Hello and happy Father’s Day to all the papas!

It was a long and wonderful day for me, but I still wanted to fit in a quick TIP for today: Don’t go ‘nuts’ on nuts! Let me explain a bit…

Nuts often make a great snack or complement a meal. They’re very portable and quite delicious. They are high in excellent fats, typically contain protein and fiber, are high is some B-complex vitamins, vitamin E as well as many minerals. They also contain very little carbohydrate, yet another good selling point. But not all nuts were created equal; peanuts, for example (which are technically a seed), are quite high in Omega-6 fats (which we already get too much of, and polyunsaturated fats in general become toxic when we eat too much of them) and contain the most aflatoxins (a toxic mold which is a liver carcinogen in high doses and is associated with stunted growth in children) – aside form also being one of the most highly sprayed with pesticides. Unfortunately, it is also so darn yummy that it’s very easy to go overboard with it. So take it easy on the PB!

When not buying nuts in bulk, be sure to check the ingredients! Many packaged brands of nuts are roasted in cheap vegetable oils (deep fried, in reality), which are not good for your health or your pocket! Think about it, when you buy something by weight, the last thing you want is for it to be weighed down by all the cheap oil it has absorbed. It’s the biggest rip-off! Buying raw is always best, because the nuts are not damaged by the oxidation process. And there should be only a single ingredient – what the stuff actually consists of! Dry roasted are the most common to find and would come in as second best, but buying them organic is a good recommendation as well. Basically avoid anything that has been irradiated, pasteurized or coated in sugar.

Another important thing to note is that many people have various degrees of digestive issues when eating nuts. This is sort of normal due to their high amount of phytic acid (a.k.a. phytate, a toxin and ‘anti-nutrient’ which humans can’t digest – also found in grains and legumes). Interestingly, soaking and rinsing raw nuts, or buying dry-roasted, helps reduce the phytate content.

To conclude, some of the healthiest nuts (and nut butters) to consume are macadamia, almonds, walnuts, pecans, brazil nuts, hazelnuts and filberts. But remember not to go ‘nuts’ on them, too much of a good thing can become a bad thing!

So how much is enough? About an ounce, or a small handful a day. Enjoy in moderation!

Courage, cheerfulness, and a desire to work depends mostly on good nutrition.
–Jacob Moleschott (Dutch physiologist and writer on dietetics)

Hey everyone,

Reading Jimmy’s email yesterday night made me recall a very important point, which I’d like to share in today’s TIP: What about “cheat” meals?

Well, first things first. I do believe that there is a case to be made for cravings possibly indicating a lack of a certain nutrient in your diet. When it comes to potato chips, for instance, it can signify a need for sodium or perhaps a lack of fat in the diet. That being said, however, we must consider that many processed foods nowadays, especially snack foods, are chemically engineered to trigger certain parts of our brain that make us instantly want more. Literally similar to a crack cocaine or heroin reaction! Given that, it’s almost impossible to determine the real cause of the craving, so then, what to do?

My personal approach, now (wasn’t always this way), after having transformed my life through years of healthy eating, is to let myself indulge a bit, when the situation naturally arises. This means, if I go out to a restaurant (which is something I avoid as much as possible due to low food quality almost everywhere outside our home), I try not to worry too much about the exact ingredients in the food I’m eating, and I may even try some dessert at the end, if it looks like a real treat, not just senseless sugar consumption.

This may not work for everyone and may not be advisable for people who know they tend to go off the deep end at such opportunities (and/or afterwards).

Another approach that many people have is to eat well all week and then reward themselves guilt-free with absolutely anything they desire, for one meal per week, not an entire day of the week. This is also fine as long as it works for you. As before, know yourself and try different things until you find your favorite.

If you’re a person who likes to dedicate one meal per week to something you love but shouldn’t have often, I believe a good guideline is to avoid gluten containing grains (mainly wheat, rye and barley) particularly because of their opiate-type proteins called casomorphins – literally resulting in addiction to those foods. Not to mention that gluten causes inflammation in the gut lining and changes the gut’s bacterial colonization. This can have some seriously deleterious effects in the long run, because it acts silently and without obvious symptoms for prolonged periods of time – probably in a ton more people than those officially diagnosed with a sensitivity or full-blown Coeliac disease. But even on the short-term, what good is pasta if it’s going to derail you from your goals in the coming days? Be careful about your choices!

