Goldilocks and getting shredded.

Picture the earth 1.392 million kilometers from the Sun. seemingly just hanging there basking in the warmth of our solar systems Sun. Our Earth, active and full of life! however it might not have been that way. If the Earth were only a little closer it may look a lot like Venus and although very similar in size and composition being a little closer to the Sun leaves it uninhabitable with a super dense toxic atmosphere and surface temperatures that can melt lead....nice. Conversely if we were only a little further away our flourishing little planet may resemble the red cold lifeless Mars, with barely an atmosphere and unable to harbor liquid water for any length of time and not much going on at all really.

But somehow by hook or by crook, planet Earth with all the right ingredients ended up in just the right place, at just the right distance from the Sun to flourish, not to close as to get burnt and not too far away to shiver away as cold lifeless piece of rock. 

this little bit of space at this specific distance from the sun that allows liquid water and life to exist in abundance on Earth is known as the habitable zone or the "Goldilocks zone"

Now i know what your thinking; interesting yeah, but what the hell does that have to do with me wanting to lose fat! is this guy off his head or what?!

But stick with me, you aren't that different from the Earth you know.

in order to flourish as a human being you must also find your own "Goldilocks Zone".

"This porridge is too hot," Goldilocks exclaimed.

So she tasted the porridge from the second bowl.

"This porridge is too cold."

So she tasted the last bowl of porridge.

"Ahhh, this porridge is just right!" she said happily.

and she ate it all up. 

And so Goldilocks lived shredded happily ever after.

Now although this transfers to many other aspects of life, this one is specific to diet and nutrition.

I see way too many people attempting to live, or rather exist outside of their "Goldilocks zone" nutritionally speaking at least.

Nutritionally modified "Goldilocks zone"

Zone	Calories	Effect
Hyper zone “too hot”	Consistently consuming a surplus in you requirement of calories	Possible gains in performance and weight via fat, muscle or a combination of both.
Goldilocks zone “ah just right”	Sitting somewhere between a balance and a small deficit in Calories in vs calorie expenditure.	Maintenance and improvement of performance and health including psychological aspects. Consistent progress in terms of fat loss, limited or zero muscle loss.
Cold zone “too cold”	A very large deficit in calories	Loss of performance, muscle, strength, motivation, libido. Sleep problems, mood problems, nutrient deficiencies. Minimal to zero fat loss.

me doing my bit to convince someone they actually need more food to drop body fat.

mostly everyone only discusses eating too much and the fact that you need to eat less to lose weight or body fat.

This is true if you consistently eat too much and sit in the "hyper zone". Then yes applying some strategies to improve food quality, make better choices along side some portion control and choosing the right ratios of various foods will help bring you down into the "Goldilocks Zone" quite easily.

but what if you have the same goals of losing fat, looking good and being healthy but you don't sit in the "hyper zone" you're not eating too much and instead you under eat and sit smack bang in the "cold zone"

this little conundrum of under eating and being unable to shift body fat or look better is typical of people who sit in the nutritional "cold zone". Just like where the planet mars sits in relation to the Sun. This is where you are in relation to you're ideal calorie intake for your goals, your "Goldilocks zone".

Conversely this is actually one of the most common things I and many coaches have to deal with. Although not eating enough wont actively put on body fat, it puts the body in this "Cold zone", a place where a cold lifeless existence passes and nothing much happens at all! yep just like on Mars.

not much going on here.

No fat loss, no muscle gain! You're body literally thinks your starving and it doesn't want you to die! The body begins to slow down its metabolic rate to prolong your life. 

Your metabolic rate is largely determined by your lean body mass (your muscles) the very things that give you your shape, make you look good in the buff and make burning fat soooo much easier!

Yes if you drastically drop your cals, you will lose weight (as in the number on the scales any way) over the first few weeks but remember almost none of that weight loss came from fat, it came from muscle!

So now your just smaller but no less fat, to put it bluntly. You're now skinny fat! Not good.

To provide some context;  

lets say Goldilocks came to me and we identified she wanted to get back into her old clothes, feel good look good and improve health -  basically she needs to change shape via  dropping body fat and adding a little muscle.
- however after asking Goldi to write down a weeks worth of food we also identified that her daily intake was under 1000 cals! infact 2 of the days a week sat at a poultry 800 cals! Which is way way under where she needed to be just to maintain weight. she actually required more like 1900 cals due to her daily woodland runs.

poor Goldi couldn't understand why she couldn't lose any fat despite her poultry portions and frequent running, she couldn't stay awake, she couldn't sleep. Poor Goldi was tired, weak and cranky. hmmm

Apply Logic

Now just think logically for me for one second, if your consuming very little fuel does it make sense for your body to dump all its stored fuel???? NO!

what makes sense from an economical stand point is for your body to lower its requirement of fuel to match the intake.



