My Favourite 55 Foods For A Lean Body

By Author: Brett MacPherson
Total Articles: 8
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In most of my newsletters, I like to supply a healthful snack or meal recipe that not only is delicious, but also helps to get you closer to that hard-body appearance that everybody is looking for. In this piece, I'd like to supply you healthful food ideas in a different way. This time, I figured I'd only supply you some ideas of what I store my fridge and cabinets with. Remember, if you don't have junk around the house, you're less likely to eat junk. If all you have is healthful food around the house, you're required to make good choices. Really, it all starts with making good choices and avoiding temptations when you make your grocery store visit. Now these are only some of my private preferences, but perhaps they will supply you some good ideas that you'll like.

Alright, so let's begin with the fridge. Each week, I try to make certain I'm full up with heaps of varieties of fresh vegetables. I only buy fresh seasonal produce from my local farmers at the farmers market. Most of the time, I make certain I have enough vegetables like zucchini, onions, fresh mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, red peppers, etc. to use in my ...
... morning eggs. I also like to dice up some trim chicken or turkey sausage into the eggs, along with some swiss, jack, or goat cheeses. Coconut milk is another essential in my fridge. I like to use it to mix in with smoothies, oatmeal, or yogurt for a rich, milky flavor. Not only does coconut milk add a rich, creamy flavor to heaps of dishes, but it's also filled with healthful saturated fats. Yeah, you heard me...I said healthful saturated fats! healthful saturated fats like medium chain triglycerides, specifically an MCT called lauric acid.

Back to the fridge, some other staples:

- Cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, and yogurt - I like to mix cottage or ricotta cheese and yogurt together with chopped nuts and berries for a good mid-afternoon or mid-morning meal.

- Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds - delicious and good sources of healthful fats.

- Complete flax seeds - I grind these in a small coffee grinder and add to yogurt or salads. Always grind them fresh as the omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are very unstable and prone to oxidation, creating high levels of free radicals in pre-ground flax.

- Eggs - one of natures richest sources of nutrients (and remember, they improve your GOOD cholesterol).

- Nut butters - Pure old peanut butter has gotten a little old for me, so I get creative and mix together almond butter with sesame seed butter, or even cashew butter with macadamia butter...delicious and unbeatable nutrition!

- Salsa - I try to get creative and try some of the exotic varieties of salsas.

- Butter - don't trust the naysayers; butter adds great taste to anything and can be part of a good diet (only keep the amount small because it is calorie dense...and NEVER use margarine, unless you want to promise yourself a heart attack).

- Avocados - adore them...plus a good resource of healthful fats, fiber, and other nutrients. Try adding them to wraps, salads, or sandwiches.

- Complete grain wraps and whole grain bread (look for wraps and bread with at least 3-4 grams of fiber per 20 grams of total carbs).

- Rice bran and wheat germ - these may sound way too healthful for some, but they actually add a pleasant little nutty, crispy flavor to yogurt or smoothies, or can be added when baking muffins or breads to add nutrients and fiber.

- Leaf lettuce and spinach along with shredded carrots - for salads with dinner.

- Home-made salad dressing - with balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Udo's Choice oil blend. This is much better than store bought salad dressing which mostly use highly refined soybean oil (filled of inflammation-causing free radicals).

Some of the staples in the freezer:

- Frozen fish - I like to try a couple different kinds of fish each week. There are so many varieties out there, you never have to get bored.

- Frozen berries - during the regional growing season, I only get fresh berries, but during the other 10 months of the year, I always keep a resource of frozen blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cherries, etc. to add to high fiber cereal, oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, or smoothies

- Frozen veggies - again, when the growing season is over and I can no longer get regional fresh produce, frozen veggies are the best choice, because they often have superior nutrient contents compared to the fresh food that has been shipped thousands of miles, sitting around for weeks before making it to your dinner table.

- Frozen chicken breasts - very convenient to heat up for a speedy addition to wraps or chicken sandwiches for quick meals.

- Frozen buffalo, ostrich, venison, and other "exotic" trim meats - Yeah, I know...I'm peculiar, but I can tell you that these are some of the healthiest meats around, and if you're serious about a trim healthful body, these types of meats are far better for you than the mass produced, hormone-pumped beef and pork that's sold at most grocery stores.

Alright, now the staples in my cabinets:

- Oat bran and steel cut oats - superior fiber than those small packs of minute oats.

- Cans of coconut milk - to be transferred to a container in the fridge after opening.

- Numerous antioxidant full teas - green, oolong, white, rooibos are some of the best.

- Stevia - a organic non-caloric sweetener, which is an superb alternative to the horrible chemical-laden artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose.

- Organic maple syrup - none of that high fructose corn syrup Aunt Jemima crap...only genuine maple syrup can be considered valid food. The only time I actually use this (because of the high sugar burden) is added to my post-training smoothies to sweeten stuff up and also obtain an insulin rush to force nutrients into your muscles.

- Raw honey - better than processed honey...elevated quantities of healthful nutrients and enzymes. Honey has even been proven in studies to increase glucose metabolism (how you manage carbs). I use a teaspoon or so every morning in my teas.

- Whole wheat or whole grain spelt pasta - far superior fiber than standard pastas

- Brown rice and other elevated fiber rice - NEVER white rice

- Cans of black or kidney beans - I like to add a couple scoops to my Mexican wraps for the fiber and high nutrition substance. Also, beans are surprisingly one of the best sources of youth promoting antioxidants!

- Tomato sauces - delicious, and as I'm assured you've heard a million times, they are a good resource of lycopene. Just beware of the brands that are laden with nasty high fructose corn syrup.

- Dark chocolate (as dark as feasible) - This is one of my treats that satisfies my sweet tooth, plus provides heaps of antioxidants at the same time. It's still calorie dense, so I keep it to only a couple squares; but that is enough to do the job, so I don't feel like I require to go out and get cake and ice cream to satisfy my dessert urges.

- Organic unsweetened cocoa powder - I like to mix this into my smoothies for an added shock of antioxidants or make my own low-sugar hot cocoa by mixing cocoa powder into hot milk with stevia and a couple melted dark chocolate chunks.

Well, I expect you enjoyed this exclusive look into my preferred hard body meals and how I supply my cabinets and fridge. Your tastes are perhaps entirely different than mine, but hopefully this gave you some good thoughts you can use next time you're at the grocery store looking to supply a healthful and delicious stack of groceries.