Until the age of 32, I had the metabolism of a horse. I could burn anything I ate, and I could eat a lot. And then something happened. My yoga career. From the age of 18 to 32 I worked out almost everyday. Not long and arduous workouts, but I did something. And then I became a yoga administrator. What a lot of people don’t know is that I manage the NYC studio and Store websites, as well as Blue Osa, and then everything else you can think of from handling of press to the shipments of DVDs, to the maintenance of the studio, to organizing retreats and so on. While I am definitely NOT complaining, the one thing that changed was my workout patterns and my eating habits. Basically I stopped because I had too much work to do and my weight jumped from a healthy 165 lbs. to a voluptuous 185 lbs. and since then I have not really been able to go back.
When I turned 35, I decided to make some life changes. I got back into working out, in different ways. I bought a bicycle and now ride my bike everywhere in New York City (and Costa Rica.) I started to jog and dramatically increased the amount of walking I was doing. While I was in LA I joined Barry’s Bootcamp and hiked a couple of times a week up Runyon Canyon. I also started to swim a lot more. (My favorite activity at Blue Osa is swimming.)
Two years ago, I was up at Easton Mountain helping out with their Gay Spirit Youth Camp. I had reached that point of acceptance saying to myself that my body would never change and I was at that age where all I could do is to keep taking care of myself physically and hopefully maintain what I had.
At the end of the week at Easton Mountain, I was driven to Albany Train station where I would catch a train back to New York City. While waiting, I indulged myself in one of my favorite past times when traveling somewhere - shopping for magazines. One magazine cover caught my attention. Lose 15 lbs. in 21 days. While my immediate reaction was skeptical, I had to pick up the magazine if only to laugh inwardly at the absurdity of such a stupid claim. “Yeah right, lose 15 lbs. and gain back 30.” I said chuckling to myself. However, what I read not only made sense, but began a process of developing a new relationship with food and I immediately put the experiment to work.
I will not go into all the details of what happened. Suffice it to say, I want to make these three points.
1. My relationship with food has changed drastically.
2. After 10 days of following the diet, students coming into the studio said, “Aaron you look fabulous, vibrant and so happy!” Of course I was happy. My body looked and felt like it was 27 again.
3. I have fallen in love with eating and food.
On further reflection, ironically this diet is not one that is much different to the one you grew up on. You woke up and ate a healthy breakfast, you had a fruit snack followed by a healthy lunch, and then had a vegetable snack or sandwich followed by proportionate dinner. Well at least I did. I have found this plan has, in many ways, taken me back to my own roots.
The diet, “Lose 15 lbs. in 21 days” comes from Dr. Philip Goglia’s book, “Turning Up The Heat.” The premise of his book lies in turning up your metabolism by eating right and healthy. He carefully lays out a plan that is well thought out and get you involved with your food.
I have attached in this review an article from Men’s fitness about Goglia’s work. Before reading it, I want to make a couple of suggestions and remarks:
1. Even if you do not need to lose any weight, this book is worth reading. Goglia remarks a few times how many “skinny” people are actually overweight because their body fat is so high and their lean muscle mass is so low. He helps you to find out exactly how much protein you need in the book.
2. If you decide not to buy the book and investigate further, great! PLEASE REMEMBER the quickstart diet (see below) is only the beginning, and is NOT meant to be followed indefinitely. Only follow it for 21 days.
3. Stick to the plan, it works. Do everything they say. If you don’t, one day of wavering takes three days to course correct.
4. Have fun with it. Enjoy the cooking and the food preparations.
5. Drink your water. My suggestion though is to drink your water before your meals and/or on an empty stomach. Don’t drink ice water and don’t drink water with your meals. This disrupts the digestion process and stops the proper digestion of fats and proteins.
FYI, Goglia says if you just follow the water instructions alone, you will begin to develop amazing results.
6. Visualize everyday the type of health and body you want to have when you are much older. See yourself as the person you want to be. A very good friend of mine taught me this beautiful mantra/affirmation many, many years ago, which I say to myself every morning.
“I am younger then I was yesterday, my body is healed and in a perfect state of health. There is love in my life and all around.”
