Fit2Fat2Fit (10 page)

The Best Spinach Shake Ever

Makes 1 serving

Combine these items in a blender, and you're ready to go! This delicious, quick, healthy drink (featured on
The Dr. Oz Show
) is packed with quality protein, good fat, plenty of potassium, a dose of vitamin C, and beneficial fiber. This shake can be used as a great breakfast, lunch, dinner, or pre/postworkout meal; alternatively, you can halve the recipe and enjoy the shake as one of your snacks during the day. To make this extra-low in carbs, omit the banana.

Little do we know that these inherited approaches to nutrition are working against us every single day. The understanding of what “eating healthy” means may have changed over the generations, but our eating habits have not. I'm not going to suggest that the key to proper nutrition is to kick carbs out of your kitchen, or to overdose on protein. The needed changes to nutrition are much subtler than that.

Our bodies need various types of nutrition in order to function well—water, protein, carbohydrates, and fat (yes, fat). All these work together to provide the necessary energy for us to function on a daily basis, and they work with our body's metabolism to burn the proper amount of calories.

I focus on the following areas: I drink plenty of water (enough to have one clear urination per day) and try to stick with foods that are high in fiber, high in protein, low in carbohydrates, and minimally processed. In order to kickstart and maintain a higher metabolism, I also eat every three hours. Your body needs constant fuel in order to constantly improve and avoid overeating.

People tend to think that protein can be found only in hamburgers and steaks, and that carbohydrates must be procured through breads, pastas, and processed foods. The reality is that the keys of nutrition (protein, carbohydrates, fat) can be found in healthier items.

My meal plans focus on eating a variety of lean meats and legumes (mostly nuts) for protein. These types of protein also provide an adequate amount of fat, killing the need to seek out the fat in a package of Zingers.

Vegetables are an excellent source of carbohydrates and can be eaten without the worry of high calories and fats. It's crucial to understand that carbohydrates fall into two categories—good and bad. The good (high-fiber items) benefit our nutrition. The bad (sugars, refined and processed carbohydrates, etc.) inhibit our progress, and lead to high blood sugar levels, which are linked to a variety of health issues.

And not all liquids are created equal. While we've all been told that eight glasses of water a day is a beneficial, sufficient amount, we tend to seek out interesting ways to get our liquids. Energy drinks, sodas, and fruit juices dominate the market, encouraging us to drink our calories and thus struggle to lose weight. Personally, I found it more enjoyable to drink a liter of Mountain Dew than to down the same amount of water, but by choosing to keep daily calories in the solid foods consumed, as opposed to the Mocha Frappuccinos, we dramatically increase our ability to burn fat and lose weight.

This approach isn't about forcing you to stop eating a certain type of food. It's about helping you realize that a balanced diet needs the same nutritional building blocks as always—and that you can choose to eat healthier items to get the nutrients you need. This is how the pounds come off.

It wasn't a new experience for me to have to commute to and from work each day. In order to get from my home in Utah to the hospital in Idaho in time for work, I'd roll myself out of bed, wolf down some breakfast, grab some snacks and a lunch, and start driving. During the weight-gain phase of my Fit2Fat2Fit journey, though, my pattern changed, with meal stops often added in.

I was a short 30 minutes into the three-hour commute drive one day when I realized I had two problems—first, my smaller-than-usual breakfast, a quick bowl of cereal, wasn't going to sustain me; and second, I had left all of my snacks on the kitchen counter.

A fast trip over to the local McDonald's was the answer. A few Egg McMuffins and orders of hash browns later, my stomach told me I could probably make it to Idaho without further complaints. When I arrived at work and gathered my things to go inside, I realized that my lunch must be sitting next to my pile of snacks back home. I could only imagine the look on Lynn's face when she saw the huge pile of food, resembling the contents of an overfull grocery cart, when she crept down to the kitchen long after I had departed.

My earlier quick escape for the three-hour commute led to a desperate tweet for advice. It was now lunchtime and I was getting hungry. In an ode to every fast-food joint imaginable, my followers gave me a wide range of suggestions (including how I could pull off a midweek food challenge), and I was off to Wendy's for one of their famed Baconators.

After a full day of work, not helped by the array of sweets in the hospital break room, I was ready for the commute home. By the time I pulled into my driveway, a 7-Eleven and Taco Bell had had a friendly visitor drop by.

As I downed what felt like a full bottle of Tums and prepared to go to sleep, I wondered how many calories my forgetful morning had caused. Not that I had healthy snacks in my bag during that phase of my weight adventure, but the trio (a first for me) of McDonald's, Wendy's, and Taco Bell had to have pushed my daily caloric intake into the stratosphere. Needless to say, I took extra time with the stretch-mark lotion before retiring for the evening.

And therein lies one of the great mistakes people make when trying to find nutritional health. No, it's not that I couldn't step away from the fast-food joints. It's that I put myself in a position of unpreparedness.

Mexican Chicken

Makes 4 servings Prep: 20 minutes Cook: 50–60 minutes

Sprinkle the chicken on both sides with taco seasoning; grill or sauté. Cut the cooked chicken into cubes and place in a greased 8 × 8-inch baking dish. Add the enchilada sauce and toss the chicken to coat. Sprinkle the cheese (optional) and olives over the chicken and bake at 350ºF for 10 to 20 minutes, until hot and bubbly. Scatter the green chilies and green onions over the top.

