When I changed from manual labor to a desk job, two things had to change: my fondness for obscenities and my eating habits. At sea, one can eat 20,000 calories per day and lose weight as they do it. But when I brought my unhealthy diet to shore with me, I went from 170 lbs to 220 lbs within six months. It was obviously time to do something about my diet. After some research and advice from some good friends, I discovered these foods. They might not be as yummy as Twinkies, but then again, neither are love handles.
1. Almonds (no salt):
Almonds contain protein, calcium, vitamin E, and monounsaturated fat. Monounsaturated fat is a “good fat” that your body needs and can help regulate your cholesterol. Another benefit of Almonds is they are an appetite suppressant that will keep you from overindulging on all of the other junk in your cabinets. Replace potato chips and Doritos with Almonds and you can put a big positive where there was once a negative.
2. Coffee (black)
I used to dump three packets of sugar and milk into my coffee. When I worked on the boat, I had only seconds to get dressed and get out on deck before my watch started. So I learned to drink my coffee black so I could shave a few seconds off of my morning routine. As a side effect, I made it just a little healthier. Black coffee is negative calories. It takes more energy for your body to process coffee than the drink contains. Also, the caffeine boosts your metabolism. Everything in moderation and make sure you drink enough water.
3. Cranberries
Cranberries are a fruit that is low in sugar (good news diabetics) and is ripe with antioxidants. These scavenge up the free radicals in your blood, which in a nutshell means they keep the bad stuff from piling up in your fat tissue. You can get them either as a berry, a juice, or cranberry extract pills. As a side note, they help to maintain urinary tract health, especially for women.
4. Olive Oil
Huh? An oil that’s good for you? Yes. Olive oil is loaded with monounsaturated fats. When used instead of Canola Oil or Vegetable Oil you can save yourself a good deal of bad fats and save yourself an hour on the treadmill. I personally think Olive Oil is a much better taste as well. Perhaps I spent too much time at sea and watch too much Popeye. Which brings me to my next food.
5. Spinach
Spinach will help you burn fat by boosting your metabolism. It will also help lower your cholesterol and is an excellent source of Iron and Vitamin C. Spinach also contains insoluble fiber which gives you a full feeling and will help to clean out the intestines improving their function and also shedding some weight at the same time.
6. Skim Milk
Talk about an easy way to eliminate some fat from your diet. Why not trade in that whole milk for skim milk? I was raised on skim milk and now I can’t stand the taste of regular. It has calcium and protein which will aid in fat burning. The real benefit here comes from eliminating the calories you would otherwise take in from regular milk.
7. Apples
High in fiber and for some reason which I can’t understand, apples make you feel full. Keep some apples in your house to replace some fatty snacks that you would eat by the box before you feel full.
8. Carrots
One of my favorite vegetables (in the raw form only) Carrots are a fat burner that contain fiber, beta-carotene, and vitamins C, B1, and B2. I never could get used to cooked carrots, but then again, the raw ones are better for you anyway. Keep a bag of Baby Carrots in your fridge for both meals and snacks.
9. Cayenne Pepper
That burning feeling isn’t just coming from your stomach. Cayenne Pepper boosts your bodies thermogenic processes. It simply makes you hotter. That heat is coming from your energy stores i.e. your fat. If you have no taste for spicy food, then try Cayenne pills. This will eliminate the taste while you keep the benefit. Timing is everything of course. I once took three Cayenne Pepper pills before jogging three miles. To say my entire body felt like the surface of the sun would be an understatement.
None of these are a replacement for exercise. As usual, a consistent but modest exercise routine is key. But these foods will all help you to look better and have more energy to enjoy life. Since I began to workout and watch what I eat, I find myself back down to a sensible 195 lbs. I could still stand to lose a few, but I feel much better about myself and I have the energy to get out of bed in the morning.
~Man Overboard
Images Used in this Post
Fruit Stand image courtesy of Flickr user storyvillagegirl published under the CC license.
Spinach image courtesy of Flickr user Rev. Xanatos published under the CC license.
45 Comments
Great post! You know people are going to supposed to these foods for actual exercise, though
Supposed? WTF was I trying to say? Replace, perhaps? It’s been a long day. Excellent post, good night XD
No worries Tamahome. I will certainly keep a sharp eye for the miracle food that replaces bench presses and jogging. But even if such cuisine existed, the taste would undoubtedly be a pungent abomination.
@Tamahome – checked out your site, very cool stuff. Quite a few of us over here at Babeled are pretty big armchair historians.
My cup of black coffee is the highlight of my day.
…that probably does not say much for my day…
I’ve been looking for a healthy snack…almonds sure fit that spot.
Good stuff, thanks!
Good post Jack. Another point about apples. They also get things moving. Great for digestion. You know apples get into your body and say “hey guys, follow me. I know a way out of here.”
I eat 7/9 of those things.. That makes me feel good
I never really think about eating almonds and I hate cranberries. It’s good to know that I’m eating the right stuff to stay healthy and in shape
Almonds and cranberry juice definately took some getting used to. But then again, I am not known for being a picky eater.
