167 Fat Loss Habits
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Transcript of 167 Fat Loss Habits
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""""
Fat Loss Habits
167
By Coach Stevo and The Habitry Collective
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This assortment of words and pictures was created by The Habitry Collective, a
fluid collective of health and fitness enthusiasts with a passion for
reasonableness. Contributing members to this document include Coach Stevo,
Josh Hillis, Marc Halpern, Seth Munsey, Taylor Lewis, Rob Morris, and Dan
John. The entire work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-
ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.
"If youre not familiar with Creative Commons, it pretty much means you can
make whatever you want with this thing, just make sure you attribute what you
take from it to The Habitry Collective. You know, dont be a jerk.
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You know all those fitness magazine
covers that we all roll our eyes at?
The ones with airbrushed models
(who never, ever looked like that a day
in their life), medically ludicrous
promises (Get a Six Pack in 9
Seconds!), and quotes from fitness
professionals like us taken completely
out of context (Fitness Expert Dan
John tells us how to Get a Six Pack in
9 Seconds!)? Yeah, thats where
most of our clients are getting their
entire health and fitness education. And no, I dont mean the magazines, I mean
the covers. They stand in line after shopping while they were hangry, staring at
those covers while simultaneously hating/loving/envying/loathing the airbrushed
people they think look like that and gleaning what they can from the covers so
they can change their lives to be like them, maybe, one-day, when their kids are
in pre-school/school/middle-school/high-school/college.
A lot of us alienate these people (aka, 90% of the population of the United
States) when we say things like, theres no tricks. Theres no shortcuts. Which
What the Heck is This Thing?
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is doubly funny because its a lie; fat loss is all simple tricks that you get good at
one at a time until you dont have to think about them any more. We just call
them habits. Lifelong fat loss is lifelong learning, through trial and error,
enough of these habits to keep your weight under control without it controlling
you. So instead of fighting our clients expectations, lets be honest with them.
Its all tricks. Its all shortcuts. They just take a while to get good at.
The Habitry Collective have accumulated many of these over the years,
so we thought wed catalogue a few hundred or so for your, and your clients
benefit. We have also included the reasoning behind them so that you can copy,
paste, and share (with attribution). Youll notice that some of these habits
contradict each other. Thats on purpose; not everything works for everyone.
Some of them kinda sound the same. Thats on purpose, too. We left them in
because dierent words resonate more with some than others. And most of
them probably came from other people who are smarter than us. What you
wont find in here is anything crazy. If all of these seem obvious, then we have
done our job.
"
- George Orwell
Sometimes the first duty of
intelligent [people] is the restatement
of the obvious.
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There are 167 tips in this document. The Habitry Collective have used them all
personally, with clients, or both. So they are tested, but not foolproof. Read
through them and see what resonates with your training style. Maybe highlight a
couple. And if you really want to make them yours, try paraphrasing them or
rewriting them in your own words. Then test them out on your clients and see
which ones work and which ones fall flat. Whats important to remember is that
these tips are not magic words; they are the beginning of a conversation with
your client. The real goal is to integrate the intended behavior into your clients
life, which is going to take more than a sentence or two you got from the
internet. And please, please, please obey the cardinal rule of habit-based
coaching: dont ask them to do more than one thing at a time.
To do everything at once, you have to be
lousy at everything. To be great, you have
to focus on very few things most of us
can barely handle more than one.
Dan John
How to Use This Thing
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"1. Keep a food journal. If there is one simple, secret trick to eating less its
knowing how much youre eating in the first place. Keeping a food journal is
not the solution to all problems, but its a lot easier to get to Point B when
you know where the hell Point A is.
2. Stop eating when you are 80% full. Most of the cues that people rely on tell
them when to put the fork down are external (clean your plate!). By training
yourself to rely on internal cues, like being 80% full instead of eating until you
feel like youre carrying around a food baby, you can begin to trust your
hunger levels and eat appropriate amounts of food at the appropriate times.
3. Cut everything you eat in half. Eat the first half guilt free, then ask yourself if
you really want the other half and why. If the answer is, yes, because Im
freaking hungry, then eat the other half guilt free.
4. Replace grains with greens. Theres nothing bad about grains (grains are
not capable of moral judgement), but most people eat too much of them
because they are so damn convenient. And telling yourself not to eat
something is about as eective as me telling you not to think of a pink
elephant right now. See? So instead of just trying to force a negative habit on
yourself, turn that trigger (eating grains) into a trigger got a better habit
(eating greens).
5. Walk 10-15,000 steps a day. Buy a cheap pedometer or download a free
app for your iPhone (like Moves) and see how many steps you take a day.
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Now shoot for more. In some cases, a lot more. Walking is one of the most
beneficial activities humans can engage in and for fat loss, wed rather have
clients walk 10-15,000 steps a day than exercise (if they have to pick).
6. Walk around the room when you talk on the phone. Want extra steps?
Make a habit of pacing around the room when youre on phone calls.
7. Leave your desk for lunch. This
is a twofer. You have to walk to
your food and youre less likely to
eat mindlessly when you are
focused on eating instead of that
stupid email from Tammy in
accounting.
