Everyone deserves a cheat meal. Eating clean is important, but so is enjoying yourself. Being too hard on yourself or transitioning too fast can lead to a diet melt down. I recommend one or two cheat meals per week.

What’s in a cheat meal?
Make sure your cheat meal is a reasonable reward for your dieting efforts. A cheat meal can be almost anything you want. A night out at a restaurant, a few drinks, a dessert, whatever you like. Just keep it reasonable. I would quantify reasonable as anything under 50 grams of carbs and less than 600 calories.
The biggest mistakes I see people make is eating well all week, then binge eating on a cheat weekend. They don’t realize until weigh in that an entire week’s hard work can be undone in a weekend.

Recovery
After your modest cheat meal, have your next meal as planned. Don’t worry about cutting it short to compensate, or not eating carbs for the next two days. If you feel guilty about your cheat meal, just go smaller on your next cheat.

Danger Zone
If you’ve been on a low carb diet, which we strongly disagree with (Ketogenesis), it’s important to not over do carbs after your event. When you cut carbs or “deplete” your insulin sensitivity increases tremendously. This makes it all too easy to pack on post show body fat. Post show you need to slowly bring yourself back up to a healthy amount of carbohydrates. We recommend proportioning your macro’s as follows: 40% calories from carbs, 30% from protein, and 30% from fat.

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Jason@SolidBodyFit.com

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cheat meal · Nutrition · Zone

I’m pretty excited to write this one. Boston Market is one of my favorite restaurants. Everything is clean, fresh, and fairly inexpensive. Rotisserie Chicken, Roasted Turkey and Sliced Ham, you almost cant go wrong. It’s easy to piece together a meal regardless of the diet you’re on. You can go Zone, Paleo, South Beach, whatever…

Soups
There are 3 main soup choices, all of which aren’t bad. They range between 70 to 480 calories and never exceed 25 grams of Carbs.

Chicken Noodle Soup
250 Calories, 8g Fat, 23g Carbs, and 22g Protein

Chicken Tortilla Soup without Toppings
160 Calories, 8g Fat, 13g Carbs, and 10g Protein

Broccoli Cheese Soup (A little high on Fat and Calories, but not too bad)
480 Calories, 33g Fat, 25g Carbs, and 22g Protein

Sandwiches
Be careful with the sandwiches. The Turkey BLT sounds like a good choice but it has 1030 Calories. Same goes for the Rotisserie Chicken Pesto Sandwich, All White Rotisseries Chicken Salad Sandwich, and the Homestyle Meatloaf & Cheddar Sandwich all around 1000 Calories.

I do however like some of their ½ Sandwich choices:

Half Roasted Turkey & Swiss Carver Sandwich
160 Calories, 0g Fat, 33g Carbs, 25g Protein

Half Rotisserie Chicken Carver
170 Calories, 0g Fat, 33g Carbs, 28g Protein

Salads
Their ½ salads are all between 140 and 200 calories which keeps you well within your range even if you still add a soup or ½ sandwich.

Half Mediterranean Salad
200 Calories, 22g Fat, 14g Carbs, 20g of Protein

Half Southwest Sante Fe Salad
190 Calories, 21g Fat, 20g Carbs, and 20g of Protein

Stay away from the Full Southwest Sante Fe Salad
690 Calories, 42g Fat, 41g of Carbs, and 41g of Protein

Individual Meals Without Sides
There are so many good items to order from. As long as you don’t order the Pastry Top Pot Pies or the Meatloaf you’ll be fine.

Quarter White Rotisserie Chicken, No Skin
35 Calories, 0g Fat, 1g Carbs, 50g Protein

7oz Roasted Turkey Breast (No Sides)
260 Calories, 5g Fat, 0g Carbs, 54g Protein

Stay Away from the Pastry Top Chicken Pot Pie (No Sides)
810 Calories, 48g Fat, 60g Carbs, 33g Protein

Also avoid the Meatloaf (No Sides)
480 Calories, 30g Fat, 25g Carbs, 28g Protein

Sides
Most of their sides look good. Here you can pick and choose based on your diet and caloric needs.

