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Self-Discipline Ninja Tactic

Is Having Zero Self-Discipline Keeping You From Losing Weight?

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Hey.

Have you ever caught yourself mindlessly doing some boring chore (that didn’t even really need to be done) just so you could put off the thing you knew you should be doing?

I was a champion at doing this.

One second I’d be thinking of hitting the gym… a few seconds later I’d find myself doing laundry. Or the dishes. Or yardwork. Or checking emails.

I may have even laid down to watch part of a TV series I’d been neglecting.

So, yea, I had a hard time consistently sticking to a workout program.

I had an even harder time sticking to a healthy eating program.

It’s tough.

Both of them.

But, here’s the thing…

You Can Strengthen Your Self-Discipline Muscles.

Yep, you read that right.

Self discipline is nothing more than an untrained muscle. It’s the scrawny bicep within your brain that has withered away from years of neglect.

But here’s the good news.

You can strengthen your self discipline. 

Doing this was a complete game changer for me, so if you’re having the same problem sticking to your goals then I think figuring out how to build up your self discipline will help you as well. 

Let’s jump in…

Here’s The Super Ninja Tactic That Helped Me Strengthen My Self-Discipline

Have you ever heard of Duolingo?

It’s a language learning app. 

A while back I was using the app to learn Spanish, and I got a bit addicted.

For those not familiar with Duolingo, it’s an app you download onto your phone and it allows you to take quick and simple lessons to learn a new language. 

Each lesson only takes somewhere between two to five minutes, they’re super easy, but here’s the weird thing…

Whether I wanted it or not, everyday I’d get a strange notification on my phone from Duolingo.

It would look something like this…

Duolingo streak

Every single day Duolingo would send me one of these notifications reminding me of my daily streak for completing a Spanish lesson. 

Now this is going to sound weird and stupid and I understand that it makes no logical sense but there were many days when I’d go completely out of my way to ensure my streak did not end.

If needed, I’d hide from the crowds and hunker down in a bathroom so I could knock out my Duolingo lesson and protect my streak. 

It was weird, for sure. 

Even when I no longer wanted to further my language learning, I still found it difficult to stop.

That’s when I realized that when you have a goal and your goal is based on consistency and not quitting, then a streak grows to strange levels of importance in your brain.

It’s a powerful motivator. 

Here’s how I used the power of streaks to keep me consistent with my weight loss and fitness routine.

First things first, I made the tasks as easy as humanly possible. 

Imagine if I would have first opened the Duolingo app and the first lesson was two hours long and the assignment was to look up fifty Spanish verbs and then use all the verb conjugations in five different sentences for each verb. 

The next day’s lesson was going to be more of the same. 

I’ll tell you now, my streak would have lasted all of five seconds. 

Trying to start like that…with that level of extreme difficulty…

It makes zero logical sense.

No one is going to stick with it. Not for the long term. 

But this is exactly how normal people all over the planet choose to start a fitness and weight loss program.

They want to start as difficult as possible. 

They want to start with HITT training, or with a hard-core super restrictive diet. They want to punish themselves in the gym. They want to walk from the gym hunched over, sweat pouring down their face. They want to brag about how sore their thighs are the next day.

They want to hurt. 

I mean…

What The Hell????

Normal people are nuts.   

But as nutty as they may be, I get why they do this.

Heck, I did it too. For many, many years. 

It’s because normal people worldwide are focusing only on the immediate goal rather than focusing on the process of obtaining the goal. 

They want to do everything now, thinking that by doing so it will get them to their goal quicker. 

But in reality, they are only making things so difficult now that both their brain and their body will not be able to handle the long term process of continuing.  

And to stay fit and in good shape, you have to continue the process.

Today.

And tomorrow.

And the next day.

And the next. 

And the moment your foot comes off the gas and the cookies go back in your mouth, that’s when you’re depressed and buying a bigger pant size again.

That’s when you have to start over.

Normal people do this. 

They’re continuously in a cycle of starting and stopping, of trying this and then trying that, of looking for the newest workout, the newest supplement, the newest diet that will give them their dream body now. 

Unfortunately, they will be going through this cycle forever, always searching until they finally give up and accept their excuses as reality.

Don’t fall into this trap.

Don’t do the normal things that all the normal people are doing. 

Be different. 

The first different thing I did was to start with a task so freaking easy that my mind could not possibly come up with a valid justification for not completing the task.

And trust me, even when the task is ridiculously easy your mind will sometimes still hee and haw. 

And your mind is one savage negotiator. 

It’s like a five year old in a toy store. Nagging and begging and pleading until it eventually gets its way. 

Give your mind two or three weeks of going to the gym and doing those grueling workouts and it will revolt. It will suddenly remind you of how important it is to do the laundry. Or the dishes. Or the yardwork. Or to check the emails.

It will insist that you need to lay down and finish watching the TV series you’ve been neglecting.

It will barter. It will conjole. It will beg.

And that is your brain’s job. To keep you away from the things that will cause you pain and discomfort, and to bring you closer towards the things that will give you pleasure and safety. 

Your brain does not want to start as difficult as possible. 

That is not it’s job. That goes against it’s very nature. 

If you don’t enjoy HITT training, then your brain is going to give you a million different reasons why HITT training should not be done consistently.

If you do not associate a hard-core super restrictive diet as pleasurable, then your brain’s job is to keep you away from doing it.

Your brain doesn’t want to punish itself in the gym. It doesn’t want to walk from the gym hunched over with sweat pouring down its face. Your brain doesn’t want to brag about how sore its thighs are the next day.

Your brain doesn’t want to hurt. 

Consciously, you want these things because you think they will bring you to your goal quicker, but unconsciously your brain does not want to do these things because they are painful and cause discomfort.

And here’s the BIG lesson I learned:

If You Are Always Fighting Against Yourself, Then You Will Never Win.   

So in order to win the war against weight loss you must become an ally with your brain.

In order to do this, it’s imperative that you start your streak with simplicity.

were-going-streaking-will-ferrell

Again, the way I did this was to start with a task that was so freaking easy that my brain could not possibly come up with a valid justification for not completing the task. 

For me it was pushups. 

For you it may be something else. 

I don’t mind doing pushups. 

Sounds weird but I kinda enjoy pushups.

Now I don’t enjoy them to the point where I go out every Saturday night and do pushups at a fancy restaurant and then do more pushups during the preview at the movie theater.

I’m not an idiot about pushups.

I don’t necessarily love doing any exercises, but my goal was to get in the best shape of my life, so I knew I had to do something.  

So I committed to starting with pushups. Because I don’t hate them and I don’t consider them to be complicated or backbreaking.

On the morning of Tuesday, November 08th, 2022, I did 10 pushups, then I waited one minute, did another 10 pushups, waited one minute, then I did 17 more pushups.

And then I went to work. 

The next morning, I did the exact same thing. 10, then 10, then 17 more pushups.

I was not killing myself. It was not punishing. I was not pouring sweat when I left the house. I didn’t go to bed dreading having to do my three sets of pushups the next morning. I wasn’t waking that next morning and thinking of how I should take out the garbage instead of doing my pushups.

It was relatively easy. 

It took all of about four minutes. 

Some days, there was a slight grumble from my brain about not wanting to do this. But it’s easy to silence those thoughts when you can counter with: “It’s literally only three measly sets of pushups that take less than five minutes to complete.” 

Not even my moody brain could muster a winning rebuttal against doing something that was so painless, quick, and easy.  

Today, this morning before I left the house for work, 08NOV2023, I did my three sets of pushups.

I do more now, because I can do more. I’ve gotten stronger. Now it’s 20 pushups, wait one minute, do 20 more pushups, wait one minute, then I do 28 pushups.

I do them regardless of where I’m at. If I’m at home, I do them first thing in the morning. If I’m at a hotel, first thing in the morning. If I’m at a friends, first thing in the morning.

And today is my one year streak.

365 days in a row of doing pushups every single morning. 

Tomorrow I will do them again.

And I will do them the next day, and the next, and the next. 

But the first step is to start. With the easiest task you can possibly think of.

And then track it. Daily. Religiously. And focus only on the doing of that one easy simple thing every single day. 

Your new goal should not be to lose weight.

Or to get ripped.

Or to fit into your old comfy pair of Levies.

Your new goal should be 1,000 days.

1,000 days of doing something every single day that is so freaking easy that your brain will not possibly be able to come up with a valid justification for not completing the task. 

And once you start on that journey…once you begin to build both your streak and your confidence, then you will most likely begin to add other tasks to your streak counter. 

That is what inevitable happened to me.