8. Set your alarm to give yourself
enough time to go the gym, even if
you dont think you will go. And
keep setting it. Eventually, youll
just get out of bed and since theres not much else to do at 6AM
9. The Alpo diet. A trick from Dan John (via Tony Robbins). The hope of future
gain is terrible inspiration (Be hotter eventually). Sos the fear of future
losses (you might die of a heart attack in your 70s). Most people see
healthy lifestyles as a nightmarishly painful option and staying the same as
comfortable and easy. But you can change the stakes very easily by telling
Always leave your
desk at lunch.
- Richard Branson
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your friends that if you dont stick to a new habit (that you will document on
social media) then youll eat a can of dog food. In front of them. On video.
Yeah, kale sauted in garlic and olive oil doesnt sound so bad now, does it.
10. Gym-pact. Its the internet version of the Alpo Diet except with money.
11. Prioritize protein. Protein is filling as hell. If you get in the protein, youre
less likely to eat less awesome stu.
12. Eat colorful veggies at every meal. More veggies, less room for crap. Plus
they are tasty when you give them a chance and cook them right.
13. Eat a dierent plant every day (or a plant in a dierent way). In our
experience, most people who claim to hate fruit and vegetables cant
remember the last time they had one. So take a few weeks and challenge
yourself to try a whole bunch of new fruits and veggies! Never had fresh
mango? Nows your chance! Ever wondered what the kale fuss is all about?
Roast some in the oven and make kale chips for the first time!
14. Sign up for a CSA box. Its like doing the above trick, except nice people
bring the fruits and veggies to your front door.
15. Stop drinking calories. (Except bourbon. Bourbon is awesome.)
16. Drink a glass of water for every glass of wine/beer/bourbon. One of the
major reasons that people drink liquid calories like cocktails is not to get
drunk, but because were thirsty. By slowing down your rate of cocktail
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consumption and drinking water in between manhattans, you might actually
drink less calories and feel better when your gym-time alarm goes o!
17. Before you drink alcohol, drink a big glass of water. Same as above, but
front-loaded.
18. KEEP A FOOD JOURNAL. Seriously people, how are you gonna get where
you need to be if you dont know where you are?
19. Plan to Fail. Its going to happen. Youre going to have a day(week/month/
decade) when nothing goes right and youre going to make less-than-optimal
decisions. So have a plan about what youre going to tell yourself to get back
on track.
Success consists of going from
failure to failure without a loss
of enthusiasm.
- Winston Churchill
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20. Do a post-mortem. When things do go wrong, look at it as a failure of
strategy instead of a failure of willpower. Assess what you did that got you to
this point and make a new plan that takes it into account. Didnt think about
the weekend? Now you know. Didnt remember that theres barely any fresh
vegetables in Sweden? Now you know.
21. Plan (schedule) your free meals at the beginning of the week. It can been
all the dierence between an indulgent meal and a weekend o the rails.
22. Shopping for good food is your most important workout of the week.
Plan for it. Schedule it. Prepare for it. Just like you would prepare for your
hardest workout.
23. Put delicious seasonings on healthy food. It can make all the dierence
between thinking, OMG delicious Kale! and OMG I have to eat Kale.
Make it easy on yourself at every possible opportunity.
24. When things go wrong, go back to basics; fall back on the foundations. If
its food, re-examine total calories before you worry about nutrient timing or
macros.
25. Wait a week. Fat loss is not linear. EVER. So when fat loss stalls, wait a
week before flipping out.
26. Go to farmers markets as a fun outing. Fat loss takes a community and
should be more fun than not. Farmers markets are an opportunity to have a
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little fun with the people you care about surrounded by delicious, nutritious
food!
27. Buy foods youve never heard of, then google how to eat them.
28. Challenge your friends to recipe competitions. Who can cook the best
steak. Who can cook the best vegetable dish. Set calorie limits for an extra
challenge or dont and just bask in the joy of good friends and food.
29. Look for similarities in popular diet plans, ignore the dierences.
30. Journal about feeling full see if you feel more full after meals with more
carbs and less fats, or more full after meals with more fats and less carbs.
31. When you get stuck eating out, forget about the food choices you dont
have. Just make the best choice you can from the options you do have.
32. When you get good results, write down what you did right. Notice that its
fairly simple.
33. When you get bad results, go back to what was working when you got
good results. Notice that its fairly simple.
34. Remember that everyone falls o. The game is getting back on.
35. Keep it in perspective. If you lost $20, you wouldnt say e it! and go
empty your entire bank account into the trash. Dont treat your diet that way
either.
36. Realize that perfectionism is a way to abdicate responsibility. If your only
option is perfection, then your only option is failure.
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37. Notice that feeling bad is a way to not take any actions that would make a
dierence. Feel your feels. Now make a plan.
38. When someone tells you you look leaner and fitter, believe them.
39. Keep a workout journal. Its like a food journal, but for heavy things and
sweating.
40. Every couple months, go back through your workout journal and notice
how much progress youve made. Be proud of what your body can do.
41. Forget about days and start thinking in months. Dont worry about any
individual day of food or scale weight. Look at trends over weeks and
months.
People overestimate
what they can
accomplish in a day,
and underestimate
what they can
accomplish in a year.
- Bill Gates
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42. Throw out all of the diet books. Buy more cookbooks/recipe books, even if
at the moment you dont think youll ever be the kind of person who cooks.
43. When you cook, cook too much. Have all four burners going and cook at
least two dierent meals at the same time (i.e. dinner + lunch for tomorrow).
44. Always make enough to have leftovers for a couple of days.
45. So ideally youre making dinner, plus two days of dinner leftovers, and
lunch for three days, every time you go in the kitchen.
46. Buy more tupperware. Buy twice as much as youll ever think you need.
47. Buy Mason jars for storing sauces and soups. Theyre hipster tupperware.
48. Make tasty food easy. Get spice mixes and sauces. Buy pre-made
hollandaise and salad dressings. Buy herbs de provence.
49. Make a List of Whys. List every reason that you want to perform a daily
healthy habit like the ones on this list. Every reason from the noble to the
vain. From the clever to the stupid. Dont judge them, because theyre going
to come in handy.
50. When things get hard, refer to your List of Whys. Find the one reason
that feels the most motivating to you right now and say it out loud. Louder.
Freaking yell it! Now go do it!
51. Go to friends gyms. See what you like, what you dont, and see if you can
picture yourself there. Think of it like a blind date.
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52. When you want a snack, drink green tea. Its tasty, easy, and has enough
caeine to delay the onset of the hangries.
53. Know what you want. Not what
you think you want; not what you
think your family wants for you; not
what the magazines tell you that
you want; and not what you think
the person asking wants to hear.
When his clients tells me they want
to run a marathon Coach Stevo
usually says, No one wants to run
a marathon. Marathons suck. We want to be the kind of person who ran a
marathon. So think long and hard about the kind of person you want to be
and what skills and habits you need to become that person.
54. Failing to plan is planning to fail. One of the biggest mistakes we make is
coming up with an audacious goal then patting ourselves on the back for
being brave in our own heads. What about the process of getting there? In
order to get to your Big Goal, you need a bunch of Small Goals that lead up
to it. As they say,A goal without a plan is just a wish.
55. Aim lower, but more often. Small goals focused on the process of building
the skills and habits necessary to achieve your Big Goal are the secret sauce
Be wary of getting
your goal and
discovering it
wasnt worth it.
Dan John
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to success. Dan John has a saying, how do you become a 200ft thrower?
You become a 190ft thrower and you keep practicing.
56. Focus on the process. There are so many things in our lives that are out of
our control, but we can practice and improve the skills, habits, and behaviors
necessary to achieve any goal even if the opportunities prove scarce. By
focusing on the process, we make achieving Big Goals as likely as possible.
Henry Hartman summed this idea up nicely when he said, Success always
comes when preparation meets opportunity.
57. Make a Mantra. Were human. We overestimate, get distracted, and lose
focus, but at least we know we will. So have a plan to get back on track and
a slogan to remind yourself. Coach Stevos mantra: Theres always Monday.
That way hell only lose 6 days at the absolute most. If your only option is
perfection, then your only outcome will be failure.
58. Put yourself out there. At Coach Stevos first (and only to date) Olympic
weightlifting meet, he took second-to-dead-last. A middle school student
lifted more weight than him. But Tommy Kono, the only person to hold world
records in four weight classes in weightlifting, pulled him aside and said,
You dont learn to compete in practice. Its hard to get better by yourself, so
whatever your goal, you need to practice it out there, in public, and in the
wild.
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59. Start Today. The question Coach Stevo asks every one of his clients after a
goal-setting session is simple: What can you do today to get one step closer
to that goal? Then we put 100% focus and energy on that next step. Once
the goal is set, we forget about it and focus on the next step until the next
step is done.
60. Make a shopping list. Even if you are going to store for one thing, write it
down and stick to the plan. A great way to generate a shopping list is to start
with recipes that I am exited to make. That way, you have a plan for the week
as well as some great dishes to look forward to!
61. Shop on a schedule. Set a reminder and go to the grocery store for your big
shopping trip at the same time every week. With over half of our brains
activity dedicated to automatic decisions, humans are creatures of habit. And
by shopping at the same time every week, you can more easily get into the
routine of buying healthier food automatically. If you run out of something and
have to go back to the store mid-week, only buy what you went there to buy
(make a list!). Most of the junk food in your house probably got there on
those little emergency trips that happened outside of your grocery store
routine.
62. Dont shop hungry. When youre hungry, your willpower is low, making it
harder to resist the box Lucky Charms. If your stomach is growling when you
get to the grocery store, grab a snack from the aisle to take the edge o and
keep the wrapper so you can pay for it in the checkout lane. Better one
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mediocre food decision than the dozens that can result from shopping on an
empty stomach.
63. Buy treats (but not the fully assembled kind). The greatest threat and
greatest ally to fat loss is convenience. Want to stop eating a pint of ice
cream a week? Dont pick up a carton ice cream. Instead, buy sugar, eggs,
and heavy cream, and an ice cream maker. It only takes about 20 minutes to
make fresh, delicious ice cream in any flavor you want, but having all the
ingredients (unassembled, and without the convenient pint and lid) will limit
your ice cream eating to those times when you really, really want it.
64. Get the good stu delivered. If you live in a major city, many grocery stores
oer home delivery. Ordering your groceries online practically forces you to
stick to your list! Other options for delivery include community supported
agriculture (CSA) boxes and farmer co-ops, which are often cheaper and
more delicious than the grocery store because only in-season items are
included. On the first of every month, a box of fresh fruits and vegetables
arrives at my houseits convenient and temptation free.
