Fit Office People - Weight Loss Program

Most of the time people are given programs on strict schedules and duties, but when it comes to implementation, its rather difficult due to the personal situation of all of us.

Knowing this, here is a program for all the "office people" out there (and of course as a responsible person you will check with your doctor in case of any special cases).

Getting out of the house to go to work can sometimes break all the known speed records and having a diet plan shout at you for not taking your "most important meal of the day" can add extra frustration to an already bad hair day and lost car keys, not to mention that only God remembers where you parked the car last night. 

So what to do. We know we have to have that breakfast and it has to be healthy, but we don't have the time or even wish to eat the bloody thing.

There are three solutions:

The worst: cereal breakfast bars. Its definately better than nothing (anything is better than nothing) but these guys are either undercover calorie bombs or they are so tiny that throwing one in your mouth sometimes feels like you have something stuck in your teeth. As an additional disadvantage, its just too easy to take more than one or even several. Nevertheless, as mentioned, better than nothing, quick & portable.

Runner up and a close contestant for the first place is the super portable - APPLE. Don't bother eating at home! Or did you forget that you have at least 30 minutes of traffic time to kill while you listen to your favorit radio. The rule is simple, put a bowl of apples literally on your way out, grab one as you exit the house and eat it on the way. Throw the leftover bit in one of the ashtrays when you are done.

The winner for breakfast, especially for people who need a faster weight loss, are protein powder drinks or shakes. If you don't know what this is, it is basically a powder of only protein. All natural. Picking the correct product can be a little tricky (too much choice) and it definately requires some experimentation to see which brand you like the best. What you need to look at is the nutrition table on the package and there you are looking to see absolute minimum amounts of carbs and fats (they get as low as less than 1 gram; example: Isopure ZeroCarb) and maximum amount of protein. Basically the whole weight should be protein and vitamins. The consumption is very fast. I've done it in less than 15 seconds. Open lid (there is usually a scoop for 30g inside), put in container which has a closable lid (very cheap to buy. I got mine in the supermarket), pour in liquid (i use water), shake and drink. Remember, protein is the building block of life and its exactly what your body needs in the morning.

 

Now that the breakfast is fixed, next step is work. 

Work work work until lunch. Always try to have a warm meal. Sandwitches are not good at all for this purpose as they are loaded with calories. However, if you have to have a sandwitch, pick brown bread (not with any seeds; seeds are powefully loaded with energy) and pick lean meats like chicken, eggs are good, cheese is good, and only green color salads and definately no sauses whatsoever.

At the warm meal, take a piece of lean meat like chicken, turkey or, if you have the choice, definately put a preferance on fish. With this, do not take any potatoes, pasta, rice or anything of the sort. You add to this (the rest of the plate) warm vegetables. Mixed choices are great for the variety and green coloured ones have a priority.

If you are vegetarian - full plate of vegetables.

No desert, no fruits. If you really have to, take something small, like a small plum. 

Next, around 3-4 pm, which is about 3 hours after you finished lunch, go buy an apple. Yep, every day. Again, you can resort to the more portable cereal snack bars, but they are way more full of calories and give much less benefit than the apple, not even mentioning that they excite your sweet tooth.

Now you finally finished the working day and you are leaving the office. You get into your car and guess what you find. More apples! Where did they come from you ask? I'll tell ya! :) When you went to the supermarket you bought a small/medium plastic container with a fully closable lid, where you could fit 3 apples. You washed it when you got home, put 3 apples inside and put it in the car. This is your emergency stash. What does this mean? 

If you had lunch and you are able to leave the office at a normal hour, you do not need this stash. But often it happens that this is not the case.

Therefore, if you had lunch, you had your 3-4pm apple, but you are now forced to stay until 8-9pm to work, you will arrive home probably by 10pm. You can not have a full meal at that hour. As a matter of fact, you can not eat 3 hours before you go to bed. So, instead, in this "emergency" situation, you can have an apple as you drive back home.

Second situation is of course if you did not have your 3-4pm apple, but you are leaving home at a decent hour or even early. In this case, the "emergency" stash will serve as your after lunch meal and the before dinner appetite killer. If you go for dinner on a stomach which only had lunch, you are very very likely to eat much more than you need. 

Remember the universal rule - eat often, but small amounts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner at home or restaurant is treated same as lunch. Better results are seen if you have the piece of meat only once per day not twice.

So there you have it, quick breakfast bar/apple/protein, meat/vegetable lunch, apple snack, (meat)/vegetable dinner, which makes it 4 meals a day because I am sure you will squize in another snack somewhere to reach the recommended 5 meals per day.

Improvements include:
- as mentioned, one vs. two meats per day
- 1 hour cardio exercise in the evening (example: jogging + music or stationary bike + movie). If you exercise 1 hour, drink 2 scoops (60 grams) of protein powder in the middle of your exercise.

Final words:
- Don't forget your needed 8 glasses of water per day
- When it comes to liquid, drink mostly water / fizzy water and diet sodas (as little as possible) and if you have to have alcohol pick white wine (the rule of alcohol = if you have to have it and you can not have the wine, pick the least sweet one with the least alcohol %)