1. Campbell TC, Campbell TM, II. The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-Term Health. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, 2005.
2. World Cancer Research Fund. Food, nutrition, physical activity, and the prevention of cancer: A global perspective. Washington, DC: American Institute of Cancer Research, 2007.
3. Cho E, Spiegelman D, Hunter DJ, et al. Premenopausal fat intake and risk of breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003;95:1079-1085.
4. Barnard ND, Nicholson A, Howard JL. The medical costs attributable to meat consumption. Prev Med. 1995;24:646-655.
5. Giovannucci E, Rimm EB, Colditz GA, et al. A prospective study of dietary fat and risk of prostate cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1993;85(19):1571-1579.
6. Kolonel LN. Nutrition and prostate cancer. Cancer Causes Control. 1996;7(1):83-94.
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8. Boyd NF, Stone J, Vogt KN, Connelly BS, Martin LJ, Minkin S. Dietary fat and breast cancer risk revisited: a meta-analysis of the published literature. Br J Cancer. 2003;89(9):1672-1685.
9. Murtaugh MA, Ma KN, Sweeney C, Caan BJ, Slattery ML. Meat consumption patterns and preparation, genetic variants of metabolic enzymes, and their association with rectal cancer in men and women. J Nutr. 2004;134(4):776-784.
10. Norat T, Riboli E. Meat consumption and colorectal cancer: a review of epidemiologic evidence. Nutr Rev. 2001;59(2):37-47.
11. Armstrong B, Doll R. Environmental factors and cancer incidence and mortality in different countries, with special reference to dietary practices. Int J Cancer. 1975;15:617-631.
12. Carroll KK, Braden LM. Dietary fat and mammary carcinogenesis. Nutr Cancer. 1985;6:254-259.
13. Rose DP, Boyar AP, Wynder EL. International comparisons of mortality rates for cancer of the breast, ovary, prostate, and colon, and per capita food consumption. Cancer. 1986;58:2363-2371.
14. Skog KI, Johansson MAE, Jagerstad MI. Carcinogenic heterocyclic amines in model systems and cooked foods: a review on formation, occurrence, and intake. Food Chem Toxicol. 1998;36:879-896.
15. Robbana-Barnat S, Rabache M, Rialland E, Fradin J. Heterocyclic amines: occurrence and prevention in cooked food. Environ Health Perspect. 1996;104:280-288.
16. Thiebaud HP, Knize MG, Kuzmicky PA, Hsieh DP, Felton JS. Airborne mutagens produced by frying beef, pork, and a soy-based food. Food Chem Toxicol. 1995;33(10):821-828.
17. Sinha R, Rothman N, Brown ED, et al. High concentrations of the carcinogen 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo-[4,5] pyridine [PhlP] occur in chicken but are dependent on the cooking method. Cancer Res. 1995;55:4516-4519.
18. De Stefani E, Ronco A, Mendilaharsu M, Guidobono M, Deneo-Pellegrini H. Meat intake, heterocyclic amines, and risk of breast cancer: a case-control study in Uruguay. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1997;6(8):573-581.
19. Snyderwine EG. Some perspectives on the nutritional aspects of breast cancer research. Food-derived heterocyclic amines as etiologic agents in human mammary cancer. Cancer. 1994;74(3 suppl):1070-1077.
20. Butler LM, Sinha R, Millikan RC, Martin CF, Newman B, Gammon MD, Ammerman AS, Sandler RS. Heterocyclic amines, meat intake, and association with colon cancer in a population-based study. Am J Epidemiol. 2003;157(5):434-445.
21. Krajcovicova-Kudlackova M, Sebekova K, Schinzel R, Klvanova J. Advanced glycation end products and nutrition. Physiol Res. 2002;51:313-316.
22. Uribarri J, Cai W, Sandu O, Peppa M, Goldberg T, Vlassara H. Diet-derived advanced glycation end products are major contributors to the body’s AGE pool and induce inflammation in healthy subjects. Ann NY Acad Sci. 2005;1043:461-466.
23. van der Pols JC, Bain C, Gunnell D, Smith GD, Frobisher C, Martin RM. Childhood dairy intake and adult cancer risk: 65-y follow-up of the Boyd Orr cohort. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;86(6)1722-1729.
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27. Key TJ, Appleby PN, Spencer EA, et al. Cancer incidence in British vegetarians. Br J Cancer. 2009;101:192-197.
28. Nguyen JY, Major JM, Knott CJ, et al. Adoption of a plant-based diet by patients with recurrent prostate cancer. Integr Cancer Ther. 2006;5(3):214-223.
29. Blackburn GL, Wang KA. Dietary fat reduction and breast cancer outcome: results from the Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS). Am J Clin Nutr. 2007;86(3):878S-881S.

