A brief recap…
You’ve hit The Dip.
That point where you feel an increase in resistance to doing what is best to support your weight loss or fitness goals.
Remember, The Dip is there to get your attention. To make sure you’re on the right path. To make sure that your plan is sustainable.
You’re ready for The Push. The Push will get you past The Dip.
The Push is your plan made up of three parts:
1. The supportive eating plan
2. The right exercise program
3. Your support team
The Supportive Eating Plan
Let’s define a supportive eating plan.
Quite simply, it’s a way of eating to support your appearance, fitness, and health-related goals.
There’s a lot of options and opinions as to what way of eating is best for weight loss/fat loss, general appearance, muscle gain, and health.
I will save you from listing out all the possible diets, but believe it or not, there’s a Wikipedia page of every diet known to man if you’re interested in giving up an hour of your lifetime.
Considering something…
If all these diets have worked at some point in time, it is not indicating that one is better than another.
It only shows how adaptable the human system is to what you feed it.
What you need is something that supports your goal and is sustainable.
Chances are you already know the rules. Let’s take a quick test.
Let’s say your goal is to lose 20 pounds of body fat.
Question 1: True or False. To lose 20 pounds of body fat, you should eat more calories than what your body needs on a daily basis.
Answer: False. Eating more calories than what you need on a daily basis results in the excess calories being stored as fat. That is like buying so much stuff that you no longer have enough room in your house for it, so you rent a storage unit (aka rent more house that you don’t live in) to store your excess stuff. Buy (aka eat) less stuff, and you won’t need a storage unit (aka carry around excess body fat).
Question 2: Which is better on a fat loss diet: A Twix Bar or a grilled chicken breast?
Answer: Clearly a trick question, but I know that you know a grilled chicken breast is typically a better choice when fat loss is the goal.
Yes, I’m being bit silly, but my point is that many people do nothing to help themselves because they think they need special knowledge when what they really need is a change in their behavior and then be consistent with those behaviors that support success.
You don’t need to avoid certain foods.
You don’t need a special diet.
You don’t need to fast.
You do need to eat to support your weight loss goal. That means eating enough but not more than your body needs if your goal is to lose weight (even if you ate McDonalds every day).
You need to eat real food (if it grew from the ground or used to have a face, it’s probably food [exception being other humans… sorry zombies]) if your health is a concern.
Plan and pay attention to what you’re eating.
Do it for 2 weeks.
Reassess your status in comparison to your goals.
Make adjustments in quantity and quality of food.
Repeat.
Yes, it is that simple. Yes, it may be difficult at times.
I know having a more detailed plan can help. Sometimes it’s easier to have someone else help make the decisions, so we can conserve energy.
That’s why I got advice from the best nutritional strategist in the world, Dr. Mike Roussell. Thankfully, he was nice enough to contribute a chapter to All Gain, No Pain (Chapter 11). It turns out that Dr. Mike’s advice was really quite simple too. You’ll see how easy it is when you read it.
If you’d like to see an even more detailed plan like the one I used to get into All Gain, No Pain shape (still there 2 years later), the pick up Dr. Mike’s book Meta-Shred. I recommend this book to my all my clients. It answers all the questions you could possibly have about food and nutrition and lays out a step-by-step strategy to support your health and fitness goals.
It doesn’t whether your goal is to lose fat or gain muscle or both. You need an eating plan to support your goals first and foremost. You cannot out-exercise an eating plan that does not support your goals.
Speaking of exercise. I’ll discuss that next…
Get started on your pain-free comeback to the gym today
