Shocking fact: A number of studies have found that ~95% of people who lose weight dieting gain it back within 2-3 years.
Yep...dieting sucks and doesn't work. Adopting an all-around healthy lifestyle isn't an easy thing to start to do--and I totally get that--but if you can somehow figure out what to do, develop some drive to keep it going, and ultimately earn the health and aesthetic results to show for it, it can be ridiculously rewarding. It's even euphoric to a degree.
That's why I created the DiSanto Bible of Lifelong Fitness, Health, and Nutrition to highlight the top rules that I live by that contribute to my lifelong quest for optimal health, nutrition, fitness, and rippedness. Yep, I said bible...this isn't some half-assed handbook. In my mind every single one of these rules is essential, and as a result they've become like second nature to me. Drill 'em into your head and live by as many as possible. If it's too much to do all at once gradually add them in one-by-one...it's sooooo worth it. Here we go:
- Breakfast really is the most important meal. Your body needs to refuel after starving overnight for 7, 8, 9 hours. You'll prevent muscle breakdown, amp up your metabolism, and supply your body and brain with much needed energy. 100% required.
- SLEEP! Too many people take sleep for granted, if you're one of those people it's gonna kill you one day. Sleep deprivation causes stress, obesity, heart disease, decreased mental/athletic performance and a ton of other nasty conditions. Aim for 7-8 hours per night.
- Focus on protein. When it comes to building/preserving muscle it's not necessary how much protein you get (with the exception of post-workout), but more importantly getting a constant stream of protein throughout the day. Aim for at least 10g of protein per meal, every 3 hours. This'll help prevent your muscles from breaking down.
- Oh...eat protein as often as you can too. Besides its muscle building ability, protein also burns up to 30% of its calories thermogenically through digestion. If you eat 1000 calories worth of protein (250g) 300 of those calories will be burned off naturally...without doing anything.
- Eat small meals every 2.5-3 hours. The body can't handle mega-sized meals of 600+ calories at a time...that food just sits in the stomach and converts to fat. You'll eat better food and avoid snacking, stay satisfied throughout the day, and have energy nonstop. Plus your metabolism is constantly running. Yeah...it's that powerful.
- Brush your teeth. No one likes bad breath or the bacteria that comes with it.
- Get your monounsaturated and polysaturated fats, nix the saturated and trans fats. Put simply: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats clean your arteries and promote heart health, saturated and trans fats clog your arteries like crazy. Cut out all trans fats and as many saturated fats as possible.
- Take fish oil. It's good for your heart.
- Eat fish too. Fatty fish like salmon and mackeral provide omega-3's (heart healthy fats) and a ton of protein.
- Go watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Laughing destresses, releases endorphins which promote happiness, relaxes the body, and can actually help make your heart stronger. Go find a funny friend or watch what's on http://todaysbigthing.com/
- Take a multivitamin every morning.
- Always maximize nutritional value. Choose foods that are jam packed with vitamins, minerals, protein, fiber, healthy fats, etc. In other words, avoid empty calories.
- Learn this definition: Sugar (shoog-ar) - A nutrient that makes you fat. With the exception of the sugar in fruit and dairy, eat as little sugar as you possibly can. Sugar will send your blood sugar spiraling, which spikes insulin levels, and ultimately causes the body to store fat. You'll also develop diabetes. Yeah, eating a ton of calories will make you fat too, but sugar is another huge reason for fat gain.
- Eating carbs isn't a solo mission. Carbs consumed by themselves will speed through your digestive tract ridiculously quickly, leaving you hungry shortly afterwards. Not only that, but it'll spike your insulin = increased body fat. Always pair carbs with some sort of fat or protein to slow digestion.
- Stop drinking soda or other liquid calories. My only exceptions are dairy and the occasional 100% natural fruit juice. Seriously...soda and other sugary drinks with actually make you more hungry than you were before, plus all that sugar has no nutritional value at all. Not lean.
- Discriminate a little. White in the nutrition world is usually bad. White bread, white rice, white flour...it'll all send your blood sugar on a roller-coaster ride and cause your body to blow up with body fat. I like to think of it as the Michelin Man phenomenon. Go wheat or brown whenever you can.
