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My Top 55 Lean-Body Foods to Build
Muscle and Lose Body Fat
by Michael Geary
In many of my previous articles, I like to provide a
healthy snack or meal recipe that not only is
delicious and healthy, but also helps to get you
closer to that hard-body appearance that everyone is
looking for, while also more importantly, improving
your health for life. 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.
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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 onions, zucchini, spinach, fresh
mushrooms, red peppers, broccoli, 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 (preferably raw grass-fed cheeses
when I can find them).
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:
* Chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds - delicious and great
sources of healthy fats.
* 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.
* Whole flax seeds or chia 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).
* Salsa - I try to get creative and try some of the
exotic varieties of salsas.
* Avocados - love them...plus a great source of healthy
fats, fibre, and other nutrients. Try adding them to
wraps, salads, or sandwiches.
* Butter - don't believe the naysayers; butter adds
great flavour 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).
* 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!
* 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).
* Whole grain wraps and whole grain bread (look for
wraps and bread with at least 3-4 grams of fibre 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
fibre.
Some of the staples in the freezer:
* 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 fibre cereal, oatmeal,
cottage cheese, yogurt, or smoothies
* 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 chicken breasts - very convenient for a quick
addition to wraps or chicken sandwiches for quick meals.
* Grass-fed steaks, burgers, and ground beef - Grass-fed
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)
* 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.
* 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.
Alright, now the staples in my cabinets:
* Various antioxidant rich teas - green, oolong, white,
rooibos are some of the best.
* Whole wheat or whole grain spelt pasta - much higher
fibre than normal pastas
* Oat bran and steel cut oats - higher fibre than those
little packs of instant oats.
* Cans of coconut milk - to be transferred to a
container in the fridge after opening.
* Brown rice and other higher fibre rice - NEVER white
rice
* 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.
* Stevia - a natural non-caloric sweetener, which is an
excellent alternative to the nasty chemical-laden
artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharine, and
sucralose.
* 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 healthier raw honey is only 5
grams of carbs... certainly nothing to worry about.
* 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.
* 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.
* Cans of black or kidney beans - I like to add a couple
scoops to my Mexican wraps for the fibre and high
nutrition content. Also, beans are surprisingly one of
the best sources of youth promoting antioxidants!
* 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.
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 (aka - mexican or
champagne) mangoes, pomegranates, kumquats, papaya, star
fruit, pineapples, 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
favourite 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.
"
Training And Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean-Body "
Michael Geary is a Certified Personal Trainer, Certified
Nutrition Specialist, and author of the internationally
best-selling book "The Truth about Six Pack Abs" with
readers in over 150 countries.
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Training & Nutrition
Insider Secrets For
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