Announcer: 0:02

If you're a whiny snowflake that can't handle the truth, is offended by the word fuck and about 37 uses of it in different forms gets ass hurt. When you hear someone speak the absolute, real and raw truth, you should leave Like right now. This is Shut Up and Choose, the podcast where we cut through the shit and get real about weight loss, life and everything in between. We get into the nitty gritty of making small, smart choices that add up to big results. From what's on your plate to how you approach life's challenges. We'll explore how the simple act of choosing differently can transform your health, your mindset and your entire freaking life. So if you're ready to cut through the bullshit and start making some real changes, then buckle up and shut up, because we're about to choose our way to a healthier, happier life. This is Shut Up and Choose. Let's do this Now. Your host, jonathan.

Jonathan Ressler: 1:11

Ressler. Hey, welcome back to Shut Up and Choose the podcast that cuts through the noise and the nonsense and all that garbage that the weight loss industry and all those internet gurus telling you how to lose weight. We cut through all that nonsense and we talk about real weight loss, real sustainable weight loss and how you get it done. So I hope everybody's doing great today. Today I want to talk about something that you probably aren't expecting, and that's I want to talk about BLTs and why BLTs are definitely killing you. So I'm going to start out with like a little bit of a story and let you know what I'm thinking. So when I was in college, like every college meal plan, I was on the unlimited meal plan and it was me, a bunch of football players, and we decided we would have a BLT eating contest and we just kept going up and getting more food, more food, more food. So there was a bunch of us big guys, linemen we were all trying to outdo each other and I ended up eating 21 BLTs. That's 21, two, one BLTs and I did win the contest. But I also found out that all you can eat is not necessarily all you can eat, because when I went up for the 22nd BLT, they told me no, no, that's all you can eat, that's it. We're not giving you any more. So I guess I learned that all you can eat is not really all you can eat. But those, really those kind of BLTs they're not the BLTs that I really want to talk about today.

Jonathan Ressler: 2:35

The BLTs that I want to talk about it's when you're doing everything right. You're meal prepping, if that's your thing, you're counting your calories, you're hitting the gym and you're avoiding fast food like it's poison, not eating processed food, doing just everything right. But despite your best efforts, despite everything that you're doing right, the scale just won't budge. And a lot of people go through that where they're, basically they think they're doing everything right and they just can't lose weight. And what I'm here to tell you is that the culprit might not be your main meals, it's those little bites, licks and tastes, the BLTs bite, licks and tastes throughout the day that you don't count. You know the ones where you're just not really thinking, but your body still counts those calories. So, funny enough, the Mayo Clinic recently said that untracked BLTs that's a leading cause of stalled weight loss, because they contribute hundreds, if not thousands, of extra calories per week to your diet and the worst part is most people don't even realize that they do it.

Jonathan Ressler: 3:34

So I was coaching a woman who, basically, was giving me all. She couldn't figure out why she couldn't lose weight. She told me she was eating 1500 calories on the dot a day. She had about 75 pounds to lose and she said I'm eating perfectly, I'm eating all the right things, but I can't lose weight. And then I said well, that just doesn't make sense. She, of course, I said is my metabolism? I said no, it's not. I said I want you to write down for me everything you eat in a day, including your BLTs, and what we figured out was she was eating literally 1,300 extra calories there that she wasn't accounting for. That she didn't realize she was eating because they're just bites, licks and tastes.

Jonathan Ressler: 4:13

So I want to break down today how BLTs are really they're secretly sabotaging your weight loss and how many calories they add up to ultimately and how you can finally take control of them. So, like I said, blts are bites, licks and tastes and they're tiny, seemingly insignificant nibbles of food that you consume throughout the day. They're the calories that never get written down, never get tracked and, honestly, they never really feel like real eating because you're not thinking about it. They're just these little things. So I just came up with a couple examples for you. Like taking a bite of your kid's mac and cheese that's somewhere between 40 and 70 calories. Taking the pasta sauce, tasting it while you're cooking that's 20 to 50 calories per spoonful. Here's a big one that I definitely did. And licking the peanut butter spoon after making a sandwich that's like an extra 80 to 100 calories. So if you grab a handful of almonds or nuts from the office snack bowl, you don't even think about that 100 to 150 calories.

