Last Sunday, my wife Laura and I made a trip to Whole Foods to get supplies for our Sunday dinner. The original plan was to eat out. Our weekend had been full of soccer and a spring piano recital. As is so often the case, however, eating out seemed far less appealing than dining in at home in spite of the extra work involved of shopping, preparing, cooking and cleaning up after another meal. In fact, Laura does not have that many weekends off, so spending time together in the kitchen is often one of our best opportunities to get cozy.
Even more to the point is that our meal of fresh salmon, cod, potato fries (prepared from freshly cut potatoes), along with fruit left us so much more satisfied, energized and safe from the feeling we get when we eat out. A feeling that has become more and more rare over time because as a family we choose life.
All of this reminds me of a conversation with one of my clients, a nurse practitioner. Her and I found ourselves engaged in a conversation about the weight loss clinic where she works, and about how the majority of her patients relate to their food habits. Those particular people don't seem to feel the same way Laura and our family do.
"You're not taking away my Friday Fish Fry!"
For the most part, that statement speaks for itself, but I still feel compelled to provide it a little context. It is in reference to a conversation that this nurse had the previous week with one of her patients. A person suffering from obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and fully on their way to a final decent into the doldrums of unnecessary illness, and yet still hanging on to that fish fry as if it was some kind of jewel. Sad, but true, and maddening in many ways. People are choosing to suffer and to cause a health care system increased levels of demise only as a result of their inability to find and then choose a different path.
The maddening part, of course, is that there exists no accountability - only the consequences of their choices. Otherwise, there is literally no way for us to motivate individuals with this perspective, because they have chosen not to change, and we have chosen at least for now to fully subsidize those choices.
Now, moving back to my personal training practice and the work I perform with my own clients, there is a slightly different, and still similar story to tell...
In far too many cases for those clients coming to me for weight loss, there is a pattern of noncommittal that is not serving anyone very well at all. In far too many cases, clients 'work' at the changes they need to implement, struggle to gain results, or to gain them as quickly as they would like, and in the end, they quit.
"There must be a problem with the system John is recommending, because I've spent the last 6 months with him and not much has happened."
To those individuals, the logic makes sense, because short of taking full 100% responsibility of what it takes to lose weight, there exists that comfortable and cozy place where your limitations are justified, and you can avoid going inward to the place where you tackle your unhealthy, unproductive, and ridiculous attachment to the Friday fish fry.
Yes, this work and this kind of change can be, and usually is, overwhelming and cathartic. That Friday fish fry might hold a lot of tradition, comfort, and attachment for you. But don't go teasing yourself with the notion that you can have both, because you can't. And therein lies the toughest truth about the work of your weight loss, and the reason that the farther I get into this work, the more I'm tempted to focus more and more on nutrition. Your exercise is still vital, but if weight loss truly is your goal, all of the hardest work in the gym and beyond cannot possibly undue food choices that thicken your arteries like an oil spill at sea.
Take the book I noticed on the Whole Foods shelf yesterday as an example, "21 Day Weight Loss Kick-Start: Boost Metabolism, Lower Cholesterol, and Dramatically Improve Your Health." At first glance on that entire bookshelf, I thought it another grand example of "more of the same." Books promising BIG results in minimum time, and with minimum effort. And though in some ways, that's still true, when I dug into the contents of this book a little deeper, it provided a more timely and productive example of what I'm talking about today. Which seems mainly to be that the problem of your attempts at improving your health and losing weight are NOT problems of finding the right system. Those systems exist. The problem is really about YOU and first your willingness to take action on those solutions, and second, to do the actual work involved.
Reading the first few of the 60 reviews that exist on Amazon on this book was a good reminder of that fact. The fact that there is really no BIG secret to your success. The only real solution is to be incredibly decisive in your efforts. Because if you can truly do that, and commit to nothing other than success, you can absolutely have it. The problem, once again, is that in the majority of situations, that decisiveness is missing, and in its place is an apathetic and ignorant pursuit of misleading goals that don't lead you where you want to go as much as they lead you down that long and dirty road of denial, and self-destruction.
Here are just a couple examples of how simple weight loss and better health can become when you make the right choices…these are comments from the reviews on the book mentioned above - 2 of them...
"The 21-Day Weight-loss KickStart is NOT a diet book. It's a guide to help put you on a path to wellness. This book was recommended to me by a friend in the nutrition field. I was skeptical but I loved the premise, try it for 21 Days and then evaluate how you feel. For me, the results were enough to really change my opinion on a lot of things. After 21 days, my insomnia went away, i wasn't tired after work and (hate to say it) but going number two has never been easier. I guess these were my issues i wanted to cure, although losing a few lbs was also nice. "
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"I am one of those people who can stick to a diet, but can't lose weight. I've tried everything out there. One some diets I've even gained weight (the Ornish plan, Nutrisystem, Atkins) while family members have lost weight eating the same exact things. This book explained WHY I didn't lose or even gained weight on diets and what I could do that was different and might offer me some success. I thought I was doomed to feeling and looking lousy, and am so grateful I was wrong.
I lost 6 lbs in three weeks, steadily, easily. If I can lose 6lbs with my stubborn metabolism, then I would guess most people might have even greater success.
I was never hungry, and at the end of each day I'd lie in bed thinking how nice it is to have a sensation of satiety but not to feel bloated, starved, or guilty. To have enjoyed--really enjoyed--my food and felt healthy, had more energy, and been more comfortable in my body and my clothes. I have been craving this kind of feeling on a deep level, but have never been able to figure out how to effect it in my life."
These are just two of the many stories that exist in the Amazon review section for this book. They do, however, provide you a glimpse of what happens when you clean up your eating.
Another important point to make about this book of course, is that it only focuses on nutrition and makes no mention of exercise. That's fine, except that I believe that anything calling itself a "21-day Kickstart Program" should include at least a walking program.
That said, those comments above and the book itself represent a VERY important topic when it comes to improving your health and fitness and losing weight…
No, you don't have to become a vegetarian or vegan, but when you clean up your eating habits and avoid so much packaged food, sugar and garbage, very often your weight loss begins to take care of itself. Yes, it still remains vital that you perform strength training and build muscle and that you eat to your individual metabolic rate, but your ability to do that along with your cardiovascular exercise in an effective manner starts with a good nutrition program at the foundation.
-John
Please note...I'm taking another important step in the process of totally re-inventing myself and my mission as a writer, speaker, and full time Bohemian Athlete. I've committed myself to the quest of a daily column on this blog. Though that will likely take a month or two to solidify as a habit, it IS happening. As such, each new column will exist and be available to the public until the next one is posted, at which time, you will be required to login as a "Wisdom Seeker" in order to gain access to previous columns.
All you have to do is invest in one of my books, or the wisdom center itself in order to gain your access. To do that, you can click here now.
