The Secret to Successful Dieting

With every new client I encounter, they all say the same thing to me. "I can't stand my gut and the rolls of flab that hang over. How do I look like you?" My answer to all of them is "diet. You need to eat 6 nutritious small meals a day every three hours in order to keep your metabolism up which will help your body burn fat and use food as fuel. "And that's when I get the deer in the headlights look. "How on earth can I eat 6 meals a day every three hours?"

Simply put, you need to be proactive about your diet and most people don't know how to go about doing that. Once I get past the nutritional coaching and explaining to my clients that not only do they need to eat ENOUGH calories, but they have to eat the RIGHT calories, I explain to them that if they learn to become proactive about their diets, the rest just falls into place.

I have a ritual that I go through every week and I have this down to a science. I go to the supermarket and buy enough boneless-skinless chicken breasts, fish, lean cuts of beef, broccoli, green beans, to last me a week. Every Saturday or Sunday afternoon, I pre-cook all my meals for the week including my brown rice, sweet potatoes, broccoli, green beans, etc.

Once all your foods are cooked, it's easy to plan out your meals on a daily basis. My meals are stored in plastic containers. I have a nylon cooler that I carry around with me every where I go. All I need to do is pull out six meals and place them in the cooler. Some easy meal suggestions are a can of tuna over baby spinach with some low fat dressing, pre-grilled chicken with brown rice, egg white omelet and old fashioned oatmeal heats up quickly in a microwave, low fat cottage cheese with an apple and some almonds, grilled chicken with steamed broccoli, low fat no sugar added yogurt with a scoop of protein powder mixed in. This is an example of some of the meals you will find in my cooler on any given day.

For those of you who work a corporate job and say that they can't take short breaks to eat, I say nonsense. Yes you can. What about all those smokers you see outside that take 20 minute smoke breaks several times a day. You can certainly take 5 minutes to do something healthy for yourself. I had lived the 8-5 life and as a trainer, I have 5 minutes between clients and within that 5 minute break I am able to eat. It can be done. With your meals already pre-cooked, all you need to do is put your plate in the microwave for 1 minute to heat up your food and eat a delicious, nutritious meal.

Supermarkets now have foods that are pre-cooked which make it easy to have a nutritious meal when you're in a hurry and have no time to cook. Most supermarkets now have rotisserie chickens and salad bars so all you need to do is pick up a chicken and a salad (spinach, romaine, baby greens) with a low fat dressing or some steamed green veggies. As for fast food, when in doubt, always order the grilled chicken sandwich with side salad and for those of you watching your carbs you can always ditch the bun. Places like Moe's Southwest Grill and Chipotle's now have naked tacos which you can essentially make your own meal in a bowl. When I eat at places like that, I will order chicken in a bowl with black beans, lettuce, salsa and guacamole. When dining out I order grilled chicken or fish with salad, a sweet potato and a steamed green veggie.

Yes, you can eat six meals a day AND make better food choices.