1. Keep busy! This is my personal favorite. I always have things that can keep me busy from morning till evening. The moment I wake up, I make my Health Shake for the day and drink it while checking up on current events over the internet. I do my daily workouts after that, check up on some of my projects, create an article or two for my blog, and play video games if I want to get off the net for a while. The point is to always keep yourself occupied so that your mind never wanders to junk food. And if it does …
2. Keep them away from the house! That’s right. Just don’t buy junk food at all and most of all, don’t bring them home! Simple, huh? So why isn’t this at the top of my list? Well, I live with my family and I can’t always control what they buy for themselves, so we always have a stash of junk somewhere in the house. So, unfortunately, this great tip doesn’t really apply to me. 3. Plan your meals! This is especially important if you go out a lot. Sure you can keep the junk out of the house, but it’s harder to stop munching on it when you’re bombarded by marketing, smells, and taste tests outdoors. To counteract this, just know what you’re going to eat in advance and stick to your plans no matter what. No additions, no extra weight.
4. Drink plenty of water! Most of the time, those cravings we feel are actually signals from our brain to remind us that we’re thirsty, but we’re so entrenched in the junk food marketing that we consciously perceive it in different ways. So, instead of reaching for that water bottle, we reach for that chocolate bar. Just remember to do the opposite next time and always keep properly hydrated. I personally drink at least a whole gallon of water a day.
5. Eat breakfast! That’s right, you’ve heard and seen it time and time again, and now it’s here again. Not only does eating breakfast keep your energy levels up throughout the day, but it can prevent massive hunger attacks later on because, well, you’re not starving yourself. Eat right first thing in the morning and you’ll most likely do so the rest of the day.
Okay, there’s what I promised before, a picture of what my Health Shake basically looks like.
Yeah, that greenish tint does look a tad nasty, I suppose, but it tastes great, I promise!
After reading my Diet and Nutrition Tip 2 article, a lot of you are probably wondering how I get through the day with mostly just a shake. As I previously mentioned, I usually start the day off with a solid meal composed usually of eggs and vegetables, but sometimes tuna and veggies or chicken breast and veggies. The rest of the day, I consume pretty much just the Health Shake. First of all, I designed the Health Shake to be as balanced a meal as possible, so you’ve got your good proteins, carbs, and fat in there. The protein is the soy milk, the carbs are the veggies and fruit, and the fat is the nuts. Simple as that.
I’ve been living off of this type of diet for a few weeks now and it’s felt pretty good. I have a lot of energy throughout the day, starting immediately from when I get up, and I sleep very soundly. I originally thought that there would be a dip in my energy levels at first that I’d have to get used to when I started this regimen, but the opposite actually happened: my energy levels felt like they at least doubled; very pleasantly surprising to me.
The shake also tastes pretty great. I also originally assumed that I wouldn’t like it when I added the veggies in there, since I had only been consuming shakes comprised only of soy milk and fruit at one point. The pure fruit version shakes were really sweet. The only difference the spinach seemed to add taste – wise is less sweetness. The shake still tastes sweet to me overall, but just much less so, which I actually kind of enjoy more.
Do I ever get sick of consuming just shakes? No, not yet, at least. I’ll make another article after maybe six months if my eating habits are still the same, to give more insight, but currently, no. I really like the convenience of not stopping to prepare and eat a solid meal. I can just keep working and working, even if I’m travelling, and just take a sip. I recently bought a half gallon Coleman water jug that fits my shake recipe perfectly. I add in a lot of ice so that it doesn’t spoil and I have it the entire day. As for flavor variety, the combination of strawberries and grapes I previously gave was just my personal favorite, and, I believe, the most healthful in terms of mix. There are several types of fruit that my family easily has access to, and I just randomly combine two of them in a shake depending on what’s on hand. The key is to always make different combinations daily, which results in different flavors.
These are the fruits that are usually readily available in my vicinity (I live in Quezon City). I’ll also include the prices that we usually get the fruit for. We usually just get them from trusted stalls near our house or in a mini grocery called Eunilaine which we frequent.
Grapes – Php250.00 / kg Mangoes – Php50.00 / kg Melons – Php30.00 / kg Papaya – Php30.00 / kg Pineapple – Php50.00 / pc Apples – Php15.00 / pc Bananas – Php30.00 / kg Strawberries – Php100.00 / 3 cases; each with 20 – 25 pieces Oranges – Php10.00 / pc
All right. This article directly continues from my first diet and nutrition tip. I mention that I like to start out slow in the mornings, then get serious when I begin my work. The Health Shake serves me very well for this sort of lifestyle.
I usually begin either by doing choreography or heavy lifting to keep my muscles in shape. If it’s just weight lifting for the day, then I’m totally done in usually an hour or less (unless I decide to choreograph stuff afterward), but choreography time easily takes up two to three hours. I’m always wiped after my sessions, so I take a bath then sit at my computer doing work for my blog until late in the evening.
