Since moving to Phoenix it has been a long time since I had to do emergency shopping for a snowstorm.  If you have never had to do it, picture this:

A weather man is freaking out on television stating the obvious: It’s snowing.  It’s going to keep snowing and it might be a while for the roads to be clear enough for throngs of people to drive.  So you need to prepare for getting locked in your house for a few days.  Now everyone heads to the local grocery store to stock up.

Smart people buy items like extra fruits and vegetables and some eggs and chicken and of course, you need fat free hot chocolate when it is going to be 20 degrees, right?

What do most people get?  Bags and bags of crap!  Chips, cereal, pasta, gallons of milk and last but certainly not least, BREAD.

If you don’t know by now, white flour is a huge killer of any training program.  It zaps energy, adds unwanted fat, and is a huge part of the cyclical process of eating empty calories.

One of the first things I tell my clients when they start a program is to make sure that when they eat out (which a lot of my clients do because they are career-type people) is to tell the server at a restaurant to not bring them bread.

That is not to say that restaurants are the only culprit.  Your pantry is mostly to blame.  Toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, bread basket at dinner…you get the idea.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not preaching you should never have bread ever again (A person has to have a life).  What I am saying is 4-5 servings of any type of bread product every single day will make you gain weight, ensuring you never lose your unwanted weight which can lead to diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

So here are a few nutrition programming strategies I utilize to help me fight the battle of the bread and reduce cravings:

• Breakfast - Don’t automatically go for toast, bagels, or a roll.  Two or three hard boiled eggs over sliced tomatoes is delicious.  Maybe whip up a batch of oatmeal and add walnuts and berries.  My clients even add in protein powder for flavor and love it.  How about cottage cheese and pineapple? For an open mind the options are endless.
• Snacks - Pack them at home and bring them to work rather than the buying from the dreaded vending machine.  In less than 90 seconds, you can throw natural peanut butter, raw almonds, dried fruit (no sugar added), an apple or banana and baby carrots all in a bag and be out the door.  Now you don’t need the employee room bagels or donuts.  (Doughnuts may be Homer Simpsons favorite food but who wants to look like Homer Simpson?)  Spread the peanut butter on an apple and have at it.
• Ditch the sandwich as your everyday choice for lunch. Bring in a portion of last night’s dinner for lunch.  Salmon, broccoli and brown rice or maybe chicken from last night and a sweet potato are great options.  Lunch is simply another version of dinner.
• Bread is not a staple at the dinner table. Rather it is a once-in-while experience.  Choose healthy carbohydrate choices like salad, cooked vegetables, brown rice, or quinoa.
• Think that eating “100% Whole Wheat” is any better? Wrong answer.  It still falls in the category of refined flour (it’s just not bleached) and a huge contributor to weight gain.

So there you have it.  Shock yourself and see if you feel better and look more trim by only cutting out the bread for a week and then tell me about