Excuses Or Simply not Ready for Change

Excuse or Something Else? 

Everyone knows that person who always has an excuse for everything.  You might be the person giving an excuse.  I use to get so frustrated with people that complained and complained about how they were so miserable with their health, weight or appearance but they never do anything to help themselves. I’ve come to realize it’s not the excuse holding them back.  Instead they just aren’t ready.  Sadly some people never become ready to make changes.  Instead this person will live a long life of illness, metabolic diseases and suffer with ailments until the end. 

What makes a person ready to make a change?  There is a theory called the Transtherotical Model (Stages of Change).  Everyone uses it at some point in their life but might not be aware.  What is the Transtheortical Model?  It’s the processes we go through to begin making behavioral changes.  Behavioral changes like smoking cessation, starting an exercise program or eating healthy.  There are more behavior changes but these are a few. 

There are six stages of the Transtherotical Model:

1.       Precontemplation (Not Ready)- People in this stage don’t have any intention to make changes now or in the future.  Reasons may be because they simply don’t know they need a change.  The person  might have tried many times before, failed and are afraid to fail again.   

2.       Contemplation (Getting Ready) – These are people who intend to make a change within the next six months.  They are aware of the pros and cons of making a change but they are motivated.  Sometimes people become stuck in this stage due to fear, lack of support or money. 

3.       Preparation (Ready)- This stage is typically when changes will occur within the next month.  Actions have been taken to begin, they joined a gym, purchased a self-help book, or find a wellness coach or a trainer. 

4.       Action- These are the people that are working on their goals.  They are going to the gym or exercising at home.  They have begun a smoking cessation program.  They are working with a coach to help them lose weight or make positive health changes.  This is about a six month stage to really know it’s going to stick.  

5.       Maintenance stage-  It's been six months or more and still going strong with their behavioral changes.  The change is now a positive habit and they have more confidence (self-efficacy) in themselves and believe they won’t go back to the negative habits. 

6.       Termination Stage-  YES CHANGED FOR GOOD!!!!  This is the stage where people can fight past depression, anxiety, boredom, lonely and anxiousness without relapsing back to bad behaviors.  They now have alternative methods to cope with these issues. 

Where are you or someone you know in the Transtheoritical Model?  Don’t get annoyed with the excuses because it may not be their/your time.   Be positive with people that aren’t ready for change.  One day it might happen and then again it might not.  However, you cannot push them into something they just aren’t ready to do.  I cannot drag clients across the finish line and I’ve learned that over the years.  They may regress and it’s not my fault.  Learn to let it go and understand they might come back one day. 

I encourage you to think about a behavior you want to change and what stage you might currently be in the Stages of Change.  

Why Avoiding Food is Making You Fat

Many people believe if they restrict daily calorie intake to a ridiculously low amount they will lose weight or fat.  This is a common misconception so don’t fall victim to this myth.  During the beginning of weight loss our body is typically eliminating water and unfortunately breaking down muscle.    Unfortunately people believe if they cut calories excessively they will lose weight; sadly this is untrue.  Instead the body becomes a fat storing machine.  Why?  I’ve talked about this many times but it is our natural safety mechanism.  Extreme calorie restriction often known as Anorexia Nervosa causes major health problems and bone density is decreased.  An overweight person has an increased risk of bone density decreasing.  This decreased bone density increases the risk of stress fractures or complete fractures in bones.  Excessive weight loss decreases muscle mass.  Muscle is very important to our body because muscles help us move.  Bones are the foundation of the body but the muscles attached to the bones are what helps us move.  As we begin to age, as early as our twenties we begin to lose a small percentage of muscle mass each year.  This percentage of muscle mass is increased for sedentary people or excessive calorie cutters with poor diets.  Think about your grandparents or great parents; were they physically active throughout their senior lives?  Were your grandparents frail and unable to walk without shuffling or struggle to do daily tasks?  It’s important that we maintain our independence as long as possible. 

How to start the path of eating healthy and exercising daily? It must start with you.   It can’t be a doctor using scare tactics or family members teasing.  The want to change must happen within or it won’t happen.   Are you ready to make a commitment to change?  Why do you want to make a change?  Are you doing this for yourself or someone else? 

Here is a thought, what if instead of focusing on calories we focused on servings of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and good fats.  In addition to focusing on fats, vegetables, fruits, lean proteins include food timing, and emotions.    When you sit down to eat write down how you feel.  Are you sad, angry, tired, nervous or happy?  How much water have you drank?  Did you exercise?  Exercise will increase the need for more foods to be consumed to help repair the body and promote good immunity.  When the body becomes worn down from lack of sleep or hard workouts the risk of colds and illnesses increases.  Does counting calories drive you crazy?  Losing weight is as simple as being aware of the foods we put into our mouth.  If you eat lunch and dinner out every evening that’s a poor eating habit.  Think of how much weight you could lose if you cooked meals at home.  Eating breakfast every morning can decrease the chances of excessive eating at lunch.  Adding a snack around 2:30 -3:00 can also decrease the likelihood of overeating at dinner.   These are simple tasks that will go a long way when trying to reach a weight loss or health goal.  Don’t drive yourself crazy counting calories; if you eat wholesome foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, Greek yogurts, and lean proteins you will lose weight. Try to set a goal to eliminate the amount of foods you eat from packages.   Here are some goals that might help. 

