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4 Rules for Healthier Eating & Faster Weight Loss
At Lean Body you don't have to follow our diet plan to lose weight but it helps. You will see the pounds disappear faster and you will learn healthier eating habits which will last a lifetime.
Our diet is simple. We follow 4 Simple Rules of good food choices:
1. Focus on Whole Foods
No, we're not talking about concentrating on Whole Foods Market here. We mean "whole foods" – any food in its most essential, pure and basic form: an asparagus spear, a lemon slice, a scoop of quinoa or a fillet of salmon. Favoring a whole foods-rich diet is a simple way to ensure that what you eat is micronutrient dense and free of unnecessary additives. Whole foods are the best ingredients for creating tasty and healthy meals, and diets loaded with whole, unrefined and unprocessed foods may help keep you healthy.
Tips for success:
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Choose whole, fresh, natural, organic, local, seasonal, unrefined and unprocessed foods. You'll typically find the least processed foods around the perimeter of the store.
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Eliminate artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, sweeteners and hydrogenated fats from your diet.
2. Eat Plant-Strong
Whether you're going gluten-free or love your dairy, meat and seafood, every diet can benefit from a focus on plant-based foods. Begin to reconfigure your meals so that the majority of your plate contains raw and cooked vegetables, fruits, legumes and beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains. When you eat more plants, you're helping your body get the key micronutrients it needs to function at its best.
Tips for success:
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Beans, nuts and legumes are great sources of plant-based protein.
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Eat a colorful variety of plants to ensure you're getting the best nutrients for your body.
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Learn how to better select, cook and store vegetables, beans, and nuts
3. Choose Healthy Fats
Believe it or not, fat is part of a healthy diet – but only if it's the right kind. Get your healthy fats from whole plant-based foods like nuts, seeds and avocados. Then, minimize (or eliminate) the amounts of extracted oils and processed fats you cook with on a daily basis.
Tips for success:
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Nuts, seeds and avocados (all plant-based whole foods!) are great micronutrient-dense sources of healthy fats.
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Minimize or eliminate extracted oils (like canola) and processed fats (like margarine).
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Learn healthy cooking techniques, which help you prepare foods without using extracted oils.
4. Consider Nutrient Density
A variety of nutrients – such as vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients – are essential for good health. Eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables along with all kinds of whole grains, beans and other unrefined whole plant foods to get the most out of your diet.
Tips for success:
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Build your meals around recipes that emphasize plant-based foods.
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Choose foods rich in micronutrients when compared to total caloric content.
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Check this ANDI (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index) Guide* for a list of the most nutrient-rich foods
* ANDI Guide
Wondering how to choose the healthiest foods? This ANDI Guide (CLICK HERE) can definitely help you. This attached ANDI summary lists the top ten foods with the highest ANDI scores (healthiest for you) in each food group. Download, save and print, then memorize it to make food choices easier.
ANDI stands for "Aggregate Nutrient Density Index," a scoring system that rates foods on a scale from 1 to 1000 based on nutrient content. ANDI scores are calculated by evaluating an extensive range of micronutrients, including vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and antioxidant capacities.
