Subscribe to the Your Health At The Crossroads podcast on iTunes. New podcast episodes are released by Sunday or Monday (and will post on YourHealthAtTheCrossroads.com on Mondays)
Today is a continuation of what we talked about in the last podcast. All about fat loss.
If you listened to Part 1, you know that we started talking about what has to happen in your mind for you to lose fat. Well, to lose it successfully…with success being defined as getting to a normal weight for your height, getting off all unnecessary fat tissue, and keeping it off through a disciplined and self-controlled lifestyle.
Discipline and self-control are not simply a matter of eating right and exercising. If they were, then everybody would be good already. But the truth is that a lot of folks try to diet and exercise and they’re still overweight and obese. Why? Because that mind needs to be dealt with.
If you missed last podcast, please go back and listen to that because I am going to go ahead and hop into this Part 2 so that we can finish the mind part of losing fat and move on to the exercise and diet part.
Ready? Let’s go.
Do It For The Right Reason
Question for you…why do you want to lose fat? What’s your motivation? Think about that for a few moments.
Ok, you got it? From my experience, the reasons that people pursue fat loss most often include the following:
- To get ready for a class reunion
- To get ready for a beach trip
- To try to fit in your old high school jeans or to be able to wear something you saw at the store
- As a new year’s resolution
This is what I see most often. If that was one of your reasons, I’m not saying that it’s all bad, so don’t get me wrong.
What I will say, though, is that your reason for trying to lose fat might be very important…so important, in fact, that it could be a big determinant of whether or not you actually lose the fat.
See here’s the thing. What I’ve honestly found is that, trying to lose fat for an event, or a group of people, or something like that is not often a strong enough impetus for individuals to actually do it. Even though I am a big fan of short-term goals, if folks actually do lose some weight before their event or whatever, they are extremely likely to gain it back with interest after that event.
But normally, what happens is that they don’t lose it at all. And I believe that the reason for that is because such goals underestimate the seriousness of how unhealthy extra fat on your body can be.
Simply put, having more fat than normal is bad for you. Let’s not think for a second about fitting into old jeans or about having six packs and all of that. Let’s ponder our lives and our health.
Fat is normally a storage source that your body draws from when it needs it. It’s not evil or anything like that. It’s energy. But in our culture, we eat highly denatured and energy stocked foods that contain tons of sugar and processed flours that overload our bodies with so much energy that two things happen. One, our fat stores become stocked with extra fat because our bodies only use the energy that they need. Two, as our bodies store fat, they never even have to go to those fat stores because we’re eating so much sugar and processed food that our bodies just use energy from that.
As we accumulate the extra fat and it increases our weight more and more, our bodies have to figure out how to deal with the extra load. And they do it pretty well for a while, without us noticing much of anything different. But the truth is, your body is having to work harder constantly. Your heart, your lungs, your joints…all of that is having to work harder. And after a while, when your body starts to wear down, that’s when you begin to notice it.
On top of that, the addictive, unhealthy foods that we eat tend to add toxins to our bodies because of the chemicals that they contain. And guess what? A lot of those toxins end up getting stored in your fat as well. Your body is expected to deal with all of this overload in stride, even while it continues to receive more sugar, more toxins and more fat storage. This is why we get sick.
So losing fat is not just a matter of looking good. It’s a matter of staying healthy. It’s a matter of staying alive. All of those terrible diseases…heart disease, diabetes and some cancers, can be attributed to the lifestyle that causes excess fat gain. If you want to do it for an event, ok. But that cannot be your only motivation. Do it because to not do it risks your life. Do it because you want to maintain your body…the same way that you want to take care of your house or your car so that it lasts long. Do it because you want to be around for your family as long as you can be.
Don’t Be Overeager…Pace Yourself
Another reason that you might fail to lose fat is because you’re what I call “overeager.” It’s cool to get
“krunk” about getting the fat off, but you get too “krunk.” And what that leads to is you going too fast and doing stuff to lose fat that is unsustainable and straight up harmful to your body.
