“I want to get shredded, but I don’t want to give up the foods I enjoy.”

Same bro.

That’s the idea behind cheat meals and diet breaks, but as we examined last week, there are some drawbacks to those strategies.

Today, I’m sharing a slightly different way of incorporating a little deliciousness into your diet.

A Better Strategy for FUN Foods

Here’s a two-fold approach I’ve found to work well:

1) PLAN Your Fun Foods

When you plan for and track your indulgences, you can make them fit into your calorie and macro goals without “cheating”.

Known Fun: Track ‘em early

If you know your family does a movie night and gets pizza every Friday night, and that’s something you don’t want to give up?

Plan for it. Put that slice or two of pizza into your food tracker ahead of time, and work backwards from there with your meals the rest of the day to hit your goals.

Unknown Fun: Budget some space

Let’s say you’re going to a party, and you DON’T know exactly what foods will be there, but you definitely want to enjoy some extras?

What do you do? Budget extra calories.

Go hard on the protein earlier in the day (since most fun foods are higher in fats and carbs). Eat more veggies and low-calorie, high-volume foods to help you save space in your calorie budget without feeling hungry.

Then enjoy those fun party foods! (Yes, you’ll still need to TRACK the fun foods you eat to ensure that you’re still on track with your goals.)

Good food shouldn’t feel restrictive anyway!

I created this PEAK PROTEIN Cookbook for people like me who LOVE GOOD FOOD but also want to look and feel amazing.

I’m giving it away (along with multiple workout plans and weekly coaching calls) as part of the new BROTHERHOOD Fitness Community I’m launching this week on Skool.

It used to cost thousands to get access to these resources in my elite programs. Now it’s just $33/month (paid annually).

2) IMPROVE Your Fun Foods

This is the real secret to eating what you want and still looking great. A few simple recipe tweaks or product substitutions can make your favorite foods WAY better for your health and goals.

• Do you love chips? Replace the Doritos with Quest Tortilla Chips (19g protein!)

• Do you love sweets? Grab Quest Protein Cookie (15g protein) or a Legendary Protein Sweet Roll

• Do you love pizza? Try using lower-carb options like cauliflower crust or Domino’s Keto Crust option and add higher-protein toppings.

• Do you love ice cream? Try replacing the Ben & Jerry’s with Halo Top ice cream for 1/3 the calories.

*Some of these links are affiliate links. Backyard SHREDS earns a small commission from any purchases, at no extra cost to you.

Those are some of the better options, but even slight improvements can mean enjoying a little more fun foods, or hitting your goals a little faster.

You CAN make progress without giving up the foods you love.

Cheering you on,

-Coach Cody 💪🏼🖤

Verse of the Week

New YouTube Video

Guys… I did something really crazy this week. I signed up for the HARDEST fitness challenge I’ve ever done. I’m not even sure it was a good idea.

I made a video about it here: