Tricks of the Trade

Ever wonder how your favourite celebs continue to don their gorgeous Hollywood great looks? Truth be told, there is more to it than a chic hairstyle, quality makeup and hip clothing. Many of the celebs keep their bodies trim and slim with special diets, personal trainers and great workouts. With some inside tips on the tricks of the trade, you can sport your own Hollywood look.

eat clean

The Three-Hour Diet

Legendary beauties like Jennifer Lopez, Angelina Jolie and Jessica Biel are all supporters of the Three-Hour Diet. With this diet, there are no bad foods, just bad portions. If you must have some of those delicious Reese’s Cups, this just might be the perfect diet for you. Another factor of this diet involves timing. You must eat breakfast within one hour of waking, eat every three hours and stop eating three hours before bedtime. Eating on this schedule will increase your baseline metabolic rate, increase energy and decrease appetite. When you eat every three hours, your body actually resets its metabolism. Easily burn two pounds a week without any muscle loss.

So how do you figure out the portions? It’s all with the eyes. Visualise a Rubik’s cube on an average sized plate. This should be the size of the carbohydrate portion at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Picture a deck of playing cards and that equates to your protein serving at every meal. It can be anything you like, including fish, eggs and cheese. Salad dressings, olive oil and butter should be the size of a water bottle cap. Three stacked DVD cases represent how much veggies and fruit to consume at each meal.

 

Glam it Up with the South Beach Diet

Great-looking celebs like Nicole Kidman and Eva Mendes follow the popular South Beach Diet to maintain a slim figure. This diet was created by cardiologist Arthur Agatston and dietitian Marie Almon. Although it was originally designed to prevent heart disease, the South Beach Diet gained in popularity because followers were losing weight.

Basically, the South Beach Diet eliminates bad fats and replaces the diet with good fats. The diet is divided into three phases with each phase becoming more liberal. The first phase eliminates all fruits, processed carbohydrates and sugars. This gets rid of the hunger cycle. Phase two introduces fruits, veggies and some whole grains. The third phase is the maintenance phase and lasts for a lifetime. For convenience, Kraft Foods licensed the South Beach Diet trademark for use and created a line of packaged foods called the South Beach Diet.

 

Gear Up for a Slim Look with the Five-Factor Diet

The Five-Factor Diet is followed by celebs Katy Perry, Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. This diet is a new take of the traditional advice doled out by nutritionists. It’s a well-balanced diet that includes all the major food groups and doesn’t leave anything out. It’s also cleverly designed to help change the poor eating behaviours that cause weight gain.

On the Five-Factor Diet, the “five” comes from the number of elements each meal should include. These elements are fat, fibre, complex carbohydrates, protein and fluids. The “five” also stems from the recommended five meals a day. Each recipe should include no more than five ingredients and take more than five minutes to prep and cook. It should also come as no surprise that the Five-Factor Diet consists of five five-minute exercises. The exercises are a combination of strength training and cardio training, and you don’t need any pricey equipment to do the exercises.

 

Whether you choose the Three-Hour Diet, the South Beach Diet or the Five-Factor Diet, it’s important to maintain a sense of balance, moderation and exercise. These three factors will contribute to your overall good health. While considering your overall health, it’s also important to compare health insurance policies in order to choose the best one for you in the long run. Why? Because as healthy as you are now, even costs from things like optical and physiotherapy can start to add up quickly. A healthy approach to life more often than not takes hard work and dedication, but injecting a little fun into the mix such as some of the above diets can keep it interesting and more importantly – motivated to keep going!