Healthy & sustainable weight loss tips for beginners I Healthy eating tips for beginners
In this instructional video, Eric Roberts presents a simple, actionable weight‑loss checklist designed for people who feel overwhelmed by diet and exercise advice. He structures the checklist around two foundational habits—logging every item consumed and taking two 10‑minute walks each day—to build awareness and consistency. He then adds five supplemental “helpers”: (1) auditing liquid calories to avoid hidden excess calories, (2) drinking a glass of water before each eating occasion to promote satiety and mindful eating, (3) ensuring protein is included at every meal and adding one protein shake per day for fullness and muscle support, (4) arranging meals on a single plate in the order protein‑vegetables‑carbs to control portions, and (5) consuming two pieces of fruit daily for low‑calorie nutrient density. Throughout, Roberts emphasizes that awareness creates change, consistency beats perfection, and maintaining a calorie deficit is the sole requirement for weight loss. He encourages viewers to use a checklist to track these seven actions daily, promising that adherence will lead to visible results, increased confidence, and sustained motivation.
Chapters
YouTube, what is going on? Welcome to the video. Welcome back to the channel. In this video, we're going to be covering my quote-unquote weight loss checklist, and these are pretty much going to be things that you can literally check off each day to ensure that you are doing, to ensure that you see weight loss progress. These are going to be some of the things that I've seen just help my clients the most, just help people whether it's on social media or via email or wherever the case may be. I've seen these be the most helpful things, and so I'm going to break it down into two kind of categories. I'm going to first cover my two big rocks, and then then I'm going to cover the five extra helpers that I have seen kind of kickstart somebody in their weight loss journey. And so first and foremost, I want to make myself very clear: this video is going to be for you if you are feeling very overwhelmed with weight loss, if you're feeling like there's. So many things out there that you're seeing, you don't really know where to start, you don't really know what to do, you're feeling like, you know, you might not ever be able to do this because you don't know what to do. This video is going to be for you if that is the case. Now, this video can honestly be for anybody, but it is especially for those individuals who feel like they just don't have a good grip on things yet. They feel like there's so much out there, you can't really grab, grab onto something and hold on to it and really stick Stick to it to see progress. And so that is what this video is going to be about. So number 1, starting off with our first big rock, it is going to be write down every single thing that goes into your mouth. Okay? So write— I'm gonna need a new marker soon. Maybe somebody will send me a new marker. Write down everything. And I mean everything. So I don't care if an ice cube goes into your mouth. Write it down. You don't necessarily— and again, this is for people who are feeling very overwhelmed right now— you don't even necessarily have to count calories. If you want to count calories, you absolutely can. I have an entire video here on YouTube on exactly how to count calories. But you don't even necessarily have to count calories right now. Just write down every single thing that is going into your mouth, whether it's on a pen and paper and a notepad, on your phone. I don't care where it is. Just write down every single thing that is going into your mouth, because what's going to happen from this is you are going to automatically become more aware of your decisions, of the choices you are making. And one of my most favorite quotes of all time is awareness creates change. You can't have change, you can't change anything unless you are aware of what's going on first. So this will automatically create that awareness, which will then drive that change that you are looking to make. Because if you don't know, how can you change it? So that's number one. But also number two, piggybacking off that, when you have to hold yourself accountable and write things down— this happens very often when I first take on a new client because we normally count calories. When I first take on a new client and they start counting calories, Oftentimes I get something to the effect of, yeah, I was gonna have this, but I saw how many calories it was and I asked myself if I did— did I really want this? And you're gonna automatically go through that process of being more mindful of your decision-making. And listen, in a world where I'm filming this in 2021, you could be watching this in 2024, who knows? But in a world of 2021, it'll probably only get worse as time goes on. Either way, we're all busy, so So oftentimes you just like, you don't even think about the choices you're making. You just go grab the fast food or you just grab those handful of cookies and eat them and say, oh shit, well why did I do that right now? You don't even think. So this forces