5 tips to reaching your goals of a lean, fit and strong body

This was the day that I made a promise to myself.

See that guy right there? That was me just a few years ago as you can see by the time stamp…4 years ago to be exact (from the time this post was written).

I was 300lbs, unhappy, unhealthy and the most sad – not attempting to fulfill my potential. The photo was taken the day I had promised my self to change. That is no exaggeration. THIS VERY DAY! I was at a tipping point. I was in my mid-30s, overweight, playing music all night long and sleeping all day, eating crap food – just not being happy OR healthy. I made a promise and I held myself accountable. I settled into my goal of getting a six-pack, but more importantly to me…

Feeling better, happier, and getting my fat self healthier!

IMG_0490

Sol Perry on his honeymoon with his wife. He and his wife lost over 170lbs combined. Dreams can come true.

Yes, that’s me and my now wife on our honeymoon in Key West just a couple of years later! She was with me throughout the whole process and lost over 50lbs herself following my Sõl Food Diet.

How did I do it?

Well, I will tell you one thing that is VITAL to the process…

YOU MUST HAVE SOMEONE THAT CAN HOLD YOU ACCOUNTABLE.

A good coach/trainer will be checking in on you, making sure your following the plan, feeling good and dialing it in proper! WIth my clients I keep my numbers low so I can give them 100% of my attention and ensure there staying on point. I don’t chase money and clients, I chase RESULTS!

I truly love measurement day as I know we have put things in place that will ensure those inches are falling off. It is an exciting day, cause unlike some people, I KNOW what that feels like… seeing the fat melt right off and the muscles/shape come in. I have been in there shoes.

It is truly a great feeling

I get to relive it every time on measurement day, my clients know this day is coming and we prepare/plan accordingly. It is an exciting day for both of us!

To summarize:

  • Have someone to hold you accountable: Coach-wife-workout partner… they must be serious, honest, with knowledge in fitness & nutrition
  • Set deadlines: This is vital. Every six weeks take new photos and measurements
  • Have a plan in place, a proven and personal one. Not a DVD you buy, that is not personal and will only take you so far
  • Set up a reward system: Example – “Once I reach 140lbs, I am going to go on that vacation to the beach”
  • Have damage control plans in place when you stall, or things go wrong.

This 5 tips will help you on your way. I use all these with my clients and they simply work!

Take before photos and start today! I offer online diet consulting for those needing guidance.


Sõl Perry Online Consulting and One on One Consulting

My fat loss secret!

This one will save you from wasting hours if not years of your time.

You cannot out work an improper diet! You cannot out work an improper diet!

That bears repeating.

You could work out 7 days a week for two hours at a time but if you’re putting the wrongs things in your body you will not reach your leanness goal. Nor will you be healthy. You cannot jog or run the weight off. If you jog it should be because you enjoy jogging or you are getting prepared for a certain event. Sprinting up hill would be a better option for those so inclined.

You will need to do the proper resistance training coupled with the proper nutrient timing and macro adjustments to reach your goal. Whatever you do folks, stay away from anything that is labeled “low-fat” that’s a scam. They take away the fat and slam it full of sugar. Sugar is much less expensive than the fat and a heck of a lot more addictive.

Sugar is the number one disease-causing agent in the world.

Many people are so addicted to sugar they must have it 24/7. This wrecks havoc on your hormones. Sooner or later your body will show and feel the effects of sugar addiction.

Yes, I know what its like to be addicted to sugar. Break the cycle. People ask me all the time what my “secret” is.  There is no secret, but a good place to start is NO Sugar.

A day in the life of Sõl

Wake at 6 am with no alarm, I just wake up. Drink 2 large glasses of clean water and 10g L-glutamine mixed with 2-4oz aloe vera juice.

Put the tea kettle on and make my green tea for the day (different ones everyday) and make my coffee with coconut oil and coconut milk (1 cup for me). Get my water supplies ready for the day and drink coffee while reading emails / writing workouts for clients. After coffee, another large glass water then green teas

I train myself and clients, then post workout shake, depending on the current goals I may have for myself. Get home around 12-2pm and begin eating, always starting off with a large raw salad with a tablespoon of olive oil, walnuts, bell peppers, spinach, green onions, and salad mix. Then a mix of meats or eggs with cooked veggies, vary day to day (no starch). Always take supplements in the middle of my meals.

