Lose That Beer Gut (While Still Drinking Beer)

Duff Not Included

Before you read further: This is not a life-hack. 

Sadly, the science of weight-loss is simple: if you consume more calories than you expend, you gain weight.

The inverse then is also true: to lose weight, you simply must consume less calories than you expend. 

Ok, ok. So what are we talkin’ about?

Keto? Paleo?

Nope.

Those can also be effective, but for this article, we are focusing on a method, not a diet. 

The Method?

Intermittent Fasting

To the unfamiliar, intermittent fasting is simply a restriction of the times each day you eat food. 

A common example: the 16:8 fast.

The Method:

For 16 hours each day, you eat/drink nothing caloric. 

For 8 Hours each day, you eat/drink your daily requirements.

There is a simple free app that does the math for you.

Example:

John eats his first meal at 12:00PM. 

He eats a small snack at 4PM.

At 7PM, John eats his dinner, and then fasts until 12:00PM the next day. 

It is that simple. 

How It Works:

To start, what makes this approach viable for losing weight is how easy it is. 
Unlike a restrictive diet like Keto, the only thing you need to change is the time frames in which you eat.

Further, by restricting your time frame of consumption, you allow your body to switch from burning your sugar stores into your fat stores, a process called “Metabolic Switching”.

As Mark Mattson, a neuroscientist at John Hopkins puts it: 

“If someone is eating three meals a day, plus snacks, and they’re not exercising, then every time they eat, they’re running on those calories and not burning their fat stores.”

Beyond this, one of Mattson’s recent studies in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that 

“ Things happen during intermittent fasting that can protect organs against chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, age-related neurodegenerative disorders, even inflammatory bowel disease and many cancers.” 

A Simpler Reason It Works

Stock image guy is trying IF…

Less time spent snacking +

Fewer meals +

Zero full-calorie pops for breakfast =

Less calories entering your stomach. 

Of course, calories are not the only determinant of health. 

But we aren’t talkin’ health.

We are talkin’ about one thing: Losing Weight.

I also found the added benefit of making me a clearer thinker in the morning. And it has helped me avoid the post lunch crash because I am more thoughtful about what I eat for lunch (my first meal of the day).

So want to lose weight? Want to still drink carbalicious beer? Tired of your wife’s Keto farts?

Try Fasting. 

Meditation: Yes, You Can Do It With Your Whiskey Nightcap

Do you ever:

1. Forget what you were stressing about?

2. Waste more energy trying to remember what exactly was stressing you out?

What the Kids Call A “Full Send”

Work. Dad Life. Checking in on your buddy’s tailgate party via Facebook. We all are constantly bombarded with stuff.

Being Busy Is Normal…

But problems arise when our monkey brain cannot differentiate between a serious responsibility, and a GIF of a man attacking a table.

This is where mindfulness meditation comes in.

Think of your brain as your browser: Maybe you have 14 tabs open.

Or this many…

On one, you have CNBC pulled up…yikes.

One, your high-school girlfriend’s facebook page (dodged a bullet).

All of the tabs are like this, except one, which is your actual work.

With all of these mental distractions, it can feel impossible to focus on what is actually important.

At its most effective, Meditation is like closing out all your unnecessary mental-tabs.

This isn’t just a psychological process: Mindfulness practice has been shown to increase the density of Gray Matter in your brain, which is a factor responsible for cognitive performance.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to shave your head and join a monastic order: This survey found that even five minutes of daily meditation can improve focus and reduce stress in individuals.

Thankfully, our digital overlords have made practicing mindfulness super easy.

I use Insight Timer (Not an Ad! Just a fan).

What this looks like for me: my workday is over, but I’m still rereading my emails for typos.

Thanks Google, I am now 200% more confused.

I open the App, and search: “Meditation for Work”.

I filter by time, and now Clarence’s soothing voice is guiding me through a five minute breathing exercise.

The five minutes is over. At its best, I feel totally relaxed and centered afterwards. At its worst, I feel only marginally better.

Never, and I repeat never, have I felt worse after a mediation .

Not Clarence(But this is how I imagine him).

Try A Five Minute Guided Meditation

Meditation is one of those weird paradoxes of productivity: By dedicating yourself to giving a little bit of time daily, you will gain a lot of time in the long-run.

What Dr. Dhillon Said

By re-aligning your thoughts with your goals, you can spend your energy only working on the stuff that is actually important to your life.

More time with kids. Less time remembering what you need to worry about.

Pairs With: Four-Minute Meditation For Self-Acceptance

P.S.

Yes, you can do it with your whiskey nightcap. Just try to save your sips for before and after the meditation(Clarence will smell it on you).