The importance of combining diet with exercise

On a walk with my daughter late this morning I ran into a neighbor-friend of mine who was playing in the yard with his boys. We got to talking about weight loss and he mentioned he had lost more than thirty pounds in a relatively short period of time, but that lately he has only been exercising and the diet has gone to hell in a hand basket.

It's not very often we hear from people who are losing weight by only exercising and not modifying their diet. It can happen, but when it does it means one of two things are happening. Either the person's diet wasn't that bad to begin with or they are exercising a lot. Losing body weight is a simple concept of burning more calories than you take in. If you eat an average of 4,000 calories per day it's going to take more than a twenty minute walk to burn enough to lose weight. On the other side of the coin, one can lose weight by only watching what they eat. But diet and exercise together are an extremely successful combination.

When people tell me they've tried and tried to lose weight and have not been successful, I often wish I could be their watchful eye. I'd love to shadow them for a week and point out everything I believe they could do better or differently based on my experience. It's not an ego-thing; I truly want to help people because I firmly believe everyone can do this in a natural way. I think the problem lies somewhere between understanding the commitment it takes and having the patience to see (and feel) results.

My boss was about to begin a diet awhile back and I tried to explain to him how committed he needed to be. To paint my picture, I asked him how many times he had cheated on his wife during their thirty years of marriage.

"Never!" he quipped immediately.

"Then you understand the commitment it takes to lose weight," I told him.

Weight loss is not a one-night stand. It's a marriage.

Daily routines

It never occurred to me until today but I believe, in general, it's easier for people who are naturally creatures of habit to change their lifestyle and lose weight than it is for people who tend to be just the opposite. The reason I thought of this was because I almost began this entry by getting on my soapbox and telling you how important it is to replace bad habits with good habits if you want to get healthy and lose weight. But then I thought to myself, what if someone is not like me? If they don't have daily routines they follow how can they change them?

Now I'm not saying you can't lose weight if you're not as anally retentive as I am. Seriously, I'm pretty bad. It's disturbing. I'm not OCD, but I do like things the way I like things. I think the difference between me and someone with an obsessive-compulsive disorder is I can still function in a fairly normal manner when I'm taken out of my comfort zone. I'm grumpy when it happens, but I get by.

While it's true you don't need to be a creature of habit to lose weight, you do need to develop some daily routines. If you don't get yourself on some type of schedule it's a heck of a lot easier to fall off the diet and exercise wagon. To give you an example of how bad I am, I generally eat the same thing every day. Kristi thinks it's disgusting as do most of my coworkers. But it's easy for me because this way I don't have to think about it. I know that my breakfast every day is going to be eggs, oatmeal, grapefruit, and coffee. I know that I'm going to eat cottage cheese before I go to bed every night. Obviously you don't have to do things this way to be successful. You can have a number of different foods and meals that you mix and match, weekly. The key is getting into a routine.

The same goes for exercising. I've been surprising myself for the last year by getting up before 4:00 AM several days a week to hit the weights. For me, it works. And since getting up that early has become a routine, it's almost never difficult to get out of bed. It also helps that my internal clock is set to get up at that time.

So get yourself into a routine. Force yourself to pick up some good habits and you'll be well on your way to success before you know it.

Future updates etc.

It has been a long time since I've blogged here, or anywhere for that matter. I'm really liking all the features Blogger now offers. One that you might see me using in the near future is Blogger Mobile via text message. Granted, it's a lot like using Twitter when you consider I'll be limited as to the number of characters I can use. For example, if I send a text to my blog that's too long it will send it in 2 texts instead of 1 and unfortunately, Blogger will recognize it as 2 different blog entries. Annoying, to say the least. So if I use this feature it will be a spur-of-the-moment instance when I'm out and about. When you see an extremely short entry you'll know it was sent from my Palm Pre when I wasn't in front of a computer. You might also take note that there are several different ways to be notified when I have posted new content here at The Magic Pill. The easiest way is to just stop by this site one million times per day. OK, maybe that's not so easy. Try this instead. Scroll down and look for the "Subscribe via email" box on the right-hand side. Just enter your email address, follow the instructions, and you'll be set to receive updates via email. If you prefer to subscribe through RSS or Atom feeds, just scroll to the bottom of the page and use the "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" link.

