Contents
Copyright 2016 by Erin Oprea
Foreword copyright 2016 by Carrie Underwood
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Harmony Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
Harmony Books is a registered trademark, and the Circle colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Oprea, Erin.
The 4 4 diet / Erin Oprea. First edition.
pages cm
1. Weight loss. 2. Reducing exercise. 3. Reducing dietsRecipes.
I. Title. II. Title: Four by four diet.
RM222.2.O67 2016
613.25dc23
2015030824
ISBN9781101903087
eBook ISBN9781101903094
Photographs by Carla Lynn Photography
Cover design by Christopher Brand
v4.1_r1
a
This book is dedicated to my mother, Ann. For more years than is fair she has been my sounding board. When I need advice, encouragement, a taste-tester, an honest eye, someone to talk me off a ledge, and even someone to help me leap, she has never flinched. I wrote a book, Mom. Did you see that coming? This, in honor of you.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you!
Katy LindenmuthTeamBook captain, certified bada$$ writer and friend. Thank you for keeping your cool around me not keeping mine. Oh, and for helping me with the entire book!
Ann StewartMom, youve been amazing for me.
SeanThank you for your endless love and support throughout this process. I couldnt have done it without your creativity, your dedication, and most importantly your patience. I love you!
Hunter and HaydenI love you both so much. Thank you for being patient (mostly) with me during all my long workdays.
Carla LynnYour attention to detail and support of my vision did not go unnoticed.
My clientsThank you for all your support. You hear about my whole life and hold no judgment, only encouragement. You would be surprised to know how much I value your opinions. Even if you think Im cruel and unusual during our workouts.
Courtney CainGirl, youve seen my crazy. Good thing Ive seen yours too. Thank you for everything.
Randy WordDid you know that you were the one that sparked this whole idea? Probably not, youre very reserved. Thank you, Randy.
Sarah and MichaelThank you both for grounding me and for your willingness to meet up at the drop of a hat. Having friends that you can count on to be exactly what you need, where you need them, and who have a complete willingness to share appetizers is invaluable.
FOREWORD
Its my personal belief that people take special care of the things that they love. Whether its a car thats constantly being cleaned and waxed, a dream house that took years to save up for, or even a pair of shoes or a handbag by an it designer that makes every night out feel special. The bottom line is: If you love it, you want to keep it in pristine condition so itll last forever. If we treat the things that we love like theyre made of gold, why dont we treat our bodies like the amazing, powerful gifts that they are? It seems like, in todays world, we are constantly being told to love ourselves and to love our bodies. Of course we should! Our bodies can do incredible things! So why do we take them for granted? Why do we fill our bodies with food and drink that will harm them? Why dont we fuel them right, push them to their limits, make them strong, and make the most of what they can do? It took me asking these questions of myself to make a change in my own life. Once I realized that I did, in fact, love my body and myself, I decided that I was going to treat myself like the awesome person that I am with this one body that I have! I began with drinking more water, reading food labels, and questioning what was in the foods that I ate. I also decided to start working out more. And, soon after, that is when I met Erin Oprea.
Ive had the pleasure of working with Erin for many years now and her approach to food, fitness, and overall health has not only been effective, but its practical as well. Erin has taught me a lot about physical fitness and has helped me move from dieting to maintaining a consistent healthy lifestyle. The 4 4 Diet is a philosophy that anyone can implement into their daily lives in order to change the way they think about what they put into their bodies. Its not a dietits a lifestyle. Because if you treat your body like you love it, it will love you back!
Good luck on your journey! May your body reach its full potential, and may you reap all the benefits that treating yourself well can bring!
Carrie Underwood
INTRODUCTION
When I started my personal training career twenty years ago, never in my wildest dreams did I think I would someday be working with celebrities like Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Nettles, and Lee Ann Womack. But by developing and implementing my proven training method, the 4 4 Diet, Ive helped my clients sculpt and maintain the toned physiques theyve become famous for.
Sounds glamorous, right? Well, not exactlya more apt description would be constant, organized chaos. My workday begins at 3:30 a.m. and consists of back-to-back clients until dinnertime. I essentially live out of my car during the day, so I keep it stocked with all the meals, snacks, water, and workout equipment I may need. After a quick, healthy dinner at home, my whole family heads out the door for our evening activitieseither my two sons have a couple of hours of soccer practice or my husband and I have a soccer game of our own. By the time we get back home, its time for bed so I can wake up early and be rested enough to do it all over againeven on weekends.
My career is extremely demanding and rewarding, in equal parts, and it keeps me busy nearly every single minute of the day. I cant imagine spending my life doing anything else, but it was an interesting road that got me here. Before I began prepping clients for red-carpet events and video shoots, I was embedded deep in an active war zone in Iraq. (Twice.) And while Ive always been into exercise, it took the sudden death of my father to realize how much nutrition plays a role in overall health, too. These and other personal experiences have led me to dedicate my life to health and fitnessspecifically, the clean and lean lifestyle , which is the foundation of my 4 4 Diet .
And a curiosity about the 4 4 Diet is the reason you picked up this book, right? Maybe the title jumped out at you. Maybe youre a Carrie Underwood fan and want to follow in her extremely toned footsteps. Or maybe you buy every single fitness book that comes out in the hopes that it will be the one that finally works for you. Regardless of what led you to be reading these pages right now, my message to you is the same: get ready to embrace four new clean eating habits, master the four-minute workout that my clients absolutely love, and see some incredible changes to your body within a month of starting the program.
Lets get to iton the count of four.
PART 1
THE CLEAN AND LEAN LIFESTYLE