27 years ago, I changed my diet from the Standard American Diet "SAD" to a healthier diet and one that would help me lose weight. Was it nutrient-rich? No, not really, but it was most certainly closer to nutrient-rich healthy eating than ever before.

Today, looking back to that time, I would have called myself, a weight loss only "dieter". I really wasn't thinking health, performance or longevity; All that mattered was being as lean as possible as a competitive bodybuilder, and having as little fat on my body. And, I was willing do whatever it took to to lose body fat.

My diet consisted (off season not withstanding) of the typical fitness diet that you learn about in all the muscle and fitness magazines, such as:

• Chicken, fish
• A complex carbohydrate
• Side of vegetables

When not dieting, I would go right back to the SAD.

After a few years of eating that way, I learned about the detrimental effects of eating animal products and became a vegetarian, actually vegan. I had tired of the rigors of being a bodybuilder, and being basically a yo yo "dieter" for that matter, and learned that simple healthy eating combined with an active lifestyle, would enable me to stay lean with much less effort, so I made the switch to a healthier diet.

I didn't really know what healthy eating really meant, but not eating animal products seemed like a great place to start.

Eventually, no longer consuming animal products was not the issue. I was all the healthier for it, but after some very impressive initial results moving to a healthier diet, over time, I began to gain weight. Not because I wasn't eating animal products, but because I was now eating "healthier" foods that weren't genuinely healthy.

In retrospect, I started eating a half baked healthy diet, not quite the standard American diet, but now just a healthier version of it and devoid of dieting. Truth is, pinning my weight gain all on my diet would be misleading. I was also getting older, more focused on work, less on working out, and expending immense amounts of personal energy. By the time I realized that I was gaining weight there were some bigger issues at play, albeit the quality of the food I was eating was a big one.

The food issue was that I was eating too much and eating foods that also contained too much added sodium, sugar, oil and other chemicals that were never supposed to be in my body to begin with.

Too much stress + low personal energy + the overconsumption of "healthy" foods laden with added sugar, salt, oil and chemicals = weight gain, even if you are working out.

Which leads me to the focus of this article.

After years of correcting my course, aligning and improving my lifestyle for balance and health, and having traveled the path from the standard American diet, to weight loss only dieting and then spending years in the realm eating healthier as a vegetarian and vegan, where I was eating many foods that were high in added sodium, oil, sugar, cooked in various ways that did not protect the nutrient quality; I finally realized the difference between plant-based, nutrient rich healthy eating, and the world of half-baked healthy diets.

The difference between half baked healthy diets (which can include the idea of going vegetarian or vegan) that focus in on only one aspect of healthy eating (and at times make more out of it than it needs to be), and nutrient-rich healthy eating is this:

When you are engaged in eating nutrient-rich, you are more a "nutritarian" than a "vegetarian", meaning; you seek out foods that are the most rich in nutrients, do not contain those substances that your body does not need like added sodium, oils and sugar, saturated fats, cholesterol etc, at least 90% of the time or more. You also aim to eat nutrient-rich foods in a way that enable you eat the most volume for the least amount of calories, depending on your needs, and in great tasting ways!

Free from all the problems that are created from half baked healthy diets that are most certainly healthier as compared to weight loss only diets (in most cases), and the standard American diet, but not the healthiest way to eat by a long shot; nutrient rich healthy eating shows how to eat for health. 

Healthy eating has many definitions, such as gluten free, low glyemic, vegetarian, vegan, etc… but once you start eating "nutrient rich", healthy eating gets defined and the truth is, you don't even need to be vegan or vegetarian if you don't want to, or want to maintain a near vegan diet where you eat small amount of animal products for any of a variety of reasons.

Eating is not a religion, at least not the way we promote it hear at NutrientRich.com. Although when each of us makes decisions about our eating style, there are many things that get factored in, in addition to the eating style itself, like protecting animals and the environment. Anybody eating today who is not factoring these two issues in, is not helping the planet and we all know it's in a state of crisis. So keep this in mind.

