This a behind the scenes look at a real transformation. It’s isn’t sexy. It doesn’t happen quickly. And it sure doesn’t include any special diet or magic pill. It’s about making good choices, as often as possible. It’s about being a little more aware of your surroundings. It’s about making a little change and nailing that change every single time. And most importantly, it’s all about the journey, the process and falling in love with that slow and steady progress, every day, every week and every year. After a serious analysis of one of my client’s 11% drop in body fat, I narrowed down 4 main concepts that produced such amazing results.
The Power Of A Food Journal
Why? Because it brings awareness which is step #1 in the change process. As Bruce Lee simply says, “To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.” A food journal does just that.
You might be thinking to yourself, oh yeah, I eat pretty healthy. Ok, I say. Sounds great. Now show me with your food journal. All of sudden things get a little interesting. Once you are able to see what was going on, you have a much clearer picture of how to move forward. Food journals are a great tool for many reasons, but the most important reason is that it brings awareness to what we are putting in our body.
Try it out for yourself. Grab a piece of paper and write down everything that you eat and drink for 3 days straight. When filling out your 3-day food journal, there is no such thing as a “bad” food or “good” food for right now. The journal is simply a tool to assess where you are right now. That’s it. Before you can make any intelligent change, you have to know where are you right now. And if you’re having serious resistance to even the thought of writing down your food for 3 days, don’t worry, that’s totally natural. It’s a lot less painful than you think, especially when you strip any of the judgements from it. It’s nothing more than an objective picture of what is – that’s it. You got this.
Lifting Heavy Weights With Proper Form
Lifting weights combined with a good nutrition plan is the #1 way to shed fat, look great, and have lots of energy. Can you drop some weight by doing cardio? Of course you can. There are hundreds of various ways to burn calories and lose weight. Most of them will work in the short-term. But relying solely on cardio and diet will not produce the body composition changes that most people are after.
The most efficient tool in shedding fat and keeping muscle tissue is strength training with moderate to heavy weights. Not only do you get a caloric boost after you train with moderate to heavy weight (up to 48 hours of after burn effect), but more importantly, you release various hormones that help retain muscle mass and signal fat burning.
Over the long-run, building and maintaining your muscle will give you a distinct metabolic advantage over someone who is the same bodyweight but with less muscle. You’ll burn more calories at rest (because muscle tissue is more active than fat) and therefore be able to stay lean without trying too hard. You’ll also be stronger so that the daily activities become easier. And with muscle and a lower body fat, you’ll achieve a “toned” look that everyone desires.
Slow Eating
If you’ve ever been so hungry you just chow food over your kitchen counter, you certainly know about fast eating. You look at the clock and less than 1 minute has gone by. Holy smokes that was fast. I know, we all get to that point sometimes, it happens.
But if you really try to focus on slow eating, it will completely change your eating habits. Not only does healthy food taste better when you slow down to savor each bite, you’ll notice that you’ll eat considerably less food. By slowing down, you allow your gut ample time to signal to the brain that you’re full. This normally takes about 10-20 minutes for all the satiety signals to make it to the brain. With slow eating, a plate of food becomes wonderfully satisfying. You are completely satiated and cravings seem to vanish.
The best part about eating slowly is that is has NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT YOU EAT. It could be a plate of veggies with grilled fish or a gigantic plate of nachos – it doesn’t matter. Eating slowly ONLY REFERS TO HOW YOU EAT. Because of this, it’s one of the simplest tools I use.
A few strategies to make the execution of slow eating easier:
-Never eat alone. Try to eat with company and tell at least 1 story during the meal.
-Replace your fork with a set of chopsticks.
-Make a game out of it. Set a timer. Place a bet with your partner. Whatever it is, make it fun.
-Never eat alone. Try to eat with company and tell at least 1 story during the meal.
-Replace your fork with a set of chopsticks.
-Make a game out of it. Set a timer. Place a bet with your partner. Whatever it is, make it fun.
Focusing On One Meal At A Time
If you’ve ever tried to change your diet or add healthier options, you might have noticed how challenging it is. Most of us KNOW what to eat; it’s the EXECUTION that’s the challenging part. Life gets in the way. I know.
One solution, is to focus on one meal at a time. Start with the easiest one – breakfast. Don’t even think about lunch, dinner, or even snacks. Not only focus on breakfast, break it down into an even smaller task – change 1 aspect of your breakfast. That is it. One change. Focus on something so simple that your chances of success are almost 100%.
For example, my client Patrick was eating granola with fruit, juice, and coffee with milk and sugar – a pretty typical “healthy breakfast”. All we did was take out the granola and replaced it with 2-3 eggs. Simple. Once Patrick felt 100% comfortable getting breakfast right every single day, then we moved on to something else.
Remember, habits take time to set in. The biggest problem I see people make is that they try to do too much at once. It goes well for a short period of time, but because there is so much change, there’s no time to ingrain the good habit. Motivation wanes, willpower runs out, and the person most likely fall back into their old habits.
This habit change is the foundation of how our coaching works. It’s so vital. I hope you learned some valuable information from this post. These are our 4 foundations of fat loss that work with everyone I’ve ever had change to help.
