Someone asked me on Monday for Diet secrets and, although with every fitness “secret” the hard work, dedication and discipline that comes with it makes it look less like of a “secret” than most would like.Just to get a little side-tracked here; June 14th on the Doctor Oz Show he was talking about over-the-counter and prescription diet pills. All of the medication had some serious side effects that he discussed and gave examples of on air. One lady told her story and, among the others telling their story, was the only one that was actually in shape. After her story she said that she lost 3 pounds in 6 months using a particular prescription drug and then, after getting so fed up with trying to rely on pills, the rest was from working out and eating healthy.
Although I’m going to give some ‘secrets’ that I use, the short answer and the moral to the Doctor Oz show was that, whether it’s fitness or healthy eating, it’s a lifestyle change. Doctor Oz finished the segment by saying that people do loose good weight on these diet pills but without their behaviour changing (what they eat/making time to work out), they gain it all back and usually more.
SO, with that out of the way, here are ‘secrets’/ tips that I use to get in shape.
Tip:
1) Running in the Morning: This is when I get the most out of a workout. Right when you get up, have a quick sip (SIP) of a shake/juice/milk so that your body doesn’t think that it’s starving anymore and then head out for a run.
Like with all diets or exercises there are arguments for and against running like this but I’ve found this to be my number one weight loss method.Through the night your body burns carbohydrates and when you wake up and go for a run that’s the best time for your body to burn what’s left – fat. It’s important that you have something going into your system before this run (sip of juice, etc.) because that tells your body that it’s not in starvation mode any more. If you don’t have something there to boot your system, the run will shock your body and make it hold on to fat and burn muscle.
This tip has two tricks to it, the first is running RIGHT after you wake up (bed head and all) so that you burn that fat and the second is that the morning run will start a metabolic fire in your body for the whole day.
Personally, when I come home from a run I make and drink a protein shake, have a shower and then make a nice breakfast when I get out. Sometimes I make a protein shake very fast before I run, have a sip of it and then put it in the fridge for when I get back.
If runs get boring for you, get an interval timer so that you can add 10 second sprints ever 3 minutes or something like that.If you don’t get a chance to do a run like this be sure that you don’t use that as an excuse to not run or workout. You can run or workout any time!
I could go on and on about making running fun but I think I’ll save that for another blog.
2) Eating less: Eating Healthy is too obvious and this is the one I have the most trouble with because, if there’s food in front of me, I will eat it! Don’t eat until you’re full; eat until you’re not hungry. This has always been my biggest “On/Off the Wagon” problem because I love food. I don’t even eat bad food, I just eat far too much and I drink a bag of milk to myself a day and I’m barely home!
When I want to get into shape for a fight or for summer time, I eat slower and stop eating when I’m no longer hungry, not when I’m full.
I’ve found this to give me big results and, I’ve known friends that were fat in High School and are now over 100lbs lighter, they lost so much that I didn’t recognise them. The one thing these two guys both said was “I just stopped eating so much”.
Next time you’re having dinner, when you’re half-way done your first plate, ask yourself if you’re still hungry. It doesn’t matter if you WANT to eat more, if you’re not hungry you should put everything down. Unfortunately, that’s where the discipline comes in.
3) Drink lots of Water: This is one that I just remembered while I was writing the last tip but I did use it a lot ‘back in the day’ and it works well.
When you wake up, chug a giant class of water (this wouldn’t count as a sip of juice before the run). Then when you have breakfast, you’ll get full quicker. Before every meal do the same thing and before bed so that you’re not going to bed with that hungry feeling.
Sometimes I feel full right after chugging a giant glass of water.Often people get discouraged when they decide to lose weight and they start drinking a lot of water because they gain weight. Most people don’t realise that the weight that they’ve recently put on is water weight! Keep with it because it doesn’t matter what the scale says and water weight is MUCH easier to lose than fat.
4) Eat your bigger meals in the morning and eat smaller as the day goes on: This one has a long title but it’s a good one. If you do this with a morning run, you’ll get in shape real fast. The idea behind this is that you have ALL day to burn those calories from the morning and if you have a GIANT delicious dinner, sit and watch TV and then go to bed you’re just going to have fat.
I take it a step further and recommend that you make your meals smaller throughout the day and cut out carbs after 3pm to ensure that those carbs get burnt off and can’t turn into fat later in the day.
5) Prepare your meals: I’ve always found this to make a big difference because if you have meals prepared it leaves you with little options in which to deviate. I use to prepare meals every Sunday and Wednesday.
It can be as simple as what I still do; Every Sunday BBQ 10 Chicken Breasts (You can buy big boxes of Seasoned, skinless at Costco for about $30) and put those chickens into a container in the fridge.
Every morning I would take a guess at how many snacks/meals I would be eating throughout the day while I was out (if you have a regular schedule this should be pretty easy to get a handle on) and then pack that many prepared meals.My favourite was just simple chicken but I’ve seen prepared “Meat Medley”, Soup, etc. Whatever works for you. You could also prepare a batch of green vegetables and pack it with the chicken.
I mostly just cook it and pack it. I’ve also found that re-heating chicken made it taste dry and I realized that I actually like it much better when it’s cold.
Here are other blogs that I've posted that have weight loss tips:
1) Drink Away 10 Pounds
2) Eat Out and Stay Fit
3) Super Post-Workout Salad
4) New Years Diet Tips
I hope this gives you all (especially the person that asked) a couple of good tips or 'tricks' to get the most out of your workouts! Any other questions, just let me know!
As always, if you're looking for any training gear check out MMACompanion.com