But for the sake of this article, I simply want to point out the that there is a big difference in terms of health, weight and personal performance, when you begin making the switch from your previous usual standard American diet, weight loss only diet, or half baked healthy diet, where you may not be eating animal foods, but are still including vast amounts of salt, refined sugars, and oils, which is not a genuinely healthy diet.

A nutrient rich eating style can be vegan, but not all vegan eating styles are nutrient rich.

I learned this recently while out on the road traveling. I have been traveling to several of my most cherished healthy lifestyle conferences where I have many good friends and associates also promoting healthy eating. Interestingly, these are conferences that are often organized around the concept of eating vegan or vegetarian. Since not eating animal foods leads to many other changes in the diet and is such an impact full decision personally and environmentally, the vegan and vegetarian community is large and the reason why many conferences appeal to people making this change.

I go to these conferences because I love this community, its a big part of where I learned how to eat healthy and the information is fantastic. But one thing I have learned. After a few years away from these conferences, while I was completing a book, a time during which I had made the switch to nutrient rich healthy eating; nutrient rich healthy eating is healthier than simply not eating meat or eating plant based. 

Not eating meat may be one aspect of plant based healthy eating style, but there are many more, including how you organize your food pyramid, whether or not you eat predominantly vegetable based or starch based, the added salt, oil and sugar content of the foods you are eating, how the food is prepared, whether or not yea eat when you are hungry and more…

I recently ran a test (something I regularly do to see how my body reacts) by eating foods that were simply vegan and paying less attention to some of the attributes above, just to see what would happen and exercise some some other skills of dietary flexibility which are good to have in social situations and when traveling in a world where you can't often meet your ideal preferences. The result, was weight gain, swollen lips, acute colds, and mild headaches. 

Moral of the story?

Once you start eating for health (a genuinely nutrient rich healthy eating diet style) going backwards is not easy or even as pleasure able as you might think. Although I have enjoyed all the foods I've eaten recently, I need no dicipline to clean up my act and get back to the healthiest eating style available: nutrient-rich.

This is not a matter of semantics. It's a matter of mindset and whether or not you are actually eating for healthy, or simply eating healthier. Healthier is good, genuinely healthy is best.

Learn how to eat nutrient-rich in the greatest tasting ways and you will have learned healthy eating for life.

No one was disappointed!

FORKS OVER KNIVES examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the so-called “diseases of affluence” that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed (refined) foods. The major storyline in the film traces the personal journeys of a pair of pioneering yet under-appreciated researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. Read More…

I should emphasize the under-appreciation for these two research and medical professionals and down right fine people. The reason is simple; what they are saying is true but just not good for the "HUGE inter-connected, money-driven “Med-Pharma-USDA-Academia-Food-Insurance-Media system” which my new friend and associate Jim Hicks, talks about in his new book Healthy Eating, Healthy World. His research indicates that 70 to 80% of our health care dollars ($2 trillion of them) are driven by what we eat — our toxic western diet. (You can read about all of the above in Chapter 8 of his book.)

Personally, I have a great deal of experience with both Dr's having assembled The Top 12 Findings of The China Study with the Campbells (Father and Son) who wrote this hugely successful book revealing the relationship between diet (lifestyle) weight loss and long term health, and having learned from and promoted Dr. Esselstyn's work for years. He is the author of Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease and a long time senior medical officer at The Cleveland Clinic.

These gentleman are major players in the plant based food movement now in the later half of their careers, both of which ironically began promoting or serving the effects of animal based diets. They were major players in their fields even before the switch to plant based nutrient rich foods began and made the switch themselves when they realized that animal based diets also rich in refined and process foods, causes disease.

These days, T Colin Campbell PhD and Caldwell Esselstyn MD have become "very" well known as President Clinton recently mentioned their names in a viral CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer, as he explained his own transition to a plant based diet to finally resolve his own heart disease.

The mass movement to whole foods, plant based, nutrient rich diets, is driven by one simple reality,'calorie rich / nutrient poor foods cause "lifestyle induced" diseases like heart disease and shorten your life plan. That is the main reason why the switch to a diet based predominantly on nutrient rich foods is on for so many people.

While at the event, I met up with Rip Esselstyn, son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, who is now becoming quite well known as the author of the Engine 2 Diet, a plant based, or should I say "plant strong" diet, that he put together while working in an Austin, TX fire department that helped his fellow firefighters lose weight, lower their cholesterol, and prevent disease. A former professional IronMan athlete, Rip has been eating a plant based diet for over 25 years now (even while training as an athlete) and had some amazing information to share.

