The Ed Plan

Hello my dear friends! I hope this day finds everyone well. A few of my MFP friends asked me for (and when I quarried the rest of my friends a few also thought it would be cool) my weight loss tips. So I bring you the "Ed Plan". First let me preface it by saying I am not suggesting anyone follow my plan as I am not a doctor and (not yet) a licensed personal trainer. This is what I do and what works for me. I am not really looking for rude feed back. If you have a differing opinion and can be polite about it that's awesome. If not please move on. Also on another note, I am not even close to being a writer. I am a former soldier and a working stiff so expect many grammatical errors.

The beginning of my plan involves prayer. I see God as my best friend so it is important to me that I pray to Him about my goals. I ask Him for strength, and I praise Him for my triumphs. God is a big God and wants to be involved in everything. David is a great example of a man who treated God as his best friend. He asked God for guidance and reminded God that promises had been made to him. The word of God reminds us that God has promised us victory in all things. Will there be defeats? YES! But if we are faithful and accept that He has a bigger plan we will see the victory in all things. Even if we do not like the timing or methods at times. God is sovereign and in control!

Now my plan has a lot to do with nutrition. Part of a healthy lifestyle (get diet out of your head, this is a lifestyle change) and weight loss is 75% nutrition and 25% physical activity. What we eat/put in our bodies matters a LOT! So while my plan is a lot about moderation there are some definite NOs on my list. Cigarretes and drugs are no goes. I am sure I do not even have to explain that one. The other big NO-NOs are sodas and energy drinks. Diet or not those things are just poison for your body! Energy drinks increase heart rate and are full of sugar. When you drink those its like turning on a glucose fountain in your body. Your body is flooded with sugar and that causes fat retition. Sodas have the same effect but also leach calcuim from your bones. The caffenine in them are not in themselves a bad thing.Caffeine (especially before a work out) is a great stimulant. That doesnt mean you should drink 20 cups of coffee a day but there is no real issue with moderate use. Green tea is another great source of caffeine and is a great drink to sip on. Added extra salt is also a BIG no-no. We get enough salt in our daily diets with out adding table salt on top of it. Also fried meat are a big NO. You don't need that extra grease in your body.

The rest of my plan is real simple. Stay with in your calories first off. It is ok if you eat your exercise cals back, but I would try to leave a couple hundred cal window everyday. After all the goal in weight loss is to consume less that you burn. This also revs the metabolism. Speaking of that (while research is very inconclusive to the benifits) I believe in eating 5-6 small meals a day with breakfast usually being your biggest meal. I don't have my dairy set up to reflect it but I almsot always have breakfast, snack, lunch, second lunch, snack and then dinner. In each of those meals (excluding my snacks) I try to incorprate protein and carbs. The snacks are usually fruit or a veggie (carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, whatever). Your carbs need to come from a healthy place (like fruit, veggies, brown rice, whole grains). I am gluten intolerant so unfortantely I can not follow that as close as i would like but i am modifying to reach that (you will find, much like I have, that a lifestyle change is always a work in priogress). Protein should come from lean sources. Things like skinless boneless chicken breast, fish, and turkey. Peanut butter and nuts are also a great source of both healthy protein and fats. Beans are also terrific. I tend to stay away from red meat but having it every once in a while is not a bad thing. I tend to eat a lot of the samethings (thats just my nature, I do not love change) but there are so many combos you can make out there. A good meal (and cheap) would be 4oz of boneless skinless great value chicken breast, half a bag of great value asparagus stir-fry, and a cup of brown rice. The important thing is to control your portions of this stuff so that you stay under your calorie goal. A food scale can really helpo with this. You can get one cheap almost anywhere.

If you have a lot of weight to lose really watch how much fat you take in no matter what. Yes there are healthy fats of course, but if you have a lot to lose you want to burn the fat on you with out putting a lot more in you. That means a lot of low fat foods. At my heaviest I concentrated on keeping my daily fat under 25 and saturated fat under 10. Even if you reach your weight goal that saturated fat level needs to stay very very low.

Next, water. Learn to love it. Your body reallllllllllly needs lots of it. Try ti\o get down at least 64ozs a day depending on your weight. A good guideline is ".5 x your body weight = how many ounces to drink a day". Put some lemon or sugar free flavor in it if that helps. let's not forget a good multi-vitamin to. No "diet" pills. I covered that earlier.

Another contravercial topic is eating times. Research will say a calorie is a calorie no matter when you eat it. That is totally true. But ask most trainers (not body builders they want huge mass) or ppl really into fitness and they will say a 7pm cut off for eating is perfect. that's because most ppl go to bed at 10pm. Never eat right before bed. Your body needs time to start processing what you just put in. I know not everyones schedule can accomadate this but it is what it is.

Finally ,I recommend staying away from "cheat days" or using food as a reward. You are doing a lifestyle change. Fit events and the food into your life and weight loss goals. You don't need food to have a good time. Eating half a pizza does not make the "big game" any better. You make the game better just by being there. Does that mean you can't grab an icecream cone every once in a while? Nope, go for it. I am just saying do not give yourself a day a week or even 1 day a month when you just eat garbage all day.

If you ppl like this I will post about exercise next. Again I am not recommending/telling you do this, as I am not a doctor, but it is what I have done. It has really worked for me as I have lost nearly 75 pounds (I am no longer actively seeking to lose weight). I hope each and every one of you know how proud I am of you. You are a beatiful bunch of hard workers and God shall bless that.

Love and Blessings,
Ed

God bless you!