5 Easy Steps to Reset Your Metabolism After Eating Crap
When you travel a lot you have to be very creative with your nutrition, especially if you’re living a healthy lifestyle, or if you’re a fitness professional like myself. Since I knew I was heading out to New Jersey and New York for one week I decided to be more strict with my nutrition a month before the trip to allow myself some “cheat” meals.
The food choices in New York are insane, there’s just too many options and I like to give myself some flexibility when I’m traveling.
However, I was having sensory overload and said screw it! Yes, my name is Rommel Acda, I’m a fitness professional and I ate like SHIT for a week! Not only did I eat crap, but since I was on a business trip networking I boozed it up too!
I didn’t go overboard with the alcohol, but when combined with fatty foods well, that’s just a major double whammy to your midsection (This is where you sing NSync’s “Bye, Bye, Bye” to my flat stomach).
Photo Credit: h33dude
Right about now my clients who are reading this are saying “But yeah Rommel, you can eat like that, you have a fast metabolism!” I may have a raging metabolism, but if you paid attention to the video in my last post you should understand by now that you CANNOT out train a bad diet.
“But you still must have worked out hard while on your trip, because you’re always working out, and that would help offset the bad food a little wouldn’t it?” Umm…asides from walking about 3 miles on most days, and then maybe 5 miles for three days straight in Manhattan, in my opinion, that activity doesn’t even come close to one of my 15-minute workouts.
So let’s just say I didn’t do crap in terms of activity, and like I said earlier you still CANNOT out train a bad diet.
Anyway, what I really wanted to talk about was how to reset your metabolism and your body after coming back from fat producing trips like the one I just had.
Photo Credit: Tian
Here are my 5 simple “reset” tips:
- Consume two meal replacement shakes in place of breakfast and dinner
- 2-3 meals should be leafy green salads with lean proteins (use extra virgin olive oil & vinegar, or a “goddess” style dressing if you prefer the creamy stuff)
- Lots and lots of water (shoot for 64-80 ounces)
- Almonds to help cut cravings between meals (6-8 almonds is good) or all-natural peanut butter
- EFA’s or Fish Oils (3-6 grams for the day)
Here’s what a sample day would look like for me:
Meal 1 (Breakfast): Meal Replacement Shake – Biotest Metabolic Drive or Prograde Lean (typically in 16oz of water), plus 1 EFA capsule
Meal 2: Salmon Nicoise Salad, plus 8-10 oz of water
Meal 3: Grilled Chicken Salad, 6-8 almonds on the side, plus 8-10 oz of water and 1 EFA capsule
Meal 4 (post-workout): Biotest Metabolic Drive or Prograde Lean (typically in 16oz of water)
Meal 5: same as meal 4, but I’ll add Trader Joe’s Valencia Peanut Butter with Flax Seeds for a bit of a treat, OR another big leafy green salad like Steak Salad with Peanut Vinaigrette and Cilantro, plus 1 EFA capsule
Meal 6 (pre-bedtime snack): 1 tablespoon of Trader Joe’s Valencia Peanut Butter with Flax Seeds if I don’t add this to Meal 5, plus 8-10 oz of water
The above is a simple format that I learned from a registered dietitian, and I’ve discovered it works really well not only on myself, but with my clients.
It’s not rocket science, it’s essentially helping your body reset by consuming high quality nutrients without fat-storing insulin spikes from starchy carbs.
The process varies per individual, and I’ve noticed that I’m back on track after three days of incorporating this routine.
The lesson here – You can’t be strict 100% of the time, but as long as you have and understand the game plan for optimal nutrition it’s easy to get back on track. Don’t stress yourself out by feeling you can’t enjoy certain food pleasures every now and then.
Let me know if this post was helpful for you and leave me a comment.
Have a great weekend!
- Rommel
I love hitting “reset” after a trip! I was traveling last week and again this weekend and it’s close to impossible to maintain my dietary standards when I am not at home. My quick fix for resetting my metabolism is an 18-24 hour fast. It clears the slate and gets me back in the right frame of mind.
@Jessica – Intermittent fasting works really well. Have you read Brad Pilon’s “Eat Stop Eat”?
@Rommel Acda – Yes, I have read it. I prefer a Mon-Fri routine of fasting for 14-18 hours rather than 24 hrs 2 times a week. It works better for me. But usually what happens is I manage to get in one 20-24 hour fast every week on a day when I just don’t feel hungry and the other days are about 17-18 hours. I try to be very flexible and follow my body’s signals as this is for my HEALTH and not for weigh loss or to prove my will power, you know?
It’s good to hear that you listen to your body. Gotta find what works best, tune into that, then fine tune it as we make progress. It’s always a learning process, but that’s what makes it fun. At least for me.
Question…on the fish oil…does it need to be one of those 2. I’d like to start this ASAP. I bought some high quality fish oil..will that work? I’d like to try all the prograde products, but can’t really afford to do it right now (being close to Christmas). I hope you see this..I just noticed how old the previous posts are!!
@Caity – Stick with the fish oil you bought for now, and then transition to krill oil when you can simply because you’ll get more anti-oxidant value out of krill oil.
You can get good quality krill oil from here, http://krilloil.mercola.com/krill-oil.html?aid=CD847&gclid=CMjf1PKXqKUCFQYHbAodR0hzJw
However, the more important thing is that you stay consistent with whichever option of EFA’s you decide to use. Yes, the research says that krill oil is supposed to be superior, but again there are many variables, namely supportive nutrition that will ultimately dictate how your body metabolizes these nutrients so it’s not so black and white.
