The one thing that will guarantee your success in diet, fitness and health for 2011. Part 2

Hi,

In the first part of this series we saw how commitment is the number one factor you need to accomplish your diet, fitness and health programs in 2011. 

(Read it here in case you missed it: health success)

The first part of commitment is acting upon your commitment.  You saw how you need to decide what to do and how to do it. 

Now we will look at the second part of commitment. 

The second part of commitment has an endurance factor.  Binding yourself to the course of action.  Sticking with it long after the mood has left you.  Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. 

You have made the commitment.  You have acted and started eating better and exercising.

Now life gets in the way.  It happens to everyone. 

It doesn’t matter.  Did you think this was going to be easy? 

If it was easy, then no one would be overweight or out of shape. 

So making a commitment – the first part of commitment – is relatively easy.  Remember that is the first step.

The second, third, fourth and so on steps are the hardest. 

Keeping the commitment going – that is the hard part.  And this is where who you are comes into play. 

The last three lines of the poem by Ashbash sum it up much better than anything I can say to you.

Commitment is the stuff character is made of.
It is the power to change the face of things.
It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.

Okay, what I am about to say right now will probably shock you. 

If you want to be successful with your commitment and your diet, fitness and health programs you must take it slow. 

I would bet that the number one reason people fail at doing something –even if they are committed to it- is because they try to do too much too fast.  And they then expect to much in the way of results immediately.

The body does not work that way. 

Drastic changes in eating, drastic changes in exercising cause the body to rebel.   Cause the body to fight the very things you are doing – even if these things are better for your overall health.

So instead of trying to change everything you eat overnight, instead change one thing. 

Maybe you forgo the bagel and cream cheese at breakfast.  Maybe you drink your coffee black instead of with 500 calories of whipped cream. 

Do this for a week or two and then change something else. 

If you decide to go to the gym, don’t try to act like a professional body builder and do 20 sets for every muscle. 

Instead do 1 set of a very moderate weight 2 or 3 times a week.  Introduce your body to changes – don’t try to knock it out. 

The key point is that you want to get fitter and healthier.  To do this you need to change your life.  You do this by gradually introducing new things into your life. 

This way they will stick and become your life.   

Now you know what you have to do. 

Act upon what you really, really want and do it for the long haul. 

Those 25 pounds and flabby muscles will disappear easily.

You will be healthier, fitter, stronger and have tons more energy.  

Isn’t that worth committing to?

Thanks
 

The one thing that will guarantee your success in diet, fitness and health for 2011.

Hi,

Are You Willing To Do The Number One Thing That Will Guarantee Success In Your Diet, Fitness and Health Programs for 2011?

This one thing always works.  It actually works for anything you attempt to do – it doesn’t just have to be with your health or fitness.

Yet, it is something that almost no one does.

Part of it is because they aren’t even aware of it.  Part of that is because they aren’t aware of how important this is.  Part of it is because they don’t understand how to do it. 

So what is this thing? 

It is commitment. 

So now you are aware of it. 

It is everything. 

So now you are aware of how important it is. 

We will get into how to do it later.

So exactly what is commitment? 

Commitment has many different definitions.  Here are a few that I like:

The trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose.

The act of binding yourself to a course of action.

Sticking with something long after the mood you have said it in has left you… by jojo 11 Sep 20, 2008

Commitment is what transforms the promise into reality.
It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions.
And the actions which speak louder than the words.
It is making the time when there is none.
Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year.
Commitment is the stuff character is made of.
It is the power to change the face of things.
It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism…by Ashbash Jan 13, 2005

Wow.  I know that is a lot of definitions. 

But, let’s look at just a couple of them. 

First of all it is an act.  It is something you do.  

It is not something you just do by rote – like brushing your teeth or breathing – it is something you have to think about and then act upon.

So start out your commitment by deciding what it is you really, really want.  You have to want this more than anything. 

You can not commit to something that you really don’t care about.  Remember it is something that you really, really want. 

The operative word here is “you”.  If it is something that someone else wants for you, that will never work. 

If you spouse wants you to lose weight and you are only lukewarm to the idea, it is not going to happen.  Oh sure, you might make some pathetic attempts, but they won’t stick. 

You must be the one that really, really wants it. 

Since we are talking about your health let’s say you want to lose 25 pounds and “tone” your muscles (there is really no such thing as toning your muscles, but since it is a common term I am going to use it here).

