My Mom’s Diet and Greatest Fear

I’m lucky I’m not in jail. Seriously. The only person that kept me out of serious trouble when I was a teenager was my mom. Dad didn’t get too involved in my life, but mom kept me on the straight and narrow.

When I got off track, she quickly and forcefully pulled me back. Her favorite line was, “Don’t you ever pull a stunt like that again!” I was a regular Craigevil Knievel…always pulling stunts. Ha.

I’m grateful for her and the discipline she gave me. She sacrificed a lot for me, including her health. Of course, she also didn’t know what to eat. Nutrition info in the 80’s and 90’s was so bad you can’t blame her for eating foods that do terrible things to your body and your brain.

On the bright side, she’s made incredible changes to her fitness and nutrition habits since retiring about 12 years ago, proving that YES, you can change at ANY age. No excuses. These day’s her diet looks like this:

Breakfast – ½ banana shared with Bally the Dog (she gets a slice, he gets a slice…it’s very cute), 1 egg, 1 piece toast, and black coffee

Morning Break – She doesn’t eat much between meals, but she tries to drink a few cups of Green Tea each day

Lunch – Salad, protein (leftover from dinner), or a big soup … she loves her cheese, too, so she’ll find a way to include that in her lunch that she eats while watching my nutrition nemesis, Rachel Ray

Late in the afternoon she works on her biggest fear (which is no longer me ending up in jail, thank goodness!). Like every man and woman over 55, mom worries that her memory is going to go so she does an afternoon crossword puzzle or Sudoko to keep her brain sharp. And now she is following this advice, too. After that, she starts cooking with The Young & The Restless on in the background, a TV show she’s been watching at the Ballantyne farm for over 35 years.

Her Dinner – Beef, chicken, pork, or fish, with potatoes and vegetables … she makes a great Shepherd’s Pie, too, and she’s always experimenting with new vegetable side dishes (I look forward to her brussel sprouts every time I go over for Sunday dinner). And yes, she let’s Bally the Dog lick the plate clean…and the pots and pans, too. Gross!

But she still makes a few diet mistakes. The biggest is that she likes to eat ice cream, candy, and other treats at night. However, there’s great news for her – and YOU. My friend Joel just emailed me this scientifically-proven reason to eat candy…it makes you smarter…helps you burn fat…and it helps her defeat her biggest fear.

Joel Marion, nutritionist and past Body-for-Life winner, wrote…

You may have heard about the fat-burning benefits associated with dark chocolate due to it’s theobromine content. Theobromine has been shown to suppress appetite and mobilize fatty acids to be burned as energy (without the side effects of caffeine). BUT what you may not know  is that dark chocolate can also boost your brain health! It’s rich in antioxidant flavonoids, which help to fight against oxidative stress that hurts brain tissue over time.

In fact, in a recent Harvard Medical School study, researchers found that consuming antioxidant-rich dark chocolate daily was actually able to significantly reverse cognitive decline in men and women age 60+.

For best results, I recommend 1 – 2 squares of dark chocolate with a minimum of 70% cacoa (where the flavonoids are found) daily. It’s also important to note that milk chocolate contains very few anti-oxidants, so if you’re looking for the fat burning and brain boosting benefits from chocolate, you need to reach for concentrated dark chocolate.

Now, before I go, I have an important brain health WARNING to share with you today.  Did you know there are certain foods — including several vegetables and even protein sources — that can actually DAMAGE your brain and your memory? Even more, if you’re currently experiencing any kind of memory issues, if you feel your memory is fading, or if you’ve been known to have a “senior moment” every so often lately, it may be directly related to certain foods in your diet.

Fortunately, my trusted advisor Dr. Mark Ettinger just wrote a free report that shows you exactly which foods these are.  Download your free copy in just a couple seconds here:

==> 5 Memory-Killing Foods to NEVER Eat

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Read that and fix your diet immediately.

Just like mom,

Craig Ballantyne, CTT
Certified Turbulence Trainer

PS – No matter what happened this weekend…

…Shake It Off, like Taylor Swift says, and get back on track today.

All the mistakes from the weekend are just MINOR damage that can be fixed quickly with your good habits this week.

Today is another day to get back on track. Stay positive. Learn from past mistakes but don’t let them weigh you down with negative emotions.

Stay strong and keep on pushing on. I believe in you. This is YOUR week!