1. Pay attention to what you eat. Start tracking your calories and macros using an app like myfitnesspal. Anything less is just a guess, and it will most likely be wrong.
2. Eat more protein. If you can, include a protein source in every meal (4-6 oz. or 20-30 grams). It’s likely you are currently eating less than 50 grams per day.
3. Eat less processed junk food. This includes all fast food and most packaged goods.
4. Eat less carbohydrates. If you have steps 1-3 in check, this step matters less. But since you most likely don’t this step matters a lot. Most people consume mostly carbohydrates without realizing it. Carbs and sugar are in everything and a cup of white rice has 200 calories and 44 grams of carbohydrates. I could easily eat 2-3 cups in a sitting without noticing it. Most experts that tell you carbohydrates are okay assume you are eating a sensible amount per meal (like 1/2 cup of white rice or a single piece of toast). At the end of the day, Americans are consuming in excess of 300 grams of carbohydrates per day, a direct correlation to the increase in obesity and metabolic disease.
5. Never drink your calories. Aim to drink half your body weight in ounces of water per day. Everything else comes with some sort of drawback, including diet sodas and artificial sweeteners.
6. Severely limit alcohol. Alcohol is a dietary saboteur. First off, many alcohol drinks don’t actually count the alcohol when calculating total calories. When inputting into myfitnesspal, you actually have to assign a number of grams of either fat or carbohydrates to your drink to make it count in your total daily intake. Second, when you drink alcohol, the body stops processing carbs/fat/protein and only processes the alcohol. Thirdly, alcohol makes you momentarily stop caring about your goals. You are in party-fun mode, not nutrition-health mode. Party-fun mode is the reason McDonald’s has the 50 nugget option, because you’ll order it and you’ll kill it.
7. Nutrition planning and macro calculating is one of biggest reasons most people work with a coach or trainer. It’s helpful to have someone assist you with calculating your macros, set some boundaries, establish a behavioral approach to eating and provide accountability.
Remember, in order to adjust your lifestyle, you actually have to change your life. – Chief
8. Lift weights. Weight training provides the most benefits since it changes the shape of your body (muscle & tone), increase your metabolism which burns calories outside of the gym, is fully scale-able according to level of training experience, builds confidence, and becomes more enjoyable the longer you do it (as your degree of self-efficacy increases).
9. Do shorter, higher intensity cardio. When it comes to cardio, going hard and fast works best.
10. Sprinkle in steady state cardio. Steady state cardio is the longer, slower variety of cardio and should be used sporadically. Lots of trainers would say to omit this type of cardio altogether but it has benefits if used smartly and some people really like it. Walking is also the most impactful non-exercise, non-diet related thing you can do to improve your health.
Remember, nutrition is first, exercise is second, both are tools, and behaviors matter most. – Chief
Bonus: behaviors matter most. The greatest nutrition plan in the world won’t matter unless you establish the behaviors that enable you to adhere to it. This is why there are billionaires with personal chefs and luxurious home gyms that also struggle to get their training and nutrition in order. They haven’t addressed the behavioral aspect of the process – they spend an elaborate amount of money on someone to tell them what to do, then they ignore what they say.
Like Jim Rohn said, “you can’t hire someone else to do your push-ups for you.
In-person, virtual, or hybrid high-performance training is available now at trainoutwork.com.
Onward,
Chief
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