First, let’s remember what Fighter Diet is all about: getting and staying lean without feeling like you’re starving. Getting lean means you need to watch your calorie intake and where your calories come from. With Fighter Diet that’s part of the idea and by avoiding the typical fattening foods on a day to day basis you optimize your body’s use of fat for fuel. Vegetables are great for blood sugar control and insulin release control.

To build muscle you also need plenty of protein.

Now, vegetarians who eat eggs and dairy have no issues with calorie control while getting enough protein. 80% of my protein intake comes from dairy (Lifetime cheese, VP2 protein and greek yogurt), I could almost call myself a lacto-vegetarian, but I don’t since a fish and a chicken and a steak slip in every blue moon. Since you don’t rely on combining grains and legumes for complete protein, there is no problem with calorie control and protein intake here.

Let’s take it one step further. Veganism. The source of protein most vegans use is soy protein and that I just cannot put my name on. There are two sides of the story of soy’s being bad for you or not and I happen to belong to the latter part. My personal experience was it made my liver angry. I got very high liver enzymes after I had used soy products for a while. I didn’t know why until I stopped them and my enzymes came back to normal. It has to do with soy’s tendency to bind to tyrosine and iodine which are needed to produce thyroid hormones. Without those building blocks the thyroid manufactures less and cortisol output by the adrenals goes up trying to help save Titanic so to speak. The thyroid is very important for a normal body metabolism, so how could I ever endorse soy after that?

The other protein sources that are low in carbs are rice protein, pea protein and wheat protein. Rice and Protein powders are excellent sources of protein, but if you were to use the real food form, you’d get tons of additional calories for every decent serving of protein. Wheat protein, like Seitan, works for those without gluten intolerance, but with a large daily intake you risk getting a food sensitivity problem down the road…And if you’re grain free, then rice protein and such is out of the question.

If you’re cool with drinking protein shakes from rice and pea every day, then, great, you can be a muscular and lean vegan, but I hope you are not being a vegan to save the planet: manufacturing protein powders takes a lot of energy, lots more than eating the peas and rice as they are. Add the packaging, the shipping etc and it’s not that environmentally friendly either…

Another popular protein source is hemp, but most powders come with fats (although healthy, you might not want those extra calories) so watch out before you buy.

“But quinoa is a great source of protein!” I’m usually told when I say it’s not that wise to be vegan if you’re struggling with body fat control. Note that there will always be super humans who are naturally lean no matter what, but when they are they tend to struggle with gaining muscle.

Well, to get 20 grams of protein (most women need 120-200 grams per day), you must eat 2 1/2 cups of cooked quinoa. You know how many calories that add up? 550. Which then means you might cover 25-35% of your daily requirement to lose fat!

Now, what if you go for lentils instead since lentils and beans got more protein? You’d need 1 1/4 cups of it (cooked measure) and it would be 287 calories of which 22 grams protein. Are you ok with getting 200 extra calories for each 20-something grams protein servings?

When your goal is just muscle gain and weight gain in general, you’re well off with either way since more calories are just beneficial. However, it might be coming with extra padding on top in the form of body fat.

I hope this explains why I am reluctant to the whole vegan idea… Unless you don’t care much for food variety!

There are no healthy drive-throughs.  I live in California fitness land where we spend most time in the car, yet nobody has taken this place. I believe there would be tons of interest and it’s in fashion to start healthy businesses too.

First one I would want to be close to the 10 in the Marina Del Rey/Santa Monica westside and in the direction towards the Valley since many commute here.

Who are the target groups? Well, not Fighter Diet people since it would be way too extreme. I’m going for the attempt to lean out the fat americans who have way more than a pound to go!

First group: those who want to be in shape and eat well but either commute and have no time to prepare healthy meals or they want to gain more free time by having a company cater to their needs.

Second target group is those who wish they ate healthier but go to the regular drive-throughs and order what seems to be the healthiest options but seldom are or don’t satisfy their appetite due to small servings (to be under 500 calories so it can be featured as ‘low calories’ etc).

Third group:  those who want to pick up their lunch boxes with healthy meals, all on their way to work.

Example of how the store/drive-through could be is the Starbucks drive-thru on Lincoln. It’s perfect. It’s the only one on Lincoln first of all by the way… It features a walk-in where people order as well as a drive-thru.

So What would this boutique offer? Protein shakes, coffee drinks (cause coffee is healthy, in affiliation with starbucks), lunch boxes with vegetables and miracle noodles, Lifetime Cheese sticks, organic meats and chickens, frozen yogurts. YES here we would abuse the blender I so personally hate haha! Smoothies, bring it on for the big public! Just make sure there are FD Greens in the shake!;-)

In the “walk in” section there would be fresh fruit, vegetables, protein bars, smoothies, healthy pizza, miracle noodle dishes. Since I don’t want anaphylaxis situations, peanut free would be the way to go to reduce allergy-contamination.

There are tons of companies who would be great affiliates for the catering part: Gym chains, companies who want to offer healthy meals etc, hotels etc.

I AM EXCITED!!!

As you can see these traits were not traits of a perfectionist. I was stubborn and I knew what I wanted. I was comfortable with not being perfect in everything.

I suck at doing things I don’t love. I need my passion. More than once have I told myself  that if I didn’t have my passion I’d be lost and a beach bum. I’d be doing nothing and my talent would be lost. I would rot inside out would I have no fire anymore for what I do.