He said "I switched to plant based diet so that I could get an performance edge".

Don't believe the hype when people tell you, you should be running your body on nutrient poor animal protein and saturated fat with a side dish of nutrient rich vegetables anymore, when a true nutrient rich diet is the way to go.

I also caught up with with Dr Pam Popper of The Wellness Forum, in Columbus Ohio; she and Rip Esselstyn were conducting a plant strong Education Immersion at Whole Foods. We talked about having never seen the switch to plant based nutrient rich foods be so strong, and how the movement is happening in an accelerated fashion now in part because of movies like Forks Over Knives. A movie like this is all the more powerful now having decades of amazing data and insights, like those from Dr's Esselstyn and Campbell's work, to convey in the cinema. Gone are the days of passion and principle alone; today, plant based diets are proven with sound science.

Look for a location near you and watch this movie!

Forks Over Knives is rich in incredible insights about healthy eating and it will inspire you when you see how everyday people right off the street are making incredible transformations in their health, weight and outlook because they are no longer eating foods that cause disease and are learning how to make the switch to eating nutrient rich healthy foods.

You too will be shocked and awed by how incredibly tasty nutrient rich foods really are, and wonder why you haven't been eating plant based nutrient Rich, your entire life!

When I first launched Nutrient Rich.com in 2005, our motto was “eat better, not less”. The idea was simple, the better you eat, the less you need to eat.

That original tag line seemed simple; however, it also opened up many dynamics and raised many questions.

For instance, the biggest question was; can you eat unlimited amounts of plant based, whole, nutrient rich foods?

Well, the answer to that question is NO!

At first maybe, when you first begin your transition from nutrient poor eating to Nutrient Rich, healthy eating it may seem like you can and that you should. But then, something changes. The more you eat nutrient rich, the more your body becomes nutrient rich and then you simply don’t need as much food.

The law of quality selection kicks in.

Believe me, that was a difficult lesson for me to learn especially since I was used to eating so much food in my earlier days as a bodybuilder, in the off season that is

Over the years we continued to talk about eating better, not less, a play on “taste great, less filling”  slogan from the famed Miller Beer commercials but we have evolved in our thinking as we realized that it’s not as simple to just say “eat better, not less”. It’s probably one reason why we brand Nutrient Rich as the next level in healthy eating, because there are so many concepts to learn when it comes to Nutrient Rich versus the “better” but often still nutrient poor way of eating that most people do.

So in this post I’m going to share a few more thoughts on the subject.

Are you eating less of more, or more of less?

If you find yourself eating less of more, you are eating a Nutrient Rich diet. If you find yourself eating more of less, you are are eating a nutrient poor diet or a diet that is nutrient barren.You can learn more about The Food Class System here.

Eating “Less” is only possible when you are eating nutrient rich food.

Eating “More” is driven by taking in less nutrients, nutrient poor foods, and needing to eat more to get more nutrients; unless you are merely eating for stress or recreation which is a different subject.

conversely,

More nutrients equals nutrient rich foods, and less nutrient equals nutrient poor foods.

So you can see, depending on what “more or less” is attached to, it creates a converse dynamic.

The more nutrient rich foods you eat, the less you need to eat. You don’t have focus on eating less, it will happen naturally. This is not possible when you eat a nutrient poor diet, unless you require that chronic feeling of hunger that let’s people know they are dieting. Those people only feel like they are doing something when they feel hungry all the time.

When you are eating a nutrient rich diet you don’t have a chronic feeling of hunger – you just aren’t hungry in the same way. I found that I only experience true hunger, a term that Dr. Fuhrman sourced, after I haven’t eaten for a while, or after prolonged physical activity where my immediately accessible nutrient reserves are depleted.

The less I ate, “naturally”, not “proactively”, the more I could experience true hunger.

The more I ate of less, (nutrient poor) or for the wrong reasons, the less I could experience true hunger.

