Why I've Stopped Having Cheat Meals

I remember when I first got into fitness, training, and paying very close attention to what I was eating. At least I thought I was eating clean. I remember the first couple of years, I had cheat days. Those days were packed with an incredible amount of food. After I got sick of feeling sick on my cheat days, I switched to cheat meals. I had two cheat meals per week and goodness did I look forward to them. I scheduled them ahead of time, and knew exactly where I was going to go and what I was going to eat. Over time, those two meals made it easier for me to have cheat meals leak into the week. Next thing I knew, I was "cheating" every day. Towards the end of this timeline, I only had one cheat meal per week. Something I could look forward to each week. Something that would keep me "in check" so I could reward myself for behaving throughout the week. Towards the end of all this, I realized that I hated nutrition, and I got close to hating fitness because it made me so concerned about what I was consuming each day. And, I looked like this:

So funny. I wasn't as happy as this dude, though.

So anyway, I grew tired of getting nowhere, feeling restricted 6 days/week, and making extremely slow process on my fitness and body composition goals. During this period of time playing around with cheat days and cheat meals, I noticed the following more than ever:

1. I didn't enjoy eating. And I'm a fat kid on the inside, what's that about? I saw food as fuel, which is only good when it's not obsessive.
2. It kept me from enjoying dinners with my family, time out with friends, etc.
3. I'm EXTREMELY critical of myself. This didn't help when I had a cookie outside of my cheat meal and felt nothing but guilt and shame.

I'd like to go through all of these so you have something to relate to, or scare you away before you decide to start planning some cheat meals for yourself. 

I Didn't Enjoy Eating

Back in the day, I thought that there was really a thing called "clean eating". Therefore, I ate things like chicken, rice, broccoli, sweet potatoes, lean beef, turkey, oats, and that's about it. Oh and protein powder of course. That's literally all I ate. I'm one of those people that can eat the same thing every day and not care, but that's mostly because I was convinced that eating that way was really going to help me reach my goals. I didn't have any other types of food during those six "non cheat" days, and then I went to town on the cheat meal for that week. As a result of eating so "clean", I felt sick after the meal and I didn't feel like I had rewarded myself. I felt like I was just resetting my mind to be motivated to eat nothing but bland chicken and rice again. Whoopdie doo. Eating became a burden. I also became overly obsessed and extremely critical of myself whenever I ate anything even if I was eating meat and veggies and wanted more, I felt like I couldn't allow myself to do such a thing. Not only did this have an effect on my personal relationship with food, but it began to affect my friends and family as well.

"Adam Can't Have That"

My brothers and I are all grown and have been out of the house for years now. So every once in a while, my parents will cook an absolutely amazing meal and have us all over for some quality family time. Back when I was a "clean eater" and "strict" with my diet, making meals seemed like a burden for my parents. Before they went to the grocery store, they would call and ask if I could eat x,y, and z. "Is it ok if I put butter on the asparagus?", my dad would ask. "Adam are you going to eat some of these cookies I made from scratch?" my mom would ask. My response: "No, sorry, my cheat meal isn't today." Looking back on it, I wish I could time travel and give myself a good punch in the face. The funny thing is, my dad did some bodybuilding shows when he was in his 20s, and he'd still look at me like I was from outer space when I said I wasn't going to have milk because of the sugar or something stupid like that.

It took too long, but eventually I realized that creating memories and enjoying a home-cooked meal with my family was much more important than my "clean eating." 

Endless Criticism

Criticism can be a good thing on some occasions. But a few years ago the criticism I was receiving was very unhealthy. This criticism came from myself. Every time I had a "cheat" whether it was a freaking fun-size snickers, or a double cheeseburger with large fries, I felt an unbelievable amount of guilt and shame. I hardly enjoyed the "cheat" while I was eating it. The guilt and shame came almost immediately but I had those "cheats" anyway because well, I had to right? That's what everyone was doing in the fitness industry anyway. Or were they?

The Solution to the Problem

I'm not the only one who went or is going through this. In fact, a lot of my clients have had an unhealthy relationship with food. Guilt, shame, diet after diet, rollercoaster after rollercoaster. So many people have this going on in their lives right now. 

