My Strong Medicine

“Dress for success”

This rule does not apply when we are referring to the gymnasium, the gym, fitness center,etc. (what ever term you used to describe where you exercise)

Did you ever notice those who ARE dressed for success. Meaning the ones in the expensive clothing, or maybe the person who smells the best with their favorite cologne/perfume. How about those individuals that “over-match”. Oh c’mon you know the type. The clothes they wear matches the shoes they have on, which matches the wristbands or headband, which of course matches their gym bag and all it’s accessories.

All of the above aforementioned aren’t looking for success, at least not success in the fitness arena. In my humble opinion these individuals suffer from the ‘Look-at-me-syndrome’. Yep, look at me. Look how great I look. Did you notice how good I smell. Do you like my new shoes?

The person who is dressed for success when they’re gearing up to exercise is that person with the old shirt and shorts on. The person with worn in shoes, or a cut-off T-shirt. They have a tattered bag that looks like it went through trash compactor and survived the trip. And they surely don’t smell like roses.

They don’t come to socialize. They don’t come to flirt. They don’t come to admire anyone or anything else. Their main goal, their main drive and focus is simply the task at hand. ‘I got work to do’.

And these are the people who get and see results.

Here is a video clip that is actually an advertisement for a product. But the video itself encapsulates exactly what I’m talking about. I must mention I first saw this video while reading Israel’s blog Fat Man Unleashed. So I cannot take credit for this great video. (Thanks Israel)

The next time your working out, take a gander around you and see who is there to work, and see who is their to watch others work.

Which one are you?

Carpe Diem

What if it only took one extra piece of effort to make that change you’ve been waiting for? What about just one degree? 

Happiness is a state of mind, not a situational result. We are not happy because of what may happen to us, or what may not happen to us. We are happy because we CHOOSE to be happy. We are unhappy because that is how we choose to react to what happens to us.

Yes, of course there is sadness, and heartache, failure, losing, etc. But all of these events are simply that. They are events in our lives. An event that impacts us in some way.It’s your choice on how it will impact you. It’s your choice on how long it will impact you.

Every event in your life is a learning event. And every learning event is a positive impact on one’s life. Therefore every event has the potential to be a positive.

Think about it.

Why do we hang on to a happy moment, or relive the good ole’ days as much as we can? Because it impacted us in a good way, a positive way….. That made us happy.

Why do we try to ignore an unhappy or upsetting moment, or try our best to delete it from our memory and forget it? Because it impacted us in a bad way, a negative way….. That made us unhappy.

When you get in a car accident…You total your car. You walk away unscratched.

Are you happy or unhappy?

You wake up in the morning sore, tired, achy and down right cranky…

How long will you be in this state of mind, in this mood?

Are you happy or unhappy?

The list goes on.

Is this choice easy? Of course not. If it were easy than everyone would already be doing it!

It boils down to one simple human reaction, your attitude.

Your attitude is a choice.

Your happiness is a choice.

A choice

Carpe Diem

I thought I’d touch on one of the pearls of wisdom from my last post.

WE ARE A CONVENIENCE SOCIETY.

Have you ever spent an extended period of time searching for the remote control to change the channel on the TV, or to simply turn on the TV?

Have you ever spent a longer amount of time in the parking lot of a store looking for that ‘close’ spot?

Did you ever wait for the elevator to take you to the 3rd floor? Or even the 2nd floor?

Do you stand still on the escalator? Or stand still on the motorized walk-way at an airport terminal?

Do you mow your lawn with a riding mower? With a power train rear wheel assembly?

When was the last time you walked instead of driving?

Now I do understand that some of these situations are unreasonable. If you have a lot of acres of land, then yes by all means use that tractor! If driving to work takes you over an hour to get there.. then you’re obviously not going to walk to work!

The point being, we as a society seem to find the easiest way of doing things. We will automate just about anything. We will shorten the time it takes to accomplish something if that means less work, or less manual labor, or less physical effort.

Yep, we are an obese society. Are you surprised? How can we be surprised when our youth’s main concerns these days are their MySpace page, or what their score was on Guitar Hero.

I can remember when I was young,  leaving my house early in the morning.. and not returning until sunset only because I had a curfew! I was moving non-stop. I hated sitting in the house, and I absolutely hated being bored.

What happened?

Instead of scheduling pee-wee football games, or little league baseball tournaments our youth is stuck in the ‘couch potato’ vacuum.

Too tired you say? Well I guarantee if you start making ‘more movement’ a habit, you’ll actually have more energy and sleep better at night!

Think about it the next time your out. What could you do to burn just a few more calories today? What could you do to expend a little more energy? 

Carpe Diem

So what’s all the craziness about dieting? Do you diet? Do you know someone who is on a diet? Someone who was on a diet?

I’ll bet you do. I’m willing to bet everyone knows at least one if not more than a handful of people who have or had been dieting.

