How you lose weight:

Eat in a caloric deficit.

That’s easy.

So what exactly is hard about weight loss? Or weight gain for that matter?

Well, creating the structure to allow you to eat in a caloric deficit is pretty hard.

It’s like saying

“How do you water your lawn”

“Well, you just install sprinklers.”

But to install those sprinklers you have to take some time to strategically dig holes.

Then lay PVC pipes.

Then connect those pipes to a central hub.

Then do all the complicated electric work so the sprinklers spray at the right time and for the right duration.

It takes planning and expertise.

And if you don’t have time to plan, or if you don’t possess the expertise then you need to hire someone who does.

Creating the structure in your diet will allow you to implement the principle of a caloric deficit. And creating structure of any kind is tedious work.

Here’s how I recommend people start to build their successful structure.

1. Track your calories for a couple of weeks

You wouldn’t install sprinkler heads in completely random areas of your yard. You would place them in strategic positions so the whole yard would get sprayed. That wouldn’t be possible without data. You would need to know how big your yard was, the radius of each nozzle and other boring technicalities like that.

Well you need the same data for your diet. You need to know where you are (what you’re currently eating) in order to set sail to where you want to go. Tracking can be frustrating at first, but the data you gather will be invaluable to your journey.

You’ll find out how many calories you eat on an average day, learn the nutritional info of all your favorite meals and other really important points of data that will help you start to create your successful structure.

If you have no idea where to start, this is always the right place to start.

2. Identify your trigger foods and keep them far away from your pantry

Can’t stop eating Reese’s? Can you literally not stop once you pop a can of Pringles?

Then don’t keep them in your fucking house.

Friction is something you can use to make good habits, or in this case break bad habits.

If your trigger food is pop tarts, and you always have a 24 pack from CostCo in your kitchen there is no friction. The action to get your pop tarts is smooth. You just have to walk to your kitchen.

To create friction you need to make it harder to get those pop tarts.

If the only way you can fill your 11 PM pop tart craving is by driving to Publix, you’re probably not going to do it.

It’s too much work to get changed, get in the car, drive to Publix, interact with a real person, and then drive home.

There’s too much friction between you and your bad habit.

You need to create as much friction between yourself and your destructive behavior as possible.

3A. Start cooking

Yeah, I know.

I’m not good at it either. And I also don’t have much time.

Cooking puts you 100% in control of all your meals. There are no surprise calories when you’re cooking your meals.

There are a couple interesting articles showing the difference in calories between home-made meals (even stuff like burgers and pizza) and restaurant made meals.

There are always about 200-400 (even up to 800) more calories in restaurant made meals. It’s from all the extra butter and fat that chefs know make everything extra delicious.

It might be a pain in the ass at first, but if you’re serious about creating structure then you need to do the majority of your cooking at home.

I’ll go back to the sprinkler metaphor.

If you use a hose you’re likely delivering too much water to a lot of sections of your lawn. That extra water comes faster than it can be absorbed by the ground, so it just runs off and is wasted.

And all that wasted water is wasted money and effort. It ruins your structure.

Just like all those sneaky extra calories from eating out will ruin the structure of your diet.

3B. Hire someone to cook for you

We had sprinkler problems when we first moved in. I tried to fix it but I made it worse.

I grew up in the city. We didn’t have sprinklers. It’s not my area of expertise.

After one too many puddles and broken sprinklers that sprayed the house instead of the lawn I called a guy and he came out and fixed it in an afternoon.

My frustration was over, it just cost me some money.

I know cooking is like that for a lot of people. It’s a stressor, it’s intimidating and it’s not tasty.

If you’re in that boat just find a meal prep company, or a personal chef, that suits your needs. There’s a service for anything, and you can just exchange money for peace of mind.

No two lives or situations are the same.

And if you talk to a sprinkler guy he’ll tell you that no two lawns are the same.

On the surface they might look similar but they all require different specs, different planning and a different underlying structure.

Structure is the foundation upon which results rest. But every structure will look different, there are no definitive rules other than:

You have to build the underlying structure.

P.S: Structure is hard to build, but like in the sprinkler analogy, you can save yourself a lot of stress and pain by hiring an expert. When you work with me I’ll map your life and help you create the structure you need to support your goals.

You can work with me 1 on 1 via my app.

Or you can work with me in person.

Our Personal Training program is built around getting RESULTS through our high-level coaching that’s 100% FOCUSED ON YOU.