Monday Nutrition Tip of the Week

If you hang out on the Beachbody website or do any Beachbody programs, it won't be long before you come across Michi's Ladder. Michi isn't a who, but a what. Michi is a Japanese word for path or "The Way," and the nutrition experts at Beachbody came up with the ladder as a guide for people trying to lose weight.

The ladder has five tiers, with the top of the ladder being the best foods you can eat, while the bottom is the not-so-good stuff like fast-food hamburgers.

Here's what Beachbody fitness guru Steve Edwards says about Michi's Ladder:

"First, it's just a food substitution guide for people trying to LOSE WEIGHT. Depending upon your situation you may find it necessary to eat more on a lower tier, especially for athletics. Performance nutrition is different from weight loss nutrition. For performance, dense calories are often important. For weight loss, they almost always want to be avoided. So Michi's focuses on low-density foods from a caloric standpoint that have a high density nutrient ratio. Therefore, tier 1 is filled with many veggies, which are loaded with nutrients per calorie as well as no calorie fiber. For people trying to fill their stomachs with as many nutrients and as few calories as possible, this is the primary aim of your diet.

Secondly, it's not a diet! A diet consists of an eating plan. You still need to adhere to some sort of plan. You could eat out of nothing but tier 1 and still have a poor diet if you don't cover your basic nutritional needs, such as getting plenty of carbs, proteins, and fats. Michi's Ladder was never meant to address this. All it was designed for was to help you make substitutions of similar types of foods."

Zach and I have been contemplating Michi's Ladder pretty heavily in the past week or so, because after the first of the year we plan on doing a food challenge that uses Michi's Ladder as a guide. Our goal is to only eat foods that come out of the top two tiers for seven days.

I can tell right now that the tough things for me to give up will be crackers and cheese, especially since that's what I'm serving up for my daughter 80 percent of the time.

Here's a link to Michi's Ladder in case you want to print it out, and I've pasted it below for quick reference.

http://www.beachbody.com/category/michis_ladder.do

Eat to carve your physique!

Michi's Ladder is a guideline, but we leave it to you to decide. If you only ate from Tiers 1 & 2, you would have a near-perfect diet!