Here is a look at the super sophisticated system that I use to keep track of my streaks.  

Super Fancy Streak Counter

This Whiteboard poster is literally scotch-taped to the wall in my kitchen.

Is it tacky?

Absolutely.

Am I sometimes embarrassed when people see it?

At first I was…but now I am only proud.

Because it’s my Weirdo Wall. 

It represents my journey.

My victories. 

You will see that over time I also incorporated weight workouts, and cardio, and diet restrictions onto my streak counter. 

As with the pushups, I made the doing of these items as easy as humanly possible. 

I now drink Coke Zero rather than the normal calorie cokes. I walk instead of doing any strenuous cardio. I workout every single day but the workouts are quick and easy. I’m normally in-and-out in 10-30 minutes. 

Normal people can’t understand this. 

To them, it’s all too simple.

Or it’s too easy.

Or the process just takes too dang long.

But to the Weirdos…this is the way.

The way that works.

I hope your own fitness streak begins today.

Because tomorrow is coming quick, and the sooner you start, the sooner you will reach your goals. 

If you have any questions at all, please reach out to me at [email protected]

 I am one hundred percent more than happy to help you reach your goals.  

Good luck on your fitness journey. 

May the weird be with you!

Josh

Lose weight eating stouffers lasagna

This Is How I Lost 35 Pounds Eating Stouffers Lasagna!

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Lose weight eating stouffers lasagna

Hey…

In honor of this article, guess what I’m having for lunch today!

You guessed it… 

I’m having Stouffer’s microwave lasagna. 

And you know what else…

Tomorrow morning I’ll weigh the same as I did this morning.

I won’t gain one single pound.

This evening I’ll have a half-pound cheeseburger with fries for dinner.

And in case you’re wondering, when I hit the scale tomorrow morning I still won’t weigh any more than I did this morning. 

A candy bar, some chocolate covered raisins, a brownie, and some buttered popcorn will be my snacks today.

And I still won’t gain any additional weight.

Right now you may be thinking, ‘Uh huh. Keep eating like that and tell me how your pants fit in three months.’

You may be thinking I have some special genetics, or that I’m a high metabolism twenty year old. (I wish.) 

You may be thinking it’s not possible to eat lasagna, then snack on popcorn and chocolate, then have a cheeseburger and fries for dinner, and still gain absolutely zero weight.

But the truth is that you can. 

It is one hundred percent possible!

You can eat the foods you love and still get in the best shape of your life.  

Don’t believe me?

I’m living proof. 

Here’s a before and after pic of me, myself, and not Irene.

The picture on the left is when I was first beginning this fitness journey and the one on the right is a picture of me from a few weeks ago. 

FitnessForWeirdos - My Before and after photos.
This Is How I Lost 35 Pounds Eating Stouffers Lasagna!
Weirdo me, after I lost weight and got in the best shape of my life.

Trust me, I am no where close to being a twenty-year-old spring chicken. 

I was 43 when I first started this fitness journey; I am 44 now. 

And I promise you, I have no super high metabolism.

What I do have is a method that has helped me lose over 35 pounds of fat, gain a significant amount of muscle, and get in the absolute best shape of my life — all while eating foods that I actually enjoy.

But my journey is definitely not all cupcakes and sprinkles. 

It took me years of searching, testing, failing before I figured out how to eat the foods I love and still get in the best shape of my life.

After this article I hope you choose to do the same!

Let’s get to it. 

Are you losing weight today, gaining weight today, or staying the same weight today? 

Quick question: let’s say I’m sitting on my couch watching Sports Center, and I’m munching on a salad and an avocado and I’m washing it all down with a great big glass of ice water — will I lose weight, gain weight, or stay the same weight when I hop on the scale tomorrow morning?

I’m guessing most people would think I’d lose weight eating a salad and an avocado.

Maybe a few would make an argument that I’d gain or stay the same weight.

But here’s the God-to-honest truth:

You don’t know.

You can’t.

Not with any certainty. 

And the first reason you can’t realistically know the answer to this is because you don’t know how many calories I burn per day, and the second reason is because you don’t know how many calories I’m actually putting inside my body. 

Sure, you’d know I was eating a salad.

And an avocado.

But here’s the thing:

You can still get fat eating salads and avocados and eggs and all the foods that we’ve always been told are ‘healthy.’ 

Now I’m not saying you should no longer eat salads or avocados or eggs or any of the foods we’ve always been told are healthy.

What I am saying is that in order to lose weight and get in great shape, we have to know which foods and how much of these foods we can actually eat before the balloon we call our bellies starts to expand.

Why?

Imagine this: you’re at a pizza restaurant with friends and you’re at that point where you’re thinking, ‘Hmmm, should I have one more slice?’

In today’s fairy tale you look down at your arm and there’s a handy dandy nifty little fuel gauge build right there into your body. Pretty neat, I know! Even better, it shows that your tank is only half full which means you’re good to eat another slice. You greedily grab another piece of Meat Lover’s Supreme and savor this cheesy gooey meaty delight, swallowing every last morsel. Then you look at your nifty fuel gauge again.

You’re three quarters full now.

Yessss! This means you can eat even more. So a few chicken wings go down your throat, two mozzarella sticks, a fudge brownie, and…yep…that did it. Your tank is now completely full. Blaaannkkhhhh Blaaannkkhhhh Blaaannkkhhh – that’s the overflow alarm going off. Even if you tried grubbing on one more tiny little loose piece of pepperoni then your throat would not allow it into your stomach. 

You’d have to wait until some calories were burned and then there’d be more room in your tank. So you wait, and you walk; and your heart is beating (which burns calories), and your brain is thinking (which also burns calories), and your lungs are working, and so are your muscles, and all the while you are burning calories and before long it’s time to fill up again. This time maybe with the sweet nectar of Stouffer’s lasagna!

Lose Weight With Stouffers Lasagna

In all honesty, the above scenario would be a great way to live because we’d never have to worry about overeating or being overweight, but unfortunately we live in the real world and in the real world we don’t have a handy dandy nifty little fuel gauge built right there on our body. 

Here in the real world most of us are completely clueless as to how much fuel we are putting inside our bodies at all.

People guesstimate.

Or… to put it more accurately, normal people guesstimate.  

And 99.999999 percent of normal people are absolutely terrible at this.

But these normal people, which is the vast majority of the world, will justify their terribleness by blabbering on and on about how healthy they are eating. I’m eating fruits, they’ll say. Or, almonds. Or you’ll hear all about how yogurt is extremely healthy. As are lentils and lean meats and salads and oats.  

And then they’ll eat and eat and eat these things, and have a large M&M Blizzard as a reward for dessert. And why not, they’ve earned it. I mean they’ve been eating healthy, right?

Riiiiiiggggghhhht???

These same normal people will say, “I’m doing the Keto diet.” Or, “I’m doing Paleo.” Or avocados have healthy fats. Or eggs have a lot of protein. 

And that’s great!

Because all those things are good and true. 

But here’s another truth: you can still get fat on Keto and on Paleo and by eating avocados and eggs and any other foods out there. 

You will get fat if you eat more calories than your body can burn. 

The diet doesn’t matter. Nor does the food type. Nor does the time of day you eat.

What matters is this:

If you eat more calories than your body can burn, you will gain weight.

Period.

It’s that simple.

If you enjoy the Keto diet, then awesome. Keep doing the Keto diet, but to lose weight you must ensure that you are not eating more calories than your body can burn while on the keto diet. 

Same with Paleo. 

And Adkins.

Same with any other diet or eating preference. 

The rules of all these different diets (like Keto or Paleo) are in place to encourage you to eat lower calorie foods so that you do not eat more than your body can burn. 

Normal people have a hard time swallowing this. They think there is a magic in the Paleo diet. A magic in Keto, but there is no magic.

There is only math. 

And the math looks like this:

If you eat 2,200 calories today but your body burns only 2,000 calories, then you will gain weight.

That extra 200 calories has to go somewhere.

And it goes into thunder thighs, love handles, and chubby chins. 

However, if you eat 1,800 calories today and your body burns 2,000 calories, then you will lose weight. 

Because your body needs those 2,000 calories for fuel, so if you’re not giving it all 2,000 when you eat, then it will steal what it needs from the thunder thighs, the love handles, and the chubby chin.  

That’s it.

That’s how fat loss works. 

So now that we know that eating more than our bodies can burn is what causes us to gain weight, the two key questions for weight loss become:

1.) How many calories does my body burn everyday? 
2.) How many calories can I eat everyday to guarantee weight loss? 

