The Evolution of Weight Loss - Guest Post by Brad Pilon

I want to thank Brad for his time and effort he put into this article and allowing me to share it here with you.The Evolution of Weight Loss - Guest Post by Brad Pilon

Changing Mindsets

Over the past several weeks I've been trying to decide what direction to take my training. I have been bouncing back and forth between shedding the last 10 or so pounds of body fat I want to loose or to put on the 5-10 pounds of lean body mass I want. In my last post I wrote about getting focused. Since both goals have equal pull on my mind right now and as I've stated you cannot do both at the same time. I did the logical thing and flipped a coin.
CHANGING MINDSETS
How do you get into a positive mindset? Our minds are our greatest tool we have been given with it anything we can conceive we can achieve. The most important thing you need to do is pay attention to your self talk. It doesn’t matter how hard you work if you don’t change your negative self-talk you will sabotage everything your working towards. No mater what the goal. It takes 15 positive statements to undo the damage from 1 negative comment and we bombard ourselves with negative chatter all day long. Positive affirmations are of the upmost importance to accomplish our goals of changing the mind set into one of achieving our goals. Skip La Cour has a wonderful program he's running right now where you can download two tracks for your mp3 player to help change you're self-talk. Here is a link to his home page. http://www.manformation.com

While you're at it change the music you listen to as well. If you're like me you never paid much attention to what you listen to but this has been proven that music can and does affect your mood and what you think about. Make sure that the tracks on your play lists are productive and uplifting that make you feel good about who you are and where you want to go. You also must BELIEVE your positive self-talk and challenge the negative every time you catch yourself in a negative loop of self-talk you must stop and ask if it's true and do you really believe it.

Live on Purpose
Ron

The end result

Begin with the end in mind. That's how you should start each and every workout. Just knowing what you want to accomplish before you begin will give your workouts the focus and intensity you need to reach your training goals. If you do not have the end in mind anything you do in the gym will be fine because you are not going anywhere.
There's a lot of "talk" out there telling us that we can not only loose fat but build muscle at the same time. I'm going to tell you that it's impossible to do both at the same time. It is true that the more lean body mass you have the more calories you will burn during the day 1 pound of muscle requires 7 calories a day to maintain and 1 pound of fat only 3. However you cannot convert fat into muscle it has to be released and turned into EFA's for the body to use as energy. Focus on one goal at a time building muscle mass requires a different strategy that fat loss. I'll be addressing these topics in later posts. So for now you need to decide what your focus will be for your workouts and plan accordingly to reach your goals.

Live on Purpose
Ron

It's all about execution

STOP IT! Be responsible for your actions 100% good bad or indifferent own every aspect of your life. Doing so will put you on the fast track in your fitness goals as well as other areas of your life. What boss isn’t going to reward an employee that owns his or her mistakes instead of hiding them hoping no one finds out about it? Or you find a new ways of being more effective because you're always on the lookout for a more productive way to execute business objectives.
In your fitness endeavors taking 100% responsibility means showing up for your workout focused and ready to execute your plan for the day. Knowing what you're going to do before you even touch a weight the exercises sets and repetitions already figured out. It's about staying focused not engaging in chit chat between sets or flirting with the gym hottie. If your able to watch Oprah while your on the tread mill your selling yourself out by not working out at the correct intensity level and are just "going through the motions" . Is it any wonder why you haven’t reached your goals yet? And you blame everything from your slow metabolism to the guy that hogs the squat rack. The same goes for your diet plan as well. Any diet will be effective if it's executed correctly. This is another area where planning will be a big help. Plan every meal and pack it with you. Cook all your meals Sunday night then pack and freeze all your meals for the week then all you have to do is grab and go. You don’t even have to think about it. Schedule your cheat meals use them for what they are a reward for sticking to the nutrition plan you have created for yourself. Is everything going to go perfectly every day? No it wont the unexpected client lunch stuck working late. Life happens and it's a good thing that it does sometimes it can lead to great discoveries about ourselves and how we relate to the world Accept that you had to deviate from your plan and pick it up at the next meal or workout and move on. But if you execute your plans 90% of the time how much closer will you be to your goals.
Live on Purpose!
Ron

Mindset

I feel that the fastest most efficient way to reaching your goals and then maintaining them is in your head. It's a mind set. If your only motivation is an outside stimulus (A beach vacation or a class reunion) once you reach that goal and attend that funtcion there is nothing for us to hold on to. It's a slippery slope back into our "fat person" habits, case in point YO-YO dieters. Have you ever wondered why so many of the contestants of the Biggest Looser show put the weight back on? It's easy to loose weight when your out of your reality and having someone else make your food choices for you and telling you to push out one more set during your workout. But what happens when you get home back to your reality? If you have a "fat Person" mindset you will undoubtedly slip back into your old habits of missed workouts intending at first to make them up later, poor food choices. The list could go on and on.

