Help To Get In Shape | 20 Fast Tips
Fitness coach Eric Roberts shares twenty practical habits to improve health and lose weight, drawn from seven years of coaching. He covers daily movement, nutrition, sleep, and habit formation, emphasizing consistency and sustainable routines over extreme dieting.
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All right, if you are somebody who's looking to get yo ass in shape, I'm gonna give you the top 20 things I think you can start doing today to help you get closer to doing just that. And if you're wondering who the hell I am to give you advice, I'm just a guy who's coached a lot of people over the past 7 years that has helped them change their life. So I promise I'm not just some quack. All right, let's get into it. The first tip is going to be take one dedicated scheduled time 10 to 15 minute walk per day. Now you might be sitting there thinking, Eric, what the hell are you talking about? 10 minute walk? Yes, 10 minute walk because number one, obviously it's just gonna help you move more. It's gonna help you burn more calories, expend energy, which is gonna help you lose weight, maintain your weight, all of that good stuff. Number 2, it's also going to be a mental break as well because you probably know what to do. You're just not doing it. Sometimes just getting outside, getting away from work, getting away from your kids, whatever the case may be, can help you mentally be able to stay on track. And then number 3, I think the most important part of it is you are practicing the skill of setting aside time and scheduling in your health and fitness journey. So many people who are going to watch this, maybe you have so many things going on. Maybe you have a family, maybe you have school, maybe you have your job, maybe you have, you know, friends, this, that, and the other. You're always doing other things. You need to be able to get better at the skill of doing things for you. Because unless you figure out how to prioritize you and how to set aside time for you, And your journey, you'll never end up doing the actions that it's going to take, like working out, like meal prepping, like sticking to your diet. You'll never end up doing those things because you're not good at the skill of setting aside time and making yourself a priority. So first and foremost, taking a 10-minute walk per day. Second tip is going to be making 80 to 90% of your food throughout the day come from nutrient-dense whole foods. I like to kind of say this as if it grew from the ground, if it flew in the sky, if it roamed the earth, if it swam in the ocean, those are the 4 main things you should be eating for the majority of your diet throughout the day. So let's just say roughly you're eating 2,000 calories per day. Roughly about 1,600 of those should be coming from nutrient-dense whole foods. And the reason this is going to be so important, because it's going to give you energy, it's going to give you good mental focus, mental clarity, it's going to help keep you full, it's going to help keep you satisfied when you're eating majority minimally processed, more nutrient-dense whole foods, you're going to get more vitamins, you're going to get more minerals. Not only are you going to be able to potentially lose weight if that is one of your goals, but you're also going to have good health. I think sometimes people forget like, yes, losing weight is going to bring you good health, but also again, things like vitamins, micronutrients, minerals, all of those things you want to be able to keep ahead of the game on that. And if you're eating roughly 80 to 90% nutrient-dense whole foods, you will be able to get that done. Now, on the flip side of that right there, 20% of your— 10 to 20% of your food throughout the day can come from treats or things you enjoy or a little bit more processed food because in the same way I don't think it's healthy for you to make the majority of your diet very highly processed foods, you're eating next to no nutrient-dense whole foods, I also don't think it's healthy to eat no bad foods ever and all you ever eat is broccoli and rice and tilapia. Like, that's not going to be healthy either. That's not going to be sustainable either. That can really lead into some, you know, disordered eating with foods and things of that nature. And so 80 to 90% of the time, the majority of the time, you're going to eat your minimally processed, nutrient-dense whole foods. 10 to 20% of the time, you're going to throw in some things that you enjoy here and there, whether it's some cookies, whether it's a chip, whether it's ice cream or pizza or whatever it is. But again, remember, that is Not the majority of the time. 10 to 20% of the time will be those sorts of foods. And so let's say, for example, again, you're doing a 2,000 calorie diet. Let's say, you know, 200 to 400 of those daily calories are coming from the treats. The other 1,600 to 1,800 are coming from the minimally processed, nutrient-dense whole foods. I think that is a very healthy balance that you'll be able to keep not only for your actual physical health but also your mental health and making something that you can be consistent with and sustain. The fourth tip is gonna be following the fruit rule. What the hell is the fruit rule? The fruit rule is simply