Your diet for the next 12 weeks will consist of ONE meal....eaten 5-7 times a day depending on your body weight. This meal consists of one can of tuna fish, 1 tsp. Safflower oil, 1/2 tsp mayo; along with 2 eggbeaters and a small garden salad with a sprinkle of italian dressing. Quite frankly this is the perfect meal in terms of nutrition. Very high in protein, low in saturated fat, not processed, packed with vitamins and minerals, and quite satisfying. While this meal might be boring, it will definately leave you full. Safflower oil is full of Omega-3 oils, which are crucial in increasing one's metabolsim; and it can be found in any grocery store. Eggbeaters are prepared egg whites that already come beaten so you just pour into a frying pan and you got yourself an omelet. Now obviously it would be fine if you substituted similar foods to the above meal, I.E. 1 chicken breast instead of the tuna fish, I just chose to stick to one meal because its easier to keep track of, and grocery shopping takes me about 5 minutes lol.
You MUST eat the above meal as soon as you wake up in the morning, then eat it again every 3-4 hours until you fall asleep. For most people, this translates into having 5-7 meals a day. The above meal is small, yes, but instead of eating 3 times a day like most people, you will eating up to 7 times a day. That means you will NOT be hungry following this diet. Most people don't know this, but eating balanced meals very often encourages your body to speed up the metabolism AND add muscle mass. Basically your body sees that it is receiving a steady supply of high quality nutrients, and becomes more "willing" to burn off your body fat, because it will view it as non-essential. For this very same reason, people that try to lose weight by starving themselves rarely succeed because when you stop regularly taking in food, your body lowers your metabolism WHILE increasing fat storage. Basically your body thinks there is a famine going on, and tries to prepare for it by making you sluggish and fatter.
The only beverages you are allowed to drink are water, tea, and decaffinated coffee. No soda, no diet soda, no beer (hey 12 weeks isnt that long), no wine, no liquor, no milk, no juices, no regular coffee. You must drink at least 8 glasses of water daily....there are so many reasons why you must do this, from decreased appetite to decreased cancer risk. I realize this is strict, but our bodies are built to run off of only one liquid and that is water. Our anscestors did not drink soda, or all that other crap, they just drank water, and were much healthier for it. By going 12 weeks on just water, you will probably beat your addiction to caffeine and sugar, and will realize how nasty all that shit really is. Also, try to balance your water intake throughout the day, a full glass every hour and a half is generally a good rule.
Now that the proper diet is down, your next focus will be getting active and working out. The core of your "getting into shape" will come from lifting weights, and not from aerobic exercise, contrary to what most people seem to believe. On Mondays, work your chest and shoulders. On Tuesdays, work your legs, lower back, and abs. On Wednesdays, work your biceps, forearms, and triceps. Do not lift on Thursday, then on Friday, work your chest and upper back. I'm not going to describe the countless different exerices or techniques to use while you lift, suffice it to say that, your workouts should be INTENSE BUT BRIEF, lasting no more than 45 minutes; and you MUST try to improve each time you lift. For example, if you could only squat 205 lbs the last time you worked your legs, this time you must try to squat 210lbs. In this way you are training your body to develop more and more muscle, which prevents you from getting stuck. When it comes to lifting, go with a weight where you can maintain a full range of motion during your lift, for at least 8 reps. I.E. do not think lifting gigantic weights with terrible form gets you anywhere. Also do exercises that work out many different muscles in a single rep. For example, Squats, chin-ups, Bench Press, Dips, and dead-lifts are fantastic exercises that workout a variety of muscles and provide a good challenge at the same time.
You must supplement your weightlifting with aerobic exercise, but this is the part where you have the most freedom. Generally, I like to do my areobic exercise about 20 minutes after I get done lifting, 2-3 times a week. What kind of areobic exercise you do really is up too you, as long as it gets you breathing hard. A good game of basketball, tennis, a fast run around the block, and a bike ride are what I perfer to do. I generally do that areobic exercise for 20-30 mins, and by the end of that half hour I am tired. This is ALL the areobic exercise you need. Anything more than that and that areobic exercise will start to break down your muscles for energy, which is definately not a good thing.
Take a multi-vitamin twice a day. Simple, effective, and healthy.
On the weekends you do not need to exercise. If you have been working out properly by the time the weekend comes you should be in no mood to workout anyways. Enjoy the day off, but stick to your diet.
Keep a daily record of your progress. Seeing oneself improve is about the number one motivator there is. Knowing you weigh 3 lbs less than what you weighed last week is a great feeling. Knowing what you are doing is working is wonderful. Once you see results, sticking to it will be easy.
That's it...all their is too it are those 8 steps. Following those steps takes discipline, desire, and motivation, but if you can do it, you will look and feel better. I did it and loss 100lbs in one summer, so im sure anyone can do it.