The 3 Apple a Day GI Diet: The Amazing Superfood for Fast-track Weight Loss

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Beware of emotional triggers—They make you eat!

Have you ever been sad and sat down with a tub of ice cream smothered in chocolate and just kept eating it? Or been stressed out and stuffed a whole bag of crisps (family size!) in your face? Or just felt bored and wandered through your kitchen “searching” for something interesting to eat and discovered (and ate) your kid’s leftover Halloween candy? Or felt the “winding down” of a busy day and needed a little pick-me-up from food?

This is emotional eating. There are several emotional triggers—anger, stress/anxiety, PMS, boredom, and sadness—that cause us to eat. And we usually don’t choose healthy snacks in this state of mind. Instead, we choose “comfort foods” that temporarily fill the void. Often, not only do we consume way too much of these foods but we repeat this type of eating way too often, all of which leads to weight gain and low self-esteem.

How to break the cycle

Breaking the cycle of emotional eating may take some effort. But you can do it! When you feel one or more of the emotional triggers come on, resist the urge for five minutes. Ask yourself if you are truly hungry or are just feeling emotional? Often just waiting a couple of minutes will be sufficient to overcome the urge. If waiting doesn’t work and you are still feeling emotional, try diverting yourself. Go outside for some fresh air, take a walk, turn on some upbeat music, or call a supportive friend.

If you do decide to eat, choose a healthy snack. Dip some unsalted pretzels in yogurt or spread apple slices with peanut butter. Or treat yourself to some low-fat popcorn and a diet beverage. And don’t turn on the television! Huh? That’s right! Watching TV could actually cause you to “unconsciously” eat more.

I definitely have times of emotional overeating—where do you think the examples came from? What I have found to work, besides avoiding unhealthy snacks, is having an established eating plan. If you follow the 3-Apple-a-Day GI Diet, as I do, you should be able to keep your appetite under control and lessen those unhealthy food temptations.

Hunger versus appetite

Blair McHaney, co-owner of Gold’s Gym, Wenatchee, Washington, suggests this visual: “Think of appetite as a sleeping lion. If you keep him fed, he will purr and sleep. If you starve him, he will attack.” The lion is your appetite. If you aren’t prepared with food on hand, your appetite may attack and you’ll be relying on your willpower. That’s doing it the hard way for sure.

It’s a lot easier to shop for healthy foods in the supermarket if you are not hungry as a lion going in. Not only that, if you don’t go in hungry, you’ll be less likely to buy unhealthy items. It’s much easier to decide not to buy junk food than it is to resist it once you’ve taken it home. Keep your home environment “safe” and junk-food free to avoid temptation.

Last but not least, eat breakfast! You’ll be less likely to eat a donut at work if you’ve already eaten at home.

TIP: Take apples with you everywhere you go.

Key Points of Part II

• If you can visualize what you want to become, it will happen.

• Keep a food and beverage journal.

• Set your ultimate goal. Make sure it’s realistic and measurable.

• Set measurable mini-goals to help you reach your ultimate goal.

• Find some inspiration to motivate you.

• Break the barriers that prevent you from reaching your goal.

• Prepare and plan so willpower won’t be an issue.

* (#ulink_62cf98e9-e6d3-5ff7-8844-0035eed86b22)Check in with this person every two weeks and let him or her know how you are doing.

PART III GOOD NUTRITION (#ulink_d9266022-71ee-5f9b-9074-222f6492e5af)

CHAPTER 6 (#ulink_90cf5c2b-9469-501f-820b-d01472f2c1ba)

The Truth about Nutrition, Diet, and Fat Loss (#ulink_90cf5c2b-9469-501f-820b-d01472f2c1ba)

Mass confusion

There are simply too many diet books, versions of food pyramids, and guidelines and too much other nutritional advice on the market today. Each source would have you believe theirs is the one. Much of the information is conflicting. Should you eat a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet? Or a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet? Should you eat high-protein, high-fat? How about the no-dairy, no-wheat, no-fat, no-meat (and no flavour) diet? Just kidding!

Amid the cacophony of opinions, there is one thing that most experts do agree on. Most people are overfat because they don’t eat enough fruits and vegetables and they don’t engage in regular physical activity. It’s as simple as that.

The low-calorie weight-loss trap

I had to laugh when I heard the phrase “skinny fat person”, and that’s when it hit me. That’s what I have ended up being every time I went on a diet because all that I did was stop eating and didn’t have a real exercise program. Then my weight always ended up coming back even heavier than I was to begin with!

—Jim Barker, age 51, lost 43.5 pounds of body fat and

gained 0.5 pound of muscle

Many of the popular programs these days are based strictly on weight loss. Losing weight can be beneficial for many reasons aside from appearance—but only if you can maintain your current muscle mass.

Some of these plans are downright harmful, especially if permanent fat loss is your goal. For example, the diets based on very low calories are the biggest trap of all. They are seductive in that they offer quick results. But in the long term they are disastrous. Ultra-low-calorie diets are the cause of yo-yo dieting, which lowers your metabolism incrementally over time until it’s almost impossible to lose weight.

