The Earth moves through space around our home star at around 67,000 miles per hour. Every second we move 18 miles. In one day, that is 1.6 million miles. Save that info for the next time your significant other gripes at you for never going anywhere.
For some unfathomable reason, once our planet has moved 584 million miles, humans across the globe decide to starve themselves for a couple of weeks in a tradition called “New year, new me”. Invariably, that goal fizzles out as they decide they are simply starving and where is that delivery guy with my triple cheeseburger already???
Why is that? Spin the “Wheel of Diet Failure” and it can land on a myriad of reasons: lack of planning, lack of education, fad diets, banning favorite foods, going from 3000 calories a day to 1000 calories a day overnight. I can attest that even for a seasoned professional weight maintainer as myself, when it is time to cut some calories, it is quite the adjustment and takes some getting used to in order to stick with it.
During the winter time when activities naturally slow down, I use that as my bulking phase where I eat in a slight calorie surplus, and structure my workouts to lift heavy in an effort to add lean muscle to my frame. I understand that there will be some body fat increases that come with that, even though I don’t like it. I call it being a bit “loose in the cage”.
It’s where I just barely have visible abs and only in the right lighting and flexing. That’s about as far as my fragile mental state will allow me to go. However, when it’s time to cut calories to reveal (hopefully) all the new muscle added in the dark cold of winter, it’s a real challenge at first.
Keep in mind, I’m only adjusting calories around 600 at the most, so I’m going from around 2500 calories a day down to around 1900. My stupid lying lizard brain, very happy with the extra daily intake, screams at me that I am going to die of starvation that first week.
You have a stupid lying lizard brain as well. We all do. And, if you are not expecting it to scream at you that you are going to waste away and die if you don’t shotgun that quart of ice cream it can literally smell in the freezer, you will zombie walk to the kitchen and hopefully at least use a spoon as you destroy it.
Our bodies really want to stay at whatever weight you get up to, and do not care that food is readily available at every turn. Couple that with the drastic calorie changes most people make and it’s almost a guaranteed failure in the making.
How can you combat it? First, realize that you are not starving. Do not panic. Being a little hungry is to be expected. Figure out what you actually do eat in a day, and I don’t mean guess or estimate. You will need a kitchen scale and the interwebs to look up weights and calories. Your stupid lying lizard brain is really, really bad at estimating how much you eat in a day.
There are studies where people missed the number by 1000 calories or more. Once you know the actual number of calories you are averaging a day (I know, Holy S@#!, right?) then you can aim to decrease gradually, no more than 500 calories at a time until you can get acclimated to it.
Remember, this is not a sprint. This is for life. Building daily habits and hitting them consistently bring lasting change, not some crash diet that will leave you worse off than when you started.
Simple swaps can make all the difference in a day to hit a calorie deficit. Take flour tortillas, for instance. One flour tortilla clocks in at 140 calories, 26 grams of simple carbs, and 400 mg sodium. And you know you are eating two of those bad boys, at least. Swap them out for egg white tortillas, and those numbers change to 25 calories, 0 carbs, and 120 mg of sodium. They taste and feel exactly like flour tortillas, and the best part is you don’t have to make them. They are available at your local mega-marts and they are a complete game changer.
I made my ground turkey tacos and took them on a test run. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t eating a real flour tortilla. They are that good:
Other swaps are just as easy. I have a casserole I’ve made for years. I used to make it with frozen tater tots, boiled white rice, and store bought jars of Alfredo sauce. Now I make it with roasted purple potatoes, cauliflower rice, and my healthy grass fed dairy homemade Alfredo sauce.
I’ve cut the simple carbs, bad fats, and calories by more than half, and it actually tastes better than the original. When I make this one, it never stays around for long.
Here are the links to my taco and casserole recipes. Try using the egg white tortillas and you will be shocked. And if you make the casserole, be prepared to have it on a regular rotation.
They are all tasty ways to lose and maintain weight as we all hurtle through space at mind-blowing speeds, not just once the odometer hits the 584 million mile mark.
Good luck, take it one day at a time, and be consistent. It’s not will power, it’s building habits. You can do it.
https://www.mysaline.com/shirtless-cauliflower-daddys-casserole/
See the list of all the Shirtless Chef recipes at www.mysaline.com/shirtless.