The Healthiest Cheese-Steak in the World

My recipe for:
The Healthiest Cheese-Steak in the World
by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of best-selling program:  The Truth about Six Pack Abs
I've been known to come up with ways to make typical junk foods extremely healthy... If you've been reading my fitness newsletters for some time, you've seen unique recipes for healthier pizza versions, healthy burgers, my famous healthy chocolate peanut butter fudge, and many more delicious but healthy meals and recipes.
Today, I wanted to tell you about my "world's healthiest cheesesteak".
It's true... you REALLY CAN make a super-healthy cheesesteak, that's absolutely delicious!  And I'll show you how on this page.
Growing up in the Philly area, I'm sure you're aware we're known for our famous cheese-steaks. However, health and fitness have NEVER been associated with our cheesesteaks... until Gear-master healthy chef stepped in.
So here's how I make the world's healthiest cheesesteak:
First, I use Ezekial sprouted grain rolls, which are a mix of about 10 different sprouted grains with no refined flour. I'm still not a huge fan of eating too much grains in your diet, but if you're going to do it, sprouted grain bread (or rolls) is the best option.  Since Ezekial sprouted grain bread is a mix of 8-10 sprouted grains, you also get less wheat, since most people already eat way too much wheat in their diet.
If you can't find the Ezekial brand, most health food stores have several brands of sprouted grain bread (NOTE: this is NOT the same thing as "whole grain" bread... despite heavy marketing as "healthy", whole grain bread is not necessarily that healthy, but if you can't find sprouted grain bread, try to find the bread with the highest fiber content as a next best option).
Then, I use a good quality grass-fed beef and slice it thin. Grass fed beef contains larger quantities of CLA - conjugated linoleic acid, which (in it's natural form) is shown in some studies to promote fat loss and muscle building and also have a protective effect against cancer. In addition, grass fed beef contains a much better ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids compared with typical grain-fed beef sold at most stores (which comes from factory feedlot farms notorious for unhealthy cattle and inferior nutrition in the beef compared to grass-fed beef)
What I do is to just semi-defrost a large chunk of beef in the fridge for about 10-12 hours, and that allows it to be easily sliced thin for cheese-steaks.
Then, I use a raw longhorn, colby, our gouda cheese from grass-fed cows as well. Grass-fed dairy is also a great source of beneficial fat burning CLA just like grass-fed meat.
Finally, I top it all off with some sauteed organic vidalia onions and baby portobella mushrooms, both sauteed in a little virgin coconut oil (a great source of healthy medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) and immune-boosting lauric acid) and/or a little pasture raised butter.
and voila... we now have the healthiest cheesesteak on the freakin planet! Between the powerful antioxidants in the onions and mushrooms, The MCTs in the coconut oil, the fat-burning CLA in the grass-fed cheese and grass-fed beef, and the diversity of nutrients in the sprouted grain roll, we might even call this a "body-sculpting cheese-steak"!
But more importantly, it is damn delicious too!  And don't forget the healthiest condiment... mustard!  Yes, if you didn't know it, mustard is actually high in antioxidants.
Enjoy!
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 To your good health and lean body.

 Mike Geary
Certified Personal Trainer
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of the best-seller:  The Truth about Six Pack Abs

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The #1 MOST Important Diet Lesson You Will Ever Learn

The BEST Way to Eat a Truly Healthy Diet for a Lean Body and Disease Prevention
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-seller:  The Truth About Six Pack Abs


This article might surpise some people... because most people don't view nutrition in this way that I'm about to explain.  Instead most people get thoroughly confused about nutrition and calories, protein, carbs, fat, diet foods, low-fat, low-cholesterol, low-carb, healthy label claims, vegetarian, raw foods, etc, etc.
However, if you view nutrition in this way that I'll explain below, it solves every single confusion about nutrition that you could ever have.  I will warn you though, this is very BIG PICTURE thinking, and it helps explain a lot about the human body when you think about things this way.
Ok, the #1 MOST important aspect about nutrition involves the study of ARCHAEOLOGY (and anthropology)!
What the heck am I talking about?  Well, let's dig in...
Yes, everything about the human body that is either healthy or bad for us currently, all stems from hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years of evolution and how the human body adapted to everything around us, including food, exercise, our environment (city vs nature), and lots more.
We know from archaeological records that our current human species (homo sapiens) originated approximately 200,000 years ago... however, our close cousins (ancestors prior to homo sapiens), such as homo erectus, date as far back as several million years.
If you study evidence about what our ancestors ate, it gives obvious clues about how the human digestive system evolved and what are the healthiest foods for us to eat in today's world.
This obviously explains why relatively new chemicals and food types (that humans were NEVER meant to ingest) cause so many health problems, such as artificial sweeteners, HFCS and other corn derivatives, white bread and other refined grain products, refined oils such as soybean and unhealthy canola oils, and so on.
Now this discussion could get pretty involved and encompass an entire book, so let me give some important statements to best summarize this:
1.  Despite what you'll hear from extreme vegans, extreme raw foodists, and other believers in "extreme" types of diets that eliminate entire portions of the historical human diet, the human digestive system evolved to eat a mixture of plants and animal foods (yes, we evolved as omnivores), as well as a mixture of raw food AND cooked food.
I know, I know... You'll get heated debate about both of these topics...meat eating vs veganism, and raw foodism... however, it's historical FACT that our current species (and historical ancestors back over a million years ago) in almost every culture around the world, ate at least some % of plant-animal food combination and raw food / cooked food combination (even if it was at different times of the day, or even different times of the year).
Some cultures, such as the Inuit of the arctic and several tribes in Africa, thrived in stellar health on almost an entirely animal-based diet, and other cultures around the world thrived on almost an entirely plant-based diet... But all cultures generally had some mixture of plant and animal foods, even if the amount of animal food was small in some cultures, or the amount of plant food was small in other cultures.
Similarly, virtually every culture around the world has also historically consumed BOTH raw foods and cooked foods in differing amounts of each... but there's no real evidence of societies thriving on 100% raw food diets.
But what about the argument that raw foodists make claiming that all animals in nature eat 100% raw foods, but humans are the only species that eats cooked food...
Well, there's a simple explanation for that... humans were the ONLY species with a well developed enough brain to understand how to control fire and therefore cook our food... And since we've been cooking a portion of our foods for the entire existence of our species (200,000 years) as well as our ancestors back several million years, our digestive systems have adapted to eating a portion of our food cooked.
This also explains why acrylamides are more harmful to animals that eat cooked food compared to humans... since humans have adapted some level of tolerance to acrylamides from eating a partial cooked diet for 100's of thousands of years, but animals have never historically adapted to a cooked food diet, and therefore, are more sensitive to acrylamides.
If you've never heard of acrylamides, they are formed when the outside of foods are burned during cooking (such as the browning on breads or other baked goods, browning on deep fried foods, or the charring of vegetables cooked over a flame, etc) and these compounds are potentially carcinogenic to both humans and animals.  Cooking foods with water, and also using high antioxidant herbs and spices in cooking helps reduce acrylamides and protect you against them.
The bottom line... we were designed through evolution to eat a mixture of both plants and animals as well as cooked and raw foods... But let's clarify an important point in #2 below...

