I keep seeing this trend when I begin to coach new people. I will ask them how often they eat and the answers will usually be something to the effect of, “well I usually don’t eat breakfast and then I just have a light lunch around noon and then I don’t eat anything until dinner”, therein lies the problem.
We as humans have this nifty little tool built in to our DNA to keep us alive in the event that our food source runs out. It’s called “starvation mode” and it is something our prehistoric ancestors actually needed to survive, but today is just keeping us fat. You see, when your body thinks your food source isn’t reliable, eg, by skipping meals, it thinks that you have the potential for starvation so it flips a little switch that causes you to store a lot of what you eat as fat. The way to flip the switch back is by eating. Yes, that’s right, to lose weight, you need to eat! Oh happy day!
The key is to eat small meals throughout the day. What happens is when you eat a small (200-300) calorie meal every 3 hours, your body will realize that food sourcing is not a problem and actually release stored fat to burn as fuel.
Ideally, you will want to eat within an hour of waking, and not eat within 2 hours of going to bed. So now you have your breakfast and dinner time set, all you need to do is figure out how to eat something light no more than every 3 hours in between. It works, I promise you!
“But I hate eating in the morning.” Tough. Buck up powder puff and eat something! A few Ritz with a little peanut butter, a low-fat Greek yogurt, a protein shake, whatever it is, make it happen. If you miss this step in the process, the rest of your efforts will be diminished immensely! I have Shakeology daily for breakfast and it gives me a great amount of clean energy, not like that poison that comes in the big cans, and it keeps me feeling full.
Here’s a basic day’s meal plan. Tweak it how you like it.
Morning:
16 oz. of water, Shakeology (made with Almond milk and PB2)
Morning Snack:
12 oz. of water, 1/4 cup of unsalted or at least lightly salted nuts, a small apple or box of raisins
Lunch:
16 oz. of water, 2 cups salad greens with 4 oz grilled chicken or fish, 1 TBS of parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup of lite dressing
Afternoon Snack:
12 oz. of water, celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins, or a small piece of fruit and 1TBS of peanut butter
Dinner:
16 oz. of water, grilled chicken soft tacos with Spanish style quinoa and black beans.
Dress two whole wheat soft taco tortillas with lettuce, grilled chicken, quinoa, black beans, a light sprinkle of cheese, and some light sour cream
Spanish style quinoa – prepare quinoa per directions, about 5 minutes before it’s done, mix in garlic, cumin, and chili powder to taste. once quinoa is done, stir in some green or red salsa.
Eat this way consistently for just 3 or 4 days and your metabolism will be on fire! Keep the substitutions reasonable and the portion sizes in check and EAT ALREADY!
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