Here are two reasons:

1. Nutrient poor foods bring with them a withdrawal factor, headaches etc. that are often confused as “true hunger”. This is because nutrient poor foods are not just nutrient poor from what they don’t contain. They are nutrient poor because of what they do contain that the body does not need.
2. Living in a chronically anabolic state (meaning you are always eating and keeping the bodies energy in a position where it can rarely focus on digestion, assimilation and utilization) is not a good thing.It’s also probably the biggest detractor from slower aging and longevity. Just ask the Calorie Restriction advocates.
   • Note: as you may have noticed, I’m not a fan of calorie restriction.  I believe that proactive restriction of calories leads to the wrong mindset and I have seen many a CR (calorie restriction) advocates take it way to far. This is one case where more can be less in the wrong kind of way.

You can over eat with more of less and when you eat more of more nutrient rich foods for the wrong reasons and over “nutrify” the body that only ends up leading to excess FAT!

It’s very important for you to understand true hunger. Once you do, you will start making the right decisions that are best for your PerformanceLifestyle.

I told you this post might be a mind twister.

If you say “I am going on a diet” you are essentially saying that you are going to eat less for a period of time to lose weight and then go back to the way you’ve always lived, albeit with perhaps a few improvements here and there. In this case you are going to have a very different experience and get very different results than if you say “I am getting into a new diet style or lifestyle”. In this case, you are saying you will eat better quality foods in great tasting ways that promote your health and happiness, build this mindset and make it a reality in your every day life. Here you are not leaving your present reality overnight, nor living the new reality over night either. You have the option to move forward at a pace you can handle well.

This is the art of transitioning.

For some the pace of transitioning is fast, depending on their capabilities, for others this will take more time. Either way, the path to eating a Nutrient Rich diet is a transition. Get used to that word.

This is important to know when it comes to eating Nutrient Rich food, 90% or more of the time. Short of going on “Nutrient Rich Diet” for a short period of time, you will find for a host of reasons that you will be no more successful trying to make this change overnight than you will be trying to get financially successful overnight. It just doesn’t work really well; it’s too much too fast and just is as fun as when you get into a process of lifestyle change, and transition successfully.

Underlying your approach are two different time frames. One tries to overcome the effects of a poor diet and lifestyle overnight, while the other, characterized by no less of an intention for better results as soon as possible, recognizes that you’ll go as fast as you can go as long as you don’t compromise your health and happiness. This is the different between going on a diet and transitioning.

I don’t know what your experience has been but I can tell you this, if you’re like me, or the thousands of people I have worked with, you probably haven’t been very successful trying to change overweight. Yet this is what most commercial diets ask you to do. You buy the program and “go on it” overnight.

Essentially, you trying to transition to someone else’s lifestyle overnight, even if for only a short period of time.

And then, like the smoker who says this is my last cigarette, you may have said something like “I’m going to eat this last piece of chocolate cake and then I’m going to start my diet, I’m not going to eat cake any more and only eat low calorie, or low fat food or low carb foods”. I might add, drink meal replacement shakes or do what ever the common commercial solution you’re engaged in says you should do.

Clearly this idea of trying to stick to diet programs, without a fundamental decision to start eating “nutrient rich foods” as part of your lifestyle, is going to be hard. Despite the advertising and celebrity promotions and the testimonials from successful followers, diet programs do not work sustainably. It’s because life doesn’t work this way. It works if you’re aim is to win a Lamborghini or get your picture in a magazine; you heroically diet and workout for 8-12 weeks and get a quick tan in this highly motivating scenario. There is some benefit to this, but it says little for how you will be living 1 year from now, let alone the week following your effort.

I need to say there is nothing wrong with a heroic effort, IF, what you’re doing is health promoting and you are taking an aggressive approach that acknowledges what you’re doing and the potential consequences, that way you can respond accordingly. But this is not the case for most who find either they can’t stick with it or when their program is over, it’s time for things to return to normal and that usually means more of the same that got them into trouble to begin with.

For you to be successful at healthy eating, it has to be normal and natural. Not necessarily common, but something you could do normally or naturally for the rest of your life with a smile on your face.

So I want to introduce you to the concept of “transitioning”. It is the path to eating a Nutrient Rich diet. When you master the art of transitioning, you discover diet traps for what they are and learn how to avoid them and this path inevitably leads you to eating a nutrient rich diet.

Basically, the entire diet industry is a trap, focused mainly on short term weight loss goals and that usually means manipulating diet’s that don’t promote health. And if the diet does promote healthy, manipulative or obsessive ways of thinking that have little to do with the food itself, become the trap.

