

The Hungry & Lazy Guide to Diet & Exercise

George del Prado
Published by George del Prado at Smashwords

Copyright © 2015 by George del Prado

Cover by Ricardo Pereira

Edited by Justin Scott, Andrew Woodring, and Gerene del Prado

Food pictures taken by John Thomas

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: But First, Some Context

Chapter 3: Yeah, Science!

Chapter 4: What Are You Drinking?

Chapter 5: What Are You Snacking?

Chapter 6: What's For Breakfast?

Chapter 7: What's For Lunch and Dinner?

Chapter 8: The Zen of Lazy Exercising

Chapter 9: Get Up, Stand Up!

Chapter 10: These Feet Are Made For Walking

Chapter 11: Closing Arguments
To the funniest people I know,

Ruby, Mira, and James
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction

H _ow'd you do it?_ After gradually losing more than 40 lbs. over six months, people started asking me that over and over again – friends, family, random people at work I barely knew. _How'd you do it?_ Everyone seemed interested, so I wrote it down and here it is.

First, allow me to show off the old Before and After pictures:

Before and After

In my Before picture, I was 35 years old and weighed about 215 lbs. That works if you're a legendary NBA shooting guard (Michael Jordan is 6'6" and played at 216 lbs.), but I'm 5'8" and, um, not a legendary NBA shooting guard. The "After" picture is me at 39 and over 40 lbs. lighter. People tell me I look 10 years younger at 39 than I did at 35. In many ways, I _am_ 10 years younger now than I was back then. The good news is the Fountain of Youth is real! The bad news is it's called Diet and Exercise (sad trombone).

Believe me, I get it. I struggled with my weight for 17 _years_. Like many people, I had a black belt in yo-yo dieting. I'd usually see a picture of myself and couldn't help comparing it to what I looked like in high school (a long 50 lbs. ago). I would get that terrible, sinking feeling. _Gah, am I really that fat?_ Motivation HITS (cue Rocky music montage)!

Tun!

New running shoes, gym sign-up, this time for real!

Tun, tun, tun!

Weights, treadmill, push-ups, sit-ups!

Tun, tun, tun!

Training journal, calorie journal, protein-vegetables good, carbs-fat-sugar bad!

Tun, tun, tuuuuunnn!

Looking good, 10 lbs., 15 lbs., 20 lbs. gone!

But right when I started feeling good about how I look, like the first tiny cracks in a doomed levee, complacency sets in...very...slowly. Maybe it's raining outside or I catch a cold – perfectly good reasons to skip that run. Maybe it's a friend's birthday or bachelor party – I can't be antisocial, I must eat, drink, and be merry! Besides, I'm looking good, _I deserve it_. Excuses slowly get worse and worse and before I know it, I'm skipping gym because I already started watching "Crocodile Dundee in L.A." and I'm making a run for the border because of the evil genius that is Doritos Locos Tacos.

The slippery slope only gets more slippery the further down you go, so eventually, inevitably, the same 20 lbs. (often more) creep back on. End result? I'm like Kanye with the paparazzi whenever somebody busts out a camera. _NO, DON'T TAKE MY PICTURE!!_ Who needs the aggravation, right?

This happened. Every. Time. Every time! Except this time. Oh, no, not this time, _this time was different_. This time I admitted to myself that I like exercising about as much as I like dieting, which is to say _not at all_. Having established that, I went about figuring out how to live a healthier life while staying true to my lazy, hunger pang-avoiding self. Remember that an exercise and diet plan is only as good as it is sustainable. That's actually a major theme of this book, so let me call it out so it really sinks in:

An exercise and diet plan is only

as good as it is sustainable.

Through a decent amount of research and self-reflection, I came up with a diet and exercise plan that has really worked for me, both in terms of effectiveness and sustainability. (I've kept the 40 lbs. off for almost three years now, which I consider to be the real miracle.) I'm convinced diet and exercise plans don't get much more sustainable than mine, so keep reading if you've had trouble maintaining a sensible one.

### No Hunger Games

People go through life doing whatever it is that they do without ever stopping to think about it; but they really should. So let's stop and think about it. Specifically, let's stop and think about everything you eat and drink over a given month, both in terms of what and how much you consume. Everybody pretty much eats the same things over and over again, so you probably rotate, say, 30-40 different meals over the 90 that you eat in that month. As for the roughly 30-60 snacks/desserts that you eat in that month, I'm guessing, for the most part, you rotate the same 10-15. This is what I call your _culinary rotation_.

I bet the vast majority of what and how much you eat in your rotation you learned from your parents and the rest you randomly picked up as you grew into adulthood. This has been your "normal," but how well is your normal really working out? Based on the obesity rates in the United States today, the American "normal" is most definitely not working out. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, 27% of Americans are considered obese and 35% more are overweight based on the Body Mass Index (BMI) scale. I'm not a big fan of BMI's one-size-fits-all approach, but it's a decent approximation of how unhealthy the American "normal" has made us. This book presents a new, much healthier "normal" designed with sustainability in mind.

Now imagine everything there is to eat and drink in the history of mankind. Realize that your rotation of 30-40 different meals and 10-15 snacks are a tiny fraction of what mankind has come up with over time. Trust me, there's food outside your rotation that can healthily replace some of your worst food choices without you minding all that much. I bet you'll even grow to prefer them (I did). Again, sustainability is key here, so my goal is to get you to a healthy weight without the hunger games. This book is about dieting smart, not hard.

For example, I'll show you how to make a sweet, all-natural, easy-to-make, hunger-suppressing, kid-approved, super-food juice blend that's even more nutritious than a spinach salad. If replacing really-not-that-good-for-you fruit juices and really-bad-for-you soda with this superfood juice blend is the one thing you get out of this book, it would already be a big success. It would make a big difference in the quality of calories you're putting in your body. It's not hard to make and I'll go over what you need.

I go on to discuss other great-tasting alternatives to your regular diet choices that will have you shedding weight without the unsustainable hunger. Let's begin your search for food that is healthy, satisfying, and worthy of your culinary rotation. It'll change your life.

### The Zen of Lazy Exercising

There's no getting around it, unfortunately. Exercise is a crucial part of healthy living. Everyone knows this, but most people can also find something they'd rather do than exercise. Actually, most people would rather do nothing than exercise. If you're thinking to yourself, _wait, that's me_ , then my exercise plan is designed specifically for you. Again, sustainability is as important as effectiveness, so that concept is at the center of The Plan. How? By asking ourselves the following question:

How do you exercise without exercising?

I prayed, pondered, and meditated on this very question for a decade, traveling to Japan, India, and the Himalayas to confer with gurus and Buddhist monks before the answer finally came to me. (I may be exaggerating here a little...maybe a lot.) Imagine finishing a 45-minute workout and you're surprised your muscles are sore because it didn't even really seem like you were working out. When you have lived this experience, only then will you know _The Zen of Lazy Exercising_. Let me show you The Way.

Can someone who hates diet and exercise as much as you get down to your ideal weight and keep it off? The answer is a resounding YES! I know it's a cliché, but believe me, if I can do it, so can you.

Sincerely,

George del Prado

Hungry and Lazy Person
CHAPTER TWO

But First, Some Context

One of my favorite bands when I was in college was Third Eye Blind. The band's name means different things to different people, but the one that resonates with me is about self-awareness.

Imagine your third eye as an external eye that looks at you and everything about you from a third person's point of view. (I like to think of my third person as an extraterrestrial observer, but, you know, it's up to you.) The third eye doesn't just look at what you look like, but also where you came from, where you're going, how different things make you think and feel – I mean everything. Your third eye doesn't judge; it only observes and reports. Everyone has this third eye, but most people never open it.

Since this is a diet and exercise book, let's open yours up and take a look at your appetite, food supply, and why you need exercise. Understanding these concepts helped me change my diet and exercise habits because I believe context is very important. (If you disagree, feel free to skip to Chapter 4.)

Have you ever wondered why our bodies work the way they do? Our taste buds prefer certain things over others. You consume something and it can be really good for you, really bad for you, or somewhere in between. Well, it always used to bother me that anything that tastes good is usually bad for you and vice versa. I figured if evolution did its job, spinach salad would taste like pumpkin pie and pumpkin pie would taste like spinach salad. Sadly, it ain't so; so evolution must have dropped the ball somehow. (If you don't buy Darwin, then you'd have to agree this whole set up speaks volumes about God's sense of humor.)

I eventually realized the real reason is that life as we had known it for millions of years drastically changed over the last 100. Think about all the advances we've made over that relatively minuscule amount of time. We figured out how to support ourselves by sitting in a cubicle all day. After watching TV for three hours straight, you can get off your recliner, drive half a mile to KFC, eat inexpensive, great tasting food, then drive back home to play some video games. If you stop and think about it, this ridiculously sophisticated comfort-bubble we've built around ourselves is staggering in both its breadth and depth.

We have evidence of stone tools dating back 3.4 million years. If our existence from stone tools to Twitter were a single year, inventions like supermarkets, fast food, and cars show up on Dec. 31st at around 11:45 p.m. That's the last 15 minutes! After millions of years of adapting to our environment, we figured out how to make the environment adapt to _us_. That's pretty impressive, but it also means that our way of life is very different than what our bodies were originally designed to handle. So what are we designed to handle?

### 10,000 BC

Let's do a little thought experiment and go back in time to find the answer. Imagine you were born 12,000 years ago (Dec. 30th, 5 p.m. in our stone tools-to-Twitter year). Since Homo sapiens showed up about 200,000 years ago, people in 10,000 BC were pretty much the same as us, physiologically speaking. There were less than 10 million people on the planet back then, so you would probably find yourself in a relatively small tribe. Agriculture was invented around that time, but let's say it has yet to reach your people. So how do you feel about the life of a nomadic hunter-gatherer?

For millions of years, our bodies were fine-tuned through the selective process of evolution to become the greatest hunter-gatherers the world had ever seen. Again, if you don't buy Darwin, then it certainly seems like God designed our bodies specifically for the natural habitat He or She created for us. This sitting-on-our-butts-all-day-eating-processed-foodstuff thing is totally our doing.

Now you may have heard of the Paleolithic Diet, proponents of which advocate not eating any post-agriculture foods like grains, legumes (beans), dairy, sugar, and any processed food – some even going so far as to eating only raw food because we started controlling fire only about 125,000 years ago. While there's a lot to like about the Paleo Diet, I just don't think it's sustainable for most people. (I once thought I may be gluten intolerant and briefly tried a gluten-free diet, a cornerstone of the Paleo Diet. I can tell you that it is incredibly inconvenient. Gluten is _everywhere_. I was ecstatic when I tested negative.)

I believe looking back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors provides some good answers and guidelines, if not hard and fast rules. So let's do just that and take a look back at the lifestyle for which we've been forged:

1. We've grown to love the taste of meat because it gave us the protein to make our brains grow larger. Meat protein helped us get to the top of the food chain, but it wasn't easy to come by. Before there were grocery stores with endless supplies of already-killed, conveniently-packaged, refrigerated meat, we had to hunt to get it. Cattle won't be domesticated for another 1,500 years and the bow and arrow won't be invented for another 3,000. The only meat you ate was what you could hunt with a freaking _spear_. From the perspective of meat-protein-to-calories-burned-to-get-it ratio, I think it's obvious our leisurely drive to KFC means we're eating a lot more meat than we were designed to process.

2. Since fruits, nuts, and vegetables can't run away or fight back, most of our diet consisted of fruits, nuts, and vegetables. For millions of years, our bodies adapted to this diet, which is why they're generally the healthiest things to eat. Not only do they provide the nutrients our bodies need, but our bodies also process them much more cleanly and efficiently than anything else.

3. There's some debate as to whether grains and legumes were a part of the hunter-gatherer diet. Although traditionally believed not to have entered our diet until after agriculture was invented, there's some evidence to suggest otherwise. Regardless, it was likely not a significant part of the diet of the overall population. (This is the reason the Paleo Diet is a little controversial. It says to avoid grains and legumes altogether, which generally goes against conventional wisdom.)

4. Butter won't be invented for another 2,000 years and processed sugar for another 4,000. It makes sense that we would invent something that appeals to our palate and can be added to many different types of food to make them taste better. Since butter and processed sugar are inherently artificial, however, it also makes sense that our bodies don't handle them well, giving both negative nutritional values. So the only thing evolution really screwed up is letting us get too smart, as if we were God's version of Data's Moriarty. (You are such a nerd if you understood that reference.)

5. Regardless of how much flora and fauna your local area just happened to be blessed with, you can count on a lot of walking. The wheel won't be invented for another 2,500 years and horses won't be domesticated for another 8,000. Getting food, water, and materials to make clothing, tools, and fire – simply having to pee or poo would require a decent walk away from camp. Then whenever food got scarce, it would be time to pick up and walk to the next campsite, dragging everything you own, miles and miles away.

6. You never really knew when your next meal would be, so when there was food, you ate as much as you could. You didn't eat just for now, but also for later. Our appetite is designed to handle an environment where food is relatively difficult to acquire. Today, with fast food, cafes, restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience stores, food is _everywhere_. Our appetite, however, is still the same as that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors 12,000 years ago. We pack in food for later almost like an instinct, as if all the cavemen with sensible appetites died out.

7. Anything you wanted or needed, you had to get or make yourself, which guaranteed a fairly active lifestyle. You want some fruit? You'd have to climb a tree. You want some sharp rocks? You'd have to go find or sharpen some. You want leather? You'd have to hunt an animal, kill it, skin it, then tan its hide. I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Our bodies adapted over countless millenia to hunt, gather, and eat what was readily available to us. We short-circuited everything when we invented stuff like agriculture, factory farming, cars, and Netflix. While giving up the comfort-bubble to live the hunter-gatherer lifestyle is unsustainable for just about anyone, it's still important to be aware of it. Appreciate it while understanding we evolved over millions of years to handle something completely different than what we've taken for granted as "normal." You just can't eat and do whatever you want inside the bubble or you can really mess yourself up. As Tony Robbins might say, it's suicidal.
CHAPTER THREE

Yeah, Science!

