... Then Just Stay Fat. (11 page)

Learn from my mistake.
 
Don't
be hating
.

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen.
 
Read right here, right now
—
for FREE
—
about the best
-
kept fitness, weight loss, and all-round healthy living secret in the history of humankind.
 
It will save you time.
 
It will save you
money.
 
And you'll see results!

(Was that enough
build
up?)

Here it is (
imagine your own drum roll)...

Eat less.

Yeah
,
yeah.
 
I hear your collective moan.
 
Don't run me over in a parking lot or
hate-mail me
.
 
I'm trying to help you.
 
The simple notion of actually "eating less"
has become lost in the noise.

Now let
's see if you'll keep reading.

A big barrier to better health (and
,
based on current obesity statistics
,
66 percent of us have it) is we are carrying too much weight.
 
The impacts of that extra weight reverberate throughout our body and its systems.
 
Fat is not some dormant blob of goo just h
anging out.
 
It is participates
hormonally (with all its domino effects), impacts the health of our joints, can restrict range of motion, and can contribute to depression (body image, neurochemicals, etc.).
 
That fat doesn't just keep you out of your skinny jeans.
 
It deteriorates yo
ur health and quality of life.

Losing excess weight should be at the top of our health lists, not weird fitness
gadgets or insane workout
regimens.
 
The *best* way to do it is to eat less.
 
Yes... EAT LESS.
 
Do not fear starvation mode.
 
Do not fear wrong food this or right food that.
 
Don't complicate it by overanalyzing six small meals or three big ones.
 
Just eat less.
 
We can have a lengthier discussion another time
about
how much less. For now, just strive for less t
han your current intake.
 
LESS.

Make dinner and eat half of it.
 
Order a muffin, pull part of it off and chuck the rest.
 
Latte?
 
Pour some out.
 
Get a handful of chips and put the bag back.
 
Candy bar?
 
Split if w
ith a friend.
 
That's it.
 
LESS.

No time to get healthy?
 
I'm saving you time.
 
You
will spend less time chewing.

No money to get healthy?
 
I'm saving you money.
 
You
will spend less money on food.

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen.
 
The fitness, weight-loss and all-round healthy living secret of the century.
 
Save time and money... and lose weight.
 
EAT LESS.

I hear a lot of excuses (aka
,
reasons) from client
s when the scale doesn’t move.
 
One of my favorites is the “I
hate to waste food” argument.
 
This explanation is usually offered up after I’ve pointed out some questionable food choices and quantities (cans, plural, of pressurized whipped topping, boxes of ready-to-eat r
estaurant-
style frozen foods, individual deep-dish pepperoni pizzas – again, plural
—
left over Halloween candy, etc.).

What
do they say in their defense?
 
“I hate to waste food.”
 
“I was
brought up to clean my plate.”
 
“I won’t buy any
more of it once my post-apocalyptic supply is eradicated.”

I r
un into those arguments a lot.
 
People think throwing food away is equivalent to flushing money down a toilet (never mind it’s going there anyway – oh y
eah, I said it).
 
They fight me tooth and nail when I tell them to get rid of junk food or leave half a meal behind.

I’m
trying to save them a calorie.
 
They think they are saving a nickel.

So I’m
gonna
take
another run at this mountain.
 
Let’s see if I can change a few perspectives out there, but I’m not holding my breath – re
alism at work (not pessimism).
 
Here goes:

The point in time when the money was wasted was when the food was purchased – way up early in the timeline at the grocery store, not stan
ding at home over a trash can.
 
When that food item beeped across the checkout scanner
was the exact moment of waste.
 
After that, it’s the fallacy of
the sunken cost – money gone.
 
Bye
, bye.
 
There’s no reason to add pain to misery by adding the purchased, not
-needed calories to your hips.
 
Think about it. B
y that logic, you spent money you shouldn’t have and decided to gain some weight
,
too.

Here’s another
:

The point in time when the meal was wasted was when the restaurant put a
triple portion on your plate.
 
Just because they don’t know a proper amount of food to serve doesn’t mean you sho
uld gain weight because of it.
 
And don’t
start in with “I paid for it, I should get it.”
 
