About Today’s Episode:
I’m bringing you all a solo episode today because I've noticed something that nearly all our clients have in common and I’ve decided to share my All Seasons Plan with you.
At the end of the day, if you are not able to make progress and move forward in all seasons of your life—good, bad, uncertain, crazy, and/or unpredictable—then you just won't make it.
Luckily, that’s exactly what I’ve created the All Seasons Plan to do. This plan is the exact blueprint that I use with clients, and I’m really excited to share it with all of you!
Let's get into it!
TIMESTAMPS
01:38 Our sponsors
11:30 Why I created this plan
16:02 #1 - Going Out to Eat
21:32 #2 - Vacation
24:22 #3 - Weekends
30:03 #4 - Alcohol
35:21 #5 - Stress & Chaos
43:49 #6 - Holidays
Transcription (Click to expand)
All Seasons Mindset:
Before we get into the All Seasons Plan, I want you to understand that you need what I call the All Seasons Mindset.
I’ve got you on the tactics and strategies—we build clients individualized All Seasons Plans every single day—but mindset is key. If you don’t get this All Seasons Mindset, no tactics or strategy will work for you. Ever.
If our minds are fixed on one thing, it’s really hard to get a different outcome. You need to adopt this All Seasons Mindset—where you are determined to commit to making progress in all seasons of your life.
If you have been listening to the show for a while, you may remember the episode I did talking about the reticular activating system (RAS):
Your brain—your subconscious—will show you what’s most important to you.
If you believe deep down that you won’t make progress in all seasons—on vacation, through the holidays, during hard times—then your brain will ignore/hide opportunities for you to make progress.
If you develop the All Seasons Mindset, where you have committed to making progress no matter what your life circumstances at the time are, your brain will now be open to—and will actively look for—opportunities for you to progress in all seasons of your life, subconsciously.
You have to decide right now to adopt the All Season Mindset. Pause the episode—or take a break from reading—right now and commit to making progress no matter what life throws at you.
Why I created this plan:
I created this plan because, so often, when we are interviewing potential clients to see if we are a good coaching fit for them, I hear things like, “Man I do great until…”
It’s always something like until the weekend hits, or the holidays, vacation, brunch with the girls, or until life gets hectic, and I found myself saying, “It sounds like you just need an all season plan.”
You need a plan that is doable in all walks of life.
A lot of people are waiting until life slows down—until after the holidays, until they can be “all-in”—but waiting is really one of the worst things you can do.
The problem with waiting is that when you’re waiting to be all-in, you're naturally going to be just the opposite—you’re all-out. It’s very rare that life will ever allow you to be all-in.
Take a step back and ask yourself, “How often is life chill, smooth, relaxed, and easy?”
It might be 10% of the time.
The majority of our lives are stressful, chaotic, uncertain, and unexpected craziness.
If you’re waiting for life to slow down to get started, what happens when it speeds back up?
You’re going to quit.
So we need a plan that will work for the majority of our crazy lives.
Now, let’s get into the All Seasons Plan.
#1 - Going Out to Eat:
If you are going out to eat a lot, it's going to make things a lot harder—and it’s a lot more expensive. That aside, we do have 4 different tactics that we teach clients.
Do Your Research.
This isn’t foolproof, but the majority of the time this one works well. You simply google the restaurant, decide beforehand what you want to eat, and look up the calories/macros to help you make your decision.
This is one of the easiest things to do because, oftentimes, we know beforehand where we’ll be eating and it gives you the opportunity to be proactive and pick foods that fit within your plan.
If you are going to a small hole-in-the-wall or local place that doesn’t have their calories listed, look for a chain restaurant that has comparable items and use those macros. It’s not perfect, but it will get you an estimate.
For example, you could look at the calories for a Five Guys burger if you normally go to a local burger joint and they don’t have calories and macros available.
Take Half To-Go.
This is the second method we teach clients—and one that I do a lot, personally. You simply don’t eat all of your food and you take half to go.
Instead of getting the salad you don’t want or a burger without the bun—or whatever other bullshit—just get the thing you really want, but when you order your food, order it with a to-go container.
When your server brings out your food and your to-go container, take half of your food and box it up in the container. Then, you can smash what’s left on your plate—and you have the rest for later.
Budget for More Calories.
You need to be careful not to take this one too far.
Most people will restrict or fast all day in preparation for their meal—DON’T DO THAT.
What happens if you restrict all day is you go into your dinner hungry as fuck and binge, so the calories you budgeted don’t even matter anymore.
If you know you’ll be going out, you can eat a little bit less than you normally do and budget your calories.
Don’t Throw Out an Entire Day, Week, or Weekend for Being One or Two Meals Off.
This is a really big one. A lot of people I’ve known have struggled with this: you go out to eat and then just say, “Fuck it,” for the rest of the day or weekend and continue to binge all day or all weekend.
Here’s an example: Say you have a friend in town, it’s Wednesday night, and they want to go to a local restaurant. You go have some food and drinks and then you think, “Well, my week’s ruined,” and you binge the rest of the week.
DON’T DO THAT. Treat it for what it is: just a meal.
That is your All Season Plan for going out to eat. Do one of these four things and you’ll be good to go.
#2 - Vacation:
Realize That Most Vacations Are Only 4-7 Days Long.
You are not going to make or lose any real results on a 4 to 7-day vacation.
You need to enjoy your vacation. You shouldn’t be tracking, counting calories/macros, or dieting on vacation. Enjoy your experiences with your family.
