14 grams of whey protein powder.The meal plans I’ve prescribed in the last eight chapters are exciting to me, and I hope to you, too. I’m fascinated daily by how minortweaks in daily eating can bring widely different results, from lifting mood, to fighting inflammation, to building muscle. But not everyone needs or wants a specialty plan like the ones I’ve prescribed. They may be more effective overall for achieving specific results—for instance, if diabetes runs in your family and you’re mainly concerned about avoiding it, you’d be hard pressed to find a better diet than my Diabetic Guy Meal Plan—but some of you (perhaps most of you) have multiple goals in mind.
In recognition of that reality, I present the Full-Power Meal Plan. It incorporates pretty much all of the health benefits in this book and delivers a 14-day nutrition plan designed to produce major results, fast. I firmly believe that it represents the best, most comprehensive diet for the vast majority of the men reading this book. This is the blueprint you should follow after you’ve finished the last chapter, and after you’ve met your specific goals. Once you get your six-pack abs, more energy, lower blood pressure, or whatever, follow this diet until death do you part. (The long-term health chapter may be the one exception here. If you have concerns about a certain health risk, you’ll probably want to build your diet around that chapter for the rest of your life.)
Like the nutritional programs I design for clients in my private practice, the Full-Power Meal Plan constantly balances what’s practical with what’s ideal. For example, ideally, I’d like clients to eat fresh fish five times a week. Practically, a stockbroker who’s a bachelor and works 70 hours a week isn’t going to reach that goal week in, week out. If he eats fresh fish on, say, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then has a lean cut of red meat on Tuesday and some chicken on Thursday, we’re cool. It still represents progress over eating McDonald’s three nights a week.
Every aspect of the Full-Power Meal Plan is based on nutrition research that has documented improvements in physical and mental performance, health, and longevity, according to specific eating strategies. It also incorporates the healthiest elements of the dietary patterns from traditional Mediterranean and Asian cultures, which I think is a great way for active men to eat. Men in both of these regions have much lower rates of certain cancers, heart disease, obesity, and other chronic, degenerative diseases than their U.S. counterparts do, and more and more research suggests that differences in diet and activity account for the largest percentage of the disparity.
The Mediterranean diet and the traditional rural Asian diet are based largely on plants. Unlike Americans, people in these regions consume meat judiciously, rather than constantly. The diets of people from the southern regions of France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain are rich in grains, vegetables, fruits, lean meat, and olive oil. They have a low intake of animal products, saturated fat, and luxury breads. On the Asian side, great emphasis is placed on rice, noodles, breads, and whole grains, all with minimal processing. Fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, and tea are also ubiquitous in Asian cuisine. Fish is widely consumed, and red meat is not. Asian diets are even lower in saturated fat than Mediterranean diets are.
Given that it borrows heavily from Asian and Mediterranean diets, what makes the Full-Power Meal Plan unique, you may rightly ask? Here are some significant ways in which it differs from those eating styles, giving it its unique flavor, literally and figuratively. Also included below is some good advice for boosting the benefits of the Full-Power Meal Plan.
1. To gain the greatest benefits from soy, the Full-Power Meal Plan includes two daily servings of traditional soy foods like tofu, tempeh, and edamame. When convenience takes priority, you can replace them with a 14-gram soy protein fiber supplement.
2. To get the most out of the Full-Power Meal Plan,you’ll need to select from a variety of fruits every day, not just the one or two you’re used to eating. Two servings of citrus fruits will give you a daily boost of vitamin C. Two servings ofberries will give you a whole host of phytochemicals and antioxidants to help keep your brain and your body young. Then we’ll ask you to choose two more servings of pretty much any fruit imaginable. Ideally, mix it up so that each week you’re eating cherries, melon, and tropical fruits like mango, pineapple, and papaya in some measure. And don’t forget the staples: apples, pears, peaches, bananas, nectarines, plums, and dried fruits like raisins and apricots.
3. You’ll eat a combined three servings a day of carotene-rich vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, tomatoes, and tomato sauce; and dark-green leafy vegetables like romaine lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, and collard greens. Don’t stop there, though: Eat two servings of vegetables from the Brassica family, which includes broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. For good measure, add one serving of those wonderfully pungent vegetables from the Allium family, like onions and garlic.
4. This diet is designed for guys who work out. If you’re not doing so already, start lifting weights 2 to 3 days a week, doing cardio the same number of days, and doing something like a weekend sport or a hike on off days. Keep moving.
5. The Full-Power Meal Plan demands adequate hydration. Your body must replenish the fluid it loses daily. For most men, that’s 9 to 11 cups of fluid a day. Luckily, when you follow this diet, you’re eating an abundance of fruits and vegetables every day, and those foods contain a lot of water. In fact, you can probably get 3 to 4 cups of fluid from fruits and veggies alone. That leaves you still needing at least 5 to 7 cups of fluids. Make no fewer than 5 of them water. The rest can be milk, maybe some orange juice, and perhaps even coffee.
If you drink caffeinated beverages, don’tworryabout a diuretic effect kicking in until you drink more than 3 servings a day. Once you pass that threshold, add ½ cup of a noncaffeinated fluid forevery additional caffeinated beverage you drink.
Alcohol, however, is dehydrating from the firstsip. For every alcoholic beverage you drink, add another ½ cup of nonalcoholic fluid to your plan.
6. The Full-Power Meal Plan includes a serving of beans every day. By adding beans to your diet on a regular basis, you consume less fat and more fiber, and you increase the complex carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals in your diet while still taking in a wholesome amount of protein. Beans can help your health immediately, and ongoing research suggests that they may have a major impact on longevity. If there’s an added benefit down the road, so much the better. You’ll have gotten a head start.
7. One of the most important things you can do to ensure bone health is get plenty of calcium and vitamin D from your food. That’s why the Full-Power Meal Plan prescribes four servings of dairy products every day. Dairy is invaluable for its calcium and whey protein, which promote bone and cardiovascular health, not to mention muscle growth. Calcium, vitamin D, and whey also appear to play a big role in controlling obesity. Milk in particular is high in calcium and fortified with vitamin D.
8. The Full-Power Meal Plan asks you to eat several daily servings of nuts, olives, and avocados for the benefits of their healthy oils.
9. Though seafood is eaten often in both Mediterranean and Asian cultures, you need to eat it even more often in the Full-Power Meal Plan— at least five times weekly, while still leaving room to eat a variety of other good protein sources like eggs, poultry, and lean cuts of meat. The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and other seafood assist with brain health, mood elevation, and weight management.
10. Eating a whole egg (yolk included) every day, or at least every other day, is integral to the Full-Power Meal Plan. Yolks contain lecithin and choline, which help keep your cells healthy and operating at peak efficiency, especially your brain cells.
11. The Full-Power Meal Plan includes one 4-ounce serving of skinless poultry or other lean meat every day. A variety of foods within all the food groups will ensure the widest variety of nutrient intake to promote health and prevent disease.
12. You’ve read a lot about sugar and high-fructose corn syrup throughout this book. In the Full-Power Meal Plan, its presence is limited to small amounts. Cutting it out completely would be severe, if not impossible. A reasonable serving of 8 teaspoons of added sugar daily allows you extra sweets without letting you go overboard. Keep in mind that 8 teaspoons means anywhere sugar is added, not just where you add it. So if you eat fruited yogurts, 1 cup has 8 teaspoons of added sugar. So do a 16-ounce sports drink . . . and two Power Bars. One packet of sugar contains 1 teaspoon of the stuff, so if you drop two packets’ worth in each of 4 cups of coffee, you’ve just hit your limit.
13. I recommend three supplements as part of the Full-Power Meal Plan:
14 grams of whey protein powder.
1½ tablespoons of ground flaxseed. This is equivalent to one fat serving, and it’s incorporated into the Full-Power Meal Plan—you don’t have to modify your other fat servings to include it.
100 to 200 international units (IU) of vitamin E. Choose a natural one labeled d-alpha tocopherol, as opposed to laboratory synthesized dl-alpha tocopherol, which has a greatly reduced potency.
Given how I’ve touched on most of this stuff in previous chapters, you may be ready to jump straight to the diet. If so, wonderful. However, there are a few new headliners in this diet that you may want to know more about.
Soy is hardly a staple of the average American male’s diet, but in the Full-Power Meal Plan, you eat it pretty much every day. To understand why, you need a little background.
