How do I incorporate eating with my exercise schedule so that I lose weight? Regardless if you are a Weight Watcher or doing Clean Eating you need to make sure you are eating ENOUGH or the RIGHT food at the correct TIMES.
Let’s talk about my basics to eating to lose the most fat. Now this is designed to be coupled with a targeted strength and cardio plan, so if you are not exercising you do not need to worry with these suggestions.
1. Eat every 2-3 hours; about five to six meals a day. Each meal, or eating opportunity, should be similar in size and calories.
2. Eat complete, lean protein each time you eat. Complete proteins are: lean read meat, poultry, eggs, seafood, and dairy products. Protein Powder (whey) can be used but whole food is preferred for the majority of your meals.
3. Eat two servings of vegetables during as many of your meal opportunities as you can. Fruits can be eaten 1-3 times a day, but veggies should be your primary source of good, fresh, wholesome foods. Don’t drink juice. If you want Vitamin C…peel an orange.
4. Eat the starchy carbs (potatoes, oats, rice, grains, breads, cereals…not beans, carrots, and corn because you can have them anytime) within three hours POST exercise.
5. Learn to love healthy fats. Enjoy mixed nuts, olives, and olive oil. Incorporate flaxseed oil, fish oil, or ground flax seed into your daily regimine.
6. Rather than having a treat (100 cal snack pack, pudding, Skinny Cow, etc.) each day, have one or two splurge meals a week where you eat rich satisfying foods. Then get right back on track.
7. Develop food preparation strategies. Read my blogs regarding bulk meal prepping and carrying coolers.
8. Have healthy variety but make sure you can live with it. I eat the same foods day in and day out for one week. The next week I try to eat a different set of foods to keep myself from getting bored and nutritionally in a rut.
9. When you workout, get in a protein/carb shake IMMEDIATELY after your workout. Around 200 cals should do it for most people. Not eating after a workout of more than 30 minutes of moderate-high intensity will cause you to burn LESS CALORIES during the next 24 hours.
10. Plan your food for the week. Here's my blog on this topic.
Try doing the above with counting calories. If you are math nerd and need the facts…I rarely advise a client to be under 1400 cals a day. Most active women should eat between 1400-1750 cals a day. 1400 for non-active days and 1750 for active days. For WW members that is between 23 points for non-active days and 29 points for active days. Non-active days are your days off and active days are considered as 30+ min. of moderate-high intensity work or better.
If you take your diet a step further (but is not necessary following the guidelines), you will eat your macronutrient breakdown into: 25-30% fats, 30-40% protein, 30-40% carbs. Using a software like sparkpeople.com will allow you to see your macro breakdown. Again, this isn’t necessary but can be useful if you are interested.
This is the nuts and bolts of eating. Let's talk now about the other side, the mental side of healthy eating.
Eating for Health vs. Eating for Pleasure
Changing your body to arrive at a fit and healthy look means eating for optimal body function. Fueling your body with the right foods makes your workouts more effective, your sleep more sound, your body functions more timely, and your skin, nails, and hair shine. The right foods can make an incredible difference in how you feel and act all day long.
However, the reverse is true. Feeling lethargic and no strength as a result of following a poor diet is common. Eating for pleasure versus eating what your body needs can sometimes lead to eating useless junk that the body derives no pleasure in processing. While it might feel good in the moment, your mood, weight, and body functions will be altered by this useless junk that we also tend to overeat when we start. In the end, eating crap all day makes you feel like crap and your workout will be crap, too. It's as simple as that.
Get Out Your Journal
You need to create an effective eating plan based around your lifestyle and how you intend on fitting your healthy eating around your work or family schedule. Plan it out on paper or download our spreadsheets for assistance. List when and what you are going to eat so that you don't have a reason to get off plan. Also, it is important to plan for any obstacles that might occur and mess up your plan. Always having a protein bar, meal replacements or even fruit available will help you compensate for any shortcomings that might challenge your eating plan.
Every day record your diet and the timing of your meals. Record it in your PNP Journal in the forums and discuss what happened that day to either make you a success or obstacles that stood in your way. Journal what you can do better or differently. Talk about what works for you and get help from your friends here at PNP.
Keep Your Goals In Sight
Always have your goals in sight. Put them on the fridge, on your desk at work or in your car. Just so that you are constantly reminded what you really want to achieve. This will help keep yourself focused and help curtail any urges that might creep in to spoil your healthy eating day. Whenever you feel weak mentally and just want to pig-out on junk food visualize how you want to look and you'll soon come back in line with your diet plans. The thought of having a great physique that you're proud of sure outweighs the short-lived enjoyment of junk food.
Have a Support Team
Although losing weight or maintaining our weight is up to us, we all need a good strong support team who will help us through the mentally and physically tough times. By including your family and friends along with the crew at Phit-N-Phat, Weight Watchers, or Sparkpeople in your journey they will soon become apart of it. They will be there to stop you when you feel like eating un-planned junk meals, and if they're really great they might even make some nutritious meals for you! So make you quest for physique improvement a team situation and you'll feel much better for it.
Be a Mentor
Another great way to keep yourself on track is to become a mentor to someone else close to you who wants help improving his or her body. Firstly, they will turn to you as they will view you as a trusted source of information and advice on how to achieve their goals. Then furthermore you will become a role model to them. They see you being strict with your diet and training and achieving great results and they want to do the same. In this situation, being a role model makes you more accountable for your actions as you want to set an example. It is always harder to let someone else down who is counting on you for guidance and motivation, than it is just to let yourself down. Furthermore, you'll feel great by actually making a difference in someone else's quality of life.
If you are a subscriber to the site, you have access to the Getting Phat the Healthy Way eating tips book and sample menu plans. Don't forget to download it for more detailed information to use with your current diet program.