Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1907: Nine Ways to Get Lean Without Counting Calories

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin cover nine hacks that are critical for fat loss success without needing to count calories.

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind, hop, mind, hop with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the number one podcast in the world for fitness health and entertainment. This is Mind Pump, right? In today's episode, we talk about ways that you can get your calories slower, ways that you can get leaner without counting calories, without counting macros.

These are all behavior-based hacks, and they all are time-tested. We've used these with our clients and ourselves. Very, very effective. Now, this episode is brought to you by one of our sponsors, fly by jean. They make foods that season your foods make them taste amazing. Sausages you could dip your chicken into.

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That's flybyjing.com. forward slash mind pump and get 15% off your entire order. Also, we got a special going on this month with some of our workout programs. We have a workout program bundle called the skinny guy bundle. This includes maps and a ball, maps aesthetic, the no BS six pack formula, the intuitive nutrition guide and the occlusion training guide. That is 50% off. We also have a fit mom bundle, which includes maps anywhere,

maps, and a ball, maps hit, and the intuitive nutrition guide. That is also 50% off. You can find both of them at maps fitness products.com, but you have to use the code, S E P T 50 for the discount. All right, here comes the show. Okay, look, here's a fact. In order to lose weight, you have to take in less calories than you burn. However, counting calories is often a failing strategy for people when it comes to long-term success with weight loss. So in today's episode, we're gonna talk about all the different ways you can get lean and healthy without ever having to count

a single calorie. Yeah. Maintain flexibility. That's it, right there. The first point I made is definitely true. And this is where people get tripped up, is that it is true. You have to take in less energy than you burn.

It's what's called an energy imbalance. So to put it plainly, if you burn 2,000 calories through just being alive and activity and everything else, and then you burn 2,000 calories through just being alive and activity and everything else. And then you eat 1,000 calories, your body has to make up the difference. And ideally, what we would like for it to do is to tap into fat because body fat is a way your body stores energy.

And so that's how weight loss happens. So it sounds very logical that in order to lose weight, you just figure out how many calories you're burning and then count calories and make sure you stay under that. And then boom, you lose weight. And it does work. The problem is it's got a very high fail rate over time, right? So it works in the short term, the long term, it tends to not work very long. What was your personal journey with like figuring out macros and calories liked it. Were you somebody who, because I know you really don't, you never really,

even when you, I think you were getting shredded, I don't think you tracked really, did you? No, I don't because. You're not a big couch. I've done it before. I've done it before just so I know how to do it in, you know, counting macro nutrients and being aware of that kind of stuff.

So I'm aware of what's in food, but I never liked it because it always felt, what's the word I want to use? For lack of return unnatural, like, you didn't feel like life. It's like robotic. Yeah, and I'm like, you know, and I could be that way. Like I could totally be robotic when it comes to fitness, but it just felt, you know, you can consider my where I come from and my culture and my family. We do so much with food and we celebrate so much with food. And I already had food intolerance issues,

so I already put parameters on things. I had to tell my Italian mom that Dairy and Gluten bothered me. So that didn't go over so well. But then I'm gonna start counting calories and macros when we have weekly Sunday dinner or my mom would cook dinner every night when I was a kid and remember I started working out as a kid. So it just felt like, gosh, who would do this, you know, for just didn't feel right?

Now, the irony of that atom is I had my clients initially count calories and I'd give them meal plans, but I'd see them fail. I'd see them do well for a few months and then fail. What about you, Justin? Well, I mean, I definitely kind of went through the counting calories thing just to get a good awareness of it and to be able to see how I could manipulate it and shave down and wait and try and get leaner. I've never been a big fan of it, but again, I know the value is there in terms of like, if I could figure this out specifically to my own habits and really identify some of those food groups and things that are contributing the most, usually on the fat side for me is where all those calories really come up. And that was something that I was able to just slowly adjust from there. And I guess for me, the value is finding the way so just tighten screws in what my normal habits were.

If I wanted to then make it a little bit more sustainable approach later when I wanted to manipulate my weight and get leaner. So I did enjoy the peering into that and seeing what I tended to gravitate towards and like, what kind of, if I had coffee, I tend to have it a little bit with some sweetener or something. And like if I just tapered off of that and then reduced that from a calorie perspective and also like, you know, just little things

that I could do that made a big impact in difference. I translate that to my clients a lot more effectively. Now Adam, you aside from competing, because obviously you competed at some of the highest levels when it came to physique, you got yourself a pro card, and that requires you just, you have to dial everything in and get to a really extreme body fat percentage, and obviously compete against other people doing this. Besides that period of time, which I think tracking is essential, did you do it outside of that a lot as well, or were you much more...

