My Diet Strategies for Getting Lean

As stated earlier I am on a mission to get leaner. Like anybody I have done this before to varying degrees of success. So I have ample experience to draw from as to what has "worked" before.

It starts with the obvious reduction in calories, which is easy to say, hard to do. So the real challenge is appetite control.

Two strategies that have helped me in the past are ones that anybody can do. The first is to drink a LOT of liquid. A LOT. Clearly this liquid needs to be as close to calorie free as possible. For most people that's water. Unfortunately I am not most people. I really only drink water while I am working out, and then I do it for the "wrong" reason. I drink while I'm training to kill time between sets. I don't take water with me, I walk to the drinking fountain and back as my way of helping me stay focused between sets.

No, for me it's a lot of DIET soft drinks. And generally NOT caffeine free, until after noon. The good aspect of all this liquid is the obvious, helps you feel full. The downside is a lot of trips to the bathroom (no middle age comments here please), day and night.

The second strategy I use is to go as close to 12 hours between my last bite at night and my first the next day as possible. Seems like a no brainer to me. But it's not as easy as you might think. Pre bedtime snack at say, 9:00 pm, means breakfast at 9:00 am. Except I get up most mornings at 5:00 am at the latest (when did you THINK I did all my web work?). That makes for 4 pretty tough hours. Thank God for Splenda and sugar free creamers, because, yes, I drink a lot of coffee as well.

Bottom line, diet soda, coffee, water, whatever, and 12 hours between bedtime snack and breakfast kills 5 hours of DAYLIGHT eating time and some of my hunger pains during the remaining daylight hours.