10 Ways to Have a Great Body... and Still Eat Junk Food

While I may not have a perfect build,
I do manage to maintain a pretty good
one without giving up my favorite junk foods.

While there may be a lot of people out there who have the discipline to completely cut things like beer, KFC, and little hostess cakes out of their diet, the fact of the matter is, I'm not one of them. I love to eat...and I love to eat everything. I also love a good beer. As both an entertainer and an athlete however (particularly one who gets a lot of work using his body, I do have a very strong need to stay in shape. Furthermore, as one gets older, the easier it is for things like cancer, repetitive stress injuries and other "bodily malfunctions" to take place, and the best way to combat them is to stay in good shape. This is the best way I've found to do it...without having to completely let go of junk food.

1. Weigh yourself daily.

This is absolutely, without a doubt the most important part of maintaining or losing weight. The fact of the matter is, weight changes usually happen much too slowly for you to notice a different just looking in the mirror. Most people only notice when they realize their clothes fit differently. The fact of the matter is, you need to weigh yourself to see if what you are doing is having an effect or not. Everyone's body is different, and the only way to tell if it is working and worth sticking with early on is the scale. Do it everyday at the same time. For myself, it is in the morning right after I wake up and go to the bathroom, so I can do it on an empty stomach. (eating and drinking before will add a pound or two to your weight). Stepping on the scale in the morning, gives me a reward for sticking to my diet the day before, or if I don't, shows me the effect of being lazy the day before and reminds me to work harder that day.

 2. Don't eat after late at night. 

 If you eat really healthy low fat meals, this isn't so necessarily, and I know plently of people who don't follow this and have great bodies. At least in my own case however, I have found that the only thing worse than not having a healthy dinner is not giving it lots of time to digest while I am still up and active. For myself, eating a bad meal late at night is a guaranteed way to gain weight. Sometimes even if I exercise before. Usually if I do eat late at night, it is just enough to stave the hunger off, and it is something with little or no fat, like fruit.

 3. Use afterburn exercises.



The fact of the matter is, most exercise programs out there, if done correctly, will work, if you follow them correctly and stick with them. The great thing about afterburn exercises however is that they are super efficient, and don't take much time. Check out the video to see my routine. As with any exercise however, after a while your body will adapt to it, making it harder to continue to lose weight with it, so you need to change up the routine to keep it effective. Again, check out the vid to see links to other afterburn exercises as well.

 4. Find a physical activity that you love. 

While afterburn exercises might be the most efficient way to lose weight, like a lot of people I have a hard time exercising simply for the sake of exercising... Even if I know how good it is for me, and how necessary it is. For myself, this is where martial arts comes in. Most martial arts require a lot of physical movement, stretching and repetition, and things that are good for your body. The reason I think they are so effective however is just because they are fun and interesting for me. The belt and rank systems also consistently give me goals to shoot for. Having goals outside of burning fat is a great way to do it. Usually I do martial arts training, and I just save the afterburn exercises as a supplement for the days that I can't workout.

 5. Eat potatoes! 

 For myself, this has been the greatest, and most consistent secret to weight loss I have ever found. Usually, as with exercises, your body will adapt to dietary changes, so that something will work for you for a while, but the longer you do it, the less of an effect it has. Still, even after several years, this has been my greatest tool for weight loss. As they say, "Bodies are made in the kitchen, not in the gym." Despite the fact that everyone says "Potatoes are starchy!!" the fact of the matter is, a potato is only 110 calories, it has no fat, no sugar, and is super nutrient dense. If you eat two of them with a bit of meat and all the veggies you want, you can have a healthy, filling meal THAT TASTES GOOD and still has about 30% less calories than the same meal with an equivalent amount of rice or bread. When I came back from my last trip to the states and found that I had gained 17.6 lbs over the course of a few months, I used a potato meal twice a day with my usual martial arts training to get back to my previous weight. (I cooked one big meal of it in the morning, and then ate half for lunch and the other half for dinner, with something light after training).

The key is just to make them without adding oil, butter, sour cream, bacon or any of the other stuff that we usually do that ruins them. These meals are also great be because they are CHEAP, easy and quick to prepare and they microwave well. So you can bring them with you to work.

 6. Proportion your food.

When you can't prepare your own potato meal (if for example you are eating out), another way to control your weight is simply to proportion your food properly. This is one of the great things about eating out in Japan. Most meals are already well proportioned. For those who aren't in Japan however, here is a simple guideline that you can follow that I discovered in the 28day deadline workout. The amount of protein that you should take in per meal should be about the size of your palm. Carbs should be about the size of your fist and fat intake should be about the size of your thumbnail. (Veggies or fruit you can usually eat a lot of).