2. Although I say that we were meant through evolution to eat an omnivorous diet of both plants and animals, one thing that we were NEVER meant to eat is factory-farm raised animals, or eggs or milk from factory-farm raised animals.
Factory farming is an entirely new phenomenon that's still only decades old, so essentially, these types of meat products were never meant to be part of the human diet.
Chemically (nutritionally), factory-farm animal products are VASTLY different from animal products that were raised the way they were meant to live and eat. Examples of these differences can be seen glaringly in the nutrition profiles of grass-fed meats vs grain-fed factory farm meat, free range eggs vs factory eggs, wild fish vs farmed fish, and so on.
We're talking about major differences in omega-3's vs omega-6's, differences in vitamins and minerals, differences in other healthy fats such as CLA, and lots more.
So although I don't fully agree with veganism at least from a nutritional standpoint (moral arguments aside), I also don't agree with our current state of affairs of the majority of our food supply of factory farm raised animal products (at least here in the US, where the condition of the factory farm animals and nutritional quality of the food is horrendous).
That's why I try to not support the factory farm industry as much as possible (which is most meats and dairy in your supermarket) and instead, I try to eat almost solely grass-fed meats from free ranging animals, wild game, wild fish, eggs from local farmers from free roaming hens, and dairy only from grass-fed cows that are allowed to graze almost entirely on forage.

3.  Although I point out that many historical cultures around the world thrived on vastly different percentages of animal products vs plant products in their diet, here is another type of food that we were NEVER meant to eat:
PROCESSED FOOD
Yes, I know it hurts to hear it, but cakes, cookies, crackers, microwaved meals, chips, sodas, granola bars, sugary sports drinks or energy drinks, and 1000's of other products that line our supermarket shelves were never meant to be part of the human diet, so it's obvious why it causes so many health problems for us.
This gets back to what I always say about trying to include as many "1-ingredient" foods as you can in your diet if you want to eat like we were meant to eat.
"1-ingredient" foods means healthy meats, eggs, nuts, seeds, beans, tubers, fruits, and veggies.  It's really that simple.

4.  Ok, this one starts to get a little controversial... but, remember that agriculture is also a relatively new phenomenon in the big picture of the human diet when you expand far back in history a couple of million years.  And when I'm talking about agriculture, I'm mostly talking about the massive influx of grain-based foods into the human diet that occurred with the invention of agriculture.
The mass production of grains through agriculture is only a few thousand years old... Compare that to our ancestors historical existence as hunter-gatherers as far back as a couple of million years, and our current species (homo sapiens) 200,000-year history as hunter-gatherers.
If you think about it, as hunter-gatherers, we would have had very limited access to grains, and they would have encompassed a very small % of our historical calorie intake, since they weren't mass produced and processed. Instead, we thrived on mostly game meats (including the organ meats, where most of the micro-nutrients are found), wild fish and seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, beans, tubers, fruits, and veggies.
From this perspective, grains probably never accounted for more than 1-3% of our historical calorie intake... and as you know from one of my recent articles, currently our modern processed diet that the average person eats consists of 67% of total calories from grains such as corn, soy, and wheat and their derivatives... now THAT'S a shocking revelation in why our entire food supply is backwards, and how that affects your waistline!
It also makes you think about how ridiculously wrong our "food pyramid" really is, which promotes the bulk of our food to be eaten from grains.
I could go on with more examples, but I think you're seeing the major points here... the most important aspect to eating a healthy diet that promotes a lean, healthy body is to acknowledge what our ancestors ate throughout the millions of years of evolution.
And that certainly wasn't processed "diet foods" with fancy label claims deceiving you into thinking they're healthy... instead, it was the 1-ingredient foods I listed above, eaten in a combination of raw food and cooked food.
A couple final thoughts on how to fit these suggestions into your healthy eating plan:
1.  Try to become a "locavore" as much as possible... if you can get local farm-fresh produce, that is the most environmentally and socially responsible, as well as healthy way to get your produce.  Research if you have farmers markets and farm stands that might be in your area, or deliver to your area.
2.  Try to choose organic foods as much as possible... but local food will many times trump organic food that had to travel thousands of miles to make it to you.
3. When choosing meat and eggs, try to choose grass-fed meats as much as possible, free range chicken, turkey, and pork raised in a humane manner, and eggs from hens that truly roam free outside instead of being confined to "chicken factories".  Many times, this means making the effort to seek out local farms or co-ops that deliver to urban areas.  This site is a great source of meats that were raised in the healthiest manner, and they deliver right to your doorstep:  http://healthygrassfed.2ya.com
Remember that eating healthy and responsibly doesn't mean eating bland boring food... there are tons of ways to eat in a healthy and socially/environmentally responsible manner, and we describe in depth how to do this in our Click Here Fat Burning Kitchen Program.
Please share this article to help your family and friends eat healthier and to help us all collectively choose our food from more responsible sources than factory farms.  Please email this webpage link to all of your friends and family and share this page on your blogs, forums, as well as Facebook and Twitter pages.

