Tag Archives: Recipe

Lose weight without getting hungry

“I really need to lose weight but I hate feeling hungry nearly all the time,” I suppose this has to be one of the most common statements, made by people who follow many of the so called fad diets. If your diet leaves your stomach rumbling every hour on the hour, your body is telling you it’s time to make a change. I used to believe losing weight meant starving yourself. It took me a a very long time to accept the fact that I could actually eat heartily and still drop a few pounds in weight.

The times I spent starving myself in the name of losing weight were miserable. When I did manage to shed a few pounds, I would sadly put it all back on, in a matter of weeks. Sometimes I’d even gain a few extra pounds. Now that’s what I call depressing!

What I learned through many years of research (trial and error) is that when you follow a healthy eating plan, you can eat until you’re full, and still see amazing weight loss results.

What Are Healthy Foods?

Healthy foods are not created in factory’s where food is processed to death. If the food is dried, dehydrated, canned, frozen or filled with ingredients you can’t pronounce. I suggest that you stay away from it. Some good examples of healthy foods include fresh fish, naturally raised meats, legumes, seeds, organic poultry, organic eggs, raw nuts, along with fresh fruit and vegetables.

There’s nothing more miserable than having to deal with hunger pangs all day. If your meals aren’t satisfying your nutritional needs, this is exactly what’s going to happen. Here are some tricks to make your meals more filling:

Add a source of good quality protein and a source healthy fat (yes, fat) to each of your meals. Doing this should make your meals more appetizing and curbs the hunger. Sources of healthy protein include natural meats, organic whole eggs, organic poultry and fish. Sources of healthy fat include avocados, fish, beans, raw nuts, coconut oil and olive oil.

Fill your plate with veggies. They help to divide your plate into three sections, and fill the larger section with veggies. Leave the other two sections for meat and other foods. Veggies are full of fiber, so they expand in the stomach, digest more slowly so keeping you full longer. Try eating green leafs such as cabbage, spinach, broccoli which are rich in magnesium. (at least 57% of the US population does not meet the US RDA for dietary intake of magnesium)

Drink a glass of bottled water before each meal and throughout the day. This will help you feel full faster and reduce hunger.

Examples of Healthy, Filling Meals and Snacks

At Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, 1/3 cup of oatmeal with cinnamon and a small pear.

Snack: 1 medium apple, 1 cup of cucumber slices and 1 oz of raw nuts.

For Lunch: 4 oz ground turkey, 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice, 8 oz carrot sticks, and a small green salad with vinegar and olive oil dressing.

Snack: 2 tablespoons of almond butter, 2 slices of rye crisp bread and 8 oz of celery sticks.

For Dinner: 5 oz boiled halibut steak, 1/2 cup of green beans sauteed in garlic, small baked sweet potato and a small green salad with apple cider vinegar and olive oil dressing.

Diet plans that leave you hungry all the time (or even some of the time) are useless, why are you making life so miserable. Why not ditch the diet altogether and eat healthy instead? If you do it this way, you can eat delicious, filling foods and still lose weight.

Why not check out Mike Geary’s Fat Burning Kitchen Program for more great advice and recipes.

Eat Potatoes White Foods – for a Leaner-Body?

I think it about time we started a little discussion about carbohydrates… and in particular, “white foods” including potatoes. One reason I wanted to talk about this is because so many health and fitness professionals trash talk potatoes about being a bad carbohydrate choice because of the high glycemic index. Some people are saying such ridiculous things as “avoid any and all white carbohydrates”.

Now while I agree that white bread and refined white sugar are two of the worst things we can be feeding our bodies. I don’t believe in avoiding any and all “white carbohydrates”.

Believe it or not “White Foods” aren’t always the enemy.

It’s true that colourful foods are great, but it is also a big mistake to specifically avoid white foods! There are plenty of white foods that have specific nutrients that are hard to find elsewhere. Let’s take a look at a few examples…

Onions and Garlic

What about onions and garlic? They are both white and they are chock full of protective phytonutrients, vitamins, and trace minerals that aren’t easy to find elsewhere in a normal diet… such nutrients as allicin, quercetin (an important flavonoid), chromium, and other unique anti-inflammatory nutrients.