you to think. This forces you to be mindful. And the more mindful of the nutrition choices, the nutrition decisions that you are making, typically the better you are going to be. Because I know you've probably experienced this where again, you have something, you eat something, you do this, you do that. And after you're like, well, shit, why did I do that? Like, I didn't even want that food. I didn't even like that food. I wasn't even actually hungry. Like, why did I just do that? And then comes the guilt and the shame and you're feeling like you fucked everything up and you're feeling like, you know, you'll never actually get this. And so that creates a whole separate thing, which you didn't fuck anything up. It's all good. But that being said, writing every single thing down will automatically make you aware of what you are doing. It will drive that change that you are looking to make. And again, you don't even necessarily have to count calories. If you want to, again, feel free to go ahead to. It will only kind of benefit you that much more. But again, if you're feeling super overwhelmed right now and like you don't know what to do, like just start by writing every single thing down. That's number one. Number 2 in the big rock: take 2, take 2 10-minute walks per day, fam. Take 2 10-minute walks per day. And again, this marker sucks, so I'm literally getting rid of it right now. 2 10-minute walks. Here's the case, here's the thing. Most people search for the perfect workout plan. They search for the perfect amount of workout days per week and the perfect exercises and the perfect this and the perfect that. And what that leads to is, number one, either, like you may have already experienced, never actually starting anything 'cause you're always looking for the perfect thing, and if it's not perfect, then why do it? And more so, number 2, it leads to inconsistency. Taking 2 10-minute walks a day, every single day— consistency breeds results. Perfection breeds inconsistency. So if you are always searching for perfection, you're going to be inconsistent. If you are inconsistent, you are not going to lead to results. On the flip side, if you are consistent, That's what breeds results. So therefore, if you take 2 10-minute walks consistently, you are going to see progress from taking those 2 10-minute walks. And I can already hear right now some people asking me, well, that isn't that much exercise, and so on and so forth. Number one, I did an entire video on if you can lose weight by just walking. I'll link that here above somewhere. But more so, number two, it's not about following the perfect plan. Right now, I don't know if you're doing much of anything. So when you start following something, here's the biggest— here's the biggest weight loss secret, fitness secret that nobody wants to tell you. I don't care what you follow. If you follow something consistently, you are going to see progress. And taking 2 10-minute walks per day is very adherable. Is that a word? Adherable? Is very doable. Maybe it is a word. I don't know. You can adhere to it and you can sustain No matter where you are. I don't care where you are in the world or what's going on or anything. Taking 2 10-minute walks, you can do that every single day. And what's gonna happen is you're gonna build up that consistency, that consistency, which then is gonna lead to you feeling better. 'Cause right now you might not be following anything, so you probably don't feel very good about yourself right now. So when you start following this consistently, you'll start to feel better. And if you start to feel better, guess what? You're prob— that's probably gonna bleed into your nutrition. It's probably going to bleed into you taking 15-minute walks. It's probably going to bleed into you taking 2 strength training days and adding in this and doing that and stacking on top of each other. Where most people go wrong is they think— I've said this in a previous video as well on this channel— but they think they're going to look for motivation, they're going to find motivation, it's going to come to them, and then they're going to take action, and then they'll see results. It's not how it goes. You think it goes You think it goes, get motivated, take action, see results. It actually goes, take an action, see results, get motivated to keep seeing those results, to keep taking those actions. So, if you take 2 10-minute walks a day and you write down every single thing you eat, I promise you, you are going to see some results. You're gonna feel better. You're gonna have more self-confidence. You're gonna have more self-efficacy, which is basically just your belief that you can actually do this. One of, if not the biggest things in a weight loss journey is you need to believe you can actually do this. If you don't believe you can do this, you're not going to do it and you're not going to put in the work that is necessary to actually get this done. So taking 2 10-minute walks per day is going to build your consistency, build your confidence, build your self-efficacy. And then from there, once you start feeling better, man, you're going to want to do more. You're going to want to go work out in