In this multi-part piece, I will share strategies, diet tips, and workouts I use, as well as shifts I made in my beliefs about weight loss that rocketed me to the results I’d sought for years.
There are endless avenues of changing your body, and endless ways it can change. Hopefully, your intent is to take care of your physical body, so you enjoy ample energy and optimal health throughout your life. This series offers the best of what I’ve found so far when it comes to being healthy and looking and feeling great.
Who I am and am not
While I am not a doctor, nutritionist, certified personal trainer, psychologist, or other type of “health professional,” I have spent the last 20+ years striving for my “ideal body” only to discover that once I allowed it to be easy, it was.
Since my initiation into the world of body consciousness and subsequent self-consciousness, I’ve read countless articles and books on diets and fitness. I aced a nutrition course and have attended various lectures on diets, brain health, gut health, and more. I’ve experimented with a myriad of diets, including ketogenic, paleo, low-fat, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and about a year of subsisting mainly on Keystone Light and Domino’s pizza. I’ve experimented with different exercise regimens from daily running and weight lifting to at-home DVD workouts and organized sports.
At this point, I can confidently share several things that took me from futilely chasing the body I wanted to having a body I feel amazing in and that works remarkably reliably to do what I ask of it.
What you will find to follow are a few of the switches I made in my quest for health that made it seem less like a quest and more like a daily unveiling of a better feeling and better looking body. It can be and will be fun, I promise!
1. Believe that optimal health and a body you feel good in are realistic and achievable aspirations for YOU.
Take your time here: re-read and internalize that concept; it is paramount to everything that follows.
There are a few important distinctions to make in regard to this important foundation. First, I acknowledge that you may not be having an easy time of feeling good about your body or health if you’re looking at yourself and seeing what you don’t want or if you aren’t feeling healthy.
The good news is that “not easy” does not equate impossible when it comes to this concept; I’m not asking you to staple water to a tree for fuck’s sake. Therefore, if you don’t believe a better feeling and better looking body ARE realistic achievements for yourself, why read on? Why read anything related to health and wellness? You wouldn’t spend hours researching how to staple water to a tree and then more hours trying to do it, would you? If you truly believe a healthy, fit body is impossible for you, you wouldn’t have opened this link.
The real you knows it is possible, but the real you—the part of you that knows you are capable of great things in all arenas of your life—has probably been drowned out by all of the external factors that want you to believe success, for you, is impossible.
Two Easy Steps to Reset Yourself
Step 1 is to simply acknowledge that you control your body, what it does, and what you put into it, and that while you may have tried many things that didn’t work, there are infinite approaches you haven’t tried.
Step 2 is to train yourself to look for and focus your attention on what you want. Celebrate it when you see it, even if it’s not you r body looking or feeling amazing. Revel in the success of others and the gift of clarity they are providing you by making you more clear about what you want. The happier you are regarding the success of others, the quicker success can reach you. When your thoughts and feelings become unpleasant in the face of others’ success (guilt, shame, envy, frustration, etc.) or your perceived failure, you are essentially feeding yourself a box of Twinkies. Just as those spongy yellow shitcakes aren’t going to propel you to optimal health, those unpleasant feelings aren’t going to propel you toward the results you want.
I tried the shame and guilt approach for years. I took pictures of myself in a bikini at my most overweight and tacked them up on my bulletin board, so every day I was reminded of all of improvements I needed to make. I would talk with my friends about how I hated my legs, had a flabby stomach, etc.
I used to look at health magazines full of fitness models and celebrities, and I would tell myself to accept that I would never have that caliber of a body because I didn’t have those genetics or I didn’t have the resources for a personal chef, fitness equipment, and personal trainers. I still don’t have the resources for those things, but I have a very different body than I had at that time. And guess what? You don’t need any money or resources to not buy Twinkies and not feed them to yourself.
I obsessed. I criticized. I detested. And then I stopped. I climbed right the fuck out of that shitcake trench by focusing on what I wanted regardless of whether I had it. I accepted my body where it was and decided to love it whether it transformed for me or not. I decided to act as if I had the body I wanted, and all of a sudden, I had that body.
Asked and answered
You just need to start with a three letter word: Why? Why do I want the best body I can imagine? Why do I want arms like hers? Why do I want a 6-pack?
(Forget the “how;” the “how” will figure itself out, and the “how” is where many people get stuck).
So, this is where I ask questions and give you some A+ answers.
Question: Why do you want the body and health that you want?
Answer: I want optimal health because I enjoy having the energy to do everything I want to do; because it feels great to feel comfortable and confident in my body; because when my body is healthy, it’s easy to be happy.
Question: Why do I want a 6-pack?
Answer: I want a 6-pack because a strong core allows for better posture, which allows my organs to function with ease; because I love feeling my core muscles engage and support me with every move I make.
Note that it’s important to keep your “why” focused in the direction you want to go; if your “why?” is: “because then I won’t feel like shit” or “I won’t be so lazy and tired,” you are staying in the shitcake trench. Feel the difference between those answers and the following: “because it feels great to be comfortable and confident in my body” or “because I know my body can do amazing things, and I’m excited to experience them.”
Identify the “why” that makes you excited and enthusiastic for your next workout or healthy meal, the “why” that uplifts you. If you have limited knowledge of the vibrational qualities of language and words (more about that in future pieces), stick with the answers I provided for now.
This is your body and your life, and it doesn’t make any sense for you to focus on anything but the best for yourself.