Research from the University of California has shown that crash diets—of fewer than 1,000 calories a day—slow metabolism down by as much as 45 per cent!

These diets fly in the face of what is now common knowledge: To raise your metabolism, you have to eat more healthy foods, not eat less! Eating less lowers your metabolism by stripping away your muscle tissue. It is the direct cause of the dieting plateaus that are so hard to overcome. It’s likely you’ll become a “skinny fat person” if you follow a low-calorie eating program.

“But,” you reason, “if I eat more I’ll just gain weight.”

Not if you eat healthy foods and exercise you won’t. If you consume small, nutritionally balanced, low-GI meals, at regular intervals throughout the day, your metabolism will be revved up all day long.

In other words, you need the 3-Apple-a-Day GI Diet.

Why I wrote this book

I’m not a diet guru on the talk show circuit. I’m not selling supplements or magic weight-loss powders. What I am is a registered dietitian, a bodybuilder, and a group training instructor with 20 years of experience in helping my clients lose fat, get fit—and stay fit.

My purpose in writing this book is to use my knowledge of nutrition, diet, and exercise to guide you to permanent fat loss and muscle retention without diet pills, supplements, or gimmicks. I would also like to clear the air of the confusion and disinformation associated with nutrition and weight loss.

The 3-Apple-a-Day GI Diet draws on all food groups in balanced proportions to help your metabolism do its job. It features apples because of their convenience, low glycaemic rating, and high fibre content—the latter two of which are extremely important in fat loss.

The control you need to succeed

The 3-Apple-a-Day GI Diet will give you the control you must have over your appetite in order to achieve your weight loss goals. You can achieve this control by balancing carbohydrates, proteins, and essential fats.

The plan is for people who want to make the most out of their lives, without perpetually looking for the one and only “next best diet”. Most important, this plan when combined with an exercise program, has been successful in helping people achieve permanent fat loss.

Nutrient recommendations

The next few chapters explain how the different elements in your diet can make you healthier or make you sick. Throughout I refer to the DRIs. These are the US Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs). They provide guidance on how much of each nutrient is needed in a healthy diet. These chapters will help you understand the importance of the major nutrients in your diet so that you can maximize your fat-loss efforts while getting lasting energy from the foods you eat. They will also make sense of the recommendations in the 3-Apple-a-Day GI Diet.

CHAPTER 7 (#ulink_a658525e-2f6e-5c92-9469-c5ff8bbe5fb9)

Carbohydrates—Good Food for Your Brain (#ulink_a658525e-2f6e-5c92-9469-c5ff8bbe5fb9)

The misunderstood nutrient

I feel good when I think of carbohydrates, because I know they provide the right kind of fuel for my brain cells. Unfortunately, many people shun them as if they were the plague. The fact is, carbohydrates have gotten a bad rap recently for weight-loss efforts, just like fat has in years past.

What’s more (and what dieters aren’t aware of), the types of carbohydrates you choose can affect your fat-loss progress to a very high degree. So let’s set the record straight with the facts on carbohydrates.

Diet fads seem to come in cycles. Remember when protein was the enemy and carbohydrates were the answer? Now the opposite philosophy is the new big thing. Yet with new findings about lean proteins, along with the Glycaemic Index, it seems that we were only half right on both counts.

The role of carbohydrates

At any given moment the amount of carbohydrates in the adult body is about 300 grams or less. Some of this is in the blood, but most is stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen.

Carbohydrates have many functions; chief among them is to provide (1) energy to carry on the work of the body and (2) heat to maintain the body’s temperature. Glucose, which is formed when carbohydrates are broken down, is the only form of energy used by the central nervous system, even though other tissues also use fats for energy.

Other Things Carbohydrates Do

1. Carbohydrates spare proteins. This means that with carbohydrates on hand the body need not burn protein from your diet or your body tissue (this means muscle!) to meet energy needs.

2. Carbohydrates aid in the manufacture of non-essential amino acids (refer to Chapter 8 on protein).

3. Carbohydrates are required for the complete oxidation of fats. When too little carbohydrates are available, some fatty acids known as ketones accumulate. A high accumulation of ketones is called ketosis, which interferes with the acid/base balance and causes the blood to become more acidic. Eventually, the condition known as ketoacidosis occurs, which can cause brain damage and eventually death. Dehydration is also a common consequence of ketosis because the body loses water-excreting ketones in the urine.

4. All carbohydrates except fibre have 4 calories per gram. fibre is not utilized for energy and therefore does not have a caloric value.

Is your glycaemic response making you fat?

Equal amounts of carbohydrates from different foods (such as sugar, pastas, legumes, and breads) can produce different increases in blood sugar (technically, blood glucose) in a given time. The immediate effect of carbohydrates on blood sugar is ranked on the Glycaemic Index (GI). As blood glucose levels rise, so does insulin, a hormone that helps shuttle blood glucose out of the blood and into the tissue cells to be used for energy. Insulin promotes fat storage—one reason that eating foods high on the Glycaemic Index tends to make you fat. Not only that, after your blood sugar rapidly rises, it will fall again sharply. The fall makes you feel hungry again, which can lead to overeating.

