Category: Life is Great

Tuesdays Eating Plan

If you plan your daily eating, you know all day that you are treating your body right and you go to bed feeling great.

Todays Eating for Kevin:

 Tuesday:

Today while I was eating my Kashi Go Lean cereal and breakfast smoothie (Skim milk, banana, peanut butter, protein powder and flax seed; I packed 2 Greek yogurts, 2 bananas, 2 peaches, 2 turkey sandwiches, 2 cups of chicken and wild rice(left over from dinner), a baggie of carrots, baggie of cranberry nut mix and the other ½ of my breakfast smoothie.

4:35 a.m. Breakfast: 2 cups Kashi Go-Lean, breakfast smoothie

8 a.m. snack: 1 banana, 1 turkey sandwich, 1 Greek yogurt, Multi-vitamin and Omega-3

10:30 snack: 1handful of carrots, 1 peach

1 p.m. Lunch: (1/2 hour after workout) 2 cups Chicken and wild rice, 1 peach, breakfast smoothie

4 pm. Snack: 1 Greek yogurt, I banana, cranberry nut mix

6 p.m. snack: Turkey Sandwich – Tide me over until dinner

8:30 p.m. Dinner: Grilled chicken and corn, asparagus and brown rice

My goal is to build lean muscle

  • I made sure to eat every 3 hours to keep metabolism ragging
  • I made sure to have protein with every meal to keep insulin levels in check (reduce fat storage)
  • I made sure to eat after training
  • I made sure to get plenty of fiber

 

Remember: Cake is for birthdays – popcorn is for the movies – marshmallows are for camping

The People Solution

Positive friends will help you live a happier life.

Each of us has different goals, but there’s one thing we all desire… support! The need for nurturing and comfort is so strong that if we don’t find it from people, we search for it in other ways. This search can lead some people to drugs, alcohol or even food.

You may have spent most of your life healing your pain with food – finding your best friend in a dish, in a bowl, on a plate, or in a bag – because food never let you down. It gave you a kind of unconditional and unwavering support.

But the alternative source we should use to fill our emotional voids is people!

When you have the fitness blues – or any kind of blues – turn to what I call the People Solution. Having a group of pals who can support you during life’s ups, downs, twists and turns is essential. And you can help them, too. A weekly support group – held anywhere from a living room or park to a book store – can help keep you and your pals on the fast track to success. So round up a few pals and form your support system today!

Goal Setting and Planning Worksheet

What is your plan? What are you trying to accomplish? More importantly why? These 3 questions will help you define your goal. Take your time and be honest with yourself. Your goal needs to be clearly defined and meaningful in order for you to reach it.

Goal Setting and Planning Worksheet

“First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” Aristotle  

What are you trying to accomplish?  More importantly why?   These 3 questions will help you define your goal. Take your time and be honest with yourself.  Your goal needs to be clearly defined and meaningful in order for you to reach it. 

STEP 1 – SETTING A GOAL

Question 1:  What is your Goal? What do you want to achieve? (Be specific as possible)

 

 How do you quantify it?

What is your timeframe?

How do you know when you reached your goal?

Question 2: Why do you want to achieve the goal?

 What will it do for you?

Why did you decide to do this now?

What is your Motivation(s)? Below are 3 types of motivation.

1:  Obligation based – I really should.  This type of motivation doesn’t last long

2:  Desire based – I want to do this. Much more powerful

3:  Enjoyment based – I love doing this.  Part of the process

 

What if you don’t reach your goal?

  

Questions 3: What is the price?  Are you willing to pay the price?  Is it worth it to you?

 What will you need to sacrifice? What are you willing to cut back on?

What behaviors are you willing to change?

Behavioral Change 1:

Behavioral Change 2:

If anything, what do you see a preventing you from attaining your goals? What made you fail in the past?

Will you journal things?  If you don’t write things down, you have nothing to look back and evaluate things.

What keeps you motivated to continue working toward your goals? Why?

What is going to motivate you when you get discouraged?

 

STEP 2 – MAKING THE PLAN
“Failure to plan is planning to fail”

The following plan and process must be something you are going to enjoy

Where are you now – Measure progress
Measure you body, weight yourself, take photos and set aside clothes you want to fit into.  They help you see who you really are. 

 

Nutrition Plan:  Make sure you follow nutrition plan
You MUST know what you are going to eat the following day before you go to bed at night.  This may sound odd, but this simple habit will make an enormous effect on how you eat.  Pick a RITUAL to prepare your meals!