I’m a huge fan of dipping warm bread in extra-virgin olive oil. Add some black pepper to the olive oil and BAM! your f–in set for a great dinner.
Nice Andrew, Try adding spinach, sliced almonds, and dried cranberries to the olive oil.
@Andrew, I don’t really know if bread and olive oil constitutes a great dinner. Sure it tastes great, but it in no way stands on its own merits as a great meal.
Ha…i meant as a side dish it enhances your dinner. But I’m sure if you were starving and hadn’t eaten in days it’d make for one of the best dinners of your life!
A great drink that involves Cayenne Pepper:
Lemon Juice, Maple Syrup, Cayenne Pepper, and your favorite tea. This concoction works great doing short fasts, and in general helps to reduce stomach problems. Try it out. I know people who lost 10 pounds in 3 days just drinkin this stuff. The Maple Syrup has enough nutrients to carry you over without the usual fatigue you’d get from fasting.
Hey Andrew I am considering trying that concoction you speak of, just was wondering how much of each ingrediant to add and how often are you supposed to drink it.
“Try it out. I know people who lost 10 pounds in 3 days just drinkin this stuff. The Maple Syrup has enough nutrients to carry you over without the usual fatigue you’d get from fasting.’
Ugh. People spouting this garbage are the reason we have problems with obesity in this country. There is no quick fix to weight loss and living a healthy life! And your body is just fine at cleansing itself, people didn’t need “master cleanse” diets in the whatever-hundreds, and we sure don’t need them now! Eat right, drink water, work out, and your body will take care of itself.
Furthermore… http://www.everydayhealth.com/blog/zimney-health-and-medical-news-you-can-use/master-cleanse-diet-master-scam/
I have been eating all of these things for years – with exception of cranberries. The thing I would add to this, aside from exercise as a must, is moderation. I like almonds and olive oil, but they both have a lot of calories. I have a simple rule (don’t know where I first saw this) I try to live by for weight control.
Move more, eat less. May have to double or triple to reach desired effect.
Good post, but I do not know what Cranberries are. (:-
I knew I drank coffee for a reason! I always knew it was good for your metabolism but negative calories??? I like it!!
Apples are high in soluble fiber which expands in the stomach and creates the ‘full’ feeling-also high in heart-healthy pectin and antioxidants , potassium and vitamin C,apples are one of nature’s superfoods.
I consume all said things on the list and really feel great to see it, good article
I love Cayenne Pepper-ha, my roomies always get on me about it!! It’s good to use it in place of hot sauce…soups, sandwiches, eggs, pasta, etc. I do a sourdough with olive oil, Cayenne, Domestic Swiss, and Roast Beef…it’s the heat! Also, a good tip to sweeten your coffee, sprinkle some cinnamon over the coffee grinds before brewing. Cinnamon is an anti-bacterial (good for sore throats), smelling it alone boosts brain functions instantly, circulation, digestion problems, etc.
I also heard that celery is considered negative calories. You burn calories by chewing it.
“Talk about an easy way to eliminate some fat from your diet.”
Maybe I misunderstood why you phrased it like that, but fat doesn’t make you fat, insulin does. What raises insulin? Carbohydrates. Fat only needs to be watched in terms of caloric density, but the metabolic process of adipose tissue development is primarily in terms of carbohydrates and glucose levels, not fat.
Good list.
I’ve had great success switching from skim to almond milk. Dairy products in general tend to wreak havoc on my system.
Mike
Nice and great post.. Out of the above mentioned foods i just hate apple and never ate it even after knowing the fact that it’s a great fruit and good for your body but still even if i try to eat it, i can’t .. Carrot is mine favourite too and it helped me alot in burning fat as well as for my weak eye sight too
Actually cooked carrots are better for you:
http://blog.friendseat.com/cooked-or-raw-surprise-health-finding-in-veggie-report/
Salads with olive oil aren’t too bad.
People always look for solutions for health problems by eating; weather it be food or medicine. I personally think having control over what we eat is more important than what we eat.
Advising people to take special food makes them end up eating more on top of their general diet.
Most of the problems people face are due to lack of self control and discipline.
Great Post! Another great way to take in more pepper is with Prometheus Springs (www.prometheussprings.com) – it’s a new drink that has a chili pepper extract, and you really feel it boosting your thermogenic processes.
I started making myself oatmeal for breakfast, I put a handful of almonds and a sprinkle of cinnamon on it, it’s great for weight loss and to lower cholesterol levels
I love eating peanuts but I usually go for peanut butter with slices of apples or 1/2 a banana. Beans are also another good choice for losing weight and of course LOTS of water helps. I drink about 1 gallon of water a day and I usually drink hot beverages as a way to digest my food better. Hope these are good tips
Yay! A great reason to add cayenne to everything!! Now my wife can stop complaining
Be careful with olive oil though. It’s wonderful if cold (eg. salads) or heated for under 10 mins. If heated for > 10 mins or at a high heat (oven /stir frys etc) it’s a carcinogen. A good alternative for those is rape seed oil.
