Why Can’t We Lose Weight? Part 4

Hey everybody, Darrin your starting over coach back again!

Question:  Knowing there are so many fitness and weight loss programs to choose from, how are you going to know which one is best to help you reach your goals?

Everybody responds differently to the mental aspect of fitness and weight loss. Some people focus on the physical aspect, while others try healthier eating habits.  Many consider fitness to be anything ranging from walking around the mall, to jogging outside, to 5lb weights used with a workout tape, to a Bow Flex.  Healthier eating habits, to some, can range from going vegan to not supersizing that fast food meal. 

We approach fitness and weight loss with a broad brush, but we can’t pinpoint what works.  Then we get frustrated and say that’s enough!  I can’t do it at home, I’ll join a gym.  Now that’s a good choice, but what happens next?  You still have a hundred options to wade through.  Should I go to an aerobics class, should I swim laps, or should I walk around the track?  Don’t forget about the equipment.  Which machine does what, and how do you use it?  If you’re lucky, you’ll get an introductory tour, but then you’re on your own. 

Ok, ok!  I’m not trying to stress you out, but a gym can be very confusing without guidance.  So what do you do?  You talk to Joe Sales Rep who gives you several options, the best of which point in one direction; a Personal Trainer.  That is probably the best advice anybody could give you, so what’s the problem?  The problem is value.  A lot of people want to do things on their own, it’s hard enough admitting they need help, and they certainly don’t want to pay for it!  With so much cheap information out there, why should you pay for a Personal Trainer?  You can surf the net, buy a magazine, get a $19.95 DVD, shop around for the cheapest gym…

Remember, you get what you pay for.  How’s that been working for you so far?  See you soon…

Why Can’t We Lose Weight? Part 3

Why can't I lose weight?  Why doesn’t anything seem to work for me?  We all got the same plan. Why did my friend lose 5 pounds, while I only lost 1?  Aren’t we all built the same?  What works for one person should work for me!  If I just keep moving, something will happen.  If I just keep cutting my calories I’ll lose this weight.  That is wishful thinking...  It may actually work for some people, but for others, nothing happens. 

What you do and don’t know is what makes the difference.  People have varying levels of understanding.  Some people know more about how the body uses or stores food than others. Some people have athletic pasts, while others have never even gone for a brisk walk.  The majority has never learned the basics of how the body works, we just think that if we do what everyone else is doing, it should work the way we want it to.

So, what next?  Ok, I’ll tell you.  Did you know there are people in this world that are qualified to help you?  They are called Personal Trainers. They take the time to get certified to teach people how to lose weight and get physically fit.  It is their JOB to know how to make the body respond, so why wouldn’t you go to a Trainer?  If you’re sick you go to a doctor, if you’re in trouble you go to a lawyer, so if you want to lose weight and get in shape, come to me.

The most useless tool in the world is information you don’t use.

Why Can’t We Lose Weight? Part 2

Hey folks, Darrin your Starting Over Coach, back to talk about weight loss challenges.

Our demand for quick results has left us in a frantic state where any quick fix will do.  We go from weight loss pills, to smoothie diets, to low fat low carb diets that only allow us to eat 1000 calories a day, to liposuction, to gastric bypass, or whatever else promises we don’t have to work for it.

We read the latest women’s fitness magazines that rave about the hottest new meal plans, or feature some size 0 celebrity who promises that “you can have a body like mine if you do this and eat that”.  We get right on it!  We eat the meals and try our best to do the workout, and two weeks later we are on to a new plan from the next magazine, and so on, and so on.  It’s a vicious cycle: try, fail, and try again…until you give up.

”The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.”  Well that is us . . . insane weight loss addicts hooked on trying anything that promises results, and most of us never understand why.  It’s because we don’t know any better.  To reference Part 1, we are programmed to buy into the plan, not the result.  Weight loss and toning takes time!  Just like gaining the weight and getting out of shape took time.  Repairing the damage involves adjustments.  Your body has to go through physical changes week by week.  If a overnight changes were actually possible we wouldn’t have so much industry dedicated to empty promises of a quick fix.  There wouldn’t be any money in it for the big names if one shot was all it took.  Programming tells us to buy.  Programming tells us to believe it will work.  We never think “What am I doing?  What makes this better than any other program out there?”  

“Lose ten pound in ten days!”  “Get six pack abs in 6 weeks!”  “Never diet again!”  It all sounds the wonderful, and it all sounds the same.  People, if I can change the way you think about why you ‘can’t’ lose weight, you will lose weight.  It’s about changing your mind set about what works for you.

Darrin’s 6 Steps to Living a Healthy Lifestyle

Step 1. Never lie to yourself! Don’t blame your lack of physical fitness or unhealthy eating habits on something or someone else.  Be accountable for your own short comings!

Step 2. Learn something new! If your current efforts to become healthy and fit are not working, then  try a different approach. Just don’t quit!

Step 3. Take action! You’ve got to start somewhere.  Don’t wait every year until the New Year comes around to make a change. Today is a good day to change your life!

Step 4. Know that it is working! The scale or the waist line is not the only way to gauge success. Energy, attitude, confidence, consistency and a new outlook on life are all effective measurements of change in your life.

Step 5. Believe in yourself! Your strength must come from within; from your faith of spirit and faith in yourself.  If you don’t believe in yourself then who will?

Step 6. Stay on course! The road to success in weight loss, health and life is never easy, so you must never give up! If you stay the course you will succeed!

Health Is Wealth

Why Can’t We Lose Weight? Part 1

Hi everybody, Darrin your starting over coach back again.

We are in confusing times.  Our desire for weight loss is being overloaded with an excess of information on how to lose it.  There are workout DVDs like P90X, Insanity, and Zumba, just to name a few.  Their style is to put you through a high intensity workout to challenge your body to its highest levels.  Your body has no choice but to lose weight, which is very popular and fun.  Next are weight loss clinics like Weight Watchers, Physician’s Weight Loss, and LA Weight Loss; these brick-and-mortar systems focus on calorie reduction and pre-packaged meals that control what you eat on regular basis.  Major franchise gyms give you many options from various cardio classes, to resistance equipment, swimming pools, racket ball, etc.  Last but not least, Personal Training Studios have a one-on-one personal approach to weight loss.  There are plenty of other options out there, but these are some of the most popular.

With so many options, weight loss should not be such a challenge, yet we still have too many people failing at it.  I am not a doctor or a psychologist.  I am a Personal Trainer and Fitness Consultant who has spent 17 years evaluating the fitness levels and eating habits of both men and women.  In that time, I have come up with a simple understanding of why we don’t lose weight. 

I call it selective programming.  

Our minds tell us that easy is better.  This pill, that ab-blaster, this fitness DVD, or that one-time-workout sheet will solve all of our problems!  The infomercial that says you can go from overweight, to completely toned in a matter of weeks is our answer to everything!  Success comes in no time!  (No matter what the body fat percentage)  Look at our most popular show, The Biggest Loser, where morbidly obese people lose a large amount of weight in one season. We believe the fix should happen overnight, even though no one has ever gotten out of shape and overweight overnight.  If it doesn’t happen overnight, we panic and give up.   That is why people feel they can’t lose weight.