Cauliflowers

Here is another example of something white, that is great for you is cauliflower. Cauliflower is full of vitamin C, trace elements, fiber, and special compounds such as glucosinolates and thiocyanates, which are abundant in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale and cabbage. One little-known fact is that some of the compounds in cruciferous vegetables help to counteract other estrogenic compounds in our food supply and environment and can help prevent excess belly fat. So eat up that cauliflower!

Mushrooms

Not many people realize this, but even white mushrooms have high levels of unique nutrients and antioxidants. Ordinary white mushrooms are high in antioxidants called polyphenols and ergothioneine.

Potatoes

Now that also leads us to another example – white potatoes. Many health professionals claim that potatoes are a bad carbohydrate because they are thought to have a high glycemic index. If you’ve read my Truth about Six Pack Abs book, you will understand that glycemic index is not necessarily the most important factor in choosing your carbohydrates.

While making the assumption that most low glycemic index carbohydrate choices will help you lose body fat easier than high glycemic index choices, it is not all that it’s cracked out to be. There are many other factors that determine how your body will react-to and process the carbohydrates you ingest, such as glycemic load and also how you combine the high GI food with other foods.

For example, using glycemic load as an example… it is known that watermelons have quite a high glycemic index. However, the glycemic level of a normal serving of watermelon is just way too low for your body to start packing on body fat just because you ate a high glycemic index fruit. You would have to eat such an enormous quantity of watermelon just to get enough grams of carbohydrates to have any negative glycemic effect, that’s just not logical.

Not to mention that watermelon is also a great source of vitamins, minerals, and lycopene. There’s just no reason to avoid it simply because it has a high GI. The point that I am trying to get across is… candy bars, cupcakes, and donuts etc make you fat. Not because they contain fat but because of all the added sugar… NOT watermelons, carrots or potatoes… French fries excluded of course.

Also, as i mentioned, food combinations are important in how your body processes the carbohydrates and the associated blood sugar and insulin response you receive. e.g if you mix a high glycemic index carbohydrate with an extra source of fiber, and healthy fats, or even certain proteins, effect of the increased blood sugar and glycemic response will be slowed down considerably by the way you combined the food. I talk in great detail about this topic in my book.

Back to my point that white potatoes are actually a healthy carbohydrate as long as you eat them in the right form… with the entire skin, and please don’t ruin them by deep frying them into french fries either! French fries or Chips whatever you want to call them, are one of the most evil things ever invented for your health, but only because we ruin them by soaking them in a scorching bath of trans fats in the deep fryer from the hydrogenated oils that are typically used.

Will eating 8 potatoes per day make you fatter? of course not.

On the subject of potatoes not being bad after all, I don’t remember where I read this, but I saw a study that had participants eat at least 7-9 whole potatoes per day for several weeks.
At the end of the study, the potato eaters had consistently lost weight! I’d venture a guess that the reason the people lost weight is that they were probably so full from eating all of those potatoes. They consumed less calories than normal! An average sized potato has about 100-120 calories, and I can imagine you’d be constantly full from eating 7-9 potatoes each day.

I would never recommend going to those extremes, but my point is that an occasional potato is not going to affect your efforts to get leaner, especially if you combine it with some other fibrous vegetables, and maybe a healthy fat, and some protein. Let me share with you one of my favorite recipes for you to try, using potatoes.

Mikes’s Lean-Body Potato Side Dish

* Desired quantity of baby potatoes (I like to use this mixture I found recently at a health food store… it is a mixture of white, red, yellow, and purple baby potatoes)

* 1 red pepper

* 1 green pepper

* 1 yellow pepper

* 1 or 2 onions

* a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped

* 1 or 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and / or coconut oil

* a little salt and pepper to taste (I like using a sea salt instead of normal commercial salt)

Cut the baby potatoes into smaller pieces and place in a steamer until soft all the way through. Slice up the peppers and onions into strips and add with the chopped garlic into a pan with the olive oil. Slowly fry the peppers, onions, and garlic until tender, and then add the steamed baby potatoes. Mix together and serve. Its is a delicious and healthy side dish that goes great with chicken or red meat.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little topic today about potatoes, healthy carbohydrates, glycemic index, and my healthy potato recipe idea!

