How To Lose 10-20 Pounds By Thanksgiving - Part 2
The man wants to lose fat.
All he needs to do is eat less and move more.
The man's brain makes this impossible, and if he sees a number >200 lbs on the scale one more time, he's going to chuck it out the bathroom window and his neighbors will grow concerned.
It's a tale as old as time, and it's why 74% of Americans are overweight or obese. 74%, despite having the easiest lives, most free time, and best medicine compared to 99.99% of our ancestors. And it's not for lack of trying. Most of them would like to be a healthy weight and have tried a time or seventy-two.
The "what" is simple. We covered that yesterday, in case you missed it. The "how" is one of the trickiest problems we face as humans, and it’s my life's work to solve it.
Anyway, since the man's brain is getting in the way, we need to turn it off.
Turn your brain off
My client sent me this email last week:
(“Crush some light beers on the grass” is an all time line 😂)
I was immediately frustrated for him, and disappointed in myself for not helping him better. Those feelings lasted about 90 seconds, then I got fired up and went into coach mode.
What are the problems here, and how can we solve them?
What is he saying?
What we're doing is not working
He's drowning in work/social events with no workable plan
Who/what is he frustrated with?
Himself
Me
He doesn't like the way he looks in photos, has been trying to change, and hasn't changed
What can we change?
Make fewer decisions
All-or-nothing mindset
Strategy for weekends/social events
Getting clear on what he wants and why he wants it
Let’s tackle number one.
The battle against decision fatigue
The average person makes tens of thousands of decisions a day. Given his work, family, and social life, this guy could be double or triple that. And have you ever heard of decision fatigue? It's the exhaustion that makes it hard to make good choices after you've made too many.
To lose fat, we need to eat fewer calories than we burn
Decision fatigue makes those choices feel impossible
Decision fatigue is keeping you fat
To kill decision fatigue, we need to make fewer decisions
To make fewer decisions, we need to turn our brains off and automate
Alternatively, we could hook them up to propellers and let them fly away.
Here are the things I never think about Monday-Friday:
What time I go to bed and wake up
What I eat for breakfast and lunch
What days I work out, and what I'm doing for those workouts
When I get my steps in
And it's not just health choices. All choices contribute to fatigue.
Other things I don't think about include my clinic schedule, what I'm doing for my coaching business (admin/content on Mon, programming on Tues/Wed, check-ins Thurs, etc.), the dog schedule, and when I shower/what I wear to work/when I get gas/groceries. That's like 80% of my week already taken care of.
So when it gets to 7p and I need to decide whether to have Taco Bell or make an omelet, I have the mental capacity to make the better choice (most of the time).
Automate as much as possible
The more you can automate, the better. Kids and a packed social calendar make this infinitely harder, but also infinitely more important.
If I had kids and a packed social calendar, here's what I'd aim for (knowing not every week would be perfect):
Find 1-2 breakfasts and lunches that take <15 min, I enjoy, and fit my calorie/protein targets
Plan a few dinners on the weekend (Monday air fryer chicken, Tuesday tacos, Thursday turkey meatloaf, Wednesday and Friday we're running around so we'll figure it out)
Block off consistent times to strength train 3-4x/week
Schedule nightly family walks for extra steps
Stick to a consistent bedtime/wake-up schedule
Decide whether a social occasion is a "treat yourself" or a "keep it tight and order the steak/veggies" bucket
None of these things directly cause fat loss (the only thing that causes fat loss is eating fewer calories than you burn), but they help you make better choices over the long run, which leads to eating fewer calories over time, which leads to the scale showing you <199 lbs next week, and the neighbors inviting you to their Halloween party instead of calling the cops.
You and your neighbors this Halloween because you didn’t chuck your scale out the window and frighten everyone.
Where should you start?
If you have as much going on as my client, you might look at that list and get furious. Your heart might race and you might think, "Screw off John. My life is absolute chaos you have no idea you little twerp there's no possible way I could do all of that go kick rocks barefoot."
Okay, okay. I hear you. Before you smack me through the computer screen, just do this: pick one.
Pick the breakfast/lunch, OR the workout blocks, OR the sleep schedule, OR the social occasion buckets. Do ONE of them for 2 weeks consistently. Then stack another, just one. Do both for a few weeks before adding a third.
If the elephant looks scary and makes you want to smack me, eat it one bite at a time (the elephant, not me. Please).
Stop thinking so much
I truly think you need to be a little dumb to lose fat/gain muscle. Think about it:
You have to be dumb to willingly experience physical discomfort 3-4x+/week in the gym, to not overanalyze every weigh-in, food choice, or social occasion, and to do the same things for months and years at a time.
My smartest clients struggle the most with fat loss.
They're trying to out-intellect a problem that requires a simple approach. That intellect helped them succeed professionally and socially, but it makes fat loss harder. They think more, accumulate more decision fatigue, get frustrated, and throw in the towel.
That's exactly where my client found himself last week:
"Not gonna lie, this weekend was rough. With our anniversary on Friday, leading into the Rockies game on Saturday and then my client event all day Sunday (that was a 12-hour workday where I met 28 families at the park for photos)... today I am tired and feeling a bit defeated.
Long story short, I was not intentional with my food choices this weekend. I did a bit of a throw-in-the-towel, and it was more mental than anything."
My smartest clients struggle the most with fat loss (I’ve written this twice intentionally).
They suffer from chronic decision fatigue (which we just solved) and a nasty case of All-or-nothing-itis (AKA throw in the towel disease).
I'll bring you the cure tomorrow, and yes, I checked, it is covered by your insurance 🙂
Best,
John
P.S. School, sports, and work are all back in full swing, which makes this the easiest time of year to lock in a routine. It's also the last clean stretch before the holidays wreck everyone's schedule.
If you want help dropping 10-20 pounds before you pick up the football on Turkey Day, apply for coaching here.
3 Steps You Can Take
Apply for coaching - If you’re ready to start, you can fill out a coaching application here (it takes 90 seconds or less). Best case, you change your life. Worst case, I’ll help you draw up a road map to get closer to your goals.
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Keep learning - You can check out my other articles here. Nobody asked me to, but I’ve spent a ton of time researching everything from artificial sweeteners to saturated fat to testosterone and more, so you don’t have to.