Summary: Believe optimal health is possible for you, and use unpleasant feelings and self-talk as reminders to revisit and refocus on your “why.” Take care of your health for YOU. Want it for yourself. Make adjustments to keep yourself going in the direction of what you want.
2. Whatever you believe will work and thus practice consistently and mindfully will get you the results you want.
If you believe it is not easy to change your body and thus that you have to spend hours in the gym or bike X amount of miles every day: that is the journey you are going to have. If you believe you can crank up your favorite music and dance naked in your living room (one of my favorite cardio activities) and get the body you want: you will. If you believe weight loss entails being hungry, cranky, and generally struggling: that is the experience you are going to have. Choose wisely.
Take a quick moment to think about where you might have received your ideas about health and fitness in the first place. I got those ideas at a young age from magazines marketed towards teenage girls that function to lay the foundation for a lifetime of body obsessing and criticizing that the adult version of these magazines wants to perpetuate in order to make money.
Years ago, I used to read a particular fitness magazine every month; I had a subscription. Now, if I pick up that magazine, it is only to tear out that month’s workouts to add to my repertoire. I don’t actually read the articles as the propaganda is glaring. The money behind most mainstream publications is in keeping you feeling inadequate.
They want to keep you in the struggle so you keep thinking you need them and the products of their advertisers. You don’t, and all of that struggle is unnecessary. Fuck 'em.
Summary: Re-evaluate your beliefs about your body, how quickly you can change it, and how easy it is. You are exceptional and limitless, so start acting like it and start believing it.
3. Exercise regularly, and do activities you enjoy rather than what you are told you “should” do if you want to get into shape.
The phrases “Move it or lose it” and “motion is lotion” are among the many ways to convey the importance of moving your body often and in different ways. Physical activity is integral to overall health and well-being, not just to a fit body.
Want to be happier and sleep better? Exercise.
Want a better brain? Exercise.
According to neurologist and Harvard Medical School neurology instructor, Dr. Scott McGinnis, “…engaging in a program of regular exercise of moderate intensity over six months or a year is associated with an increase in the volume of selected brain regions.” (http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/regular-exercise-changes-brain-improve-memory-thinking-skills-201404097110).
Want to be the old man who can literally chase kids off your lawn? Want to spend your 80’s skydiving instead of behind a walker? Move your fucking body and check out this link to jumpstart your new concept of what the rest of your life can be!
http://www.boredpanda.com/senior-citizen-ageing-stereotypes-age-of-happiness-vladimir-yakovlev
But I don’t have time/energy/a gym membership/blah blah blah
I don’t want to hear it. This guy doesn’t want to hear it either:
You have everything you need to start making changes. Accept it and do it.
When I started working out, I thought I needed to devote hours to it every day. I would go to the gym and do 60 high intensity minutes on the elliptical machine followed by at least a 2 to 3 mile run, followed by strength training. While there is nothing wrong with this recipe, per se, it was often tedious and started to become easy to talk myself out of going to the gym because it stopped being enjoyable. I was doing it because I felt I should.
I am thinner and more toned doing lower impact workouts and working out less than I ever was as a daily runner and a 2-3-a-day workout machine (though those approaches, if fun for you, can absolutely work).
The point is to engage in activities that exhilarate you, that you look forward to, that you would do if you had the body you want. Do what feels good. If you like to walk, enjoy your walk. Don’t spend it feeling bad that you aren’t jogging. Chances are, if you are enjoying your walk and feeling great, you may spontaneously feel like jogging a few blocks or maybe even a mile. Maybe not, and that is fine too as long as you are moving and having a good time.
EXTRA IMPORTANT: DO SOMETHING EVERY DAY. Even if you just do 50 push-ups and 50 squats, your body appreciates it! Do 100 reps of ab exercises before you sit down to watch your favorite show. Take a 10 minute walk on your lunch break. Do a set a calf raises while waiting in line at the grocery store. Contract and release your abs while sitting in traffic. Instead of blocking out 1 hour of your day to be active (especially if that’s not realistic or fun for you), figure out where to fit in multiple quick segments of activity. I challenged myself to do a running plank through the whole “Game of Thrones” intro (long AF if you’re not familiar) every episode this past season, and I often found myself spending part of the episode doing squats or using hand-weights for strength training while I watched the madness unfold. Not only do bursts of activity help you transition into a more active lifestyle and healthier body, short bursts of activity can boost your energy levels and mood.
Don’t believe me? Trust these Canadians who studied the effects of short bursts of exercise and found that:
“ just a single minute of high intensity exercise can give the same health benefits as longer and more traditional moderate-intensity workouts” (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04/29/intense-exercise_n_9805498.html).
Summary: Be active every day as often as you remember to be and love every minute of it.
4. With that said, embrace challenging yourself.
Learning your body is capable of more than you thought is a healthy addiction. If the furthest you’ve ever walked is 3 miles, walk 4 or start jogging the crosswalks. If the most push-ups you’ve ever done in a row is 30, do 40. Tell yourself you can do it, believe it, and watch your body respond.
I did a thirty-day push-up challenge that changed my concept of my strength. Similarly, the first time I ran 2 miles, when I’d previously run no more than 1, I was exhilarated, and the exhilaration of running more than 10 miles where previously my longest run was 7 miles, was fucking awesome. Seek your fucking awesome moments. That is actually what exercise is about. Have fun and feel awesome, why the fuck not?
Summary: Seek your fucking awesome moments. If what you are doing gets easy or boring, change things up.
This concludes Part 1. Please feel free to leave comments, share ideas, and ask questions.
Coming soon: Part 2: More shifts, workouts I dig, and food!