Fail to Plan? Then Plan to Fail
Fail to Plan? Then Plan to Fail
Have you ever set off on a journey somewhere that you’ve not visited before, and not set your satnav or looked at a map? Probably not, right? You would plan where you're going with a map or satnav. You’d rarely set off on a journey, with hundreds of branching roads, without a plan for your journey.
Yet, this so often happens with our nutrition. People say, ‘I’m going to eat better’ – and that’s as far as the plan goes. They don’t plan how they are going to eat or what the plan will be for each day. For those of you who have read my first post HERE, you’ll know that I’m in my first week of a sixteen-week body transformation. I’m going to go from soft and flabby to strong and ripped in a little under four months. And I won’t be able to do that if I don’t have a plan.
Over the next sixteen weeks I’m going to let you guys know every trick I use to achieve this goal - tricks that I’ve learned from over ten years as a trainer. For more information on me and my Personal Training career you can check out my #introduceyourself blog post HERE.
![_MG_9596-Edit-Edit-Edit-Edit-2.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmc89WduUjZUeuztShb4Z6BqK77RPmYRcfuNfEuK3XFNUP/_MG_9596-Edit-Edit-Edit-Edit-2.jpg)
The Grand Plan
The first stage of planning should give you an overall idea of what you’re trying to achieve – what you’re aiming for. Most people have a general idea, but it’s usually not specific enough. Goals like, ‘lose weight’ and ‘get healthier’ are admirable but not very helpful.
Imagine you’re driving to your friend’s new house – they tell you that they live in London… and that’s all they tell you. Will you get where you need to go? Of course not. You need far more detailed information to help you get there. If you know their street, house number and post code – then you’d get there. The same is true of body transformation.
I want to lose fifteen kilos by July or I want to fit into my old size twelve shorts for summer are much clearer goals than just ‘lose weight’. Make your plan clear, or you’ll clearly be planning to fail!
My clear and specific goal is to be 10% body fat (currently 22%) by the 21st of April while maintaining current levels of muscle mass.
The General Plan
Knowing where you’re going is great, but you also need to know which roads you’re going follow to get there. You need to know the direction; which towns you’ll drive past and which major roads you might go on.
Here is are my guiding rules. These are the five general principles of my transformation (right now):
- Avoid all carbohydrates for the first two weeks.
- Eat at least three meals per day that contain meat/fish and vegetables.
- Drink a minimum of two litres of water per day.
- Manipulate carb intake when results stagnate.
- Introduce calorie tracking if results slow.
These points give me the general overview of how I’ll get to the goal I outlined above.
![20180103_133313 (Small).jpg](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmRXYKyntNhN6BSUhgmyvrkZ9coqSAhBzdtquUxHJ7X5YD/20180103_133313%20(Small).jpg)
The Specific Plan
Finally, you need to plan out the specifics for getting to your goal. Day to day, what are you going to do differently than before?
These specifics are going to change often as your body adjusts to the plan. At the moment I’m focusing on three big specifics.
- Pre-cook all breakfast and lunches on Sunday morning and Wednesday night.
- Plan every single dinner and buy all ingredients on Sunday.
- Remove all junk food from my daily surroundings eg. Kitchen cupboards
![20180104_064511 (Small).jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTw7PqCTA1RYN2GeiZKoRuMCnvLMqjNoH97JJmyGYuYTU/20180104_064511%20(Small).jpg)
The key to success with diet and training, is to plan what you’re going to do every single day. Week in and week out. Make sure you’ve got the right foods available to you, and that you know when you’ll prepare, cook and eat them. If anyone has any tips on things that have helped them diet more successfully, please help me out and let me know!
Yours in health,
Coach Ben #coachben
Avoiding carbs is key for weight loss . Even if you focus on reducing sugar alone you'll see dramatic results after a month.
It can be really helpful to reduce carbs for weight loss, great point. However, there's many instances where carbs can be really useful too. It's just knowing when it's appropriate to eat them :)
This is true. That's why I'm fat
Macro nutrient intake ratios are not correlated with weight loss. You can lose weight eating pure sugar if you are in favorable energy balance. In this case an deficit. Reference this professor who lost a diet eating exclusively junk food to prove the point: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
It is important, if fat loss is the goal, to ensure adequate protein intake.
Carb cycling does have some anecdote to support it's effectiveness as well so it can be a useful tool.
