... Then Just Stay Fat. (14 page)

Logging alone probably won’t be enough to help you combat all those chemicals run amuck in your brain.
Exercise is another weapon you’ll want to employ
(you can stop rolling your eyes; and no, I didn't
just contradict myself).
 
I know I said exercise
didn’t
really contribute that many calories to your deficit, but that doesn't mean there aren't other HUGE benefits.
 
The biggest reason is that exercise directly impacts all those crazy metabolic pathways mentioned above.
 
It helps with insulin sensitivity, "good
-
mood" chemicals, and some scientists are looking into it
s impact on
leptin
sensitivity.

Picture a scene for me... you've had a really stressful day, running in 20 directions, always late, a presentation was finished at the last minute, a meeting was especially contentious, and you've been at it for 12 hours.
 
You stop on the way home for a happy hour, order a beer and pick at some of the appetizers on the table.
 
You take that first sip of beer and bite that cheesy potato skin, and a feeling of
aaaahhhhhh
comes over you.
 
You know that feeling?
 
That
aaaahhhhhh
?
Maybe you get that feeling slipping into your comfy clothes and
ordering a pizza.
 
Aaaahhhhhh
.

It is totally possible to generate that
aaaahhhhhh
without food or alcohol.
 
Exercise.
 
Yep... a good hour in the gym
,
or outside
,
can give you an outstanding sense of relaxation and peace.
 
Plus, you get the added benefit of burning a few hundred calories AND your muscles, h
eart, lungs, bones, and
everything will thank you too!

Losing weight really is as simple as setting up a calorie deficit.
 
Executing on it can be difficult.
 
You truly have a choice
—
either set up the deficit and find strategies to cope with the obstacles or continue to be overweight.
 
There are
no other options.

References:

"Causes of Obesity."
National Obesity Observatory
.
Solutions for Public Health, 2010.
Web.
1 Aug 2012. <
http://www.noo.org.uk/NOO_about_obesity/causes
>.

United States. U.S. Department of health and human services.
Common Mechanisms of Drug Abuse and Obesity
.
2010. Web. <
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/mar2010/nida-28.htm
>.

http://www.theendofovereatingbook.com/

Flores, M.B., M.F.
Fernandes
, E.R.
Ropelle
, MC.
Farla
, M. Ueno, L.A.
Velloso
, M.J.
Saad
, and J.B.
Carvalhiera
. United States.
National Library of Medicine.
Exercise improves insulin and
leptin
sensitivity in hypothalamus of
Wistar
rats
.
.
Bethesda: National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2006.
Web.
<
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16936204
>.

Talanian
, J.L., S.D. Galloway, G.J.
Helgenhauser
, A.M.
Bonen
, and L.L.
Spriet
.
United States.
National Library of Medicine.
Two weeks of high-intensity aerobic interval training increases the capacity for fat oxidation during exercise in women
.
.
Bethesda: National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2007.
Web.
<
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17170203
>.

Park, S., J.S. Jang, D.W. Jun, and S.M. Hong.
United States.
National Library of Medicine.
Two weeks of high-intensity aerobic interval training increases the capacity for fat oxidation during exercise in women
.
.
Bethesda: National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2005.
Web.
<
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16721034
>.

LOOK UP NSCA references for exercise and hormones

By now, if you’ve made it this far, you’re bought into the idea that losing weight is possible and you don’t need any trickery to pull it off. You know you need to track your intake (log your food) and exercise – which probably all sounds like a giant “duh” since we’ve been hearing “diet and exercise” since the dawn of time.

I get it. You need more.
I’ve boiled down weight loss/management success into “four Ps:” perception, planning, persistence and patience. Yep, that’s it
.
P
erceive the problem correctly, make a plan, persist no matter and remain patient.

In my opinion, successful weight management can be boiled down to four
Ps.
 
I'll
discuss the first:
 
PERCEPTION.

Most everyone, religious or not, is fami
liar with the Serenity Prayer:

Go
d, grant me the serenity

To acc
ept the things I cannot change;

The courage t
o change the things that I can;

And the
wisdom to know the difference.

This prayer highlights
perception problem No. 1
:
 
believing you can't control your weight, and therefore believing it is
sane
and healthy to learn to accept it.
Most who have tried and failed with their weight-management talk as if horrible life circumstances visited tremendous weight gain upon them
,
like an out-of-control cancer.
 
They are powerless to pry themselves from its grip and spend a great deal of time working on accepting their fate
—
learning to "love themselves."
 
