Chase Freedom Diet
By Chase & Shannon Stewart
All long-term weight loss comes from cutting your consumption of unhealthy food, and adding exercise to your daily life.
If you cannot accept that fact, or want to continue to fight that fact, you need to quit worrying about your weight and learn to be happy with yourself the way you are now.
OK. If you're still with me, lets move on to the most practical and sensible way to lose weight.
Making massive changes to your existing diet does not work in the long-term. You are absolutely guaranteed to fall off the wagon and revert to your old bad habits. You must begin the process of slowly changing your habits.
Consider every aspect of what you eat now: how much you eat, what you eat, the ingredients in the items you eat, and when you eat. Every time you eat anything, eat slightly less, eat a slightly healthier version of the same food, and/or eat a few minutes earlier in the day.
For example, lets say you eat 30 standard potato chips (which are made in fried oil) and you eat them at 9:00 in the evening. Next time you eat this snack, eat 5 less potato chips, switch to baked potato chips, and/or eat a couple of hours earlier so your body has a longer period of time to burn off the calories before you go to bed.
Lets take a full meal for example: you eat a cheeseburger and fries, made from 85% lean ground beef and high-fat cheddar cheese, 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise, and potatoes fried in vegetable oil. Next time you have this meal, switch to 93% lean ground beef, lower-fat cheese like mozzarella, a little less mayo, and potatoes baked in the oven with a little olive or canola oil. You've saved a hundred or more calories without significantly impacting the taste.
Everything you eat can be consumed in moderation and/or with healthier ingredients that have slightly less calories. Follow this strategy for everything you buy at the grocery store.
Don't make massive changes.
Cut back a little on sweets and dessert items, and switch, switch, switch, switch, to healthier alternatives of foods you regularly buy - from ground beef to potato chips to sandwich bread. As we mentioned above, buy the leanest ground beef you can find. If you don't think you can successfully ration your intake of potato chips, and the baked ones don't appeal to you - buy pretzels, or Sun Chips. (Your best bet is still the chips you like best, in smaller portions.) As for sandwich bread - instead of sugar-laden white bread go for a whole grain. Go to Google and type in the words "healthier version" or "substitute" for everything you eat to find those alternatives.
Fruits and vegetables can be enjoyable. If you don't care for bananas, or other raw fruits, make a healthy smoothie. Buy bananas and frozen fruit (you can find affordable bags of frozen fruit at dollar stores) - and mix them in the blender with some reduced sugar/reduced calorie juice. (Make sure you buy the juice that has added vitamins, if they carry it in your store.) As for vegetables - roasting or grilling can make any vegetable taste good. Be it zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, asparagus, whatever - a drizzle of olive oil (no more than a tablespoon should be necessary, unless you're cooking for a big crowd), tossed with some salt and pepper and roasted on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees (or grilled) can bring even hardened vegetable-haters around. We can attest to this - Shannon did not eat fruit or vegetables before adopting these techniques. Experiment with herbs (dried are more affordable) on your roasted vegetables - basil, oregano and thyme are all wonderful.
Make the transition to a healthier, lower calorie life as easy as possible.
That's it for the first phase of the diet.
Now for the other essential aspect to long-term weight loss and lifestyle change: exercise. You must do fairly rigorous exercise, nearly every day. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you snake oil.
If you cannot accept this reality or want to continue to fight it, you need to quit worrying about your weight and learn to be happy with yourself the way you are now.
OK. If you're still with me, lets move on to the most practical and sensible way to start a long-term exercise program.
Finding exercise activities that you enjoy are essential to long-term weight loss. What are some possibilities? Walking, walking that leads to running or wilderness hiking, aerobics, group workout classes, spinning, road cycling, mountain biking, climbing, cross country skiing, snow-shoeing, dancing, tennis, swimming, racquetball, basketball, kayaking, rowing, golf if you walk the round, etcetera…
But where to start if you are completely out of shape?
