DIET AND NUTRITION TIP 4: HOW TO BEAT CRAVINGS

1. Keep busy! This is my personal favorite. I always have things that can keep me busy from morning till evening. The moment I wake up, I make my Health Shake for the day and drink it while checking up on current events over the internet. I do my daily workouts after that, check up on some of my projects, create an article or two for my blog, and play video games if I want to get off the net for a while. The point is to always keep yourself occupied so that your mind never wanders to junk food. And if it does …


2. Keep them away from the house! That’s right. Just don’t buy junk food at all and most of all, don’t bring them home! Simple, huh? So why isn’t this at the top of my list? Well, I live with my family and I can’t always control what they buy for themselves, so we always have a stash of junk somewhere in the house. So, unfortunately, this great tip doesn’t really apply to me.

3. Plan your meals! This is especially important if you go out a lot. Sure you can keep the junk out of the house, but it’s harder to stop munching on it when you’re bombarded by marketing, smells, and taste tests outdoors. To counteract this, just know what you’re going to eat in advance and stick to your plans no matter what. No additions, no extra weight.

DIET AND NUTRITION TIP 3: THE SPECIFICS OF THE HEALTH SHAKE

Okay, there’s what I promised before, a picture of what my Health Shake basically looks like.

Yeah, that greenish tint does look a tad nasty, I suppose, but it tastes great, I promise!

After reading my Diet and Nutrition Tip 2 article, a lot of you are probably wondering how I get through the day with mostly just a shake. As I previously mentioned, I usually start the day off with a solid meal composed usually of eggs and vegetables, but sometimes tuna and veggies or chicken breast and veggies. The rest of the day, I consume pretty much just the Health Shake.

First of all, I designed the Health Shake to be as balanced a meal as possible, so you’ve got your good proteins, carbs, and fat in there. The protein is the soy milk, the carbs are the veggies and fruit, and the fat is the nuts. Simple as that.

I’ve been living off of this type of diet for a few weeks now and it’s felt pretty good. I have a lot of energy throughout the day, starting immediately from when I get up, and I sleep very soundly. I originally thought that there would be a dip in my energy levels at first that I’d have to get used to when I started this regimen, but the opposite actually happened: my energy levels felt like they at least doubled; very pleasantly surprising to me.

DIET AND NUTRITION TIP 2: THE HEALTH SHAKE

All right. This article directly continues from my first diet and nutrition tip. I mention that I like to start out slow in the mornings, then get serious when I begin my work. The Health Shake serves me very well for this sort of lifestyle.

I usually begin either by doing choreography or heavy lifting to keep my muscles in shape. If it’s just weight lifting for the day, then I’m totally done in usually an hour or less (unless I decide to choreograph stuff afterward), but choreography time easily takes up two to three hours. I’m always wiped after my sessions, so I take a bath then sit at my computer doing work for my blog until late in the evening.

When I start doing work, I’m in what many people call a “zone”, where I just do whatever tasks it is I’m concentrating on for however long it takes until I’m done. I therefore usually don’t want like to take breaks and give time to eat solid foods. This is especially important during my choreography work because those can be very draining, and drinking even only a bit of my shakes during that time can help a lot. It also helps that since it’s mostly in liquid form, my body can digest it easily and quickly so it won’t interfere with my physical activities.

DIET AND NUTRITION TIP 1: SWEET TUNA SALAD

This is the first of what I’m sure will be many tips in the realm of diet and nutrition. A friend of mine asked me to post what I usually eat these days, so to fully cover what he's requesting, instead of creating just one post today, I’m actually going to make two!

These days, I usually go for a healthy solid meal when I wake up followed by two large shakes that I divide up during the day. The reason I do this is because I’m one of those people who start out slowly in the morning. I don’t normally feel weak and listless when I get out of bed, but I usually don’t like diving into work immediately. That’s why I prefer a good solid meal to start me out, along with a large cup of tea. I watch a show while I eat, then play a video game for maybe an hour, then it’s off to work!

The Sweet Tuna Salad is actually a recipe I got from a book called Muscle Chow by Gregg Avedon. I actually get a lot of my recipes from this book. I don’t really agree with everything that’s on there, but I honestly do find that some of the recipes in it are pretty great. Buy it and check it out if you’re interested: