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t I did there) consider what happens when you press the gas pedal on a modern car. No longer does the pedal connect directly to a carburetor or jets of an injector and increase the fuel supplied to the engine. When we press the accelerator of a modern car it sends the signal to the car to increase the fuel consumption and in turn speed. By lifting weights we are not building muscle in the gym. We build muscle in our beds when we sleep at night. We are telling our body to prepare for the next time we threaten our own lives by putting a heavy bar of weight directly over our diaphragm (bench press).</p><h1 id="5c11">Step 5: Good Fuel keeps the Engine Running</h1><p id="bbbe">As we increase the intensity of our workouts, our body will start demanding better quality fuel to burn. There is nothing worse than trying to run off a double cheeseburger and fries or lift through an icecream sundae. As long as you have slowly increased the intensity of your workouts your body will tell you what it wants. Just be careful not to overeat, sometimes physical exercise can increase the appetite and we can overshoot our consumption goals. I do not advocate calorie counting because I think it is unsustainable but being aware of the total quantity you are consuming is important.</p><h1 id="fe4d">Step 6: Let the engine cool down</h1><p id="7194">Sleep is the most important component of an overall fitness strategy. We build muscle and burn fat in our sleep. Limit screen time, caffeine, alcohol and stress inducers before bed. All of these things can be indulged in but be careful to limit them to the occasional indulgent and not a daily habit. Sleep isn’t the only form of rest you need. You need the stress reducing rest as well. This can be in the form of meditation, mindfulness, yoga, social gatherings or lack thereof (depending on your introvert/extrovert predilections) and low intensity activities. All of these help relax the sympathetic nervous system and help the body recuperate.</p><h1 id="f39f">Step 7: Make general maintenance a priority</h1><p id="6097">Some days you may not be able to give it your all. You do not need to accomplish a new PR every time you go into the gym. I am weaker sometimes when I go to the gym. I am fully aware that I am not in the gym to create some moment in the future where I will be a perfect version of myself. I am in the gym because I enjoy i

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t and it increases my quality of life. The process feels good and so do the results.</p><h1 id="f40b">Step 8: Run the tank on empty sometimes</h1><p id="7b8a">Fasting is not a day one thing. It is not a day two thing. It shouldn’t be a routine thing. What it is good for is realigning yourself and your relationship with food. I had a mantra that I would tell myself, “I have a fire inside that needs nothing to burn.” The occasional 24–36 hour fast can really help you reassess your cravings, hungers, and all around feelings towards food. When you are building muscle consistently and perform a fast, your body will burn fat like crazy to maintain its current state. Careful though because if you do it too often your body will think that scarcity is the new constant and change its metabolic rates accordingly.</p><h1 id="abf8">Step 9: Premium gas only works in high end cars</h1><p id="0b1a">Don’t get wrapped up in supplements, pills and powders. The next juice cleanse will only cleanse your pocket book. Take a multivitamin, Coq10, Fish oil, Creatine, and a protein powder that your stomach tolerates. Everything else is an expensive marketing scheme.</p><h1 id="c35f">Step 10: If you go off the tracks just get back on them</h1><p id="1f44">Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes years to burn off the stuff it took years for you to put on. Remember to just slowly build in the right direction. You will not gain it all back instantly, likewise you will not burn it off instantly. Make slow incremental changes in the right direction and you will watch the unwanted weight come off.</p><h1 id="0c0c">Let’s park this tired metaphor in the garage</h1><p id="5719">This is the step by step approach that I took to burn 40lbs in 4 months. I started small, slowly increased the intensity, began lifting weights, cut my calories and made sure I got plenty of good sleep. No tricks or gimmicks, just hard work and determination. The beauty is though that the hard work isn’t going to the gym and letting some bad trainer hurt you for a day and then you have so much lactic acid in your body you look like a mannequin trying to move around at work. Listen to your body, you should feel lactic acid in your muscle once you start lifting but never in excess and it should always dissipate in two to three days. Thanks for reading, I hope this helps you on your fitness journey.</p></article></body>

40 Pounds in 4 months and keep it off forever

My then fiancé looked at me one night over facetime while I was at sea and said, “are you going to do anything about your weight before we get married?” I am not going to lie, that hurt. Not as much as the extra 40 lbs. of fat I was carrying around at the time, but it hurt. I internalized that statement and used it as my motivation. I lost 40 pounds of fat in the following 4 months and 3 years later I am actually 50 lbs. down total. Here is how a drunken sailor who is also a chef managed to lose 40 lbs. in 4 months and 50 total.

