Flexible Does Not Equal Reckless
This is email 5 of 5 of my Flexible Dieting 101 email course.
It is easy to take the flexible concept of flexible dieting too far. If you flex things too much, things will quickly fall apart.
To recap the 80/20 principle: Aim to consume whole, nutrient dense foods, high in protein, fiber, and other micronutrients ~80% of the time. Consume whatever you want the other ~20%. If a client is trying to lose weight, I challenge him or her to push this ratio closer to 85/15 or 90/10.
Food quality still matters a lot. If you consume too much ultra-processed, hyperpalatable food (fried foods, fast foods, excessive takeout), you are guaranteed to be consuming too many calories and not enough protein and fiber.
The best way to guarantee high quality food: prepare the majority of your meals at home (~80% of them).
Then go out to dinner 1-2x per week and have a pizza night. A week never goes by for me without pizza being consumed at least once or twice. And I am in a fat loss phase right now and have dropped ~10 lbs in 8 weeks.
Also had ~12 drinks at a wedding last Saturday. Still lost ~1.3 lbs during that week. I have one of my best friends bach parties next weekend and at least 20-30 beers will be consumed. And I guarantee by some time in April or May I still will have dropped 15-20 lbs since my fat loss phase began in January. Shred city by summer.
How? Because I know exactly how many calories I need to consume to lose fat while preserving muscle over the course of a week and months, and I adjust all my other meals on either side of these big events to make sure the train stays on the tracks.
Leading up to the previously mentioned wedding, I went ~3 weeks completely dry. I think that is the longest stretch I have gone completely dry since high school. Generally, outside special occasions, I have challenged myself to keep alcohol to 5 drinks max per week this year.
I played paddle with my brothers yesterday and then met up with the wives afterwards for dinner. I had a few sips of beer during paddle and 2 drinks with dinner. And it was one of the most enjoyable days of the year so far. Felt like a trillion bucks this morning - woke up at 530 AM no problem.
5 years ago I would have had 5 drinks during paddle followed by another 4-5 during dinner and then likely a few night caps. Slept til noon, not moved all day, ordered Seamless 3x. Now that I am a father, operating like this is obviously impossible anyway. And hungover childcare is one of the least desirable experiences on earth.
Pick the battles you wanna fight, and then lock it in hard in between. That is the beauty of flexible dieting.
Stay as well as physically possible this week, Hal the Health Coach