the gym. You're going to want to go make better choices. You're going to want to go do all these things. Over here that we're going to talk about as well. But it starts from consistently following something. If you don't consistently follow something, I don't care— you can have the best plan in the world, you can have the A++ plan that's going to get you the best results. If you follow that A++ plan with 45% consistency, it is not going to matter because you're not going to see results anyway. So I'd rather you follow a B- plan With 90% consistency as opposed to following an A++ plan, this perfect plan that you have in your head with 45% consistency, 'cause it ain't gonna do you any good anyways. So those are the 2 biggest rocks, guys. Write down every single thing you eat and/or drink. Again, this includes drinks, which we'll talk about here in a second. Every single thing you drink, every single thing you eat, write it down. Cooking oils, again, condiments, sauces, smoothies, every single thing you— Put into your mouth, write it down on a piece of paper. Okay? And then again, take 2 10-minute walks per day. Don't overcomplicate it. If you want to take one in the morning, one at night, awesome. One in the morning, one on lunch break, awesome. It doesn't matter when they are. Just take 2 10-minute walks a day. Don't overcomplicate it, which you might be doing right now. So those are the 2 biggest rocks. Now diving into the 5 extra helpers. The first one is going to be something that gets a lot of people that I kind of already alluded to. And that is going to be liquid calories. Whoa! Liquid calories can add up quick. The problem with liquid calories is they're not inherently bad, but they don't do much for you. So let's— I wanna use this as an example. Let's say you go to Starbucks and you get a coffee or whatever the hell they have. I've never been to Starbucks. I literally have never been to Starbucks, so I have no clue what they have. But let's say you get whatever coffee that they have there and it's 250 calories, right? You drink that 250 calories and you're hungry 30 minutes later. It gave you no nutritional value. It didn't keep you full at all. You're hungry 30 minutes later and you're gonna be eating 30 minutes later, right? Let's now take 250 calories from a salad, okay? If you have 250 calories from a salad with some, let's just say grilled chicken breasts and, you know, all those spinach and lettuce and whatever, that's gonna fill your ass up a ton. And you're probably going to be full for the next 3 to 4 hours, which is going to lead to less calorie intake overall, which, oh, by the way, the only way to lose weight is to be in an overall calorie deficit. So these liquid calories can add up, add up, add up, not only on your calorie intake, but again, it's not going to do much for you. So you're still going to be hungry and you're going to eat more food on top of these extra liquid calories you are already consuming. So things, liquid calories, things like coffee creamers, Things like soda, things like coffees from Starbucks or coffee from anywhere, things like healthy, quote unquote, healthy smoothies. I've seen this so often. People are like, oh, I drink this green smoothie. I'm like, oh cool, like, you know, what's in it? They're like, they name all these things and like, you know, it has this, it has that, it has this. And I'm like, that's like 500 calories in a smoothie. Once again, it's not bad, but if you're doing that and it's not doing much for you and it's just racking up calories, yeah, it's gonna be harder to stay Stick to your calorie deficit. And again, you don't have to necessarily count calories in order to be in a calorie deficit, but calories always count. Let me say that again. You don't necessarily have to count calories to be in a calorie deficit, but calories always count. Meaning the only way to lose weight is to intake less calories than what your body burns. And liquid calories are a very sneaky way that is probably not making you in a calorie deficit. So again, once you write down every single thing you eat, or if you are tracking calories, Notice the things that you are taking in that have liquid calories in them and do an audit of them. If you're drinking soda, can you go to diet soda? If you're drinking a 250-calorie Starbucks coffee, can you find something on the menu that's 50 calories that you enjoy just as much? And if not just as much, that you still enjoy. Because listen, like 300 calories from a coffee, that's a lot of fucking calories here, Cheryl, right? So whether you're doing smoothies or coffee creamers, like find out what you can kind of audit and maybe possibly Just be more conscious of, that's all. So that's number 1. Number 2, drink 1 glass of water every single time you put something into your mouth. And I'm really, you know, I'm kind of cutting things short over here, but I don't feel like writing it out. Every single time you eat something, just drink a glass of water. Make it simple. Again, the point of this video is to simplify things. If you're gonna go put something in your mouth, Drink a glass of water. I don't care what time of day. I don't care what it is. Drink a glass of