Mike Geary

Certified Personal Trainer

Certified Nutrition Specialist

Truth about Abs

Vegetarian muscle building meal ideas

Details of his vegetarian muscle building diet is one of the most frequent requests Jason Ferruggia receives. I also often read on various forums people begging him for advice because they already are, or have been brought up in a vegetarian household. Since there is much interest in this topic he would like to share it with you today. Here’s what he has to say on the subject:

Mike let me explain my daily routine.

At Breakfast – My day always starts with a shake. This will usually include ingredients like rice, pea’s or hemp protein, or a combination of the three. I start by blending between 30-40 grams of protein in 8oz of organic coconut milk, and somewhere between 8-12 oz water. I also blend fruits like banana, mixed frozen berries, a tablespoon of cacao nibs, and 2 tbls of maca powder, which is known to increase testosterone production and virility. This shake is delicious beyond your wildest imagination.

Snacks – Some times a few hours later, I will have a few tangerines and some cashews or a pair of apples with some almond butter. The fresh ground almond butter from Whole Foods is one my favorite things and I could easily eat an entire container in one sitting. Occasionally I treat myself, I mix it with honey and kill the entire container, with a cup of hemp or almond milk.

I am big fan of high sodium (Salt) intake for strength and energy production so I always have a few pickles every day and add sea salt to much of food.

Lunch – This will usually consist of some kind of legumes or beans, which are a mainstay in any vegetarian muscle building diet, with organic brown rice or quinoa. I will sauté the black beans with peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic, and then mix that in with the rice. I top it off with salsa and some fresh avocado. That is my version of Mexican style rice and beans. Sometimes I just mix the beans and rice or quinoa with marinara sauce.

I will sometimes have a salad with that or eat some raw veggies or mix some steamed kale or spinach into the whole thing.

Occasionally I will have a couple almond butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. I have drastically reduced my consumption of peanuts and peanut butter due to the deadly toxins, that they contain, along with wheat because of it’s gluten content, hence it’s inflammatory properties, I substitute some brown rice bread for the occasions I do eat these.

Snack – Similar to above. When I’m not near food I always carry Raw Organic Food Bars with me and a variety of nuts. If I am home and have fruit for my first snack. I try to make this snack with raw veggies and hummus along with a decent amount of nuts.

I also drink another shake some time during the day which is usually right after I train. It is similar to the shake above except that I don’t include the coconut milk or the cacao but I do use the maca powder. I blend a banana, almond milk, water, frozen spinach (you don’t taste the spinach at all so this is nowhere near as gross as it sounds) and some extra protein.

During my workouts I drink coconut water or regular water. I try to drink at least half a gallon of water throughout the day (hopefully you will filter your own from the tap) out of glass or my bottle. I do my best to avoid drinks stored in plastic containers and bottles. Considering of the estrogenic effects of chemicals in plastics. I also drink a couple cups of green tea each day.

For Dinner – I normally cook some kind of stew consisting of a large variety of vegetables and some kind of legumes. For example, last week I got home, and all that we had was onions, squash, spinach and garlic. I threw it all in a pot with vegetable broth, salt, pepper and yellow peas, which have 10 grams of protein per ¼ cup (you would have to eat a lot of meat to equal the protein in two cups of yellow peas). That’s cooked for 2 hours, and then mixed in some quinoa. Other times we will mix brown rice in with a variety of other veggies and lentils. If I was trying to get lean I would probably skip the brown rice, as rice is full of starch. Adding potatoes (even just one) to the stews makes them creamier and even more delicious.