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The Secret of the Properly Balanced Post-Workout Meal for Fat Loss & Muscle Building

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
I'm sure you've heard before that your post-workout meal is actually your most important meal of the day (aside from breakfast).
I'd have to agree with that for the most part because refueling your body with the right combination of nutrients is SOOOOO vastly important to repairing your muscles from the breakdown of a workout, and keeping your metabolism sky high.
From the research about post-workout meals:
"A recent 12-week study says that those who failed to consume a post workout meal immediately after their workouts suffered a lower metabolism, loss of fat free mass, and had clear indications of muscle loss - while their counterparts (those who consumed a post workout recovery meal) significantly lost more fat, increased lean muscle, improved their metabolism, and increased dynamic strength."
I've noticed that many people are confused as to what actually makes a good post-workout meal. A couple common questions about post workout meals:
1. Aren't post-workout meals just important for building muscle? Do they matter at all if my goal is fat loss?
2. Is it best to use one of the fancy post-workout drinks or shakes that you see in the magazines or is a whole food meal better? What's the best combination of carbs to protein to fat in a good post workout meal?
3. How quickly after a workout is best to consume my post workout meal?

Answers:
1. Post-workout meals are important for BOTH muscle building and fat loss!
Always remember that one of the most important aspects of long term fat loss and maintaining a lean body for life is raising your overall metabolic rate by building and maintaining adequate lean muscle mass throughout your body.
By consuming a proper post workout meal after every workout, you assist your body in repairing and building lean muscle throughout your body. The more lean muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate... hence, you lose fat easier, and it is MUCH easier to stay lean long term.
2. Whole foods or supplement shakes? This can be done either way, but I'm going to show you some guidelines why some post-workout shakes are better than others and some whole foods are better than others. Either way, you can make it work.
First, keep in mind that your goal throughout the majority of each day is eating small whole food meals frequently that digest slowly with high fiber and a controlled glycemic response (blood sugar). These normal daily meals should also contain healthy fats and slowly digested proteins to keep a steady supply of amino acids.
Well, when it comes to post-workout meals, you can almost use the exact opposite strategy of your normal meals. With post-workout meals, you actually want a faster digesting carbohydrate source to elicit an insulin response, which surges nutrients and glycogen back into your muscles for repair.
So while I always preach high fiber for most of your meals, with post-workout, you actually want low fiber, high GI carbs, and quickly digesting proteins as well for muscle repair.
Another aspect to keep in mind... while I always preach healthy fats at most of your meals... with the post workout meal, you actually want almost all carbs and protein, and very little fat if any. Fat just slows the absorption and glycemic response which is not what you want with the post-workout meal.
What about ratios of carbs and protein?
I've reviewed dozens and dozens of studies on this subject and it always seems to come back to a ratio of approximately 2 to 1 carbs to protein (up to possibly 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein). This seems to be the optimal combination to maximize muscle repair to boost that metabolism for long term fat loss.
I usually make my post-workout shakes using a frozen banana, whey protein, water, and some real maple syrup and aim for about a 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein.
If you want to make things simpler, one of the best post-workout shakes that I've found is Prograde's Varsity Post-Workout mix. Check it out at:
http://getprograde.com/workout
3. How quickly should you eat (or drink) your post-workout meal?
As soon as you can after your workout (the sooner the better)!
Studies show that the sooner you consume your post workout meal following your intense workout, the better your muscle recovery will be, and a higher percentage of the carbs ingested will be used for muscle glycogen replenishment instead of other uses.
The first thing I do when I get back from the gym is make my post workout shake, and this is about 10 min after finishing my workout.
Make sure to check out some of the other research about post-workout recovery meals at:
http://getprograde.com/workout
Alright, I'll be back soon with more Lean-Body Secrets. Til then...
Don't be lazy... Be lean!
Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder - TruthAboutAbs.com

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A Weird Way to "Sneak" More Nutrition into Dinner

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

co-author - The Fat Burning Kitchen program

I just started doing this recently, and it's been a great way to "sneak" more nutrition into certain types of dinners. This can also help you get leaner, because higher nutrient density in your meals means lower appetite and controlled cravings for you later.
Here's what I've been trying out...
As you've probably heard a dozen times before, specific greens such as kale, mustard greens, bok choy, swiss chard, etc are the absolute most nutrient dense vegetables on earth.
However, even though I've always known what superstars these are in the nutrition world, I never really thought of ways to use them in cooking meals. Sure, I always get plenty of lettuce and spinach in salads, but the greens like kale, bok choy, mustard greens, and swiss chard are WAY more nutrient-dense than lettuce and spinach.
So I finally figured out how to sneak these into my meals (and this works even if you don't like the taste of those greens separately)...
There are probably other recipes you can use this for, but I've used it for soups and italian tomato sauces so far, and it works great.
What I do is take a good amount of bok choy, kale, mustard greens, and/or swiss chard and throw them whole (not chopped up) into my tomato sauce or my large batch of soup broth.  I'll also throw some large chunks of onion and maybe a zucchini into the simmering pot also.
Then, after they've simmered for a while and have softened up, I'll take out the whole portions of the greens and the onion/zucchini and throw everything into a big blender.  Then I blend the greens smooth with the onion and pour the mixture back into the simmering tomato sauce or soup.  Of course, my tomato sauce meals usually involve some grass-fed bison sausage, but that's just one of my personal favorites for an actual healthy meat.
I'm not a huge fan of the taste of these types of greens separately (kale, bok choy, mustard greens, etc)... however, pureed and blended into the sauce or soup actually makes a pretty delicious mixture and also adds TONS of nutrient density to your meals to satisfy your appetite and help you get leaner.
Another benefit is that since the greens are pureed in the blender after being softened, you actually absorb more vitamins and minerals, as the pureed greens are easier for your body to fully digest compared to just chewing them normally.
And this idea is a home run if you have kids... as this is truly a way for you to "sneak" more greens into your kids meals without them even knowing you added them to the soup or sauce (as long as you did a good job with seasonings and recipe).
I hope you enjoyed this little tip today to help you and your family eat healthier and get leaner this year!