water if you're gonna go put something into your mouth. Again, dating back, going back to what we talked about here, this will make you two things. This will make you think, because if you know you're gonna have to drink a glass of water, are you really gonna go at 9 PM and have 4 cookies? Like, I don't know. Again, not to say the cookies are bad and you can't have them. You absolutely can, but Again, being aware of your food choices, being conscious of your food choices. That's number one. But number two, also, if you're having a glass of water before you eat something, you are going to be that much more full, that much more satisfied. So when you go to eat the food, it is going— you're probably going to intake less calories, which again, the only way to lose weight is to be in a calorie deficit. So if you drink a glass of water before any time you eat, you're gonna number one, be more conscious. But, and again, you might even realize like you weren't actually hungry, you were just thirsty, which That happens a ton as well. So you might realize that as well. But let's say you do eat, you're probably gonna eat more in moderation and intake less calories, which is gonna help you stick to your calorie deficit that much more. So that's number 2. Every time you eat something, again, simple, just know it. It's almost like, what's that one study of like the Pavlov dogs or something where like the bell rang and they knew it was time to eat? I don't know what the study was. Feel free to tell me below. But either way. When that bell rang, the dogs knew it was time to eat. So if you're gonna go eat something, have a glass of water beforehand. Just kind of make that a habit, all right? Number 3, at every meal, at every meal, you gotta have some protein at every single meal. So let's just say your meals are breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And if you're skipping breakfast right now, I don't recommend skipping breakfast, um, just for various different reasons which I won't go into in this video, but Point being, most people who skip breakfast tend to overeat at night. So if you are skipping breakfast, stop skipping breakfast. So breakfast, lunch, and dinner, every single— each of those 3 times have some sort of protein. I have an entire video here on YouTube that talks about high protein foods as well as how to incorporate more protein into your diet. So feel free to check my channel out. But that being said, protein is the most satiating macronutrient. What this means is it is going to make you full. You are going to be less hungry. So, if you're eating breakfast at 7 AM, lunch at noon, dinner at 6 PM, if you have a good amount of protein those 3 times, you're probably going to be less hungry throughout the day. And, if you're less hungry throughout the day, what are you probably gonna do? Eat less food. If you eat less food, you're gonna be in your calorie deficit. If you're in your calorie deficit, You will lose body fat. So having protein every single meal and a little extra note there, 2 extra notes actually. So I put protein at every single meal, do that. On top of that, have 1 protein shake per day. On top of every single time you have a meal, have some sort of protein. I don't care if it's eggs or chicken or fish or I don't care what it is. On top of that, work in 1 protein shake per day. You're gonna ask me what protein shake should I get? I'm gonna tell you I don't really care because there's a million good ones out there. I have an entire video here on YouTube talking about like protein powders and the best supplements and so on and so forth. Just make sure if you're gonna have a protein powder or a protein pre-made shake, like make sure it's calorie conscious and protein high. So for example, for every 20 to 25 grams of protein in a protein shake or a protein powder, there should be around 100 to 150 calories. If you're getting a protein shake that is like 12 grams of protein for like 200 calories, that's a shitty protein shake. 'Cause like it's not very high in protein, it's probably very high in carbs and fats and sugar and so on and so forth. So, work in 1 protein shake per day. Some of my favorites, I'll just list my 3: Legion Athletics, very good company, Isopure, and the Costco like Premier Protein shakes. Those 3 right there, a lot of my clients use those, they love it. So, if you wanna look up one of those 3, Go for it. Again, I don't want you to overcomplicate it. Just work in one protein shake per day. And number 2, on top of that, with your meals, before you eat any of the carbs or the vegetables, 'cause you should have vegetables in your meals, before you eat any of the carbs or vegetables, eat the protein first. And what that's gonna do is, again, it's gonna help fill you up. It's gonna help satisfy you. So when you go into your vegetables and your carbs, you're gonna be more full. You're probably gonna practice more moderation, AKA eat less calories, AKA— Be in a calorie deficit that much better, right? Now, number 4, kind of piggybacking right off of that, make the meals fit on one plate. Fit on one plate. Can I get it in? Yes. Oh, man, this is a workout. Make the meals fit on one plate. And again, like