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"_When you decide to change up your fitness regiment, it's important to also take a look at your eating. In the February issue (on stands now), I wrote about the 10 alterations I made to my diet for the GQ Fitness Challenge. Below, an expanded version of that magazine story, with extra tips and advice.\n\n _\n\n Two years ago, when I was still in college, it was burgers and beer all the time\u2014but I was active (intramural sports, afternoon runs, the pleasant strolls from my house to campus), so my questionable diet was (sort of) kept in check. Now, I sit at a desk most days, and while I eat better than I did (due in large part to the healthier cuisine in my neighborhood and in the company cafeteria), my general lifestyle is about as un-dynamic as it's ever been. Sure, I do lots in a given week, but hardcore body-altering activities aren't part of my routine. As a result, my energy's often low and I'm certainly not losing weight. Before jumping headfirst into a strict (and decidedly ambitious) workout regimen, I knew I needed to fix my eating. Enter Sarah Shanahan MS, RD\u2014La Palestra's resident nutritionist\u2014who taught me that better eating doesn't require a drastic lifestyle change. It's just a matter of making correct choices, manageable cuts, and consistency.\n\nHere are 10 straightforward, reasonable tips I picked up from her:\n\n1. Eat early.\n\n I don't usually eat breakfast until 9:30 or 10 during the week, and usually later on the weekends. Even if you're not hungry when you wake up, put away something small\u2014yogurt or a piece of fruit\u2014to kick-start your metabolism and burn calories.\n\n2. Eat often.\n\n Similarly, a snack is important for fuel in the afternoon. Eating frequent small meals throughout the day enables your metabolism to work steadily instead of ramping up and gearing down. Stock up on 150-calorie snacks with fiber and/or protein (like nuts or fruit bars). I've taken to storing Kashi bars and almonds in my desk drawers.\n\n3. Reduce portions.\n\n In this country especially, you're often being overserved. There's no shame in leaving a few fries on the plate or eating only half your sandwich.\n\n4. Monitor your hunger.\n\n Before you eat, assess why you're eating: Are you hungry, anxious, bored, tired? Don't stuff yourself just because you've got nothing better to do. Whenever I consumed anything, I was encouraged to rate my hunger on a scale of 1 to 10. The numbers don't mean anything specifically, but the process by which you arrive at them keeps you aware of your eating patterns and choices.\n\n5. Drink water all day.\n\n Even when you think you're drinking enough, drink more. If you're thirsty, then you're already mildly dehydrated.\n\n6. Small, specific goals = slow, steady weight loss.\n\n This isn't The Biggest Loser; you needn't drop weight rapidly. Rather, try losing a half pound per week. To do so, you need only burn 125 extra calories per day (as little as three 30-minute jogs a week) and cut 125 more per day from your diet. (That's one less beer or two less tablespoons of salad dressing.) Five months later, you're ten pounds lighter.\n\n7. Remember\u2014you've got options.\n\n When I visit L.A., I'm physically incapable of resisting the calorie bomb that is Mexican food. We're talking once every other day, minimum. But there are, as with all foods, healthier options. Grilled instead of fried fish on tacos. Or \u00E0 la carte orders instead of platters of lard-loaded beans and rice. You can easily enjoy your favorite cuisine without eliminating it entirely.\n\n8. Fat is okay. Fats are not.\n\n Pay attention to small, specific choices when you're preparing or ordering your meals. Here, five cues that ring like a bell in my mind whenever I'm confronted with certain choices:\n\nSandwiches: choose a lean protein, and then only one source of fat\u2014either mayo OR avocado OR cheese with your turkey\u2014but not two or three or four of those elements.2.Salad: Vinaigrette, not creamy dressing (and always on the side).3.Bread: Whole grain or whole wheat bread slices in lieu of, say, white rolls, baguettes, and wraps.4.Bagels (if you must eat a bagel; I must): peanut butter (higher protein, lower saturated fat options) instead of cream cheese.5.Smoothies: Low fat yogurt or frozen fruits with ice, not frozen yogurt or sherbet.\n\n9. Eat before ercise.*\n\n Food is fuel. It's a simple principle, but still counterintuitive: Even if you're cutting calories in the rest of your diet, eat a meal an hour before working out so you don't hit the wall.\n\n10. Drink less, drink light.\n\n If I stopped drinking, many of my problems would be solved. But again, this is about small changes, not drastic ones. So on a big night out, I now drink light beer. The difference between eight Coors Lights and eight pints of microbrew can be upwards of 1,000 calories. And just because a buddy offers to buy you a brew doesn't mean you need to take him up on it.... Never mind. Yes, it does.\n\n*How my eating adjusted with the ercise\n\n Once I'd started working on my diet, I began to actively pursue calorie reduction. I wasn't eating when I wasn't hungry, and when I was ambivalent about a particular kind of food (ie, when I wasn't craving, say, a chicken parm hero), I'd opt for a healthy choice. This thinking carried over to my workout days as well. If I was to workout, say, in the middle of the day, I'd eat lightly beforehand so that I wasn't feeling overstuffed while I ercised. This proved to be a mistake. Three-quarters of the way through most workouts (they're tough workouts), I'd run out of gas, and I'd become light-headed and/or nauseous. I was literally burning through the energy sources in my body. Now I make sure I've had enough to eat before heading to the gym, and it makes all the difference in the world."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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