Feel free to email this link on to friends and family that might enjoy it or share it on facebook.

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Is Your Microwave Cooking Making You Sick?

A look at how microwaved food can negatively affect your health
by Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN & Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist
co-authors - The Fat Burning Kitchen

Do you know what (besides a television) is in almost every home in America? It’s a microwave oven. Because microwave ovens are quick and easy and don't take up much space, they are used for meal preparation in the home, at the office, and even restaurants. Even your favorite healthy restaurant may depend on these electrical devices to quickly heat up or cook foods. So, the question here is —
Are microwave ovens safe, and is it ok to eat the food cooked in them?
Before we look at the science of how microwaved food can affect your blood chemistry and negatively affect your health, let's look at a bigger picture, common-sense thought process about this...
If you think about it from this perspective, the human digestive system evolved over hundreds of thousands of years to digest food that was either raw or cooked in water or by heat.  However, food cooked via microwaves is a totally alien and unknown cooking method to the human digestive system.
It's just common sense that such a radically different cooking method will alter the chemistry of the food to negatively impact our health.
Now onto a little more science...
Let’s take a look at how microwaves ovens work
Microwaves are a part of the whole electromagnetic spectrum of energy that includes light waves and radio waves. They travel at the speed of light--which is about 186,282 miles per second. So how does that oven heat up the food so fast?
Inside the microwave oven, there is a “magnetron” which is a tube full of electrons. The electrons in the microwave oven react with magnetic and electronic energy and become micro wavelengths. This is the radiation that interacts with the molecules in food.
Food molecules have a positive and negative end, kind of like the way a magnet has a north and a south polarity. The electrons from the magnetron produce wavelengths that react with the positive and negative parts of the food molecules. The food molecules then start vibrating, up to several million times a second. This molecular “vibration” is what creates the heat in the food.
This agitiation deforms the molecules in food and creates new unnatural radiolytic compounds previously unknown to nature. These strange foreign compounds in microwaved food have been shown to damage the blood, the digestive system, and our immune systems.
Microwave ovens have been actually been around for about 40 or so years, but so far, only a couple of in-depth scientific studies have been done on them.
Research showing negative health impacts of eating microwaved food
Extensive research, though, was conducted in both Switzerland and Russia on microwaved foods and their effects on the human body. Both studies concluded that microwaving foods significantly deteriorated the nutrient value of the food, distorted protein molecules in the food, and created new, radically unnatural compounds. Most alarming, however, was that the subjects' health deteriorated from eating the microwaved foods.
Their findings included:

• Blood hemoglobin (the extremely important oxygen-carrying component of the blood) decreased significantly after eating microwaved foods. 
• White blood cell count rose, (as it does in response to an infection).
• LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) increased, and HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) decreased.
• Carcinogenic (cancer-causing) agents in foods increased.
• Higher incidence of digestive system cancers.

The Russian scientists found the microwave oven significantly scary enough to actually ban its use--up until recently.
When food is cooked in a microwave oven, it has:

• Significantly less B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals and fats.
• Broken down and de-natured proteins.
• Loss of vital enzymes and phytochemicals.

And here is a really interesting study—done on grain germination:
The grain watered with microwaved (and cooled) water would not not even germinate or grow! It’s pretty obvious that microwaving changed the water chemically and destroyed its ability to nourish a plant.
Ok, so maybe it’s ok to just heat leftovers in the microwave oven once in a while?
NO! Actually, food heated in a microwave is heated unevenly creating super-heated spots and cool spots. Those cool spots may actually harbor bacterial growth such as salmonella, and you end up with food poisoning.
In addition, when you use plastic containers or plastic wrap in contact with your food, you end up getting all sorts of nasty chemicals like di(ethylhexyl)adepate, or DEHA, (a carcinogen), Bisphenol-A or BPA (a cancer-causing agent in plastics) and xenoestrogens (synthetic estrogens) in your food!
In one recent study, it was found that carcinogenic ingredients in plastic wrap were 10,000 times the FDA limit for safety!
Exposure to BPA, used in the manufacture of polycarbonate and other plastics, has been shown to cause reproductive problems and erectile dysfunction, and has been linked with cardiovascular disease and diabetes in humans.
Xenoestrogens are really nasty synthetic estrogens that seem to show up everywhere. In men, xenoestrogens can cause low sperm counts and feminization (like the dreaded “man boobs”) and breast cancer and reproductive problems in women. Xenoestrogens promote weight gain around the belly and chest in men, and in women, it shows up as fat in the butt, hips, thighs and the back of arms.
So, in addition to being really unhealthy, microwaved foods can make you fat!
Parents should never warm breast milk or formula in the microwave oven—not only can it superheat the milk and burn the baby, but microwaving destroys the very valuable nutrients, enzymes and protein vital to babies' growth!
And here is something really scary: in 1991, a patient received blood that had been warmed in a microwave oven. That patient died of a severe anaphylactic reaction to the blood. The microwaving created something totally unrecognizable by the body!
If you want to be safe, healthy and LEAN, avoid your microwave—totally.  Personally, I threw out my microwave about 6 years ago and haven't even missed it!
There are far healthier and better alternatives:

• Eat vegetables and fruit raw preferably, or if cooked, sauté lightly (with a little water and some grass-fed butter) or steam until tender crisp in a pan on the stove.
• Heat water for tea, etc in a pan or tea-kettle instead of the microwave—or, better yet-- is to get a steaming hot water tap—I love these things!
• Plan ahead and defrost frozen foods in the refrigerator.
• Heat up ALL leftovers over low heat in a pan or in a toaster oven in aluminum foil (it still only takes 4-5 minutes to heat leftovers)
• If you must use a microwave (and I don’t know why you would!), use only glass containers instead of plastic.