Back in 1919, scientists were trying to quantify the quality (or lack thereof) of various proteins. By studying the amino acid needs of growing rats, they came up with the Protein Efficiency Ratio (PER). The PER ranked soy protein below animal proteins because soy provides less of one essential amino acid, methionine, than the PER standard profile. What they failed to take into account is that rats need methionine in larger amounts than humans do because it supports fur growth. (How’s your fur growing? I thought so.)
In 1993, a better yardstick for evaluating protein quality was developed, based on people instead of rats. According to the Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score, or PDCAAS, the highest score a food protein can receive is 1.0. (“PDCAAS of Selected Food Proteins” below lists the scores of selected protein sources.) Under PDCAAS, the quality of soy protein is equal to that of casein (milk protein) and egg white, which all have perfect scores.
More recent studies have suggested that PDCAAS, though better than PER, is still too simplistic to provide a complete look at soy’s effect on human tissue. For example, it’s not suggested in high amounts for guys who want to build muscle or maximize postexercise muscle recovery—when it comes to building muscle, soy just doesn’t have enough amino acids to do the job whey protein does. For anyone seeking the majority of benefits that proteins can provide, however, soy is an optimal addition to your protein rotation.
For starters, soy’s contributions to health promotion and disease prevention have been hailed repeatedly in studies. Perhaps because of their antioxidant capabilities, the isoflavones in soy appear to protect against cancers, specifically hormone-related cancers like colon and prostate. These same compounds,
combined with soy fiber, also appear to lower bad cholesterol while raising levels of its good counterpart, making cardiovascular disease less likely to occur. This effect is more pronounced when subjects consume intact soy protein than when they take amino acid formulas patterned after soy protein, suggesting that something other than the protein appears to affect the cholesterol response to soy.
Beyond its nutritional value, soybeans and soy protein show promise for weight loss, another reason they’re featured in the Full-Power Meal Plan. No one is 100 percent certain what the mechanism of action is. For example, the lecithin component of soy may slow stomach emptying and suppress appetite, either of which would help guys lose weight. The phytoestrogens in soy may also help in the fat-loss effort.
I’ve worked with guys long enough to know some of you, or maybemost of you, are going to resist eating soy. Do yourself a favor and try it. If you can’t stomach edamame, give silken tofu a try. It’s super-soft, nearly odorless, and blends into a smoothie without leaving lumps. You will hardly know it’s there!
If even that doesn’t work, go out and buy a soy protein supplement that contains soy fiber. You may not get the full range of benefits for health and weight loss that you would from the combination of soy protein, fibers, and lecithin found in soy foods like edamame, tofu, and tempeh, but it’s better than cutting the tofu out completely. When you do supplement, it’s better to use products based on the whole protein rather than on specific isoflavones. Soy concentrates are at least 65 percent protein (dry weight), whereas soy protein isolates are at least 90 percent protein. The fat has been removed from soy concentrates, but they still contain carbohydrate, whereas soy isolates are pure protein.
I’d urge you to stay away from soy isoflavone pills, which we still don’t fully understand and which could possibly be more harmful than helpful. Although intact soy protein reduces the risk of prostate cancer, scientists are not sure whether isoflavones in a pure supplement have the same effect.
There’s been some confusion lately over whether fruit is as beneficial as we’ve historically believed. I’d like to put that confusion to rest. Consider a British study that for 17 years tracked the lifestyles and diets of 11,000 people deemed health-conscious. Within its findings was this little morsel: Members of this group had a death rate that was one-half that of the general population. When all the study’s variables were analyzed statistically, a few facts about fruit were very encouraging. Eating fresh fruit daily was highly associated with significantly fewer deaths from heart disease, cerebro-vascular disease (i.e., stroke and other diseases that may lead to stroke, like carotid stenosis and aneurysms), and for all causes of death combined.
Fewer than one-fourth of all Americans consume the five servings of fruits and vegetables recommended by the National Cancer Institute as part of its “5 a Day for Better Health” program. How unfortunate. Not only is fruit the best medicine money can buy, but it also tastes great. After all, fruit is full of sugar in the form of fructose.
Ask most guys what’s good about fruits, and they’ll scratch their head for a second, shuffle their feet, and then maybe mention that oranges have vitamin C. True, but that’s just a starting point. In fact, we could write an entire book devoted solely to the health benefits of fruit. Instead, here’s the condensed version.
The important micronutrients found abundantly in fruit include beta-carotene, folate, vitamin E, potassium, magnesium, and, yes, vitamin C. The vitamins and minerals are the stuff that makes your body go, basically. The biochemical reactions they’re involved in number in the thousands, if not tens of thousands. Researchers have fingered all of the above as playing important roles in preventing and fighting disease, which may have a lot to do with all of the fiber and phytochemicals they contain. The latter in particular have been revealed by increasingly sophisticated studies to help reduce the risk of contracting chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. (See chapter 7 for a detailed discussion of food and disease prevention.)
All of that comes in a package extremely low in calories, as the average fruit serving contains only60. But fruit’s role in fat loss involves more than just the fact that it contains virtually no fat. In experiments where subjects consumed an identical number of calories, the ones who ate more fruit lost more weight than the subjects who ate less fruit.
This may have something to do with pectin, a class of water-soluble complex carbohydrates found in the cell walls of ripe fruits such as apples, plums, and grapefruit. Pectin isn’t absorbed by the human digestive tract. The food industry uses it as a thickening agent and texturizer, as well as to replace fat and sugar in low-calorie foods. Added to diets in significant amounts, pectin moderates the natural rise in blood sugar, slows the rate at which the stomach empties food, and increases feelings of fullness—all of which can help deflate that spare tire around your waist.
In pure form, as little as 5 grams of pectin a day mixed with orange juice can complement a weight-loss program when used in conjunction with a well-planned diet and exercise regimen. Apple pomace and citrus peels are the main sources of commercially acceptable pectins, but banana, lemon pulp, passion fruit rind, tamarind, papaya, guava, and other fruits are also good sources.
Much of what’s been said here about fruits applies equally to vegetables: They’re loaded with antioxidants and phytochemicals, you get a huge windfall of nutrients for very few calories, and you should eat as wide a variety of them as possible.
One quick word about salads, though. They should form part of any nutritious diet, but equating their consumption with successful weight loss is a common mistake. A seemingly healthy Caesar salad, for example, can leave you saddled with 50 fat grams from the cheese and Caesar dressing, which typically contains mustard, olive oil, and egg yolk, along with other fatty ingredients. What’s more, you’ll be starving an hour later and reach for something worse.
STORING FRUITS CORRECTLY MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE in how long they stay fresh and how good (or bad) they taste. Most fruit is shipped unripe throughout most of the year, and it needs to be kept out of the refrigerator until it ripens. To speed that process, place your fruit in a closed paper bag and leave it on the kitchen counter. The gases produced by the fruit and trapped in the bag will promote the ripening process. Check the fruit daily so it doesn’t become overripe. Once the fruit is ripe, store it in the refrigerator. (Bananas are one exception; store them at room temperature.)
Here are some other guidelines that can help you minimize the loss of nutrients from fruit.
Always purchase fresh produce.
Store fruit whole, rather than cutting it up.
Never soak produce for extended periods.
When peeling and paring, remove as little of the actual fruit as possible.
If you purchase precut produce, refrigerate it in airtight wrappers or containers.
Defrost fruit in the microwave to reduce the loss of water-soluble nutrients.
Cook fruit in large pieces to lessen the amount of surface exposed to water. Use just enough water to prevent scorching, and place a lid on the pan.
Think of salads as an adjunct to, rather than a substitute for, your main meal. Limit the fat they contain by going easy on the dressings and other fat-laden toppings such as grated cheese and croutons. And juice them up with lean protein sources such as salmon, chicken, and beans. Protein builds muscle, and the more of that metabolically active tissue you have, the easier it will be to lose fat.
A few final words about fruit, and they are words of caution. First, food poisoning doesn’t come from just shellfish gone bad; you can get it from any food, fruit included. In fact, well-publicized outbreaks of food poisoning have been caused by fruit juices and raspberries contaminated by bacteria. These outbreaks have stirred national debate over regulatory issues pertaining to the production of nonpasteurized juices and the irradiation of imported produce.