For your initial exercise program you need to see your doctor and make sure you are physically able to do the basics. And when I say basics, I mean basics. The first couple of weeks of your exercise program should be focused on basic mobility. You should walk for 20-30 minutes per day, and steadily increase the pace of your steps as much as you can each day. Walking is a great starter form of exercise, but for a lot of us it gets a bit dull over time and isn't that enjoyable. If you start to get bored, think about an eventual transition to running or – if it’s geographically possible for you - wilderness hiking, snow-shoeing and backpacking. If you want to stick with walking, aim for 10,000 steps a day (pedometers are cheap at dollar stores or Wal Mart) or a good 45 minutes to an hour at as a best a clip as you can manage.
The transition from walking to more involved exercise activities should be slow. Since you’ll be on this journey for the rest of your life, there isn’t much point in being too anxious. You don’t want to injure yourself and set yourself back.
Start fantasizing about activities you'd love to do: go to the bookstore, go online, or go to a store that sells outdoor gear, and get as much information as you can about cycling, or hiking trails, or your community’s sports leagues, recreation centers or tennis courts, or skiing, or climbing or whatever intrigues you. Get as educated as you can, take a lesson, or join a club.
Exercise cannot be a subtraction or a sacrifice in your life. It can’t be a burden or something you must force yourself to do. It has to be something that you enjoy and something you look forward to each day. Still, we're realistic and understand that there will be days when thinking about doing your exercise will make you want to crawl under a rock. And on those days, remember this: exercise is always, always, always a net positive for your day. If you have the worst day ever, if you feel like you don't have control over things, if nothing is going right, nothing is getting accomplished on any other front - if you get in a workout it will always be a good thing. A victory. A positive. It may be the only one in your whole lousy day. And you can think: I took control and gave this good thing to myself.
After several months of cutting and switching in your diet, you need to begin the process of learning how to cook healthy, great tasting food. Most people only know how to make great tasting food by bombing it with fat and sugar - the chef's crutch.
The basic foundation of healthy cooking skill should come from a mastery of some pretty simple concepts:
- Daily use of olive oil, fresh chopped garlic, cheap dried spices, and cracked pepper.
- Timely, but limited use of butter and cream.
- Letting savory sauces replace the need for high fat cuts of meat.
- Substitution of high fat/ high calorie ingredients with very similar lower fat/ lower calorie ingredients, as mentioned earlier.
- Fruits and vegetables at every meal.
- Follow the basics of the Food Guide Pyramid.
The best way to learn such cooking is studying and thinking about simple, easy to make recipes. So here are ten recipes, which form the foundation of my daily cooking:
Fish or Chicken Tacos
This is a super tasty, healthy recipe that we have in our house at least once a week. We never get tired of it. Often, we alter some or all of the ingredients for variety. Shannon and I live for part of the year in South Texas, where we have unlimited access to Mexican food, yet we love this recipe more than anything we eat out.
Use chicken or fish for maximum healthiness. Chicken is the easiest to make. Fish is wonderful, made in a pan, if you use a very mild fish like Mahi-Mahi or Basa. Anything stronger, you should grill the fish.
Two Servings:
-Sauté 1/2 cup of chopped onions in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for a few minutes.
-Add 3 cloves of chopped garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
-Add 1 cup of Salsa
-Add 1 chopped chipotle pepper from a can (more than 1 pepper will be spicy)
- Add a little water, to keep chicken moist (eventually it will cooked off).
-Mix thoroughly and add uncooked chicken cut in smaller pieces. If you use fish (basa or mahi-mahi) add whole filets. If you are grilling, add the fish after salsa is heated through and water cooked off.
-Cook on low heat for 30 minutes.
-Serve with heated black beans, avocado, light sour cream and especially crushed pineapple (don't worry about making salsa out of fruit when it's served with other items that have a lot of onions, garlic, peppers, etc... it's redundant).
-Tortillas: most of the time we use the partially cooked fresh tortillas that you cook at home for 20 seconds per side. But any tortillas work fine, flour or corn.
