HACK YOURSELF | PART 1

Every day of every week people approach me and ask for advice on a variety of subjects:

• How do I get my son or daughter (or husband or wife) to start working out?
• I am not seeing results from my workouts: what should I do?
• I workout all the time but my body never changes: what am I doing wrong?
• I have knee pain (or back pain, shoulder pain, etc.) when I cycle or run or take a dance class: any ideas about what I should do?
• What should I eat? I work out every day but I’m gaining weight:  am I doing something wrong?

I see the sadness, the frustration, the confusion.  So I thought I’d share some advice that may help YOUR situation right now.   Here are 2 quick ways to take back control and get yourself back on track.  I am also going to include some action steps for each item so you can do SOMETHING today to get started.

YOU FIRST

You may think it’s selfish to put yourself first, but it’s not… it’s essential.   Many of us continue to put work, kids, spouses, and even the family dog (or cat), first.  The excuse of “I DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME” is really saying “I’m not very high on my list of life priorities”.  And often people wait too long to make a change in that department.  They wait until they’ve got a medical condition (high blood pressure, heart disease, or worse, illness) or they’ve gained a lot of weight, or they’ve just let their health get so run down that they feel miserable due to a lack of cardiovascular fitness, basic strength and endurance.

I’ve heard every excuse.  But guess what?  If you don’t take care of yourself first, you may not be able to work, you may not be there for your child when they grow up and you just can’t do your best in anything you want to do.  Our friend Dee refers to this as the “Put your oxygen mask on first before assisting others” approach to well-being.

3-Action Items-

• Take responsibility. Stop blaming every one and everything else for where you’re at and know that ultimately you are responsible.  This is empowering, because although you may not like where you are at, know that if YOU put yourself there, YOU can get yourself out!  This is the essential first step.
• Create a new vision of YOU. If you don’t like how you look or feel, decide now how you want to look and feel.  Visualization is a powerful tool many high performing artists and athletes use to get themselves to the next level, so why not you?  Find pictures.  Envision your life “as if” you’ve already achieved it.  How you’ll feel.  What you’ll do.  Get your emotions into it and you’ll find your brain will start to think you are already there and change will happen.
• Put first things first. Schedule time for yourself to move everyday for 30 minutes, prepare healthier meals, take walks, get up from your desk every hour, eat less, meditate, read books on your goal, expand your mind, but do these FIRST before everything else.  Create a daily “NO MATTER WHAT” list and put it in your schedule:  NO MATTER WHAT, I will go to the gym (even if it’s only for 30 minutes).  NO MATTER WHAT, I will give up junk for lunch and bring my own food.

TACKLE YOUR NUTRITION:  IT’S 80% OF THE FORMULA

Most of our frustrations with our workouts don’t really stem from our workout.  I am starting to believe more and more that working out less will help people achieve more.  I see so many people who come into the gym for HOURS, yet never change the way they look or feel (I’m assuming here that these are their goals…).  I understand the importance of being active and social, and if you enjoy this time and it adds quality to your life, keep doing it.  I will never tell people to be less active… however, if you’re complaining about how you look, or the repetitive nature of your workouts cause “wear and tear” issues or tightness, then I do think you should re-think your focus.  Here’s a big secret most health club owners would never want to share:  looking and feeling great is 80% attributable to nutrition and lifestyle, not working out.  But while I think we all know that in our hearts, we still think we can win the battle of poor eating by working out more.  But the truth is, for most of us, we can’t.  You just can’t out-exercise a bad diet.  There aren’t enough hours in the day.  So here are my personal tips:

• Focus on the quantity of your calories. Avoid any advice that tells you if you eat this, you can eat as much as you’d like.  Always watch your total calories.  Did you know just writing down your food and counting your calories is usually enough to get you to lose weight?  Sorry, but you’re going to have to learn to be a little hungry.  Eat less.    Sounds simple.  But it works and works wonders.
• Focus on the quality of your calories. Yes, what you eat is just as important as how much you eat.  You have to focus on both!  A simple way to improve the quality of your calories is to avoid processed foods, anything that comes in a box or is handed to you through a window.   I know, it’s hard to eat a salad while you’re driving– too bad!
• Avoid sugar. People often say avoid fat.  But I would encourage you to focus more on sugar, it’s in
  e v e r y t h i n g.
  Sugar is the new nicotine.   It’s addictive, it converts to fat, it messes with your hormones, it make you eat more calories and keeps you on the “sugar roller coaster” (you eat sugar, have high energy for a short amount of time, then you feel the drop, and fight the need for more sugar).  My advice?  Go as long as you can into the day without eating anything that is a carbohydrate.  No bread, no sugar, no fruit…

…Stay tuned for next week’s HACK YOURSELF (Part 2)

Phil Dozois, Owner, Breakthru Fitness

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