One of the teaching points I’ve been increasingly stressing to my clients is the need to simplify our diet selection – a lot. Humans are creatures of habit, so as long as your habits consist of repeating 4 or 5 healthy meals each day, then you can expect to get tremendous gains.

Obviously, the challenge then becomes “how do I identify my fav 5 meals?” Well it takes a little experimentation for sure, but it’s far easier to try and discover 4-5 healthy meals that someone likes to eat, instead of beginning a diet with the destined-to-fail expectation of creating a lavish meal plan consisting of 28-35 different healthy meals each week.

Nutrition is simple… sort of.

But what constitutes a healthy meal? Obviously, optimal health varies from person to person, due to genetic needs and different goals. However, in general, all of the recipes I’ve posted on this site can be considered healthy and make excellent choices as the foundation for a healthy, weight-loss oriented meal plan.

To illustrate how this work in reality, I’ve selected four recipes that I’ve posted on the blog over the past couple of years:

• Breakfast: protein pancakes
• Lunch: chili
• Snack: homemade protein bar + 15 carrots
• Dinner: chicken curry served atop 2 cups mashed cauliflower

Successful dieting really is as simple as starting with recipes such as these and repeating them, often. Now I know that anyone unfamiliar with the recipes I spotlight might be thinking “but diet food sucks” and I would have to agree. Thankfully, my recipes aren’t diet food, but rather awesome meals that happen to fit as part of a healthy diet.

It’s a subtle and important distinction…

Now before we jump on the “just eat the same foods everyday” bandwagon, it’s important to see if those foods actually provide us enough of the vital nutrients our bodies require. Although you may be able to eat a steady diet of fruit loops and bagels and peanut butter… those really aren’t foods of champions.

Taking a look at the 4 meals above, when I run a nutrient analysis on them here is what came back:

Joan Doe hypothetical meal plan

Excellent macronutrient profile and with the exception of calcium and vitamin D (which many people need to supplement with regardless of the quality of their diet), this is an exceptionally robust meal plan.  Looks like our efforts to simplify Jane’s life have resulted in a huge win for her health… as well as her meal prep time.

Obviously I’m not suggesting that my recipes are the only way to succeed. In reality, the best route to success is for each of you becoming your own food scientist and experimenting with the flavours and combinations that yield the types of meals you can enjoy routinely. But by approaching diet and meal planning with the goal of K.I.S.S. (start by finding 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, 1 dinner and a couple of snack options), your chances for success increase significantly.

Give it a try, you’ll be amazed at how quickly your body responds!

To help you start with this new approach to simple eating, here’s an amazing broccoli soup recipe I created. It’s been featured quite prominently as part of my weight loss program, The Final Diet, but it’s so good that I really need to share it on my blog as well.

The beauty of this recipe is that the broccoli does not overwhelm anything, making it quite suitable for broccoli lovers and not-so-lovers alike. Enjoy!

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Ingredients

• 6 cups broccoli
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 cups soup stock
• 1 dash Salt and pepper

Directions

• Steam broccoli, then add to blender.
• Bring chicken broth to a boil, then add to blender
• Add coconut milk, garlic & pepper to blender
• Close lid and blend for 30 seconds.

Makes 6 servings.
To turn into more of a complete meal, add 4-6 oz. grilled salmon or grilled chicken.
Nutrition Info (per serving): 150 kcal, 13 g fat, 5 g carbs (2 g fibre), 4 g protein.

This soup is quick, easy and nutritious. Try this recipe and see if it can become one of your fav 5.

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

Related posts:

1. 400 Calorie Fixed
2. Low Fat Chicken Curry: Ridiculously Good Eating
3. Protein Pudding: Looks Awful, Tastes Great!

That being said, being away from home can encourage “food experimentation”, which often leads to some surprisingly inspired meal creations. And this past week, following a night of introducing my mother to the wonders of spaghetti squash as a pasta substitute, we found ourselves with 1/4 squash leftover the next day.

Now instead of just throwing the squash out, I decided to see if I could do something productive with it… which led me to create a new breakfast recipe: spaghetti squash pancakes.

Admittedly, at first glance, this recipe doesn’t sound appealing at all. But it actually turned out quite tasty. And as a bonus, it provides parents another avenue for sneaking more vegetables into their children’s diets.

Spaghetti Squash Pancakes

• 1/4 spaghetti squash (~2 cups)
• 1 cup oats (ground)
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Directions

Grind oats in a blender. Add squash, eggs and egg white to blender, blend until smooth. Add cinnamon and nutmeg, continue mixing.

In a frying pan, heat a small dab of coconut oil. Pour batter into pan and cook until bubbles form in the batter. Flip and continue cooking.

