Last week my fitness coach, Sam Page, issued a challenge:

“FOR ONE WEEK, I want you to shop for your food every day with a budget of $10 — more or less — and ONLY buy what you will eat that day… and chocolate is required.“

He allowed me one modification — that I shop for each day’s dinner and the next day’s breakfast (since I have a night job and don’t always follow normal eating habits anyway). Intriguing, particularly since he asked me to blog about it, which makes it all the more real an experience for me.

DAY #1: MONDAY

I realize I didn’t plan ahead all that well, so I don’t have Monday’s breakfast lined up. That’s OK. I will start that evening. I don’t have an immediate goal in mind, so I do what I normally do – stay in the vicinity of work, and shop at Ralph’s. Right away, I am more aware of what things cost. If you only have 10 bucks to spend, you are going to make it count. When Sam explained a very Zen way of eating excruciatingly slowly, savoring every bite, I said, “Well I can’t waste all that effort on a Snickers.” Same concept. I need to make sure I favor quality over quantity. Maybe I should have gone to Whole Foods I think to myself. Besides being relatively healthier, it’s probably easier to get more single servings of things. But I’ll find something.

I’m about to tell you something you won’t see on The Biggest Loser, hear from the pharmaceutical industry, or even many doctors. I’d even bet good money that most personal trainers would not share this simple, yet inconvenient truth. But in my near decade coaching thousands of people, this is one of the incontrovertible facts I’ve learned:

If you want to lose weight, you’re going to have to make peace with hunger. You have to be OK feeling the hungry pangs. That little gnawing feeling you get in your stomach, often late at night, actually means that your body is getting ready to “eat the fat.” And if you give in to that craving, you’re defeating yourself and your progress will be much more slow. When you go into a caloric deficit, you’re gonna be hungry, and you’ve got to learn how to deal with it. Luckily, here are some evidence-based methods, backed by science, for dealing with cravings:

• Study the craving
• Set a timer
• Read a book
• Work on a home project
• Sketch, color, do art
• Catch up with your family or call a friend
• Eat the largest apple you can find
• Drink a large glass of water
• Take a nap
• Make a short “benefits of changing” list
• Recall that moment of clarity when it was clear you really needed or wanted to lose the weight
• Imagine eating backwards
• Stop using avoidance or distraction techniques, and instead intentionally seek out cravings
• See hunger as an opportunity to identify a problem
• See hunger as a reminder you’re getting the benefits
• Transform your feelings associated with hunger
• Use Zen Cheating

These are just a few techniques. What are some of the ways you’ve handled hunger or cravings in the past?

I DIDN’T EAT TODAY.

It was by choice — I wanted a break from my often constant eating and preoccupation with food.  Yes, I did the “cleanse” thing.

If you talk to my clients or friends, they’ll tell you that I enjoy eating. I preach the consumption of  prepared foods: chicken, fish, brown rice, broccoli, lean meats, egg whites, veggies.  I typically eat 5-6 small meals a day. One or two of these meals is usually some type of protein bar or meal replacement drink.

On the other hand, if you talk to Bronson, he’d rat on me. It’s true I’m a sucker for a good chocolate chip cookie and Krispy Kreme. The last time we had them (Sunday) I ate most of the dozen. Okay, two dozen. But it was cheat day.  I also have a less-than-ideal relationship with sugar, (with Red Vines being my chief weakness in that department) and caffeine (a.k.a. my iced coffee, the “old school way” from the Coffee Bean).

But I’m giving all of this a rest—hopefully a long rest—as I embark today upon a sunrise-to-sunset fast called The Master Cleanser, which you can read more about in one of my earlier posts.   If you’re interested, you can also buy the book here.  Here’s what happened on my day in the fast lane…

Doing the “right thing” can seem impossible when it comes to health and nutrition. If you’re pressed for time, here are a few ideas that work.

You’re supposed to do 30 minutes of cardio, five times per week.

The shortcut: Take three 10-minute walks every day. Little bursts of exercise will do the same job. You could climb the stairs of your office building, walk to your favorite lunch destination (each way, 10 minutes = 20 minutes of activity) or take a co-workers dog for a walk.

You’re supposed to eat breakfast every morning.

The shortcut is to have a quick, but healthy “fast” —yet balanced—breakfast. A protein bar is a good choice. I like KIND bars (the all-nut ones are a great morning breakfast on-the-go), and they don’t contain any gluten. I also love the High Protein Almond Brownie by Balance Bar. Unlike competing bars, it has a sweet, chocolately bite with a nutty aftertaste. And it doesn’t taste like chemicals or preservatives, while packing in an impressive 14 grams of protein and only 6 grams of fat.

In 2009, inspired by Rory Freedman, I started a 30-day exploration of vegetarian eating. One of my favorites on the menu is this chili sin carne (no meat) with mole, a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. It’s a rich, decadent chili (you won’t even miss the meat). Takes about 20 minutes to throw together, ready in an hour.