Let me start by saying that I am not a dietitian or a registered nutritionist. I have taken a few nutrition courses, but that does not give me the right to fool you into believing that I know everything about nutrition. My blog is going to be a personal reflection on what has and has not worked for me in terms of eating for weight management and athletic performance. I will do my best to reference sources in case you are interested in reading more about a specific topic or idea.
I have some very useful information to help you take your fitness program to the next level. (Fitness Level does include weight loss, I know that’s what most of you are after.) My education and personal experience has provided me with a tremendous amount of knowledge on everything from weight loss, strength and recovery, and disease prevention. Amazingly, all three of these things are TIED BY THE NECK to your diet!
Let me give you a brief history. Contrary to what some of you may believe, I was not always a health nut. I’ve always been very active, but a healthy, balanced diet and eating more frequently throughout the day is new to me. People always ask me, “What’s the best or easiest way to lose weight?” Seeking the answer to that question, I myself started a personal experiment that is going on 10 months now. Using myself as a subject, I’ve been able to create a controlled environment that has helped me get outstanding results. Hold that thought…
Lately, I’ve been thinking about eating patterns and how they affect our lives. For instance, our first concept of eating comes directly from our parents. Does our upbringing affect how we eat today? I’m sure it does. When I was 16 years old, I left home and went to boarding school, then to college. All of a sudden, I was on my own and had to choose what to eat. I still considered myself to be a generally healthy eater, but my stomach and taste buds ruled the dining hall. I didn’t gain a tremendous amount of weight because I was so active, but I was up 10-15 unwanted pounds. I’ve always been comfortable around 190. Now I was tipping the scales at 207! As I mentioned before, I was active. Playing lacrosse helped me lose some of that weight, and I finished my collegiate career between 195 – 200 lbs. After college, I moved to Philadelphia to play with the Wings. Even though I was on my own with grocery shopping, my activity level enabled me to stay the same weight.
After almost a 4 month hiatus from physical activity, I began working at Fitness Together. I decided to immerse myself in the business and make some drastic changes. My starting weight was about 197 lbs. and I was pushing 17% body fat. I started anew. A brand new workout regime, as well as, a brand new diet. I really wanted to find a way to continue to increase strength, recover faster, and drop my body fat. The answer was ALL IN MY DIET. After, a couple months I was down to 193 and 15% body fat. Now it was time for a complete overhaul! I started doing research and came across the Paleo diet; it is made up of lean meats, vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, little grains, and NO sugar. This was perfect and it made a lot of sense. I needed to cut out processed food and add more plant based foods. My diet suddenly morphed in vegetarian, and soon enough I was close to Veganism. BUT, I kept making gains in my workout and kept dropping body fat. A couple months later, i was 187 lbs and 14 % body fat.
By the time the weather got cold I was down to 183 and around 13% body fat. I kept critiquing my diet, which meant no more refined white flour foods ever! I made the decision my body and results were more important than 2 minutes of taste. I was eating every 3 hours, and felt better physically. At the beginning of January, I started using Vitabot. (the software you aren’t using!!) This thing is amazing. It has allowed to me to see exactly what I am putting in my body, what I am missing, and most importantly, I can control meal sizes throughout the day. After weeks of Vitabot usage, I am down to 178 and 12% body fat. I’ve now started to increase my calorie intake to maintain my weight. As you can see my weight loss wasn’t overnight, but this is the kind of weight loss that will last because it was done gradually and through permanent change.
My diet and fitness has never been about weight loss, but I feel better at my current weight than I did before. Originally, my goal was to get down to 12% body fat and increase my workout capacity. I’ve done both. Why not pursue it even further. I am still going to tweak my diet and see if I can get down to 11% body fat. I will let you know how this works over the next few months.
I will also be posting a food guide in the next week. This is to help you pick better food options; use it as a shopping list if you want. My goal over the next few months is to post information on each of the food items listed on the guide. I will also go into more detail on specifically how I changed my diet and things you can do to make your life a little easier if your changing yours as well. I’ll post some recipes as well as tips to give you any advantage you can get!
Your first step to a healthier lifestyle is CUTTING BACK ON SUGAR. Start with eliminating juices, sodas, or any other sugary drinks. Please be careful with artificial sweeteners, even though there has been no conclusive evidence linking them to disease such as cancer, there are studies showing that they slow metabolism and increase weight gain. My rule of thumb is that if it has more than 5 grams of sugar per serving forget about it! Take it one week at a time and start making changes
If you take anything from my story, please understand that in order to reach your goals you must have a clean, healthy diet. If you are dedicated to CHANGE…. clean diet, hardwork in the gym, active lifestyle… YOU CANNOT LOSE!
