8 Tips For Less Fat & Less Stress
I’ve researched a variety of sources, and it’s clear that the two biggest problems Americans are trying to solve for themselves are less fat and less stress.
So if I have some great recipe to less fat but it’s super stressful to keep up, I don’t see that as effective.
With that in mind, here are 8 tips I use…
#1: Daily Walk
I love my dog so I don’t have a choice. He needs his walk in the morning. Would I go for that daily walk if I didn’t have the dog? My track record says NOPE. Does that mean everyone has to go get a dog and start their day with a long walk? NOPE. This is just a list, and if you can take a few things from it, you’ll win. But now the daily walk is a part of who I am. I enjoy it. It gives me time to think. It gives me space. It’s allotted time for me to hatch creative ideas. So the Daily Walk is something I look forward to — not something stressful at all, yet without thinking about it, it leads to less fat from the steps taken and less stress because it’s my time to clear my head.
#2: Fasting
Fasting is a subject that we all apply with or without realizing it. In my case, I have never gone 24 hours without eating. Some of my friends regularly go on fasts longer than that. I like to eat. But I stop eating a couple hours before bed, I go to bed early, and I drink a Strong Coffee to get started in the morning — which isn’t more caffeine: it has 15 grams of collagen protein per scoop. I have fasting on this list because understanding it for yourself could = less stress and less fat. I never feel like I’m fasting because I really enjoy Strong Coffee and I don’t think about hunger in the morning when I train. Then I have lunch.
#3: Near-Daily Sled
My favorite benefit of the sled is…
MORE TIME WITH MY FAMILY!
What?
I get so many benefits from the sled in so little time, it’s like having a CHEAT CODE to less fat and less stress. Based on all research, I believe 100% that the sled is the #1 fat-burner per minute spent. You also recover within hours as if you hadn’t even trained. And you get more bulletproof and heal faster! A body with less pain is easier to move and be active. A body with less pain = a happier human! A happier human with greater activity levels is less likely to binge eat foods out of depression. And when you hit that sled, you put MONEY IN THE BANK so you don’t feel that urge to mess up your hard work with junk food. The sled may be the #1 most underrated item on this list. I do it 6 days a week — before every workout in the ATG program.
#4: Bodyweight Training Goals
One of the basic targets in the ATG system is 12 perfect chin-ups. That means full range of motion with no leg swinging! Less fat = easier to do chin-ups. This doesn’t mean I only have bodyweight training goals, but all my other training is relative to my bodyweight! I have 13 goals in my “Freak Checklist” and each goal relates to a different ability: from kicking to jumping to sprinting to fighting. As a coach, I’m pushing my body to master all 13. By nature, I’ll never be able to gain unhealthy levels of fat NOR will I be able to deprive my body of nutrients because in coaching hundreds of elite athletes, I can attest that only those with some muscle on them have been able to reach the majority of the 13 marks! I haven’t had ANYONE achieve all 13 yet, but it’s the bodies with muscle, low fat, pumped with nutrients — NOT DEPRIVED — that have come close.
#5: Training to Be Bulletproof
There is no absolute of bulletproof. It’s a concept. It’s a never-ending goal which means that each training ingredient in the ATG program is calculated to make a body less likely to be injured. Injury is the #1 barrier to physical progress! This is one reason I’ve been able to improve my jumping so much over the last decade: being a freak who never gets hurt! But it’s only because I train differently from any other basketball system — by a lot! Every single ingredient has the purpose of making me less likely to get hurt. By never getting hurt, by never playing through pain, I’m able to exert more effort to burn fat, and I’m HAPPY AS HECK, which makes me less likely to eat foods that provide temporary happiness.
#6: Electronics Cutoff 8.5 Hours Before Waking
This one was a game changer for me! My immune system has been rocket-powered the last 2 years because of my diet AND SLEEP. My sleep is incredible. But I turn my computer and phone off at least 8.5 hours before my morning alarm. Now I don’t even need a morning alarm — I wake up on my own. I go to sleep “early” — which means pretty close to after it gets dark outside. I believe Sled & Sleep are the two most underrated health catalysts, and modern society isn’t set up for us to get good sleep. In fact, it’s rich with reasons NOT to go to sleep. I choose to take my life into my own hands rather than going with the current that everyone else is, and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It’s made me a good father because I always have energy, I wake up in the morning ready to play with my 1-year-old boy, and I go to sleep shortly after he does! If I were to wait hours later, I’d be grumpy, tired, etc.
#7: Do Something You Consider a Sport at Least Once a Week
I play basketball every Sunday with my staff. It’s one of the highlights of my week. My knees have rockets in them. I can dunk. I’m incredibly grateful EVERY time I get to play, because it’s completely surreal after living a previous life with no bounce and severe depression because of how bad my knees were. But if I didn’t have basketball, I’d still be stoked to go for a run, or do hill sprints, or do some Olympic weightlifting! Those are the 3 things I could see myself doing. I believe this relates to less fat and less stress because you have a fun outlet for yourself which ALSO keeps you in that frame of mind as an athlete! Even though it’s once a week, I’m an ATHLETE and I want to look and perform like one! This makes it easier for me to keep up my workouts and eat nature’s foods.
#8: Fruit For Dessert
There is nothing scientific about eating fruit at night. I do it because it got me over the cravings every night for things WORSE than fruit. Even when I was on a “strict” diet, I was eating foods with artificial sweeteners every night. So mentally, I was still eating junk food every night, even if physically the food claimed to be healthy. Now I don’t consume any artificial sweeteners. I’m just going to trust that if I only eat single ingredient foods that nature made, I’m going to have a happier and healthier life. Kind of wild to think now that I only eat foods with 1 ingredient after spending my whole life eating man-made crap. I try to eat whatever fruits are in-season, WITH NO LIMITS! Currently that means 3 ripe DELICIOUS oranges and 3 kiwis, and sometimes I have apples, grapefruit, and pear. It’s a massive bowl. This works for me. Find what works for you. I imagine I’m in the wild and I need to go work hard and hunt for my food each day. Then I drag my food home (backward of course) and have a feast along with the fruits my wife picked during the day. In reality she’s a business beast and I’m the one who’s in charge of family dinner every night! I’m just talking about my diet.
I hope something on this list is of value to you or someone you know.
Yours in Solutions,
Ben
