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Hi friends! 👋
I can't believe I'm writing this, but I JUST successfully completed my first fat loss phase cut, 100% compliant! If you're keeping track, that's 85 days through Halloween, Thanksgiving and a majority of the Christmas season.
Now I've had a few fat loss cycles prior, all resulting in some type of event or outing where I just gave in. Or maybe I went in wanting to be compliant the majority of the time, but wanted a few meals per week to splurge. If you're like this too, I get it! It's hard to mentally prepare yourself 100% of the time for what you're eating. It's hard to bring a small dinner and protein bar to a surprise party, or your large kitchen scale on vacation. And yes, these are things I did to remain focused and on track. Nothing was getting in my way this time. But what I didn't know until I did it fully, is how much more food you get when you're compliant. I didn't want to cheat myself with one meal, because I already knew what that next week would look like if I did. Have you heard of going into the hole before? If not, let me just tell you that it's awful. Let me also tell you that I didn't experience it once throughout this cut.
A lot of people have congratulated me, and followed up with "how did you do it"? Because of this, I wanted to provide my top seven tips for a successful fat loss phase.
1. Mentally Prepare Yourself, and really know your WHY
I know this sounds so simple, but this is a challenge. Challenges are made to test you, your patience, your perseverance, whether or not you can finish. Although this one isn't geared around a quick endurance race- don't discount it being very similar. It's longer. There's more room for error. There's more room for people to question you, and steer you away from what you're doing. There's more temptation involved. There's more time to lose focus.
My personal why? I knew I'd feel better around my pre-baby weight, and I knew I'd perform better in the gym too (it's a lot easier to do a strict pull-up at 135 pounds vs 150). Successfully finishing a cut meant that I would be able to successfully eat things that I love again, but also maintain a new lower weight that would also get me closer to my lifestyle goals. Give a little to have a whole lot more.
2. Create Your Daily Skeleton
I can't stress this enough! Write out a full day of meals (for me four), and eat the same shit every single day. Get comfortable with it, enjoy it. I'm not saying eat chicken four times a day either.
My daily skeleton was very simple, and I suggest you do the same. I do egg whites, one egg and an English muffin in the morning. I do Greek yogurt with blueberries, granola and honey after WOD/lunch. I do chicken, cheese and bread for dinner. For my bedtime meal, I usually do a protein bar and either chicken or yogurt to meet my protein. (I post a lot of my meals on my Instagram if you want to take a look.)
3. Venture One Meal on the Weekend at a Time
If you're looking at me like I'm crazy for saying you should eat the same thing every day, I get it. I ventured plenty, trust me- but not in the beginning. Not before I started seeing progress, not before I felt comfortable with what a typical meal looked like each time and day. Right now, I have an idea of what I need for all four meals. If I swap the gym at noon for later in the day, I know the routine and macros so well that I don't even need to update my schedule anymore. You'll get there, but not the first week. Allow yourself to be a beginner, to really see how much protein you need, make grocery shopping easy and slowly replace things here and there when need be.
4. Have Your Fat Loss Trick Food and Drinks!
You will have cravings. I repeat, you are human and will want other food throughout an 85 day period. This is completely normal. I'm a corporate professional, and the second half of my day (the slower portion of my day), I am always hungry. I refer to it more to when you're bored on the couch and think you need chips or crackers. That's where I pull in my tricks and get myself to the next meal. (I share a lot of these on Instagram if you want to take a look.)
5. Weigh Yourself Wednesday and Fridays
Ah, another super important one! I used to weigh myself every day, and every day that dang scale would move. I'd enter it in, and my graph would be all over the place. Sound familiar? What if you followed the process and use a couple weigh ins just to make sure your macros are on track?
This may be one of the better decisions I've made, as I no longer focus on the scale, but how I'm feeling, looking and really trusting the process. I know we're talking all fat loss cut success right now, but in maintenance I actually scale it down to one day a week!
6. Accountability
Another one of my favorites, which is why it's on the list! If people know what you're doing, you're more likely to do it. Right? I didn't have a big cheerleader when I first started my program, or the second... or third. I didn't have anyone really rooting me on, doing the same things or even accepting really what I was doing. "Why can't you just have one hamburger and fries, it's not going to hurt you?" would be a normal response I would get in the beginning. Have you heard something similar?
I decided to create a group of similar interests for myself, and put my story and progress on the line. Did I know all of these people? Some of them, most of them not. However, their daily goals were similar to mine, so I created an environment that was positive for me. They would also work out, they would too eat healthy.. and when I posted a Friday check-in, they were celebrating WITH me, encouraging me and were genuinely excited for me to finish on top. It motivated me, made me want to try harder and provided the community I was looking for. If you don't have this and are looking for it, message me so I can help!
7. You Need a Plan, Period (and a Backup)
I'm a natural planner, so this one was easy for me. I also realize this may not come second nature for some. I put together a plan. In my planner, I wrote out days 1-85. I saw that my fat loss phase went over Halloween, a surprise birthday party, Thanksgiving and our only vacation of the year. Going back to the first item on the list, I mentally prepared myself for the long haul, the dates that would be different and honed in on what I needed to do. There was plenty of days where I could have easily been knocked off course. I planned eggs for our vacation breakfast, and our outdoor stove didn't cooperate (my only fast food the entire 85 days, and the first time I used the restaurant options to figure out what I could eat). I ate half of a sausage breakfast burrito from McDonald's, rushed to the store and finished the rest of my protein macros with yogurt. But I stayed on plan. My scale died on me (like completely), and I had to use my purse backup. It completely saved me for a day, and I recommend having one on hand! My program had a big update in the middle of my cut, and as a creature of habit, it threw me off a bit. Like I said, plenty of opportunities for me to throw in the towel and do something different. I stayed 100% on course, and I owe a lot to having a plan and backup.
The hard part for me is now done! Do I have a bit more fat loss to go? Maybe 5-10 more pounds, but I definitely won't need a full 85 day phase to get there. It's all small changes and mini cuts from here on out, and I couldn't be more excited. Here's where I landed:
September 21st starting weight: 154.7 pounds
December 15th ending weight: 133.2 pounds
Hopefully this post is encouraging and really helps you to see that it IS possible to successfully complete a fat loss phase. Let me know which tips above you love in the comments below!
Ready for your turn?
rp.app/code/JERICKA (or code JERICKA on RP's website) will save you money on your upcoming RP journey!
I can't wait to see how much success you have too!
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