TAG | Diabetes
“The standard diet of a meat-eater is blood, flesh, veins, muscles, tendons, cow secretions, hen periods and bee vomit.
And once a year during a certain holiday in November, meat-eaters use the hollowed-out rectum of a dead bird as a pressure cooker for stuffing.
And people think vegans are weird because we eat tofu?”
- vegan bodybuilder Robert Cheeke
You’re doing it wrong
It’s crucial that you balance your diet with the three macronutrients (Protein, Carbs, and Fat) in each meal in the proper proportions. You will immediately feel better, balance you A1C Blood Sugar to normal levels, and begin to lose body fat.
Many of our members are vegetarians of differing degrees. When I review their weekly diet logs I notice that eighty to ninety percent of their caloric intake comes from carbohydrate sources. These are near toxic levels of carbohydrate. Most people don’t realize but the body is not designed to handle that kind of Glycemic load. The consequences are obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, Hypertension, Hyper-Insulinism, along with other metabolic derangements.
The body is designed to work within a very specific blood glucose (sugar) level. If it goes below where it needs to be you will eventually slip into a coma and eventually death. The body keeps this from happening by releasing glucose stored in the liver to your blood stream.
If your levels go too high you will go into Gylcemic shock and die. Once again your body has developed a system to keep this from happening -storage. Your body converts and stores toxic levels of carbohydrates as fat.
Zone Proportions
Over that past ten years I’ve seen the best results when following Dr. Barry Sears Zone Diet proportions of 40-30-30.
40% of your calories come from carbohydrate sources (fruits, vegetables, grains, and sugars).
30% from protein sources (Tofu, Soy, Dairy, Legumes, Quinoa)
30% from unsaturated fat (Avocado, Olive Oil, Almonds)
For more on the Zone Diet read my article here http://solidbodyfit.com/workouts/archives/461
Supplementing Your Diet
To reach a low body fat percentage and maintain your muscle mass, protein plays an enormous role. Protein is where almost all vegetarians fall short. There are many great plant sources of protein such as Soy, Legumes, and Quinoa.
If you are unable to get the required protein intake there are shortcuts. I use protein power, it’s incredibly convenient. Just add water and shake it up. I prefer the powder to RTD (ready to drink) protein shakes because you will have better control over the ingredients. I use Optimum Nutrition’s Casein Protein. It has the least ingredients and I found it to have the highest quality protein. You can tell the quality of protein sources by the gas test. Poor quality protein remains undigested and actually decomposes in the intestines causing gas. This doesn’t happen at all with the Optimum Nutrition Protein.
A quick meal replacement is Organic Food Bar’s Protein Bar. It has only seven ingredients and all of them being real food items. It has 22 grams of protein, 33 grams of carbs, and 13 grams of fat. It’s very Zone friendly. I’ve included links to these products below
Healthy fat sources are Almonds, Almond Butter, Olive Oil, Avocado’s to name a few. Stick to Poly-Unsaturated and Mono-Unsaturated fat sources which are heart healthy (http://cholesterol.about.com/cs/faq/f/difference.htm).
Links
Organic Food Bar
http://www.organicfoodbar.com/products/Protein
Zone Diet Resources
http://www.zonediet.com/RESOURCES/ZoneDietHints/tabid/79/Default.aspx
Justin’s Almond Butter To-Go Packets
http://www.justinsnutbutter.com/products.php
Optimum Nutrition’s Protein Powder
http://www.optimumnutrition.com/products/100-casein-protein-p-219.html
NutritionData.com a great resource to look up nutritional information on any food.
http://www.nutritiondata.com/
Get on the Right Track
Nutritional counseling is included in every membership. Come in for a FREE Week of personal training.
Click Here for your Guest Pass
Solid Body Fitness
617-365-0905
Jason@SolidBodyFit.com
Diabetes · Nutrition · Vegetarian · Vegetarian Diet · Weight Loss · Zone · Zone Diet
Carbohydrate is the only nutrient that can make you fat!
If you want to lose body fat you need to manage your carbohydrate intake. Each meal make sure the portion size of your carbs (pretty much anything you eat or drink that isn’t meat) is no larger than the portion size of your protein. If you eat a chicken breast thats the size of your palm, than everything else on your plate combined cant be larger than that.
Anything you drink other than water is probably sugar
People forget that drinks count. Juice, Gatorade, Vitamin Water, Mocha Latte, Etc…. It’s all excess sugar. Artificial sweeteners are just as bad. Most of them are carcinogens. They give me headaches, which is a pretty good indicator that my body isn’t meant to process it, and it negatively affects your hormone levels. I had one client who just cut out diet soda, That was the only change he made to his diet and he lost Sixty pounds.
Grains, Starches, Pasta, and Potatoes are making you fat.
There is no such thing as healthy grains. They are useless carbohydrate calories with no redeeming qualities. Stick to fresh colorful fruits and vegetables. The more color they have the more Polyphenols they have (Vitamins and Antioxidants). Organic foods are the best, they have the most nutrients and no preservatives.
With the exception of an occasional gourmet burger, every meal I eat has simple unprocessed elements. Chicken breast with vegetables, a steak with rice, whole eggs, and wheat toast. I know exactly whats in my food. I can pronounce every ingredient and there are no fillers or preservatives.
Fast Food isn’t what it used to be!
When I was growing up you could get a hamburger or chicken nuggets at most fast food chains and it was exactly that. Not the best choice but it was still food. Today it’s not the case. Todays fast food price wars have created a nightmare situation. The fast food industry’s lobbyists have fought to allow for new methods of processing previously not fit for consumption products. Many chains now use cutting agents in their meat products to lower their costs. Hamburgers are mixed with what the FDA calls “Pink Slime” a cottage cheese like substance made from puree’d animal byproducts treated with Ammonia to kill off e coli and salmonella bacteria.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19947.cfm
Do you want to keep your teeth?
I’ve never had a cavity. It’s not because I have the worlds best teeth, it’s because I don’t take in excessive amounts of refined sugar. As we evolved over millions of years the food available to us remained pretty constant. Meat, and plants for the most part. There were no cup cakes, sodas, or candy bars. Our teeth are not designed to handle those foods, hence why your dentist is driving that new Porsche.
http://www.sugarstacks.com/
Are you strong enough to keep your family healthy?
I have to say one of the saddest things I’ve see are parents who are destroying their children’s health, simply because they don’t have the willpower to say NO. I’ve had several clients over the years with obese children. As a parent you do the grocery shopping, what you buy and cook they will eat. As with any change children and spouses will complain, but after a week it becomes the new normal. What’s worse hearing complaints from your family about boring food or hearing that they’ve developed type two diabetes?
Get on the Right Track
Nutritional counseling is included in every membership. Come in for a FREE Week of personal training.
Click Here for your Guest Pass
Solid Body Fitness
617-365-0905
Jason@SolidBodyFit.com
Diabetes · Nutrition · Weight Loss · Zone