"The Best Weight Loss Product : Motivation" Insanity: Day 34 of 60

A new diet drug.  A pill.  An artificial sweetener.  A diet book?  All carbs.  No Carbs.  No Fat.  All meat.  All vegetables.  Cardio.  Spinning.  Kick boxing.

Which one will help you lose the most weight?  Any of them?  All of them?  None of them?

Do you know what the answer is? The answer is: “IT DOESN’T MATTER”.

The one thing missing on that list that’s necessary to lose weight and get fit is motivation.  You either have it, or you don’t.  No one thing guarantees weight loss success like motivation.  You could have the worst program and have picked the craziest diet…but if you are motivated to lose weight, you will eat less and exercise and SOMETHING will happen.

I worked with a guy once who lost about 75 pounds.  It came off quickly too.  You’re always a little afraid to ask the ones who lose weight, “What diet were you on?”  It’s like asking a really large woman, “When are you due?”  You’re playing with fire.  The answer may not be what you expect.  With weight loss, you always fear some form of illness.  It’s not completely insane to have that fear.  The number of people who experience big weight loss compared to the rest of the population need to be counted with a calculator…or something else that can handle decimals.

So I asked Doug kindly, “What’s with the weight loss?”  He responded with a smile (whew!), “I’ve been on a diet.”  “Really, what kind of diet?”  He laughed before he told me, “You’re not going to believe it.”  So I pushed, “Okay…and?”  He smirked, “It’s the Peanut Butter and Jelly Diet.”

Wait.  Hold the phone.  I’d never heard of that diet and I had heard of a lot of them.

“I have one Peanut Butter and Jam sandwich, four times a day, and I do five miles of fast walking on my treadmill every single night.  I am actually to a point where I can jog.”

That’s it.  That was his diet.  Now, I could go over this and dissect it…but that would be meaningless.  IT DOESN’T MATTER.  He restricted his eating and exercised but more important than that, he had the motivation to make it work.  He stuck with it because it was working.  A person that motivated, even if the PB&J diet failed, would have looked for another solution.  It’s not the diet that worked, it was the drive inside the person.  It was their motivator.

Your motivator is the little engine inside your head that creates dreams and then negotiates with the rest of your psyche about how hard you are going to go after that dream.

If you are trying to get other people to think about their weight, fitness and general health, stop trying to show them new products.  Stop telling them how to do it.  Stop expecting them to want to do it because YOU did.  It doesn’t work.  Ask them questions.  When they make exasperated statements, follow up with questions.  When they comment about how good you look, ask them questions.  Drop the breadcrumbs.  They will follow if they have that special ingredient that will help them get healthy…motivation.

If they don’t follow…they don’t care.  They might care a little, but they don’t care enough.  The drive it takes to change your life is not to be underestimated.  It has to be substantial.  It has to be selfish.  It has to be able to push some of the other things in their life out of the way.

Eating right 90% of the time (a recommendation from Dr. Joel Fuhrman), requires a discipline that comes from the motivation that the outcome will be worth the decision to go with the veggies rather than the potato salad slathered in Miracle Whip or opting for the roasted chicken breast over the Prime Rib.

Making exercise a part of your routine requires effort.  How many times have you circled a parking lot looking for the closest parking space?  “I’m not taking that spot all the way out there!”  Let’s face it, they have shopping carts.  It’s not like you are going to have to carry your crap all the way there in your arms.  It also isn’t about time.  I know that because people will spend 20 minutes stalking people leaving the store to get that treasured spot.  It only takes five minutes to walk from the spot ‘way out there.’  It’s a mindset.  It’s about not wanting to move.  It’s about moving as little as possible.  To look at life’s situations and say to yourself, “No thanks, I’ll walk” is a completely ass-backwards violation of our existing social standards.  It means you have to be motivated enough to be different and make better decisions.

