Many moons ago, I was in a spot of bother.
I was working my backside off in the gym training five, sometimes six days per week but despite this, I felt ashamed of what I saw in the mirror.
Why?
I had a round gut and nascent man-boobs, that’s why.
The worst part?
My diet was spot-on as well… at least, I thought it was.
See, one day I was whinging, whining, moaning, and complaining about my predicament to the poor soul who worked behind the desk at the gym I was going to at the time. But, unbeknownst to me, somebody else was listening.
This chap – the hero of this short tale – was a bodybuilder. A proper bodybuilder who did competitions and stuff. Based on his accent, I think he was Hungarian, although I’m no linguist so could be wrong.
Anyway, he interrupted my bitching by bluntly asking:
“What are you eating?”
Intimidated by his rippling muscles that glistened like the skin of a toad under the harsh gym lighting, I responded:
“For breakfast, I have six eggs…”
Immediately, he cut me off by raising a calloused hand.
“Six eggs? Why are you eating six eggs? That’s way too many. Eat two, fattie!”
You can say his words were harsh. You cannot say there were untrue.
I was fat, and it was because I ate too much.
Suitably embarrassed, I thanked him for his advice and scuttled out of the gym with a flea in my ear and fire in my belly.
No longer would I kid myself into thinking I needed to eat like a walrus to “fuel my training”. No longer would I pretend it was OK to let my BMI sit at around 30 because I was “mostly muscle”.
I was fat because I ate too much.
As uncomfortable as this realisation was, it was incredibly freeing.
Because, not only was the solution simple, it was entirely within my control.
In other words, I got myself into this sticky situation, so I could get myself out of it.
So I did. I started eating sane and sensible portions:
Six eggs became two.
Two chicken breasts became one.
Thick slices of bread became thin.
A cup of pasta became half a cup.
Two tablespoons of peanut butter became two teaspoons.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
The results were rapid and dramatic.
Within nary a month or two, I had well-defined abs for the first time in my life. And I did it without counting calories or weighing my food.
All it took was eating sensibly.
The lesson?
Threefold:
- If you’re overweight, it’s probably because you’re eating too much. To be clear, I said “probably” because I can’t say this is the case for certain as there are other reasons why people can be overweight.
- You can get fat even if you only eat “healthy” foods.
- The solution is to eat sensible portions. You don’t need to count calories or weigh your food to do this. Just use your brain and apply critical thinking.
Anyway, this is the sort of thing I write about in great detail in The Phil Tyreman Letter.
Details below:
www.philtyreman.co.uk/information
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman