The truth is, I get PMs asking 'what my secret was to lose the weight' often. I'm sure I'm not the only one...and thus, this post.
"What's your secret?"
"Did you use diet pills?"
"Can you tell me how to do it?"
Well...the big secret is...there is no secret.
I remember watching an Oprah video that she released in conjunction with "Make the Connection" back in 1995 or thereabouts. She said something that stuck with me and RESONATED. Okay, I can't quote it WORD for WORD, but basically she was talking about the Majic Pill. Paraphrasing here: "If there was a magic pill to melt off the fat, I would have it. I would take all my money, I would go to the mountain and buy the potion. I would have it. I would have it."
But as Oprah said...there IS no potion. Proof of that are the many, many famous, fabulously rich people who have everything yet still struggle with their weight. Who comes to mind? Oprah...Anna Nicole Smith...Liz Taylor...Kirstie Alley...et cetera. If there was a majic pill, they would have it. (BTW, I'm sure that ANS' recent weight loss is strictly temporary, based on recent interviews where she claimed not to exercise or eat healthfully - she just 'stopped eating' which means a binge is likely imminent IMO.)
As Dr. Phil so wisely said in his recent best-selling book, obesity and overweight cannot be CURED, they can only be MANAGED. We ALL have the propensity to put on the pounds - it's part of our genetics, since we didn't always sit on our butts in front of a computer, then come home and watch TV and eat pre-prepared food. I'm just one generation away from farmers (Dad's side) and coal miners (Mom's side) who did hard manual labor 12 hours a day, came home, did chores around the house and sat down to dinner. And 'dinner' didn't mean going to the store and picking up something to toss in the microwave or even the electric or gas oven. For both my parents growing up, dinner and other meals meant fattening up and butchering their own meat, planting, growing and gathering their own vegetables and fruits, grinding their wheat and rye into flour, chopping wood for the stove that cooked their food (well in my Dad's case anyway...they were pretty much dirt poor). Preparing a meal was a HUGE job back then. (If you got a chance to see it, or can check it out of the library - PBS did a show called "Frontier House" that shows exactly how much work was involved without electricity or any of the modern conveniences...I'm waiting to see "1940's House" which is coming up soon...)
And the meals were not loaded with sugar either. As my Dad never tires of telling me, sugar was a luxury for them - one of the only things they actually purchased at the store (salt was the other one). Even the desserts such as pies and cakes had relatively little sugar in them in comparision to what we're used to these days.
Anyway...flash forward to the 1950's, the advent of TV, and our GI's back from WWII who were accustomed to eating K-Rations - the early fast food - bland, easy to eat, and with more sugar and fat than 'regular food' to sustain our troops. McDonald's opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino with the bland, cheap, fast food, Ray Kroc stumbled across the store when he was selling milk shake machines, and the rest is history...
Flash forward again to today...2004...most everyone works behind a desk or in a job which requires little manual labor. We're surrounded by cheap, high-calorie food. Thanks to the development of high-fructose corn syrup, it is no longer a luxury to have sweet, sugary food. After work, many of us go and sit in front of the Tee Vee or computer.
And meanwhile, the epidemic of obesity overwhelms us.
The secret??? Hard work and persistence kept our grandparents lean...they didn't think about it, work was just part of their day, hard manual labor. Now, we need to do what Dr. Phil calls "Intentional Exercise". And food - our grandparents weren't surrounded by Krispy Kreme donuts and cookies and baskets of candy in their workplaces. It's up to us to be STRONG and resist the temptations placed in our path, and not become The Human Garbage Disposal 'because it's there' to be gobbled up in a few seconds and forgotten a minute later.
Basically, you just have to decide what's more important - a momentary pleasure of sugar and fat or lifelong good health?
I posted the following earlier this week at the Ladies Who Lift forum on our weekly thread in response to a post there:
Quote:
[Willingness to do the work] - that's the BIG secret of losing the weight for real. It's not a book or a program or a plan or anything like that, although there are tools that can aid you on your path.
It's WORK. Yup, there's nothing 'easy' or 'effortless' about weight loss, especially when you have a buttload of weight to lose - despite the marketers and advertisers who would have us believe otherwise (as long as you buy their miracle product!). I was there too, so I know, believe me, I remember. It's like someone handing you a teaspoon and a cup, pointing at Mt. Everest, and saying "move this mountain using only this spoon and cup" when you have 100 pounds or more to lose.
I was/am a big fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and I always remember something her Pa said in one of the Little House Books - I think it was "The Long Winter" when he was digging up the sod for the first time: (paraphrasing here) "Rome wasn't built in a day, nor is anything else worth having".
Nope, losing a lot of weight and (more importantly) keeping it off for good isn't easy, but believe me, it CAN be done - through hard work and (oh yeah) PERSISTENCE! Jeez, I almost forgot about PERSISTENCE...ai yi yi.