When I was 12, my aunt came to visit us from the Philippines. I remember going with my uncle to the airport to pick her up. He was in his 40s at the time and, since he had left the Philippines years before, his sister hadn't seen him since he was in his 20s. Like most people, he put on some weight in that time; so when she first saw him, the very first thing she said was, "My God, you got so fat!" _Well, screw you, too!_

I remember thinking, "Of course he's fat, _he's old_." (I shudder at this thought as I enter my 40s.) Isn't that what happens? You get old, your metabolism slows down, you get fat. It's the natural order of things, like balding or growing ear hair. There are, of course, the lucky bastards who are blessed with a high metabolism and they naturally age gracefully. But for the rest of us, what can you do?

Well, the first thing you can do is realize there's plenty you can do because getting old and getting fat are not the same thing. For the vast majority of us, diet and exercise habits (or lack thereof), rather than genetics, have a much bigger impact on how well we age. You basically have to give your healthy-looking friends some credit. For most of them, it's their habits more so than their genes that really make the difference. And this is actually great news for you. It means that by acquiring the right habits, you can look healthy and age well, too. It's simply not out of reach.

### Single Electrons, Desperate and Lonely

You may have heard of the free radical theory of aging. It states that aging and aging-related diseases are caused by free radicals damaging cells inside our body. Free radicals are atoms or molecules with unpaired electrons. If you remember high school Chemistry, electrons usually roll in pairs, flying around an atom's nucleus at the same orbit. Free radicals are atoms or molecules with an unpaired, desperately single and lonely electron. The problem is those lonely, unpaired electrons are not above stealing another electron's electron. The first electron gets its new partner, but now the other molecule has its own lonely electron looking to steal another. This torrid chain of electron-stealing love affairs and super-tiny broken hearts rages through your body, damaging your cells' DNA. Scientists believe that the more this happens, the faster you age (wrinkles included) and the more likely you are to get nasty stuff like cancer, heart disease, stroke, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other aging-related diseases.

So what causes free radicals? Well, free radicals are actually an important part of our immune system. They help us fight off bacteria, but when our body produces too much of it, they become a problem. Our habits, of course, can significantly increase the production of free radicals. Smoking cigarettes is probably the worst offender, so I would definitely quit if I were you. Drinking excessively is another big one, so try not to be the jackass at the party. Believe me, you'll only regret it later in horrified, head-in-your-hands, cringing embarrassment. And no matter what people say, you really don't have to go for it every weekend. Stressing out about stuff is also up there, so you have to learn to let it go. Eating processed food with no nutritional value (especially the fried kind) and eating too much relatively-difficult-to-digest meat (especially the charcoal broiled kind) are also unfortunate offenders. So yes, that burger and fries meal you shovel down once a week is, regrettably, a free radicals double whammy.

Antioxidants, on the other hand, are like the matchmakers of the cellular world. Instead of letting the chain-reaction of super-tiny heartbreak course through your system, you bring in antioxidants that can freely give electrons to free radicals, matching their unmatched electrons without creating new free radicals.

It's not a coincidence that fruits, vegetables, and nuts are very high in antioxidants and in the other non-antioxidant vitamins and minerals our bodies need to run cleanly and efficiently. As we discussed in the last chapter, these were the foods that were most readily available to us for millions of years. It makes sense that our bodies evolved to process them the best. (Legumes are also high in antioxidants, but we didn't start eating them until we graduated from cooking food directly over fire. We first had to figure out how to make pots to boil water in order to prepare them properly (about 20,000 years ago). Paleo Diet proponents thus recommend against eating legumes because they are not considered part of our "natural diet." I generally side with those who feel legumes (and grains) have a place in our diet, as long as you can digest them well.)

Take a look at the following list, which is WebMD's 20 most antioxidant-rich foods. Total antioxidant capacity doesn't necessarily reflect total health benefit, but I thought this list belonged here anyway:

Before you go crazy on that small red bean diet, you should know that there are many different types of antioxidants that fight different types of free radicals in different parts of the body in different ways. Your body also needs other nutrients (like fiber, potassium, magnesium, etc.), which is why it's a good idea to rotate different healthy foods and not eat the same thing every day.

So are we talking about aging or getting fat? Well, both, really. It's not a coincidence that eating a high-antioxidant diet not only will lower the speed in which your cells decay, but it will also help you reach your ideal weight (i.e., what you're supposed to look like). Similarly, if you eat a low-antioxidant diet, you'll find yourself getting fat and aging very rapidly, leading to a lifespan that is much shorter and/or much worse physically than it has to be.

*****

What Are You Most Likely To Die From?

If you could give your much younger self some advice, you would probably talk a lot about love, school, career, and personal finances. If, however, you could get some advice from your much older self, I bet you would talk mostly about your health.

Now imagine yourself in the last 5-10 years of your life. Can you still function independently? How easily can you walk up from the basement to the second floor? Can you still even do it? Are you bed-ridden and spending a fortune keeping yourself alive or are you organizing the retirement home orgy? (A friend of a friend who works at a retirement home swears they happen _all the time_.) Father Time may be undefeated, but there are a lot of things you can do to keep him far away for a long time.

Now I've always felt that you can do quite well pursuing happiness by simply avoiding sadness. So why not try pursuing life by avoiding death? Let's take a look at what we're talking about here. What's the most likely way for you and me to check out? And how do we avoid it? Take a look at the following table, which outlines how Americans died in 2011, based on data I pulled from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) website:

Apparently, 2,468,435 Americans died in 2011 (rest in peace). Their causes of death are broken down in the percentages shown above. You could argue regular exercise and a proper diet can have a significant positive impact in fighting every cause on the list except for accidents. Everything from your immune system to your heart to your liver to your mental health to your risk of getting cancer can be improved with diet and exercise. And that's just the people who died. Ask any survivor of a heart attack, cancer, or stroke how fun the experience was and you'll see why adopting a sensible diet and exercise plan is a no-brainer. Do your senior citizen self a favor and _make it happen_.

CHAPTER FOUR

What Are You Drinking?

When I was 16, I was over for dinner at the house of one of my best friends, Paul. I always liked eating at his place because his dad had a lot of colorful stories about growing up in New York City. The only full-blooded Sicilian I knew, he just had to be a runner for the mob when he was a much younger man.

Paul's dad was in the middle of one of these stories when I took a bite of some tasty roasted potatoes. As I chewed on them, I distinctly remember thinking, "Huh. We're having potatoes tonight...like the last time they had me over. The two times before that we had pasta, then potatoes...before...tha..."

Holy crap, white people don't eat rice!

My mind was BLOWN! For Filipinos, if you're not eating cereal or pasta, you're pretty much eating rice. Barbecue chicken? Rice. Steak? Rice. Meat loaf? Rice. I grew up thinking "ulam," the Tagalog word for "main dish," meant "the food you eat with the rice." Rice has always been a big part of my "normal," so it just blew my mind that Paul's family didn't eat it. And why would they? His family is German-Italian. (Similarly, a Mexican friend once told me he ate everything with tortillas. "Leftover Chinese food, spaghetti, whatever. It's like a handy carrying case.")

I share this to illustrate a point, of course. You grow up eating whatever your parents feed you, forming your opinion of what's "normal." And I don't mean just your family's staple foods. It's also how often you ate out, how often you ate frozen dinners, how often and how much ice cream you ate, whether you ate sugary cereal or donuts for breakfast, had soda, candy, or fruit snacks in the house, how much red meat you ate, and how much butter, oil, and sugar your parents used in their cooking. It's every meal experience you ever had growing up. They collectively had a significant impact on your culinary rotation today.

Remember that by culinary rotation, I mean the roughly 30-40 different meals and 10-15 snacks or desserts that you rotate through in a given month. Let's start talking about some relatively painless adjustments you can make to your rotation to get you closer to what that hunter-gatherer in you would eat.

### What Are You Drinking?

Let's start with something easy – what you drink. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately half of Americans drink a sugary drink every single day. And the CDC's report on "sugary drinks" doesn't even include diet sodas and fruit juices. (Fruit juices are often mistaken as health food, but they're really not that good for you. They basically remove the most nutritious part of the fruit and leave you with a drink that has about as much sugar and calories as regular soda.) The report only included fruit drinks, sodas, energy drinks, sports drinks, and sweetened bottled waters. Take a look at the following chart from the CDC website:

It's crazy that the average 12-39 year old American male is consuming over 250 calories of sugar drinks a day. It's no coincidence that (also according to the CDC) the average American male 20 years and over is 5'9", weighs 196 lbs., and has a 40-inch waist. To burn off those empty 250 calories, that average 196 lb. man would have to run 1.7 miles at a 10 minute pace. That's almost 7 laps around a high school track – every day – for sugar water!

Sugar water calories do absolutely nothing for you other than clog up your system, so they're part of the "Special Occasions Only Food Group." Maybe once a week during dinner out or at a get-together is fine, but definitely not every day and definitely not at home.

"But I like drinking sweet stuff," you say. Yes, yes, of course you do, which is a great segue into the "healthier than a spinach salad" sweet drink alternative I mentioned earlier.

### Healthier Than A Spinach Salad

Let me start off by saying that I've never been a big fan of leafy vegetables like spinach. From a calorie-to-nutrient ratio standpoint, these mostly tasteless leaves are among the most nutritious foods on the planet. The only way most people can eat a big spinach salad, however, is to add a bunch of salad dressing on it. When you're eating roughage, you need some salt and fat to help get it down. Interestingly enough, people don't like eating tasteless food, but we have no problem drinking tasteless drinks. Water is just easier to drink than roughage is to eat.

This is the secret behind our healthier-than-a-spinach-salad juice blend. To make it, you're going to need a high-powered blender. I'll get into specifics later, but just know that a high-powered blender is a must-have appliance for just about anyone. The $800 kinds are nice, but you can also get one for less than $90 used on the lower end. I write about different blender options later in the chapter.

Now if you put grapes in a blender with a couple of horses under the hood, they'll get liquefied into a super-concentrated grape juice that is really too sweet to drink. Instead of diluting it with water, you dilute it with spinach or kale. A high-powered blender will chop up the spinach into such super-tiny pieces, you won't notice it going down when you drink it with the liquefied grapes. As discussed above, spinach and kale are almost tasteless, so the natural sugar from the grapes overpowers any hint of their taste. All the spinach or kale does is dilute the super-concentrated grape juice to the right amount of sweetness.

The grapes then become your healthier, all-natural alternative to salty and fatty salad dressing, which is why I say it's "more nutritious than a spinach salad." I like to think of the grape-spinach blend as the smoothie's base on top of which you can add any number of different fruits and vegetables, turning it into an appetite-suppressing fruit-vegetable-salad super-drink. Here's my go-to recipe:

2 cups grapes

The grapes are like your sugar packets – add more or less to taste. I usually use 2-3 cups. When they're in season and particularly sweet, 3 cups might be too much, so again, add to taste.

While I prefer eating green seedless grapes, when I'm blending everything into a smoothie, I go with dark-skinned grapes with seeds. Grape seeds are edible and are packed with antioxidants and bio-flavonoids. The high-powered blender will chop up the seeds into tiny pieces you can drink down, just like the spinach. Added bonus is that the stuff that makes the grapes dark also fight cancer.

This is what 2 cups of grapes look like.

Put the grapes in first (closest to the blades) because the grapes will turn into the liquid that will pull everything else down. If you put the spinach in first, it'll get cut up, but the leaves will still prop up the other ingredients over the blades. They'll spin uselessly without reaching the grapes and you'll stand there, frustrated. (I'll be over here, shaking my head, "I told you so.")

5 cups baby spinach

As mentioned above, spinach is among the most nutritious foods on the planet, but who wants to eat it in all of its tasteless leafy glory? Throw it in the blender so you can drink it down instead.

5 cups of spinach on a dinner plate

According to WebMD, spinach "fight(s) off osteoporosis, heart disease, arthritis, and several types of cancer. Plus it's loaded with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants...and it's also low in calories." Calorie-for-calorie, spinach is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on Earth.

1 cup frozen mixed berries

1 cup frozen mixed berries

You can get bags of frozen mixed berries at the supermarket. They're usually a blend of blueberries (#5 on the Top 20 antioxidant list above), blackberries (#8), raspberries (#10), and strawberries (#11); so all those sad, lonely, and desperate electrons floating around your body can finally get hooked up.

2 cups frozen raspberries

I'm not sure why, but frozen raspberries do a really good job of turning the green-colored grapes/spinach blend into a more appetizing (at least to me) reddish color. Even though there are frozen raspberries in the mixed berry blend above, I throw some more in for the food coloring.

Red food coloring

As mentioned above, raspberries are high in antioxidants (#10) and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients that help fight aging, obesity, and cancer. That's three for three if you want to avoid getting old, fat, and sick.

1/3 medium English cucumber

Cucumbers have a very subtle taste, not much odor, and it also breaks down well (so it doesn't make the smoothie too thick), making them my favorite vegetable to add with the spinach.

1/3 medium English cucumber

They're also high in vitamins A, B1, B6, C, and D as well as calcium, fiber, folate, magnesium, and potassium. It's known to fight several cancer types, help with weight loss and digestion, reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, and promote joint health. Yet something else you want in your body.

Throw it all in there and let her rip.

Behold, a delicious glass of spinach salad.