These were (and still are) the fundamental questions I had to answer before I structured an eating plan that would both guarantee I would lose weight and allow me to maintain my sanity. 

Both are important!

So the first thing I did to ensure I could eat the foods I love (Hello Lasagna!) while still getting in great shape was to figure out how much I could realistically eat without getting fatter.

Basically, when was my tank full?

There’s a couple different ways to figure out the answer to this simple question, but keep in mind, you only need one to figure it out. 

Normal people will research method after method and decide they need to do the most difficult one, which they’ll then determine they can’t do right now and because they can’t do it right now they’ll justify that as a reason to not do anything right now and then they will eat half a Domino’s pizza and blame their ever increasing weight gain on their terribly slow metabolism.

This is not a joke. It’s not me trying to be funny. 

I honestly used to do things like this. It happens.

But that doesn’t mean it has to happen to you.

With that said, the simplest and easiest way to figure out how many calories you can eat per day without getting fatter is to use one of the hundreds of online calorie calculators.

Are some of these online calorie calculators better than others?

Of course.

Is this method one hundred percent accurate?

Absolutely not.

But here’s the thing, nothing is going to be one hundred percent accurate in this regard. The amount of calories you burn today will be different than the amount of calories you burned yesterday. And they’ll be different than the amount you burn tomorrow.

If you sneeze tomorrow and didn’t sneeze today, then you’ll burn additional calories tomorrow because your body had to exert energy while sneezing. If you took a few stairs yesterday, or walked one more step than you did the previous day, or lifted an Amazon package, or any of a hundred things that change from day to day, then the calories that you burn would change in proportion to those different levels of activity. 

So don’t worry about obtaining one hundred percent accuracy in regards to daily expenditure of your calories burned. Don’t let something that mundane prevent you from beginning. You only need to worry about getting yourself a baseline that is fairly accurate.  

Here is the calorie calculator I used when I started my journey.

If your goal is to get in shape but you didn’t plug your info into the above calorie calculator and calculate how many calories you can eat to reach your goal, then go back up there and do it. Otherwise, why read any further. 

I used to read and read and read and read, always learning but never doing. And that’s why it took me 44 years to reach my goal of getting in great shape and having a body that I like, rather than a body I hate.

Don’t make that mistake.

It sucks being out of shape and not liking yourself and not liking how you look. 

Trust me, I know. So choose to be different.

Choose to not be normal. 

Because normal is not what you want to aspire to be, it’s what you want to get away from.

Normal is the majority. And the majority of people will do nothing and then get nothing and then make excuses as to why they are getting nothing.

So be different.

And start.

And then be really different. And continue: day after day after day, rain or shine, on both the rare days when you actually feel like doing it, and especially on all the days when you don’t.    

Anyhow, enough ranting. Plug your info into the calculator. It won’t hurt, I promise!

Moving on…

Once you’ve submitted your info into the calculator, you’ll see some numbers pop up. The two that will safely help you drop pounds are TDEE and RMR.

Let’s break those down.

TDEE stands for ‘Total Daily Energy Expenditure.’ This is the amount of energy (how many calories) your body expends each day. Essentially, this is your fuel gauge. 

If you eat more calories than your TDEE, you will gain weight. If you eat less calories than your TDEE, you will lose weight.

It is honestly that simple. 

Right now you may be wondering: ‘Well if it’s really that simple then why is everyone not doing this?’  

And it’s because the hard part is not in knowing, it’s in doing – consistently.

But don’t worry, we’ll get to how to conquer consistent action later, but right now let’s roll through the other parameter that will help shrink your pant size: RMR.

RMR is your ‘Resting Metabolic Rate.’ This is the number of calories your body burns while you’re at rest. Otherwise known as your ‘keep me alive calories.’ These are the required calories your body needs to keep your heart beating, and your brain functioning, and your lungs inhaling/exhaling.

RMR has nothing to do with the calories you expend when you tug the sweatband on and beat feet on the treadmill. These RMR calories are being burned day and night, asleep or awake, twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week, all the freaking time. 

So why is RMR important and why should you care about it?

Again, these are the calories needed to keep you alive and healthy. If you consistently eat a lower calorie amount than your body needs to function, then your body will cease to function. 

So if your body needs a minimum of 1,200 calories per day to ensure your vital organs are able to function and you instead consistently eat 1,000 calories per day, then your body will not have enough energy to keep you alive and healthy. 

Your body won’t have the fuel it needs to keep your heart beating and your brain functioning and your lungs breathing. 

Don’t let this freak you out too much though, because this process of self destruction would take weeks, months, years. If you fast for a day or two every now and again, then good on you. But in general, it’s a good idea to consistently give your body at least the minimum fuel it requires everyday.  

My Real World Numbers. 

Now that we know a quick and easy method to determine the amount of calories needed to guarantee weight loss, let’s jump into a real world example of how this all comes together.

Here’s what my own personal TDEE and RMR looked like when I began:

I’m 5′ 7″ and was 43 years old and weighed 177.2 pounds.

As for my goal weight: at one point I had read an internet article about fitness, and the guy in the article was also 5’7″. But unlike me, he was ripped at 160 pounds with something like 10 percent body fat. 

The picture of that guy became a baseline dream of what I believed to be possible. It was what I wanted to look like. 

He was 5’7″.

I am 5’7″.

In hopes of having a body like that guy, my goal weight became 160 pounds, but no way I ever thought I could get and maintain 10 percent body fat. Which is funny because today I weigh 140 and my body fat is 5.7 percent. 

I say this to let you know that you can obtain and surpass your wildest goals. You may not fully believe that right now, and that’s okay. But you need to believe that you can do something easy for a long time. Because that is truly, honestly the key to fitness. That is the secret of it all. It’s what makes a weirdo a Weirdo. Just start and then stick with it consistently. Every single day. Click here to read more about how to create and stick to your streaks. 

Anyway… for my activity level I put ‘Moderately Active’ because I was beginning to workout at the time. I was walking. I would get out and about. My day job does require me to kinda sorta sometimes do something that halfway resembles moving around. 

After I entered all that info into the above calorie calculator I got a TDEE of 2,488. 

This means if I ate more than 2,488 calories during the day, I would get fatter. Simple as that.  

My RMR was 1,659. 

So if I consistently ate less than 1,659 calories per day, then I would be begging for health concerns. And these potential health concerns would be caused by my body having too little fuel. My body would not have enough fuel to provide me with the resources needed to properly function.

Armed with my TDEE and RMR, I knew my calorie range fell somewhere between 1,659 – 2,488.

If I ate anywhere between those calorie limits I would lose weight. 

At this point, most people (me included) would jump at the lowest number (the RMR) and say, “Okay I’m gonna eat the least amount of calories possible because I need to lose (10) (20) (30) (40) pounds like yesterday.”

I did this and it is a mistake. You’ll most likely fail. It will put you in a place I call ‘The Fat Boy Rollercoaster,’ and ladies, don’t worry, this ride does not discriminate. There is most definitely a line for ‘The Fat Girl Rollercoaster’ as well.

Welcome to the FatBoy Rollercoaster

If you’re unfamiliar, this is how the ‘The Fat Boy Rollercoaster’ works:

You get all amped up to lose weight. There’s fire in your belly and motivation in your veins. You can eat healthy, you know you can. “Bring it!” you whisper scream at yourself in the mirror.

And then you suffer through low calorie meals that you don’t much like. Day after day you do this. And you begin to lose weight.

Yahhhh!!! 

And you reach your goal!!!

Whoo Hoo!!!!

I did it, you think. I really, really did it. 

And because you did it, you reached your goal, then you stop eating the things you don’t very much like to eat. 

You go back to being a normal person.

Eating with your friends. Eating with your family.

And that means you start eating just like your friends. And just like your family.

And then the rollercoaster of weight begins to go back up. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. And your pants suddenly don’t fit anymore. Your chubby thighs are back. And then you’re exactly where you started, ashamed and completely disgusted with yourself all over again. 

I’ve been on this ride so many times I should be a manager at Fatboy Amusement Park.  

If you’ve ever experienced this, you know how frustrating and disheartening it can be. 

It will literally steal your hope. Leaving you to wonder if long term fitness is ever really possible for you. 

It is.

Possible for you.

You just have to stay off the Fatboy Rollercoaster. 

Here’s what worked for me…

The ‘Fat Boy Rollercoaster’ Survival Guide

Okay, so how do you avoid looping around on Fatboy Rollercoaster for all eternity?

The answer:

You don’t get on Fatboy Rollercoaster in the first place.

Yes, I’m serious.

