Let's get right to it... getting lean like Eric Orlean ain't easy. It takes dedication and a healthy dose of reality. Forget the pills, powders and potions, the nonsense diets, and the aimless attempts at achieving your goals. We're here to ditch the BS and focus on the tried-and-true principles of fitness that actually get the results we’re looking for.
Whether you’re eating food you hate, or follow that age-old “eat less, move more” concept, there is no way you’ll ever find true consistency to develop your active lifestyle. A lifestyle is defined as what you do for a lifetime, so we might as well find a time horizon that’s realistic so that you’ll actually do the work and not hate yourself, or hate me for the matter.
To start, it’s time to get away from hitting the drive-thru, buying processed foods and snacking on packaged garbage. If you want to get this under control, remember that you cannot feast if you’re always busy stuffing your face. It’s time to set a clear eating schedule, and know you can be hungry for a few hours during the day, it’s more than okay. Taking a deep dive into the fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats will keep you fuller for longer, provide essential nutrients and fuel your body properly.
The next step is getting this hydration down. I recommend getting a 32 oz. bottle that you can fill up so that you can only focus on filling it up with water (and maybe a lemon, lime or cucumber for taste - your preference), and more importantly, it will allow you to figure out how much you’re drinking. The average person should be drinking at least 2.5-3 full 32 oz. bottles per day. Get rid of the soda, the sugary drinks, and alcohol if you are so daring. Stop dabbling in your fitness, that’s why you can’t get results that are sustainable. Go all in.
An important concept my good trainer friend discusses is to not starve yourself. It’s not sustainable, and getting to your goal quicker doesn’t mean sustaining your goal long term. There are plenty of apps to track your food intake, helping you to understand the necessary calorie deficit you need to get into, although I highly recommend you integrate this full lifestyle guide in order to actually develop lean strength, because losing weight doesn’t necessarily mean you are getting healthier and stronger.
If you want to know a huge secret about your lean fit development, then it’s understanding that strength training, resistance training and developing tone and lean muscle will boost your metabolism, burn fat and give you the athletic look and feel you really want. Have no fear, there is a long road ahead of you, so getting too bulky, veiny or muscular will take real time if that is your goal, although I imagine if you’re reading this, you want to be lean and toned. Just get
started, do what you can handle, and focus on getting it done, like brushing your teeth. No one wakes up everyday and is excited about brushing their teeth, but they do it anyway. That’s the mentality we want to create. Just get it done! Cardio is absolutely a necessary part of your routine, and it should be a part of your routine, but strength training is where you get that lean fit body.
If you want to get further into your lean fit lifestyle, consider NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which is all about burning calories from walking, going up and down the stairs, browsing at the mall, going to the park, parking further away from the store and walking in, stretching, and spending less time on the couch, playing video games, or curled up on your phone, scrolling away as you may be doing now. I’m glad we’re having this conversation, but just know that all these small things you do throughout the day really do add up.
I’m not sure if you’ve heard me speak before, or have seen my content, but I say this all the time. Rest is equally as important as exercise. It’s essential, and whether that is recovery, stretching and mobility training, or sleep. These often ignored, non-prioritized practices improve mental and physical health, lower cortisol levels and lead to the consistency you want. Cortisol is a stress hormone that promotes fat storage, so let’s limit this and get some results, please and thank you! I’m here to optimize your fat burning potential, so work with me here! Rest, recovery, sleep, it’s time to prioritize these habits and become aware that you can enhance the quality of these habits. If you go as hard on these habits as you do in the gym, you will find that yin and yang that’s just heavenly.
Lastly, I want you to remember that this is a lifestyle. If I stopped working out today, and ignored these steps, I wouldn’t be the lean machine that you know me as! There is no quick fix, and going to extreme measures is not sustainable either. We want to prevent injuries, overtraining and unnecessary bumps in the road. This is not about peak performance training, this is not a sprint. This is an active lifestyle marathon, and I invite you to join me on this endless pursuit of being lean and fit.
As you integrate these habits into your daily routine and find your flow, just know that you can mess up everyday for the next 10 years and still get back on track. I always share with my fitness clients that a routine is not about being so rigid, but having something to spring back to when you get off track. It’s more than okay to live your life and have your own goals, but more importantly, give yourself the opportunity to explore this lifestyle and all it has to offer, because I promise it will influence decisions you make, the friends you surround yourself with, how productive you are and what you can achieve. This is your opportunity to stop thinking this is so complicated, and start doing the work. No BS, this is how you stay Lean, Fit, forever!
