BUY A GOOD COOKBOOK

391. BUY A GOOD COOKBOOK! hfs one thing to eat someone else's great cooking, but another thing entirely to prepare your own. A good cookbook will give you creative freedom over what you eat. It will also give you hundreds of choices to spice up your eating {Muscle Meals by John Romano and The Bodybuilder/s Nutntion Book by Dr. Franco Columbu are two of the best).

TAKE A MULTIVITAMIN

390- TAKE A MULTIVITAMIN As they cost less than $10 for a three-month supply, and are perfectly safe, we strongly suggest taking a multivitamin. While they won't make any dramatic changes to your physique, they are a good way to ensure that you are receiving all the major vitamins and minerals your body needs. Take the multivitamin with your meals as vitamins and minerals have no benefits on their own. They are used by the body
to catalyze biochemical reactions involving the other main nutrient groups (carbs, fats, protein, etc).

TABLE MANNERS

389. TABLE MANNERS Weight control can be summed up in the following three statements: Leave the table hungry and you will lose weight. Leave the table satisfied and you will maintain weight. Leave the table full and you will gain weight.

HAVE A JUNK MEAL

388. HAVE A JUNK MEAL Unless you reach the point where you have no desire to eat junk food (yes, it happens!), pick one day a week and let loose for one meal. Have that piece of chocolate or cheesecake. Grab a candy bar or bag of potato chips. The few extra calories won't have any effect on your waistline. Notice we said junk meal, not junk day. A couple of hundred extra calories won't make any difference but a couple of thousand will!

READ THE LABELS

386. READ THE LABELS If you intend to get serious about your eating, start learning how to read the labels on your fooc products. For example "light" and "low fat" are often decays for foods loaded with sugar. Likewise sor manufacturers make it seem that a food is low calories by recommending small serving sizes.

KEEP PRE WORKOUT MEALS SMALL

385- KEEP PRE WORKOUT MEALS SMALL While you probably shouldn't be eating a large meal at any time of the day, this is especially true before a workout. As soon as food is ingested, the body sends extra blood to the stomach region to aid in digestion and absorption. The larger the meal the more blood. If you go to the gym immediately after a large meal, the body will start shifting some of this blood to the muscles. As expected this will interfere with proper digestion. Your workouts will suffer, as well. If you do eat a large meal, wait at least two to three hours before working out.

BREAKFAST - VALUABLE PLANNING

384. BREAKFAST - VALUABLE PLANNING TIME One of the best times for mapping out your daily schedule is breakfast time. As you are eating your eggs or oatmeal, decide what clothes you'll wear, what physical activities you'll engage in, and what soda! contacts you'll make. One of the keys to success is great planning.

KEEP EM CLEAN

383. KEEP EM CLEAN Although this tip has nothing to do with nutrition and calories, it does have serious implications for your long-term eating habits. The next time you are eating, try chewing your food with just your lips and gums. As comical as that sounds, this where you will be headed if you don't keep your teeth clean. Your mouth is the first stop in your digestive system, and the teeth are its machinery. All that leftover food from those four to six meals a day you are eating is a perfect breeding ground for enamel-destroying bacteria. unless want to be toothless or wearing false teeth, take a few minutes after each meal and brush and floss your teeth.

PORTION SIZE

382. PORTION SIZE Going cold turkey on foods you've been eating for years can have disastrous results. Feelings of deprivation can set in, and then over-consumption usually occurs. Instead of going cold turkey, try reducing your portion sizes. Here's a guide: A serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards; grilled fish should be the size of a checkbook; a pancake the size of a CD; steamed rice, enough to fill a large cup; a bagel the size of a hockey puck; pasta, enough to fill an ice-cream scoop; cooked vegetables, the size of your fist.

PLATE SIZE WHEN ILLUSION IS REALITY

381. PLATE SIZE - WHEN ILLUSION IS REALITY Are you the type that piles your food on the largest plate in the cupboard? One of the easiest ways to reduce your calorie intake is to use a smaller plate. Even if you cover most of its surface with food, you're still eating fewer calories than the super-sized version. Many studies have confirmed this. Those who use smaller plates for their food report the same feelings of fullness as when they used larger plates, yet consumed far fewer calories.

SHOP THE OUTER AISLES

379. SHOP THE OUTER AISLES most supermarkets keep the fresh produce, meats nd dairy products in the outer aisles and the repackaged food you should be avoiding throughout the middle of the store. Shop the outer aisles first - a cart full of healthy food will give you more willpower to avoid the cookie aisle.

MEAL PLANNING

378. MEAL PLANNING The best results come when you plan your meals a week in advance. Then when you go shopping you know exactly what to buy and in what quanitites, making day-to-day life much easier.

WHAT TO EAT

377. WHAT TO EAT? our preworkout meal should also contain carbs and otein, but make sure the carbs are complex rather lan simple. Simple carbs would be gone from your system by the time you need them.

TIME MAY BE DEPENDENT

3 7 6. TIMES MAY BE DEPENDENT You may find that you have to eat 2 hours before training legs but only 1 hour before training arms, because of the different stresses on your system.

PREWORKOUT

375. PREWORKOUT You want to reach muscular failure during your sets, not fait because you didn't give your body enough energy. Eat anywhere from 1 hour to 21/2 hours before training. Experiment with times to see which works best for you.

POST WORKOUT JUICE

374- POST WORKOUT JUICE The one time it's okay to drink fruit juice is immediately after your workout, when an insulin surge helps bring nutrients to muscles. Make sure to include some protein. Studies show that consuming carbs and protein in a 3:1 ratio postworkout brings the most muscle gains.

FRUIT VS JUICE

373. FRUIT VS. JUICE Although fruit is generally made up of simple sugars, the actual fruit has loads of fiber to slow down its digestion. This is not the case for juice. Pick pieces of fruit over juice, even at breakfast.

BREADS NEVER BEST

372. BREADS NEVER BEST While you need plenty of carbs, breads are never your best bet. Even whole-grain breads are a more refined product than potato, sweet potato, corn or oatmeal.

CARBS FOR BODYBUILDERS

371. CARBS FOR BODYBUILDERS With all this talk of carbs and calories, you'd think they were bad for bodybuilders. But it depends on your present goal. When you are bulking up you need plenty of complex carbohydrates.

LOW CARB BREAD

370. LOW-CARB BREAD its not surprising with the big emphasis on low-carb diets these days that manufacturers have made low- carb breads available. As with most low-carb and low- fat alternatives, the taste is rather bland, but you are saving a heap of calories.