For a long time I have been turned off by my personal selection of music. I had over 1500 songs and I probably only liked 500 of them. Everyday I would get mad at the music I was listening to and say "Tomorrow I am going to finally purge my music," and many tomorrows would come and go and I would never even glance at my music. The reason I never followed through is because listening to and deleting 1500 songs is a daunting task and not something that you can just "wing," you need to have a plan. Eventually I did get fed up and I made a plan that I would remove all my music from my iTunes so that I could never hit play and just fall into my routine. I then made 2 folders on my desktop called "Shit Music" where I put all my songs, and "Perfect Music" where I would put the songs that would make the cut. Eventually, because I made a plan and put it into action I was finally able to get rid of all the bad songs that I hated hearing and now my Music Library has 457 songs and I am happy again.
The point is that it is truly hard to commit yourself to such monumentous tasks as: Eating X calories a day, working out Y times a week, buying healthier foods, monitoring your sugar and fat intake, etc, if you don't have a solid plan to follow every day.
Now I am not perfect and will say that for the past couple of weeks after my surgery I have very loosely followed my eating plan. I have managed to stick to my plan of working out 6x a week, and fasting for at least 16 hours a day, but my nutrition has gotten sloppy and I find myself screwing up my calories and macros by eating out at restaurants, or throwing all the rules out the window on days like yesterday (4/20). Its time to construct a rigid plan for myself because sometimes I can't behave right when I am holding myself up by "guidelines" instead of "rules."
I am going to construct my plan that I want to follow for the rest of April through out May, because by June I want to stop eating in a caloric deficit and start eating for maintenance.
GOAL: Eat in a caloric deficit till June. Work Out 6x a week. Remain Intermittent Fasting at least 16 hour fast and 8 hour feed.
Now that I know my goal lets list out the things that I need to accomplish every day and week:
PLAN:
1. Consume 2000 calories a day (-900 of maintenance)
- Minimum 150g (30%+) Protein a day
- Maximum 45g (20%) Fat a day
- Low Sugar
- Carb ReFeed* (2500 calorie day) 1x a week (Day before Rest day)
- Fast 20 Hours
- Feed 4 Hours: 2 Big Meals. No Snacking.
- One 24 hour fast into Rest day
3. Work Out 6x a week, Rest 1 day.
- Every Muscle Group 2x a week (Chest, Shoulders, Arms, Back, Legs, Abs)
- 30 minutes Cardio following each workout (15 mins on day with Abs)
Ok I think these are good rules to follow and which I would feel bad if I broke. So my typical week will start on a Monday and look like this:
- Monday - Workout Chest, Arms, Shoulders + 30m Cardio. Feed for 4 hours 2k calories.
- Tuesday - Workout Back + 30m Cardio. Feed for 4 hours 2k calories.
- Wednesday - Workout Legs + 15m Cardio + Abs. Feed for 4 hours 2k calories.
- Thursday - Workout Chest, Arms, Shoulders + 30m Cardio. Feed for 4 hours 2k calories.
- Friday - Workout Back + 30m Cardio. Feed for 4 hours 2k calories.
- Saturday - Workout Legs + 15m Cardio + Abs. Carb ReFeed* for 2 hours 2.5k calories.
- Sunday - Rest. End 24 hour fast. Feed for 2 hours 2k calories.
Rinse and Repeat. Ok so that looks like a good schedule and I know I can follow it. I am not being rigid with times of the day because I go to sleep and wake up at different times but ideally I want to break my fast 2 hours after my workout. If I finish feeding at 6pm on Monday I want to be done with the gym by 12 noon on Tuesday so I can have a consistent window of 2-6pm. I will then adjust my sleeping habits accordingly.
On the Carb ReFeed* day I want to consume all my calories in a smaller window so I can end my 24 hour fast somewhat consistently with the rest of the week. On Saturday I will probably feed from 2-4pm that way I can fast for 24 hours to 4pm on Sunday and then feed from 4-6pm to keep the feeding window consistent for the next week.
*The purpose of the Carb ReFeed is to replenish your body with some extra carbs at the end of the week due to the fasting. The idea is a lot more intricate and scientific than that but I don't want to take the time to go into it and that's the general idea. Has something to do with Leptin, Google it.
Now I think the final step in our Plan, and to really take away the stress and uncertainty of everything, is to develop the 2 meals I will be eating every day. This way I will add more routine and structure to my days and not have to spend time thinking and worrying about how different meals will yield different nutritional values and constantly having to calculate what I can and can't eat today, etc. So lets make our meal plan for the week:
Perfect! So this is what I will eat everyday. Yes it seems boring but I suggest just having it figured out so you don't have to think everyday. It also makes grocery shopping easier. If you want you can even change it up every week so that what you eat changes every 7 days. The important thing though is to have it planned out so you can stick to it. Also the protein Shake is something I will drink with the first meal, the fact it is "meal 2" has no significance.
Now on my ReFeed Days I will need to get more Carbs so I will up some of the values that day or even add some more interesting food choices:
I added all my extra carbs to "meal 2" so you can see them easier. Basically on this day I will have an extra bowl of Granola with some Peanut Butter and Apple. Then later I will have a second sweet potato with my Salmon. Boom! We are done. This is our new plan going forward to the end of May.
I want to reiterate that the whole point of this blog entry is that having a plan makes it easier to follow through on changes you are trying to make in life. Imagine if tomorrow I woke up and read that list of rules I made for myself without having constructed a meal plan. I would just say, "oh.... fuck..." and have no idea what to do and time would just be slipping away. Instead I sat down today for no more than an hour and wrote up my rules and made a structured plan that will be easy to follow for the rest of the week. It's like a coloring book. It's easy to open a book to a picture with no color and just add color, as opposed to opening a book with blank pages, having to draw something, and then having to color it in all at once. Make life easy and it will be easy.
I am not perfect and I make mistakes like everyone else. When it comes time to get serious though I don't like to leave anything up to chance. Be hard on yourself so that you can see things through to the end and get the results you want. If you act with mediocrity you will only see mediocre results. Instead act with greatness and you will see great results!
Love, Dcgreen