Perfect example; On the island with Bear Grylls - they all left the island after 4 weeks after living on snails and coconuts, the odd croc and some fish a hell of a lot thinner than when they arrived!  But no one left the island lean and muscular or in better shape that wasn't already. One guy lost 2 stone but  looked exactly the same, so what did he lose, he lost muscle.

Ok Bear

what requires more energy/fuel to run optimally? muscle or body fat?.....muscle of course, its very metabolically active, the more muscle you have the more energy you require, body fat requires very little energy, you literally just carry it around with you.

very much how you will get a lot more millage out of 20 quids worth of fuel in a Honda Prius than you will in a Range rover, one simply has a much bigger engine.

Tell tale signs of being under calories.

- Tired.
- Mood swings or depressed.
- Cold.
- Can't Improve strength.
- No sex drive.
- No motivation.
- Sleep problems.
- Hungry.

- weight loss.

- lack of fat loss.

- frequent illness.

Traditionally you are told in order to lose weight or fat you need to eat less or drop you're cals - and although this is basically true, if your only consuming 800 measly calories where do you go next, 700 then 600! then add in more cardio???!!

Believe me its been done!!

What to do about it.

Get back to basics

you're not missing some secret ancient  herb.

don't procrastinate over the minute details, doing the basic principles and doing them consistently will yield your greatest results to date.

1. Realisation check - by tracking or keeping a food diary.
try this at least for 1 week. download one of the many trackers out there such as myfitnesspal then find your average cals per day over the week. This can be a big kick up the proverbial that's needed to help you realise the fact that you eat the equivalent of a toddler! And that eating in such a manner is not for you as you still aren't losing body fat or looking like you want to.


2. Identify your "goldilocks zone" - Find your'e "Goldilocks zone"  Here.

3. Bridge the gap - Slow and steady wins the race. Gradually work you're way from the lifeless expanse of the "cold zone" and find our way Back to where the magic happens "the Goldilocks zone"

Now remember if there is a very big disconnect between your current calorie consumption vs your optimal intake then simply whacking in a load more food is not the solution, like suddenly putting the whole bag of coal on a little fire will do nothing to increase the flames and only leave you with a big smoking mess on the floor.

Being in the "Cold zone" your body is running slow, your metabolic rate has been significantly diminished predominantly via a reduction of lean body mass to reduce its engine and match the amount of food you're consuming just like what would happen if you were out in the wilds unable to find enough food, its a survival mechanism, you're running cold. 

you cant just jump straight from the "Cold zone" and head into the "Goldilocks zone" due to the fact your metabolic capacity is so low. unfortunately though this happens far too often, just like coming off the back end of any number of fad watching weight, herba plus, juice life plans or the special magic cereal diets.

This is the backlash effect these diet programs can cause and so the creation of the yo yo diet was born!

These programs encourage very low calories, you lose muscle thus you lose weight but little to no body fat unless you're drastically obese and even then its not optimal, the loss of muscle lowers you're metabolic rate.
After a while you're either fed up with the diet or you feel like shit,  or you may even have hit your "weight" target.
So Then you resume normal eating patterns, but now the problem is that you can no longer deal with amount of energy your consuming as your metabolic rate has been reduced so much, so in return you end up putting the weight (specifically fat back on) with interest! And so the cycle starts again and it gets worse each time. 

so back to the point,

you must simply starting adding in calories very slowly, try adding a little more each week until your sitting nicely in your "Goldilocks zone"


4. Add in quality habits to add in quality calories.

for example, lets say Goldi has been regularly chowing down a bowl of sugar puffs for Breaky.

by simply swapping this bowl of sugar for something as simple as an omelette can be the first step in building a new breakfast habit. not only is it a positive habit, it adds in quality much needed calories.

here are some more ideal breakfast options based on increasing calories via protein and fats to help optimize fat loss and stop you falling asleep mid morning.


fish - sardines or mackerel.

salmon omelette

steak and eggs

last nights chilli

cottage cheese or organic Greek yogurt and some blueberries


just focus on one small change at least for a week or until it becomes the norm before moving onto another meal and positively changing that too.


introducing new habits is the best way to break old ones,


Here's  my top habits for success;

