First I want to say that it’s not easy coming up with a one-sized-fits-all nutritional guideline for the entire US population. I’ve crunched the numbers on the new MyPlate vs the old Food Pyramid and it’s a hugh step in the right direction. It’s easy to understand and it’s scaleable based on your caloric needs.

What’s the difference?
The previous USDA guideline consisted of a pyramid divided into six groups: 
Fats Oils & Sweets = Use Sparingly
Milk, Yogurt, & Cheese = 2-3 Servings
Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs, & Nuts = 2-3 Servings
Vegetables = 3-5 Servings
Fruits = 2-4 Servings
And lastly Grains 6-11 Servings

Somehow you were supposed to decode this and plan your daily meals.

The New MyPlate simplifies things. It’s a plate divided into 5 sections (Protein, Fruit, Vegetables, Grains, and a glass of milk representing dairy). Unlike the Pyramid you could actually put together a meal, no math required.

My Thoughts
Although the Department of Agriculture scaled back their recommendation of grains by 40%, the new recommendation is still high. If you take the food groups and look at them as Protein, Carbs, and Fat, the Carbs are still off the chart. 

With the new MyPlate you still have 60% of your calories come from Carbs, 27% from Protein, and 13% from fat. The protein percentage is pretty good, but I’d like to see people restrict grains, and eat more healthy fat. 

I recommend 40% of your calories come from fruits and vegetables, 30% of your calories from unprocessed protein sources, and 30% of your calories coming from Plant Based Poly and Mono Unsaturated Fat.

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Food Pyramid · MyPlate · Nutrition · USDA

Nutrition
I define nutrition as the basic caloric intake required to maintain your lean body mass. We use a Zone-Paleo Hybrid for non Endurance Athletes.

Zone Diet
A 1 Block daily requirement for each 10 lbs of Lean Body Mass.
9g of Carbs
7g of Protein
1.5g of Fat

For more on the Zone Diet Click Here

Fueling
Fueling for Non-Endurance Athletes consists of replacing Muscle and Liver Glycogen stores depleted through exercise. The easiest and most accurate equipment available to athletes come from heart rate monitors.
Buy a Polar Heart Rate Monitor, plug in your age, sex, and weight. After each workout check the readout for calories burned.

If your goal is weight loss, replace 50% of the calories burned with a recovery drink within 30 minutes of finishing.

To maintain your body weight replace 100% of the calories burned with a recovery drink within 30 minutes. Fully recharging your Glycogen Stores ensures proper recovery and peak performance.

Recovery Drinks
An optimal recovery drink has between a 2/1 and 3/1 Carb to Protein Ratio, little or no Fat, and minimal Fiber content which will slow absorption.

The best recovery drinks are fat free Chocolate Milk & Mix1 drinks.

Chocolate Milk has a 3/1 Carb to Protein ratio, but is known to cause digestive problems if you’re Lactose intolerant.

Mix1 Drinks have a 2/1 Carb to Protein ratio. They are easily digestible and include Anti-Oxidants, to combat Free-Radical Damage and Oxidative Stress caused through intense exercise.

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fueling · Nutrition · Recovery

How was that Azodicarbonamide & L-Cysteine sandwich? These are just some of the 44 Ingredients in a Smucker’s Uncrustable Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich. I can’t tell you the negative health effects these chemicals have but I guarantee if I looked into it, it would be pretty shocking.

Poison Du Jour
Many of today’s foods are loaded with preservatives, food coloring, and artificial flavoring that our bodies were never designed to ingest.
My rule of thumb is, stay away from foods listed with ingredients that don’t appear in nature (like artificial sweeteners).

Also on my list are items Doctors advise women to avoid during pregnancy. That’s a pretty good indicator that it’s not doing you any good.

Keep it Simple
My diet consists of unprocessed chicken, Steak, Fish, Eggs, Nuts, Seeds, Fruits, & Vegetables. Every item I buy that has more than one ingredient I check. If I don’t recognize an item in the ingredients I Google it. Sometimes they’re innocuous, and sometimes they’re carcinogenic.

Proper Nutrition
At Solid Body Fitness every membership comes with nutritional guidance to help you reach your goal, whether it’s weight loss or peak performance.

Click Here for a Free Guest Pass
Solid Body Fitness
63 Sprague Street Hyde Park
617-365-0905
Jason@SolidBodyFit.com

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chemicals · Food · health · Nutrition · Nutrition · wellness

I used to eat at Panera quite a bit. Everything is baked fresh and delicious, but the thing of it is people don’t know the difference between eating clean and eating fresh. While getting away from processed foods like hamburgers and chicken nuggets is a step in the right direction, at the end of the day Panera Bread is still a Bakery.  Be careful their Tomato Mozzarella Hot Panini sound innocuous enough but it packs 770 calories, and 96g of Carbs (almost a whole days worth).

There are some really good items to order if you’re on a diet. Here’s what I found to be good and bad in each category.

Soups
I like soups in winter but keep in mind many of them are mostly carbs with virtually no protein. For example I love their Creamy Tomato Soup, it has 39g of carbs but only 4g of protein. If I’m trying to get the rest of my protein from one of their sandwiches I can’t eat any bread, or I’m way over on my carbs.

Their Low-Fat Chicken Noodle Soup actually looks pretty good.
110 Calories, 4g Fat, 10g Carbs, and 8g of Protein

Not a big fan of the Signature Mac & Cheese
980 Calories, 61g Fat, 75g Carbs, and 14g of Protein

Salads
Most of their salads are good choices and have plenty of Protein, they average 436 Calories, 27g of Fat, 28g of Carbs, and 25g of Protein.

The Fuji Apple Chicken Salad is your best bet; my only warning is at 520 calories it’s close to double what most women should be eating in one meal. Split it into two meals and you’re good.
520 Calories, 31g Fat, 36g Carbs, 32g Protein

The Asian Sesame Chicken Salad is another good choice
400 Calories, 20g Fat, 31g Carbs, 31g Protein

Their Fresh Fruit Cup isn’t a bad snack if you add some health fat and protein.
60 Calories, 0g Fat, 16g Carbs, 1g Protein

Stay away from the BBQ Chopped Chicken Salad this one has as many calories, carbs, and protein as many burgers.
500 Calories, 22g Fat, 50g Carbs, 31g Protein

Sandwiches
Their sandwiches run really high on carbs, they average 764 calories and 78g of Carbs.
Your best bet is the Tuna Salad Sandwich and even that’s a little high on calories and carbs. Make two meals out of it.
590 Calories, 28g Fat, 67g Carbs, 20g Protein

This is bad! The Italian Combo Sandwich. You would have to split this into 3 meals to make it alright, and even then the fat would still be high.
1040 Calories, 45g of Fat, 95g of Carbs, 61g of Protein.

Paninis
I wouldn’t go near the Paninis. The lowest calorie one they offer is 720 Calories and 96g of Carbs. I can’t recommend a single one.

Here are two examples:

Cuban Chicken Panini
870 Calories, 37g Fat, 88g Carbs, 47g Protein

Tomato Mozzarella Hot Panini
770 Calories, 29g Fat, 96g Carbs, 30g Protein

Expertise
At Solid Body our Strength and Conditioning coaches have years of experience helping athletes. Let us help you reach your goals whether it’s a marathon or losing five pounds, we can get you there.

Solid Body Fitness
617-365-0905
Jason@SolidBodyFit.com

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Food · Nutrition · Nutrition · Panera Bread · Weight Loss