7. Did I lose 15 lbs.? No I did not. When it was all said and done, I lost about 6 pounds and as I quickly discovered, I didn’t and don’t need to lose 15lbs. But what did happen? My body became tight. I lost my spare tire, my lean muscle mass spiked up and my body fat content dropped. But more than that, I had more energy and developed a new healthy relationship with food. I was eating foods like Zucchini and squash everyday. The other thing that happened was that my cravings for bread dissipated.
8. READ ALL the instructions very carefully, then read it again, and then read it again.
Below is an article from Men’s Fitness and the Quickstart Diet plan for “Lose 15 lbs. in 21 days.
Blessings
Aaron
Trouble ahead. In three weeks, you’ll be on Waikiki Beach, but the shape you’re in now, your gut will arrive minutes before you do. Your Aloha shirt has been handpicked to hide the spread around your stomach.
Why the need for camouflage? Well, to start with, there were the beers you chug-a-lugged last Friday night. Then there were the beers you had the book-ending Thursday and Saturday. Oh, and the 12-inch pizza you’re prone to wolf down right before resolving to hit the cardio trail bright and early next morning, which you damn well would’ve done had you not overslept–again.
Busted vow after busted vow has left you a defeated mess, eyeing with distaste the ever-inflating Michelin around your middle. Before you considering shortcuts such as liposuction and stomach stapling, we’ve got a cheaper, safer and more option.
The 15/21 Quickstart program, designed by certified trainer and nutrition consultant Philip Goglia, help you lose up to 15 pounds in 21 days–hence the name. You don’t have to starve yourself, and you don’t have to rent a cot at your local gym, either. Goglia supplies the eating plan, but you have to apply the commitment, determination and necessary to enable the program to deliver on its promises.
YOU & YOUR GUT
So, you’ve acquired some fat and have little time to lose it. What we’re offering you is a powerful tool for losing weight quickly, but is in no way a substitute for a sound, long-term nutrition regimen. Promise yourself that once you finish the 15/21 Quickstart program, you’ll adjust your diet appropriately to maintain and improve on the fat loss you achieve over the next three weeks.
Now let’s focus on your immediate crisis. A vacation, class reunion or some other event is rapidly approaching, and your physique will certainly raise eyebrows, but not in admiration. Does your solution call for food deprivation and marathon cardio sessions? It shouldn’t.
Exercise itself doesn’t change your physique; it only creates the opportunity for change. When you work out at the gym, you tear down muscle tissue. To complete the transformation, the muscle must be rebuilt, and that happens only through getting proper rest, eating sufficient calories in correctly balanced macronutrient combinations, and drinking plenty of water.
Heedless of these scientific realities, and failing to see any change in your body from the increase in cardio, you grimly step up your workouts further and cut back even more on calories. But without enough calories on which to operate properly, your metabolism slows down and your body goes about doing the exact opposite of what you want it to do: It hoards fat to protect itself from what it perceives as a severe famine. So much for noble intentions.
THE PROGRAM
The 15/21 Quickstart plan divvies up your daily calorie intake among five or six meals to help you create a consistent calorie-burning pattern. If you’re not eating at regular but relatively brief intervals, you’re not stoking your metabolism with the steady supply of calories it needs to generate enough heat to release fat as an energy source. You’d be surprised how just the simple act of establishing a consistent caloric intake will do wonders to alter your body composition.
The Quickstart daily meal plans include protein-source foods for muscle building (and for muscle retention), carbohydrates for fuel, fats for energy and health, and vegetables to aid digestion and deliver a significant amount of micronutrients. Carbs, your energy foods, are loaded in the morning to power your day’s activities.
Conversely, your protein-heavy meals are eaten later in the afternoon and into the evening to enable your body to repair muscle tissue at night while you rest. Additionally, the increased protein intake further juices your metabolism.
THE BOTTOM-LINE COMMITMENT
Since the program is short-range, there’s little room for deviation. Following a go-ahead from your medical practitioner, you must commit to its every step without fail.