MINDSET

So how does one make lasting change then? You have to change from the inside out. You have to adopt a new mindset a fitness mind set. It's not about doing it for your kids, your spouse or the person your dating. It has to be about YOU!

I speak from personal experience. I was there I sacrificed and put everyone before me for a very long time. I was extremely unhappy with my life. I was overweight depressed and pre diabetic I made unhealthily food choices and I hid behind my others first mindset. I have beautiful children that I will do anything for including being around in this life for a very long time God willing.

It wasn't until my life got turned upside down that I finally figured out that in order to take care of the people I love I need to take care of myself first. You can not give to others what you do not have. So what does all this have to do with adopting a new mindset? long lasting permanent change comes from the inside out. You have to be a fit person on the inside before you can be a fit person on the outside for the rest of your life. You might not look it at first I didn't. But inside in my mind I was. It surprised me at first when I'd step on the scale and see the number at 230 pounds because inside I had changed I saw myself as a fit person that weighed 190 pounds. I still do I'm almost there.

So how do you change your mindset? Start by controlling what you think about. When you catch yourself in a negative thought pattern you must stop and tell yourself that you are no longer that person and replace those thoughts with new more productive ones. surround yourself with positive upbeat fit people. Studies have be done where you can predict the income of a person by looking at the income of the people they spend the most time with outside of work. I'll wager you can do the same thing with a persons health and fitness levels. Next time your out doing some shopping take a few minutes and do some people watching and see for yourself. I'm not saying you need to ditch your friends if they aren't uber fit individuals just that you might need to increase your circle of friends. Join a health and fitness forum like http://bodyweightculture.com/ you will be able to exchange ideas and offer support to others. It's also a great way to hold yourself accountable for your workouts too. Most forums of this nature have a thread where you can post your workouts for other members to follow and offer support. You can also find a mentor or hire a personal development coach to help you make the mindset changes you need. Most importantly though is to stay positive and trust the process you will reach your goals when you adopt the right mindset.

Live on Purpose

Ron

Moving in the right direction

How do we know if we are making progress towards our goals? Most of the time we get so focused on reaching the end result we forget to enjoy the journey. So how does one stay motivated to continue? Waking up early to go to the gym before our day starts. You eat your tuna fish with crackers and hard boiled eggs for lunch one more time. Or the hardest one of all taking your kids out for ice cream and you get a bottle of water instead.
I've come up with 5 ideas to help stay motivated when you want to throw in the towel when you think your stalled and not making any progress.
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
You have earned every ounce of what you have at this moment in your life. In every area of your life. There's no one to blame or to praise but you. It comes down to the choices you make or don't make. It's not your trainers fault your girlfriends or spouses fault.
If your stalled take a step back and look at the situation, ask yourself. Am I doing all I can? Honestly evaluate what you have been doing. Did you slack off during your workouts spend too much time chatting with your workout partner or flirting with the gym hottie. Then ask yourself what is one thing I can change right now that will get me back on target to my goal. Then do that one thing.
PAY THE PRICE
You can not have an extraordinary physique without putting fourth an extraordinary effort. If you want a cover model body you must be willing to pay the price. The blood sweat and tears of an average effort will not be enough. If you decide the price is too high you have to decide that and then revaluate your goals. Know that you made a choice to lower your standards. You get what you pay for.
ENJOY THE JOURNEY
Remember your fitness goals are a journey you didn’t get out of shape over night and you wont get your 6-pack overnight either. It's going to take time to get there but every good choice you make will bring you one step closer to your goals. Take the little wins you got up and went to the gym instead of rolling over and hitting the snooze button one more time. You stick to your nutrition plan when you could have easily rationalized the donut on your way to the office as your cheat meal. Pushing for one more rep. Not stopping on your run because your lungs are burning and your legs are on fire and all you can manage is a jog that if its any slower you'd travel back in time. All this adds up. Rome was not built in a day and neither will your physique. Trust in the process.
KEEP A LOG
Document your workouts before you leave the gym . The number of sets and reps you did as well as the weight you used. Write down how you felt when you started your workout and what you felt like when it's done. Review your log from the week before so you are clear on what needs to happen during this workout. Now is not the time to be guessing as to what you need to do to make improvements. Know before you go. Reviewing your old logs is also a good way to check your progress and to keep you motivated when your feeling stuck and to make sure you're headed in the right direction.
REST
Make sure you take enough time to recover. It's when we are resting that our bodies repair and grow new muscle tissue. There's 24 hours in a day the hour spent working out is vital but so is planning our recovery 85-90% of your gains will come not from your workouts but from your diet and recovery plan. Devote at least 8 hours to sleep every day. Plan your workouts so you are not overworking body parts. Plan a rest week every 12-16 weeks. This is still an active week It's not a time to sit on the couch and watch chick flicks and down junk food. Do bodyweight exercises and low to medium intensity cardio during this week. You'll be surprised when you get back to your workouts how much stronger you feel and excited you are to be back to the gym.