- Revisit the lunch room. Remember when your mom would pack you a nice tasty PB & J every day for lunch? Get her on the phone!! Peanut butter's (the natural kind, not JIF or Skippy) an awesome source of mono/polyunsaturated fats that promote heart health, as well as provide a shot of protein and fiber. Who knew eating healthy tasted so good?
- Listen to music.
- Go green! Green tea...2+ cups a day...I swear it'll add at least 5 years to your life. Green tea is extremely rich in these little miracle antioxidants called catechins (specifically ECGC), which fight cancer, prevent diabetes and strokes, lower cholesterol levels and prevent aging. It gets even better...green tea burns a ton of fat too.
- Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries...oh my. All three are extremely high in vitamins C & K (blood clotting), as well as antioxidants. They'll help clear up any skin conditions and acne, as well as add all of the miraculous benefits antioxidants have to offer.
- Don't smoke cigarettes.
- Keep alcohol to 2 drinks or less. Having 2 drinks or less can help lower your cholesterol levels, any more than that and you're in a world of trouble. Besides making you fat, drinking alcohol excessively can cause liver and kidney damage, osteoporosis and arthritis, heart disease, and blood sugar imbalances.
- Drink coffee. Coffee's loaded with antioxidants, increases mental energy and focus, boosts physical power, and converts fat into fuel. Just don't overdo it. Consider whitening toothpaste though, coffee stains teeth.
- Drink water all day long. Besides...you know...being sort of important for every single bodily function, drinking cold water can also help increase your metabolism and decrease hunger. A dieter's dream, negative calories and decreased hunger.
- Eat oatmeal. Oatmeal's loaded with fiber that can help lower LDL (bad cholesterol), promote heart health, slow digestion, and help keep you full for a ridiculously long time. Oatmeal also contains phytochemicals which fight cancer.
- ...not cereal. For the most part all you're eating is sugar, refined carbs, and artificial colors/flavors.
- Eat flaxseeds. They only have the highest omega-3 content of any food, lower blood pressure, reduce inflammation, and decrease just about every risk factor associated with heart disease...just saying.
- Eat beans. The quadruple threat: fiber + antioxidants + protein + gas.
- Eat protein before bed. It'll help keep your metabolism up and prevent muscle breakdown while you're sleeping.
- Don't eat anything but protein 2 hours before bed. When you go to sleep your metabolism slows. Any fat or carbs left in your stomach when you go to sleep will be stored as fat due to less-efficient digestion.
- Take the stairs. You burn about 4 calories per flight of stairs. That's better than the 0 you burn taking the elevator.
- Get the hell off the airport moving walkways. I hate these things, they suck...if you have working legs please walk. Come on...America can't be that lazy.
- Don't eat when you drink alcohol. Your body always prioritizes the digestion of alcohol before food. What's that mean? Any food you eat while you have alcohol in your system will just sit in your stomach...and sit there...and sit there some more...until it's finally stored as fat. Oye.
- Don't be a zombie. If you engage your mind just a little bit...just a little bit...and hold a conversation you'll boost your metabolic rate by over 200% when compared to simply lying down on the couch and watching the Kardashians mindlessly.
- Be an ingredient label expert. If it says high fructose corn syrup, white flour, or partially hydrogenated oil throw it out. Also, get in the habit of avoiding everything with high sugar, sodium, trans fat, and saturated fat content.
- Eat as few processed foods as possible.
- Avoid foods with a laundry list of ingredients.
- Don't eat foods that have sugar as the first, second, or third ingredient. Ingredients are listed in order of amount in the food. The first ingredient makes up the majority of the food, the last ingredient makes up very little.
- Lift weights. It'll strengthen your bones and build muscle. More muscle = more calories burned at rest. Plus you'll look better.
- CARDIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Cardio's not just about burning calories. Increasing your cardiovascular fitness level can actually turn your body into a fat burning furnace. The higher your cardiovascular fitness, the more fat-burning enzymes your body will have. More fat-burning enzymes = more efficient at using body fat for energy. Interesting fact - really out of shape people run out of breath really quickly because their body's are only able to use carbs as fuel--they're physically unable to tap into their fat stores for energy. That's why dieting alone doesn't work...you need to exercise to lose significant weight.
- Give it a rest. Give yourself a day off from lifting/cardio at least once every 4 days. Your body needs some time to recover in order to grow.
