Shred: The Revolutionary Diet: 6 Weeks 4 Inches 2 Sizes Read online

  MEAL SPACING

  A lot is made in every diet about what you eat, how much you eat, and how many calories you consume. These three factors, of course, have a tremendous impact on whether the body will gain weight, maintain weight, or lose weight. But a factor that is lost on many people is the spacing of meals. Research has continuously shown that spacing your meals and snacks in a regular manner can be extremely advantageous to weight loss. Hormones such as insulin and cortisol play a role in weight gain and, subsequently, weight loss. New research has shown that keeping hormone levels as consistent as possible and avoiding spikes in their release and, their concentration in blood levels can be an added benefit when dieting.

  SHRED pays as much attention to when you’re eating as it does to what you’re eating. Throughout the six weeks, the plan guides you to strategically time your meals. Everyone understands the relationship between calorie counts and weight gain, but for many it might come as a new concept that the timing of your meals and snacks can be a reason why you are or aren’t losing weight. Many of us have extremely irregular and unhealthy eating schedules: SHRED can get you on a routine that will not only help you lose weight, but prevent you from having those intense bouts of hunger between meals.

  DIET CONFUSION

  We can learn a lot from the world of weight lifting. There’s a well-known principle when it comes to lifting weights called “muscle confusion.” Not everyone believes in this principle, but it has its ardent supporters and has been around for a long time. I find it to be an interesting principle. The basis of muscle confusion is that if one performs the same exercise—let’s say for two months your workout regimen involves lifting five-pound dumbbells every other day for ten repetitions per set for three sets. After a period of time, your muscles start to accommodate to the exercise. This means that the more often your muscles perform this routine, the more efficient they become at it. The more efficient they become at performing the exercise, the more likely you are to plateau and not burn as many calories. Basically, the muscles are no longer impressed or stressed enough by the exercise because they have seen it too often for too long, and so they know what to expect and how to best deal with it. They no longer need to expend the same relative effort that was required when you first started the exercise routine. The more you do the exercise the less of a return you get for your efforts.

  The theory of muscle confusion says that it’s possible to confuse the muscles and prevent a plateau by varying the types of exercises, sets, repetitions, and weights. So instead of using the dumbbells in the same fashion every time you work out, try a different machine, a different amount of weight, or a different number of repetitions. The belief is that if you do this you will continue to challenge the muscles and optimize growth and caloric burn.

  While this theory typically applies to muscle growth, SHRED adopts a similar theoretical approach when it comes to nutrition. The idea is that by eating the same food all of the time, a couple of things can happen. First, there’s an increased chance that you will reach diet boredom. At some point you will tire of eating the same thing and the temptation to eat something that’s not on the plan increases to the point where you start sampling off the menu. One small sampling leads to bigger sampling, until eventually you are barely following the plan and making up your own rules as you see fit. The second thing that could theoretically happen is that by eating the same food all of the time, the body becomes acclimated to eating those foods and more efficient at processing them. This increased efficiency means less energy needed for digestion. So varying your nutritional choices can keep the body guessing, and it’s this guessing that could keep up your metabolism and keep your body off kilter. SHRED introduces a variety of foods in the hopes of decreasing your chances of food boredom and possibly increasing your metabolism.

  THE SHREDDER MENTALITY

  Dieting is 80 percent mental and 20 percent physical. Why is it that two people who have the same plan to follow can have such different results or levels of engagement? Why can some people who do the work to lose weight keep off the pounds, but others who have also succeeded end up gaining them back? Why do some people give up after only a couple of weeks on a plan, even though they are experiencing success? In many cases, one’s mentality is a large part of these answers. The mental aspect of dieting can never be overstated. Willpower, discipline, motivation—these are universally mentioned by the vast majority of dieters who say they have tried to lose weight in the past, but have not been successful. Regardless of how good a plan might be, if one doesn’t believe in it and follow it, success will not be achieved. SHRED has built-in strategies that grow confidence and keep you inspired to stick with the plan and achieve success. In fact, many are so concentrated on the food and exercise as they are going through the cycle, they don’t even realize they are also developing the mental toughness critical for success.

  Many programs penalize users if they stray from the plan or don’t give 100 percent. SHRED will never do this. SHRED is what I like to call a forgiving plan. SHRED understands that no one can eat or exercise perfectly, so it never requires or expects it. Many who have followed the plan have sent me e-mails expressing confidence that they will never return to the bad habits that put them in the difficult predicament from which they have finally emerged. They often speak about how for the first time, after many failed dieting attempts, they now have the willpower to do what they have always known is the right thing to do. SHREDDERs develop a new mental approach not just to food, beverages, and exercise, but also to the entirety of life.

  CHAPTER 2

  How SHRED Works

  SHRED is one of the easiest programs to deliver a high level of results. My job is to take complicated weight-loss principles and distill them down to simple strategies that are easy to implement. You will not have to overthink anything you do while SHREDDING. The first time you go through the six-week cycle, you will do so in the exact order I’ve laid out. There are many reasons why I’ve ordered the sequence the way I have. To achieve maximum success, strictly adhering to the order is advised.

