What happens when you dial in your nutrition and ramp up your workouts? You get serious results. The kind of results you can see in the mirror. Results that are far better and faster than when you focus only on diet or exercise.
That’s why we took two top experts from both worlds—Kevin Curry and B.J. Gaddour—and teamed them up to create Cook and Chisel, a free program that combines a delicious and healthy meal plan with cutting-edge and highly-effective workouts.
Think of this duo as your personal coaches, for every meal and workout for the next 4 weeks.
Curry is the creator of Fit Men Cook, a highly popular website that boasts hundreds of easy-to-make but incredibly tasty recipes. His meals are proof that eating for a better body doesn’t need to be boring or complicated.
Gaddour, C.S.C.S., is Fitness Director for Men’s Health and creator of several DVD programs, including Bodyweight Cardio Burners (which gives you three fast and intense 20-minute workouts that require no equipment).
Together, they’ve developed a program that couldn’t be simpler. You simply follow a 7-day schedule of pre-planned meals and workouts. Then you repeat it each week for 3 weeks, which allows you to become a master of each recipe while working harder every time you train. Keep reading for a full explanation on how to start the Cook and Chisel program today.
The Cook
Curry put together this simple 10-recipe meal plan that will help you stay on track Monday through Sunday. It’s not a fad diet. No plastic-covered, hard-to-identify frozen meals. Just delicious, sensible food that’s filling and delicious.
Each day consists of three meals filled with fiber-packed carbs, healthy fats, and high-quality protein. But you’ll cycle between high- and low-carb days, depending on what type of exercises you do—strength training or high-intensity cardio.* This helps to optimize muscle growth and fat loss, and to provide your body with the nutrients you need for your workout.
On high-carb days, there are also healthy snack options to keep you full and energized. These are cut from the low-carb days so that you can maximize your fat burn, but if you find yourself too famished, you can simply add them back in.
And you can swap in any of the recipes you like best. You’ll just want to make sure you’re trading a high-carb meal for another high-carb meal, and a low-carb meal for another low-carb meal.
The Chisel
This is where Gaddour comes in. He’s created a plan in which you alternate daily between a 30- to 40-minute strength workout and a 20- to 30-minute high-intensity interval routine.
As we noted earlier, you’ll do your strength workouts on high-carb days to fuel muscle building and your cardio workouts on low-carb days to encourage fat burn. There’s also an “active recovery” workout to improve your mobility and performance, so that you can go harder and longer on the lifting and cardio days.
And just as you can cook alongside Curry, you can sweat with Gaddour. You’ll find a how-to video for each workout, so you know exactly how to perform each exercise.
For more daily food and fitness inspiration, find your coaches on Instagram at @fitmencook and @bjgaddour.
*Nutritional analysis conducted by Kevin Curry via My Fitness Pal.
