Day 72 – What Thou Shalt Do

Here are some fun … interesting … inspiring … and (in some cases) strange … commandments for dieting.

The first 10 come from Dr. Oz:

1. Thou Shalt Not Wear Pants that Stretch – Your clothing is an early-warning system for weight gain. When it’s getting hard to snap your jeans, you know it’s time to be vigilant. Wearing stretchy clothes allows you to live in ignorance of how your body is growing, making it easier to pack on pounds without knowing it.
2. Thou Shalt Not Keep Fat Clothes in Your Closet – When you keep the clothes you wore at an unhealthy weight, it gives you a back-up plan if the pounds don’t come off. Instead, force yourself to stay on track by 86ing your “fat pants.”
3. Thou Shalt Not Eat Meat That Walks on Four Legs More Than Once a Week – Meat that comes from an animal with 4 legs is higher in saturated fat (the unhealthy kind) than that which comes from 2-legged animals such as chickens, or animals with no legs, like fish. Plus: women who eat large amounts of red meat more than once a week have a 50% higher chance of dying from heart disease and have higher cancer rates.
4. Thou Shalt Not Graze – Plan your meal before you open the refrigerator, get what you need, and close the door. Opening it throughout the day leads to impulsive choices and overeating.
5. Thou Shalt Not Eat After 7:30pm – When you eat late at night you are more likely to be eating in front of the TV (when you won’t pay attention to how much you’re putting in your mouth) and you’re more likely to pick high-calorie snacks.
6. Thou Shalt Not Pile Food More than 1 Inch High or Within 2 Inches of the Plate Edge – Larger portions equal more calories. ‘Nuff said.
7. Thou Shalt Not Chew Food Less than 20 Times Per Bite – Chewing allows your body to realize that you are eating food, prompting it to create a sensation of fullness at the appropriate time. When you don’t chew enough, you get ahead of that process, eating well past when you are actually satisfied.
8. Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Plate – Spend your day nibbling bites on someone else’s sandwich or afternoon snack, and you will add on 1,000 calories easy.
9. Thou Shalt Not Carry Small Bills – Nothing loves a small bill better than a vending machine. When you have them at the ready, you are one step closer to an impulsive, calorie-loaded afternoon slip up.
10. Thou Shalt Not Eat While Standing Up – Eating sitting down enables you to be aware of what you’re eating and eat it slowly so that your body can tell you your full before it’s too late.

Note: I think those are really good thoughts. No worry about #9 for me, I never around vending machines. It’s the snacks readily available at the check-out line that I have to avoid!

