I want to streamline my life. I also want to streamline the life of my clients and friends and really feel like I stumbled upon the right way to do it. When I was starting the journey down the path to healthy eating and fitness, I certainly took the long road. I've documented that a few different places, but just for added simplicity, I'll sum it up.
Sept 1, 2008
I started going to the gym. I was 235 and had never exercised before in my life. I would go two times a day, mostly hitting random machines and doing as long as I could for cardio. Usually this was about 10-12 minutes per session at a very slow pace. Nutritionally - the only thing I heard is I'm supposed to eat every 3 hours. I went to the store and bought a whole freezer full of Michealina's Lean Gourmet frozen dinners. I would eat one of these 200-300 calorie boxes every 3 hours, on a precise schedule (I would set my phone alarm - seriously...) and stop everything when it was time to eat. My daily total was usually about 1200 calories. This included 2 workouts a day. I lost weight - really fast. I turned into a flabby, skinny, pale, sickly looking wimp.
Feb 22, 2009
Started P90X and learned about protein! Oh man did I learn about protein. Well, honestly, mostly I learned about grilled chicken breast. I would eat grilled chicken breast for about 3-4 of my 6 meals a day. My protein numbers were often around 300g of protein a day, with the rest of my calories coming from extremely low fat, instant microwavable food. Basically, one step better, but still junk. I was still losing weight, but not adding any real muscle.
My binges during this time were mostly under control due to my excitement from P90X and starting to really get fit. It wasn't until I finished my first 90 day round that my Binge Eating Disorder truly came back, with a vengeance. After I finished my first round, after many attempts to stop binging, I reentered therapy.
Feb 22, 2010
I celebrated a year of doing Beachbody programs with a 4 day binge (very typical) of pizza, ice cream, doughnuts, and all the rest. I just couldn't stop binging out on everything I could get my hands on. The 24 hour gas station was my worst enemy. I would go out in middle of the night and buy 6-10 king size candy bars, 2-4 quarts of cookie dough ice cream, several 2 liters of pop, and 2 big bags of doritos in a single haul. I was working my ass off in the gym, under-eating, stupid low fat, fairly healthy food for maybe 10 days to 2 weeks, then binge like a maniac for 3-4 days. UGLY. I was spinning out of control and starting to get chubby again. By mid summer, I had ballooned from 168 to 190 again and was heading down the path of relapsing.
I kept trying to get back to the hard P90X workouts, and eating super low calorie meals every 3 hours, but something wasn't working. I couldn't keep it up for long stretches of time. Finally, things changed.
April 1, 2010
I found out about www.MarksDailyApple.com. This started to make sense, but it went against so much of what I had come to believe. Eating fat makes us fat! Carbs are needed for energy! etc. I butted my head against it for a while, but after binge after binge, decided that I HAD to change something up, or I would keep falling off the wagon.
I took the Primal Plunge.
I started eating a lot of fat and pretty lowish carbs. It was terrifying. I expected to blow up like a freaking balloon - yet after the first couple weeks, I actually lost a couple pounds. After a month, I was down about 10. More importantly, I hadn't had a major, fall off the wagon binge in over a month! I was slowly starting to believe.
It wasn't until I bought in completely that the real effects started to happen. I started getting leaner and building muscle at the same time. I started having more energy while I ate more fat. I continued to learn about the really good effects of eating animal fat along with tons of veggies. Everything was coming together.
Now, I believe I found the last part of the puzzle. It's time to simplify things even more. No more 6 meals a day. No more stupid cardio all the time. Here's the simplified plan:
Nutrition:
3 meals a day in a limited feeding window. Eat whenever you want for the first meal, then eat a second a few hours later, and a third a few hours after that. Then shut it down until the next day. Ideally, this should create a 16 hour fast every day. More on the reasons why down below.
Meals will consist of plenty of protein, plenty of fat, and plenty of veggies.
No grains. (Wheat, Rice, Rorn)
No sugar.
No fruit.
No legumes.
A typical day might be this:
Noon: Meat Omelet, coffee
3pm: Ground Beef Salad
4:30pm -workout-
6pm: Sweet Potato, Steak/Fish Salad
Done. I'll only have the sweet potato on workout days, none on rest days. Easy right?
Workouts:
3 strength sessions per week, using mostly compound full body moves. (Deadlift, Bench, Military Press, Row, etc.)
1 hard cardio sprint session/Insanity type workout a week for cardiovascular performance.
lots of walking.
That's it! Easy stuff! Every time you eat - eat lots of veggies and meat. No bread, no pasta, no sugar - whatever. It's junk, it's stupid calories. It's stupid insulin-creating junk. If you're very lean, you may have some fruit, if not, skip it.
Why the small feeding window with the intermittent fast?
Check out Martin Burkhan's amazing site - Leangains.com
http://www.leangains.com/2011/03/intermittent-fasting-for-weight-loss.html
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