BEST-EVER NUTRITION TIPS

When Americans faces a tough problem, we solve it the American way: We put our heads together and come up with a solution.

Start a new nation and establish freedom for all? We got Jefferson, Adams and Franklin in a room and they banged out the most revolutionary document ever created.

Stop the Nazis and end the war in the Pacific? We corralled the greatest scientific minds in the country and created the Manhattan Project. Game over.

So when it comes to taking aim at our obesity crisis (or just helping you fit into that dress), we here., at Eat This, Not That! figured we’d take a page out of history, and gather the most educated nutritional thinkers in the land to tell us their absolute best tips for losing weight and getting a perfectly lean, flat belly. So ask not what abs can do for you; ask what you can do for abs. The answers are right here.

1

SET A 
CARB CURFEW

Chris Powell, the trainer who has helped hundreds of overweight people lose up to half their body weight on ABC’s reality series Extreme Weight Loss, knows how to blast fat. Though starchy and sugary carbs—like quinoa, potatoes and fruit—aren’t totally off limits on the show, participants never consume them after dark. As they do, so should you. “For dinner, contestants always have a high-protein, high-fat meal with plenty of fibrous veggies,” Powell tells Eat This, Not That!. “If they have a post-dinner snack, they stick to protein-rich, high-fat foods like almonds or 2% milk-fat string cheese,” he explains. This is because, he adds, axing carbs at night flips the fat burning switch by increasing the amount of fat burning hormones released while we’re asleep. To discover which carbs lead to a flat belly.

2

DRINK 
PU-ERH TEA

A fermented Chinese tea with an earthy flavor, Pu-erh can literally shrink the size of your fat cells. To discover the brew’s fat-crusading powers, Chinese researchers divided rats into five groups and fed them varying diets over a two month period. In addition to a control group, there was a group given a high-fat diet with no tea supplementation and three additional groups that were fed a high-fat diet with varying doses of pu-erh tea extract. The researchers found that the tea significantly lowered triglyceride concentrations (potentially dangerous fat found in the blood) and belly fat in the high-fat diet groups. It’s a natural fat-blaster, along with barberry, rooibos and white tea. We love Pu-erh so much, we made it part of our brand new weight-loss plan, The 7-Day Flat-Belly Tea Diet and Cleanse! Test panelists lost up to 10 pounds in just one week!

3

CROWD OUT 
BAD HABITS

Those rock hard abs won’t be built in a day—they’ll be built in staggered days. Julie Odato, certified personal trainer and Program Director at Jump Start Retreats in the Catskills, says staying on the diet is the hardest part, and has a trick for sticking to the program: "Alternate days of your new diet plan with your normal eating habits,” she advises. “For example, do the new plan Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and observe your regular habits Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.” You can also apply the same principle when it comes to adopting a healthier exercise routine. “At the end of the first seven days,” she says, “you will have improved your eating habits over half of the days of the week and will feel ready to launch into week two!" The high you get from keeping it going for several weeks—not to mention the better body image—will eventually help you crowd out the bad eating patterns with even more good ones.

4

MAKE
SPECIAL REQUESTS

Powell has another awesome tip: “Participants find it challenging to stay on track with their diet when they’re eating out—especially when they’re with friends who don’t share their newly adopted healthy lifestyle,” he says. There are few different ways Powell helps his clients stay on track when facing this obstacle. For starters, he suggests drinking a big glass of water before the meal starts. This tames hunger, making it easier to order a smart entree. “Steer clear of anything fried, sautéed, crusted, or breaded, and order all dressing and sauces on the side,” he advises. “When you order, let the waiter know you would like a to-go box when the food arrives. Cut your meal in half immediately and place half in the box to go,” he suggests. Out of sight, out of mind—and don’t forget, similar rules apply to take out food, too.