65. Dont shop alone. When people shop with others, even kids, they tend to
make better decisions. How likely are you to buy that box of Lucky Charms if
you have to justify it to your friends?
"
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66. Forgive yourself. It wasnt going to be easy and it wasnt going to be
perfect. Youre still on the path, youre still moving forward, the road just isnt
as straight as it looked from where you were. For many people, this is the
most dicult step, but theres a trick that might make it easier: Take a deep
breath and actually say the words, Im OK, out loud.
67. Win or Learn. One of the athletes with whom Coach Stevo worked had a
sticker on her training journal that said simply, Win or Learn. This is an
opportunity to reorient. Why is the path dierent than you thought? Are your
priorities in order? Are you pushing yourself too hard? Or not enough? Are
- Wumen Hui-k'ai
A Zen monk approached his new teacher.
I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.
The Zen Master asked, Have you eaten?
The monk replied, I have eaten.
Then you had better wash your bowl.
At that moment the monk was enlightened.
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you bored? Are you missing something? These are all fixable problems if you
take the time to reflect.
68. Change your perspective. There is a saying in Zen Buddhism: The
obstacles are the path. Context is everything, and if you think of this
moment as an opportunity to learn more about yourself and what youre
doing, then youll actually be better o for the experience.
69. Dont worry about the next mile, worry about the next step. Put your time
and energy into what you need to do today to get back on track. What can
you do in the next day, the next hour, or the next 60 seconds that will refocus
you on your goal? Even if its simply tossing the leftovers in the trash or
making a cup of coee, youll be headed in the right direction.
70. Have a ritual for failure. Great athletes have some set pattern that tell them
its time to move on. They take a deep breath. They take o their shoes. They
pack up their gear. Even the simple act of saying out loud, Whelp, glad thats
over! can create the space necessary to get back at it.
71. Take pictures. If what you want is to look better in a swimsuit, in a pair of
jeans, or even naked, take before and after pictures. The number on the scale
can remain stubbornly fixed even as your clothes begin to hang better on
your body and you start to look slimmer in the mirror. Rather than hopping on
the scale every Monday, whip out a camera phone and take a selfie instead.
72. Use a tape measure. Coach Stevo has had clients come to me after
consistently losing weight for a year and says, verbatim, I need a new plan. I
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stopped losing weight, even though my waist is getting smaller. If your waist
or hip measurements, the circumference at the widest points, are going
down, you are losing fat. Just keep doing what youre doing and throw away
your scale.
73. Play with your kids (or grandkids)! If your goal is to be able to play with
your little ones without getting tired, set a time to play with them every week.
If its getting easier to do week after week, then youre making progress!
74. When it comes to the human body, only bad things happen quickly (like
injuries). Good things take time, and always more time than we think they
should. Keeping track of healthy things you are doing, like eating colorful
vegetables at every meal and walking daily, is the best way to see if youre
doing what you actually need to be to reach your goals. Every great athlete
keeps a training log. Every pilot keeps a flight log. When you start doubting
yourself, just look at all the little things youre doing and remind yourself
youre on the right track! You just
have to keep moving forward!
75. Plan a sleep routine. Going to
bed at the same time every night
sets the stage for shutting down
your brain and falling asleep
quickly. But the plan should start
well before you turn out the lights.
Sleep! You probably wont
even consider this one, but it is
the single best weight loss
tool, muscle gain tool, training
tool, life tool, I have ever
encountered.
Dan John
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76. Set a shut down alarm. It takes time to unwind, so have an alarm go o
30 to 45 minutes before you want to actually be asleep and begin your
bedtime ritual.
77. Create a nightly ritual. Turn o all your electronic screens, write down
everything you need to do tomorrow (so youre not fretting about when the
lights go out), get into your pajamas, brush your teeth, wash your face, drink
a small glass of water. Whatever you need to do before bed, do it in the same
order every night. This sends the message to your brain that its sleepy time.
78. Get dark. Humans are very sensitive to light, so do your best to make your
bedroom as dark as possible. Think about repositioning your furniture,
purchasing a set of dark curtains, and covering up all the little lights on your
devicesblack electrical tape works well. If you keep your cell phone on your
bedside table, place it face down.
79. Make your room as quiet as possible (or get earplugs). A bed partner can
make this dicult, so consider investing in a pair of earplugs or a white noise
machine if the person next to you is a heavy breather. There are also phone
apps that successfully mue the sound of snoring.
80. Soak up the sun during the day. Exposing yourself to plenty of natural light
during the day, taps into your bodys circadian rhythmthe internal clock
that tells you when youre tired. At night, the contrast of your dark, quiet
room, will strongly signal that clock to make you sleepy, so youll fall asleep
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faster and more easily. Spend as much time outside during the day or in
bright rooms as you can and save dark spaces for bedtime.
81. Make dinner before you leave the house. Dinner is not a surprise; its
pretty much a nightly occurrence. So plan it out, chop it up, portion it out,
and put it in the fridge before youre anywhere near that fast-food window.
