What if you went to your doctor and she wrote you a prescription for fruit and vegetables.

Or exercise.

It happened to my uncle.  His doctor prescribed exercise.  At lest 3 times per week.  And, interestingly, he wouldn’t give him a prescription for any medication (for diabetes) until he "filled" his first.

He now meets with a trainer 3-4 times per week.

Similarly, I recently saw a piece highlighting 3 physicians in Massachusetts who are giving "produce by prescription."  This group of physicians is passing out coupons for family members to use at local farmers markets. 

Pretty interesting and a very novel approach to trying to make small improvements in health.

While eating a little more fresh produce each day isn’t going to solve the nations obesity epidemic, it’s a great step in the right direction.

Interestingly, there are data that show that diet and exercise are MORE effective than popular diabetes medications.

So why is it that we immediately look to medicine when trying to "treat" disease?

The key to remember is that small changes go a long way. 

My uncle’s physician has it right — prescribe exercise.  The MD’s in Massachusetts do too — prescribing produce and giving coupons to encourage buying it.

While it seems like a novel approach within Western Medicine, 1000′s of years ago, Hippocrates said it best with "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."

Medicine is merely a cover that won’t fix the underlying issue(s).

Exercise and smart nutrition are the

two "prescriptions" that can truly prevent disease. 

OK, now it sounds like we’re getting into some weird, voodoo like diet "tricks" where you’re playing tricks … on your own stomach.

Check out this brand new research out of the UK.

The researchers conducting the study showed participants the ingredients of a fruit smoothie — although one group was shown a larger volume of fruit and the other a smaller volume. 

They were then fed fruit smoothies — thinking the ingredients shown were what they were drinking.  However, the sneaky fat loss scientists gave all subjects the same exact quantity.

Interestingly, the subjects who were shown the larger quantity of fruit reported a significantly greater level of fullness than those shown the smaller quantity of fruit.

Remember, though, BOTH groups were actually fed the same exact quantity — the only difference was what they were shown before being fed the smoothie.

Clearly perception plays a role in how satisfied we think we are versus how full we actually are.

Bottom Line: If you want to be more satisfied, load up on veggies and fruits and don’t let your eyes rule your stomach.  Be cautious of food labels too — those labeled "light" or "diet" may trick you to feel less satisfied than those without a label. 

A friend of ours is a business coach in the fitness industry. 

He teaches others how to take their businesses to the next level. 

A lot of what he talks about — running a successful business — applies to what we do: teaching people how to lose weight and reach their fitness goals.

Recently in his daily newsletter he talked about getting better.

Directly from Pat Rigsby’s newsletter (which you can find on this site):

"You’re either getting better or worse. Every day. There is no status quo. If you’re not progressing – you’re losing ground."

While he was applying this to the business of fitness, it can be directly applied to fitness and fat loss as well.

While we encourage people to look at the big picture, each decision made throughout the day will ultimately play a role in your success.

Every meal.  Every snack.  Every day.  All of these add up.  So while it’s important to remember that one meal isn’t going to "make or break" permanent success, very often one splurge can cause a negative downward spiral. 

Same goes with training.  I was riding with a friend the other day and we were talking how easy it is to get out of the daily habit of exercising — a few days of not training makes it harder and harder to get back into it. 

So think back to what Pat suggested in his newsletter.

"You’re either getting better or worse.  Every day…"

Apply these 5 strategies to reach your physical goals. 

1. Decide what you want to achieve (e.g., lose 10 lbs)
2. Determine when you will hit that landmark (e.g., pick a reasonable date of when you will achieve that)
3. Write down the steps needed to achieve that weight loss goal (e.g., eat breakfast daily, eat veggies with each meal, train daily, etc)
4. Practice the habits needed to achieve the goal (e.g., everything written down from step 3 above)
5. Work daily to achieve the goals … "every day…if you’re not progressing, you’re getting worse." 

We love to cook … and now with a 1 year old at home, we love trying new things with her, too.  And one of the foods we found she loves (and so do we) is pesto.

Simple.  Clean.  Very few ingredients, fantastic for you, and even the worst cook in the entire world can make it … you simply need a blender and a knife. 

The best part for us is that we also grow basil, so it’s a nice way to use up a ton of basil and add loads of flavor and nutrients to our foods.

And here’s the best part — we make it in pretty big batches, then simply pour the extra into ice cube trays, freeze them, then pop them out into a gallon size Ziploc bag and add them to foods whenever the mood strikes.

As you’ll see in the video, our official taste tester, Ella, also LOVES our homemade pesto…she likes it on eggs, pasta, and pizza.

I get a call the other day from a friend, whose husband is trying to lose weight.

He’s struggling to figure out just why he’s not losing anything.

Typical breakfast is oatmeal with some dried fruit and milk.

Lunch is usually out with co workers — they’re in NYC, so the restaurants vary all the time.  Sometimes a quick on the go type meal. Sometimes a salad bar somewhere.  And occasionally fast food, like McDonald’s or Burger King, but overall that’s pretty minimal from what I was told.

He rarely snacks during the day at the office, but when he does he only eats Clif Bars, because he says they’re healthy.

For dinner my friend makes dinner most nights of the week — so that varies — but they’re almost always great choices.

And then at night he sometimes snacks.  Maybe another Clif Bar — again, a "health" food, maybe some popcorn, or something along those lines.

So where is he going wrong?  When I heard this information, my first question was "how much?"  How much is he eating at his meals and snacks?

Well, turns out that it’s usually a "few packets of oats," 2-3 Clif Bars for snacks, just a few sushi rolls, or a  "large" salad when he gets that out for lunch.

Well, at the end of the day, even healthy foods can cause weight gain.

Oats, for example, are a great meal.  But "a few packets" is a lot of added sugar and extra calories, particularly because more packets likely means more dried fruit and more milk.  What starts off as a "healthy" breakfast is now tipping the scales at around 800+ calories.

Salads?  Salads can literally make or break your physique.  They are like smoothies — everyone associations salads as a great food for fat loss, but at the end of the day, they can pack more calories than a couple Big Macs!  A Chef’s salad with creamy dressing, egg, cheese, and bacon, for example, could weigh in at over 1000 calories and 80+ grams of fat!  So "salad" isn’t always the best choice … but it can be!

And the beloved Clif Bars.  We’ll admit it, we like them too when choosing energy bars.  But when you’re sitting behind a computer for 8-10 hours a day and minimally active, the nearly 300 calorie, higher carb bars, aren’t quite the health bar of choice … particularly when you eat a "couple of them."  

BOTTOM LINE: Calories, no matter how healthy, still add up!

Have you found yourself falling for the "health food" trick like my friend’s husband?