*For those who need to lose weight or to be more exact, body fat, the process may end up being more of a challenge than expected. What follows are the 10 Tenets of Spartan Nutrition, placed from most important to least important:
1. Think fit and healthy. Attitude, mindset, philosophy is everything! These must change in order to progress toward a goal. These are the places where the drive and will must come from, this being the number one; all others will flow from this tenet.
2. Make a realistic eating plan. Being realistic allows the mind not to feel so much pressure. Anyone wanting to lose fat makes it so much harder by not creating realistic goals, more so, a realistic eating plan. A realistic eating plan seems to let individuals remain in somewhat of a comfort zone. Click here for the link to the Spartan Nutrition Plan.
3. Scheduling appointments for exercise is another in the top five because being active is extremely important for weight loss as well as overall well being. Schedules help to create routine, which stimulates habit. A good habit of making time to exercise is an enormous boost to a weight loss goal.
4. Making sleep a priority is number four. Lack of sleep stimulates weight gain, fatigues the mind and body, and allows no time for recovery. It is important to create a good sleep habit along with the other previous three. The optimal amount of sleep will be a great fat loss tool and will aid in feeling more energized. The average Spartan sleeps between 6-10 hours. Remember that back in the day ubiquitous stimulation such as televisions and iPhones did not exist. When darkness came, Spartans usually slept, unless they were training.
5. Write it down is number five. All seems clearer if it is in front of the eyes. It is visually stimulating, which allows an individual to have more of an attachment with the goal. This is the start for most, however, if number one is not in place the task of writing it down becomes overwhelming.
6. Eat slowly. For most, it takes a conscious effort to chew slowly. Today fast pace life style seems to make people eat on the run and not take the time to chew food. Chewing food, mastication, stimulates the brain in satisfying that “food fix”. Fill full with less food.
7. Avoiding temptation takes seventh. For those who like to eat, food can have the same tempting affect as any drug or alcohol. Foods with no nutritional value, otherwise empty calorie food, are usually the ones that tempt individuals. By being able to avoid the wrong temptations and create new healthier ones, it will help toward reaching that weight loss goal.
8. Front load calories. Eating more in the morning will provide energy early on in the day. As the calories taper throughout the day, not only does it allows for calorie expenditure but also it buffers overeating at night. Eating before bed or overeating at night allows no time for true calorie expenditure, and therefore makes it harder to shed inches.
9. Eat your favorite food. This ties in with thinking fit and healthy, being realistic, and avoiding temptations. Use favorite foods as rewards and make them have a place in your nutrition. Create a plan that places the food in optimal times. Do this and it should help with the guilty feeling of maybe not sticking to the plan; if it is already in the plan it is a choice that you have made and not a mistake. Of course, eating chocolate all day long will not work.
10. Keep a list of nonfood activities. When all the previous steps have been accomplished, this is a good finisher. This tool provides outs for the food temptations that sometimes follow the lull that takes place. This list is just that, a tool that aids in achieving the goal.
One final parting shot on nutrition. What I like to do is to think about eating like I am fueling a high performance sports car. If you owned a Porsche (hopefully some of you do), you would not put crappy gas in it since it is worth a lot of money and you want it to perform at its optimal level. You should do the same with your body (which is worth much more than that Porsche.) Eat to performance and you will do just fine. Before you know it, that cookie will not even register as a fuel source since your body will instinctively know that it provides only empty calories. Try the above plan out for a week or two and see the results for yourself!
"Lean into it!"
Travis Williams (aka Spartan 64)