Feel free to experiment with ancho chilies, jalapeno's, or even habaneros if you like it really spicy. Other ingredients that can be added include:
- Cumin powder or seed
- Cilantro
- Chili powder
- Mango salsa
- Lime juice (a squeeze or two)
- Pico de gallo
- Corn
- Rice
- Variety of beans
- Vegetables
Sweet Love Pork Tenderloin (The first meal Shannon ever cooked for me)
Here is where you can get really gourmet, impress people and eat healthy. Pre-cut pork tenderloins in plastic wrapping: it's cheap, very lean and will probably make you never buy pork chops ever again. (Note: do not buy the pre-marinated tenderloins from Hormel, etc. The marinades are loaded with sodium. Go for the raw cut that your store butcher puts out.) Grill it for 12-16 minutes until it is medium rare to medium. You don't want to dry it out and don't cook it like your Mom did back in the day. Pork doesn't need to be cooked well done! On top of it serve this glaze/sauce (marinate pork in this sauce if you have time or think of it a day in advance):
-Sauté 4 cloves of chopped garlic (hard to add too much) for 30 seconds in olive oil. Do not burn.
-Add 1/2 cup of orange juice. Or squeeze 1 full orange into sauce.
-Add 2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce (hoisin is good too)
-Add ½ cup chicken broth/stock
-Add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
-Add 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard.
-Heat for 15-20 minutes on medium heat until brown sugar caramelizes (thickened to glaze). Pour over grilled pork.
Serve with rice, broiled potatoes or even baked french fries. This recipe is very healthy, low in saturated fat and is off-the-charts good. If you decide to make the sauce as a marinade, just add all ingredients into a zip-lock bag or Tupper-ware, add the pork and let sit. When ready to cook, remove tenderloin to grill, then heat the marinade as described above to serve as sauce.
Pasta Aglio Olio
Pasta Aglio Olio is classic Italian "peasant" food. But don't be put off by such a description. It is very healthy, very tasty, remarkably versatile, cheap, fast and is the basic diet of the healthiest, longest living people on Earth. The basics of this pasta dish are simple:
-Couple of tablespoons of olive oil
-a few chopped cloves of fresh garlic sautéed (DO NOT BUY PRE-CHOPPED GARLIC IN A JAR).
-parsley, fresh or dried
-salt and pepper
Sautee the garlic for 30 seconds in the olive oil, then add to cooked pasta. (Add a little pasta water to maintain moisture). Toss in the parsley, salt and pepper and serve with some parmesan cheese, sprinkled on top. Tasty! Feel free to add almost anything, including:
- Red pepper flakes
- Rosemary
- Basil
- Italian Seasonings Mix
- Thyme
- Oregano
- Tomatoes
- Lemon Juice
- Olives
- Pepperoni
- Italian Sausage
- Chicken
- Fish
- Peppers
- Zucchini
Use spaghetti, linguini, fettuccine, penne, macaroni. Any pasta will work. Endless options! You could eat this every meal, as many Italians do, and you’d be thinner and healthier, as long as you control your portion size.
Healthy Burgers and Fries
There is no reason that burgers and fries have to mean a bomb of fat and calories. They can be super-tasty and healthy as well. You just have to be a little more creative than just buying high fat meat and making french fries in fatty oil. The only caveat is that healthy burgers and fries pretty much need to be made at home. Restaurants almost universally go crazy with the grease.
Healthy french fries are easy: just buy frozen fries and bake them in the oven. Pay attention to the packaging though, as some have more fat than others. Often, the cheaper generic brands are higher in fat. I buy the super-cheap shoestrings that are really low in fat. Another tasty option is buying potatoes, cutting them into fries, and then baking them in the oven.
The best way to do this is pre-heat the pan in a 425 degree oven, toss the cut potatoes in a bit of olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper - then stick in the oven. Cook until potatoes are golden, about 30-40 minutes.
As for the burger, use super lean ground beef (90% lean), ground turkey (*fantastic*), ground Yak, or ground bison. Actually, flavor-wise, the Yak is the best option and pretty cheap if you have access to it. Pour some Worcestershire or A1 on the meat, along with salt and pepper. Grill meat and serve on a whole-wheat bun with all your favorite toppings.
