The Plan

Matthew Ward | May 06, 2019

Summer is just around the corner and it's time to get rid of the extra weight I've gained this winter. I could give you a whole list of excuses of why I've gained weight but that doesn't matter, now that I'm doing something about it. Over the next 12 week I will be documenting my progress while living the MattyRob Lifestyle. You will see first-hand what's involved and how easy it is to get your health on track. While I have some areas where I struggle, making this commitment will push me to improve every week, little by little. I've put this off for too long and it's always something I've wanted to achieve, but until now I've always thought it was too complicated, or easier not to. But I am determined to finally feel confident in my body and proud of the way I look. So here we go!

Nutrition

Health starts with nutrition. And a side effect of health is fat loss. When your body has the fuel it needs to function properly little things like: low energy, pain and stiffness just goes away. We are going to use the power of food to heal our bodies and improve our health.

Cooking has always been something I've struggled with. I never learned how to and I never took the time to learn. It's been my biggest struggle. But it's time to get over the fear of the kitchen and start preparing meals. For too long I've ignored thinking about food until I was hungry. Getting to the point where I am starving and it turns into finding what's easiest instead of what's best.

I will be following a Low Glycemic Impact meal plan. The reason I choose low glycemic over all the other trends in the fitness industry is because it makes the most sense. And there is no need to make adjust based on your body type. Understanding how food is digested and impacts your blood sugar levels will tell you how that food will affect your body. The lower the impact to your blood sugar levels the better it is for weight management. When blood sugar rises quickly, your body increases insulin production telling your body to store fat. Sticking with foods that have a minimal impact on your blood sugar will help keep your body in fat burning mode.

Over the next 12 weeks I will be trying many different recipes that are low glycemic. Since my skills in the kitchen are very basic at the moment I will be starting off with easy recipes. Each week trying something a little more challenging until I feel confident that I can make any recipe I come across. I will also be using the next 12 weeks to find recipes to fall in love with. Open my taste buds to new things and find some new favorites. That doesn't mean I have to totally give up on my old favorites. Once I reach my goal, I can have them once in a while as a treat.

Exercise

A few weeks ago I joined the gym with one of my friends. It's the first time in my life I actually started going to the gym regularly and following a plan. While I've done exercise before, I've always been afraid to go to an environment surrounded by other people who know what they are doing and I know nothing. Going with a friend was the only reason I joined. I needed someone to go with and keep me accountable.

For the next 12 weeks I will be following a beginner plan I found online. I'll be focusing on one group of muscles per workout and then doing 25 minutes of cardio after. I've been doing this in pieces over the last few weeks to get used to the movements and understand how the machines work. I need to build up muscle, because that's what burns fat as well as do cardio because that's what gets the blood pumping and improves circulation. While I'm no expert in the gym I feel this is a good place to start and in a few weeks I can adjust as needed.

Sleep

One thing that I don't focus on is how much sleep I get. I find I want to stay up later and later every night to do that things I can't do during the day at work. This becomes a problem when my alarm goes off in the morning. I want to stay up later and get up earlier. But it can't go both ways. Over the next 12 weeks I am going to focus on getting 8 hours of sleep per night. I remember back when I was getting up at 4:30 AM in the morning for work and falling asleep at 9:00 PM. I was the most well rested I'd ever been in my life. I need to get back to that. Bedtime will be 11:00 PM and the alarm will be going off around 7:00 AM. When I say bedtime I mean in bed, lights out, phone off, eyes close and ready to dream. And when I say alarm goes off at 7:00 AM that means I get up and start my day. No pressing the snooze button until I'm 20 minutes late for work every morning.

To accomplish this I will be winding down 30 before I go to bed. Then I'll be drinking my sleepy time cocktail of vitamins. In the morning when I hear the alarm I'll be forced to get out of bed to turn it off because I'm moving my phone to the other side of my bedroom. Then I'll give myself a few minutes to wake up and get my day started. Then it's off to the shower.

Hydration

For the majority of the day I will be drinking water. About 3 liters worth. That's about 90 ounces. That's the right amount to get my body in fat burning mode. To make sure I get this much water in each day I will drink a one liter bottle between breakfast and lunch. Another bottle between lunch and dinner. And a final bottle after dinner. I've been doing this for a while now and it usually works out perfectly. Some days I'm not as thirsty so I may drink less. But I will try to keep up with this amount of water.

Journaling

Another important part to all of this is journaling. It's important to keep track of what you're doing so you can look back and analyze your progress. See where you are falling short and where you are doing well. If your numbers on the scale or measurements aren't changing you will be able to see where you need to focus. For this portion I will be using my phone to record short clips throughout the day and then posting them to Instagram TV. So you can follow along with me. Now this is something I've never done before so there might be a slight learning curve but once I get used to it I think I'll like it! You can check me out on Instagram @mattyroblife

Come back next Monday to see the results from my first week! And any words of encouragement and support at appreciated.