Let me explain…

This depressing cycle of eating ‘healthy,’ then reaching our goal, then getting fat all over again is caused when we go on a restrictive diet that we don’t enjoy and then we come off the diet and start eating to our heart’s content again. 

You may be thinking, ‘Yep, knew it, the problem is the diet.’

And in a sense, you’re right, because if you could find a diet that you didn’t hate, one that you instead actually enjoyed, then you would be able to stick with that enjoyable diet forever and ever and everything would be summertime happiness in this place I call lasagna and cheeseburger heaven.

So… yes, there is some validity to this notion that everything is the ‘diets’ fault.  

But here’s the weird thing, that devil diet that didn’t work for you…the one you tried and hated…the one that seemed impossible to stick with…the one that gave you stomach problems and headaches and made you feel blah.

That same diet worked for some people. 

It is still working for some people. 

And the reason this diet (that you hated) is working so well for these other people is because it is not a diet for them. 

You hated it.

But they enjoy it. 

To you, it’s a diet, it’s temporary until you reach your goal, it’s a struggle, it’s about using sheer willpower to eat a certain way. 

To them, it’s how they like to eat. It’s permanent. It’s not called a diet, it’s only called lunch. Or dinner. Or my usual snack.

Dieting isn’t dieting if it’s permanent and if it’s how you like to eat all the time. 

So the real problem is not necessarily ‘The Diet’ but rather it is ‘Dieting’ in general.

Dieting is temporary and that’s a problem because you need a long term permanent solution to eating how you like to eat while losing and then staying in a weight range that makes you happy.

Knowing that, I chose to eat foods that I like.

The caveat: I had to either find the healthiest versions of those foods that I like, or I had to figure out a way to create the healthiest versions of those foods. 

I would recommend that you do the same. 

But I Don’t Want To Eat The Same Foods Over And Over And Over  And Over… 

via GIPHY

I get it.

For some, this whole idea of finding the foods you like, making them healthier, and then primarily eating only those foods may sound terrible because who wants to eat the same foods over and over and over again all the time.

I felt this same way, but then I realized that I was already eating the same 10-20 meals over and over, each and every day. The bulk of my meals were primarily coming from Papa John’s, or Five Guys, or Taco Bell, and from a handful of other places. 

So I was already eating cheeseburgers, and tacos, and pizza, and lasagna over and over but I was eating the Fatboy versions of those foods.

Which was a big problem.   

To fix this problem I had to figure out how I could make those same meals healthier so the calories could come in lower than my TDEE.

To this day, it’s still primarily cheeseburgers, and tacos, and pizza, and lasagna going into my belly, but it’s now a heathier version. 

So if you are reading this because you are serious about losing weight, then your homework at this point should be to pay attention to what you eat, not to necessarily count the calories, but to get a good idea of what 10-20 meals you are already eating eighty percent of the time. 

Then the goal is to make those same foods healthier, but still scrumptious.   

That is the process I have used to lose forty pounds while eating lasagna, cheeseburgers, steaks, pasta, and several other meals that I love. It’s how I’m still maintaining my weight to this day. 

As an example: I’m having a massive bowl of Chicken & Crawfish Gumbo tomorrow for lunch and then a seventeen ounce steak with rice and sweet peas and ketchup and a coke zero for dinner.

I’m already looking forward to it! 

Yesterday I had a massive serving of Chicken Pot Pie Stew for lunch and then six hefty beef tacos for dinner. Full on with cheese and salsa and seasonings. 

To me these are all great meals and even better, they all fall well under my TDEE so I also get to have my usual snacks of a candy bar, some chocolate raisins, a brownie and then some popcorn.

So that’s pretty much it. 

Now you know exactly how I eat, but let’s go a little deeper and wrap all this up by jumping into the heart of the noodles and cheese where I’ll show you one of my actual meal plans that I used when I was losing weight. 

Let’s Jump Into The Noodles & Cheese

As I mentioned earlier my TDEE was 2,488. So I needed to eat less than 2,488 calories per day to ensure I would lose weight.

I also needed to do this while eating foods that I enjoyed so that I could ensure I would stick to this eating plan for a long, long time. 

Note: When I mention long, long time I’m not referring to a 30 day diet. None of this is a 90 day challenge. Think, ‘decade diet’ if you must think in terms of dieting. 

By now, I’m assuming the secret is out and you know I like lasagna and cheeseburgers. Being that I love them so, I will use those as my examples. 

I log the majority of my meals because I am a true and absolute weirdo, and I’ve been logging them for quite a while. During both the fat times when I was struggling to lose weight and I still log them now.

Anyhow… I just went back and looked at my very rudimentary food journal. November of 2022 is when I really began to start taking weight loss serious.

On November 14th, 2022 this is exactly what I ate for the day:

Breakfast:

  • Body Fortress Protein Shake: 180 Calories/ 40 grams protein

Lunch:

  • Stouffers Meatlovers Lasagna: 820 calories/ 39 grams protein

Dinner:

  • Half Pound 93% Lean Burger: 340 calories/ 46 grams protein
  • 2 Slices Publix Whole Wheat Bread: 120 calories/ 08 grams protein
  • 2 servings Ore-Ida Fries: 180 calories/ 04 grams protein
  • 14g Kraft Mozzarella Cheese: 25 calories/ 04 grams protein
  • 90g Heinz Ketchup: 106 calories/ 00 grams protein

Daily Total: 1,771 Calories/ 148 grams protein

I didn’t eat salad, or fruits, or fish, or avocados. I ate the foods I liked. But I made sure those foods would put my total daily calories at less than my TDEE.

And then I ate in a similar fashion every single day, finding more and more foods that I like to eat and then making them so they are low enough in calories to work with my plan. 

I follow this process religiously.

And that is the other side of the equation. 

Following your process.

Every single day.

No matter what.

Even if people think you are a weirdo.

Because being weird is what you want to be —  being ‘just like everyone else’ is what you want to avoid. 

I hope this helps you better achieve your fitness goals, but please keep in mind that this is what worked for me. And you and I are different people. With different tastes, different likes, different dislikes.

And this is obviously fine. So if you’re grimacing right now and dreading eating this way then don’t do it. Instead, find a method that you enjoy and that you are confident you can consistently stick with for years and years.

There are a million methods out there. You just need to find the one that works perfectly for you. 

I have created a ‘method’ collection, so if you are still searching for your perfect method then these are true and tried, time tested methods that have worked well for others. Steal one that you like and get started!

You can find the entire collection here.

Please feel free to email me at the following email address if you have any questions, comments, or advice on how this article could be better: [email protected]. 

Thanks!

Josh

OIG3 (1)

Is It Possible To Eat The Foods I Love And Still Lose Weight?

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Lose weight eating stouffers lasagna

Hey…

In honor of this article, guess what I’m having for lunch today!

You guessed it… 

I’m having Stouffer’s microwave lasagna. 

And you know what else…

Tomorrow morning I’ll weigh the same as I did this morning.

I won’t gain one single pound.

This evening I’ll have a half-pound cheeseburger with fries for dinner.

And in case you’re wondering, when I hit the scale tomorrow morning I still won’t weigh any more than I did this morning. 

A candy bar, some chocolate covered raisins, a brownie, and some buttered popcorn will be my snacks today.

And I still won’t gain any additional weight.

Right now you may be thinking, ‘Uh huh. Keep eating like that and tell me how your pants fit in three months.’

You may be thinking I have some special genetics, or that I’m a high metabolism twenty year old. (I wish.) 

You may be thinking it’s not possible to eat lasagna, then snack on popcorn and chocolate, then have a cheeseburger and fries for dinner, and still gain absolutely zero weight.

But the truth is that you can. 

It is one hundred percent possible!

You can eat the foods you love and still get in the best shape of your life.  

Don’t believe me?

I’m living proof. 

Here’s a before and after pic of me, myself, and not Irene.

The picture on the left is when I was first beginning this fitness journey and the one on the right is a picture of me from a few weeks ago. 

FitnessForWeirdos - My Before and after photos.
Is It Possible To Eat The Foods I Love And Still Lose Weight?
Weirdo me, after I lost weight and got in the best shape of my life.

Trust me, I am no where close to being a twenty-year-old spring chicken. 

I was 43 when I first started this fitness journey; I am 44 now. 

And I promise you, I have no super high metabolism.

What I do have is a method that has helped me lose over 35 pounds of fat, gain a significant amount of muscle, and get in the absolute best shape of my life — all while eating foods that I actually enjoy.

But my journey is definitely not all cupcakes and sprinkles. 