Avoid high fat cheese and bacon. Some toppings that add tons of flavor are pickled jalapeno's, pepperocinis, and especially guacamole.
The main point of this recipe is reinforcing the idea that everything that is high in fat and calories can be made much healthier. If you take the foods you love now and learn to make them healthy, then you are on your way to healthier, thinner living.
Homemade Pizza
Pizza is probably the tastiest and most popular food on Earth. It doesn't have to be a bomb of calories and fat though. You just have to avoid loading on the high fat cheese, pepperoni, and sausage. The following is the best pizza recipe I have ever had in my life. And it came out of my own head. Enjoy!
-Take 6 oz of warm water and add to it: 1/2 envelope of active dry yeast, teaspoon of salt, couple of rotations of cracked pepper, teaspoon fennel seeds, teaspoon red pepper flakes, dash of Italian seasonings, little olive oil, 1 tablespoon of cheap/sugary maple syrup. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
-add flour (bread flour is best) 1/2 cup at a time and mix until dough is no longer wet, maybe 2 cups. Put a little flour on cutting board and knead for 5 minutes.
-Cover and let rise until size triples (1-2 hours), then do this two more times.
*If making pizza dough frightens you or you just don't have time, then buy the just-add-water dough from the Italian/Pizza/Pasta section of your local grocery store. It's cheap and I use this whenever I don't have time.*
Pizza Sauce: almost any combination of crushed/chopped tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, spaghetti sauce, or pre-made pizza sauce will work fine. For this recipe, I did the following:
-Sauté 3 chopped cloves of fresh garlic (DO NOT BUY PRE-CHOPPED GARLIC IN A JAR) and a chopped shallot.
-add chopped black olives
-add sweet red peppers
-add 1/2 cup of canned tomato sauce
-Boil off the water
-Spread pizza sauce over dough (shaped and stretched to pizza shape).
-add low-fat skim mozzarella (the most common type at the grocery store). Don't use too much cheese, it dulls the taste and has lots of calories.
-Feel free to add mushrooms, jalapeno's, tomato slices, spinach, onions, dry or fresh spices, or anything that is healthy and low calorie.
-Baked at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until crisp.
Incredible! Just don't eat the whole thing by yourself.
Turkey Loaf and Turkey Meatballs
"Meat Loaf" made from ground turkey is very healthy and very tasty. (The same basic recipe could be used for Italian spaghetti and meatballs, just add Italian seasonings and dried parmesan/romano cheese to ground turkey mixture.)
-Start with 1-pound ground turkey,
-add 1 egg
-2 slices of torn-up bread pieces soaked in water (keeps moisture in meat while cooking)
- 3 cloves of chopped garlic
- 1 small chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon of dried parsley or other spices
- 2 tablespoons of ketchup, (leave out for Italian meatballs)
-1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard (leave out for Italian meatballs)
-salt and pepper
-Mix together, form and stick in bread pan dish. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
Serve with baked potato, light sour cream and yogurt butter. Yogurt butter is a great substitute for real butter and more flavorful on bread. Anything good and fattening can be made good and healthy!
Baked Italian Chicken
Baked chicken is one of the most savory, healthy dishes you can make. This recipe is for an Italian baked Chicken with a Piccata-Olive Sauce. Two servings:
-Take bone-in breasts of chicken, coat with a little olive oil and roll in “Panko” bread crumbs (Add Italian spices to Panko before rolling).
-Place chicken in cooking dish/Pyrex and stick in oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Place a bowl of water in oven to maintain moisture in oven and chicken.
Piccata-Olive Sauce
-lightly sauté 3 cloves of chopped garlic and 1/2 an onion in 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
- add 1/2 cup wine
- add juice from 1 squeezed lemon
- add 2 tablespoon of capers
- 1/2 cup of chopped Kalamata olives
- 1 cup chicken broth
- salt and ground pepper
- add a little flour or cornstarch to thicken
Serve with pasta
Spaghetti Marinara
Probably my favorite meal when all things are considered. It is the primary staple of the healthiest, longest living people on Earth, Southern Italians. It’s also the easiest gourmet tasting meal you can make. So it's a wonder that so few people make a great spaghetti sauce.
