Weight Management 101: Set Yourself Up To Succeed!
You can find the past installments of “Weight Management 101″ here:
How do YOU measure success?
Do you measure at all?
Today we will discover strategies that help “Set Yourself Up To Succeed!”
It’s not enough to eat supportive foods and exercise for only a few weeks or even a couple months. You must incorporate these behaviors into your life to achieve lasting results. Lifestyle changes start with taking an honest look at your eating habits and daily routine.
When you combine the Five Factors of Fat Loss, you take total control of that word we talked about earlier… metabolism. And it is your metabolism that defines the composition of your body. As you begin to change the way you eat and move, your appetite will change, your energy levels will change and then you will find, in a very short time, that if you go more than three hours without eating or skip your regularly scheduled workout, you will be affected!
You’ve made it clear that you’re not happy living in the body that you are in. It’s time to take responsibility for creating the body you desire. You have to start creating new habits.
This may be quite a change for some, and change is not always easy. Our promise to you is that if you apply the Five Factors of Fat Loss and make the commitment for just one week, and really stick with it, you will find it very difficult to go back to your old way of living.
Success and failure are simply habits, and the good news is that good habits are just as difficult to break as bad ones. Motivation gets us started on the road to success and good habits are the fuel that keeps us making progress. Just as bad habits can lead to a downward spiral, good habits escalate and lead to an upward spiral.
Welcome the challenges that face you. With effort and patience you have the full potential to create a positive change with your physique and your quality of life. There are only three conditions necessary for the acquisition of any new habit or skill. The COURAGE to try something you do not know how to do, the PATIENCE to try again once you have discovered that you don’t know how to do it and the PERSEVERANCE to keep trying, as many times as necessary, until you do know how to do it.
The first thing most people inevitably notice when they apply the Five Factors of Fat Loss is a dramatic change in their energy level. You will wake up in the morning and be surprised that you actually have energy!
As you put quality fuel into your body – regularly – and when you optimize the way your body functions through a combination of smart cardio and resistance training, you will start to appreciate what energy REALLY is!
When you change your habits and apply a formula that guarantees results, you will begin to feel a change in your energy levels as quickly as three to four days. So, within a couple of weeks, typically, you will probably start noticing your clothing fits differently – perhaps a little looser. That doesn’t mean you should jump on the scale if weight loss is a goal. You will soon discover why the scale is EVIL. It can’t tell the difference between water weight, adipose (stored body fat) weight, and muscle weight. So, when your clothes start to feel looser, realize that something good is happening. Fat is leaving your body.
As you change your habits and consistently apply the Five Factors of Fat Loss, others will notice a change before you ever do. Someone who hasn’t seen you in a couple weeks may suddenly say “Wow! You look great?” You can count on the next question they’ll ask to be something like, “Are you on a diet?” And you can quickly reply “No! I’m just eating more and exercising less.” You will leave them feeling stunned! But eventually they’ll ask you how you did it – and they may end up applying the same factors themselves!
Before you begin this life-changing journey, you must accept and live by the basic understanding that this course is built around the premise of “progress, not perfection.” By developing awareness that improvement is measured by your daily progress, you can save yourself a lot of grief and frustration from the get go. Simply focusing on small, positive steps in everything you do is a vital component to a permanent physical change. With time, commitment and a willingness to continue to take those small steps, failure is not an option.
The following steps will ensure that you receive the maximum benefit from your experiences. They will play an essential role in helping you achieve your goals of ultimate leanness and energy. Improvement will become apparent in a matter of weeks.
I will…
- Decide on what I want to achieve – Have a clear vision of the end result. Close your eyes and visualize your ideal body. Picture exactly how you look, size and shape you are and how you feel.
- Know and feel my REASON for wanting to achieve these particular results – Continue to ask yourself “why” until you elicit an emotional response.
- Believe I am capable and deserving of reaching this goal – If others can do it, why can’t you?
- Make this a priority in my life, every day – “We do not set out to fail, we simply fail to plan” – Schedule workouts, schedule your meals, keep kitchen stocked…
- Start taking actions that bring results – each day strive to do something a little better than the day before. “I am making progress if I am better today than I was yesterday” ~Dr. Wayne Dyer.