Then you wont spend your drive home worrying about prepping, cooking,
and cleaningyou just have to tackle reheating. Pressed for time in the
morning? Make dinner the night before, or pre-plate a few meals on Sunday.
82. Have a snack in your car. We make the poorest food choices when were
hungry. So carry something with youbaby carrots and peanut butter, or trail
mix, to tide you over until you make it past all the fast food places and can
make it home for a full meal.
83. Take the long way home. Sometimes the best way to get away from a bad
relationship is to avoid the person. That strategy works for fast food, too.
Sometimes its a lot easier to take the back roads than to drive right past
those golden arches. And lets be honest: Youre not just gonna get the
salad, are you?
84. Invite someone over. If you know you dont have any food in the house, and
fries sound so good you can almost taste them, go on a preemptive strike
and invite a friend over for dinner. You can meet at the grocery store, order
some healthier take-out, or combine whats in your fridges for a creative
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leftovers dinner. Any menu the two of you create will be better than
continuing the cycle of convenient, car-based calories.
85. Reflect on how you got here. When theres a paper bag in your lap and the
smell of KFC on your breath, its time to ask yourself a simple, nonjudgmental
question: How did I get here? At some point in your day, your plan proved
too hard, too complex, or too unreasonable. Reflect on what you can do to
make your evening meal simpler and more convenient than those 189 fateful
seconds to help you break free of the pattern the next time.
86. Dont keep pitfall foods at home. Yes, it can be that simple! Are you
snacking on chips after dinner? Dont buy chips. People typically hit the
grocery store at times of greater discipline and clarity than those sugar- and
salt-crazed moments just before
midnight, so its easier to resist
temptations and fill your cart with
nutritious options. If you cant shop
right after a meal, have a snack
before going to the market. One
smart snack now is better than
seven nights of mindless potato chip
munching.
87. Have a dessert fallback plan. At
some point youre going to get - Garry Kasparov
It is better to have a
bad plan than no plan.
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hungry after dinner. Having a contingency plan to prevent you from suering
all night is smart. Try keeping an emergency bar (thats one bar) of incredibly
dark chocolate (80% cacao or more) in the house. Two pieces of dark
chocolate with a little peanut butter can satisfy most cravings, and its
actually pretty hard to gorge yourself on chocolate that dark.
88. Dont skimp on supper. Consistently leaving the dinner table hungry puts
you at a disadvantage, and creates a caloric deficit that will be impossible to
maintain in the long term. Be reasonable. If an extra helping of chicken or
vegetables keeps you from devouring a sleeve of Girl Scout cookies later,
that second serving was worth it.
89. Notice your triggers. Coach Stevo once had a client who would eat a pint of
ice cream on the nights she had a self-imposed midnight deadline to finish an
accounting report for her business. When he suggested she move the
deadline to noon, her dark-hour dairy binges stopped. Are you overlooking
any subliminal cues that might be causing you to snack? Keep track of when
youre logging those late-night snacks in your food diary to see if you can link
it to a specific activity, event, or feeling.
90. Make a ritual that reminds you that youre done eating for the day. Using
a set or series of activities to declare, Im done with that; now Im onto this,
can be very powerful. A simple ritual that works for one of my clients: When
she has finished eating for the evening, she cleans her teethdinner, floss,
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brush, done. That clean-mouth feeling reminds her that her teeth are o duty
for the night, and its time to do something other than eat.
91. Find a closer gym. Jennifer Gay, Ph.D., and her colleagues conducted an
experiment and found no matter how motivated people were, the biggest
factor in determining whether or not people who just started exercising would
still be exercising in 6 months was how convenient it was to get to their gym.
Why fight an uphill battle? Pick the one thats closest to your home or oce.
92. Go to the gym in the morning. People who start an exercise habit in the
morning are far more likely to stick to it. There are lots of reasons for this, but
the most compelling is known as decision fatigue. Researchers have found
that decisions cost something to make and we are more likely to depend
on impulse and habit by the end of the day. So after commuting, working,
and commuting again, youre less likely to go the gym later in the day than in
the morning.
93. Get beyond should. There are lots of things we should do. We should
floss twice a day. And call our mothers. But feeling like we should do
somethingwhat psychologists call introjected motivationis a very poor
quality motivator when compared to feeling like we must to do something,
or need to do something. So tell your friends that if you dont workout
twelve times this month, they can shave your head.
94. Find a reason (for today). Write down every reason you can think of for
going to the gym. Every answer to the question, Why? Keep that list by
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your bed. When your alarm goes o at 6AM, grab the list and pick the reason
that sounds most motivating to you for that day.
95. Simply set the alarm. Coach Stevo once had a client who, couldnt work out
in the morning. After getting to a possible root of her issue, setting an alarm
clock seemed to be the best solution. She wasnt confident that she could go
to the gym (even once), but she was 100% confident that she could set an
alarm for 6:00am. So he asked her to set it right there, on her phone, in front
of him. She could do anything she wanted after the alarm went o he just
wanted her to set the alarm. The next day she walked into my gym at
6:30am. I was up, she said. Thought Id come here. 80% of life is
showing upand most of us cant do that without an alarm.
More is just more.
More isnt better.