Or you may want to try this-- small countertop convection ovens are great for cooking foods faster and more evenly than a regular oven or on the stove.
You can actually cook a frozen 15-oz. grass-fed ribeye in 20 minutes, and it is delicious; browned, tender and juicy. These little convection ovens will broil, bake, fry, roast, grill or steam your favorite foods, including meat, chicken, and vegetable. It takes 20-30% less time than a regular oven, and uses about 75% less energy.
This is a far healthier option than a cancer-causing, nutrient-robbing, microwave oven!

Please feel free to email the link to this page to your friends and family so they can make the smart decision to throw out their microwaves and protect their family's health!

If you liked this article, please Share it below for Facebook, google+, or twitter:


To your good health,
Catherine Ebeling & Mike Geary
Co-authors - The Fat Burning Kitchen:  Your 24-Hour Diet Transformation to Make Your Body a Fat-Burning Machine

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The Top 3 Foods to AVOID at Restaurants (they can make you fat and kill you)

These ingredients not only make you fat, but can be deadly when eaten too often
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of the best-sellers:  The Top 101-Foods that FIGHT Aging & The Fat Burning Kitchen

I've been traveling a lot for business in the last year, and I've noticed that most people totally fall off their fitness routines while traveling...
In fact, eating out at restaurants frequently is one of the biggest reasons why so many people fatten up while traveling.  It's almost damn near impossible to eat healthy when you dine out, UNLESS you follow a couple simple tricks that I use to make every restaurant meal healthier, reduce calories, and not lose control.
Here's a few tricks you can use to eat healthier and stay lean even while traveling on business or eating out any time for that matter...
The 3 most important things to avoid that are EVERYWHERE at restaurants are:

• the deep fried foods
• the refined starchy foods
• and any sodas, juices, or other sugary foods (except whole fruits, which are great)

This eliminates the major food sources that do the worst damage in our food supply - the evil trans fats, the inflammatory refined vegetable oils, refined starches, and processed sugars.
This means trying to skip the table bread, skipping the french fries (that come with every single sandwich on every menu known to man), and reducing or eliminating all of the heaping portions of rice and pasta that are often loaded on the plates as well.
How to do it healthier, but still satisfying...
Instead, try to order just meat, side vegetables, and a salad, asking for the vegetables or salad as a substitute for the typical fries, rice, or pasta that the meal probably comes with.
Almost every restaurant I've ever been to will always allow me to substitute veggies or a side salad for the fries or chips that almost always come with sandwiches or burgers.
Side note:  It always amazes me how many people scrutinize me because I substitute veggies for fries by telling me that I'm "not living" because I won't eat fries...
Yet they are always the first to complain that they are overweight and have "tried everything", yet can't lose weight.  I'm not sure why so many people think eating french fries equals "living it up"... I'm all for moderation with many things, but if there's 2 things that should be almost totally removed from everyone's diet because these foods are simply that evil... it's fries and sodas!
​Example Substitutions:
Take a look at the typical difference this simple substitution makes between choosing smart and doing what most people do...
Most people will eat a meal out such as this:

• Sandwich or burger -- the bread is usually the unhealthiest part of this
• fries or chips -- source of deadly trans fats
• soda or other sweetened drink -- mostly deadly high fructose corn syrup

A MUCH smarter alternative for a leaner, healthier body is very simply this:

• A steak, chicken breast, or fish piece (this avoids the refined wheat of a sandwich)
• veggies or salad (much better choice than fries or chips)
• unsweetened iced tea or water with lemon (and no diet drinks -- unless you enjoy drinking carcinogenic poisonous artificial sweetener chemicals).

These 2 simple substitutions save at least 400 - 900 calories EACH time you dine out (depending on drink refills and fries portion sizes)... AND you're cutting out the most harmful foods to your body as well by avoiding the trannies and high fructose corn syrup.
Also, it may be rare to find this in most restaurants, but if you can find some that offer much healthier grass-fed beef burgers, it's a much smarter decision compared to grain fattened beef.
Side note:  a little-known way to eat full portions of rice or potatoes and actually get away with it without packing on the body fat is to make sure to schedule a high intensity full body resistance training workout before your scheduled meal time.
Sometimes it may be hard to fit the workout into your schedule right before the meal event, but if you can, the meal can be your "post-workout meal", in which case, your body can handle a higher amount of carbs than normal to help replenish the muscle glycogen depletion you had during the intense workout.
A cardio workout WON'T cut it for this... it must be high intensity resistance training to deplete enough muscle glycogen to handle restaurant portions of carbohydrates.
I hope these dining tips help you choose smarter and healthier next time you eat out.
Here's what you should do next...
Another side effect of these weight gaining foods is that not only are they terrible for your health, but they also make you age FASTER - not only causing a quicker breakdown of your skin, but also making your joints to become creaky and fragile, your blood pressure to skyrocket, your "bad" cholesterol goes through the roof, and your brain health breaks down.
The good news is there are plenty of ways to counter-act the negative effects these foods have on your body, in addition to simple swaps that are not only healthier for you, but also taste delicious!
We'll show you how to find plenty of delicious foods, spices, herbs, and nutrients that 
PROTECT your body from aging on the next page!
You will also discover over a dozen surprising tricks you can use daily to FIGHT aging, helping you to look 5-10 years YOUNGER... click the button below to go to the next page to discover unique and delicious anti-aging foods, spices, herbs, teas, and other potent youth-enhancing nutrients:

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The "Land Meat" That Rivals Wild Salmon in Omega-3 Content -- Grass Fed Beef & Other Grass Fed Meats

Improve your health, lose body fat, and build muscle with one of the healthiest protein sources available

by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Author of best-selling program:  The Truth about 6-Pack Abs


I know you've heard all of the buzz over the last few years about the health benefits of wild salmon and other fish that have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
However, did you know that there's a "land meat" that has similar omega-3/omega-6 ratios as wild salmon?  In fact, this "land meat" not only contains as much, or even higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, but without the possible negatives such as heavy metals (mercury, etc) and PCBs that can be found in fish frequently.
I've talked about this type of meat before and how it's one of the healthiest forms of meat you can possibly eat... It's grass-fed beef and other grass-fed ruminant meats such as bison, buffalo, lamb, and venison.
Now I know that a lot of people will try to convince you that meat is not good for you... and to be honest I partially agree with them when it comes to your typical factory farm-raised meat where the animals are fattened up with huge quantities of grains & soy that are not their natural diet & given unhealthy doses of hormones, antibiotics, etc.
However, when animals are healthy and eat the diet they were meant to eat naturally, the meat is actually healthy for us.  Not only are grass-fed meats a super-high quality source of muscle-building proteins, but they are also a great source of healthy fats (surprisingly to most people).
Let's take beef for example... When cattle eat mostly grain and soy, the fat composition of their meat becomes higher in inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids (which most of us already consume too much omega-6's) and lower in beneficial omega-3 fatty acids (which are typically lacking in modern diets). 
On the other hand, when cattle eat mostly grass instead of grains & soy, their meat becomes higher in omega-3s and lower in omega-6 fatty acids, achieving a more natural balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fats.  In addition, grass-fed beef also contains much higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which has shown some promising benefits in studies for losing body fat and gaining lean muscle mass.
Note - only the natural form of CLA from grass-fed meats and dairy has shown the fat loss and muscle building benefits in studies... beware of the supplement pill forms of CLA, which are artificially created.
A similar comparison can be made between wild salmon and farm raised salmon. Wild salmon is a healthier option than farm raised salmon and has higher levels of omega-3's because the wild salmon eat what they're supposed to eat naturally. On the other hand, farm raised salmon are fattened up unnaturally with grain/soy based food pellets which detrimentally changes the salmon's fat ratio of omega-6 to omega-3.
The problem is that it is VERY hard to find healthy grass fed meats in typical grocery stores. In fact, even at health food stores, you might find some "organic" meats (which is at least a little better than standard), but it is often hard to find any real grass-fed meats.
Well, recently I did some searching and found a great website that sells all kinds of varieties of grass-fed beef and other healthy grass fed meats...
http://healthygrassfed.2ya.com
They have everything you could ever want... grass-fed burgers, ribeye steaks, filet mignon & any other quality beef cuts, grass-fed buffalo, grass-fed cheeses, and even free-range chicken and turkey! 
And better yet, they deliver it right to your house with no shipping costs either... and I actually found that the prices were pretty comparable to what I usually pay at the grocery store anyway.
I'll tell ya... I was like a kid in a candy store when I found this site. I placed my order for all kinds of goodies on a friday, I got a shipping notification email that Monday, and my delivery came right to my door the very next day in a sealed cooler... I couldn't believe the service I got from this company.
Wouldn't it give you peace of mind to know that you and your family are eating meat that is actually good for you instead of the mass produced junk at most grocery stores? I know I'm getting most of my meat from them from now on.
Everything in my order ended up being awesome... here's my recommendations:

• the grass-fed filet mignons (delicious and tender!)
• grass-fed burgers and bison burgers when I need a quick but healthy 5-minute meal (use some grass-fed cheese and sprouted grain roll for the ultimate balanced meal)
• the free-range chicken and turkey sausages (makes great italian dishes or healthier breakfast sausage)
• grass-fed cheese and butter (higher in CLA and omega-3 than normal butter or cheese) 
• they even have free-range turkeys available for big family meals (you won't find free-range turkeys in stores)

Plus, besides getting much healthier meat than you'd ever find in the store, another benefit to this site was that it was like doing my grocery shopping from my living room, instead of fighting the crowds at the store.
Well, they've got me hooked, and thought I'd pass on this little discovery to you. Here's the site again...
http://www.grasslandbeef.com
(FYI - from looking at the site, I believe you can only order the meats if you're in the US and Canada)
Enjoy!
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The Salad Dressing You Should NEVER Eat -- and my Alternative Super-Healthy Recipe

by Mike Geary - Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutrition Specialist
Author of best-selling program:  The Truth About Six Pack Abs 

If you want to eat truly healthy, support your fat loss goals, protect your body from inflammation, and avoid some of the nasty additives in processed food, one thing you should eliminate is typical store-bought salad dressing.
I personally NEVER buy pre-made salad dressings from the store anymore, and here's why:
1. Almost all store-bought salad dressings contain fairly significant amounts of high fructose cornn syr syrup (HFCS).  Unless you're in a health food store, it's almost impossible to find a salad dressing that doesn't contain large amounts of HFCS.
2. Almost all store-bought salad dressings contain heavily refined soybean oil and/or refined canola oil... both of which are VERY unhealthy. Yes, that's correct, canola oil IS unhealthy, despite the marketing propaganda you've been fed claiming that it's healthy. If interested, you can read more about why canola oil is NOT healthy here.
Due to the refining process of both soybean or canola oils, the polyunsaturated component of the oils is oxidized and makes these oils very inflammatory inside your body.  In addition, soybean oil is WAY too high in omega-6 fatty acids which throws your omega-6 to omega-3 balance out of whack.  And as you know, most people already consume FAR too much omega-6 oils to begin with.
We know that olive oil is healthier, but when it comes to store-bought dressings... Even salad dressings that claim to be "made with olive oil" on the FRONT label are deceptive, because if you read the ingredients on the BACK label, they are almost ALWAYS made of mostly refined soybean oil or canola oil as the main oil, with only a very small amount of actual olive oil as a secondary oil.
So here's how to avoid all of these horrendously unhealthy store-bought salad dressings and make your own quick and easy SUPER-healthy dressing...