HOWEVER Calories are king
See my post for more information:
https://steemit.com/health/@rusty.saw/the-no-b-s-guide-to-losing-weight
Also please read this
https://www.muscleforlife.com/low-carb-diet/
Calories are king, though for most people sitting and counting them every day isn't going to support their goals long term. Cutting carbs helps us reduce calories by reducing certain food groups, curbing cravings and changing our taste buds.
Calorie deficits don't just come from eating less calories or training more, however :)
Tracking macros can work for everyone. The first step IMO is bringing awareness to your diet. You will be less successful with intuitive eating if you don't have a deep understanding of what is going into your body.
I'm not sure what you mean by your last sentence, unless you are referring to the fact that things like vegetables have a high food volume at a low calorie count.
I had been doing an unfocused approach for the past year, allowing the person that I cook for dictate the recipes I made. As I realized that I was the only one of us who really COULD cook, I realized I had the final say as to what ended up in my stomach. I started taking her suggestions of what she was craving and creating healthier versions, but I would still cave about having processed food in the house for her, which ultimately would lead to me caving on my diet.
But the progress I have seen in my health goals have been undeniable and she seems to be more supportive of trying the meals that I make for myself, decreasing the amount of planning, shopping, and empty calories.
I still see her fall into her own ways when she is on her own for work and when I am away with my partner, but I know that just the small changes that she has embraced will begin adding up and I hope it will encourage her toward whatever her health goals are.
That's really great @thisismework. It can be easy to blame the situation when things are difficult but you have found ways to turn the situation in your favour by taking more control of what went into the dishes you were making. I like that a lot - really clever.
We can't always be perfect so making the best of every situation and opportunity is the key! Thanks for sharing :)
Hey Ben
Good Post! How will be your ratio of protein, carbs and fats after those two weeks and will be there carbs only pwo or will you eat carbs more often than 1x a day?
I plan to drop some fat but I'm still not sure if I should jump on the no to low carb train or stick to a normal ratio between p,c and f with a deficit. How would be your advice?
Looking forward to hear from you :)
Best regards
Sven
Hi @kellerkulturist, to start with I'm going to start introducing a little bit of carbs post workout and I'll monitor my results. If things are still going well I'll keep with that. If things slow down I'll probably start to add a carb meal once per week.
I find that as you get leaner and healthier, your body needs more carbs. If you don't give it enough as you train hard and get lean, you'll get worse results. So I may end up having extra carbs every couple of days, as well as around my workout.
I find reducing carbs for a short period of time can be really helpful, if you've been having quite high carb intake in your diet prior. It helps increase your sensitivity to those carbs, helping use the small amount of carbs that you do eat much more effectively. This can help burn more fat.
However, long term it's the calorie deficit that is most important. Some people feel and perform better, and get faster results, with less carbs. Others get better results with more carbs - but you must always be in a small calorie deficit if you want to lose weight. I'd suggest starting with two weeks of low carbs and then add in small amount of carbs gradually and see how you feel.
Hope that helps!
B
I do link to this site a lot, but there is a good reason. He really has some great information. I think you guys would like this post
https://www.muscleforlife.com/the-definitive-guide-to-carb-cycling/
healthsquared!! Thank you, your Post.
Thank YOU for commenting :)
Great Post! 💪😎🔥
Thanks @fitspace!
1000% correct man. Planning and practice = LUCK. In this case, you are eliminating the chance of not having good food and also getting super hungry. That is exactly when you make the shitty decisions and eat junk. Great post!
If I allow myself to go hungry and then have no food prepared in the house - that picture becomes exactly me! :D
Usually after drinking :)
As an ex-bodybuilder I definitely have to chime in on the fact that planning is key to success, really for anything in life, but especially to a successful diet.
There is this quote my Peter Drucker:
What gets measured, gets done
Definitely applies to weight-loss and fitness to say the least.
Otherwise, if you're into travelling, vlogs, fitness, self-development etc feel free to check out my channel, in any case keep up the good work and I'll see you around! :)
Thanks @williamwest. There's a great book called 'Switch' by Dan and Chip Heath. You may have heard of it if you're into self-development type stuff. If you haven't definitely read it. They talk about how if you're trying to ride an elephant through the jungle, you must remove temptations from that elephants path. Otherwise, however disciplined you try to be as a rider, eventually the elephant will just run off and do its own thing. I imagine my cravings are like a big fat elephant that I need to coax into line :p
Thanks for the message, definitely see you around!
I've given you a follow. Check out my feed and if you like what you see please do likewise