5

MIX UP 
YOUR GREENS

If your go-to green for salads is spinach or romaine, that’s great—they’re both packed with tons of nutrients. But a varied diet is a healthy diet, and there are tons of other greens out there that are equally delicious. If you like lighter leafy vegetables, try swapping your spinach for some arugula, leaf lettuce, watercress or parsley, or combine a few different greens to get an incredible mixture of vital nutrients that will power you through the rest of your day. If you prefer heartier greens or like to go with seasonal options throughout the colder winter months, look for toothsome leafy vegetables like kale, chard, cabbage or Chinese cabbage, beet greens, or even collards. Tougher greens can be lightly blanched in boiling water to give them a more pleasing texture—and will warm you up on especially frigid days.

6 DITCH YOUR

FOOD RULES

“When nourishing your body with foods, listen to what it needs,” says yoga instructor Carrie Seyer, who is leading an upcoming CorePower Yoga wellness retreat at Twin Farms in Barnard, Vermont. “Discard dogma and food rules, and eat for fuel and energy, whatever that may be for that day.” As much as you can, she adds, “choose whole, unprocessed foods, but also allow for an occasional splurge or two to help maintain a healthy mindset. Our bodies are intelligent and always asking for what they need to function optimally, whether it’s vegetables or even a bit of sugar; there’s reason behind the craving."

7

BE PRACTICAL
NOT PERFECT

So what exactly, you ask, should you eat? "Improving your eating habits is a process of being practical, not perfect,” says Julie Odato, certified personal trainer and Program Director at Jump Start Retreats in the Catskills. “There are some specific foods that, realistically you know you will not live without. So, work with that. Keep that food to once a week or once a month instead of failing at never [eating it].”

8

LOAD UP
YOUR FRIDGE

“Despite what some people may believe, healthy eating doesn’t require complex recipes — or any recipes at all. I make it a point to cook a lot of lean proteins, veggies and a high quality grains like quinoa so when my day slips away, I always have healthy pre-cooked foods on hand to throw together to make a meal," says chef Devin Alexander, of NBC's The Biggest Loser. “When I’m working with a client who is particularly busy," adds Paula Hankin, Manhattan-based chef, "I always suggest keeping Protein Bowl ingredients on hand. I might recommend salmon and chicken as healthy lean proteins, and then I’ll instruct them to pair their meat of choice with leafy greens, a hard-boiled egg, sliced fruit, and nuts or seeds. If everything is prepped ahead of time, all they have to do it throw the stuff into a bowl before they eat. It's so simple and quick!”

9

USE THE 
1 IN 10 RULE

For every 10 grams of carbohydrate listed on the label, look for at least one gram of fiber. Why 10:1? That’s the ratio of carbohydrate to fiber in a genuine, unprocessed whole grain. The recommendation comes from a study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition that evaluated hundreds of grain products; foods that met the 10:1 ratio had have less sugar, sodium, and trans fats than those that didn’t. 

10

BECOME
ACTION-BASED

Once you’ve gotten into the swing of a healthier routine, it’s easy to center your goals around numbers on the scale. Don’t. Instead, make them action-based. David Chesworth, fitness specialist at Hilton Head Health (H3), a world-renowned weight loss destination on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, explains: “We are creatures that desire instant gratification. I hear ‘I want to lose 20 pounds,’ all the time. This is not a goal that easily sets you up for success.” Simply put, you’re setting yourself up for bucket o’cheese fries-infused failure. “[Instead, make your goals things like] going for a 30 minute power walk, or going to your favorite Zumba class after work on Fridays. As soon as you finish that Zumba class, you feel accomplished and fulfilled,” says Chesworth.

11

BOOST FLAVOR 
TO CUT CALORIES

Ever notice how everything inside a McDonald’s—the burgers, the fries, the shakes—smells exactly the same? That sameness of scent is actually a tactic that can inspire you to consume more calories. (But if you're reallyjonesing for a burger fix, we also have suggestions on what to eat at McDonald's.) A study in the journal Flavour found that the less distinctive the scent of a particular food, the more you’ll eat of it. Adding herbs and sodium-free spice blends is an easy way to take advantage of the sensory illusion that you’re indulging in something rich—without adding any fat or calories to your plate. Furthermore, a recent behavioral study that taught adults to spruce up meals with herbs instead of salt led to a decrease in sodium consumption by nearly 1000 mg a day (that’s more salt than you’ll find in 5 bags of Doritos!).