I'll Give You A Hint!
Losing weight, or more importantly, losing body fat is an obsession in North America. Doesn't matter where you turn, weight loss and fat loss ads are everywhere. Today, almost everyone is more educated about nutrition and health than ever before, yet our population continues to punch yet another hole in their belt to encompass their growing bellies. Kind of ironic... like the more we try to learn about it, the worse the problem becomes... strange... or is it?
Selling You The Solution
So yes, there's a problem that in my opinion was partly created by the food industry, but now, as if selling you 2L Super Big Gulps with over a thousand calories of pure sugar wasn't bad enough, the same people who got you fat (the food industry) are trying to sell you the solution.
HUGE RED FLAG!
It's crazy! I was renting a movie not too long ago and when I got to the cash, you know how they have chocolate bars and chips and all that set up as impulse buys, well there was this chocolate bar and when I saw it I almost lost it!
Here's this damn thing, with huge letters all across it advertising the fact that it only has 80 calories per bar. But the killer is that its price... wait for it... $3.99
Four fricken dollars for 80 calories? I can head down to McDonalds and get at least 500 calories for a measly 4 bux!
What a rip off!
Yet people buy this crap all the time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting 500 cal at McFatties is any better... but I'm just trying to say that big industry is ripping you off and making you fatter in the process.
They can give you 1/5th of the calories and charge triple the amount. Huh? Who the hell ever agreed to that?
Well you do every time you buy this garbage.
If you're eating properly, you can eat a REGULAR old chocolate bar from time to time (remember the 90/10 rule) and it won't end up as stored fat at all.
The problem is that when you're wired to eat more calories, spending $4 on an 80 calorie chocolate bar does NOTHING to solve the problem. Want to solve the problem? Stop buying crap,eat good, natural foods, and exercise more!
Now that I've vented a little, I feel better. Here's the Top Five Reasons You Aren't Losing Weight and How to Fix it!
Starting with number 5.
5. Nutritional Knowledge - Paralysis by Analysis!
You do NOT have to know much about nutrition to lose weight. Our grandparents knew virtually nothing about nutrition and when it was necessary, they could lose weight. How? They moved more and ate less!
One of the main reasons for our society's growing obesity issue is that people who need to lose weight hide behind searching for the HOLY GRAIL diet that will guarantee them the most healthy and effective way to lose weight.
So instead of grabbing an apple and heading out for a bike ride, they get on the internet and spend hours trying to "learn" as much as they can about how to lose weight and get in shape.
Then, hours later, they're famished, and they raid their fridge and plow back a "low fat" bagel with "zero sugar added" jam... because that's what they happened to read on the latest diet-guru website. Of course they also vow to get back to the gym on Monday.
Folks.. acquiring information does NOT produce RESULTS! Only ACTION produces RESULTS!
Of course I'm not telling you to stop reading my newsletters as a trusted source of information is important to have when you really need it! ;)
4. Cooking Ability
Before I met my wife, I basically ate everything just boiled or baked with not much else than salt and pepper for flavour. I ate what I was supposed to, because I WANTED the results you get from eating the right stuff.
Of course, now, food tastes much better and I don't think I could ever go back to eating tuna straight out of the can... or worse.. mixed with my oats as I would often do.
But if you're spoiled and food has to taste good or you won't eat it, then learn how to cook nutritious meals. Prepping and cooking your foods, and then preparing meals doesn't have to take as long as you might think.
I've set up a Kitchen Bootcamp at the Urban Element, and if you haven't booked your spot yet, please email me ASAP to reserve your spot! We'll be covering meal planning, groceries, preparing, storing, and finally meal preparing along with many different spice combinations for different types of dishes.
While cooking ability isn't a MUST for losing weight, it definitely has to be in my Top 5!
3. Not Being Honest With Yourself!
As a coach, I hear excuses all the time. And the only thing worse than hearing other people's excuses is having to hear your own.
"I only drink zero-sugar juice"
"I'm starting to workout again next week so eating (whatever junk) this won't matter"
"I'm big boned"
"My metabolism is slow"
These are just a few examples of excuses people make all the time.
You can justify them all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that it's an excuse. In this life you can either have excuses or you can have results, but understand, they're on opposite sides of a balance.
So if there's even just a tiny part of you deep inside that actually wants results... you have to STOP MAKING EXCUSES!
2. Fear of Hard Work!
This one has to trump them all... well, all except for the number one reason that is. If you head over to the recumbent bicycle at the gym, and "very carefully" set yourself at 60% of your maximum heart rate to ensure that you don't "accidentally" get out of the fat burning zone, then I'm sorry, but you'll probably always be battling your weight.
Yes, it will work for some people, and hey, good for you if you can get what you want with the bare minimum effort, and if you are able to lose weight like this, the only thing you'll lack is any real fitness and conditioning levels. But I don't imagine you'd care anyway.
If you are serious about developing a powerful, well conditioned, and LEAN MEAN FAT-LESS MACHINE, then stop worrying about whether you leave the fat burning zone, and see how hard you can work for a change.
If you look like this after you finish training, you can bet your sweet tooth that you'll get the body you want!
Nothing, and I repeat, Nothing Beats Hard Work!
1. You CANNOT Out-Train A Bad Diet!
The 90/10 rule is a beautiful thing. It allows us to eat anything we want in reasonable quantities and still lose weight. Gone are the days when you must be ultra strict to ever lose any weight.
The truth is, there never was a time when you actually had to be ultra strict to lose any weight. We know now more than anything the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT part of losing weight is consistency of your actions.
That said, if you are consistently eating badly, or you're actually following the 70/30 rule, or worse yet the 60/40 or any other combination... YOU WONT GET WHAT YOU WANT!
It is IMPOSSIBLE to train enough to make up for a bad diet. So if you've been having dessert every night, or eating crap cafeteria food every day at lunch, or eating well Monday-Thursday, then binging from Friday-Sunday... you just won't get the results you're after!
Time to be brutally honest with yourself. Use a food journal and keep track of what you eat for a while and it will stare you back in the face, as plain as day. Once you can admit that you're eating the wrong stuff too much, the 90/10 rule is just NOT that hard to switch to. You still get some goods on a regular basis, and you'll get the body you want!
Is that too much to ask?
BONUS REASON
Of course no top 5 list of why you aren't losing weight would be complete without mention of exercise. The type of exercise you do can make a huge difference in whether you lose weight or not.
If you're using the latest fitness equipment gimmick, you'll likely fall off as fast as you hopped on. And while treadmills, lifecycles, and elliptical machines can help you burn off stored body fat, you'll spend more than twice as much time on them to burn just half the body fat you would if you performed high-intensity intervals with full body exercises.
If you've been hearing about this high-intensity interval training stuff for a while now but aren't really sure what the fuss is all about, I run a bootcamp that is easily the toughest thing you'll ever do, but NOTHING and I mean NOTHING will strip the fat off you as quickly!
Don't believe me? I'll give you three completely free sessions to try it and see for yourself. Even after that, once you join, I'll give you a full 30 days in case you change your mind.
If you want to try it, head over to www.YourBeachBodyBootCamp.com and sign-up for your free trial. If you've already entered your name and email at the bootcamp website but have not activated your trial, go to www.shanmillerfitness.com/bootcamp/trial.php and get started today!
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