Some people may not be sure what the hell I am up to these days, or why my mind shifted so far over to this weight loss since I am not overweight myself. Most people probably aren't wondering anything, nor do they care what I'm up to, and that's completely understandable. Well besides music, I have always had a strong interest in the health and wellness world - and have experimented with all sorts of diets and fitness approaches to find out what works and what doesn't.
As I start to get older, I realize that time is going by at an alarming rate. I know that I can't sit in a cubicle my whole life wasting my energy. I realized I should be putting my energy into something that I really enjoy - but something that can also really help people ...their health.
The holiday season has now ended, and the season to overeat has passed. Now tis the season to cut for the summer. New year's resolutions have failed already, and it's time for another crack at it. Those resolutions almost never, ever, ever seems to work....can I put enough ever's before you get the point. Here's some stats on how likely resolutions are going to stick (with an 8% success rate which is even higher than I thought it would be).
Obviously, these surveys are not going to completely accurate as you can't survey every single human on the planet. But regardless, crash dieting is not the way to go about it. When people finally get fed up with the way they feel, and take action on a random day of the year, the likelihood of them sticking with their plan seems way more likely. You can also tell who is going to succeed when they start smart, and implement some basic steps to get them started with the process. For example, starting with some simple increases in water intake, quality sleep, and morning meditation rituals, as well as decreases in snacking and/or alcohol intake usually will get the job done. Then, they can start with calorie or macro-nutrient counting, or some other advanced methods. When I say advanced, this usually just means trying to hit exact numbers within calorie and macronutrient ranges ...
There is an epidemic going on in terms of overweight people in the United States, where almost 1/3 or more of people are now obese, and 2/3 of the population is either overweight, or obese. People are dying much younger than they should from heart-related diseases and strokes - at even more than double the rate of respiratory related diseases resultant from smoking. Thesestatsare downright frightening, and I've seen it happen to people around me and within my own family.
Overeating has become more dangerous than smoking, or even violence. I don’t like to see this, as it can easily be solved. I am not saying to put down the donut, and pick up the gun or cigarette – but there’s gotta be a way to nip this problem in the bud before it becomes increasingly worse.
Throughout this past year, I have to say that I’ve become more and more confident with my dieting and fitness approach, and I keep trying to figure out ways to shout out to the world that things don’t need to be so complicated. There is a ton of misleading, dishonest, and downright harmful information being sold out there to get people to lose weight – as people will always try to make a buck taking advantage of people who are just trying to make the right choice.=
Perhaps my marketing strategy could use a re-haul (and I will gladly take suggestions), but the reality is that it’s difficult to market something that is so simple, and possibly just so boring and unsexy. It is also a touchy subject, and not something that you are going to call people out on, and even if you did (which you shouldn't), people will only listen when they are ready.
Things don’t neat to be fancy to be effective, but a nice shiny package will at least get people to open it, so here:
I’m not sure how to convey my message effectively, or who even NEEDS to hear it. Since I’ve never been obese myself, and have never been more than 15 pounds overweight, I can understand why people would think I can’t identify with their struggles. But this is far from the truth.
For a long time, I have kept a close eye on my nutrition and exercise activities because I know how hard it is to lose weight once you gain it. Even though I was paying attention to my diet and exercise routines, there were many times when I was just going through the motions (excluding the period of time when I was actually training for specific races in my running days).
Outside of those times periods, I saw no real (or very little) results in my overall fitness, and it’s a wonder I kept exercising at all. Once I started tracking my diet and exercise routines – I started to really see the benefits of mapping things out.
This led me to discover why things were previously not working, and even why certain things did work from time to time when I was accidentally doing the right things. This was an eye opening experience, and somewhat demoralizing as I realized how far I really was from my goal despite all of my efforts over the years.
The main things that I learned were:
1) When I overdid it, I felt terrible.
2) When I didn’t eat properly, I felt terrible.
3) When I had some extra jiggle on my waist, I didn’t like it. Even holding onto an extra 5 pounds just feels really awkward to me, and I don’t like the feeling.
4) When my body is not functioning at its potential, it just makes many things a lot more difficult than they need to be. I don’t have as much energy, and even simple tasks can seem to be daunting.
5) When I actually figured out what worked, it seemed so obvious that I wondered how I could have been confused in the first place.
6) When I didn’t track my progress, I didn’t make any.
