Which could you live longer without: alcohol, caffeine, or meat?

Coming off a 10-day juice cleanse on January 21, 2022, I wanted to see which of the three I could avoid the longest. None of the three were necessary for survival, and giving up one or all of them could have health benefits.

I didn’t expect that I’d still be without one of them one year later. Definitely not caffeine. But here I am, caffeine-free, with no plans to resume using it.

A little background. I hate the taste and smell of coffee, having grown up in a home where my father woke early and began chain-smoking and pounding coffee. My first breath each morning was coffee and cigarettes. I’ve never tried either of them.

We did not have soda in our home, which was not uncommon in the 1970s and ‘80s. I picked up a severe Diet Coke habit in college that continued into my early thirties. But when our first child was born in 2002, I decided I did not want my children to see me drinking diet colas like water. Neither of our children drinks soda regularly.

The idea of a coffee and soda-free guy dropping caffeine might not seem like a big deal. Think again. For 25 years, I relied on drinks and powders that were virtually non-existent until the late ‘90s to fuel my workouts and serve as an everyday substitute for coffee and soda.

First came supplements and drinks laden with ephedrine and caffeine. I covered Major League Baseball as a sportswriter for USA Today in the 1990s and as a freelancer in the early 2000s. I figured if players could use these products to get through long seasons, it could help me with workouts and also the grind of being a baseball writer, which includes the same crazy hours and marathon travel as ballplayers without the compensation and first-class accommodations.

Sports leagues banned ephedrine after it was linked to the deaths of several athletes. I gave it up, too, but like players, I turned to energy drinks or “shots,” along with pre-workout powders that contained, among other things, high doses of caffeine. I train most mornings, but I’d mix a pre-workout drink even on days I did not since it provided mental clarity and alertness.

I was as addicted to these drinks and powders as people who consume coffee daily, which is at an all-time high of 66 percent of American adults. But I worried that these substances, like ephedrine, might have long-term side effects.

One night in November 2019, I had bad chest pains and drove to the hospital. Tests revealed nothing, but it was enough to scare me cold turkey from my daily energy shot (or two) habit. But I still had a daily pre-workout drink routine.

Now that’s gone, too. I don’t feel any less energized or sluggish. Like many bad habits, it’s more the addiction to the routine than the benefit it’s providing. I sleep better, drink more water, and consume more fruit.

It’s funny. I graduated college in 1991 when the workout supplement industry barely existed. Few young adults drank coffee. As hard as this might be for younger people to believe, I can’t recall seeing someone drink coffee during my college years, which I spent mainly in a student newspaper office where we routinely stayed up until 1 a.m. producing the next day’s edition.

There was Jolt Cola, introduced in 1985 with the slogan “all the sugar and twice the caffeine,” but it never was that popular.

What changed? My theory is that as people became less active and food became more processed, providing fewer nutrients, people turned to caffeine for the energy they weren’t getting from exercise and diet. Plus, the percentage of adults smoking cigarettes dropped from 25.5 percent in 1990 to 12.5 percent today. No doubt some of those ex-smokers and would-be smokers substituted caffeine for nicotine.

As recently as the 1980s, people viewed coffee as an old person’s drink. Television commercials of the time featured seniors drinking Maxwell House, Taster’s Choice, and Folgers. Then Starbucks blew up in the early 1990s, attracting a younger demographic. There also was the 1994 debut of the TV show “Friends,” featuring six twenty-somethings and set mostly in a New York coffee shop.

Coffee raises blood pressure and heart rate, making you more awake. Because it’s a stimulant, it’s also habit-forming, which helps explain why so many people say they can’t function until they’ve had their first cup of coffee in the morning.

Many Millennials and Generation Zers, unlike their Gen X counterparts, have grown up drinking coffee, thinking it’s normal. It’s been a drastic shift in 20 years. In 2003, I was in an early morning business meeting at an up-and-coming fitness company with 25 employees, all born in the late ’60s or ‘70s. A visitor asked if there was any coffee available. An awkward pause hung over the room as if the poor guy had requested permission to smoke. Someone ran out for coffee.

These days the company has 4,000 employees over multiple offices, and coffee available everywhere for its still-young staff, now born mostly after 1985.

I don’t miss caffeine, though it’s sneaky. Most chocolate has caffeine. A few months ago, I woke up from minor surgery and took a drink of soda a nurse had provided to settle my stomach. I jolted awake, thinking my non-caffeine streak was over.

