Fat Loss Is About Mindset And Preparation

These 7 Items Will Help Keep You On Track With Your Fat Loss

The goal for getting stage-ready in a bodybuilding show is to maximize fat loss while maintaining as much muscle as possible. In this post, I’m going to share with you the items that made my life easier when I was cutting/prepping for my first bodybuilding show. I’m not going to lie. It took me a while to get my routine down. Once I did, food prep was much easier. The items listed in this post were critical to me staying on track and not losing my mind.

MyFitnessPal

Let’s start with the app MyFitnessPal. This little app on your phone is awesome. I’m sure there are other apps out there, but this one worked awesome for me. I was able to track my Calories, Protein, Carbs, and Fat intake each day. This app makes it super easy for you to record your meals and will help you stay on track towards your fat loss.

Most of my meals were something that I cooked at home. Occasionally I would buy something at the store if I was in a pinch and forgot a meal at home or needed something to hold me over. One of the awesome features of this app is that if this happens to you, you can scan the bar code on the item you’re buying a the store and it will pull up all the nutritional details of that item and enter it into your food journal.

Another feature that is awesome about this app is that you can see your food log day by day or you can see what your seven day average looks like. This was great for checking in with a coach. You can just take a screen shot of your averages and send. This way your coach can see how your diet has been and make the necessary tweaks to keep you on track.

Food Scale

The food scale is necessary. I literally weighed out everything that went into my mouth. I wanted to make sure that every calorie, every gram of protein, carbs, or fats was accounted for.

The two scales pictured above worked great for me. I used the Escali, the bigger of the two, at home. I used this one for most of my meal prep. Whatever I cooked went from the pot to the scale, to the plate or storage container.

The smaller food scale lives in my bag and goes to work with me. I take this one in case I need to weigh something I might have purchased or I didn’t get to weigh before. The Smart Weigh is great for family or friend functions as well. It could almost pass for a cell phone and as long as you don’t bust it out in the middle of the table nobody will notice that you are weighing your food.

 Instant Pot

I can’t say enough about the Instant Pot. Anybody that was around me when I was on my fat loss prep for the bodybuilding competition knew I had bought one and how much I loved it.

This appliance cut the time of prepping and cooking my meals in half. I could throw thawed or frozen chicken into the pot. Add some spices, water, or chicken broth, turn it on, and then go shower and get my things ready for the next day. I would come back downstairs and my chicken would be ready for me to weigh and separate into meals for the next day.

My only regret is not buying it sooner. I probably went 11 out of the 15 weeks without it. This really was a game-changer for me. I ate a lot of rice, vegetables, and sweet potatoes during these 15 weeks. Cooking sweet potatoes took about half the amount of time too.

Not only was it quick, but I didn’t have to worry about burning the chicken or anything I was cooking in it either. And on top of that, the clean-up afterward is easy too. It turns itself off and then you just pull the pot out and clean it. Then it’s ready for the next time.

Food Storage Containers

Food storage containers are a must! I used whatever I had available in our house. We have a mix of different ones as I’m sure most families do. Some containers I had never seen before and randomly showed up in our cabinet.

I think food storage containers are a lot like socks. It can be hard to keep sets together. I can find a lid but not the container or vice versa. I think lids go off to die with one of my socks.

Anyway, For the next time, I will invest in more of the glass type with lids that snap down. I found that these were great for keeping my food fresh and I didn’t have to worry about them opening up in my bag if I threw my bag into the truck.

Insulated Lunch Bag

This is another must if you are like me and constantly running around. Some mornings I would leave my house at 5:30 am and not get to another refrigerator until around 9 or 9:30 am.

If you have multiple meals, it will need to be big enough to hold all the meals that you have to pack while you’re away from home. My lunch bag would be slightly heavy in the morning but by nighttime, it was light.

Once again, I used what I had at the house, but I would definitely consider buying a nicer one that has individual pockets for each meal.

After looking around I really like the Fitmark bags. They have food storage containers that fit in an insulated bag.

 Rice Cooker

For my carb sources, I ate a lot of rice, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and fruit on this diet. Having a quickly digestible carb always ready to make meals made food prep quick and easy. The rice cooker below made it super easy to have rice on hand.

I would usually cook one to two cups of dry rice in this rice cooker and it would give me at least a couple days worth of carbs. All I had to do was scoop it out into my food storage container, add my protein, and boom, I was done.

Solid Reason (Your Motivation)

Sticking to a fat loss diet, or any diet for the matter will take dedication and willpower. For many of you, you need a solid reason to do it. This bodybuilding competition was my solid reason. I knew there wasn’t any way I was going to step out on the stage and not be stage-ready.

I also thought about how good I would feel when I accomplished my goal. The great thing about that is that when I did… It actually felt better than I imagined. Some people can be motivated by thinking about how they would feel if they didn’t accomplish their fat loss goal. And how that would feel.

Either way, make sure you have a solid reason why fat loss is important to you. “Just because” won’t cut it.

I follow a successful entrepreneur, Ed Mylett, who shared his reason for getting in shape. He said the doctor told him if he kept going the way he was going, he wouldn’t be around to see his daughter’s wedding.

Some of you might be in the same boat. If that isn’t powerful enough or a solid reason enough. Then, I don’t know what it is.

Conclusion

Find your why for what you are trying to accomplish. And then set yourself up for success by being prepared. This list of items isn’t the end all be all, but they will help you along the way. The items I listed here were essential to keeping me on track with my fat loss.

I have never been more shredded in my life. Even my daughter who is was barely over a year would say, “DADA RIPPED” and slap her belly. That alone kept me fired up and focused.

How about you?

What are the items that help you stay on track?

What do you believe are the reasons you fall off your diet?

Comment below.

I want to hear your thoughts.