  Each week is laid out for you in detail. All you need to do is follow the meals and, if necessary, make substitutions. Chapters 9, 10, 11, and 12 contain more than two hundred snacks and more than fifty recipes for smoothies, shakes, and soups. You can use my suggestions or find your own. The key, however, is to make sure whatever you consume falls into the guidelines as laid out in the beginning of each week and those within the daily plan.

  CYCLING

  Each cycle consists of six weeks, but many of you will need to do more than one cycle of SHRED in order to achieve your goals. This is completely expected: I have written the program so that this can be done most effectively. While the sequence of weeks is critical during the first cycle of SHRED, subsequent cycles can be customized so that they make the most sense to your schedule and particular needs. For SHRED to work best for you, it’s important during the first cycle that you keep brief notes as you go through the weeks. You should record what you find difficult about the week, what you find easy, and ultimately how much you lose during that seven-day period. This information is important, because if you decide to do a second cycle, you can then arrange the weeks strategically. Let’s say that week 3, Transformation, is the week in which you lost the most weight. Let’s also say that week 2, Challenge, is the one that you felt worked the best as far as your ability to stick to the plan and at the same time lose weight. It’s possible that week 4, Ascend, gave you the second greatest weight loss. You’ve finished the entire six-week cycle and you still have 8 pounds left before you reach your goal. This means it’s unlikely you will need to do the entire six-week cycle again, but you’ll need somewhere between two and three weeks to get off the final pounds. Now is when those notes you took can make a difference: look back at them and see which weeks worked best for you. In our example, this would be weeks 2, 3, and 4. So while you decide how you do your next cycle, instead of starting with week 1, you
could start with either weeks 2, 3, or 4 and work through them to achieve the 8-pound loss that you’re hoping to achieve. If these three weeks are not enough to knock off the final 8 pounds, you can always go on and redo other weeks of the cycle.

  For those who have 25 pounds or less to lose, you can start with week 1 in the cycle, but don’t be surprised if you don’t see large results early on. Prime week really is about getting you organized for the next five weeks, and while others will lose 3 to 5 pounds even while priming, you might only see minimal weight loss. Don’t be discouraged in the least. This is completely normal and has no bearing on your potential success during the rest of the cycle. You should really see progress in week 2, Challenge. Because you begin closer to your target weight than most, your adherence to the guidelines of the program is critical for fast and optimal results. Because you don’t have a significant amount of weight to lose compared to many others—who might have 40 pounds or more—your margin of error is narrower. Don’t be discouraged, but be inspired to really give it your all. While it won’t hurt you to start your cycle with week 1, you can also skip Prime and go right to week 2.

  EXERCISING

  SHRED is not only about what you eat, but how you move. The exercise requirement for each day is spelled out just the way the daily menus are. There is no doubt that you can lose significant weight just by following the menus and making the dietary choices the plan recommends, but you should be looking for more than that. Exercise is critical for maximizing weight loss. This is what SHREDDING is all about. Better nutritional choices and exercise are a one-two punch when it comes to weight loss. But beyond the number on the scale, exercise is critical for overall wellness. Building lean muscle mass through resistance training will increase your metabolism, which in turn increases how many calories your body burns. Exercise is important to strengthen your bones, improve blood flow, reduce your risk for diabetes, reduce your risk for heart diseases, and increase balance and flexibility.

  When the plan calls for a certain amount of exercise for that day, the plan also gives you flexibility in how you complete it. For example, until you get accustomed to exercising on a regular basis, rather than trying to do all of the recommended daily exercise at once, you should consider breaking it up into two sessions. If, let’s say, the exercise requirement is 40 minutes, but you don’t have time to complete it all at once or your endurance is not equal to accomplishing it all in one session, feel free to break the workout up into two 20-minute sessions that day. The key is not just the amount of exercise you do, but the intensity of the exercise. Stop pretending that exercising will not deliver any benefits and is simply a waste of time. You need to get your heart rate up and perform at a moderate level of intensity. If you can complete the exercise for any given day in a more intense manner, then you will achieve your goals faster.

  The first cycle of SHRED requires only that you participate in cardio. This is by design. Don’t interpret this as meaning that resistance training (lifting free weights, weight machines, using resistance bands) is a bad thing. Quite the contrary. In fact, after you do the first SHRED cycle, I recommend that you add weight lifting or some other type of resistance training to your regimen. Building lean muscle mass increases your metabolism, which in turn helps you burn more calories throughout the day. Resistance training has other health benefits, too, such as improving blood flow, increasing bone density and strength, improving mobility and balance, and preventing medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis.

  Those who do more than one cycle should begin resistance training during the second cycle. If you are inexperienced, take lessons from a certified professional so you can be sure you are doing the exercises safely and effectively. The resistance training should not replace your cardio. Instead, do 20 minutes of resistance work 2 to 3 times per week in addition to the cardio. Simply add it to your cardio workout or choose to do it during your rest days. Whatever you prefer is fine, as long as you’re able to get it in. Resistance training will help increase your muscle tone and sculpt your body.

