Nutrition

I am not going to go a great deal into nutrition, per se, as everything you could ever want to know concerning nutrition can be found through searches on the Internet. I will say, though, that we all pretty much know what constitutes a healthy diet; meats, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, grains. How many times did you hear your parents tell you to eat all your vegetables? Get a reasonable amount from each of the major food groups per day and you will be healthy and will make gains.

You can take supplements if you choose to, but beware of over-blown claims. The health supplements industry is a multi-million dollar a year business and certain concerns will have you believing that, unless you spend literally hundreds of dollars on amino acids, carbohydrates, ad-nauseum, you might as well not even bother doing a pushup. This is untrue! A healthy diet will provide you with all that you need to build a strong, healthy body. The only supplements I ever took were some high protein on occasion and multiple vitamins. I continue to take a daily multiple-vitamin as I can feel the difference in my energy level.

If you want to gain weight, you don’t have to gorge yourself to do so. Exercise - that is the key - continuous, perpetual, bodybuilding exercise, week-after-week, month-after-month, year after-year. It becomes so ingrained into your psyche that to stop would be to create a void. Muscle is weight. Muscle is more dense and heavier than fat. That is what puts weight onto your frame.

Combined with exercise, here is how you can add weight to your frame: a morning high-calorie, high-protein cocktail in a blender consisting of whole milk, an egg, high protein powder, some wheat germ, a banana and some honey. Yum! Yum! Takes seconds to make! After that, just normal eating - a tuna fish salad on whole wheat bread for lunch or the equivalent thereof (roast beef with lettuce and tomatoes, etc.), and for dinner the standard fare - meat and potatoes or rice and fish with fresh vegetables. Top all of that off with some fresh fruit for snacks. Plumbs and watermelon are my favorites. I keep a bowl of plumbs and grapes out and snack as I walk by. In other words, three good squares a day combined with the workouts will pack weight on you faster than you can imagine.

But, be careful of what you wish for. I know. I've been on both ends of the spectrum, and once that gut starts spreading out, it is hard to get rid of.

If you want to lose weight, avoid high calorie foods and don’t over eat. Crash diets never work. Your body will find itself starving and will override your resolve, forcing you to intake even more to counter the effects. If you consciously begin cutting back on your intake and replacing some of the lasagna and cakes with salads and tuna, your stomach will begin to shrink and you will be able to feel satisfied with less. Brown bag your lunches. When dieting, I've made salads everyday for work. The advantage to making your own salad is that you can put all of the things in it that you like (and, no, I don't mean potato salad). As well as the lettuce and other assorted veggies, I also include some kind of fish; tuna, sardines, salmon, shrimp, crab meat. Again, exercise is the key. Exercise converts fat into muscle and burns calories. As well as performing the exercises provided in this program, you might want to consider doing aerobics three days a week – a half hour of power walking or the use of any type of aerobics machine you might already have. In fact, you could replace the leg exercises with an aerobics exercise that exercises the muscles of your legs (walking, jogging, step aerobics, bicycling, etc.) until you feel you are getting down to where you want to be.

Here is a link to a diet that's effective and easy to stick with:

The Snacking Diet

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