In this category of perception problems, I tend to place fat-people-dating-groups or sites, high-end-plus-size fashion, and all self-help books that teach ac
ceptance aimed at resignation.

DO NOT GET ME WRONG
—
I can already hear the misinterpretations of what I just wrote.
 
If you are currently overweight, I don't believe you should wear a potato sack and sit at home alone engaging
in self-flagellation.
 
For the short time
(compared to the length of your life) you must wear larger sizes and patiently work on your weight loss, I completely support looking your best and feeling good about
who
you are as a person.
 
That is different from resignation and acceptance
—
which can have a tone of giving up.
 
I think learning to love
yourself
is a wonderful pursuit, but I believe the way most of American society has applied this grand notion is dangerous. "I love me just like I am" is usually code for "I've given
up and am trying to convince myself I'm lovable anyway."
 
Loving yourself does NOT mean settling!
 
You can love yourself but still require more of your health, intelligence and kindne
ss.
 
See the difference?
 
Get it?

Do you perceive your weight management to truly be within your control or not?
 
Only you know the truth.
 
But I can tell you it IS
squarely within your control.

Perception problem No.
2
:
 
believing weight loss is too hard
.
Right from the start, your perception sets the tone for your whole experience.
 
When you think of facing down 20
pounds
on the scale, do you immediately imagine hardship, denial and punishment?
 
Or do you tell yourself, "
E
ehhh
, I can get this off.
 
I just
gotta
give
it time and do the right things
?
"
 
The big difference between the two is one of true control
—
which takes us back to
the first perception problem.

Anxiety and feelings of hopelessness are strongest when someone perceives he has no control over the outcome.
 
Sometimes it's actually true
—
you have no control, and that's when it is healthy to practice acceptance and learn to move on.
 
Weight loss doe
s NOT belong in this category.

The
act of losing weight is not complicated
. It is quite simple ("
The Big Secret
").
 
Executing on the simple solution can be difficult if your perceptions about weight loss are messed up.
 
Here's an example: pretend you've been crazy busy for weeks and neglected your house.
 
One evening, you walk through the back door and stop dead in your tracks, looking around with fresh eyes and see dishes overflowing the sink, laundry piled a mile high on the washing machine, a bedroom that looks like its closet vomited its contents all over the floor, dust so thick on all the furniture you can write your name anywhere you please, pizza boxes with petrified crusts, bags of trash propped by the door waiting to be taken to the curb, and biological experiments growing in the bathroom you shudder to go near.
 
At that moment in time, do you flop down onto the floor and cry because you can't change any of it?
 
Do you deride yourself for being a slob then just go throw some more trash on the floor?
 
Do you throw your hands up in the air claiming you can't do anything about it, and promptly stretch out on top
of the filthy couch?

Probably not, because you know that's how hoarders get started.
 
Most likely you take a deep breath, set your things down, go change into some comfy clothes and set about cleaning.
 
In your mind you immediately begin organizing what chore to tackle first and start knoc
king them down one by one.
 
You
know that given enough time and your persistent cleaning efforts, the house WILL get straightened up.
 
You have no doubt it will work.
 
While you are loading the dishwasher, you aren't constantly agonizing over whether or not all your hard work will actually result in a clean ho
use, because you KNOW it will.

The same mindset can be applied to weight loss.
 
One day you look at yourself with fresh eyes and see the result of a lot of neglect.
 
All you have to do is mentally set your things down, put on your comfy clothes and begin doing your chores.
 
Your body will reflect those efforts
exactly like your house does.

Housework isn't rocket science. Neither is
weight loss.
 
They aren't complicated.
You just do it.

Time may be infinite, but YOUR time is finite. There are only so many hours in the day, and as far as we know it, you’ve only got so many days on this
E
arth. Each sunrise is another set of 24 hours handed to you to spend as you see fit. Each night as you go to sleep, the day is behind you – spent and gone. With any luck, you’ll wake up and get another 24.

How you spend your time, the activities you CHOOSE each hour, say a lot about you. They spell out what’s important, and what’s not. Remember “actions speak louder than words?” That’s what I’m talking about. You say your kids are more important than your job, but you repeatedly miss their soccer games for late meetings. Your actions just said “work is more important than my kids.” You say your health is of supreme importance because you want to be around to see grandkids, but you can’t think of the last time you purposefully exercised and you just polished off a deep dish pizza with beer.