1. track food intake - a notepad will do - or use a good app.
2. drink plenty water - bodyweight in llbs x 0.5 gives a basic minimum ounces per day.
3. eat enough protein - at least 1 gram per llb of body weight is a good target.
4. eat enough healthy fats - get rid of veg oils. swap for coconut oil, fish oil, eggs and avacados.
5. get your'e sleep - swap facebook for a real book and read something inspiring before bed.
6. lift some weights - pick any good progressive program based on the main basic lifts.
7. don't take shit too seriously - appreciate where you are, what you have and enjoy climbing your mountain.
8. be awesome -  make people feel awesome

even if you begin by applying just 1 and it sticks you're improving, then move onto the next.

there is no failing, just testing, trying, learning and coming back stronger.

to reiterate

1. - identify what zone your in - track your own calories over a week
2. - identify how much you need to consume to hit your "Goldilocks zone" 
3. - slowly start creating new habits - change food choices.
4. - slowly start building up the good habits, better food choices and adding in the calories weekly.
5. - re-track and re-assess.

Good day to you :)

Supermarket serengeti

My go to foods when on the hunt for our highest prized macronutrient.....Protein!

Supermarket edition.

Morning meetings are over,  the belly starts talking, it's ready for lunch,  time is of the essence.....What do you do?

The others in your office talk of the Cob shop... But you have goals to hit,  not just in business,  you train hard and want to look and feel awesome! You can't munch on a prawn cob and a packet of salt and vinegar washed down with a coke and then wonder why "i just cant seem to lose this bit" (grabs muffin top)

But you understand protein is your priority.

You don't follow the rest of the sheep to the cob shop, because your not one of the sheep, you are a wolf, unashamed to go the opposite way in search of better!

The solitary predator embarks on his journey and the hunt begins. 

Today our hunting ground isn't Siberia or the plains of the Serengeti it's the supermarket.

Although you may be the apex predator you must still navigate wisely for just like the watering hole in the desert, lies all manners of treasures and dangers lurking beneath the surface.

But you planned ahead, you picked your target, the prey were in search of is protein.

Hunter brain is engaged, your senses are alert as you successfully stalk your way through the heards of Range rovers threatening to squash you as you pass the zebras crossing.

You can already feel the cooling air of the supermarket jungle, noticing a lone pigeon circle high above, you know food is in abundance!

Your nose also alerts you to the presence of food, you recognize the smell of the fresh cooked breads of the bakery but you stay strong, you know what you have come here for!

You hone your nostrils into the smell of cooked meat and begin to move involuntarily, your tracking ability is good as you follow the signs left before you over head.

either way...

You catch a glimpse of your first prey.  Instinct takes over,  you effortlessly dodge the sweet old lady as she nearly takes you out with her trolley and you swerve the poor guy transfixed and confused by his shopping list.

Untill you find your self face to face with your 1st victim.

The Rotisserie chickens. a flightless creature that congregates at the deepest hottest part of the supermarket, a firm favorite of groups of students who hunt in packs, so it wise as a lone hunter to move fast and silent to ensure you get your prize.

don't pretend you don't

Pros
- ready to ravage for a quick hit of protein.
- tastes good.
- pretty easy to track

Cons

- marinades that are high in sugars and fats. opt for the basics like herb chicken.
- can be higher in fats, just adjust daily intake accordingly.

With the initial adrenaline rush of the chase subsiding, you decide to go on the search for some protein that you can transport with you in your nap sack, after all you need to keep up those gains and a steady stream of aminos throughout the day has be proven to support muscle protein synthesis (MPS).

You don't have to travel far as your sharply trained eyes spot the slabs of meat behind the glass facade of the Deli counter.

The 3 best choices here are, Beef, Turkey and ham.

Pros

- convenient
- protein dense
- can be specific with grams. Use the 20% rule - 100g meat = approx 20g protein.
- easy to store for later.

Cons

- ensure its not processed
- watch for toxins, chemicals, nitrates etc at a quality deli should not be a problem.

tip. Choose ham or turkey ends over the slices, almost a 3rd cheaper,
it just doesn't look as pretty, but who cares.

Stocked up you're now into gatherer mode, you have some hot meat you can get down asap, some cold meats for a quick protein snack later on,  but you continue the search to ensure the days hunt was a success.

You now leave warmer climes as you traverse into the icy tundra of the refrigerated isles, but what can possibly be ready for us to devour here, what can withstand these conditions as you watch scores of prepared women shiver there way out, wrapped in thermals they bought just for this stretch of the expedition.

the refrigerated aisle is upon you.

