Learn the secret to a longer, leaner, healthier life with Diet Designs.

Overeating has become a national health crisis and probably a personal crisis for many of you too. Diet Designs is a RE-EDUCATION program that will realign your mind and body with your diet, UNLEARNING a lifetime of mistruths. You can-and you will-turn your portion problem into a new sense of PORTION PERCEPTION that will bring you LIFELONG fitness and health.

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Fruit, Fads, & Huffington post

Read our newest blog post on the Huffington Post:

Fruit: Fads, Digestion, & Cleanses

Huffington Post & Diet Designs

Take a look at our most recent HuffPost blog for enlightening tips:
14 Ways to Bring Positive Change in Your Life

Empower Your Healthy Self

Growth is the energy of life.  You can invite the light of growth into your life in simple daily ways. Small changes add up to big ones, and every positive step you take for yourself can advance you on your path to a healthy, balanced, beautiful life.

In all my work inspiring people to choose enlightened lifestyles, I've found that change is contagious.  See how embracing growth can empower your best self in mind, body, and spirit.

Here are a few of my favorite ideas for expanding your life energy.

• Start a journal
• Eat outside the box.
• Join a group.
• Quit a group.
• Try a New Workout.
• Take an acquaintance to lunch.
• Enrich your color palette.
• Be a tourist in your own town.
• Rearrange your living room.
• Plant something.
• Set a daring goal and make a plan to achieve it.
• Break the language barrier.
• Dance.
• Make a date with a child.

Start a Journal.
Freedom of expression is always at your fingertips when you keep a journal. Browse stationery or bookstores for a journal that sparks your imagination. Whether it's the weight of the pages, the colors on the cover, the size that slips into your purse-pick the one that feels just right. You might customize your journal by collaging the cover or pasting pictures on pages. Then, write! Try free association first thing in the morning, a sentence describing the brightest moment of each day, snippets of songs or poems or overheard conversations. Reflect on your goals and dreams, and log the progress you make.

Eat Outside the Box.
To open your mind to new pleasures, try a dish or cuisine you've never tasted-perhaps a Vietnamese spring roll wrapped in a lettuce leaf, genuine Jamaican jerk (meat rubbed with a unique spice mix and grilled), or something exotic from the imported produce section at the market. Hit an authentic restaurant or pick up a cookbook from the bookstore or library and explore in your own kitchen. Feel your taste buds come alive! (P.S. Watch your portions and skip the high-fat dishes.)

Join a Group.
Great things happen in groups. Consider joining a community choir, the Sierra Club, Big Brothers or Sisters, a book club, charitable board, neighborhood committee, or political campaign. Pursue your passions, share with likeminded people, and let your voice be heard.

Quit a Group.
Has one of your affiliations gone stale? Have you contributed and learned all that you can? Say goodbye to clear the slate for new adventures to come.

Try a New Workout.
There's nothing like a change of pace to revamp your exercise routine. The workout world has become a global village, and you can sample international treats from tai chi (China) to Pilates (Germany), karate (Japan), capoeira (Brazil), yoga (India) and more-or just get that tennis ace friend to finally give you a lesson.

Take an Acquaintance to Lunch.
We all work or interact with someone we don't really know. For no reason at all, ask this mysterious individual to join you for a noonday salad. See what you discover.

Enrich Your Color Palette.
Buy or borrow a piece of clothing or accessory in a color you never wear. Wear it. How do you feel?

Be a Tourist in Your Own Town.
Whether you live in a sparkling metropolis, sleepy suburb, small town, or the countryside, there's guaranteed to be something you haven't done or seen right in your backyard. Take a day in which you pretend you're a tourist from another country here to see the sights. Put on your walking shoes and go.

Rearrange Your Living Room.
(Don't try this at home alone.) Does your living room lag behind your current lifestyle or simply feel frozen in time? With an able-bodied assistant or two, clear out all the tired items and move around the furniture and remaining accessories and accents. Bask in your new point of view.

Plant Something.
On a city balcony or in a big backyard, putting your hands in the dirt is a primal connection to growth energy. Plant a pot of herbs, a precious orchid bulb, a bed of peonies, or a vine of tomatoes to ripen in the sweet summer heat. Tend your plant and grow along with it.

Set a Daring Goal and Make a Plan to Achieve It.
When you strip away the blinders of self-doubt, what would you really love to do? Travel the world, become a teacher, write a book, start a business, dance in a Broadway play? Think blue sky! No matter how unrealistic your venture might seem, daring to write it down and assess the steps that could take you there can be a profoundly liberating experience.

Break the Language Barrier.
Communication plants seeds of peace and positive growth for the world. Learn how to introduce yourself to someone in another language. Do it. (This has greatest effect if you share your new greeting with a native speaker of that language.)

Dance.
If you're like most busy people, I bet it's been awhile since you really got your groove on. Hit a salsa club (try the early lesson to learn a few steps), take a jazz or ballet class at a dance studio, or grab a friend and head out to a live venue. Let the music move you.

Make a Date with a Child.
Kids grow and change at the speed of light, and even overloaded parents can gain insight by taking some time out with a child-yours or someone else's-to do something special. Try a favorite activity from your own childhood, or the fantastic event you only ever wished for as a kid.

