Sometimes the very best strategy is the complete opposite of what mainstream pitches and what the herd believes. Okay, I’ve got to take it a step further. Even as I sit here typing I don’t even buy the milk-toast strength of THAT statement. Here’s what I really believe …
MOST times the very best strategy is the complete opposite of what mainstream pitches and what the herd believes. There–I feel better.
George Costanza, in one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes ever, gave “living the opposite” a try when he realized nothing in his life had turned out the way he had hoped. He realized nothing’s ever worked out for him ordering “Tuna on toast” at the diner. So instead, he starts off his new “do the opposite” lifestyle by ordering the COMPLETE opposite of tuna on toast.
George decides that the complete opposite of tuna on toast is chicken salad, on rye, untoasted, with a side of potato salad, and a cup of tea!
Click The Link Below To See This Classic Seinfeld Scene
http://youtu.be/cKUvKE3bQlY
So how do the antics of a popular sitcom translate into something you can use to strip body fat?
MOST times, it can work to our advantage if, when it comes to nutrition, we just do the opposite of what the mainstream pitches and what the herd actually believes.
Mainstream nutrition educators have taught and the herd believes we should not eat too close to bedtime. For today’s tip I’m going to recommend that you do the opposite.

I suggest you eat VERY close to bed time–within 30 minutes of going to sleep.

I recommend my clients eat 4-6 times per day. So let’s imagine you had your third meal at dinner time – about 6pm. The mainstream pitches that you should CUT IT OFF at that point – don’t eat after 6pm! Their claim is too much of the energy consumed will be stored as fat and blah blah blah. And that’s what it is – blah blah blah.
Well I don’t know about you but I don’t go to bed at 6:30pm. And, again, I don’t know about you but I don’t enjoy going to bed hungry. Isn’t that something that some parents do to punish their kids? Isn’t that something that those unfortunate, truly impoverished and hungry souls in modern and historical times live through and describe as incredibly painful? Ya, I think it is. Well the saying “No pain = no gain” does NOT apply to this kind of pain.
Sure, throughout your day, if you are losing body fat/weight, you will feel some level of hunger pains prior to eating your next meal. This is normal. And beyond normal, it’s necessary even though, once again, the diet hucksters will tell you that you can lose all the weight you want without EVER being hungry. Bullticky. Malarkey.
But even though multiple feelings of hunger throughout the day is normal and necessary for weight loss it is completely UNnecessary that you go to bed hungry and I don’t care what time it is that you go to bed! In fact I want you to do the opposite of what the mainstream suggests and what the herd believes.

I want you to eat about 30 minutes prior to when you are mostly likely to go to bed!

Nothing applies to everyone. There is no one size fits all. I realize there are people who get up at 3am to exercise so they can be at work by 5am. And these people go to bed around 8pm or so. If they eat dinner between 6pm and 7pm that may work just fine for ensuring they don’t go to bed hungry. But my rationale remains the same. The reason I’m fine with them not eating 30 minutes before they go to bed is one of the primary goals (not going to bed hungry) is achieved when they eat between 6pm and 7pm.
So what about the majority of people who go to bed between 9pm and midnight-ish? I still want you to eat 4-6 times a day. Regardless of whether you are eating four, five or six times a day I recommend your last meal is about 30 minutes before you believe you are going to fall asleep.
There are two primary reasons for doing the opposite of what mainstream teaches and what the herd believes to be true:

1. You won’t have to try and go to sleep hungry. You’ll probably fall asleep easier, more peacefully and may stay asleep longer rather than waking up in the middle of the night feeling like you’re starving.
2. If you eat dinner between 6pm and 7pm and you go to bed at 10pm for example it’s not uncommon for people struggling with their weight to eat something a half hour after dinner, then an hour after dinner, then two hours after dinner and then again before bedtime. And when we eat that way we either gain weight or, at best, we stay the same weight. But one thing we don’t do when we eat that way is LOSE weight. So if you’ve planned your day (and you should) and you’ve got one more meal to go after dinner you’ll actually take in fewer calories by skipping the 2-3 other snacks and feedings you would have had in favor of having one planned snack 30 minutes before going to sleep.

I commonly do eat six times a day. I eat every 2.5-4 hours. But that’s when I’m doing well and thankfully that’s 90% of the time now. If you think I do this perfectly, everyday of the week though, think again. And when I’m in “add my 5-7 pounds of Winter fat” mode I find that I eat dinner at 6pmish, then again, and again and again and maybe again and instead of having six meals a day I have eight, nine or even ten!
So there are a few points worth noting to actually make this work:

1. If possible try and have dinner no more than four hours before bed time. So if you go to bed at 11pm try and make sure your dinner is no earlier than 7pm. By pushing your dinner time a bit later and closer to bed time you won’t have to wait out your last snack what can seem like forever and a day. If you eat dinner at 5pm and you routinely go to bed at midnight? Wow! That’s going to be painful if you wait until 11:30p to have that last snack–it’s a full 6.5 hours after dinner that you had to wait. I recommend, throughout the day, eating 3-5 hours after the meal you just ate.
2. The meal you eat prior to bed needs to be thought about ahead of time and better yet–planned. This “do the opposite” tip is not a free pass to mow down a large pizza or to just mindlessly troll the cupboards, pantry and fridge with an anything goes mind-less-set.
3. A meal-replacement shake higher in protein than carbs, a protein shake with almost no carbs, egg whites, other lean protein, any veggies, a small amount of unsweetened real fruit, ONE serving of greek yogurt if you can do dairy — these are the foods you most want to focus on eating 30 minutes before bed.

This nutrition tip is just that – a tip. I wrote Leanness Lifestyle to be a comprehensive authoritative voice to pull it ALL together including nutrition, exercise and emotion. And, of course, the very best thing anyone reading this can do for themselves is to come on board as a new student at LL University and get the extra personal attention from me and mentoring from other students who have already walked the path from too-heavy to lean and healthy using my system.
A complete system is the only complete way to really have all of it make sense but I hope this tip helps break a 7-10 meal pattern you may have gotten into and I hope it helps you to fall asleep easier and more relaxed and stay asleep longer.
Wait it out after dinner. Eat only one more time and make it 30 minutes before going to sleep.
Ask any questions you have and share any comments. I welcome them all.