Stay Fit MD Food Manual

Remember that changing your eating habits temporarily will cause just temporary weight loss. To rebuild muscle while eliminating fat, it's important to know that muscle weighs five times more than fat, so you may lose inches even though the scale reads the same.

Follow these hints for more successful weight loss:
• Don't diet - eat better. Making radical diet changes doesn't work, so there is no benefit to cutting our foods when you're trying to lose weight if you'll go right back to them when you reach your goal.
• Rotate. Alternate foods each day - and not just your main courses, but even foods without a lot of calories. Changing keeps your metabolism more active.
• Water, water, water. Water flushes fats from your body. Drink six to eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily to eliminate the fats the body is breaking down.
• Food exchange. Food choices that are high in protein and/or low in fat can be substituted for less attractive food choices. So choose wisely. For example, select fat-free yogurt rather than ice cream or fat-free pretzels instead of potato chips. Eat whole grains and stay away from white starches. For just about any kind food category, there is a healthy alternative.
• Cheat - but just a little. No matter what food you crave, you may include small serving in your meal planning. We all will eventually binge on the foods we try to completely avoid until we have fulfilled our craving.

Time to clean
Cleansing your body for the first seven days will balance sugar levels, recover hormone balance, get rid of toxins and get your body ready for weight loss. You also may want to use our First-Step Body Cleanser to jump-start your diet. Here's what you will need to do to prep:
• Limit carbohydrates to a single serving.
• Eat lean protein.
• Take two protein shakes or bars as your carbohydrate serving for the day.
• Try hard cheeses, low fat cottage cheese and plain yogurt (with no fruit in the first week).
• Eat green vegetables like lettuce, spinach, broccoli, asparagus, green peppers and celery.
• Avoid the majority of fruits. Limit yourself to just a handful of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries or blackberries once or twice a day.
• Drink eight, 8-ounce glasses of water every day to help flush toxins from your system.
• Drink coffee, tea, iced tea or water, but no soda (diet or regular), alcohol or juices.
• Eat five or six small meals rather than over two or three large ones. Try not to eat after 7:00 PM.

By day three or four, your sugar/glycogen will be depleted and your body will start converting to "fat-burning." By the fourth day, your cravings will be gone and you will feel more energetic. Please note that if you should experience headaches or tiredness during the first four days, your body is going through carbohydrate withdrawal. Just take aspirin or whatever pain reliever you normally use. A protein snack will also help you feel better.

Don't diet. Stay Fit MD does not believe in diets. For safe, permanent weight loss, you should eat the same way while losing weight as you will eat once you reach your goal. It's better to eat foods within a certain category (proteins, fruit, vegetables, etc.) rather than measure and weigh all that you eat. In this way, you tend to eliminate obsessions about food and can make eating less problematic.

You need not include every food group at each meal - just balance your food over the day.
• Consume as much lean protein as wanted daily. Eat a minimum of 10 to 12 ounces of lean protein each day. You may eat more, but not less than this to help your metabolism function as it should.
• Eat unlimited amounts of fruits and vegetables. Concentrate on green leafy vegetables (unless you are taking blood-thinning drugs), but limit high sugar fruits like berries, watermelon, pineapple and bananas to every other day.
• Limit dairy products. If eggs are eaten for breakfast, do not eat cheese. Use no more than a total of one glass of milk for coffee, cereal and so on.
• Eat two starches per day. A sandwich for lunch and a potato, rice or pasta as a side dish at dinner is okay, but if you eat a starch as an entrée, be sure to eat enough protein the rest of the day. Also avoid white starches - eat only whole grains.
• Drink lots of water. Make an effort to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water every day, because it flushes fats from the body. Soda, coffee and tea do not act in this way. Responsible alcohol consumption is acceptable, but keep in mind that alcohol is a depressant that slows your metabolism.

Planning meals doesn't need to be complicated. When you simply make smarter choices, your appetite for poor ones will abate. You'll need to adopt healthy eating habits that you can continue for a lifetime, because temporary modifications mean just temporary weight loss, and if you go back to eating poorly, your body will revert also.
To help you follow basic food guidelines and choose the best foods (low fat food whenever possible), see the government's website on dietary guidelines at http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines.

About Stay Fit MD: We are a team of highly regarded health and nutrition professionals committed to providing a variety of herbal medicines, vitamin and weight loss supplements and nutrition products that will make a positive, significant change in people's lives. Located in Florida and serving men and women throughout the U.S. and the world, Stay Fit MD is highly committed to the success and good health of its clients. Copyright © 2007. You may reprint this article anywhere provided that you do so in its full, unchanged format and that you provide the following contact information:
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