When I start doing work, I’m in what many people call a “zone”, where I just do whatever tasks it is I’m concentrating on for however long it takes until I’m done. I therefore usually don’t want like to take breaks and give time to eat solid foods. This is especially important during my choreography work because those can be very draining, and drinking even only a bit of my shakes during that time can help a lot. It also helps that since it’s mostly in liquid form, my body can digest it easily and quickly so it won’t interfere with my physical activities.
This is the same when I’m writing for the blog. Because I consume mostly shakes during the day, I can place them anywhere. I just leave a glass by my keyboard and sip on it whenever I like. It doesn’t take nearly as long as stopping to take a bite so it not only saves space, it also saves time as well.
But that’s just me, of course. While this has worked immensely for me, I know some people who absolutely abhor most (or even some) of their food being consumed via liquid form. That’s fine, really. It’s all personal preference in the end, so what works well for me might not for you.
What shouldn’t be left to just personal preference, however, are the contents of the meals being consumed. Whether solid or liquid, most (if not all) of the meals being consumed should have a good balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat, and not include what is generally called junk food.
The meals that I will include in this series of articles are very healthful and have worked very well for me. When I consume meals like these on a daily basis, I am always full of energy and manage to sleep well. They also helped me bounce back from my Christmas diet disaster (which I’ll, of course, write about soon). Long story short, I lost around twenty pounds in just under four months. That’s pretty much more than a pound a week, which is pretty good for a meal plan that really doesn’t deprive me of anything. Keep in mind, though, that I only began consuming a lot of my meals as shakes only this month. Most of the foods I ate during that period were solid, which, again, I’ll write about in future articles.
Alright, with all the relevant background out of the way, here is my Health Shake:
HEALTH SHAKE
Ingredients: a. 2 cups soy milk (low fat is best, of course) b. 1 cup spinach c. 1 cup strawberries d. 1 cup grapes e. 1 tablespoon slivered almonds f. 1 tablespoon walnuts g. 1 cup ice
How to make it: a. Put the soy milk in the blender first, followed by everything else, with the ice on top. I find that placing the softest ingredient nearest the blade and the hardest farthest from it works best for at least my blender. It at least won’t struggle when you start it up, leaving all those chewy solids in the ends. b. Blend until desired consistency is achieved. Alton Brown has a great shake blending tutorial in his recent diet episode of Good Eats:
Alright, a lot of you are probably wondering why the spinach is in there. Well, it’s because I really didn’t want my shakes to be composed of mostly fruit. I wanted to keep it more balanced so I added in some veggies in there. I did a bit of research and found that a lot of people like adding spinach to their shakes not just because of its obvious health benefits but because it blends well with fruits and gives off a great added taste. And y’know what? They’re right. I actually had my friend try the shake out and he refused with all his might at first because it seems kind of weird at first glance (because of, ‘y’know, the green tint), but he eventually gave in and tasted it and loved it! Thus, he specifically asked for this article. And ask and you shall receive.
In another article I’ll write soon, I’ll put down where exactly I get my ingredients and for what prices. I apologize for the lack of pictures in this article, but I didn’t have access to my camera today. I promise I’ll put up pics in the follow up article. Until then, stay tuned!
This is the first of what I’m sure will be many tips in the realm of diet and nutrition. A friend of mine asked me to post what I usually eat these days, so to fully cover what he's requesting, instead of creating just one post today, I’m actually going to make two!
These days, I usually go for a healthy solid meal when I wake up followed by two large shakes that I divide up during the day. The reason I do this is because I’m one of those people who start out slowly in the morning. I don’t normally feel weak and listless when I get out of bed, but I usually don’t like diving into work immediately. That’s why I prefer a good solid meal to start me out, along with a large cup of tea. I watch a show while I eat, then play a video game for maybe an hour, then it’s off to work!
The Sweet Tuna Salad is actually a recipe I got from a book called Muscle Chow by Gregg Avedon. I actually get a lot of my recipes from this book. I don’t really agree with everything that’s on there, but I honestly do find that some of the recipes in it are pretty great. Buy it and check it out if you’re interested:
I actually start out my day with an egg and vegetable combo of some sort, but since my friend says that he doesn’t like eggs, I said fine, I’ll write about the tuna salad instead. So here it is:
SWEET TUNA SALAD
Ingredients: a. 1 can tuna, drained and rinsed b. 1 whole egg, chopped c. ½ pear, chopped d. 2 tablespoons fat free sour cream (optional. You can skip this if you don’t mind) e. 1 tablespoon dried cranberries or mixed berries of choice (you can also substitute raisins if you like) f. 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice g. Romaine lettuce h. 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds i. 1 apple, cut into wedges
How to make it: a. Put the tuna in a large bowl and break it apart with a fork. b. Add in the egg, pear, sour cream, berries, lemon juice, and mix well. c. Fill the bottom of another large bowl with Romaine lettuce leaves and place the tuna salad on top. d. Sprinkle with the sunflower seeds and garnish with the apple wedges.
It tastes really great. I wouldn’t mind having this every day, but I like my eggs and veggies just a bit more, to be honest. I'll write about those soon, of course, so just stay tuned!