You would think with all the hype about diets and dieting that we would NOT have an obese nation? But it’s exactly the opposite. An astounding greater than 60% of the male and female population of America are obese.

So why the conundrum? We have so many options and so many opportunities for weight loss out there.. yet we seem to remain overweight.

I did a quick Google search yesterday when I was thinking about this post.  I less than 2 minutes I was able to find 11 or more different diet plans. And that was without digging deeper.

Everything from Nurtisystem, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, to the lesser known Mediterranean & Water Diet programs. As I was looking into diets… I also noticed the plethora of spokespersons for each diet program. Everyone from Beyonce, Queen Latifah, to Valerie Bertinelli.

So where is one to turn? Which program do you choose? Which program is successful?

So the answer is all of the work and all of them don’t work.

Yep, they all work for someone. Yep, they all didn’t work for someone. 

The problem is no two people are made the same. Your metabolism, your eating habits, your basal metabolic rate are not the same as the spokespersons’, or the same as your best friends, or that great looking model you saw on the internet.

But that’s only part of the equation.

The bottom line. Diets don’t work.

If you want to lose weight, simply buying different food, and following someone’s reccomendations on what to eat, when to eat it, and how much to eat of it then by all means give it a go. But all your going to do is find out the same thing everyone else has and still has to continually discover on your own. Diets, while will initially give you some results, you will bounce back to your pre-diet weight in no time. Ergo the emergence of the “Yo-Yo Diet” Phenomena. 

Anyone that has a success story will give you a clue as to what works. It’s called a lifestyle change. In order to change your weight, you are going to have to change the habit’s that created the weight in the first place. I’ll say that again just for posterity. You have to change the HABIT that created the weight in the first place in order to remove the weight you desire.

Here’s the irony of it all. The etymology of the word diet is crudely defined as ‘a manner of living’, or ‘to lead one’s life’. So even the origin of the word knew that you have to change your life, and not just tweaking what, when, and how much food goes into your mouth.

So simply enrolling into a new and improved eating plan will not give the long term weight loss results you want if you don’t change the lifestyle surrounding the food preparation!

My personal vice was always snacking. Boy did I love to snack. Snack while I’m in front of the TV. Snack while I’m working on the computer, etc. And I wouldn’t just have a small snack. NO. I had to eat a whole bag of greasy chips, or cookies. Or I would have a whole pint of ice cream. The list goes on.

It took a lot of discipline, and a lot of self discovery, but I now only snack on little things. In fact, my snacking has become almost non-existent.

With that being said, there is the other part of why dieting does not work.

You are human. You will slip up. You will have a moment of weakness. Heck you may have several moments of weakness. The idea being you keep at it, no matter how many times you break the rules. When you on a diet, everyone talks about ‘cheating’ on there diet. Quit worrying about cheating on your diet, and be human. Give yourself that leniency, in the long run it will be worth it.

Of course there are tons of aspects of dieting I have not even touched on. Everything from dieting with a friend, or making your diet public. To the time and money you spend on simply adjusting your spending habits.

The take home message is this. Dieting ALONE does not, will not and cannot work. If anything, it’s a temporary fix. Make LIFESTYLE changes to take better care of yourself and you’ll see results that are long term.

Here are some truths and pearls of wisdom when referring to dieting, weight loss or fat reduction:

1. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SPOT REDUCTION- you will not and cannot lose weight just in a particular area of your body!
2. MULTIPLY THE TIME IT TOOK FOR YOU TO GAIN THE WEIGHT BY 3 OR 4, AND THAT IS HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE TO LOSE IT - sorry it’s true, anything else is just a temporary loss and you will gain it back
3. THEY DON’T CALL THEM FAD DIETS FOR NOTHING
4. YO-YO DIETS ARE MORE POPULAR THAN EVER BEFORE
5. WEIGHT LOSS IS A SIMPLE MATH EQUATION: GET RID OF AND BURN OFF MORE THAN YOU TAKE IN
6. YOU WILL NOT LOSE WEIGHT IF YOU CAN’T ACCOMPLISH #5, NO MATTER HOW MANY PILLS YOU TAKE
7. WE ARE A CONVENIENCE SOCIETY - we love to be lazy. When was the last time you purposefully parked farther away when shopping?
8. DISCIPLINE AND PATIENCE ARE EQUAL PARTNERS IN THIS GAME OF LOSING WEIGHT
9. THINK ABOUT THE FOOD YOU ARE PUTTING INTO YOUR SYSTEM - are you living to eat, or eating to live?
10. NO MATTER WHAT RESULTS YOU GET DO NOT POINT FINGERS - the only person responsible for your weight is you.

Carpe Diem

A new study suggests that social networks are helping and hindering society’s behavior.

How do you and those you know compare to these results? Do you belong to a social network? And if so… how much does it influence your everyday life decisions?

Food for thought.

Carpe Diem

Social networks more powerful than thought? - Washington Post- msnbc.com