Second, pathogens can survive in fruit juices, and pasteurization virtually eliminates the risk of bacterial contamination. Some consumers think this process diminishes the taste of fruit juices, but surely the difference isn’t worth the risk. Make sure the juices you drink have undergone this process.
THE MOST COMMON SOURCE OF FOOD POISONING is the person preparing it, usually when that person doesn’t wash his or her hands. In addition to washing your hands before you prepare any kind of food—which should be a given, right?—always follow these additional food-handling and safety guidelines.
Wash fresh produce, scrub it with a brush, and rinse it thoroughly under running water.
Peel waxed fruit, as waxes don’t wash off and can seal in pesticide residues. Peel fruits such as apples, when appropriate. (Peeling removes pesticides that remain in or on the peel, but it also removes fibers, vitamins, and minerals.) Use a knife to peel an orange or grapefruit, rather than biting into it.
When you open a can containing fruits and vegetables and don’t use the entire contents, store the remainder in a glass or plastic container, not in the can.
Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Consider 60°F to 125°F to be the danger zone for food temperature because it allows for rapid growth of bacteria and production of toxins.Don’t hold foods in this range for more than 2 to 3 hours.
Throw out foods that show any signs of mold.
When traveling outside the United States, always peel raw fruits and vegetables. Avoid any kind of raw-vegetable salads; the water used to wash the vegetables may have been contaminated. Consuming only cooked foods is generally considered the safest practice.
As for imported produce, foreign growers around the world aren’t subjected to the same regulations that apply to domestic ones. Bacterial contamination is checked for at the border, but as demonstrated by a 1996 outbreak of cyclospora caused by Guatemalan raspberries, the process is hardly failsafe. As it’s nearly impossible to know whether the fruit you purchase was grown in the United States or abroad, make sure you follow some basic guidelines for safely handling fruits. (See “Handle with Care” on previous page.)
The second cautionary note concerns fruits and medications or drugs. Pharmacists have known about these potentially dangerous interactions for years, but most consumers remain ignorant of them. In particular, citrus juices, especially grapefruit juice, are notorious for their interactions with meds. None of the following medications should be taken with any citrus juice.
Amlodipine
Cortisone
Coumadin
Cyclosporin
Diltiazem
Estradiol
Feladipine
Midazolam
Nifedipine
Nitrendipine
Nisoldipine
Terfenadine
Theophylline
Triazolam
Verapimil
The equation is simple: Diet plus exercise equals fitness and health. A lobotomy patient could figure that one out. Remove any single variable and you’re left with an incomplete formula. The Powerfood Nutrition Plan formula is no different. I can’t design a meal plan that will keep you healthy and fit if you’re not going to exercise.
You don’t need to train for a triathlon, but you do need to hit the gym (or the bricks, pedals, etc.) with some regularity. I’m talking real exercise here, not 10-minute dog walks. This should do the trick: 2 or 3 days with the weights, 2 or 3 days of cardio, and active rest on your day or days off, which means biking or walking somewhere instead of driving, or participating in a sport—something like that.
Learning proper techniques can be somewhat involved, depending on the exercise in question. But don’t confuse educated exercise with rocket science. Just as you can trade stocks profitably without a broker if you’re willing to educate yourself, you can learn how to perform exercises correctly from any number of sources, including a book, knowledgeable training partner, reputable media source, or group seminar.
Back to what you put into your body. I’ve sung the praises of water throughout The Powerfood Nutrition Plan, and with good reason. It’s the most abundant compound in the human body, making up about 60 percent of an adult’s body weight. It fills virtually all cells, as well as the spaces separating them. All biochemical reactions occur in water, and water helps these processes along. From energy production to joint lubrication to reproduction, every system in your body depends on water to some degree.
Unfortunately, our hardwired drive to drink isn’t as compelling as the same desire to eat. The human body’s thirst mechanism doesn’t kick in until it’s already suffering mild dehydration.
The upshot of that genetic programming is that most guys don’t drink enough water. In fact, one out of every three people in the United States is walking around slightly dehydrated. As discussed in chapter 6, chronic, mild dehydration can have a measurable effect on mental and physical performance, longterm health, and even muscle growth. A water deficit of just 2 to 4 percent of your body weight can reduce the intensity of your strength-training workout by as much as 21 percent, and your aerobic power by a whopping 48 percent!
Getting to that point is easier than you might think, too. Working out at a moderate pace in a mild climate, you’re probably sweating off 2 to 4 pounds of fluid an hour. That means a 150-pounder can easily lose 2 percent of his body weight in fluid, or 3 pounds, within an hour. If the exercise is more intense or the environment is more extreme, the fluid losses will be greater.
Water affects how your muscles will grow in response to those workouts, too. In well-hydrated muscle cells, protein synthesis is stimulated and protein breakdown is lessened. Muscle-cell dehydration, on the other hand, promotes protein breakdown and inhibits protein synthesis. Cell volume has also been shown to influence genetic expression, enzyme and hormone activity, and metabolic regulation.
Water also can help you lose weight. Not only is it devoid of calories, it also takes the edge off hunger so that you eat less. If you’re on a high-protein diet, you need plenty of water to detoxify ammonia, a byproduct of protein being metabolized for energy. As you mobilize your stored fatty acids for use as energy, the fat-soluble toxins that have been benignly languishing in your fat cells are released into your bloodstream, where they have the chance to do damage. The more fluid you drink, the more dilute the toxins in your bloodstream are, and the more rapidly they exit your body. Good riddance.
The health benefits of water are legion, and many of them have been discussed previously in The Powerfood Nutrition Plan. To recap, proper hydration can dramatically reduce the risk of developing kidney stones, lower the chances of getting many cancers, and prevent the heart ailment mitral valve prolapse from occurring.
Design a fluid plan with the same rigor you apply to eating. To cover your minimum intake, drink 2 cups of fluid upon waking in the morning, followed by 2 more each at midmorning, lunch, midafternoon, and dinner. Make at least 5 of them water, and make sure the rest minimize caffeine and lack alcohol, because both can promote water loss. Then add what you need to stay well hydrated before, during, and after exercise.
Keep in mind that any number of factors could bump up your minimum fluid requirements. These include high temperatures, low humidity, high altitude, exercise, dieting, illness, and travel. (So if you’re traveling to Phoenix, Arizona, by plane, while you’re on a diet and sick, get drinking.) Regardless, carry water and other fluids with you as a constant reminder to drink. Freeze fluids in water bottles to keep them cold during long-distance exercise. Don’t forget that fruits and vegetables are great sources of water as well.
Even if you’re following some or even all of those steps, monitor your hydration status just to be certain. One of the easiest ways is to check out the color of your urine, which should be relatively odorless and no darker than straw color. Anything yellower than that means you need water pronto.
Except for ethnic cuisines, beans play a very minor role in the American diet. What a missed opportunity. Not only is evidence mounting in favor of the health benefits of eating beans, but their “musical” side effects can now be silenced, too. (See chapter 8.)
Dried beans, a.k.a. legumes, include beans, peas, lentils . . . you get the picture. There are actually 13,000 species of legumes, but only 20 that you’d look at and say, “Ah . . . food.” Those 20 species vary widely in color, size, shape, and flavor. Soybeans, peanuts, and other legumes grown for both their protein and oil content are called oilseeds. The majority, called grain legumes, are grown primarily as protein sources. These include beans, lentils, lima beans, cowpeas, fava beans, chickpeas, and common peas.
Regardless of how you classify them, legumes are among the most nutritious vegetables known to man, and they have remarkably similar nutritional profiles. For example, a ½-cup serving of most cooked beans provides 110 to 143 calories.
Beans don’t include all of the essential amino acids and, hence, aren’t a complete protein, critics contend. True enough (soy excluded). Because beans are rich in most essential amino acids but slightly deficient in methionine and cysteine, you need to mix them with complementary foods to complete their array of essential amino acids. Cultures around the world figured out eons ago that the key is to consume beans with grains or flour, which is why tandems such as red beans and rice, refried beans and corn tortillas, and pasta and bean soup have become dietary staples in different parts of the world. Thus combined, beans’ amino acid profiles hold their own against those of animal proteins. You don’t have to combine the proteins in one sitting, either. Simply eating a variety of protein sources throughout the day will do the trick.