I did. I did leading up. I did leading even so even before competing, I had already, you know, I mean, we've talked before in the show about, you know, calorieking.com and I used to have before it was.com, I had the little booklet with all the macros in it. I used to buy hand, used to track it. This was well before the my fitness pals and fat secrets came along. So I was on and off track, but it was used to be like when I was on my kick, I was tracking, when I was on my kick, I was totally off the rails. My relationship with it now, and that's why

really I like this episode that you're prepared because I'm a big advocate of tracking. I just think that it's a good part of educating yourself on your habits. What is a protein? What is a carb? What is a fat? How many calories to each of them hold? I think there's a tremendous value in figuring some of those. Then once you have an idea or a baseline in that, I think it's even healthier to move away from it. So, I think like the tips that you have written out or the hacks you have written out today, I would say this is how I live my life now. Like, I can still get leaner and build muscle and get in shape and I don't need to weigh and measure and track.

I just have some, a handful of like, I I think principles that I follow or pay attention to when I know I want to move the needle a little bit. Yeah, you said it actually really well. I agree. I think it's an important part of knowing what's in food and seeing what's in food, right? Because calories, besides calorie counting, calories count.

In other words, there's no such thing as this whole, like there's this movement, or calories don't matter. Okay, that's baloney. They do matter, their energy, and if that energy discrepancies in the negative, you're gonna gain body fat regardless of what your diet's made up of. Macronutrients matter. I mean, proteins and fats are essential.

I mean, if you don't get the right amount of them, you actually will fail to thrive. You can actually have terrible health consequences. Carbohydrates are not essential, but carbohydrates do contribute to things like athletic performance. And besides that, calories and macronutrients are important for health, muscle gain or preservation, satiety, subjective feelings of energy and health, which how you feel is a huge part. And that's where the challenge comes in. This is where the trouble that comes from counting calories. When people count calories,

they often, this is the answer that's all I'm gonna do, and it's almost like they forget where they don't regard the fact that humans, we're not robots where we can plug in a program, where behavior-based emotional creatures and food for the most part, okay? Except for the small percentage of people who compete in bodybuilding or physique or stage presentation sports or athletes have to make weight, for example, for maybe

wrestling or boxing. Besides that small percentage of people, nobody eats with this formula, long term. Everybody eats based off their behaviors, right? It's all behavior and emotional based. So it makes no sense to ignore that and go totally with calorie counting, or I should put it differently. It makes no sense to focus most of your energy on the behaviors.

It's good to have the information to use this data, but since we're behavior-based creatures and we eat based off of behaviors and emotions, we need to focus most of our efforts on that. And that's where we find success. So I want to ask you guys, when did you see this switch with your clients where you saw that, oh, this is actually, this maybe changing my strategy, because I used to give clients meal plans and tell them to hit calories and that stuff.

And they'd see results in the short-term, but long-term, they always failed. It wasn't until I did what we're gonna talk about in this episode, I did that later, and I just saw a bunch better long term success. Yeah, it's funny. I think the theme remains the same with being a good coach is that I figured it out much earlier for my clients that I did for myself.

That's true. So I started to realize this very early on, riding a diet, handing it to a client and having you know, follow this to a tee was extremely unsuccessful and that starting to piece together some of the stuff that we talk about that all addresses behavior stuff was way more beneficial. In fact, one of the things that is highly contested or debated in the fitness spaces, the multiple, several small meals and how it doesn't make a difference. I'm actually somebody who would argue the other side and advocate for it, not for the reasons that I think that it was argued in the past, which is it, you know, stokes the fire of your

metabolism. And if you eat more meals for the day, you get this roaring metabolism and it speeds them. None of that, because if calories are all equated to sand, then it doesn't make a difference if you have two huge meals or six small ones. But what I realized was when my clients had five to six prepared small meals and they had something ready to go and they were eating every two to three hours, they never got really, really hungry.

They never got to that point where they were fighting cravings off. They were always eating before they were feeling that come on Plus they planned it and they had it all planned out and so they made better decisions and so even though there was this crazy movement early on to Put you know make the small meals and then also and we shit on that science that everybody went away from that again I'm still one of those people that are like I'm still a fan of that for a lot of people because again, I think it addresses some behaviors that we have created around eating that I don't think are good behaviors

and this is a simple hack in my opinion. I don't even think that was on your list. But that's a great one. But that's one that I'm still very pro for that exact reason. Yeah, I think it's the key here, or should I say, the goal is to figure out how to modify your behaviors so that you automatically get close to calorie and macro targets. In other words, are there ways that I can get my behaviors to change where I feel good about it and it feels natural, which lead to I'm meeting the right amount.