Jonathan Ressler: 5:16

Eating some leftover fries or a couple extra fries off your partner's plate or your kid's plate that's 150 to 250 extra calories. Or your kid's plate that's 150 to 250 extra calories. How about putting one of those what's it called the flavored coffee creamers in your drink? That's crazy. That's anywhere between 50 and 200 calories. The free samples everybody loves a Costco and gets samples, right, but those samples add up to a lot, a lot, a lot of calories. They can be, you know, 50 to 80 calories per sample. How about you're eating dinner and you finish those, the last couple of bites of your kid's dinner? That's anywhere between 100 and 300 calories. Or you sneak a piece of candy from the office candy jar or your hidden candy, because all fat guys and fat girls have secret candy stashed somewhere. So that's anywhere between 40 and 80 calories. We're tasting the cookie dough. Everybody loves to eat cookie dough and cookie butter. That's an extra 50 to 150 calories. So individually, right, they're not that many calories.

Jonathan Ressler: 6:12

If you can eat 2,000 calories a day to maintain your weight, to eat 30, 40 calories here and there, once it doesn't seem like a lot, but it adds up. So if you add them up over a week or a month or even a year, you could be, without even knowing, without even recognizing, consuming an extra thousand to 2000 calories a week without even realizing it. And that's insane. And I promise you, if you're one of those people who I'm doing everything right and I can't lose weight, I guarantee it's your BLTs that are bringing you down, that are bringing the weight up, that are keeping you from losing weight. So I'm going to talk about something I always talk about and that's that a pound of fat is like 3,500 calories, give or take. It's not an exact science, but it's about 3,500 calories. So that means if you eat just 500 extra calories in a day of the untracked BLTs, you could be gaining a pound of fat every single week, right? If you're just eating whatever it is you're supposed to, whatever number of calories you're supposed to eat to maintain your body weight, and you don't count the BLTs in that, you're going to put on a pound every single week even though you think you're doing everything right. So it's pretty crazy. But let's say you're trying to lose weight and you can't figure out why you're stuck. Well, blts are definitely what's keeping you out of the calorie deficit preventing fat loss altogether.

Jonathan Ressler: 7:26

I already said this, but the Mayo Clinic said that in their study that most people underestimate their daily calorie intake by at least 400 to 600 calories. And that doesn't even account for that. The calorie counts on packaging and restaurants and everywhere you see, calorie count is most likely off. It's usually lower than it should be. I don't remember. I read a study somewhere that said it's like off by 20% or 30% on most packaged goods Because if you eat the exact amount they're wrong. So counting calories is a waste of time. But that's beside the point. You know the BLTs are where you're putting on your weight and again, those BLTs are mindless eating, and my whole thing is about mindful eating. So mindless eating is BLTs.

Jonathan Ressler: 8:07

That same study found that even the people who track their meals diligently, like people who really counted their calories, were still consuming an extra 300 to 700 calories per day in unaccounted for snacks and tastes and licks and bites. And that's a massive difference when you're trying to lose weight. So if you still don't think that a BLT is an issue, let's look at some real life examples and how these innocent little bites add up. I know I did some before, but I'm gonna give you a few more. We talked about licking the peanut butter on the spoon that's 80 calories. Taking a bite of a donut 150 calories. And let's say you have a little flavored creamer that's another 50 calories. That means in the morning total, you had 280 unaccounted for calories. In the middle of the day you taste the dressing, maybe, while you're making lunch there's 50. A handful of trail mix from the office snack jar? Hey, there's another 150. Again, eating that crust of your kid's sandwich there's 80. Your midday total at that point is another 280 calories.

Jonathan Ressler: 9:09

Then we come to dinner in the nighttime, right. So you taste the pasta sauce while you're cooking 50. And you eat the leftover fries 200. Sneaking a cookie? God knows, we all sneak cookies, but sneaking a cookie when you're cleaning up the kitchen 150. And maybe finishing that last sip of wine because you don't want to throw it out in your partner's glass 50 calories.