So fine.  Motivation is needed.  We all get it.  Where do we find that?  Ahhhh.  Good question.  The answer is a tough one.  That depends on how important that thing you are trying to achieve is.  How hard is that motivator working to push out the other things?  Pushing out the other things simply means that you are pushing the thing you want to the top of your personal needs list.  So if that ‘thing’ is health and general fitness…what will make it a top priority?  Sometimes you make it a priority from fear.  Fear of the next heart attack.  Fear of high blood pressure.  Fear of getting old maybe?  Fear of ‘looking old?’  Sometimes it’s just the challenge of achieving the goal.  If you are a celebrity, maybe you fear not getting the young roles anymore.  Maybe you fear not getting the phone calls.  If you are a model, maybe you fear that being five pounds overweight means no one wants you…unless you are Kate Upton.  So what is the motivation?

It’s in each person uniquely.  If you want to lose weight, you better find your motivation.  Not the diet, the pill, the drink, the program…the motivation.  The tools to get the goal will always be here.

If you are trying to help people get fit…you better ask them insightful questions.  Find their motivation.  Otherwise, the only fit that you will experience will be the tantrum you throw when they don’t get it!!

“When Work and Weight Collide” Insanity: Day 33 of 60

I work at a company that has college students as its primary market.  When you think of weight and a college student, what comes immediately to mind?  For most, it’s the “Freshman 15.”  So my company is looking for Blog content for the summer, and they had a bunch of folks from the Marketing group all sitting around and pick up the various topics.  Oddly, no one took that topic.  Here’s the skinny…I am not in Marketing, I’m in technology.  I ‘overheard’ their meeting and picked up on the fact that no one took the topic.  So I emailed the Product Manager and asked him if he would mind if I wrote it.  There was a little skepticism, but he said, ‘okay.’

I try not to let my Health, Fitness, Coaching and Blogging life interact with my work life.  There are only a handful of people who even know how much blogging I do.  That said, today we discuss the Freshman 15!  PLEASE KEEP THIS IN MIND...I had to write this for a particular audience with a particular slant and voice.  So here goes...

The Freshman 15.  Fact, Fiction, the whole Freakin’ Enchilada.

It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?  Doesn’t it feel like just yesterday that you were starting High School?  It started out weird because you didn’t know many people, then, suddenly, it felt like home.  Then, in a flash, your boyfriend gave you flowers, you graduated, and now, you’re leaving  and doing this all over again.  In a bigger place.  Crazy, right!?

You pack up your pictures thinking, “Wow, that prom dress was gorgeous.”  Still can’t believe dad actually shelled out the cash for it.  Remember how you were so nervous and lost all that weight in the spring?  It cost $60 just to get the gown taken in so it didn’t fly off on the dance floor.  You grab the baggy sweatpants off the nightstand and jam them in the box.  You want to hear something scary? By Christmas, those sweatpants won’t be so baggy and that prom dress will be a memory.  Wait….WHAT!!??

That’s right.  Wrap your head around that for a second.  As you walk through the door of your new college around Labor Day, you’ll be greeted by your roommate and the Freshman 15.  What’s the Freshman 15?  It’s a term used, sorry, mostly for girls.  It’s the 15 extra pounds of flesh and cellulite you’ll be slogging home around Thanksgiving or Christmas time.  It’s waiting for you at college like a creeped out Facebook stalker.

No, no. Not me.  That won’t happen to me.  It’s a joke, right?  That’s just a myth.

Is it?  No.  It’s not.  You remember all those activities that you did the last four years in high school?  All of the sudden, that’s going to turn into studying and partying.  Sit. Study. Sit. Eat.  Sit. Study. Sit.  DRINK.  Sit. Study. Sit. EAT AND DRINK!  That’s a catchy little rhythm isn’t it?  Do you see ‘run’ or ‘exercise’ in there anywhere?  Uh…nope.

There’re a lot of reasons for the Freshman 15.  First reason:  no real activity.  Totally true.  You’ll be less active.  Second reason:  eating.  Eating everything.  Late at night, in the dorm room, in the cafeteria…it’s never ending.  Whenever anyone extends a slice of pizza, kiss it goodbye.  Don’t worry, you’ll see it again.  At Christmas.  It’ll be waiting at home in your bathroom mirror.  Last reason?:  Alcohol.  No.  Not that.  There’s no alcohol in college, the drinking age is twenty one!  I’m hoping you recognize the sarcasm in that last sentence.