It took me years of searching, testing, failing before I figured out how to eat the foods I love and still get in the best shape of my life.

After this article I hope you choose to do the same!

Let’s get to it. 

Are you losing weight today, gaining weight today, or staying the same weight today? 

Quick question: let’s say I’m sitting on my couch watching Sports Center, and I’m munching on a salad and an avocado and I’m washing it all down with a great big glass of ice water — will I lose weight, gain weight, or stay the same weight when I hop on the scale tomorrow morning?

I’m guessing most people would think I’d lose weight eating a salad and an avocado.

Maybe a few would make an argument that I’d gain or stay the same weight.

But here’s the God-to-honest truth:

You don’t know.

You can’t.

Not with any certainty. 

And the first reason you can’t realistically know the answer to this is because you don’t know how many calories I burn per day, and the second reason is because you don’t know how many calories I’m actually putting inside my body. 

Sure, you’d know I was eating a salad.

And an avocado.

But here’s the thing:

You can still get fat eating salads and avocados and eggs and all the foods that we’ve always been told are ‘healthy.’ 

Now I’m not saying you should no longer eat salads or avocados or eggs or any of the foods we’ve always been told are healthy.

What I am saying is that in order to lose weight and get in great shape, we have to know which foods and how much of these foods we can actually eat before the balloon we call our bellies starts to expand.

Why?

Imagine this: you’re at a pizza restaurant with friends and you’re at that point where you’re thinking, ‘Hmmm, should I have one more slice?’

In today’s fairy tale you look down at your arm and there’s a handy dandy nifty little fuel gauge build right there into your body. Pretty neat, I know! Even better, it shows that your tank is only half full which means you’re good to eat another slice. You greedily grab another piece of Meat Lover’s Supreme and savor this cheesy gooey meaty delight, swallowing every last morsel. Then you look at your nifty fuel gauge again.

You’re three quarters full now.

Yessss! This means you can eat even more. So a few chicken wings go down your throat, two mozzarella sticks, a fudge brownie, and…yep…that did it. Your tank is now completely full. Blaaannkkhhhh Blaaannkkhhhh Blaaannkkhhh – that’s the overflow alarm going off. Even if you tried grubbing on one more tiny little loose piece of pepperoni then your throat would not allow it into your stomach. 

You’d have to wait until some calories were burned and then there’d be more room in your tank. So you wait, and you walk; and your heart is beating (which burns calories), and your brain is thinking (which also burns calories), and your lungs are working, and so are your muscles, and all the while you are burning calories and before long it’s time to fill up again. This time maybe with the sweet nectar of Stouffer’s lasagna!

Lose Weight With Stouffers Lasagna

In all honesty, the above scenario would be a great way to live because we’d never have to worry about overeating or being overweight, but unfortunately we live in the real world and in the real world we don’t have a handy dandy nifty little fuel gauge built right there on our body. 

Here in the real world most of us are completely clueless as to how much fuel we are putting inside our bodies at all.

People guesstimate.

Or… to put it more accurately, normal people guesstimate.  

And 99.999999 percent of normal people are absolutely terrible at this.

But these normal people, which is the vast majority of the world, will justify their terribleness by blabbering on and on about how healthy they are eating. I’m eating fruits, they’ll say. Or, almonds. Or you’ll hear all about how yogurt is extremely healthy. As are lentils and lean meats and salads and oats.  

And then they’ll eat and eat and eat these things, and have a large M&M Blizzard as a reward for dessert. And why not, they’ve earned it. I mean they’ve been eating healthy, right?

Riiiiiiggggghhhht???

These same normal people will say, “I’m doing the Keto diet.” Or, “I’m doing Paleo.” Or avocados have healthy fats. Or eggs have a lot of protein. 

And that’s great!

Because all those things are good and true. 

But here’s another truth: you can still get fat on Keto and on Paleo and by eating avocados and eggs and any other foods out there. 

You will get fat if you eat more calories than your body can burn. 

The diet doesn’t matter. Nor does the food type. Nor does the time of day you eat.

What matters is this:

If you eat more calories than your body can burn, you will gain weight.

Period.

It’s that simple.

If you enjoy the Keto diet, then awesome. Keep doing the Keto diet, but to lose weight you must ensure that you are not eating more calories than your body can burn while on the keto diet. 

Same with Paleo. 

And Adkins.

Same with any other diet or eating preference. 

The rules of all these different diets (like Keto or Paleo) are in place to encourage you to eat lower calorie foods so that you do not eat more than your body can burn. 

Normal people have a hard time swallowing this. They think there is a magic in the Paleo diet. A magic in Keto, but there is no magic.

There is only math. 

And the math looks like this:

If you eat 2,200 calories today but your body burns only 2,000 calories, then you will gain weight.

That extra 200 calories has to go somewhere.

And it goes into thunder thighs, love handles, and chubby chins. 

However, if you eat 1,800 calories today and your body burns 2,000 calories, then you will lose weight. 

Because your body needs those 2,000 calories for fuel, so if you’re not giving it all 2,000 when you eat, then it will steal what it needs from the thunder thighs, the love handles, and the chubby chin.  

That’s it.

That’s how fat loss works. 

So now that we know that eating more than our bodies can burn is what causes us to gain weight, the two key questions for weight loss become:

1.) How many calories does my body burn everyday? 
2.) How many calories can I eat everyday to guarantee weight loss? 

These were (and still are) the fundamental questions I had to answer before I structured an eating plan that would both guarantee I would lose weight and allow me to maintain my sanity. 

Both are important!

So the first thing I did to ensure I could eat the foods I love (Hello Lasagna!) while still getting in great shape was to figure out how much I could realistically eat without getting fatter.

Basically, when was my tank full?

There’s a couple different ways to figure out the answer to this simple question, but keep in mind, you only need one to figure it out. 

Normal people will research method after method and decide they need to do the most difficult one, which they’ll then determine they can’t do right now and because they can’t do it right now they’ll justify that as a reason to not do anything right now and then they will eat half a Domino’s pizza and blame their ever increasing weight gain on their terribly slow metabolism.

This is not a joke. It’s not me trying to be funny. 

I honestly used to do things like this. It happens.

But that doesn’t mean it has to happen to you.

With that said, the simplest and easiest way to figure out how many calories you can eat per day without getting fatter is to use one of the hundreds of online calorie calculators.

Are some of these online calorie calculators better than others?

Of course.

Is this method one hundred percent accurate?

Absolutely not.

But here’s the thing, nothing is going to be one hundred percent accurate in this regard. The amount of calories you burn today will be different than the amount of calories you burned yesterday. And they’ll be different than the amount you burn tomorrow.

If you sneeze tomorrow and didn’t sneeze today, then you’ll burn additional calories tomorrow because your body had to exert energy while sneezing. If you took a few stairs yesterday, or walked one more step than you did the previous day, or lifted an Amazon package, or any of a hundred things that change from day to day, then the calories that you burn would change in proportion to those different levels of activity. 

So don’t worry about obtaining one hundred percent accuracy in regards to daily expenditure of your calories burned. Don’t let something that mundane prevent you from beginning. You only need to worry about getting yourself a baseline that is fairly accurate.  

Here is the calorie calculator I used when I started my journey.

If your goal is to get in shape but you didn’t plug your info into the above calorie calculator and calculate how many calories you can eat to reach your goal, then go back up there and do it. Otherwise, why read any further. 

I used to read and read and read and read, always learning but never doing. And that’s why it took me 44 years to reach my goal of getting in great shape and having a body that I like, rather than a body I hate.

Don’t make that mistake.

It sucks being out of shape and not liking yourself and not liking how you look. 

Trust me, I know. So choose to be different.

Choose to not be normal. 

Because normal is not what you want to aspire to be, it’s what you want to get away from.

Normal is the majority. And the majority of people will do nothing and then get nothing and then make excuses as to why they are getting nothing.

So be different.

And start.

And then be really different. And continue: day after day after day, rain or shine, on both the rare days when you actually feel like doing it, and especially on all the days when you don’t.    

Anyhow, enough ranting. Plug your info into the calculator. It won’t hurt, I promise!

Moving on…

Once you’ve submitted your info into the calculator, you’ll see some numbers pop up. The two that will safely help you drop pounds are TDEE and RMR.

Let’s break those down.

TDEE stands for ‘Total Daily Energy Expenditure.’ This is the amount of energy (how many calories) your body expends each day. Essentially, this is your fuel gauge. 

If you eat more calories than your TDEE, you will gain weight. If you eat less calories than your TDEE, you will lose weight.

It is honestly that simple. 

