Diet Suggestions

Nutritionist and fitness expert Josh Bezoni suggested taking a look at food labels and possibly jumping online to check out a few websites where you can track your calories and to see what’s in the foods you’re eating. In last day’s post he brings to light the amounts of sugar that people are consuming on a daily basis.

Today, Josh continues to educate us on food choices and what we need to function properly long term.

********************

Craig: What are some of the biggest food surprises, I mean NEGATIVE food surprises that there are in people’s diets? For example, I’ll give you a bit of time to think while I come up with one of my own.

One of them is granola bars. They are really tasty but often have a lot of sugar. They’re high in calories, yet I’ve never met a single person who gets full on one of those granola bars, so usually they end up eating two or if there are packaged together they eat both of them. They next thing you know they’re 300 or 400 calories down, and they’re barely even satisfied.
What are some other nasty food surprises like those granola bars?

Josh: Anything processed. The first thing that comes to mind is Lay’s potato chips. You know the old commercial. You can’t eat just one. People sit down with these bags of chips or even pretzels, which people think are healthy, and really they’re just refined flour.

What people should not think of is only calories. What people should be focusing on is nutrients, because your body is like a machine, it’s like a car. If your car doesn’t have enough oil in it the engine is going to lock up, and you’re going to destroy your engine. That’s what people do every day. There’s something like 160,000 deaths attributed to obesity and obesity related diseases in America alone every single day.

What these people aren’t doing is they’re not getting the nutrients they need to function properly long term. If you have certain nutrient deficiencies you’re much more likely to get cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, the list goes on and on. Rather than just looking at calories you want to choose natural foods that are going to give you the most bang for your buck. Natural foods provide nutrients, vitamins and minerals without having to supplement your diet.

Besides granola bars, a lot of people think tofu is healthy, and it’s not necessarily healthy. People think soy products are really healthy, however, there are some estrogen problems with soy. Most people think milk is extremely healthy, and I drink a lot of almond milk, but it has a completely different nutrition profile.

Milk has a lot of sugar in it. It’s a different kind of sugar. It’s lactose. It doesn’t have as high as what’s called a glycemic index, but a lot of dairy products aren’t very good for you. Think about yogurt, if you grab a yogurt a lot of times they have 20, 30, even 40 grams of SUGAR in a yogurt. So, they have maybe eight grams of protein and 40 grams of sugar. You might as well go have an ice cream cone.

Craig: Yes, absolutely. That was a really great one there. The FRUIT IN THE BOTTOM OF YOGURT has tablespoons of sugar in there. That’s a very good one, I’m glad you caught that one.

When I was younger I was the pretzel king, I used to eat those things all the time. Around 16 or 17 that’s when I started working out and reading the magazines.

I think it was around the mid-1990’s when we’re talking everything was high in carbohydrates, and as long as it was low fat or fat free you were good to go, so I made a bad judgment call their eating too many pretzels and as well as to much processed bread when I was in high school.

Josh: I did the same thing, I was totally deficient in essential fatty acids, which are extremely important, because I used to eat nothing but protein and carbs, and I used to just eat carbs that didn’t have fat in them without realizing it.

It goes back to that idea that it’s not just about reducing calories. It’s about BALANCED FOODS THAT FUELS YOU’RE BODY, and it’s about staying away from these obesity additives I talk about, this junk and these chemicals that can erode your health and your waistline.

Craig: Back then they were using that phrase, “EAT CLEAN,” like they were using that phrase 20 years ago before it became a big book. So, that’s why I really don’t like the phrase, because it can just be so generic. Eat clean to a guy in the mid-1990’s was rice and chicken breasts, which these days we know is not necessarily the best way to eat. You have to have healthy fats, which back in the mid-1990’s eating clean included zero fat, so I really hate that phrase to be honest with you.

Josh: I do too. I ate a ton of white rice back in the day, and white rice is refined rice with the fiber taken out of it, so it absorbs much faster in the body and has been very little if any nutritional value.

Craig: Yes. Why don’t you tell us then what you’re eating these days? Because I think a lot of people are always curious to hear what’s the expert eating. So, maybe just run a couple of meals off. Let’s start with your morning now and maybe when we get through a few other questions we’ll talk about your afternoon and your evening meals. What is Josh Bezoni’s diet these days?

Josh: Sure. The first thing most people should do is they should get four or five quality meals, and most Americans don’t stray from four, five, or six meals for each breakfast, lunch, dinner. So, if you get four, five, or six in your rotation that you can always make quickly you’re doing a great job, and that you’ll have the ingredients for in your home at all times. That’s one important tip that you can do.

However, here’s what I had, for example, this morning for breakfast. I made a protein pancake. I had a scoop of protein powder mixed with slow cooked oatmeal, and I put some blueberries in there and a bit of applesauce to give it some moisture and texture, organic applesauce, and I made blueberry pancakes, and I had with that some grapes on the side. That’s what I had this morning.

Then I had a protein shake right before the call, almond milk with protein powder and a bit of organic almond butter. It’s like peanut butter, but it’s with almonds.

So, that’s what I’ve had so far today, But I’ll eat FIVE OR SIX TIMES a day right now because I’m trying to lose weight myself just like everybody else out there in the world. I go through stressful times, and my weight will fluctuate, but the good thing is I know how to get it back in control.

That’s just an example of what I’ll eat today. Tonight I’ll probably have grilled salmon, and I’ll have a medley of vegetables that have a lot of colors in it. People should try to eat the rainbow of food colors in a day. So, if you think about the rainbow and all the colors try to get fruits and vegetables during the day that cover that rainbow spectrum. Purple cocoa puffs don’t count. It’s got to be natural food.

Craig: So, not Skittles?

Josh: Skittles don’t count. You’ll get the vitamins and minerals you need if you’re eating that rainbow, so to speak, of fruits and vegetables.

Craig: You made a really great point that people should have the recipes and the ingredients for four to six meals. So, I’ve got my four to six breakfasts I can create any time, I’ve got my four to six lunches, I’ve got my four to six dinners that the family likes and that suit my program, and if the world is coming to an end and there’s floods, and I can’t get to the grocery store at least I can make this and stay on track.

Let’s take a look at tomorrow where the author of the “7 Day Belly Blast Diet Plan” talks a little about the cookbook that comes with this program. So click on part 4.