Alas, it was just ginger ale.

 

 

 

 

 

Sugar is America’s No.1 addiction. Even when we’re not consciously eating cane sugar, we’re consuming things loaded with artificial sweeteners, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and other sugar-like chemicals we can’t readily identify on a food label.

So when I gave up sugar for Lent this year, the challenge was not only to stay away from the obvious – cookies, candy, cake, ice cream, chocolate, trail mix, energy bars – but also the many products infused with sugar and sugar impersonators.

Thankfully I long ago gave up soda and sports drinks. I’ve never consumed coffee. I rarely eat many of the foods that have sugar or related sweeteners injected such as ketchup, baked beans, salad dressings, crackers, bread, yogurt, and fruit juices.

In my mind, I made it through the 46 days of Lent without consuming sugar. It helped that I also gave up alcohol in a show of support for my wife, who avoided booze for Lent. By eliminating alcohol, I was less likely to give into the temptation of eating poorly while drinking.

Still, a nutritionist would note that I didn’t avoid sugar altogether. My morning green smoothie, which consists of kale, spinach, chard, and avocado, also contains half of a frozen banana and one ounce of orange juice. There are natural sugars in fruit, so that’s not too bad. But I also throw in half a scoop of whey protein. There’s some legitimate artificial sweetener in that. Not much, but a little.

Each day I also consume one or two protein drinks. These prepackaged, 11-ounce beverages contain just 1 gram of sugar per serving (along with 160 calories) in the form of the artificial sweetener Sucralose. They’re also vanilla or chocolate flavored, which accounts for the artificial flavoring and also seems to violate the spirit of the Lenten vow. I drink them post-workout or as a mid-afternoon snack.

I also drink an occasional “Energy Shot,” a 5-Hour knockoff produced by Costco under its Kirkland Signature product line. I’m not proud of this, but I don’t drink coffee, tea, or soda, so this provides the caffeine I occasionally need. These energy shots also contain Sucralose.

So did I give up sugar? Maybe, maybe not. In his recent book The Case Against Sugar, author Gary Taubes notes that it’s virtually impossible to avoid sugar and artificial sugar in the modern western diet. I read the book during Lent and if I hadn’t already given up sugar, it would have scared me into doing so.

Taubes, a decorated investigative reporter, shows how the sugar industry’s lobbying efforts led researchers and journalists to focus for decades on dietary fat as the cause of America’s health problems when sugar is the more likely culprit for the increase in obesity and diabetes, along with heart disease, cancer – even dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, I was able to eat sweets for the first time since February. I ate some candy and a chocolate muffin. My wife and I polished off a bottle of wine. None of it tasted as good as I expected, so perhaps I broke my sugar addiction.

I lost seven pounds during Lent, which is significant given that I ate clean and drank little alcohol already. Nor did I increase my activity level during Lent.

Maybe Taubes is right. The answer to what ails us might be as easy as giving up sugar.

 

 

 

 

Chipotle Mexican Grill has had a tough 12 months. There were scattered outbreaks of e.coli, salmonella and norovirus. The rapidly-expanding Chipotle, founded in Denver by Steve Ells, in 1993, saw its white-hot stock drop nearly 50 percent.

Some customers never returned. Some people never liked Chipotle previously, but I’ve remained a big fan. I dropped 20 pounds about five years ago, going from 177 to 157 – and while there are multiple reasons (training,  green smoothies, and writing Core Performance fitness books with Mark Verstegen), the common thread has been eating roughly three times a week at Chipotle.

In July, in an attempt to bring back customers, Chipotle launched its “Chiptopia” summer rewards program. You earn a point for each visit, per month. Visit four times, get a free burrito. Visit three more that month, get a second free burrito. Visit another two times and get a third free burrito. At this point, you’ve reached “hot” status. Reach that level for July, August, and September and earn catering for 20 — a $240 value.

The catch is that it’s one point per visit. So you can’t place a massive office takeout order and collect 12 points at once.

Using a typical $9 burrito for math purposes, that’s nine free burritos ($81) and $240 in catering for a total of $321. Subtract the cost of 27 burritos ($243, ordering only a water cup) and you come out $78 ahead. So you can pretty much eat for free.

This assumes, of course, that you have use for Chipotle catering for 20. The promotion ends at the end of September and I have an October birthday. Looks like there’s food for the party!