Foremost, to see results, you must eat every meal (each spaced between two and three hours apart–no more, no less), and you must eat the meals in the prescribed order. If you skip meal 3 or scarf a Snickers bar for meal 6, you upset your daily pattern, significantly disrupting the intended goal of keeping your metabolism in white-hot fat-loss turf. Not only do you lose the benefits of that single day as a result of your dietary lapse, but you’ll need the next two days to restore the pattern. So, ultimately, you’ll have lost three days. Disrupt the pattern twice in a single week and you’re toast, thick, buttered toast. So do yourself a favor and approach these next three weeks with a no-nonsense attitude: If 15/21 Quickstart says you’re eating peanut butter in the afternoon, come hell or high water, you’d better eat peanut butter in the afternoon.
HOW TO JUDGE PROGRESS
Evaluating the success of this program, or of any dietary strategy, is not all about the bathroom scale. You need to look at the whole picture. Muscle weighs a lot, but doesn’t take up much room; fat doesn’t weigh as much, but takes up 4 1/2 times more space.
Commit this nutritional proverb to memory: It’s all about taking up less room in the room. Ultimately, your goal is to weigh as much as you can per square inch, and for there to be fewer square inches of you. Think of it this way and your new mantra makes absolute sense. You might consider repeating it periodically to keep you on track.
Other factors beyond the scale deserve your attention. Monitor your energy levels and your overall strength, as well as how you feel and how you look in and out of your clothes. If you aren’t losing any weight, yet you sense a difference in the fit of your clothes and you’re demonstrating more power in your gym workouts, it’s because you’re gaining muscle tissue and your body composition is changing.
Though a healthy program, 15/21 Quickstart is still very restrictive–once you’ve completed your three weeks, you probably won’t want to follow it ever again. Instead, begin a long-term program, one that’s tailored for your level of activity and energy needs. As your physique improves, it’s a safe bet that you’ve become metabolically efficient, and you should learn as much as possible about keeping it that way.
Now it’s time to get started. Waikiki is calling, and trust us: Wearing an Aloha shirt at the beach doesn’t fool anybody.
THE QUICKSTART THREE-WEEK PROGRAM
The plan is designed for a 180-pound male. For every increase of 20 pounds of body weight, boost daily protein intake by four ounces, the equivalent of one chicken breast. Regardless of your starting weight, take a multivitamin daily.
WEEK 1
FOOD PORTION SIZE
Meal 1: Oatmeal, plain, cooked (not instant) 1 1/2 cups
Orange (or a banana) 1
Meal 2: Apple 1
Meal 3: White rice, cooked 1 cup
Chicken breast, no skin 4 oz.
Squash, steamed 1 cup
Meal 4: Raw celery 2 cups
Peanut butter (natural) 1 tbsp
Meal 5: Whitefish, cooked
(not battered or fried) 8 oz.
Zucchini, steamed 1 cup
Asparagus, steamed 1 cup
Tossed salad, no dressing 3 cups
Meal 6: Mixed berries 1-2 cups
WEEK 2
FOOD PORTION SIZE
Meal 1: Oatmeal, plain, cooked (not instant) 1 1/2 cups
Orange (or a banana) 1
Meal 2: Raw celery 2 cups
Peanut butter (natural) 1 tbsp
Meal 3: Baked potato 1/2 potato
Chicken breast, no skin 4 oz.
or
Whitefish (not battered or fried) 4 oz.
Spinach, steamed 2 cups
Meal 4: Raw celery 2 cups
Peanut butter (natural) 1 tbsp
Meal 5: Whitefish (not battered or fried) 8 oz.
Zucchini, steamed 1 cup
Asparagus, steamed 1 cup
Tossed salad, no dressing 3 cups
Meal 6: Nothing
WEEK 3
FOOD PORTION SIZE
Meal 1: Oatmeal, plain, cooked (not instant) 1 1/2 cups
Meal 2: Raw celery 2 cups
Meal 3: Chicken breast, no skin 4 oz.
or
Whitefish (not battered or fried) 4 oz.
Squash, steamed 1 cup
Asparagus, steamed 1 cup
Tossed salad 3 cups
with low-calorie dressing 1 tbsp
Meal 4: Raw celery 2 cups
Peanut butter (natural) 1 tbsp
Meal 5: Hard-boiled egg 1 whole
Meal 6: Whitefish (not battered or fried) 8 oz.
