fats that come from the bean contains fats which, unlike many others, doesn’t increase cholesterol levels.

Sounds pretty good so far. The problem is that most of the positive research is based on dark chocolates with 65% cocoa solids or more. Generally speaking, the darker the chocolate the higher the level of beneficial cocoa solids. They contain less additives such as sugar and other unhealthy vegetable fats which cover the naturally occurring bitter taste of quality dark chocolates.

The higher quality chocolates also have a higher level of antioxidants. The standard measure for antioxidants, the ORAC scale, shows us that dark chocolate has 13,120 ORAC units/100g and milk chocolate has only 6,740 units/100g. The other interesting fact is that it appears the presence of dairy reduces the level of antioxidants absorbed into the bloodstream.

So the news might not have been what you had hoped for. Dark chocolate in moderate amounts (one or two pieces, up to three times per week) is what you should be aiming for to reap the health benefits and not be adding extra inches to your waistline.

There is some good news however. If you are getting the rest of your diet and exercise right 80-90% of the time you can afford to get a bit of the sweet stuff in over the weekend. It is Easter after all.

James