just gonna be— I know sometimes a lot of us, myself included, will eat just because we like to eat, where we might even not really be hungry. We might just be bored. We might be eating out of habit. You know, it's just a habit to have some, you know, some chips at night. We might be eating out of stress. We might be eating out of emotions. So to make sure that you are being mindful when you are consuming the food you're eating and not just eating to to eat or eating for emotion or whatever the case may be, practice the fruit rule. The fruit rule is going to be before you go into whatever you were about to eat, whether it's your chips, whether it's your cookies, whether it's the ice cream, whatever the thing is, have one serving of your favorite fruit before you go into having the pretzels or the chips or the cookies or the desserts or whatever it ends up being for you. Because if you can sit there and ask yourself, am I hungry enough To actually get some fruit, eat it first, wait about 5 to 10 minutes, and then eat whatever I was going to eat. Because at that point, the goal isn't to not eat. The goal is just to be mindful. So if you have— you're eating your fruit, you're waiting 5 to 10 minutes, and then if you're still that hungry, you want to eat whatever you were going to eat, cool. Go ahead and eat whatever you were going to eat. That's fine. The goal isn't to not have anything. The goal is just to be mindful. And you'll find sometimes You were gonna go grab the pretzels, but you're like, oh wait, I gotta have this banana first, and you're like, I don't really want a banana, that would probably tell you you're not that hungry. You're probably just eating out of boredom or stress or habit or whatever the case may be. So if you're willing to eat a piece of fruit first, cool. If not, maybe take some time to rethink your decision. Number 5 is gonna be a rule of no tickle fest. And listen, I'm not saying you can't ever have tickle fest, because if that's your thing, By all means. I don't want to know where you're doing this, but if you're having tickle fests, you can keep having them. But when you're doing your strength training workouts, no tickle fest. And what I really mean by that is— I'm being facetious— but what I really mean by that is when you're doing your workouts, especially your strength training weightlifting workouts, these should not be workouts where like, you know, you're having a tickle fest in there. They shouldn't be workouts that are super easy. It shouldn't be just like, oh, I'm doing 10 reps and okay, I'll kind of rest and I'll do some bicep curls and I'll rest. You should be pushing yourself. You should be pushing yourself close to failure. The last couple of reps should be looking like these last couple of reps right here. You should be going into your workouts, into your sets, pushing yourself, lifting heavy weights, pushing yourself very close to failure. The last rep should be difficult. You shouldn't be able to just like, you know, during your workout while you're lifting your weights, like talking to the person next to you about having coffee or whatever the hell it is. You got to push yourself if you want to see your body change. Because if not, you give your body no reason to actually change. Remember, your body just likes to do something called maintain homeostasis. That just means stay the exact same. It doesn't want to go up, it doesn't want to go down because your body doesn't care about you losing weight, getting healthier, getting in shape. Your body just cares about keeping you alive. It's the main goal of your body. So this homeostasis, just like it's the easiest thing your body can do to keep you alive. You want to build muscle, you want to get stronger, you want to lose weight. You have to make your body do that. It's not just going to happen by chance. And so when you're going into your lifting workouts, make sure you're pushing the envelope. No tickle fest here. At least do it wherever the hell in the park or wherever you guys have tickle fest at, not in your workouts. Number 6, you are going to have breakfast within 1 to 2 hours of waking up. Now I know there's some controversy around it. Oh, I do intermittent fasting and I lose weight and I love it. Cool. I'm super stoked for you. We don't need to know that you do intermittent fasting. That's fine. We hear it enough. Trust me. If you like fasting, that's fine. I just, again, speaking from somebody who has coached a lot of people over the past 7 years, I have seen having breakfast within 1 to 2 hours after you wake up can substantially help that nighttime hunger, those mid-afternoon cravings where a lot of people tend to go off track. Think about it. Where do you normally go off track? Is it randomly like at 11:36 AM on a Tuesday? No, it's normally at, you know, that 3 to 4 PM when you get home from work and you're fucking starving, or it's at 6, 7, 8 PM when, you know, you're hungry, your cravings are up, you want something sweet. That's when most people go off track. But the reason most people go off track there and the reason you have cravings and hunger isn't because of that period of time. It's because of what you're doing earlier in the day. If you're not getting in enough food, enough calories, enough nutrients, enough protein earlier