- Be grateful – understand that the quickest way to achieve my goals is to be happy NOW. When you look to the future for your happiness, you can guarantee you’ll never be happy. Focus on the present. Life shouldn’t be something to be endured until the future arrives. Your present should be thrilling, exhilarating and inspiring.
- Be forgiving - I will not beat myself up when I haven’t done everything perfectly. If I slip, I will quickly return to my plan. I won’t feel guilty, but will remain enthusiastic about the process and with myself.
You can begin, right now, by taking a different, more positive course of action. Take a chance, have faith and proceed with confidence. You are about to become yet another success story; joining hundreds who have successfully learned how to eat, how to move and how to believe in themselves once again. They are experiencing the joy of living life to the fullest. So will you.
Body Composition
The shape of your body is determined by three things: muscle, bone and fat. While there’s really nothing you can do about changing your bone structure, there is a whole lot you can do about muscle and fat. This ratio of muscle to fat is commonly known as your body composition.
Why is it important to understand the difference between fat loss and weight loss?
Calories are burned in muscle tissue. One pound of lean muscle burns approximately 50 calories a day.
By simply restricting calories to shrink the number on the scale, a minimum of 25% of weight loss (more than two pounds per week on average) will be lost from lean tissue.
As a result, your metabolism will be suppressed by 50%.
Rapid weight loss from under-eating causes muscle tissue to be used for energy, which cripples your body’s ability to burn fat for energy. In the future this will cause you to put the weight back on and most likely gain more than you ever had before.
Providing your body with a regular exercise program and the food and nutrients it needs will sufficiently fuel working muscles, initiate fat loss and develop an accelerated, fat burning metabolism.
How to lose body fat instead of muscle tissue:
- Make positive changes in your daily eating habits
- Adhere to a supportive nutrition plan
- Commit to at least 3 days of resistance training and cardio.
- Eat about one to two hours prior to exercising to fuel muscles and prevent muscle loss
- Eat within 30-45 minutes after exercise to replenish nutrients in muscle tissue and expedite recovery
- Take a multivitamin that is specifically designed for you to prevent muscle tissue loss. This in turn boosts your metabolism. Think of your multi as “calorie-free” insurance for your muscles.
How do you measure Progress?
Weight, body composition and circumference measurements are only a few of the many tools used to gather evidence of your progress. They should not, however, be thought of as the only way to measure success. There are several methods for measuring your progress. Our approach uses simple strategies to help keep you focused but at the same time – avoiding frustration.
CLOTHING: Find evidence by taking a trip to your very own closet. Take out a pair of pants that fit snugly before you began your new, healthy habits. Are you able to ease into them, when before you had to sit (or lie) down and yank them up your legs? This is a sure sign of progress toward a leaner you! Jeans are actually the best form of measurement because they are the least forgiving. They just won’t stretch to fit in those bulging areas. They will be your benchmark for you well you are progressing through this course. Try them on every 3-4 weeks. Unlike the scale, jeans do NOT lie. They can’t. They are ALWAYS the same size.
BODY MEASURES: Other numerical signs of progress. Watch the measurements of your waist, arms, neck and hips change. If you are not losing pounds, are losing inches all over your body as your figure slims down and tones up. Other numerical indicators include a reduction of blood pressure or cholesterol, BMI, and body fat percentage.
ENERGY LEVELS: Monitor how a eating supportively and regular exercise affects your energy levels. Not only will you be able to work out for longer intervals of time, but daily movements and chores will also become easier. Whether cutting the grass or simply walking up the stairs, these behaviors will come effortlessly. Think of all the daily activities you could use more energy for—grocery shopping, house cleaning, playing with your kids, and more. Pretty soon you’ll be training for your first 5K!
EMOTIONALLY: Lastly, be conscious of how you feel emotionally. You work hard to reach your goals. Hopefully, the hard work will come with a boost in self-esteem, confidence, and happiness. Are you beginning to feel more comfortable in your own body? What do you hear others saying to you? What are you saying to yourself?
Are you gaining a clearer picture of what is necessary to reach your goals?
It is Easy? No
It is Simple? The answer is that it is as simple as you make it. New habits are not established overnight, but you may be surprised at how quickly things will change – once YOU decide to change.
Tags: fat loss, Weight Loss, weight management
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Nov 24, 2008
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