PEERtrainer

Weekend Immersion Program With Dr. Fuhrman In Princeton, NJ January 14-16

Click the arrow on the following video to learn more about Dr. Fuhrman's Weekend Immersion Program:

We have been asked about getting a discount for Dr. Joel Furhman's upcoming Weekend Immersion Program January 14-16th in Princeton NJ.

There is a 15% percent off discount available until November 30th.

In addition, Dr. Furhman Online is offering PEERtrainer members a $50 off coupon that is good from October 16th to October 31st.

Simply use the coupon code "PEERTRAINER" at the check out page.

Here is the link to learn more:

http://drfuhrman.com/events/princeton_immersion/princeton_weekend_immersion.aspx

 

"Send Cupcakes To Benefit Childhood Cancer??

‎"Send cupcakes to benefit childhood cancer??" Come on. Cupcakes??? I'd rather see Joel Furhman's new research project on my morning news.

 

 

Easy Way To Eat Healthy: How To Prepare A Filling Healthy Meal In 2 Minutes

This is a VERY short video where I show you the containers that I keep in my fridge, and what I keep in the containers. For me it is an ideal way to make sure I have EASY access to food during my very busy week. I have started to soak and cook my own beans. It is cheaper and a lot tastier. Just soak them over night and then cook them in the morning while you are getting ready for work, kids to school or whatever. 

How Much Protein Does An Athlete Need To Consume In Their Diet? Dr. Joel Furhman Explains What He Tells NBA Players and Olympic Skiers

Something we hear a lot is that when people start exercising more is "I have to now eat a lot more protein." Habib went through this himself in the last year, running 25-40 miles per week. The other runners and runners on PEERtrainer advised him to eat a lot of protein after a run. 

As a result the meat in his diet began to spike well above the recommended 10% level. He ended up emailing Dr. Fuhrman and asking if athletes were an exception to this 10% level. His response was that when you exercise more you need more calories. And if you are eating a nutrient dense diet with plenty of greens you are getting plenty of protein.

What interesting is that Dr. Fuhrman is an Olympic Medalist in figure skating. He also counsels the US Olympic team, world class skiers and NBA basketball players. In this video, he explains in detail what advice he gives professional athletes in terms of their protein intake:

Here is a bullet point summary of his main points:

• When you exercise and train hard you stress your immune system. If a world cup skier gets sick it might mess up their entire year. So they are financially incentivized to eat the best diet possible
• The more you exercise, the more calories you need. And you need more protein. The key is consuming high nutrient foods that are rich in protein. 
• For his athletes, he advises a green drink blended with 5 ounces of nuts and seeds. This would give them 1000 calories and 20 grams of protein for example
• It is not hard to get enough protein, and too much protein can be dangerous. Bodybuilders and football players who consume large amounts of whey and soy protein are putting themselves at risk for cancer. 
• From his perspective athletes need 1.2 grams of protein for every kilogram of bodyweight.

How To Make Carrot Ginger Soup- A Video Demonstration

We got a lot of great feedback to our vegetable soup video by readers of the Tip Of The Day. And we were asked for more! This is a video we quickly made that shows the step by step process of making Carrot Ginger soup. This is a very tasty, zesty and slightly spicy recipe. It is also vegan friendly in that there is no dairy of any kind. 

Most importantly- this soup TURNS MY HUNGER OFF! No idea why. When I eat a bowl I don't want to eat anything else. I think the combination of intense nutrients, plus a small amount of fat helps me feel satiated. Very interested to see how you all react to this recipe. And please leave comments on this blog post if you can. 

Make Your Personal Favorite List Of Fruits And Vegetables For The Kitchen

In our PEERtrainer weight loss/mind training program (click here to bookmark it), we delve into the diet fusion kitchen and what kinds of foods really work well together. 

We ask everyone the following question:  what kinds of fruits and vegetables do you like?  When you picture the word vegetable, do you think of the high school cafeteria version of smushed, tasteless green beans?  Or do you think of freshly topped tomatoes with basil and garlic?  How about sliced mango with a few blueberries sprinkled on top?  Stuffed peppers with mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and cilantro (click here for the BEST stuffed pepper recipe!!)

Today I'd like you to make a list of every fruit and vegetable you can think of (or click here for a list of vegetables to start you off) and circle the ones you like.   (Here is a list of culinary fruits from Wikipedia, yum, yum yum!)  Then I want you to post it on your refrigerator.  I don't care if you have a sub zero beautiful see thru one:  then make your list with a Bauhaus look, no excuses! 

Every single time you go into the kitchen, get ready to grocery shop you will see this list of options and suggestions of delicious, high nutrient foods that will give you energy and confidence that you are making the best choices for you.

Suddenly, eating fruits and vegetables becomes as easy and effortless but most importantly, becomes something that you love and crave. 

