Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / This Quick Change Will Help You Stick to Your Fat Loss Meal Plan (Kaizen) | Ep 222

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This Quick Change Will Help You Stick to Your Fat Loss Meal Plan (Kaizen) | Ep 222 · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:01
  Philip Pape: If you're struggling to stick to your fat loss meal plan, constantly falling off track after a few days, if you're overwhelmed by the idea of overhauling your entire diet and your approach and cooking routine overnight, this episode's for you.
• 0:15
  Philip Pape: Today we're diving into the world of Kaizen, an engineering concept that shows why small, consistent changes lead to big results.
• 0:24
  Philip Pape: That shows why small, consistent changes lead to big results.
• 0:28
  Philip Pape: You'll discover how this one quick and easy change can make a huge difference in your ability to stick to your meal plans, especially during fat loss.
• 0:34
  Philip Pape: Welcome to Wits and Weights, the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique.
• 0:54
  Philip Pape: I'm your host, philip Pape, and today we are celebrating National Cooking Day, september 25th, by exploring how a simple shift in your cooking habits can supercharge your efforts during fat loss.
• 1:06
  Philip Pape: Picture this it's the end of a long day, you're tired, you're hungry.
• 1:11
  Philip Pape: The thought of cooking seems like it's a huge mountain to climb right.
• 1:17
  Philip Pape: You're well past that 3 pm energy crash and you're starving, and the takeout menu is calling your name, especially the Chinese or the pizza or whatever you go for.
• 1:27
  Philip Pape: We've all been there.
• 1:28
  Philip Pape: But what if I told you that by making just one small change to your cooking routine, you could basically set off a chain reaction, start building momentum that transforms how you approach nutrition, especially during fat loss or when the calories are a little bit tight and you have specific goals you're trying to meet, and that's what we're diving into in today's episode.
• 1:47
  Philip Pape: But before we do, the only thing I'm going to ask is that, if you enjoy the show, if you want more content on building muscle, on nutrition training, using intelligent frameworks and principles to do things easily and more efficiently, hit the follow button.
• 2:02
  Philip Pape: Hit the follow button right now.
• 2:04
  Philip Pape: It will help more people find the show according to the podcast gods, the podcast algorithm, and it will ensure also that you never miss another episode.
• 2:14
  Philip Pape: All right, let's get into the discussion today and we're going to just kick it off with the problem that we're trying to solve.
• 2:19
  Philip Pape: The problem is why is sticking to a meal plan so damn hard?
• 2:22
  Philip Pape: That's the problem, right?
• 2:24
  Philip Pape: We all have goals.
• 2:26
  Philip Pape: We go into fat loss whatever that calorie level is for you, you know, for me it might be around 2,200 or 2,000.
• 2:32
  Philip Pape: For others it might be 1,200 or 1,400.
• 2:35
  Philip Pape: And initially you have all the motivation.
• 2:37
  Philip Pape: Initially you can pretty much bring it out, whatever it's required to make it happen, but before long it starts to become more difficult.
• 2:50
  Philip Pape: You know, we start with the best intentions.
• 2:51
  Philip Pape: We meal prep on Sunday and then by Wednesday we're either elbow deep in a bag of tortilla chips wondering where it all went wrong, or we're going out to eat.
• 2:57
  Philip Pape: Or, you know, by the time the weekend comes, we're just so stressed from the week and we go out to eat all weekend.
• 3:05
  Philip Pape: Right Now, the issue is usually in the approach itself, the system that we have set up for ourselves.
• 3:11
  Philip Pape: It's not your fault.
• 3:13
  Philip Pape: It's not that you couldn't control yourself.
• 3:16
  Philip Pape: It's not that you quote unquote did bad right.
• 3:18
  Philip Pape: It's that we you, me, collectively as humans, we try to change lots of things all at once and then, when we inevitably slip up, we feel like failures.
• 3:28
  Philip Pape: We then want to give up.
• 3:29
  Philip Pape: We're like forget that, I'm done, that didn't work Right, the all or nothing mindset that sets us up.
• 3:34
  Philip Pape: Now you might be thinking no, no, no, I'm not one of those people.
• 3:36
  Philip Pape: I've got everything dialed in, I do it all, you know, I know, I just need to be consistent, and so on.