Makes 6 pancakes.

Option: you can substitute canned pumpkin for squash.

Nutrition facts: 120 kcal, 4 g FAT, 13 g CHO (2 g fibre), 9 g PRO

There you go. An extremely simple recipe for using up leftover spaghetti squash that doubles as a killer healthy breakfast.

For anyone who struggles to eat enough vegetables, this is yet another one of those “I can’t believe there are vegetables in this” type of recipes.

The great part of this recipe is that you could easily make this into a dinner option by omitting the cinnamon and nutmeg and swapping in some chopped onions or mushrooms or peppers… really – you’re only limited by your imagination.

Healthy eating… it’s really not all that hard to make a reality.

Till next time, train hard and eat clean.

Related posts:

1. Low Fat Chicken Curry: Ridiculously Good Eating
2. Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites
3. Protein Pancakes: The World’s Best Breakfast

If you talk to an Atkins devotee, they’ll tell you that all protein and fat foods are fine, as long as you avoid carbohydrates. Conversely, if you find yourself talking to someone with vegan leanings, you’ll hear that the human body has no use for animal products and can live off vegetables alone.

But arguing about whether a food is inherently good or bad is typically only an activity for the foolish… or the naïve. To rehash a famous quote, “one man’s food is another man’s poison.” Human kind has a near miraculous ability to survive off of a wide variety of foodstuffs, the key is figuring out how you as an individual works best.

Of course, some foods are clearly better than others (i.e. a can of tuna is superior to a bowl of fruit loops) but figuring out what foods to fill your diet with can be a somewhat confusing exercise. That’s why, over the next few weeks I’ll be releasing a few tools to help get you sorted out.

The first tool is a protein cheat sheet I put together a while back for my clients. It’s a handy guide to give you an idea of how much protein are in common servings of protein. Later on I’ll release a kind of grading system that expands on protein, but for now establishing how much protein are in the foods you are eating is key.

Personally, and for many of the clients I’ve worked with, I’ve found that increasing dietary protein tends to be one of the more effective strategies for weight loss. It’s not the only strategy that works, but teaching people about the value of consuming quality proteins on a regular basis tends to do more to control hunger than any other intervention. And as we know, if you control hunger, you control body weight over the lifespan.

[gview file=http://graemethomasonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Protein-cheat-sheet.pdf]

You often hear that for optimal body fat control, eating 1 g of protein per lbs of body weight should be your goal. Although I think this is a bit of an oversimplification, it’s actually decent advice.

If you are trying to maintain a body weight of 200 lbs, you would want to eat about 200 grams of protein, spread out over 5-6 feedings. Keep in mind you want to establish a protein goal based on your desired weight, not your current one. Therefore if you are 170 lbs and trying to get to 130 lbs, you should be figuring out a way how to get 130 g of protein into your diet, not 170 g.

If you are currently struggling with your weight, you’ll want to print out this sheet and keep it somewhere handy, like pasted on your fridge. This way, each time that you eat something, you’ll be reminded that you need an ample serving of protein in that meal.

Try this for a few weeks and you will start to experience pretty significant changes in energy levels, mood and body composition!

Till next time, train hard and eat clean.

Related posts:

1. A New Protein Prescription Needed
2. Protein Powders: Everything You Need to Know in 5 Minutes
3. Protein Pancakes: The World’s Best Breakfast

That being said, I’m loathe to accept that someone just “doesn’t eat vegetables”. Let’s be clear: you might not like all vegetables, you may not like vegetables prepared a certain way or paired with certain foods, but 100% vegetable avoidance? Even the most ardent vegetable-phobe has no problem consuming the diced peppers and olives found atop a mountain of nachos. Clearly the issue is not with the vegetables per se but rather with the delivery vehicle.

Thankfully, there seems to be at least one meal that works equally well for both the pro- and anti-veggie crowd: chili. Whether you prefer a vegetarian version or a chili loaded with ground beef, sausage and extra habanero; chili is a dish that appeals to the masses. For some reason, pairing vegetables with ground meat, beans and pasta sauce just works; go figure.

Now with 2x more Machismo…

The real beauty of chili is that it is super convenient. You can prepare a huge batch and have meals for the week if necessary. Chili also freezes remarkably well, meaning a 30 minute investment of food prep time will easily yield 6 meals over the course of the week. Now that’s math everyone understands!

