AH Style: The ‘Five Factor Diet’

Now that Memorial Day is behind us, the summer swimsuit season will soon be in full swing. Today, in part one of our look at the legendary Hollywood “5-Factor Diet,” we’ll show you how to get ready for that bikini without starving yourself.

Famed celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak has worked with Halle Berry, Orlando Bloom and Katherine Heigl and he’s designed a five-factor diet that will get you ready for the beach and beyond.

“No weighing your food, no counting your calories. No carb cutting. No magic pills, powder, or potions,” Pasternak said.

According to Pasternak, we need to have five simple meals a day and each meal must fulfill five criteria:

Low-fat protein

Healthy carbohydrates

5-10 grams of fiber

Healthy fats

Non-sugar beverage

For breakfast, one of Pasternak’s suggestions is a turkey chili burrito with fat free cheese.

To prepare this meal spray your skillet with a little olive oil, then begin cooking some egg whites. You can separate them yourself or you can buy them all ready separated.

Add in a bit of turkey chili. You can use homemade or canned turkey chili, Pasternak said.

“You just want to look at the side to make sure it doesn’t receive 20.5% of calories in its fat,” he added regarding the canned version.

Add fat free cheese then garnish with salt and pepper and place in a grain tortilla.

This delicious meal is a favorite of Eva Mendes and Alicia Keys.

Another excellent breakfast choice or mid-morning snack?

Yogurt on toast!

Take whole grain bread and some fat free yogurt in a berry flavor. Add some berries or a berry preserve on top of the yogurt and that’s it!

“This is like a blueberry pizza,” Pasternak said. “It is sweet, it’s refreshing [and something you can have] instead of a Danish.”

For lunch? One of Pasternak’s recommendations is tomatoes stuffed with chicken salad.

Dice up chicken breast with non-fat mayonnaise and seasoning or you can use tuna instead of chicken. Then, stuff the tomatoes with the mix.

Later you can have a smoothie. “We just have some frozen berries in there,” Pasternak said pointing to his blender. “They are cheaper and they don’t go bad . . . We have a scoop of whey protein, or you can use soy protein.”

Pasternak suggests adding a little bit of cold water in the blender. Run it just above the berry level so there’s slightly more water than berry.

Zach Braff and Kanye West enjoy these shakes, Pasternak noted.

For dinner, you can try something a little more hearty: turkey meatballs over brown rice.

“You can buy microwaveable rice if you want,” he said.

This meal places turkey meatballs on brown rice with a little roasted tomato on top.

Mandy Moore is a fan of this meal, Pasternak said.

Make them with ground turkey breasts. “You can season it however you like,” Pasternak said. “You can put egg whites in them to bind them. There is no right or wrong way to make these as long as you are using ground turkey breast.”

Pasternak said you can also use chicken meat, though ask your butcher for the breast.