Apricots --The Ultimate Diet Food

One of the key components of the Fiddle Diet is fruit: Fabulous, Fiber-Filled, Fantastically delicious fruit. Fruit helps you lose weight for a number of reasons. One is a natures way of satisfying our craving for sweet. When you are looking for sweet after a meal you will feel more satisfied and stay full longer if you have a piece of fruit after a meal. Our tendency in the rushed American diet is to just eat a starch and a protein. (i.e macaroni and cheese, cheese pizza, bean and cheese burrito, steak sandwich, hot dog, hamburger, cereal and milk, etc.) In our busy lives it is truly hard to get the fruits and vegetables into your day.

As part of the "warm-up" process to the Fiddle Diet I explain that all you have to do is add fruit and veggies to your diet. Don't worry about anything else right now. Just focus on eating a piece of fruit after every meal and getting a vegetable in with every meal if possible. (Breakfast is a little hard to squeeze in a vegetable but think of sauteed mushrooms or spinach. Or broiled tomatoes. Or eggs and Arugula. If you can't squeeze a vegetable into breakfast eat extra fruit or add some extras veggies in later.

In our Fiddle Test group the people the majority of people who just did the "Warm-Ups" of only adding fruits and vegetables to their normal diet and not changing anything else lost 2 pounds in the month. Kind of a fun and easy way to lose weight: Add food instead of take something away.

Because fruit is such an important part of the Fiddle Diet the BEST time of year to start is right now: the beginning of stone fruit season when apricots and cherries are available. And then followed closely by plums, peaches and nectarines. Then add is the summer joys of blueberries, strawberries and blackberries and super yummy watermelon and losing weight is so delicious and so good for you. Fruit helps lower your cholesterol, aids in digestion, helps your skin glow and fills you with much needed vitamins, antioxidants and fiber. And it helps you lose weight. Win Win Win Win Win all the way around.

An apricot may be the most ultimate diet food. The average apricot only has 17 calories in it, so you can have three and you still haven't come close to 50 calories. They are packed with fiber and are super high in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Lycopene and Potassium. They are also high in Beta-Carotene that helps protect LDL cholesterol from oxidation which is believed to help prevent heart disease. Vitamin A is a powerful antioxidant and Lycopene promotes wellness and strengthens the immune system.

But the main reason my daughter can't stop eating them is because they are delicious. We bought some at the Farmer's market on Wednesday and she ate four in an hour and we had to go back and buy more. They were gone by the next day. If you can't tell I'm salivating for more.