Transform Your Body In 7 Weeks. I finally decided it was time to lose the winter weight and get beach-ready!
I’ve done this transformation 6-7 times since 2012. I just finished this round for the summer.
I’ve had a lot of customers and friends ask me how I do this, so I figured I would give you the rundown of exactly what I do. I’ve modified this with hacks that I’ve learned over the years to make things easier.
My personal rule for weight control is to keep my weight at a number that is 6-7 weeks from being beach-ready. This gives me 10-15lbs of excess weight that I can gain and know without a shadow of a doubt that I will have no problems losing the weight and still be able to eat foods I love.
I’m sure this rule would be different if I lived on the coast where I have access to a beach 24/7 or where it’s always warm. Living in the midwest during fall and winter means that you are trapped inside most of the time and then, you have to eat all of the pumpkin-laced goodies and of course, you hit Thanksgiving and Christmas… Top that off with the fact that I’m married to a pastry chef whose entire family LOVES to cook amazing food.
What foods do I love? Well, if you know me, you know that I have a HUGE sweet tooth. I LOVE donuts, candy, cookies, baked goods, cheesecake, and ice cream. I also love Pizza and french fries.
During the past 7 weeks, I had ALL of those. I had Pizza 4 times during the 7 weeks. For one of those I ate an entire 12-inch pizza by myself, I ate a bunch of gummy bears and topped it off with a brownie… 1 hour later… I fell asleep. haha.
The point is, I didn’t struggle and bitch and whine the past 7 weeks. You just need to understand, eating for results, and eating for pleasure.
When you eat for results, you have a purpose. It’s either for weight loss, weight gain, health, or a combination. When you eat for pleasure, you are eating socially with friends or family, or it’s an emotional connection that you have with a certain food. During transformation, 90% of the time should be eating for results and 10% should be eating for pleasure.
And you definitely should cheat. Your body requires it to boost certain fat-burning hormones. Otherwise, your results will stall.
Here are my stats: I lost about 10 lbs and went from a 35-inch belly circumference to a 31.5-inch belly circumference.
In case you are thinking that this doesn’t sound like a lot of weight… remember that this is in proportion to what your body needs to lose. During this time, if I had 20 lbs to lose, I would have lost 20. If I had 30lbs to lose, I would have lost 30.
The Program
1. A transformation is all about consistency. To keep consistency, you must create a system to follow. Make it easy on yourself and plan the week out, or at a minimum, a day before. You don’t want to have to think about it. If you mess up, don’t stop, just get right back on the horse. My wife “made me” eat donuts a few times when I wasn’t supposed to… like for National Donut Day. To balance this out, I just ate 1 less cup of rice the day of or the day after. It’s ok. Don’t stress. Just keep going.
2. Your diet is 80% of your weight loss results. This should be your main focus.
Only eat a few types of foods and don’t do anything fancy. Here is my meal plan for the week:
Breakfast – 6 oz hamburger or steak, 1 cup of veggies, 2 eggs, small handful of walnuts
Lunch – 8oz of Cod, Tilapia, or Mahi Mahi, 1 sweet potato or yam, 1 cup of veggies
COFFEE – see below.
Mid Afternoon – turkey burger or chicken breast, 1 cup rice or quinoa, 1 cup veggies or salad
Dinner – 8 oz salmon, 2 cups veggies, a handful of walnuts or almonds
Protein Shake 2 hrs after dinner – chocolate Biotrust Protein powder, 1/2 avocado or 1 tablespoon almond butter, unsweetened almond milk, coconut milk or cashew milk, ice and water
I grilled everything on the Foreman grill. All the meat except the hamburger, I bought at Costco and it was frozen. Believe it or not, it was wild caught or had minimum processing.
I would substitute any of those meals with Chipotle at least 2-3x a week. I would do a salad bowl with rice, chicken/steak, peppers, and hot sauce and you can do a side of guacamole too.
To make anything taste better, add Frank’s hot sauce. This alone is a miracle worker. Also, use no salt, and no msg seasonings, such as Mrs. Dash.
To satisfy my sweet tooth, every single day, I would eat a couple of organic figs. Never 2 in a row, just 1 here, 1 there. Usually in the evening. It has fiber in it to balance the sugar.
The key to fast results: No fruit, low dairy, no wheat, low sugar. Carbs make you fat. Not fat. This is the rule, not the exception.