Jackie

Complete (Well, Almost Complete) List Of Vegetables

We thought we'd list some of our favorites....

• spinach
• kale
• collard greens
• cucumber
• avocado (fruit but sometimes thought of a vegetable)
• onions
• tomatoes (yes it's a fruit but seems culinary speaking, it's served as a vegetable.  Sprinkle with fresh basil and garlic.  Even a little cilantro gives it a nice kick).
• butternut squash
• spaghetti squash (with fresh tomato sauce, soooooo yummy)
• garlic
• carrots
• sweet potatoes
• eggplant
• mushrooms (lots of selenium)
• broccoli
• artichokes
• asparagus
• beets
• cabbage (sauteed with ginger and garlic)
• brussel sprouts:  (the trick to making these taste good is to boil until soft then saute with garlic)
• cauliflower
• swiss chard - (one of our favorites)
• jicama
• corn and corn on the cob - YUM!
• okra (popular in indian cooking)
• pumpkins
• potatoes (diced sweet potatoes sprinkled with cinnamon and then cooked at 350 for 45 minutes.  Children LOVE it)
• radicchio
• peas
• rhubarb
• yams (even sweeter than sweet potatoes)
• turnips
• red peppers (click here for the BEST stuffed pepper recipe ever)
• green peppers
• yellow peppers
• leeks
• water chestnuts
• bamboo shoots
• celery (with cashew butter is a great snack)
• romaine lettuce
• mixed greens
• bok choy
• arugula
• green beans - wonderful in nicoise salad
• parsnips
• zucchini (great breakfast vegetable in an omelet)
• olives
• jalapeno

Vegetable Spaghetti: How To Make It, Best Products To Use

One of the Tip Of The Day members emailed me a great tip- make veggie spaghetti. Very good idea, and you can get an inexpensive machine to cut up any vegetable into long strands that you can cook or serve raw. It makes it easy to cook, season and eat. And gives you another tool to increase the amounts of weight loss promoting food in your diet.

I did a search on Amazon and found two products that seemed popular. The first was the World Cuisine Tri-Blade Plastic Spiral Vegetable Slicer. You can get one for about $30. If you read the numerous reviews on the page, the product works well and most importantly is easy to clean. It also slices veggies.

I also found a more expensive wooden slicer that got very good reviews made by Beriner. On a totally aesthetic note, the wood looks really nice! Many people also buy a paperback called 'Raw Food Made Easy" which gives some nice recipes:

Why It Does Not Cost More To Eat A More Healthy Diet

We have a great conversation going on with Dr. Joel Fuhrman with this blog, and he wanted very much to share the story of one of his clients, Rebecca, who started his program at 500 pounds and has lost over 300 pounds. It is a very long and detailed story and we are going to blog about bit by bit. It is very interesting.

We asked her a series of questions about her whole experience, but one question I wanted to ask because people ask us this all the time:

Is your new way of eating more expensive than what you used to do? Was there a lot of cost to manage?

"No, I find it’s actually less because of the highly dense nutrient foods you consume, you satisfy your hunger with less food. My prior way of eating food was expensive, as it did not fill me up so I ate a lot of it; got very little nutrients BUT lots of excess calories which gave me lots of excess poundage!

For example, a typical drive-thru value meal super-sized at the time was almost $5.00—I could and would easily eat 2 of those meals and STILL be hungry and buy more snack foods like pretzels and chips! However, with Eat To Live, I could go into a grocery store salad bar and for the same $10.00, get a pound of salad with lots of greens, some chick peas, a few raw sunflower seeds, purchase 1-2 pieces of fruit, and get a bottle of water---AND still have 2-4 dollars back in change!

But the best part was, I would feel full—actually I ate half the salad for lunch and saved the other half for my dinner. So, eating this way is much more cost efficient, not to mention, I think I saw my family physician just 4 times during those 4 years, because I needed a physical each year for work. So, there, even more money saved eating this way because your body just gets so pumped up with so many crucial nutrients that you just don’t sick and you save money on doctor visits!"

What is interesting about this part of her story is the idea that when you eat a more nutrient dense diet- more greens and vegetables, these things help you feel full. They help you feel full because your body is getting the nutrients it needs. After Eat To Live, Dr. Fuhrman wrote a two book set called Eat For Health, which introduces the MANDI points system which makes it easy to quantify the levels of nutrient dense foods. This way of eating does not have to be expensive and it can be very easy.

Fitbottomed Readers:

Welcome to PEERtrainer--we highly recommend buying a copy of Eat For Health, and the link above takes you to a page where you can buy the book for a $15 discount, plus you get a portable food scoring guide for free. 

