5 Strategies to burn fat during our 30 day challenge

I love the 30 day challenges. I feel this is the perfect time of the year to refocus my energy on my health and fitness.  Even though I own a gym, my training and diet has been less than ideal lately.  Working 15 hour days, having a newborn at home and running my own business doesn’t help.  I’m not making excuses (or complaining, my life is pretty cool), but I haven’t been at my best.  So I’m taking this challenge seriously, I hope you are too.

With my busy lifestyle, I look for any tips/hacks to burn fat and build more muscle without having to train any more than I currently am (who’s got the time!).  I also can’t spend three hours in the kitchen every day to cook meals, so I look for diet cheats as well.

So I’ve done heaps of research and did heaps of thinking (that’s probably bad English) on how I can maximise my results during this 30 days.  Which means building muscle and burning fat! 

Here are the 5 things I’ve decided to do to get results without impacting my work, kids and life:

1)      Cold Showers every morning:  During my morning shower, I’m going to add 30 sec bursts of cold water.  Exposure to cold (or cold thermogenises) is proven to increase metabolism, decrease fat levels and improve your immune system.  This is not fun!  But I’ll be doing 2 x 30 sec every morning

2)      Replace one coffee per day with a green tea:  Everyone knows I love my coffee and will NEVER give it up.  But I will replace one a day with a green tea.  Green tea is widely known as a weight loss tool.

3)      Brush my teeth as soon as I finish dinner:  I am not immune to snacking or eating chocolate after I finish dinner every night.  It is totally normal to crave something sweet after we eat dinner as we have habitually eaten dessert regularly throughout our lives.  Hence, our tastebuds only feel a meal is complete once we’ve eaten something sweet.  So, I’m going to brush my teeth as soon as I finish my meal and that’ll be my signal to say no more food or drink (other than water) to be consumed.

4)      10 – 15 min light aerobic activity after dinner:  Doing light activity after dinner and before bed has been shown in studies to be the best way to regulate our blood sugar levels!  Think about it, is it good to eat a big dinner and then sit down and sleep for the next 10 hours?  Now, light aerobic activity can be a light walk, playing with your kids, stretches or calisthenics on the lounge room.  Doesn’t need to be intense.  Just active.  What will I do?  I’ll be doing light stretches and foam rolling whilst watching Home and Away with the wife (I hate that show but she loves it….poor Alf is still in Summer Bay)

5)      One 18-24 hour fast per week:  Ok this is a bit extreme and read on with caution.  The buzz word in the health and fitness world is Intermittent Fasting!  It is shown to burn fat, replenish dead body cells fast, anti aging and anti cancer!  So once a week, I’ll have dinner early (say 6pm) and then not eat anything apart from black coffee or tea (ie. No calories) until at least 12pm the next day.  Now, this is something I’m doing and is not for everyone.  Check with your GP or get clearance before trying this.

So there you have it.  What strategies are you going to use?

Jerome Samaha