I just said, when you eat your food, protein first, vegetables second, carbs third. In that order, eat that way. But make sure your meals fit on one plate. This is a phenomenal way to control overall portion intake, which controls overall calorie intake. And again, if you're super overwhelmed right now and you're not tracking calories, this is a great way to like track calories and like be conscious of calories without necessarily inputting every single thing into MyFitnessPal, which again, I— 98% of my clients do that, so there's nothing wrong with that. But if you are a bit overwhelmed right now, this That might be too much for you. So if it is, just make sure your meals fit on one plate. And honestly, even if you are tracking calories, make sure your meals fit on one plate, 'cause it's a great way to be conscious of your calorie intake. 'Cause remember, no one food makes you fat, or no one specific thing is gonna make you gain weight. It's the overall calorie intake. So making sure your meals fit on one plate is a phenomenal way to kinda monitor this. And listen, let's not, you know, Let's not be— I was gonna use a bad word. Let's not be silly here. That's not a bad word. Let's not be silly. I don't need you eating off like an appetizer plate, okay? Like, I also don't need you eating off a fucking lunch tray. Like, get a normal-ass plate, alright? Like, I'm not gonna go in depth here. Get a normal plate. You know what a normal plate looks like, you know? And don't— I guess you could, but if you're having pancakes, don't stack the pancakes 12 high. That's what I would do. So, don't do that. You know, make sure your meals fit on one plate. If you do that, you will be conscious of overall calorie intake that will help you stay in your calorie deficit. And, if you do that on top of everything else we've said here, you are just— at this point, you're rocking and rolling, man. So, that's number 4. And, number 5, I'm not gonna write down 'cause I don't feel like going over there, but have 2 pieces of fruit per day. That's it. I don't care what the fruit is. I don't care if it's a banana. I don't care if it's an orange. I don't care if it's watermelon. I don't care if it's strawberries. I don't care if it's mangoes. Funny story, I went to go buy a mango the other day and I got one I wanted to buy and the lady was like, hey, we only sell mangoes in 6-packs. I'm like, why the fuck is there 17 mangoes in this fucking bin? Like, I wanted a mango. I was like, whatever, give me 6 mangoes. So I got 6 mangoes instead. Either way, I don't care what it is. The lowest calorie option of fruit is probably going to be top 2, watermelon, strawberries, and blueberries as well. Those 3 right there, like for a whole pound of watermelon and strawberries, it's It's like 150 calories for a whole fucking pound. So that is one more way where you can, like, kinda load up on low-calorie foods so you can fill your stomach up on low-calorie foods, which is, guess what, going to help you stay in a calorie deficit, which is, guess what, the only way to lose weight, which is, guess what, the way you will lose weight. So have 2 pieces of fruit per day. Don't overcomplicate it. Again, most people overcomplicate things. Try not to do that. Just have 2 pieces of fruit per day. I don't care if it's at breakfast. And dinner. I don't care if it's at breakfast and lunch. I don't care if it's 2 snacks, whatever. Have 2 pieces of fruit per day with all this stuff we said right here. You'll be golden, man. So honestly, what I would do if you want to follow this, I would just get a checklist. I'm a very pen and paper type person, so I would just get a checklist and just like, if you're gonna write down your food every single day on a piece of paper, what I would personally do is just write your food down and have these other 6 things as your checklist. Check off I got my two ten-minute walks. Check off I checked for liquid calories. Check off I drank my water. Check off what does it even say? Protein every single meal. My handwriting is awful. Check off protein every single meal. Check off what does that even say? Make sure your meals fit on one plate. Wow, that is awful fucking handwriting. Make sure your meals fit on one plate. Check and make sure you have two pieces of fruit per day. Check and it's it. It's that simple. I know there's so much stuff out there that it can overcomplicate it, and I don't wanna overcomplicate it for you. If you do these 7 things right here, make that checklist, check it off every single day, I promise you, you're gonna start seeing results. So if you have any questions, if this video helped you, feel free to drop the questions below. Feel free to give the video a thumbs up. If you have not, if you're an avid watcher of the channel and you have not clicked that little bell icon, I think it's like over here somewhere, I think. If you have not clicked the bell icon, click that bell icon, 'cause that lets you know when a new video pops out. So if you have not clicked that, click that. Obviously, if you haven't subscribed to the channel— other than that, thank you for watching. Thank you for taking your time. I appreciate you, and we'll chat soon. Okay.