in the day, your body is going to say, you know, when that 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 8:00 PM timeframe rolls around, your body's going to say, yo, the beginning half of the day, we got nothing here. We want something. We're fucking hungry. We're starving. Give us something. When you get into that, oh my God, I'm just so hungry, you're not going to care what you eat. You're not going to care how much you eat. It's almost like this, and you can relate to this probably. It's like this endless pit where you just can't get enough food because you're just so hungry. And then afterwards, an hour later, you're like, fuck, why did I do that? Oh my God, I'm so full. I went over my calories. I didn't stick to my plan, so on and so forth. To avoid all that, just make sure you have breakfast 1 to 2 hours after waking up. And then on top of that, make sure that this breakfast includes 25 to 30 grams of protein, 1 serving of fruit, and then at least 1 full glass of water. Because again, we talked just now about one of the reasons why this is happening to you at night. If you're overeating at night or you get super hungry, you're not getting enough nutrients. And so if you can not only start your day with breakfast and then start your day with good quality nutrients in your breakfast. Not only is that going to help fight off the hunger, which is going to help keep your overall calories in check, which can help you get in shape, but also it starts your day with a win. It starts your day with a win in terms of, call it quote unquote healthy eating, call it quote unquote healthy living, you know, getting in shape, all of these things, which is massive because in the same way you feel like things can snowball in a negative direction, things can also snowball in a positive direction. So if you're getting up and you're having a full glass of water, If you're having some fruit and if you're having protein, especially if you're struggling right now, that can really start the rest of your day off. Not only from a physical perspective of you're going to have more energy, you're going to have better mental focus, better clarity, all of these things, but you're also just going to feel like you're on track, which that way when you go into lunch, for example, you're already on track. You have good energy, you're feeling good. You got your win earlier in the morning. Cool. When everyone's having, you know, everyone else is having in the break room, they're having their chips or their cupcakes or whatever it is, you're sticking to your, you know, what you brought for lunch because that's what That's what you made. That's what you wanted to have. It's going to help you stay on track and then that's going to lead into dinner. So all of these things cascade in a positive direction when you can make sure you have these. And by the way, people always tell me, oh Eric, I got no time in the morning. You know what's funny? Cool. Pour water into your protein shaker, put some protein powder in it, and then have a banana. That covers all of what I just said. It has water, it has protein, and you have fruit. It does not have to be complicated. You know, you can do a glass of water, Or a protein shake with Greek yogurt and some raspberries. That would be a phenomenal breakfast. It does not have to be complicated. All right. Number 8, limit going out to eat to 1 to 2 times per week. Now I know some people, maybe you're traveling for work or whatever it is, I get it. But for the majority of people, if you can limit going out to eat 1 to 2 times per week, I think number one, when you actually do go out to eat, you'll actually enjoy it that much more because like it's actually more of an experience. But number 2, Let's be honest, usually those meals are going to be higher in calories easily. When you're going out to eat, you can get meals that are 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 calories when it comes to the meal, it comes to the bread beforehand, it comes to the appetizer beforehand. Maybe you're having a drink or two, which we'll talk about in a second as well. That can easily be your entire day's worth of calories. And no, I don't want you to fast the entire day to make sure you can have that one meal. That would be very dumb. Limit going out to eat 1 to 2 times per week. And you also just, you don't know, you're not able to be in control. Yes, there are things you can do, which again, we'll talk about in a very quick second. But by the way, you'll also save money, you know what I mean? Like you won't have to spend as much money going out to eat, which I know you like as well. But limit going out to eat 1 to 2 times per week because that's going to be able to help you stay on track. But then when you do go out to eat, I want you to practice the one plate rule. What is the one plate rule? The one plate rule is going to be Everything that you're gonna have for that meal, it has to fit on one plate and you have to be able to see some of the plate. Okay? This isn't like, okay, one plate, uh, I'm gonna cover every square inch possible with food so I can fit it on my one plate. I need you to see some of the plate. Okay? So that's number one. Number 2, you have to make one half of the plate vegetables, make one fourth of the plate protein, and