Dan John
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96. Have a Ive got 5 mins to workout. We all have those days where time
just gets away from us and our schedules are slammed. Plan out a quick
5-10 min workout that you can do anywhere. Something like, squats, crawls,
and sprints. Set a timer for 5 mins, set a rep goal for each exercise, and
complete as many rounds as you can. That way you always get at least some
movement in for the day.
97. Take pictures of your meal and share it with a friend. They dont even
have to analyze it. Just knowing that someone else is seeing everything thats
on the plate can help guide us to make better food choices.
98. Unplug. There have been many a workouts missed or cut short because of
the temptation to finish reading that blog, checking Facebook for the
millionth time, or getting stuck trying to catch up on the endless flow of
emails. Put down the phone, turn o the computer screen, and start moving.
You will be much happier afterwards. Those emails will always be there
waiting for you.
99. No T.V. in the bedroom. Seinfeld re-runs are awesome, but not so much at
midnight when you have to be up at 5 am. Having a television in the bedroom
can ruin your sleep quality. The temptation to turn on the T.V. for just a few
minutes before sleeping can turn into an hour plus of lost sleep.
100. Take more action, do less thinking. The wrong diet, executed well and
consistently is more eective than the perfect diet executed sporadically.
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101. Dont major in minors. Go with things that are obvious. When an article
comes out that Kale is bad, dont skip the kale salad and go get fast food.
The worst vegetable is better than the crap most people eat every day. You
know this already.
102. If the same thing derails your plan two or three times in a row, that
means you need a new strategy.
103. Better strategies and planning are always more eective than willpower
and discipline.
104. Review your food journals. If you treat your food journal as a grade of
your plan, you can always see where to replan or create new strategies.
105. Write down a Plan B for each week. Most of the things that could derail
your plan next week, you already know. Take the time to set up your Plan
Bs at the beginning of each week.
106. The simplest and easiest plan is the best. Youre not gonna remember a
complex plan when youre hangry.
107. Stock Up. If you need grab-and-go kinds of healthy food, you should
stock up on those. Buy too many. The last thing you wanna do is run out!
108. Experiment (and record). Most people feel full if they have protein at every
meal. Some people feel more full with more fat vs. carbohydrates, and some
people feel more full with more carbohydrates vs. fat. Adjust your ratios until
you feel more full.
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109. Look at the dierence, not the absolutes. If you ate 25 free meals last
week, and this week you eat 24, youve made progress. Little bits of progress
all of the time = results.
110. Take it one meal at a time. You can break up your planning by meal or by
day. For example, this week you could just focus on breakfast. Next week
just focus on lunch.
111. Every day is not the same. Weekends require dierent planning and
structure from weekdays. Get your weekday meals handled before you even
worry about the weekends.
112. Have a free day or free meals or some version of an o-plan time.
Just so you can turn your brain o for a spell. So really, you only have to get
one weekend day handled.
113. Focus on planning, shopping and cooking, even before you focus on
eating.
114. Then focus on increasing consistency and bouncing back from mistakes.
115. Be Boring. Most people eat the same stu every day, so dont overthink it.
Be boring. For most folks breakfast is the best way to do this, but it can be
any meal or snack. Have one or two easy to make recipes that you have for
the same meal, everyday. Boring, yes, but it takes the thinking out of one
meal. On a 3 meal schedule, you just freed up 33% of your willpower.
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116. Dont think of it as a workout
or a diet, call it a change.
Honestly, thats all it is, dont give it
a label.
117. Fool your brain. Use smaller
dishes and tupperware.
Chopsticks are a nice way to keep
portions down, too.
118. Pick something you are not
good at, or never thought you can
do, and work at it. If you cant do a
pullup, work on it. It isnt a workout, just practice.
119. Make a food journal club, in person or online. Message each other
everyday, and share recipes and workouts.
120. Stand up at work instead of sitting at a desk. Use a timer, and start with 5
min, slowly adding time.
121. Write down potential roadblocks each week on your calendar. Even if you
are unsure it will happen, plan for it anyway.
122. Accept the fact that you may add some muscle and the weight may not
be where you want it. This is especially true if you learn what a goblet squat
is!
The obstacles are
the path.
- Wile E. Coyote
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123. If you dont have planning, shopping, and cooking totally mastered and on
autopilot, you are a diet beginner.
124. Beginners need better planning. Intermediates need to work on re-
planning based on the results theyve gotten. Advanced folks can actually
look at whats in the plan.
125. Work on macronutrient ratios and meal timing after you are planning,
shopping, and cooking on autopilot.
126. Just Breathe. When you know youre about to make a decision that could
derail you, take 3 Big Breaths (In through the nose out through the mouth).
Just breathing might help increase your clarity and help you make a decision
that suits what you're trying to accomplish.
127. Eat breakfast. Start yourself o right with proper fueling.
128. Skip Breakfast, if youre just gonna eat crap anyway and put all your
planning into a kick-ass lunch.
129. Take Supplements. Itll get you in the habit of at least drinking water.
130. Ditch Supplements. Theyre distracting you from what really matters.
131. Whenever you notice yourself surfing the internet, take a walk.
132. Unplug your laptop when you work. Every time it runs out of battery, take
a walk and work somewhere dierent as it charges. Then when its charged,
take a talk and work someplace dierent.