Not only that, but when I have a free burrito coming, I load up on double meat (chicken plus either carnitas or steak). That’s a $2 value x the nine free burritos, but I don’t count that $18 in the equation. Besides, I always order half chicken, half carnitas or steak since that tends to equate to double meat for standard price anyway.

Chipotle has its detractors, to be sure. The food is salty and the taste isn’t for everyone. Plus, you’re not going to lose weight or lean out eating at Chipotle if you do not train and/or consume certain Chipotle ingredients.

Here’s how – and why – it works for me:

CONVENIENCE: The biggest misnomer about Chipotle is that it was founded or once a subsidiary of McDonald’s. Not true. Ells did take a massive infusion of McDonald’s cash in the early days to fund Chipotle’s meteoric growth, but retained control and didn’t allow McDonald’s to influence his vision. When Chipotle went public in 2006, McDonald’s cashed out and walked away.

But Chipotle is like McDonald’s when it comes to fast service. The only difference is that Chipotle is actually healthy food. Morgan Spurlock famously ate at McDonald’s every day for one month and nearly died. I eat at Chipotle a dozen times every month and have gotten into the best shape of my life.

I’m not alone. Chipotle is often packed – the crowds have returned in recent months – and the funny thing is that people who eat there tend to be in better shape than the general public. Heck, the stereotype of the chubby, donut-eating cop is disappearing in part because of Chipotle’s half-off policy for law enforcement personnel.

I’ve had many business lunches at Chipotle. Even with the lines, it’s possible to get in and our far quicker than at a sit-down restaurant.

Eating healthy on the road is always a challenge but it’s increasingly easy to find a Chipotle nearby. Now that Ells is expanding his Shophouse Southeast Asian Kitchen concept, an Asian-themed restaurant modeled after the Chipotle formula (with 15 locations, thus far only in DC, LA and Chicago), it will get easier.

COST/VALUE: Chipotle isn’t inexpensive. But it’s a great value. A burrito with water from the soda fountain costs roughly $9. You’re getting nutrient-dense food mostly free of antibiotics and hormones. Eating right is a little more expensive, but always worth it.

STRATEGIC ORDERING: You are what you put in the shopping cart. A person’s physical appearance is usually a reflection of what’s in their cart at the grocery store. I’ve noticed the same phenomenon watching people at Chipotle, where it’s easy to load up on too many calories.

Here’s my usual order: burrito bowl with one scoop of brown rice, fajita peppers, black beans, half chicken and half carnitas, mild and medium salsas, guacamole and lettuce. Sometimes I substitute hot salsa for medium. Sometimes I’ll go with no meat. Sometimes I just order a bowl of chicken.

Here’s what I don’t order: tortilla (290 calories and 44 grams of empty carbs), white rice, pinto beans, steak, barbacoa, corn salsa, or dairy products (cheese, sour cream).

My typical burrito, according to ChipotleCalorieCalculator.com, weighs in at 650 calories, with 46 grams of protein and 66 grams of carbs. That’s relatively modest, certainly right for a 157-pound endurance athlete.

Were I to put the same burrito on a tortilla with cheese and sour cream, however, I would end up with an 1,160-calorie, foil-wrapped, 112-carb bomb with a whopping 2,710 mg of sodium – more than the 2,300 mg daily allowance recommended by the U.S. Health and Human Services.

My burrito has 1,920 mg of sodium, still a concern but at least lower.

Why no dairy? No matter how much you emphasize light cheese or a little sour cream at Chipotle, they’ll give you too much. Plus, I gave up dairy (other than whey protein) several years ago. Jack LaLanne never consumed dairy, stressing that humans are the only species to consume milk (let alone from another species) beyond the suckling stage. Jack still was doing badass athletic things when he died in 2011 at the age of 96, so he has some credibility there.

Ordering half chicken and half carnitas is for variety but also because you tend to get a little more meat than ordering just one.

You’d think more restaurants would take a food-with-integrity cue from Chipotle, which gets its meats from family farms as opposed to scary factory operations. Taco Bell officials recently started talking smack about how they will introduce a similar menu. That’s unlikely to make a difference since the 3 a.m. drive-thru crowd doesn’t place a premium on whether its munchies come from sustainable sources. Nor is Taco Bell likely to provide it.

I keep thinking I’ll get sick of Chipotle, which despite its few ingredients has thousands of combinations. Hopefully I won’t have to wait too long for a Shophouse to come to Tampa Bay.

