Healthy Gourmet Eating and Lifestyle for the Horizontally Challenged

There is a lot of advice out there for how to lose weight. Eat, don’t eat. Exercise, no exercise necessary. A lot of it is written by people who have the now identified skinny gene or anaplastic lymphoma kinase, which gives them a natural resistance to weight gain no matter what they eat or do. But what about the rest of us? More specifically what about the rest of us who have two marks against us ; over 30 and no ALK gene? We have a guide for you, that if you strictly follow, are guaranteed to lose weight…..no matter what your predisposition.

1. The first and MOST important thing you must do is exercise. No matter what your current activity level, you can exercise. Conventional wisdom recommends at least 30 minutes a day, but this advice is for the naturally skinny. The truth for the over 30 and overweight is that you need four times that. For those battling the double edged sword, two hours a day of vigorous exercise is needed. The good news is that the definition of vigorous exercise varies from person to person.

If you do not have a current level of fitness, than walking an hour in the morning and an hour at night will qualify as vigorous. Increase your level by one step; if you currently walk, than fast walking at a very brisk pace. Currently a fast walker? Then move up to jogging. If you jog, move up to running. Over time, your level of fitness will increase and you will need to move all the way up the ladder, from walking to running. If it is cold outside or you live in a place where walking or jogging outside is not an option, we recommend an elliptical machine. It is much easier on your body than running on a treadmill and you can easily change level settings to start out at a walk and work up to a resistance level that is as strenuous as running.

2. The second most important thing to do is only eat two meals a day; breakfast and a late lunch/early dinner. Three meals a day is entirely unnecessary. One does not need to eat that much food to be healthy and in fact, numerous studies have found that people are actually healthier and live longer, if they eat less. Now the popular fad is to eat meat for weight loss. We discourage this. America is the only country that eats some form of meat for all three meals and we are also the most obese country. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out meat therefore, is not the answer. It is not necessary to eat meat for every meal or even every day. Our mass produced antibiotic and hormone laden meat, is very high in Omega 6 fatty acids and low in Vitamin D. A very unhealthy combination.

You are what you eat and these animals are half dead, kept in horrid conditions indoors and pumped full of antibiotics in an effort to keep them from dying. They are fed doughnut by product, instead of bug or similar protein forms. Often companies take advantage of our ignorance and advertise vegetarian fed chicken. What they really mean, is that they fed them doughnut by product meal and there is nothing good about it.

Beef and pork is another meat that is highly industrialized, mass produced and very unhealthy. Turkey is usually a good bet and so is fish. If you absolutely must have beef, make sure it is organic and grass fed. Cage free or free range chicken is not really free range at all. Free range means birds housed indoors, one on top of the other, just not in cages. We even wash our chicken here in the US down with chlorine; it is referred to as chlorinated chicken. There is no such thing as a good choice for chicken here and why so many of our meats have been banned by the European Union as far back as the 1980s. Forget the environmental impact of industrial farming and its large scale effect on greenhouse gas emissions, it just isn’t a healthy option either for our wellness or waistline.

3. Snack throughout the day, but only on fruits and vegetables. Every time you eat, you jump start your metabolism. Starving yourself is definitely not the answer. You may lose weight, but your already slow metabolism will plummet and when you decide to start eating again, as you inevitably will, your weight will sky rocket. Snacking throughout the day will keep your metabolism working all day long, even if that is not a genetic predisposition for you. It is also important to drink lots of water and sugar free fluids throughout the day. Drinking lots of water is an easy way to feel satiated. Stay away from sugary colas, juices and alcohol.

Making sure that you snack only on water filled fruits and vegetables will keep your caloric content down, while filling you up. If your snack is broccoli, carrots, cauliflower or similar vegetables, do not load them up with cheese, ranch or similar dressings. Balsamic vinegar is a good choice, not only because it is healthy for you, but it is low in calories and you do not need to use very much of it to get lots of flavor. If you use a condiment for any of your meals, it must be a healthy one. Commercial dressings such as bleu cheese have very unhealthy ingredients and are full of empty fats and calories.

4. Cook only with health oils; extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil. Both of these oils have healthy omega 3 to 6 ratios and are very heart healthy. In moderation, they are a very healthy choice and add a delectable savory taste to your meal or salad as well. Vegetable oils or sunflower oils are very unhealthy and extremely high in Omega 6. If you cannot afford to cook with olive oil, buy a cheap grocery store olive oil for cooking and a high end artisanal oil, like ours, for finishing. In this way, you get both health and taste on a budget.

5. Get plenty of sleep. Sleep is very important for health. If you are not sleeping well, you cannot function well. Good sleep is paramount for health and wellness, as well as weight. Numerous studies have shown that tired people over eat and poor sleep can negatively affect your appetite. The good news? If you normally have trouble sleeping, that two hours of exercise will avail you of that problem. I have always had sleeping problems, I used to take sleeping pills or even have a drink before bed, in hopes that it would relax me enough to fall asleep. Fortunately, this over 30, skinny gene averse formula, has completely solved my sleeping problems and I am able to fall asleep now without any help, something I have not been able to do since I was a teenager.

6. The last and most important step? To follow all of these steps, completely and forever. There is no quick fix. I hate the term going on a diet. Going on a diet will do you no good unless you plan to stay on that diet forever. In fact, it will likely do more harm than good and slow down your metabolism and set you up for failure the second you start eating normally again. The hardest part of our proven formula, is finding the time to exercise and affording healthy eating.

Eating healthy is always more expensive. But by cutting out one meal a day, you are spending less too. The time, is again, not always easy to find. Wake up an hour early and exercise in the morning. Or you could use your lunch break to jog or jog at night before or shortly after dinner. The good news? Once you have made your new lifestyle a habit, it really becomes easy to maintain and you don’t even have to think about calories or worry about weight. Follow this formula and weight will be an after thought. You can focus on the more important things in life.