You know I believe in the no-excuse lifestyle, and for any diet to work you have to grow up and show up every day! Changing your lifestyle isn’t easy, and like any goal you have to commit to be successful. But you also have to commit to a diet that works for you long term, because a diet shouldn’t be a fad, it should be a lifestyle change.
Here are my thoughts and breakdown of some of the most popular diets out there right now…
T H E A L K A L I N E D I E T
The Alkaline diet definitely gets a thumbs up from me, and I know why Gisele and other celebs love it. The reason I agree with this diet is because the foods you’re supposed to eat are good for you and support healthy weight loss. It has you avoiding sugar, alcohol, and processed foods which is what you should do to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The alkaline diet eliminates acidic foods in your diet that can possibly cause inflammation in your body. The average person will probably find this challenging because the foods you need to avoid like potatoes, sugar, certain meats, and dairy products like yogurt are so popular.
If more people would learn to eat to live instead of living to eat, I’m sure the world would have healthier people and less disease. A book I would highly recommend is The Acid Alkaline Balance Diet by Felicia Drury Kliment. It’s not a one size fits all approach to the Alkaline Diet, and it has a lot of information about how acid waste in the body contributes to many disease and common ailments.
This would most likely be a challenging diet for most to follow, but one I’m not opposed to.
T H E P A L E O D I E T
The Paleo Diet is all the craze like CrossFit. I’m not a big fan of the Paleo diet because I find it hard to believe that anyone can stay away from carbs for a prolonged period of times. Also, this diet was developed by Loren Cordain, PhD, a researcher from Colorado State University, who started doing studies in the 1970s. He says that the paleo diet is the way humans were genetically designed to eat (like Cavemen).
Well it’s a different day and with all the research out there with genetic/DNA testing Paleo is NOT for everyone. Some people can metabolize carbohydrates really well, and some do not. That’s why some individuals can excel with certain food plans and other fail. When I eat a high protein diet I wanna chew my hands off from being so hungry. I love carbohydrates, but good ones. I eat Yams, Brown Rice, Quinoa, Ezekiel Bread, etc. for my carbs and stay lean year round.
The Paleo Diet isn’t horrible, but I’m not a big fan.
T H E A T K I N S D I E T
Definitely not a fan of this diet, it was probably one of the most controversial when it came out in the 70’s. This diet takes you through four phases,
Phase 1. Ketosis is phase 1 and in this phase your body switches from burning carbs to fat. You will lose weight quickly in this phase by eating protein, fat, and only 20 grams of carbs from vegetables.
Phase 2. You can add foods back into your diet and still limit your carbohydrate intake.
Phase 3. Switch to phase 3 when you only have a few more pounds to lose.
Phase 4. Lifelong plan
One thing I’ve seen is people yo-yoing with high protein diets, because once they incorporate carbohydrates back in they blow up. Not because they are eating carbohydrates, because they’ve deprived themselves of it so long, they binge eat all the wrong carbs.
Also, do you ever want to poop again? When you eliminate fiber, from fresh fruit, and good carbs, etc. you will definitely get constipated. Also, this plan does not incorporate working out. If you are not working out you may have enough energy to make it through your day. This diet is not something most people will sustain long term and it is NOT La Approved.
T H E 8 0 / 2 0 D I E T
The 80/20 diet is 80% healthy choices and 20% whatever you want. I’m totally on board with this because in a world where people do the opposite and eat 20% healthy and 80% crap the flip flop is needed. If we could all do this and incorporate more healthy choices into our lives and stop looking for cheat days, it would be great. Once my clients reach their fitness goals and their bodies are in fat burning mode instead of fat storage mode, I totally get them on the 80/20 rule. I don’t look at it as a diet, I look at it as a lifestyle. You’re not waiting for “Cheat Days” you’re living your life and making the right choices majority of the time. Kudos to all the people that are not starving themselves and their bodies of the nutrients it needs but making better choices 80% of the time.
F I T T E A D E T O X
This is why the health and fitness industry is a billion-dollar industry! All you need is a few celebrities to say it’s great and it’s the new best thing. Well…news flash, the benefits of tea are not new. I’ve been preaching about how great green tea and oolong tea are for years. The Fit Tea Detox takes green tea which is a great antioxidant/natural fat burner and Oolong tea which helps to speed up your metabolism and is a natural fat burner as well. Add some Garcinia Cambogia Extract whch is a natural appetite suppressant, some ginger to aid with digestion, stevia and honey and you have Fit Tea.
You can make this at home for half the price and still receive all the benefits. Do I think the tea is great? Absolutely! It’s packed with a bunch of amazing stuff, but is it some new ground breaking weight loss remedy….NO! Drink lots of tea, and less crap like soda, red bulls, etc and you will start too slim down.
Instagram: @LATREALMITCHELL
This story originally appeared on JULY 24 2017 on michaelstrahan.com.