Option 1 – Sunday Ritual, You dedicate Sunday to getting ready for the rest of the week. Cook and pack

Option 2 – Daily Ritual.  You get everything ready as soon as you wake up.  You cook and pack meals and snacks every morning.

Option 3 – Bi-Weekly Ritual.  Take a couple hours on Sunday and a couple hours on Wednesday to prepare meals for a few days

Exercise Plan
Be realistic.  Make an enjoyable plan. Make sure you pick and exercise program you can do, you will enjoy,

Barriers to success:

What time of day is most convenient for you?   _____________

What time of day are you most likely to continue to exercise? _____________

What are your work obligations?  What are your family obligations?

How many days? ______           How long each day? _______

Execution Strategy:  Start and follow Plan. 
Get yourself into some of routine.  The first hour of each day will set you up for success. 

Visit www.wakeupproductive.com

Daily Routine:

6 am__________________________

7 am__________________________

8 am _________________________

9 am__________________________

10 am_________________________

11 am__________________________

12 pm _________________________

1 pm__________________________

2 pm__________________________

3 pm__________________________

4 pm__________________________

5 pm__________________________

6 pm__________________________

7 pm__________________________

8 pm__________________________

9 pm__________________________

Re-evaluation

How do you feel? Why

Are you getting enough sleep?

How are you reacting to your diet? How do you feel?

How closely are you following plan?

Do we need to count calories?  Can you manipulate calories?

Can you do more exercise?

I just started exercising…why am I not losing weight?

Exercise is not a “license to eat whatever”. However…”eating right” is a license to “a healthier you”. If you are exercising and not seeing results, you are most likely not eating the way you should. Just in case, lets look at some other reasons for not losing weight.

Question: I just started exercising…why am I gaining weight?

Answer: If your weight going up and you are regularly exercising, don’t panic! It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing anything wrong, nor does it mean you’re going in the wrong direction. There can be some obvious and not-so-obvious reasons you’re gaining weight.

If it is a new program, you may be gaining muscle, which is denser than fat, but it takes up less space…if you gain muscle, your scale weight may go up even as you’re slimming down. Rather than just using a scale to measure your progress, you can get your body fat tested, find a pair of pants that don’t fit and use them as a ruler or take pictures (which are worth a thousand words)

If you’ve measured yourself in different ways and realized you are gaining fat, let’s look at some possibilities.

1. Eating too many calories. It may seem obvious, but eating more calories than you burn causes weight gain. What some people don’t realize is that, after they start exercising, they may start eating more without being aware of it. Most people think they’re eating a healthy, low-calorie diet but, unless you’re keeping a detailed food journal, you just don’t know how many calories you’re really eating. Most people are surprised when they start keeping a journal and adding up the calories–it almost always turns out to be more than they thought. Before you quit exercising, take a week to keep a food journal. Add up your calories to get a sense of exactly what you’re eating…if it’s too much, you can start to make some changes in your diet to reduce your calories. And try to avoid the mindset that says you can eat whatever you want since you’re doing all this great exercise…to lose weight, you still need to monitor your calories.

2. Not eating enough calories. It may seem counterintuitive, but eating too little can actually stall your efforts to lose fat.   If there is a severe restriction in calories, the body may counteract this reduction by slowing down its metabolism.  Be sure you’re eating enough calories to sustain your body if you’ve increased your activity.

3. Not giving your body time to respond. Just because you start exercising doesn’t always mean your body will respond to that immediately.  I some instances the body needs to recalibrate itself. Increased activity and new eating habits (taking in more or less calories) require the body to make adjustments.  Give yourself several weeks or months for your body to respond to what you’re doing.

4. Rule out any medical conditions. While thyroid problems are rare, they can definitely make weight loss difficult. There can also be medications you’re taking that could affect your body’s ability to lose weight. If you feel your food intake is reasonable and you’ve given your body enough time to see results and haven’t seen any (or are seeing unexplainable weight gain) see your doctor to rule any other causes.

5. You’re gaining muscle faster than you’re losing fat. If it seems that you’re getting bigger after you’ve started a weight training routine, it may be because you aren’t losing body fat as fast as you’re building muscle, which is a problem some people experience when they start exercising. Genetics could also be playing a role here…some people put on muscle more easily than others. If that’s the case for you, don’t stop training! Instead, you might simply adjust your program to make sure you’re getting enough cardio exercise to promote weight loss and focus your strength training workouts on muscular endurance by keeping the reps between 12-16.

Whatever the cause of your weight gain, don’t give up on exercise. It’s not only your ticket to weight loss, it’s also important for your health.