The important thing to remember is that if you feel stuffed, you are eating too much!! One of the reasons that food is so well proportioned in Japan is that they follow the ideal of "Hara Hachi Bun Me", meaning that prepared meals are designed to make you 80% full. Eat to be satisfied NOT full.

 7. Limit your fat intake to under 30g a day. 

 This is another trick that I have found works wonders for losing weight. Especially if you are working out too. This is just a matter of reading the labels on things so that you know how much you are taking in, and then keeping it below the threshold. Does this mean you can't have snickers bars anymore? Nope! Not at all. What it means however is that you simply can't eat the whole thing. (A snickers bar is 27g of fat). Instead of having it all at once, just cut it into pieces and have it bit by bit. Usually what I do is cut it into three pieces and one part with lunch over a few days. Get more value out of each bar that way! You can also just get the fun size ones. (Which you can usually get in bulk- again, better value than a full size bar!)

 This also means that you don't have to give up nachos (my favorite food on earth). The trick is to eat the serving size (usually about 16) so you know how much fat you are taking in, and then just have them with salsa (no fat, lots of veggies!) instead of cheese.

 8. Watch what you drink.

Drinks are also the hidden "diet killers". Especially pop or "soda" as the east coasters like to call it. ;) an 8oz can of Coke, Pepsi, Gingerale, etc all have 39grams of sugar. That's a lot of sugar that you have to burn off before you can get to burning fat. Just avoid them. I still have them occasionally if I am eating out, but I NEVER keep them at home. Tap Water is free, and much better for you. Again, eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive! Actually, it's cheaper! If you arent comfortable with drinking tap water, just get a filter. It will pay itself off quickly with the amount you save over bottled water, which most studies have shown isn't very well regulated anyway. (Don't believe me? Do a web search for "dangers of drinking bottled water." and see what you find.

 Beyond that, if I want something with flavor, I usually have unsweetened tea. Occasionally I will drink fruit juices as well, but they are also sugary (especially American brands) so if I have a glass or cup, that will be the only one I have that day, and again, usually I don't keep them at home. As far as diet pop or "soda" goes, a lot of studies have shown that drinking them can be just as bad (if not worse) than drinking regular pop, and that most people are more inclined to gain weight if they drink a lot of them.

9. View calories like debt.

You wouldn't buy something without knowing how much it costs would you? Then why would you put something in your body without knowing what it "costs" your body. Calories are like card debt: they are only dangerous if you don't pay them off. And the interest on that debt if you let it build (diabetes, lack of energy, mental dullness, higher susceptibility to virtually every kind of cancer, heart attacks) is way WAY worse. The solution is, much like financial debt is to pay it off before it has a chance to built. My way of doing this is only eating junk food on days that I know I will have a hard workout. If Im not going to have a hard work out, I don't eat them.

 If I really wanna eat them (or if I am out with friends, and not tracking it) then I just do the afterburn workout when I get home. (Parituclarly since its only 9 minutes). Another way to "pay off" a junk food meal is to walk it off by taking away your car, bus, or train privileges for a day. This saves you a few bucks as well! The only disadvantage of walking over the afterburn exercises however, is that it is more time intensive.

 10. Eat at home.

One of the reasons that people are continually getting bigger these days is that we are eating out more than we ever have before. The fact of the matter is, restaurants beat each other out by how good their food tastes, NOT by how good it is for your body. As a function of that, the best tasting places will often times have the unhealthiest food. Especially in the states. As such, losing weight is a lot harder if you eat out a lot than if you can cook at home. (Where you have control over what exactly (and how much of it) is going into your body. If you do eat out, and you aren't sure what the nutrition value of what you are eating is, try to get something that microwaves well, (like quesadillas!! Love em!) and then just eat have and save the other half for later. Again, this will also save you a few bucks as well. Actually in the states, most places have appetizers that are big enough to be a meal for a grown man anyway. Just go with that. (Again, this is also cheaper). The fact of the matter is, losing weight is usually a challenge for people, but only because they don't stick with the process.

The fact of the matter is, there are a lot of different ways to lose or maintain your weight, and the things listed above are simply my tricks. If you can't remember them all or don't feel like you can do them all, then just choose a few, start with those and weigh yourself daily to see if they work for you or not. You can always bookmark this page and come back later, so there is no need to memorize everything right now. The main thing that needs to happen is that your weight loss or maintenance plan needs to be sustainable enough that it becomes a lifestyle, NOT a diet. Despite how much I deeply love junk food, I am at a point now where I don't really like eating a lot of it, just because I know how damaging it is to my body...and I know how much work it will be to get rid of the fat I put on. Especially now that I am in my thirties. Anyway, hope that you find this useful, and feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions! Yosh!