Hey! You could always improve your food choices.

Food is one of life's great pleasures. No one (that I know, anyway) enjoys total deprivation. However, when it comes to shifting body composition, you have to make most of your decisions based not on taste and pleasure, but on results. Fortunately, there is a middle ground between taste and results. Unfortunately, if the middle ground food isn’t getting you the results you want, then you have to upgrade your choices to a higher grade of food.

Nutritional quality traverses a spectrum - it runs in degrees. Food choices aren’t good or bad; black or white. There are shades of gray in between. When you want to improve your results or break a plateau, you have to improve your food choices. The way you do this is to eat fewer foods that are processed, and eat more foods that are in their raw, natural state.

Here's an example: an apple is obviously "A" list. An apple gets the highest grade possible because it’s in its raw, natural state. Next down the rung you have unsweetened applesauce. It consists of nothing but raw apples and water, but it’s been pureed, so it’s not in its most natural state anymore and is therefore relegated to a "B" (still a good "grade," mind you). Turn it into apple juice and you're down to a "C" (still a passing grade). Then if you add sugar (sweetened applesauce or apple drink), now you're down to a "D". Finally, if the apples eventually become an apple pie, now you're down to an "F".

Your task is simple: look for places in your diet where you can improve your grade. Then improve it.