Just put all of the above in a high-powered blender for about 30-45 seconds, and you'll have a smoothie that even kids will like. (It's definitely the easiest way to get a spinach salad inside a kid's body.) Here's the recipe again:

2 cups dark grapes

5 cups baby spinach

1 cup frozen mixed berries

2 cups frozen raspberries

1/3 of a cucumber

The recipe above is my go-to drink, yielding about 6 cups. For a pre-dinner smoothie, that's about a cup each for my two kids, 1.5 cups for the lovely wife, and 2.5 cups for me. A pint and a quarter will fill me up, so I'll end up eating a fairly light dinner. Since it contains a giant spinach salad inside it, the smoothie does a great job of curbing your appetite. If you're looking to cut some bad calories out of your rotation, make it a habit to drink a decent sized smoothie before going out to eat. You'll end up eating much less when you're out.

Now there are obviously a ton of other ingredients you can put in there. The following are other ingredients I use on a somewhat regular basis:

Kale

It's a good idea to rotate your vegetables so you get as many different nutrients as possible. To this end, I sometimes swap out the spinach for kale when I make smoothies. Kale is a well-known super-food, but it tastes like thin, crunchy cardboard. A friend once said that the number one use of kale is to separate the meats behind the glass at the meat section of the grocery store. He was probably kidding, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were true. That's how hard it is to get this stuff down, but a high-powered blender is all you need to get that highly nutritious cardboard-tasting stuff into an easy-to-consume state.

I get a gag reflex when I imagine chewing raw kale.

Its nutrition-to-calorie ratio is off the charts. From WebMD: "One cup of chopped kale contains 33 calories and 9% of the daily value of calcium, 206% of vitamin A, 134% of vitamin C, and a whopping 684% of vitamin K (which plays a big role in preventing and fighting cancer). It is also a good source of minerals: copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus."

Frozen Cranberries

If you like a little sour in your smoothie, give cranberries a try. They're really healthy for you, but are generally too sour to eat. Cranberries (#7 on the top 20 antioxidant-rich foods list) have been shown to fight cancer, lower bad cholesterol, support the immune system, and have important anti-inflammatory properties which help keep the cardiovascular and digestive systems healthy. Putting cranberries in smoothies is a great way to consume these too-sour-to-eat fruits.

Cranberries are really healthy for you.

Frozen Spinach

There is a _lot_ of spinach in each shot glass-sized chunk

Frozen spinach is another great way to sneak vegetables into your diet. I like putting them in omelettes or in soup, significantly increasing their nutritional value without altering their taste much. I also like putting them in my smoothies, although one little cylinder like in the image above is too much for the 6 cups I usually make. Before the spinach is frozen, it's usually washed and blanched, a process where it's briefly put in boiling water (30-60 seconds) before getting placed in ice water to stop the cooking process. The spinach gets much softer, so they can really pack it in before freezing it.

The other thing about blanched frozen spinach is that it breaks down very easily. When using frozen spinach in a smoothie, it ends up much thinner than when using fresh spinach, so it's a good time to use starchier fruits and vegetables like carrots and apples.

I use a lot of frozen vegetables and fruits in my cooking and smoothie-making. For fruits, they've been shown to have as much or perhaps even more nutrients than fresh produce because they're generally frozen at their ripest and most nutritious. Blanched vegetables, however, do lose some of their nutrients during the process (but so do transporting them fresh or cooking them). Regardless, they're still very good for you, so make it a point to eat them because fruits and vegetables are what we were meant to consume.

Tofu

Tofu is basically a bland soy-based protein source. It breaks down easily so you can add it to your smoothie without affecting the taste too much. It's a good way to sneak some plant-based protein into your diet if you're not a big fan of eating tofu.

Tofu

Now you may have heard eating too much soy isn't good for you. Well, no kidding, eating too much of anything isn't good for you. So how much is too much? You might be surprised to learn that Dr. Michael Greger of nutritionfacts.org recommends 3-5 servings per day (1 serving = 1/2 cup of tofu, tempeh, soybeans, or soy meats or 1 cup soy milk). (He's been a guest on the Colbert Report, so you know he's legit. Probably.) That's a lot more soy than most westerners ever eat, so you have more room in your diet for soy than the meat industry would like you to think.

Tofu is high in protein and fiber, significantly reduces LDL ("bad") cholesterol, while increasing HDL ("good") cholesterol, improves blood pressure and sugar level regulation as well as immune system function. Soy also has antioxidants that help protect against cancer and heart disease.

Tofu is already cooked, so you can just drop it into the blender. Don't go overboard your first time. Start with a small amount (maybe 10% of the total contents of the smoothie) and work your way up from there. I usually go with regular tofu, but you might want to try silken. It's a little less nutritious, but has a much smoother consistency. You likely won't notice it as much in the smoothie compared to the regular kind.

And while we're on soy, I should mention that you should avoid soy protein isolate (listed as "soy protein" in food ingredients lists). It's a popular ingredient of foods like soy burgers and protein-fortified breakfast cereal. It's basically soy that goes through a process that strips much of its nutrients. When consuming soy, opt for tofu, tempeh, or edamame.

Apples

Dr. Jeanelle Boyer and Dr. Rui Hai Liu of Cornell University published "Apple phytochemicals and their health benefits" in Nutrition Journal, finding the antioxidant-rich apples (red delicious clocks in at # 12 in the Top 20 list) not only reduces the risk of cancer, but also cardiovascular disease, asthma, and diabetes as well as lowers cholesterol. Definitely throw a cored apple into a smoothie at some point to see what you think.

Apples, Red Delicious

I tend to eat apples more than drink them, myself, because they tend to make the smoothie a bit thick, especially if used with fresh spinach. Regardless, apples are one of those food items you definitely want in your rotation. It's surprising how good they are for you.

Bell Peppers

Bell Peppers

Peppers are high in antioxidants and low in calories. They fight cancer and lower cholesterol, help with diabetes, and help you keep from going blind when you're older. Now who doesn't want that?

I find the taste of bell peppers to be neutral enough, but the smell is a bit overwhelming when added to a smoothie. Maybe a pepper-smelling smoothie doesn't bother you, so give it a shot. Another reason I probably don't use bell peppers that often in my smoothies is I tend to eat quite a bit of them already. They're one of my favorite things to eat.

Watermelon

Watermelon is one of the most lycopene-rich foods, which is linked to lower incidence of some cancers, including prostate cancer, the most common cancer afflicting American men.

Watermelon

Watermelon breaks down well and adds a nice sweet taste to the smoothie, so another fruit for you to try. It's also high in antioxidants, but you probably guessed that by now. There is definitely a pattern.

Carrots

Carrots are also high in antioxidants, especially beta-carotene, which lowers the risk of developing heart disease and cancer. It also has phytonutrients that can specifically help fight colon cancer, the 3rd most common cancer afflicting American men.

Baby Carrots

Like apples, I find the problem with carrots is that they tend to make the smoothie a little too thick for my taste, but you should try it out and see what you think. You can use it with frozen spinach or add some water to dilute it if it gets too thick.

Oranges

Like the peppers, I like to eat oranges, so I usually don't include them in my smoothies. Oranges do add a really nice touch to the overall taste of the smoothie, though, so definitely try it out.

Stacked Oranges

As everyone knows, oranges are high in Vitamin C, but they also help lower cholesterol and prevent cancer, kidney diseases, viral infections, and other diseases.

Bananas

Spooning Bananas

Bananas help give that nice, smooth smoothie consistency, but the taste can be a bit overwhelming. If you only want a hint of it, start with ⅓ of a banana, then add more to taste. Bananas are one of the best sources of potassium, which is good for the heart. Studies have also shown that bananas fight cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and asthma.

Et cetera

There's really no right or wrong answer here. Experiment with other fruits and vegetables to figure out your own go-to recipe. Lean towards vegetables with subtle tastes and make sure you use at least one juicy fruit (like grapes) to provide the liquid base. If you end up putting in too many vegetables, just add more grapes to sweeten it or maybe cheat by adding a little bit of grape or apple juice. If it's too sweet, then add more spinach. Just google "best smoothie recipe" and you won't run out of things to try.

When I first learned about these smoothies, I went a little crazy, I was having them twice a day. Now I have them a couple times a week before dinner, but I know people who have it every morning for breakfast. The important thing is it's in my rotation and it should also be in yours. It's simply one of the best ways to sneak a bunch of vegetables into your diet.

### Which High-Powered Blender Should I Buy?

I specifically mention high-powered blenders because the term "juicer" can mean different things. Juicers that filter out the pulp basically remove the most nutritious, fiber-rich, and most appetite-suppressing part of the drink. Get a juicer that looks like a blender, but one with a powerful motor. While a detailed review of different blenders is outside the scope of this book (there's always Google), I will discuss the two I've owned because they're among the most affordable on the market.

The first high-powered blender I bought wasn't all that high-powered. When I first tried Ninja Kitchen's 1100 watt model (in 2012), I used the main blender attachment and it gave me a smoothie I had to chew (gross). Chewy smoothies are definitely not what you want. It just didn't have the muscle to cut up the spinach, so it just pushed it around. I probably should have returned it, but I tried their single serving attachment and it actually worked pretty well (plus, big surprise, I was too lazy to return it). Maybe because of the smaller volume and what looked like better blades, the single serving attachment could turn a spinach salad into a smooth, no-chewing-required smoothie.

Pros:

As you would expect, it's much cheaper than more high-powered models, which can run up to over $800. The 1100 watt Ninja Professional Blender sells for $129.99 with free shipping on Amazon.com (as of Jan. 3, 2015). If you're on a tighter budget than that, I've seen it on craigslist used for less than $90. Bed, Bath, and Beyond also sells Ninjas (a good time to use their ubiquitous 20% off coupon), so it should also be pretty easy to find.

Cons:

1. Like I said, I had to use the single serving (16 oz.) attachment to make smoothies that weren't chewy. This isn't so bad if you're just making it for yourself, but inconvenient when you're making smoothies for a family. (Also, remember this was their model from 2012; so they may have improved it since.)

2. When using the single serving attachment, you have to hold down the button on the blender (i.e., you can't just turn it on and walk away), which is kind of a pain.

3. It's also really loud. I mean all high-powered blenders are loud, but the Ninja 1100 seems especially so.

4. Finally, the single serving attachment doesn't have a skirt that covers where it attaches to the motor, so it's recessed into the base. If you're not careful, juice can drip down into the motor and short it out, which is exactly how I ended up having to buy my second high-powered blender.

I decided my second high-powered blender needed more muscle, so I upgraded to Ninja Kitchen's 1500 watt model. Here are some pros and cons:

Pros:

1. The additional 400 watts let you use the regular blender attachment no problem, which is convenient if you're making smoothies for a few other people.

2. You also don't have to hold the button down to run it, which is nice.

3. Also, with the added power, you can make your smoothies in less time than the 1100 model.

Cons:

The Ninja Ultima Blender Plus (model BL830 with 1500 watts) is naturally more expensive than the 1100 model, retailing for $199.43 with free shipping from Amazon.com (as of Jan. 3, 2015). There are a couple of other 1500 watt models (the BL810, retailing for $179.99 and the BL770, retailing for $189.95, also on Amazon), but I can't speak to them because I own the BL830. For what it's worth, the BL770 and BL 830 are the most reviewed blenders of the three and Amazon buyers have rated them both at about 4.5 stars out of 5.

I'm not that big on getting brand name stuff, so I'm pretty happy with the Ninja BL830 1500 watt model. If you're on a tight budget and don't mind rolling with the single serving attachment only, you can probably find the 1100 watt model used for under $90 with some digging. If you don't mind spending a little more, I recommend going with as much HP as you can comfortably afford. The more horses you have, the faster you can make the smoothie silky smooth.

My mom has a Vitamix, which works great. Another popular brand is Blendtec, which some people prefer. Again, just make sure it has at least 2 HP or 1500 watts. You might be tempted to try all this with a regular blender (less than 1000 watts), but it unfortunately just won't work. Trust me on this.

### An Even Easier Miracle Drink for Your Rotation

If you've never tried white, green, oolong, or black tea before, now might be a good time to acquire a taste for it. They all come from the _Camellia sinensis_ tea plant, which has a lot of those electron-matchmaking antioxidants. WebMD Senior Medical Editor Dr. Brunilda Nazario, MD said, "There have been studies that have shown that large consumptions of tea can reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, can even increase bone density." Research also suggest that people who drink two cups of tea or more per day have lower cholesterol and suffer heart disease and strokes less frequently than those who do not.

So why not be in the group that drinks two cups of tea or more a day? When it's time for that morning and/or afternoon cup of coffee to get you through the day, drink two cups of white, green, or black tea instead. (Two cups of tea have about the same amount of caffeine as one cup of coffee.) Most Americans drink coffee because that's what they were introduced to growing up or in college. It's part of most people's "normal," so you might have to acquire the taste and the habit of drinking tea instead. Just don't give up after one cup if you're not used to it. Keep a box of green tea bags on your desk at work and I bet after a week or two you won't think twice about it.

The nice thing about tea (especially green and white) is that it's not as bitter as coffee; so you don't need to add cream or sugar to it. To get that caffeine pick-me-up, over time people consume a surprisingly large amount of cream and sugar, both of which are really bad for you. You can, instead, replace it with the disease-fighting antioxidants found in white, green, or black tea, consuming far less calories, sugar, and fat in the process. It really is a no-brainer swap, so make it happen if you're a coffee-drinker.

Note that black coffee is actually good for you, with health benefits quite similar to tea. Most people, however, can't drink coffee black, so the added cream and sugar nullifies its health benefits (see Starbucks nutritional information in the next chapter to see how bad it can get). Meanwhile, a cup of green tea has 0 calories, 0 g of sugar, and 0 g of fat.

### Take It Easy On the Booze

Most light beers are about 110 calories. Beck's Light is on the lower end at 64. A rum and diet coke is about 100 calories. A 5 oz. glass of wine is about 125. Meanwhile, a Long Island Ice Tea (we used to call them "Old Faithful" in college) is over 700 calories. A beer is about 150, so just a couple a day will already put you in a bit of a hole calorie-wise. If you drink alcohol regularly, I would advise you to cut back as much as you can or, at the very least, get really good at Lazy Exercising (see Chapter 7).

