Get Lean Without Getting Mean!

Getting lean doesn’t have to turn you into a candidate for the Most Irritable Person On Earth award. Unless you’re preparing for the Mr. Olympia, it’s not worth it—or even necessary—to offend your friends and ruin relationships just to get a six pack.

Most people think that you have to put yourself through a torturous diet, kill yourself with endless workouts, or use the next magic supplement to get a shredded physique.

Actually, getting in top shape is more about consistency and attention to detail. Sure you’ve got to eat right and train smart, but you don’t have to go crazy in the process.

Seven easy things you can do to get lean and stay lean year-round:

1. Drink a gallon of water each day.

You know this, but do you do it? I’m talking water—not coffee, not soda, not milk, not juice. Replace all those with H₂O and marvel at the results. Drinking water removes toxins and pollutants and may improve your body’s ability to metabolize fat.

2. Be prepared

Your nutrition plan should consist mainly of whole, natural foods such as lean sources of protein, complex carbs and essential fats. With this being said, I also understand that we all live busy, sometimes hectic, lifestyles so meal-replacement products (MRPs) like bars and shakes are a great way to ensure proper/balanced nutrition while we balance all of life’s many obstacles. I wholeheartedly recommend always carrying an MRP like Myoplex Original or Myoplex Deluxe with you wherever you go.

3. Watch your portions

The best way to eliminate diet confusion is to eat every three to four hours, with each meal consisting of a portion of carbohydrate, a portion of protein and a portion of fat. Use your hand to determine portion sizes: carbs should equal the size of your clenched fist; proteins should be about the size of your palm and fats should be no larger than the tip of your thumb from the knuckle up.

4. Reach Your Target Heart Rate

Cardio is key to staying lean. To make sure you’re getting the desired results from your cardio program, do yourself a favor and buy a good heart rate monitor. Another way to determine HR without a monitor would be by “perceived exertion”. Here is a great method I often use: the Alphabet Test. You should be able to recite the alphabet, during your cardio session, without having to take more than four breaths. In other words if you say, “A, B” pant, pant pant, C, D, E” you are probably exercising too hard.

5. Don’t over train

Less is more when it comes to time in the gym. When people brag and say, “I just trained for two hours, man!” I think to myself, “You were there for about an hour and a half too long!” I weight-train one body part per day and I’m finished in 30 minutes (with my partner). On cardio days, I add another hour. Recovery is important if you want your body to actually respond to your workouts.

6. Stay positive

Easier said than done, I realize. Sometimes when we tell folks, “think positive” we don’t often take their individual personalities into account. Some people simply can’t think positive or just have a hard time understanding that there is another way of thinking. Some have had failure, rejection, fear and doubt cloud proper thinking and can’t seem to get past that. But you don’t have to stay in that mindset. Find something that helps you get beyond negative self talk—motivating movies, meditation, quiet time, or even taking a bath. Have an attitude of gratitude. Take 5 to give 5: take five minutes out of your day to write down five reasons you’re happy to be alive. Just be grateful for all that you have been blessed with. Too many people have “stinking thinking”. If you can’t easily come up with five, you really need to reconsider the way you think.

7. Start with the basics and stick with the basics

Many of you read the byline to this article and were hoping for a new revelation, a quick solution to a lifelong problem. Well, I am proud to be the one to inform you it doesn’t exist! Even in the day and age of technical advances in nutrition, supplementation and training, we must all follow the yellow brick road to fitness. Getting in shape and staying in shape is a matter of balancing the blood sugar. What that means is that calorie depravation doesn’t work. You must eat balanced, consistent, portionally correct meals. You must train consistently within your abilities, and above all else keep a positive attitude of gratitude. Be thankful for your body in its current state of fitness and you’ll love yourself even more when you begin to reach your goals.