So why just girls?  Why should only girls worry about this?  Because life’s not fair, that’s why.  It’s the ‘tough $h!t’ rule…you just have to deal with it.  Guys will gain fifteen too probably.  But fifteen on a guy looks rugged and it’s not that much relative to their total body size.  And guys wear baggy jeans, not booty shorts.  Get the picture?  Fifteen extra pounds on a chick has you going from Taylor Swift to Adele in four short months.  No one would notice the poundage if you looked like Adele and could sing like her, but you can’t carry a note, so you’re screwed.

No. C’mon!  Is fifteen pounds even physically possible?  Yes it is.  Let’s do a little math.  I know, you’re a psych major now.  You thought you would never do math again.  Bear with me.  There are about 15 weeks in a semester, so that would be a pound a week.  A pound is 3500 calories.  That’s 500 extra calories per day.  Decrease your activity levels, toss in some booze and add a donut per day (Dunkin Donuts Blueberry Crumb Donut equals 500 calories on the nose).  Still think 500 extra calories a day is hard?

All right.  Enough already.  How do I keep this from happening?  There are some things you can do.  Get the butt moving.  Keep the butt moving.  Find the gym.  Do pilates…yoga…aerobics…the dorm stairs.  Find something and do it regularly.  Do something that keeps your metabolism up and going.  Make some eating rules and stick to them.  Here’s a few for you to think about.  Stay away from the starch and fried foods.  No Pasta, white bread, hamburgers, etc.  Stay away from the sugar.  Avoid desserts and meat dishes wrapped in sweet sauces.  Eat salads, vegetables, and fruits as much as possible and have a good protein rich breakfast.  Avoid the booze.  The extra calories are killer and the munchies will kill any of the above mentioned rules because, frankly, once you are three drinks in, you won’t care.  Last, bring a scale to school.  If any of this matters to you, keep an eye on your weight.  You don’t want to go four months without standing on the scale.  At least, not without meds for depression.

Do you care about this?  Maybe you don’t.  But if you want to avoid remarks about the Thanksgiving Float (after you realize they aren’t talking about the Macy’s Parade) you should heed my advice.  The facts, the fiction and the whole freakin’ enchilada.  Just don’t eat the enchilada.

"Can Exercise Reverse Aging?" Insanity: Day 32 of 60

The comment I hear most often from people who have known me for years, but haven’t seen me in a while, is, “You look ten years younger.”  It feels vain to say this, but I do own a mirror, “I know, right?!”  I never say that.  But inside I want to.  I look younger.  I feel younger.  I feel great.

So, is the aging process changing due to my changes in nutrition and fitness?  The answer is a wholehearted “Yes.”  Just so you know that it’s not solely my personal opinion, there’s plenty of science to back it up.

Aging is something we all experience.  While it is a factor of time it is also a factor of activity.  As we get older, our lives change.  We get more sedate.  We sit more.  We eat more.  Whether you know it or not, the human body is constantly in growth mode.  Your cells regenerate over time and, in your early years when you are most active, your cells “turn over” quickly and at a high rate, causing you to maintain a youthful appearance.  Your cell regeneration is tied to your metabolism.  As we get less active in our latter years, our metabolic rate decreases.  We begin to “turn over” our worn out cells and replace them with new ones at a less rapid pace.  Our youthful appearances slowly fade. 

In addition, we carry more baggage.  As we get less active, we pack on those little globules of energy storage known as fat.  The fat cells also contain particles from every known toxin you have ever ingested or been exposed to.  So, in addition to a slower cell regeneration process, we have to fight off toxic byproducts.  Those byproducts get into the many different cells of our body.  Because those cells hang on longer, we develop growths and tumors as well as have systemic disorders.  It’s easier for cells to get ‘infected’ when they are in your body for prolonged periods.  We begin to break down.

Certain hormones and processes in the body slow down due to time, that’s very true.  Organs that operate the body regenerate slower than does muscle and skin tissue.  But by keeping your metabolic rate up and staying active, you can extend the capability of those organs significantly.  This means that your naturally produced hormones and processes work for longer periods of your life.