*****

Making the World a Better Place

One Coke at a Time

Have you ever surfed through Netflix or On Demand and find a movie you remember really wanting to see when it first came out, never got around to it, and now you have no particular interest in watching it? The script, actors, director, and reviews haven't changed, but your desire has waned considerably. The reason is you're now removed from the multimillion dollar marketing barrage the studio put out in the weeks before and after the movie's release. We're talking movie trailers, press coverage, bus and billboard ads, actors on the interview circuit, everything online – they all help stoke that desire to see it.

It's a proven scientific fact that marketing works. It shouldn't be any surprise that there's as much science as there is art in marketing. Marketers test market words, images, colors, themes, music, sound effects, and everything else on human test subjects just as biochemists test different compounds on animals.

And what exactly is marketing? To put it simply, marketing is a company's efforts to convince you to buy something you otherwise might not have. To put it another way, marketing is like messing with people's heads. Drink Gatorade and play like this pro athlete. (The rather on-the-nose "I wanna be like Mike" Gatorade ad still gives me goose bumps.) Drink Mountain Dew and you'll be edgy and cool, like this eXtreme sports guy over here. Drink Coke and _you'll make the world a better place_.

That last one is my favorite. Do you know how much Coke spent on advertising in 2011, when they were Advertising Age's Marketer of the Year? $100 million? $250 million? $500 million? Try over $4 billion (with a "b"). That's a whole lotta cheddar.

The thing is, not only is the Coke marketing team armed with that kind of war chest, but they're also SEAL Team Six elite. They're the best there is at what they do; but what they do isn't very nice. They basically manipulate you into associating warm fuzzy feelings with drinking their really-bad-for-you sugar water. How about those adorable Coke-guzzling polar bears and the "Thanks, Mean Joe!" kid? The iconic "I'd like to teach the world to sing" ad is a masterpiece:

I'd like to buy the world a home

And furnish it with love

Grow apple trees and honey bees

And snow white turtle doves.

I'd like to teach the world to sing

In perfect harmony

I'd like to buy the world a Coke

And keep it company

That's the real thing.

What the world wants today

(Coca Cola)

Is the real thing.

That was 1971. Fast forward to 2013 and Coke's "#ReasonstoBelieve" campaign has a beautiful children's choir singing Candi Staton's gospel song "You've Got The Love" while displaying the following feel good messages (among others):

For every tank being built...

there are 1000s of cakes being baked

For every person running from the law...

there are 100s running for a cure

For every display of hatred...

there are 5000 celebrations of love

For everyone who doesn't get along...

there are many sharing a Coke

The ad is beautifully done, so kudos to the ad team. For just a moment, however, let's put the overall Coke brand into perspective. Not once have I ever shared a moment with a loved one and thought to myself, "Man, this Coke really makes this for me." The truth is, drinking Coke and other sugar drinks is really bad for you, especially for children. It might not be as bad as smoking cigarettes, but it's definitely in the same ballpark. How freaked out would people be if Marlboro put out an ad with a children's choir singing and happy young people puffing away? Or if parents started handing out cigarettes at their children's birthday parties? People would lose their minds.

The other truth is that the over $4 billion Coke is spending on making people connect warm fuzzy feelings with the Coke brand _works_. Sure, Coke tastes pretty good, but you better believe sugar water isn't the only reason you feel compelled to buy it. You're buying Coke's brand and how it makes you feel, even though it provides no real value. Like I said, they're messing with your head.

CHAPTER FIVE

What Are You Snacking?

For the between-meals snack, most Americans reach for crackers, chips, muffins, scones, donuts, cookies, beef jerky, sugary fruit snacks, chocolate, or some other candy or pastry. The problem is, everything on that list ranges from bad to really bad for you. Since they're mostly overly processed human inventions, they're not of our natural habitat; so it makes sense our bodies don't process them very well.

As Oscar Wilde said, however, "Everything in moderation, including moderation." So I'm not suggesting you kiss your favorite junk food snacks goodbye forever. I'm convinced that mindset leads people down the path towards yo-yo dieting's slippery slope. _I already had one the other day, so one more isn't going to hurt_. There's still a place in your rotation for your favorite weaknesses, but you just can't be a baby about it and expect to eat them every day. That's also really important so let me call that out so it really sinks in:

You can't be a baby about it and

expect to eat junk food every day.

Snacks on the "bad for you" list should really only be eaten once or twice a week (perhaps more if you sufficiently master the Zen of Lazy Exercising, which we'll cover later). It's much more difficult to say, "I can't eat muffins" compared to "I can't eat muffins until Thursday." This shift in your approach to dieting should help you sustain it.

### Keep It Out of the House

Another important part of The Plan is not to eat junk food snacks at home. It's a lot easier to say "No" at the grocery store than at home with your guilty pleasure staring you in the face, so just keep them out of your house. Make it a point to go grocery shopping on a full stomach and it won't be that difficult. When you put up an orange against a bag of Doritos, the Doritos will win every time. Give that orange a chance and put it up against a pear or an apple. They're all good and healthy snacks, just likely not your first choice.

Believe me, having to go out to eat junk food should add enough of an inconvenience to help lessen your consumption considerably. Also, if you have children, eating junk food away from home will make you feel more responsible as a parent _and_ you don't have to share. It's a win-win.

The funny thing about this rule is I'm convinced a lot of healthy people follow it, which contributes to the Metabolism Myth. For example, I have a group of friends I play poker with once in a while. We usually play at a friend's place, so it's pretty much when I lift the ban and go for it. A lot of chips and sour gummy candy are usually on the menu. I've wondered whether they now think I'm one of those lucky people blessed with a high metabolism because every time they see me, I've got junk food in my face. I think there's irony in there somewhere if I look for it.

Okay, so you've committed to keeping the junk food away from your house and not to eat it more than a couple of times a week. So what do you eat on the other days? What snacks do you keep at home?

### Edamame

I love edamame, which are just boiled or steamed soybeans. Apparently so do a lot of people because many Japanese restaurants give them away as a free pre-meal snack, like chips and salsa at a Mexican place. At your local grocery store, you can buy bags of frozen, already-peeled edamame (convenient). I've grown accustomed to eating it without salt, but you can add a bit if you really need it. Just remember the more you add, the less healthy it gets.

Here's what a half-cup serving of shelled edamame looks like:

Banana and old school iPhone 4S for scale

Compare what you get from the small snack above (1/2 cup) with what you get from a 6" Subway Turkey Breast sandwich and a McDonald's Big Mac (nutritional info taken from Subway.com and McDonalds.com on Jan. 3, 2015):

The edamame snack gets you almost half the protein and 133% of the fiber and yet only 23% of the calories, 10% of the saturated fat, less than 1% of the sodium, and none of the cholesterol or preservatives found in a Big Mac. In addition to its high fiber and protein content, here are other health benefits of eating soy:

1. Soy protein significantly reduces LDL ("bad") cholesterol, while increasing HDL ("good") cholesterol, which lowers the risk of heart disease.

2. The proteins found in soy are known to improve blood pressure and sugar level regulation as well as immune system function.

3. Soy also has antioxidants that help protect against cancer and heart disease. Meanwhile, the Big Mac (and the french fries that always come with it) is a giant free radicals demonstration, causing major cell damage as it marches through your body, protesting your out-of-control eating and lounging habits.

Keep a bag of edamame in the freezer at home and/or at work and it will be that much easier for you to get it into your rotation. Replacing whatever unhealthy food you normally snack on with the edamame will go a long way towards cleaning out your system. Remember that forming habits like this is all about easy access. Keep it around and it will happen.

### Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar

While we're on the subject of free pre-meal snacks at restaurants that are healthy, let's talk about dipping bread in extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. First off, it's really easy to prepare. Toast some bread, pour some olive oil in a dish, add some balsamic vinegar, marvel at their immiscibility, and start dipping.

Immiscibility means inability to mix.

Now despite its high fat content (14 g in 1 tbsp), uncooked extra virgin olive oil is actually pretty healthy for you (cooking it, especially in high heat, breaks down its nutrients, unfortunately). 10 of the 14 grams of fat in olive oil are the good monounsaturated kind, which lowers bad cholesterol, your blood pressure, and, subsequently, your risk of heart disease (America's #1 killer). It also has some powerful antioxidants that help prevent cancer. Olive oil still has a lot of calories, though, so moderation, as usual.

Balsamic vinegar, on the other hand, helps with weight management by suppressing your appetite and by increasing your metabolism. It also has its share of antioxidants, which help prevent heart disease. There are much worse things you can put on bread than this nutrition-packed combo.

As for the bread, since you're just using it as a sponge to soak up the oil and vinegar anyway, go with the healthier whole wheat option. As a general rule of thumb, find the loaf of bread at your grocery store with the most fiber and protein and the least amount of sodium and preservatives. Out of the big brands, I usually buy Wonder+ 100% whole wheat bread, which has 4 g of protein, 2.5 g of fiber, and only 150 mg of sodium in each slice with no artificial preservatives, colors, or flavors. If you're not too worried about preservatives and want more protein, Country Harvest's flax and quinoa bread has 6 g of protein in each slice (but unfortunately a number of hard-to-pronounce ingredients as well).

It's believed that the high amount of olive oil consumed in Mediterranean countries contributes to them having among the highest life expectancies in the world. From the National Institute of Health ("Mediterranean Diet and Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease in the Elderly" by Dontas, Zerefos, et al): "Although private and state healthcare for many of the [Mediterranean] populations are inferior compared with those of northern Europe and North America, and the prevalence of smoking is high, the mortality rates in Mediterranean regions are lower than those of other countries." According to 2012 data compiled by the World Health Organization, seven of the 25 longest living countries border the Mediterranean: Italy, Cyprus, France, Israel, Spain, Greece, and Malta are all in the top 25. (The US clocks in at number 34.)

### Fruits

The world's original snack simply has to make it into your snack rotation. I find that most people like fruit, but tend not to reach for it because there's a tastier artificial alternative nearby. As mentioned previously, this is where instituting the Not At Home Rule (and not at work, either) will help by changing your snack decision from apple vs. apple pie to apple vs. bananas. Remember that your body was designed to eat mostly fruit, nuts, and vegetables. Clearly, you should feed it what it was designed to consume.

### The No Lettuce Salad

I always used to think of salads as a lettuce base with a mixture of other vegetables on top, usually some combination of tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, cucumbers, peppers, broccoli, and carrots with salad dressing. You know, the standard American salad bar salad. The problem with this is, as I mentioned earlier, I was never a fan of tasteless leafy vegetables like lettuce. This made salad a chore food that I generally avoided.

The salad breakthrough I had recently was this: _I'm a grown man; I don't have to put lettuce in my salad if I don't want to._ I already get my leafy greens in my smoothies and in the food I eat, so why start a salad off with a base of something I just don't like? This eventually led to the No Lettuce Salad:

1/2 cup frozen peas and carrots

1/4 cup frozen corn

1/2 cup frozen edamame (optional)

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped (optional)

Mix all the frozen ingredients in a bowl and add 3 cups of boiling water to defrost. Drain, add peppers, and add more boiling water and let it sit until it's warm. Definitely don't add butter. It doesn't need butter. You shouldn't need to add anything; but if you must, opt for low-fat and low-sodium salad dressing or perhaps a pinch of salt.

Voila, a No Lettuce Salad:

There is indeed no lettuce in the No Lettuce Salad.

I like the color, plus the texture of the salad gives you something tasty you can sink your teeth into, unlike the tasteless crunchiness that is a lettuce leaf. It's also pretty filling as snacks go and has a bonus side of plant-based protein with the edamame. Eat enough of it and it can be a satisfying meal in itself (try packing it for your kid's lunch instead of a sandwich).

As for nutritional benefits, it's the same story, really: great calorie-to-nutrients ratio, high in antioxidants, anti-aging, fights cancer, prevents heart disease, prevents stroke, strengthens immune system, regulates blood sugar levels, promotes healthy vision, etc., etc., etc. It's the kind of easy-to-make food you want in your rotation.

So maybe you don't like peas, carrots, corn, edamame, or bell peppers. The key thing here is to find a group of vegetables you do like, mix them in a salad, and get them in your body on a regular basis. Vegetables you don't like need not apply.

### Nuts

Using the Caveman Food Guideline, it makes sense that nuts are healthy for you since they were definitely in the "gather" part of the "hunt and gather" menu. Nuts are actually the seeds of hard shelled fruits. Like olive oil, they look unhealthy for you on paper since they are fairly high in fat; but the fat they contain are the good unsaturated kind that lowers bad cholesterol levels. Nuts are generally also high in protein, fiber, omega-3 fatty acids (which help prevent heart attacks), vitamin E, and other nutrients that help improve overall heart health.

Beware, however, the majority of nuts on the market that have been roasted in oil and salted and preserved to negative healthiness. Look for raw nuts for best results or at the very least go for the lightly salted kind. For example, one of my favorite snacks right now is Hampton Farms' Hickory Smoked Virginia peanuts, which only has three ingredients: peanuts, salt, and natural flavors. A half cup serving (shelled) has a relatively light 140 mg of sodium (6% DV) to go with the 9 g of protein.

You want to get a fistful of nuts in your mouth every day (don't say it), but not much more than that. There's still quite a bit of fat and calories in nuts, which make them pretty filling, but you don't want to go overboard. Check the nutrition label when figuring out which nuts to get into your rotation. Note that almonds are especially good for you, as they have been shown to reduce cancer, heart disease, and diabetes risk, lower cholesterol, promote immunity system and bone health, and regulate blood pressure. Definitely not a bad idea to get raw almonds (even the lightly salted kind) into your snack rotation.

