What Does It Take To Master The Discipline Required To Diet Successfully?
We began to touch upon discipline and the mental component of it in this post and continued the discussion here. Today, we'll recap some of those items and look further into what we can do to help ingrain the mental toughness needed to consistently eat well and make progress toward your goal of a 'Better Than Average You'.
So much of the discipline required for sticking to a longterm diet plan lies in a handful of little tricks. Let's take a look at some:
Work Toward A Weekend 'Splurge Meal'
One trick that helps you stay on the right track for the long term is to eat consistently clean throughout the week and take a meal or two (not too many...) on the weekend where you go all out and splurge on something you're craving. If you're exercising and/or working out consistently and sticking strictly to a calorie range that's within or below your BMR guidlines then this isn't going to set you back too far. For most of us, keeping those portion sizes small during the week will really begin to yield it's benefits during these 'splurge meals'. As an example, I love sushi and will often partake in too much of it at one sitting on occassion. Due to eating those smaller portions, I can't eat as much as I think I could and this is a good thing! I'll fill up faster, probably feel sick and not really care if I have any more for a while. The lingering effects are typically: higher scale weight for 24hrs or so, a lack of hunger the morning after this meal, a very limited desire to eat (in this case, sushi) this meal again and very often a solid reduction in total caloric intake the day after one of these large meals.
As you can see, mentally this is somewhat of a roller coaster but it's rather welcomed when you're sticking to a strict diet and eating plan. Knowing that you're always a couple meals closer to having pretty much whatever you want is good to keep you focused. It helps you work toward a goal - even if it's small and simple like a tasty meal.
Put Off Your Next Meal For 15 Minutes
I often find in the mornings that I get hungry soon after breakfast and well before lunch time. I know I'm going to eat something between these two meals but I want to split up that time period as much as possible - I want to be as far from breakfast as I can and as close to lunch as I can (so I can mentally push lunch that much further ahead). Basically, I'm trying to lengthen the amount of time between breakfast and my next meal by convincing myself that I'll be satisfying my hunger closer to lunch time. This can be a fight! Your mind will start telling you over and over again 'Go ahead, eat now! It's OK!' and you have to make a concerted effort to NOT give in. If you work environment allows you to get distracted, then take advantage of that. Delve into a project that will take 15 to 30 minutes or so to complete then revisit your hunger once you're done. You don't want to be increasing the span of time to 3 or 4 hours by any means, but if you're like me and occassionally find yourself feeling hungry about an hour after breakfast, then you're going to have to implement a plan to widen that gap a bit.
Split Up Your Meals
My schedule often finds me not able to complete a meal in one sitting. It's frustrating but at the same time helpful to my daily eating plan. I often like to have a Muscle Milk meal replacement drink for breakfast - it's quick, easy, full of everything I need and tastes delicious! I'll mix it up with about 16oz of water and use half of it to swallow my vitamins in the morning. Once I arrive at the office, I usually put my shaker cup aside for a while, get some work done and don't get to finish it until about an hour or so later. I have then effectively stretched out my breakfast for a few hours without feeling or thinking I'm hungry. Mentally, I'm not concerned about my next meal, snacking on something or falling off the wagon so to speak.
Drink A No/Low Calorie Beverage Between Meals
For me, this is diet soda. Caffeinated drinks of one flavor or another rule the day in my world. If I'm concerned about getting too hungry too fast, a nice, bubbly, caffeinated diet soda is the perfect tool for me to use to pass the time between meals. It may not be for everyone, but I enjoy it and recommend it to those who have a good grip on their caffeine tolerance.
What Does All Of This Have To Do With Discipline?
Discipline simply comes down to consistently making the right decisions. There are some things in life that you're probably very disciplined at. Think about those areas for a moment. What is it that keeps you disciplined and consistent? What keeps you focused on making the right decisions?
When dieting for the goal of a complete body transformation, there are quite a few variables involved that can have you straying off course. It's helpful to have some tools at your disposal so that you can more often than not make the decisions you need to insure success. You will have to continually battle with yourself mentally. Some days it will be easier than others. Some days you'll feel like you can live like this forever and others you'll wonder how you've ever kept it up this long. It comes down to winning that mental battle as often as you can.
