January Shred Rule #7: Low Carbs on Your Rest Days

Missed the Introduction to the January Shred? Click HERE.

Consume Less Than 40g of Carbohydrates on Your Rest Days

We are burning fat EVERY DAY while doing the January Shred and a rest day is not a rest day for fat burning! On the days you don't do Boot Camp or strength training, try to go as low carb as possible. You'll definitely need to plan ahead for these days as the majority of the foods you probably like to eat are loaded with carbs (I know that is the case for me). If you have to have a few carbs that is ok, but shoot for 40g of carbs or less on these days. You will also want to restrict your calories as much as possible on these days. All you are really looking for is lean protein, some healthy fats, and only carbs through your veggies (not starches like potatoes though). On low carb days you will probably be hungry and tired...basically, low carb days are no fun...but in 31 days they will all be worth it!

How I suggest you go low carb

You will have 2 to 3 low carb days per week. If you don't plan ahead of time for your low carb days, you'll inevitably struggle to stick to less than 40g carbs. I'd suggest trying to eat as few carbs as possible earlier in the day and saving the bulk of your carbs for dinner. Why? Because by the end of the day your body will be screaming for carbs, so if you only eat 10 during the day, you can eat 30 at dinner and you'll go to bed much happier. Also, I'd suggest not having low carb days back to back for adherence purposes. Try to alternate low carb days with regular days and it will be much easier for you to keep on track.

How you know if you are performing Rule #7 successfully

Pretty simple. Track your carbs and eat less than 40g on your rest days. If you eat more than 40g of carbs on a rest day, you don't get credit for completing rule #7 and no points for you!

Helpful Tip

A number of tips on your low carb days:

• Coffee is your friend! You may need some extra caffeine on these days because your energy levels will be lower due to the reduced carbs. Creamer, however, is not your friend. That is just sugar...which is carbs. So go black, or go very light on the creamer.
• Drink LOTS of water. This will help with your appetite.
• Go as low calorie as you can. Cut out any unnecessary snacks and just eat your meals.
• If possible, take your 30-45 minute walk during the fasted period of your day before you break your fast. This will increase your fat burning success because you are burning more calories while you are in a fat burning state.
• GET YOUR HEAD RIGHT! Stay disciplined and stick to the plan!

January Shred Rule #6: Don't Eat or Drink Empty Calories

Missed the Introduction to the January Shred? Click HERE.

Don't eat or drink "empty" calories

If you want to lose weight, you are going to need to consume less calories than you burn. The 10 simple rules of the January Shred essentially provides a strategy to do that, without forcing you to count calories. One of the most important pieces of this plan is to avoid consuming calories that aren't beneficial to your goals. We'll call these "empty" calories. Any kind of junk food falls into this category. Start off with this one by not drinking your calories. That means coke, tea, and alcoholic beverages are off limits. They simply add calories that will prevent you from burning more fat. Next, avoid any junk food. This includes but is not limited to: chips, cookies, snack cakes, pop-tarts, most granola bars, ice cream, brownies, and yes even those 100 calorie "healthy" cookies or snack cakes that aren't...am I making you sad yet??? 

Also, avoid any unnecessary snacking even on non-junk food items. You don't need to eat every few hours just for the heck of it. The myth of having to eat 6 times a day has been sufficiently debunked (Click HERE for more info on that subject). It really is ok if your stomach growls a little in between meals...I promise you won't die.

How you know if you are performing Rule #6 successfully

In order to get credit for completing rule #6, you'll need to avoid drinking calories that come from soda, tea and alcohol. Natural fruit juices and milk are fine, but watch your serving sizes because the calories can certainly add up quickly. Also, the junk food is off limits. If you are going out to get a healthy lunch at Subway or Chick-fil-a, that means no soda/tea/lemonade and no chips/fries. What? Did you think shredding fat was easy? GET YOUR HEADS RIGHT! You can do this for 1 month!

** EXCEPTION: On your weekend cheat meal you are allowed to eat the above prohibited items without losing a point. Keep in mind that while you don't lose a point by the plan, a cheat meal is definitely not helping your overall fat shredding plan. Then why have one? Good question...only do it if you need to keep yourself sane. I would much rather you cheat once per week than quit after the first week.

Helpful Tip

If you have junk food in the house, either eat it tonight (December 31st) or throw it away. I wouldn't even recommend saving it until February 1st...it will become too tempting sitting on the shelf starring at you each and every day. On low carb days it will basically be begging you to eat it! If I have junk food in the house I'm going to eat it...so tonight, we are trashing the junk! I strongly suggest you do the same!

Scripture for the Day

Proverbs 31:30 "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."

