The 3% club. I m sure you also have those very few office colleagues who are in great physical and mental shape. And you hate them.

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2 The 3% club I m sure you also have those very few office colleagues who are in great physical and mental shape. And you hate them. Ever wondered why? I know I hated them many years ago and it took me a lot of time and courage to ask myself why?, and then some more time to respond with all honesty. It was because I was young and out of shape and I really wanted to look like them and fully enjoy my adult life. I ll always remember how envious I used to get when they were entering the office kitchen getting all the attention during lunch break. I kept finding excuses for why I can t be fit like them even though I knew one was working more hours than me, had a family and kids plus a couple of hobbies on the side. Truth being said I had shitty excuses. There are some very discouraging studies which state that only 3% of the overweight office workers manage to lose weight and remain fit for the long term. Reading these stats didn t help me in my pursuit of getting fit.

3 One day, ambition stuck and I decided I had enough. So, after work, I went straight to the gym where we had a discount from the company and I paid a one year subscription. Boom! I worked-out every day for two weeks and started a drastic diet (while reading advices from a reputed fitness & nutrition website). Results started to show up and I felt great during those two weeks. I was already picturing myself in the 3% club. But after a weekend-long party, I decided to take a short break from the gym. I was tired I also started to indulge a snack or two during the day since I was so proud of my achievements already. We all know what happened in the following weeks I just want to tell you that for the remaining 11 and a half months of my subscription, I visited the gym a little more than in the first 2 weeks of the one-year subscription. I won t even say anything about my eating habits. In the following months I found myself going back to the diet that seemed to work for a few weeks just to binge and wipe out my results again afterwards. All this, while endlessly debating Atkins vs. Montignac dieting details with colleagues by the office water-cooler. I know that what I wrote above plus the 3% stats are probably not boosting your motivation either but please bear with me just a little. I ll tell you how I changed this situation for good but first let me introduce myself.

4 Who Am I? My name is Andy Peter (it s actually Andrei Petru but I noticed westerners find it hard to pronounce it), an IT engineer from Romania with an office job in a software company. I was fat most of my childhood, reaching 230 lbs. (105 kg) in college. So by the time I took an office job I was already in a bad shape. I got fit years ago to 160 lbs. (73 kg) and never gained a pound of fat back. Did I unlocked the ultimate secret of weight loss? Probably not. But for sure I nailed some things that made me: 1. Lose weight 2. Build a fit body 3. Pass the test of time and remain fit ever since entering the 3% club of people who keep their good shape for the long term after losing weight You can read more about my journey to getting fit on my website. Office Worker s Beginner weight loss guide Page 4

5 Your starting point Let s go back to the opening story and to getting you in the 3% club. At some point I started reading about nutrition and fitness. A lot. Even if I found some differences of approach, there were some common points to all the quality material. You see, what I didn t understand back then was that willpower alone is not all you need to succeed. Not even close. Depending on external and internal triggers, willpower comes and goes. And with it, also your diets and exercising. Therefore, based on willpower only, it s almost impossible to achieve good results and keep them for the long term. You need something constant in time. A system! Key points for a good system: A specific foundation plan A simple plan that you can follow every day A plan to build in time on the initial foundation Focus on the process, not the desired results Consistency is more important than isolated achievements

6 Enter the weight loss game After extracting the above key points, I thought about a simple & fun way to put them into practice. It seemed to me that these are the same key points as when you want to learn a new game. That is, if you want to learn it methodically and not just play it casually. With this analogy, I found that most people play the Weight loss game casually, but expect professional results. They get inspired by professional advice...fit for professionals. But they lack the basic foundation on which to build these professional habits. I m referring to losing weight with various diets that even if they prove to help in the first place, they actually create a cycle of restrictions and binges. In order to reach a certain level at the weight loss game, one must go through the correct beginner training and learn the basic foundation rules of this game.

7 These rules will remain valid forever. Even after getting fit. Think about great chess players. They still have to open the game with basic moves. I will be your coach from now on! That s why now, as a first level beginner, just learning and applying the following basic rules of the weight loss game will have sure results. Of course, just like ditching the old habits when switching from casual to professional playing, you will have to get rid of all your other weight loss ideas and habits. This means you will have to trust me on this one. Not because I say so, but because I came to these conclusions after years of going through the exact same problems. All these years helped me gather a lot of information that I am more than happy to share with you. I do it through my personal website fitwithandy.com

8 Social influence is a thing you will have to resist in case you decide to make your decision public, as there will always be persons who will oppose your decisions, no matter how sound and trustworthy these decisions are. Remember my debates about Atkins vs. Montignac diet details by the office water-cooler? Prepare to be challenged by others! Even though there are clear advantages of going public with your decision (public commitment), people will also judge you based on your statements. Just like me, only with your patience and strong belief you can prove them wrong. The purpose of this particular guide is to give you the basic rules in the weight loss game, which you have to learn and practice in order for you to ADVANCE IN THE RIGHT WAY.