I severely limit my soya consumption because of it’s unfortunate estrogenic effects, but for the occasional cheat I will have some tofu with brown rice, or some kind of meat substitute with brown rice pasta.

I also eat soya and wheat (gluten) free veggie burgers one or two nights per week, and always have a huge spinach salad mixed with broccoli, olives, peppers, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and fruits such as apples, berries, nuts, seeds, avocado, and whatever else I can fit in there. I top that with olive oil, rice bran oil and balsamic vinegar.

Dessert – Occasionally, when I am going to cheat I will have some organic coconut milk ice cream. It is delicious and pretty healthy. Coconut milk contains healthy Medium Chain Fatty Acids and has none of the dangers of cows milk. I then sweetened with organic agave syrup.

The only other cheat dessert that I will regularly eat is organic, dark chocolate. Concentrated Chocolate is shown to have a variety of health benefits. The brands I buy are those that show their support for slave free, and fair trade practices.

So there we have a brief overview of my vegetarian muscle building diet. It’s very straight forward, and a whole lot healthier than eating pounds of red meat, and all that saturated fat.

Let me tell you a bit more about Jason.

He is a world famous professional fitness coach. His trade marked Muscle Gaining Secrets workouts have been featured multiple times in Men’s Fitness and other magazines and all over the Internet. To get more muscle building nutrition tips, and to access his training program, check out. Renegade Diet Program.

Read his other post about

Try Wheat free foods for better health

The gluten contained in wheat products can cause or contribute to digestive disorders and joint problems. If you suffer with either of these conditions, a wheat free diet may be just what you need to ease those uncomfortable symptoms. Do you need another reason to consider going wheat free?.

Eliminating this food out of your eating plan can also help you drop those unwanted pounds (I guess that got your attention).

Millet for Gluten Free Diet
Millet is commonly used as a wheat substitute in both gluten free and wheat free diets, as well as foods such as quinoa, brown rice, and sprouted grains.

A wheat free diet is often confused with a gluten free diet. Although wheat products contain gluten, these two types of diets are not the same thing. When you’re on a wheat free diet, you are simply eliminating all foods that contain wheat. When you follow a gluten free diet, you not only give up wheat, you also need to eliminate barley and rye as well.

Digestive problems and wheat consumption

The symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome vary from person to person, and they can come and go. Gluten intolerance has been shown to make IBS symptoms. Since gluten is discovered in wheat, eliminating it from your diet can help decrease the symptoms.

You don’t have to have irritable bowel syndrome, for wheat to cause digestive problems. When you consume wheat, it can clog up the intestines and make digestion difficult. A wheat-free diet can encourage a wholesome digestive tract by allowing nourishment to flow through easier.
Go Wheat-less and Drop a Few Pounds

Wheat is found in bread, pasta, baked goods, pasties, cereal, beer, ice cream, pizza’s, gravies and other processed foods. These types of foods have no nutritional value and they make it hard for you to lose weight. On top of all those empty calories you get when you load up on processed wheat products, you ingest all kinds of unhealthy chemical additives, think insecticides pesticides etc.

When you boot wheat out of your diet, there’s nothing left to eat but lean meats, fish, poultry, fruits, beans, nuts, legumes and vegetables. These foods are nutrient rich and are lower in calories than processed foods. When you choose healthier foods, you automatically reduce your calorie intake, so you have an easier time slimming down.

Eliminate the Wheat to Reduce Joint Pain

Gluten can hinder your body’s defenses against joint pain initiated by osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. If you have either of these ailments, a wheat-free diet may help decrease discomfort. Also, when you suffer from joint pains, being overweight will intensify the pain, there’s more pressure on the joints, they wear out faster. The reduction in weight from a wheat free diet will take some of the force off of your joints and help alleviate the agony and increase your mobility.