Truth is, you don’t have eat an unhealthy diet to lose weight, you need to learn how to Lose weight the Nutrient Rich Way. But before you can do that successfully, you really want to transition to a nutrient rich diet so that you start on a solid foundation. It’s one thing to lose weight eating healthy, but if you are trying to do that, on top of the transition from a diet that was formerly 80-90% nutrient poor, that’s is going to be one overly challenging process.

Up Next, I’ll be sharing the basic process of transitioning (transformation) most people go through.

Happy new year, especially, to those who want to finally start eating healthy and steer clear from The Diet Traps.

First, I must acknowledge up front that I know of no one, including myself (John Allen Mollenhauer, founder of NutrientRich.com) who eats perfectly all the time. Nor do I think that eating perfectly should be a goal. When we strive for perfection, we are bound to fail. This is all too common in today’s all-or-nothing society. However, that does not mean that we should not strive to succeed to eat the healthiest that we CAN!!

It’s a given that our stress levels are higher today than at any other time in history. Dare I say, we are even more stressed than our ancestors who lived during the age of the dinosaurs. Indeed, it would be very stressful to be chased by a dinosaur at risk of being eaten, as well as to live in a cave, but my assumption is that our ancestors weren’t being chased 24 /7 by the stress of always having a million things to do. YOU are, however, so cut yourself some slack! What you will learn eating a Nutrient Rich diet as part of a PerformanceLifestyle will enable you to deal with that.

It’s also a given today that we are faced with more food choices and influences (conscious or not) than at any other time in history. There is a myriad of reasons why someone might eat a nutrient poor food from time to time. So again, cut yourself some slack. Start developing a healthy psychology around food, starting NOW. No more excuses! Establish philosophies that support you in today’s day and age, without settling for life threatening consequences. Throw away your weight loss magazine articles, because here’s how to keep a diet resolution that you will love!

The 7 Essentials Ways To Keep a Diet Resolution That You Will Love:

1) You resolve to eat a Nutrient Rich diet. Any other type of diet resolution that you follow, will fail you.  What do I mean by “Nutrient Rich”? I mean foods that have all the nutrients your body needs to run as efficiently as possible so that you may succeed in other aspects of your lifestyle. Nutrient Rich foods do not contain any “anti nutrients” (Ref: Dina Kimmel, RD) that your body does not need or that may be actually harmful to your body (e.g., dietary cholesterol and saturated fat, significant amounts of animal protein). Anti nutrients lead to failure. They will have a negative influence on your health and your weight no doubt, but the bottom line is, if it’s a nutrient poor diet, you will not be able to sustain it. Period. Either you will eventually go nuts to get your needs met, or your health will suffer as your body gives out like a broken down car. Neither works.

There are hundreds of Nutrient Rich diets (as many as there are nutrient poor diets) which will help you eat for optimal health. The key to remember is that in order for a diet to lead you to succeed, it must be Nutrient Rich. Here at NutrientRich.com, we will not only teach how to eat Nutrient Rich and how to avoid nutrient poor food disguised as Nutrient Rich food (or the wolf in sheep’s clothing), but we will also teach you that there is not just one way to eat Nutrient Rich. Then again, we are more than happy to share with you what we consider to be the “gold standard” Nutrient Rich diet program.

2) You must remember that Nutrition is only one aspect of a successful lifestyle. If you are are having difficulty with what you are eating, or how much you are eating, or if you want to learn how to to disease proof your body, minimize nutritional stress – the kind of stress you get when your body is trying to deal with disease promoting foods, like refined salt, refined sugar, significant amounts of free oils and animal protein etc) - and achieve your goals more effectively, then learning Nutrient Rich nutrition is the key.

But learning Nutrient Rich nutrition by itself, albeit an essential aspect of your lifestyle, is still only one aspect. How you manage your energy, and activity levels are also essential to your success. There are 12 fundamental lifestyle skills you need to know if you are going to live in balance, with vibrant health and peace of mind, at or near your natural weight  all year round, and they go way beyond the study of nutrition alone. Learn them and you’ll eat better than ever before with us cutting through all the confusion for you!

3) You must understand that “eating better” is not a goal. Yes, I said it, eating better is not a goal. Heresy! If eating better is your goal, then will you will stop eating better once you lose weight? Most do. It also means you are not eating healthy right now, which will ultimately lead you to repeat your 2011 New Year’s resolution of “lose weight/eat healthy” for 2012. You’ve got to start eating healthy right now, and then continue eating healthy; it’s not a goal, it’s a given. Your goals are what you achieve as a result of your health and the ability to perform well. So take your lifestyle to the next level by learning how to eat Nutrient Rich first.