In the meantime, I’ll keep living in Chiptopia and collecting my free catering in October.

 

Cleaning the kitchen is an endless chore. No matter how diligent we are about it, it never seems totally clean. The bigger your family, the more food and traffic is involved. The sink, counters, floors, appliances, and cabinets take a beating.

Here’s one simple way to keep your kitchen cleaner: Don’t eat anything that makes crumbs. Much of the mess in the kitchen – or elsewhere if you or family members eat beyond the kitchen – is caused by food that makes crumbs. Coincidentally, almost all food that makes crumbs is stuff low in nutritional value.

Name anything that makes crumbs – bread, most cereals, chips, cookies, cake, pie, crackers, donuts, pretzels, and almost anything that comes in a box or airtight bag – and you’ll find something that is dirtying your home, attracting pests, and making you fat. All of this food should be eliminated to live lean.

This is not to say that vegetables, fruit, and lean proteins aren’t messy. The difference is we tend to notice the mess from slicing these food sources and clean it up immediately. Plus, there tends to be less mess with these whole foods. Crumbs tend to go unnoticed.

This also is true of drinks. You can spill water pretty much anywhere in your home and not do damage. But spill a soft drink, milk, coffee, or alcohol (especially red wine, as we’ve learned!) and you’ve got a sticky mess – and possibly some permanently damaged upholstery or carpeting.

By eliminating stuff that makes crumbs, you’ll also clear out lots of space in the refrigerator and pantry. In fact, you might no longer need a pantry. Food that makes crumbs is produced to last for months, even years, on supermarket shelves – and in your pantry. It’s a natural attraction for bugs and rodents. So, too are crumbs in the home.

The key to eating lean, saving money and time while maintaining a lean physique, is eating fewer foods. The easiest way to cut back is eliminating the ones that make crumbs. Clean the diet and your home naturally will stay cleaner and you’ll spend no time dealing with crumbs.

 

 

About three years ago I replaced my traditional fruit-heavy smoothie with one dominated by greens: spinach, avocado, kale, etc.. I typically drink one in the morning or post-workout and sometimes a second one mid-afternoon. The results have been dramatic, both in terms of body composition and energy levels. The smoothies also guarantee that I’ll be getting more than enough green veggies every day.

The most encouraging thing is that one of our two sons will drink what he calls “green juice” and I’m working on the other one. There’s no way I’d get them to eat a plate full of those foods (lucky if they’d try just one), but when it goes into the blender and comes out as a smoothie, the oldest actually enjoys it.

I’m forever tinkering with the formula, but here’s what’s working right now:

12 oz of water

6 ice cubes

1/2 avocado

1 cup of Costco “Power Greens” (a mix of kale, spinach and chard)

I eat asparagus several times a week for dinner, but don’t throw it into the smoothie. It probably would work very well.

For taste, I add half a frozen banana and half a scoop of chocolate whey protein powder, which also provides 14 grams of protein. I’ll also add 2 ounces of orange juice and also strawberries, when in season.

Transitioning to green smoothies can be a challenge at first, which I why the sweeter ingredients are important. But like anything else, it’s possible to train yourself to like anything and gradually scale back on the sweeter stuff.

That’s why I also throw in a cap-full of apple cider vinegar. When I had a kidney stone five years ago (before reforming my nutrition program), I was told apple cider vinegar can help prevent stones. Maybe it’s an old wives tale, but when you’ve had a kidney stone, you’ll do anything to avoid another. I couldn’t stomach ACV at first, but now I throw one cap-full of it into the smoothie and do another shot straight up. Good stuff.

For the smoothie, consider ACV optional.

Avocado is a key ingredient as it gives the drink more of a smoothie texture. Otherwise it’s more of a juice. You could go with a whole avocado, though that’s a lot of calories.

I use a BlendTec Home Total Blender, which admittedly is a pricey item (starting at $399, though occasionally less at Costco). Then again, it has a 3 horsepower motor and is quite durable. I’ve put mine to the test. According to its digital counter, I used it more than 3,000 time this morning since getting it late in 2006. That’s just 10 cents a use. I can’t think of anything motorized or electrical I’ve owned since then that’s still operational – let alone that works so well.

