The Badass Body Diet: The Breakthrough Diet and Workout for a Tight Booty, Sexy Abs, and Lean Legs (10 page)

The Modifier plan has the lowest amount of fat of the four diets; this means it’s also the lowest in calories. That way, your body starts to utilize its own “extra storage” faster than the other plans. This is a great plan if you want to get in bikini shape for the beach and the summer months.

Like the Minimalist, the Modifier plan requires that you eat primo foods—pure and natural food choices. It’s also a great plan for athletes in sports for which they need to get lean to make weight.

Select the Modifier plan if one or more of these criteria apply.

•  You have 40 percent body fat or higher, or are 30 pounds or more overweight.

•  You have a lifestyle that is currently sedentary, with very little activity on the job or with exercise.

•  You work out, but usually not intensely and three times a week or less.

•  You need to get lean quickly for health and cosmetic reasons, or to make weight for an athletic competition.

•  You have goals to rapidly lower your body fat, with a minimal gain in body mass.

THE MAINTAINER

Maybe you’re close to your weight loss goal, plus you want to build more body-glorious muscle and finally get a tight booty. If either of these sounds like you, you’ll follow the Maintainer plan. It also is designed to keep your body fat at a minimum. You’ll eat clean, wholesome foods, with allowances for some extra variety in food choices. You have to weigh and measure your foods.

This plan is also for a woman who wants to put on some curvy, sexy muscles. Basically, this means that while your weight looks good on a scale, it makes for a discouraging picture when you get naked and see you’re still as soft as the Pillsbury Doughboy, with hardly a trace of definition. In fact, as a skinny-fat person (that is what I was), you may have more fat cells on your body than a lot of your friends who are overweight.

Select the Maintainer plan if one or more of these criteria apply.

•  You have 20 to 30 percent body fat.

•  You train three to seven times a week, usually at a higher intensity.

•  You would like to decrease your body fat.

•  You would like to increase your body mass (muscle) percentage more rapidly than a Modifier.

THE GAINER

This plan is for someone who needs to gain more mass, such as an athlete in a “bulk” cycle or a person who’s doing an intense training program already, such as a marathon runner or triathlete.

On the Gainer plan, you get to eat the most food of all four plans. This approach won’t make you fat, but will put on lean mass for the look and performance you want. Plus, you get to enjoy a wide variety of foods. Weighing and measuring your foods is key for getting results.

Select the Gainer plan if one or more of these criteria apply.

•  You have less than 15 percent body fat.

•  You are highly active, with an intense workout schedule.

•  You train two hours daily or more (approximately ten hours or more of training a week).

•  You are close to your ideal body composition, but you’d like to put on additional lean muscle.

•  You would like to increase or maintain your body fat percentage.

•  You would like to increase your body mass (muscle) percentage more rapidly than a Modifier or Maintainer.

As you follow the Badass plan, you might go through several or all of these plans, depending on where you are with your goals or how your body has changed. If you start off as a Modifier and get close to where you want to be, you can merge into the Maintainer plan, for example. Or if you’re very active and want to build some sexy muscle, you can follow the Gainer plan. That’s the beauty of this program: you can individualize it according to your goals and body aesthetics.

Take me, for example. I mostly follow the Maintainer plan now, since I’m within my body composition goal and am very active. When I trained for NASCAR, however, I put myself on the Gainer plan in order to fuel myself properly and put some oomph into my performance. I was doing two pit practice or training sessions a day of two hours each, plus my regular workouts. I needed more food to meet the energy demands of pit crewing. The Gainer plan helped me gain muscle, keep my body fat percentage, and increase my performance. Once I was finished with NASCAR, I went back on the Maintainer diet.

For CrossFit training and competitions, I flow through every one of these plans, as the schedule below shows you.

Then, for a national weightlifting competition, I followed the Modifier plan for two weeks. It allowed me to reduce my overall body weight so that I could compete in a specific weight class. That plan pared off body fat without reducing my lean mass to get me to my optimal performance weight for competition. In August, I follow the Minimalist plan, after being strict for most of the year due to competition and training.

So you see, the Badass plan is flexible and designed to work with your body and your goals throughout an entire year and a lifetime. It doesn’t always have to be dialed in, but going strict with a plan occasionally helps keep measurements in perspective while being a Minimalist.

PERSONALIZE THE PROGRAM

The plan I will initially follow is: ______________________________________________

STEP 2: Figure Out How Much Food You Should Eat

Getting the body you want is like building a house. You need a strong foundation and sturdy walls; all the marble countertops and sparkly finishes don’t matter one iota if the house is about to collapse.

The foundation of my diet is primo foods with a little bit of acceptable foods, along with properly prepared, nutritionally dense booty foods. Once you build your foundation with these foods, you can start building your walls—something you’ll do with nutrient combinations I call bricks.

A brick is comprised of a specific quantity of protein, carbohydrate, and fat, and is used to put together your meals. You’ll eat a certain number of bricks at each of your meals and snacks. The number is based on two factors: 1) the diet you’re on—Minimalist, Modifier, Maintainer, or Gainer; and 2) your frame size, determined by your height. Think about it: A woman who is five feet ten inches is definitely going to require more food than someone who is five feet two. You’ll learn how to tailor the plan to your individual height profile.

Here’s how to determine your height profile:

Frame 1 (Mighty): 4′10″ to 5′2″

Frame 2: (Force) 5′3″ to 5′6″

Frame 3: (Power) 5′7″ to 5′10″

Frame 4: (Bold) 5′11″ to 6′

Frame 5: (Confident) Over 6′

The number of bricks you eat each day looks like this:

The meal plans are built according to this blueprint. This system will take a little getting used to, but before long, it will become second nature—and the key to making long-term changes in your diet and nutrition.

Nothing worthwhile is without effort. The majority of the “work” with this program is on the front end. Once you’re a few days into it, the Badass plan becomes exceptionally easier to comprehend and apply.

PERSONALIZE THE PROGRAM

My frame is ______________________________________.

Each day, I’ll eat a total of ____ bricks.

STEP 3: Know How Many Bricks You’ll Eat for Each Meal and Snack

Meals and snacks are made up of multiple bricks, which often give you a range. Usually, you’ll plan your meals at the lower end of the range. But if you feel hungry, you can adjust your bricks to include the number at the higher end of the range. Refer to the following chart to figure out how many bricks you’ll eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.

MODIFIER

MAINTAINER