It's hip to be round?

I came across an article the other day in the New York Times. It said the time of the 6-pack mid section for us men had run it's course and that sporting a ponch was in style now days. Where did this journalist get off saying it's hip to be unhealthy?
I'm disgusted by this article. The health of our country is at an all time low. This guy states that in our primal state a ponch was a sign of wealth and meant a guy could feed his family.
He went on to state that only the poor care about how they look. Like those that have a well toned muscular body don't have the ability to earn a good living and take care of the ones he loves and all we are good for is manual labor. I think what it comes to at least for this individual is that they are to lazy and self absorbed to get up off the couch put down the bag of cheetos and exercise!
I'll tell you one thing I'm happy being in the minority. I plan on continuing to workout and take care of myself til I'm unable to. I want to be around for my grand kids and great-grand kids. We should all strive to be healthy strong and happy individuals to be able to deal with the stresses of daily life. The best way I have found to beat stress is by working out. As most of us know stress can kill us. Cortisol is a hormone created while under stress it's part of the fight or flight response. In those situations being chased by a wild beast(or getting cornered by an attacker) it's a good thing but most of us don't get tigers roaming the streets of our neighborhoods very often so our stress is created from other sources. Jobs, family responsibilities and so on. Cortisol also makes it hard for our bodies to burn fat. So we life our lives running to this appointment over to that meeting back to work where we get yelled at for missing too much work because we're sick because of the stress we are under we over eat under exercise and get fat because what little physical activity we do get isn't enough to counteract the poor diet and high stress levels we are under.
I want you to think about your time that you workout whether it's in a gym or outside as your "me" time. Nobody messes with your "me" time. It's sacred. It's your time to build and work on you, to be the best you that you can possibly be. Not only for yourself but for those in your life you care about.
Don't listen to lazy people that say it's ok to be fat it's in style now. They would rather you be stuck with them. When you change something about yourself you become a mirror to them and they don't like the reflection that tells them to get up and go for a run. I'd rather be out of style and fit, healthy and happy than what I was 2 years ago. I was 250 pounds I had a 40 inch waist and filled out extra extra large shirts I was borderline diabetic and at great risk for heart disease. I was depressed most of the time. I didn't have a good diet. I ate junk food and drank soda by the gallon. I'd come home from work completely wiped out with no energy to play with my kids. I'd sit in front of the T.V. until bed time where I'd relax with a pint of ice cream after the kids went to bed.
It wasn't until my life got turned upside down that I realized I had given up. Since then I've changed careers started to workout and changed my life for the better. I for one will never go back to being the person I was living in that sad depressed body I had let develop over such a long period of time. I am a better man a better father and a better member of my community because of the changes I have made and the decisions I made to live a healthy lifestyle both inside and out.

Live on Purpose
Ron

The debate continues

There is a war going on in the fitness industry that has been going on since the development of the bench press. That war is which is better strictly lifting weights or body weight only exercises.
The arguments are many and colorful. The weight lifters say that BWE (body weight exercises) are only good for warm ups and for people that aren't strong enough to lift weights. On the other side of the coin you have the body weight only people that say BWE are the only way to truly build true strength that will translate to real world situations.
Can't we all just get along? Bruce Lee said take what is useful to you discard what is not. Shouldn't we do the same thing? If the bench press works for you embrace it. If pistol squats and pull ups get you the results your looking for embrace them as well. The act of reaching a goal is just as important as the goal itself. Any ethical means used in attaining the end result should be embraced. Why must we bicker and squabble over what is the best way to reach our goals. We have at our disposal a wealth of techniques and methods available to attain our goals why not embrace both sides?
Over the past two years I have used both methods of exercise and I have seen results with both. It wasn't until I combined weight training and BWE that I began to see the results I was wanting both physically and mentally.
I started like many people do. Running, push ups, sit ups that kind of thing. I saw results and I was happy with my progress. Then I listened to someone that had worked out along time and was told the only way to get what I wanted was to lift heavy weights. While I still enjoyed working out I felt like I wasn't doing everything I could. I went back to BWE's for a while then it hit me why not combine both methods of training. I put together some routines that were both fun and challenging for me.
My purpose for this blog is to not only document my journey but to help others along the path to health and fitness.

Live on Purpose!
Ron