Enjoy and please let me know what green smoothie ingredients work well for you

 

 

 

 

I haven’t celebrated Mother’s Day in a long time. My grandmothers died years ago and Mom passed when I was in college. But as Mother’s Day approaches this year, I’ve been wondering what Mom would think of the world today compared to what it was like when she died in 1991, a generation ago.

She no doubt would marvel at how people fill their lives with digital distraction, connecting to video, music, or the Internet every waking moment. She’d be amazed at how often people eat out and how everything is much bigger, from homes to cars to televisions to bodies.

She’d wonder what happened to kids playing outside, families enjoying the outdoors together, and people living intentional, mindful, focused lives. She’d no doubt shake her head over social media, online shopping, participation trophies, reality television, and our narcissistic American consumer culture on steroids.

Mom’s lean living philosophy inspires the way I live today. Here’s what I learned from Mom:

WORK IN A GARDEN: Long before the terms “master gardener” and “organic foods” were popularized, Mom grew her own produce and flowers. She saw the value in raising beautiful things, toiling in the soil every day, and eating fruits and vegetables fresh from the garden. I’ve tried most every workout imaginable and yet there’s nothing that challenges every part of the body and leaves me as sore and exhausted as yard work. Mom understood that. She also believed in the value of “working” outside away from the phone, television, and other disruptions. The sounds of birds and insects and even the sight of an occasional black snake were sufficient entertainment. “One is nearer God’s heart in a garden,” the poet Dorothy Frances Gurney wrote, “than anywhere else on Earth.” We put that on Mom’s tombstone.

MOVE YOUR BODY: Long before fitness became a huge industry of gyms, gadgets, gear and classes, Mom performed yoga and rode her rickety three-speed bike 10 miles a day. I was a three-sport teenage athlete with a 10-speed bike and I struggled to keep up with her. She drank a gallon of water a day, long before it became fashionable, and bought low-fat and skim milk as far back as the 1970s when it was difficult to find anything but whole milk. Mom was a registered nurse and no doubt would be stunned at today’s sedentary, computer, cubicle culture. Mom played the piano and did a lot of sewing, but otherwise I have no memories of her sitting other than to eat.

NO SCREENS: Mom died before the Internet and cell phones. Computers in 1991 were little more than word processors. She refused to get cable and watched little television other than Jeopardy, which served an educational purpose for her three children. She believed in board games (preferably Scrabble and other word challenges), long walks, backyard badminton, Ping-Pong, tennis, eating outside and those 10-mile bike rides. Though she tolerated the obsession with televised sports Dad and I shared, I can’t recall her watching an event with us, not even the Super Bowl. She preferred to be a participant rather than a spectator in life.

GO MINIMALIST: Mom was wonderfully frugal. At the supermarket she could predict the total grocery bill within 50 cents. I often thought she could win a showcase showdown contest on “The Price is Right.” She wasn’t cheap – quite generous, actually – she just didn’t believe in buying non-necessities that cluttered your life. When I began lobbying to have a car at college, she worried that it would keep me from walking and riding my bike and feared it would inspire me to spend more time at stores and at the movies. Because Mom stayed in terrific shape, she looked great in any garment, even by the unflattering fashion trends of the 1980s. But she spent little money on clothing. If there were items my sisters or I weren’t wearing, she’d wear them.

EMBRACE EVERY DAY: Mom was a model of active, healthy living and still died at 51. Even though I have no chance of developing ovarian cancer, I’ve used her example as the benchmark for how I must live. Dad smoked cigarettes until he was 48, worked a high-stress career and never was admitted to a hospital until age 70. He’s still going strong at 77. There are no guarantees for any of us regardless of lifestyle, of course. I’m only a few years away from 51 and take nothing for granted. But I’d rather live lean like Mom to improve my odds and enjoy more along the way.

 

To live lean means to eliminate time spent shopping for food and preparing it. It starts by basing your diet on a few regular nutritious choices and then finding one place to get it all for an affordable price.

Costco is the answer. I do all of my grocery shopping at Costco, entering a supermarket only a few times a year. (Heck, I do about 90 percent of all shopping at Costco). There’s still a stereotype about Costco selling only massive sizes, which is just not true. It’s possible to buy a single Rotisserie chicken, a dozen eggs or a bottle of wine. Sure, you can’t purchase a single apple or avocado, but don’t most of us buy them at least six at a time?

