Ever hit a plateau in your fitness pursuit? I have... many times. I workout and sometimes see nothing new, no new results, no new strength and begin to get bored with my workouts.
Recently I have been working a little harder to try new eating habits to see what happens. I have to be honest and say I emphasize working out more than I do diet when it comes to my own health and wellness, not that I am a junk food addict or anything... but I don't put tons of thought into what I eat, and I do eat my share of whatever I feel like maybe a little too often. I like what one fitness professional said... "Try new things... and evaluate how it's going. If you don't see results try something else until you find what works." So I have decided to get a little more serious about my eating habits.
I would categorize myself as an ectomorph when it comes to body type... small frame, and unfortunatley not much shape but pretty boyish looking... oh well, we work with what we have and are thankful we are healthy and have 2 arms and 2 legs. Anyway, part of my boyish looking frame stems from my belly. Every bit of anything gained goes straight to my belly.... never anywhere else... just my belly. The rest of my body is skinny and not really in a good way. I work to build up some shape in my arms and legs but it's the belly that always suffers the most. So with this in mind when I think about dieting I cringe because I dont want to lose anything anywhere but my belly, but unfortunately that is the area that the weight comes off last. So I have to decide, do I want a skinny belly and risk losing any shape I have in the rest of my body or do I want some shape in the rest of my body and deal with a little more around my belly? I know... pretty ridiculous huh? ...just trying to be real here.
Well, I have finally realized, looking into diets more closely recently, that the diet I need is not a weight-loss diet but a fat-loss diet. Maybe you already knew the difference but to be honest I didn't. I am not a dietician.
My new fat-loss diet is finally giving me the results I'm looking for. Keep the muscle I work hard for and burn the excess belly fat! So you wanna hear about it? Keep reading....
What I like most about it is it's SIMPLE!
Drink a protein shake in the morning... include a raw egg (don't say gross, you know you eat cookie dough... that has raw eggs), spinach leaves, greek yogurt, almond milk, blueberries, oatmeal, a scoop of whey protein which you can get at a vitamin shoppe and a packet of Stevia sweetner. Use a blender to mix it up... we have the Montel Williams blender... it works great!
For snack have nuts... but only a handful about 2 hours after breakfast.
For lunch have one apple...
For dinner have a lean source of protein and tons of veggies with olive oil drizzeld gernerously.
If you get hungry between meals... eat veggies!!! or a few more nuts...or another apple.
Now here's the best part... every other day you can have whatever you want for lunch! So for me... today is my burn day... I had an apple for lunch and yes I am a little hungry right now... I have nuts on my nightstand and will have a few to tie me over before dinner. But tomorrow I can have whatever I want for lunch as long as I have an apple a half-hour before I eat and finish whatever I decide to have within a half-hour time frame. For lunch every other day be sure to get an adequate amount of carbs. In feeding yourself a larger calorie meal every other day you are ensuring that your body does not go into starvation mode and instead keeps your metabolism high and burning fat adequately. If your body thinks it is in starvation mode it will hang on to fat stores for dear life... so be sure you eat enough on your feed days so you trick your body from believing lies.
So it's...
Shake (breakfast)
Nuts (snack)
Apple (lunch)... or whatever you want if it's your feed day!
Protein and Veggies (dinner)
More veggies if you get hungry at any point... that's it!
Another great thing about this diet is that it is sustainable because you don't really deprive yourself of anything. You can still enjoy your favortie foods on your feed days and you can decide to adopt this way of eating for a lifetime... where other diets are just not sustainable for the long-haul and you end up gaining everything back as soon as you quit your diet. Try it and see if you too begin to shed a little more around your middle! I would love to hear how it goes or if you have any questions let me know...
Blessings!
Donna