Zucchini, steamed 1 cup
Tomato, steamed 1 cup
Tossed salad, no dressing 3 cups
GROUND RULES FOR MAXIMAL FAT LOSS
1 Eat the meals in order. No, you can’t eat one meal right before another, you can’t mix and match foods, and you can’t substitute a
banana split for a banana. Be very clear with yourself: You made the decision to follow this program, and you must be accountable for your progress, or lack of progress. Pick specific times to eat, and then stick to the timetable.
2 Don’t let moods and events dictate your food choices. If you think a brownie in the afternoon is going to fix your car or brighten a bad day, think again. Focus on feeling good about choosing this diet, confident that you’ll see improvement in your physique if you follow the plan consistently.
3 Eat all the food prescribed. Your day’s been manic. It’s 10 p.m. and you haven’t eaten meals 4, 5 or 6. You’d better get busy with your
knife and fork. Skipping meals altogether is far worse than not eating them at consistent two- to three-hour intervals. The 15/21 Quickstart plan is so tuned for caloric and appetite response, if you skip a meal you’re going to be hungry–and that aforementioned brownie will wrestle you to the floor.
4 Drink one ounce of water for every pound of body weight every day. If you adhere to only this part of the program and nothing else, you’ll drop five pounds–guaranteed. Water allows your body to rid itself of toxins, mobilize nutrients, and maintain a consistent temperature. If your water intake is low, your body is going to find another way to maintain homeostasis–like storing fat underneath your skin for insulation. Most people have trouble drinking a lot of water at first, but the more you drink, the more you’ll thirst for it. In the beginning, you’ll become intimate with the restroom, but as you consume more water, the more of it your body will accommodate, ff you’re not active, you can lower fluid intake to one half-ounce per pound of body weight.
5 Tote a large(r) water bottle. Trade in your 16- or 33-ounce bottle for a bigger one. It’s easier to keep track of your intake with a 50-ouncer (1.5 liters), plus a bigger bottle encourages you to drink more. Also, when you exercise–weight training or cardio–you should consume at least 50 ounces of water in an hour.
6 Don’t cheat. Your friends may be chowing down on fried calamari, but don’t lose your cool. Remember, you made the choice to follow this plan. Drink your water, stick to your programmed menus, and tell yourself that three weeks goes by fast.
7 If you weigh more than 200 pounds, add more protein. The heavier you are, the more protein you require. For every 20 pounds you are above 180, add four ounces of protein (a chicken breast, for instance) per day, either in one meal or spread over two. If you weigh less but are tormented by cravings, you can add this amount of protein as well.
8 Don’t be afraid of condiments. Jazz up the prescribed meals without loading on the calories or larding them with “bad” fat. You’re not aiming to create an adversarial relationship with food, but to use food to spur a physique change. Condiments you can consume without abandon include ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, nonfat mayo, nonfat sour cream, butter substitutes, salsa, spices, horseradish, extracts (vanilla, orange, almond), and lemon or lime juice.
TIPS TO MAKE THE COMMITMENT EASIER
Follow these suggestions to make the three weeks go by more smoothly.
* Prepare enough food (chicken, fish, steamed vegetables) at one time to make approximately two days’ worth of meals.
* Shop every few days to ensure that your fish and vegetables remain fresh.
* Pack each meal individually the night before in plastic food containers.
* Do not increase the intensity of your cardio during the three weeks.
* Note all the times you eat each meal and drink each glass of water. This will keep you motivated to stay with the plan.
* Don’t expect to see any weight change during the first week of the plan. Avoid stepping on a scale until the third week.
* Even if you don’t sense hunger, eat on schedule.
Phil Goglia holds certifications from A.C.S.M., M.A.S.M., A.F.F.A., A.C.E. and I.P.F.A. He serves on the Board of Governors for the City of Hope and Cedars-Sinai Medical Centers in the Los Angeles area. The complete Quickstart program, along with a long-term diet and workout plan, are detailed in Goglia’s new book, Turn Up the Heat. For more information, visit www.pfcnutrition.com.