Vacation means you’re allowed to be on an eating “free for all”, right?

Watch my video to see my exact eating strategy while I’m on vacation…and nope, it’s probably  not what you think.

YES.  I did film today’s video in my pajamas.  Why?  Why not?

  

Today in Jersey we are experiencing a bit of a snow storm. With the weather man freaking out telling us we will all be locked in for days (they are such drama queens, aren’t they?), me and just about half of my town were all at the local grocery store yesterday getting our “emergency” food items. I just needed some extra fruits and vegetables and some organic eggs but it seems that my fellow shoppers thought that the world was coming to an end and had to purchase several gallons of milk, loads of bread, and boxes upon boxes of cereal (I must have missed the memo).

Here I am waiting in the checkout line and I hear an announcement over the loud speaker :

“Hi Shop Rite Customers. Make sure to pick up your freshly baked bread at the bakery department. There would be nothing worse than getting stranded inside in a snow storm without enough bread.”

Geez, people should be so lucky. They should get stranded on a deserted island where there is no bread for miles and then maybe many people would finally reach their health and weight loss goals.

That’s right. I am not a big fan of bread or bread type products. Actually, I think most people could feel a thousand times better if they stopped eating so much bread every single day. Toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, bread basket at dinner…we could feed a small village with the amount of bread I see some people consuming in one day (or several villages depending on who you’re talking about).

No, I am not saying to never have bread ever again (Hey, its life, you gotta enjoy it, right?). What I am saying is that 4-5 servings of some kind of bread type product every day is making thousands of people gain weight, preventing them from losing their unwanted weight and worst of all, bringing about diseases like Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Disease.

I don’t eat very much bread at all and I really don’t even miss it. I guess I have just come to enjoy all the other delicious food I eat each day that I don’t even feel bread is missing from my meal plans.

Here are my “bread free” strategies and exactly how you can lower your own bread intake each day:

1. When you think of breakfast, don’t automatically think toast, bagels, or a roll. A couple of hard boiled eggs over sliced tomatoes is delicious. You can also make a quick batch of oatmeal and add walnuts and berries. How about cottage cheese and pineapple? The breakfast options are endless.

2. Pack snack foods and take them with you to work. In less than 2 minutes, I can throw natural peanut butter, raw almonds, dried fruit (no sugar added), an apple or banana and baby carrots all in a bag and be out the door. Taking these food items to work with you will help you stay away from the employee room bagels or donuts. (Don’t even get me started on how evil donuts are). Slap some peanut butter on an apple and munch away at that, all while making fun of the people eating donuts (Just Kidding, that’s not nice.)

3. Don’t depend on sandwiches as lunch every day. How about some salmon, broccoli and brown rice? Leftover chicken from last night and a sweet potato? Imagine that lunch is another version of dinner and not just a mid day sandwich inhaling contest.

4. Make “the bread basket” a once-in-while experience. You really do not need to be serving a bread basket for dinner at home if you are offering healthy carbohydrate choices like salad, cooked vegetables, brown rice, millet, or quinoa.

5. Oh, and how could I forget? Don’t think that eating “100% Whole Wheat” is any better. It is still refined flour (maybe just not bleached) and a huge contributor to weight gain. I could go on and on about this but I have covered all the details about how detrimental wheat products are to your weight loss efforts in Chapter 9 of The Diet Solution Program.

Start to think outside the “bread box” today for healthy alternatives to your daily bread intake. What one thing can you do today to get started? I look forward to reading your comments below.

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com

  

I just got back from a 4 day trip to Washington D.C. The President invited me for dinner and I just could not say no.

While the pres and I talked business, I told him he really should get the whole white house on the Diet Solution Plan. He agreed and suggested the whole country get on the plan as well. (Someday right?)

The truth? I was actually attending a 4 day business conference in D.C. It was 4 days of non-stop meetings, speakers and networking.

I know traveling can sometimes put a bit of a dent in your healthy eating and weight loss efforts. When you’re running around from place to place, airport to airport and meeting to meeting, you are just inhaling whatever someone places in front of you (small children beware).

Here is exactly what I ate during my 4 days of travel and how I was able to come back in one “healthy” piece:

Wednesday afternoon:

I made a huge salad with raw and cooked vegetables and loads of chicken to take with me. That would be my lunch and my dinner while at the airport and on the plane. I packed walnuts and an apple with me just in case. Thank goodness I did because I was delayed 4 hours and based on the reactions of my fellow plane mates they had obviously forgotten to pack their snacks.

Thursday:

Breakfast at hotel restaurant: Veggie Omelet and Fresh Berries. Besides the fact that breakfast cost me over $20 bucks, it was super healthy. I knew I was going to have to find a plan B because I didn’t necessarily want to spend that much on breakfast each day.

Lunch: Chopped Salad. I found one of those places where you can pick your salad ingredients and they put it together for you. I got Romaine Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, artichokes and turkey with olive oil and vinegar. This salad was so huge I had enough for an afternoon snack.

Dinner: Mexican Restaurant. I skipped the Margarita’s (and my peers definitely drank my share) and got a Mexican salad with Ceviche. Ceviche is a Spanish dish where the fish cooks in lemon juice. If you don’t like fish, this is not the meal for you but I loved it. I also put some fresh guacamole on top and it was perfect.

Friday:

Breakfast: Ahhh…Back to the hotel restaurant. Same omelet and berries. I’ve got to find a solution to this so I don’t go broke here.

Lunch: I found the local Whole Foods online and it was a 5 minute cab ride away. Not only did I get my lunch, I also bought apples, oranges, walnuts, pecans, fresh slicked turkey, cottage cheese, and one canned salmon. This would help to solve my breakfast dilemma as well as give me some healthy snacks during the day. (Yes, my hotel room had a small refrigerator and you can almost always request one at no extra cost.)

Dinner: Provided by the conference. Baked Chicken, string beans and polenta. Wow, they must have known I was coming. I decided not to have the polenta but I did have a bite of cake for dessert. I then made my colleague’s day when I told him he could have the rest of my cake (after he had already finished his). Should I have given him a copy of The Diet Solution to go along with his cake?

Saturday:

Breakfast: I ate the sliced turkey I bought at Whole Foods with an orange and some pecans. I took my nuts and another fruit with me to the first meeting just in case I got hungry.

Lunch: Canned salmon I bought at Whole Foods over a salad I bought at the hotel. There must have been gold nuggets at the bottom of this salad based on the price. Unfortunately, I never found them.

Sunday I finished the rest of my Whole Foods goodies and headed home in the early afternoon.

In a nutshell…
1. I packed healthy food.
2. I sought out and found the best places with healthy options.
3. I stayed away from the really bad food (and believe me it is everywhere!)

I am really glad to be home but I never let my healthy habits stop me from doing anything, going anywhere and enjoying life. There is always a healthy solution to every problem (and that goes even further than just food).

Will you be traveling to Tampa in January to meet me in person? The Buy One Get One Half off Sale ends today and I don’t want to see you get stuck paying full price!

See all the details here:

http://transformanddominate.thedsp.info

Safe and healthy travels to you!

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com

By now we’ve all seen these crazy commercials telling us that High Fructose Corn Syrup is good for us.

I can’t even believe they would go so far as to lie to the public. Just in the name of selling products. Watch below as I explain how these commercials are untrue and exactly how you can find High Fructose Corn Syrup in many foods that you may have thought were healthy!

Watch below to see exactly which foods contain High Fructose Corn Syrup.

In health and happiness,

Isabel De Los Rios
www.TheDietSolutionProgram.com