I'm meeting the right amount of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, and I feel good. And I do wanna say this, if your goal is to get to 5% body fat, this probably won't work for you. This works very well long term. So this is a very good, like generally relatively lean. I'm a man, I'm around 12, 13% body fat. I'm a woman, I'm around 18 to 22% body fat.

If you want to get super ultra shredded, you're going to have to try. I'm going to argue that a little bit. That's partially true. Because, and your very first point we're going to move into is to eating protein first. I would make the case, so let's just say, even though I'm not, but let's just say,

like I do want to get down to 5% body fat again. I actually would still start here. So I still would start with all the behavior things first before I actually really try and hone in. When would you start tracking a body fat percent generally, do you think when I start to struggle with platose? Okay. So whatever that is, that's right.

That's right. Because I think you can get really far with this. I agree. I think you can get really, really lean and in good shape. Some people better than I was. I think you're probably even a better master at it than I am because I think you can get really, really lean and in good shape. Some people better than I was. I think you're probably even a better master at it than I am because I think you've trained yourself to use the behavior ways.

I would have to probably switch over to tracking when I get around 9%. I would probably say, I could probably get all the way to 9%. Relatively easy, not easy as in, the wouldn't take discipline and consistency, easy as in, if I just followed some of these steps that we're gonna talk about in the very first one,

eat protein first, that is a very first thing I do. So I'm glad you labeled that as the first one. It's like when I decide, I'm gonna dial in, I really wanna change my body composition, I haven't been paying attention to my protein and take it all. That's a very first thing that starts to shift over. Yeah, so what this basically means is

when you have your meal in front of you, the protein portion of your meal, which usually is the meat portion. So it's either beef or chicken or eggs or dairy. The protein portion of your meal, eat that first and that modifies your behaviors a couple of different ways. One is it, and this is huge, it manages your blood sugar levels

or your blood glucose levels, right? When you get these highs and lows, that effect in blood sugar, that affects your behaviors by making you feel irritable, the thargic, and having cravings. So that's one, number two, immediately protein is very satiating. If you eat 30 grams of protein or 50 grams of protein, before you eat the rest of your meal, that protein, and studies have shown this, very, very clearly, that protein blunts

your appetite and makes it so that you don't just don't want to eat as much. So when clients would eat protein first, it would lead to a behavior that naturally made the meat less overall. It was a very, very easy hack with this one right here. I want to add to that because what happens with someone here is that, or when I would I teach this to a client, they go, okay, okay, get it. And then they would make this effort that when they have, you know, breakfast lunch, or dinner or that they would eat the protein first and then move to the other macros. The challenge becomes when people have the temptation to want to snack in between meals and so my rule to add to this, this is the rule that I have for myself.

When I start making protein or priority, that means I actually won't even eat anything unless I have a protein with it. So I will not like... Protein really works for this. It does. It's just simple, like, for example, if I, oh, I want some grapes right now, I will not just sit down and just like,

chomp away grapes. You know, it's a fruit. You make a meaty sick first. That's right, I would eat a piece of big jerky with it or I'd get four to six ounces of a meat and then have the grapes. So I won't allow myself just to sit down and snack, even on a carbohydrate that somebody would consider

as quote unquote, healthy or a better choice. Because what ends up happening is I, then if I allow myself to do that, then I end up feeling my behaviors, who doesn't have me tracking, just naturally fill my calories up with carbohydrates, and I never hit my protein intake. So anytime I sit down to eat protein first,

and if I really, really want those carbs, again, I gotta pair it with a protein first and eat it first even when I'm snacking. Yeah, for the record, protein provides the most satiety. So it blends appetite the most and you get full, fastest on it and the longest. Second would be fat, third is carbohydrates. So carbohydrates are the least satiety producing and I think that's why you're talking about

these carbs snacks in between because they do tend to, you know, I feel like it actually makes me hungrier as a result. All right, this next one, this is a powerful one and this one I figured out before I figured out all the other ones we're going to talk about right now. And that was to avoid heavily processed foods. Like if you have one rule in your diet, it's just, I'll eat as much as I want. I'm just not gonna eat these ultra processed foods, okay? So ultra processed foods are in boxes or wrappers.