We all need sustenance. If we go long enough, our stomach growls. Wait a bit more, and it feels like our stomach is being eaten alive by the acids inside. By the time we're
really
hungry, we start staring at pets around the house and considering their caloric value.

So when we get hungry and don't have anything around to eat, we seek it out. We search for jars and bowls of candy. We ask our coworkers if they want to split an extra-large pizza.

This is why we all need the Boy Scout motto: “Be prepared.”

Every single day we're surrounded by unhealthy foods presented by fast-food companies trying to grab our attention with large portions, quick service, and cheap prices. Those companies know that the key to their business is the window shopper—the person who didn't plan on eating out, but who sees the sign, hears the advertisement, and drops through the drive-through for a quick bite.

In essence, companies selling unhealthy food are trying to get us to cheat on ourselves when we venture out for our day. They want us to give in to our desires. They rely on it.

Being prepared is essential not just for me, but for all of us who want to establish a balanced relationship with food. That's our only defense in the fast-food war.

I know we're all busy, and life keeps us from preparing healthy meals from scratch each and every day. With a job and family of my own, I understand the pressure and stress that a busy schedule can bring.

So I simplify things. Twice a week I marinate my meats, cut my vegetables, and cook my meals. I line up a series of containers and create a variety of meals that will serve me for the next three days. Put simply, I get prepared to skip the drive-through.

By preparing my meals in advance, but doing so only twice a week (instead of seven, which is just impractical), I know what I'll eat and how I'll plan. I can guarantee that each meal will keep me going toward my goals—and more important, I make it easy.

A few weeks into the second phase of my journey, Fat2Fit, I found myself facing another Monday commute to Idaho. I pulled myself out of bed (this time, it was much less of a roll!) and went into the kitchen, where I laughed at my wife's support. Placed strategically throughout the kitchen were Post-it notes reminding me to take my cooler. I packed my prepared meals, along with my handpicked snacks, and headed off for the day.

The results were different. No Egg McMuffins this time. No Baconators. No Taco Bell. Why? Because I didn't need to seek sustenance. I enjoyed my prepared meals—good portions of meats and vegetables. And every time I heard my stomach growl, I'd have an option that would quell the hunger, but not at the expense of my health and my waistline.

People don't fall off the wagon because they need a hamburger, specifically. More often than not they buy that burger out of a lack of preparation. The key to change is making the right foods just as convenient as (if not more convenient than) the unhealthy options that are thrown in your direction several times every day.

Go Scouts!

My parents had it easy. They seemed to effortlessly avoid one of the most contentious disagreements ever to grace the great American family—the war over clearing your dinner plate.

I loved fruits and vegetables even as a kid. I loved practically everything my parents put in front of me. While I'll admit that my openness to nutritious food probably had to do with a premature obsession with health, they didn't have to go through staged negotiations to get me to eat dinner, especially living with ten other hungry kids.

In families where vegetables aren't so popular, parents often try to bargain positively (an extra hour of TV or a playdate per successfully eaten serving) or negatively (an earlier bedtime or dropped movie for each portion left untouched). That's quickly followed by the guilt approach: there are starving children who aren't as fortunate as we are, so eat up or the food is going to be shipped to the needy.

If negotiations fail, parents may try making the food artificially exciting. Clearly, a piece of broccoli in flight like an airplane is more appetizing than one sitting quietly next to the mashed potatoes. And finally, when all hope seems lost, there's the nutritional education approach. We're told that we won't grow tall without the vegetables. We're told about the nutritional worth of the skin of a potato.

I remember eating baked potatoes as I grew up, and I didn't care for the skin. It was chewy, and did I mention that it was brown? My parents tried to convince me that the warm, fluffy interior actually held no nutritional value. It was all in the skin, which would help me to keep up with my taller and more athletic brothers and sisters.

Years later, I performed my own version of MythBusters research to find out whether the claims regarding potato skins were true or false. (If I'm about to shatter one of the great lessons that your parents taught you, I apologize in advance.) The bottom line? A potato's food value lies as much in the delicious white interior as it does in the scruffy brown skin!

Fast-forward to the grocery store, as I got ready to buy the right foods for my journey back to health. A display of potatoes caught my eye, and I realized that my own lesson in health could be shared via my parents' claims regarding the potato skin. Hold that thought for a moment.

One of the key necessities in developing a healthy lifestyle is to realize what's bad for you—and generally, if it tastes too good to be true, it probably is. American industry and culture have, over the years, perfected the trade of processed foods that we all crave. Where would we be without our boxed mac and cheese, for example?

Even when we accept the reality that processed foods are working against us and our health, it's difficult to step away. And the problem starts at the grocery store. Walking in after a long day at work, you're faced with 15 to 20 aisles of goodness. These stores have the best deals and cheapest foods right in the middle of the store, so once you've headed down an aisle, it's like you've already lost the battle.

What started as a “Can you pick up milk?” trek to the grocery store turns into a 45-minute stroll up and down every aisle, with a cartful of junk as a reward. As the weeks pass by, even those of us trying to shop wisely wonder why we aren't healthy—and, more importantly, why the fruits and veggies in the fridge have started to rot.