Beans are extremely useful for guys who work out because their carbohydrate helps spare protein from being burned as fuel. They’re particularly useful in this regard for guys concerned with glycemic-index issues and insulin resistance. Beans are high-fiber, low-GI foods, so they power up your body for exercise with minimal effect on insulin.
And beans are low in fat. That’s right: low in fat. There’s a lot of confusion about this, as many people believe beans are high in fat. File that theory under Nutritional Red Herrings. Except for soybeans (19 percent) and peanuts (46 percent), the fat content of legumes ranges a low-ish 0.8 to 1.5 percent. Even with those exceptions, bear in mind that the fat in beans comes mostly from unsaturated fatty acids and that they contain no cholesterol.
What beans are high in is protein. On average, 21 to 25 percent of the calories come from protein. (Soybeans are the exception. Approximately 34 percent of their calories come from protein.) Beans are also the cheapest of protein sources.
The health benefits don’t end there, either. Beans are a good source of water-soluble vitamins, especially thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and folacin. Beans also contain healthy amounts of the minerals calcium, iron, copper, zinc, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium, although these minerals aren’t as readily bioavailable in beans as they are in animal sources.
Beans are also rich in water-soluble fiber, which lowers levels of glucose and cholesterol in the blood. They contain insoluble fiber, which aids in proper functioning of the gut, in significant amounts. Fiber not only helps with weight management, it also may lessen the risk of getting colon cancer.
As for which beans to add to your diet, we refrain from singling out two or three stars because there’s no compelling reason to exclude any bean from your plate. Vegans might be the one exception here, as they will almost certainly want to consume a lot of soybeans, soy-based products, or both. As discussed earlier in this chapter, soy is the most complete plant protein available.
Dairy has received its fair share of media bashing in recent years, but the National Dairy Council, in its counterattack, is right on: Milk does a body good. In fact, after reading this, you’ll never think about cutting out dairy products again.
Unless you’ve been living on a desert island for the past decade, you should know that osteoporosis, a disease in which one’s bones become brittle, has become widespread among the nation’s elderly. But you may be under the misconception that, as a guy, you really don’t have to worry about it. If so, you would be wrong, as was discussed in chapter 9. It happens to men as well, and more often than you might think.
The most important things you can do to prevent osteoporosis, in random order, are:
Maintain a regularweight-bearing exercise program.
Maintain a healthy body weight.
Don’t smoke.
Include plenty of calcium and vitamin D as part of your diet.
The fourth reason explains why the Full-Power Meal Plan includes four daily servings of dairy products. Milk in particular is high in calcium and fortified with vitamin D.
Because vitamin D is limited to only a handful of foods, the human body depends on sunlight to cover the rest of its needs. In fact, that’s where most of your vitamin D comes from: ultraviolet energy from the sun being absorbed by the skin. If you don’t already, make it a priority to get out into the sunshine for short bursts. Exposing your hands, arms, and face to the sun (sans sunscreen) for 5 to 15 minutes a day should be enough to supply your body with enough vitamin D.
Vitamin D is a quirky nutrient, as evidenced by the fact that it’s also classified as a hormone. Your bones depend on it and calcium working together, performing a delicate balancing act of biochemistry, with vitamin D helping calcium regain its balance whenever it falls short. Vitamin D acts on the kidneys and intestines to maintain adequate levels of calcium and phosphorus for bone formation, and it’s integrally involved in the maintenance of calcium levels in blood.
Because vitamin D is so interdependent with calcium, it plays a crucial role in helping your muscles, heart, and nervous system function properly. Vitamin D may also influence cell growth and immune function, so it shouldn’t surprise you to hear that it may decrease your risk of developing certain cancers. What’s more, the recent discovery of calcium’s pivotal role in controlling fat metabolism makes vitamin D central to issues concerning energy balance and weight maintenance.
This groundbreaking research, conducted by teams led by Dr. Michael Zemel at the University of Tennessee, has found that human fat cells contain a gene switched on and off by the presence or absence of calcium. When calcium levels are low, the gene turns on, causing the body to produce fat and store energy, while suppressing the system that breaks down fat and burns energy. When calcium levels are abundant, this obesity gene turns off. When this happens, the body is told to go easy on the fat production, increase fat breakdown, and crank up thermogenesis, the burning of calories.
The antiobesity effect of dairy appears to involve more than just calcium, though. Specifically, research subjects who get their calcium from dairy products have significantly greater weight control, less fat, and more lean body mass than subjects who get theirs predominantly from supplements. One possible contributor beyond calcium is the whey found in dairy products. This high-quality protein assists with protein metabolism and helps build muscle, but it also contains so-called ACE inhibitors, which help suppress fat formation by cells.
Another key component in dairy products is the branched-chain amino acid leucine, which is involved in protein metabolism, especially when calorie intake (especially carbohydrate) is low; activity level is high, as in exercise; or both situations come into play at once. When leucine is widely available in the body, protein synthesis gets a shot in the arm, energy metabolism revs high, and levels of blood sugar and insulin stay under control. All of the above assist with losing fat, gaining muscle, and controlling body weight.
Although milk offers some fantastic nutritional benefits, another calcium source, yogurt, does some very specific things above and beyond what milk offers. In studies, subjects who get their calcium from yogurt lose more weight and more body fat than those who get theirs from other sources. One of the magic bullets in yogurt is a group of substances called probiotics. Found in cultured dairy products that contain living bacteria, probiotics promote the growth of microorganisms. Unlike the bad bugs found in food that make you sick, these bugs are normal inhabitants of a healthy human digestive tract. Their job is to help with digestion and create an environment that discourages the growth of bad bugs.
Along with their general role in keeping the digestive system humming, probiotics confer a remarkable array of benefits on the human body. They:
Enhance immune function
Prevent antibiotic-induced diarrhea
Reduce the risk of infection after some surgeries
Protect against respiratory infections
Combat the inflammatory skin disorder eczema
Lower blood pressure and cholesterol
Reduce the risk of cancer and kidney stone formation
Dairy, including yogurt, helps your mind, too. Whey protein contains tryptophan, a precursor to the brain chemical serotonin, a shortage of which has been linked to depression. Serotonin also promotes restful sleep. When your outlook is positive and you sleep well, it’s much easier to stick to a healthy lifestyle that includes eating well, exercising regularly, and getting adequate rest.
In addition to consuming vitamin D in the recommended amounts from fish, milk, and fortified cereals, add a margin of safety by taking a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement containing 200 to 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D. If you spend most of your time indoors or live in a northern climate, where sun exposure may be limited, bump that range up to 400 to 800. Megadosing with vitamin D isn’t recommended, as it can lead to vitamin toxicity in extreme cases.
If you’re lactose intolerant, don’t let that keep you from following the Full-Power Meal Plan. Many guys thus afflicted still produce enough lactase enzyme to comfortably consume 2 to 3 cups of milk, spread among three daily portions and combined with meals. Hard cheese, which contains high amounts of calcium but considerably less lactose than milk, can be used in place of a milk serving. (One ounce of hard cheese is nearly equivalent in calcium and calories to 1 cup of milk.) What’s more, the use of lactose-reduced dairy products and lactase enzyme supplements can reduce the symptoms of lactose intolerance, or eliminate them altogether.
In recent years, nuts have gotten a bad rap. Detractors point to nuts’ high fat content and their effect on the 42-inch-waistband crowd. But throw out the nuts, and you’re throwing out a primary source of important nutrients such as protein, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, fiber, folate, phytochemicals (especially from almonds, chestnuts, and pistachios), and vitamins A, C, and E.
Nuts are dense foods. An ounce contains anywhere from 165 to 200 calories, including 14 to 21 grams of fat. At first glance, that’s a lot of fat, but most of it is unsaturated, the kind that provides the essential fatty acids. These are important for the body’s daily health: They lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels while maintaining high HDL (good) cholesterol levels. And like all plant foods, nuts are cholesterol-free.
Nuts are especially important when you consider vitamin E, which appears to play an important role in preventing certain kinds of cancer, heart disease, and cataract formation. The main dietary sources I used of vitamin E are nuts, nut butters, seeds, avocados, olives, and vegetable oils. Cut the nuts and you’re cutting a vital dietary protector.
Protein from the sea anchors the Full-Power Meal Plan. Seldom are you encouraged to increase your fat intake, but that’s exactly what we ask you to do by eating fish and seafood five times a week.