• 3:46
  Philip Pape: Even so, there are always ways to improve and make the system work better for you, especially in high times of stress, when life throws us those curve balls and you know you've got a bunch of people staying at your house all of a sudden and you don't know what to do because it's throwing your whole routine out of whack.
• 4:00
  Philip Pape: And this is where our intelligent engineering mindset comes in handy, and that's what you got me for, even if you don't think that way, it's okay.
• 4:08
  Philip Pape: Today's framework is called Kaizen Kaizen K-A-I-Z-E-N.
• 4:13
  Philip Pape: It's something that I learned years ago at work.
• 4:15
  Philip Pape: It was brought over here by Toyota back in probably the 70s or 80s.
• 4:20
  Philip Pape: It is a Japanese term that translates to change for better, or what we like to call it continuous improvement, and it's a philosophy that focuses on making small incremental changes that compound over time to create significant results.
• 4:36
  Philip Pape: Now, if that sounds familiar, it's because it's underpins a lot of the behavior change and habit formation approaches that are out there, like James Clear's Atomic Habits, where he talks about the compounding of small habits over time.
• 4:50
  Philip Pape: Same idea, but in manufacturing.
• 4:53
  Philip Pape: Kaizen is really about tweaking a single step in a production line and all you're trying to do is you improve efficiency by 1%, by 1%.
• 5:03
  Philip Pape: But when that 1% improvement is made consistently across multiple areas, it then leads to massive gains in productivity and quality.
• 5:13
  Philip Pape: So how does this apply to you, especially when we're trying to eat in a way that is consistent?
• 5:18
  Philip Pape: We are trying to hit calories and macros and nutrients and all of these things, even with your training perhaps really any system where you're trying to build consistency.
• 5:29
  Philip Pape: It's very simple Instead of trying to overhaul the entire system, your entire diet, your entire training routine, we are going to focus on one small, manageable change cooking just one more meal at home each week.
• 5:44
  Philip Pape: That's it.
• 5:45
  Philip Pape: That is the change today that we are focused on Cooking just one more meal at home each week.
• 5:50
  Philip Pape: As I mentioned earlier, it's National Cooking Day, so what better way to use that as a catalyst for making a very simple, easy, quick change than National Cooking Day?
• 6:02
  Philip Pape: All right, now you might be asking how is this one meal going to make a difference?
• 6:04
  Philip Pape: I mean, you probably can imagine why.
• 6:06
  Philip Pape: A little bit it would make a difference, but let me give you all the ways.
• 6:10
  Philip Pape: Let me count the ways, okay, the first one is the control that it gives you over your meal.
• 6:16
  Philip Pape: Very simple when you make your own meals, you have complete control.
• 6:19
  Philip Pape: Complete control over the ingredients, portions, the cooking methods, right, which means no hidden ingredients, not a ton of butter or oil or sugar.
• 6:29
  Philip Pape: You can proportion it the way you want rather than restaurant-sized portions, and then even cook it the way you want, so that it's sauteed, roasted, grilled, boiled, broiled, just the way you want.
• 6:41
  Philip Pape: Maybe you don't want to overcook your burgers you know that's my pet peeve and that alone can lead to significant calorie reduction without even feeling like you're being restricted.
• 6:52
  Philip Pape: It's a way to make food not only taste better, but hit the bottom line of your calorie budget even less, and then hit the other things, like protein, right.
• 7:01
  Philip Pape: You can shift the macros the way you want, so you have a lot of control.
• 7:05
  Philip Pape: That's huge.
• 7:06
  Philip Pape: The second thing is, by focusing on just this one thing one additional home-cooked meal a week we are building a habit gradually.
• 7:15
  Philip Pape: This is exactly the approach I would take with clients for any piece of our nutrition plan.
• 7:19
  Philip Pape: Now, if you work with me, if I'm your coach, we may do two or three of these at a time, because you've got the safety net of someone looking over your shoulder and helping you out and kind of you can lean on.
• 7:30
  Philip Pape: But if you're doing it by yourself, one is perfectly awesome.
• 7:33
  Philip Pape: Okay, it's much easier to commit to one meal than to suddenly decide I'm going to cook every single meal at home, I'm going to meal prep every meal for the entire week, I'm going to put them in Tupperware dishes and it's going to be perfect.
• 7:44
  Philip Pape: That is my goal.
