I’m a pretty laid back kind of guy. Not too much really
bothers me. There are some things that do, though. I’ve said many times that
there are people in the fitness industry that have a lot invested in making
this all seem very complicated, especially when it comes to diet. I want to
assure you of something: It isn’t. In fact it’s very simple. That doesn’t mean
it’s easy, but it is simple.
A few weeks ago on a very popular podcast (and one I usually
love), a “celebrity trainer” was interviewed and said such things as:
- - calories don’t matter
- - fat-free milk is one of the worst things you can
drink but whole milk is fine
- - eating ice cream is fine as long as you have it
with full fat whipped cream to blunt the insulin spike
Just a quick response
here:
1. Calories do matter
if you want to lose weight.
2. There is no
difference between fat-free and whole milk other than the amount of fat.
3. Do I even need to
talk about this one?
He said some other things as well but I think you get the
idea. Now maybe you’re someone who wants to lose a little weight and you’re not
sure how to do it then you turn this on. What do you think?
“This is impossible. I’ll never understand how all this
works. I can’t remember all of these rules!” At this point most people go into
information overload, shut down and then some of them buy his book.
I would actually be fine with all of this if it was
necessary. If you really did need to know all of these things to lose weight, well
that’s just how it would be. The problem is that this doesn’t have to be very
complicated at all. In fact, the vast majority of the time it is very simple.
As I said before though, that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
Let’s get one thing out of the way first:
Calories matter.
If someone tells you they don’t, that’s great because you
know you don’t have to listen to them any longer.
Here’s another thing you need to know. Low carb diets work.
You know what else works? High carb diets, low fat diets, and high fat diets. You
can lose weight eating breakfast. You can lose weight not eating breakfast. You
can lose weight eating after 8pm. You can lose weight not eating after 8pm. You
can lose weight eating chocolate covered ants. You can lose weight not eating
chocolate covered ants.
Do you understand what I’m trying to say? There are lots of
ways to do this! The important thing is to do it the way you can do it!
Now, let’s be honest for a second. If you want to lose
weight you do need to make some changes. What I’m saying though, is the changes
you make should be ones you can do and it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Let’s just say you have desert after dinner every night.
It’s something you enjoy and look forward to and you’ve been doing it for
years. You know, however, that if you want to lose weight you probably shouldn’t
have desert every single night. Well, wouldn’t there be progress if you had
desert just every other night? Or had a smaller portion of desert every night?
This is just one small example but this is how good habits are built and this
is how progress in made! Little by little over time!
Doing it this way makes it sustainable and also has a much
better chance of being permanent. We all know someone who lost some weight and
then put it all back on don’t we? That’s probably because they didn’t focus on
their habits. They did something extreme all at once and then stopped. What
good is that?
Here’s an easy way to get started.
First, take an honest,
unemotional look at your habits. (Please take a special look at the
words honest and unemotional! I put them in italics and underlined them for a
reason.) Try to find one that you feel is holding you back from your goals and
that you feel you can change.
Next, be honest
and unemotional (there’s those words
again)with yourself and think about how much you are 100% willing and able to
do. Using the desert example you can choose to have desert fewer times per week
or choose to make your desert smaller. Either one is fine. Either one is
progress. It is key here that you feel confident in your ability to be at least
90% successful with what you choose.
Third, go for it! Practice your new habit for about two
weeks or until it becomes a part of you and when it does, pick another one.
Before you know it, you’ll have made three, four or five
changes that could have a huge impact!
Once again, this shouldn’t be complicated. Make it easy and
I know you can be successful!
Let me know what you think and if you need any help getting
started drop me a line at MitchRFitness@gmail.com.
Have a great day!
Mitch Rothbardt, CPT, PN Lean Eating Coach, FMS
2861 Grove Way in Castro Valley
510-754-7113
I Help People Discover Their Strength!