January Shred Rule's # 1, 2 and 3: Your Exercise Plan

Missed the Introduction to the January Shred? Click HERE.

Your Exercise Plan!

Rule #1: Perform at least 2 high-intensity exercise sessions each week.
Rule #2: Perform at least 2 strength-training exercise sessions each week.
Rule #3: Walk 30-45 minutes on your rest days (non high-intensity and strength training days).

Your exercise plan each week should have at least 4 days where you are performing either high intensity exercise or strength training, leaving you with at least 3 "rest" days where you will be walking 30-45 minutes. Just like planning your meals, plan your exercise for the entire week...and preferably the entire month. Just to give you an idea, here is how my plan is going to look. Keep in mind, I love to do strength training, so I end up doing some additional strength training after Boot Camp:

Sunday: Strength Training (Chest, triceps and shoulders)
Monday: Boot Camp + Strength Training (Back & Biceps)
Tuesday: Rest (walk) Day
Wednesday: Strength Training (Legs)
Thursday: Rest (walk) Day
Friday: Boot Camp + Strength Training (Back & Biceps)
Saturday: Strength Training (Legs)

How you know if you are performing Rules #1, 2 and 3 successfully

While I'm not going to put a time requirement on your high intensity and strength training workouts, I'd suggest that if you aren't doing those for at least 20 or more minutes, you probably aren't burning as many calories as you could or should. Other than that, these 3 exercise rules are pretty simple. Obviously, if you end up missing a workout that you were supposed to perform on a given day, you won't receive a point for that day.

Helpful Tip

If you want to burn more calories...by all means do so! So if you want to mix up your 30-45 minute walk with some light jogging every few minutes...GO FOR IT! Keep in mind though that you will be going low carb on those days so you probably won't have the same energy level as you would on a day where you are consuming more carbs. Also, spread out your rest days so that they are not back to back. Adherence on low carb days is challenging enough...but going 2 days in a row without carbs? No thank you!

Also, if possible, perform  your 30-45 minute walk during your fasting window. That means before you eat during that particular day. More calories expended while you are in a fat burning state provides you a better opportunity to burn more fat!

January Shred Rule #5: Plan Your Food Every Day!

Missed the Introduction to the January Shred? Click HERE.

Plan your food every day!

If you don't have a plan for success, you have effectively created a plan for failure. Plan out all of your food for the day at least the day before and then stick to it. Impulse eating is so dangerous because you probably won't impulse eat a few broccoli crowns...it will be cookies or candy or something like that. It is amazing how much we plan various areas of our lives, but sometimes when it comes to something like food, we fly by the seat of our pants and then throw whatever looks good into our stomach. This is a bad plan. If you are married, sit down with your spouse and plan your meals for the upcoming week. You are going to need to have your spouse's buy in on this if you want to be successful. If you are single, you just have to convince yourself...good luck with that :)

How I suggest you start planning your food

Matt & Leigh's meal plan for the January Shred

If you really want to be successful, plan out your dinners for the ENTIRE MONTH. I know that will take a little bit of time, but it will be well worth it, and you'll also save some grocery money! How about that?!?! Get in better shape and save some money! #WINNING!

If you have a calendar, write down what you plan to eat each evening. While you are at it, plan out which days of your week are going to be the "rest days" where you aren't doing Boot Camp or strength training. These are your low carb days, so you'll definitely need to plan well for those days. Not sure what has carbs? You may need to do a little research and learn how to read food labels; but fruits, sugars, breads and starches are things you'll want to avoid on a low carb day. Basically, stick to lean meats and veggies and you're likely to be successful there.

As you can see, the photo to the right is the meal plan Leigh and I came up with. This is only dinners, so lunch I'll have to plan out as well. The dates that are circled (Tues & Thurs) are our low carb meals. You'll notice there are no potatoes and rice on those days. You'll also notice I can't spell very well without spell-check...so if you feel the need to call me out on that go ahead, you won't be telling me anything I don't already know :) You will also notice that I can basically eat the same types of foods over and over without going completely insane. That is both good and bad. If you have a lot more variety in your meal plan...awesome! I'll freely admit we don't experiment a whole lot with food, so our "go to" healthy meals are fairly limited.

How you know if you are performing Rule #5 successfully

In order to avoid losing a point for not properly performing Rule #5 on a given day, you'll need to have a plan for what you are going to eat by at least the night before. That means before you wake up tomorrow morning, you have already planned out your meals and any snacks that you are going to eat for the day. Then the kicker...you have to stick to it! If you break the plan and impulse eat on something you shouldn't, you cannot take credit for successfully completing rule #5.