Once you are eating better, you will start to think better and then live better so you can live or or near your natural weight all year round.

Here at NutrientRich.com we are teaching you the next level of healthy eating. We will help you earn your “black belt” in nutrition! If you were going to learn martial arts, would you want to learn from a green belt? NO! So start learning how to truly eat healthy and start developing the lifestyle mindset for why you eat Nutrient Rich, and you will be more successful in life.

Any master of martial arts will tell you this: you are actually still a beginner when you get your black belt; you are an expert, but just an expert in the basic skills of the art. That’s when you start the process of mastering the art, by reaching higher levels of expertise, in degrees. We will teach you how to progress to mastery as well.

4) You must get in touch with true hunger (Ref: Dr Fuhrman). True hunger is the only real gauge for how much you need to eat. If you are hell bent on driving yourself crazy with overly structured meal plans that say you have to eat 5-6 times a day, or those that make you tied down measuring every single portion, then you are going to have difficulty with this one. Matter of fact, if you eat Nutrient Rich meals, 5-6 times a day, chances are good you will actually become overweight! I’m sure either this has happened to you, or you know people this has happened to. That method of eating only works for nutrient poor diets where you are barely getting your nutrient needs met. This subject is a scientifically complex subject, but you will see how simple it is, once we help you get it!

5) You must have a good reason to eat healthy. If you don’t, it will just be easier to mindlessly eat whatever and get caught up in addictive habits. Don’t think of food as an addiction? Think again! The world is full of nutrient poor addictive foods that will keep you in failure mode and stuck in diet trap after diet trap in search of the answer to healthy eating. When the reality is, the answer has been there all along. More than just eating healthy, you want to be eating Nutrient Rich foods so that your body can function and perform well. This will inevitably result in living at or near your natural weight all year round, as well as disease proofing your body. But to get free of the diet traps, you need to have a greater reason than simply “eating healthy”. You need a reason that makes eating healthy, a no-brainer, and just the way you eat.

A good reason is one that inspires you to want to learn how to eat healthy by eating nutrient rich foods, and how to steer clear of diet traps. Eating healthy needs to be something you become passionate about for a bigger reason. Keep in mind, too, that the best New Year’s Resolutions are specific. “Lose weight” will lead to failure; “Learn how to eat healthy in order to have a successful lifestyle to achieve some bigger goal” will help lead to success in not just the nutrition component of your lifestyle, but in ALL components of your lifestyle!

6) You must realize that there is no such thing as “falling off the wagon”, unless you truly fall off of a wagon because weren’t wearing a seat belt. This metaphor is so destructive, you can’t imagine. It seems innocuous, but it’s not. It’s “diet speak” for a level of perfectionism that will ensure you don’t stick to anything in your life and it gives rise to a very unhealthy, unsupportive psychology. Remember what I said earlier: society tends to be all or nothing. Don’t be part of that thinking, because you will fail. The entire diet industry is built on it. We want you to succeed.

You’ve got to start developing some higher concepts when it comes to your plans not playing out exactly the way you want them too. For example: If you eat a Kit Kat, then get experienced in resolving to say, that “I ate a Kit Kat” and be done with it. We’ll discuss this more within your NutrientRich.com membership.

7) You must “get” that a true resolution is one that “resolves” a problem. To resolve a problem, you must raise your standards, and make sure that the resolution actually solves the problem. Do you want good health, a disease free life, longevity, sustainability and performance, and to lose weight and live at or near a healthy and natural weight? Well, that’s not going to happen with a high protein, low carb diet, or a diet based on grains, or foods so concentrated in carbohydrate that you are consuming more than your body needs; let alone a diet based not even on food but instead on pills, powders, or potions… It’s only when you eat a Nutrient Rich diet successfully for health, performance and natural weight loss that you will get those results.

Bonus:

8 )To lose weight the Nutrient Rich Way: Eat Better, Not Less!  Learn how to make every calorie count, instead of just counting calories.
I did my best to come up with The 7 Essentials Ways To Keep a Diet Resolution That You Will Love including addressing the etymology of a resolution itself and a bonus!

Have fun with these! All of us here at NutrientRich.com, and The Lifestyle Coaching Center, look forward to helping you eat a Nutrient Rich diet as part of a successful lifestyle.