Tier 1: The Pious Tier
Apples, with skin  Artichokes   Arugula  Asparagus  Avocados  Beans    Beets  Bok choy  Boysenberries  Bran  Broccoli   Broccoli sprouts   Brussels sprouts  Cabbage  Carrots  Cauliflower   Celery  Cereal, whole grain    Chard   Cherries  Citrus fruits	Collard greens   Cottage cheese, nonfat  Cucumbers  Egg whites  Endive  Fish, cold water (salmon, mackerel, sardines)   Fish, freshwater   Flaxseed  Garlic, fresh  Granola, raw, no sugar    Hemp seed  Kale   Lettuce, romaine, green or red leaf  Milk, nonfat   Milk, soy    Muesli, raw, no sugar    Mushrooms	Mustard  Nectarines  Oatmeal    Olive oil  Olives  Onions  Pears, with skin  Peas   Peppers  Plantains  Prunes  Radishes  Raspberries  Refried beans, nonfat   Rice, brown  Salsa, natural, no sugar  Seitan   Spinach   Squash   Strawberries  Sweet potatoes	Tea, green or black Tempeh   Tofu   Tomato sauce, no sugar  Tomatoes  Vinegar Water Yams  Yogurt, nonfat, no sugar
Tier 2: The Happy Tier
Apples, skinless  Bananas  Blueberries  Bread, whole grain  Cantaloupe  Cheese, nonfat  Chicken, skinless white meat  Coffee, black or cappuccino with nonfat milk   Corn  Cottage cheese, low-fat	Cream cheese, nonfat  Duck, free-range   Eggplant  Fish, farmed  Granola or energy bar  Grapes  Hummus    Juice, fresh-squeezed with pulp, no sugar  Kiwifruit  Mangoes  Meal replacement bar    Melon, honeydew	Milk, 1%    Nuts, raw    Ostrich   Pancakes, buckwheat   Papayas  Peaches  Pineapple  Plums  Raisins  Ricotta cheese, nonfat  Soy nuts    Soy sauce  Squid  String beans	Sunflower seeds    Tortillas, whole wheat    Turkey breast  Vegetable juice   Veggie burger    Venison, free-range   Watermelon  Yogurt, no sugar    Zucchini
Tier 3: The Swiss Tier
A1 Steak Sauce  Angel food cake  Applesauce  Bagels  Beef, eye of round   Beef, London   Beef, top round   Canola oil  Cheese, low-fat   Chicken, dark meat   Chicken sandwich, broiled    Chicken taco, baked    Clams	Coffee, cappuccino with whole milk   Crab  Cream cheese, low-fat   Eggs, whole   French fries, baked  Fruit, dried  Graham crackers  Granola   Honey  Jam or marmalade  Jerky, turkey  Juice, from concentrate  Ketchup	Lamb, lean   Lettuce, iceberg  Lobster  Mayonnaise  Milk, 2%    Muesli   Oatmeal, flavored  Oysters  Pancakes  Pasta, plain  Peanut butter, raw   Popcorn, plain  Pork tenderloin   Potatoes, baked or boiled	Pretzels  Refried beans, low-fat    Rice cakes  Rice, white  Sauerkraut  Soup, canned broth   Steak, lean   Sweet-and-sour sauce   Veal cutlet   Wine, red  Yogurt, frozen, nonfat
Tier 4: The Dodgy Tier
Animal crackers  Beef, filet mignon   Beef, lean ground   Beef, sirloin   Beef Stroganoff   Beer  Bread, refined flour  Buffalo   Butter  Caesar salad, with chicken    Canadian bacon   Cheese (including bleu and goat)  Chili    Chinese food    Chips, low-fat, baked  Coconut	Coffee, iced mocha latte with nonfat milk   Coffee, latte with whole milk    Coffee cake   Crackers  Grilled cheese sandwich   Ham   Hot dogs, turkey   Ice cream, sugar-free or fat-free  Jell-O  Juice, sweetened  Lamb chops   Lasagna, with meat   Macaroni and cheese   Margarine	Meat loaf   Mexican food    Milk, whole    Muffins   Nuts, salted or roasted  Peanut butter, not raw   Pepper, stuffed  Pizza, meatless or Hawaiian style    Popcorn, with salt and butter   Pork chop   Potato salad or macaroni salad   Pudding, with low-fat milk   Reuben sandwich	Sherbet  Shrimp  Sloppy Joe, lean beef or turkey   Soft drinks, diet Soup, canned creamy   Spaghetti, with meatballs    Sub sandwich    Taco salad, with chicken    Tortilla, refined flour or corn   Tuna salad or chicken salad   Vegetable oil  Wine, white  Yogurt, frozen
Tier 5: The Newburg Tier
Alcohol, hard liquor Bacon   Baked beans    Beef, ground, regular   Beef taco, fried   Breakfast sandwich, fast food   Cakes   Candy  Cereal, sugared  Chicken a la King   Chicken, buffalo wings or nuggets   Chicken or fish sandwich, fried	Chips, potato or corn   Chocolate   Cinnamon bun   Coffee, mocha, macchiato, ice blended, frappé, triple caramel vanilla buzz bomb, etc.   Cookies   Cream cheese  Creamed veggies   Creamer, nondairy  Doughnuts   French fries   Gravy  Hamburger, fast food	Hot dogs   Ice cream   Jerky, beef, pork, or venison  Juice, sugar added  Lobster Newburg   Nachos   Onion rings   Pastries   Pies   Potato skins, fried   Potatoes, fried   Potpie   Refried beans, with lard	Salad dressing, creamy  Sausage   Soft drinks, sugared  Tater tots   Toaster pastries