My Quick and Easy Recipe for Super-Healthy Salad Dressing
Geary's Healthy-Fat Blend Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
Fill your salad dressing container with these approximate ratios of liquids:

• 1/3rd of container filled with balsamic vinegar
• 1/3rd of container filled with apple cider vinegar
• fill the remaining 1/3rd of container with equal parts of extra virgin olive oil and "Udo's Choice EFA Oil Blend"
• Add just a small touch (approx 1 or 2 teaspoons) of real maple syrup
• Add a little bit of onion powder, garlic powder, sea salt, and black pepper and then shake the container to mix all ingredients well.

This homemade salad dressing mixture is delicious and healthy, and I pretty much never get tired of it!
The reason I choose to blend the extra virgin olive oil half & half with the Udo's Choice Oil is that they make up for what each lacks... Although extra virgin olive oil is healthy and contains important antioxidants, it is mostly monounsaturated, and is low in the essential fatty acids (EFAs). The Udo's Choice Oil is higher in unrefined polyunsaturated oils with a good healthy balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids.
There are several variations of the Udo's Choice Oil, and one of them (labeled DHA 3-6-9 Blend) even contains a DHA algae oil blended into the mix along with organic flax oil, coconut oil, evening primrose oil, rice bran oil, oat germ and bran oil, and a few others.
Overall, blending Udo's Oil with extra virgin olive oil makes nearly a perfect oil blend for salad dressings with a great taste and maximum health benefits.  If you can't find Udo's Choice Oil Blends (you can find Udo's at almost any health food store), there are other EFA oil blends on the market...just make sure that they are COLD-processed to protect the EFAs.  You should never heat an EFA oil blend.
Give this homemade super-healthy salad dressing a try!  You'll do your body a favor by avoiding the harmful additives in store-bought salad dressings.
Enjoy!

SLOW aging in your body with these foods:

Unique superfoods, herbs, spices and nutrients that SLOW aging of your joints, skin & brain  (these foods also help to reduce high blood pressure, reverse diabetes, and boost your metabolism!)

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The 7 Hottest Fat Burning Trends

Losing weight can be fun (and easy) with these workout tips to burn fat faster
by Craig Ballantyne, Men's Health Fitness Advisor, Personal Trainer -


Forget about cardio, machines, and aerobics classes. 
Weight loss workouts have come a long way in the last 10 years to help men and women burn fat faster than ever. We’ve gone from boring, ineffective, long cardio workouts to finally using interval training to lose fat and slash your workout time in half.
I’ve also discovered the fat burning secrets of resistance training and bodyweight exercises to help you lose fat at home without expensive or fancy machines. Heck, you don’t even need a gym membership any more to burn fat effectively.
But there are even more and better ways of burning fat that you might not know about. So here’s Part 1 of the top 7 hottest trends to burn fat this year.
1) Competition & Challenge-Type Workouts Will Be Found in More Fat Loss Programs
The popular 300 challenge workout revolutionized fat burning programs because it introduced a new method internal motivation. By adding some form a challenge workout to your program – such as a workout you try to complete faster and faster each week – you’ll have a better chance of sticking to your program.
In addition to the 300 workout, you could also try one of my Bodyweight 500 workouts, or create your own challenge workout. You could even just try to run a greater distance in 20 minutes each week. Just make sure to switch up your challenge workout every 4 weeks. Challenge yourself and you’ll find this to be a powerful motivational tool to keep your fat loss progress going.
2) We’ll Return to Working Out with a Partner or in a Group for Social Support
In the past few years, many folks started exercising at home by themselves, but there is actually a good reason to invite a friend over for a workout or to exercise in groups.
Research shows that if you workout with a partner who is losing weight, you have a better chance of losing weight yourself. If you are working out by yourself right now and not getting the results you want, then recruit a partner to exercise with you (but make sure you know they will stick with the program and succeed). This could mean that you try to workout regularly with a friend, family member, or spouse.
Bootcamp workouts are also going to be hot, hot, hot as time goes on, as more and more people prefer this motivating, economical way to work out with a trainer while getting social support from a dozen or so other men and women with the same goals. This will also expose you to more success stories and people who can give you tips and support to burn fat.
Plus, bootcamp workouts don’t use machines or long cardio exercise, so they must rely on bodyweight exercises and interval training, which you discovered in recent years to work really fast for fat loss. The combination of intervals, bodyweight exercises, and social support are going to help a lot of folks burn fat successfully this year.
3) More and More People Will Start Training Like an Athlete to Burn Fat
Bootcamp training leads perfectly into our next hot tip. This year, you’ll see more and more trainers and fitness magazines showing people how to exercise like a power athlete to burn fat. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.
Just like any fat loss program, the “train like an athlete to burn fat” workouts must be intelligent and professionally designed. After all, it’s sad to see folks doing jumps on concrete, or doing athletic exercises in the wrong order that could lead to injury. That’s not smart athletic training.
When doing a “Fat Burning Athlete Workout”, your program must follow a specific order. You’ll start with a total body warm-up with bodyweight exercises, such as prisoner squats, lunges, pushups, spiderman climbs, planks, and even exercises like hurdle walks, high knees, skipping, inchworms, and walking hamstring stretches.
The correct time to do power exercises, such as jumping or agility drills, is right after your thorough warm-up because you are fresh, not fatigued. This will help you perform jumps and short sprints (or exercises like cleans, kettlebell snatches or medicine ball throws) with maximum effort and proper form. Power exercises should not be done after interval training or any other type of exhaustive exercise.
Following power exercises, an athletic fat burning workout would spent a short amount of time on essential strength exercises, such as squats, upper body exercises (pushing and pulling), and single-leg exercises. This could be followed by strength-endurance exercises if needed, such as high-repetition bodyweight exercises.
Finally, the athletic fat burning program would end with interval training for conditioning and fat loss. This will exhaust your energy stores and you’ll finish with static stretching. These workouts are fun, fast, and effective, and also more applicable to daily living than spending an hour on a cardio machine.
Working out like an athlete will give you the best looking, and best performing body that you’ve ever had!
In Part 2 of the 7 hottest trends for fat loss (article coming soon), you’ll learn about training for personal bests, alternative interval training workouts, the secret to success of the new generation of transformation contests, and the truth about shorter, no-cardio workouts.
Click here to check out Craig's HOT new fat burning Turbulence Training workouts