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133. Start a club. Whether its a walking club, a kettlebell club, a cooking club,
or a habits club. Everything works better in groups and youre more likely to
stick to a plan if more people are on board.
134. Make T-shirts. Everyone loves T-shirts and it will be a reminder of your
goals and the people counting on you every time you wear it.
135. Cut every corner. Pre-peeled garlic, pre-washed spinach, pre-chopped
kale, and pre-cooked chicken are all available at Trader Joes. No one is
going to give you a medal for chopping all your own lettuce or making your
own mirepoix, so if it saves you a second of time and an ounce of willpower,
buy the pre-packaged stu until you actually want to do all the prep yourself.
136. Prep everything all at once. Youve got out the knife, the board, and the
tupperware (you bought all the tupperware already, right?) so you might as
well get everything done all at once!
137. Throw a cooking party! Food prep and cooking is something we all have
to do, and I dont remember anything on Moses tablets saying anything
about having to suer through that crap alone. Invite a couple of friends over
on a Sunday afternoon and you can shop, prep, and cook all your meals for
the week together. You also get to divide the labor, so youll be chopping and
cleaning half the time you normally would. Plus, if anyone is too busy or sick
to join, everyone else can pitch in to keep him or her fed for the week.
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138. Learn to make chipotle crema. Its the Mexican version of crme frache,
a slightly soured and thickened cream, with chipotle peppers blended into it.
Why? Its crazy delicious (like a milder and less thick sour cream) and tastes
great on everything. Fish? Crema. Broccoli? Crema. Burgers? Crema. Kale?
Hell yeah, crema! Making your own fermented sauce will make you feel like a
badass, and encourage you to make more things. It will also make you want
to show o your awesome sauce to everyone you know, which will mean
more delicious cooking! Its also easy as hell.
1. Heat a cup of heavy cream to just under 100 degrees F.
2. Add a tablespoon of buttermilk.
3. Put it into a pint-sized mason jar, close the lid, and leave it on your
counter for 24 hours.
4. Add a single, canned chipotle chili (the kind in adobo sauce), a pinch of
salt, then use an immersion blender to blend until its smooth directly in
the jar.
5. Put it on everything. Then refrigerate.
139. Eat 3-4 meals a day. There is nothing magic about the number but for
people who graze, this is a game changer. By switching to discrete meals, its
less decisions to make, less time you have to focus, and less willpower spent
on planning and prep. And theres a lot of leeway with 3 or 4 meals.
140. Master one meal at a time. For most people, the idea of planning,
prepping, cooking, portioning, storing, and reheating 21-30 meals a week is
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daunting as hell. It's also completely unreasonable to expect people who've
never cooked before to start there. Instead, pick one meal a day (maybe even
just weekdays) and start there. Once you feel like you've got that meal
mastered, move on to 2 meals a day.
141. Put 20% less on your plate. If you want to eat 20% less (or stop eating
when youre 80% full) a great place to start is by putting less on your plate to
begin with. Dont worry, if youre still famished you can always get more.
142. Buy new knives. For some people, buying a new toy is just the kick in the
butt they need to get into a new habit. And the knives most home cooks use
are freaking terrible. So invest in some quality steel that youre excited to
chop with.
AND WHAT ANDY RODDICK ACTUALLY
The basics have always worked in fitness. Get your walks in,
have some intensity sometimes and get all the basic human
movements into your training toolbox. Dont injure yourself
training or competing but welcome an occasional bout of
soreness. Leave a little in the tank every workout, so, if
something does come up, you can handle it. If you get thirsty,
drink water. Learn to spot and use spotters. Teach the next
generation how to lift correctly. Leave the facility better than
you found it.
Dan John
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143. Make your own coee. Great coee is easier to make than ice cream
soup and has two great benefits: 1) it keeps you away from the Starbucks
pastry case and 2) it can create a tiny space in your morning to stick some
new healthier habits. Think of it like sticking your toe into this whole,
breakfast thing. Because before you know it, youll be thinking, what can I
do for that 4 minute brew time
144. Workout in your backyard. For all the people that fear going to the gym
because youre not fit enough yet, the backyard is a killer place to start a
training habit. Its also a great place to invite your friends to workout with you.
145. Do only one workout for a month. Any workout. Weights, sprints, running,
yoga, zumba, whatever. Just pick a single workout and do it every time you
train for a month. Coach Stevo just did loaded carries for a month during prep
for his thesis defense (in the parking lot of his school) to stay in the habit of
doing anything.
146. Have a Loaded Carry Party! If you want to get stronger in the most
convenient and fun way possible, invite a bunch of friends over to a park on a
Sunday and ask them to bring something heavy. Anything heavy. Books,
bricks, dog food. Anything that you can get your arms around, stu into a
canvas duel bag, or dump into a cheap, plastic sled. Now carry them! Carry
them on your back, wrapped in your arms, or drag them on the sled. Make a
it a contest out and celebrate at the end with a beer! Just make sure you all
agree to meet the next week and try it again.
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147. Keep a Chocolate Journal. If you get cravings for chocolate at weird
times that are strong enough to make you contemplate homicide, start
writing down when you get them, how much you eat, and why you think you
wanted it so badly. You might start to notice patterns.
