The misunderstood psychology of weight loss — how to lose 30 pounds PART 3

Why?

Before you do anything, you need to figure out why you want to lose weight (or put on muscle). You need a compelling “why”. This is the psychological part of weight loss you’ll never hear about in an infomercial, but it’s the driving force behind the stunning physical transformations you see on shows like The Biggest Loser. Without your “why”, you’ll yo-yo diet and put all of the weight back on within a few months. Guaranteed.

Your “why” is something that should make you cry if you can’t have it some time in the future. It should be EMOTIONAL. It should be something you feel. It needs to be bigger than “Look good at the beach”. The thought of not having it should steer you away from temptation (because you will slip up, many, many times) and shock you into action when you feel lazy.

It should also be measurable and time bound. So what’s a good “why”? Here are a few you might want to use:

·         Get back to my college weight of [weight] so I can FEEL strong, confident and fit again by December 31st 2016

·         Be a ROLE MODEL for my kids and make them PROUD of me by losing 45 pounds in 2016 and keeping it off for life

·         Lose 45 pounds by December 31st 2016, so I can TEACH others how to do what I’ve done

·         ENJOY watching my kids grow up and have enough ENERGY to chase them around the house by losing 45 pounds in 2016

·         Get in shape by losing 45 pounds to FINISH the 2016 New York marathon

·         COMPETE in an all-natural body building contest in 2017 with body fat of < 7%

Before I got started losing weight back in 2008, I found a photo of me from 4 years earlier. I was about 30 pounds lighter and was in good shape. So my “why” revolved around that photo — “Lose 30 pounds and then gain 20 pounds of muscle by the end of 2010 so I look BETTER, have EVEN MORE ENERGY and FEEL AS GOOD as I did in that photo”. I kept that photo in my wallet and looked at it every day for motivation. And it worked. Really well.

https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-misunderstood-psychology-of-weight-loss-how-to-lose-30-pounds-in-2016-c26fbd8e16f3

When to Change Your Workout?

Practice Consistency As A Skill

Of all the areas you can focus on in your training, the single one that yields the biggest results is consistency. Whatever your training goals, consistency is important across the board in achieving them. This article focuses specifically on the most common goals of building muscle and burning fat, but the principle applies to all aspects of training. 

To train consistently, you will have to train when you don’t want to, when you’re injured, and when you’re tired. But working around these obstacles with a balanced approach will keep you motivated and moving forward. Too often we all put the brakes on training due to injury or tiredness. Yes, you must take time to rest, and should follow proper injury rehab protocol, but don’t use it as an excuse to opt out of training altogether. Ask yourself, is that voice in your head protecting you, or are you just making excuses?

We are the “Intsa” generation. We want everything now. Our movies, music, news, and even our fitness goals. We’re told to do weights and cardio at the same time, that HIIT workouts will solve everything, and CrossFit is the way. Take the blue pill and you’ll lose 10 pounds! Eat no carbs, eat loads of protein, eat fat, don’t eat fat. 

So much of the advice we get is extreme and only sustainable in the short term, but true gains in fitness take time and consistency. Whether it’s muscle gain, fat loss, or learning a new skill, be prepared to put the work. It will be rewarding, and if you can learn to enjoy the process, there is a much better chance of achieving your goals and maintaining at that level for longer. 

What Does Consistency Do for You?

When you train consistently, you give your body a more gradual curve to adapt to the stress of training, easing its way to higher levels of fitness. The longer period of time you develop a base of fitness, the less effect an interruption of training has. There is a common trend of doing something different all the time, going for the latest training method or exercise. But this hinders building the vital consistent base. Too much variety and variability can result in a reverse of adaptations, rather than greater gains. 

Consistency occurs in the small areas. Focus on the day by day, session by session, and meal by meal. It’s a skill that needs to be worked on and applied daily. Working on it on a daily basis also makes it easier to manage when you mess up. Make a bad food choice? Make a good one the next meal, and you’re back on track. Bad training session? No problem, you have another session tomorrow to do better.