Fruit: How to Enjoy Without Overindulging

MyPlate, the replacement for the Food Pyramid, spotlights fruit as part of a healthy, balanced diet.  Half of Americans fall short of their recommended fruit intake (2 cups for adults age 19-30 and 1 ½ cups for women over age 30).  Other nutrients found in fruits, such as fiber, folate, magnesium, potassium, Vitamins A, C, and K are also under-consumed by Americans.  Fruits, filled with antioxidants and phytonutrients, are proven to prevent cardiovascular diseases, certain types of cancer, and reverse the effects of aging.  With all this attention on fruits, clients come to me with questions.  Do I need to buy only organic fruit? Is there a right way to add more fruit into my diet? What are the most nutritious varieties? Isn’t fruit very high in calories? Luckily, most answers are easy to understand and can work with lifestyle. 

Although studies by the University of Washington¹ recently stated that eating healthy takes a toll on your wallet, there are ways to cut spending.  You don’t have to buy only organic produce.  According to the Environmental Working Group, there are certain fruits and vegetables, the “Dirty Dozen,” that contain the most pesticides. These rankings are based on USDA-tested levels of chemical residues remaining on conventionally raised fruits and vegetables after washing. The “dirtiest” fruits are apples, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, grapes, and blueberries.  Go organic when buying these from the market.  The cleanest fruits are pineapples, kiwi, mango, cantaloupe, watermelon, and grapefruit.  Don’t worry about choosing organic versions of the “cleanest fruits.  The rind or peel leaves the fruit nearly free of pesticide residues.  As always, the USDA recommends rinsing all fruits to remove any excess dirt and surface microorganisms.  Pay extra attention to the “dirtiest” fruits, as well as all berries, which tend to have high levels of pesticides.

Fruit can be incorporated into your diet in a variety of ways.  Combining fruit with other foods helps to keep you full and control its sugary effects on your body.  Due to fruit’s high water and sugar content, it breaks down easily and quickly raises blood sugar.  To minimize this result, especially for those with diabetes, pair fruit with a small amount of protein or fat.  For a healthy snack, combine one small piece of fruit with 1 oz of unsalted nuts, 1 oz of low-fat cheese, or 4 oz of low-fat plain yogurt.  Adding fruit to a salad with fresh greens, seasonal vegetables, and 2 tsp of low-fat dressing is a perfect light meal.

In many other foreign countries, fruits are often consumed with dinner.  Diet Designs’ sweet sauces are based on this idea of incorporating fruit into the evening meal.  Many of our spring and summer menus contain sauces such as peach barbecue sauce, fresh grape glaze, or mango chutneys.  In autumn and winter, we serve items like fig and port wine sauce, cranberry and apple relish, or blackberry-sage compote.  These vibrant sauces pack dinners with flavor and nutrients.

                I recommend choosing a variety of seasonal fruits, instead of following the latest “super fruit” trends.  Changing up your fresh fruit selections will integrate different nutrients into your diet while surprising your taste buds.  Overall, my favorite fruit choice is berries.   Berries are high in fiber, flavonoids, antioxidants, and lowest in calories.  I suggest blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries to clients before any other fruit.  Research in animal studies has shown that berries reverse age-related declines in the brain’s ability to process information, as well as cognitive motor deficits.²

Although fruit is part of a well-balanced diet, it can add extra calories.  Fruits are healthy options that should replace other high-calorie processed snacks or meals.   Some diet and nutrition centers allow clients to eat as much fruit as they want.  Weight Watchers bases their weight loss system on points; a higher value is given to less nutritious foods and a lower value is given to healthier options.  The newest change allows clients to eat as much fruit as they like, making them “free” foods.  Although, this will get clients to eat more fruit, it can easily cause overindulgence.  Fruit is not a zero-calorie food and needs to be eaten in proper portions to provide health benefits.

•   Eat fresh fruit.  Fruit snacks, fruit desserts, and fruit drinks provide you with artificial flavorings and excess sugar.
• Opt for whole fruits instead of fruit juice.  The added fiber fills you up and slows down the rate of fruit digestion. 
• Don’t ignore frozen fruit!  Frozen fruit is just as nutritious as fresh produce, as it is packed at the peak of freshness.  Make fresh smoothies with frozen fruit, instead of choosing ice cream.
• Make lighter baked goods by substituting unsweetened apple sauce, date puree, or mashed bananas, for all or part of the oil in your recipe.
• Very high levels of Vitamin C are found in blackberries, guava, lemons, limes, kumquats, mangoes, and oranges.
• Bananas, cantaloupe, dried apricots, dried peaches, honeydew, and prunes are high potassium fruit options.

1 Monsivais, Pablo, et al.  Following Federal Guidelines To Increase Nutrient Consumption May Lead To Higher Food Costs For Consumers. August 2011, doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2010.1273 Health Aff August 2011 vol. 30 no. 8 1471-1477

2 “Short-term blueberry-enriched diet prevents and reverses object recognition memory loss in aging rats,” Nutrition, 2011 Mar;27(3):338-42. Epub 2010 Dec 18.