You know that the 25 pounds aren’t just going to fall off by themselves.  You are actually going to have to do something. 

The first step is figuring out what that something is. 

Now maybe that something is eating less food or eating healthier foods or starting an exercise program.  Or a combination of the above.

Now you know what you really, really want to do.  That is to lose 25 pounds.

And you know what you have to do.  That is to eat healthier foods and exercise more. 

This is actually the easy part. 

Now comes the commitment.  Now comes the time to act upon what your want to do and have to do.

You have taken the first step.  Remember the saying that the first step is the hardest?  Well, that is a lie.

The first step is actually the easiest. 

The next post we will get into the harder part and the second part of commitment to your diet, fitness and health program for 2011.

 Thanks

Hi,

Last post we introduced the concept of your life and your health. 

Specifically to dieting I mentioned that the yo-yo dieting concept had specific physiological reasons.

Your body is very happy when things are running smoothly.  It does not matter if running smoothly is really healthy to you or not. 

If it isn’t healthy, then eventually problems will show up and we mentioned that in the last post. 

If you try to change your weight – for example – you will find that making a drastic change in your diet upsets this smooth running that your body likes. 

Yes, you will lose weight if you go on a diet.  For awhile. 

This awhile time will vary with each individual.  It will vary based upon your sex, age, body weight, metabolism, activity levels, amount of sleep you get and how many times you have been on a diet before.

Here is what happens when you start a diet.  Your body will start losing weight.  As it does this your survival mechanisms start kicking in. 

In order to not lose so much weight and keep everything the same, your body’s metabolism will slow down. 

This makes it harder to lose more weight.  So you eat less.  Again your metabolism slows down.

This game is played until you really can’t lose any more weight at all.

But, that isn’t the worst part.  About now is when most people decide the diet isn’t working.  So what is the first thing they start doing?

You got it – eating.

Eating, just when your metabolism is at the absolute lowest point.  And guess what happens now.  You gain weight like crazy. 

More calories, low metabolism = great weight gain, with most of it fat. 

And your body is pretty smart.  The next time you go on a diet, your body remembers and it drops its metabolism even faster.  That way it is even harder to lose as much weight as the first time you tried a diet. 

So if you ever wondered exactly what the concept of yo-yo dieting is and why it is so easy to gain weight again, now you know.

We will resume the habits we talked about in the first post on your life and your health in the next post.

Stay tuned,

Thanks

Hi,

I do read a lot of marketing information and every once in a while someone says something that sparks my mind.  The remark was about marketing, but it can also apply to your life and your health.

The remark comes from Drayton Bird while he was talking on a teleseminar with Perry Marshall.  Both are copywriters and marketers.

Bird said: “Good times breed bad habits. Bad times breed good habits.”

In a nutshell, when things are going good, most people get complacent.  They take things for granted.  When they do this, the inevitable happens.  Things start going downhill.

Once they get to a really bad point, then most people wake up and say things have to change.  They get back on track with their life and their health and fitness programs. 

This yo-yo effect can be pretty drastic and cause wild fluctuations.  If these fluctuations are too drastic or too wild, then your whole life can be affected. 

It doesn’t just affect you.  Look at the economy.  Things were going good, the banks (as just one example) got complacent and started loaning to anyone who could breath.

Turns out just breathing wasn’t a good qualification for paying back a mortgage. 

Things turned south and the banks (with our taxpayer money helping them) now have such strict criteria that hardly anyone can even get a loan. 

When I mentioned the yo-yo effect I am sure many of you immediately thought of dieting.

You know, like when you stop eating and start trying to lose weight.  You got complacent and thought your weight would stay the same, even though you were adding 100-200 calories a day in mostly junk food.

You also stopped exercising or just plain old moving enough to burn up any extra calories.

You gained weight, sometimes a lot of weight.  Things finally got so bad that you said enough is enough.

I am going on a diet.  You go on a diet, lose a little weight and gain it all back.   You try harder, lose maybe a little more, but the weight isn’t coming off like it used to.

Not only do you gain all the weight back, but you gain even more.  Not what you had in mind, but this happens to millions of dieters every year.

Now there are specific physiological reasons for this and we will get into them later on. 

But, what I want to focus on now is the fact that this yo-yo pattern is not healthy for you. 

Letting things go, trying to fix them and then letting them go again and then trying to fix them again is a sure fire way to never get the problem resolved.