- Emphasize your abs. Lets be serious...everyone loves a sexy midsection. Everyone loves good posture and a strong back too.
- Cheat days? What the hell is a cheat day!? I know cheat days are a common way for people to stick to diets, but remember how I said diets suck? Well cheat days suck too. If you need to take a break from your diet and healthy life you're not trying hard enough nor committed enough...man up. Imagine a firefighter looking into a burning building and just thinking to himself, "hmm...I've worked really hard this week, I'm gonna take this one off." Extreme, but you get the point.
- Do squats and deadlifts. You'll burn a ton of calories and fat and release high levels of HGH and testosterone--two hormones that promote muscle growth and fat loss.
- Be an educated supplement consumer. Supplements are meant to do exactly that...supplement good health and fitness. Just know what you're buying and do some research beforehand. Products like protein powder, BCAAs, creatine, l-carnitine, and others are extremely effective for safe muscle gain, fat loss, and overall health.
- Drink low fat milk for the calcium and protein. Got milk? Besides getting an awesomely cool milk mustache, drinking milk is a phenomenal source of calcium. The benefit? Calcium's proven to be an extremely powerful reducer of body fat. In numerous studies mice on high calcium diets experienced a reduction in body fat of over 60%...60%.
- Don't eat canned food. Canned food is either a) extremely high in salt b) gross or c) devoid of nutrients, or some combination of the three. Due to processing, canned veggies get stripped of almost all of their vitamins and nutrients. Isn't that why you eat veggies anyway? Go fresh if possible, if not frozen is your next best option.
- Say no to sodium. Too much sodium causes hypertension and heart problems. It'll also make you look puffy and bloated. Yuck.
- Don't eat broccoli before the beach. Broccoli and other cruciferous veggies cause gas build up, making you look bloated. Not ideal when your shirts coming off.
- Always use strict form when lifting. You'll prevent injury and maximize muscle gain.
- Sttttttrectchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Always stretch/warmup before and after you exercise. Not only will it give you more flexibility and power, but it'll ensure you don't get hurt.
- If you're sick drink an Emercen-C. Vitamin C's a potent antioxidant, which fights off illness and the common cold. Make vitamin C a regular part of your diet--Emergen-C's a great source.
- Remember the ADEK, BC rule. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble, which means your body's able to store them for later use. Get your daily requirement and no more. The B vitamins and vitamin C are water-soluble, which means your body will pee out the excess. The implications? Make sure to get a constant supply throughout the day.
- Vitamin Water isn't healthy. Might as well just say it, it's vitamin enhanced sugar water. It's not worth the calories or body fat gain, take a multivitamin and you'll be fine. If you really need to get your Vwater fix, make it a Vitaminwater Zero.
- Eat the egg yolk. The whites are essentially protein and water...the yolk's where all the good stuff's at. The yolk literally has all of the egg's vitamin A, D, E, & K, and over 90% of the egg's calcium, iron, choline, and zinc. That's liquid gold. What's even better news is that more and more studies are beginning to show that the egg yolk has no effect on LDL (bad) cholesterol like once thought.
- Eat tomatoes. Tomatoes are jam-packed with lycopene, the world's most powerful antioxidant.
- Like Tuna? Swap mayo for hummus or mustard. You'll save over 100 calories and cut out a bunch of nasty saturated fat.
- Use hot sauce. Spicy foods burn calories during digestion, plus peppers have antioxidants.
- The current nutrition guidelines are out of date. The current nutrition guidelines/labels were created in the '60's and are severely out of date. Instead of aiming for 100% of your DV as suggested by the guidelines, realistically you should aim to get 200-300% of that DV.
- Eat lean red meat occasionally. Lean red meat's a phenomenal source of creatine, a substance that increases muscular power. It's also high in iron, phosphorus, zinc, protein, and selenium, an antixoidant. Avoid fattier cuts because they're higher in saturated fats. Go go filet mignon.
- Opt for whole fruit over juice. It has higher fiber content and more nutrients, plus you'll stay fuller longer.
- Learn and live by the Glycemic Index. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_index
- Avoid artificial sweeteners. If you need to sweeten something use stevia or honey. Honey's a natural antioxidant and digests slowly, keeping your blood sugar under control.