Fruit has fructose. fructose bypasses the blood sugar cycle and goes straight to your liver where your liver basically turns it to fat and stores it. Fruit is not meant to be eaten all the time. 1 piece per day, 2 max. We love it because it is sweet. It’s healthy because of the vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber. The catch-22 is that those good things come along with sugar which too much is bad and in general, we eat way too much.
This diet allows for 2-3 cups of carbs a day. If you are female, do 3 cups. you need extra carbs most likely. You also need extra healthy fat for your hormones. Eat more avocados.
Alcohol: The good news? You can drink some alcohol. Drink vodka tonics, gin, and tonics, tequila, and whiskey. Red wine. White wine and foo-foo drinks are bad. Too much sugar. Drink in MODERATION. it may be enjoyable, but it’s not healthy.
Beer: I would venture on a limb and say that beer is a very large factor as to why men have a gut. And now, women. Beer is one of the absolute worst things you can do to your body and if you are over 30 and you drink beer, your chance of ever seeing your abs is cut down to slim and none.
Beer is a concentrated liquid of GMO, pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer-filled hops which is a potent phytoestrogen which means that in men, it will cause man boobs and beer gut. In women, it can disrupt your cycle and cause weight gain. Not just from the carbs, but from the phytoestrogen itself which mimics estrogen. Estrogen is a weight-gaining hormone. This also causes hair loss premature aging… and headaches.
3. Exercise – If you want to change the shape of your body, you must do resistance training. I chose weight lifting 5x a week. If you are new to working out, you can get away with 3 days a week. There are tons of workout programs out there. Pick one and stick with it. If you are starting, Body For Life is an oldie, but goodie.
I would also do cardio or sprints 5x a week. Either 10 min of the stair stepper after I worked out, or I would do HIIT sprinting. 15 sets of 15-second sprints with a 45-second walk. I would also do the occasional 30-minute boot camp class or ride my bike around the neighborhood.
I did not push myself 100% this time. I did this on purpose… and out of laziness haha. I wanted to see if I exercised at 80% what the results would be. I’ll take it. And, I avoided getting injured.
4. Supplements – Here are the supplements I was taking:
Creatine/Ribose
Glutamine
Non-stimulant Pre-workout (I combined these 3 while I lifted)
Omega 3
Livlean – Always take care of your liver… it’s a primary metabolic organ
ZMA
Greens powder occasionally
Probiotic – The best thing for your immune system and gut health
Daily Vitamin and Mineral Supplement
Perfect Flush – Fiber supplement occasionally
When I ate unhealthy food, I would take digestive enzymes before and activated charcoal before or after. (Always carry these with you on a trip. Plus a probiotic. It’s your triple threat protection for your gut)
Coffee: The most proven weight loss drug. There is no doubt that caffeine boosts your metabolism. Coffee as a beverage is not bad for you. BAD COFFEE is bad for you. If you buy non-organic coffee, you are literally concentrating pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, and drinking them. Couple that with the fact that your beans are most likely blended which means that they will have a higher mycotoxin percentage and mold count and this amazing beverage is more harmful than it is helpful.
What should you buy? Single origin, organic beans.
Coffee should be treated as a superfood. It has tons of polyphenols and antioxidants and has been shown in research to benefit your brain, mood, weight, immune system, etc. It’s even been shown that people who drink coffee have a decreased risk of various cancers. Drink coffee. Healthy coffee.
DON’T drink more than 4-5 cups a day. That’s bad for your adrenals and will cause burnout.
How to enhance your coffee to curb your appetite, boost your productivity, and focus, and boost your metabolism while making your skin, hair, and nails look nice.
I don’t like black coffee, so I have to add cream or butter.
Use 1-2 tablespoons of organic nonhomogenized cream OR grass-fed Kerry gold unsalted butter.
I then add MCT oil (liquid coconut oil that is concentrated)
I then add collagen protein
Put these 3 ingredients in a blender with your coffee and you now have an amazing tasting latte.
You will never feel hungry when you do this and it gives you a steady stream of energy all afternoon with zero crash. The collagen will help your gut and also make your skin, hair, and nails look fantastic. it dissolves instantly so you don’t even taste it.
So, that’s it in a nutshell. It’s simple to do if you plan ahead your meals and prep the night before or cook your meat a few days at a time wrap it in foil and put it in the fridge.
I felt amazing for 7 weeks straight. More energy, no joint pain, no injuries, no mid-day fatigue, no brain fog. There is nothing like waking up and feeling awesome and continuing that throughout the day until you go to sleep at night. And then do it again and again and again.
Give this a shot! I promise you won’t regret it.
Hope this was helpful 🙂
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