Read Chris Powell's Choose More, Lose More for Life Online
Authors: Chris Powell
Tags: #Health & Fitness / Diet & Nutrition / Weight Loss, #Self-Help / Motivational & Inspirational, #Health & Fitness / Exercise
Chris Powell's Choose More, Lose More for Life (15 page)
Now, let’s talk about reward
meals
. If you’re a little hesitant and want to ease into the program slowly, I recommend you follow the Easy Cycle, which allows you to eat a reward meal on each of your four weekly high-carb days. This helps you get through the week with
frequent rewards
so you can satisfy your cravings without cheating. With this approach, you never feel deprived. You won’t mess up, so it’ll be easier to keep carb cycling.
You’ll learn more about all this in the rundowns of the four carb cycles, but for now I’ll give you a handy chart (see opposite page) that recaps the reward basics.
Before you go food-crazy, though, I want you to do some soul searching. Ask yourself if anything you crave might be a slippery-slope food for you that you can’t stop eating once you get that first taste. Those are your
trigger foods
, and they can send your appetite and commitment into a tailspin! You should probably avoid those foods, to keep your rewards from turning into setbacks.
If you can’t shake a hankering for your trigger foods, explore other options that might satisfy your needs. Say you can’t resist potato chips. Try a different crunchy, salty snack, like pretzels or popcorn, instead. Pulling a switcheroo like this lets you
satisfy your appetite
while staying in control! Not every substitute will be a grand slam for your taste buds, but at least keep trying various options. If you need some ideas, check out our list of reward foods in Appendix C. Chances are, you’ll find something you enjoy
even more
than your old comfort food! You’ll most likely eat a little better, and you’ll stay off the slippery slope to trouble. Swapping out risky foods for safer—but still tasty—ones is a wonderful tactic for taking back your power over food instead of giving it power over you. Heck, carb cycling is all about tricking your body, so why not pull one more fast one?
Everyone
Now that you know what goes into a carb-cycling day, let’s find out how to turn those days into carb-cycling weeks. Depending on what you’re looking to accomplish and how fast you want to do it, there are all kinds
of ways to split up your week into high-carb and low-carb days (with reward days sprinkled in!). But you don’t have to figure out what’ll work best for you, because I’ve done all the heavy lifting for you! I’ve designed
four incredibly effective cycles
, and you get to choose the one that meets your needs. These cycles let you do all kinds of amazing things with your body, to upgrade it however you want—especially by losing weight. Awesome!
“Chris,” you might be saying, “How can I eat a bunch of carbs and lose weight?” I understand why you’re worried. Everywhere you look, you get the message that carbs are bad for you and that you should cut them out altogether. The fact of the matter, though, is that carbs are
amazing
for your body! Carbohydrates are your body’s super-premium fuel, and without that fuel your body won’t run properly.
That’s the key:
super-premium
fuel. You’ve got to eat the right kinds of carbs to keep your body purring. More often than not, we find ourselves eating the wrong carbs, and too much of them! Processed and refined carbohydrates—the bad stuff, like table sugar and refined flour—break down rapidly in your body, spiking your blood sugar and then crashing it. This causes uncontrollable cravings, which leads to overeating and a downward spiral. Can you guess what happens when your body takes in too many carbs? Your body ends up storing all those extra calories from carbs as
fat
.
But wait—your body’s designed to run on carbohydrates! What are you supposed to do? It’s a no-brainer: Eat
real
,
clean
,
natural
carbohydrates, and eat the right amount. Whole grains, beans, root vegetables, and fruits are the perfect fuel for your body. They’re packed with essential vitamins and minerals. They’re high in fiber, which keeps you feeling full and satisfied for a long time, without triggering cravings. You digest them more slowly, so they raise your metabolism and keep it going. Good carbs are
superfoods
. They taste great, they make you feel great, and they’re great fuel for your fat-burning metabolism!
Timing your meals can be confusing if you work odd hours. Carb cycling for shift workers is easy: No matter what time you wake up, aim to eat within thirty minutes, and then eat every three hours thereafter until you either go to bed or reach five meals for the day. Even if you sleep different hours on different days, keep the pattern: Eat within thirty minutes of waking and every three hours after. It couldn’t be less complicated.
No matter who you are, I’ve got a seven-day carb cycle that fits your lifestyle and your goals. Each one of us has a unique personality, a demanding schedule, family and work circumstances that might be less than perfect, and, of course, our own individual desires and dreams. Carb cycling may not work for you unless you can
customize
it to fit into your everyday life. Maybe you just have to have a little chocolate now and then but still want to lose weight. Maybe you’re in a competitive basketball league and need to maintain peak performance. Maybe you’re so sick and tired of the way you look and feel that you want to kick butt and lose your butt as fast as you can.
What would you say if I told you carb cycling can do all of these things? I’m handing you the tools, and you can do
anything
you want with them!
