The Common Sense Approach to Weight Loss (Part 2)
by Corey Wells
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As with my previous post let’s start this with a disclaimer. I’m not a doctor or personal trainer. Before doing any exercise or diet you should consult your doctor. The following advice is only common sense. It is a simple outline of what works for me. I’m not guaranteeing any results.
I HAVE NO WEIGHT LOSS PRODUCT TO SELL. I’m writing this post with the hope it helps at least one person.
In my last post I talked about how to get yourself in the right mindset to lose weight. If you haven’t yet read that article I would suggest you read that before reading this second part. Getting yourself in the mindset to lose weight is 90% of what it’s going to take to be successful. The information below is meaningless without the right attitude.
This is nothing more than my personal approach to losing weight and living a healthy life. Will it work for you? I believe these simple approaches will work for anyone. It’s all common sense after all. However, you may have specific challenges that will prevent you from doing some of the things I’m going to recommend. Just make sure they really are challenges that you can’t overcome. Some roadblocks need to be smashed.
Exercise (Fitness Commitment)
The first thing I’m going to suggest is you take a new attitude with exercise. It’s not something we try and fit into our day, it’s something we do six days a week for the rest of our lives. I think that bares repeating. That’s right SIX DAYS A WEEK FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. Not only do I want you to exercise six times a week I want you to spend 45 minutes exercising during each of these days. I wonder how many people will stop reading here?
Why six days a week?
There are many good reasons to exercise this many times a week but the most important is it creates a fitness lifestyle. It gets you in the rhythm of working out. Let’s face it most programs recommend you exercise three to four times a week for 30 minutes. This is probably enough exercise to maintain a healthy body for most. If you have a really disciplined mindset this might be a good option for you. However, in my experience as a coach, most people do not have the discipline to stick with a three day a week schedule.
At this point you may be asking yourself why three days is harder than six? That’s a great question. It’s more difficult because it allows too much flexibility. Have you ever tried to follow a three day a week schedule? Did you ever have a day where you didn’t feel like exercising and then promise yourself you would make it up the next day? Sure you did. Why? Because as humans most of us are built to procrastinate on the activities we don’t like. (See my article on Creative Avoidance.) After skipping one session, next week you’ll find yourself skipping another and then another. before you know it you’ve given up.
You may be wondering how you are going to fit 45 minutes of exercise into your day. I know how difficult this is. When I first decided to exercise six days a week I had no time to do it. I have two young children, a spouse that works a demanding job, I run several business’s and have a busy coaching practice. Finding time to exercise was a challenge for me. Even with these obstacles I found a way to fit it into my life. How did I do that? Remember part one of this post, where I talk about making it a commitment? That’s what I did. I made exercise a priority and I found the time to do it. You can do it too.
What type of Exercise?
As far as I’m concerned you can do any exercise you like, as long as it elevates your heart rate and provides a decent workout. You should sweat a little from your workouts. Ideally you want to find something you enjoy doing. If you can enjoy the process it will make it much easier to keep it up.
My two favorite exercises are cycling and weight lifting. I love cycling because it’s low impact on my joints and it’s an activity I can do into my 90’s. Of course I mix things up, or cross train. I will do a couple days of running and other sports, but cycling is my main exercise. Weightlifting is something else I incorporate into my exercise program two to three days a week. I certainly don’t lift to bulk up, but instead focus on building long lean muscles by lifting light weights for more repetitions.
I have no intention in this post of listing all the ways you can exercise. I certainly don’t want to get into the details of your, resting heart rate, BMI, or all the other important factors with exercise. I’d recommend you use common sense. If you or your doctor find six days too much for you, than don’t do it.
What are you eating?
I recently had an interesting experience when my family visited another family member. We were talking about health and they mentioned that they eat extremely healthy foods. What’s interesting is what they consider healthy. The foods in their house are far from healthy and good for their bodies. But, in their mind they’re under the mistaken belief that what they’re eating is good for them.
With this in mind, don’t just assume what you’re eating is healthy. Make sure you read the back of every label and ensure what you’re eating is good for you. Do your homework and determine a healthy diet for you and your family. Read some good books in this area, find a great website that lists which foods are healthy. Don’t be fooled by foods labeled healthy at the grocery store they are often some of the worst foods for you.
What to eat.
