The Wallen Way

Convenience–a weight loss roadblock making you fat

We go out and eat fries, burgers, and other processed junk on our lunch breaks.

We go through the drive-thru in the morning because we’re late.  

We make poor diet decisions on a regular basis, because we think it’s “too inconvenient” to do otherwise.  

This weight loss roadblock will keep you fat forever.  

Learn how I beat it.
You can, too.  

I have a busy life.  I bet you do, too.

I don’t doubt the fact that you’re busy, but I do doubt you’ve thought about how simple it would be to make your diet convenient.  We need to stop letting our emotions and situation dictate our eating decisions.

When I started dieting, I was a busy guy.  I got up at 6 a.m. to workout; went to work from 8-5; came home and had dinner; and then went to the theatre for rehearsal from 6:30-9.  Obviously, this schedule doesn’t leave much time for cooking.  Now I know some fast meals I could whip up on the spot, but even those would be a pain in the ass to prepare every day.  I’d rather be able to chill for at least 30 minutes instead of rushing something together in the kitchen every day.

A lot of you would go through the drive-thru regularly in this scenario.  I used to.  I had an excuse–I was “too busy to eat healthy.”  But I realized if I wanted to lose my fat, I couldn’t do this.  I needed to eat natural, healthy, whole foods that are unavailable at your local Taco Bell.  But I also had a lot of responsibilities, so I needed something fast.

I decided to turn my excuse into a solution.  I didn’t have cooking supplies, so I bought olive oil, a frying pan, and a spatula.  I didn’t know how to cook, so I learned some easy recipes.  I was on-the-go a lot, so I bought a set of Tupperware.

This wasn’t easy at first–I had to beg my kitchen-savvy friends for help.  I’ve had some idiot kitchen moments–ask my fiancee.

The best one I can think of was this–the first time I boiled eggs, I forgot I was supposed to peel them, so I let them boil 10 minutes more than I was supposed to– because they were still hard.  I kinda forgot they had shells I had to remove first.  Yeah.  That really happened.  

Anyway–it wasn’t an easy change for me to make, but I did it.  And you can too.  If you’re busy like I was, do what I did.  Get some recipes.  Beg for help if you need it.  Stock up on groceries.  You don’t have to cook EVERY DAY.  I cook once a week–that’s it.

Every Sunday, I prepare enough food to last the entire work week.  Really, it saves time.  Before, I’d spend almost my full hour lunch break eating somewhere.  I only spend 1 hour cooking on Sunday now.  This gives me 4 extra hours I didn’t have before–I use it to read, study, play Angry Birds, nap, walk, whatever.

You’ll also save a lot of money.  Eating out adds up.  If you don’t notice an immediate decrease in your credit card bill when you start preparing your own meals, you’re doing something wrong.  Canned vegetables.  Discounted meat.  Frozen fruit.  Store brand stuff (really–what’s the difference?).  You’ll save a ton of cash, which you can spend on ice cream and/or booze on your Cheat Day.  Win!

Sold yet?  I hope so.

The benefits here impact your weight loss, free time, and money.  I don’t know about you, but all of this shit is insanely important to me.

I imagine this could be far from your situation…

..so I’m going to share some photos I snapped today while preparing my week of meals.

This will give you an idea of the preparation you’ll have to do should you heed my advice (which you should).

A week of meals.

Here’s the bulk of it in my fridge. Note that you’ll need a lot of Tupperware if you do this, so opt for a large set.  Also note the 2 bottles–if you workout on the way to work or after work, you’ll probably want to have a workout shake of some sort.

You should eat your biggest meal right after a workout if possible, but you might not be able to do that in this case.

Here’s a larger shot of the food with lids open so you can see my full meal selection.

Note–don’t assume I would recommend these specific foods for you, because I don’t know your situation–it would depend how much weight you need to lose and how fast you want to do it.  It would also depend on your likes, dislikes, level of discipline, etc.  These choices are good for a carb cycling routine, but horrible if you want to lose weight fast with the slow carb diet.    

The spaghetti or rice would be good for a post-workout meal if you’re carb cycling.  The pork/spinach salad is for my rest days since you need fat and protein at that time.  Peas would be good for any time, really.

I had a close-up shot of the bottles, but that one isn’t converting–so you’ll have to refer to the first picture of the fridge.  The first bottle contains a protein shake with whey, frozen blueberries, milk, and probiotics.  The blue stuff is a BCAA/creatine shake–I need this because I’m doing workouts in a fasted state and my muscle would break-down without it.  It’s not necessary unless you’re trying out intermittent fasting with a morning workout like myself.  

I also eat some fruit early on my workout days.  You’ll see my lunchbox behind that.  The small container has my pills–multi-vitamin, 3 fish-oil caps, Vitamin D, and Green Tea Extract.  I’ll tell you more about all of that later.  I get all of this ready before I go to bed, so I can throw it all in the bag with my meals and be on my way.  No chance of “waking up too late.”

I hope this post helps you beat your weight loss roadblock.  Eating healthy might seem inconvenient, but with some planning, it can become MORE CONVENIENT than what you’re doing now.  Save time, save money, and lose fat.  Who can argue with that?

See how happy I am about my time savings?  This could be you!

For the comments

Does eating healthy seem inconvenient to you?

Based on what you’ve learned, how could you make it more convenient for your life?

What other weight loss roadblocks have you faced?  Did you overcome them?  How?

Related articles

• Stop making excuses and start losing weight (thewallenway.com)
• How to hold yourself accountable to lose weight – set a goal, tell the world (thewallenway.com)
• Overcome emotional eating to fight your flab (thewallenway.com)

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