Helpful Tip

Don't go to the grocery store on an empty stomach. Bad choices that you could normally pass on look down right irresistible when your stomach is growling. Try to shop after a meal, and make a list and stick to the grocery list! If there is bad food in the house, I'm going to find it and I'm going to eat it. The solution? Don't put bad food in the house!

Scripture for the Day

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

You need other friends in your life to stand with you. There is strength in numbers. Whether your application is having other friends to support your health and fitness journey, or your spiritual growth...don't try to do it alone!

January Shred Rule #4: Intermittent Fasting

Missed the Introduction to the January Shred? Click HERE.

What is intermittent fasting?

Before I give you my explanation, please go HERE and watch a short video where Dr. Mercola explains some of the benefits of intermittent fasting. You might read some of the article as well.

Intermittent fasting (IF) in layman’s terms is basically having a period of time each day where you don’t eat. The concept is involves forcing the body to burn fat stores for energy during the fasted period of the day. To understand how this is possible, you first need a very basic understanding of how the body burns calories for energy. The body will always prefer burning carbohydrates first, then fats, and then proteins. Carbohydrates quickly break down into glycogen which your body will always burn before it digs into fat reserves for energy. If there is no available glycogen, your body will convert fat stores into energy…which is what we want! However, at some point if there is still no available glycogen, your body may begin to dig into intramuscular fat and catabolize your muscle (protein). This is what we don’t want and one of the reasons we don't want to have an extremely long fasted period (20+ hours).

Now that you understand the priority of your body’s energy usage, you can understand that depleting glycogen reserves will cause your body to burn more fat for energy. Through much research, case studies, and personal tweaking, a nutritional consultant and personal trainer named Martin Berkhan developed the “LeanGains” program. Berkhan, who operates a blog (www.leangains.com), has essentially written the book on how to effectively use I.F. for fat loss while gaining muscle. He has found that a fasting window of 16 hours for men, and 14 hours for women is the most effective way to burn fat while maintaining muscle. Sure you can push the window out further and go for 18 to 20 hours fasted, but that becomes very hard to do practically for long periods of time.

This is going to be a massive over-simplification, but right after you eat, your body stops burning fat. It doesn't need to burn fat for energy because it has energy available through the absorption of carbohydrates. A few hours after eating, your body might begin to burn a very, very small percentage of fat, but still almost all carbohydrate. After sleeping for 8 hours, you are burning more fat, for ease of explanation, let's say 50/50. After 16 hours of fasting, you are burning mostly fat. This is why 14-16 hours is the sweet spot.

How I suggest you start intermittent fasting

Unlike Dr. Mercola, I think you can jump into IF pretty quickly and get to your 14 hour or 16 hour fasting window in a day or two. Start off with a 12 hour fast on the first day, then as you assess your success move to 14 and then 15 or 16 hours. You can do this by setting a cutoff time for food in the evening. I suggest 8pm. If you start with a 12 hour fast, you can eat the next morning starting at 8am. My intermittent fasting schedule is from 8pm until 12pm noon the next day (16 hours).

How you know if you are performing Rule #4 successfully

During the first week, as long as you have a 12 to 16 hour fasting window for men and a 12-14 hour fasting window for women, you are successfully completing rule #4. However, after the first week, for men you'll need to have a 16 hour fasting window, and 14-15 hour fasting window for women. Remember, during the fasting window, you cannot consume any calories. The exception is a little creamer in coffee or calories contained in pre-workout mixes. Regardless, these exceptions still need to be less than 75 calories. The idea is to burn fat everyday during your fasting window.

Helpful Tip

Drink LOTS of water during the fasting window as this will help you deal with the hunger you are likely to experience. Don't worry, you aren't going to die if your stomach growls a little. After a few days the hunger begins to be much easier to deal with...and eventually you won't even notice it.

Introducing the January Shred!

Check out our the January Shred video HERE.

To help get you kick-started on your health and fitness goals for 2014, I'm inviting you to join me on a January Shred! If you are anything like me, you ate a little sloppy during the holidays and probably gained at least a little unhealthy weight. With the start of the new year comes an opportunity to mentally wipe the slate clean and start fresh. So get your head right and lets shred some fat!

To start off, the January Shred is not a crash diet...it is 10 simple rules that you'll need to follow every day during the month of January. Fair warning, while the plan is simple, that doesn't mean it won't be tough. There is no magic pill you can take to get in shape, and the only free thing I know of is salvation. Other than that, you've got to put in the work for whatever it is that you want. This will take hard work and a whole lot of discipline, but if you stick with it, you'll see some fantastic results and gain some serious momentum to start the year off!