Garlicky Lemon Savoy Spinach
140 Calories, 6g Fat, 9g Carbs, 6g Protein

Fresh Steamed Vegetables
60 Calories, 0g Fat, 8g Carbs, 2g Protein

Keep in mind that their Corn Bread is listed in the Dessert Category.
200 Calories, 6g Fat, 34g Carbs, 3g Protein

Avoid the Sweet Potato Casserole which is made loaded with Brown Sugar and Marshmallows.
460 Calories, 16g Fat, 77g Carbs, 4g of 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

Nutritional Information for the entire Boston Market menu can be found here:
www.BostonMarket.com

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Boston Market · Eating Clean Series · Nutrition · Paleo · Weight Loss · Zone

“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/

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Nutritional counseling is included in every membership. Come in for a FREE Week of personal training.

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

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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

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Diabetes · Nutrition · Weight Loss · Zone

Lorenzo Vismara

In 2001 an Italian national champion swimmer, Lorenzo Vismara was in constant screaming pain from inflammatory injuries. His coaches looked for help from Europe’s top sports medicine specialists. Unable to find an effective treatment it looked as though Lorenzo’s career may be finished. In a final act of desperation his coaches tried one last doctor, Dr Riccardo Pina. This physician immediately recognized the culprit. Lorenzo’s wassuffering from silent inflammation due to excessive carbohydrates. He was prescribed the Zone Diet and a high dose of a fish oil supplement (Omega3). A year later Lorenzo set seven national records in a single swim meet and has been the unchallenged Italian champion in sprint freestyle fornearly a decade.

Thousands of years ago human’s diets had a proper balance, but today most people consume twenty times more Omega 6 than Omega 3 which is overloading our bodies with inflammatory chemicals and is the cause of many diseases. The best way to balance out the equation is with a pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplement. The first published article on the benefits of a fish oil supplement was published back in 1775. Patients who took unrefined cod liver oil saw a huge reduction in joint pain.

Injuries

If you’ve ever twisted your ankle or had a bruise you’ve witnessed inflammation. Inflammation helps your body protect and repair an injury. Prolonged or excessive inflammation causes damage. Inflammation in the lungs causes Asthma, Inflammation in the joints causes Arthritis. Inflammation in back and neck muscles can put pressure on sensitive nerves and drive unbearable pain shooting down your body. For short term immediate relief Aspirin, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, and Ice are all great treatments. If the pain lasts more than a few weeks your problem could be your diet.

Food Is a Drug

Everything you ingest has purpose and a reaction. Carbohydrates give you energy and can be stored as fat. Protein helps rebuild muscles, and skin, hair, and your immune system. Vitamins and Minerals play their part keeping your body strong and healthy. Many of today’s drugs trick your body into responding the same way it would from certain foods. Potassium from kale and Bananas will lower blood pressure. Omega 6 in egg yolks will help with blood clotting, while Omega 3 from Brazil nuts will act as a pain reliever. Beta-Carotene from Apricots will boost your immune system and help protect you from cancer. For this reason it’s important to consult your physician before changing your diet. If you’re on blood thinners or have a bleeding disorder it’s important not to get as much Omega 3 as a normal healthy person. If you have a neurological disorder it’s important to take many times the Omega 3 as a person without the disorder.

IF Ratings from NutritionData.com

Nutrition Data provides IF Ratings for most foods in its database. IF Ratings appear on Nutrition Facts pages and have a format similar to the example:

Nutritional data and images courtesy of www.NutritionData.com

A negative IF Rating means that the food is considered to be inflammatory (i.e. increases inflammation), and a positive IF Rating™ indicates that the food is considered to be anti-inflammatory (i.e. reduces inflammation). There is no upper or lower limit for the IF Ratings, so you’ll see a wide range of values reported. IF Ratings are also dependent on serving size, so you’ll see the IF Rating value change if you change the serving size in the Serving Size drop-down at the top of the Nutrition Facts page.
About the Author
Jason Zagami is the owner of Solid Body Fitness. He has over a decade experience in the fitness industry as a strength and conditioning coach.
For more information, refer to:
Sears, Dr. Barry. The Anti-Inflammation Zone: Reversing the silent epidemic that’s destroying our health. www.zonediet.comReinagel, Monica. The Inflammation Free Diet Plan: The Scientific Way to Lose Weight, Banish Pain, Prevent Diesase, and Slow AgingNutritionData.com Nutrition Facts, calories in food, labels, nutritional information and analysis.InflammationFactor.com News on the health effects of silent, systemic inflammation and ways to reduce inflammation with diet.

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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Disease · Fish Oil · Inflammation · Injury · Omega 3 · Omega 6 · Weight Loss · Zone