Again, I’m not going to get into specifics. There are many good books about the right foods to eat. You probably have a good idea about what to do in this area. Drink more water, eat more fruit, eat more vegetables, eat less red meat, eat more fish, eat smaller portions, avoid processed foods, avoid soft drinks, consume less sugar, consume less trans-fat, etc.
Take the time right now to list five things you could do differently with your diet. Pick five things that will have a positive effect on your health. Maybe it’s cutting out fast food or adding more fruit and vegetables to your diet. Just find five simple changes you can make to increase your health. Now that you’ve identified five things you can change commit to sticking to them.
Make it a lifelong change.
Change happens in the moment you decide to commit to a new habit. You have the ability right now to change your bad habits and replace them with good ones. You have the ability to change how you identify yourself. You can instantly transform your mind and gradually your body will follow. It’s up to you. What are you going to do about it? Are you content with where you are, or are you ready to make the changes that will effect your life in a positive way. Remember that Tony Robbins quote?
“Nothing tastes as good as fit feels”
Anthony Robbins
Don’t make this a diet or a short term solution. This is your life and you deserve to have the best of everything. You deserve to have a healthy body and mind. Feed both with the right foods. Exercise at least six days a week and be patient with your results. It will happen.
(C) 2009 Corey Wells
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First off, i really like your site, it provides some good inspirational quotes and sometimes articles as well.
“As with my previous post let’s start this with a disclaimer. I’m not a doctor or personal trainer.”
Well im a personal trainer, and one thing i really hate is when people spread myths like this one.
“I certainly don’t lift to bulk up, but instead focus on building long lean muscles by lifting light weights for more repetitions.”
Just to clear things up for everyone reading, how your muscles end up looking is almost 100% genetics of course you can focus on making a muscle bigger, and in that way alter the way its gonna look, but thats all. 1-6 reps is for strength, 6-12 is for hypertrophy(muscle growth) 12-X is for endurance, and has nothing to do with the look of the muscle.
Now that i cleared that up, i really do like your other advice and have found it to work with my clients as well, its all about changing your habits and life style basicly, make it a project and use the advice above, implement one thing at a time.
I recomment you start with excercise, which will give you the energy and make you a more vibrant and confident person. Do a combination of cardio(curcuit traning, running, or if your like many others, don’t find that stuff motivating yet, start with some sports with friends like racket ball, or something else involving a ball, and intervals) and weight traning(to tighten your body, and escalting metabolism) when the training has becomed a habit(you will know when you feel restless, when you havent worked out for a couple of days) then your hooked on the training and the feeling it gives you, then move on to the nutriton, which is the hardest part for most, first off you need to quit suger and other foods that spike your bloodsugar, without going into details here, it will make it very hard psychologically for you to stay low on the calories, because it creates a evil circle, so break of the sugar(its like quitting smoking, only the cravings are out of your system after about 14 days) don’t believe everything you read, its very important to educate yourself proberly, in order not to waste your time(i see alot of people, who waste alot of time, by not putting in the time to educate themselves on traning, which is a pretty complex subject, clouded in alot of myths and outdated info, like the stuff about high rep for lean muscle) so you might wanna invest in a good personal trainer if you can afford it.. if not, then you just have to read a whole lot(t-muscle articles) for prober info on nutrition, read books by Dr. Jonny Bowden.
This info combined with the motivational stuff in this article, will give you an edge over most people trying to loose weight and hopefully some realistic expectations on what it truly takes to loose weight, its hard and i got huge respect for people who succeed in changing life long habits and taking conscious control! don’t be a victim of your circumstances, if you read on this site, you probaly know that its possible to be the architect who designs he’s own life, and live the dream!!
Now get off your ass, and start doing shit instead of just reading. It’s only good advice if you take it, it might feel good for a short period of time just to get the info, but in the long run, you need to make shit happen, otherwise your just another dreamer wasting valuable time!
If my grammar is a little screwed its because english isnt my first language.
BEST OF LUCK!
Thanks Lance, for your input. I’m not an expert in these areas and I’d defer to your judgement. Regarding this sentence:
“I certainly don’t lift to bulk up, but instead focus on building long lean muscles by lifting light weights for more repetitions.”
I was referring to my experience. Like you said everyone has a different body type and different goals. From my experience lighter weights and longer repetitions have helped me achieve the look I want. As you said, I’m sure genetics have a big part in that.
Thanks for all your other advice as well. If we can motivate just one person to getting moving I’ll consider this post a success.
btw, your grammar seemed fine to me.