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On New Year’s Eve my daughter’s and I had a dance party in our living room. They wore fancy sequence dresses, so I wore sparkly dress too. It just happened to be my high school prom dress. I am not sure why I kept it, but it felt pretty good to still fit in a dress I wore over 20 years ago.
New Year’s Resolutions
Do you want to start the New Year right by losing 5 – 10 pounds? I see so many people killing themselves to shave off a little weight. I was there once, about 9 years ago. I gained a little weight when I moved to South Korea, about ten pounds. I think the direct cause was too much rice consumption. I did not speak Korean and rice was an easy side dish to make, (especially when I was given a rice maker). I ate a lot of rice the first few months I loved in Korea. My husband and I also dined out at popular “expat” restaurants that did not have the healthiest menus. (Fried chicken at “Chicken Maru”, we spent way too many nights there.)
I decided to lose weight by exercising – A LOT. I found a great workout buddy and we worked out at the gym at least 3 days a week. We worked out for 1.5 – 2 hours hours a day, 2-3 days a week, doing weight training and cardio. I also joined a running club and ran for an hour once a week. I should have been in excellent shape, I thought the ten pounds would fall right off.
It didn’t. 🙁
It was frustrating, I did not know what I was doing wrong. Then I read a book called “The 4 Hour Body”, by Tim Ferris. It changed everything for me. I followed the recommendations in the book for diet and exercise, and I lost the 10 pounds in less than 2 weeks. It was unbelievable and empowering, because I learned how to lose weight and keep it off without radically changing my diet. (Also, with this plan I only “worked out’ around 4 hours a month, hence the title of the book). This type of workout schedule was very manageable, just 10 minutes a day, 6 days a week.
The Slow Carb Diet
I hate to even call it a diet, I did not have to make drastic changes to the way I ate, I just needed to tweak it a little. I could indulge in many of the foods I loved; I just had to time it better. This book helped me understand what I was doing wrong and why I failed before.
The key to losing weight was the glycemic index. The glycemic index is a numeric value given to foods based on how slowly or quickly those foods cause an increase in blood glucose levels. Foods that spike your blood sugar make your body store fat. Fat storage is dependent upon the hormonal signaling of insulin. When I ate something that spiked my blood sugar, insulin would be released, which is basically a biochemical signal to store fat. In basic terms – most carbohydrate consumption = fat storage. The “Four Hour Body” plan focuses on “slow carbs”, which do not spike the blood sugar. The slow carb way of eating helps the body lose fat. I think of it as a type of “bio-hacking”.
Indulging in sweets was allowed, but only once a week. (This is referred to as the “cheat day”). This weekly 24 hour period of indulgence is actually encouraged, as it prevents the body from going into a sort of “starvation mode”. (If calories are reduced for too long, the metabolism will actually slow down). Time Ferris explains in his book that it is human nature to have these moments of weakness and cheat on a “diet”. So the 4HB plan allowed me to capitalize on my weakness. (Pretty cool huh)?
So basically, you follow the rules for 6 days a week and on day 7 you get to go crazy.
The Rules
You can eat meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. Non-starchy vegetables are allowed. Fats are allowed. Legumes are allowed, which is different from many of the “paleo” diets that seem similar.
Dairy is not allowed, (except for cottage cheese and kefir). The reason is that lactose is a sugar, and it can still cause your blood sugar to rise.
Here is a summary of the rules
1. Don’t eat “white carbohydrates”. Complex carbohydrates are not allowed. Bread, rice, crackers, etc. are a big NO. If you follow the rule of no white carbohydrates you will do great. There are other reasons to stay away from these foods, as many of them are processed. Enriched and bleached foods are not natural, and do not nourish the body properly.
2. Eat the same meals over again – this makes it easy, it takes the guesswork out of it. It might sound incredibly boring at first, but you’ll get used to it. Once you see the progress you make in a short period of time, it will inspire you to stick with it, and perhaps get a little more creative with the recipes.
3. Don’t drink calories – this was my Achilles heel, I would splurge on that Mocha ay Starbucks. During the 4HB plan I switched to drinking black coffee instead. It really made a difference. I found that drinking iced Americano make the transition a lot easier.
4. Don’t eat fruit – this one was not hard for me, I don’t typically eat a lot of fruit. If this is something you miss, eat it on the cheat day.
5. Take one day off per weak – This is the famous cheat day. This is the day you get to go crazy and eat anything you deprived yourself of all week long.
Exercise
Truthfully, the workout plan for the 4HB was very attractive to me. After killing myself at the gym for hours and hours and getting no results, I was ready for a change. I bought a kettle bell and committed to the whole 4 hours of exercise a month. It really only took around 10 minutes in the morning to do my exercise routine. (Moms listen up, just 10 minutes a day!! Totally doable!!). My workout routine comprised of:
– kettle bells (I worked my way up to 100)
-the “cat vomit” abdominal workout. (Strange name, I know, but it really helped to flatten my belly)
– leg lifts
This exercise routine focused on getting maximum results with the minimum effort. I don’t mind working out but sometimes it really is hard to find the time. I loved the targeted and effective exercises. The only equipment you need is a kettle bell, and they are not that expensive. (I think mine was $25). There are other exercises in the book, but these were the ones I picked.
Other Tips
There are some tips the author, Tim Ferris gave in the book to help people succeed. I did follow some of these tips and I do think they helped.
– Keep a Food Journal – I use a small notebook to keep track of everything I ate. I found this increased my accountability and it also allowed me to figure out if there was something impeding my progress. (I remember switching to black coffee made a difference at one point).
– Write down your cravings. This helped with the “forbidden fruit factor”. If there was something I really wanted to eat, I could write it down and forget about it, then reward myself on cheat day. I am not sure why it works but it really does, knowing you can have it later.
– Take measurements to assess progress. Muscle weighs more than fat, so gaining muscle and losing fat might not show up on a scale at first. This is why measuring is important, it illustrates your progress better than a scale.
Tim Ferris, the author of this book is a pretty interesting guy. He spent $250,000 on all types of medical testing. He claims to have a written record of almost every workout routine he has ever done. (At the time he wrote the book that is). So the information in his book is not just a theory, it has been very well tested. In the book he explains why calorie counting does not work, the biochemical processes of the human body are far more complex than that.
The 4 Hour Body plan helped me lose weight, and it also taught me how to manage my weight. I don’t follow it now, at least not consciously. Over the years I have adapted a way of eating very similar to the slow carb diet. If my pants get a little too tight, or I am unhappy with the way I look in a bikini, I get more strict with the “low carb” style of eating. It has worked very well for me, and I am very glad I read this book many years ago.
I see too many friends follow “multi-level” marketing plans that promise weight loss. Many of them work, but I think the dietary changes that often accompany the shakes or supplements are what REALLY make the difference. Once I understood the role of blood sugar in weight loss I realized it would be easy to stay slim and healthy. I had no problem getting back to pre-pregnancy weight with both of my children, and it was effortless.
How do you stay fit and slim? What tricks can you share?
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