Jonathan Ressler: 9:29

Your dinner total now is 450 calories. If you take that and multiply it, that's every day you had over a thousand extra calories that weren't accounted for. Multiply that seven, you're talking about an extra 7,000 calories a week. Two pounds of fat for a week. So even if you're eating in a calorie deficit, or you believe you're eating in a calorie deficit, when you start to take account for those BLTs you'll find that you're not in a calorie deficit. I promise.

Jonathan Ressler: 9:57

If you're trying to eat in a calorie deficit and you say I don't know I'm eating 1,500 calories, I'm just not losing weight Bullshit. You're eating other food and BLTs, I get it. They feel like free calories, but obviously they're not. I used to always joke hey, anything you eat over the sink has no calories. Or anything you eat in the dark in the kitchen has no calories. But of course everybody knows that's not true. But BLTs do have calories and your body doesn't care whether the calorie came from a meal or a bite off your kid's plate. It still counts. It doesn't matter when you ate it.

Jonathan Ressler: 10:32

I'm going to talk about eating late at night and how that's complete bullshit. It doesn't put weight on you. You used to believe it, did. I believe it, like everybody else. But your body counts a calorie as a calorie, as a calorie, as a calorie period. It doesn't matter when you ate it. Body counts a calorie is a calorie, is a calorie, is a calorie period. It doesn't matter when you ate it, it doesn't matter what you ate. Your body counts a calorie is a calorie and BLT is like they feel harmless because they happen in these little, tiny amounts at different times and without an official meal.

Jonathan Ressler: 10:56

Right, it's not a meal, it's just oh, I'm tasting that. And BLTs definitely happen when you're eating mindlessly, when you're multitasking. So let's say you're eating or you're making dinner, you're cooking and you're tasting stuff, or you're eating up while standing. That was a big one for me. Again, I believe hey, if you're standing it doesn't count. I didn't really believe that, but a lot of people eat standing up, where you're cleaning up leftovers, where you're just mindlessly grabbing snacks at work because you're bored, but they're not part of a structured meal. But your brain doesn't register them the same way, making it easy to forget that they ever happened, right, because, hey, I just had a taste of that or a lick of this or a bite of that.

Jonathan Ressler: 11:33

But they're calories. They count, they count. Every single calorie that you consume counts, no matter where or how you eat it. So if you want to figure out, if you want a surefire way to stop those BLTs from sabotaging your progress because I promise you, like I said three times already, if you're one of those people that says I'm eating, I'm counting my count everything, I just can't lose weight, you're full of shit because you're not really taking into account everything you ate. So the good news is that once you become aware of the BLTs which hopefully you are if you're listening to this now, you're going to think about that you can control them. So I would tell you I'm not a big calorie counter, I'm not a big tracker, but if you're in that place where you can't seem to lose weight because you're doing everything right but the weight just doesn't come off, just for one week, write down every single bite you take, no matter how small. You hear that. Write down every single bite. Taste, lick that you have. Did you taste your kid's mac and cheese? Write it down. Did you lick the spoon after you had some peanut butter on some toast? Write it down. Did you grab a handful of M&Ms? I love M&Ms. Did you have a handful of them? Write it down. You'll be shocked at how much these add up If you have to carry a notebook in your back pocket, a little pocket notebook and write it down.

Jonathan Ressler: 12:49

Another thing for me that was definitely an issue, and I think it's an issue for a lot of people Don't eat standing up. Okay, if you're standing up, do not eat. Eat at the table with a plate. I know that sounds crazy, but if you're not sitting at the table with a plate, do not eat it. If you're tasting while you're cooking, put some onto a spoon and then sit down and eat it mindfully. I know that sounds crazy, but I'm telling you you'll see how many extra calories you're consuming every single week.

Jonathan Ressler: 13:19

And I, for me, again, it's all about mindfully, not mindless, eating. Make it a rule If it's not planned, if you're not thinking about it, you don't eat it. No grabbing stuff from the cookie jar or the candy jar in the office, no licking the spoon while you're baking, no tasting fries from your friend's or your kid's plate. And that's not really about restriction, it's about awareness, because I promise you it's not satisfying you to eat that stuff, it's just one of those things. Hey, I'll taste this or I'll eat that. So no mindless eating.