You spot the much maligned Cottage cheese. An somewhat old school food, that usually gets a screwed up face when mentioned, but at 12grams of protein per 100g, low carb it is not to be sniffed at.

Pros

- high in protein
- low in fats and carbs
- portable
- easy to track macros

Cons

- contains lactose, many are intollerant.
- consistency, try quark cheese instead for an alternative.
- slightly acidic

Tip. Choose proper cottage cheese avoid low fat as these have added sugar.

You add a couple of tubs to your bounty, and continue your journey onward withstanding the icy conditions further more to grab another usefull comodoty.

 yogurt!

there is a reason this food has been around since the 3rd millenium bc, it fuelled goat hearders and shepheards crossing mongolia, the milk they carried in sheepskin bags fermented into "yogurt" - a word of turkish origin that means to curdle or coagulate.

although the yogurt is found here in vast quantities, yogurt as it was known is almost extinct! Most of what you see now is an inedible poor excuse for yogurt, that the food industry has stripped of most of its nutritional value and laden with high concentrations of sugars, artificial sweeteners and chemicals then kept the name because it sounds healthy and appeals to the buyer.

you must ignore 95% of what you see and look for the signs of a good yogurt - real Greek or strained yogurt is the best choice (if you can find it)

Do not pick up

flavored yogurts - very high in sugars

low fat yogurts - very high in sugar to replace the fats that have been removed, rendering the product very poor.

low calorie yogurts - usually fat has been removed and once again replaced by sugar or sweeteners.


Look for

Plain full fat Greek yogurt - the closest i found other than making your own, which is actually pretty easy is;

Total full fat.

200g pot
pro = 14
fat = 20
carbs = 6






Danio plain unflavoured - not greek, and they've taken the fat out!! but just for an easy source of protein without a shit ton of sugar it is a wiser choice than most.

150g pot
pro = 14/7
fat = 0.2
carbs = 5.1







if you find a better choice please let me know!!!!!


Pros
- high in protein
- very low in sugar
- if ts full fat will provide some high amount of CLA
- immune boosting


cons
- need eating or refrigerating
- hard to find

Its time to head back into the warmth. But before heading off on the trek back to the office with your spoils, you spot the shoals of fish canned in against the aisle walls.

you see tuna, salmon, mackeral, sardines and anchovy all jostling for space.

my go to picks here when fishing for the right choice are mackeral and sardines, simply because of how easy to eat they are (you may want to pack some gum or toothpaste) or use as your breakfast if staying away in a hotel where there only choice is the "continental", breads, cereal and other rubbish sleep inducing breakfasts.

keep tuna down to a minimum - being a larger older fish it absorbs toxins and heavy metals from the sea. And remember you eat what your food eats.

i choose sardines!

pros.
- high in protein
- high in quality fats
- very good for brain chemistry
- cheap


cons
- not quite as fresh as catching it yourself
- smells like....fish


and the hunt is over, your mission complete, you have enough protein to last out the day and even some ready for breakfast the following morning!

now return triumphant back to your office desk and wallow in your glory.

Well... I don't like using chicks and shit, but I'm just chilling out while I'm young I suppose.

Travel Fast!

The travel Fast!

No I don’t mean get there as fast as possible

 I mean Fast.

I mean omitting food for the large part, on travel days! simply avoid food on days that your actually travelling to destination, until you arrive at your destination.

This might sound odd, but it actually makes more sense than you think and it really is pretty easy.

Now don’t get me wrong I am not a “fasting guy” i'm an everything guy I will use whatever tools I have at my disposal to do a job, sometimes its not always the most obvious tool either. This is trick I used a couple of years ago when I 1st experimented with fasting, I practiced 24 hour fasts 1 - 2 times weekly while still hitting a standard macro split on the other days. I found the days where I fasted became my most productive days, ever! From there I tested martin berkhans lean gains style of 16 hours daily fast vs 8 hours feeding windows. Once again during the fasted periods of the days I felt awsome,  I lost a little too much muscle for my liking but that has to do with overall calories that needed tweaking, using strategic fasting became more of a psychological trick than a physiological one for me, it kind of brought out extra focus, motivation and clarity, litterally everything is a little brighter and sharper when im a few hours fasted, I call this hunter brain and something ill go into a little more in another blog im writing called the brain upgrade.

