Diet Tribe

Make veggies and whole grain the bulk of your diet.
The best plants are leafy greens such as lettuce, spinach, kale or cabbage.
Eat a serving of beans at least once a day.
Eat soups, provided they are not cream based.
Eat a wide variety of salads but don’t use commercial dressings.
Have a big breakfast and make it vegetarian (eggs count as vegetarian).
A great breakfast is a high fiber cereal, yogurt, a banana and 1 other fruit.
Consider replacing cow’s milk with soy milk, rice milk or almond milk.
Dinner should be the smallest meal of the day, not much more than snack-sized.
Limit meat consumption to 6 oz. (size of fist), 1 meal per day.
Replace your meat meal with fish or seafood at least once a week.
Eat 100% whole grain breads instead of white bread.
Have a piece of fruit such as an orange or apple right before you work out.
Eat a protein based meal within an hour after working out. A bean burrito with veggies and salsa or a turkey sub on whole grain bread loaded with veggies and mustard are great choices.
If you go to a restaurant buffet, only go to the buffet once.
Avoid most fast food. If you need fast food, find a Subway or other sandwich shop and stick with turkey, ham, roast beef. Avoid cheese of mayo. Use mustard or vinegar and oil as a dressing. Some sandwich shops make an excellent vinegar and oil based sandwich dressing with herbs.
If you order a pizza, stick with vegetarian toppings, ask for â??1/2 cheeseâ? or no cheese, and ask for whole wheat crust.
Consider exploring Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and sushi restaurants. Avoid most American restaurants serving high-fat, high-calorie bar type food. Even though these restaurants have healthy options, the 80% non-healthy ones are going to be very tempting. In contrast, it’s hard to find unhealthy food at a Vietnamese place.
Learn to cook yourself. It’s the best way to control salt & sugar content.
Drink water as well as unsweetened water based beverages such as coffee and tea. Healthy beverages should not be sweet.

Never do a diet with a name.
Don’t eat processed food.
Don’t eat food made with things you wouldn’t find in a home kitchen.
Don’t eat anything with high-fructose corn syrup.
Don’t eat food with any type of sugar in the top three ingredients.
Don’t eat food products with the words â??liteâ?, â??low-fatâ? or â??non-fatâ?.
Don’t eat imitation foods such as artificial sweetener or margarine.
Weightlifters should not consume alcohol. Never keep it in your home.
Don’t eat between meals except for fruit.
Don’t drink juice or soda.
Don’t eat deep fried food. Don’t eat any fried food with a coating.
Don’t take workout supplements, especially during the first six months.

Allow yourself to break the rule occasionally but not habitually. Sharing a slice of chocolate cake at a restaurant, having a few drinks with friends on a Saturday night at a bar, resolving a craving for french fries by ordering a small one and throwing out half the pack and satisfying a craving for ice cream by getting a Wendy’s frostie (and only eating half) are all acceptable.