The raw materials: yearlong nutrition If muscle gain and fat loss are your goals, here's what you must do - Personal Trainer

The training portion of the yearlong program requires mental toughness and physical stamina, but managing your diet is the real test of intestinal fortitude, which you'll need when a bacon double cheeseburger beckons you from the drive-thru lane, but you request a chicken sandwich sans mayo instead. And you'll definitely need it when you find yourself staring across the table at your date, hungry to partake of her ... chocolate souffle?

Fortunately, thanks to something called the 80-20 rule, those tests of will should come only intermittently over the next year, says Larry Krug, who holds master's degrees in exercise physiology and nutrition and serves as chief executive officer of Eatwize.com, an online nutrition consulting company based in Los Angeles.

"The goal here is not to deprive you of everything you enjoy," says Krug, whose clientele includes supermodel-turned-actress Estella Warren, surely the greatest testament to his expertise. "I'm telling you up front that 20 percent of your diet can be bad--you can have whatever you want. But over the course of the year, your diet needs to be healthy 80 percent of the time."

Krug's mandate will be one of the few constants over the next 12 months, as he makes your diet progressively more sophisticated and teaches you how to manipulate it over four phases. During the first three months, you'll cut out a lot of the really bad stuff from your diet, compile a healthy shopping list, and figure out how many calories you need each day.

In Phase 2, you'll learn how to use supplements such as creatine, how much protein you need each day, how to read a food label, how to eat healthy in restaurants, and how to time your meals in relation to your workouts. Next, you'll learn how to customize your diet and whip up some basic healthy recipes. Finally, in months nine through 12, you'll learn how to combine all of the above into a nutritional lifestyle that you can carry with you into 2003 and beyond.

FOR STARTERS

As with the training half of this program, you need to start with some basics....

Eat simple and natural. Processing strips food of some of its potential energy, not to mention valuable components such as fiber. The easiest way to avoid processed foods, says Krug, is to limit your food shopping to the periphery of the supermarket, avoiding the aisles (see "Phase 1 Shopping List"). On the fringe, you'll find good things like fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, low-fat milk and fresh farm eggs. In the belly of the beast, you'll find junk food, TV dinners, and shopping carts stuffed with the National Inquirer and shrieking kids. Steer clear.

Eat five meals a flay. If your meals are separated by large gaps, your body will adapt by slowing down its metabolism, which will promote fat storage. If it's time for one of those five meals and you're not hungry, don't force-feed yourself. And don't overcompensate by eating excessively at your next meal.

Drink plenty of water. Krug recommends that you drink at least one eight-ounce glass of water per hour. If you're exercising, you need even more. In matters of health, [H.sup.2]O is liquid gold. It assists in suppressing appetite, promoting the release of stored fat, and maximizing metabolic efficiency.

Eat meals that combine protein and carbs. Doing so promotes muscle gain and fat loss by keeping your insulin levels steady throughout the day. Eating too many carbs activates insulin secretion, which will give you a blood-sugar crash and prompt your body to store fat. Protein consumption causes your body to secrete glucagon, which evens out your blood sugar.

Consume enough calories. See "Counting Calories" (below) to figure out how many you need daily.

THE 40-20-40 CLUB

The ratio of carbs to protein to fat at a given meal doesn't have to be exact, but Krug recommends that your daily breakdown shake out in the general neighborhood of 40 percent carbs, 40 percent protein, 20 percent fat.

"Keeping carbs relatively low promotes weight control while still giving your body enough `juice' to run properly, particularly if you emphasize `complex' sources such as grains," he explains. "The fat recommendation is consistent with the guidelines of the American Cancer Association, and going any lower than that will probably deprive you of good fats. And 40 percent from protein is necessary to maximize muscle building when you're working out. Good protein sources include fish, eggs, chicken, turkey, tofu and lean red meat."

PHASE 1 SHOPPING LIST

* fruits

* vegetables

* fresh farm eggs

* 1-percent-fat milk

* fresh cuts of lean meat

* fresh fish (Salmon, mackerel and tuna are particularly good because they're high in omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to help prevent coronary heart disease.)

* tofu (Particularly good for a stir-fry or curry. Tofu doesn't have much flavor, but it absorbs any seasoning you're cooking with.)

* raw grains (oatmeal, quinoa, kashi and oat bran)

* nuts and seeds (sunflower seeds and natural peanut butter)