Drinking Alcohol with Cheat Meals is a Dieting Disaster

The dieting world never stops turning.

Everytime I walk into a bookstore, there are always new dieting books greeting me. They promise the next generation breakthrough technology or tricks.

It seems that people are learning the Cheat meals or Cheat days to help them overcome craving after starvation mode of dieting. They use Cheat Days as their weekly excuse to indulge not only in their favorite foods, but also a considerable amount of alcohol.

That’s a really bad idea and I know it.

The whole purpose of the Cheat Day is to upregulate leptin levels, resetting metabolism and creating a hormonal environment that is conducive to fat burning.

However, alcohol consumption pretty much cancels out all the positive benefits. In fact, alcohol consumption has been shown to acutely reduce plasma leptin levels which is in direct opposition to everything you are trying to accomplish with a Cheat Day.

In the end, Cheat Days plus Alcohol equals to Fat GAIN. That’s a weekend disaster after being good in exercise and diet during the weekdays.

Does that mean that you can’t have a drink on your Cheat Day? No, but anything more than 2 drinks will begin to have a negative effect.

Basically, if you’re feeling the effects of the alchohol you consumed, you drank too much.

When you have goals to attain, it requires some level of sacrifice. In other words, you have to give up things of lower order (priority) to receive things of higher power (priority).

We’re constantly making decision all the time. In the morning, what do you choose to eat breakfast (or do you eat breakfast)?

How about lunch time? What do you eat? Where do you eat? Do you eat alone or with your friends or co-workers?

At the end of day, what do you have for dinner? After dinner, do you crash on the sofa, watch TV and munch snacks? Or do you go for a walk or some exercise?

If alcohol is more important than your fat loss goals, that is certainly a decision you’ll need to make.

Choose wisely.

By the way, do you know the 4 promoted “healthy” foods that actually make you fat? Find out what and why ==>

Cancer Prevention Diet Tip: Focus on Plant-based Foods

The best diet for preventing or fighting cancer is a predominantly plant-based diet that includes a variety of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. A plant-based diet means eating mostly foods that come from plants: vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, and beans.
The less processed these foods are—the less they’ve been cooked, peeled, mixed with other ingredients, stripped of their nutrients, or otherwise altered from the way they came out of the ground—the better.

There are many ways to add plant-based foods to your diet. A nice visual reminder is to aim for a plate of food that is filled at least two-thirds with whole grains, vegetables, beans, or fruit. Dairy products, fish, and meat should take up no more than a third of the plate. Keep in mind that you don’t need to go completely vegetarian. Instead, focus on adding “whole” foods, which are foods close to their original form. Just as important, try to minimize or reduce the amount of processed foods you eat. Eat an apple instead of drinking a glass of apple juice, for example. Or enjoy a bowl of oatmeal with raisins instead of an oatmeal raisin cookie.

Simple tips for getting more plant-based foods in your diet

Breakfast: Add fruit and a few seeds or nuts to your whole grain breakfast cereal (oatmeal!).

Lunch: Eat a big salad filled with your favorite beans and peas or other combo of veggies. Always order lettuce and tomato (plus any other veggies you can!) on your sandwiches. Order whole grain bread for your sandwiches. Have a side of veggies like cut up carrots, sauerkraut or a piece of fruit.

Snacks: fresh fruit and vegetables. Grab an apple or banana on your way out the door. Raw veggies such as carrots, celery, cucumbers, jicama, peppers, etc. are great with a low-fat dip such as hummus. Keep trail mix made with nuts, seeds and a little dried fruit on hand.

Dinner: Add fresh or frozen veggies to your favorite pasta sauce or rice dish. Top a baked potato with broccoli and yogurt, sautéed veggies, or with salsa. Replace creamy pasta sauces, with sautéed vegetables or tomato sauce made with healthy olive oil.

Dessert: Choose fruit instead of a richer dessert. Or a single square of dark chocolate.

Buy organic or local produce, if possible.

Some pesticides found in commercially-grown produce are also suspected carcinogens. Organic foods are free of these pesticides, and locally grown produce is less likely to have been treated with chemicals to prevent spoilage.

