Adapted from Lou Schuler’s blog and Web site, Male Pattern Fitness.
I have dubbed January 2nd the National Day of Retonement. It's not listed on calendars yet, but that's more a function of my unfortunate obscurity than any inherent problem with the idea. NDoR is the opposite of a holiday. It's the day you start paying the price for all the holidays you've just celebrated.
I spent most of my NDoR working on my next book, which should be out about this time next year, with a great midday workout designed by the incomparable Alwyn Cosgrove. This is the first book I've written for women. All I'll say is that the workout may be designed for women, but it's sure not for sissies.
Speaking of books, when Time magazine, in its December 18 issue, previewed the top five diet books of Retonement Season (I figure if I keep using the word, someone else will pick up on it, obscurity be darned), it listed The Good Mood Diet.
Having worked with Sue for many years – starting when I was at Men's Fitness – I was surprised to see her recommending a specific macronutrient ratio, especially one as ubiquitous as 40/30/30. Since that's also my favorite ratio, for a variety of reasons (the main ones being that it works and it's easy to use), I asked how she arrived at it.
The Good Mood Diet recommends a dietary formula of 40 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat, which makes it more effective for weight loss while maintaining its potent mood-elevating properties.
"A diet with less than 40 percent carbs is depressing, literally," she told me. "Forty percent is also better for weight loss. A diet less than 25 to 30 percent fat lowers stress-coping skills and raises anxiety/anger/hostility. The higher healthy-fat intake may also enhance body-fat loss.
"For weight loss, I was looking for about 2 grams of protein per kilogram per day, which in a 1,600-calorie diet for the average overweight person comes out to about 30 percent."
My favorite section of the book is her list of "feel-great foods." You'll find the usual things that appear in just about every book on healthy eating (green tea, nuts, spinach, strawberries), but she also comes up with some surprising choices:
* egg yolks
* lean pork
* garlic and ginger
* low-fat or nonfat dairy
* chocolate
* caffeine
Any book that says good things about pig meat and coffee is all right by me. The fact it's also a well-researched book integrating the latest science on how diet affects mood with the somewhat better understood principles of eating for weight loss makes it a winner three times over. If you ask me – and I'll confess almost no one does – it’s the perfect nutrition book for this season.
Lou
Lou Schuler is an award-winning journalist, author of several fitness and nutrition books, and is certified as a strength and conditioning specialist (C.S.C.S.) by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.