By now, you know the reasons I make the case for fish: the omega-3 fatty acids that protect against heart disease, blood clots, and strokes while boosting your brainpower, calming your nerves, and even reducing arthritic pain. An added benefit of eating fish most evenings is that it helps with weight management, apparently by enhancing the efficiency of leptin, the protein circulating throughout the body that is at least partially responsible for controlling fat stores.
For those who don’t presently eat much fish, the temptation may be to take fish-oil supplements and be done with it. Not so fast. Unfortunately, not enough research justifies their use, except by patients with severely high triglycerides who haven’t responded well to treatment, and by those at risk for pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas. An excess of these oils can cause internal or external bleeding, and though you’d be unlikely to get too many from whole foods, that possibility exists with pill forms. Also, fish-oil capsules are dietary supplements and hence unregulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Fish-oil supplements are rarely pure and often contain significant concentrations of highly toxic elements.
Speaking of toxic substances, they can be found in fish as well. Pollution in the air and soil and dumping into the oceans has led to an extremely polluted environment—and toxic levels of mercury in some fish. Fish farming practices that feed chemically contaminated fish meal to salmon have led to dangerously high levels of organochloride chemicals in farm-raised salmon. Organochlorides have been proven to be cancer-causing agents. The bottom line is this: You need to educate yourself on the safest kinds of fish, and eat them. Fish is too important to leave out of your diet; on the other hand, toxins in fish are too important to ignore.
Here are some good seafood choices that are generally low in contaminants:
Anchovies
Crab
Halibut
Mussels
Oysters
Pollock
Sardines
Sole
Turbot
*If you choose farmed salmon, ask where it was farmed; Washington State and Chile have the cleanest fish.
Like beans, eggs have fallen into disfavor, and unjustly so. Their protein is of the highest quality. It receives a perfect score, 1.0, for bioavailability, meaning your body gets to use pretty much all of it. Most proteins can’t make that boast.
The egg yolk has been particularly scorned, but that is a particularly important source of nutrients. It contains protein and iron, but the secret treasure inside the yoke is lecithin (a.k.a. phosphatidylcholine). Lecithin helps with nerve transmissions in the brain. That conductivity has a big impact on how well your noggin recognizes and remembers things.
In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better snack than hard-cooked eggs. I remember my dad telling me how he used to stash the hard-cooked eggs from breakfast in his pockets while cruising from the Mediterranean Sea to the South Pacific during World War II. That way he’d have it for a snack as the day wore on. Keep the shell on until you’re ready to eat, and they can go anywhere—in your lunch bag, in your desk, or even (although I don’t really recommend it) in your pocket.
Variety is one of the watchwords of the Full-Power Meal Plan, and that applies in spades to protein sources. Different meats give you not only high-quality protein but also critical nutrients such as iron, zinc, vitamins B6 and B12, and thiamine. Many other foods are bereft of those.
The fat value in poultry drops significantly when you aren’t eating the fat-laden skin, so strip it from your chicken and turkey either before or after you start cooking. Beef is a bit harder to desaturate, but if you look for the leanest cuts, you’re on the right track. Beef is graded according to its fat marbling (prime, choice, and select), with select being the leanest grade. Trim the remaining fat before cooking. To make sure that you’re eating lean meat, choose from the six skinniest cuts of beef (see this page).
Consumers are often told to steer clear of red meat and their saturated fatty acids and cholesterol because of the link between red meat and cancer. Although eating gobs of saturated fat is indeed terrible for you, linking red meat with cancer is simplistic at best and misguided at worst. First, eating only leaner cuts can reduce saturated fats significantly. Second, red meat is a major source of conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs). These are the only natural fatty acids said by the National Academy of Science to exhibit consistent anticancer properties. It appears that although fatty beef and its derivatives may increase cancer risk, leaner cuts—those containing 15 percent or less fat—may be protective against the same, which is probably attributable to CLAs.
(On a side note, one factor that you shouldn’t forget is the newfound concern about bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as BSE or Mad Cow Disease. At least one Canadian and nearly 100 Europeans have died from a human variant of the disease—called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease—and they probably contracted it from eating infected meat products. There is probably no need for you to worry about getting the disease, as long as you follow the guidelines in “Calming Mad Cow Concerns” below.)
Pork is leaner than it used to be, particularly the leanest cuts, which come from the loin and leg areas. Lamb and veal are also lower in fat content than beef. Again, select lean cuts.
You’ve probably heard people talk about “empty calories,” perhaps without realizing what that means, exactly. Basically, it refers to calories that offer little or no additional nutritional value. The classic example is a can of Coke, which is basically colored sugar water.
THE LIKELIHOOD OF EATING MEAT CONTAMINATED WITH MAD COW DISEASE is very rare. However, I’d recommend you take some precautions. Here are the most important ones.
Whenever possible, eat organic, grain-fed beef. These animals cannot be fed any animal by-products and therefore won’t have Mad Cow Disease.
Avoid high-risk cow parts—parts that are more likely to have Mad Cow–infected tissue. These include brains, beef cheeks, and neck bones.
Avoid beef sold on the bone. Instead, choose boneless cuts of meat.
Avoid bone marrow in general.
If you want ground beef, have the butcher grind it fresh for you. Whenever possible, grind your own meat from a boneless cut.
As that example suggests, when it comes to empty calories, sugar takes the cake. Unfortunately, the U.S. food supply is overloaded with the stuff, adding unnecessary calories to our diets and inches to our waistlines. Sugar wreaks havoc on weight control and mood alike. As we discussed earlier, some guys might even be addicted to the stuff.
One type of sugar in particular, high-fructose corn syrup, is nearly ubiquitous in processed foods and drinks. I call it the devil’s candy. (If you skipped to this chapter and haven’t read about the dangers of HFCS, turn to this page for a primer.)
The Full-Power Meal Plan reduces consumption of foods that list high-fructose corn syrup among their first three ingredients. Note the word reduce— you don’t need to eliminate it. The body can handle a little bit of it occasionally with no problems. Wherever possible, however, replace these engineered products with whole foods. That one simple step alone will go a long way toward improving your entire diet.
Supplements can’t turn a poorly designed diet into a good one. Their role should be exactly as the name suggests: augmenting an otherwise healthy diet full of all the foods necessary for optimal health and maximum performance. There are reasons to believe that such augmentation is advisable. Humans no longer live in the same environment that their ancestors did, yet they still enter the world with the same factory programming. The human body doesn’t get the same amount of exercise it did when men were roaming the prairies, so it doesn’t get the same quantity of food it took to keep it running at peak levels back then. The environment also hits the body with stresses, like the compromised ozone layer, that would have been inconceivable even 100 years ago. Plus, we live a lot longer. These are all profound changes that haven’t yet been accounted for in human DNA.
ADMITTEDLY, THERE ARE A LOT OF GUYS WHO WON’T BE DETERRED from throwing steaks on the barbecue, no matter how glaring the connection between grilled meat and cancer. For those guys, here are some suggestions from the American Institute of Cancer Research that can help reduce the risk.
Choose lean cuts of meat. The fat that drips onto barbecue coals burns and creates carcinogens that float back onto your food in the grill smoke. Leaner meats cut down on the drippings.
Trim all excess fat off the meat before you grill it.
Use tongs or a spatula to turn the meat. Using a fork might pierce the meat and allow juices and fat to drop on the fire, causing carcinogenic flame-ups.
Avoid or clean up pieces that are heavily charred.
Precook meat like poultry and ribs. These can be boiled, steamed, or partially cooked in the microwave and then grilled briefly for the unique flavor and aroma.
Marinate meats prior to grilling them. This may significantly protect them from the formation of carcinogenic substances.
In order to take in all of the nutrients we need, we either have to eat 4,000 to 5,000 calories a day and exercise like crazy, or supplement our diets with certain specific nutrients. The following products all have an important role to play in the Full-Power Meal Plan.
Whey protein. By now, you should know that not all proteins are the same. Some digest slowly, others quickly; some are retained and used by the body in many ways, and others have only a few benefits. Things get even more confusing when you start looking into supplements, where you have to sort through terminology such as concentrates, isolates, hydrolysates, microfiltration, ion exchange, and so on. Suffice it say that whey is near the top of the charts.