Music training nearly 4 hours daily, home around 7pm for a second meal of the day. Meats with cooked veggies, supplements in the middle of the meal, spend time with family (2 hours), and before bed I generally eat another meal or snack. If I am going for fat loss, I will have 10g of glutamine instead of food boosting growth hormones all night! Around 9pm I start getting sleepy, eating slows you down. I do most of my eating in the evening after my business is done for the day. Bedtime no later than 10pm.

Special notes:

Bare in mind, this is my current set up and can change greatly depending on my goals.

My current goals are as follows:

  • Be as healthy as possible
  • Be as productive as possible and maintain energy levels
  • Keep in a positive mind-set (yes, like most things, this takes work) • Maintain single digit body fat year round
  • Keep stomach as healthy as possible
  • Experiment with various maintenance diet protocols for my clients

All supplements were taken in the middle of meals. My supplements change often depending on my current status and goals. I can definitely tell a difference when I go off my schedule or miss my supplements, it’s a good idea to find a schedule that works best for you and stick to it!

Work at it, like most things, you may not get it right at first, so keep chipping away and you will! Just two years ago I was waking at 1-2 in the afternoon and staying awake all night… you can change.

You can control the following with practice over time:

  • Sleep schedule
  • Metabolism (when you are hungry, when you’re not) • Your cravings (over time with good daily habits)
  • Your mind-set (easily the most important!)

5 simple ways to jump start your fat loss journey

Here are 5 simple ways to jump-start your fat loss journey!

I call it a journey as real change does not happen over night, it’s a process!

1: Cook your foods in Coconut Oil, it reeves up your thyroid and is an easy way to get the fat melting right off you!

2: Cut out bulk carb sweetened beverages: Soft drinks – sweet Tea – milk – fruit juice. This alone can drop 20-30lbs. Keep them out of the house. One of the few things you can control in this world is what you bring in that door. Fill your fridge and pantry with real, whole foods and keep the fructose levels low.

3: Add protein to every meal: Protein really changes how your body handles food, try adding 20-40g to every meal, depending on your lean mass and goals.

4: Eat your carbs at the end of the day, not the beginning. You are most insulin sensitive in the morning and carbs are sedating. This is one of the reasons many people are reaching for the coffee all day, they eat donuts, fruit juice, milk and Cheerios for breakfast. Can you say “insulin spike?”

5: Take a 30 minute brisk walk before breakfast! Use this as the time to clear your mind and prepare for the day. I like to use it as my “me” time or a nice time to spend talking with friends or loved ones. You might be surprised at how much better your mood is from just this one change. The better your mood is the better you will adapt and the more compliance you will have with your diet. A good mood is a force multiplier.

Excuses or results, your choice.

That was me on the left just over 3 years ago or so after I had already lost 30lbs… still had almost no neck.

Seems like a dream. I feel so much better now and my attitude, perspective and mood are off the charts compared to what they were.

Real change can happen in your life. YOU are in control of your habits and thoughts.

It all started as a vision in my mind. I was gonna be in amazing shape and there was nothing that was gonna stop me. On the wrong side of 30, time was not really on my side and I had no idea where to start or what to eat.

 Common excuses:

1. I don’t have time to cook.

If you have time to watch T.V. or be on Facebook you have time to cook.

2. I don’t have time to work out everyday.

You don’t have to work out everyday at first, start at once a week and build from there – jogging is not the best way to lose fat.  If you are very obese, start by walking and transition into resistance training ASAP.

3. I don’t like water or vegetables.

Well, you did not like cokes or beer first time you tried them, but you kept drinking them till you liked them. You can control what you like to a point but you will not like every healthy food under the sun. Try new things 3 times, each time preparing them a different way with different seasonings.

4. I don’t know what to eat.

This is a good one and a REAL one. There is so much B.S. out there about what is healthy for you, no wonder we are the fattest nation in the world here in the U.S.

I am in finishing up my diet book. The Sõl Food Diet. My goal is to help 100,000 people lose 1,000,000lbs of fat before I leave this rock. I know first hand how challenging it can be, unlike some naturally skinny fitness professionals I have lost a 100lbs myself… Will keep you posted and let you know when it is on Amazon for sale.