So what did I change? How and why did I stop eating "clean"? Aren't we supposed to be eating "clean" and healthy all the time in order to reach our goals? Well, not really. Do me a favor quick. Try to define "clean eating" in your own words. Seriously, sit there and define "clean eating". Post your definition in a comment at the bottom of this article. I'm not trying to set you up at all. I'm not saying there is a right or wrong answer. Here's my point: I believe that every idea of clean eating involves some sort of restriction from certain foods. And restriction is the WORST. Restriction is what made me feel miserable during the few steps in my fitness journey. It's what keeps most people from making change with their nutrition, and funny enough it's also what makes people put even more weight back on after they start a diet. Thankfully I found flexible dieting and no longer feel a need to restrict myself from any foods. 

Flexible dieting is what I teach all of my clients. It enables them to enjoy their lifestyle and still crush their fitness goals. Flexible dieting can sound complicated, but it's actually quite simple. In fact, it's as simple as treating your macronutrients like a monetary budget, and fitting a wide variety of foods in that budget. Hit your protein, carbohydrate, and fat goals for the day make sure you get enough fiber, and eat what you'd like! Does that mean I'm telling you to reach your macro goals from 80% Oreos and 20% protein shakes? Heck no. You'll feel like crap. But what I am saying is this: A majority of your calories and macronutrients should come from whole food sources. And if you have room in your macronutrients for some Ben and Jerry's at the end of the day, then have some! That's actually exactly what I did last night. I had room for about one cup of Ben and Jerry's in my macros, so I ate some Cherry Garcia while watching John Wick. I know, I know, what a wild Saturday night. The point is, I eat the things I like when I want to and if I have room in my macros. And no, you don't have to be "a man in his 20s with a crazy metabolism" to do that.

After doing this for a while, I did some math on my macros and calories comparing my old cheat meals with flexible dieting. Turns out I'm actually eating less "junk"  and calories throughout the week than when I had even one cheat meal per week. And, I'm happier.

I'll be honest, it takes a while to get the hang of tracking your macros, and eating mindfully, but I dare you to try it. I dare you to let yourself live. 

The Takeaway

LIVE. That's the takeaway today. Track your macronutrients and calories (which isn't hard), avoid restricting yourself, and allow yourself to live guilt free. 

As always, thank you for reading. Feel free to follow Poehlmann Fitness below for awesome content and giveaways with prizes like apparel, gift cards, and more!

Alcohol and Macros

You and some friends decide to go out to a local brewery and enjoy the summer weather with a nice cold beer. While driving to the brewery, you are thinking about all the hard work you put into training and your "diet" and wondering how you're going to get away with avoiding beer at a brewery. Upon arriving at the brewery, your friends get in line and you turn to them and say "You all go ahead and get your beers, I'm not having anything today but I'll just go ahead and grab us a table." After you say that, all of your friends give you this look:

Judgement.

Hear me out. I'm not saying that you have to have a drink when you go out with your friends. That's ridiculous. If you ever get a drink knowing you don't want to, but you feel you're going to be judged if you don't so you order one anyway, there are some other issues that need to be addressed. This article isn't for those of you having trouble sticking your ground. This is for the individuals who enjoy the social drink with friends and just need to know how to make that fit within their macros. 

Understanding Alcohol

Before we go into the details of plugging your alcoholic beverages into you macronutrient budget, we need to quickly discuss how alcohol is processed by the body. 

When consumed, alcohol is going to be the first thing your body uses before fat and other forms of stored energy. Our bodies also recognize alcohol as a toxin, so it will work hard to eliminate it as quickly as possible through metabolism, breath, sweat, and urine. Since our bodies use alcohol as a short-term use for energy, it is fair to say that we can substitute the calories in our beverage for some carbohydrates in our macros. But how?

Believe it or not, although the calories in alcohol are "empty", they do count. They can easily cause you to go over your daily calorie goal in no time. This is not a good thing especially if you're aiming to be in a caloric deficit for fat loss. Similar to fats (9), carbohydrates (4) and protein (4), alcohol carries 7 calories per gram and it must be accounted for whenever you are drinking it. 