7) You have to do the right things to make progress
Trying to eat healthy, but having no idea how much you are consuming is going to make you spin around in circles, and inevitably give up. Even if you are trying to make the right choices (which is still progress in the journey just so you know) - trying alone will sometimes just not do it unless you are doing the “right” things.
What are the right things to achieve your dietary and fitness goals?
If fat loss is your goal, it mainly comes down to finding a nice modest caloric deficit (calorie consumption under your body’s maintenance level), and just being a bit more active. You don’t want to be in a caloric deficit forever as it will eventually wear on you, and slow down your metabolism. So the idea is to learn HOW to eat for your current situation, and how NOT to overeat.
I’m not trying to sell you anything, and to be perfectly honest; I just want to find a way to let people in on this secret of fat loss. It doesn’t have to be so difficult. You can literally figure out you caloric numbers in less than 5 minutes, and then you just have to execute the plan. At that point, you can take it as far as you want, and adjust accordingly. At no point in this am I saying that it is easy, because that would be a mean way to mislead people. Anyone who tells you that it’s easy is being dishonest, and you should not trust what they are trying to sell you.
Simply put, it isn’t easy, BUT it also isn’t as hard as you think.
If your goal is to get down to a healthy weight so you can have some more energy to play with your kids, get up and down the stairs easier, etc… – you can get to your goal faster than you think, and then carry out a maintenance plan indefinitely. This also does not mean excluding foods that you enjoy, and I actually encourage that you don’t take a very restrictive approach.
When you develop the proper skills of learning the basic function of life (EATING), it won’t take too much to maintain your goal unless you are planning on getting under 10% body fat as a male, or under 17% body fat as a female.
There is nobody on this planet exempt from the law of thermodynamics, so once you accept that law, you will be one step closer to your goal. From a basic standpoint, you eat a little bit less, and move a little bit more over the course of time. Then, eventually you get to eat a little bit more. That’s it.
What I really want to instill in people’s minds is that weight loss shouldn’t be made more complicated than it needs to be. People do all sorts of researching to inevitably come back to the same point of energy balance. If you are 300 pounds trying to lose 100 lbs, or 130 pounds trying to lose that last stubborn 5 – energy balance will still be the answer.
Determine your caloric numbers, how you get to your numbers, and then hit your caloric numbers for the week – and you will experience results. Those numbers could indeed fluctuate based on your current activity levels, your current situation (whether you need to gain or lose weight), hormone changes, or what particular activity you are training for – but it is all about numbers.
Once you figure out your sweet spot, it is a very liberating feeling.
When you start implementing your newfound skills into various life situations, and can get by in the worst of circumstances (in terms of temptation – i.e. vacations, weddings, etc…), you can surely thrive within more optimal scenarios in day-to-day life. This is why routines and practices should be developed. That’s where I will be there for help.
Sometimes you have to use a little willpower to get through the times when results aren’t so immediate. Eventually, you should use less and less willpower as your skills are developed, and things will start falling into place.
Willpower is a pretty crappy resource to rely on constantly as it will wax and wane from day to day, no matter who you are. You cannot strictly “will” your way towards fat loss, or you WILL fail in the long term.
I strongly advise anyone who is struggling with weight loss to simply take the time to figure out the most personally enjoyable method to get to your goals. This may take a year of dedication of figuring out that sweet spot. Isn’t one year of your life worth the feeling of being healthier for the rest of your time on this weird planet?
Things like personal preference, current life situations, stress levels, etc… could all be determining factors for the various approaches that could work for you. Some examples would be:
1) Placing the bulk of your calories in the a) morning, b) afternoon, or c) evening depending on when you like to eat
2) Having more protein in your diet to keep you fuller for longer, to build/preserve muscle. Eating more carbs when you are more active, and less carbs when you are less active (BUT NOT BEING AFRAID OF CARBS!!) Not overdoing dietary fat, but having enough to be satisfied, and to be compliant with your body’s endocrine (hormone) functions.
3) Learning to eat more on days when you are hungrier, and less on days you aren’t
4) Finding quick and effective ways of exercise to fit your schedule, as opposed to lonnnnnng, drawn out forms of exercise that leave you hungrier, more exhausted, and getting the opposite results that you are seeking.
5) Learning how to prepare in advance, and how to improvise when things don’t go according to plan.
As I said earlier, I’m not trying to sell you anything here, and I’m actually giving you all the answers you need because it is indeed that simple. If you are still unsure where to start, please email me at ProgressiveMetalFitness@gmail.com, and I will be able to guide you along to the next step.