9 Get ready to start the game! The next pages are very important. They contain the 3 basic rules of the weight loss game that you ll have to learn and put into practice. Last page contains a 30-day calendar where you will mark your results of practicing these three rules every day. PLEASE PRINT THE CALENDAR PAGE! At the end of a day, use a green marker to mark the rules you followed, or a red marker if you didn t. At the end of the 30-day cycle, count and write your total fails - the red marks - next to each of the three rules in the total cheat days table. If you failed more than 3 times out of 30 (10%) for any of the 3 rules, it means you are not ready to move to the next level. You will repeat the 30-day cycle until you finish it with with no more than 3 fails per cycle for any of the 3 rules. When marking each day, be honest with yourself! There is no benefit in stealing from your own self. This is what it means to tackle Weight Loss like a pro. I strongly recommend that you print the calendar page and put it somewhere you have access every day.

10 The 3 basic rules of the Office Worker s weight loss game RULE 1 - ORGANIZED EATING Set a strict number of 2 to 4 meals per day at roughly the same hours every day and don't eat anything at all in between. Not even a candy, a peanut or an apple byte. Anything you eat has to be included into one of those meals that you have set for yourself. Same rule applies also to nutritious liquids. No milk, soup or smoothie of any kind outside the set meals. Exceptions are: water, unsweetened black coffee, or tea.

11 Finish your last meal of the day roughly 3 hours before going to bed. Don t change the food you eat until you re prepared for the next level. You will eat roughly the same things as until now, even if it s a lower quality food. You will not deal with the food quality at this point. The purpose of this rule is for you to create the habit of tracking how much you eat by eating only when it s meal time. It also makes you not to skip meals. My example for keeping fit after years: I tried 2, 3 and 4 meals / day. Finally I decided to go for 3. I definitely found it easier to eat like this, especially from the social perspective. Most people eat 3 times / day so it s easy to synchronize with them. This is important since the moments you fall off the wagon are usually the ones when you are in a special situation (dinner out). Breakfast - 8:30 AM Lunch - 2:00 PM Dinner - 9:00 PM As you can see above, I have my meals equally spread with roughly 6h between them. One last thing. Plan this rule so you can follow it on most weekdays & weekends.

12 RULE 2 - NO SOFT DRINKS OR FRUIT JUICE Don t drink commercial soft drinks or natural juice from squeezed fruits. The above two big categories of liquids are big enemies for a beginner trying to lose weight. Both types have a high sugar content, adding lots of calories to your daily intake and creating cravings of different sorts. Yes, even natural, squeezed juice from fruits is dangerous because we re supposed to consume whole fruits, in order to benefit from all the containing fibers and nutrients. A cup of freshly squeezed orange juice has the same number of calories and sugar content as a cup of Coke. The biggest difference is just the type of sugar from each of them: fructose, glucose and sucrose from oranges vs. high fructose corn syrup from Coke. You can check this out online or you can just believe me :) There is a huge number of people who replace their daily water consumption with soft drinks. A small number of those have migrated to natural juices made out of squeezed fruits. Unfortunately both situations add unwanted daily calories to your daily intake and keep a high level of blood sugar, creating insulin imbalance and body resistance to sugars. An excess of the above combined with daily stress at work can even lead to diabetes.

13 There is also a debate on diet drinks with sugar replacements, which I don t endorse. I see diet drinks as surrogates to the real deal which sooner or later will fail in saving us from harm s way. I think it s clear by now the following drinks are also in the NO category (unless you run half-marathons): Energy drinks Sports drinks Vitamin water So what do we drink instead? Allowed drinks between meals: Still water. A lot. Aim for half a gallon (2 liters) / day in small intakes. Get to this quantity gradually, during a few weeks, if you re not a water drinker. Staying hydrated will help you in so many ways, including dropping your appetite. Unsweetened / poorly sweetened black coffee (3 tsp max sugar / day). Unsweetened / poorly sweetened tea (3 tsp max sugar / day). Sparkling water. Not as still water replacement but rather as a soft drink replacement. You can have the following drinks ONLY as part of your meals: Soups. Smoothies (no added sugar, honey). Sugar from containing fruits should be enough. Milk or any other milk drink: latte, hot cocoa, all unsweetened. Coconut or almond milk. Coconut water.

14 RULE 3 - DAILY EXERCISE Get used to doing one form of physical exercise every day. Depending on your physical shape, this could be a 15 minutes walk around the block, a bike ride, or a 5 minute short cardio or weight training session. The purpose of this rule is to make you aware that exercising is also an important component in losing weight, and that it should not be left aside. This means you have to do a form of physical exercise every day. Nevertheless, the emphasis will be on nutrition, as it plays the key factor at this moment. Do not bother with long, hard strenuous workouts since this increases the chance of messing things up at this point of your weight loss journey by rewarding yourself with food. Complex, detailed training plans are also, in my opinion, useless at this point. Just make sure you do a form of exercise every day. Even 5 minute trainings can have a big effect on a beginner, if done on a daily basis.

15 My example for keeping fit after years: People think I do lot of exercising on a regular basis. Not very accurate. I go to the gym 3 times / week for 1 hour simple workouts. Beside that, I prefer to walk / bike to the office or when doing errands. It s true that I have a short commute every day, but even with a longer commute, you can still park your car 15 mins walking distance from work and have a 30 min. relaxing 2-way trip every weekday. Lately I developed 2 hobbies that require physical activity: mountain biking, and table tennis. But I m not very consistent in practicing them so don t imagine some daily intense trainings. I keep them more on a weekly basis. That s it! You are now ready. Let the game begin! Again, please print out the next calendar page and use it for marking your day s results. It s not that you can t do this digitally, on your computer or smartphone. Still, I think that using a marker on a real piece of paper has more impact on us than marking something digitally.

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