Next comes the 10 Commandment of Eating Better, from Skinny Chef

1. Thou shalt abandon fast food – Cutting out fast food and highly processed food is the best thing you can do for your body, your mental state, and for the planet.
2. Thou shalt not drink soda – If you’re addicted to sugary sodas, you could be drinking up to 30 teaspoons of sugar a day just by having two 20-ounce bottles of soda! Try subbing in salt-free seltzer water instead of soda.
3. Thou shalt not foster bad feelings abut food – Changing your mindset when it comes to food can have a huge impact on how you look and feel. So instead of worrying about how many calories are in each food or whether or not you will lose weight or feeling guilty about your existing bad habits, invest the time instead to take action. Learning how to add healthier meals, snacks, and habits to your daily routine. Remember, it’s a lot easier to break bad eating habits when you replace your unhealthy foods with tasty substitutions that are good for you.
4. Thou shalt limit the amount of times you eat out weekly– and this includes both restaurants as well as take-out. Restaurant portions are 4 to 8-times the serving size you should have. The average American eats anywhere from 700 to 1300 calories when they consume a restaurant meal, but they don’t know it. Commandment V
5. Thou shalt not let hunger lead you to bad meal choices – Pack a snack and have it in your purse or if you’re going to be out a lot longer, make a fast sandwich that is enough for a meal.
6. Thou shalt not use highly processed ingredients to make meals – Don’t rely on ingredients that contain additives that may hurt your health in the long run like nitrates, artificial colorings, and artificial sweeteners. How can you tell the difference? Just look at the ingredients list and if it’s a list of whole foods like carrots, broccoli, ground turkey you’re on the right track.
7. Thou shalt not let one food item limit your chances for losing weight or eating better – If you find yourself eating your “favorite” more than once a week, check out the nutrition label. It could be what I call the “repeat offender” – something that you eat all the time that isn’t very calorie friendly. Updating your shopping list with goat’s milk ice cream, low-fat high quality frozen yogurt, or tempting sorbet could mean shaving off a pound a week. Also limiting the portion size to two scoops means still shaving off hundreds of calories.
8. Thou shalt not let food commercials and fad diets dictate what you eat and what you place on your dinner table – Whole vegetables like fruit, grains, lean protein and dairy are best. Cook for yourself, using healthy recipes that use all the good things Mother Nature has to offer so you can have the best of both worlds, calorie friendly and nutritious!
9. Thou shalt make peace with your cravings – Everyone craves sugar, fat, and salt at one time, it’s a normal biological truth built into our makeup for survival. So stop feeling bad about it! Address your cravings and learn easy, healthy ways to satisfy them. Crazy for chocolate? You can have delicious dark chocolate for around 100 calories. Or try eating a medium apple, at only 74 calories, when you’re on the run to avoid that “starved” hunger mode that could drive you to the drive-through window or vending machine when you get the afternoon munchies. Studies show that eating high-fiber foods (like apples) slows digestion which means you’ll feel less hungry while keeping blood sugar stable.
10. Thou shalt learn to celebrate food – Learning to enjoy and appreciate healthy home-cooked meals is the easiest and best way to make healthy eating habits stick. Plus, enjoying your meals is a great way to enjoy your life more and find balance.

Hmmm … food for thought, I guess. She makes some good points, but not the end all to a definitive set of “diet commandments.”

And finally, from BoomBoom Performance and Nutrition:

1. Thou Shall Eat Sufficient Protein – If you want to build muscle and/or burn body fat you just need an adequate protein intake. Plan out each meal with a serving of protein first and don’t let a meal skip it!
2. Thou Shall Drink Plenty Water – I usually suggest getting a gallon in each day regardless of your goal. So get with the commandment and hit a gallon a day. I don’t need to explain why it’s beneficial!
3. Thou Shall Plan – Plan your day ahead of time! Take out your notepad or food log app tonight and add in your foods for tomorrow. That way you don’t over eat, under eat, or have to guess on what you will eat.
4. Thou Shall Partition Calories – This is simple. Your biggest calorie meals, which usually should contain the majority of your non-veggie carbohydrates, should be placed around your training. By placing your carbs and big calorie meals around your training, you’re more likely to use your calories to build muscle and not store it as fat.
5. Thou Shall Get Omega’s Weekly – This is a commandment towards better health, but that health will lead to better insulin sensitivity, heart health, and a gang of other benefits that will lead to better performance – which leads to less body fat and more muscle/strength. I’m always a food over supplement type of coach and I do recommend just eating salmon or another fatty fish a couple times per week. But I also realize that doing this is uncommon, so fish oil works just fine.
6. Thou Shall Go Green – Shoot for is 3-4+ cups per day of green veggies and 1 cup of colors, which could be colorful berries/fruit and/or colorful veggies like peppers.
7. Thou Shall Stay Away From “Low Diets” – The terms “Low Diets” is anything that is low on any one specific macro or micronutrient. Low carb, low fat, low protein, etc.
8. Thou Shall Not Restrict – The key is following the 90/10 rule – 90% of your food should come from real, whole, nutritious foods that this earth produced. 10% of it should be whatever you enjoy that “fits your macros” so to speak. Calories are calories and if we manage that, fat loss will happen.
9. Thou Shall Not Supplement – Simply put, supplements are not the answer. Whey protein isn’t better than real food, fat burners do not work, real food is much better than multi-vitamins, and anything that says “Hardcore” or “Extreme” on it is bull****.
10. Thou Shall Get a Coach – Everything in life becomes easier and more successful when you have a coach or mentor.

Note: There was a lot more under #10 but it sounded more like an add than advice. Anyway … again, interesting info. This site sounds a bit more like muscle training diet advice than weight loss. You know how the key words work in a google search! But it did make me think a bit.

 That’s all for today …