then make the other one fourth of the plate carbohydrates. And again, see some of the plate. It's on one plate. You want to be able to see some of the plate— vegetables on one half, protein, carbs on the other. Eat all of the vegetables and all of the protein before you head into your carbs, because this way when you go into those yummy carbohydrates, you're going to be much more full, which means you'll usually practice much more moderation, which also means you're also going to be able to keep your overall calories in check as well. And if you're doing an appetizer, the same thing would apply. I would get one of those small appetizer plates, and if you can, I would really probably only use up half of the appetizer plate. And if you're going for dessert, we'll actually talk about dessert here in a quick second. And the 10th tip is going to be limiting alcohol to 1 to 2 times per week max. And then when you do have it, I would limit yourself to 1 to 2 drinks max. Now again, you can sit here and tell me to fuck off. I've been told that many times before, so it's not going to hurt my feelings. But that's just through me coaching Coaching the people I've coached and so on and so forth, the most successful people that I have seen actually change their life, get in shape, lose weight, build healthy habits is going to be the people who quite frankly are minimal alcohol drinkers. Because let's be honest, not only when you drink alcohol, yes, that comes with calories. The alcohol you're consuming comes with calories, but what does it also come with? It also comes with food. Are you snacking on celery when you're drinking alcohol? Usually no. Usually comes with pizza, comes with wings, comes with nachos, comes with, you know, all the appetizers, bread, whatever the case may be. So that's what it's coming with food-wise. You're adding that much more calories. Also, your inhibition lowers when you drink alcohol. What is that? It's basically like your willpower to stick to something. That's why, you know, one of the reasons you don't want to drink and drive. Please God, don't fucking do that. But your inhibition lowers. And so, you know, you're not going to care if you have an extra bite or two of the appetizer. You're also probably not going to fucking track it. And oh, by the way, you're also probably not going to even remember that you had those 3 bites. And then you're going to come back and say, why the fuck am I not losing weight? It's because you had that 2 or 3 nights throughout the week that you were drinking, that you had way more calories that you don't even know of because you're not tracking those calories because you don't care because your inhibition is lower. So I would just be sure to be mindful of your alcohol intake. I can't tell you personally speaking, I personally don't drink alcohol. That's a personal decision. Cool, whatever. But the amount of clients that I have who used to drink a lot, who really either don't drink at all anymore or very rarely throughout the course of a month, Again, those people have just made the most progress, to be honest with you. So take that for whatever it's worth. All right, number 11, going over to the red side now. Use the 3-bite rule. The hell is the 3-bite rule? I came up with this when I was coaching one of my clients, Sophie. Shout out my client Sophie. She was going on a vacation, she was going on a cruise, and we were trying to figure out what was she gonna do to help herself still practice some moderation, but also like enjoy herself, but also not go overboard. And we came up with the 3-bite rule. What's the 3-bite rule? Here's the 3-bite rule. Whatever you're about to have, if it's a dessert, if it's an entree, whatever, you're gonna have 3 bites of it, wait about 10 to 15 minutes, and then just simply decide if you're gonna have any more. And honestly, her 3-bite rule was take 3 bites and you're done, because it all tastes the same after 3 bites. At that point, you're just eating just to eat more of it, which is just then gonna cause your calories to spike up even more, which then makes it harder to practice moderation and be within a, you know, a moderate calorie amount. And so for her, when she would go into ice cream or desserts or whatever the case may be, she had 3 bites of it, took her time. It wasn't like she didn't inhale it. Like she took a bite, chill the fuck out, take a bite, chill the fuck out. She was able to still get the experience of the dessert or the entree or the appetizer or whatever it was, but she took 3 bites and left it. This way she was able to practice much more moderation. She didn't feel overly stuffed. She didn't feel, you know, sick or anything from eating too much. She actually felt really good because she was able to have it but not have so much of it. And I think actually on that particular vacation, she came back and either weighed the same or I think she might even have weighed less. Not that we really care about body weight that much, but it was just interesting to see. Most people, you know, go on vacation or go out to eat or whatever it is and gain weight. She was able to be at the very least where she was. She might've even had lost weight. So the 3-bite rule, you can use that for anything, any scenario, dessert, entree, appetizer, whatever the