I wasn’t going to talk about the details of my new regiment. I’m far too busy to discuss details but I am excited about my recent progress and changes. I’m happy to be 30 pounds lighter. I’m happy to be healthier and to have more energy and to get sick after eating anything that shouldn’t be in my body. My body has adapted to hate unhealthy foods. What a blessing. My excitement sort of carried over to Twitter and Facebook where friends and family continually ping me about my diet and routine. So, after putting this off for a month, I’m going to share what I’ve been doing. Keep in mind, this evolves almost every day. I believe the true success in losing weight is education, willpower and common sense. Ice cream is not good for you but leafy greens are. It’s common sense. All of my spare time has been spent studying and researching and consulting with my Dad who is a trainer and is a martial artist, golden glove boxer, crossfit trainer, pilates student, master of body, mind and spirit and a supplement expert. He’s my inspiration. This may be a three part post because I believe there’s a lot more to this than veggies. It’s about achieving balance and putting things into your body that will act as catalysts to change. No matter what kind of change you want to make, there are some essentials that must be put in your body each day. Additionally, you must do physical activity every day. It’s a must until you’ve reached your target and then you can decrease psychical activity to 3 times a week.
Here are the essentials for change:
Time – You need time to do this. If your diet consists of frozen dinners, canned soda and take-out and you’re doing no physical activity then this will be an absolute challenge for you. Start slow by cooking more dinners at home and cutting back on sugary drinks. Cut out alcohol and take morning or evening walks. Do this for a month because to follow my guidelines will seem absolutely insane and you’ll give up in a week. I know this because I gave up when I attempted this last year. The vitamins I’m taking today were actually purchased last year when I did this for a week and gave up.
Balanced Diet – “Fuck the food pyramid” is what most dietitians will tell you. The food pyramid is outdated. You don’t need sugars and breads and dairy. You just don’t need it. You need protein to rebuild your muscle tissue that is broken down during exercise and you need carbohydrates for energy but not too many of them. You are hereby banned from eating fruits aside from Bananas, Tomatoes and Berries. Vegetables are a key ingredient in this diet and you are not allowed to cook any of them. If you fire up the stove, you’re losing most of the benefits of that carrot and what it contains. You’re also banned from alcohol, fruit juice, soda, tea, coffee and anything else that isn’t water or fresh vegetable juice. Two nights a week, I’ll have 1.5 glasses of red wine. This is alright and, if it’s on a night you worked out, your body will plow through the sugars in that wine instantly. Don’t drink the entire bottle. You’re going to drink more water than you have in your entire life. Exercise will make you thirsty so that helps.
Vitamins & Supplements – Everyone should consume vitamins each and every day of their life from the Flinstones vitamins you have as a kid to Centrum Silver for your elderly years. A multi-vitamin is the minimum vitamin. You’re going to be taking a lot more from now on. Expect to take nearly every A-K vitamin with the addition of fish oil, joint rebuilding (when you start lifting heavy) and a few herbs to help your body pump more blood and pass food easier. There are herbs that help you in decreasing calorie absorption and we’ll review those. Every human should take in one gram of protein for every pound they weigh. This is even more important when you’re dropping fat and building muscle. One egg has 6 grams of protein so you can see the complication here. That’s why protein supplements are crucial unless you plan on consuming 10 pounds of steak each night or 30 eggs a day.
Consistent Exercise on a Daily Basis – Experts recommend a “rest day” or “splurge day” You’re not allowed to have one of those. You can if you want but I don’t recommend it. Each day, you should complete 30 minutes of cardio where you are reaching your target heart rate for fat burning. This will vary depending on your age and other variables like weight, blood pressure, etc. If you’re serious about this, do cardio for an hour and ensure that 3 days a week, you’re also lifting weights. Technically, you can lift each day with 1 rest day each week. We’ll discuss a sample routine for men but I can’t make one for women. I’m not a girl and not a professional. You can’t JUST do cardio. Doing the eliptical for half an hour once a week won’t help you. You must put on muscle while dropping fat and muscle building also burns fat and by building your muscles, you’ll continue to burn fat while you sleep because your body is working overtime to re-build tissues you broke down while training. By lifting weights or doing cross-fit, you will burn fat while you sleep and may not use the covers on your bed on days you worked your body. Your body heat is much higher during rebuilding and, if you’re kicking the covers off, you know you’re also burning fat.
Motivation – The single most important thing is motivation. You have to lie in bed each and every night through the muscle cramps, soreness and restlessness and say out loud, “I’m going to be the healthiest person in the world! I’m going to move mountains!” You have to get up and think about your intake for the day and what you need to repair your muscles. You have stare at the soda machine at work and murmur to yourself, “fuck you! I’ll just refill my water jug!” That’s what it takes. Your social life will be affected and your kids will think you don’t love them and your spouse will hate you for getting so hot and for other people staring at you but you have to remind your drinking buddies and co-workers and family that this is for you and you have to get healthy. Remember that you want to hold your grandkids one day and play with them and escape cancer and beat diabetes and live on this Earth a few more years. You want that and you’re going to go out and do it! When you lose motivation, you lose the race. The vitamins you bought go to waste and the fresh veggies go bad and your blood sugar goes back up and your stress increases and you get back to where you were before. This is the key to making it all work.
This blog post is already at 1200 words. I’m going to leave it here and we’ll meet up in part 2. Thanks for reading.