They have long shelf lives. They have ingredient lists that are, you know. So like all the inside portion of the grocery store. Yes. Yes. And studies now show why there's such a big deal. These foods are engineered to make your overeat. And they're so good at it. They're so effective at making you overeat that studies show now. Pretty clearly that people will eat 500 more calories a day,

just because they're eating these foods. Not because they're high calorie foods, but because they make you eat more. In other words, I could eating these foods not because they're high calorie foods But because they make you eat more in other words I could take a whole natural foods that are high calorie Give me some avocados and steak those are very energy calorie dense foods and then put next to it ultra-process foods And you'll end up eating more calories the ultra-process foods even though these are more calorie dense because They're engineered. Remember it's more engineering there to. It's really gets your palate to go crazy. And it just prompts you to seek out more novelty

and more foods that are going to fit these very specific, sweet or salty type of high level of flavors. To give an example, and this is an ultra-processed food, but it is processed in comparison to its whole natural part. Think of how many apples you can eat and one sitting. Now think about how much apple juice you could drink in one sitting. So apple juice removes the fiber, removes the skin and you don't have to chew on it, you could just drink it and you could go much further. Now the example I always use is a big family bag size of potato chips, which is like five or six potatoes.

I don't know anybody can eat five or six plain potatoes all at once. I know a lot of people need to hold bag of chips. I'll raise my hand. I could do it. I could eat a whole bag of chips. And afterwards I'll feel full. But if you put five plain potatoes in front of me,

I don't know if I could do it for $5,000. It'd be really hard. I would gag. So these foods make you overeat if I could do it for $5,000. It'd be really hard, I would gag. So these foods make you overeat. So just avoiding them naturally brings your calories down. So I'm gonna add to that hack also. If I am gonna eat something in a wrapper, in a bag, in a box, in a can,

then the one rule I give myself during this time is that it needs to have 25% or more coming from protein. Oh, I see. 25% of calories. That's right. Which is that really limits the process foods that I'm going to have. But it opens the door for, oh, you know what? I'm just, I'm a little light on my protein.

I don't have time to make something. I can go have a protein shake. I can go have a bar, a protein bar. I can do some of these things if I absolutely need to. Even though my goal is always to eat whole foods first, but then if I go, okay, I don't have the time for that, I gotta do something really quick. Okay, well then I'm going to limit myself

to something that says 25% of the calories come from protein. So then it is considered a protein food. It's more likely, or less likely, I should say to make you overeat. That's right. Like the other ones. That's right. All right, this next one, Adam, was one that you actually,

I heard from you first, and I loved it, which is rather than taking foods away or out of your diet, so you look at your diet, like I wanna get in shape, rather than cutting foods out of your diet, think of some really healthy foods and add them in instead. And then eat those before you eat the other stuff. And what it leads to is naturally, I remove some of the bad foods.

So contrary to what you would think in terms of weight loss coming into a program and you're a coach and you're like, okay, let's add some food to your diet and you're trying to get on a diet, which is like it's mind blowing, you're trying to get on a diet, which is like it's mind blowing, but yeah, to the point of it, you know, having a natural effect and behavior wise of changing and making better decisions, it's quite substantial what it

does. Well, part of this, the evolution of it or the origin of it for me was actually doing this for myself because it goes back to what the very first thing is, right? Is eat protein first was the first hack and tip? And what I found I naturally do and most all my clients naturally do is when they're off the diet, they gravitates towards the carbs and the saturated fats and they under eat protein

and me just simply saying target protein, add protein in the diet naturally started to clean the diet up. So I found it worked really, really well for myself. Then I applied it to my clients, saw how well we're for them. And that's all. Vegetables like low calorie fiber, specials probably work really well with this.

Yeah, yeah. Proteins and then greens. Those are the two things I would add, like right away. Like people were either under eating on their fiber, or they were not getting enough protein in their diet. And simply telling them, I didn't tell them they couldn't have any certain foods. I just said, hey, we never get X, Y, and Z in your diet.

Let's add those in. Just every day I need you to hit these one or two things. And then let me assess the diet after that. Low and behold, they would magically all of a sudden start to lean out and start to build a little bit of muscle and they would feel great. And I knew I was playing, and you know as a coach in a train I would be training people long enough

that much of the battle is this psychological battle that you're playing with them. Like how do I close them or convince them to eat or train or do the things I want them to do without making them feel like I'm forcing them or manipulate them to eat or train or do the things I want them to do without making them feel like I'm forcing them or manipulate them into that. And it was just like one of those trainer hacks of instead of me telling them they can have stuff,

I'm gonna just focus on the things I know that will create better behaviors in their diet. And this was one of them. It was like less need that intrinsic need to rebel. Right. So it's like you have this, you're coming in with less of a restrictive like rigid like concept of what your diet could be and I think it works so well because I

just think that we're all kind of rebellious in nature. We are and it's just in our nature to want to rebel. Yeah and if you're watching this right now and you're like oh I don't need to do that you know I'm self-aware and you still have to lose 30 pounds or you've done diets on and off and they failed. No, your self-awareness is I need to do this to myself because I feel like I'm otherwise depriving myself or restricting myself and then I end up rebounding afterwards. So know yourself enough to know that, you know,

when I take things out of my diet, I end up rebounding, so I'm just gonna add healthy things. And then not even worry about the other stuff, and then watch what happens, and what almost always happens is you end up removing some of the worst offenders. All right, this next one, this is a bodybuilder, piece of advice,

and bodybuilders used to talk about this all the time at helping them burn body fat and build muscle. The problem was the science didn't support it except in the real world that actually worked. And I think I know why. So the advice was bodybuilders would always tell people to drink a gallon of water every single day. Now I've changed this a little bit

because I'm talking to the average person and I'd say a half a gallon to a gallon because a gallon for some people maybe just too much. But I noticed when I would tell clients, target this much water every single day, make this your goal, they would end up losing weight. Why?