case may be. That's how you can get a little bit of the experience but then not have to go overboard because remember, it all tastes the same after 3 bites. Number 12, always cook for 2. I don't even mean like 2 people, although maybe you do. And listen, I get it, maybe you're a parent and you cook for 4 and you're like, what the fuck you talking about, Eric? What I mean by this, and this is just something I've always done, whenever I cook any food, I never just cook for 1 meal because honestly, I'm lazy. As hell. I do not like cooking. I do not like meal prepping. I do not like any of it. Okay. And I want to spend as minimal time as humanly possible doing it. So for me, if I'm going to cook something, it better last me at least 2 meals because I know I'm not going to want to go and cook again, but I can easily just take what's in the fridge, you know, either put it on the pan and heat it up or just put it in the microwave and heat it up and I'm good to go. And this is especially when you're cooking your like protein sources. So like when you're cooking, meat, when you're cooking fish, when you're cooking, uh, you know, poultry, that's chicken, right? Uh, when you're cooking any of your protein sources especially, don't just cook for one or even like when you're cooking your vegetables or making vegetables or making salads or whatever it is, always cook or prepare for 2 meals because that way you can also just always stay a step ahead. Because listen, sometimes something is going to happen. Life's going to happen, right? You know this. But when life does happen, like if you get stuck up on a work call or your kid, you know, you've got to run to the store and back or run, get your kids and back, whatever it is. You're always going to have that extra, but you have the extra and now you have nothing. But that's cool because when you go and cook again, you'll have the extra. And so you'll cook, you'll have the extra, you'll always be a step ahead, which I think is really important for just consistency, staying on track and making this a sustainable change. Number 13, eat a lot of the same foods in the same meals. Now I get it. I get a lot of pushback on this. Eric, I don't like eating the same thing every single day. I understand. But find things that you do like and you can rotate them. Let's say for example, if you— actually, I have a video on my pod— I was going to say my podcast. I do have a podcast. If you haven't listened to my podcast, it's Eric Roberts Fitness Podcast. It's available on all platforms. It'll be in the link in the description of this video. If you want to check it out, check it out. But I actually have a video on YouTube on how I suggest setting up your meal plan, setting up your meals and stuff like that, so you can feel free to Check it out if you'd like to. But if you have like 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 3 dinners, and 5 snacks right now, let's say for example you have the same breakfast one week and then switch it up. Same breakfast one week, switch it up, so on and so forth. Or if you do one breakfast one day, one breakfast one day, one breakfast one day, repeat one breakfast one day, one breakfast. So you can switch things up, right? Or you know, if you're having chicken, you can do it in the pressure cooker, you can do it in the air fryer, you can do it on the grill, you can do it in the oven. You could change the sauces, you could change the seasonings, like have different things and it can be very slight changes, but the majority of the meals and the foods stay the same because it's so much easier to track. It's so much easier to be aware of and know how many calories you're consuming. It's so easy to know that you're on track. Like we'll use calorie counting for example. At this current stage in my life, I don't need to count calories anymore. Why though? Because number one, I counted calories for 3 years and I learned what I needed to learn. And then number 2, I eat the same things every single day, so there's not much variation. So there's not much room for me to fuck it up, to be honest with you, because it's just the same things. And it's things that I enjoy though. Like my favorite meal ever is ground beef, white rice, and spinach and peppers. I could eat that meal every fucking day for the rest of my life. Put like a little bit of ketchup on top. I'm good. I love that. I want to eat that every single day. So find these things that you enjoy and be able to have them, repeat them. It'll make your journey a lot easier. It might not make it sexier, but it'll make it a lot easier. Number 14, make sure to have protein every 2 to 5 hours. This is for a few reasons. Number 1, there's something called muscle protein synthesis. This is what actually helps you repair your muscles and recover your muscles and get stronger and build muscle and do all these great things, right? Recover from your workouts. It's great. That is what's going to help you optimize your muscle protein synthesis. And so if you're somebody who you're lifting weights, you're working out, you want to get Stronger, look better naked, all these great things. That's going to help you optimize that. Number 2, protein is the most satiating macronutrient. What does that mean? That just means it helps keep you more full. And