Eat supportively for your goal, be consistent with all the components in your health and fitness routine and you’ll see awesome results.
Hope that helps, and thanks for posting!
Rommel
Wow, thanks for the super fast reply! Will look into krill oil. I have to be careful b/c I’m allergic (mildly) to shellfish.
I’m not sure I can do 2 protein shakes a day! I’m full on salad!
Question- about how many calories per protein shake would you recommend? I’m planning on getting into the prograde stuff, but I’m using what I have and can get quickly and locally right now (with Thanksgiving NEXT week!!).. I’m 5’4″, about 125 and am a triathlete… in off season now so mostly running & swimming. Will add biking on the trainer back in soon.
THANKS AGAIN! You’re blog, etc has been a big’ole help!
@Caity – Sorry it took me so long to reply, darn Thanksgiving break
Stick to basic fish oil, or maybe even a blend of EFA’s designed specifically for women, which you can find here ==> http://www.barleans.com/essential.asp
Don’t stress about the 2 shakes. If you’re ok with eating your protein with salads that works just fine, besides you’ll achieve a greater “thermic effect” with whole foods anyway.
But, to answer your question on calories per shake I would say at least 200 calories with the protein averaging around 15-20 grams. As for protein powders I recommend Prograde, Biotest Metabolic Drive, or Sun Warrior (my new favorite, especially since it’s gluten free, and probably the best quality of the 3).
Thanks for posting your questions, and thanks for the feedback! Glad to help!
Rommel
how long do you do this regime for?
thanks,
d
@d
2-3 days is good enough. However, I’ve experimented with a version of intermittent fasting that I found (as well as my personal clients) to be more effective and involves less work.
Feel free to PM for more info or if you have more questions!
Thanks!
Rommel
Rommel, I am very overweight. I have terrible cravings. I am going to try to reset my metabolism with your plan, but the one problem I see is that I have kids and lots of carbs in the house. I can’t get away from it. It can be expensive to eat healthy and the kids need carbs, plus fish is costly after a couple meals. My plan is to have fish 1-2 times a week with the kids and eat a lot of salad. Do you think that will work with incorporating the almonds to help with the cravings and the Tbsp. of peanut butter to help with the hunger? I’m worried mainly because it has been such a challenge for me and I have about 60 pounds to lose.
@Elizabeth
I apologize for the late reply. I just got back from a business trip and am now getting caught up on comments and email responses.
For the carbs keep it simple and incorporate adding more whole grain or gluten free carb choices that way you don’t have to stress over not havingcarbs. So the mindset here is simply just to make better food choices that are similar to what you already eat. This is the first step.
As for the fish, honestly the simpler thing here is to go to Costco and get a bottle of fish oil capsules and start with 3 per day (with a meal). Women need minimum 3-6 grams of fish oil to start, and it’s more bang for buck vs eating whole fish when you’re on a budget. Again, this is just to get you started, but if you can, by all means start incorporating more fish into your nutrition.
As for the salad, start with a small one with EACH meal, however you must eat it prior to your meals. Try to stick to oil/vinegar or “Goddess” type dressings as they are the healthier options, but be mindful of not drowning your salads in them. So be sensible on that, as well as making sure that you have dark leafy greens and lots of spinach in your salad.
Lastly, Costco also sells a product called CinSulin by TruNature. All it is is a cinnamon bark extract nutritional supplement, and if you do your research on cinnamon’s benefits you’ll find that it helps blunt blood sugar spikes along with other benefits. This is important, because one of the reasons the body stores more fat is from huge blood sugar spikes due to the consumption of excess starchy carbs. So to help combat that effect, take the CinSulin prior to eating your salads, and then eat your normal meal AFTER the salad.
Again, these are not quick fixes, but small steps to help your body manage blood sugar levels first, and ease you into making better choices. Once you start to feel better, and healthier, more energized you’ll discover it’s a lot easier to make healthier choices. But I like to take an “ease” you in type of approach, because if you take too many things away and feel a sense of “losing control” you’re more likely not to do it, wouldn’t you agree?
So start with these small steps, and feel free to let you know if you have more questions.
I’m happy to help!
All the best,
Rommel
I found your blog site on google and check a couple of of your early posts. Proceed to keep up the excellent operate. I just extra up your RSS feed to my MSN Information Reader. Looking for forward to studying more from you afterward!… copia catalogo orologi di lusso
This website article is indeed helpfull, i believe let me much better only book mark this web site immediately
I was turned to your article by a friend. You’re article seems very helpful.
I recently went through a “downer” phase and gain ALOT of weight, about 100lbs.
I’m 18, about 5’3 and over 240 pounds now. I try to eat healthy but I’m surrounded by carbs due to having my little nephew (who needs the carbs and loves the snacks) living with us. I’m looking into resetting and starting anew. I’m looking into buying the fish oil capsules and eating more salads, but what more can I do?
I am a health and wellness fanatic and it’s extremely crucial to me that people find out how to eat right and stay toned. Although it does not matter to a great deal of other people, eating healthy foods as well as keeping fit is really crucial to me. It’s so sad that there are
so numerous people nowadays that do not care about consuming foods that are healthy and balanced or about keeping fit.