Let’s consider a hypothetical man that I’ll call Gerald. Gerald is tired of being unhealthy and overweight, and he’s really serious this time about getting the fat off.
He saw a guy on the cover of Muscle and Fitness magazine who had not a 6, not an 8, but a 10 pack of abdominals. So he opened the magazine and turned to the guy’s article. Gerald noticed that the guy’s workout routine was in there, and he noticed that the guy said that the key to losing fat was this stuff called HIT, or High Intensity Training. Now, Gerald hasn’t worked out since he used to play college ball about 20 years ago, but he has to get those abs, so he’s going to do this fitness model’s workout to get them.
Next thing you know, Gerald is running up and down hills and trying to do 1000s of crunches. All because this guy who is fit for a living said that’s what he does. Gerald is tired, but he thinks that he’s doing what it takes. He does 5 hills, then 6, then 7…as his hamstrings scream in pain. But Gerald reasons, the magazine guy wouldn’t stop until he finished the whole workout, so Gerald’s not stopping.
All of a sudden, Gerald feels a pop on the back of his thigh. Before he even feels what he knows what will be excruciating pain, he knows what’s happened. Popped hamstring. It has literally popped from its attachment at his knee and is now knotted up behind his thigh. Gerald howls in pain and has to be rushed to the emergency room so that they can stretch the muscle back to the attachment point. Gerald now has orders from the doctor to do nothing active for the next 6 months, and by the end of that 6 months, Gerald is heavier and even more unmotivated.
Listen. I know you’re tired of being overweight. But be patient. Take your time. Try to go too fast and I almost guarantee you 100% that you’ll sabotage yourself. You may or may not hurt yourself, but I have seen too often where folks try to go all in but they’re doing stuff their bodies can’t handle. And when they feel that soreness or that injury pain, they quit, and they end up getting set back even further than before.
It’s not just overeager exercise, though. It’s diet too. Sometimes, folks will try to do everything they think is right in the beginning. They’ll cut out all sugar, they’ll cut out all breads and starches, they’ll eat a lot of salads with no dressing, and a host of other things. Now, some people can do this, especially if they have some experience. But for the average person who has lived a lifestyle of unhealthy eating, you talkin’ about shock? They’re eating bland food and feeling hungry and all of that, and sometimes all it takes is the sight of a greasy hamburger and fries to bring them back with a vengeance. And then they’ve eaten 2-3 burgers or servings of fries before they know it.
Rushing into fat loss…you might as well not do it. Take one fat-gain habit…just one, and work on that for a week or two, until you establish a new habit. Then move to another habit, and another one, and another until you realize that your whole lifestyle has been revamped. You’ll also notice along with that that you’re lighter. Perhaps even a lot lighter.
And think about this, too. You didn’t become overweight overnight. It may have seemed that way, but it was over time as you unconsciously developed and practiced unhealthy habits. You may have started drinking sugary coffee, or eating honey buns every day, or whatever. The best approach to fat loss is never a rushed one. It is an approach where you don’t even focus on losing the fat, but where instead you focus on changing your life and on making your day-to-day mundane habits healthier. And fat loss will be the by-product.
Learn From Others Who’ve Done It
The last thing I want to say about reforming the mind for fat loss is that, there are few things more powerful than a testimony. When I am going through something, nothing invigorates me more than hearing from somebody who not only went through that same thing, but they made it through and got to the other side.
It’s the same way with fat loss. What I want to strongly encourage you to do, for the sake of your mind, is to surround yourself with the positive testimonies of folks who have lost all the fat and kept it off. I’m not talking about folks who successfully crash dieted, because that’s not what you want to do, unless you don’t really care about your health. I’m talking about folks who changed their lives, put away old, bad and unhealthy health habits, no matter how hard it was, in exchange for life preserving, fat purging good habits. I bet you. When you hear from somebody who has done it, it will probably get you fired up. Why? Well I believe it’s because they’ve given you vision that what you desire to do can be done.