Unfortunately, many of the trail mixes on the market have also been roasted in oil and salted, sugared, and preserved into an unhealthy snack. Again, make sure you check the nutrition label before convincing yourself something unhealthy is not. You can make your own trail mix by mixing some raw nuts together with some dried fruit. Dried fruit also tend to be loaded with sugar, but you shouldn't need too much of it.

### Nut Butters

Since a reasonable portion of nuts is good for you, it follows that one-ingredient nut butters (hint: it's not hydrogenated vegetable oil) are also good for you. For example, putting a small amount of peanut or almond butter on each bite of a banana is a tasty and filling snack that's miles ahead of a scone or muffin in terms of nutrition. You can also get low-sugar jams to make old faithful, the PB&J.

### Hummus

Good hummus is as tasty as it is good for you. Another staple of the chain-smoking-yet-still-outliving-us Mediterranean's diet, hummus is another great way you can get uncooked olive oil into your body. You can make them at home pretty easily by throwing the following into a food processor:

1 can of chickpeas (a.k.a. garbanzo beans, 14 fl. oz.) – Go with the low or no sodium kind so you have control over how much salt is in it. If you have to go with the salted kind, soak and rinse the chickpeas to wash off as much of the added salt as possible. You can then add more salt to taste later.

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste)

2-3 cloves of garlic

Juice from 1 large lemon

Salt to taste

Use a food processor to whip up the ingredients until you get a nice creamy texture and voila, you just made homemade hummus. If you find the recipe above to be too bland, try adding more garlic, tahini, or lemon before adding more salt. Again, the more salt you add, the less healthy it gets, so go easy with it.

You already know the health benefits of uncooked extra virgin olive oil, but the rest of the all-natural ingredients also help your body fight cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Thanks to its main ingredient, chick peas, it's high in both fiber (9.5 g in a half cup serving) and protein (9.5 g), further promoting heart health and weight management.

Let's take a look at a couple of Starbucks snacks and compare them to eating pita and hummus:

First, notice that the pita and hummus snack is a lot less calorie-dense than the Starbucks snacks. You get 83% more food than the scone (183 g vs. 100 g) and yet it has 50 fewer calories. There's also significantly less saturated fat (81% less), cholesterol, and sugar (95% less) while providing significantly more protein and fiber. In terms of how healthy these foods are, there's simply no comparison.

If you want to go up a few more rungs on the healthy ladder, try scooping up the hummus with slices of sweet pepper or carrots instead of pita. You'll be trading in the 322 mg of sodium and 33 g of carbs in the pita for something your body needs to function properly.

### Celery, Baby Carrots, Sweet Bell Peppers

Okay, so I admit I really don't like celery, but some people like to snack on them. I'm not a big fan of snacking on carrots, either, but they're definitely better than celery. Sweet peppers, on the other hand, are pretty darned good. It's not necessarily my first choice as far as snacks go, but they're definitely rotation-worthy. Again, the key thing here is for you to figure out what vegetables you don't mind snacking on and get them into your rotation. It's literally a matter of life and death.

So much better than celery.

### Get Snacking Right Now

The two most important things about successfully getting these healthy snacks into your rotation are accessibility and lack of competition. Get into the routine of buying these healthy snacks at the grocery store while steering clear of the junk food aisles. Again, follow the Not At Home Rule and commit to eating junk food snacks only when you're out and about. Keep the healthy snacks at your desk at work and where you can easily see them at home. When you start feeling that mid-afternoon hunger pang, reach for something your body actually needs instead of something that will just clog up your system.

*****

Starbucks Snacks

The muffins, scones, danishes, and specialty breads you find at cafes like Starbucks certainly seem healthier than potato chips and candy. But are they, really? Here is some nutritional information I pulled from Starbucks.com and Snickers.com (on Jan. 3, 2015):

When taking into account saturated fat, sodium, total carbohydrates, and sugar, you're really not that much better off with the Starbucks snacks. Now the point of this is to show you how these snacks really aren't much healthier than a Snickers Bar. It's so you know to eat less of the snacks above, not to justify eating more Snickers bars. ( _I know what you're like._ ) Trust me, there are healthy snacks out there you won't mind swapping in place of these fat-, salt-, and sugar-packed snacks. Just decide not to reach for what everyone else is reaching for and you'll be in much better shape.

Finally, for bonus kicks, see below for the nutrition information for some Starbucks coffees (also from Starbucks.com on Jan. 3, 2015). Again, compare the numbers below to the 0 calories, 0 g of fat, 0 g of sugar, and all the antioxidants found in green tea:

Your standard combo of a blueberry scone and a grande caffe mocha with whipped cream gets you a combined 780 calories, 32 g of fat (19 g saturated), 110 mg of cholesterol, 660 mg of sodium, 105 g of carbs, and a whopping 55 g of sugar. (There are two Snickers bars hiding in there!) People have this kind of "snack" without even thinking about it, then wonder why they gain weight or have a tough time losing it.

CHAPTER SIX

What's For Breakfast?

You may have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. According to the Mayo Clinic, "When you eat a healthy breakfast, you're more likely to eat more vitamins and minerals, eat less fat and cholesterol, have better concentration and productivity throughout the day, control your weight, (and) have lower cholesterol, which may reduce your risk of heart disease." Those are a lot of good reasons not to skip breakfast.

If, however, you've been eating fried eggs, bacon, and hash browns for breakfast every day, I hate to break it to you, but you really can't be eating fried eggs, bacon, and hash browns every day. Maybe if you have a physically strenuous job like railroad worker or professional athlete. Maybe. But if you're riding a desk all day? Sorry, you just can't do it.

Same thing goes for those who usually start their day off with donuts, muffins, pastries, or sugary cereal. As a doctor friend once said to me, when did we all decide it was okay to eat candy for breakfast? Even your standard white bagel with cream cheese isn't a great breakfast. So how should you break your fast every morning?

The Mayo Clinic goes on to define what "forms the core of a healthy breakfast," which includes whole grains, low-fat protein, low-fat dairy, and fruits and vegetables. This basically means some whole wheat cereal, 1% milk, a hard-boiled egg, and a fruit-and-spinach smoothie. Far be it for me to argue with the Mayo Clinic, but I admit I usually don't eat such a well-balanced breakfast every day. I just make sure to make up for it during the day.

### Smoothie

If you're so inclined, you could knock out the low-fat dairy, low-fat protein, fruits, and vegetables part of the Mayo Clinic Breakfast by adding some milk to the tofu-kale smoothies we covered in chapter four. It's definitely a great way to start the day off, so find out if you can make it part of your morning routine. All you have to do is start.

### Eggs

When I was growing up, health officials warned us of the high cholesterol content in eggs. After studying 117,000 nurses over an eight to 10 year period, however, scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health found no correlation between heart disease risk and egg consumption of up to one a day. So rejoice, egg lovers and farmers, there's room in our diets for this low-fat, low-calorie protein source. It's also high in B vitamins, iron, and minerals, making it pretty healthy from a calorie-to-nutrient perspective. It makes sense when you think about it because cavemen definitely ate eggs.

Now obviously, how you prepare the egg matters. Frying it in a quarter inch of bubbling leftover bacon grease (thinking about it makes my mouth water and my heart skip) is not the same as poaching or boiling it. If you like to live dangerously and prefer eating fried eggs with soft yolks, may I suggest the underrated soft-boiled egg? You get the yummy runniness for optimal bread dipping without the grease from frying. Also, don't underestimate the snackiness of a hard-boiled egg, so see if you can get it into your rotation. Eat it with a pinch of salt and you're good to go.

### Cereal

In case you were wondering, here is a list of the 10 bestselling cereals in the US in 2013:

First off, $556 million in Honey Nut Cheerios in the US alone? That's about 140 million boxes of cereal, which would, in fact, go around the planet if we laid them end-over-end. That's a whole lot of Honey Nut Cheerios.

Secondly, if you look, there's a lot of sugar on that list. I went to Kelloggs.com, GeneralMills.com, PostFoods.com, and QuakerOats.com to look up the sugar content of the above cereal and several other popular brands and sorted it by "% Sugar" (grams of sugar per serving divided by grams per serving). Take a look:

Let's face it, most people eat at least 2-3 servings of the above portion sizes, making breakfast with the top half of the list comparable to our favorite yardstick, the Snickers bar. (Notice that seven of the 10 bestselling cereals are in the top half.) Again, when exactly did we all agree it was okay to eat candy for breakfast? More pointedly, when did we all agree it was okay for kids' cereal to have the most sugar?

Most of us do like sweet things, though, so how do we sweeten cereal if not with sugar? Like the spinach/kale salad, we simply use fruit. Whenever you see fruit in a cereal bowl on the box, you usually see strawberries. They're bright, red, and nice looking, so it's a good aesthetic choice. As lazy as I am, however, the extra steps of having to cut the leafy part out and chop them up were enough to keep me from ever using them. Having to use a sharp knife that early in the morning almost goes against the whole point of having cereal for breakfast.

Blueberries, on the other hand, require no sharp objects and are super nutritious. Just grab a fistful, wash them under the tap, and throw it in the cereal. You now have a superfood sweetening your cereal, so it's a lot easier to choose from the bottom half of the list above. I highly recommend it.

Now aside from the sugar in cereal, the other thing you have to watch out for is serving size. How often have you had left over milk after finishing a bowl of cereal, so you pour more cereal, only to find you have too much cereal, so you add more milk, then more cereal, then more milk, and the cycle continues until you're on a full-on carb overload?

To curb this cycle, I present the following three cereal-eating pro tips:

1. Drink a tall glass of water to curb your appetite as a pre-cereal morning routine. After sweating all night while sleeping, you wake up dehydrated anyway, so getting rehydrated is a good idea regardless of what you're having for breakfast. Not only will the water curb your appetite, but it will also boost your metabolism, purge toxins from your body, and help your body fight disease and constipation.

2. Eat some fruit before you pour that first bowl of cereal. I like eating something a little substantial, like a banana or an apple. With the water from #1 above, the fruit should fill you up about halfway.

3. Go ahead and drink the leftover milk out of the bowl. You're a grown-up now. No one can tell you what to do.

If you usually eat cereal every morning and follow the suggestions above, you'll consume a thousand fewer calories a week without even thinking about it. Congratulations, you're well on your way.

*****

An Open Letter to the Insurance Industry

Dear Insurance Industry,

I hope all is well. I'm writing to ask you to take on a fight that needs fighting, a fight that only you can fight. To illustrate, let me present the following chart, which is based on the 2011 US budget. It should freak out every American, especially those in the health and life insurance industry:

Copyright: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 2014. Reprinted by permission. (pcrm.org)

Given the insurance industry's significant lobbying power, how is it possible that we are spending less than 3% of our food subsidies on fruits, nuts, and vegetables (you know, the food that will keep us healthy)? The chart above is a big reason why a Bacon Habanero Ranch Quarter Pounder, fries, and a Coke at McDonald's cost less than a bunch of grapes. Where have you been this whole time, insurance lobby? Big Unhealthy Food has been eating your lunch for years!

Your mission, Insurance Industry, should you choose to accept it, is to protect the American people from ourselves. Support legislation that makes fruits, nuts, and vegetables more affordable. You have the resources to fight this fight and you have the most to lose. Be the hero, and not the hero we deserve, but the one we need.

Sincerely,

George del Prado

Concerned U.S. Citizen and Patriot

CHAPTER SEVEN

What's for Lunch and Dinner?

"Maybe they couldn't figure out what to make chicken taste like, which is why chicken tastes like everything."

– Mouse, The Matrix (1999)

When I decided to live a healthier lifestyle (for real this time), the first thing I did was significantly cut down on my beef, pork, and lamb consumption. I figured once or twice a month was okay, so I used to save it for the top-shelf stuff: steak, ribs, and pork bulgogi, for example. You can't really substitute chicken or seafood for those meals. For many others, however, swapping them in isn't that big of a deal and yet the health benefits are significant. For example, is beef teriyaki really that much better than chicken teriyaki? Pork fried rice over chicken fried rice? Lamb curry over shrimp curry? Ground beef certainly tastes different from ground chicken, but is it really so much better that it's worth the health trade-off?

Consider the difference:

You're getting 1.5 to over 2 times as many calories and 2 to 3 times the fat (and 3 to 4.5 times the saturated fat) for something that, if the alternative is cooked right, you'd hardly mind the difference.

Now compare the following animal protein options:

If you're going to eat a dish whose flavor mostly comes from the oils, sauces, spices, seasonings, and herbs used in cooking it, why not opt for the much healthier ground chicken, skinless chicken (35% of the calories and 90% of the fat in the skin? No, thank you.), or fish as the dish's protein? The difference in calories and saturated fat is significant when you look at it. Again, keep the cow, pig, and lamb meals to once or twice a month. It's really not that hard a commitment and definitely worth it in terms of your overall well-being.

### Y'all're Eatin' Too Much Meat

Hopefully you've bought into the mammals-only-once-or-twice-a-month part of The Plan. Now I'm going to ask you to take one more step forward, which is to eat less meat in general (yes, even chicken). Probably the hardest thing for most people to wrap their heads around is the idea that they really shouldn't eat meat with every meal, at least not in the portions available today. Meat is packed with protein, but you're just not designed to digest as much of it as you probably have been eating.

At the very least, the USDA recommendations on meat consumption agree with this viewpoint. Take a look at the following infographic, which compares the US's per capita meat consumption with what the USDA recommends (courtesy of DoorToDoorOrganics.com):

Three ounces of meat is about the size of a deck of cards. Think about that and about the USDA recommendations above when figuring out your meat portion for each day. (John Elway's steakhouse in downtown Denver serves a 28 oz. porterhouse, which sounds more like a challenge than a meal.)

Again, think back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, whose lifestyle our bodies evolved to handle. They needed to expend a considerable amount of energy to get meat, so they just didn't eat it all that often. Probably the earliest form of hunting was persistence hunting, where hunters tracked and chased their prey in the midday heat until it was too exhausted to keep running. They would chase it for _hours_. Next time you pick up some meat at the grocery store or at Elway's, appreciate the hell out of it.