Set Goals:

1.       I will eat 2 servings of fruits and 6 -8 servings of vegetables a day. (TRACK IT)

2.       I will take my lunch to work every day.

3.       I will set a timer for every 2.5-3 hours to eat very small meals/snacks

4.       I will eliminate pops or bad beverages; mochas, Frappuccino’s etc. 

5.       I will eat a protein, fat and carbohydrate at each meal.

6.       I will eat breakfast each morning.

Big Goal:

1.       I will lose one pound per week by eating a nutritious diet that consists of proteins, carbs and fats at each meal.  I will resistance train two days per week and complete 30 minutes of cardiorespiratory exercises for the first two weeks.  After two weeks I will increase my duration or intensity by 10 percent. 

SMART goals

Specific

Measurable

Action oriented

Realistic

Time (deadline)

These are small goals that can be easily achieved.   Focus on one goal each week instead of trying to do everything at once.  Set SMART goals and mark your calendar!  You can do it!!  For one on one coaching contact me. 

Are You a Weekend Food Bender?

It’s the weekend!  The work week is over and it’s time to hang with friends.  What are you doing this weekend?  The local winery is having live music, drinks and fun.  There is birthday celebration.  Oh yeah, don’t forget girls night out!  But wait, you are trying to lose weight and don’t want to break that good streak you have going. Does this sound like you every Friday night?

All week you managed to eat healthy and avoid binge eating or drinking alcohol.  Then the weekend comes and you are consumed with guilt because you want to have good time but avoid destroying your goals.  What can you do? 

The number one thing to do that will help you stay on task with your goals is KEEP WRITING in your food journal!  Write down everything you eat and drink.  Include alcoholic beverages and if you can’t remember then there is a big problem.  Write down your daily goal each morning especially on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  If binge eating/drinking is your problem then I would focus on a goal according to this issue.  Also another question you might ask yourself; are my friends making me fat?  I don’t mean literally but if the activities you do together revolve around food and drinking you might need to make some changes. 

Drinking more than one alcoholic drink can increase your likelihood of consuming extra calories.   Your inhibitions are down and you become more social and less aware.  Wine is a little more health friendly for someone trying to lose weight.  You can make wine go a little further if you ask for it to be mixed with Seltzer water.  This turns your drink into a spritzer.  Mixed drinks are the enemy; they contain higher sugar contents.  Beer typically adds 150 calories to your day as well as the extra carbs.

If you are attending a party make a healthy appetizer.  Providing your own food will allow you to eat and avoid guilt.   In addition when I attend a party or dinner I try to consume a protein shake with some fruit.  This will help me feel much fuller and I won’t eat very much.  If you eat out, box up half of your food before eating.  Boxing up your food will help decrease the calories you eat.  Most dinners out are 2-3 servings so you can see there are a lot of extra calories. 

If it is girls night out find an activity to do.  How about a girls day out; indoor rock climbing, Sky Zone, duck pen bowling, mani/pedi anything that doesn’t involve food. 

Try to keep your normal sleep schedule.  A lot of times we sleep-in over the weekend and miss breakfast.  When I oversleep I always start my day with breakfast.  Plus consuming at least 32 ounces of water because by this time I’m dehydrated.  Try to avoid eating breakfast out because the extra calories will kill your goals.  Don’t kid yourself if you exercise really hard over the weekend and the run to your local breakfast diner.  I guarantee you will consume more calories then you ever burned off. 

There are many ways to avoid weekend benders but you need to take a good look at what you are doing. 

Success Comes With Time

I’ve worked with many people and all of them have the same goal.  Everyone wants to lose as much weight as they can in the quickest amount of time.  Whatever happened to slow and steady wins the race?  You know the story of the tortoise and the hare?

ACSM recommends one to two pounds of weight loss per week.  How can we obtain this type of weight loss?   Creating a caloric deficit and increasing our exercise is the best way to achieve weight loss.  What are the ASCM recommendations?  In order to lose one pound per week you must deduct 500 kcal from the diet a day.  If you wish to lose two pounds then deduct 1000 kcal per day.  This allows for 3500-7000 kcal deduction to reduce fat.  Here’s what happens to the people trying to rush their weight loss.  First they fall victim to someone that wants to sell them “shakes”.  If they drink a shake for breakfast, one for lunch and then eat dinner they will lose weight.  Right?  Yes, however this person learns nothing about eating healthy, good quality foods and as soon as they stop drinking shakes they return to their original weight.  Worse case they gain even more weight. 