We aren’t aging because of ‘time.’  It’s because we stopped moving and we stopped putting the right fuel into the machine.  If you have a car with 200,000 miles on it, but you did the maintenance every 3,000 to 5,000 miles, that car probably runs better than some that were poorly maintained and have 60,000 miles.  I always say, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.”  With the human body though, it’s slightly different.  “It’s not the years, it’s the maintenance.”  Why?

The human body can be equated to a machine on many levels.  There is one quality of the human body, however, that makes it unique and special.  There is no other machine on the planet that, when fed and used, actually IMPROVES in ability to perform.  No engine’s mileage ever got 50% better because you put the right gas in it and drove it every day.  Every machine ever made gets more worn with use.  Not the human body.  If you fuel the body properly and if you exercise it, it gets better.  Better at processing the fuel..better physically and mechanically…better efficiency.  The human body is the greatest mechanical miracle on the planet yet we continue to ignore it and even destroy it.  How smart is that?  It’s your last car.  There’s no showroom on earth waiting to take a ‘trade in’ on your body after you have just burnt it up.

I am in better shape right now than when I was twenty-five.  I am fifty.  It’s not a miracle.  It’s scientifically possible...if you make better decisions around the care and maintenance of your physical machine.  You can’t reverse time, but you can reverse aging.  How else do you explain a 50 year old machine that performs better than when it was 25?  You can slow the aging so much that, relative to the ‘old folks’ who were born the same year you were, you look younger.  Much younger.  And when that happens, the perception is also that you reversed the aging process.

Hell, if it’s true that perception is reality, then “voila!,” aging has been reversed.

What condition is your physical machine in?  It’s not too late.  We are all fighting the same thing…the illnesses and physical breakdown caused by a lack of focus around our health and fitness.  It’s a war.  You can put the brakes on aging and your body can actually get better.  If you stay active, time chases you.  Don’t let it catch you.

Remember, it’s a war.  As we used to say, when I was in the Army, “Stragglers die in combat.”  Will you be left behind?  We’re waiting for you.

"What Do You Know?" Insanity: Day 31 of 60

Hey, guess what?  Someone who will not be named because she hates public exposure on the internet is down seven pounds since starting my June Challenge Group.  No Shakeology (shame) but just the workout DVDs for the Tony Horton Power Half-Hour and with something more than a casual commitment to some form of daily exercise.

Last week, the comment was, “Wow, I can see improvement.  I was able to finally do the whole workout.”  This morning, the comment was, “I’ve lost about seven pounds.”

Many feel that weight-loss and fitness management are difficult things.  As a culture, we seem to love the drama of putting obstacles in front of ourselves.  It’s as if some of our lives are so uneventful that we need to turn it into an X-Men movie or something to feel like we are alive and kicking.  The reality is that there are issues in everyone’s lives, but many (if not most) are completely manageable with very little effort.  It just makes us feel good to think we just cured cancer.

I actually created a name for it many (many) years ago in college…”Low Hurdle Syndrome.”  It’s when you take a really small obstacle and make it look big for everyone else by painting it as “awful” or “huge.”  Then, when one takes that little bitty hop over it, it makes the effort look like that person just tackled Mount Everest.

I listen to a lot of people talk about their lives as if they were a reality TV show.  Seriously, that's not a very high bar.  There's a reason that an entire season of the Kardashians lasts only 13 episodes at 40 minutes each.  It’s because their lives only have about 8.5 hours of drama a year.  They just make it look like a lot with reruns, plastic surgery and poor parenting examples.

When we hear about someone who actually has real tragedy and difficult issues in their life, we cannot even fathom what dealing with THAT would be like.  Why?  Because those issues are REAL!!  The real barometer to figuring out who is dealing with real issues and who has drama, is the noise level.  It is completely ironic that the people with the worst possible situations and the most in need of help are almost always the ones you NEVER hear from.  They endure it silently.  No drama.  How often have you heard something truly tragic about someone even as close as a good friend and then say, “Wow.  I had no idea.”   Why?  Because real issues are only made worse by drama.  To survive them, you need to feel like you can control them…and you can’t control them in a morass of noise. 