• 7:46
  Philip Pape: Don't do that.
• 7:46
  Philip Pape: Don't do that.
• 7:47
  Philip Pape: Just do one meal a day, or I mean, sorry, one meal, not even one meal a day, one meal for the whole week.
• 7:53
  Philip Pape: I should have clarified Okay, one meal.
• 7:56
  Philip Pape: Dinner is usually a good place to do that, but it could be lunch, whatever you choose, or breakfast.
• 8:07
  Philip Pape: Number three this is a great learning opportunity, right?
• 8:08
  Philip Pape: Because now you can try different recipes for that one meal and build a repertoire of dishes that you can enjoy, but in a nice, calm, low stress environment.
• 8:16
  Philip Pape: Because you're just doing one meal, you're not out to get a whole you know, pinterest board of recipes or you're.
• 8:21
  Philip Pape: You know, we've got amazing people in our Facebook group who love to post recipes, but you could easily get overwhelmed.
• 8:27
  Philip Pape: So you could just pick one, just one that week, and if you find a winner, awesome.
• 8:32
  Philip Pape: You can make it over and over again.
• 8:33
  Philip Pape: Nothing wrong with that.
• 8:35
  Philip Pape: Number four as you see the benefits of that one home cooked meal, right, maybe you feel more satisfied from the meal or you realize it freed up some time, even though you're making the meal.
• 8:46
  Philip Pape: You're also not driving to restaurants and spending a lot more time at the meal in a restaurant.
• 8:53
  Philip Pape: You might be more efficient at home.
• 8:55
  Philip Pape: Or you notice that something has improved with your biofeedback, with how you feel, with your body composition, whatever it is from starting to have more home-cooked meals.
• 9:06
  Philip Pape: Right, just your digestion's good, you sleep better, whatever it is that will motivate you to do more often.
• 9:12
  Philip Pape: And then the last reason to do this maybe this is the most important besides control is the reduced decision fatigue.
• 9:20
  Philip Pape: Because you're committing to just one meal, you eliminate the mental struggle of should I cook or order in for at least one meal each week, and then imagine how that's going to compound when you start adding more later.
• 9:31
  Philip Pape: So let's put this into practice.
• 9:34
  Philip Pape: Here's your Kaizen challenge for the week to celebrate National Cooking Day Choose one meal that you typically eat out or order in and commit to cooking it at home instead.
• 9:46
  Philip Pape: It does not have to be complicated.
• 9:47
  Philip Pape: In fact, the simpler the better when you're starting out, and some of my wife's best meals, honestly, are the really simple ones.
• 9:54
  Philip Pape: You know she will even.
• 9:55
  Philip Pape: She'll even apologize.
• 9:56
  Philip Pape: She'll say, well, it only took me 10 minutes.
• 9:58
  Philip Pape: I'm like, yeah, but that 10 minutes was the most efficient 10 minutes ever, given how awesome this meal is.
• 10:02
  Philip Pape: I mean, that's a definition of efficiency.
• 10:05
  Philip Pape: I love that.
• 10:07
  Philip Pape: So, for example, let's say you usually grab fast food for lunch on Wednesday, right?
• 10:12
  Philip Pape: Instead, plan to pack a simple salad with chicken I mean, that's just a super simple example with some fruit on the side, right?
• 10:22
  Philip Pape: Or if Thursday dinner is usually when you go out for pizza, make a homemade pizza.
• 10:26
  Philip Pape: I mean, you don't even have to change the food, just make it at home.
• 10:30
  Philip Pape: And now you have control over the crust.
• 10:32
  Philip Pape: What goes in the crust?
• 10:33
  Philip Pape: How many veggies?
• 10:34
  Philip Pape: You know the different types of meat.
• 10:35
  Philip Pape: It doesn't have to be just like like lathered in tons of oil and and have you know?
• 10:41
  Philip Pape: Um, the pepperoni, like the standard pepperoni.
• 10:44
  Philip Pape: You can have whatever nitrate free pepperoni, whatever you want.
• 10:47
  Philip Pape: You know chicken?
• 10:48
  Philip Pape: Uh, pineapple Some people would say how dare you put pineapple on a pizza.
• 10:52
  Philip Pape: Others are like, well, that is pizza.
• 10:54
  Philip Pape: So, whatever, it is Okay.