High insulin levels are associated with obesity.

Choosing carbohydrates wisely

Carbohydrates are an essential part of a healthy eating plan. The amount and type of carbohydrates you consume (using the Glycaemic Index as a guide for making healthy choices) will affect your fat-loss efforts.

The fact is, the modern diet is too rich in high-GI carbohydrates (those foods with a GI rating of 70 or higher). Common high-GI foods are cookies, crackers, bakery items, sweets, snack items, and simple sugars—some claiming to be low-fat or healthy! This is one of the major reasons that people are getting fatter and fatter, with Type 2 diabetes now showing up even in children, who will in turn become the next generation of obese adults.

Now is the time for high-profile nutritional education if we are to prevent a future health catastrophe.

It’s never too late

It’s never too late to change unhealthy eating habits. For example, middle-aged people accustomed to diets of high-GI foods can switch to low-GI foods (those foods with a GI rating below 55) and be far less likely to develop diabetes and heart disease. Examples of low-GI foods are fruits (apples, cherries, and pears), dairy products, stoneground or whole-grain products (oatmeal, brown rice, bulgur, and some cereals and breads), beans, and lentils.

Low-GI diets can also help control established diabetes by keeping blood glucose levels down. Low-GI diets also can help you lose weight, may lower blood lipids, improve the body’s sensitivity to insulin, reduce the Glycaemic Index rating of the overall meal, and improve appetite control.

Additionally, low-GI carbohydrates satisfy your appetite without “over-satisfying” your caloric requirement. This idea is discussed in detail in The New Glucose Revolution, a widely acclaimed book on the detrimental effects of high-GI foods.

In the 3-Apple-a-Day GI Diet Substitution List (#litres_trial_promo), you’ll find that most carbohydrate foods are given a glycaemic rating. Following are the categories of low-, intermediate-, and high-GI rating of foods:

Protein (meats, fish, and poultry) and fat (oils, nuts, and seeds) have little to no effect on glycaemic response and play a vital role in keeping the glycaemic response to a high-GI food to a minimum. In other words, you won’t get hungry an hour later.

The vicious circle of high-GI foods

You might have heard that high-GI foods are used to replenish energy stores in endurance athletes. That is true. But for everyone else, high-GI foods are best minimized, since their primary contribution to the diet is empty calories.

In her book Potatoes not Prozac, Kathleen DesMaisons, PhD, writes about people who are unusually drawn to high-GI foods. She says that sugar sensitivity can cause people to consume large quantities of sweets, breads, pasta, or alcohol. These items can trigger feelings of exhaustion and low self-esteem, yet the spike and fall in blood sugar levels causes sugar-sensitive people to crave high-GI foods even more.

This seemingly endless cycle can continue for years, leaving sufferers overweight, fatigued, depressed, and sometimes alcoholic.

The 3-Apple-a-Day GI Diet is right on track

The primary carbohydrates in the 3-Apple-a-Day GI Diet are from low-GI and high-fibre sources. However, you will also find some intermediate- and high-GI sources included in some of the recipes. According to The New Glucose Revolution, mixing a high-GI food with a low-GI food yields an intermediate-GI meal.

Carbohydrate recommendations

The DRI, for both children and adults, is at least 130 grams of carbohydrates per day, based on the minimum needed to produce enough glucose for the brain to function.

The recommendation in the 3-Apple-a-Day GI Diet is that 40 per cent of total calories (which is 1 gram per pound of body weight) come from carbohydrates. This amount of carbohydrates is equal to the protein recommendation to establish your blood sugar levels and provide lasting energy throughout the day. Carbohydrate intake in the plan ranges from 128 to 187 grams per day (see Nutrient Chart for Fat Loss in The 3-Apple-a-Day GI Diet Nutrient Chart for Fat Loss (#litres_trial_promo)).

TIP: When you eat carbohydrates that are not listed in the plan, choose those that have 2 to 4 grams of fibre per 100 calories. Whole grains, fruit, and vegetables are good sources of fibre.

Fibre—it does more than keep you regular

Dietary fibre is an edible, nondigestible component of carbohydrates naturally found in plant food. Also called “roughage” or “bulk”, it has been recommended for years to maintain bowel regularity. Scientists and clinicians have also found that dietary fibre may reduce the risks of certain gastrointestinal diseases, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and colon or rectal cancers.

Two types of fibre

There are two general types of fibre, soluble and insoluble. Soluble fibre may help reduce the risk of heart disease. Insoluble fibre is essential for healthy digestion and may reduce the risk of gastrointestinal diseases.

Unlike most fruits, apples have high amounts of both soluble and insoluble fibre. So by eating apples you’re getting not only a heart-healthy benefit but a gut-healthy one also!

Modern diets are lacking in fibre owing to the glut of highly processed, conveniently available foods. The typical diets that I have analyzed from seven-day food records averaged 10 to 13 grams of fibre per day. That is only one-third of both the DRI and American Cancer Society recommendations! Adding three apples per day will give you half of your fibre recommendation. Just add to that two or three servings of vegetables and your fibre requirement is met for the day.