Since alcohol contains calories just like carbohydrates do, we can treat this like an exchange with some simple math. Let's say you have a light beer that has 100 calories. If you want to exchange your alcoholic beverage for carbohydrates in your macronutrient budget, all you have to do is divide your total calories by 4 (because carbs have four cals/gram) and enter that final number as grams of carbs into your budget. In this case, that light beer would equal 25 grams of carbohydrates. Easy. Now your calories are accounted for in your macronutrients and you don't have to go over on your budget. 

"What if I Don't Have Carbs Left?"

If you don't have any carbohydrates left in your budget, that's ok. Check your fat intake and see if there is any room there. That light beer could be exchanged for fats too. The math would just be a little different. This time, you'd need to divide 100 (total cals in the beer) by 9, since fats have 9 calories per gram. This would be roughly 11 grams of fat for the light beer. Boom shaka laka. But what if you want both? 

I'll take both.

I don't drink much, but when I do I like to exchange carbs and fats. I should've used the Dos Equis guy for that one. Oh well.

Anyway, food is much more important to me and I am a fat kid on the inside, so I'd rather give up a little bit of carbs and fats and have some room for food rather than using all of the alcohol on carbs and regretting it when I want to have some zebra cakes later that night. Ya feel me? 

Let's do the math. Ultimately what it comes down to is deciding which you want more of in your macro budget. For me, I like to have more carbs available because carbs are basically in everything (especially the good things). So what I would do in this situation is give myself 8 grams of fat, and the remaining in carbs. 8 grams of fat would be 72 calories (8x9=72), which tells me I have 28 calories left for carbs. 28 calories would translate to 7 grams of carbs (28/7=4). 

And there you have it. Now you have plenty more room in both calories and fat. So go ahead, order a burger with that beer of yours. 

Takeaway

Whether you drink or not, you HAVE to be tracking your macronutrient intake. Macronutrients are just like dollars. If you want to become wealthy and have your money work for you, it's essential that you have a budget in place. John Maxwell said "A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went." The exact same concept applies for macronutrients and calories in your food. Allow your calories and macros to work for you with your goals. Don't just eat with no direction and expect to wake up at the finish line of your goal. That's extremely stupid. 

As always, thank you for reading. Feel free to follow Poehlmann Fitness below for awesome content and giveaways with prizes like apparel, gift cards, and more!

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6 Strategies to Help You Eat More Protein

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I am a big proponent of building and maintaining muscle through resistance training and proper nutrition. Whether you're a guy, girl, average joe, or competitive athlete, muscle is important. Here's why: having a good amount of lean muscle tissue is going to help you with your RMR (resting metabolic rate). Individuals who have more muscle tissue can burn more calories at rest throughout the day. More calories burned means more calories allowed in your daily budget. If your daily caloric budget is high (high for your age and body type) it will give you more room to enjoy food and life. More room to eat out and get drinks with friends, and more room to hit Five Guys for a fat, juicy burger. If you have a lower RMR, it's going to be harder for you to lose weight since your body isn't burning a lot of calories at rest, AND you'll have less wiggle room when it comes to your food intake. Both of those things make for an unfortunately disappointing fitness journey. 

Other than mixing up your training, lifting weights, and tracking your food intake, prioritizing protein and getting enough each day is extremely important. Just in my first four years of coaching alone, I would say that 90% of the individuals that come to me are missing out on a lot of protein. The RDA says you should eat 50g of protein each day, but this is only for sedentary individuals. Protein intake is much different for those of us who need to nutritionally support an exercise regimen. I always recommend aiming for at least 1g of protein per pound of lean body mass for those of you that are working hard in the gym each day. 

Protein is a macronutrient just like carbohydrates and fats. Unfortunately, they don't show up in seemingly every single food we eat like carbs and fats do. So, getting all those grams of protein can seem impossible at times. Thankfully, I've put together a list of six strategies to help you eat more protein. These are strategies I use each and every day, too. Believe it or not, protein just doesn't conveniently show up each day for me either. 

