Hi there! My name’s Adam and I’m so grateful our paths have crossed.
Maybe you’ve seen me in a magazine or TV show or on your favorite blog. But if this is our first introduction, I’m so incredibly excited to be working with you through The Vitamin Shoppe over these next eight weeks and, hopefully, beyond.
I’m a guy from Long Island who’s turned a life-long love for fitness and food into a career that helps millions of people around the world live better lives. I’m a strength coach and nutritionist—and a pretty badass home cook.
To me, strength is more than just crushing it in the gym and nutrition is a hell of a lot more than suffering through some awful diet. To me, there’s one profound truth: True fitness creates freedom.
Freedom to live without boundaries and do whatever the hell you want with your life. Freedom from the mind games so many people endure on the road to health and happiness. Freedom to realize you’re stronger than you think and capable of more than you can imagine. Once you’ve tasted that, you’ll never go back.
I’ve helped actors and athletes get in shape and dominate on the big screen and on the field, but I’ve also helped others from all walks of life kick fitness (and life) butt through videos, books, and online platforms.
I want to help you reach results that last. No fads, no juice cleanses. Just small steps every day—without missing out on high levels of fun. To me, a healthy life is a beer with my kale salad and laughing my butt off with friends.
If that sounds like your idea of a healthy life, we should get along famously. So, let’s get after it, friend. Together, we’re gonna crush these next eight weeks and get you on the path to absolutely crushing your life!
What This Challenge Is All About
Notice I said “challenge” and not just “program.” That’s because I want you to look at these next eight weeks as a series of challenges that will unlock your best, strongest self.
Yes, you are going to lose weight on this program. Yes, you are going to gain muscle tone. But this is about far more than just weight loss. This is about radical self-empowerment. Like I said before: Fitness creates freedom.
When you’re strong, healthy and fit in your body and mind, anything you want in this life becomes easier to achieve. “I got this” is about to become your new mantra.
This eight-week fitness challenge includes an exclusive workout program and nutrition plan that’ll help you lose weight.
And I’m going to be here with you every step of the way, as will the entire community of people all across the country who are doing this program along with you. We’re a team that’s here to support and encourage each other today, tomorrow and every day throughout this challenge.
This, my friend, is just the beginning.
Accountability and community are key for success, so I encourage you to share your journey on Instagram by using #Goalgetters. Post those gym selfies and food pics, join the crew of others on the same mission, and track your progress! And don’t forget to tag me and shoot shout-outs my way! You can find me at @AdamRosante, and I’m so excited to watch you grow and push you forward.
The Workouts
Your exercise program is broken up into a series of two-week cycles. (Four total cycles in the eight weeks.) In each cycle, you’ll perform a variety of strength training and cardio workouts. This will help you avoid plateaus and prevent one of the biggest results-ruiners out there: boredom!
You can print your workouts, download them to your phone—whatever works for you.
Some of the workouts are bodyweight-only, but your strength-training sessions require gym access and equipment like dumbbells and barbells.
Budget about an hour for those strength training workouts—you’ll probably get through them in less time, but you may need a little extra rest at first.
We’re surrounded by messages like ‘get abs fast’ and ‘five minutes is all you need.’ And, yeah, when you only have five minutes, a five-minute workout is better than nothing. But here’s the thing: It’s not going to help you lose a significant amount of weight and it’s definitely not going to get you in the best shape of your life.
I guarantee, when you prioritize your fitness, it improves and enhances every other area of your life. Your health is worth it. The body and life of your dreams are worth it.
Whether you prefer morning workouts or will have an easier time getting to the gym after work. Plan around your schedule and commit!
The Nutrition
You’ll get a full seven-day meal plan, complete with recipes, to get your healthy eating started—but you’re also going to learn how to eat to fuel your body and keep the weight off for life, and that is the key.
Weight loss is driven by what you eat. Your workouts will accelerate your results and shape your body like, but without proper nutrition, you’ll be fighting a constant uphill battle.
But there’s good news: You don’t need to count calories, measure food on a scale, or log macronutrients into some app to be successful. I’ve helped millions of people get in shape without all that.
These five nutrition commandments will get you started:
1. Focus On Nutrients, Not Calories.
This is easy. Just eat real food. I define ‘real food’ and something that either came out of the ground or (sorry, vegetarian friends) had a mother. Powering your body with earth-grown nutrients and clean proteins will help you feel absolutely amazing. And—bonus—when you eat real, clean food, you can actually eat more than you might think.
