Author Archives: Mike Berland

Healthy Fruit: Rethinking the Way You Think About Fruit

by Mike Berland , Home Page Feed, News & Media, Nutrition

“Fruit is natural, so it must be good for you.”

While I never really liked vegetables until recently, I have always loved fruit. All types of fruits–apples, oranges, grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, strawberries. In the summer, my favorite meal was a huge fruit salad. I would buy whole watermelons, chop them up and just eat them throughout the day.

How bad could it be for me? Even if it is sweet, the sugar in fruit is natural, not processed. God-given from the tree or the vine, right? I thought I should be able to eat it in unlimited quantities. After…Read More »

Five Ways to Prepare Now for Weight Loss Success in 2016

by Mike Berland , Fitness Tips, Home Page Feed, Nutrition

1.Make the commitment to be your best, most healthy self and write down your goal.

It always helps me to have a goal in mind when I am working towards success.  In my political life, the goal is to win the election.  In my business life, the goal is to have impact – either change an attitude or behavior.  To achieve these goals and be successful, I would always start by writing a campaign plan or a business plan.  I would identify the key steps and milestones to track progress and away I would go.

In getting control over your weight, you…Read More »

Flip the Switch…and Become a Fat Burning Machine

by Mike Berland , Transformation Stories

I am a problem solver. I find solutions for my clients who face big challenges.  Whether they are politicians like Bill Clinton, Mike Bloomberg or Hillary Clinton who seek elective office, or major companies like Facebook, Playboy, the National Hockey League or Estee Lauder who need help with branding, I am the guy people turn to when they want to get the job done. I’ve solved a lot of problems in the past two decades!

But while I was finding solutions for everyone else, I faced one myself that I couldn’t seem to fix.  My weight. I had been gaining 1…Read More »

Don’t like to exercise? 5 ways to get motivated.

by Mike Berland , Fitness Tips, Home Page Feed

I don’t like exercising. Never have, never will.  Here are 5 insights that guide my exercise habits:

    30 minutes is all it takes. I am never so busy that I don’t have 30 minutes to exercise. There are so many excuses of why not to exercise–too busy, too tired, too late. I have to keep reminding myself that it only takes 30 minutes to stay a Fat-Burning Machine.
    So ask yourself, “Do I really not have 30 minutes in your day for myself?” Of course you do—and it will keep your fat burning switch in the “on”…Read More »

Mike’s 5 Fat-Burning Lunch Strategies

by Mike Berland , Nutrition

Tips from the book, Become a Fat-Burning Machine: The 12-Week Diet

Lunch out at an amazing restaurant where I really want to enjoy the food. This happens once a week. I go to an incredible restaurant where the food is unique and delicious. I am more likely to take a chance and order something new and amazing.  Sometimes it can be Japanese or the latest Farm to Table restaurants.  Regardless of restaurants, I have five tactics that I always use so that I can enjoy the specialty of the food, but not deviate from the plan:

Read More »

5 Things I Did That Destroyed My Ability To Be a Fat-Burning Machine

by Mike Berland , Nutrition

#1: Thinking that bites, licks and tastes (BLTs) don’t matter

When I was a young man starting my career, I had a business mentor who had struggled with his weight for most of his life. From time to time we would go on diets together, and he would always tell me that it was okay to have “just a bite” of any food. Like a good protégé, I believed him. He was right about so many things, but not about bites not having an impact.

Bites, licks and tastes matter. They trigger cravings, upset the sugar…Read More »

Beat Back the 5 Great Fears to Becoming a Fat-Burning Machine

by Mike Berland , Nutrition

If you have a voice in your head creating doubt about your ability to succeed at your diet, you’re not alone. Those of us who have repeatedly tried and failed to achieve permanent weight loss can easily find ourselves beset with doubts. Those fears can insidiously undermine our progress. To move on, we have to beat back the 5 big ones:

Fear #1: Will this really work or will I just end up gaining more weight?

Before I became a Fat-Burning Machine, my long-term diet history was not good. The pattern was always the same: I went on a diet and changed…Read More »

5 Fat-Burning Tips for Your Next Supermarket Trip

by Mike Berland , Nutrition

I used to view supermarkets as huge temptation palaces. As I rolled my cart down the aisles, all I could think about was how on earth I’d avoid the “bad” foods and choose the “good” ones. It was miserable. But I’m a problem solver, and my fear of supermarkets stopped once I developed 5 shopping strategies.

  1. Make a list…and stick to it.

Always shop with a list, and once you’ve created it don’t deviate. Organization helps—as opposed to randomly scribbling items on a piece of paper. Create a master shopping list on your computer,…Read More »

5 Fat-Burning Friendly Meals to Order at a National Restaurant Chain

by Mike Berland , Nutrition

I used to think I didn’t have a prayer of staying on my fat-burning plan if I ate out. The problem was, with my heavy traveling schedule it was sometimes difficult to avoid chain restaurants altogether. I began to think about how the average American eats, and realized that chain restaurants were everywhere: A day of shopping might mean lunch at Panera’s. A night out with the kids might mean dinner at the Olive Garden. A quick work lunch—a sandwich at Subway. A road trip—a pit stop at Chili’s or Boston Market. I realized that it was unrealistic…Read More »