It tends to make you eat less, and you don't drink other stuff. When you're drinking a gallon of water a day, and that's your goal, and you got your bottle next to you with the marker ice, I have my clients buy like, you know, where they'd have to drink four of these bottles, and they'd have to track it throughout the day.

It's like, they don't realize, but they're not, they're drinking less juices, less sodas. They're moving more because they got a pee, so they gotta get up and walk. And they're eating better because being hydrated tends to help with appetite. Yeah, and a lot of times they're mixing that signal of hunger with, you know, being thirsty,

and being deprived of, or being dehydrated in their body, wanting to seek this out. And so to be able to keep hydrating and it keeps you somewhat satisfied a bit longer. And then also, I mean, you do run to the bathroom quite a bit more. So you can extra-cali, bro.

I mean, your steps go up. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I don't have much to add to that because you guys hit all the main points on why people have so much success with. The only thing that I would add to it is, and I actually believe even at the beginning of this podcast, meaning that this episode,

but the beginning of us starting this podcast, you guys used to tease me for carrying my gallon around. And I'm very pro that. The reason why I'm pro that is, you know, everybody has their little tiny, little water bottle and it's like they lose track of, did I fill it up already? Is this the second time I did it?

The third time I did it. And there's something about knowing that I gotta get through that whole gallon and seeing it all day long. And, you know, if it's something as simple as a whole gallon, and I know that it's two o'clock in the afternoon and I'm not even midway through. I'm like, oh shit, I got some catching up to do.

So there's something about that visual of seeing where you're at all day long. For me, that helps that accountability piece to make sure that I hit that. Otherwise, I'd have clients revert back and they, or you report back to me and they're like, oh yeah, yeah, no, I definitely, I drink like five or six of these a day.

Like, oh, you do, every day and you track that or you sure about that and when you have them track and do that, or all of a sudden you would have them carry the gallon analysis and they're peeing all the time and it drives them crazy. And you're like, wait a second, I gave you the same amount of water, I just put it in one jug and now you're peeing all the time, like, sounds fishy to me. Yeah, so the problem with the big gallon jug is people don't have to walk around with it. So what I did was I got these, I got my clients to buy these glass, really nice looking like jars or whatever, and four of them made up a gallon.

So I'd have them use a dry race marker and they'd write one. And then when they finish it, they'd erase it and write two. So they keep track. But you're right because when I would tell them how many small bottles of water it was, they would lose track. Nobody would keep track. So it makes, it's really track. Nobody would keep track. So it really helps. That's a great tip.

It really helps to have a visual of where you're at for the day because what you don't want to do, and this doesn't work very well, is you know, end of the day, like, oh, I've got to go out of the water, the 7pm doesn't really work too well. Yeah. The idea is to do this throughout the whole day. That's when you get those behavior modifications. This next one is really interesting because what I'm about to say is going to sound silly, but studies have shown it contributes consistently to a 10 to 15% less intake or lower to intake

of calories. In other words, if you just do the following, you will naturally eat 10 to 15% less and that's to eat without distraction. So they take people and they put food in front of them and they haven't either watched TV and eat or just eat or be on the phone and eat or just eat. And just because they're distracted by their phone or the television or something else,

number one, they eat faster. People tend to eat faster when they're distracted. And number two, they tend to eat longer or more calories because they're not paying attention to their body's signals. Now I know for a fact, I just talked earlier about eating a bag of potato chips, which I could totally do. I, when I do, if I could do that though, it would be in front of the television.

If I sat with nothing around me. No, you totally wouldn't. I wouldn't have in silence, just eat a whole bag, you wouldn't have to be distracted. Yes, I have to be watching a movie or something. That's what's wild about that. Most people, if they're being completely honest with themselves, I mean, you have a whole different,

if you sit in your room and you eat a whole bag of chips by yourself with no distractions and you have a whole different level. We have another thing we gotta work on, science is that relationship with food period. You're too outside. Most people are distracted when they eat. You know, it's funny when you bring up the 10%.

