6 Strategies To Help You Limit The Fat Gain From Summertime BBQs!
By Eugene Thong
...............................................................................
This is probably
one of my favorite topics to talk about since it seems to rear its
ugly head around about this time each and every single freaking year. Come summertime, come barbeques.
And come fat
accumulation,
especially around the waistline!
Just about all of
my fat loss clients ask me how they can avoid undoing all their
hard-earned results during the inevitable torrent of weekend BBQ
bashes without being a party pooper.
Well, their wishes (and
yours) are my command.
Here’s a condensed
list of my top suggestions to clients on how they can avoid a
serious case of the Summertime Blues from backyard BBQ fat gain:
1)
Don’t drink your calories.
The number one
source of excess calories from BBQ bashes unquestionably comes
from the consumption of calorie-containing fluids (soda,
fruit juices, beer, mixed drinks), because it’s so easy to consume
vast quantities of calories without even realizing it!
First
off, it’s hot, and you’re thirsty.
Second, the
primary source of calories in these drinks is carbohydrates (simple
sugars, to boot), so they raise your insulin level, making you even
more hungry and thirsty and ultimately causing you to consume more
food and drink than you normally would.
Third, generally
speaking, calorie-containing drinks (due to the sugars they contain)
are mighty tasty, so you drink more than you normally would (I have
a friend from college who can polish off an entire case of Snapple
ice teas in the course of an afternoon BBQ).
Stick to water,
flavored with some lemon or lime if you like, or carbonated (i.e.,
seltzer, Perrier). Mike is partial to Crystal Light.
Choose your own favorite option – non-caloric, please.
2)
Use Mike
Collins’
green apple trick.
Mike wrote about
this strategy in our book,
The Black Book of
Secrets, and reflected
on its
great success in this article, but it bears repeating (because
it works). Simply eat one or two green apples prior to heading
out for the BBQ and you’ll be less tempted to binge on the
offerings.
Why? And for
heaven’s sake, why green apples?
No complex
cellular mechanism behind this one, I’m afraid – by not arriving at
the BBQ famished, your reptilian hindbrain is less likely to be
overwhelmed by the smells and sights of the delicious food laid out
before your eyes. Simply put, you’ll eat less because you’re
not as hungry. Green apples work best for this particular
brand of “pre-gaming” because:
Mike tells me
grapefruit works just as well (because the essential oil in
grapefruit rind also acts as an appetite suppressant, even if you
just smell it), but I don’t like grapefruit, so we’ll just
ignore him.
3)
Pretend you’re a
caveman.
Ok, let’s all
agree NOT to make any Geico jokes or references. Wait, did I
mess that one up already?
Pretending you’re
a caveman means that you’d eat only what a caveman would have –
namely, leafy vegetables, water, fruit, and meat.
Cavemen didn’t eat
bread or other grain sources, as the invent of milling and baking
was a few years off yet, and your body can’t digest or use
unprocessed grains (ever try chewing on a piece of raw rice? I
wouldn’t recommend starting now if you haven’t).
Cavemen also
didn’t drink beer (not invented yet), eat ice cream (ditto), French
fries (raw potatoes will kill you), or pasta salad (Marco Polo
wouldn’t sail to the East for a few thousand years yet).
If I were to lay
it out for you in a list, it would look something like this:
So, to recap: Eat
meat, leaves, berries, and drink water. Yes, cooked meat – and
you don’t have to hunt for and kill it yourself.
4)
Avoid the
snack table like the plague.
If a food is in your
vicinity, you will eventually eat it. I’m afraid we’ll have to
make the snack table off limits, then. The lone exception:
veggie platter or fruit bowl.
5)
Use sniper
tactics.
How does a sniper take
down his quarry? One at a time.
Use this same strategy
when eating from the grill. Resist the temptation to fill up your
plate with 2 burgers, 4 hot dogs, 3 wings, etc. Take one burger.
Don’t take another piece of food until you finish it. You’re
allowed only one thing at a time.
Why? By dragging
out the time it takes you to eat, your stomach has time to signal to
your brain that you’re full (it’s estimated that it takes a full 20
minutes for this signal to trigger satiety).
Taking more time to
eat will result in you eating less.
6)
Take a cue
from Bugs Bunny.
Divide up your food
the same way Bugs Bunny divvies up the share of ill-gotten loot:
“One for you, one for
me. Two for you, one, two, three for me…”
In other words, for
each “bad food” you eat, eat an equal volume of “good food.” Stack
the deck in favor of the good food.
For example:
You eat a burger.
(“One for you”)
You then eat a
plateful of salad. (“One for me”)
You decide to have a
few barbeque ribs (“Two for you”)
You chase it with
another plateful of salad, a slice of watermelon, and a few baby carrots
from the crudite plate. (“One, two, three for me”)
…if you can even get
that far. Of course, it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here –
instead of indulging in all of your “forbidden
foods,” you’re limiting the damage done by including fruit, vegetables,
and other high nutrient, low calorie fare – a concept called “calorie
dilution.”
Of course, just about
all these strategies assume that there are healthier options available.
If you or your host’s menus consist solely of “Burgers, Buns, and Beer”,
then allow me to facetiously add Strategy #7 to the list:
7)
Call up The
Pump, Josie’s, Eva’s, or health food store of your choosing, and get an
express delivery. And remember to plan better next time.
Seriously though, we
can appreciate the importance of treating yourself once in awhile.
Aren’t you allowed to be human? Shouldn’t you be allowed to enjoy
yourself once in awhile? Of course. But we’ve got a job to
do here – to get and keep you mean and lean! And I think you’ll
agree with me that looking and feeling great is worth forsaking a burger
or beer for.
P.S.
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About the Author:
Eugene Thong, CSCS, was born a weak, skinny,
bespectacled child. Now, thanks to a steady diet of martial arts, scientific
inquiry, and heavy compound movements, he's no longer weak. His scientific
bent, Zen-like demeanor, and efficient but intense methods have made him one
of New York's most sought-after personal trainers.
 When
not helping clients cultivate their own inner 6-packs, Eugene can be found
arm barring opponents at Renzo Gracie's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy or
sailing through the air on his snowboard. Read Eugene's semi-weekly musings
on exercise, fitness, and fat loss
at his blog
Eugene is Mike's co-author of The Black Book of Secrets. You can purchase
it by clicking
here.
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