Remember, meals need to satisfy two criteria if they are going to be used to help someone establish improved eating habits. The meal must:

1. Taste great
2. Be convenient to prepare

Chili comes up aces on both counts so without any further ado, here is my favourite homemade chili recipe:

Old Fashioned Chili (Downloadable version)

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

1.5 lbs ground beef, pork or turkey
1.5 cup onion, chopped
2 stalk celery chopped
1 medium green pepper
2 cloves garlic
6 oz can tomato paste
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp mustard seed (optional)
1 cup mushroom, chopped
2 cup tomato sauce (canned or homemade)
2 cup kidney beans (rinse well)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a skillet, brown ground beef.
2. Drain fat, then place meat in slow cooker.
3. Sautée onion, mushrooms and garlic in skillet, then transfer to slow cooker.
4. Add kidney beans, tomato sauce, tomato paste, chili powder, and mustard powder to slow cooker; mix well.
5. Feel free to add oregano, basil, cumin, and black pepper as desired.
6. Cover; slow cook on LOW 4 to 6 hours or on stove 1 to 1 1/2 hours (stirring occasionally)
7. Add green peppers and celery 30 minutes prior to removing from heat.

Although this recipe can be prepared on the stove top, I strongly recommend investing in a slow cooker. For a minimal one-time investment (a solid slow cooker will run you $40), you get a “must have” meal preparation tool.

I can’t remember what terrible informercial reiterates the line, “just set it and forget it” but that’s the gist of cooking with a slow cooker. You just dump all the ingredients into it in the morning, head out the door and when you return 8 hours later, you have a meal waiting for you.

As an added bonus for those on a budget, a slow cooker allows you to purchase tougher (i.e. cheaper) cuts of meat. The longer, low-heat cooking process coupled with acidic liquids (i.e. vinegar, wine) tenderize the meat until it takes on a “fall off the bone type characteristic”.

Simple, cost-effective, delicious.

Slow cooking: it’s the old fashioned solution for the new-fangled problem of being “too busy” to cook. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

Till next time, train hard and eat clean!

Related posts:

1. Healthy Ideas for the Lazy: Vegetables in a Bag
2. Coconut Classics
3. Should Vegetables Be Eaten Raw?

When helping people improve their health or physiques, I tend to emphasize those lifestyle changes that yield the biggest bang for the buck. Sure you COULD go to the gym and spend three hours a day on the elliptical machine in the futile effort to control body fat… or you could spend 30 minutes a few times a week following a properly designed fat-loss program. It seems like a no brainer to me.

When it comes to overcoming body fat struggles, two of the most significant issues facing many people are:

• they eat crap for breakfast (if they eat breakfast at all)
• they don’t eat enough vegetables

Obviously it’d be great if everyone took an hour every morning to prepare and eat a nutritious breakfast; but that’s just not an option for most people. It’s either wolf down a bowl of cereal or grab a bagel and head out the door.

Likewise, it would be awesome if more of us considered vegetables to be the focal point of our diets. Unfortunately, asking most North Americans to eat more vegetables, particularly at breakfast, is akin to suggesting they perform root-canal surgery on themselves.

Any solution that tackles both of these issues is going to have to be: 1) time efficient, 2) easy, and 3) taste reasonably appealing. An impossible task you say? I say, “No problem”. Here’s a solution that requires thinking outside the box, but yields huge benefits to health and the way your body looks: Spinach Berry Smoothies.

Yup, a breakfast shake that focuses on spinach. If you haven’t ever tried putting spinach in a shake, you are probably thinking “ewww, gross!” But baby spinach has a remarkably mild taste that is easily masked by berries or cocoa. As a bonus, the berries and the cocoa both mask the green colour of the spinach so no one is the wiser!

If you’ve got 60 seconds, an interest in radically transforming your health and a decent blender, here’s a recipe to get you rocking.

N.B. I recommend the Magic Bullet for ease of use and clean up. You can pick one up for $40-$50 at many department stores.

2 cups baby spinach
1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
2 tbsp flax seeds
1 – 1 1/2 scoops protein powder
1-2 tsp unsweetened cocoa
3 tbsp coconut milk or 1/2 cup almond milk (if you want a lower-fat version)
ice and water to taste

Nutrition Facts

Throw everything in your blender, blend for 30 seconds or so and you are done. Nothing more complicated than that. Toss it in a travel mug and you’ve got a meal that you can take in the car and consume on the way to work. Quick, easy, delicious. A recipe that even the most vegetable-phobic child would love (obviously a child sized portion might only be half of this recipe).

Try this recipe for yourself and with your loved ones. Just don’t tell them that that what they are drinking is jammed packed with critical nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, calcium, fibre and protein… that’ll stay between us

Related posts:

1. Novel Vegetable Recipes: Cauliflower Shepherd’s Pie
2. Walnuts = Lipitor? Just Who is the FDA Protecting Anyway?
3. Failure Is Not a 4-Letter Word