One food I literally could live on

Throw me on a deserted island with a black smoke monster anytime you want but do not take away my Peanut Delight Natural Peanut Butter. This stuff is unbelievable! When I first began eating natural peanut butter last year there was some pull and tug within the family. My wife, Kristi, wasn't thrilled at the prospect of paying the price for natural peanut butter when there were plenty of cheap PB's to choose from on the shelves. But one day at Aldi she struck gold for me...and I haven't looked back. To my knowledge you can't buy this stuff anywhere else but Aldi. For about $1.70 you will be subjected to the most sensationally, delicious mashed-up peanuts that will ever hit your taste buds. Stirring not included. And hindsight's 20/20, of course. There's not really that much difference between regular PB and natty PB other than some sugar and maybe a gram or two of protein. But now that I've had Peanut Delight's natural sweet nectar AND the price is right, there ain't no way I'm switching. My biggest fear is that some day it disappears off the shelf. God forbid. Remember, just because natty PB is a Brad Carl-approved healthy food doesn't mean you can sit down and eat an entire jar in one sitting. Moderation, please. I eat about 3 tablespoons mixed with some whey protein powder, once a day.

Update

On a personal note regarding my diet and training, I will be wrapping up a 3-month workout/nutrition phase this Friday. It looks like I will be reaching my goal weight. This time around I was able to make a larger portion of the weight loss be fat only. I believe this happened primarily because I did my cardiovascular exercise later in the day. In the past I had done cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach or in the morning after weight training. Even with drinking a protein drink before the weight workout (and taking BCAA's before and after), the cardio was using muscle for energy, most likely because my body was trying to recover from the weight training at the same time. By moving my cardio to a different part of my day I have been allowing my body to focus on the task at hand. There's more to all of this, but that's the highlights in a nutshell. On Memorial Day I will begin 6 weeks of German Volume Training (GVT). This workout has its good and bad points. For one, I will probably get to add more food to my diet. If done correctly, this routine can present spectacular results. On the downside, well...let me put it this way. An acquaintance of mine recently extended some encouragement (discouragement?) before I begin GVT: "Good luck," he said, and added "By the way, this routine is the only one I ever puked after doing it. Twice!!" Oh joy. I can't wait. :(

No way but the hard way

There's a band from Australia not named AC/DC that sounds a heck of a lot like AC/DC: Airbourne. Their latest cd has a song on it called "No Way But The Hard Way". The lyrics are extremely vanilla: "...the tide will turn Cuz I have learned There ain't no way but the hard way So get used to it" Sometimes something disturbingly simple can hit me right between the ojos and knock me into next week. You want something? Then go for it! Just remember nobody said it would be easy. It won't be handed to you on a silver platter. You have to work for it. Really, really hard. "But I've tried every diet there is. I just can't lose weight." Well then maybe you're not trying hard enough. Up until 15 years ago, I never would've believed it possible for me to lose weight and look/feel as healthy as I do today. I was the last person in the world who would have the motivation and determination to make such a drastic change in his lifestyle. I had tried to lose weight for years. The problem was I wasn't doing it right and I'd end up failing before I even started. The usual routine involved me going on a diet where I ate virtually nothing. I'd be ready to gnaw my own arm off twenty minutes in to Day 1. On Day 2 I'd look in the mirror and not see a change. Then I'd go gnaw off my other arm. On Day 3 I'd step on the scale and wouldn't see a change. Soon after that someone would call and ask me out for pizza. Diet over. Experiences like this are what people are referring to when they say "I have been on diets and tried to lose weight but it doesn't work." And it's because of the "I can't do it on my own" attitude that weight loss pills and surgeries have become increasingly popular. I'm not saying you shouldn't have support. But it needs to come from a person or group, not from a pill or the knife. It all starts with you. How bad do you want it?

In the beginning...

Welcome to the ongoing saga regarding my personal battle with the bulge. Some quick background...

I had been a fat boy all my life until late 1995 when I went through a divorce. I stepped on a scale one day and decided it was time for a change as the needle went all the way around and back to zero. Over the next 9 months I lost approximately 100 pounds by doing nothing too terribly fancy: eat less, exercise. Fast-forward a decade and a half and I had done some fluctuating, unfortunately. By 2008 I was looking in the mirror and not feeling anything like the new person I had become years ago when I lost all of that weight. We all have our excuses for falling off the wagon - I am no different. But excuses are not why I'm here and most likely not why you're reading this. The good news is I got back on track in February of 2009 when my one-and-only daughter turned 1. I decided I needed to make a huge permanent change in my lifestyle. Since then I have learned a ton regarding nutrition, exercise, and motivation. I have some lofty goals, but the most important one at the top of the list is living long enough to see my beautiful little girl grow up.

Take these entries for what they are...advice and thoughts from a person who has been there. Many people have searched endlessly for a magic weight loss pill and I've discovered through experience that The Magic Pill for weight loss is.....(drum roll).......that there is no "magic pill" for weight loss. All that I've learned and am continuing to learn is about to be laid out right here for the entire world to see. I wish I could say it's going to be Earth-shattering. There will be no surgeries. No staples. No mirrors. No laxatives. Just mind boggling common sense. But my gut (pun intended) tells me we might all be able to learn something from each other. So please, feel free to read my ramblings...and even comment if you're so inclined.

On second thought, there might be a few laxatives...but only a few.