Time to Diet Up for Summer...

Round 2 on the Four Hour Body

Wait, it’s spring already? If you’re like me, you’ve probably picked up a little winter weight and might now be realizing you need to get it off!

I need to be ready for a marathon in May, the beach on Memorial Day, and beginning to train for the Savageman 1/2 Ironman! Sure, I’ve been keeping up with a lot of the physical stuff I do, but my diet has definitely fallen to the weigh side.

For the most part, I try to eat pretty clean by avoiding too many white carbs, access sugar, and empty calories. When I’m not eating clean I feel tiered, slow, and tight in my joints. Lately, I’ve been less strict and it’s starting to take a tool! Last week I decided I had to change things up.

A few years back, I really enjoyed following Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour Body program. Like most of Tim’s stuff, the core content is excellent (though some of it is a stretch). Because it’s simple, and encourages clean eating, I decided to give it another go. I’ll be posting about my progress and encourage you to either follow along, or start a new program of your own!

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​Below are the 5 rules of the 4-Hour Body plan. Over the next few weeks, I’ll review my progress and break down each of the rules (including those which I follow strictly, those I cheat on). As always, if you have any thoughts or questions, please share them in the comments section below, or shoot me an email. You can also read my original series of posts about the 4-Hour Body on my old blog, OverKillIsUnderRated.blogspot.com.

Rules of the Plan

1. Avoid White Carbs
2. Eat the Same Foods (Makes planning easy)
3. Don’t Drink Calories (I make an exception for Shakeology)
4. Don’t Eat Fruit (a hard sell, but I’m following this one for now)
5. Take Off One Day per Week

Supplements
The 4-Hour Body recommends 4 supplements. Last time around I didn’t use them, this time around I will be using them for the first month. I won’t get into exactly why these supplements are recommended, but you can get that info in the book.

They are:

1. Policosanol
2. Alpha Lipoic Acic (ALA)
3. Green Tea Extract
4. Garlic Extract

I grabbed a combo stack on Amazon, but will probably buy each supplement separate if I decided to keep using them.

The only other supplements I’m taking on a regular basis are Shakeology (which has replaced the need for my daily multivitamin, probiotic, cordyceps mushroom extract, and echinacea), goldenseal when I’m feeling sick, and sometimes an extra probiotic.

What Do You Eat?
So you’re probably wondering, "what do you eat?" To see exactly what I’m stuffing my face with, check out my nutrition log which has details from Sunday 13-Mar to Friday 18-Mar (I didn’t fully log Saturday since it was the “one day off”). You can see my log here.

That’s it, like I said, let me know what you’re doing to get in shape for the summer!