October 9th, 2008 by Jason
The final tip in my series on how to lose weight forever is the one that can really make a huge difference in and of itself: EXERCISE. Most of you probably guessed what it was going to be, but how many of you are acting on that knowledge? Knowledge is power to be sure, but without motivation, we’re not going anywhere fast. More about that in a little while…
How we gain and lose weight is actually extremely straightforward: consume more calories than you use, and your body hoards the extra food, converting it to fat for storage and utilization later in “tough” times. The problem is that we don’t generally see such tough times in this evolutionary period, and the fat stays there doing far more harm than good.
All 14 of my previous tips revolved around food as a primary means of losing weight. This post, however, will focus upon exercise as a more powerful method of achieving your lifestyle goal (remember, no diets with me – I would banish that word if I could). Why is exercise so important to lose weight? Because too many of us overeat bad food, that’s why. People aren’t overweight because they eat too much celery, folks. It’s the other stuff we have to worry about - those foods and choices I discussed in the previous 14 tips.
Back to the topic of exercise, there are two forms: mental and physical. One might say that a valuable form of mental exercise is to concentrate on slowing down when you eat…drastically. Our brains don’t tell us we’re full for several minutes after we actually are, so by lengthening your time at the table, you’ll eat less but still be full. This is a ridiculously easy tip to implement with some practice but is extremely powerful over time. You’ll definitely want to make it a permanent habit if you want to lose weight and keep it off.
With physical exercise, we build incredible defenses against cardiovascular disease and cancer, while simultaneously ridding our bodies of the excess calories that we consume or have stored as fat. You can readily see then just how important exercise is in our bid to lose weight. You can also see how important it is to engage in some form of physical activity nearly every day. Now, here is even more motivation – exercise can be easy and fun!
A word of advice for those of you finding it tough to get started: create a rule for yourself right now regarding the TV and/or computer. In other words, you get perhaps 60 minutes per day to waste on them, but not one minute more. Set yourself a timer, and if you don’t have one, buy one pronto. Not only will life stop passing you by with some well-deserved discipline here, but you will have a much, much greater appreciation for the 60 minutes you do get to spend watching TV or being online. If you simply can’t bear to do this, then I’m afraid I can’t help you. In this situation I highly recommend that you see a professional immediately who specializes in addictive behavior, because that’s exactly what is happening.
Assuming that is not an issue and you’ve conquered the computer and television, it’s time to get started. But what if you loathe the idea of exercising in a gym? Then don’t do it! Exercise doesn’t have to be at a certain place doing a specific task. You can certainly get outstanding exercise on a treadmill or swimming in a pool, but countless other activities also burn calories, which is the ace up our sleeve to shed those unwanted pounds.
Simply going for a walk is a wonderful way to get exercise; you can walk your dog, walk to the store (or anywhere possible) instead of driving, walk with your family for fun, etc. Here are some others: clean the house, wash the car, play sports (join a league), go cross country skiing, take the stairs instead of the elevator, ride a bike, go rollerblading, mow the lawn with a push mower (not self-propelled), even have (safe) sex! There are of course countless other ideas – I have only mentioned a small fraction of them.
The point is to try and do something each and every day – it doesn’t have to be at a gym, but by all means go if you are motivated. It’s a great location to get aerobic exercise, which I highly recommend after you get comfortable with regular physical activity. I don’t advise jumping into aerobic exercise all at once if you are physically inactive in the first place. Try doing some of the everyday, aforementioned activities first and get comfortable with physical activity. Then you can make the transition into aerobic exercise later (please see your doctor first).
That’s it folks - this has been a fun series for me, but most importantly I hope that you have benefitted from it. Please let me know your thoughts, and keep me posted on your progress. I will make a final post to this particular series summarizing the 15 tips that I gave you, so that you have all of them in one spot to reference as often as you would like. Remember to have fun while you’re losing weight – life is too short not to!
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