148. Start a Self-Talk Journal. One of the most vicious saboteurs of a fat loss
program can be the little voice inside your head. So start writing down what it
says, when it says it, and how it makes you feel. Learning under what
conditions that voice pops up might be the first step in quieting him or her
down.
149. Get back on the horse, today. When things go wrong, instead of thinking
about how far you have to go, focus on what you today, right now, this
minute to get back in the game. Is it writing a shopping list on your iPhone?
Texting your coach to schedule a session? Planning your next meal? Calling
a friend to invite them over for a healthy dinner? Do it. Now. Today.
150. Reward yourself every day. This stu is hard. Remembering to do it is
hard. So when you do remember to eat that kale, plan that meal, lift that
heavy thing, or even take out the trash, tell yourself, good job! Coach Stevo
has had clients imagine cartoon characters tell them, good job! It turns out,
even those little rewards add up and help close that habit loop. Not only do
you deserve it, but saying good job! will help you learn the habit faster.
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151. Blackmail yourself. A lot of people promise to buy themselves big rewards
when they reach their fitness goals, only to find they either lose motivation or
just buy it for themselves anyway. So do the opposite. Tell your friends that if
you dont send them a picture of the vegetables youre eating that meal, they
have permission to post something embarrassing about you on Facebook.
152. Schedule a regular thing. Coach Stevo pays a cleaning service to clean his
house every other Wednesday. So you know what he does every other
Tuesday? He cleans his house. If you have a regular dinner, or workout, or
walking club, or even a book club, youre far more likely to prepare for it. And
you can piggyback on that preparation to get other things done. Even if its
just a book club, you can use it as an excuse to buy a bunch of healthy food
to have around your house for when they arrive and then snack on healthy
leftovers all week.
153. Teach someone else. Are you struggling with a habit? Teach it to someone
else. Walk them through what youve tried, what youre thinking of trying
next. What youve learned. What worked and what didnt. Docendo discitur.
One learns by teaching.
154. Keep an indulgence journal. Coach Stevo used to see big gaps in his
clients food journals and instantly know that was when they got o track.
So he started an experiment where the clients only kept a journal of when
they went o track and why. What went through their head, and how they felt
afterward. It turned out that most of the indulgences where not really that
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enjoyable after the first 3 bites. And that over-indulging often had less than
awesome consequences. The Indulgences Journals not only reminded
people that over-doing it wasnt all that it was cracked up to be, but also
served as a reminder that most of the time, all they really wanted was the first
3-5 bites.
155. Do pushups every time you pee.
156. Drink water every time you do pushups so that you have to pee even
more often.
157. Pick one new place on your errands list to walk to every week.
158. Walk out your front door and just start walking with no destination in
mind.
159. Pick one of your favorite podcasts or radio shows and only listen to it
when you are walking or working out.
160. Download E-Books, but only listen to them while youre walking or
working out.
161. Make a Walking E-Book Bookclub. Every member has to listen to the
book while they were going for walks or working out. Members can be from
all over the world if you meet on Facebook.
162. Always take the first parking spot you find. Youll walk more and trust us,
it saves time in the long run.
163. Take the stairs for anything trip under 4 floors. Its probably faster too.
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164. Take pictures of every staircase you walk up. Some of them are beautiful
and if you start Instagramming them, its hard to stop.
165. Instead of meeting for drinks, go for a walk together. Most of the time you
meet people its to catch up, not get blitzed. Walking is quieter, more
invigorating, and way more engaging than a bar would be. This does get
dicult with groups of 3 or more, though.
166. Drink a big glass of water before you go to bed. The little bump of
hydration might make up for what you missed and prevent you from waking
up parched in the middle of the night. It can also help cool you down and get
you ready for sleep.
167. Chop Wood; Carry Water. A young student of Zen runs into Wu Li, the
great Zen Master on the mountain outside the monestary. Master Li is
performing his daily routine of chopping firewood and bringing up buckets of
water from the river for the Monastery.
What is life before Enlightenment? the young monk asks.
Chop wood; carry water, responds Li with a swing of his ax.
What is life after Enlightenment?
Chop wood; carry water, responds Li with a smile on his face.
If there is any secret tip, trick, tactic, or strategy that trumps all the others on
this list, its to stay focused on the process, not the outcome. Motivation will
come and go. Tactics will work until they do not. But throughout it all, you
must continue to chop the wood and carry the water. As Dan John says in
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Intervention, to continually strive for mastery and grace. The gap between
who you are now and the you that you are striving to become is not so great.
It is a collection of habits; the actions that you know you should take now,
just with less eort and cunning and just a little bit more joy that comes from
years of trying to get little bit better at them each day. The best version of
yourself that you can imagine, the leaner you, the fitter you, is still you. Just a
version of you that has mastered the basics and doesnt have to think about
them as much anymore. So do not think of chopping wood and carrying
water, aka healthy eating choices and reasonable exercise, as the work you
must finish to attain your goals. Think of them rather as the goal itself. The
subtle joy of preparing delicious meals and sharing them with friends. The
corporeal wonder of a new PR after years of practice. The greatest secret in
fitness is that there is no secret. The magazine covers and gurus are guarding
an empty vault. And the path to all your goals is the steps you take, and the
friends you meet along the way.
The Habitry Collective
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Before enlightenment chop wood and
carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood and
carry water. Wu Li, Zen Master