The Physique 57 Solution (79 page)
Read The Physique 57 Solution Online
Authors: Tanya Becker,Jennifer Maanavi
NO alcohol. For your purposes during these two weeks, all alcohol, even wine, is a source of empty calories. You don’t need it! Some kinds of alcohol, such as beer, are derived from grains and allergenic wheat.
If you follow our recipes, you will avoid these foods automatically, but do your best to keep these guidelines in mind whenever you eat out or need to grab food on the go.
ALORIE
C
ULPRITS
: T
HE
B
IGGEST
S
OURCES OF
H
IDDEN
C
ALORIES
Even after the first two weeks are up, you’ll do well to avoid these calorie-packed and sugar-laden foods if you want to keep your newly slim and sexy physique:
Alcoholic beverages
. Cocktails, especially sweet ones, are chock-full of calories. A martini has 200 calories, a cosmopolitan has 213, and a margarita has a whopping 540 calories. Beer has an average of around 150, but if you have more than one, the calories can add up quickly. Worst of all, these empty calories won’t even satisfy your hunger—instead, they will cause your blood sugar to spike and then crash, leading to a craving for food and sweets.
. Believe it or not, “enhanced” water sometimes isn’t water at all—it can actually contain more than a hundred calories! And sports and energy drinks contain anywhere from 160 to 310 calories. Plus, these drinks are loaded with the chemical additives and
high-fructose corn syrup that lead to false fat. For a refreshing alternative, try our Citrus Cooler on
here
.
. This is a total waste of calories. If you skip the bread basket when eating out, you will automatically reduce your caloric intake by anywhere from 170 to 300 calories.
. These generally have 70 to 110 calories each—and they are bite-size!
. This is always touted as a health food, but in reality, a quarter-cup-size portion has 250 calories… and no one eats just a quarter cup!
. The base for these smoothies has a ton of sugar—you’ll do better to make one of our smoothies on
here
.
. Pasta is technically a fat-free food, but a serving is considered to be only half a cup—and most restaurants will give you three or four cups! By the time you add the sauce, you’re looking at a twelve-hundred-calorie commitment for a single dish.
. You never know what they’re using to make the dressings or prepare the protein toppings. One Chinese Chicken Salad at a popular chain restaurant contains thirteen hundred calories! To make the salad bar work for you, do a once-around to check out the offerings and choose what you recognize as real/whole foods—the less cooked or processed, the better. Then make your own simple dressing with olive oil, vinegar, and a squeeze of lemon. When ordering a salad in a restaurant, always ask for the dressing on the side.
FAT FREE
. Fat-free foods can be particularly bad calorie-wise—they may be low in fat but high in sugar. Jelly beans are touted as a fat-free food, for instance, but they will still pack on the pounds.
The word
macronutrient
refers to the three essential nutrients found in food that your body needs for energy and a host of other functions: proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. These macronutrients play a vital role in every system in the body: They give us energy, help us build lean muscle, and regulate metabolism and hormone production. The quality of the macronutrients you ingest plays an enormous role in how you look and how well your body functions. When it comes to gaining or losing weight, these macronutrients influence everything from your metabolic rate to how quickly you are able to build and preserve lean muscle. They also help you to process and absorb key vitamins and minerals, and manufacture others, such as vitamin A, that aren’t found in nature. When we overprocess or refine foods, or change a food’s composition by making it low-fat or by adding chemicals or preservatives, we end up altering or stripping away many of the macronutrients that greatly enhance our overall health.
