Tips and Recipes from Alton Brown (the skinny version)

If you've seen Alton Brown recently, you'll see that he's slimmed down quite a bit in the past year.

I saw an episode of Good Eats where he talked about what steps he took to lose the extra weight and just be an overall healthier person. He's writing a book about it in fact, but he shared his tips for the weight loss. It seems like he drastically changed his diet, which I'm sure not all of us can do, but I think his suggestions definitely reminded me of food items that I should try to eat on a more regular basis and also foods that I should avoid. His tips came at a good time for me since I am getting used to the working again and trying to eat healthy during the work week can be quite challenging.

Here are some of his tips.

Try to eat on a daily basis:

• fruits
• whole grains
• leafy greens
• nuts
• carrots
• green tea

For me, I definitely need to eat more leafy greens, nuts and carrots. I got the fruits, whole grains and green tea covered.

Try to eat at least three times a week:

• oily fish
• yogurt
• broccoli
• sweet potato
• avocado

I definitely need to try to eat more in this category. Chicken seems so much easier to prepare than fish, so I end up eating lots of chicken, but oily fishes need more love. A great way to get more yogurt in your diet is Kefir or my personal favorite, Greek yogurt with some honey. Broccoli is really hard to eat on a regular basis too, but I learned a trick from my friend who cuts up broccoli, blanches them in hot water and keeps a Tupperware full of broccoli in her fridge. Once you have it prepped, it's easy to enjoy them as a snack or eat it with some dip or some chogochujang (vinegary red pepper paste). Baked sweet potato is super easy and super tasty. I eat tons of avocado when I make guacamole, but other than that, I don't end up using much avocado, so I'll try to slice up some avocado and put it in my salad or in my omelet from now on.

Limit these to once a week:

• red meat
• pasta
• dessert
• alcohol

I think the hard parts for me will be cutting down on the dessert and alcohol. It's only Monday and I've already exceeded my wine quota for the week. Oh boy.

Never eat:

• fast food
• soda
• processed meals/frozen dinners
• canned soup
• "diet" anything

I really like his whole no "diet" anything rule. I think it's probably better to indulge in the real thing once in awhile than to consume fake anything. I'm guessing he thinks canned soups and frozen dinners are bad because of the sodium.

He also shared some recipes, which I tried recently. I will post those soon as well. Please feel free to share your tips as well.

Any tips on how to wake up early to go to the gym would be greatly appreciated. =)