Despite my background and involvement in ice hockey, I get more questions on a daily basis about fat loss than any other topic.

Should I lift weights?

How much cardio should I do?

What supplements do you recommend?

How do you find time to prepare healthy meals all the time?

To which I respond:  Yes. 3-4 high intensity interval training sessions per week.  Hard work and dedication. Make time.

Usually not satisfied by this response, I usually get a continued stare.

“Cmon.  What should I REALLY do?”

So here it is, my ultimate secret revealed!

The truth is, I’ve been training like a dedicated athlete for years, and was never able to manipulate my body fat like I am now.  So what was it?  A change in my training? A change in my diet?  A change in supplementation?

The answer: All of the above, under the guidance of Dr. John Berardi.  No, I don’t work with him personally.  That’s not necessary.  He did such a good job with putting together the Precision Nutrition program that I’ve never had to.  I read through it once, and instantly understood why I hadn’t been able to drop body fat in the past and what I needed to do to lose body fat in the future.

He also includes Gourmet Nutrition, a cook book with recipes of all kinds (appetizers, entrees, desserts, smoothies, etc.) with recommendations on when to consume each (anytime vs. post-workout).  As if that wasn’t enough, the program also comes with access to an online community, with a wealth of articles, answers to any question you could think up, recipes, and forums use as a support network.  I was baffled that so much came in one package, and frustrated I hadn’t come across it earlier.  I actually used a modified version of the “Get Shredded Diet” he provides at the Precision Nutrition website in my recent 6-week fat loss experiment.

I’ll admit, the preparation that goes into making sure you have a healthy option for every meal of the day can seem like a daunting task.  Dr. Berardi provides some helpful hints into how to save time though.  Just this week I noticed that I pulled into the Stop n Shop parking lot at 7:10pm.  By 9:00pm, I had completed preparing meals for the week (or at least the first half of the week.  We’ll have to see how hungry I get), as well as having cooked and eaten dinner (a 3-egg pepper, onion, and cheddar omelette), as well as cleaned all the dishes.  And because I had so much spare time on my hands, and because my digital camera doesn’t get a lot of use, a picture of my food preparation efforts stacked for your viewing convenience is shown below.

Figure 1. Displayed food involves chopped onions and green peppers for easy omelette making, 4 heads of chopped broccoli, 3 sliced green peppers, 3 tubs of “Reese’s Cottage Cheese”, 6 pork chops (chopped into bite size pieces), 10 oz steamed spinach, 1 lb of cooked ground turkey, and conveniently bagged baby carrots.

As an aside, the cottage cheese containers are filled with what I call “Reese’s Cottage Cheese”, a trick I learned from Berardi on how to make foods I don’t like (Cottage Cheese) taste like foods I do like (Reese’s Cups).

The secret to having healthy choices for every meal?  Plan ahead, cook all at once, and store everything in tupperware.  With this set-up, I can heat up and eat a meal in less than 10 minutes.  I can eat the Reese’s Cottage Cheese with ZERO prep time.  And cooking all at once saves countless hours throughout the week.

Keep working hard…but plan smart too.