Build Muscle and Lose Body Fat

by Michael Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

In most of my Lean-Body Secrets Newsletters,
I like to provide a healthy snack or meal recipe that not only is
delicious, but also helps to get you closer to that hard-body
appearance that everyone is looking for. In this article, I'd like to
give you healthy food ideas in a different way. This time, I figured
I'd just give you some ideas of what I stock 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 healthy food
around the house, you're forced to make smart choices. Basically, it
all starts with making smart choices and avoiding temptations when you
make your grocery store trip. Now these are just some of my personal
preferences, but perhaps they will give you some good ideas that you'll
enjoy.

Alright, so let's start with the fridge. Each
week, I try to make sure I'm loaded up with lots of varieties of fresh
vegetables. During the growing season, I only get local produce, but
obviously in winter, I have to resort to the produce at the grocery
store. Most of the time, I make sure I have plenty of vegetables like
zucchini, onions, fresh mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, red peppers, etc.
to use in my morning eggs. I also like to dice up some lean chicken or
turkey sausage into the eggs, along with some swiss, jack, or goat
cheeses.

By the way I'm talking about whole eggs, NOT egg
whites. Always remember that the yolk is the most nutritious and
nutrient dense part of the egg, so only eating egg whites is like
throwing away the best part... and no, it's NOT bad for you because of
the cholesterol... eggs actually raise your GOOD cholesterol. Try to
get free range organic eggs for the best quality.

Coconut milk is another staple in my fridge. I
like to use it to mix in with smoothies, oatmeal, or yogurt for a rich,
creamy taste. Not only does coconut milk add a rich, creamy taste to
lots of dishes, but it's also full of healthy saturated fats. Yeah, you
heard me...I said healthy saturated fats! Healthy saturated fats like
medium chain triglycerides, specifically an MCT called lauric acid. If
the idea of healthy saturated fats is foreign to you, check out my healthy fats article

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 great mid-morning or mid-afternoon meal.
• Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds - delicious and great sources of healthy fats.
• Whole
  flax seeds - I grind these in a mini coffee grinder and add to yogurt
  or salads. Always grind them fresh because the omega-3 polyunsaturated
  fats are highly unstable and prone to oxidation, creating high levels
  of free radicals in pre-ground flax.
• Whole eggs - one
  of natures richest sources of nutrients (and remember, they increase
  your GOOD cholesterol so stop fearing them).
• Nut
  butters - Plain 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 believe the naysayers; butter adds great flavor to anything and
  can be part of a healthy diet (just keep the quantity small because it
  is calorie dense...and NEVER use margarine, unless you want to assure
  yourself a heart attack).
• Avocados - love them...plus a
  great source of healthy fats, fiber, and other nutrients. Try adding
  them to wraps, salads, or sandwiches.
• Whole 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 healthy for some, but they
  actually add a nice little nutty, crunchy taste 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 - using 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 (full 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 local growing
  season, I only get fresh berries, but during the other 10 months of the
  year, I always keep a supply 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 local fresh produce, frozen veggies are the best option, since they
  often have higher nutrient contents compared to the fresh produce that
  has been shipped thousands of miles, sitting around for weeks before
  making it to your dinner table.
• Frozen chicken breasts - very convenient to nuke up for a quick addition to wraps or chicken sandwiches for quick meals.
• Frozen
  buffalo, ostrich, venison, and other "exotic" lean meats - Yeah, I
  know...I'm weird, but I can tell you that these are some of the
  healthiest meats around, and if you're serious about a lean healthy
  body, these types of meats are much better for you than the mass
  produced, hormone-pumped beef and pork that's sold at most grocery
  stores.
• Grass-fed steaks, burgers, and ground beef -
  Grassfed meats have been shown to have as high as, or even higher
  levels of omega-3 fatty acids than salmon (without the mercury). Also,
  grass-fed meats have much higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid
  (CLA) compared to typical grain-fed beef. I recently found an
  excellent on-line store where I buy all of my grass-fed meats now (they
  even deliver right to your door in a sealed cooler) - www.healthygrassfed.2ya.com

Alright, now the staples in my cabinets:

• Oat bran and steel cut oats - higher fiber than those little packs of instant oats.
• Cans of coconut milk - to be transferred to a container in the fridge after opening.
• Various antioxidant rich teas - green, oolong, white, rooibos are some of the best.
• Stevia - a natural non-caloric sweetener,
  which is an excellent alternative to the nasty chemical-laden
  artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose.
• Organic
  maple syrup - none of that high fructose corn syrup Aunt Jemima
  crap...only real maple syrup can be considered real food. The only time
  I really use this (because of the high sugar load) is added to my
  post-workout smoothies to sweeten things up and also elicit an insulin
  surge to push nutrients into your muscles.
• Raw honey -
  better than processed honey... higher quantities of beneficial
  nutrients and enzymes. Honey has even been proven in studies to improve
  glucose metabolism (how you process carbs). I use a teaspoon or so
  every morning in my teas. Yes, it is pure sugar, but at least it has
  some nutritional benefits... and let's be real, a teaspoon of honey is
  only 5 grams of carbs... certainly nothing to worry about.
• Whole wheat or whole grain spelt pasta - much higher fiber than normal pastas
• Brown rice and other higher 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 content. Also, beans are
  surprisingly one of the best sources of youth promoting antioxidants!
• Tomato
  sauces - delicious, and as I'm sure you've heard a million times, they
  are a great source of lycopene. Just watch out for the brands that are
  loaded with nasty high fructose corn syrup.
• Dark
  chocolate (as dark as possible) - This is one of my treats that
  satisfies my sweet tooth, plus provides loads of antioxidants at the
  same time. It's still calorie dense, so I keep it to just a couple
  squares; but that is enough to do the trick, so I don't feel like I
  need 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
  extra jolt 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.

Lastly, another thing that's hard to go wrong with
is a good variety of fresh fruits and berries. The staples such as
bananas, apples, oranges, pears, peaches are good, but I like to also
be a little more adventurous and include things like yellow mangoes,
pomegranates, star fruit, kumquats, pineapples, papaya, and others.
Also, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and
cherries are some of the most nutrient and antioxidant-dense fruits you
can eat.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this special look into
my favorite lean body meals and how I stock my cabinets and fridge.
Your tastes are probably quite different than mine, but hopefully this
gave you some good
ideas you can use next time you're at the grocery store looking to
stock up a healthy and delicious pile of groceries.

Be sure to pick up a copy of my book Truth About Six Pack Abs,
which introduces you to the entire comprehensive training and
nutritional program that will turn your body into a lean, ripped
specimen that others will envy!