Step 1: Start the engine

When I first started I couldn’t walk up the ladderwell (ship jargon for steps) one deck (ship jargon for floor) to my cabin (ship jargon for room). I was prediabetic, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and all around miserable. Here is what I did, I started small. I went to the treadmill and walked with a book or podcast after work. I did this for a few weeks and slowly increased the intensity. So start small, turn the metabolic engine on and as it warms up increase the intensity.

Step 2: Fuel comes after fire

I did not change anything about the way I ate at first. I was too far gone for that. I started with the exercise. As my body adapted to the new stresses on it, I listened to it when it begged me not to eat ice cream before bed or two cheeseburgers on cheeseburger day. Intuition is a powerful tool when recompositioning our body. Our body will tell us everything we need to know, we just never take the time to listen.

Step 3: Once the Engine is warmed up “gun it”

After two weeks I began to get bored with just the treadmill. That’s when the weight training began. Weight lifting is the most effective way to increase the caloric burn of your metabolic engine. Go heavy, do progressive overload 2–3 times a week and then focus on keeping your general activity level at 10k steps a day.

Step 4: When we “gun it” all we do is send the signal

To continue with this tired metaphor or a car, which I am too far into this to shift gears (see what I did there) consider what happens when you press the gas pedal on a modern car. No longer does the pedal connect directly to a carburetor or jets of an injector and increase the fuel supplied to the engine. When we press the accelerator of a modern car it sends the signal to the car to increase the fuel consumption and in turn speed. By lifting weights we are not building muscle in the gym. We build muscle in our beds when we sleep at night. We are telling our body to prepare for the next time we threaten our own lives by putting a heavy bar of weight directly over our diaphragm (bench press).

Step 5: Good Fuel keeps the Engine Running

As we increase the intensity of our workouts, our body will start demanding better quality fuel to burn. There is nothing worse than trying to run off a double cheeseburger and fries or lift through an icecream sundae. As long as you have slowly increased the intensity of your workouts your body will tell you what it wants. Just be careful not to overeat, sometimes physical exercise can increase the appetite and we can overshoot our consumption goals. I do not advocate calorie counting because I think it is unsustainable but being aware of the total quantity you are consuming is important.

Step 6: Let the engine cool down

Sleep is the most important component of an overall fitness strategy. We build muscle and burn fat in our sleep. Limit screen time, caffeine, alcohol and stress inducers before bed. All of these things can be indulged in but be careful to limit them to the occasional indulgent and not a daily habit. Sleep isn’t the only form of rest you need. You need the stress reducing rest as well. This can be in the form of meditation, mindfulness, yoga, social gatherings or lack thereof (depending on your introvert/extrovert predilections) and low intensity activities. All of these help relax the sympathetic nervous system and help the body recuperate.

Step 7: Make general maintenance a priority

Some days you may not be able to give it your all. You do not need to accomplish a new PR every time you go into the gym. I am weaker sometimes when I go to the gym. I am fully aware that I am not in the gym to create some moment in the future where I will be a perfect version of myself. I am in the gym because I enjoy it and it increases my quality of life. The process feels good and so do the results.

Step 8: Run the tank on empty sometimes

Fasting is not a day one thing. It is not a day two thing. It shouldn’t be a routine thing. What it is good for is realigning yourself and your relationship with food. I had a mantra that I would tell myself, “I have a fire inside that needs nothing to burn.” The occasional 24–36 hour fast can really help you reassess your cravings, hungers, and all around feelings towards food. When you are building muscle consistently and perform a fast, your body will burn fat like crazy to maintain its current state. Careful though because if you do it too often your body will think that scarcity is the new constant and change its metabolic rates accordingly.

Step 9: Premium gas only works in high end cars

Don’t get wrapped up in supplements, pills and powders. The next juice cleanse will only cleanse your pocket book. Take a multivitamin, Coq10, Fish oil, Creatine, and a protein powder that your stomach tolerates. Everything else is an expensive marketing scheme.

Step 10: If you go off the tracks just get back on them

Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes years to burn off the stuff it took years for you to put on. Remember to just slowly build in the right direction. You will not gain it all back instantly, likewise you will not burn it off instantly. Make slow incremental changes in the right direction and you will watch the unwanted weight come off.

Let’s park this tired metaphor in the garage

This is the step by step approach that I took to burn 40lbs in 4 months. I started small, slowly increased the intensity, began lifting weights, cut my calories and made sure I got plenty of good sleep. No tricks or gimmicks, just hard work and determination. The beauty is though that the hard work isn’t going to the gym and letting some bad trainer hurt you for a day and then you have so much lactic acid in your body you look like a mannequin trying to move around at work. Listen to your body, you should feel lactic acid in your muscle once you start lifting but never in excess and it should always dissipate in two to three days. Thanks for reading, I hope this helps you on your fitness journey.