Regardless of whether you're surprised to find out we're eating twice as much meat as we're supposed to, many of you are still thinking, "Sorry, buddy, I was with you the whole way until now." Before you skip to the next section, however, just remember that I'm not asking you to go vegan here – maybe start with one or two vegetarian lunches or dinners a week, then work up from there. Even if becoming a part-time vegetarian seems to be a herculean task, just keep reading and see if I can talk you into it.

First off, let me just say that I _definitely_ get the whole meat thing. I'm not one of those vegetarians who like to lecture about why eating meat is bad, then admit they never liked the taste of meat to begin with. _They_ don't understand like _I_ understand. Baby back ribs that fall off the bone, spicy pork bulgogi, and perfectly medium-rare filet mignons are all in my top 5 foods of all time. (Sour belts and red dragon rolls round it out in case you were wondering.)

Having said that, I also understand that we are among the very blessed few to walk the Earth who have access to as much meat as we do. Thanks to factory farming (which is nasty business, look it up), we've become accustomed to having meat as part of just about every meal. We've collectively gained a very false sense of entitlement that we should be eating meat every day, regardless of the fact that (1) the vast majority of people who have ever lived on this planet cannot say the same, and (2) meat in large quantities is really bad for you. (Several studies have linked excess protein intake to kidney disease, prostate cancer, and diabetes.) Complaining about eating a handful of vegetarian meals every week is like complaining your wallet's too small for your fifties and your diamond shoes are too tight.

But...but there's something really _American_ about having the _freedom_ to eat meat with every meal, isn't there? Cutting back on burgers and steaks in favor of beans and tofu seems almost unpatriotic! _You're not some kinda commie hippie pinko, are ya?_

Well, if you want to talk patriotism, think about this: In 2012, Mission: Readiness, a nonpartisan group of 100 retired generals and admirals published "Too Fat to Fight," a report on obesity's grave danger to national security. Apparently, the #1 reason people get rejected from joining the military is that they are too overweight. There aren't that many people signing up to defend us to begin with and 27% are shown the door because they're too fat? That is _definitely_ not good.

Furthermore, Americans with bad diet and exercise habits are destined to face many preventable health issues much earlier in life. Caring for them will take a massive toll on the country, both in terms of lost productivity and healthcare resources. On the list of our most important civic duties, you could argue that taking care of yourself falls somewhere between voting and paying your taxes.

Finally, there is the negative environmental impact of the meat industry, which most people just don't get. Take a look at the infographic below, which was created by the Environmental Working Group. It's based on CleanMetrics's measurement of "cradle-to-grave" carbon footprint of 20 popular types of meat, dairy, and vegetable protein, taking into account greenhouse gas emissions "generated before and after the food leaves the farm – from the pesticides and fertilizer used to grow animal feed all the way through the grazing, animal raising, processing, transportation, cooking and, finally, disposal of unused food." The infographic illustrates the greenhouse gas emissions of the different protein sources in terms of miles driven in a car per 4 oz. serving. It really opened my eyes; hopefully it will do the same for you:

Who knew opting for that lamb shawarma instead of the chicken shawarma is like getting in your car and driving around for seven miles? Think about that the next time you have a hankering for some baby sheep.

Further supporting this point, the University of Chicago's Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin concluded their report in the journal _Earth Interactions_ by saying an average American diet "causes the emissions of 1485 kg CO2\- equivalent above emissions associated with consuming the same number of calories, but from plant sources." As a comparison, Americans driving a Toyota Camry each produce, on average, 1050 kg more CO2 emissions annually than those driving a Prius. So yes, cut enough meat out of your diet (especially pork, beef, and lamb) and you can start riding your high horse, just like a hybrid car driver.

### Throw Some Tasteless Leaves In That Soup

Generally speaking, canned soup really isn't that good for you. Some are better than others (check the label), but they're generally high in sodium. You could make healthier soup by starting with some chicken or vegetable stock, but that's more up to how worried you are about your sodium intake.

The nice thing about soup, whether homemade or canned, is that you can usually add some frozen spinach and/or frozen fenugreek in there without affecting the taste. Experiment with it and find out how much you can add. Go for soup that's not too high in fat, calories, or sodium and you'll be surprised at how filling it can be. Add that to your rotation for an easy way to sneak a bunch of vegetables into your diet without you even noticing.

*****

Is Subway Good For You?

You've probably heard by now that there are more Subway restaurants on the planet than any other fast food place, surpassing McDonald's in 2010. I used to eat at Subway relatively frequently. As you may have noticed in the side-by-side 6" Turkey vs. Big Mac comparison in chapter five, there's a lot to like about Subway. Even with cheese and mayo, you're still ahead on key numbers like calories and fat, but the sodium is right up there with the Big Mac. If, however, you go for the 12" sandwich, bag of chips, and Coke combo, you end up with a meal that's really not all that healthy:

Almost 1400 calories, a whopping 56 grams of fat (13.5 saturated), almost 2000 mg of sodium, and 186 g of carbs, including almost three Snickers bars' worth of sugar (85 g), thanks to the Coke. People eat these combos all the time, believing they're a healthy choice because of the "halo effect" from Subway's health-conscious marketing campaigns. Why do they believe it? Because people believe what they want to believe.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Zen of Lazy Exercising

Think of all the exercise regimens you've started and inevitably given up in your life. I'm willing to bet they were all both inconvenient and painful. It's our basic instinct as a species to seek convenience (i.e., conserve calories) and avoid pain. Just look at the one direction human progress has marched throughout history – towards an easier and less painful life. This is why I believe inconvenient and painful exercise plans are doomed to fail for most people. You're going against human nature here.

Furthermore, we evolved over millions of years never wanting for exercise. We got all the exercise we needed foraging for food. If "foraging for food" sounds like a lot of work, it's because _it is_. Hunting and gathering all day is not easy. Now we don't have to work that hard to get food. Having to go out of your way to exercise for health reasons is an unnatural byproduct of the comfort-bubble we've wrapped around ourselves. And although we're the only species that can think ahead and plan, we're still terribly short-sighted, so "health reasons" are still a tough sell. All around, unfortunately, we're just wired not to want to do it. So how do we get over that?

First, let's talk about inconvenience. Inconvenience is having to get off your super-comfy couch, change, lace up your shoes, and go outside to face the elements for that run. Inconvenience means having to get dressed and drive to the gym. Inconvenience is any of a series of small steps between your couch and your work out, then the actual work out. To eliminate as many of those steps as possible, you can turn your living room into a gym with two inexpensive and compact pieces of exercise equipment: an exercise peddler and some dumbbells.

### Dumbbells, Peddlers, and the Golden Age of TV

An exercise peddler is like an exercise bike with just the pedals and no actual bike:

Drive Medical Exercise Peddler

An exercise bike is fine if you have (and use) it, but I'm convinced people feel more comfortable kicking it on their couch while they pedal instead of sitting on the exercise bike. They retail for anywhere from $20 to over $100, so you should be able to find one that fits your budget.

I admit that as far as exercise equipment go, the peddler is not exactly the most manly one out there. It looks like something your grandma would use. But really, who cares? Impress people with how much healthier you look, not with your manly and unused gym equipment. Believe me, exercises don't get any more convenient than this. You can turn your TV-watching and video game-playing downtime into a workout. It's also really compact, so you can easily hide it in the closet when you have people over you're trying to impress.

One problem I find with the exercise peddler is that the lighter, less expensive ones have a tendency to slip while you exercise, which will annoy the Zen of Lazy Exercising out of you. To fix that, just put a couple of dumbbells behind it to prevent it from slipping.

And that brings us to the other inexpensive piece of exercise equipment you'll keep next to your TV: dumbbells. You want fairly lightweight dumbbells. I weigh about 175 lbs. and the only pairs of dumbbells I own weigh 3, 5, and 10 lbs. each (yes, very manly). The idea is low impact with a ton of repetitions, so you want to make sure they're light enough for you. Working out with lightweight dumbbells this way is more like a cardio workout than actual weight lifting. It's actually a lot like swimming, as if your living room filled up with water so you can do underwater aerobics in front of your TV.

Now keeping the exercise peddler and the lightweight dumbbells next to your TV takes care of the "inconvenience" part of the equation. They're both low impact work outs, so that addresses some of the "pain" part as well, but to dull it even further, we take advantage of the Golden Age of Television.

### The Breaking Bad Challenge

Never have there been so many great shows on TV: Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Walking Dead – the list goes on and on. And you can watch complete seasons of many of them on Netflix! (I love you, Netflix.) Back in my day, there was no Internet, we only got 7 TV channels, and 4 of them were crap!

Now I'm a huge Breaking Bad fan. I'm a little ashamed to say I binged on the entire 62 episode series in three weeks, including the last 8 episodes in one day. (I was between jobs.) It's so well done; it really is in a class of its own in terms of gripping storytelling from beginning to end, almost every single episode top-notch.

The Breaking Bad Challenge works best for people who have never seen it and who enjoy dark, thrilling dramas. (It's pretty dark.) If you prefer period pieces to Albuquerque, maybe go with Downton Abbey or Mad Men. If you like zombies or vampires, go with Walking Dead or True Blood, or maybe Game of Thrones is more your thing. There are so many good shows from which to choose now, go find something you can really get into.

If, however, TV's not for you, watch a movie, play video games, or read your favorite book on your tablet. The key thing is to find something that can effectively capture your attention, rendering the low-impact peddler or dumbbell workout to almost unnoticeable levels. If you can almost eliminate the "pain" portion of your workout, you can do it both longer and again and again. The Zen of Lazy Exercising is about exercising without seeming to exercise by achieving a state of mental detachment from the activity, removing the negative association you have with working out. It will then more easily become part of your daily routine, like brushing your teeth or taking out the trash.

Let's assume Breaking Bad works for you. The challenge is simple: Commit to watching Breaking Bad (it's on Netflix) at least three times a week with the stipulation that you must work out every time you watch it. (Please note that you should consult with a physician before starting any exercise program.) Depending on your current physical condition, you could start with 10 minutes of the dumbbells and 10 minutes of the peddler every other day, then work your way up from there. Eventually, you want to get to at least 20 minutes of exercise a day, which is surprisingly doable when you realize how easy and convenient these exercises are. You'll find yourself getting lost in the show, making the workout pass by quickly. If you want to lose weight faster or give yourself a bigger food budget, then keep working your way up in terms of workout duration and intensity. As long as you don't push yourself too hard too fast, you'll be fine.

I once watched "The Road" with Viggo Mortensen while I was rocking the peddler. (Viggo was in the movie; I didn't actually watch it _with_ him.) It's a pretty depressing movie, but I find post-apocalyptic stories fascinating, so I got sucked into it. I didn't realize until the end that I was peddling the entire time. My legs were wobbly as I got up, stumbling as I walked away from the couch. That's when I really knew for the first time that I had practiced the Zen of Lazy Exercising. I'm sure you can, too.

### Dumbbell Exercises

Since you'll be using light weight dumbbells, think of these exercises more like an aerobic activity and less like weight lifting. They're low impact enough that you can do them every day and you shouldn't need many (or long) breaks between sets. As soon as you finish with one exercise, you can switch to the next right away.

Bicep Curls

1. Hold the dumbbells at your sides with your palms facing forward.

2. Keep your elbows in place by your sides as you lift the dumbbells up to your shoulders, squeezing your bicep at the top.

3. When you lower the dumbbell back down, it's very important you do it slowly. When doing bicep curls, especially with light weights, the tendency is to let gravity do the work by dropping and catching the dumbbell before lifting it back up. This is a great way for you to wreck your elbow, so lower it slowly.

Triceps

1. To work out my triceps, I like to stand with my feet shoulder width apart and start by holding the lightest dumbbells I have (3 lbs.) behind me as high as my arms can comfortably go. Once in that position, keep your upper arms and elbow in place as you slowly swing the dumbbells to your shoulders.

2. Flex your biceps as you bring the dumbbells close to your chin before swinging your arms back to the previous position.

3. Flex your triceps at the other end of the arc before repeating the motion.

4. Once again – slow, controlled motions.

Deltoids

When guys think of vanity exercises, they usually think of hitting their biceps or chest, making deltoids exercises among the most underrated vanity exercises around. If you want great looking arms, you need to get some definition in those deltoids. Check mine out:

Do you even lift, bro?

No, I'm totally kidding, that's not my arm; that would take way too much work. But see what I mean about the deltoids being a great vanity exercise? They're like the rug that really ties the room together. (Women with defined deltoids definitely get extra points, too.) Try the following exercise:

1. Keep your arms at your sides, slightly bending your elbows so your arms are at 135-degree angles.

2. Raise your arms up, keeping your elbows out so that your shoulders and upper arms form a straight line. Hold it there for a second before coming back down.

3. Again, make sure all your movements are controlled and deliberate. These are very light weights, so there's no excuse to get sloppy with your form.

Shoulder Press

1. Keeping your back straight, hold up the dumbbells by your shoulders so that the dumbbells are parallel to the floor.

2. Raise the dumbbells above your head, stretching it up as high as you can before letting them down in a controlled fashion and repeat.

3. You can switch it up by alternating one hand up while the other hand is down. On the up movement, stretch upward as far as you can, which will give your back a good stretch.

Shadow Boxing

1. Did someone say _manly exercise_? Using the lightest dumbbells you have (no more than 3 lbs.), shadow box different combinations of jabs, crosses, hooks, and upper cuts, targeting both the head and the body of your imaginary opponent.

2. Switch it up and try leading with your off-foot.

3. To protect against injury, only go at about 50%-75% speed, focusing on technique and NOT speed or power. Going all out shadow boxing with dumbbells can tear up your shoulders, elbows, and wrists.