And as any of us who have lost a great deal of weight and kept it off can tell you - it's hard work, it takes effort (especially with all the temptations surrounding us these days!) but dang - the rewards are SO RICH. Kind of reminds me of the women I know who've had kids. They've gone through the pain of childbirth (Bill Cosby quoting Carol Burnett on childbirth pain: "Take your lower lip and pull it over your forehead" ), but once their tender new bundle is delivered safe in their arms, the pain is forgotten (I haven't ever given birth myself, but I have three sisters who are all moms plus dozens of friends who are also moms).
I'd also like to recommend (if I haven't already) a little paperback book titled "Diary of a Fat Housewife" by Rosemary Green. (get the paperback rather than the hardcover - it's much more up to date - you should be able to find it pretty cheap at half.com) Rosemary went through the same sort of fat **** and wrote about it at length in her diary. She did eventually get to her goal weight of 135 (and I've heard that she's still at her goal weight after 8 years of maintaining!) and had some terrific insights at the end of the book (I do admit that sometimes during the diary itself she drives me nuts...). Just a must read, IMO - although keep in mind that it is NOT a diet book.
Just don't give up - keep learning and reading and WORKING HARD and you CAN do this! It's not an insurmoutable goal!
A friend of mine, Kristi Larsen, is a certified personal instructor and has done a heckuva lot of research on nutrition and exercise in weight training. (If you don't know who she is, she has a website at www.kristilarsen.com with a ton of info and her journal - you can also subscribe to her e-newsletter as well).[Willingness to do the work] - that's the BIG secret of losing the weight for real. It's not a book or a program or a plan or anything like that, although there are tools that can aid you on your path.
It's WORK. Yup, there's nothing 'easy' or 'effortless' about weight loss, especially when you have a buttload of weight to lose - despite the marketers and advertisers who would have us believe otherwise (as long as you buy their miracle product!). I was there too, so I know, believe me, I remember. It's like someone handing you a teaspoon and a cup, pointing at Mt. Everest, and saying "move this mountain using only this spoon and cup" when you have 100 pounds or more to lose.
I was/am a big fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder and I always remember something her Pa said in one of the Little House Books - I think it was "The Long Winter" when he was digging up the sod for the first time: (paraphrasing here) "Rome wasn't built in a day, nor is anything else worth having".
Nope, losing a lot of weight and (more importantly) keeping it off for good isn't easy, but believe me, it CAN be done - through hard work and (oh yeah) PERSISTENCE! Jeez, I almost forgot about PERSISTENCE...ai yi yi.
And as any of us who have lost a great deal of weight and kept it off can tell you - it's hard work, it takes effort (especially with all the temptations surrounding us these days!) but dang - the rewards are SO RICH. Kind of reminds me of the women I know who've had kids. They've gone through the pain of childbirth (Bill Cosby quoting Carol Burnett on childbirth pain: "Take your lower lip and pull it over your forehead" ), but once their tender new bundle is delivered safe in their arms, the pain is forgotten (I haven't ever given birth myself, but I have three sisters who are all moms plus dozens of friends who are also moms).
I'd also like to recommend (if I haven't already) a little paperback book titled "Diary of a Fat Housewife" by Rosemary Green. (get the paperback rather than the hardcover - it's much more up to date - you should be able to find it pretty cheap at half.com) Rosemary went through the same sort of fat **** and wrote about it at length in her diary. She did eventually get to her goal weight of 135 (and I've heard that she's still at her goal weight after 8 years of maintaining!) and had some terrific insights at the end of the book (I do admit that sometimes during the diary itself she drives me nuts...). Just a must read, IMO - although keep in mind that it is NOT a diet book.
Just don't give up - keep learning and reading and WORKING HARD and you CAN do this! It's not an insurmoutable goal!
This article is from her latest newsletter...
Quote:
The Importance of NUTRITION For Looking Your Best
.................................................. ..........................
Take a look around next time you are in the gym. How many people are pushing huge amounts of weight or running like mad on the treadmills and their bodies seem to always stay the same? The reason a lot of them have not seen a change is because they have not realized how important proper diet is. It's difficult to believe (especially considering the media's influence on diet and exercise) that fat loss is 80% your eating and 20% exercise- give or take a little either way.
Don't make the mistake of thinking there is a diet plan made for you out there and all you have to do is find it. Stop buying bodybuilding, health and fitness magazines looking for the secret diet or training program that will change your life forever.
Those who strive for a stellar physique are continually experimenting with their bodies. Each and every body is different and will respond (or fail to respond) to training and diet in a unique way. What is overtraining for one, is not for another. One may have phenomenal success with a low-carb diet, whereas, another might have minimal results. One person may be able to attain 7% bodyfat with little to no cardio training, when his friend might require two cardio sessions per day to achieve that same body composition. No one said it was fair. But that is reality. In fact, two people with the exact same body composition will not necessarily respond the same to diet and training protocols, and supplementation the same way. To get the results you desire, you MUST customize your program to your body.