Here are the 10 rules:

The first 3 are exercise related, and the last 7 are nutrition related. That isn't by accident. Exercise is very important, but you can't out-exercise bad eating habits. I'll be providing more explanation and details on each of these rules in future blog posts:

1. Perform at least 2 High-Intensity exercise sessions each week - Boot Camp is considered a high-intensity exercise session, so for those of you doing Boot Camp, don't miss a workout! Click HERE for more details on Rule #1.
2. Strength training at least 2 days per week outside of Boot Camp - Strength training provides a "double" calorie burn because you burn calories while performing the exercise, and you continue to burn calories at rest while your body repairs the muscles you broke down during strength training. Click HERE for more details on Rule #2.
3. Walk on your rest days - On the days you don't do Boot Camp or strength training, get in a 30-45 minute low intensity walk. This will help you burn more calories without sacrificing your body's need to recover. Click HERE for more details on Rule #3.
4. Intermittent Fasting - Say what? Yes, a daily fast. Because intermittent fasting (IF) is not mainstream (yet), you may not have ever heard of it. Therefore, this will be the first of the 10 rules that I'll blog about with more details. Intermittent fasting is a going to be a major key to your fat burning potential. Click HERE for more details on Rule #4.
5. Plan your food every day! - If you don't have a plan for success, you automatically have created a plan for failure. Plan out all of your food for the day at least the day before and then stick to it. Impulse eating is so dangerous because you probably won't impulse eat a few broccoli crowns...it will be cookies or candy or something like that. If you really want to be successful, plan out your meals for the entire week, and never go grocery shopping when you are hungry! Click HERE for more details on Rule #5.
6. Don't eat or drink "empty" calories - Start off with this one by not drinking your calories. That means coke, tea, and alcoholic beverages are off limits. Also, avoid any unnecessary snacking. You don't need to eat every few hours just for the heck of it...and if your stomach growls a little here and there that isn't a bad thing. Click HERE for more details on Rule #6.
7. Avoid carbs on your rest days - On the days you don't do Boot Camp or strength training, try to go as low carb as possible. You'll definitely need to plan ahead for these days as the majority of the foods you probably like to eat are loaded with carbs (I know that is the case for me). If you have to have a few carbs that is ok, but shoot for 40g of carbs or less on these days. BTW...you may need some extra caffeine on these days because your energy levels will be lower due to the reduced carbs. Click HERE for more details on Rule #7.
8. Eat plenty of protein - Every day you should try to get plenty of protein. Shoot for .6g or more per pound of body weight. If you weigh more than 250lbs, shoot for a total of 150g protein per day. Getting protein through lean meats (chicken, tuna, lean pork, lean ground turkey, lean steak) is the best source. Next is egg whites and low fat dairy (milk, cheese), and then of course you can supplement through protein powders/shakes. Click HERE for more details on Rule #8.
9. Eat 2-3 portions of green veggies per day - Broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, zucchini, asparagus, spinach, green beans, peas, lettuce, collards, leeks, etc. Green veggies are extremely low calorie, but are also nutritious and very filling. When you make it a point to eat 2-3 servings of these little beauties each day, you are helping to avoid the more calorie dense foods that can throw off your fat loss plan. Add veggies to some lean protein and you have a filling meal that is also low calorie! Click HERE for more details on Rule #9.
10. Eat out only 1 time during the week and 1 time on the weekend - This is a tough one because it requires extremely good planning and discipline. For your out to eat during the week, make a good decision. For example, a low calorie sub at Subway on wheat bread. For your out to eat meal on the weekend, you are allowed to cheat in order to keep your sanity...but just restrict it to that one meal...not an all day calorie stuffing binge. Click HERE for more details on Rule #10.

So there you have it. 10 simple rules that are much easier to type out than they are to follow. If you can keep all 10 rules for the entire month of January, you are going to shred some serious fat.

Want to join in? Here is what you need to do:

First, e-mail me (include your name) at matt.abele40@gmail.com and let me know you are participating in the January Shred. Next, be sure to take a picture of yourself, weigh yourself and try to get any measurements you can. I'll ask you do these same measurements again at the end of the month so that you can track your results.

** Clarification: The pictures and measurements are for you to track your progress. I won't be asking you to send those to me unless you just want me to share your success!

Oh yes, we are keeping score!

We are going to be keeping score, and each week I'll post a list of participants and scores in order from highest to lowest score. For each rule you successfully perform, you'll be able to earn points. Those who are participating will receive a tracking spreadsheet and will report points on a weekly basis.

Check back every day!

I'll update the blog every day during the month of January with information, tips, and hopefully some stuff to keep everyone motivated! LET'S DO THIS!

Scripture for the day

Proverbs 16:18