I know this sounds funny, but the best way to win is to trick yourself. Us the methods above to continually fight against any thoughts or feelings that will try to get you to stray off course. Know that by waiting an additional 15 minutes until your next meal is nothing. Tell yourself that you can eat whatever you want at this weekends 'splurge meal'. Take 15 minutes to plan what you're going to eat during that meal! Drink your favorite carbonated beverage and revisit the idea of having that next meal once you start feeling hungry again.
Always keep asking yourself: "Will this - meal, snack, bite, taste, drink, etc - get me closer to my goal?"
If it's not going to, don't make more work for yourself by taking a step or two backwards!
What's This Glycemic Index Thing?
The Glycemic Index is a ranking of carbohydrates based on how they affect blood sugar levels. Essentially, those feelings of highs and lows after eating specific meals. The energy felt immediately after having a candy bar and the subsequent crash afterwards. These highs and lows are triggered by the sugar that enters your body through the food (carbohydrate) you eat and the release of insulin from the pancreas to metabolize this sugar (again, carbohydrate. All carbs are metabolized down to sugars in the body).
Too much sugar at once = sugar high
Which triggers a large dump of insulin into the body
Too much insulin at once = crash after sugar high
Modulating the body's release of insulin has many important health benefits but our focus at this time is on the effect it has on our diet. The more consistent or modulated it's release is, the less highs and lows we'll experience and the more consistent energy and feeling of well being we'll have. I can't say enough about how true this is. It takes a little time to get into a mode where you're eating the correct carbs at the right times but once you do, it feels great!
As we continue on with more in-depth looks at diet plans and foods to eat, we'll focus on the types of carbs in those meals, how they should affect us and why we're eating them when we are. As we touched upon yesterday, what we're looking to take advantage of is:
- The consistent modulation of insulin release through complex carbs
- The benefits of the Thermic Effect (see below) created by fibrous carbs
- The manipulation of insulin to shuttle nutrients at the cellular level when our bodies need them most
To modulate insulin release throughout the day, consider having appropriate sized (both volume-wise and calorically) servings of the following complex carbs:
Oatmeal
Brown Rice
Sweet Potato
To fill in the gaps between meals and/or stave off those late night cravings consider eating as much as you want of the following fibrous carbs (without dressing!):
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Celery
Spinach
Broccoli
Cauliflower
To take advantage of insulin release to shuttle nutrients into our cells...Wait a minute - we need to discuss this further to get a better understanding of why we want to do this...Here's the 60 second, quick and dirty version:
After working out or exercising (weights, cardio, running, etc) our bodies are in need of various macro and micro nutrients to replenish our natural stores of these nutrients, rebuild tissues that have been broken down and basically bring the body back to a state of homeostasis - a balance it likes to be at. This means that we need to feed our bodies the nutrients it needs after a workout. Not 'whenever we feel like it' after a workout, but right away! Our bodies are primed to receive whatever we throw at it immediately following an intense workout. This is the ideal time to quickly get high quality nutrients into our bodies and shuttled into the cells so they can repair, rebuild and replenish in time for our next workout. Utilize a 'High Glycemic' carb coupled with some quality protein (whey) to insure your body gets everything it needs!
So again, to take advantage of insulin release to shuttle nutrients into our cells, consider these high impact carbohydrates immediately after a workout:
ON Recovery
Cytomax powder
Gatorade
Natural Grape Juice
The Thermic Effect of Food
When we eat, our bodies use energy to chew, digest and metabolize food. When our bodies use energy, we (obviously) express it in terms of calories. Therefore, the foods we eat provide us with energy - some of which can theoretically be used to provide the very energy to our bodies needed to process the food we're consuming. Fibrous carbs are a great example of this effect because they provide very few calories but require a lot of energy to digest due to their cellulosic and/or fibrous makeup.
Imagine for a moment that you consume 100 grams (about a cup worth) of sliced cucumber. This will yield about 15 calories in energy for our bodies to use. Let's assume that your body requires 25 calories of energy to chew, digest and metabolize that 100 grams of cucumber. This would give us a net calorie deficit of 10 calories:
100grams of cucumber = 15 calories of energy provided
15 calories of energy provided - 25 calories of energy required to digest = -10 calories
That's the beauty of the Thermic Effect of Food! You can have a positive effect on your caloric intake while eating a high volume of food to keep you sated - that's hard to beat! Give yourself a boost in the right direction and continue to consume fibrous carbs.
In future posts, we'll look more in depth at the importance of spices such as cayenne on the metabolism and how other spicy and/or heated foods can contribute to additional calorie expenditure by the body.
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