Eating is by far the hardest part of losing weight.  Mainly because everything in life seems to revolve around food or drinks.  We celebrate with food and drinks.  Also we medicate with food and drinks.  The number one drug to relieve stress and depression is FOOD.  I get it!  I was depressed and I ate everything.  I was a binge eater.  When I felt down I would bake a pan of brownies and eat all of them.  How do we get our eating under control?  Keep a food journal. You don’t have to use a fancy app just write everything down you plan to eat before eating.  This will actually help with mindful eating.  You may be a little more reluctant to eat that bag of chips if you have to write it down before.  This will actually help you understand just what types of foods your body is craving.  Are you wanting a lot of sugar/carbs? 

Exercise to me is the easiest part of weight loss.  Although people have this misconception that exercise is what will make them lose weight.  It’s not!!  Your diet is where the biggest weight loss comes from.  The ACSM recommendation for ages 18-65 is to accumulate a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic (cardiorespiratory) exercise at least 5 days a week or 20 minutes of vigorous exercise 3 days per week.  Strength training should be a minimum of 2 days per week, 8-10 exercises hitting all major muscles and 8-12 repetitions.  Are you meeting these requirements?

When losing high amounts of weight, typically the first thing that begins to go is water and muscle mass.  It’s important to begin an exercise program that includes resistance training to minimize the muscle mass lost.  Lean muscle mass helps increase the body’s metabolism and helps with losing weight.  No worries to the women afraid they will look like men.  I resistance train a minimum of 4 days a week.  I left very heavy and I’ve managed to avoid growing an Adams apple or look like the hulk.  LOL

If you are struggling with your weight loss and would like one on one personal coaching let me know.   I would love to help you.  I have a current client I started working with in April; she has lost 22 pounds and 21 inches.  This is over a four month time frame so as you see slow and steady wins the race.  

You Are The Competition

It’s that time of year again, time to watch the “fittest” on the planet compete for the title of The Fittest Male/Female.   Although I don’t train in a CrossFit facility I still enjoy watching the games. I love to see the sick workouts they are required to do.  I cringe watching the competitors that still need to improve their Olympic lifts and I cheer for the underdogs.  Would I do it?  Maybe if I would have known about it four years ago but not now. 

I love competition but I especially love competing with myself.  I enjoy challenging myself mentally and physically.   I know sometimes when I’m really challenging myself I scream out, clap and jump up and down.  My workouts are not for everyone and that is okay.  To me it’s important to continue to challenge my bodies’ energy systems.  I work on my lactate threshold.  I work till I can’t go anymore.  However for my clients I work on their goals and within their scope of needs. I’m training them to be healthy outside of the gym. 

An example of training within their scope; a client this morning told me she gave me props on her Facebook.  She explained she moved 60 bags of mulch after she had moved 120 bags over the weekend.  Mind you she’s probably less than five feet tall, no bigger than a minute but she’s healthy and strong.   Her story is what I love to hear.  I want to know that everyone I train can complete tasks at home without the assistance of someone else.  

When you exercise or do anything for your health it is YOU against YOURSELF.  Don’t worry about others or competing with someone else.  It’s your workout!  Train smart, train hard and most importantly train for life.  If you want to train with me find me on Facebook or DragonDoor. 

Mental Illness

Today I learned a friend of my daughter lost her brother to suicide.  He was a kid, eighteen years old, suffering inside and unfortunately his story did end.  Anyone who knows me knows that I have dealt with depression and anxiety for as long as I can remember.  As a teen I struggled with mental illness but I really didn’t understand that was what was wrong with me until adulthood.  I didn’t understand because at that time mental illness wasn’t discussed as openly as it is today.  I struggled with who I was as a teen.  I abused my body with drugs, alcohol and even dabbled in a bit of bulimia at one time.  I was reckless.  Fortunately for me I survived my teen years and early adulthood.  I still continued reckless behavior but I was surviving. 

Fast forward to my adult life and my depression grew more intense.  Those feelings of hopelessness and helplessness came upon me swiftly.   The darkness covered me and all my thoughts consisted of please let me die.  I thought many times how I was going to end my life.  I lost so many of life’s moments during that time.  I look at old photographs and I can’t remember when they were taken.  My children have memories of events I can’t recall.  Three years of my life is like Swiss cheese, there are just holes where parts of my life is missing. 

When I heard the news today about this poor boy ending his story it brings back those bad times.  Another boy lost to depression, suicide and questions unanswered for a family.  Guilt, frustration, anger, hurt and shear heartbreak for another family.  There are so many kids struggling and hiding behind smiles.  There are even more screaming for help with their actions and words.  Our youth are turning to drugs, alcohol, cutting and suicide.   

I learned about ProjectSemicolon a couple of weeks ago.  If you aren’t familiar with this project please visit their site.  It’s time to raise public awareness regarding addiction, depression, self-hurt and suicide.  Please take the time to talk to someone if you believe they are struggling.  Listen to a person if they begin asking questions about death.  If you see the signs of self-injury don’t stay quiet.   If you feel helpless tell someone.  These struggles are difficult but they can be managed and you are not alone!!!  Does depression and anxiety go away?  I deal with things day by day.  Are there bad days?  Yes! Are there good days?  A lot more once I learned what was happening to me and ways to manage it.  Life is worth living! Your story isn’t over!  

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