The single biggest mistake that most people make is that they don't add water to pre-made, jarred or canned spaghetti sauce. This allows it to de-hydrate in the pan, which makes the sauce taste like tomato paste.
The second big mistake people make is that they don't "doctor" the sauce or add ingredients to improve the basic sauce. I am a skilled, self-trained chef and I still use canned spaghetti sauce, which costs $1. But this is what I do to it:
For a full can, 6 servings or so.
- Sauté 4-5 cloves of chopped garlic (DO NOT BUY PRE-CHOPPED GARLIC IN A JAR) and 1/2 onion in 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil for a couple of minutes on low heat.
-Add tablespoon of sugar
-Add chopped mushrooms, maybe a cup
-Add a little red wine or sherry
-add some dried Italian seasonings. The commonly sold mix is great. Or individually, oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage, etc.
-Add canned spaghetti sauce
-Add 1/2 cup of water and stir together
-Cover and heat on low until it's warm
You can use almost any type of pasta. I only add meatballs or Italian sausage on special occasions. Most recipes are really high in fat and calories. If you must have them, try my ground turkey meatball recipe.
Living a thinner, healthier life is all about making choices and compromises. Too many people have to have it all or none. That doesn't work, as we all know from yo-yo dieting.
Healthy Hot Dogs Chicago-Style
This recipe should be a real eye-opener for a lot of you who think hot dogs are the epitome of fat and unhealthy food. The magic of healthy hot dogs is Turkey Sausage. Hillshire Farms makes it, Jennie-O makes it, Oscar Mayer makes it, along with many others. They are very low in fat and have much more taste than basic, cheap, fat-laden hot dogs. I think they're even as good as bratwurst and Hebrew National all meat hot dogs.
-Boil the turkey sausages in cheap beer, water, and chopped onions.
- Serve on heated deli buns
-Top with chopped tomatoes, diced jalapeno's, pepperocinis, onions, relish and/or mustard. Anything you like that's tasty and healthy.
-In my house, we always have healthy hot dogs with baked french fries.
Gourmet Pepper Steak
So this recipe is not exactly meant for a "diet." It is about as good a gourmet sauce and dish as you can make without going completely crazy with fat and calories. For most of you this will be the best thing you have ever made. And for such ambitious cooking, I'm also sure this will be much healthier than the best thing you make now.
Two servings:
-1 pound, maybe a little more, of sirloin steak. Pulverize and beat thin with a kitchen mallet or hammer from the garage. Then, cut off most of the fat.
-Heat a little butter (1 tablespoon) and a little olive oil and add 1 tablespoon of whole black peppercorns.
-add sirloin to butter/pepper mixture. Cook at medium-high heat for only 15-20 seconds per side (to rare) then remove from pan and set aside.
-Into the pan, add 3 cloves of fresh chopped garlic and 1/2 cup chopped green onions. Sauté for 30 seconds.
-Fast, add 1/2 cup of brandy or sherry to de-glaze pan. Cook for 1 minute.
-Add 1/2 cup of beef stock/beef broth.
-Add 1-2 tablespoon of heavy cream.
-Cook, reduce for 4-5 minutes, and then add sirloin and its juice back into sauce and heat up to your desired temperature.
Remove and enjoy with a nice glass of red wine. We always serve with oven-roasted green beans (tossed with 1 tsp olive oil, salt and pepper, baked 10 minutes at 400° on a cookie sheet) and baked pomme frites (fancy word for french fries). This is classic French cooking. They focus on quality of taste, not quantity. Enjoy!
The internet is full of healthy recipes that taste great. Check any one of dozens of websites including:
So once you've found an exercise activity that you enjoy, and you know how to cook healthy, great tasting food, you will be your own weight loss expert - and we can assure you that the weight will never come back. It worked (and continues to work) for us.
That's the best advice we can give you if you really do want to lose weight and change your life forever.
Feel free to email us with any questions at: chasestewart@chasefreedom.com
Make it happen!
Chase & Shannon Stewart