Next time you’re at the grocery store, check a food’s ingredient list before putting it in your cart. More than five ingredients? Any ingredients you can’t identify? Put that package back on the shelf!
2. Scale Back On Refined Sugar And Processed Foods
For the next eight weeks, this stuff is off the menu. Refined sugar and processed foods can mess with your metabolism and erode your overall health.
It may be hard at first, especially if you’ve been eating a lot of this stuff, but I promise it gets easier. As your palate adjusts, you might start craving fruit over candy, and you won’t believe how much better you feel.
3. Drink Enough Water
Proper hydration helps you recover from your workouts, improves brain function, and helps flush toxins out of your body.
Aim to drink half your body weight in ounces of fresh water, every day. Tea and coffee are fine, but don’t count toward your total daily water intake.
If you typically enjoy your tea or coffee with sugar, try swapping in stevia. (It’s actually a bit sweeter than sugar, so a little goes a long way.) If you hate plain water, flavor it up with sliced lemons and cucumbers or watermelon and mint.
4. Eat Four To Five Times Per Day
That means breakfast, lunch, dinner, and one or two snacks.
Not only will eating frequently help keep you feeling satiated, but it’ll also keep your metabolism firing and help you lose weight.
From intermittent fasting to grazing all day long, there are a million ways to eat. But in my experience, I’ve found that when people eat four to five times per day, they not only lose the weight, but keep it off.
5. Use Your Hands to Measure Portions.
There are a number of issues with relying solely on calorie-counting when trying to lose weight. Different people’s bodies absorb calories differently, we often don’t absorb all of the calories we consume, and how we prepare our food can change its calorie load.
I like to measure my portions with my hands, instead. Since your hand is proportionate to your body size, it’s a good indicator of the portions your body needs.
Here’s how it works:
1 serving of protein = 1 palm (meat, fish, eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, etc.)
1 serving of vegetables = 1 fist (broccoli, carrots, kale, spinach, etc.)
1 serving of carbs = 1 cupped hand (grains, starches, beans, fruits, etc.)
1 serving of fats = 1 thumb (oils, butters, nut butters, nuts, seeds)
With these portions in mind, you can then build a balanced meal. It’ll just be a little different for men and women.
Men:
- 1 palm-sized portion of protein
- 2 fist-sized portions of veggies
- 2 cupped hand-sized portions of carbs
- 2 thumb-sized portions of fats
Women:
- 1 palm-sized portion of protein
- 1 fist-sized portion of veggies
- 1 cupped hand-sized portion of carbs
- 1 thumb-sized portion of fats
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will follow this portion format. Your snacks should be made up of the same proportions, but about half the quantity of your meals.
If you’re a larger individual, aren’t feeling satisfied after your meals, or find you’re eating less frequently throughout the day, bulk up your meals a little bit. Men should add one cupped handful of carbs or one thumb of fat to a few meals, and women should add half a cupped handful of carbs or half a thumb of fat to a few meals.
If you’re a smaller individual, are feeling super full after your meals, are eating more frequently throughout the day, or just aren’t seeing the weight-loss results, shave some extra calories out of your meals. Men should remove one cupped handful of carbs or one thumb of fat to a few meals, and women should remove half a cupped handful of carbs or half a thumb of fat to a few meals.
A Note On Alcohol
I love a good adult beverage, but the simple fact of the matter is, booze can derail your results.
Alcohol is pretty much empty calories. Throw mixers in there and you’re probably consuming tons of sugar and extra calories. Plus, drinking makes you more likely to go for that plate of fries—even more nutritionally-lame calories.
Ideally, you’ll avoid booze for this entire eight-week challenge. I know, I know. But trust me, you won’t believe how you look and feel if you’re able to set the adult beverage to the side for this brief period of time.
If you can’t totally abstain for the eight weeks, I’ll make a deal with you: Completely cut the stuff out for the first two weeks. After that, you can have two to three drinks per week—but on days you drink, cut out one of your snacks and drink an extra 20 ounces of water. And please, stick to wine, beer, and straight spirits. If you need a mixer, use club soda and a twist of citrus.
Your 7-Day Meal Plan
To get your healthy eating started off strong, I’ve got a full seven-day meal plan for you to follow, complete with snacks and tons of delicious, body-fueling recipes.
(Download your 7-day Meal Plan Recipes HERE.)