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The Most Potent Super-Spice Antioxidant in Your Cabinets

We're talking about the super-spice Turmeric -- a powerful antioxidant with surprising health benefits 
by Catherine Ebeling - RN, BSN & Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialistco-authors of the brand new Fat-Burning Kitchen program

You may have already known from my past newsletters that cinnamon is one of the most powerful antioxidants that you may have been overlooking in this world where acai, goji berries, blueberries, and red wine are the only antioxidant sources that get major press.
However, have you ever eaten curry? That yellow color in curry is attributed to a spice called Turmeric, and it is one of the most powerful antioxidants you can consume with amazing health benefits.
Turmeric has been used in India for thousands of years as a dye, as a spice for dishes, and also in traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine. Turmeric has some of the world’s most powerful fat-burning and healing qualities of any food or spice. It is a potent anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-bacterial substance.
What is turmeric?
Turmeric grows as a shrub in India and tropical parts of Asia. The roots are ground up to make turmeric. Its active ingredient is a substance called curcumin and it is bright yellow. This bright yellow spice has medicinal properties as well as adding its pungent color and taste to many delicious dishes.
Ayurvedic medicine has used this spice as a whole body cleanser, an aid for digestion, and in treatments for fevers, infections, liver and gall bladder problems and arthritis. It may even help to burn fat, and is also very effective as a preventative for heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.
The rich stores of antioxidants are very effective against the free radicals which contribute to premature aging, disease and cancer. Many natural practitioners actually recommend turmeric when a potent antioxidant is needed.
A digestion aid and fat-burning compound
Turmeric helps to digest fats by stimulating the flow of bile in the gall bladder and therefore is very effective as a digestive aid and fat-burning compound. Studies also show it is highly effective at reducing the inflammation from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease.
For the heart, it contains strong anti-platelet substances which help prevent the blood from clotting too easily, and so is very effective against heart attacks and strokes. In addition, homocysteine, a chemical component in the body, which is one of the primary predictors of heart attacks, is significantly lowered in the presence of curcumin.
The curcumin in turmeric also has been shown to lower and reduce the oxidation of plaque on the artery walls.
As an anti-inflammatory it has been used effectively for a treatment for all types of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and for joint pain.
Turmeric and cancer-risk reduction
Turmeric is a powerful weapon against cancer cells as well. Studies show that this super spice can actually prevent cancer tumors from growing and in those who already have cancer, turmeric slows the growth and spread of cancer. In a research study done with mice injected with cancer cells, the curcumin in turmeric was proven to be more than twice as effective as the cancer drug paclitaxel (Taxol).
The curcumin in turmeric is also highly effective when combined with the anti-oxidant quercetin (found in red onions, apples and cherries) against pre-cancerous polyps in the colon. Studies show that polyps were reduced by 60% and the average size of existing polyps were reduced by 50%.
Turmeric and Alzheimer's disease
One of the most exciting new studies has shown turmeric’s value against Alzheimer’s. Studies of the Indian population who have a high intake of turmeric in their curry dishes show a very low incidence of Alzheimer’s and dementia in the elderly.
Alzheimer’s victims have a buildup of a certain type of plaque in the brain and turmeric is highly effective at breaking down this plaque and protecting brain health.
Ways to get turmeric into your diet:
One way to get high concentrations of curcumin is to use the spice turmeric in some of your cooking and recipes.
Curry contains turmeric, but is usually a combination of several spices and you may not get as much turmeric as you would using pure turmeric.  That's not to say there aren't benefits to curry too, since it is a blend of several spices. 
Try to get creative and test using turmeric and/or curry on various foods so you can benefit as much as possible from this potent super-spice...
Turmeric is very yellow and can stain so be careful when using it. This spice doesn’t have to be used just for curries. It is delicious on sautéed apples, or steamed cauliflower, green beans and onions, or any of your favorite veggies.
Try it with raw cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower or broccoli, or with celery, sweet pepper, jicama or radishes. Turmeric is also a great spice to complement recipes that feature lentils. Give salad dressings an orange-yellow hue and a little extra flavor by adding some turmeric powder to them.
Once you start using turmeric on a regular basis, it's fun to find new ways to use it in healthy recipes. My favorite way to use it is to add a healthy dose of it to egg salad. It adds a great flavor, and gives the egg salad a delicious rich yellow hue.
The best way to get turmeric daily and maximize your benefits
Let's face it... we know that spices like cinnamon and turmeric have incredible health benefits, but it's hard to remember to use them more than once or twice a week in recipes or on your typical foods.
So what I've found is the best way to make sure you get ample turmeric on a daily basis is to get turmeric capsules.
Turmeric can be purchased in capsules from a health food store, or you can make your own if you want to buy empty capsules and fill your own. The best turmeric is available in bulk in health food stores and is usually fresher and more pungent.
It is important to check with your physician if you are pregnant or nursing; it can be a uterine stimulant. If you have gallstones or bile obstructions or congestive heart failure, it is best to avoid using. And check with your doctor if you are on prescription drugs, as the drugs may interact with the turmeric.

If you don't already have a copy of our popular Fat Burning Kitchen program -- go to this page below now and see how you can use a specific 
diet "trick" to eliminate your cravings for junk food & automatically control your appetite

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