There is a price to pay either way

You can pay the price of discipline or you can pay the price of regret, your choice. So you see, either way there is a price to pay. The price of regret is a lot greater than the price of discipline, so why don't you make up your mind right now to pay the price of discipline (with your exercise program and/or better eating habits) so you can enjoy all the benefits in the near future. It well worth the price!

Is Not Just About The Weight You Lost!

Is Not Just About the weight you lost, but it's also about the weight you did not gain.

Many people measure their fitness success by looking at how much weight they lost over the weeks and months. If they lost weight they feel successful, but if they did not, they feel like failures. Here is another way to look at things. There is a person who is 40 lbs overweight and their weight goes up at a rate of 1lb per month. They decide to start an exercise program and work on their diet in order to lose weight.   Due to their busy schedule and high stress job, they have not been able to be very consistent with their exercise program and their healthier eating habits. Nonetheless, they managed to lose 4 lbs in 4 months. Most people, seeing that they lost only 4 lbs in 4 months, would view this as failure. They forget the fact that their weight, before the program, was going up at a rate of 1 lb per month. This means that if they had not started the weight loss program they would have been not 4 lbs heavier, but 8 lbs heavier.   When it comes to weight loss and health, something is better than nothing. So, if you are too busy to start a full fledge exercise program, start by walking for 5 minutes 3 times per week and go from there.

How not to lose focus of your weight loss goal

Although most people start their weight loss program with their goal in mind and how good they are going to feel once they achieve their weight loss goal, as the program progresses they lose focus of their objective and the benefits they are going to reap by sticking to the weight loss program and instead they start focusing on the discomfort of exercising, missing their favorite TV shows because they have to go to the gym and not be able to eat whatever they want.  As you know, we are a “NOW” society, everything is now, we don’t want to wait for anything.  So the immediate pleasure of eating what we want now and watching our favor TV shows or doing whatever we want, NOW, usually wins over the future benefits we will receive if we go through some minor discomfort now.  So minor pleasure now and avoiding minor discomforts now VS achieving major benefits in the future by going through some minor discomforts now, unfortunately, in most cases the first one wins. 

How to keep your focus on your goal:  You can avoid making this mistake by preparing yourself the right way before you even start any weight loss or exercise program.  When you decide you want to get in shape and/or lose weight, before you start your first workout, you want to sit down in a quite place and write down all the reasons why getting in shape and/or losing weight is important to you.  How you are going to feel once you have achieved the body you want?  How is it going to affect your life and how other people see you?  Anyway just keep writing all the benefits you are going to reap from getting in shape and/or losing weight.  Don’t be shy; write down as many benefits as you can think.  No one needs to see this list.  Once you have completed the list, start another list of the negative effects if you continue with your current lifestyle habits.  How you are going to look and feel, one year from now if you continue the way you are, and without making any lifestyle changes.  How would your body look?  How much you will be weighing? In what shape your health will be in?  How would other people seeing you?  Do the same thing for 5 years from now, 10 years from now and 20 year from now, if you think you could live another 20 years with your current lifestyle.   Don’t leave any detail out.  It would even help talking to people that did not take care of their health when they were younger and how they are suffering today because of it. 

After you write these two lists put them aside and you are ready to begin your weight loss or fitness program.  Once you get started with your program and you find yourself focusing on the current discomforts you have to go through to achieve your goals, pull out these two lists, to first remind yourself of the benefits you are working towards and also the consequences of not sticking to your program.  The choice is simple, you can choose to go through the minor discomforts now and reap the health benefits and the tremendous pleasure that goes with it in the future, or continue as you are today, and suffer some major discomforts in the future from all the diseases like diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, etc, that you will most likely develop if you continue with your current lifestyle.  It is your choice.  This might motivate you to stick to your weight loss program.

When it Comes to Losing Weight Slower is Faster

Before you think I am crazy, let me prove my point.  I personally know quite a few people who have lost weight and then gained all the weight back at least twice in the past 2 to 3 years.  Like most people when they decided they wanted to lose weight, they wanted to lose it as fast as possible, so they did what most people do.  They started an intense workout and/or diet program that promised it would help them lose the weight they wanted the fastest possible way, and in most cases they did.  However, as in most cases, they burned out from the intense workouts and strict diet regimen.  Although they had achieved the results they wanted, they burned out and returned to the old habits and, in turn gained all the weight back, often with interest.  A few months go by, and they get inspired again, and the process is repeated with the same results.  Does this sound like anyone you know?  The undeniable fact is, to lose weight permanently, you must make permanent changes in your life.  The best way to make permanent changes in your life is to make them slowly over time.  No one can dispute this fact.  Incorporating changes, such as new eating and/or exercising habits, into your life slowly, gives your comfort zone a chance to expand to include the new eating and activity habits.  Try to make too many changes at once and you risk overwhelming yourself and burning out.  Of course, everybody has different tolerance to the discomfort created by change and how fast their comfort zone expands to include new habits.

            Now let’s take a look at a different approach to losing weight that might seem slower but in reality it is much faster.  This time instead of rushing into an intense weight loss program, you start slowly.  You use the first 4 to 8 weeks to ease yourself into the new exercise and diet regimen, thus giving your comfort zone plenty of time to expand.  Although it might take you 4 to 8 weeks to start losing weight, once you start losing weight it will be with less effort, and you will not be feeling overwhelmed.  The bottom line is, although it might take you a little bit longer to lose the weight, you will be able to keep the weight off and will not need to lose the same weight all over again next year.  This is the way I help my clients at Olympus Personal Training lose weight and keep it off.

Let's Lose Weight and Keep it off

I am very excited, this is my first blog.  I have been in the weight loss field for almost 20 years and my main focus has been permanent weight loss.  From early in my fitness career the one question I have been trying to answer has been, "why the vast majority of people can't keep the weight off after they lose it?"  I am very happy to announce I finally have the answer.  The one big problem the weight loss field has, is that is full of gimmicks and misinformation and that is one of the reasons why so many people have a hard time losing weight or if they do manage to lose weight, they can't keep it off.  In my blog I would discuss popular misinformation about weight loss, exercising and diet, and I can tell you there is plenty of misinformation out there, I will discuss the main reasons why most people can't keep the weight off after they lose it and more importantly I will give practical advice on how you can improve your health and lose weight. I will also share my opinion on the latest gimmicks and fitness trends.
I would love to hear your comments and questions and I would do my best to respond in a timely fashion.