so in this situation, you're going to be more full throughout the entire course of the day because if you're having protein every 2 to 5 hours, you'll be full, maybe get a tad bit hungry, but then you have protein again, be full, tad bit hungry, protein again. And this cycle will be really good for keeping you full. And then again, number 3, it's just going to help you be mindful of keeping your health and fitness journey a priority. Because if you're taking the time to, whether it's even just slamming down a protein shake or having a protein bar or whatever it is, that is going to help you be mindful of your fitness journey, make time for it, prioritize yourself, which is going to help you stay on track that much more. It's not because you're going to boost your metabolism with your metabolic fire and all this crazy shit that Like we used to think, you know, eating six small meals a day is best for fat loss. It's not from a metabolism perspective, but it can be very beneficial for those reasons that I just listed earlier. Number fifteen: Learn to get really good at saying no or no thanks if you want to be polite. And the reason I say that is because you're going to get a lot of things that pop up where, you know, quite frankly, you might have to say no. Like you might have to say no to the extra drinks. You might have to say no when somebody offers you some extra. Cupcakes in the office. You might have to say no when people want you to stay out till midnight, 1:00 AM, 2:00 AM drinking, partying, doing all of this because you're supposed to wake up and get your workout in the next day. Be real with yourself. If you stay out till 2:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the morning, you really going to get up and work out the next day? I think not. You're probably going to lay in bed, eat comfort food, fuck up, quote unquote, your diet, try to get back on track and have this cycle all over again. So just get comfortable with saying no thanks. Especially in the beginning when you're really trying to buckle down, when you're really trying to make a change, when you're really trying to do this. I'm not saying you can't have a life. I'm not saying don't leave your house. I'm not saying, you know, cut off all of your friends. But I am saying, again, like we talked about earlier, you're going to have to prioritize your— you, your goals, and your journey in order to actually get you to where you want to be. Because for you to take the actions necessary, it's got to come from a place of you prioritizing your goals, and your journey. So just get comfortable saying, no thanks, I'm good, I'm trying to work on my health and fitness goals. And if somebody has a problem with that, I don't know if you really want them in your life anyway to begin with. I'm just gonna say that. Number 16, I would be so wrong if I didn't mention sleep. I know you already know this, I know you know how important sleep is, but here's just a couple of fun facts for you. All the studies done on sleep and hunger have come from a place of when people don't get 7 hours per night. That is like the mark-off for the studies, right? It's called sleep deprived is what they call it, under 7 hours. Now I'm not even saying you have to get 7, but at least get 6. Like, please, for the love of God, at least get 6. Parents with young kids, I understand it's very hard for you. I get it. Try the best you possibly can. But what they found was when people are sleep deprived, there are 2 main hunger hormones. One is called leptin and one is called ghrelin. I don't mean to flick you off. But the second one is called ghrelin. Leptin is the hormone that tells your body, your brain, hey, I'm full, I'm good, we don't need to eat more, I'm satisfied. Ghrelin is the hormone that tells your body, hey, I'm starving, we need to eat right now, I'm fucking hungry. When you are sleep-deprived, your leptin, the hormone that tells your body you're full, decreases, and your ghrelin, the hormone that tells your body you're hungry increases. So literally just from you not getting enough sleep, your hunger is gonna go up, your cravings are gonna go up, combined with you're probably tired because you're not getting enough sleep. So now your willpower is lower, you have a shorter fuse. All of this stuff adds up to you not getting your workout in, to you not sticking to your calories, to you, you know, not saying no to certain things and, you know, going off track with your diet, whatever the case may be. It's so important for you to get proper sleep. I haven't even talked about from the workout side of things, for you to actually recover from your workouts. Sleep is when you do that. During the day, you don't change your body in the gym. You change your body outside of the gym and really when you sleep, because that's when your body does all of the repair processes. And so if you are trying to get stronger, build muscle, change the way you look, your sleep is one of the most important things for that. Because if you don't recover, you're not going to make any change. And so I know you know this, I just really hope you take it more seriously. Hopefully this video is going to help you do that in the future because it is massive. It makes a massive difference. Number 17, have one big-ass salad per day. This