• 10:56
  Philip Pape: Um, the goal here is progress.
• 10:59
  Philip Pape: That's it.
• 10:59
  Philip Pape: The goal here is progress because if your homemade meal is not Instagram worthy, that's okay.
• 11:04
  Philip Pape: And in fact I, I challenge you to go ahead and take a picture of it anyway and put it on your story and tag me.
• 11:09
  Philip Pape: I would love to see it and say, hey, national cooking day, september 25th.
• 11:12
  Philip Pape: Today, go post something and just encourage people to do it.
• 11:15
  Philip Pape: In fact, be vulnerable and say, look, my food's not perfect, but it might even not even taste perfect, but you know what it's going to serve me and it's going to be my step toward greatness here when it comes to my nutrition.
• 11:27
  Philip Pape: The act of cooking itself is a win.
• 11:29
  Philip Pape: So as you get comfortable with this one meal, then you could gradually increase.
• 11:33
  Philip Pape: In a few weeks maybe you're cooking two extra meals at home, then three right, and then before you know it, you might be cooking every single meal at home, except maybe Saturday night.
• 11:41
  Philip Pape: And I'll tell you what.
• 11:42
  Philip Pape: We've gotten to that point, more or less partly because with four of us right, two kids who are now 10 and 12, they eat as much as we do.
• 11:50
  Philip Pape: It gets damn expensive to go out a lot.
• 11:53
  Philip Pape: You know what I mean.
• 11:55
  Philip Pape: It doesn't feel worth it for the quality of food you usually get.
• 11:57
  Philip Pape: It's got to be a more special thing and because we don't do it.
• 12:01
  Philip Pape: Very often it is more special.
• 12:03
  Philip Pape: We might not even go out to eat all week, except we'll go out for an ice cream on Sunday afternoon, and then that's super special.
• 12:09
  Philip Pape: And, yeah, it's ice cream, awesome, we're enjoying it, I plan it in and it's super special, right?
• 12:15
  Philip Pape: So that's another thing.
• 12:16
  Philip Pape: I didn't even think about the fact that it makes going out even more special.
• 12:19
  Philip Pape: And then, before you know it, cooking meals at home is just the thing you do.
• 12:23
  Philip Pape: And that's the power of Kaizen Continuous improvement, change for better, small, consistent changes that compound over time.
• 12:33
  Philip Pape: Now I know what one of the objections is, philip I don't have time to cook or I'm a terrible cook.
• 12:38
  Philip Pape: So let me just address these real quickly.
• 12:40
  Philip Pape: First, remember we're just talking about one meal, remember, that's the whole point.
• 12:44
  Philip Pape: And you can prepare many healthy meals in less time than it takes to look up order, wait for delivery, even when you're doing takeout, right, not even talking about going to a restaurant.
• 12:56
  Philip Pape: And then, as you get more practice, you'll become more efficient.
• 12:58
  Philip Pape: So I don't think that's an excuse.
• 13:00
  Philip Pape: And then, as far as skills, that's what they are, they're skills.
• 13:04
  Philip Pape: So a skill can be learned and improved over time.
• 13:07
  Philip Pape: If you tell yourself you're a bad cook.
• 13:08
  Philip Pape: You are going to be a bad cook.
• 13:09
  Philip Pape: That's called a fixed mindset, that's called a self-identity statement.
• 13:12
  Philip Pape: Instead, be open to it.
• 13:14
  Philip Pape: Say, ha, I can learn to cook.
• 13:16
  Philip Pape: I just need to do it.
• 13:16
  Philip Pape: I just need to figure it out right.
• 13:18
  Philip Pape: Start with simple recipes built from there.
• 13:31
  Philip Pape: I mean the internet, google, is full of quick, easy, healthy recipes for beginners.
• 13:32
  Philip Pape: Just use the right word and you'll find exactly what you need.
• 13:34
  Philip Pape: Okay, the key is to start small and be consistent.
• 13:34
  Philip Pape: Again, that's the essence of Kaizen.
• 13:35
  Philip Pape: In fact, I'm realizing and hopefully I haven't, like, I'm not talking too quickly here I realized that Kaizen itself is one of the most powerful frameworks I've shared on this show ever, because of its ability to be applied to anything and create a foundation of totally sustainable change.