No
, no.
 
You paid for a ha
mburger, not a Franken-burger.
 
And don’t give me the bit about sta
rving kids in foreign nations.
 
Let the restaurant feel that guilt as they dump wasted food in their dumpsters.
Or take half of it home.

Rethink
this notion of “wasted food.”
 
I assure you our Depression-era family members had no intention of contributing to morbid obesity when they said “clean your plate.”

We spend a lot of time an
d money trying to get healthy.
 
We go to a gym, ord
er a bunch of pre-packaged food
or even hire other
people to whip us into shape.
 
Some make the necess
ary life changes successfully.
 
Others fail.

I've trained and/or coached teenagers, seniors, men, women, the decondi
tioned and the relatively fit.
 
Working with them has provided me a generous opportunity to observe, learn and draw a few conclusions regarding the suc
cessful and not so successful.
 
Occasionally,
some of the not-so-
successfuls
 
t
eeter on the edge of quitting.
 
Every once in a while, I'm sad t
o say, one of them even quits.

I d
on't ever want anyone to quit.
 
It makes me feel like I'm
the failure; I’ve failed them.
 
Maybe I can help you not
quit.
 
You can benefit from w
hat I've
 
observed and learned.
 
Something goo
d can come from something sad.

So here goes... three traits fall in the
front line of my observations.

The first trait I’ve observed
 
in the succ
essful is a positive attitude
.
People who naturally (or even with an effort) carry an optimistic outlook tend to embr
ace, adopt and maintain healthy lifestyle changes more easily.
 
When they are faced with a disappointment (an insult, injury or slight weight gain), they reco
ver, regroup and move forward.
 
They don’t waste time on days of "wo
e is me" or "to hell with it."
 
They learn what the
y can from it and keep moving.
 
Seriously, I've seen it.

The second trait I've noticed i
s a pattern of consistency.
 
Those who adopt a few new behaviors (even just one or two) and execute on them consistent
ly, every day, do really well.
 
Those who go all out for a few days, then fall off the wagon, get back on, then repeat it all, don't do as
well.
 
They might make progress, but in fits and starts, often experiencing setbacks
when they fall off the wagon.
 
Couple a setback due to inconsistency with a negative attitude and you
've
got a recipe for quitting.

The third, main attribute I've seen in successful people is a
lack of chaos in their lives
, a sense of organization
.
 
Some people live i
n a permanent, frenzied state.
 
They are always a
day behind and a dollar short.
 
Crises abound.
 
I don't know whether chaotic people do it to themselves or if karma has them targeted, but they definitely have a storm
cloud over them all the time.
 
Just when they get one cri
sis resolved, another emerges.
 
Not only does the drama provide an excuse for not focusing on their health,
but
it actually sabotages it in the form of chronic stress.
 
I'm not describing people who tragically have an
illness or
suffer a great personal loss.
 
I'm talking about people who live on the edge, spinning out of control
—
and y
ou know who I'm talking about.

If you mix a negative attitude with chaos and sprinkle a little inconsistency over the top, you
are almost guaranteed to fail.
 
Those who truly want to succeed with a healthier lifestyle (which tends to involve major changes over time) need to honestly examine their attitude, consistency, and the calm that c
omes without chaos.
 
Fix those and enjoy the benefits
that come with being successful.

My failures can become your something positive.

Two major components predict
a person's long-term success:
 
ability and
attitude.
 
In a perfect world, we have both great ab
ility and a positive attitude.
 
If you don’t find a task challenging, it’s probably because you have a high ability for that task (or maybe you’re just
lazy and choose to avoid it).
 
The drawback to having high ability is you don’t get many opportuniti
es to test your true attitude.
 
Your personal truth only emerges when you are f
aced with something difficult.

But no one escapes challenges.
 
I don't care who you are.
 
None of us are that good at everything
.
 
We all eventual
ly face change-related stress.
 
Sometimes, change comes without invitation
—
a death or divorce or layoff.
 
Sometimes we bring it upon ourselves
—
taking a new job or buying a new house o
r starting up a new lifestyle.
 
A few of us even pay pe
ople to motivate us to change
—
like a coach or trainer.