ABS Ways to Eat Healthy
A really great book I have read about the fundamentals of eating healthy is called ‘The Abs Diet’ by David Zinczenko. Althought I did not actively participate in the exercise the book recommends (in fact, I rather ignored it - i have lots of trouble sticking to an exercise program), I found the fundamental diet tips to be extremely sensible and the building blocks of a healthy diet. The book focused on what the main building blocks of a diet should be, including
whole grains, such as oatmeal and whole-wheat pasta or bread
good fats, from nuts, certain oils like olive oil, fish, etc.
lean proteins like turkey or lean ground beef
low fat dairy products such as milk or low-fat yogurt or low-fat cheese, and eggs
legumes (beans)
and fresh produce.
I may be forgetting one or two, but you get the idea.
The whole idea of the ‘diet’ is that you can eat as much as you’d like as long as you try to include at least 2-3 of the food ‘groups’ in each meal or snack. For example, your breakfast could look like this:
peanut butter on whole wheat toast and a glass of skim or 1% milk
or like this:
a smoothie with berries and low-fat yogurt and scrambled eggs (2 whites per yolk)
Or dinner could be whole-wheat pasta with marinara sauce and chicken with some low-fat cheese on top and veggies on the side.
I really found this book to make a lot of sense to me in regards to healthy eating. My father, who has never read the book but has extremely healthy eating and exercise habits already eats exactly the way this book explains - and it just makes a lot of sense. You don’t deprive yourself, you just eat healthy and balanced meals and snacks and don’t stuff yourself with junk food or excess calories.