• 13:52
  Philip Pape: And then, when you make that change, what's going to happen is you're going to start to have a sense of control, the sense of agency, the sense of empowerment that, okay, I can do this and I, I'm making it happen, me, I'm making it happen.
• 14:06
  Philip Pape: And then you're then sending a powerful message to yourself.
• 14:10
  Philip Pape: You're saying I'm in charge of my nutrition, I can make choices that will align with my goals.
• 14:14
  Philip Pape: I get to make those choices, in fact.
• 14:17
  Philip Pape: And then it goes beyond the one meal.
• 14:18
  Philip Pape: You find yourself making better choices throughout the day, upward spiraling.
• 14:22
  Philip Pape: Maybe you drink an extra glass of water.
• 14:24
  Philip Pape: You opt for some fruit for your sweet tooth during the afternoon water, you opt for some fruit for your sweet tooth during the afternoon.
• 14:31
  Philip Pape: And that's the ripple effect of Kaizen One small change creates a wave of positive outcomes.
• 14:34
  Philip Pape: And because the changes are small and they're manageable, they are, that's right.
• 14:38
  Philip Pape: The S word sustainable.
• 14:40
  Philip Pape: You're not white knuckling it through a restrictive diet where you cut carbs.
• 14:44
  Philip Pape: No, you're just building systems, habits, whatever word you like to use.
• 14:49
  Philip Pape: That will stick with you.
• 14:51
  Philip Pape: That will become the essence of you and who you are Now.
• 14:55
  Philip Pape: Imagine where you could be in a year if you commit to this approach.
• 14:57
  Philip Pape: Today, this week, national Cooking Day.
• 14:59
  Philip Pape: Today, one extra home-cooked meal a week might not seem like much, but that's 52 healthier meals in a year.
• 15:06
  Philip Pape: That's 52 opportunities to nourish your body, to learn new body, to learn new skills, to take control of your nutrition.
• 15:11
  Philip Pape: And that's how the real, lasting change happens.
• 15:15
  Philip Pape: Not through a one-off crash diet, a one-off extreme measure, but these small, consistent steps.
• 15:22
  Philip Pape: So let's just wrap it up, just to really sear it into our brains together.
• 15:26
  Philip Pape: Number one Kaizen is a concept from engineering change for better that focuses on small, continuous improvements.
• 15:33
  Philip Pape: Number two applying this process of Kaizen to your meal plan means focusing on one small change cooking one extra meal at home each week.
• 15:44
  Philip Pape: This change then leads to the benefits of the change better portion control, improved cooking skills, positive mindset shift all of those things that then spur you to want to do it more often and more frequently.
• 15:57
  Philip Pape: And then you start to be consistent and create gradual progress.
• 16:02
  Philip Pape: It may not be perfect, it doesn't need to be, because it's better than it was before and then, over time, these small changes compound, leading to sustainable long-term results.
• 16:11
  Philip Pape: So, as we celebrate National Cooking Day, I challenge you to embrace the Kaizen approach.
• 16:16
  Philip Pape: Start with one meal, see where it takes you and you might surprise yourself All right.
• 16:25
  Philip Pape: So today, if you enjoyed this episode and want to connect with others, if you want to get some recipe ideas, if you want to share, for accountability, that you're doing this, join our Wits and Weights Facebook group.
• 16:34
  Philip Pape: It's totally free.
• 16:35
  Philip Pape: It's just on Facebook.
• 16:36
  Philip Pape: You look it up.
• 16:36
  Philip Pape: I'll include a link to the show notes.
• 16:39
  Philip Pape: It is a community of like-minded individuals quirky nerds, engineers, non-engineers but we all are working toward the same types of goals in the same way.
• 16:51
  Philip Pape: We want to build systems that make our lives more efficient, easier to get the result and have more control at the end of it, all right.
• 17:02
  Philip Pape: So if you join the group, join our Facebook group you can then share recipes, you can swap meal prep, you can find support, motivation as you implement this Kaizen approach to your meal planning, but even to anything else in your fitness journey.
• 17:14
  Philip Pape: Just search for Wits and Weights on Facebook or click the link in your show notes and take that first step today.
• 17:21
  Philip Pape: Until next time, keep using your wits lifting some weights and remember, in the kitchen and in life, small changes lead to big results.
• 17:30
  Philip Pape: I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights podcast.