is actually something we utilize inside of the clubhouse. My clubhouse is my group coaching program. So I mentioned earlier, I'm a coach. I've helped people lose weight, get stronger, change their habits, change their life for the past 7 years. It's what I love doing. I've built an entire business around it, and the clubhouse is where we do most of that. And so inside of the clubhouse, we have something called our kill list, which is basically just every single day you have to knock, you know, 3 to 5 things off to help you get, you know, along your journey, lose weight, get healthier, all of that good stuff. One of the items on our kill list, I believe it's either in month 2 or month 3, is you got to have one big-ass salad per day. And when I say this, don't overcomplicate it. Please, for the love of God, okay? When I say a big-ass salad, people go, oh, what do you put in it? What dressing do you use? This, that, and the other. Here's what I do. You can do this if you want to, but here's what I do. Actually, I'm gonna go get it. I use this salad bag right here from Trader Joe's. All right, free plug for Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's, you want to sponsor me, let me know. I have this right here. I pour all of the lettuce and stuff into a massive bowl. I then take all of the condiments inside, all of the, you know, it has It has like, what does this thing have? It has the cheese, it has the tortilla strips, it has the dressing. I don't use the cheese because I don't fucking like cheese, but everything else I do use. And here's what I do. I just use half of all of it. So the dressing, I use half of it. The chips, I use half of it. Okay? And so you're going to ask me, how do you track that though, Eric? Because this is a— Just use the back and then do half. So this right here, there are 4 servings per container. The lettuce and shit is fucking no calories, right? All the calories really is going to come from the extra condiments. Okay, so I don't even use the cheese, but I use the tortilla strips and the dressing. Okay, so if there's 4 servings and each serving is 160 calories, I just do 2 servings, so it's 320 calories. And even then, it's probably— I probably eat less than that because I don't even use the cheese. That's probably where most of the calories come from anyway. But it's very simple, just use like half of whatever the serving sizes are, right? So, but I put that in a big bowl, I put some protein on top, You know, whether it's chicken, whether it's ground beef, whether it's ground turkey, whether it's fish, steak, whatever it is, put some protein on top and you call— I call it a day. That's what I do for mine. You can make your own, but just please don't overthink it. Get a big bowl, put some fucking green shit in it, put some protein in it. Don't bathe yourself in ranch dressing. Like, save that shit for later whenever you guys do that. And then that's it. Have your one big-ass salad per day. It's gonna help. Number one, take the guesswork out of your eating, which is massive. It helps so much. Number 2, it's going to help keep you full because you can eat a lot of food. This is a lot of food volume for not that many calories. And when you're talking about getting in shape, staying in shape, getting healthier, one of the things you need to do is control your overall calories. And so if you can have low-calorie, high-volume food where you can actually eat a lot of food for not a lot of calories, that can really help you out. Number 18 is going to be having protein and carbs pre and post workout. So before your workout, trying to get some sort of protein and some sort of carbohydrates 30 to 90 minutes before your workout. This is going to help you go into your workout with more fuel, with more energy, which will have you have better performance overall. You know, you'll lift more weight, you'll do more reps, you can push yourself closer to failure. That's going to help your results. That much more. And then post-workout, same concept. 30 to 90 minutes post-workout, you're getting in 20 to 40 grams of protein and, you know, 20 to 60 grams of carbohydrates in that post-workout meal. Again, 30 to 90 minutes post-workout. This isn't the thing where if you don't get a protein shake within 20 minutes, your workout's ruined. No, but I am a big fan of trying to get in that, you know, protein and carbs 30 to 90 minutes post-workout. Post-workout because that can help facilitate your recovery process, which can help you recover quicker, which can help you do more workouts, be ready for the next workout either tomorrow or the next day, and then also again just help the recovery process and the repair process, which is going to help you be able to build more muscle, lose more body fat, get stronger, all those great things that you are looking to do. Down to the last 2. Number 19, just don't quit, man. It sounds so cliché and it sounds so corny, and if you've ever followed me you've probably heard this before from me. But it's the truth. If you just don't quit, you'll get to where you want to be. And even on the flip side of that, just think about it logically. If you quit, you'll never get to where you want to be. So if you want to stay where you're at in this unhappy, unhealthy place where you hate it to begin with, you