Six Peeps

November 18, 2007

How to lose weight…

“Tomorrow NEVER comes and ‘SOMEDAY’ is a disease that will bring your goals and dreams to your grave with you”.
–Timothy Ferris: American Chinese Kickboxing Champion; the only American to hold a Guinness Record in Tango Dancing; Breakdancer in Taiwan; Shark Diver; Motorcycle Racer; Business Owner; World Traveler; Self-Made Multi-Millionaire; 30 years old

If you want to make a change, don’t say you will start this routine tomorrow or after thanksgiving, etc… YOU NEED TO START NOW. Trust me on this. Can you do it? Or do you have too many excuses holding you back?

After getting phone messages and email from my peeps about how I lost weight, I decided I would just tell-all in a single blog post. This will be the last blog post about my COMMANDO. Yay!

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor. If you do this and get yourself sick, you can’t sue me… mmmkay? Second, this is a hardcore lifestyle change that will take two weeks to get used to. It is my opinion that if you want fast results, you have to pay by making DRAMATIC changes to your lifestyle and sticking to it. It’s not bad at all after two flawless weeks.

OK… If you want to lose weight, here’s a quick summary of simple rules you will need to master. The rules are simple.

The hard part is implementing and committing to the rules, and exercising self control when put into certain situations (i.e. family BBQ, Bill Lumburgh’s birthday, going out for Mexican food with friends, traveling and the other millions of situations that we face every day that justify a ‘pretty good’ reason to cheat just a little bit).

The secret for me were two: 1. Starting a fitday.com account (www.fitday.com) and entering every single item that went into my mouth, and tracking my weight… EVERY DAY. and 2. Self-control, planning and making this one of my top priorities.

So the rules:

1. Limit your daily intake to 2000 calories, in six meals per day (or approx 300 calories per meal). Many Americans eat this many by the end of lunch. For me, a venti sugar-free non-fat latte is considered one of my six meals.

2. Make sure those calories are coming mostly from protein.

3. Get lots of exercise. Here’s what I did: Monday and Friday: weights. Upper body. 1 hr. See www.bodyforlife.com to see how I was spending my time at the gym. Tues, Wed, Thurs, Sat: Running. My first 6 weeks I would run for 20 minutes and finish hard. The last 6 weeks I doubled that and now I run about an hour every day. Even on Saturdays when I am shooting a wedding, I would still get my run in. I make sure that my workout is the absolute first thing I would do each day. My rule: I can’t have breakfast until I have come home from my workout. That rule is still in place and I never, not one day in all the time I was doing this, did I ever skip a work out or get it in later in the day. I usually get up at 5:30 or 6.

4. Commute on my bike. To the grocery store, to get a haircut, to my studio every day, etc. I would ride my bike. Rain, Shine, Day or Night. I know this is scary for some, and I totally understand. Just ride as much as you feel comfortable, wear a helmet, and find roads that have little traffic. Bike lanes are also your friend.

5. SUNDAY: This is your holiday! Make plans to go out for dinner with friends and family, go to a movie and order popcorn, drink sodas, eat pizza, etc!!! You earned it! Sleep in if that’s your thing! I have eaten well over 6500 calories on the occasional Sunday. By Sunday night I often feel sick and shamed. This is a good thing. Monday I am SO ready to get back to my routine! Thursday is when I start jonezen for a hamburger.

That’s it! Easy! #4 like I said, might not be easy for some. It’s OK. Just follow the other 4 rules and that will work great!

EATING: It’s a real science!

Good Foods:
Egg Whites
Chicken (white meat)
Vegetables
Potatos (dry)
Tomatos
Peppers
Fish: Tilapia and Salmon are my fav’s.
Zone Bars
Starbucks Lattes
Water
Sushi (but NO tempura!)
Red Wine (I have wine or one or two cocktails per night)
100% whole wheat bread.
jalepenos. I love these, they make any plain meal spicy!

Bad Foods:
Sugar, fatty foods (the obvious)
There is no fast food out there that is acceptable.
Nuts and Avocado Olive Oil (I know those are “good” fat - good if you are already at your ideal weight. Bad if you are trying to lose weight. Fat is fat. I eliminated all nuts and avocados and olive oil from my diet)
Cheese. No such thing as good cheese. It’s fat.
Red meat. I started off eating lean beef. Nowadays I try to stick to chicken and fish.
Dairy. Just a plain no-no. Take Calcium vitamins.
Anything with enriched flour: pasta, bread, etc.

My typical day:

Breakfast: egg-white omelette. 4 egg whites, salsa, dry whole wheat toast. I eat this almost every day for bfast. I love it.
2 hrs later: Venti Latte (n/f; s/f)
2 hrs later: lunch: grilled chicken breast. Beans. Salsa.
2hrs later: Zone bar
2 hrs later: dinner: fish or chicken again. Red Wine.
2 hrs later zone bar.

If I need a snack in those 2 hour breaks: slice a tomato and eat. Mmmm.

Pretty boring. I was absolutely painful for the first two weeks. Now it’s just the way my day is. I’m no longer addicted to food so it’s not hard anymore. Not hard at all.

When I travel, I simply pack 6 ZONE bars… When the flight attendant passes out peanuts, I say “no thanks”, order some water and pull out a bar.

DO NOT CHEAT. You know the bowl of candy at the dry cleaners? Don’t touch it. You know the box of wheat thins in your cupboard? DO NOT OPEN and DO NOT EAT ONE. You know the chips and salsa your friends are eating right in front of you? DO NOT EAT ONE. Say no to fruity high calorie drinks like margaritas or mai tais. Etcetera. If you can go two solid weeks without cheating once, and I mean NOT AT ALL, then you will be good for the next 10. Remember, your holiday is approaching: Sunday! I eat whatever I feel like eating on Sunday. So far I am yet to cheat on my diet, even to the tune of a little jelly bean. I just made a decision that I would not cheat, not at the least. Stick to that.

Don’t let people make you think that you are boring because you won’t eat junk food with them. Don’t even go there. I have had a few people imply that because I wouldn’t eat junk food with them, that I was lame-o. I just ignored it. It’s fine.

SET GOALS. My goal was to get down from 215 to 187. I weighed myself every day before my first meal and logged my day at fitday, whether I was up in weight or down. Some days I would be 5 lbs heavier than the previous day. I could never figure that out. But I would log it anyway, and in the long run, my weight went down at 2-3 lbs per week. For some reason I am lightest on Friday mornings. My weight now fluctuates between 179 and 184.

There you have it. Good luck! Here’s a nice healthy meal: I call this “chicken and beans”.

Heat foreman grill. Spray with no-stick. Put chicken breast on it. Lower the top. In a small pan, heat up some pinto beans. But beans and chicken on a plate. Eat. Recommended beverage: Water. It really uhhhh brings out the chicken and beans.

Another note about Sunday (or Saturday): Pick one day of the week for your cheat day and stick to it. I will never say, “this week, bob is having a BBQ on wed, so I will make that my cheat day”. It will screw you up. trust me on that. The only exception: Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas. THATS IT. Also, cheat day does NOT begin at 12:00 AM on Sat night. It begins AFTER YOU WAKE UP FROM YOUR PREVIOUS NIGHT SLEEP. It ends when you go to bed.

So there you have it. Follow this routine and I am certain you will lose tons of weight in 12 weeks, at least 2 lbs a week. I just got my official “studio lighting, etc…” after photo. I don’t want to post my nipples on the blog again. I am sure my peeps have seen enough, but if you want to see the final shot that I am sending to Body for Life, shoot me an email. I’m happy to show it off. It feels good to do that!

Good luck!

November 18, 2007 |