Right now you may be wondering: ‘Well if it’s really that simple then why is everyone not doing this?’  

And it’s because the hard part is not in knowing, it’s in doing – consistently.

But don’t worry, we’ll get to how to conquer consistent action later, but right now let’s roll through the other parameter that will help shrink your pant size: RMR.

RMR is your ‘Resting Metabolic Rate.’ This is the number of calories your body burns while you’re at rest. Otherwise known as your ‘keep me alive calories.’ These are the required calories your body needs to keep your heart beating, and your brain functioning, and your lungs inhaling/exhaling.

RMR has nothing to do with the calories you expend when you tug the sweatband on and beat feet on the treadmill. These RMR calories are being burned day and night, asleep or awake, twenty-four hours per day, seven days a week, all the freaking time. 

So why is RMR important and why should you care about it?

Again, these are the calories needed to keep you alive and healthy. If you consistently eat a lower calorie amount than your body needs to function, then your body will cease to function. 

So if your body needs a minimum of 1,200 calories per day to ensure your vital organs are able to function and you instead consistently eat 1,000 calories per day, then your body will not have enough energy to keep you alive and healthy. 

Your body won’t have the fuel it needs to keep your heart beating and your brain functioning and your lungs breathing. 

Don’t let this freak you out too much though, because this process of self destruction would take weeks, months, years. If you fast for a day or two every now and again, then good on you. But in general, it’s a good idea to consistently give your body at least the minimum fuel it requires everyday.  

My Real World Numbers. 

Now that we know a quick and easy method to determine the amount of calories needed to guarantee weight loss, let’s jump into a real world example of how this all comes together.

Here’s what my own personal TDEE and RMR looked like when I began:

I’m 5′ 7″ and was 43 years old and weighed 177.2 pounds.

As for my goal weight: at one point I had read an internet article about fitness, and the guy in the article was also 5’7″. But unlike me, he was ripped at 160 pounds with something like 10 percent body fat. 

The picture of that guy became a baseline dream of what I believed to be possible. It was what I wanted to look like. 

He was 5’7″.

I am 5’7″.

In hopes of having a body like that guy, my goal weight became 160 pounds, but no way I ever thought I could get and maintain 10 percent body fat. Which is funny because today I weigh 140 and my body fat is 5.7 percent. 

I say this to let you know that you can obtain and surpass your wildest goals. You may not fully believe that right now, and that’s okay. But you need to believe that you can do something easy for a long time. Because that is truly, honestly the key to fitness. That is the secret of it all. It’s what makes a weirdo a Weirdo. Just start and then stick with it consistently. Every single day. Click here to read more about how to create and stick to your streaks. 

Anyway… for my activity level I put ‘Moderately Active’ because I was beginning to workout at the time. I was walking. I would get out and about. My day job does require me to kinda sorta sometimes do something that halfway resembles moving around. 

After I entered all that info into the above calorie calculator I got a TDEE of 2,488. 

This means if I ate more than 2,488 calories during the day, I would get fatter. Simple as that.  

My RMR was 1,659. 

So if I consistently ate less than 1,659 calories per day, then I would be begging for health concerns. And these potential health concerns would be caused by my body having too little fuel. My body would not have enough fuel to provide me with the resources needed to properly function.

Armed with my TDEE and RMR, I knew my calorie range fell somewhere between 1,659 – 2,488.

If I ate anywhere between those calorie limits I would lose weight. 

At this point, most people (me included) would jump at the lowest number (the RMR) and say, “Okay I’m gonna eat the least amount of calories possible because I need to lose (10) (20) (30) (40) pounds like yesterday.”

I did this and it is a mistake. You’ll most likely fail. It will put you in a place I call ‘The Fat Boy Rollercoaster,’ and ladies, don’t worry, this ride does not discriminate. There is most definitely a line for ‘The Fat Girl Rollercoaster’ as well.

Welcome to the FatBoy Rollercoaster

If you’re unfamiliar, this is how the ‘The Fat Boy Rollercoaster’ works:

You get all amped up to lose weight. There’s fire in your belly and motivation in your veins. You can eat healthy, you know you can. “Bring it!” you whisper scream at yourself in the mirror.

And then you suffer through low calorie meals that you don’t much like. Day after day you do this. And you begin to lose weight.

Yahhhh!!! 

And you reach your goal!!!

Whoo Hoo!!!!

I did it, you think. I really, really did it. 

And because you did it, you reached your goal, then you stop eating the things you don’t very much like to eat. 

You go back to being a normal person.

Eating with your friends. Eating with your family.

And that means you start eating just like your friends. And just like your family.

And then the rollercoaster of weight begins to go back up. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. And your pants suddenly don’t fit anymore. Your chubby thighs are back. And then you’re exactly where you started, ashamed and completely disgusted with yourself all over again. 

I’ve been on this ride so many times I should be a manager at Fatboy Amusement Park.  

If you’ve ever experienced this, you know how frustrating and disheartening it can be. 

It will literally steal your hope. Leaving you to wonder if long term fitness is ever really possible for you. 

It is.

Possible for you.

You just have to stay off the Fatboy Rollercoaster. 

Here’s what worked for me…

The ‘Fat Boy Rollercoaster’ Survival Guide

Okay, so how do you avoid looping around on Fatboy Rollercoaster for all eternity?

The answer:

You don’t get on Fatboy Rollercoaster in the first place.

Yes, I’m serious.

Let me explain…

This depressing cycle of eating ‘healthy,’ then reaching our goal, then getting fat all over again is caused when we go on a restrictive diet that we don’t enjoy and then we come off the diet and start eating to our heart’s content again. 

You may be thinking, ‘Yep, knew it, the problem is the diet.’

And in a sense, you’re right, because if you could find a diet that you didn’t hate, one that you instead actually enjoyed, then you would be able to stick with that enjoyable diet forever and ever and everything would be summertime happiness in this place I call lasagna and cheeseburger heaven.

So… yes, there is some validity to this notion that everything is the ‘diets’ fault.  

But here’s the weird thing, that devil diet that didn’t work for you…the one you tried and hated…the one that seemed impossible to stick with…the one that gave you stomach problems and headaches and made you feel blah.

That same diet worked for some people. 

It is still working for some people. 

And the reason this diet (that you hated) is working so well for these other people is because it is not a diet for them. 

You hated it.

But they enjoy it. 

To you, it’s a diet, it’s temporary until you reach your goal, it’s a struggle, it’s about using sheer willpower to eat a certain way. 

To them, it’s how they like to eat. It’s permanent. It’s not called a diet, it’s only called lunch. Or dinner. Or my usual snack.

Dieting isn’t dieting if it’s permanent and if it’s how you like to eat all the time. 

So the real problem is not necessarily ‘The Diet’ but rather it is ‘Dieting’ in general.

Dieting is temporary and that’s a problem because you need a long term permanent solution to eating how you like to eat while losing and then staying in a weight range that makes you happy.

Knowing that, I chose to eat foods that I like.

The caveat: I had to either find the healthiest versions of those foods that I like, or I had to figure out a way to create the healthiest versions of those foods. 

I would recommend that you do the same. 

But I Don’t Want To Eat The Same Foods Over And Over And Over  And Over… 

via GIPHY

I get it.

For some, this whole idea of finding the foods you like, making them healthier, and then primarily eating only those foods may sound terrible because who wants to eat the same foods over and over and over again all the time.

I felt this same way, but then I realized that I was already eating the same 10-20 meals over and over, each and every day. The bulk of my meals were primarily coming from Papa John’s, or Five Guys, or Taco Bell, and from a handful of other places. 

So I was already eating cheeseburgers, and tacos, and pizza, and lasagna over and over but I was eating the Fatboy versions of those foods.

Which was a big problem.   

To fix this problem I had to figure out how I could make those same meals healthier so the calories could come in lower than my TDEE.

To this day, it’s still primarily cheeseburgers, and tacos, and pizza, and lasagna going into my belly, but it’s now a heathier version. 

So if you are reading this because you are serious about losing weight, then your homework at this point should be to pay attention to what you eat, not to necessarily count the calories, but to get a good idea of what 10-20 meals you are already eating eighty percent of the time. 

Then the goal is to make those same foods healthier, but still scrumptious.   

That is the process I have used to lose forty pounds while eating lasagna, cheeseburgers, steaks, pasta, and several other meals that I love. It’s how I’m still maintaining my weight to this day. 

As an example: I’m having a massive bowl of Chicken & Crawfish Gumbo tomorrow for lunch and then a seventeen ounce steak with rice and sweet peas and ketchup and a coke zero for dinner.

I’m already looking forward to it! 