Once you’ve decided to include a protein supplement in your diet, you will likely be using it on a regular basis, which makes ease of digestion crucial. Whey protein concentrate, for example, can contain 20 to 80 percent lactose (i.e., the sugar in milk), whereas isolates should be at least 90 percent pure. Isolate-based products generally mix up thinner—like juice rather than liquid cement—and are easier to digest.
Multivitamin/mineral supplement. You won’t always know if your diet is providing you with all the vitamins and minerals you need, especially since the roles many of them play are subtle, albeit crucial. The B vitamins, for example, help your body absorb food properly. A daily multivitamin/mineral is the cheapest insurance policy you’ll ever buy.
Vitamin E. Why single out vitamin E from the others for the supplementation? Although vitamin E is found in nuts, seeds, raw wheat germ, polyunsaturated vegetable oils, and fish liver oils, in this age of fat-reduced diets it’s hard to consume the minimum amounts of vitamin E recommended in the Daily Reference Intakes (15 milligrams), let alone the much higher amounts that have been shown in studies to help stave off aging and disease progression in the brain and the body. Higher amounts of vitamin E may even help reduce the delayed-onset muscle soreness produced as a result of the oxidative damage to muscle cells after exercise. Focus on vitamin E-rich foods for the greatest benefit.
Flaxseed. This one seemingly innocuous little seed can make up for a whole host of missing things in your diet. It’s high in the omega-3 fat alphalinolenic acid, which is heavily involved in various cell functions, especially in the brain, where it influences mood and depression. The water-soluble fibers in flax help the cholesterol in bile exit the body, reducing blood cholesterol levels. The insoluble fibers help speed bowel activity and reduce constipation. Flax is also high in an indigestible fiber component called lignan, which assists with the maintenance of healthy blood-sugar levels and helps control insulin surges.
Most guys would find whole flaxseed unpalatable, and unless you’re a cow or giraffe, you don’t have the teeth to chew it properly. Instead, try grinding it up first. Use a small coffee grinder that you don’t use for anything else, and grind the flax daily as needed. If you don’t want to hassle with machinery, purchase flaxseed meal that’s been preground. Add 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed to your morning cereal or juice, to salads or yogurt, or even to a smoothie, and you’re good to go. Another alternative is to use flaxseed oil; you’ll get the healthy oils but avoid the fibers that way.
As you move forward with the Powerfood Nutrition Meal Plan, the key will be staying the course, sticking with the program, and all of those other clichés. To do that, you’re going to need to learn to avoid the foods that trigger backsliding. These are the foods you eat out of craving, rather than out of genuine hunger, and they can consistently sabotage otherwise disciplined eating habits.
Though certain foods crop up repeatedly as triggers—pizza tops the short list for most individuals—triggers can be highly individualized and even peculiar. “For one [person] it may be cheese and pizza, for another it may be red meat,” writes David Heber, M.D., Ph.D., in The Resolution Diet. “For others it is nonfat yogurt and chocolate chip cookies. . . . These are the foods that you are eating to relieve stress or boredom.” He recommends replacing cheese pizza with whole-wheat pasta and tomato sauce topped with shrimp; trying roasted garlic instead of butter; eating turkey instead of beef; and adding fresh fruit while ditching cookies and cake, among other swaps.
Despite being highly individualized, as Heber’s list suggests, trigger foods are, nine times out of ten, so-called comfort foods. Put another way, trigger foods are the ones we’ll go out to get in the middle of a torrential rainstorm. What makes one food a likely candidate to become a trigger and another not? Trigger foods tend to be high in sugar, fat, or both. Moreover, we usually associate them with fond memories and rewards. Again, this places the consumer of those foods in a psychological comfort zone.
The connection may also be rooted in biochemistry. Some researchers believe that answering a craving for a sweet and fatty food triggers the release of endorphins—brain chemicals that produce feelings of calm and pleasure. Others turn this cause-and-effect postulate upside down, contending that the body produces chemicals that trigger the cravings. In his book, Heber puts forth an evolutionary argument, saying that our cravings for those foods are a throwback to the days of the aforementioned loincloth, when long stretches of foodlessness for hunter-gatherer types made calorie hoarding an advantageous survival strategy.
To identify your trigger foods, keep a daily journal of your food and drink consumption for two weeks. Include notes on how activities, situations, and feelings affected it.Once you identify what the triggers are, you can try to short-circuit the cues that you get.
If cravings lead to binge eating, where you’re out of control or gaining significant weight, seek the help of a qualified health professional, such as a registered dietitian or therapist specializing in eating disorders. Emotional problems, such as feeling lonely or inadequate, are often the real issue, not the craving itself.
Fortunately, food cravings aren’t dangerous in most cases. Eating small amounts of the foods you crave—or versions reduced in fat or sugar—on a regular basis works for most people. What you don’t want to do is feeldeprived, especially if you’re trying to lose weight, because you’ll crave that item even more.
Regardless, trigger foods today have precious little to do with real hunger. Oftentimes, people are simply eating out of habit. They don’t even know when they’re hungry, but mental states and emotions such as anxiety or boredom will trigger eating. Then there are external impacts, such as the sight and smells of food. You walk past a bagel shop and smell the bagels, so you want a bagel. Well, if you hadn’t passed the store, you wouldn’t have thought twice about bagels, right?
What you have to ask yourself is, “Am I really hungry?” If the answer isn’t yes, keep walking.
Situations and solutions. While a predisposition to comfort foods can usually be managed, guys succumb to temptation, more often than not, as moods shade their judgment. A mood precipitated by something like a political crisis or a terrorist attack is a special situation, but simply falling into a generalized funk can have the same effect. If you feel disconnected from people, you may need to be satisfied by other stimuli. Food provides that. Situations themselves can also be powerful food triggers. Visit your favorite restaurant or bar, or spend a Sunday watching sports, and you’ll probably want the foods you associate with those events: maybe a steak or a bag of chips. The key to eating better is to anticipate these moments and take steps to protect yourself from slipping.
HERE IT IS: THE ALL-IN-ONE, EVERYTHING-YOU-NEED MEAL PLAN. For any guy who wants total body health, the Full-Power Meal Plan provides everything necessary.
2,500 calories
305 grams carbohydrates
163 grams protein
73 grams fat
4 bread
6 fruit (2 citrus, 2 berry, 2 other)
4 milk
8 teaspoons added sugar
6 vegetables (3 carotenoid, 2 brassica, 1 allium)
1 bean
2 soy
4 lean protein
1 medium fat protein
6 very lean protein
6 fat
2 nut
Note: Occasionally, a fat-free product, like mustard or cooking spray, is included on the menus. These do not count toward your daily breakdown but should not be overused.
*Use every day.
†Based on a 185-pound man.