  SUBSTITUTIONS

  Great effort and thought has gone into the structure of SHRED. Beyond what scientific research has shown, early feedback from thousands who have tried the program have informed the plan in this book. This, however, doesn’t make the plan perfect, nor does it mean there aren’t things that can be modified on an individual basis to improve its effectiveness. Unlike other plans that don’t allow one letter of a plan to be changed, SHRED actually allows flexibility. You might have allergies, taste preferences, access issues, medical conditions, etc., that prevent you from eating or drinking a particular food or beverage. SHRED allows you to make substitutions for these items. It’s important, however, to make smart substitutions. If you don’t eat meat and the meal option is a meat, then obviously you need to make a switch. Fish or a salad are great substitution options; three slices of triple-cheese pizza is not.

  It’s impossible for any diet plan to think of every possible scenario or consider every food manufacturer and their products. Just because something’s not mentioned doesn’t mean it isn’t allowed; just use good judgment and try to make smart decisions. Part of becoming a SHREDDER is becoming a good decision maker. You are going to be faced with food choices for the rest of your life, whether at a friend’s barbecue or a restaurant you might visit on family vacation. You will not always have this book to guide you through your selection. Once you learn the SHRED philosophy and get an understanding of smart choices, you will be able to eat anywhere and feel comfortable that you can enjoy yourself while staying lean and healthy.

  MAINTENANCE

  Reaching your weight-loss goal is not the only important accomplishment when you become a SHREDDER. After initial weight loss, the issue you face is maintaining that weight loss. It’s critical as you go through the cycle(s) that you start adopting as many of the eating and exercising behaviors in SHRED as possible and permanently leave behind some of the poor choices and lifestyle behaviors that contributed to your original weight problems. The true success of SHREDDING comes after a while, when SHREDDING becomes such a way of life for you that you no longer even need to check the plan to make sure you’re on track. You are now making smarter choices—not perfect, but smarter. Once you have reached your goal, you are ready for maintenance. So, once a month you should choose a SHRED week and stick to that week vigilantly, following the menus and exercises as written. This is like giving your car a tune-up. You take your car to a mechanic for a tune-up not because it’s not working properly, but because it’s wiser to get parts serviced and tested periodically so that if something is heading toward dysfunction, you can catch it early when the fix is cheaper and easier. Waiting too long is costly, inconvenient, and a bigger headache. Your SHRED tune-up is strictly following a week of your choice—not the same each time—once a month. After six months of maintaining your weight loss, you can move this tune-up to once every two months.

  Now let’s get busy. It’s time to SHRED!

  CHAPTER 3

  Week 1: Prime

  This is the first leg of your journey. For some, Prime will be a radically different way of eating and exercising, while for others it will be only slightly different from what they’ve already been doing. This week will prime you for success as you go through the rest of the plan. It will set up the weeks that follow, so pay close attention to the timing of your meals, making sure that you eat them about every three to four hours. Your snacks—if you chose to have them—will come between the meals, but no sooner than an hour after eating a meal. You can refer to chapter 9 for a selection of more than two hundred snacks, chapter 10 for smoothie recipes, chapter 11 for protein shake recipes, and chapter 12 for sample soup recipes. You are not obligated to use these lists or recipes; they are there for your convenience and can be extremely helpful as you SHRED.

  Timing is critical to the success of this plan. It might be difficult at first, but plan in advance and do the best you can. Skipp
ing meals is not advised. Even if you eat just a small portion, try to eat something on schedule. A sample day’s schedule during Prime might look something like the grid below, but for each and every day, the order of the meals and snacks is both intended and critical. And on some days, there’s a bonus fourth snack, so follow each day’s directions carefully.

  While you might be anxious to jump right into the program, it’s critical that you read the week’s guidelines first. They will fill in holes you might encounter and answer the questions that you’ll inevitably have. Substitutions can be made on this program, but make them wisely and selectively. Try your best to stick to the plan as it is laid out. Believe! Work hard! Have fun!

  SHRED WEEK 1 GUIDELINES

  Weigh yourself in the morning before starting the program and record it. Don’t weigh yourself throughout the week. Your next weigh-in will be the same day the following week in the morning. Weigh yourself in the same manner as you did in the beginning. If you weighed in without wearing clothes initially, then do that again. If you weighed in wearing certain clothes, wear the same clothes for the second weigh-in. Use the same scale both times. Don’t use a different scale as scales can differ by several pounds.

  You must eat something every 3 to 4 hours even if you’re not hungry, but don’t stuff yourself. Eat until you’re no longer hungry, but don’t eat until you’re full. If you need less than what’s recommended, then great, go ahead and eat less, which is even better. If you want to switch meals, that is permitted, but try to switch as infrequently as possible. For example, if you know that what’s listed for meal 3 is easier to get than what’s listed for meal 2, then go ahead and switch them. Looking at the day’s meals in advance is important as it allows you to best prepare for what’s ahead. Remember, the meals are every 3 to 4 hours and the snacks come between the meals. Snacks are not a meal.