So when we talk about potentially losing weight and getting fit, the drama flies.  “I can’t possibly do that.”  “I can’t possibly keep that piece of birthday cake from going into my mouth and down my esophagus.”  “There is NO WAY that I could eat less.”  “Exercise for 30 minutes is SO HARD.  30 whole minutes?  Seriously, I hate to get all sweaty.”

Seriously?  I have heard all of those excuses and about a hundred more.  I have watched some of the folks with the excuses actually sweat while eating!  When you attack your food so voraciously that it makes you sweat…there’s a problem.  When eating actually has become your form of exercise, the vicious cycle has just devoured you.

So, from the first paragraph of this blog, you see it has been demonstrated (again, and not just by me) that with a little effort and consistent attention to the matter, weight loss will happen.  It doesn’t happen without the effort, but the effort is not as overwhelming as we all make it.

Smile.  It’s easier than you think.  You will feel much better when you have found out that how you look and feel is completely up to you.  It’s liberating.  It’s like when you first got your Driver’s License and realized that you could go anywhere you wanted.

Ready to hop in and go for a spin?  I have many new cars lining up just for the rest of you!

“New Beachbody Product Idea” Insanity: Day 30 of 60

Wow, I am at day 30 of 60.  Halfway done.  I will say this to all of you thinking of Insanity, it goes fast.  P90X went by quick, so did this program.  If there is one aspect to the programs that continues to surprise me…it’s the time flying by.  You look at this stuff on an infomercial and think, “Man, 90 days is a long time” or “60 days will kill me.”  It is seriously an obstacle to getting people engaged.  But it’s the most real mirage you will bump into as a coach.  It’s a real concern, but it ends up being nothing.

Many who know me, know that I am an eCommerce professional and have been doing this for more than ten years now.  I know a little of that which I speak today.

So…here is a new Beachbody product idea.  Live streaming like Netflix.  Instead of buying all the DVD’s, the exercise programs could be kept on the web.  How it would work is, people enroll in a product like P90X or Slim in 6 or Insanity, etc. and then opt for a Shakeology delivery.  They pay a subscription fee up front for the month and renew each month thereafter.  They pick a start date for the program.  On Day 1, the first routine is available.  On Day 2, the second routine is available.  And so on.    

Each segment can only be played twice in one day (in case you mess up or get interrupted) and can be streamed to a computer, a smart TV, through a Playstation 3 or Wii…almost any of the options available today to bring content to your home.  It can also be monitored by Beachbody.  When you play it for the day, it fulfills your Challenge requirement and you are entered in the drawings and/or Coach qualified.

When you complete any program, and have obviously paid the monthly fees, you then are able, under your account, to access that one program, and all its segments, any time you wish.

How is this beneficial?

From the workout perspective, it would really be no different than having the DVD’s at home.  In fact, you could stream it from any location where you could get an internet connection, on vacation or on a work trip.  Nothing needed to bring along.

Each Daily Routine would be broken up into its individual exercise segments.  P90X Triceps Shoulders and Abs, for example, would be broken up into its 24 or so individual exercises on the web.  This could be used later for those who want to mix and match and create hybrid routines.  Once you have completed both Insanity and P90X, for example, you could configure your own Hybrid routines (or use some Beachbody sponsored and pre-programmed ones)  and share (with trainer oversight) amongst the Beachbody community.  Every time you complete a new program, you would have all of the exercises available for you and be able to save your routines on your Beachbody account.

From the sales perspective, it would give the Coaches the ability to get someone to try the program at a lower price point and not lose revenue opportunities from someone who thinks 60 or 90 days is too long or that the money up front is too much.  Imagine that, instead of getting someone to commit to the Challenge Pack, you could also offer them a chance to commit to Shakeology and then a one month subscription to the exercises.  You could get someone in the door at a lower price point and if they blow out, at least you earned some income for the effort.  Let’s face it, half a “Yes” with some upside potential is better than a complete “No.”

So there you have it. My idea of the day.  This blog is a little short but it packs a punch.  I think Beachbody could do well with this.

