My Fitness Story: Format
I’ve had several people ask me about “getting into shape”. It’s a problem with which I have a lot of experience, but I think that what has prompted people to ask me about it lately is the transformation I have undergone from January 1-March 1, 2011. My response, however, isn’t to provide a step-by-step program, because my success wasn’t a program; rather, it was the result of a lot of research, experimenting, and effort. That shouldn’t dishearten anyone, because (to be quite honest) I think what causes most diets, exercise plans, and fitness programs, in general, to fail for most people is simple: you have to take ownership.
Why Programs Fail
There are lots of fantastic exercise programs out there, and I’m not going to name them because almost all of them work for someone. And every one of them doesn’t work for lots more people. Even the programs I have used that didn’t work for me (despite having worked for others) weren’t failures because of the programs, themselves- I was the failure. That’s probably a little difficult for some people to swallow and I’m really sorry to say it, but our culture is filled with real wusses. No one wants to take ownership and, from the very beginning of the program, they set themselves up for (a) non-ownership and (b) failure. They want to blame someone else; in fact, our culture is so terrified of ruining someone’s self-esteem that we lie to them and allow them to lie to themselves. It’s always a problem of theory- the program was flawed or just didn’t fit to a particular lifestyle.
As an example of what I’m talking about, I’ll use the P90X program. If you can’t go to a gym, if you know very little about exercise, and/or if you do better having someone (even someone on video) instruct and motivate you, then this program should work. From the beginning, then, P90X was destined to fail. I could easily get to a gym (and thus, when I didn’t want to work out during one of the days, I would just think how silly it was to work out at home, what a waste of time, etc.); I have a long history of the study and practice of exercise; and finally, I am not a follower. Moreover, as soon as I saw the “meal plans”, I decided I wasn’t going to follow them: too strict, not enough options, no way I would enjoy it.
Thus, from the beginning, I had set myself up for failure. I wasn’t buying totally into the program and I was already not taking ownership (not by my definition of the term). Ownership, to me, is a total engrossment with the subject. When I own something, I know everything about it; I integrate it into my life; I study it, find its flaws and correct them; and I seek, above all else, to adapt my life to it in meaningful ways. I did none of those things with P90X (or any of the other programs I tried from roughly 2002 to mid-2010.
The second major reason a program fails is that it just doesn’t fit into your life and schedule. For over a decade, I inundated myself with the idea that eating every two to three house (a.k.a. grazing) was necessary for various reasons: to control appetite, to keep the metabolic fire “stoked” (the most erroneous metaphor in fitness); to prevent overeating; and the list goes on and on. AND ON. So, here is how my day went (typically):
- 6 AM: whole wheat toast (100 calories) & yogurt (100 calories)
- 8 AM: couldn’t eat, teaching, already hungry
- 10 AM: see above
- 12 PM: tuna/lean meat, baked chips (approximately 500 calories)
- 2 PM: see 8 & 10 AM
- 4 PM: protein shake or lean meat (approximately 300 calories)
- 6 PM: dinner (1000 calories or more)
- 8 PM: dessert (200-300 calories)
And that was a typical day. Over 2200 calories. At 180 pounds lean, I could handle 2200-2300 calories, so that day isn’t bad until (as you will see later) the math starts to catch up with you. For one, I am probably UNDERestimating my calorie intake. For another, two or three days a week something would happen: going out, ordering in, a special occasion. Add in an extra 1000 calories. Not a big deal? As you’ll see in my mathematic primer, it matters to your body. Adding 1000 calories (approximately .30 lbs of fat) matters when your body never experiences a caloric deficit that allows it to get rid of that excess. Multiply that “special” extra 1000 calories over a two week period, so multiply by three or four, and BOOOOOOM! An extra pound of fat. Don’t worry, I’ll go into more detail later. But the above is probably the single most profound realization I had in my fitness journey. When I realized it, I suddenly knew how to fix it.
The original point of this section was to point out that you have to find a program that fits your life and schedule. Obviously, I hadn’t done that above. And every time you go to a new program that won’t fit how you do you… you’ll fail, too. It’s either change HOW you do things or change your life so that how you do things will work.
to be continued!
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011