The 10 Commandments of Fat Loss

Hope you had a fantastic weekend.

Over at the Team Mohr HQ we were in full birthday mode … with back to back birthdays for Kara and Ella.  Of course no birthday is complete without cake, so we certainly had our share this weekend — from a homemade Elmo Cake for Ella (we even figured out how to create the colors with natural food dyes vs. dangerous artificial food dyes) to a Burnt Almond Torte shipped from Pittsburgh for Kara (it’s her favorite, so fortunately the bakery that makes them ships too!)

Both were hits … and Ella told us the Elmo Cake was her favorite part of the day yesterday.

I digress.

As we were thinking back about the weekend last night, we really did have a ton of fun — went out with friends Friday for drinks/appetizers to Churchill Downs for a night at the track, blueberry picking with friends Saturday morning, to the pool, dinner for Kara’s birthday Saturday night, then Ella’s party yesterday …

The ONLY thing that didn’t feel great was eating so far outside our normal diet for a couple days.  But you know what’s more important…

… getting back on track.

Which brings me to today’s blog:

1. The 10 Commandments of Fat Loss (I’d suggest printing this as a daily reminder). Thou Shalt Plan Ahead.  It’s a no brainer – to be successful in any area of life, including fat loss, you must plan ahead.
2. Thou Shalt Eat Clean 90% of the Time. This weekend we broke this "Commandment."  But you know what, it was part of our 10%.  The key is not that we enjoyed some cake (something people think we would NEVER touch) … the key is that we got right back to normal with the first meal this morning.  Eating cake, desserts, etc is fine … occasionally … as long as you bounce right back immediately after and get back to "normal."  Those types of foods become an issue when they’re more than "once in awhile" foods.  To make this more straightforward, if you eat 4 meals per day, 7 days/week that’s 28 total meals.  90% of 28 means 25ish meals are great choices and it leaves room for about 3 not so great meals.
3. Thou Shalt Eat Breakfast Daily.  Simple.  Straightforward, but a MUST to lose fat, preserve muscle, and maintain the fat loss.  The key is making the right choices, which means a lean protein (like eggs), some fruit and/or veggies (see #6 and 9)
4. Thou Shalt Eat Protein with EVERY Meal & Snack. Protein helps fill you.  Protein helps you repair and recover from exercise.  Replacing junky carbs (white bread, sugar, cookies, pastries, etc) with lean protein is smart for permanent fat loss.
5. Thou Shalt Lift Weights. Let’s face it — if you to get in the best shape of your life, you MUST include some type of resistance training. Cardio won’t cut it so if you’re running or walking for exercise and think that will transform your body, it won’t.  Maybe to you that means body weight training.  Fine.  You can certainly challenge yourself with the TRX like we do daily.
6. Thou Shalt Eat Veggies with Each Meal. Most people think you can only eat veggies at night … if at all.  Wrong.  Mix them into eggs like I do in this healthy breakfast video, add some to a wrap for lunch, use a wide variety for the base of your salads AND at dinner.  Not many foods in the diet provide more bang for your buck than veggies.
7. Thou Shalt Not Eat Cereal with Cartoons on the Box. So while the "2nd Commandment" says to eat breakfast daily, it doesn’t mean eating sugar filled junk … and that’s exactly what the "cartoon on the box" cereals are so avoid ‘em like the plague.
8. Thou Shalt Move Daily. While this may sound the same as the "4th Commandment" it’s not … this is in addition to training with weights.  Lifting weights is great, but let’s say you do that for 60 minutes per day (and that would even be pushing it for most people).  What are you doing the other 23 hours?  Usually sitting … all day at the office, all night in front of the TV.  If this is you, you’re an active couch potato.  Move as much as possible.  Take a walk at lunch time for half your break.  Get out after work, take the kids to the park, etc.  Just move.  As much as possible.
9. Thou Shalt Eat Fruit with Each Meal. We often hear that fruit has too much sugar or certain fruits are off limits.  Couldn’t be further from the truth.  No one became overweight from eating too many fruits.  The more colors you eat, the better, so mix in a nice variety of dark colored fruits regularly).
10. Thou Shalt Only Eat Ingredients You Can Pronounce. This means eating less packaged foods.  We had cake this weekend.  Kara made it.  From scratch.  And it was a pretty nice looking Elmo, if I say so myself!  This even goes for "energy" bars, shakes, or other pseudo health foods (yes, even the organic ones) that have a laundry list of ingredients.

Print this list.  Keep it close to you and we guarantee that if you follow these "commandments" you’ll certainly be much better off with your weight, health, appearance, energy and pretty much everything else in life…

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