Jonathan Ressler: 13:52

Another thing you can do is absolutely keep problem foods out of reach. So if you snack, if you keep all these great snacks on your desk or in your desk, or you leave leftovers out, you're more likely to grab a little bite. So just keep those problem foods, the things that you just love to again take a bite, lick or taste of. Keep them out of sight and out of reach. It's so much easier.

Jonathan Ressler: 14:12

And now, of course, the big one for me is you always have to ask yourself before you put anything in your mouth. You know, I say you have to think about what you put in your mouth every single thing. But when you're dealing with these BLTs before every time this is regardless of whether you're eating BLT or you're eating a meal before you eat anything, say, would I eat a full meal right now? And if the answer is no, it's not hunger, it's just a habit, right? If you wouldn't sit down and eat a full meal at that moment? You don't need that bite, lick or taste, and you'll feel better once you start to realize how many of these BLTs you take in a day.

Jonathan Ressler: 14:50

So here's some additional thoughts on BLTs. So here's some additional thoughts on BLTs. Blts might seem like they're harmless, but they are most likely I'm willing to bet that they are the reason that you're not losing weight. In that same Mayo Clinic thing that I talked about, they confirmed that most people underestimate how many calories they consume due to these kind of small, untracked bites throughout the day those BLTs. So again, that fix is total awareness. You have to be aware of what's going in your mouth. So I'll repeat them just real quickly Track your BLTs for a week, write them down, carry them in a notebook, be a dork whatever.

Jonathan Ressler: 15:31

Just carry a notebook and write them down. Eliminate mindless snacking and, for that matter, mindless eating altogether. Got to get rid of it. The third thing is eat mindfully, right. No mindless eating. No, just taking the spoon and putting it in your mouth or licking the side not licking the side of the pot, but licking your finger after you wipe the inside of the pot. No, no more mindless eating. It's got to be mindful and then create those rules that I talked about to avoid those unnecessary bites. And if you take control of your BLTs, I promise you you'll take control of your weight loss.

Jonathan Ressler: 16:06

I mean, those little bites, licks and tastes are ruining your calorie deficit and we all know the bottom line is there's only one way to lose weight and that's to eat in a calorie deficit. All the diets, the fat diets, all that shit it's just a way to get you to eat less calories, whether it be intermittent fasting, which I'm going to talk about at some point in the future, because that's the biggest fucking joke in the world. If you're a person that likes to eat breakfast, it's ridiculous. It comes down to calories in versus calories burned. There is no other recipe for weight loss. There is scientifically no other way. I guess you could cut off your arm or your leg. You would definitely lose some weight. But short of that, the only way to lose weight, to lose fat, is to burn more calories than you consume. It's simple.

Jonathan Ressler: 16:54

So when you think about these BLTs, they're sneaking up on you. You're not really thinking about them. They're basically robbing you of all the hard work that you're doing, eating all the right things, trying to do all the right stuff. So take control of the BLTs and you will absolutely take control of your weight loss. You'll be stunned. You'll be stunned at how many extra calories you eat every day without even thinking about it and without realizing it.

Jonathan Ressler: 17:22

So, with that being said, I know I talked, I've been talking a lot about these fat activists and it's just, it's driving me up the fucking wall. I got to be honest. They're making me fucking crazy. I see these people out there preaching you're beautiful the way you are. This, this jay lynn whatever her fucking name is that I talked about, she's out of control. She's holding a protest out the side of the where I guess this happened. Early this week held a protest outside the sea tack airport in seattle because she wanted to be pushing a wheelchair and she weighs over 400 pounds. They told her they couldn't push her. They wouldn't push her. So she's saying that her civil rights were violated. No, go on a fucking diet, will you and I don't care if you got to take the magic shots, the pills, whatever. Get yourself under fucking control. Then I saw another crazy story this week about some woman who's so fat. The Lyft driver told her he wouldn't drive her because she wouldn't fit in the car. She told her he wouldn't drive her because she wouldn't fit in the car. She wanted to sit in the back, like in the cargo area, and she's actually suing Lyft because this driver wouldn't take her. She's enormous. These fat activists are fucking out of control.