wouldn't even be watching this video if you were like probably stoked with where you're at. What's worse, you're just going to stay where you are if you quit or dig your hole even deeper. I see this all the time, you know, when people come to us for Coaching. And, you know, I see this where people, you know, they quit for the last 6 months and then they gained an extra 20 pounds and then they're like, fuck, I now I have an extra 20 pounds and now I'm 80 pounds overweight. So you just dig your hole that much deeper that you're going to have to get out of anyway because you're just going to be more unhappy, more unhealthy. You're going to hate how you look, hate how you feel. So as opposed to digging your hole even deeper by quitting, you just got to keep showing up. You just have to keep going. You won't have a perfect day. You won't have a perfect week. You just have to keep pushing forward no matter what. Because I promise you, if you do that, eventually the time is gonna pass regardless. So would you rather have that time pass trying to take a step forward towards your goals every single day, or do you want to have that time pass where you quit, did nothing, gained an extra 20 pounds, got out of the routine, feel like shit, and then 6 months later you pop up and you're like, fuck, Why did I do that? Whereas if six months can go by, and even though you haven't been perfect, you've been consistent. Six months goes by, you've lost twenty pounds, and now you're like, damn, I'm actually pretty stoked with where I'm at. Just keep that in mind, all right? And tip number twenty: please get some extra guidance and get some extra accountability along the way. You probably know this better than anybody. It's very easy to lie to yourself because when it's just yourself, you can kind of be like, those extra chips. Weren't that big of a deal. I'm just not gonna track that. Or, you know, when you're really stressed at work, you can kind of sit there and say, you know what, it's just one missed workout. It's not that big of a deal. I'll just get it in the next day. I'll skip this one. I've been really good. You heard that one before. I've been really good this whole week. It's not that big of a deal. Or from a guidance perspective, if you just don't know what the fuck to do, that can be so demotivating. Honestly, it can be so demotivating that people don't even start. Like most Most people who come to us for coaching, they come from a place of like either they want the extra accountability or it's from a place of like, I just don't know what the fuck to do. Because think about it, it's hard enough as it is. It's even harder if you don't even know what the fuck you're doing. Like if you don't know if, are your workouts even going to get you progress? Are the calories you're eating even right? Are your macros even in check? Like is your meal plan even set up right? If you don't know these things, the ambiguity leads you just to say fuck it because you don't know. It's what exercises do you do? How many reps do you do? How many sets do you do? It's a lot to think about. Let's be honest. You don't do this full-time for a living like I do right here. Whether you're going to school or whether you're, you know, you're a parent or whether you're, you're going to work every single day and you're a parent and you're going to school, you can do all the things. This isn't your job, right? Like, this is my job. This is what I do for a living. I take the guesswork out of people's health and fitness and workouts for them. That's what I do for a living. And so get with somebody you trust, get some extra guidance, get some extra accountability to where it's not just you anymore. There's somebody else or a whole group of other people invested. Like for example, inside of the clubhouse, you know, I have myself who's in our group every single day. I have 5 other coaches to help with guidance and looking over technique videos and support accountability. We have all the members inside of there who are in the same journey as you are in trying to get help Healthier, trying to get more in shape, trying to get stronger. I take the guesswork out of it for you. Every single workout— here's the workout, here's how many reps to do, here's the exercise, here's how to do the exercise, here's how many days per week, here's your cardio, here's nutrition guidelines, calories, macros— all of it's laid out. And so when you can know, here's my plan, this will get me progress as long as I follow it— it'll still be hard. It'll still be hard to show up and execute and take action and do all these things. But it does make almost like a weight, like a weight off your shoulder to know that if you just show up, what you're going to do is going to bring you the results that you are looking for. So if you want to check out more about the Clubhouse, we also coach people one-on-one. So if you want to check that out as well, I'll link all of that in the description of this video below. And beyond that, that's my 20 tips, guys. I hope you enjoyed. If you did, please feel free to subscribe to the channel. That would help me out a ton. Give the video a thumbs up and let me know below. Actually, if you've watched this far, let me know below which one was your most favorite out of these 20 tips, right?