The more infrequently you train, the greater the importance is placed on each session. Your inconsistency leads to too much stress, as you try to make up for the missed sessions by doing extra hard training. These hard sessions will not make up for the missed training, and could potentially lead to overstressing the body, resulting in a decrease in performance, injury, illness, and further missed sessions. 

By contrast, when you train consistently, you don’t need to go all out each session. There is more room and flexibility for variation in intensity. There is even room for outright bad sessions. You have more opportunity to try different set and rep schemes, and different exercises. Your sessions can be shorter, which is less stressful and gives you more time outside the gym to live life. Consistency enables increases in skill and technical proficiency, as you spend more time working on these areas.

Obstacles to Consistency, and Some Solutions

Your kids’ birthdays, work, holidays, and the rest of life will always try to throw you off track. You need to accept that there will always be something that life throws up that will get in the way of your training. Don’t use these as excuses. Have backup workouts to go to if your energy is low or you’re short on time. Go shorter, or just do bodyweight, or a little skill work, but don’t skip the workout. Consistent short, targeted, and intense workouts are far better than irregular 1-2 hour workouts. 

Do your best to get ahead of the curve by planning ahead. Have some pre-made meals in the freezer. Always have a few key ingredients in your cupboard, so you can rustle up a quick meal, and have a few go-to meals you can make with your eyes closed. Cook for two nights instead of one. It’s the same prep, cooking and cleaning time. 

Keep spare workout gear in your place of work or in your car so you don’t get to the gym and realize you forgot it. Get up earlier and train in the morning before your day starts, and you won’t be frazzled from a full day in the office. If you leave the session till the end of the day, all your willpower will have been used up and you won’t train. 

Allow yourself to be human in your training. The perfection mindset breeds failure. When real life happens and things aren’t so perfect, people who think this way throw in the towel fast. Don’t strive for perfection all the time. Stop waiting for the perfect time to train, to start a new program. Focus on the now, start now. You can change in the now. You haven’t got control over achieving perfection, but you do have control of what you do now.

Get out of the mindset that if you don’t have access to a gym, you can’t train. The world is your gym. Do a set of push ups at work. Get a pull up bar at home. You don’t need to be in gym gear and in the gym to train. Train at home first thing in the morning. You can get a lot done in a few minutes. 

Add new movements and challenges to keep things fun. Variety also prevents injury from over-trained muscles. You still need to build that solid base, but once that is in place you can add in some variety. For example, choose handstand push ups instead of military presses. Both are vertical pressing exercises, but handstand push ups are way more fun! 

Consistency creates momentum, and vice versa. Pick a number of training sessions per training block to help build momentum. It’s much easier to build on 10 sessions than 2 sessions. By just adding one more you’ve hit 11 sessions. Keep building! 

Nobody Said It Would Be Easy

Consistency results in adaptability, which you can fall back on physically and mentally during challenging periods or as a result of interruption. If there is no consistency in your training, there will be little or no foundation for an adaptive response. To produce a given training goal or objective, training needs to be consistent and regular. Not being consistent in your training will lead to losses, not gains. 

Life is going to get in the way. Some days, you’re going to be tired, the session will seem too hard, and you’re not going to want to train. Accept these obstacles as a fact of life and training, but don’t use them as an excuse. Consistency matched with quality workouts, good recovery, and a balanced diet equals results.

https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/practice-consistency-as-a-skill

Benefits of exercise

Step right up! It's the miracle cure we've all been waiting for.

It can reduce your risk of major illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and cancer by up to 50% and lower your risk of early death by up to 30%.

It’s free, easy to take, has an immediate effect and you don’t need a GP to get some. It's name? Exercise.

Click on the links below to find out if you're doing enough for your age:

• early childhood (under five years old)
• young people (five to 18 years old)
• adults (19 to 64 years old)
• older adults (65 and over)

Exercise is the miracle cure we’ve always had, but for too long we’ve neglected to take our recommended dose. Our health is now suffering as a consequence.

