[John E]

.. as this subject is as "subjective" as it gets lol. I actually am an ex-certified personal trainer and quasi-nutritionist. My only other extra-curricular interests beside guitar playing and more guitar playing, is fitness. I (like someone else that posted) am an ex-powerlifter, and I still lift very heavy 3x per week, and do cardio 2-3x per week. I am pretty short at 5'3, but I weigh about 170 lbs and I am not fat. I can tell you if you look at something as a diet, it is very hard to stick with that... and there is a difference between being optimally healthy and being thin(thinner). If all you are looking to do is be thin, it's really mostly about the calories you take in and the calories you burn. If you want to eat cake and have beer every day, you can still lose weight if you take in less calories than you burn (but PLEASE don't do this!!!). That is why pretty much any "diet" that you may go on will yield some type of results if you truly follow it.

In my experience, the people that I have personal trained, trained with, etc. that have the most steady success are people that live a healthy lifestyle but give themselves some flexibility in their diets... ie. they are strict every day but give themselves a treat at some point during their day(or at some other point). If you totally deprive yourself from the things that you truly enjoy, it is very difficult to stay with something like that. Better yet give yourself what you want, but BE SMART about it.

Here is what I do for my food intake, (I was never one to measure and count things out, that drives me nuts):
During the week, I stay pretty strict, which basically means this: I never eat over processed foods (WHITE BREAD, SODA), or foods with high sugar content. The worst offenders are things with High fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, and preservatives. These things wreak havoc on your body if you eat them every day... READ THE LABELS!! Also I eat Organic fruits and vegetables every day... 2-3 servings of fruit and 3-5 servings of veggies.
Here's the thing though, if I ate like this every single day I would either go insane, or have a huge binge every other month. So, on the weekends I pretty much eat what I want. Now granted, that doesn't mean that I hit Angelina's bakery and eat a box of chocolate Eclairs... and hit the local pub at nite and drink myself into oblivion(or Bolivian as Mike Tyson would say) but I will go out to eat once or twice on a weekend(and eat what I want), have a glass or two of wine or beer, have pizza, desserts etc. I find that this works VERY well for me...

There are variables though... I work out so much that I need to make sure I take in enough good fats and complex carbs(Oatmeal, whole grain breads) otherwise (believe it or not) my guitar playing suffers BIG TIME. Most people don't look at it this way, but playing the guitar is a physical activity, and I treat it as such... especially since I like to play really fast. This is why a straight Atkins type diet does not work for me, I just work out to much. I also make sure to take at least a multi vitamin and eat as much organic food as I can. You would be amazed(or maybe you wouldn't) at the RIDICULOUS amount of chemicals on non-organic fruits and vegetables... and even in meats. Your liver's job aside from breaking down fats and proteins is basically to filter the toxins you take in on a daily basis... the more you take in the harder your liver has to work and the more inefficient(bogged down) it will be. Also the fat cells are where many of the toxins you take in are stored, so the more fat cells you have(or more correctly the bigger they are) make it that much harder for you to lose weight. Ever diet or lose weight and you feel crappy? Well that's why, as you lose weight (ie shrink your fat cells) the toxins are re-released into your body. That is a big reason why it is CRUCIAL to have enough water intake, as it helps to flush the newly released toxins from your body. Anyway, guess I've rambled enough... anybody feel free to email if you're at all interested in whatever else I have to say about that lol.