Nutrition

This nutrition thing is difficult because I believe there are as many ways to eat as there are people on the planet. Just in my family of 4, we have 3 pescatarians (our word for people who only eat fish), one of which will turn full vegetarian when she's 18. I, on the other hand, still eat meat. But as long as your nutrition choices support good health and a lean physique, I believe in "eat whatever you want."

That said, you probably wouldn't be reading this if that were true for you. So, in my research for the iPhone Diet I've come across some good ideas, some bad...and some pretty outrageous.

The good...

As a starting point, I think getting to better understand your own needs is critical. Diet.com offers a free diet personality assesment and I highly recommend spending the couple of minutes it takes to answer their questions. It was developed by Dr. Robert Kushner, the author of the AMA's Obesity Treatment Guide for Physicians. He has treated tens of thousands of overweight patients and has published more than 100 scientific articles on obesity and nutrition.

Another great portal resource is eDiets.com. The same philosophy of health for life...and the wisdom to know that there are many roads to success...eDiets has over 20 diet, fitness, and healthy living plans, many of which address special needs. In addition, eDiets.com has a great meal delivery service called Deliciously Yours. As you know, I like easy and automatic...and there's no cooking or meal preparation required all week! If you rather spend your time eating than cooking, then this is a no brainer.

If you're new to calorie counting and are wondering about what kind of snacks are out there, many companies make calorie conscious snacking really easy. For example, Check out this 100 calorie popcorn comparison from Orville Reddenbacher. If you live close to a Trader Joe's you can pick up these yummy 100 calorie snack packs of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies or cheese toucans crackers (sorry, no link. Just ask in the store)...and if you like waking up to scrambled eggs there is this 100 calorie option from Medifast.

To get your head around calorie counting and nutrition to begin with, I recommend bookmarking CalorieKing.com. Offline, I have found that carrying this little book from the Calorie King will make you a nutrition expert in no time...or, with the iPhone you can just bookmark CalorieKing.com/mobile and have that information at your digital fingertips. If you eat out a lot, DietFacts.com has the most complete list of nutritional information for fast food restaurants at DietFacts.com/fastfood.

...more to come!

...the bad...

I thought that the Cabbage Soup Diet stands for everything I tried to avoid with the iPhone Diet. It actually has the following health warning: "You should only go on this diet for one week at a time. The cabbage soup diet is too low in complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals to continue for longer than this." Duh!

...and the outrageous!

The first time I heard about the cookie diet I couldn't help but chuckle a bit...but, upon reflection, it makes some sense if you're on the "see food diet" now -- you know, you see food and you eat it.

Here's why: Have you been in those offices where there always seem to be doughnuts around, where lunch choices are limited to fast food and where somebody has a birthday (and cake) every day? To change your eating habits in that kind of environment, you may need something over and above a nudge...at least in the beginning. Dr. Siegal's cookies may be just the ticket...and they obviously work together with the iPhone diet. That said, I don't think it's a long term solution.

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