1. Prioritize Protein

This strategy is in my opinion, the most important one you'll hear about today. And quite frankly, it's no more of a strategy than it is the truth. There's no magic trick here. There's no magic food here either. This is just the cold hard truth. You absolutely have to prioritize your protein. If you're not thinking about how much protein you need in the meal, how much protein you need in the day, and how much protein is in the food you're about to eat, You'll never hit your goal. Carbs and fats are easily accessible and convenient. They'll come. Don't stress out about those. Think about protein first, and then add your carbs and fats to your meal. Sure, constantly thinking about protein each meal will be an extra hassle for the first week or so, but isn't it worth being a protein pro down the road? Plus, what's a few extra moments of thinking going to hurt?

2. 30 in 30

I'm not talking about a 30 for 30 on ESPN. This is a very simple reminder to help you get a kick-start on your protein intake for the day. Beware: this is extremely simple and easy to follow. Within 30 minutes of waking up, eat 30 grams of protein. Whatever form of protein you'd like. Breakfast shake, eggs and egg whites, greek yogurt, and FairLife milk are options that I like to put to use in the AM. Trust me, getting ahead early in the morning will make the rest of your day easier, especially if you're on the go.

3. Utilize but Don't Abuse Protein Powder

Whey powder is an extremely useful source of protein. Great for feeding your muscles after a vigorous workout in the gym, whey is a quick absorbing protein that is great for your post-workout recovery. Not only is it great for recovery, but its convenience is an added bonus. With whatever liquid you'd like, protein shakes take seconds to make and you can bring them with you wherever you are. Although it would be extremely easy to get your daily protein goal from only whey shakes, I advise against it for a couple of reasons: 
1. Although protein's satiety is great, the fact that the shakes are in liquid form won't help you feel full.
2. Protein shakes are often consumed by themselves which makes it easy to neglect great vitamins and minerals from other food sources. 

Take a serving after your workout, and perhaps another if you need some help hitting your protein for the day. But don't abuse it!

4. Take it Slow

For the most part, clients who come to me for coaching aren't trying to hit a protein goal each day. They just happen to eat 30-60 grams of protein each day. Depending on their lean mass, I'd like them to start eating a lot more protein right away, but that can be extremely difficult. So once you've figured out where your protein currently is and where it needs to be, slowly build it up every week or so. For example, I had a client start with me last week and they were at about 45 grams of protein each day when they needed to be around 150. That's a big jump. So what we're doing right now is slowly taking them up until 150 seems like no problem at all. It's all about fitting practicality into what's optimal.

5. Focus on What's Practical

In fitness, there is all of this b.s. being thrown around about how we all have to live the life of a competitive bodybuilder in order to be lean, healthy, and achieve our goals. We need to "eat chicken and broccoli eight times per day" in order to get fit. Are you kidding me? Get real. The name of the game with your success in fitness is making what's optimal, the most practical for your life. If you work from home and you'd rather spread your protein intake out through five meals, go for it. If you're crazy busy and you'd rather do it in two with a protein shake in the middle, go for it. The plan that is the most important is the one that will allow you to be the most consistent. 

A sneak peek at all of the scam artists in the fitness industry throwing crap at you. 

6. Break it Down

This last strategy ties into numbers four and five, but I still wanted to bring it up.

When we see a big number that is associated with a "big" change, we tend to freak out. Let's pretend that your protein goal is a debt you have. If you have $100,000 dollars in debt, of course you're going to freak out about how you're going to pay that off. But if you break it up into smaller chunks and create a budget that you can stick to, it won't seem too difficult, and it'll become easier to reach over time. The same goes with your protein. If you like to eat three meals in a day, figure out how you can divide your goal between those meals and whatever snacks you have. Break it down and simplify it.

Takeaway

Whether you're competing for a show or just trying to lose some weight, protein is so important. If you're under-eating it, you have to find a way to make that change. Apply whatever is most practical for you. The above strategies help me and my clients hit our daily protein goals, and may they do the same for you.

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Thanks for reading!