21-Day Plan

Guest article from Derek Shannon

Crap, The World Didn’t End

Author, The Nutrition Renegade

Ok, I have to say sorry for the heading. If you are reading this then the world did not end on Dec 21^st 2012. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. You may have been holding out on your fat loss goals due to the Mayan prediction. The reality is that you likely have another half century or more to hang out on the little blue dot we call home.

Keep reading to find out how to make a huge impact in just 21 days that will catapult you onto the fast track for 2013.

Does this sound familiar? It’s 6am January 2^nd and your alarm clock goes off, time for work. Arrrgh! You look around the dark room as everyone else is still asleep. (unless you have a 2 year old like me who loves being up at the most random hours). You think to yourself it is a brand new year but everything looks the exact same as it did last year.

You promised yourself that this year would be different. That you would strive to make the positive changes in your life and get a fresh start.

How are you going to make this year different than every other year that has gone by?

• Are you going to make smart choices and decisions?
• Are you going to reduce your stress level?
• Are you going to improve your eating?
• Are you going to take exercise more seriously?

Or will you allow the next 365 days to pass by without changing a thing?

If you haven’t put any thought into it, then now is the time.

I know I am showering you with a little tough love today but if you follow the 7 tip blueprint that I am going to lay out to follow, you may thank me.

Here are the cold hard facts;

• You will age and change in 2013, and next year on Jan 2^nd, 2013 you will be slightly (or hopefully dramatically) different than you are today.
• If you don’t make changes immediately you will follow the exact same pattern that you have for the last 5 years.

Now take a moment to go look in the mirror and then come back and read the rest of this… DO IT!

Welcome back! What you saw in the mirror was a culmination of the last 5 years of either good choices or poor choices you have made.

If you looked, smiled and said “Damn I look great” then you don’t even have to continue reading because you are obviously already on track.

However, if you looked and you could barely look yourself in the eye then you had better read on.

OK, tough love is over. Let’s get onto the good stuff.

I am going to give you a blueprint to follow to shed unwanted weight in just 21days.

The cool thing about a new year is that it gives us the opportunity to reflect over our life, to acknowledge where we are and where we want to be headed.

If you would like to be headed in the direction of improved health, lowered weight and a healthy lifestyle, then here are the top 7 suggestions for you to create a 21 day fat loss blueprint: 

1) Get rid of all packaged and processed food from the home. Including the leftover stuff from the holidays. (put it in a bag/box and donate it).

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNTIL YOU HAVE DONE THIS!

• Only whole foods will be used from here on out.
• Go grocery shopping and stay out of the centre of the store (all of the crap is there). Use the attached Nutrition Renegade Authorized Foods List as a guide.

2) Replace ALL high calorie drinks (pop, soda (yes even diet soda), specialty coffee etc…) with water.

• Take your body weight in pounds and cut it in half. This is how many ounces of water you NEED a day to stay properly hydrated.
• Example: 200lbs/2 = 100 ounces for a 200 pound person.
• Add lemon, lime, cucumbers or berries to the water if you have a hard time drinking it due to lack of flavour.

3) Cut ALL alcohol form your diet for the 21 days. (come on you can do it)

• Alcohol plays havoc with your system and prevents you from going through your proper CREB cycle. This cycle renews your body every night in deep sleep. Oh, it also maintains a healthy metabolism J.
• It is chock full of empty calories

4) Cut out ALL sugar and artificial sweetener out of your diet.

• Replace with Stevia
• Conversions for cooking can be found on the internet

5) Portion control is paramount

• Use the palm of your hand or your closed fist to use as a reference for a portion.
• Each main meal will have 1 portion carbs, 1 portion protein, and 2 portions vegetables.
• Check the authorized list above for what foods fall into each category.

6) Time your meals correctly

• Eat every 3 hours. (keeps the fire of the metabolism stoked)
• 3 main meals and 2-3 snacks each day.
• Snack example: 6-10 almonds, 1/3 cup Greek yogurt, half banana
• Batch cook your food on Sundays so you can plan accordingly.
  • Do the math: you need 21 meals per week
  • Example: cook 10 chicken breasts, and 11 lean cuts of beef.
  • Cut raw veggies, make salads, cook yams at the same time as meat in the oven or on the BBQ.
  • Try not to miss breakfast.

7) Get active

• Remember you have only 21 days so you have to hammer your workouts hard and with a ton of energy.
• Short workouts are key. 30 minutes fit into a day perfectly.
• 4 x per week… no exceptions
• NO LONG BORING CARDIO ON YOUR FAVOURITE MACHINE.
• Interval training and/or body weight training/resistance training only.
• Check out Turbulence Training as well as Workout Finishers for some awesome stuff.

Now come up with a few of your own. I know there are some ideas that popped into your mind while you were reading my list.

Take a minute to jot those down.

Step back and re-examine the list. Which of these changes are you going to make your own?

Finally, if you are really looking to take control of 2013 and your nutrition habits and you do not want this year to look like the last 5, Check out my full system  The Nutrition Renegade 30 Day Fat Loss Blueprint. (Hands down the easiest nutrition system on the market today)

Yours in the battle of living a healthy, balanced lifestyle, 

Derek Shannon

The Nutrition Renegade