Jonathan Ressler: 18:23

Since I talked a little bit about FatCon over the last two weeks because I was amazed that there's actually a convention like a Comic-Con, but it's FatCon for fat fucks. Also in Washington, I think in Seattle, I saw some pictures. I still have not seen the pictures of the fat people being tied up in ropes and suspended. I'm looking for them fast and furious but I just can't seem to find them. But I did see that picture, a bunch of pictures, in the FatCon and here. I thought it was like a big convention and there are thousands of people. There's like maybe 75 people. So it's not as bad as I thought. But the people there are just repulsive and they're all telling each other you look beautiful in this. And then they're wearing bikinis.

Jonathan Ressler: 19:00

And again, I'm all for body positivity Look, you're in the body that you're in until you're not right. So if you're big and fat, I'm not saying, stay home and hide, pull the covers over your head. No, you show your body, but don't say that dieting doesn't work. Don't say that you can't lose weight. Don't say any of that shit, because you're promoting self-inflicted suicide. You're promoting health Again. If you have a big body and I was a big fat guy for a long time that's fine. Do what you got to do. Don't be ashamed of yourself, but make a change right. It's not about the way you look. It's about how healthy you are.

Jonathan Ressler: 19:31

And and last week or two weeks ago, I told you about all the fat activists that died at a very young age. There's no way around that. There's no way around it. You're going to die at a young age. If you're fat, you're going to die younger. The fatter you are, the younger you're going to die.

Jonathan Ressler: 19:46

I'm amazed that I was able to live 59 years with what I was doing to my body and I told myself I was fat and healthy, which is bullshit. Don't listen to these dumb motherfuckers that are telling you basically yeah, it's okay, kill yourself, because they don't want to take any responsibility for what they do. I promise they have more BLTs in their fucking day than snow in a snowstorm. I don't know if that makes any sense, but they have a lot of BLTs. They just eat mindlessly and graze.

Jonathan Ressler: 20:14

Just think about that, right, if you weigh 450 pounds, that means you could eat 4,500 calories in a day just to maintain your weight. So how many fucking calories are these people eating? They gotta be eating like. I guess I shouldn't be so shocked. I weighed 411 pounds, which means I could eat 4,100 calories a day, and I was. I guess I was eat 4,100 calories a day, and I was. I guess I was eating 4,100 calories a day. So maybe I shouldn't be so shocked. But the bottom line is and for a guy like me, when I cut down to like 2,000, 2,500 calories, I lost weight Like it was. It was flying off my body. You know, I mean it's. It's not rocket science, it really isn't. It's a very, very simple and easy equation burn more calories than you consume.

Jonathan Ressler: 20:55

I don't know what and don't like again, I'm talking about something totally different. Don't waste your fucking time going to the gym. You can't burn off enough calories in the gym to make a difference. Now I could take the other side of that story and say, well, if you burn off 200 here and 200 there, yeah, maybe you're offsetting your BLTs. But the reality is I read somewhere recently, like in the last week or so, that if you ate a Big Mac, a large fries and a Coke, you would have to run a full marathon to burn those calories off. So just let me put that, you'd have to run 26.3 miles to burn those calories off. So you ain't going to do it with exercise and again, exercise is great. I'm not saying you shouldn't exercise, but I will tell you is probably the best exercise you can do is walking. You don't need to go to the gym, you don't need to hire a trainer, you don't need to run on the treadmill, just walk, just move your body more. But I'm getting off track because this was all about BLTs. So again, I'm just going to go back to close that out.

Jonathan Ressler: 21:52

Bites, licks and tastes, those little mindless things, those little mindless transgressions that you commit where you're just, yeah, I'm just tasting the pasta sauce, or just give me a couple of fries, or I'll just have a lick of my kid's ice cream. That's what's fucking you up, that's what's taking you out of a calorie deficit. You're doing all this work to get to eat right and be healthy and do it, and then you eat these ridiculous things and of course I don't need to go back on this because I did a whole podcast about it. I mean, if you're drinking one of those coffee things like the mocha frappuccino, those things are like 700 calories or 500. That's like eating a meal. It's not coffee, that's a milkshake. So cut that shit out of your diet. That's not a BLT. But I'm going to say it again Cut that shit out of your diet.