Look around in your circle of friends, coworkers, or other associates and see if you can find someone who’s lost and kept off fat. There are probably thousands of stories online of folks who’ve done it. My favorite sources are bodybuilding.com and muscleandstrength.com. They have these transformation stories of regular folks who actually transformed their bodies. Black Fitness Today is another good site for stories like this. Other sites with powerful transformation stories include Dr. McDougall’s website and the Hallelujah Acres site. They have stories not just of fat loss, but of people overcoming terrible disease and bad diagnoses.
One of the worst feelings to feel as you’re trying to lose weight is the feeling that you’re alone…that you’re on this road by yourself. You might even feel that you can’t do it. That’s never good because it means that you’ll either give up, or you’ll resort to taking unhealthy and dangerous methods to get the fat off.
But that’s beside the point. Feeling like you can’t do it is bad because it’s simply not true. You can do it. As long as you’re moving and breathing, you can do it. Find yourself an inspiration…somebody who can tell you that they’ve been down that road, and that they’ve done it. They’re out there. I promise you.
Let’s recap the various things we talked about:
- Get Fed Up – You have to get to that point that you are literally angry about still being in the same situation, and you’re ready to do whatever you have to do to get the fat off
- Weaken Your Flesh – Prepare to hold yourself back completely from the various things that cause you to become overweight, so that your body eventually no longer craves those things. It will kick and scream initially, but eventually that noise will die down and you will regain control
- Do It For The Right Reason – Don’t just do it because you want to look good for yourself or somebody. That’s usually not enough anyway. Do so because you want to preserve your quality and quantity of life. Do so because your life depends on it
- Don’t Be Overeager…Pace Yourself – Focus on changing no more than one fattening habit at a time. This isn’t a race. This is a process of life change. For real. It took a while for you to gain it, so take your time and reversing it
- Learn From Others Who’ve Done It – Testimonies are powerful. Find someone who’s done what you desire to do and learn from them. Feed off of their success and energy, and I bet that it will add fuel to your fire
I wouldn’t worry about remembering all of these things that we’ve talked about, but what I do encourage you to do is listen to this several times. Listen to it again, and again, and again until it is not just head knowledge, but it’s soul knowledge. I think about my 3 year old daughter who gets a new book and will read that book every day, several times a day until she knows exactly what’s going on. That’s what I want you to do with this and the first podcast of this series.
I’m telling you, if you have the same mind when you’re trying to lose fat, you’re going to fail. Seriously. Take this from a person who has repeatedly procrastinated and taken shortcuts. I have always found that when I do that, I miss out. This fat loss journey…it’s a journey that is going to require that your mind and heart be fully prepared. It’s not worth it to talk about losing fat for years and to never do it. To feel like nothing will ever work, even when that couldn’t be farther from the truth. But if you blow through these podcasts and you don’t take the time to really meditate on what has been said, you won’t get it. It’s not a waste of time. It’s worth your time. It’s worth another 30 minutes, especially when years of time have been spent practicing bad habits. Please, listen to this until you get it.
Next month, we’ll be talking about specific diet and exercise actions to take to get the fat off, so you will want to tune in on that. For those in the local area (Middle Georgia), I am about to start having partnerships with local health and fitness related businesses in the area, and it’s allowing me to offer coupons to you to help you have more resources for your journey. That’s what this podcast is all about, really. It’s about helping you to realize that you can impact your health, and giving you the information and resources to do so.
Whip Crack 01.wav by CGEffex is licensed under CC BY 3.0
Have a question you want answered on the Your Health At The Crossroads show? Interested in becoming a sponsor of the show? Tweet your question to @ShawnB2BFitness, put it on the YHATC Facebook page, or call (478)216-8536 and leave a voicemail. You can also send your question via e-mail to shawn@yourhealthatthecrossroads.com. Sponsorship inquiries can be sent via e-mail or by calling (478)216-8536.
The post YHATC008 – All About Fat Loss (Part 2) appeared first on Your Health At The Crossroads.