That being said, don’t make your vacation a free-for-all. If you go into a vacation with free-for-all vibes, you’re restricting too much when you're not on vacation.
Here’s your vacation anthem: Eat when you’re hungry. Stop when you’re full. Go back when you’re hungry again. THAT’S IT.
It’s that simple. When you get back from vacation, you’ll get back into the swing of things—just like you do with work. Don’t let your health and fitness goals make you anxious or stressed.
Enjoy yourself. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full, go back when you’re hungry again.
#3 - Weekends:
One of the best things you can do here is go back to the section where I talked about going out to eat. Most people go out a lot on the weekends, so review that first section.
Stop treating weekends differently than the rest of the week.
This means no, “I’ll start over Monday.”
A lot of people start their week super rigid. On Monday, they’re going to stick to their plan 100%. Then Friday, it’s “Woo! I deserve this cheat day!” And they just do whatever they want all weekend and start over Monday.
Here’s the thing: every day should be Wednesday. You don’t have the over-restrictive vibes of Monday or the free-for-all vibes of Friday.
STOP TREATING THE WEEKENDS LIKE THEY ARE ANY DIFFERENT.
Stop being overly strict during the week.
The reason why you’re binging on the weekend is because you’re overly restrictive during the week. That’s why it's called the restrict-binge cycle.
It’s a vicious cycle that keeps feeding itself. You restrict, so then you binge, and then you restrict again because of the binge, and it keeps going.
Stop saying “fuck it” as soon as Friday hits.
Saying, “fuck it, I’ll start over Monday,” or “I’m an all-or-nothing person, I’ll start over Monday,” gets you into what we call The Last Supper Mentality.
For example: You tell yourself you’re not allowed to have pizza during the week, so Friday rolls around and you get pizza—and then you spend all weekend eating pizza because “you’re not allowed to have it during the week.” DON’T DO THAT. In fact, just have a slice of pizza or two on Monday and stop saying “Fuck it, I’ll start over.”
#4 - Alcohol:
You should not be drinking every day. I’m just being real, you need to stop that shit if you’re drinking every single day. It’s going to fuck up your results.
You CAN have alcohol in moderation.
The key is moderation. Not daily and not 4,5,6 days a week. It’s going to fuck up your results.
Pick a low-calorie drink.
There are calorie-friendly versions of every drink. If I’m in the mood for a drink, I’ll do a whiskey and diet c=Coke. If you’re a margarita person, go for a skinny margarita.
Match one drink with 1-2 waters.
For example: If you’re a beer person and you normally drink 5 beers, after your first beer, you aren’t allowed to go get beer number two until you’ve had at least one water that is equivalent in size to that beer.
It doesn't matter what the drink is—match what you're drinking with water.
What happens is you’ll drink less, you won’t get quite as fucked up, your inhibitions won’t go so far south, and you won’t get hungover as badly.
Use the strategies in the eating out portion.
A lot of times we have food and drinks together, so go back to that first section and utilize those strategies.
Have a meal planned and ready to go for you when you get back from drinking.
For a lot of people drinking isn’t necessarily the problem when it comes to fat loss—it’s what they do to food after they’ve been drinking. So have a meal ready to go for when you get back from drinking.
This could be fruit and a deli meat sandwich, some Gatorade, leftovers, etc. If you have a meal ready to go, you won’t just binge on whatever is in your pantry.
#5 - Stress & Chaos:
This is one of our most proven strategies with our clients: when life gets crazy, I want you to draw a T-chart. On the left, put “What’s not in my control.” On the right, put “What’s in my control.” Now write down everything that is and is not in your control.
For example: You can’t control what they’re serving at the luncheon you have to go to, or that your kids are sick, or that you can’t get a workout in. You CAN control bringing water with you, you CAN stop eating when you’re full, you CAN not say “Fuck it,” you CAN get back on track ASAP, you CAN do a partial workout.
So you aren’t quitting when things get crazy, but you’re focusing on what you can control. There are always things you can control.
When life gets crazy, stop and think about what is and isn’t in your control. Release the things that are not in your control, and take bold, ruthless action on the things that are in your control.
#6 - Holidays:
Most people during the holiday season—starting around October/Halloween—just fuck off for 3-4 months, and say “Whatever I’ll start over in January,” but you can get your shit together during the holidays WHILE still enjoying them.
Here’s the thing, it’s called a holi-DAY, not a holi-SEASON. Don’t turn one day or one meal into a free-for-all.
If you have a big family or a lot of events, treat them like what they are, individual meals.
For example: Monday you have Thanksgiving at your grandma’s house, Wednesday it’s your Aunt’s house, and then Thursday you’re at your other grandma’s house. That’s three meals. It’s not, “Fuck it, my week’s ruined.”
Don’t throw out the entire day/week/month that isn’t part of those meals.
Keep things as business-as-usual until you walk through the doors at that event.
Get your workouts in, get your inner work in, keep your nutrition in check.
Use the doors at the event as your trigger. Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you're full, go back when you’re hungry again.
As soon as you walk out those doors, it's back to business as usual.
You aren’t going off plan, it’s part of your plan. It’s that simple. It’s that doable.
Even if you have another event that night, you treat each event for what it is.
How to get your own FREE PDF copy of the All Seasons Plan:
The All Seasons Plan PDF is completely free. Download it on your phone so you have it with you and you can reference it anytime.
The PDF is available for anyone in the Fat Loss Simplified Facebook group. If you aren’t part of the group already, you can join here.
Once you’re in the group, go to the files tab and you’ll find the All Seasons Plan PDF right there.
Enjoy!
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