It leads you down a permanent path of least resistance.  This means that eventually you will be so harmed physically, mentally and emotionally that you will never recover. 

Or you will just give up and decide to ignore the problem totally and just live with it.

This means you are resigning yourself to a life of mediocrity. 

There is a better way. 

The better way means making some changes.  These are not hard changes.  They are pretty easy. 

And they will change your life and your health for the better in ways you can only imagine right now. 

For now, please take some time and think about how your life and your health is going.  If it is going great, then you are on the right path.  Keep up the greatness.

If things aren’t going so well, then you need a path.  Stay tuned as we develop this path together. 

Thanks

couple lost weight

Hi,

Saw another BS diet ad. Surprisingly it was on a blog that said some half way intelligent things.

Yet the ad screamed: Lose 28 pounds in 28 days! Okay, is that even possible?

Yes, it is possible. Is it probable or is it safe?

Probably not.

If you have read any of the posts on this site before you know that the key to taking off weight and keeping it off is to do it slowly.

Your body rebels big time if you upset its homeostasis. That is a big word to say that your body likes to maintain the same old way.

So any drastic changes are going to wreck havoc with your body and your mind also.

Back to the diet. This was the Spice diet. Now, I suppose that if all you ate were spices and exercised like crazy that maybe you could lose those 28 pounds.

But, I would bet that not 1 person in 100 could even stay on that diet for 28 days.

But, it sure does sound good and I am sure many people click on the ad and even buy the product.

Only to be disappointed yet again when they don’t lose the weight and when they regain it again.

Look losing weight isn’t easy and it takes a concerted effort of aligning your body and your mind and even your spirit to lose the weight you want to.

Then you have to make sure you lose it in such a way that your body doesn’t rebel against you.

And that doesn’t even get into losing body fat, which I think would be better for you. After all if you could lose some body fat and gain a little muscle, your weight might stay pretty much the same, but you will look much different – better.

Anyhow, please don’t fall for these BS diet ads. They are only meant to part you with your money. Time and time again.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the world’s biggest diet scam going on right now.

woman abs

Just read an article on the perfect abs and how to get them. It was in Muscle and Body (July 2010) and it was by Kim Lyons who is a fitness trainer of some renown. (Was on The Biggest Loser.)

She was answering a question for someone who wants to know how to get fabulous abs.

The overall article was okay, but there were a few problems.
Kim said that the person should get her body fat tested. And then monitor it to see if it is coming down or not.

Then she provided a chart for comparing to various fitness levels.
For example a competitive female competitior would have around 7-9% body fat. Very lean would be under 15%. Average would be 21-25%.

Maybe she was talking about average competitors, because if she was talking about averages in the population she is way off.

Since approximately 35% of the population is overweight and another approximately 30% is obese, the average for the female population is closer to 30% body fat.

Then she says that in order to get your body fat down, you will need a large calorie deficit. Whoops, sorry, but that is not accurate.

As you may have noticed from the previous posts in this blog, it is much more important to lose body fat, then it is to lose weight.

You lose body fat by getting your hormones in alignment, not by having a large calorie deficit.

Kim also talked about training. She mentioned that core exercises are good. But, then she went on to say that “you should be engaging your core muscles every second of the day to help you build a strong and toned midsection”.

Really, every second of the day? Don’t you get to sleep, don’t you get to relax?

Even more, how in the world are you going to focus on engaging your core muscles every second of the day? Don’t you have a job that might take some of your focus away?

Don’t your drive to work or to the store? Don’t you have to focus on driving? Don’t you have friends and family that take some of your focus away from your core muscles?

Maybe you think I am being a nit picker. But, if the goal is to try to help everyone achieve a great body, then the advice that any health, diet or fitness guru gives has to be accurate.

If the average person sees that they have to focus on their core every second of the day, they know they can’t do that. Are they even going to start?

If the average person hasn’t kept up to date on hormones and fat loss, are they going to be thrilled to try a large calorie deficit diet?

No they aren’t. So if you want perfect abs, pay attention to what really works. Pay attention to new research and science.

If you don’t have the time to keep up to date on all of this, then follow someone that does. Like this blog:-)

I found this post on the benefits of the Mediterranean Diet. It did a good job at outlining the benefits of the diet.

You can find it at this link along with my comment:
mediterranean diet

Check it out.