3 Reasons To Eat Avocados and 3 Ways To Eat Them

In our Tip Of The Day program I often show you what we do in our own life. Avocados are something that I have as a staple in my diet and life and I wanted to take a second to sort of outline in a very practical sense why I do this and how I do this. I will make sure to prepare some specific recipe ideas as well.

(After the introduction of the new PEERtrainer Cheat System, we have further refined this advice. A small amount of avocado, especially in a salad is tasty and also helps your body absorb the nutrients in the other ingredients in the salad. Most vegetables do not contain fat, yet they need some for optimal absorption of nutrients in the digestion process.)

Reasons To Eat Avocados

1. For me they are one of the most satisfying foods out there. 

They are high in good fat, and they take the edge off when I feel like I could eat 5 large pizzas. For me, the edge is gone immediately

If I eat a normal size portion of pasta, and I cover it with butter and parmesean, it will take me three more servings like that to take the edge off that hunger feeling of wanting to eat everything in sight.

If I eat 1/2 of an avocado (or a tablespoon of peanut butter or cashew butter) it 100% takes the edge off so that I can make a healthier choice. I have found nothing to take the edge off. Especially after a workout.

2. They Make Food Taste Great

It is like putting sour cream or cheese sauce over everything you are eating for me. Anything you can think of that "this needs sour cream or cheese sauce" put avocado on it. Even a portion of vegetables. Put a portion of avocado and lemon juice over a plate of spinach and it tastes great.

Instead of eggs and cheese, have eggs and avocado. A block of cheese will never satisfy you like an avocado will.

3. Avocado Is A Transition And Replacement Food Into Your Thin Lifestyle

I used to use it to make the transition from cheese, sour cream and bacon, and now that I have transitioned into a healthier lifestyle it takes the edge off. But I found it a great transition food.

It helps you cope when you can't do the vegetable thing all the time. For me it has been a savior.

My 3 Rules For Eating Avocados

1. Never Eat Them Alone

Use them to make other healthy food taste good. If you don't like the taste of spinach, try the avocado and lemon. Like tomato sauce, they can make anything taste good. If you want a "satisfying salad" blend avocado into dijon mustard and lemon juice, throw a cup of beans in the mix and you have something that tastes great and really helps you feel full.

2. Always Squeeze Lemon Juice On Them

I make it a habit to always have lemons handy. For me, the combination of avocado and lemon really makes so many other foods taste good. It is also very quick and easy to prepare.

 

3. I only eat 1/2 avocado at a time. 

There are 380 calories in a hass avocado or 6 weight watchers points. So don't go crazy and use half which is 3 points and 190 calories or so in the avocado. But if you do go overboard know that Avocados are also an extremely healthy food and have been proven to help with your heart, overall health and also help fight breast cancer.

If you want some more "why" some specific health reasons, check out WHFoods page on all the research that is showing benefit after benefit. We have a quick summary here. They really are insanely good for you and really help you in the process of transitioning to a new lifestyle, something that is a huge focus for us in the Tip of The Day and Coaching programs.

In the current version of the PEERtrainer Cheat System, your first 1/2 avocado is a free food. Important to note that we are always refining that document.

What Are Your Rules For Eating Avocado?

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Portion Control Is Key To Success With Any Diet Plan

We got permission to post this comment from the Eat To Live/Eat For Health Challenge team. It is important because it helps to illustrate one of the key components of our "Diet Fusion" framework. No matter what diet you are on, you need to do portion control. With so many people now adopting plant based diets, many of us are tempted to think that we can eat whatever we want. We see Dr. Oz on TV giving people huge piles of fruits and vegetables and they lose weight. But you really have to be careful with the oil, nuts and fats.....

"Other than my slip this past week, I thought I had been doing fairly well, but I lay awake early early this morning really thinking about what I am eating and why I'm not losing a little faster. And I think I am sabotaging myself in a couple different areas. I think somehow when starting to follow the E2L guidelines as well as using some McDougall recipes, I sort of adopted the idea that now I was eating for nutrition I could eat as much as I wanted - being careful of course not to ever stuff myself. While I do measure my flax meal, nuts & avocado, I also usually go back for seconds of whatever I have made for dinner. And my salads at lunch are huge. Even though I make my own dressings and count the fruit and nuts I use in them towards my daily totals, it's still a lot of calories for someone who wants to lose weight.

So today I am going to really pay attention, and start cutting back on quantities - because my activity is a little limited and I can probably eat less and still be satisfied. Maybe I needed to work my way towards this, maybe I needed to learn I don't have to restrict what I am eating - that I can eat tons of healthy food and not gain. And having learned that, maybe now I can trust in the quality of the food and accept that I don't need to eat quite as much since it is all so nutritionally dense. Speaking of which, that's the second thing I thought of. I've been using up the vegenaise that made it's way into the house over Thanksgiving, and those are empty calories. I think that's the last of the holiday extras and the house is once more a safe place."

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