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 1 cup Shredded Wheat |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | ¾ cup blueberries |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 mediumfat protein | 1 egg (hard-cooked) |
| 1 added sugar | 1 teaspoon brown sugar (for shredded wheat) |
| Water | |
| Oil-free cooking spray for egg, if necessary |
Snack
| 1 carotenoid | ½ cup V8 juice |
| 2 nut | 20 peanuts |
| Water |
Lunch
| 2 carotenoid | Large salad with 1 cup romaine, ½ cup carrots, ½ |
| cup tomatoes, other vegetables | |
| 1 bean | ½ cup garbanzo beans |
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces shrimp |
| 2 fat | 2 tablespoons oil-and-vinegar dressing or |
| vinaigrette | |
| 1 milk | 1 nonfat latte, tall, with no-calorie sweetener |
| 1 milk | 1 cup plain fat-free yogurt |
| 1 otherfruit | ½ cup unsweetened canned pineapple chunks and noncaloric sweetener (add to yogurt) |
| 2 soy | ½ cup soy nuts |
| Water |
Workout
| Water |
Post-Workout
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1½ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
BROCCOLI-AND-CHICKEN STIR-FRY
| 2 brassica | 1 cup broccoli |
| 1 allium | ½ onion, garlic |
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces dark-meat chicken |
| 3 fat | 1 tablespoon peanut oil |
| 2 bread | 2⁄3 cup brown rice |
| 1 other fruit | ½ mango |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 1 cup cooked oatmeal |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1 cup raspberries |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon brown sugar |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 scrambled egg |
| Water | |
| Oil-free cooking spray (for egg) |
Snack
| 2 soy | ½ cup soy nuts |
| 1 carotenoid | ½ cup tomato juice |
Lunch
| 2 carotenoid | 1 cup bibb lettuce, ½ cup red pepper, ½ cup tomatoes |
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces dark-meat chicken |
| 1 milk | 1 ounce cheese |
| 2 fat | 2 tablespoons oil-and-vinegar dressing or vinaigrette |
| 1 bean | ½ cup pinto beans |
| Water |
Pre-Workout Snack
| 1 milk | 1 cup plain, fat-free yogurt with noncaloric sweetener |
| 1 otherfruit | ½ cup unsweetened canned peaches (add to yogurt) |
| 2 nut | 12 roasted almonds |
| Water |
Workout
| Water |
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1¼ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
| 2 bread | 1 small ear corn on the cob |
| 1 small whole-wheat dinner roll | |
| 2 brassica | 1 cup cabbage slaw |
| 1 allium | ½ onion (for salmon) |
| 3 fat | 2 teaspoons olive oil and garlic (to marinate vegetables) |
| Included (in cabbage slaw) | |
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces grilled salmon |
| 1 other fruit | 1 slice watermelon |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 2 slices whole-wheat raisin bread |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 sunny-side up egg (cook in a nonstick pan) |
| Oil-free cooking spray (for egg) |
MORNINGSMOOTHIE
Blenduntilsmooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1 cup strawberries |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed (or 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil) |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon honey |
| Water |
| 1 carotenoid | 1 cup mini carrots |
| 2 nut | 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter |
| Water |
Lunch
| 1 bean | 1 cup bean soup |
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces ground turkey burger |
| 1 milk | 1 ounce cheddar cheese |
| 2 carotenoid | ½ cup asparagus, steamed |
| 1 cup leaf lettuce | |
| 2 fat | 2 tablespoons oil-and-vinegar dressing or vinaigrette |
Pre-Workout Snack
| 1 milk | 1 nonfat latte, tall |
| 1 otherfruit | 4 dried apricots |
| 2 soy | ½ cup soy nuts |
| Water |
Workout
| Water |
Post-Workout
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1½ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces lean beef (for stir fry) |
| 2 bread | 2⁄3 cup brown rice |
| 2 brassica | 1 cup raw broccoli, 1 cup raw bok choy (for stir fry) |
| 1 allium | ½ cup raw onion and garlic, mixed |
| 3 fat | 1 tablespoon oil (for stir fry) |
| 1 other fruit | ½ cup fresh pineapple |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |
| 1 cup miso soup |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 2 cups Kashi |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | ¾ cup blueberries |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 egg (hard-cooked or cooked in a nonstick pan) |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon sugar (for Kashi) |
| Water | |
| Oil-free cooking spray for egg, if necessary |
Snack
| 2 soy | ½ cup soy nuts |
| 1 carotenoid | ½ cup V8 juice |
| Water |
Lunch
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces dark meat chicken |
| 1 bean | ½ cup three-bean salad |
| 2 carotenoid | 1 cup romaine, ½ cup carrots, ½ cup tomatoes |
| 2 fat | 2 tablespoons oil-and-vinegar, or vinaigrette dressing |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| Water |
Pre-Workout Snack
| 1 milk | 1 nonfat latte, tall |
| 1 otherfruit | 1 apple, sliced |
| 2 nut | 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter |
Workout
| Water |
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1¼ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
| 2 bread | 1 cup cooked whole-wheat pasta |
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces clams in tomato-garlic and olive oil sauce |
| 2 brassica | 1 cup broccoli, steamed |
| 1 allium | ½ cup shallots, mixed with broccoli |
| 3 fat | included (in clam sauce) |
| 1 other fruit | 1 slice or 1½ cups cubed watermelon |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |
| Water |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 1 cup Shredded Wheat |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | ¾ cup blueberries |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 egg (hard-cooked) |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon sugar (for Shredded Wheat) |
| Water |
Snack
| 2 nut | 20 peanuts |
| 1 carotenoid | 1 cup mini carrots |
Lunch
| 1 bean | 1 cup minestrone soup |
| 2 carotenoid | 1 cup bibb lettuce, ½ cup tomatoes, ½ cup red peppers |
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces dark meat turkey |
| 2 fat | 2 tablespoons oil-and-vinegar or vinaigrette dressing |
| 1 milk | 1 fat-free latte, tall, with noncaloric sweetener |
| 1 milk | 1 cup plain fat-free yogurt |
| 1 otherfruit | ½ cup unsweetened canned pears with no-calorie sweetener |
| 2 soy | ½ cup soy nuts |
| Water |
Workout
| Water |
Post-Workout
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1¼ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
| 2 bread | ½ baked yam or sweet potato |
| 1 slice hearty whole-wheat bread | |
| 2 brassica | 1 cup steamed Brussels sprouts with Asian mustard |
| 1 allium | 1 roasted garlic bulb (spread on bread and fish) |
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces grilled or broiled halibut |
| 3 fat | 2 teaspoons sesame oil (for halibut) and 1 teaspoon sesame seeds |
| 1 other fruit | 12 cherries |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
FRENCH TOAST (See recipe directions on this page.)
| 2 bread | 2 slices hearty whole-grain bread |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 egg, scrambled |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon maple syrup |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1 cup fresh raspberries |
| Cinnamon | |
| Water | |
| Oil-free cooking spray |
Snack
| 2 soy | 1 cup edamame in the shell |
| 1 carotenoid | ½ cup V8 juice |
Lunch
SALAD
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces tuna in water, drained |
| 2 carotenoid | 2 large sliced tomatoes |
| 1 milk | 1 ounce mozzarella |
| 2 fat | 2 teaspoons olive oil |
| 1 bean | ½ cup fava beans |
| Water |
Pre-Workout Snack
| 1 otherfruit | 1 medium banana, sliced |
| 2 nut | 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
Workout
| Water |
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1¼ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
| 2 bread | 2⁄3 cup whole-wheat couscous |
| 2 brassica | 1 cup steamed broccoli and cauliflower |
| 1 allium | ½ cup onions (sautéed with steak) |
| 1 other fruit | 2 dried apricots, chopped (for couscous) |
| 1 tablespoon currants, chopped (for couscous) | |
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces filet mignon |
| 3 fat | 1 tablespoon olive oil (for sautéing) |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 1 cup cooked oatmeal |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | ¾ cup blueberries |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon brown sugar |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 egg, scrambled in a nonstick pan |
| Water | |
| Oil-free cooking spray (for egg) |
Mid-Morning Snack
| 2 soy | ½ cup soy nuts |
| 1 carotenoid | ½ cup tomato juice |
| Water |
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces turkey (for salad) |
| 2 carotenoid | 1 cup romaine, ½ cup carrots, ½ cup tomatoes |
| 1 bean | ½ cup garbanzo beans |
| 2 fat | 2 tablespoon oil-and-vinegar or vinaigrette dressing |
| 1 milk | Fat-free latte, tall |
Pre-Workout Snack
| 1 milk | 1 cup plain fat-free yogurt |
| 1 otherfruit | ½ cup unsweetened canned pineapple with no-calorie sweetener |
| 2 nut | 12 almonds |
| Water |
Workout
| Water |
Post-Workout
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1 ¼ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
| 2 bread | 1 whole-wheat pita bread |
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces salmon steak with raspberry vinegar marinade |
| 2 brassica | 1 cup broccoli, steamed |
| 1 allium | ½ cup onions |
| 3 fat | 1 tablespoon olive oil (for marinade) |