Like I said fasting is no magic bullet, the most important factor in successfull dieting I believe is staying consistent with your plan, hitting your target calories, macronutrient ratios or at least close to, repeatedly. Remember the only real difference of a successful fasting protocol is that there is a timeframe put in place. 

flexible dieting, iifym, leangains all succeed because of their respective similarities. They all define calories,  hit target amounts of protein, fats and carbs.

but who says you cant throw in a few personal tweaks everynow and again that help you in hit these targets.

for me the travel fast made this really is to stay on target even while travelling.

Remember everyone likes to be in some kind of nutritional camp where there is a tent for low carbers, a tent for paleo and a tent for intimittant fasters but in my humble opinion, sleep under the stars!

each one has aspects that are logical and work for different reasons at different times dependent on your current situation.

There isn’t one best diet for everyone, we pick find and refine, then re tweak strategies for different times constantly evolving and using little strategies that help us implement the basic principles. Principles which stay constant whichever strategy you adopt. You can take principles places but you can’t always take a box of chicken and rice!

This is one form of strategy building that works for me and many many people I work with and you are welcome to tweak and refine and improve it!

The goal is to learn principles and apply strategies that help you stay on track or stay “ripped on the road”.

You know by now how poor most the choices are especially when you are on a diet. Everything is a sugar or sodium fest! you have to stay strict, disciplined and motivated to stay on your goal right?

The thing is Motivation and intention are funny things. When the conditions are right motivation comes easy. but motivation is non linear and your initial intentions can change in line with where your motivation level lies. while travelling, when you become restless, stressed or hungry discipline wanes and the animal part of your brain starts shouting louder and louder until its subdued, usually by alcohol or confectionery. By no means is it impossible to stick to your diet when you’re travelling but it isn't far off.

Airports, train stations and service stations are not really known for there array of healthy food choices, they are places of convenience and they thrive on that above mentioned animal part of our brain dragging us kicking and screaming to the krispy kremes.

So how do we mitigate this conundrum? Knowing that 90% of choices in these places don’t fit in our plans that lead us to success. instead they prey on our inner animal.

next time you travel, Try this.

The travel Fast

Rule number 1; choose not to choose!

Here’s an Example

My last long car journey was a 7 hour drive down south to cornwall.

We left at 6:30 am

Now on the journey what were my choices? for the large part of the journey service stations are the choices of food unless you have pre-packed (another good option if you are prepared). But i'm trying to make thing as simple as possible for you here.

What are your options at a service station?

Crappy sandwich

Pepperami

Krispy kremes

Pasta salad

Fast food.

Now you cant make a good choices when none of your choices are good choices. So what do you choose? You choose not to choose!

If a wood chuck could chuck wood…..

so basically its as simple as that, i slammed some water in the car and hit the road! We nailed it past the colonel, Ronald and his mates who were hanging around the roads edge attempting to wave us in at every opportunity, but i kept my eyes on the road and my foot to the floor.

Then we arrive at destination, am I hungry? YEAH i'm hungry! But the good thing is I didn’t chow down two 3rds of my calorie quota chewing on shitty food!

 we checked into our hotel went out found a real nice place to sit down and enjoy a local cream tea and chilled before heading out and sitting down to some great seafood with a nice cloudy glass of ciderrr, and so to bed…in total my intake for the day was about 2500 calories, the alcohol bumps it up quickly. 

And even though I only ate one meal plus a cream tea, I still wasn’t over consuming food, I still got to eat the local specials and take in what Cornwall has to offer, now imagine if I stopped off once or even twice and grabbed some food in the service stations, you can easily take a chunk of 500- 800 cals out of your total daily intake by doing that alone. Imagine getting to cornwall and not having a cream tea because you had a pasty!!!!!! Sacrilage!!!!!!!

You have to experience the places you visit right, so it only makes sense to apply a little discipline to a part of the day like travel which will allow you to appreciate your destination all the more, guilt free!

  

Brad Pillon offers this description of fasting.

“The act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, and in some cases drink, for a predetermined period of time”

Now Humans are a resilient bunch, we can last without food for very long periods of time, and we did. Our ancestors would have had to wait it out or stalk prey for days waiting to feed, water on the other hand is a different story.

But nowadays food is abundant and according to the gurus were all meant to be eating every 2-3 hours, and god forbid if we miss breakfast!

Fasting has it lovers and equally its haters, but To me fasting is neither a  detriment to  persons diet or going to cause an eating disorder and neither is it a magic bullet. but it is a tool we can make use of every now and again. hell you’ve probably accidentally gone without food for a prolonged period at some point, its no big deal your’e still here.

its just a strategy, assess, re assess, tweak and re tweak.

there is no fail just testing.