Jonathan Ressler: 22:41

Have to drink something sweet and with caffeine in the morning you're much better off drinking a diet soda. Diet soda is not great for you, but it's not going to kill you. I think I read somewhere today that you'd have to drink 48 cans of diet soda every single day to get into the dangerous range. So if you like diet soda, drink it. I always say cut out the sodas because there's other shit in there that you don't want to drink. You don't want your body. But if you're one of those people that can't drink black coffee which again drink it for 21 days and I guarantee you'll love it, but that's beside the point.

Jonathan Ressler: 23:05

If you have to have something sweet to start your day, have a diet soda. Really, have a diet, do something. But don't drink a mocha, frappuccino, hookah, guacola. A double who could walk away? A double, by the way. If it starts with double, you're in trouble, you're sunk there. So there's a way to cut out a bunch of calories, but anyway, with the BLTs, I'm telling you, just track your BLTs for a week. Just write down everything, even if it's just a little tiny snip of something. Just write it down and you'll be amazed at how many extra calories you're consuming every week. So that's it on the BLT thing.

Jonathan Ressler: 23:36

I think it's a really important topic and I might not have done it justice, but hopefully you got the idea that these little snacks and these little tastes and these little licks, they're the things that that's what's putting the weight on you. If you're one of those people that are claiming that you're doing everything right and you can't lose weight, even if you're not, everybody does it. I'm not saying I don't do it every now and then, because everybody does it, you do it Whatever. That's a movie for another time, but anyway. So track your BLTs, eliminate.

Jonathan Ressler: 24:03

Just don't eat mindlessly. Right, it's all about mindful eating. So if you're eating mindfully, you're thinking about oh, should I taste this? No, maybe I better not, and create some rules for yourself, and the rule could be simple, as I'm not going to eat standing up and I'm not going to eat anything if I'm not sitting down with it on a plate. Right, don't eat it if it's not on a plate. That's pretty simple. So that's it for BLTs. Hopefully you got something out of this, because I think BLTs are a big problem for a lot of people, and I'm not talking about bacon, lettuce and tomato. I'm talking about bites, licks and tastes. So, with that being said, I will tell you again.

Jonathan Ressler: 24:41

As usual, you can get my book Shut Up and Choose. It's available on Amazon, amazon bestseller getting tons of five-star reviews. More importantly, I'm getting emails from people telling me how it's changed their life, and that is the most gratifying thing in the world. I have a new video course out. It's called the Effortless Weight Loss Academy and it's 20 some odd videos, a bunch of downloads, a bunch of PDFs, a bunch of quizzes that really help you get into the mindset that really help you lose the weight sustainably.

Jonathan Ressler: 25:13

You're not going to lose 30 pounds in a week. It's not going to. Hey, if you're 400 pounds. Yeah, you might lose 30 pounds in a month, but it's not a race. It's something that you do slowly. It's about building the right habits. It has nothing to do with exercise.

Jonathan Ressler: 25:27

85% of everything of all weight loss happens in the kitchen. It does. It happens in the kitchen. Maybe 15% to 20% max is in the gym happens in the kitchen. Maybe 15% to 20% max is in the gym. So that's called the Effortless Weight Loss Academy. It's still in beta. I'll let you know when it's available for anybody to download. Right now, I'm just making sure there's no bugs, making sure everything works the way it's supposed to work. So today, really, I always end this podcast by telling you to shut up and choose, but the truth is, if you want to eliminate those BLTs from your diet, if you want to really get faster and better results, you should cut that shit out. No more BLTs for you. So now the choice is yours. All you have to do is shut up and choose.

Announcer: 26:14

You've been listening to Shut Up and Choose and choose. You've been listening to shut up and choose. Jonathan's passion is to share his journey of shedding 130 pounds in less than a year without any of the usual gimmicks no diets, no pills. And we'll let you in on a little secret no fucking gym. And guess what? You can do it too. We hope you enjoyed the show. We had a fucking blast. If you did, make sure to like, rate and review. We'll be back soon, but in the meantime, find Jonathan on Instagram at JonathanWrestlerBocaRaton. Until next time, shut up and choose.