| 1 other fruit | 17 grapes |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Included (in marinade) |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 2 slices whole-wheat toast |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 hard-cooked egg |
| 1 milk | ½ cup cottage cheese with pinch cinnamon |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 citrus | ½ pink grapefruit |
| 1 berry | 1 cup fresh raspberries |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon sugar (for cottage cheese) |
| Water |
Snack
| 1 carotenoid | 1 cup mini carrots |
| 2 nut | 1 tablespoon natural almond butter |
| Water |
Lunch
| 1 bean | 1 cup lentil soup |
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces skinless white-meat chicken, grilled or broiled with lime juice |
| 2 carotenoid | 1 cup sautéed tomatoes and yellow squash |
| 2 fat | 2 teaspoons olive oil (for sautéing) |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
Pre-Workout Snack
| 1 milk | 1 nonfat latte, tall |
| 1 otherfruit | 1 cup cubed cantaloupe |
| 2 soy | 1 cup edamame in the shell |
Workout
| Water |
Post-Workout
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1 ¼ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
BROCCOLI-AND-LAMB STIR-FRY
| 2 brassica | 1 cup broccoli, steamed |
| 1 allium | ½ onion, garlic |
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces lamb |
| 3 fat | 1 tablespoon peanut oil (for lamb) |
| 2 bread | 2⁄3 cup brown rice |
| 1 other fruit | ½ mango |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 1 cup Shredded Wheat |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | ¾ cup blueberries |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 egg (hard-cooked) |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon sugar (for Shredded Wheat) |
| Water |
Snack
| 2 soy | ½ cup soy nuts |
| 1 carotenoid | ½ cup tomato juice |
Lunch
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces tuna in water, drained |
| 2 carotenoid | 1 cup bibb lettuce, ½ cup red peppers, ½ cup tomatoes |
| 1 bean | ½ cup navy beans |
| 2 fat | 2 tablespoons reduced-fat dressing |
| 8 black olives | |
| 1 milk | 1 fat-free latte, tall |
| 1 milk | 1 cup plain fat-free yogurt |
| 1 otherfruit | ½ cup unsweetened canned pineapple with no-calorie sweetener |
| 2 nuts | 12 cashews |
| Water |
Workout
| Water |
Post-Workout
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1½ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
| 2 bread | Whole-wheat bun |
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces ground sirloin |
| 2 brassica | 1 cup coleslaw |
| 1 allium | ½ cup grilled onion (for sirloin) |
| 1 other fruit | 1 small banana |
| 3 fat | 2 teaspoons olive oil (for sautéing onions) Included (in coleslaw) |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 1 cup cooked oatmeal |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1 cup raspberries |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon brown sugar |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 egg, scrambled in a nonstick pan |
| Water | |
| Oil-free cooking spray (for egg) |
| 2 nut | 20 peanuts |
| 1 carotenoid | ½ cup V8 juice |
Lunch
| 1 bean | 1 cup lentil soup |
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces halibut, grilled |
| 2 carotenoid | 1 cup romaine, ½ cup red peppers, ½ cup tomatoes |
| 2 fat | 2 tablespoons oil-and-vinegar dressing or vinaigrette |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
Pre-Workout Snack
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 otherfruit | 1 slice watermelon |
| 2 soy | ½ cup soy nuts |
Workout
| Water |
Post-Workout
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1½ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces turkey sausage |
| 2 brassica | 1 cup sauerkraut |
| 1 allium | ½ cup chopped onion (for hash browns) |
| 2 bread | 1 large potato shredded and drained (for hash browns) |
| 3 fat | 1 tablespoon oil (for hash browns) |
| 1 other fruit | 12 cherries |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 2 cups Kashi |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | ¾ cup blackberries |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 egg (hard-cooked or cooked in a nonstick pan) |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon sugar (for Kashi) |
| Water |
Snack
| 2 soy | 1 cup edamame in shell |
| 1 carotenoid | ½ cup V8 juice |
Lunch
| 1 bean | 1 cup black bean soup |
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces shrimp |
| 2 carotenoid | 2 cups romaine |
| 2 fat | 2 tablespoons Caesar dressing |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
Pre-Workout Snack
| 1 milk | 1 cup plain fat-free yogurt |
| 1 otherfruit | ½ cup unsweetened canned peaches with no-calorie sweetener |
| 2 nut | 12 almonds |
| Water |
Workout
| Water |
Post-Workout
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1 ¼ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
| 2 bread | 1 cup cooked whole-wheat pasta |
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces meatballs in tomato-garlic and olive oil sauce (over pasta) |
| 2 brassica 1 allium | 1 cup broccoli, steamed ½ onion (for sauce) |
| 3 fat | 1 tablespoon olive oil (in sauce) |
| 1 other fruit | 1 nectarine |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |
| Water |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 2 slices whole-wheat raisin bread |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 sunny-side up egg, cooked in a nonstick pan |
| Oil-free cooking spray (for egg) |
MORNING SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1¼ cups strawberries |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed (or 1 teaspoon flaxseed oil) |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon honey |
| Water |
Snack
| 2 nut | 1 tablespoon natural almond butter |
| 1 carotenoid | 1 cup mini carrots |
Lunch
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces chicken fajitas (no tortillas) |
| 2 carotenoid | 1 cup cooked red and green peppers |
| 1 bean | ½ cup vegetarian refried beans |
| 2 fat | 2 teaspoons olive oil (for sautéing peppers) |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 milk | 1 nonfat latte, tall |
| 1 otherfruit | 4 dried apricots |
| 2 soy | ½ cup soy nuts |
| Water |
Workout
| Water |
Post-Workout
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1½ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces dark-meat chicken, marinated with apple cider, soy sauce, ginger |
| 3 fat | 2 teaspoons sesame oil (in marinade) |
| Included (in coleslaw) | |
| 2 brassica | 1 cup red cabbage slaw |
| 1 allium | 1 clove garlic (for chicken) |
| 2 bread | ½ acorn squash |
| 1 slice whole grain bread | |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon maple syrup (on squash) |
| 1 other fruit | 1 pear |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
FRENCH TOAST (See recipe directions on this page.)
| 2 bread | 2 slices hearty whole-grain bread |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 egg |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk (½ cup for French toast) |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed, cinnamon |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon maple syrup |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1 cup fresh raspberries |
| Water | |
| Oil-free cooking spray |
| 2 soy | ½ cup soy nuts |
| 1 carotenoid | ½ cup V8 juice |
Lunch
| 1 bean | 1 cup lentil soup |
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces ground turkey burger |
| 1 milk | 1 ounce cheddar cheese |
| 2 carotenoid | 1 cup asparagus, steamed |
| 2 fat | 1 tablespoon thousand island dressing |
| 1 teaspoon olive oil (for asparagus) |
Pre-Workout Snack
| 1 milk | 1 nonfat latte, tall |
| 1 otherfruit | 1 apple, sliced |
| 2 nut | 1 tablespoon natural peanut butter |
Workout
| Water |
Post-Workout
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1¼ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
BROCCOLI-AND-SALMON STIR-FRY
| 2 brassica | 1 cup broccoli, steamed |
| 1 allium | ½ cup onion, garlic |
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces salmon |
| 3 fat | 1 tablespoon peanut oil |
| 2 bread | 2⁄3 cup brown rice |
| 1 other fruit | ½ mango |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |
Wake Up
| Water |
Breakfast
| 2 bread | 1 cup cooked oatmeal |
| 1 medium fat protein | 1 egg, hard-cooked |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | ¾ cup blackberries |
| 1 fat | 1½ tablespoons ground flaxseed |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | 1 teaspoon sugar |
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| Water |
Snack
| 1 carotenoid | 1 cup mini carrots |
| 2 nut | 1 tablespoon natural almond butter |
| Water |
Lunch
| 4 very lean protein | 4 ounces skinless white-meat chicken, grilled with lime juice |
| 1 milk | 1 ounce cheese |
| 1 bean | ½ cup garbanzo beans |
| 2 fat | 1 slice or 2 teaspoons crumbled bacon |
| 2 carotenoid | 2 cups romaine |
| 2 tablespoons fat-free Caesar dressing | |
| Water |
Pre-Workout Snack
| 1 milk | 1 fat-free latte, tall |
| 1 otherfruit | 1 pear |
| 2 soy | 1 cup edamame in the shell |
Workout
| Water |
SMOOTHIE
Blend until smooth.
| 1 milk | 1 cup fat-free milk |
| 1 citrus | ½ cup orange juice |
| 1 berry | 1 ¼ cups berries |
| 2 very lean protein | 14 grams whey protein powder |
| 6 teaspoons added sugar | 2 tablespoons honey |
Dinner
| 2 bread | 1 whole-wheat pita bread, toasted |
TURKEY STIR-FRY
| 4 lean protein | 4 ounces dark-meat turkey |
| 2 brassica vegetables | 1 cup broccoli, steamed |
| 1 allium | ½ cup onions, tomatoes, mushrooms |
| 3 fat | 1 tablespoon olive oil |
| 1 other fruit | 17 grapes |
| 1 teaspoon added sugar | Tea with 1 teaspoon sugar |