Hillis Josh - Fat Loss Happens on Monday: Habit-Based Diet and Workout Hacks

Imagine two scenarios.

You come home at six oclock at night. The kids are crying, the dog needs to be fed; youre tired and cranky because you didnt plan your snack, so you ate some candy and drank a diet soda from the vending machine at four oclock in the afternoon.

Now your blood sugar is crashing. You open the refrigerator, but you didnt go to the market on Sunday and pre-prepare anythingso what do you?

Youre trying to decide on the flyyouve got to get dinner on the table for the family; youve got to get the dog fed. Youre calling for food delivery. In the meantime, youre stuffing a tortilla in your mouthnot because you love tortillas, but because your blood sugar is crashing and youre desperate to get it back up.

Imagine you open the fridge. Youre hungry and you know its going to take you 30 minutes to prepare dinner, but theres something you can nibble on thats not going to derail your plan.

You slice up a cucumber and have a little guacamole as youre preparing to put the chicken in the oven. And you can put the chicken in the oven because the chicken is there to be put in the oven.

You shopped the day before. You already marinated the chicken and all you have to do is take it out of the refrigerator and let it rest on the counter for a minute while you chop up the veggies, which have already been washed.

You turn on the oven, and youre eating your cucumber with guacamole while youre happily just catching up with your husband or while the dog sits next to you as you listen to music or chill in silence. Then you pop the chicken in the oven. Maybe you steam some broccoli or cauliflower and maybe make some rice if its on the plan that day, and then in 30 minutes it all comes together and you feel great.

You feel great, and its because strategy trumps willpower. You know its not about white knuckling, Dont eat the tortilla! Dont eat the tortilla! Dont eat the tortilla!

People are always unsuccessful when they wing it. So instead, you set yourself up to not be so ravenous that you stuff the tortilla in your mouth while youre standing in front of the refrigerator. You prepare so you have other options available.

Its not about deprivation. Mostly you wouldnt really have felt more excited to have the pizza delivery. Not only would the pizza delivery have derailed your fat-loss plan; it wouldnt even have made you happy.

The pizza might have gotten there fast, but its not something you would have enjoyed more than your simply prepared chicken. And now you feel good about yourself because youve done something youre committed tostaying on your plan. You feel proud of yourselfyou were able to get dinner in the oven and have it come out and taste good.

And it doesnt need to be fancy cheffy food. It just needs to be a home-cooked meal. Theres something so pleasurable about being able to feed yourself and your loved ones thats so much greater than eating the most delicious fast food. Theres something moreyoure happier with this food.

And it all comes down to planning and preparation and habits. You dont get that happiness if you didnt go to the market when you planned.

Everyone is busy. Whether you work full time or have kids or both, were all overcommitted and were all looking for ways to build a better quality of life through simplifying and taking better care of ourselves. And it really starts at the most basic essencefeeding oneself.

We need to feed ourselves in a way thats nourishing on every level.

• Nourishing in that we get the nutrients we need
• Nourishing in that we like it
• And nourishing in that it feeds our goals and who it is we said we want to be

Clients sometimes say, I cant be perfect all of the time. But its not about being perfect, and its not about a fear-based lifestyle. You can have lots of foods to choose from. It really comes down to having quality food on hand, and then choosing not to eat crap.

I think of a diet as a series of rules. Josh calls them habits, but its the same thing. If you have a series of rules or habits in place, the diet never ends. A vegetarian will never have to decide whether to order hamburger or steak. It doesnt come up; a vegetarian wont even look at that part of the menu.

When I go to a restaurant, I dont even look at the pasta and the macaroni and cheeses and the pizzas. Its not like its me fighting myself and working so hard to not eat it; its just that I have a rule that says I do better when I dont eat white-flour products.

When we have rules or habits in place, it takes away a struggle. The rules are the freedom.

And essentially, your diet, your plan means having some basic rules or habits in place. The rules are not to make you feel deprived in some way. Its exactly the oppositethese are your ticket to freedom. Once those habits are in place, everything else disappears. You dont ever have to struggle about food again.

We all have our own rulesI dont tell a lie; I dont steal. This is how society operatesrules make everything work. Its not bad to have those rules. We dont think, Oh my God, I hate that we have to stop at stop signs. I just want to roll through the stop signs. Im happy we have a rule to stop at stop signs so I know what everyone else is doing. Its the rules that make driving on our busy roads even possible.

We use rules like food prep on Sunday, wash and clean the vegetables as soon as you get home, always have water with you, make the diet the priority. Working out is very important also, but fat loss is determined by what you eat, which is really what Fat Loss Happens on Monday is all about.

This lifestyle gets easier as you abide by your rules or habits. And these habits make it easier to become the person you say you want to become. Every habit you have either moves you closer to or farther from becoming that person.

Josh and I met in person for the first time at a gathering of fitness professionals in Florida. That night at dinner was like we had known each other foreverJosh just plopped down and we started talking. His enthusiasm and passion for fitness was so clear and we connected immediately.

Josh really gets that everyone has the same struggles, because food and diet and exercise and bodies and self esteemits all messy stuff. And thats where he and I really connect, that we want to help people. We want to give people freedom from some of these struggles.