This is the perfect time of the year. You’re inside, bundled up, and it is time to start working on getting ready for spring and/or summer. People often wait until April to get ready for the summer. I hate to tell you people, it takes time for weight and body fat loss to occur, it needs to start now! You are ready to hit the gym, you have an awesome workout program available for you, but your nutrition is sub par. I do not care if you have the best workout program in the world or the best trainer, if your nutrition sucks, body fat loss is not going to happen. Even if you are eating somewhat healthy, it is going to take much longer than it really could if you would just eat clean. I am sure most of you out there bust your butt and give 100% in the weight room, but do you give 100% in the kitchen? It is really easy to say that you want body fat and weight loss, but are you fully dedicated in doing that? I will be the first to tell you that I love pleasure foods, if you would see me on cheat days (1-2 meals on Sundays), I go to town! But those other 6 days of the week, I am 100% dialed into eating clean. It truly is a lifestyle change, if you want it badly you will have to give up a lot of guilty pleasures that are holding us back from body fat loss!
3 Tips that will Help You Eat Clean for Weight and Body Fat Loss
1. Get Off Your Butt and Cook![Weight loss]()
How many of you like to spend hours upon hours cooking meals a week? The answer is nobody! Too many times I hear “it takes too long to cook”. Hate to tell you people, it really does not take long. I would say the average meal that it takes me to cook is 10 mins. What makes it even better is that you can cook multiple meals at the same time. Who would have thought that you could 2-3 meals in 10 mins. It does not have to be extravagant. Most of the time, I am putting everything into one skillet and let it cook. It really is that simple. What is even better about cooking it yourself is that you know what you are putting in your body. Frozen dinners that say that they are healthy, most likely are loaded with salt or other preservatives that we do not want to touch. It really is simple, if you cook it yourself, body fat loss will happen!
2. Measure and Write Down What You Are Eating
Are you having trouble losing body weight or fat? What really helps, but takes some extra time is measuring out exactly what you are eating. What I have learned over the last year was to count the calories from the carbs, protein, and fat. There are 9 calories in 1 gram of fat, 4 calories in 1 gram of protein and carbs. With my nutrition plan, I am consuming about 1,800 calories a day that consist of 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fat. If you do the math, 1,440 calories would come from carbs and proteins while 360 calories come from fat. Now you may think I am crazy for doing all of this stuff, but it is quite easy. All it takes is a couple of minutes to look at the nutritional facts on what you eat, measure the serving size and write down how many calories of fat, protein and carbs are in it. This is impossible if you are one of those people who like to eat out, but if you cook at home, you know exactly what you are putting in your body and you can make body fat and weight loss much easier!
Have you ever written down exactly what you ate each day? If you have not, this has not only helped me out but it has also helped out many people. The purpose of writing down what you eat is that we may not realize everything that we are putting in our bodies. When we write it down, this should help you realize that maybe you should not have put this certain food or drink in your body. If you can’t get yourself to count the calories, simply take a picture of the food. This can also help with analyzing what you’re eating. Also, Google is working on IM2 calorie for measuring caloric intake via pictures…can’t wait!
3. Be Committed and Willing to Change!
Since New Year’s Resolutions are approaching and you have told yourself that you are going to have body fat loss or lose weight? I bet a lot of you say this every year! On New Year’s last year in Santa Clara, I weighed 230 lbs and I was at 25% body fat. Every year I would promise myself that I would get my act together and stick it out. This entire year I have been fully dedicated into achieving what I wanted to. My goal was to get to 190 lbs and under 10% in 12 months. I was not some crazy goal like I wanting to lose 40 lbs in 3 months, all it consisted of was losing 3 lbs a month and a 1% body fat reduction every month. I have not only reached my weight and body fat goal, now I have set another goal to see how low the body fat loss will go. I will be honest, it was extremely hard for the 1st couple of weeks on cutting my guilty pleasures to every Sunday, but I was committed to the plan. After those couple of weeks, I did not even crave “some” of the crap food that I loved and it became easy. Create realistic goals, find a plan and execute it! Remember, believe in yourself, you’re the placebo!
Summary of 3 Tips How to Eat Clean for Body Fat and Weight Loss
Over this last year, I have realized that it is easy to lose weight and body fat. What I have learned was that just cooking at home and eating out only 1-2 times a week really helped! I am not some fancy chef, I eat to survive. All it takes is about 10-15 mins to cook a meal, not bad at all. Add about 3-5 mins to weigh and write down what goes into each meal. I know all of you have 20 minutes of your life to do these simple tasks. You have to be committed and your body fat and/or weight loss goals can can come fast!