Even thougth I have never met him, I have to thank Bob Harper for keeping me motivated and sweating hard ... well, not directly, but through his work on several of my exercise DVDs.
And foodwise for his book Skinny Rules.
Several of my online buddies have been discussing and following the 20 Skinny Rules that Bob outlines in his book. Some of them are easier than others... and these are ones that I tend to do anyway:
I drink a large glass of water before every meal.
I eat protein at every meal.
I have drastically slashed my intake of refined flours and grains.
I eat betweeen 30 and 50 grams of fibre every day.
I eat apples and/or berries every day.
I read food labels so I know what I am eating.
I measure/weigh my food and don't guess at portion sizes.
I do eat a real breakfast
I make my own food and eat at least 10 meals a week at home.
I have banished high-salt foods.
I do eat my vegetables.
I go to bed hungry. (Or at least I don't snack before bedtime.)
I sleep 7 or 8 hours every night.
I did get rid of fast foods and fried foods (a long time ago.)
Have one meatless day a week. (I don't strive to make one day a week meatless. I think it does happen naturally quite a bit more often than that but I don't think about it or plan it.)
There are 3 that I just don't even make an effort to follow:
Give up added sugar and/or artificial sweeteners. I haven't even tried although I do eat less of these things than I used to.
Give up white potatoes. I don't eat a lot of white potatoes, or even very often, but I have not given them up entirely. I am Irish after all. That is my story and I am sticking with it.
Don't drink your calories. I do still drink some calories. I have smoothies, and coconut water, and I drink milk, and I also like the occasional glass of wine and martinis. I guess I score a big FAIL on this one, and I am not apologizing.
But the biggest one that I have REALLY been working on this week is:
Don't eat any starchy carbs after 1 p.m.
Yikes! When my friends first started discussing this rule a few weeks ago I didn' even consider trying it. I normally don't eat a lot of starchy carbs anyway, but if I am going to have rice or quinoa, it would likely be at dinner time. If I want to have a basil and sundried tomato flavored rice cake with a wedge of Laughing Cow cheese, it would be an afternoon snack... nope, I didn't even consider making that change.
But last week I picked up a copy of Women's World Weekly that someone left in our laundry room and it had an article about Bob Harper's Skinny Rules in it... so I looked at it and found that Bob says this is the most important Skinny Rule of all. He says that eating starchy carbs in the afternoon or at dinner can set us up to crave them later in the evening and start a snack attack.
Now I do know myself well enough to know that if I eat sugary snacks such as cookies or brownies that I am going to crave more of them. And I have found that even eating whole wheat bread or crackers can do the same thing. So I had to agree with Bob's reasoning and I decided to try things his way this week.
I admit, it was difficult. For those of you who eat paleo, and don't eat grains at all, this would not be an issue... but for those of us who do eat non-freggie carbs, it can be hard. Looking back over my food tracker for the week my dinners went like this:
Sunday - pork roast, steamed carrots and green beans. slices of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.
Monday - sweet potato topped with mixed beans. steamed green beans.
Tuesday - ditto
Wednesday - roast chicken, roasted Fall veggies.
Thursday - mixed salad and roasted turkey leftovers.
Friday - spaghetti squash topped with tomato/veggie/mixed beans sauce and parmesan cheese.
Saturday - mixed salad and chicken breast chunks.
Now I don't normally eat carbs for breakfast either so have been having some at lunch and what has happened is that my noon meal has become more substantial than my evening meal, most days. I think this is a good thing. And the cravings? There have not been any. If I want an evening snack I am happy with a few raw almonds or cashews.
My conclusion? I think this is a good rule and I am going to continue to make a point of following it again this week. Will I do it forever? Not likely, but for now, yes. It is also forces me to plan my days eats more precisely.
Now for my workouts, also mostly thanks to Bob Harper with a little Tamara Grand (fitknitchick) added toward the end of the week:
Sunday
- Biggest Loser DVD warm/low intensity cardio/strength and sculpt/cool = 60 minutes
- walk 30 minutes
- Biggest Loser Cardio Max DVD warm/levels 1,2,3/cool = 50 minutes
- walk 2 hours
- run 5 km/stretch 10 minutes
- Biggest Loser Power Sculpt DVD warm/levels 1,3/cool = 40 minutes
- walk 30 minutes
- Biggest Loser 2 DVD warm/cardio/women's cardio/men's cardio/cool = 45 minutes
- Tamara Grand's ABSolutely Amazing All Abs workout = 10 minutes
- walk 70 minutes
- Tamara Grand's ABSolutely Amazing All Abs workout = 10 minutes
- Tamara Grand's High Intensity Interval Workout = 8 minutes
Did you have a good week?
Do you follow any of these Skinny Rules?
Oh ouch! No starchy carbs after 1pm. How am I supposed to eat chips or fries with dinner? But I completely get why. I love all of his suggestions and they all make sense.
ReplyDeleteI don't follow most of those rules. I don't typically drink my calories, but every once in while:). These rules sound kind of hard for me. I do want or get rid of the processed stuff though. But getting rid of white potatoes, no way! :)
ReplyDeleteSo I must be living in a cave because I had no idea Bob wrote this book. Of course, I don't look for his books because the first one I read was so poorly edited it made me cringe.
ReplyDeleteI can't give up white potatoes because they are cheap. It would be better to feed my family those than to eat off a $1 menu.
Good luck with the rules!
My immediate learned knowledge has always been to consume carbs in the AM if you're going to consume them at all -- however, in recent conversation(s), (which still needs to be thoroughly researched before I change or modify my way of thinking) is that it's actually OK to consume good carbs in the PM in the event you are lifting / strength-training / bodybuilding etc. When we lift our body is CONSTANTLY burning calories even when we are sleeping, which in this theory would allow the body to burn MORE a.k.a. build more muscle, cut unwanted fat. I haven't put this into practice per se, but I see the logic! Just need to back it up/justify it and/or test it out on myself
ReplyDeleteOooh, I would find some of those rules pretty hard and like you, I don't even know if I would attempt that starchy carb one. Ouch! So hard! I really should check out that book and try to follow a few though...
ReplyDeleteI'm doing the Whole Life Challenge right now (basically Paleo) and so I think a lot of the skinny rules fall into that category. I could definitely be more careful with the starchy carbs in the afternoon.
ReplyDeletethose are great tips though - I should read his book!
The no starchy carbs rule is one I struggle with. I love my sweet potatoes for dinner!
ReplyDeleteSounds like I need to read Bob's book!
I don't follow any of these rules.....I need to. I have been sick for what seems like forever, I just can't seem to shake it. As soon as I think I'm better I work out, go out and then I end up back in bed. It's the worst
ReplyDeletei havent read that book but those are really great rules for people to follow. Starchy carbs are a big downfall for me, but they are so so good! Thanks for sharing. I am pretty sure I eat meat everyday :)
ReplyDeleteI have heard so many good things about The Skinny Rules and Allan and I both need to revamp our food and fitness to be more consistent with the good things that we do. Thanks for the encouragement to go over these and figure out what works for us!
ReplyDeleteI have read those rules and I do follow some of them. I drink water before each meal, I don't eat after dinner, I do eat complex carbs and limit simple ones, I watch my sodium. I'm also not giving up sweetener yet and yes I love a glass of wine :)
ReplyDelete