Perfect Fat Loss Day

I love following various health blogs and Fat Loss Advice from Craig Ballantyne is a personal favorite. A few weeks ago he had a guest blogger, John Romaniello, write down his plan of a perfect fat loss day. His day wasn’t realistic for me, so I’m going to blog about my own perfect fat loss day. I hope this gives you some tips and ideas and maybe motivates you to think about your own perfect fat loss day.

5:15 am – Wake up and drink a cup of water. Drinking water first thing in the morning wakes up your body. It gets your metabolism revved and ready to go.

Get dressed, Bathroom, and make my protein breakfast shake and make my second drink: squeezing 1/2 lemon in hot water and drink on the way to the gym. Lemon has digestive benefits and helps eliminate waste more efficiently, it’s great for skin care, keeps me from getting sick, and helps get my metabolism going thus lose weight.

5:45 am – Gym. I don’t eat much before I work out. The lemon water seems to be enough for me. Some people prefer and need food before they work out. Find what works for you. I’ll start my work out with a warm up of body weight exercises. I then move on to weight training and complete my weight training for the day. I prefer full body training 2-3 times a week. It goes pretty fast, it keeps my heart rate up, and I always make sure it’s challenging. If I do 10-12 reps of something and don’t feel tired, then I need to increase my weight. I would then finish off my work-out with a run or maybe spinning. If I’m training for a race, I will not run at the gym because I don’t have time to run 5 miles or more. I’ll usually run outside pushing my daughters in the jogger. If I’m not training for a race then I prefer interval training at the gym. Interval training trumps any other kind of cardio for weight loss. It is a very fast way to increase my fat burn throughout the day. I’m usually drinking water throughout my work out. Easily 2-3 cups.

7:10 am – Drive to work. I teach an exercise class at a private school and luckily I can do that even if I’m all sweaty from my workout. (And yes, I’m always sweaty when I finish working out.) On my way driving to work I drink my protein shake I made earlier.

By this point I’ve probably drunk 5 cups of water! 6 if you count the cup of water in my protein drink.

8:45- 10:00am – Drive home and play with my two favorite girls in the whole world: My daughters. (go for a run at this time if needed for race training!)

10:00 am – Eat. Two boiled eggs & a whole grapefruit, (maybe a piece of bread too if I’m really hungry) and another cup of water.

Go for a walk with my girls. Play outside. Garden. Clean the house. Drink a cup of water. (if you are keeping tabs, I’m at 8 cups of water now.)

12:15 pm – Lunch. Salad with chicken. Lots of veggies too and maybe a little quinoa or rice. Ranch Dressing. 1 Cup of water.

12:30- Girls take naps or quiet time.

This is when I like to get stuff done: Check emails, update blogs/websites, work. Drink 1 cup water.

Usually my 3-year-old finishes early and we spend a little time together making a craft, playing school, and reading.

When my 18 month old wakes up we play. Sometimes they play together and I get a few more things done. Drink 1 cup of water.

3:00 – Snack! Hummus & Veggies and a green smoothie.

Play with girls. Usually stuff is cooking and I’m getting food ready for the following day for my husband and I. Drink 1 cup of water.

5:00- Make dinner.

6:00 – 7:00- Dinner: Rice, Asparagus, and Salmon. 1 cup water or milk.

Clean up the house, have all our food ready for the following day and put kids to bed.

8:00-9:00 – Time with my husband, maybe use computer, watch a TV show. 1 cup water. (yes, that’s a lot of water!)

Get ready for bed. Read

10:00 – lights out.

There you have it. This is my perfect day for fat loss. Not all my days are like this, but if I had to map out a perfect day, this would be it. Some days I may be more hungry and eat a little more throughout the day or I may go out to eat. I may have a play group with my kids and miss a meal here or there. I still like to eat candy on occasion. Some days I don’t even work out. That’s ok! As long as more days than not mimic this perfect day, then I know I’m on the right track and I’ll see results.

My perfect day includes a few key ingredients to fat loss. First, I’m sure you noticed I drink a lot of water. Water is essential to weight loss! Make sure you are drinking half your body weight in ounces of water. Second, prepping your food for the following day puts you at a huge advantage. You know the old saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”? Planning out your food is probably my biggest health tip of all. If I don’t have my food ready to go in the moment… I know that I’ll reach for the easier meal instead. Third, I ate every three hours. Eating frequently keeps me from bingeing, helps me eat smaller portions, and keeps my metabolism up and going throughout the day.

So now I challenge you to write down what your perfect day would entail and leave some ideas for others. Let’s hear it!

Tags: craig ballantyne, drink water for health, fat loss, mom fitness, workout schedule