Is Raw Food Diet Good for Losing Weight?

Obesity has taken the shape of an epidemic in the modern world. More and more people are falling prey to obesity due to an unhealthy lifestyle and bad food habits. But obesity can have disastrous effects on a person’s health.




Weight gain doesn’t necessarily come because of the number of calories you eat. It is what type of calories you eat. When you eat foods that are highly processed they cause digestive disorders which cause you to gain weight.



A raw food diet has proven to be of great aid in this regard after people following different variations of the diet have claimed drastic weight loss in a relatively short period of time, and without feeling hungry or miserable like you would with most diets. There is an ample amount of truth to this claim as the diet practitioners have proven that the raw food diet truly helps in losing weight quickly and effectively.



Going on a Raw Food Diet will help your body to cleanse itself of all the junk that has been piling up in your organs, intestines and of course your fat cells. Due to the nature of the digestive and cleansing enzymes in the food itself, the more you eat the more cleansing occurs. There is no need to worry about consuming too many calories because they will not get stored as fat.



Some medical experts see great benefits in the raw food diet. In addition to enabling weight loss, the diet can ostensibly increase one’s metabolism, making calorie burning easier. Some medical experts have also suggested that a raw food diet is a good antidote to eating disorders. In addition, it can help make your immune system stronger, and help the body rid itself of harmful toxins.



Starting a Raw Food Diet is fairly simple. Some of the best raw foods you can eat are obviously fruits and vegetables, but there are others such as seeds, nuts, grains, beans and sprouts. If you are trying to lose weight fast, you will want to know about some of the raw foods that have the best fat and calorie burning properties.



For fruits, these include apples, grapefruits, mangos, pears, peaches, lemons and cherries. These vegetables are great for a midmorning or mid afternoon snack to stave off those hunger attacks.



For vegetables, artichokes, brussel sprout, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, cucumber, red pepper, mushrooms and cabbage are all great foods to help promote fat and calorie burning. As far as herbs, garlic and parsley leaf are great additions to your raw foods to add additional flavor. This is one of the best natural weight loss.



If you decide a raw food diet is for you, you might consider supplements to compensate for the nutrients this diet is lacking. Some supplements to consider include vitamin B12, copper, zinc, and chromium.



Another thing to consider when taking up a raw food diet is that most of the fruits and vegetables that you see in your supermarket are loaded with pesticides. Therefore, it might be best to consume only organic raw food.

Michael Phelps Record Olympic Gold Medalist 12,000 Calorie Diet

There were a lot of exciting record-breaking swimming events in 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Michael Phelps went a perfect 8-for-8 in Beijing, breaking Mark Spitz's single-Games record for gold medals. He swam 17 times over nine days and broke the world record in four of his five individual swims. His three relay teams also set world marks.

Michael Phelps is now acclaimed as the best and most decorated modern Olympic medalist. He is a really swimming sensation.

His secret to success? "Eat, sleep and swim. That's all I can do. Get some calories into my system and try to recover the best I can." according to Michael in an interview with NBC.

His "some calories" is not the average man's 2000 calorie a day. According to New York Post, Michael eats about 12,000 calories a day in staggering 3 big meals.

Here is the breakdown of Michael's diet:

Breakfast (4,000 calories)
Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise.
Two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch (4,000 calories)
One pound of enriched pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo on white bread plus 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

Dinner (4,000 calories)
One pound of pasta and an entire pizza plus another 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.

He burns all these 12,000 calories and still maintains his lean, cut, Olympian swimmer physique. He needs all the calories to fuel his body and supply the energy for his five-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week swimming regimen.

His 12,000 calorie-a-day diet is not something for the ordinary deskjocky who is sitting all day without much moving.

What can we learn from 12,000 calories-a-day diet?

Plan your nutrition and calorie intake around your daily activities and workouts. The calories are to fuel your body and support your training. If you burn more than taking in, you'll lose weight. Likewise, if you eat more than your body can burn off, you'll gain weight. Calorie and energy balance is just that simple. Too many people (including fitness industry) are making weight-loss so complicated.