4. Also, make sure you don't extend your arms completely (i.e., don't lock your elbows). Do this for just a minute or two before switching to another exercise. You can shadow box again at a later point in your workout.

Other Exercises

There are, of course, a bunch of other exercises you can do with dumbbells (just google "best dumbbell exercises"). The important thing to remember is to use slow movements with good form on light dumbbells. You want low impact, high repetition exercises, which, again, allow you to do these everyday if you choose. Just keep doing one of the exercises until you start getting tired, then immediately switch to another as if you were circuit training. I don't even keep track of the number of repetitions because it's hard to count and watch TV at the same time. (I keep track of minutes rather than reps.) With enough practice and the right TV shows or movies distracting you, you'll be a master of the Zen of Lazy Exercising in no time.

*****

Turns Out Sports Drinks Are Bad For You

The British Medical Journal investigated the sports drinks industry in 2012, concluding that "there is 'a striking lack of evidence' to support claims about improved performance and recovery for many sports products like drinks, trainers, and protein shakes." Shockingly, their investigation found manufacturer-funded "scientific research" to be dubious at best. What better way to help nullify your workout than by downing a bright blue sugar-bomb of a sports drink (35 g sugar in a 20 oz. bottle of Gatorade – 30% more than a Snickers bar)? Big surprise, all-natural, zero-calorie water is still the best, just like the cavemen used to drink. If you're really worried about electrolytes, eat a banana.

CHAPTER NINE

Get Up, Stand Up!

Once again going back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, think about how much time they spent sitting compared to how much time we sit today. I doubt they could afford to sit half, maybe even a quarter of the time that we do. Since we didn't evolve to sit around all day, it probably follows that sitting too much is really bad for you, right? Yes, unfortunately, that's right, it totally is. Sitting for most of the day has been tied to a much higher risk of heart attacks (by the Pennington Biomedical Research Center) and disease (by the British Journal of Sports Medicine).

So if you work a desk job, I highly recommend you set up a standing desk. If you feel self-conscious about being the only one at work standing up, just tell yourself and your co-workers that you're doing it for health reasons. End of (true) story. Believe me, no one is going to care except for you in the last 5-10 years of your life. (You'll be thanking yourself.) Some people might even follow your lead, then you'll be a trendsetter.

Standing at your desk is one of the best examples of the Zen of Lazy Exercising. I'm pretty sure most people can get used to it pretty quickly. Once you get over that hump, it's hardly noticeable (which, again, is the central concept of the Zen of Lazy Exercising), while the health benefits are significant. Take a look at the table below, which I grabbed off of WebMD.com's Fit-O-Meter:

I generally only stand for half the day because standing too much increases the risk of carotid atherosclerosis and varicose veins (neither of which you want, so don't overdo it). Just four hours of standing, however, gets the average 196 lb. American male an additional 285 calories burned, which is almost the same as him running two miles at a 10-minute per mile pace. Trust me, it's a lot easier getting used to standing at your desk for four hours a day than it is to running two miles per day. You won't even notice the standing after a day or two while you'll never not notice the running. (I'll go out on a limb here and say most 196 lb. American men probably can't even run two miles in 20 minutes, much less do it every day.) Furthermore, researchers from the American Cancer Society have also said that extensive sitting could undo whatever benefits your usual work outs get you. It's arguable, then, that sitting for 3 hours and 40 minutes and running for 20 is less healthy than standing for 4 hours.

### How Do I Set Up A Standing Desk?

The two important things you need to remember when setting up a computer standing desk are the following:

1. While you're standing straight with good posture, your elbows should comfortably bend at 90 degree angles when typing on your keyboard. Your keyboard should then be just a little bit below elbow level.

2. Your computer screen needs to be about 1.5 to 2 feet from your face, the top half of it at about eye level, and the screen tilted slightly upward (about 20 degrees). This means that if you have a laptop, you'll need to invest in a separate monitor. (You can get some fairly inexpensive monitors used for $40-$60.)

When I first decided to try a standing desk, I just put a box on my desk at work which put my laptop's keyboard at elbow height. I didn't get a separate monitor right away, so I just stood hunched over, looking down at my laptop screen for 2 weeks before my neck finally gave up. I don't know if you've ever strained your neck from looking down for 2 weeks straight, but let me tell you, _it_ _hurt!_ You can probably try it out for a day or two, but once you realize standing at your desk for a few hours a day isn't that big a deal, go get a monitor. You're going to be around for a while, so you have to respect the ergonomics.

Whether you build or you buy you just need to set up two platforms – one to put your keyboard at almost elbow level and the other to put your monitor at eye level. You can buy a fancy standing desk (see below for the Varidesk Single Plus Standing Desk, which my current employer was kind enough to get for me) or build the two platforms yourself. Whatever you do, get it done, because it's a no-brainer lazy exercise.

A sustainable piece of exercise equipment

Now a few additional tips for your standing desk:

1. Get a soft mat to stand on, which will help with fatigue. There are some nice gel mats out there that are pretty comfortable to stand on.

2. Put something in front of the mat that you can rest your foot on comfortably. Throughout the day, put your right foot on it to give your right leg a break, then switch.

3. When you're on your feet, it's a lot easier to do small, simple exercises throughout the day to work and stretch your muscles, especially in the back and legs. Get on your tip toes and back down to work your calves. If you want to sneak in even more exercise, stand on the edge of something about 2-3 inches high so you can bring your heel lower than your toes. Do random sets of 10 throughout the day.

4. Try squatting down a bit to work your thighs and hamstrings for a little while. See how long you can hold it and try to build up some endurance.

5. Stretch out your arms, back, and neck throughout the day. It's much easier to do so when you're already standing.

Do as much as you can while at work, just remember that no one really cares what you're doing as long as you're not too distracting (so don't be too distracting). With enough of the above exercises done throughout the day, your calories burned per hour standing at the office can go up significantly. That would bring you closer to becoming a Master of the Zen of Lazy Exercising.

*****

We! Are! Family!

Most people diet and exercise because they want to look better. Vanity and our instinctual need to procreate are powerful motivators; but it's almost never enough in the long run. When the hunt is over, the hunters stop hunting; so how many people let themselves go after finding that lucky significant other? (Guilty.)

And let's say you do get off the couch and give it a go. You eat right, exercise, and start losing weight. As I mentioned previously, when you start looking better, your motivation naturally starts to wane. There's a sense of "I've arrived," so that first step on the slippery slope is so easy to take. Clearly, we need more than just "look good naked" to be our reason for exercising and eating right.

We've discussed, at least at a high level, how your diet and exercise habits affect your health and how quickly your body deteriorates over time. We've also discussed how your diet and exercise habits not only affect your country, but also the environment. I'm hoping all that will help motivate you as much as how you'll look poolside this summer. I do, however, have one more great reason for you to live a healthy lifestyle. For that, I ask, what's the most important thing in the world to you?

If you're lucky, you'll say "family" or at least have them in the Top 3. (Mine just beats out my fantasy football team for the top spot.) As important as family is to us, however, most people unfortunately don't get what a huge impact their diet and exercise habits have on their families' well-being.

First off, if you have kids (or plan on having them), you should know that they are always watching. More than anyone, you have a bigger influence on their diet and exercise habits now and when they grow up. Whatever reality you provide them is becoming their "normal." If you take them out to eat fast food often, then they will more than likely eat fast food often when they're adults. If you keep sugary snacks and drinks in your house, then they will also likely have sugary snacks and drinks in their house. If you never exercise, then they probably won't, either. Their concept of what and how much they should eat and how much they should exercise mostly comes from you because _you're_ _creating their "normal."_

Most people blame genetics, but shared diet and exercise habits play a huge role in why people grow up and grow old looking like their parents. So if you really do care about your children's health and well-being, internalize the fact that _the most important thing you can do for their health is for you yourself to eat right and exercise_. Be a good role model. Make it a point to show off healthy living to your children. Exercise in front of them. Rock the peddler while you watch The Bachelor with your kids so you can feel good about the great example you're setting. Feed them a simple, nutritious meal and then show them how to make it. Always keep in mind what kind of normal you're getting them used to. When you think about it, living a healthy lifestyle not only protects your children's health, but also that of their children and their children's children.

A significant bonus is your diet and exercise habits can also protect your family's financial well-being. American culture tends to have us focus on climbing the corporate ladder, earning money, managing your investment portfolio, and providing a comfortable life for our families. There's generally nothing wrong with that, but then most people miss the very real connection between their diet and exercise habits and how much of a financial burden they can become to their families.

You may have heard by now that 3 out of every 5 bankruptcies in the US are due to medical bills. Even crazier is that out of those medical bankruptcies, 3 out of 4 had health insurance (based on a Harvard study conducted in 2007). There's no doubt that a significant percentage of those bankruptcies could have been avoided had people taken better care of themselves.

According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, it will cost a typical 65-year-old married couple with no chronic conditions $197,000 to pay for out-of-pocket medical costs throughout retirement as of 2010 (remember that's just medical expenses – there's still rent, food, clothing, utilities, and entertainment on top of that). That's already a lot of money, but what happens when the (plural) Obese Generations take its massive toll on our healthcare system over the next 50 years? When demand is up, prices generally go up with it – plus there's inflation and an expected longer lifespan to consider on top of all that.

When you think about how much money you're going to need to keep yourself alive and relatively comfortable late in life, it behooves you to stack the deck in your favor as much as possible. You should really consider a proper diet and exercise plan as one of the best and smartest financial investments you can make. Constantly checking your investment portfolio while eating junk food meals and not exercising is textbook penny wise, pound foolish.

Finally, there's the gigantic emotional burden you're just raring to lay on your family by not eating right and exercising. Just ask anyone who's had to do it – taking care of a really sick loved one is an extremely difficult experience – physically, mentally, and emotionally. A healthy diet and exercise routine can't guarantee your health, but it will help keep the odds forever in your favor. If you say you love your family (which is easy to do), then one of the best ways to show it is by living a healthier life.

CHAPTER TEN

These Feet Are Made For Walking

As I mentioned in the first chapter, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle had a whole lot of walking in it. The only time you ran was when you were hunting or getting hunted. Otherwise, there was walking, more walking, then even more walking – finding food for now, finding food for later, finding materials for whatever you were trying to make, even relieving yourself – all required a lot of walking. So it follows that our bodies adapted to do a lot of walking, which, naturally, we try avoiding as much possible. How many laps do people drive around a mall parking lot looking for a closer spot when the farthest spot is really not that far?

To get over that laziness instinct, you must first realize that walking is really not that difficult. It doesn't get much easier than that as far as exercises go. _But it's boring!_ Yes, okay, it is pretty boring, unless you're walking with someone you really like. Me, I usually walk with someone I love. Her name is My iPhone. My iPhone turns walking into a textbook Zen of Lazy Exercising exercise – low impact and totally tuned out.

(Before I continue, let me throw out my big fat disclaimer – do NOT walk around with your nose buried in your smartphone anywhere that can get you killed. Remember the whole point is to reach mental disconnectedness from the physical activity, which can obviously be dangerous if you're in a busy city street or a bad neighborhood. Ideally, you can walk around a park, a mall, or a quiet suburban or rural neighborhood. Just please don't kill yourself. Now I will continue...)

How can you be bored walking when the Internet is literally at your fingertips? (Take note, kids – correct use of the word "literally.") Think of all the places where you just chill and stick your nose in your smartphone – the airport before your flight, anywhere you're waiting for someone, or on your couch at home. These are all opportunities for you to just get up and walk. You don't even have to get changed. Keep doing whatever it was you were doing on your phone, just do it while you're walking instead of sitting. Walk around your block. Pace from one end of the terminal to the other. Do laps around the mall. I don't know how many miles I've walked just browsing through imgur, reading up on my fantasy football team, or checking email. (I often do it while I'm waiting for my kids to get out of soccer, martial arts, tutoring, or whatever other class they're currently signed up for.) There's no better way to make a 45 minute walk seem like 10. You hardly notice it, but again, be careful. Walk on the left side of the road, keep turning left around the block, and look both ways before stepping off that curb!

One other thing I want to point out is that when you're walking around, reading something on your smart phone, make sure to maintain good posture. When you're walking, imagine you're being pulled forward by an invisible cord stuck about an inch above your belly button. You don't want to be hunched over, looking down on your phone. Hold the phone up at least to about chin level so your neck doesn't start bothering you. That will also help keep your head up, so you'll see where you're going a bit better. Switch hands when your arm gets tired ( _bonus upper body workout!_ ). Happy walking!

*****

The Only Car You'll Ever Own

When discussing personal diet and exercise habits, I like to think of your body as a car, which your mind drives to move around in the world. Just like a car, the better you take care of it, the smoother it will run and the longer it will last. Unlike a car, however, you can never buy a new one. When it finally gives out, it blows up like the Godfather.

Now you have many choices of fuel for your car, all of which are not created equally. Some are cheap (delicious, empty calories) but will lessen your car's performance and reliability, shorten its lifespan, and, if used enough, will eventually transform it into a beige Pontiac Aztek. Other types of gas may cost a little more (perhaps not your first choice in the taste department, yet full of nutrients), but will let you cruise around in a Ferrari or a Bentley a far distance for a long time.

If this were your real car, you'd probably almost never use the cheap gas. This is, however, the choice you have every day for your mind's car. You can either go for the cheap stuff or invest in quality. Cheap gas is okay in a pinch, but you just can't use it every day. The good news is it doesn't matter if you're already rolling around in the beige Aztek. Start taking in quality fuel now and you'll be surprised at what you can _transform_ into. You might even say there's more to you...than meets the eye. (Sorry, I'll let myself out.)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Closing Arguments

Our bodies aren't that complicated. All day we burn calories for energy; so eventually we get hungry and have to consume more calories to replace them. You gain weight when you eat more than you burn, lose weight when you burn more than you eat, and you stay constant when you eat only what you burn. The arithmetic is frustratingly logical and inescapable.

