Why is the word Diet so scary? It’s restrictive, that’s why…you can’t eat this, don’t eat at this time, stop eating so much, eat this not that, and it means you can’t enjoy your meals. But it doesn’t have to be like that. What if I told you that one day a week, you can eat whatever you want? WHATEVER YOU WANT!! Wouldn’t the build up for the entire week about the possibility of getting to eat nothing but delicious, comforting, nastybutohsoamazing food be enough for you to stick to a healthy regimen for the other 6 days? It is for me, and I’ll give you an awesome menu that you will actually enjoy eating.
I’m reading The 4 Hour Body, by Timothy Ferriss, (thought I’d give it a shout out, Tim you can cut me in later, haha) and it has some amazing studies and tips for ways to ‘hack’ the body and achieve its ultimate potential. I feel that when it comes to fitness and health, America’s problem is that we are stubborn and ignorant…which has led us to be fat angry. No one listens to new ideas on how to lose weight because we already know everything and think everything is a ‘fad’ and it will just go away, and no one ever actually researches the tried and true ways to get healthy cause they just want a quick fix (ignorance). Tim gives us 5 rules to eat by in the book and they are:
1. Avoid white carbohydrates. (Replace with greens and black beans)
2. Eat the same few meals over and over. (Find a healthy meal you love and stick with it)
3. Don’t drink your calories (Americas biggest problem in my opinion)
4. Don’t eat fruit. (Crazy huh? There is reason for it.)
5. Take one day off and eat WHATEVER YOU WANT. (This applies to the entire day!)
I’m not going to explain everything in detail, go buy the book if you want to learn the geeky, but proven science behind it all. I will just outline it really quick. This is not Atkins, and carbs are not the enemy, just the white ones. You need carbs for energy so please feel free to eat bread/rice/pasta after a workout to refuel, just limit them throughout your day and make sure they aren’t WHITE! Eat meals higher in protein (chicken, white fish, ground turkey, lean ground beef). The idea here is to cut your calories and to do this, eat more GREEN veggies, spinach being numero uno. The whole no fruit thing was quite a shock to me, but here is the down and dirty reason for it…Glycerol phosphate breaks down to triglycerides via the liver, which is then stored as FAT. Confused? Me too, Google it. Plain and simple, If you love fruit, then go bananas on Saturday! Now I’m going to emphasize the DON’T DRINK YOUR CALORIES portion of this diet. Everyone does it and it is killing your fat loss progress, and no Diet drinks are not okay either cause all the crap they put in that can just confuses the hell out of your body and gets stored as fat too. STOP DRINKING YOUR CALORIES….water and tea (green is best) are your friends….one more time, STOP DRINKING YOUR CALORIES!!!!! Best part of the diet is the one day a week you can just eat whatever you want, seriously, anything. So if you’re a Diet Coke addict, insert here. The only thing I would like to add to eating is please get it out of your head that skipping breakfast is okay, and that lunch and dinner will suffice. That is definitely not okay, and you are fighting a LOSING battle if you think you will ever see results this way. You MUST EAT BREAKFAST WITHIN AN HOUR OF AWAKENING EVERY DAY!! This will jump start your metabolism and prepare your body for a day of burning extra calories, and try to eat about 4-5 small meals a day.
Now, will this diet work for everyone….no. Here’s why: you won’t stick to it, you’ll cheat more than one day a week, you’ll think “Oh I can just have white bread with my peanut butter and jelly sandwich today, it won’t kill me”, or you’re just a freak of nature and science doesn’t apply to you. If that is you, I can’t help you, so good luck, haha! I am not a licensed nutritionist so by all means, just take what I am saying with a grain of salt, and if you don’t agree with it, drink your precious Diet Coke and enjoy your daily dose of fast food. But for those of you that are serious about changing your life and really buying into my idea of ‘FitAndHappy’, please give this a serious look. You owe it to yourself to be happier and healthier, and these small changes in your diet just might be the trick. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Happy Eating, and see you in the gym!
Edit: I guess I should shed a little insight to the pig out day. This is actually vital to your continued weight loss, so please adhere to the one day of eat anything you want rule. The object here is to trip your metabolism and cause your body to go into fat burning overdrive. If you continue the program without the cheat day, your body will go into a lull and you will 'plateau', but once a week if you eat like a mad cow, you are fooling your metablolism into thinking it now has to work harder to burn all of your calories. Trust me it works, and is my favorite day of the week! My advice, eat so much that you don't even want to think about eating like that for another week, and it will help keep your cravings down...also if you do start to crave something bad mid-week, just write it down and promise yourself to eat it on Saturday, (or whenever your cheat day is) that way you have acknowledged your craving and hopefully settled a nasty dinner date with said horrible food item!
ReplyDeleteOkay...I'm trying this...starting tomorrow (since I just ate all the red and pink Starbursts in my king size pack). But I do have a question...should the "eat all you want" day also be the day of physical rest? Or does that matter? I just didn't know physical activity would effect the 5 Rules. I have the slowest metabolism, so I'd love to try this out!
ReplyDeleteGreat question Jessie, yes the cheat day should be a day off from the diet plan and your workout. Push water everyday, about a gallon or so, and increase it a little more on the cheat day to help flush all the extra carbs you will be loading on. Remember to eat upon awakening within and hour, then try to eat one of these outlined meals about every 4 hours, and your metabolism is sure to catch fire! Good luck and let me know how your progress is going, and hit me up with any questions along the way :)
ReplyDeleteThis is great! My only problem is how picky I am and trust me I wish it wasn't so! Its a texture thing. ugh. I feel like I'm always eating the same thing and gets old!
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