What I don’t agree with and I think is completely counter-productive and unhealthy, is those people who plan all week and look ahead to that one gratifying meal. Once again, this resembles the behavior of a drug addict, so you can never achieve a healthy and sane balance this way. If you feel deprived, you’re going to binge at some point – period. And that’s when the wheels start to fall off the wagon…

So how not to deprive yourself then? Simple: forget about SAD recommendations and current conventional wisdom. To function optimally, your body needs a lot of fat, some protein and very little carbohydrates, the latter being largely dictated by your level of activity. You should literally eat fat to lose fat (entire books have been written about this), but the idea goes so contrary to the lie we’ve been sold for the last 50+ years that people still find it impossible to believe. Also, when eating right, there is no need to limit the quantity of food. Whole foods (with plenty of added fat!) are very satiating and will fill you! In any case, you don’t have to take my word for it; I highly encourage you to educate yourself, experiment and discover the truth.

In the end, whatever you choose, be honest with yourself about how well it’s working. Sometimes we need to go back to the drawing board and try something completely different.

Cheers, in good health.

Choice, not chance, determines destiny.
–E.C. McKenzie

What you eat in private will show up in public.
–Unknown

Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels.
–Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Greetings to all health-conscious people out there!

My TIP for today is this: If you’re “trying” to lose weight, have you ever heard of Jon Gabriel and The Gabriel Method? You may be intrigued or astonished with what you find.

He’s a fascinating man (with a biochemistry background) who used to weigh over 400 pounds, but was able to lose over 220 of that – and keep it off for more than 10 years now. What’s particularly interesting about this story is that he accomplished this by using a holistic, mind-body approach to sustainable weight loss – without dieting or suffering! This is not a hoax, this is a true story. Just the picture of his transformation is incredible:

After he dramatically changed his life, he wrote a book about it and it has now become a best seller in 6 countries, it’s been translated into 16 languages, and has sold over 350,000 copies. In fact, he is now basically giving away the book through his website. You can check out some very favorable reviews of The Gabriel Method on Amazon. Even critics of the book consider the info contained in it to be very valuable.

His sane, unique and refreshing approach to weight loss is a wonderful tool to use, in an industry that’s all too dependent on gimmicks, unrealistic and restrictive eating plans, not to mention expensive yet useless supplements.

You may be surprised to find out that after all he’s learned on his personal journey, he considers weight gain to be a symptom of a greater underlying disorder, and his approach targets the root cause. Among other things, he discusses the detrimental effects of dieting, nutritional starvation/famine (lack of essential nutrients), emotional eating and how stress affects the chemical balances in our bodies. Not surprisingly, although he doesn’t have a strict eating plan, he also advocates a whole foods approach to healthy eating, except that this is just one aspect of his method. Unlike almost anyone else, he puts a big emphasis on the mental aspect of losing weight. He uses relaxation and visualization as a way to reprogram the negative internal beliefs we hold on a subconscious level.

While I have not read the book myself, I heard him interviewed on an episode of the Underground Wellness podcast, which I highly recommend, if you’re an audio learner like myself.

This is ground-breaking stuff and definitely worth checking out!

Contemplate yourself as surrounded by the conditions which you intend to produce.
–Dr. Wayne W. Dyer (self-help author and motivational speaker)

The groundwork of all happiness is health.
–Leigh Hunt (English critic, essayist, poet and writer)

If you want to look young and thin, hang around old fat people.
–Jim Eason (talk radio personality)

Hey guys, you’ve already made it to double digits! Keep on truckin’, you’re on a roll!

Here’s your Day 10 TIP: Do you really want to accomplish something but are intimidated just by the thought it? I know, I’ve been there – especially when the objective is large or otherwise complex. This can often lead to inaction…

A simple solution comes for a less daunting perspective or approach: set mini-goals! This will increase the likelihood of you staying motivated and committed to your original goal. Also, starting off by putting your larger overall objective as well as the broken-down mini-goals in writing will help make it more real and concrete. In fact, I would even recommend you make an actual written and signed contract with yourself, and hold yourself accountable for the outcome. Taking your health seriously is no trivial matter!

That being said, I have another useful tool which has been indispensable in my own successes: streak tracking!

I use a printed calendar on my fridge where I track whatever I am currently committed to doing daily (or at whatever interval you choose), but this can also be done quite effectively using technology – and comes with the added benefit of social motivation. For instance, there’s an excellent free iOS app called Lift which allows you to track your habits while other people (who you may not even know) encourage you to keep going. It’s quite interesting and definitely worth checking out. If an app is not your thing, I would recommend you post your goal on Facebook; making a public proclamation of your intent will make you think hard before your ever give up!

So, in summary, come up with a plan, break it down, track it, then get motivated and stick to it!

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
-Benjamin Franklin

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.
-Zig Ziglar