Diet and Exercise

Can I Eat Salsa On My Diet? If This Is Your Question, You Will Fail.

December 6, 2013 by Jason Clements

If your self-talk (the way you talk to yourself in your thoughts), and if the conversations you have with your peers about diet include the following, YOU WILL FAIL.

“Can I eat salsa on my diet?”(1)
“Oh, I could never give up my __________”
“They won’t let me eat avocados.”
“I only have to give up sugar for three days.”
“I’ll try it for a week and see how it goes.”
“I read an article that says you can still drink beer and lose weight.”

Introduction To X-Order Terms And How It Relates To Your Salsa

First-order, second-order, third-order…one hundredth-order…

This is one way to describe importance or requirements of a process. Let’s use the example of setting up camp at night. The first-order term could be to locate your headlamp. The second-order term could be to scout out a flat area for your tent and then clear rocks and sticks away. The third-order term might be to collect firewood and get yourself warm. Probably everyone loves guitar music around a campfire, but locating your guitar in the Jeep is probably a tenth-order term. Get it? How important is that specific step in the process? That is the x-order term.

Getting steps out of order or prioritizing the wrong term, can lead to trouble. Wondering around a new campsite in the dark with no headlamp can lead to problems like tripping, stumbling, getting lost, etc. You are understanding it. Terms are a simple idea, so let’s get back to salsa… Continue Reading

I Didn’t Lose Any Weight In The First 30 Days: Would You Stick With Your Diet?

December 5, 2013 by Jason Clements

On January 15th, I weighed in at 191.6
On January 31st, I weighed in at 193.0
On February 14th, I weighed in at 189.4

Losing only 2.2 pounds in the first 30 days for the amount of work I was doing was a gigantic disappointment. The SCALE made me think that I was not moving closer to my goal. I was working my hardest. I only took 3 days off from exercise. And, I was eating a very crazy high-fat, low-carb diet.

Would You Stick With Your Diet If Your Weight Did Not Drop In The First 30 Days

I have received a number of comments and congratulations from my peers in response to posting the before and after pic where I show my body changing from approximately 190 lbs. to 176 lbs. And, yes, those pics are 30 days apart – February 14th to March 15th.

Here is one comment I recently received:

PS great blog post the other day. Dropping 20lbs in a month is awesome. It is a goal of mine to do the same.

The Hardest Work Was In The First 30 Days

I want to be clear: I did have phenomenal success beginning after day 31. However, Continue Reading

The Importance Of Self-Experimentation: YOU Are In Charge Of Your Health

December 2, 2013 by Jason Clements

You Are In Charge Of Your Health

If you are not hitting your heath, weight-loss, or sports performance goals, it may be worthwhile to ask yourself a few questions:

Is what I am currently doing for my health, working for me?
What if some of my personal beliefs about diet and exercise are off?
Where did my information about diet and exercise come from? Why do I believe it?
Am I open to trying something completely different?

When it comes to losing weight and getting healthy, you are in charge. Let me write that again: YOU are in charge. And this is exactly why self-experimentation is important to you.

Before and After Jason — Before (190lbs) and After (176lbs)

The picture to the right shows the results of my self-experimentation. The pictures are only 30 days apart!

I am n=1: The Importance Of Self-Experimentation

Calories That I Ate On Jan 22 — FAT: I ate like this to get in the best shape of my life

There is a current trend to shed the popular one-size-fits-all low-fat diet and (a-hem) your doctor’s ~~bad~~ advice about eating and health and sports performance; and embrace this concept of n=1.

What is n=1? N=1 means, “I will find out what works for me!” N=1 is a way to describe an experiment with one test subject…YOU. N=1 means that you collected data about yourself. N=1 is anecdotal evidence. But, can n=1 give groundbreaking information about you? Maybe.

A very simple example for me is: When I eat a high-fat, low-carb diet (as the graph shows); I lose weight, sleep better, feel better, and some minor joint pains go away. This is what works for ME.

Do you know what works for you?

If you have found something that works for you, please share in the comments.

More details soon about the crazy way I lost 20 pounds of fat and gained 7 pounds of muscle. I also went from bouldering V2 to V6 during this experimentation time. (I used this increase in bouldering ability as MY true measure of success during this diet and exercise program that I created for myself.)

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You Will Be Okay!

Did you overeat this Thanksgiving weekend? Feeling fat and bloated? Mentally beating yourself up for all the dessert you ate? Oh, how human of you!

It is human of us to enjoy good food. It is human of us to associate a wonderful meal with happiness and contentment. It is also human of us to not exactly know how to get the fat off our our midsection, butt, and thighs. Is it human of us to have to sort through tons and tons of diet and weight loss information and opinions?

There is no need to beat yourself up mentally about where you are with your health, fitness, or fat loss goals. If you haven’t found what works for you yet, just keep looking.