I can't help but think that paired with just avoiding ultra-process foods is enough to get probably 60% of the country in shape. Oh, like just saying, okay, this is too complicated for me. There's too many hacks here. There's too many things to figure out. Okay, just eat whole foods. Just don't eat in front of a television

or your phone or computer. And then that in itself would solve damn near. Adam, I would get people who's 20 pounds doing this. 20 pounds doing this and the whole and the process food. That's it. And most people want to lose about 20 pounds. People would trip out. So it's literally just got to sit down

and eat without distractions. It makes that big of a difference. I mean, also to your point of like eating fast. This was one that I noticed quite a bit, you know, with clients and myself, even personally, just in terms of like, if I was in a rush, I was just trying to cram in food or if I'm just not paying attention to like the amount of bite sizes that I'm eating and then, you know, you can bypass that signal of being satisfied pretty easily by just cramming in a bit to fat. That's why I love the next one.

This one's a big one. Because I think it pairs perfectly with that habit, is if you're somebody who does that, try doing that without water. Yeah, of course. Because half of what makes you get away with that is you're chewing it, you're swinging the water down. I mean, I caught myself doing this last night. Last night I was talking to Katrina and Max. We're all sitting in the counter and we're eating stuff like that.

And I was drinking a Sevilla and I'm eating my steak and stuff like that. And I caught myself before the bite was even finished grabbing my soda, sipping it down and made me burp. And I'm like, oh my God. Like I'm not even on TV about doing the dab. But in fact, that I was having conversation, not really paying attention. It's just like, it's a habit that I have for sure. And a good way to become aware of that habit or to try and break that habit is to not drink

any fluids while you have your meal. And every time I've taught somebody this, it always trips them out. The thing that you chew the hell out of my food. Is that unhealthy? I think it's unhealthy. You guys give me five minutes to eat today. I had to use this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know what's funny? All of us, I guarantee, did this whole time, because we trained a lot of clients, and what you do when you train clients, is you have like a break between... Five in between. Yeah.

And I would use the what, like I'm taking supplements almost, I'd bite chew, chew, chew, wash it down. Chew, chew, chew, chew, wash it down. I started doing this because I was recommended to stop drinking fluids with my food because it was affecting my digestion. So when you chew food, that's the first part

of the digestive process. Not only that, but chewing activates digestive enzymes and tells your brain foods about to come through. So if you shorten the time you chew, you're gonna end up eating more food. Also breaking the food down into smaller, smaller pieces increases its surface area to volume, making it easy to break down by the gut.

And when you flush a lot of fluid in your gut, especially water or other or juices, you actually dilute a lot of the acids in your stomach, and that can also affect digestion. But I know that sounds cool in science-y, but the truth is, that does play a role. But I know that sounds cool and sciencey, but the truth is that does play a role. But the biggest role here is it just, it slows you down.

Don't drink any fluids while you eat, you will eat slower and you will get full faster as a result. All right, this next one, this one is a big one also. And this was my number one tool for trigger foods or problem foods. We all kind of have them, like think right now if you're listening to this of a particular food that is almost impossible for you to say no to,

or almost impossible to not overeat, okay? I talked about potato chips earlier, that one's mine for my wife, it's chocolate, that's her big one. I've had clients where it was other things. And so what I came up with and made a big difference is I'd say, well, let's create a barrier between you and that food because it's impulsive. It's an impulsive reaction. So all we have to do is create space between you and the impulse.

And all you do is you're allowing for that, for consciousness to come in, awareness to come in. Not that it's going gonna happen every time, but if you have a barrier, it opens up the space. And so my favorite barrier is, I don't say I can't have potato chips. I just, if don't have them in the house. And if I want them, I'll drive a mile down the store

and buy some. And that's totally fine. And what ends up happening is 95% of the time I don't. 5% of the time I do, but 95% of the time I don't, 5% of the time I do, but 95% of the time I don't because I get the craving, I get up, and I'm like, oh, I would really love some potato chips. And I'm like, okay, I gotta drive the store.

And then, by the time I think about it, awareness comes in, like, do I really want them? It's not a clock at night. I'm gonna feel not that good tomorrow. Nah, forget about it. There's a lot of different ways to actually do this. You heard me mention one already, like when it comes to the eating the snacks

or like the grapes, right? I won't say no, I can't have grapes. I just said, I need to have a protein with it. It's really just, it's creating a barrier. It means that I have to go prepare the meat or go find some sort of a protein to go with that if I really want that. And I'm not telling myself, I can't have the grapes, just as,

hey, my goal is to make sure I get this protein in. So I'm creating a barrier with that. I've done this before too, with like if I really want something, I go, okay, well, I first need to hit my protein and take for the day. If I hit my protein and take it, I still want that thing,

