Starting about 4 years ago I took up the fitness lifestyle. Since then I have been trying to gain muscle and lose fat. This is a constant effort to eat right and exercise regularly. One thing I have noticed over these last few years is that many people compliment me on my diligence and work ethic. After the compliment comes the excuse of why they cannot get into shape. These people do not realize that they are limiting themselves. They have many excuses: I have a family, I don’t have time, I have an injury, I cannot afford a gym membership, bla bla bla. They are just avoiding responsibility for the decision that getting into shape is not important. My question to everyone is: what if you were told you would die soon if you do not start eating right and exercising, wouldn’t you find a way to start eating right and working out? I bet you would. Plus, don’t you owe it to your family to educate them on how to care for their bodies and eat right? You are only given one body, and the little bit of work you put in now will keep you from having to put in a lot of work and money later. For example: if you require open heart surgery. With insurance costs rising, do you really want to pay for surgery or medicine that could have been avoided if you took care of your body? Plus, by optimizing your body you will be optimizing other aspects of your life.
Now that I am finished ranting, the first step to get into shape and lose weight is to decide that you are going to do it. You have to put your mind to it and believe that you can reach your goal (see my previous post beginning with the Ayn Rand post). If you cannot believe it (limiting train of thought) then it will not happen. The next step is to get to work (yes losing weight takes work but it is worth it). Now, if you find that you are not sure where to start, then getting to work includes some learning (you have control of the level of fitness you want to reach). There are so many sources of information to teach you how to get into shape: fitness coach, personal trainer, books, magazines, websites, etc. You have to learn to grow in any aspect of your life. Once you have gained enough knowledge it is time to get to the gym (by the way you do not need a gym to get into shape, I will blog about this later).
Just a note: The same principles used here (believing you can reach your goal, setting your goal, learning so you can achieve your goal) are all steps that you can use to reach any goals in your life (career, financial, family, spiritual, etc)
Here are some learning resources for weight loss and dieting. First the Body for Life program and the ( Body for Life for Women ; this is where I started with getting in shape and the book is a wealth of information (here is the main website). Just a note: you will notice that there are pictures in the book of people making mind boggling changes in their physiques and the skeptics will say that is fake. It is not, I agree that not everyone can reach that level of fitness using the Body for Life program but you can do it through another program. The people that reach the extreme levels of fitness work hard, learn about their bodies, and do not sit and criticize others when it is just you being lazy. Final note: no, you do not have to buy the supplements if you do not want to. The program still works regardless. If you want to substitute for the supplements let me know and I will post a substitution program.
The second resource is the (Eating for Life book. It is the cookbook for the Body for Life program.
Third is ( The Eating Clean Diet and Eating Clean Diet Cookbook .
If you have any fitness questions or comments please post them and I will answer them.