When you’ve been consuming wheat all of your life, the prospect of eliminating it from your diet can be daunting. If going wheat-free is difficult for you, try taking small steps. Start by cutting your intake by half. After you have done this for a while, continue to reduce the amount of wheat you consume. Before you realise it, you’ll be wheat-free and on the route to better health.
As a treat and delicious meal, try the following wheat free recipe:

MUSHROOM RISOTTO

Serves 6

1 litre of stock-either chicken or vegetable – ensure that any stock cubes are gluten free
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 finely chopped shallots
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
400g risotto rice
255g mushrooms, cleaned and slices.
Small handful of thyme, picked and chopped
1 tablespoon of olive oil
a handful of parsley freshly chopped
100ml dry white wine
25g unsalted butter
50g freshly grated Pecorino or Parmesan cheese

First prepare the mushrooms, by heating a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. Once hot, add the mushrooms and the thyme. Toss them for about a minute, until cooked, which should take approximately three minutes and then season with salt and pepper. Place to the side off the heat and prepare the risotto.

Heat the stock. In a separate pan heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add the shallot, a pinch of salt and sweat for about three minutes. Add the garlic, fry for another minute and then add the rice.

While you’re slowly stirring the rice so that they’re all warm, add the wine, stirring continuously. When the rice has absorbed the wine. Add the mushrooms and stir until the rice again absorbs the moisture from the mushrooms.

Add a cup of stock and stir continuously, until the liquid is absorbed. Continue doing this until you use nearly all the stock, and the rice is soft, but with a slight bite, rather than mushy.

Remove from the heat and season to taste, add the butter, cheese, most of the parsley, leaving a bit for garnish and stir gently.

Serve with the remaining parsley sprinkled on top.

Glycemic Index, and White Foods

In this article I would like to start a little discussion today about carbohydrates, in particular “white foods” as well as potatoes. One of the reasons I wanted to mention this is because so many health and fitness professionals dismiss potatoes as being a bad carbohydrate choice because of the so called high glycemic index. Believe it or not potatoes have a medium index. Some people say such ridiculous things as “avoid any and all white carbohydrates”.

OK, now while I certainly agree that white bread and refined white sugar are two of the worst things we can be eating when feeding our bodies. I don’t agree with avoiding any and all of these so called “white carbohydrates”. Now I know all the excitement lately has been about colorful foods and the protective antioxidants that they contain. They tell you to focus on colours and stay away from white.

“White Foods” aren’t always the enemy

It’s true that colourful foods are great, but it is generally a mistake to specifically avoid white foods! There are plenty of white foods that have specific nutrients that are hard to find elsewhere. Let’s look at a few examples…

Onions & Garlic

What about onions and garlic? They are both white and they are full of protective phytonutrients, vitamins, and trace minerals. These aren’t easy to find elsewhere in a normal diet. Such nutrients as chromium, allicin, quercetin (an important flavonoid), and other unique anti-inflammatory nutrients.

In fact, onions are so powerful for our health, that one study of people that live to over 100 years old. Identified that a common thread of these amazingly healthy individuals was, that they ate a lot of onions throughout their lives. We also know that garlic is one of the most powerful substances for a strong immune system.

Cauliflower

Another example of something white that is great for you is cauliflower. Which are surprisingly high in vitamin C, fiber, trace minerals, special compounds such as glucosinolates which are anti cancer in nature, and thiocyanates (a lack of which can damage a persons immune system). These are specifically abundant in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Another little-known fact is that some of the compounds in cruciferous vegetables, help to combat other estrogenic compounds in our food supply and environment and can help prevent excess abdominal fat. So eat up on that cauliflower!

Mushrooms

Not many people realize this, but surprisingly, even white mushrooms have high levels of unique nutrients and antioxidants. White mushrooms are high in a couple types of antioxidants called polyphenols and ergothioneine. Some types of mushrooms, such as portobella mushrooms, are surprisingly good sources of Vitamin D.

Potatoes

Now that also leads us to another example – the humble white potato (which by the way, can also be found in red, yellow, purple varieties, etc). Many health professionals claim that potatoes are a bad carbohydrate because they are thought to have a high glycemic index. If you’ve read my Truth about Six Pack Abs ebook, then you’ll understand that glycemic index is not necessarily the most important factor in choosing your carbohydrates.

