Looking to finally get lean and toned? Here are three underrated tips that you’re probably not doing to get that lean and toned body.

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Let’s do a little role play (get your mind out of the gutter).

Imagine if I was your fairy godfather and gave you one magical wish. And let’s say that one wish was to get lean and toned, with a perhaps a nice set of six pack abs, too.

Wish granted … cool.

But let me ask you this: How long would you be able to actually keep them?

I’d wager those abs would be gone and covered by a nice layer of excess flab within about a month or two.

Losing weight is not the easiest thing to do. We’ve been over the difficulty in starting that journey and seeing it through to the end.

But, the hardest part of the fat loss process can be what happens after you’ve lost the weight. How do you maintain that body that you’ve worked so hard to develop?

Without a change in your mindset and in your regular habits, it’ll be increasingly difficult to keep the weight off.

Today, I’m going to talk about three underrated things you should be doing to improve your long term eating habits for losing fat to get lean and toned.

If you can make these subtle changes to your approach and relationship with food, you’ll go a long way towards making this a long-term solution.

That’s how we break the chains of yo-yo dieting.

Let’s get into it.

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Get Lean and Toned Tip No. 1: Create a pleasure reset

You suffer from a bit of sensory overload.

It’s not your fault.

But with the overconsumption of added sugar, your brain has no idea what natural sweetness tastes like anymore.

Fruit (and especially berries) are typically referred to as nature’s candy. But, when was the last time you scarfed down an apple and thought to yourself: “Yeah, that really cured my sweet tooth craving.”

Exactly.

High sodium, high sugary foods are everywhere. And they drive your natural hunger cues crazy.

As a result, it might be time to go on a bit of a detox.

I call this a pleasure reset.

Your goal over the course of two to three weeks is to eliminate the hyper-palatable foods from your diet altogether.

Remove the snacks. Dump the sweets. Skip the treats.

Total restriction from this stuff for a solid two to three weeks.

“But Pete, you always preach that restriction can lead to terrible binges and eventual failure on my diet! What gives?”

Great question.

And very true. I’m a firm believer that long-term restriction is not the answer and you can and should enjoy your favorite (even unhealthy, “fun” foods) in moderation while on a fat loss plan.

However, I’m talking about a short-term reboot by keeping your current diet a little bland and boring whilst sticking to the big rocks of nutrition: lean proteins, fruits and vegetables.

Doing so will help restore your brain and body’s natural cues for foods that really taste well.

The goal is that once you add those fun foods back you consider a few things:

• Those foods must be worked back into your existing plan, calories and macros (think about the rule of 80-percent healthy vs 20-percent fun foods)
• Do not overdo it with a crazy binge of epic proportion because it’s been 10 days since you had a piece of chocolate
• Plan ahead for your little reboot. Think about the foods you’ll eat during this little “detox,” if you will. And then be sure to avoid trying to turn a simple rice dish into “healthy” rice pudding just to satisfy your craving.

Instead, sit in that craving and really think about what your body and brain are signaling to you.

Learn the pleasure sensors and you might discover that the sweet tooth is actually masking something else (like stress or anxiety) that food really cannot solve anyway.

Try it out for a couple of weeks.

It’ll go a long way towards helping repair your relationship with food.

Get Lean and Toned Tip No. 2: Set simple food rules for yourself

Everyone should have a code.

Okay, so yeah that phrase usually applies to things like, “Don’t be an asshole” and general pillars that keep us in check through life and the everyday struggle.

But, this can also be super helpful to hold yourself accountable to your diet plan, too.

I have an entire article listing out my general rules for living an awesome and meanginful life, I encourage you to perform a similar activity.

This is a practice that all of my online coaching clients perform as a means to provide some structure and prevent slip-ups from turning into full on gluttonous events.

We call these brightlines.

Each one is specific to the individual, because each person has his or her own needs, challenges and goals.

But, the rules to creating those rules are as follows:

• Create 3-4 brightlines (or rules) that will help you tackle some of your biggest challenges with food
• Keep them simple, strict, but reasonable
• Do your best to hold yourself to those brightlines, even in the face of impending defeat

I challenge my clients to come up with these by themselves. Without any guidance from me.

Once they’ve created their brightlines, I go over them with the client to make any necessary tweaks (usually to loosen up the reigns a bit to allow for a tad more flexibility).

We’ll perform this exercise a few weeks into our coaching journey together. And I love this concept because it gets my coaching clients thinking for themselves.

Here are a few examples of brightlines that might work for you:

• For every alcoholic beverage I drink, I will back that up with one full glass of water
• If I snack before a meal, I must skip dessert
• When the time comes that I miss my scheduled gym session, I will perform at least 10 pushups and 10 squats before the end of the day (unless extenuating circumstances like illness, etc.)
• Never miss consecutive workouts (again, unless illness, emergencies, etc.)
• When traveling, I will pack gym clothes/shoes whenever my trip lasts more than 2 nights
• During my regular afternoon snack, I must be sitting down at the table with a glass of water
• I can either enjoy an appetizer or dessert, never both
• If I’m drinking an alcoholic beverage, I must skip dessert.

Some of these are a bit silly in nature (like the push ups/squats for a missed workout). But they do hold you accountable.

Keep in mind, these are not meant to be a punishment.

Just a set of guidelines to keep you within reason so one missed workout doesn’t become an entire week or month of skipping the gym.

Sit down today and come up with your own brightlines. Make them reasonable, short and snappy.

But make them and then stick to them.

Get Lean and Toned Tip No. 3: Investing wisely in pleasure/fun calories vs. fuel calories

Earlier we talked about taking a two to three week period where you restrict yourself from any hyper-palatable foods in order to get a little reset of the pleasure sensors in your brain.

Now we’re going to talk about adding those fun foods back into your plan.

Doing so keeps this dieting, calorie deficit, fat loss journey process more sustainable.

And if you can keep that diet sustainable, you’ll find it more enjoyable.

If it’s more enjoyable, you’ll be more likely to stick to the plan.

The most successful dieters are the ones that find a way to stick to the plan long term.

First priority is to handle the most important BIG rocks of a healthy nutritional profile:

• Hit your total calories for the day
• Prioritize lean protein sources
• Be sure to get several servings of vegetables
• Snack mostly on fruit
• Drink plenty of water

Once you’ve got those pillars handled and doing so within about 80-90 percent of your calorie bank account, you’ll have some additional room for fun foods.

This is also known as the 80/20 Rule to dieting

You’ll manage to hit the big pillars with 80-percent of your diet and then that leaves room to have fun with the remaining 20-percent.

Understand that no one food will make you fat.

Just like no one healthy food will automatically give you six pack abs.

And as long as your total calories and protein needs are met on a consistent basis, you will lose weight.

Even if that means enjoying 200 calories a day in ice cream or chocolate or a glass of wine.

How often have you started a diet with the idea that you had to totally cut out all of the foods you love as punishment for gaining some unwanted weight?

And how often did you give up that diet because it was too restrictive and you hated the fact that you cut out all of the foods that you love?

Exactly.

Balance. It is all about balance.

And when you put the three tips together, you’ll create a natural flow of balance in your diet and be able to sustain this approach for the long term.

That’s how you build a healthy relationship with food. And it’s how you see this through to the completion of your fat loss goal.

Let me help you figure how to get lean and toned … 

Finding the right time and right workout plan can be incredibly overwhelming. But, I’m here to help you out.

If you have any questions, reach out. I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “Get Lean and Toned” and I’ll answer any questions you have about training.

Or you can hit me up anytime on the socialz on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

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