No Man is a Mountain

On Monday, I wrote about the importance of social interaction as it relates to your weight loss success.

People who "go it alone" never enjoy the success of those who lean on their peers.  That applies to more than weight loss.  Few things we do in our lives are improved by solitude.  The support of our circle of family and friends makes us better equipped to pursue our goals.

There are some very important ways you can incorporate family and friends to improve your odds of having success.

First, make sure you tell your friends what you're hoping to accomplish.  They want you to succeed.

Second, ask for their help changing your lifestyle.  If you go out to restaurants with your friends, suggest that you center your conversations around a walk instead of around food.  Ask a friend to workout with you or get involved in their own similar effort to lose weight.

Third, make sure they know when you're struggling.  Strangers seldom offer us much encouragement.  But when someone close to you tells you they believe in you, it somehow makes things much easier.

Now, don't expect any one friend to be everything - they won't appreciate being the constant pillar for you to lean on.  Make sure to use everyone in your network that you're comfortable talking to.

If you insist on keeping your goals in the dark, weight loss can become a lonely endeavor - not something anyone wants.

Have Some Compassion

The least talked about part of having success, in weight loss and in life, is the social element.

All of us, no matter how self-sufficient, benefit from the occasional ego stroking.

If you're trying to lose weight, how good would it feel to have someone tell you that all your hard work is paying off?  Compassion and understanding are SO helpful when you're doing something that's tough.  Sometimes something as simple as a smile can make all the difference.

If you know someone who's having a tough time accomplishing what they've set out to do (or heck, even if they're doing just fine), do something to laud their efforts.  It doesn't matter how little the gesture, it just matters that you give it.

Never underestimate the importance of how you interact with your family and friends.  They will likely determine the outcome of your efforts.

More on this later...

The Simple Truth

A lot of people ask me how to lose weight - A LOT.

It's pretty much why my whole industry exists.

The sad fact is that nobody wants to believe me when I give them the answers.  I tell them what it will take for them to start losing fat, and they won't do it.  Why?  Because it involves hard work and sacrifice when they wanted to hear some special secret that I, as a fitness pro, must possess.

Everyone wants results, yet few are willing to do what it takes to get them.  Their current lifestyle - the one that got them the body they're living in - is too comfortable for them to make a change.  As many times as I say it, no one wants to believe that their bodies will resist small changes.  You have to be totally bought in to making a real change.

Count calories?  Exercise vigorously?  Who wants to do that?  Well, those are the things that I GUARANTEE will get you results, so it's up to you to decide.

You can't cheat physics.  And that's all weight gain is.

It's not your genes.

It's not your busy schedule.

It's not because you had a kid.

It's not because of stress.

It's because you're storing more calories than you're burning.  What can you do about it?  Eat less, move more...

... and have a healthy weekend, everyone.

What's Your Excuse?

There's a rather crude expression that creates a simile for excuses.  Rather than repeat it here, I'll just say "everyone's got one."

I've talked a lot recently about how important goal setting is.  Without it, you have no way of answering the question I talked about Monday - WHY is your goal important to you?  If you haven't established a value for your goal, it's easy to let it be trumped.

Let me just say this as simply as possible.  There's a million reasons not to commit to your fitness goals, but only one reason you will.

There's a lot that goes into losing weight, for instance.  You can't do it if you turn your job, your family and friends, or anything else into an excuse.  Everyone's got their stuff to deal with, but only a few people make the choice to pursue their goals regardless of all the obstacles.

I never promise anyone that getting in shape is easy - I tell them it's simple.  Weight loss isn't as complex as everyone makes it out to be.  The problem is that everyone wants the result but has an excuse as to why they can't put in the work.

Set your goals well.  Answer the WHY about your goals.  The answer to that question is what you need to keep in mind when the excuses start to grow.  It will help you decide if your reason for not working out, eating right, tracking calories, etc. is a pothole turns into a sinkhole.

Think about it.

The Magic Question

My Shoreline fitcamp just had their first of twelve sessions over the next four weeks.

I'm really emphasizing goal-setting in this round of camps.

Everyone thinks they've set goals, but few have set meaningful goals.  They haven't set SMART goals.  And most importantly, they haven't answered the real questions.

SMART goal setting is all about considering every aspect of the goal.  Is it Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely?  Very few people set goals that can be measured, but it's the only way to know if you've really accomplished what you set out to accomplish.  And even fewer people set timely goals.  You have to have a deadline for your goal.  Open-ended goals are never met - they just get pushed off 'til tomorrow, the "8th day of the week."

Make sure that your goals are SMART, and make sure that you answer the Magic Question - why?

Why is the goal important to you?

That will tell you all you need to know, and it will help you answer other questions.

What are you willing to sacrifice to attain the goal?

Who will you affect by attaining it?  Not attaining it?

How do you hope to feel when you accomplish the goal?

Answer the Magic Question - it will put you on the right path.

Becoming Comfortable With Exertion

Sometimes I find myself watching exercise videos or exercise shows on television, and I feel as though they all preach the same message - don't over-exert yourself.

Granted, you don't want to 'over' anything, if you can avoid it.

But we're talking about exercise here.  You should be exerting yourself - it should be really challenging.

Your muscles, including your heart, are capable of periods of very high exertion, but hardly anyone ever trains them to do it.  How can you honestly say that you have a healthy heart if it can't handle a sudden, massive demand?  That's one of the biggest triggers of heart attacks - a sudden influx of demand that your heart can't handle.  Yet no one prepares their heart for big demands.

What do we train for?

Endurance.

Why?

I haven't the faintest.

What do you think?

Why have we become a nation that exercises like distance runners, when precious few of us even care about running a marathon?

We're the only creature who 'jogs,' and we're also the fattest creatures on the planet.  Do you think it's a coincidence?  Granted, we also eat like crap, but I've got to believe that our physical activity has to shoulder some blame, does it not?

Give it some thought and let me know what you think.

How Do You Really Change Old Habits?

As the saying goes, old habits die hard.

Depending on how ingrained your habits, simple willpower is often not enough.  The problem is that everyone wants to believe they have strong willpower - who wants to feel weak?  This leads many exercisers and dieters to rely on self-discipline alone to get them to their goals.

I know it sounds cliché, but the mind is a very powerful thing.  The problem that the willpower crowd faces is this - patterns that form over time in our brains are not conscious patterns.  Our habits that lead us to excuse ourselves from exercise, overeat and eat certain bad foods are not cognitive decisions.  Our willpower may allow us to fight the good fight, so to speak, but our habits are far more powerful than many of us are willing to believe.

One of the best tools you have at your disposal is good planning.  Structure allows us to ease the process of building good habits to replace the bad ones.  It removes us from the social and emotional cues that often lead us to fall back into our bad patterns.

Make exercise appointments and treat them like you would any appointment.  Plan your daily meals and snacks and make sure you have the foods you plan to eat available.  And don't just plan what - plan when and how much.

Old habits may die hard, but it can be done, provided you're using the right plan of attack.