While a generalization can be made that most low glycemic index carbohydrate choices will help you lose body fat more easily than higher index choices. It is not all that it’s cracked up to be. There are many other factors that determine how your body will react-to and process the carbohydrates you ingest. Such as glycemic load and also how you combine the high GI food with other foods.

For example, it is known that watermelon has a high glycemic index. However the rise in blood sugar of a normal serving of watermelon is just too low for your body to start packing on body fat, just because you ate a high index fruit. You would have to eat such an enormous quantity of watermelon just to get enough grams of carbohydrates to have any negative glycemic effect, that it just does not make any sense.

Not to mention that watermelon is also a great source of vitamins, minerals, and lycopene. There’s just no reason to avoid it simply because it has a high Glycemic Index. The point I am making is that, chocolate bars, cupcakes, and donuts make you fat. Because they are full of sugar. NOT watermelons, carrots or potatoes. French fries are excluded of course.

I also should mentioned, food combinations are important in how your body processes the carbohydrates and the associated blood sugar and insulin response you receive. Again, I will talk about this in detail about the entire topic in my Truth about Six Pack Abs book, from a weight loss perspective.

Alright, so back to my point that white potatoes are actually a healthy carbohydrate as long as you eat them in the right form – that’s with the entire skin left on. Please don’t ruin them by deep frying them into french fries either. French fries are one of the most evil things ever invented for your health. Because we ruin them by soaking them in a scorching bath of trans fats in the deep fryer from the hydrogenated oils that are typically used.

Keep in mind that potatoes contain so many vitamins and minerals that the list is way too long to even try. If you eat the skins, you’ll get some fiber too.

Are eating 7-9 potatoes per day going to make you fatter?

There was a study which found that potatoes not being so bad after all. I cant remember where I saw this referenced. But I recently saw a particular study that had participants eat something like 7-9 whole potatoes per day for several weeks. Here’s a good newspaper article on why potatoes are good for you.

At the conclusion of the study, the potato eaters had actually consistently lost weight! I’d venture a guess that the reason the people lost weight is that they were probably so full from eating all of those potatoes, that they actually consumed less calories than normal. An average sized potato has about 100-120 calories, and I can’t imagine you’d be full constantly from eating 7-9 potatoes each day.

Of course, this does NOT mean that french fries are ok to eat. Those will only make you fat, and the trans fat will lead to an early death. Seriously french fries / potato chips are one of the most deadly foods in our food supply. Deep fried potatoes accumulate dangerous acrylamides absorbed from the frying oil that reacts with the starch, and these compounds are cancer causing.

Anyway, back to the 7-9 whole potatoes per day. I would never recommend going to those extremes, but my point is that an occasional potato is not going to hurt your efforts to get lean, and lose weight. Especially if you combine it with some other fibrous vegetables, and maybe a healthy fat, and some protein. On that note, here is one of my favorite recipes, using potatoes.

Geary’s Lean-Body Potato Side Dish Recipe

Desired quantity of baby potatoes, preferably a mixture of white, red, yellow, and purple baby potatoes.
1 red pepper.
1 green pepper.
1 yellow pepper.
1 or 2 onions.
a couple cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or mashed garlic from a jar, organic preferably).
1 or 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and / or virgin coconut oil.
a little salt and pepper to taste (I like using a sea salt instead of normal commercial salt).

Cut the baby potatoes into slightly smaller pieces and place in a steamer until soft all the way through. Slice up the peppers and onions into strips and add with the chopped garlic into a pan with the olive oil. Cook the peppers, onions, and garlic until tender, and then add the steamed baby potatoes. Stir it all together and serve. This is a truly delicious, and healthy side dish that goes great with chicken or red meat.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little topic today about potatoes, healthy carbohydrates, glycemic index, and my delicious healthy potato recipe. If you want more recipes like this get a copy of my book Truth about Six Pack Abs, which is full of information on weight loss and how to get lean and fit.

Lose Fat Fitness

Advice and articles for a range of weigh loss diets and fitness programs.