"99 percent of the human population are lazy *******s! And 99 percent of the fitness industry plays to this strength." ~Jacob Wilson
Honestly, if you are tired of being overweight and "soft," or if you desperately just want to develop your "six pack," then you must educate yourself and get serious about changing your body. It has to become a priority in your life (at least until you reach your goal). There are no quick fixes, however if you use the right information, you will be able to make dramatic changes to your physical appearance in a very short period of time.
One of the best suggestions for customizing YOUR nutritional approach is to log every morsel you consume. Sounds like a hassle- and maybe it is- but if it got you to the body you desire, would it be worth the trouble? Logging your intake keeps you honest. The New England Journal of Medicine found that when people wrote down what they ate, they had UNDERESTIMATED on average by 1053 kcal/day. That is MAJOR!!!
Logging makes you aware of what you are putting into your mouth over the days/weeks/months (and it all adds up over time) and it just may clearly illustrate why you are not getting the results you expect. Your dietary log can be later used as a concrete tool to seek out professional dietary help.
You can start by logging all foods in Fitday (www.fitday.com) or Excel- especially in the beginning until you know everything by memory. By using a computer program to log your diet helps make sure you are getting the proper ratios of fat/carbs/protein.
Americans are fatter now than ever, even though more Americans are dieting now than ever and over 30 billion dollars per year is being spent on fat loss.
You can't buy fat loss with money. Only with hard work! Quite simply put, there is no easy way out!
"There should be nothing standing between you and your goal. Until you reach your desired body, you should be living, breathing and eating fat loss."
~Anthony Ellis
Summing up...finally... Nope, there's no Majic Pill or Potion out there. What magic there is is within each one of us. We ALL have the power inside us to lose the weight - it's in there waiting for us. There truly IS a lean person inside us waiting patiently to be released! Now it's up to each one of you to find her! (and nope, you don't have to pay $153 for it either!)The Importance of NUTRITION For Looking Your Best
.................................................. ..........................
Take a look around next time you are in the gym. How many people are pushing huge amounts of weight or running like mad on the treadmills and their bodies seem to always stay the same? The reason a lot of them have not seen a change is because they have not realized how important proper diet is. It's difficult to believe (especially considering the media's influence on diet and exercise) that fat loss is 80% your eating and 20% exercise- give or take a little either way.
Don't make the mistake of thinking there is a diet plan made for you out there and all you have to do is find it. Stop buying bodybuilding, health and fitness magazines looking for the secret diet or training program that will change your life forever.
Those who strive for a stellar physique are continually experimenting with their bodies. Each and every body is different and will respond (or fail to respond) to training and diet in a unique way. What is overtraining for one, is not for another. One may have phenomenal success with a low-carb diet, whereas, another might have minimal results. One person may be able to attain 7% bodyfat with little to no cardio training, when his friend might require two cardio sessions per day to achieve that same body composition. No one said it was fair. But that is reality. In fact, two people with the exact same body composition will not necessarily respond the same to diet and training protocols, and supplementation the same way. To get the results you desire, you MUST customize your program to your body.
"99 percent of the human population are lazy *******s! And 99 percent of the fitness industry plays to this strength." ~Jacob Wilson
Honestly, if you are tired of being overweight and "soft," or if you desperately just want to develop your "six pack," then you must educate yourself and get serious about changing your body. It has to become a priority in your life (at least until you reach your goal). There are no quick fixes, however if you use the right information, you will be able to make dramatic changes to your physical appearance in a very short period of time.
One of the best suggestions for customizing YOUR nutritional approach is to log every morsel you consume. Sounds like a hassle- and maybe it is- but if it got you to the body you desire, would it be worth the trouble? Logging your intake keeps you honest. The New England Journal of Medicine found that when people wrote down what they ate, they had UNDERESTIMATED on average by 1053 kcal/day. That is MAJOR!!!
Logging makes you aware of what you are putting into your mouth over the days/weeks/months (and it all adds up over time) and it just may clearly illustrate why you are not getting the results you expect. Your dietary log can be later used as a concrete tool to seek out professional dietary help.
You can start by logging all foods in Fitday (www.fitday.com) or Excel- especially in the beginning until you know everything by memory. By using a computer program to log your diet helps make sure you are getting the proper ratios of fat/carbs/protein.
Americans are fatter now than ever, even though more Americans are dieting now than ever and over 30 billion dollars per year is being spent on fat loss.
You can't buy fat loss with money. Only with hard work! Quite simply put, there is no easy way out!
"There should be nothing standing between you and your goal. Until you reach your desired body, you should be living, breathing and eating fat loss."
~Anthony Ellis