In my first book,
Choose to Lose
, I introduced you to my original carb cycle and outlined some variations so you could adapt carb cycling to your needs. That one-week cycle works so well that I’m bringing it back in this book, so even if you didn’t read
Choose to Lose
, you can learn what it’s all about. But the basic cycle might not line up with your situation, or maybe you’ve already been using it and you’re ready to move on. That’s why I’ve
developed three more carb cycles that focus on three
specific goals
—the ones that my clients most often ask me about. Whatever you’re hoping to achieve with carb cycling, one—or more!—of my four carb cycles will work for you.
You might be like a lot of other people and feel most comfortable going into a weight-loss program slow and easy. If that’s where you’re at, the
Easy Cycle
gives you more room to
eat your favorite foods
before you take any scary steps away from them—
if
you decide to take those steps at all. On every high-carb day you get a reward meal to eat whatever you want! And you get four high-carb days a week. Yum. You can stick with the Easy Cycle all the way down to your target weight, or you can switch to a faster cycle once you get used to the program and closer to your goal.
The
Classic Cycle
is where my program began, as I laid it out in
Choose to Lose
. Here, you get the straight seven-day plan that goes low-high-low-high-low-high-reward. Following this cycle is a wonderful way to learn about carb cycling, discover what it feels like, and determine how to fit it into your everyday life. Most people find that it’s a good place to begin, and they like the
quick results
. It’s dependable carb cycling that’ll strip those inches off like nobody’s business!
If you just can’t stand it anymore and want to drop your excess pounds ASAP, step up to the
Turbo Cycle
, an
extreme fat-burner
that gives you two low-carb days for every high-carb day, plus one reward day a week. It’s not for everyone, but boy, does it trim you down on the double! A lot of people feel fantastic on this cycle, which gives them the chance to demand the most of themselves and grab victory after victory. Not to mention that rapid weight loss. What a high!
You already challenge yourself every day if you’re a serious athlete, so you’ve got what it takes to do a little more. If you’re looking to
lean up
and drop a few pounds while still maintaining—or even enhancing—your optimal performance, you’ve come to the right place. The
Fit Cycle
regime flips the Turbo Cycle on its head, giving you two high-carb days for every low-carb day, plus that delicious reward day. It keeps your energy up so you can perform, and still get
ripped
!
Maybe after reading this quick rundown of the four carb cycles you know which cycle you’re going to follow. But maybe you’re kind of confused. Maybe you’re even thinking, “Hey! I want all the benefits of all the cycles!” But you know you can only do one cycle at a time, so you’re wondering, “Which cycle should I pick?” Let me help you narrow it down: Fill out the short questionnaire below to figure out which carb cycle will work the best for you.
| If this statement is true… | … circle the X’s in its row | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ↓ | ↓ | |||
| I’ve been able to stick with a diet in the past. | X | X | ||
| I want a more structured plan. | X | X | ||
| I want rapid weight loss. | X | |||
| I want to lose weight but reward myself regularly. | X | |||
| I choose to lose, but slow and steady is my pace. | X | X | ||
| I am very active and need sufficient energy. | X | |||
| I am training for an athletic event, but I want to lose weight. | X | |||
| I’m not very active at all. | X | |||
| I tend to yo-yo diet and I want to stop. | X | X | X | X |
| I’ve gotten pretty good results with diets I’ve tried before. | X | X | ||
| The original Choose to Lose cycle worked for me. | X | |||
| I’ve already hit my target, and I want to maintain my new weight. | X | X | ||
| I just want to feel healthier, but I don’t need to lose weight. | X | |||
| How many X’s did I circle in each column (add ’em up)? | ||||
| The biggest number shows the right carb cycle for me! | Easy | Classic | Turbo | Fit |
Millions of people have tried and failed and tried and failed to lose weight, and have yet to make it. Why? Because it was
just impossible
for them to give up their favorite foods for more than a week or two. Maybe you’re one of those people, and you can’t stand the thought of denying yourself all of the yummy stuff out there. For this very reason you’re convinced
you’ll never be able to stick with a diet. You’re afraid to even try, because it’ll wreck you to try and fail yet again.
But guess what? Carb cycling, especially the Easy Cycle, lets you achieve incredible weight-loss results without saying good-bye to the foods you love! We’re talking bacon.
We’re talking brownies and cheesecake and gelato
. That’s what the Easy Cycle is all about, so there’s no reason to be scared. You
will
be able to get going and keep going with it—without feeling deprived or hemmed in.
With the Easy Cycle, if you can’t have it today, you can always have it tomorrow. You get to
indulge every other day
, on your high-carb days. I have yet to meet anyone who tells me, “Gosh, I can’t do this, you know, I can’t wait till tomorrow.” I know you
can
.
All of a sudden, dieting tastes good. Even better, you’ll still lose weight! Will you lose it as quickly as you would on the other three carb cycles? Probably not. But you can feel confident that you’ll finally be able to slim down without feeling deprived.
How is this even possible? Well, when it comes to junk foods, you’ll be eating what you always have, but you’re going to eat less of it. For example, if you’re used to eating seven servings of ice cream a week, you can still eat four servings (one on each of your high-carb days, of course). On the low-carb days, you’ll keep your healthier nutrition dialed in, and that fat is just going to melt right off. So you better believe you’re going to see incredible results right away!