Yesterday I had a massive serving of Chicken Pot Pie Stew for lunch and then six hefty beef tacos for dinner. Full on with cheese and salsa and seasonings. 

To me these are all great meals and even better, they all fall well under my TDEE so I also get to have my usual snacks of a candy bar, some chocolate raisins, a brownie and then some popcorn.

So that’s pretty much it. 

Now you know exactly how I eat, but let’s go a little deeper and wrap all this up by jumping into the heart of the noodles and cheese where I’ll show you one of my actual meal plans that I used when I was losing weight. 

Let’s Jump Into The Noodles & Cheese

As I mentioned earlier my TDEE was 2,488. So I needed to eat less than 2,488 calories per day to ensure I would lose weight.

I also needed to do this while eating foods that I enjoyed so that I could ensure I would stick to this eating plan for a long, long time. 

Note: When I mention long, long time I’m not referring to a 30 day diet. None of this is a 90 day challenge. Think, ‘decade diet’ if you must think in terms of dieting. 

By now, I’m assuming the secret is out and you know I like lasagna and cheeseburgers. Being that I love them so, I will use those as my examples. 

I log the majority of my meals because I am a true and absolute weirdo, and I’ve been logging them for quite a while. During both the fat times when I was struggling to lose weight and I still log them now.

Anyhow… I just went back and looked at my very rudimentary food journal. November of 2022 is when I really began to start taking weight loss serious.

On November 14th, 2022 this is exactly what I ate for the day:

Breakfast:

  • Body Fortress Protein Shake: 180 Calories/ 40 grams protein

Lunch:

  • Stouffers Meatlovers Lasagna: 820 calories/ 39 grams protein

Dinner:

  • Half Pound 93% Lean Burger: 340 calories/ 46 grams protein
  • 2 Slices Publix Whole Wheat Bread: 120 calories/ 08 grams protein
  • 2 servings Ore-Ida Fries: 180 calories/ 04 grams protein
  • 14g Kraft Mozzarella Cheese: 25 calories/ 04 grams protein
  • 90g Heinz Ketchup: 106 calories/ 00 grams protein

Daily Total: 1,771 Calories/ 148 grams protein

I didn’t eat salad, or fruits, or fish, or avocados. I ate the foods I liked. But I made sure those foods would put my total daily calories at less than my TDEE.

And then I ate in a similar fashion every single day, finding more and more foods that I like to eat and then making them so they are low enough in calories to work with my plan. 

I follow this process religiously.

And that is the other side of the equation. 

Following your process.

Every single day.

No matter what.

Even if people think you are a weirdo.

Because being weird is what you want to be —  being ‘just like everyone else’ is what you want to avoid. 

I hope this helps you better achieve your fitness goals, but please keep in mind that this is what worked for me. And you and I are different people. With different tastes, different likes, different dislikes.

And this is obviously fine. So if you’re grimacing right now and dreading eating this way then don’t do it. Instead, find a method that you enjoy and that you are confident you can consistently stick with for years and years.

There are a million methods out there. You just need to find the one that works perfectly for you. 

I have created a ‘method’ collection, so if you are still searching for your perfect method then these are true and tried, time tested methods that have worked well for others. Steal one that you like and get started!

You can find the entire collection here.

Please feel free to email me at the following email address if you have any questions, comments, or advice on how this article could be better: [email protected]. 

Thanks!

Josh

Lose Weight The Weirdo Way

Normal Gets Normal Results. Let’s Get Weird!

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This Is What Normal People Do?

Hey…

I’m Josh.

To be honest, the purpose of this article is to completely convert you into a Fitness Weirdo.

(Already starting out a little odd, isn’t it?!) 

With that said…

Let’s begin!

Below is a pic I took of myself in 2022.

At the time, I was frustrated and ashamed of my body and was hoping this picture would kick me into gear so that I could finally lose weight and get in great shape.  

Normal Gets Normal Results. Let’s Get Weird!


It didn’t work (in case you’re wondering). 

Taking a picture of ‘Chubby Me’ did not jump start me into a transformation, but that’s okay because that’s not the point of showing you this embarrassing picture anyway.

The point is to show you what normal looks like. 

I was 43 in that picture. 

Sadly, being 43 and chubby and out of shape – that is normal. 

It’s what most people accept; it’s how most people live. 

Most people want to lose weight and they want to get in great shape, but they talk and plan and try new hacks and supplements and magic workout routines and eventually these people get tired of failing so they give up and begin to believe that their excuses are reality. (I don’t have enough time. My equipment is no good. I don’t have enough self-discipline. My body type is different. Et cetera, et cetera.)

This is normal.

It’s what most people do.  

Every now and again a fire will spark inside those same people and a few weeks of hard core dieting and exercise will follow, but this too will sizzle out when they don’t see results after the first few weeks.

And then all that’s left is another failed attempt at reaching their goals. “I’ll try again later,” they’ll tell themselves, “It will be easier after the holidays.” 

The holidays end.

“Meh…I’ll start after my birthday.”

After their birthday, there is another excuse waiting in line. 

Again…this is normal. 

The vast majority of people do this.

You’ve probably done it. 

It’s what I was doing as well.

Here’s what I learned that helped me.

What I learned during my fitness journey is that my failures were not due to laziness, or a lack of willpower, or a lack of time; it was because I was thinking and acting just like all the other normal people were acting and thinking.

I thought weight loss was running, sweating, feet pounding the pavement. I thought it was salads and chickpeas. 

And I hate running. 

And I hate salads.

And I hate chickpeas.

But everyone around me (all the normal people) that’s what they were doing. 

And it’s still what most people do.

They run. They eat salads. They suffer in the gym. They believe that like it or not, these are the things you must do to lose weight and get in great shape.  

I believed this for a long, long time.

And then, slowly, I began to do things differently.

I started to become a weirdo. 

Eating lasagna as part of my ‘diet.’

Walking while watching a movie rather than running while being miserable. 

Focusing primarily on time goals instead of weight loss goals. 

Quitting all the ‘best’ exercises and instead focusing solely on the exercises that I actually like.

Different.

Everything I did.

Weird to everyone around me.

What I was doing was one hundred and eighty degrees opposite of what my friends and coworkers were doing. It was completely against their beliefs. Contrary to all their preconceived notions. 

It was weird. 

But it was working. 

This is a picture I took of myself today in 2023.  

Weirdo me, after I lost weight and got in the best shape of my life.


My cell phone camera kinda sucks so I apologize for the quality of the pic, but long story short I lost over 35 pounds of fat and gained a good amount of muscle.

I am honestly in the best shape of my life.

At 44 years old.

Which is one hundred percent not normal. 

And that is what I would like to emphasize.

For me, weird worked. 

And I think it will work for you as well. 

So if you’ve been trudging through the jungles of fitness struggling to achieve your goals, then maybe it’s time to get weird. 

Maybe it’s time to try something out of the ordinary.

Maybe it’s time to Be Different. 

If you’d like to give different a shot, then click here to get access to our FREE step-by-step course on exactly how to get in the best shape of your life — the weirdo way.

It is completely free.

I have nothing to sell. No course. No supplements. No books. Nothing.

Just a bunch of free advice of what has worked for me.

I sincerely hope it works for you as well. 

If you have any questions at any time, feel free to email me at: [email protected]

Good luck on your journey.

START HERE 

Ninja Cookies

Use This Secret Ninja Tactic To Strengthen Your Self-Discipline

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Ninja Cookies

Hey.

Have you ever caught yourself mindlessly doing some boring chore (that didn’t even really need to be done) just so you could put off the thing you knew you should be doing?

I was a champion at doing this.

One second, I’d be thinking of hitting the gym… a few seconds later I’d find myself doing laundry. Or the dishes. Or yardwork. Or checking emails.

I may have even laid down to watch part of a TV series I’d been neglecting.

So, yea, I had a hard time consistently sticking to a workout program.

I had an even harder time sticking to a healthy eating program.

It’s tough.

Both of them.

But here’s the thing…

You Can Strengthen Your Self-Discipline Muscles.


Yep, you read that right.

Self-discipline is nothing more than an untrained muscle. It’s the scrawny bicep within your brain that has withered away from years of neglect.

But here’s the good news.

You can strengthen your self-discipline. 

Doing this was a complete game changer for me, so if you’re having the same problem sticking to your goals then I think figuring out how to build up your self-discipline will help you as well. 

Let’s jump in…

Here’s The Super Ninja Tactic That Helped Me Strengthen My Self-Discipline


Have you ever heard of Duolingo?

It’s a language learning app. 