Bonus tip: You are generally the sum of the six people you hang around the most. You will pick up their habits, attitudes and level of success. You only get one shot at this thing called life.

 LIVE YOUR DREAMS

If you find this of use, please feel free to share and like! Help me reach my goal of helping 100,000 people!

Once I was fat: Part two

This is a follow-up to my 3 part series about my fat loss transformation.

So, it was not just the playing out, parting too much that woke me up.
What really made me rethink my place in this crazy world was something much darker and sinister.

One word.

Cancer.

My mom got lung Cancer. I am very close with my mother. She had me when she was just 14 years old. We kinda grew up together you might say. She is the most sweet, beautiful creature under the stars to me and without her and my grandmother growing up, I would have been an entirely different man. They showed me compassion, love… so many things when all everyone else was showing me was violence and betrayal. Difficult to put into words our bond. Suffice to say, I was devastated.

I never understood what people meant by “nervous breakdown” but I think I came really close to losing my mind for a while there. On top of that, my only brother is severely disabled, has been since birth and has always been a huge part of my life and always will be.

All these things came together (and a few others that are beyond the scope of this blog) to wake me up. To make me realize how I was throwing away my gift of a potentially healthy human body and mind.

I starting learning all I could about nutrition, fitness, athletics, naturopathy, nutraceuticals… many things. I was determined to help my mother and brother as much as I could and get my self into world-class shape, inside and out.

I read stacks of books over the next years, totally changed the way I view health and the world. Read for 12 hours a day at times. Once you really begin to get a handle on how the mass market food industry works it can make your stomach turn.

I quickly realized that so many of the commonly held beliefs about what is healthy are total nonsense. We are the most obese nation the world has ever seen and the sickest! We have the most vast resources of health care and spend the most on health care in the world. Everywhere you look there are hospitals, cancer clinics… All the while being the richest nation on the planet.

It made no sense.

There are many tales to tell that I experienced in my Journey. I kept detailed log books the whole time, tracked my progress to the fraction of an inch. Tried every diet I could get my hands on. One thing I tell you I learned…

Question everything.

Along the way I made friends with many people in the fitness and nutrition industry, some of them at the highest level. Some of whom had figured out some of the same things I had. It’s almost like its set up to keep you fat and from reaching your goals!

I will tell you of one person in particular I met along the way, someone I have come to call my brother. A kindred spirit for sure and a helluva a guy. He was once fat too! Has a passion for animals and music like myself and got in the highest level of shape and conditioning. On yes, and he happens to be an Olympic Coach…

To be continued in part 3.

Once I was fat: Part one.

Once I was fat.

Not just a few pounds over and not a long time ago, just a few years ago as you can see from the time stamped photo.
It was not pretty nor fun. I could not tie my show laces without losing my breath and sweated constantly.

I was also in DENAIL about it. I was gigging often at the time, playing a lot of music, and no one really mentioned it until this one time…

I was performing at one of the more prestigious music halls in the mid-west, a place where it’s not a bar per-say, anyone that comes there is coming to only see you perform and they expected a good show.

I hired the security, bar, sound crew, promoted the gig, hired the other acts to perform, my family was going to be there… it was a big show for me at the time and took a lot of work.

This one guy who will remain nameless, I hired who I had not seen in a few years came up to me at the bar at sounds check. He as always been a nice guy, professional. He walks up behind me and all I hear was “Hey Sõl! MAAAAAAAAN, YOU GOT FAAAT! WHAT HAPPENED?”

Best one!

No one had ever talked to me like that, EVER. No one at that point in my whole life had ever called me fat.

It hit me like a ton of bricks! I was speechless. I said nothing and turned the other way.

To be honest about it, I was pissed. Here I hired this guy, put money in his pocket, I am all dressed up nice for the show, feeling confident, and he does that!

But you know what, to this day I am thankful for that moment and to him.

After all, he was right! I was FAT!

To be continued in part: 2

Connect with Sõl

Get free Tips!

Latest Posts

Fitness Instructor, Health Expert, & Professional Musician

Self-discipline is not meant to keep you tame, but to let you get the most out of life and Keep in touch with lifes purpose. You can transform your life. Not long ago I was 300lbs, sick -fat -depressed. When music touches you; when you train your body, it makes you feel like nothing else. Music and fitness moves us for a reason, its in our DNA: unleash it.