As discussed earlier, the reason people find this particular arithmetic problem so difficult is twofold:

1. Acquiring food was a constant struggle for millions of years, so our instincts developed such that we are compelled to eat as much as we can when we can and expend energy only when we really have to. Hunger and laziness thus became, unfortunately, part of our survival instinct.

2. We invented our way out of that struggle in glorious fashion. Thanks to supermarkets, restaurants, cafes, cars, and desk jobs, the amount of calories we need to burn to get food is miniscule compared to what we had to burn a mere 12,000 years ago (a figurative blip in time). We also invented awesome tasting food with no nutritional value because _that's what we do_. Can you imagine bringing gummy bears back to 10,000 BC? If you had enough, you could probably rule the world.

If you hold these truths to be self-evident, that we are inherently a hungry and lazy species trapped in a world we created where great tasting food with questionable nutritional value is very easy to come by (classic first world problem), then today's obesity rates shouldn't be a big surprise. It also shouldn't be a big surprise why most diet and exercise plans don't work. _Our instincts are telling us to do the exact opposite._

So how do we get over all that?

Well, we work around it by dieting and exercising smart, not hard. For a diet and exercise plan to become a permanent part of your life, you need to be able to live with it. To this end, I present to you the Hungry and Lazy Guide's 10 Commandments to Healthy Living:

1. While everyone wants that "one weird trick" in the currently popular (yet likely unsustainable) "The _________ Diet," there's no magic in healthy eating. We evolved over countless millennia to eat mostly fruits, nuts, and vegetables because, again, they haven't figured out how to run away or fight back (yet). So, clearly, you should eat mostly fruits, nuts, and vegetables because our bodies adapted to process them the best. You just have to make it a priority to sneak them into your culinary rotation any way you can.

2. Speaking of sneaking vegetables into your rotation, replace sugary drinks (including fruit juice) with spinach smoothies. Spinach is as good for you as it is easy to drink down, so make it happen. If you're going to drink something sweet, you might as well go with the sweet drink that has a spinach salad hiding inside it.

3. Replace coffee that's sugary and creamy (a pretty bad combo, health-wise) with green tea. Most coffee drinkers wouldn't drink coffee if not for the caffeine anyway; so instead, why not get your caffeine fix along with a bunch of age- and disease-fighting antioxidants? Again, it might be an acquired taste, but you should clearly acquire it. (Do or do not, you pansy, there is no try.) Keep a bunch of green tea bags at your desk at work and it will happen.

4. Get in the habit of drinking a tall glass of water and eating fruit before breakfast every morning. You'll be surprised at how big an impact this little habit can have, especially for those of you accustomed to starting your day off with 3-4 servings of cereal. (Speaking of cereal, let's not forget laying off the sugary kind by sweetening it with blueberries and/or other fruits.)

5. When it comes to snacks, you have to think outside the American box because that box is going to kill you. Limit junk food snacks like [insert commonly eaten American snack here] with healthier fare like edamame, bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, fruits, nuts, baby carrots, sweet peppers, and hummus. Doing so will let you eat as much as you need, helping you avoid the unsustainable hunger pangs many people associate with dieting.

6. No junk food in the house. There will be exceptions, of course (birthdays, Halloween, Christmas, or whenever you or someone you live with really, really need it), as long as they are the exceptions and not the rule. The rule is, _no junk food in the house_ (this includes soda and fruit juice). Eat a big meal before grocery shopping and it won't be that hard to stick to this rule. (It's a big one.) If you want junk food, you have to get it elsewhere.

7. Remember that main dishes generally get most of their taste from the sauces, herbs, oil, and spices used to cook it; so opt for poultry and seafood over eating four legged animals. Simply limiting your mammalian intake will make a big difference in your overall well-being. Just try to remember how cute they are.

8. Become a part-time vegetarian. Start with eating one vegetarian meal a week and work up from there. We're simply not designed to eat as much meat as is readily available these days. So do some research. Find those rotation-worthy vegetarian meals you will learn to love; they're out there. (Some helpful search terms: "best bean and rice recipe ever", "best vegetarian meals for meat lovers", "best veggie burger in [insert location]", "best falafels in [insert location]," "best vegetarian soup recipe ".) At the very least, start cutting back on the size of your meat portions to no more than two decks of cards a day. Your standard dinner plate should consist of 25% meat, 25% starch, and 50% vegetables.

9. Take it easy on the booze. I don't really feel comfortable telling people how much they should drink, but booze calories are empty calories. The more you drink, the bigger the hole you have to climb out of if you're trying to lose or maintain your weight. There is also, of course, the laundry list of health risks related to drinking heavily and often: cancer, high blood pressure, depression, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and the list goes on and on. Just saying.

10. Like I mentioned above, we're programmed to expend calories only when we have to. To work around this little instinct (and keep doing it), most people have to trick their brains into not realizing they're exercising. This is at the core of the Lazy Exercising Regimen. Turn your life force-killing desk job into a posture-saving standing job, walk around the block while feeding your smart phone addiction, and exercise with light dumb bells and/or a peddler while enjoying the best in 21st century entertainment. You'll be surprised at how effective and sustainable these simple exercises can be. And remember, the better you get at it, the more of it you'll do, and the more you can cheat on rules 1-9.

That's really it. 10 simple rules to healthy living. If you look at the list above, they mostly seem like small changes because, well, they kind of are. If you follow everything above, I can almost guarantee that you'll get to your ideal weight in a perfectly reasonable amount of time. I lost 40 lbs. in about 6 months, which is about 1.5 lbs. a week. That's about what you want, but I took it pretty easy on the way down. (I was still figuring out the 10 commandments back then.) So if you want to lose 120 lbs., maybe it takes a year and a half. But a year and a half is really not that long a time. Internet wisdom will tell you that if you started a year and a half ago, you'd be there by now. (I have shoes older than that.) Yes, life with a healthy body is not that far away, nor does it mean a life of hardship and wanting.

_But wait, there's more!_ I have _great_ news for you. When I got down to the weight I was happy with, I'll be honest, I started cheating a little bit more here and there. What can I say, it's human nature. I'm generally pretty good with sticking to the 10 point plan above; but I admit, once in a while, a cheat day turns into two or three. During vacations, it could turn into a week or more. The one time I went much longer than that, I went an entire _month_ , which was that glorious (but definitely not recommended) month of December 2012. I remember it like it was yesterday.

While I kept up the lazy exercising, I pretty much decided to eat anything I wanted during the holidays. For two of those weeks, I visited my parents in Las Vegas, the worldwide leader in broken dreams and all-you-can-eat buffets. (As an aside, think about how buffets are almost never worth it. Eating a regular restaurant meal is satisfying enough, so why pay extra for mass-produced, generally lower quality food that only compels you to eat until someone has to roll you back to the car?) And then there was my parents' house, that magnificent den of gluttony with Christmas goodies everywhere. New Year's Eve day was especially memorable. "I have 12 hours left before my New Year's resolution kicks in!" Naturally, no time was wasted.

When it was time to get back on that horse come January 1st, I honestly found it to be a pretty easy horse to get back onto. Pump the brakes on the four legged food group. Back to no junk food in the house. Surf the web a little longer, walk a little farther. I gained 10 pounds during that December free-for-all and it was gone by early February. And I never felt like I was trying that hard, which is a testament to the sustainability portion of The Plan.

After some time, I started playing scientist, testing the limits of what I could get away with. Maybe I follow only seven of the 10 rules for a little while. Maybe I completely take a break for a couple of days. The trick is to _weigh yourself every day_ (commandment #11) so you can check yourself before you wreck yourself. As soon as I gain a few pounds (it happens), I can lose it pretty easily by going back to following all 10 rules again. You don't have to eat like Kate Moss or lift like Dwayne Johnson for the rest of your life. There is a balance, which you will find. (Having said all that, I don't necessarily recommend you play scientist until you've gotten your weight down to where you want it first. If you're feeling good about the weight loss on your way down, keep rolling with it.)

### Don't Forget Why

As easy as The Plan is compared to other diet and exercise plans, you still gotta want it – and want it for the rest of your life. To this end, I admit I've been packing your bags and putting you on a bit of a guilt trip by pointing out how your diet and exercise habits are much bigger than you are (of course pun intended).

And no, I have no interest in "fat shaming." People who make fun of or judge people because they're fat are (as President Obama might say) jackasses. Now if you're a heavier person who's been a victim of this kind of behavior, you just can't let it bother you (easier said than done, I know). Because, seriously, who cares what a bunch of jackasses think? Remember that people who judge you (especially for your appearance) don't matter and people who matter won't judge you. It's amazing how much happier you can be once you internalize that mindset. Besides, getting in shape because of what other people think is the shallowest reason of all. Allow me to summarize all the other reasons you should live a healthy lifestyle:

1. Do it for your health. You'll thank yourself later. Just as environmentalists like to say we don't own the planet, we're only borrowing it from our children, let me say that you don't own your body, you're only borrowing it from your future old-person-self. Sit down and really think about what life will be like 20, 30, 40 years from now. Your quality (and quantity) of life at that time absolutely depends on what you do now. Don't forget your brain only gets one car. You better take care of it.

2. If you have or plan on having children, do it for them. When you start taking better care of yourself, you immediately become a better parent. Now I'm definitely not saying skinny people are better parents than fat people, that's absurd. Love and respect will always be the standard for that. If, however, you compare the eat-whatever-you-want-whenever-you-want-and-never-exercise version of yourself vs. the one that sets a good example by living a healthy lifestyle, then there's no contest. Show your kids how to do it while simultaneously extending your time with them _and_ postponing that time when you can no longer take care of yourself.

3. Do it because you want to like what you see in pictures and the mirror. Caring about your physical appearance is human nature, but what I hope you focus on more is looking healthy rather than looking good. If you eat right and exercise, feed your body what it's supposed to eat, and do the things your body is meant to do, then you will look and feel healthy. (And let's face it, looking and feeling healthy is looking good.) It's really that simple.

4. Do it for your bank account. Healthcare is _expensive_ and will only get even more so over time. Often people like to check how their investment portfolio is doing or how much their house might be worth. You should definitely add your weight, blood pressure, and heart rate to the numbers you track because they're all tied very closely together. This is a fact. Furthermore, people who take time studying different investment opportunities should also take time to figuring out what healthy foods are rotation-worthy. (It's the Information Age. With a little effort and Google, you can find healthy recipes that you will genuinely like and want to eat again.) Taking care of yourself can significantly improve your chances of protecting your life savings.

5. Do it for your country. It's easy to say you love your country, but it's a whole other thing to live it. How? Be nice to people. Educate yourself and vote. Pay your taxes. Be considerate and charitable. Respect those who disagree with you ( _I'm looking at you, politics_ ). And finally, take care of yourself. When people get old and sick earlier than they have to (given better habits), their productivity goes to zero while they start taxing our healthcare system prematurely. _Don't be that guy._ Eat right and exercise. It's never been easier.

6. Do it for the planet (the only one we got). Becoming a Facebook environmentalist is pretty easy. Just like or share an article about the environment and BAM! You're saving the planet. ( _Awareness!_ ) But are you, really? If you want to do something about taking care of Spaceship Earth in a real and measurable way, then start taking care of yourself. Specifically, start eating more beans, fruits, nuts, and vegetables and less meat (especially pork, beef, and lamb, the most polluting offenders of the meat industry). You know your food doesn't magically appear in the restaurant or grocery store. There's a very large and very complex industrial process going on in the background to get that food in front of you; and that process creates pollution. Now that you've been made aware of this, opt for Earth-friendlier fare like beans, tofu, fruits, nuts, and vegetables. Our planet will thank you for it and, perhaps not coincidentally, your body will, too.

Hopefully you've internalized the exceedingly negative impact unhealthy living can have not only on your health, but also on your family, country, and planet. _So do something about it!_ You can save your family. You can save your country. You can save your planet. Take your health seriously. Make it a priority because it's really not as difficult as you might think.

Throughout the 17 years I struggled with my weight, I often felt it was hopeless. My genetics make me fat. My metabolism sucks. Eating right is too difficult. I don't have time to exercise. Well, in the final analysis, I can tell you that all these reasons were 100% pure BS. It's not hopeless because you're definitely not helpless. If you have time to watch TV or surf the Internet, then guess what? You definitely have time to lazy exercise. And yes, there's no doubt you'll find rotation-worthy food that's both satisfying and healthy. You just have to look.

_You can do this!_ You know how I know? Because I did it and I turn hunger and laziness into an art form. Remember that you don't have to be a health and fitness nut, working out like crazy and eating like a bird every day. There are many paths up the mountain and the 10 Commandments above point to the easiest one. You just have to start living it.

And finally, if I may be so bold, please tell people about this book! Please consider gifting it to or sharing it with your friends and family. I obviously have selfish reasons; but I also believe this guide can help a lot of people live a healthier lifestyle. Do you know why I believe this? Because people are inherently hungry and lazy, hardcoded to eat heartily and avoid exercise. Understanding the laws of nature working against you, this guide shows you the way around them. _So please pass it on!_ (When you think about it, it's really kind of like a civic duty.) Word of mouth is the greatest compliment you can give a writer, so it would most definitely be appreciated.

Good luck and stay healthy!

###

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

George del Prado is a video game producer by day and a downright hilarious husband and father (and sometime writer) by night. He earned an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science degree from U.C. Berkeley and an MBA from Boston University. He once rode his bicycle from San Francisco, CA to Washington, DC as a cyclist on The Ability Experience's Journey of Hope Team, founded FantasyAuctioneer (the first online real-time fantasy sports auction draft system), and walked through snowing, subzero weather to deliver over 100 gigantic bundles of coupons (formerly known as newspapers) for his lovely daughter, who was defrosting in the car. Born in the Philippines and raised in California, he now lives in the Greater Toronto Area, in the lovely city of Richmond Hill.

