If your New Year's resolution includes you losing weight and eating healthier, "Top Chef" alumni and restaurateur Richard Blais is here to help.
The chef has partnered up with Alli, the weight loss pill, to create low-fat recipes. The new treats will be a part of the company's 60-day Kickstart, a program to help individuals accomplish their weight loss goals by eating healthy.
The restaurateur has lost 60 pounds himself, through old-fashion diet and exercise. Blais said being a chef meant living a chef's lifestyles, which included food tasting and enjoying the occasional wine. In the process, Blais told FOX News he gained 50-60 pounds.
"I had that moment where I was like wow who is this guy in the mirror?" Blais told FoxNews.com. "I also was trying to court my wife at the time, but these things came together so I tried to get the girl. I had to run after her, literally, and then cook for her, of course, and that helped me kickstart my journey."
The chef offers some food advice that can make a big difference, like what to swap your current food products with.
"Eat fresh food, cook at home, ask questions at restaurants and then if you are cooking at home, look at recipes," Blais said. "There's always something that can be swapped."
Swapping mayonnaise with hummus or yogurt is a great way of getting "chickpeas in your diet instead of the oil and the fat." Substituting mayo with yogurt in certain recipes can also make a difference. Another way to avoid animal fats is to swap butter with olive oil and swapping sugar with cinnamon and vanilla. Artificial sweetener, have been proven to have it's benefits, Blais suggests using something more natural.
"We love dessert, but you can replace a little bit of sugar with vanilla bean or cinnamon and that gives you the illusion of sweetness," Blais said.
Keeping with the sweet treats, Blais suggest swapping chocolate with cocoa or cocoa nibs.
"You know, chocolate is not a sweet ingredient," Blais said. "So if you use cacao or cocoa nibs, that's going to be a great swap."
A Final change includes going from fat cut meats to lean meats, which means cutting out the fatty steaks and opting for a low-fat turkey.
"Instead of that beefy short rib, which is delicious, a lean cut of meat: a skirt steak, a flank steak, something like that would be a good swap," Blais said. "Those are all great swaps you can make that will help you on your journey to hit your New Year's resolution goals."