I had no idea that heating olive oil too long would make it a carcinogen. Nice catch Chris!
That’s some scary stuff….I use olive oil for cookin ALL the time!
Nice and great post.. Out of the above mentioned foods i just hate apple and never ate it even after knowing the fact that it’s a great fruit and good for your body but still even if i try to eat it, i can’t .. Carrot is mine favourite too and it helped me alot in burning fat as well as for my weak eye sight too
I agree with the carbs comment….. removing all carbs, taking out the coffee (torture!), eating lots of meat, proteins, eggs etc, I lost a whopping 32 pounds in 8 weeks, (239 >207!).
I know it’s pretty grim re-chlorestoral, however, after this drop I was able to get back running, playing football, etc, the hips and knees could carry me!
I carried 32 pounds around for one day a week later…. Jeezus, I was glad to put it down!
I know this is not a lifestyle diet, but I achieves a goal….. and now, I eat normally, and weigh in at 204 pounds…. two years on…
Awesome, Finally my coffee habit gets validated ….. I need to lose my half and half though … errmm. Good post, very helpful.
The best way to burn fat is to restrict carbs. Eat only 50 to 70 g of carbs a day and the body will starting burning fat as the primary fuel. For those organs that need glucose (e.g. red blood cells), the body can convert either protein or the glycerol from fats to glucose.
On a low carb diet, eating cholesterol is irrelevant. I eat 35 eggs a week with bacon and cheese and my cholesterol is 190, and my good cholesterol is 70. My non-fasting blood sugar never goes above 90.
Rape seed oil is not food. Olive oil will very slowly oxidize when heated. Rape seed oil oxidizes very rapidly when heated, and what doesn’t get oxidized in the pan may get oxidized by the copper and iron ions in the blood. By the way, animal fats such as pork and beef have the same major fatty acid as does olive oil, namely oleic acid.
Wow….a lot of misinformation in these replies. As a nutritionist with a masters degree in clinical nutrition, I feel I must interject.
I just want to say that you say Olive Oil is better than Canola (modified Rapeseed) oil for health. This is completely false. In fact, the majority of scientific literature shows that canola oil is at least as healthful as olive oil, and in some cases moreso due to the better n-3:n-6 fatty acid ratio of canola vs. olive oil. Think of canola as having both of the benefits of olive oil (monounsaturates) and flaxseed oil (n-3 fatty acids) in one oil that also has a high smoke point and therefore is useful for high-temp cooking.
As for heated olive oil being ‘carcinogenic’ – give me a break. ANY oil that is heated REPEATED beyond its smoke point will have increased amounts of potentially carcinogenic compounds. This is not unique to olive oil, it is just that people do not know how to cook properly, and thus try to use extra-virgin olive oil for frying, which is inappropriate due to its very low smoke point.
One last point, people who say things like this:
“I agree with the carbs comment….. removing all carbs, taking out the coffee (torture!), eating lots of meat, proteins, eggs etc, I lost a whopping 32 pounds in 8 weeks, (239 >207!).”
…should be banned from posting ANY nutrition information on the internet. I must say, your weight loss has nothing to do with the specific foods you ate/did not eat. Instead, it has to do with your will to lose weight, and this simple fact:
IF YOU CONSUME FEWER CALORIES THAN YOU EXPEND YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT.
Conversely:
IF YOU CONSUME MORE CALORIES THAN YOU EXPEND YOU WILL GAIN WEIGHT.
In conclusion: stop worrying so much about specifics! Eat non-processed, healthy foods mostly from plants with healthy proteins (plant or animals) on a regular basis, and eat unhealthy, processed foods in moderation. Combine this with a healthy, active lifestyle, and your life will be longer and healthier.
…oh, I just wanted to add that I agree, for the most part, with everything in this post. However, people need to remember that adding some of these specific foods to your diet, without any other change in lifestyle, is not going to make you significantly healthier or aid much in losing weight. There is never one simple thing that will lead to weight loss, it must be a combination of factors working in synergy.
Chris,
Where were you when “Good Calories, Bad Calories” came out? Ideas about which foods are good and which are bad are changing rapidly. Saturated fat is HEALTHY! Calories don’t make you fat, being fat makes you consume more calories.
Actually, calories DO make you fat. To make an analogy – Calories are to the human body what gasoline is to a car. Imagine that a car has a magical gas tank that expands when you continue to put more gas in it (aka your stomach). Now, if you put in two gallons of gas a day but only expend one gallon in your travels there will be one gallon left over. If you continue to do this everyday, you will have an additional 30 gallons in your gas tank at the end of one month.
It’s the same thing with calories. If you consume more than you eat, your body converts and stores it as fat. If you ate 4,000 calories a day of veggies and fruits but didn’t burn the calories, you’d still get fat even though you’re eating “healthy” foods.
Great article. I sit at a desk all day too and it took me a while to adjust. Lucky for me most of the foods you mentioned I eat regularly. My favorite snack after lunch is dry almonds and craisins 2:1
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