Over the past few weeks, I've finally gotten the scale to turn around and get heading south again. I've been battling with my weight as it has steadily gone up and up since my big weight loss in 2009. The low point (or high point, depending on how you see things :-) was when I weighed in at 199lbs right after Christmas. For me, that was the final straw. I have been determined since then to turn it around and learn how to eat for health, fat loss (more than weight loss) but also to build muscle and have a strong body. It is totally possible to lose fat and to gain and\or maintain muscle mass. I have lost weight and not lost any of the hard earned muscle I've put on with my kick ass workouts.
I have been doing a lot of studying and trying different things and I feel like I've finally put together what works best for me. I haven't adopted just one "diet" or one way of doing things, I've taken bits and pieces of a bunch of things and made a plan that is working for me.
Let me preface and say I have NOT gone and lost a ton of weight yet, but the progress bar has finally moved in the direction I want after having stalled for months. I was having a real yo-yo battle with my weight, week in and week out, with one week going down a pound or 2, only to gain that back the next. But with some studying and playing around, I have been seeing the results I want.
First, I had to think about what I want to eat and the lifestyle changes I needed and wanted to be sure that I was eating the right types of food for the best health and to build a fat burning engine inside me. Second, I had to think about how to eat and the right approach to make sure that when, how much, and what combinations of food I'm eating are working towards the health and fat loss goals.
One of the biggest changes for me has been the "lifestyle" changes of eating, and this has been eating more vegetarian\vegan, and also eating Paleo. To those that know theses lifestyles, you may think they are contradictory, and yes, there is much between them that is, but they also share many ideals, and combining these has been great for me.
The veggie eating lifestyle has done what it entails... I eat lots more vegetables than I ever did before. It has also made me expand my palette and try new and different foods. From quinoa and millet, to giant salads, to tofu, seitan, and other meat alternatives, I've learned to like a whole range of foods that I never had even thought about, much less ate before, not to mention the healthy benefits of eating more of a plant based diet (mom always said to eat my vegetables!).
However, I am not a vegetarian or a vegan. I don't personally believe that eating only veggie\vegan is the healthiest way to eat. Sorry to the vegans out there (my wife the most) but I believe that animal products are an essential part of life and we need what they offer us to be healthy. However, what I can also say is that people in this day and age, especially Americans, eat way too much meat, and we eat a ton of shitty meat. Factory farmed meat is bad for everyone... most especially the animals, that are subjected to horrendous and torturous lives... to people, who are eating sickly, unhealthy meat and slowing poisoning ourselves from within... and to the environment, which suffers under the weight of literally tons of shit, and by shit, I mean feces, poop, crap, etc.
The Paleo diet calls for eating meat, but it talks about staying away from the factory farms and eating grass fed meats. And I do my best to stay away from factory farmed meats, though I admit, I'm not perfect at this. I have mostly given up chicken, turkey, and pigs because these animals are literally tortured to death for their meat and the meat they are providing to us is poisoned, bloated, and unhealthy, but I do still eat some beef every now and again. More important to me though, with the Paleo diet, is that it means to give up wheat, sugar, and processed crap. Giving up these worthless carbs means better health and better eating. The other big principal of Paleo is that a high protein\ fat diet, with a "low carb" diet (which isn't low carb per say, its not eating crappy carbs from sugar and wheat and getting your carbs fruits and veggies, the natural way), is far, far healthier than any other way of eating. Less inflammation of the body, less poison, better insulin sensitivity, and a host of other benefits.
Veggie and Paleo together means to me that I am eating healthy, hearty, more environmentally friendly food and that I can feel more confident that I am only putting things that my body wants and needs inside of me.
The next part of eating is how to do it. For that, I have recently been eating using several methods... intermittent fasting, calorie restriction, and cheat days. This combination has made the difference for me in the past few weeks and I can see the fat burning engine has been turned on. If you don't know about intermittent fasting and what makes it a great way to eat and live, research John Romaniello, who is an excellent trainer and nutritionist. He's ripped, super slim, healthy, and on top it, he's a good writer. His new diet book, Fat Loss Forever, documents how to eat and live a healthy life using IF (intermittent fasting). IF, combined with calorie restriction (this is an easy one people, eating less!) is the bodies best way to use up the fat that is already there. I thought fasting would be hard, but the truth is that it has been super easy, and I haven't been starving myself, just having timed, regulated periods of eating and not eating. Done in the proper sequence, it's a powerful tool for health and fat loss.
Calorie restriction is obvious to the benefits (bring in less than you put out through exercise), but there is one big problem with JUST doing calorie restriction as a diet\fat loss method. Your body fights against this! After just a few days of eating less calories than your body feels that it needs, your brain tells your body to slow down your metabolism and go into starvation mode, which shuts down fat burning (basically, your body thinks its starving and it's trying to conserve what you have, which is the proper survival technique we're adapted to, but if you're trying to lose flab, this doesn't work). Logically thinking, we should just eat less food every day and we'd lose weight, but anyone who's done this for a long time knows it doesn't work, and it's because of this starvation mode effect.
So, how do you fight this? With my favorite day of the week... cheat day! Yes, Saturdays are my day where I get to eat WHATEVER THE F*CK I WANT!!! And I love it. Cereal, candy, chips, pizza, burgers, pasta, you name it, I can eat it. Cheat days work because it balances the negative hormonal effects of calorie restriction. One day of overeating brings your necessary hormone levels back to a point where your body never went to starvation mode and you stay in fat burning mode, pretty much all the time. And of course, there is the added psychological benefits of a cheat day. Sunday thru Friday, I eat a restricted diet (no sugar and crap... mostly, lol)... but no one wants to eat this way forever. A life with no chocolate? F- that! So the cheat day gives you that day to eat the things you like and not feel guilty about it. It's my day of from eating veggie and Paleo. There are only 2 rules to cheat day. I still have to get my protein balance for the day, I have to get at least 100 grams, and never eat so much that you feel overly stuffed. It's about eating what you want, not pigging out till you puke.
Vegetarian\vegan, Paleo, fasting, calorie restriction, and cheat days. Combined, with the best parts of each, is working for me, mentally and physically. I know that I'm eating healthy, tasty, and in a way that is allowing me to burn off the fat that has come back over the past couple of years. Like I said, I haven't made super strides yet, but I feel things working and I can't wait to report back and let everyone know how successful I've been and that, hopefully, my results and methods can be yours too!