Costco is a terrific company on many levels because it stays lean. It limits its products to only high-end stuff, including many food products made under its own Kirkland Signature line. It caps its markup on products at 14 percent, miniscule for retail, and that creates customer loyalty. It provides its employees with among the highest wages and best benefits in retail, which also creates loyalty. It lets customers return merchandise with no receipts and no questions asked – with few time limits.

The company operates under two simple rules: Take care of your customer, and take care of your employees. Walk into a Costco and you’ll find people providing customer service with a smile.

Full disclosure: I’m a longtime Costco member and shareholder. I believe in everything the Kirkland, Washington, company stands for, though I’ve never had one of those cheap hot dogs they sell by the thousands. (They’re apparently pretty good, if you like hot dogs.)

I find everything I need to eat at Costco:

Rotisserie chicken: These are an excellent value at $5.99. Remove the fatty skin and you have enough for one meal plus leftovers. If you buy two, you can carve the second one up and take care of several lunches and perhaps another dinner.

Flank steak: This is the leanest cut of beef, yet it’s juicy and flavorful. Costco portions aren’t small, but if you’re cooking for only one or two, you can freeze half of it. I only eat red meat occasionally, usually when hosting guests, and this is a great option.

Wild salmon: It’s sometimes difficult to find salmon that’s not farm-raised, which contains higher levels of chlorinated compounds known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Costco sells wild salmon, some of which is already marinated.

Vegetables: Go for the mixed dark greens available in boxes or bags. Organic spinach comes in large bags or plastic tubs with a short-term expiration date. Spinach is versatile—you can use it to anchor salads or cook it in olive oil and serve as a side dish for dinner. Asparagus and broccoli come in larger packages and can be enjoyed several times over the course of the week. At our house asparagus is considered finger food and I’ve been known to eat it six times a week, coating it with olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt and baking for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. I also buy broccoli and cucumbers at Costco.

Fruits: The price of blueberries fluctuates wildly over the course of the year, depending on whether Costco can obtain them from local farmers or must ship them from greater distances. You usually can find blackberries and strawberries as well. Frozen berries are always a good option. I buy apples, bananas, and avocados at Costco as well.

Olive oil: This can be a bigger-ticket item, so it pays to buy in bulk. Costco’s private-label “Kirkland Signature” extra virgin olive oil is a good value and a rich source of healthy fats as a salad dressing or as a marinade for spinach and asparagus.

Tomatoes: Rich in antioxidants, tomatoes are a staple of any high-performance diet. Costco sells them in all sizes, from grape to full-size.

Eggs: We buy the two-dozen package, but they come in smaller amounts.

Peanut butter: Costco’s organic creamy peanut butter, produced under its Kirkland Signature label, is delicious and contains only dry roasted peanuts and sea salt.

Whey protein powder: Whey is a by-product of cheese manufacturing and includes many essential amino acids that boost the immune system and promote overall good health. Protein powder can be found in chocolate and vanilla powder. I mix a scoop with my morning green smoothie and also a half-scoop with watered down orange juice before working out.

Muscle Milk Light: These sell in cases of 24 for $30 but they tend to go on sale for $22-$24 every couple of months so I stock up. Each 8.25-ounce container provides 20g of protein and 140 calories. I consume one right after working out to jumpstart recovery. They’re also convenient as mid-morning or mid-afternoon nutrition or if you’re running around all day with errands and shuttling kids. I limit myself to two a day, usually just one.

Nuts: They’re not cheap, so it pays to buy in bulk. You can put them in salads, mix them into post-workout recovery shakes, and even eat them alone like I do as a mid-afternoon snack. Almonds, walnuts, and pecans are good choices. Freeze to keep fresh.

Water: Costco sells bottled water by the case. Grab some standard half-liter bottles, along with some 8-ouncers for kids or guests who might not need a full bottle. Of course, you can save money and the environment by refilling your own water bottle.

Wine: Did you know that nobody sells more wine in the United States than Costco? Because of that buying power, the savings is passed along to you. Costco wines come from all over the world, including Europe, South America and Australia. Alcohol is not a part of a Live Lean lifestyle, and I limit myself to just an occasional glass of wine. There’s perhaps no better place to pick up a quality bottle of wine for a reasonable price and Costco has everything to satisfy your wine palate.

And that’s it. By “limiting” my nutrition to just these items, I save time and money and eat healthfully. I put limit in quotes because I don’t see this as deprivation. It’s what my body has come to crave. Costco makes it one-stop shopping.