Laying the Foundation – Part 1

How I Stopped Dieting and Started Changing My Lifestyle Eating Habits

When you look into the mirror what do you see? Perhaps you see a cupcake with a head and a couple extra appendages. Perhaps you see a pear that can talk. Or perhaps you see walking toothpick. No matter your aesthetic malady, if it can be fixed with diet and exercise, we can fix it here at Better Body Journal. Undertaking a new “diet” or exercise program should not be taken lightly. If you are severely overweight, severely underweight, and/or have any medical conditions, you should always consult your physician prior to drastically changing your eating habits and performing significant weight bearing tasks.

Now I would like to outline a number of basic rules for building the foundation of your new dietary plan.

Rule #1 – Permanent Changes

I avoided using “The Diet” as a subtitle of this section for a reason; this is not a diet. I repeat, we are NOT DIETING here. These are the permanent changes you need to make to your lifestyle eating habits. From now on when I use the word “diet” I am referring to your lifestyle eating habits. For example, right now you might say that your diet consists of Coca-Cola, donuts, cheeseburgers, and ice cream. In the future you will say that your diet consists of water, peanuts, lean meat, and jello with low-fat whipped topping. I will construct a foundation for you to follow, which will allow you to say you have changed your diet forever, and you will say it with pride!

Rule #2 – You Are What You Eat

Your diet will be responsible for 70% of your total results, with physical exercise comprising the additional 30%. You can not escape this rule. If you eat french fries and drink beer, you will be either a) fat or b) skinny fat (another term for someone that is not outwardly fat, but holds a soft midsection and very little muscle tone). I will show you how you can time your meals and macronutrient consumption to maximize the impact of your diet on your body composition 100% of the time.

Rule #3 – No Cheating

No, it is not OK to cheat. Even the term cheat carries negative connotations. The Waist Watchers and Jennifer Craigs of the world will tell you that you can eat what you want in moderation. To most people that means it’s OK to have donuts in moderation, then it’s also OK to have ice cream in moderation, which must mean it’s OK to have soda in moderation. Soon you’re eating everything that you shouldn’t be eating in moderation, but the end result is that you’re just eating little servings of a whole bunch of different junk foods! I will develop a system of goals and rewards that you can follow to achieve the success you want and enjoy the foods that taste best.

Rule #4 – No Fad Diets

There is no fad diet out there that works for everyone. Atkins can work for some, but can lead to bingeing and kidney failure. Low fat can work for some, but can lead to diabetes. Juice diets might work for a couple weeks, but you will end up nutrient deficient and likely very sick. I will show you how to take the best of all worlds and create one all-encompassing philosophy for changing your diet forever.

Rule #5 – Eat Breakfast Silly

Breakfast is the all important meal of the day. If you skip breakfast you might as well forget about maximizing your progress. Skipping breakfast means that your body will continue to eat up precious muscle tissue (catabolism) in a prolonged state of fasting. Your metabolism will slow down to accommodate the lack of nutrients, and will store each successive calorie that you consume in efficient little adipose cells (fat tissue) for later use. Even if you start with a glass of milk or a piece of toast an hour after you wake up, you will be better off than if you wait until lunch to eat your first meal.

Rule #6 – Choosing the Right Calories

A calorie is not a calorie. Fat should not be combined with carbohydrates period. General guidelines are: any meal with more than 10 grams of carbs should have less than 8 grams of fat; any meal with more than 8 grams of fat should have less than 10 grams of carbs, and absolutely NO sugar. Yes, this means high-fat sandwiches are out, steak and potatoes are gone, no more juice and toast with your eggs, and nix that full-fat butter on everything except for vegetables.

Rule #7 – Seriously. Choose the Right Calories

A calorie is still not a calorie. Every meal should have at least 20 grams of protein. This means a 6 meal day will consist of a minimum of 120 grams of protein. I maintain that athletes should not eat less than 80% of their bodyweight (in lbs) in grams of protein. That means a 180 lb athlete will consume between 140-200 grams of protein in a day. This is not now, nor has it ever been, too much protein for an active human being. Protein requires additional calories to process, similar to soluble fiber, and therefore creates a thermic effect in the body, thus speeding up your metabolism and negating a small percentage of the actual caloric protein consumption just in case your body doesn’t quite use all of the protein in any particular day. I will provide a general guideline of how to construct your meals to follow rules #6 and #7.

Quick Tip #1

It is OK to eat a small healthy snack before bed.

Quick Tip #2

It is OK to drink as much water as you can comfortably consume, 64 oz minimum in any given day.

Quick Tip #3

You need carbohydrates for energy. Instead of avoiding them, we will time carb intake based around pre-planned activity levels.

In the next installment I will cover the basics of building a diet plan. I will discuss calorie calculations, meal breakdowns, and meal suggestions. I will also expand on most of the tips that I summarized today, so learn them well in my absence, and don’t wait to start implementing them! Adding in a couple changes at a time will make it easier to change your overall habits, and you won’t be able to actually pinpoint the exact date you started “dieting” because it will be a slow aggregate change. Good Luck!

Please send your questions and comments to theshadow@betterbodyjournal.com. The Shadow has been certified twice in his lifetime for sports nutrition and personal training. He has 10 years of experience training strength athletes, bodybuilders, powerlifters, and clients from the general population.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Diet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.