Recently I received some questions from a smart reader of Fearless Fat Loss regarding Michael Thurmond’s 6-Week Body Makeover plan. These questions are so good that instead of responding only to him I decided to write my responses today in a post so that you can also benefit from the answers.

These questions come from an outgoing 18-year old guy who started changing his lifestyle about 3 weeks ago with Michael Thurmond’s 6-Week Body Makeover plan. He gained inspiration from watching my videos about the 6WBMO plan and decided to take charge of his life, make some changes, and get healthy and fit.

This is the lifestyle plan that I often write about here at Fearless Fat Loss and I would recommend it to anyone who not only wants to lose weight but who also wants to feel awesome. It teaches you how to eat clean, whole foods, eat more, eat more often, and exercise less. You learn to exercise effectively instead of spending all of your free time in the gym.

On With The Questions!

So let’s get to it and see what today’s Q & A is all about:

1. I get bored eating the same food over and over each day – how can I make sure that I get enough variety in my meals?

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Here’s the simplest solution I can give you for the issue of boredom: head on over to the 6WBMO recipe exchange and get cooking! There are tons of recipes in the free recipe exchange that are just waiting for you to try them out and new ones added all the time. I personally find it very fun to try something new and most of the time I’ve really enjoyed the dishes I’ve made. If I have any doubt as to whether or not I’ll like a new recipe then I cut it in half the first time I make it.

2. Ok, I see that I can get more variety by cooking but I’m an 18-year old guy and I don’t cook, what can I do?

Well in all honesty I really wouldn’t recommend the 6-Week Body Makeover plan to anyone who isn’t willing to cook. It really would be super boring to eat the same foods over and over again because they are easy to prepare but I know that I sure wouldn’t last like that! I’ve got to have variety and everyone I know who has succeeded at changing their lifestyle and making the switch to whole foods has learned how to cook (unless you’re a raw foodie, and that’s not the 6WBMO).

One thing that makes cooking a whole lot easier though, is to cook in bulk; that’s what I do on the weekends. I pick a couple of recipes and make enough to last me the whole week so that I don’t end up cooking every day. I also grill plain, lean chicken breasts almost every week to make sure that I have chicken to make salads with and even though I do end up eating the same food for some of my meals I don’t eat the same thing over and over again.

3. Since I was eating the same food over and over again I started to get a little depressed and thought, “hey, I’m an 18-year old guy who should be enjoying life and eating what I want”! I don’t want to feel depressed about what I’m eating, what can I do about this?

Here’s something to think about: what is your definition of fun? I completely agree that life should be enjoyed and it should be fun but if your idea of fun is focused on food, then there are some thoughts and habits that need to be changed in order for you to build a healthy lifestyle. Otherwise it will be very difficult to lose weight and keep it off if you continue to associate food with fun.

Does this mean that you should not enjoy what you eat? No way! This brings us back to learning to cook to make your whole foods tasty and enjoyable but in essence what you’ll want to do is focus on the fun activities and fun people in your life instead of looking for food to be your “fun”.

Also, when most people say that they want to “eat whatever they want” this means they want to eat all of the highly processed, sugar-filled, fat-filled, MSG-filled and other addictive ingredients laden food. Sure it tastes good but does it get you want you want? You might need to look at whether or not you’re truly ready to change your lifestyle to lose weight and get fit and if you find that you’re not then you’ll want to work on developing your readiness and willingness to change before trying to “force” yourself to make any changes.

4. I’m really addicted to fast food and my cravings for it were out of this world when I started the 6-Week Body Makeover. And…I only stuck with the 6WBMO for 3 days because I did feel discouraged eating the same foods over and over and because my cravings were so strong (I did lose 5 pounds though!)

My question then is, how do I deal with these cravings? It was weird because when I gave in and ate the fast food it was like I wasn’t even hungry but I was satisfied because I felt comfortable with my old behavior. Any words of encouragement??

First of all, congratulations on losing 5 pounds! 5 pounds is nothing to be discounted, every pound adds up!

And yes, it’s so true that fast food is addictive and actually processed food in general is. That processed, fast food is filled with refined sugar, white flour, MSG, loads of sodium, and many other preservatives and ingredients to keep you coming back for more! You might not have realized this before but processed food is specifically made to keep consumers wanting more.

With that being said, the first step is awareness but the next step is being willing to change, and it won’t necessarily be easy in the beginning. What I’ve found is that when you get past those first 3, full days of being off of the processed foods and drinks and eating only whole foods (and drinking lots of water) that then the cravings start to disappear. For some people it could take as many as 7 days to completely get the cravings out of your system but for me 3 days has been the breaking point.

This does not mean however, that your emotional cravings will completely dissipate, which you already recognized yourself by noticing how “comfortable” you felt by returning to your old habits. You mentioned that you really weren’t even hungry for that old food but it “fed” your old behavior and therefore you felt comfortable.

This is an excellent example of the fact that changing your lifestyle to get healthy and fit involves more than only changing how you eat and exercise. It goes beyond that to how you think, which will change how you feel, and how you relate to life in general. It really is a complete lifestyle change in body, mind, and spirit when you decide to change your lifestyle and lose weight.

Michael Thurmond’s 6-Week Body Makeover plan is an excellent lifestyle plan that will help you lose weight and keep it off if you adopt whole foods and exercise as a lifestyle. Even so there will still be emotional and mental changes that you will need to make in order to succeed long term. For example, the habit of using food for fun will not be solved by diet and exercise alone but when you change how you think about food and put the focus on fun activities and fun people then you can change how you view food.

When you incorporate a full lifestyle change not only in your body (how you eat and exercise) but also in your mind and spirit, then you are guaranteed success once you make that decision to succeed. Can you do this? Absolutely. Will it always be easy? Not necessarily, but the sense of accomplishment you will feel from seeing it through and being persistent will far outweigh any of the tough times you’ll come upon.

And above all be sure to have fun with your new lifestyle – not with food but fun with exercise, with people, and with fun activities. Life is about so much more than food, you just need to change your focus.