This is no snake oil. Whatever your age, there's strong scientific evidence that being physically active can help you lead a healthier and even happier life.

People who do regular activity have a lower risk of many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and some cancers.

Research shows that physical activity can also boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy, as well as reducing your risk of stress, depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

“If exercise were a pill, it would be one of the most cost-effective drugs ever invented,” says Dr Nick Cavill, a health promotion consultant.

Health benefits

Given the overwhelming evidence, it seems obvious that we should all be physically active. It's essential if you want to live a healthy and fulfilling life into old age.

It's medically proven that people who do regular physical activity have:

• up to a 35% lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke
• up to a 50% lower risk of type 2 diabetes
• up to a 50% lower risk of colon cancer
• up to a 20% lower risk of breast cancer
• a 30% lower risk of early death
• up to an 83% lower risk of osteoarthritis
• up to a 68% lower risk of hip fracture
• a 30% lower risk of falls (among older adults)
• up to a 30% lower risk of depression
• up to a 30% lower risk of dementia

What counts?

To stay healthy, adults should try to be active daily and aim to achieve at least 150 minutes of physical activity over a week through a variety of activities.

For most people, the easiest way to get moving is to make activity part of everyday life, like walking or cycling instead of using the car to get around. However, the more you do, the better, and taking part in activities such as sports and exercise will make you even healthier.

For any type of activity to benefit your health, you need to be moving quick enough to raise your heart rate, breathe faster and feel warmer. This level of effort is called moderate intensity activity. One way to tell if you're working at a moderate intensity is if you can still talk but you can't sing the words to a song.

If your activity requires you to work even harder, it is called vigorous intensity activity. There is substantial evidence that vigorous activity can bring health benefits over and above that of moderate activity. You can tell when it’s vigorous activity because you're breathing hard and fast, and your heart rate has gone up quite a bit. If you're working at this level, you won't be able to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.

A modern problem

People are less active nowadays, partly because technology has made our lives easier. We drive cars or take public transport. Machines wash our clothes. We entertain ourselves in front of a TV or computer screen. Fewer people are doing manual work, and most of us have jobs that involve little physical effort. Work, house chores, shopping and other necessary activities are far less demanding than for previous generations.

We move around less and burn off less energy than people used to. Research suggests that many adults spend more than seven hours a day sitting down, at work, on transport or in their leisure time. People aged over 65 spend 10 hours or more each day sitting or lying down, making them the most sedentary age group. 

Sedentary lifestyles

Inactivity is described by the Department of Health as a “silent killer”. Evidence is emerging that sedentary behaviour, such as sitting or lying down for long periods, is bad for your health.

Not only should you try to raise your activity levels, but you should also reduce the amount of time you and your family spend sitting down.

Common examples of sedentary behaviour include watching TV, using a computer, using the car for short journeys and sitting down to read, talk or listen to music – and such behaviour is thought to increase your risk of many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, as well as weight gain and obesity. 

“Previous generations were active more naturally through work and manual labour, but today we have to find ways of integrating activity into our daily lives,” says Dr Cavill.

Whether it's limiting the time babies spend strapped in their buggies, or encouraging adults to stand up and move frequently, people of all ages need to reduce their sedentary behaviour.

“This means that each of us needs to think about increasing the types of activities that suit our lifestyle and can easily be included in our day,” says Dr Cavill.

Crucially, you can hit your weekly activity target but still be at risk of ill health if you spend the rest of the time sitting or lying down. For tips on building physical activity and exercise into your day, whatever your age, read Get active your way.

For a summary on the health benefits of being more active, check out this Department of Health infographic (PDF,500kb).

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/whybeactive.aspx

Morning Rituals of Tony Robbins, Oprah, Steve Jobs, Lady Gaga and the Most Successful People