A while back I was using the app to learn Spanish, and I got a bit addicted.

For those not familiar with Duolingo, it’s an app you download onto your phone, and it allows you to take quick and simple lessons to learn a new language. 

Each lesson only takes somewhere between two to five minutes. They’re super easy and convenient, but here’s the weird thing…

Whether I wanted it or not, everyday I’d get a strange notification on my phone from Duolingo.

It would look something like this…

Duolingo streak

Every single day Duolingo would send me one of these notifications reminding me of my daily streak for completing a Spanish lesson. 

Now this is going to sound weird and stupid and I understand that it makes no logical sense but there were many days when I’d go completely out of my way to ensure my streak did not end.

If needed, I’d hide from the crowds and hunker down in a bathroom so I could knock out my Duolingo lesson and protect my streak. 

It was weird, for sure. 

Even when I no longer wanted to further my language learning, I still found it difficult to stop.

That’s when I realized that when you have a goal and your goal is based on consistency and not quitting, then a streak grows to strange levels of importance in your brain.

It’s a powerful motivator. 

Here’s how I used the power of streaks to keep me consistent with my weight loss and fitness routine.

First things first, I made the tasks as easy as humanly possible. 


Imagine if I would have first opened the Duolingo app and the first lesson was two hours long and the assignment was to look up fifty Spanish verbs and then use all the verb conjugations in five different sentences for each verb. 

The next day’s lesson was going to be more of the same. 

I’ll tell you now, my streak would have lasted all of five seconds. 

Trying to start like that…with that level of extreme difficulty…

It makes zero logical sense.

No one is going to stick with it. Not for the long term. 

But this is exactly how normal people all over the planet choose to start a fitness and weight loss program.

They want to start as difficult as possible. 

They want to start with HITT training, or with a hard-core super restrictive diet. They want to punish themselves in the gym. They want to walk from the gym hunched over, sweat pouring down their face. They want to brag about how sore their thighs are the next day.

They want to hurt. 

I mean…

What The Hell????

Normal people are nuts.   

But as nutty as they may be, I get why they do this.

Heck, I did it too. For many, many years. 

It’s because normal people worldwide are focusing only on the immediate goal rather than focusing on the process of obtaining the goal. 

They want to do everything now, thinking that by doing so it will get them to their goal quicker. 

But in reality, they are only making things so difficult now that both their brain and their body will not be able to handle the long term process of continuing.  

And to stay fit and in good shape, you have to continue the process.

Today.

And tomorrow.

And the next day.

And the next. 

And the moment your foot comes off the gas and the cookies go back in your mouth, that’s when you’re depressed and buying a bigger pant size again.

That’s when you have to start over.

Normal people do this. 

They’re continuously in a cycle of starting and stopping, of trying this and then trying that, of looking for the newest workout, the newest supplement, the newest diet that will give them their dream body now. 

Unfortunately, they will be going through this cycle forever, always searching until they finally give up and accept their excuses as reality.

Don’t fall into this trap.

Don’t do the normal things that all the normal people are doing. 

Be different. 

The first different thing I did was to start with a task so freaking easy that my mind could not possibly come up with a valid justification for not completing the task.

And trust me, even when the task is ridiculously easy your mind will sometimes still hee and haw. 

And your mind is one savage negotiator. 

It’s like a five year old in a toy store. Nagging and begging and pleading until it eventually gets its way. 

Give your mind two or three weeks of going to the gym and doing those grueling workouts and it will revolt. It will suddenly remind you of how important it is to do the laundry. Or the dishes. Or the yardwork. Or to check the emails.

It will insist that you need to lay down and finish watching the TV series you’ve been neglecting.

It will barter. It will conjole. It will beg.

And that is your brain’s job. To keep you away from the things that will cause you pain and discomfort, and to bring you closer towards the things that will give you pleasure and safety. 

Your brain does not want to start as difficult as possible. 

That is not it’s job. That goes against it’s very nature. 

If you don’t enjoy HITT training, then your brain is going to give you a million different reasons why HITT training should not be done consistently.

If you do not associate a hard-core super restrictive diet as pleasurable, then your brain’s job is to keep you away from doing it.

Your brain doesn’t want to punish itself in the gym. It doesn’t want to walk from the gym hunched over with sweat pouring down its face. Your brain doesn’t want to brag about how sore its thighs are the next day.

Your brain doesn’t want to hurt. 

Consciously, you want these things because you think they will bring you to your goal quicker, but unconsciously your brain does not want to do these things because they are painful and cause discomfort.

And here’s the BIG lesson I learned:

If You Are Always Fighting Against Yourself, Then You Will Never Win.   

So in order to win the war against weight loss you must become an ally with your brain.

In order to do this, it’s imperative that you start your streak with simplicity.

were-going-streaking-will-ferrell

Again, the way I did this was to start with a task that was so freaking easy that my brain could not possibly come up with a valid justification for not completing the task. 

For me it was pushups. 

For you it may be something else. 

I don’t mind doing pushups. 

Sounds weird but I kinda enjoy pushups.

Now I don’t enjoy them to the point where I go out every Saturday night and do pushups at a fancy restaurant and then do more pushups during the preview at the movie theater.

I’m not an idiot about pushups.

I don’t necessarily love doing any exercises, but my goal was to get in the best shape of my life, so I knew I had to do something.  

So I committed to starting with pushups. Because I don’t hate them and I don’t consider them to be complicated or backbreaking.

On the morning of Tuesday, November 08th, 2022, I did 10 pushups, then I waited one minute, did another 10 pushups, waited one minute, then I did 17 more pushups.

And then I went to work. 

The next morning, I did the exact same thing. 10, then 10, then 17 more pushups.

I was not killing myself. It was not punishing. I was not pouring sweat when I left the house. I didn’t go to bed dreading having to do my three sets of pushups the next morning. I wasn’t waking that next morning and thinking of how I should take out the garbage instead of doing my pushups.

It was relatively easy. 

It took all of about four minutes. 

Some days, there was a slight grumble from my brain about not wanting to do this. But it’s easy to silence those thoughts when you can counter with: “It’s literally only three measly sets of pushups that take less than five minutes to complete.” 

Not even my moody brain could muster a winning rebuttal against doing something that was so painless, quick, and easy.  

Today, this morning before I left the house for work, 08NOV2023, I did my three sets of pushups.

I do more now, because I can do more. I’ve gotten stronger. Now it’s 20 pushups, wait one minute, do 20 more pushups, wait one minute, then I do 28 pushups.

I do them regardless of where I’m at. If I’m at home, I do them first thing in the morning. If I’m at a hotel, first thing in the morning. If I’m at a friends, first thing in the morning.

And today is my one year streak.

365 days in a row of doing pushups every single morning. 

Tomorrow I will do them again.

And I will do them the next day, and the next, and the next. 

But the first step is to start. With the easiest task you can possibly think of.

And then track it. Daily. Religiously. And focus only on the doing of that one easy simple thing every single day. 

Your new goal should not be to lose weight.

Or to get ripped.

Or to fit into your old comfy pair of Levies.

Your new goal should be 1,000 days.

1,000 days of doing something every single day that is so freaking easy that your brain will not possibly be able to come up with a valid justification for not completing the task. 

And once you start on that journey…once you begin to build both your streak and your confidence, then you will most likely begin to add other tasks to your streak counter. 

That is what inevitable happened to me.

Here is a look at the super sophisticated system that I use to keep track of my streaks.  

Super Fancy Streak Counter

This Whiteboard poster is literally scotch-taped to the wall in my kitchen.

Is it tacky?

Absolutely.

Am I sometimes embarrassed when people see it?

At first I was…but now I am only proud.

Because it’s my Weirdo Wall. 

It represents my journey.

My victories. 

You will see that over time I also incorporated weight workouts, and cardio, and diet restrictions onto my streak counter. 

As with the pushups, I made the doing of these items as easy as humanly possible. 

I now drink Coke Zero rather than the normal calorie cokes. I walk instead of doing any strenuous cardio. I workout every single day but the workouts are quick and easy. I’m normally in-and-out in 10-30 minutes. 

Normal people can’t understand this. 

To them, it’s all too simple.

Or it’s too easy.

Or the process just takes too dang long.

But to the Weirdos…this is the way.

The way that works.

I hope your own fitness streak begins today.

Because tomorrow is coming quick, and the sooner you start, the sooner you will reach your goals. 

If you have any questions at all, please reach out to me at [email protected]

 I am one hundred percent more than happy to help you reach your goals.  

Good luck on your fitness journey. 

May the weird be with you!

Josh

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