I'll allow myself to have it. Or I haven't worked out today, like I need to get my workout in first, and then if I still want that thing I'll have that It's a barrier. That's perfect. So those and a lot of times what ends up happening is I end up finishing the perfect day of eating Eating my protein tank and now I'm satisfied now I don't have that craving for that thing anymore. Don't even want it. It's not hard for me to not have it now or I get that great Workout in and I my body now wants to be fueled with something healthy and good for me

I'm not craving that thing so it's a those are all ways of creating barriers other than not Technically yet because I like not having it in my house because that's what I do also But it doesn't mean you have to do it that way. There's other ways to create I just have a client that we had this conversation. We're trying to figure it out for them because they had other people in the house Who would buy other snacks and stuff and so she came up with a great one. She said, okay, I have to walk all the way down the street and back. So it means she has to get her shoes on, go outside, walk in the street. I mean, how far is that? It was like not even a quarter, it's like not that far, right? It's going to take you a grand total of four minutes. But the fact that she had to put her shoes on, walk outside, walk all the way down the street and back.

She's like, it's so weird, Sal, she goes, way down the street, and back, she's like, it's so weird, Sal, she goes, most of the time, I say, it's not worth it. Why isn't not worth it? Because it's not impulsive, the awareness came in. You slow it down. That's it. It's all speed, you know? Speed to get it as quickly as possible.

And if you put something in front of that, so if it's like a practice like that, you know, it's gonna really help deter it a lot of times. This is the electronic thing helps this way too. That's another way of creating a barrier, right? If I say, I really want this bowl of popcorn, but nine times out of 10, when I want that bowl of popcorn, it's sitting down watching a movie.

So I just say, oh, I can have the bowl of popcorn. I'm just, I just can't have it sitting down in front of the television. So, finish watching my show. If I still want the bowl of popcorn, I'll sit at the counter and I'll eat it. Nine times out of 10, I don't have it sitting down in front of the television. So finish watching my show. If I still want to bowl popcorn, I'll sit at the counter and I'll eat it nine times the 10, I don't eat it because I didn't want it that bad. I want it because I have this association with movie night.

You know, I'm watching a movie and now I want to snack mindlessly on something. And so there is this psychological thing that you can play with yourself by saying that, you know, I can have it if I want, but I need to do X, Y or Z for it. If you just reminded me of a funny story, I had a client who's trigger food

of all things was popcorn. So you know what the barrier was? They couldn't have microwave popcorn. They had to make it the old-fashioned way. And it worked because it took like 15 minutes to... Yeah, so they're like, yeah, I'm not gonna have it anymore. So worth it. So funny. All right, this next one is to think self-care

instead of self-hate. Okay, so what do I mean by this? Most people initially get motivated to lose weight or improve their appearance or their fitness because there's something about themselves, they don't like, they don't like that they have their bellies too big or they don't like the way that they look. And so they go into exercise or they especially go into nutrition with this self-hate model.

No I'm fat, I can't eat that. No I'm fat, I have to eat this. No I'm fat, I have to eat this much less. The problem with that is self-hate, although it's a very powerful short-term motivator, nobody wants to hate themselves forever. You just don't, doesn't feel good. And when ends up happening as a diet ends up feeling like a punishment.

And eventually you rebel. And this is why when people go off a diet, they don't just reach for one piece of a food that they weren't eating before. They eat the whole box. It's because you're rebelling from this South-Hate model. So instead, think, I'm gonna take care of myself. I deserve to be taken care of.

I deserve to be healthy. And when everybody likes to care for themselves, everybody likes to feel like they're cared for, I should say. So when you approach your diet from that stuff point, by the way, this works perfectly with adding healthy food versus taking foods away, right? You're thinking pro health, rather than anti fat, anti obese, anti whatever, it's's pro health pro care.

And it just feels better and you end up with more balance because you may have the cookie, but it's not a whole box of cookies. I know we listed this as as a hack for you, but I actually think that this is a necessary thing that you you will have to arrive at this at one point in your life, or this will never be a long-term thing that you do. At one point, you'll have to get off the hamster wheel of, I'm on my diet, I'm off my diet, I'm on my training, I'm off my training, and part of that process requires that you reframe why you exercise. Because most people exercise because they are trying to lose

the fact because they don't like the way they look or someone made a comment all because of our insecurities. When you finally get to a place in your journey where you reframe it as I train because it does all these things for me. It makes me a better father. It makes me a better husband. It makes me a better husband. I'm a better business partner. My sex drive is better.