There is very little reason to strive for being so fantastic at everything. Choose! If you had it all you’d be average at it all! Instead, embrace your shortcomings and use them as threats to better yourself at what you’re passionate about. Every day I scare myself about what will happen if I stop working hard. I will end up without a home on the street. Then where would my cat stay?;-)

I’m usually a subject for criticism. With experience that comes with age I get a tad better at taking it day by day. I know, that the biggest critic is me even though many times it’s very hard to swallow what mean people say about me, so I just need to please myself and I’ll be fine.

I know my strengths and I know my shortcomings. My weaknesses are;

short-tempered, lazy, hard on people, commitment phobic, reserved, scatter minded, suspicious, man-hater.

I’m sure YOU can add a lot more to the list of my weaknesses, but those are what come to mind.

What are YOUR weaknesses/shortcomings? And do you really think they are stopping you? Think about it!

“Before reading Pauline Nordin’s Fighter Diet blog and subsequently purchasing e-books (I currently have FDX2, Fat loss By Mind Power, A Week To Try It Out, Fighter Diet Pyramid & Fighter Diet Recipe Volume 1) I thought I knew enough about exercise and nutrition to sculpt the body I wanted. I didn’t realize I was so bogged down with “broscience” from fitness and health websites, personal trainers, magazines etc, that I was relying solely on my genes to stay a small size (not yet realizing I was the dreaded skinny-fat body type!) and not pushing myself hard enough to MAKE my body change.

I had lots of rationalisations as to why my body wasn’t changing but didn’t realise they were just excuses; not enough time to work out or prepare healthy food, too tired, too stressed, too sore from yesterday’s workout blah blah blah. I thought I could eat a sugary treat a couple times a week as long as I did some extra cardio. But I wouldn’t do cardio fasted because I thought I needed energy to exercise so I’d have a banana and cereal before jogging in the morning which would almost definitely exceed the amount of energy I burned during exercising! I ate some sort of refined, processed sugar every day and was in total denial about how addicted I was to sugar. I was reasonably fit because I was training in martial arts a couple times a week but didn’t want to do more than one intense cardio session a week because I thought it was too much stress on my body. I wasn’t scared of building muscle as my goal since starting training has always been to “tone” but I had no idea how to build muscle without putting on fat which I was deathly afraid of!

So I was stuck in a skinny fat no-mans land of eating not enough protein, way too many grainy/ starchy, sugary carbs and ingesting massively inconsistent calories day-to-day coupled with only mildly effective cardio and embarrassingly useless weight routines. The best thing Pauline has done for me has been to help me sift through all the misconceptions I had, identify what I actually need to do to change my body and discard the rest. Her e-books are easy to follow and her honest and forthright attitude have been a breath of fresh air in an industry which is so sugar-coated (pun intended ) and full of unrealistic quick-fix claims, fads and misinformation.

I’m finally eating sensibly for my body type and goals, have kicked the sugar addiction, feel full and sated after every meal, have energy to train, am lifting heavier weights and higher reps then I ever have before, have improved digestion and reduced bloating (and very *ahem* regular!). I record my calories, macronutrient percentages and track my weights, cardio sessions as well as comparing photos and weight to adjust my plan according to my results; keeping a record has made me more accountable to my goals. A lightbulb moment for me was realizing that I couldn’t EVER out-train a poor diet and that I needed to view food as a tool to fuel my body correctly, not to eat whatever I felt like. I don’t pay attention to any fitness article unless it’s from a scientific journal and take any other advice I receive, no matter how well-intentioned, with a grain of salt until I can research it and find out if it’s applicable to ME.

The consistency of which Pauline adheres to her Fighter Diet plan is so impressive and inspiring. She regularly posts on her Fighter Diet facebook page and makes an enormous amount of her personal fitness and health information available on the Fighter Diet “Dungeon” Forum which shows how much she believes in the concept and highlights her passion to help people achieve their goals. And it’s certainly rare to see that sort of transparency and depth of information with most fitness professionals.

Fighter Diet isn’t for everyone, Pauline has never advocated that, and it’s not the only diet/ exercise concept that gets results but I see it as a plan that is healthy, easy to follow and realistic to stick to long-term; as well as being backed by up-to-date scientific research. I also believe it will evolve and improve as more research is published because I’ve seen Pauline’s dedication to the pursuit of perfection and I am excited to continue improving my health, appearance, fitness and strength with her and everyone else in the community that’s been created by the success of Fighter Diet.

My name is Annie and I bought the newbie pack about 5 weeks ago and have been very disciplined about the whole thing!  As I said I’m lucky cause I LOVE veggies!  And love how I feel when I eat lots of them!  I have type 1 diabetes so at first I was a little nervous about how my body would react and to what extent I would have to change my insulin doses!  It has gone very well!!!  I have a good appetite and though I was never overweight, I wanted to get lean!  Well, fighter diet is working!!!!  In the 5 weeks I’ve lost about 9 lbs of fat and gained 3 lbs of muscle!  And this is despite the fact that I don’t do nearly as much cardio as you recommend, simply cause I lack the time.  I work part time and have a handicapped child which requires a lot of my time and dedication.  The most exciting part is that I’m getting rid of my cellulite!  I have been fighting with that stupid cellulite my whole life!  And I’ve always been active I’m a personal trainer and am very disciplined about my workouts and try to vary and set objectives and note my progress….I guess I was missing some very key elements!

Anyway, I could eat like this my whole life!  I never lack energy and am never hungry….  Thank you thank you thank you. I’m gonna kick that cellulite’s butt to the curb!

Annie