Beachbody is having their annual Coach Summit this week in Las Vegas, NV.  I can’t attend.  Maybe my colleagues could take this idea to the Big Boss!  Just a thought!

“I Hate Beachbody Recovery Weeks!” Insanity: Day 28-29 of 60

I’ll be dead honest.  I hate recovery weeks.  I know you need them.  I know you pay later if you don’t do them.  I know experienced folk are guiding you and know better.  I just can’t deal with it.  I get into a groove, and I don’t want to stop.  I want to keep going.

I’m at a place where I know the exertion that I will have to put out for each day.  At this point, I have been cycling four DVD’s and I know the strengths and weaknesses (yes, there are weaknesses) in each one.  I know where Shaun T. stretches one side of your muscles and forgets to stretch the other side.  I know when the timer on the DVD comes up short and your thirty second breaks are actually twenty second breaks.  I know when Shaun T. will stop paying attention to the strain on the exercise and will spend time around the participants trying to converse or show you proper form…leaving you hanging in a stretch or contracted position…so I adjust.

The place I am in right now also has me knowing the sweat level and the intensity.  I also have been doing Ab Ripper X, which I have moved to four days per week from three.  ARX is now M, W, F and Saturday afternoon.  I know the whole thing and can do it without the DVD…and in less time than the DVD.  I also have been using my treadmill post Insanity workout to loosen up the muscles in my legs and calves.  I do between 1.5 and 2.0 miles per session at 4.2 miles per hour.  Don’t you love the digital age…we can be so precise!

Let’s do a quick compare, since I have now done both programs, of P90X and Insanity.  P90X was not as rigorous from a pure exercise routine perspective.  It used a lot of muscles and your body literally was breaking down and building up in crafted cycles.  It was really hard because you had to work muscles until you burned them out.  Insanity is more cardio based and, while it is exhausting while you do it, does not require the post routine (as in the next day) recovery that P90X did.  When I did P90X, my body was sore the next day.  On some days, really sore.  Muscles needed 24 to 48 hours to recover.  Insanity does not require the same recovery.  Insanity is really about getting all of those ‘twitch muscles’ moving.  It is fast moving and uses muscles in an energy burning way…not in a “now I can’t lift my arms” way.

I hated my P90X recovery week too, but it was mental.  When you prepare athletically for anything, there is both a mental and physical component.  In P90X, my psyche wanted to go but my body was welcoming the rest.  The DVD’s during that recovery were different every night and that made it somewhat bearable.

So, why do I hate the Insanity recovery week? 

First, my psyched wants to go…and so does my body.  That is frustrating. 

Second, I was making progress and had gotten my body to the point where I knew both physically and nutritionally how to optimize the routines.  It took a while to figure out a few things, but I finally got there.  I figured out how much and when I need to eat.  I know now that I have to focus on hydration.  I also know that I have to stretch properly (and when I need to push pause and stretch more than the DVD says).

Last, I had just gotten all the forms right.  If I have one criticism of this program, it’s the instruction on form.  It should go into a little more detail of why you need to focus on it and the dangers of not doing them correctly.  Simply saying, “To avoid injury” is not enough.  I had to figure out a few things that, I am sure, others probably got frustrated on and quit.  Each DVD should take 5 minutes of time before the routine to cover the postures being done that day, cover the reasons you do it and tell you what your body will feel if they are done wrong.  When I finally got the form down on the various exercises, the exertion was more and the pain was less…go figure, right?

So, it’s only Monday and I have to wait until Saturday to get to Insanity Phase II.

The worst part?  Besides the mental and physical anxiety of downtime?  Recovery week in Insanity uses the same DVD for a whole week of recovery.  The Core Cardio and Balance DVD is used EVER NIGHT.  That stinks.  The exercises are the same.  The comments are the same.  The same participants (Don Cheadle lookalike) have issues and fall out.  The guys are an embarrassment night after night.  But it is just over and over again…that’s the killer.  It’s not motivating me for the next level…I am just in the “on deck circle” waiting for the next round.

Okay, enjoy your day and I will try to get myself excited about tonight’s workout.  Ho-hum.  Let’s see how I feel next Monday after a couple days of Phase II!