My skin is better. My energy level is better. I sleep when you start connecting it. And I deserve those things. That's right. All those things and you want to do it because you love yourself. And that is the reason why you get up extra early

or the reason why you choose to do it even when you don't feel it. That is what will keep you doing this for the rest of your life. So I know we have this listed as like a hack of helping you get there. I think it is necessary if you're going to stay here for the rest of your life. I couldn't agree anymore. All right. This last one is very specific.

And I'm saying that because it's going to sound a lot like something else. So this last one is to not eat past 6 p.m. Okay. Someone may be like, oh, I do, you know, intermittent fasting or I eat within a time window. Not the same thing. Here's why it's not the same thing. This is why this particular tip works so well. If you look at the foods that you eat that tend to be the worst offenders in your diet, they tend to happen late at night. If you wanna analyze the average person's diet, and you looked at what they ate in the morning

in the afternoon, in the dinner, and then what they ate after 6 PM, especially close to 9 PM, I bet you would see a larger percentage of heavily processed foods garbage over eating in the evening. That's when we tend to watch TV with our food. That foods, garbage, overeating in the evening. That's when we tend to watch TV with our food. That's when we tend to reach for the snacks.

We've already had our dinner. Now let's go eat that dessert or the snack or the chips or whatever. So when I have clients, hey, you know what, let's say a time limit. And it's just an easy parameter. It's a, for some people, it was 7 p.m., some people, 6 p.m. depending on when they got up.

Let's just not eat past 6 p.m. and see what happens. It would result in like a 300 calorie reduction in calories. It's funny is I even had some clients and we had to apply this because it was a problem in terms of cravings, in terms of like after dinner they would always want to then eat just a little bit of something. And once they really started to get like about this, actually even noticed too, they went to bed earlier on top of that. Just almost like it was just a natural rhythm thing

of like, okay, now it's time for bed. We had our last sort of big meal of the day and then a couple hours later, they'd go to bed like eight or nine o'clock. And normally they go to bed like 12 and they're just up snacking and watching TV all late. So it just had this kind of spill over effect of like better habits even from there,

not to mention all the digestive benefits from that on top of that. I actually have recognized that just and in my own habits. If I do a good job of shutting down my last meal by like six o'clock, I get to bed early, always, almost always. If I allow myself to eat at any late at night, or let's say I'm catching up calories,

I'm behind on what my macros are, oh man, I definitely, I find myself extending bedtime much, much later. You know, this is another example too, of where the fitness space has done a lot of people disservice. But like my earlier point of the small meals, the science came out to disprove that there's no technical, you know, mechanistic benefits of you actually. Yeah, all the calories are the same, does it matter?

That's right. So what that ended up doing was it ended up deterring a lot of people that would have used that strategy to get them a shade that probably would have helped them out because they now hear like, oh, it doesn't matter. And there's a bunch of fitness people that have made videos off of doing that that I think have done more harm than good.

I think it's a good tip. This is another one. That's been debunked also. If calories are all quite the same, you eating your meal at nine or 10, 11 o'clock at night, all the same thing. Doesn't make a difference. But what we have learned,

from training so many people, is the point that salamate is that if you looked at 90% of people's diets and you assessed where they made the worst choices I would make the argument that a bulk of those a good more than majority of those came after 6 p.m And so simply just putting that one another barrier, right? Here's another barrier here not saying you can't have those things I'm just gonna say I'm gonna shut it down by 6 p.m. You tend to make better food choices before that.

And so I think this is a great tip in half that has been debunked in the past. Yeah, this is one of the ones I'm still most consistent on. Aside from vacation and stuff like that, I pretty much always shut it down around 6 p.m. Almost never after 7 p.m. Like I look at the clock even and I'll be like,

oh I want to eat some other clock. Now the reasons for this aren't because it keeps me lean or anything like that. For me, it has more to do with sleep and digestion. So there is some science to support that this is beneficial in other ways too because not eating within two or three hours of sleep has been shown to dramatically improve sleep. And can that affect your behaviors? Absolutely. People who lose sleep tend to snack more and search for more hyper-palatable foods. Also, people have bad sleep, also tend to have hormonal disturbances.

Can that affect how much body fat you store, muscle you gain or you don't gain? Absolutely. So there's a lot of benefits to this, but I don't want to sell the science behind it because it's easy to discredit that. It's easy to read articles that say that will convince you, maybe it's not that big of a deal. Behaviorally, if you just only past 6 p.m., you're more likely to make better choices with

your food intake. Look, if you like Mind Pump, head over to MindPumpFree.com and check out some of our guides. These guides can help you with almost any health or fitness school and they cost nothing. They're all absolutely free. You can also find all of us on social media. Justin is on Instagram at Mind Pump. Justin, Adam is on Instagram at Mind Pump. Adam, you can find me on Twitter at Mind Pump. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy,

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