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Why is it that folks gripe about being overweight, out of shape, having a big gut, ass, etc., or whatever other term/phrase one wants to use, yet they insist on using only dieting techniques to mitigate the problem? Diet alone can cause one to lose weight, but diet alone won't make one fit. It'll just make one a less massive out of shape and not fit person.
A couple weeks back, my lady friend and I went to visit Momma and prepared dinner for her, ourselves and Momma's nurse (I'll call her "Mary"). During dinner, Mary, who is 50-something, asked how we manage to eat the kinds of foods we prepared for Momma and keep the weight off. Specifically, she wanted to know what diet we were on, which we replied is the "eat all day and what we want to eat" diet. She thought we were kidding.
We told her that we weren't at all pulling her leg. We literally eat whatever we want and adjust our activity in accordance with what we eat. When we eat more "non-clean" foods, we do the same resistance training and increase our aerobics before (if possible) and after (for one to three days, depending on how "bad" we were) doing so. When we predominantly eat "clean" meals -- low fat proteins, complex carbs, few to no simple sugars, minimal fats, etc. -- we go with our routine aerobic and resistance training schedule.
From there, the conversation became one of her saying she wants to lose weight and get fit and then offering one excuse after the next about why she couldn't adopt an exercise regimen that would get the fat off, or as she called it "lose weight."
Mary called me Saturday afternoon, the day after she'd worked with my trainer. "OMG! I'm sore all over." I told her that was her body Kreb's cycling to consume some of body fat into amino acids that would be used to repair the tears in her muscles and make the soreness stop. The point being, of course, that what Mary thinks is "working out" and what constitutes working out enough to burn off the fat are two very different things....building muscle burns fats so long as one doesn't actually eat enough calories to build the muscles and sustain the body using only what one daily consumes.
I can't help but think that lots, maybe most (?) folks who talk about "losing weight" and wanting to be fit really no more care about doing so than they care about whether they win the lottery. It's as though if someone were wave a magic want that makes it happen, great, but actually doing the work it takes to get fit isn't anything they are willing to do. It's as though, for all their talk about wanting to be fit and look good, they yet have an aversion to exercise.
A couple weeks back, my lady friend and I went to visit Momma and prepared dinner for her, ourselves and Momma's nurse (I'll call her "Mary"). During dinner, Mary, who is 50-something, asked how we manage to eat the kinds of foods we prepared for Momma and keep the weight off. Specifically, she wanted to know what diet we were on, which we replied is the "eat all day and what we want to eat" diet. She thought we were kidding.
We told her that we weren't at all pulling her leg. We literally eat whatever we want and adjust our activity in accordance with what we eat. When we eat more "non-clean" foods, we do the same resistance training and increase our aerobics before (if possible) and after (for one to three days, depending on how "bad" we were) doing so. When we predominantly eat "clean" meals -- low fat proteins, complex carbs, few to no simple sugars, minimal fats, etc. -- we go with our routine aerobic and resistance training schedule.
From there, the conversation became one of her saying she wants to lose weight and get fit and then offering one excuse after the next about why she couldn't adopt an exercise regimen that would get the fat off, or as she called it "lose weight."
- Not enough time --> BS! Mary has time to burn.
- She literally elder-sits Momma for eight hours a day, five days a week, which is what she's been doing for almost five years now. What does that entail? Mostly, her and Momma watching television, which really is just Mary watching it because Momma usually falls asleep after the first 20 minutes or so.
The exercise room at Momma's house has a treadmill, bike, rowing machine, steps, basic weight machines (arms, chest, legs, lats and abs) a dipping, leg raising and pull-up station, 2-30 lb. dumbells, jumping ropes, and a swimming pool. If Mary wanted to use the equipment, all she'd have to do is roll Momma into the exercise room and turn on the TV or some music and then workout. She can workout there on her own shift, before or after. And Momma gets physical therapy every other day, so there's no reason Mary couldn't workout while Momma is with the physical therapist.
- She literally elder-sits Momma for eight hours a day, five days a week, which is what she's been doing for almost five years now. What does that entail? Mostly, her and Momma watching television, which really is just Mary watching it because Momma usually falls asleep after the first 20 minutes or so.
- Doesn't want to pay to join a gym --> More BS! She doesn't have to.
- At the stage she'd be at, she doesn't need anything that isn't available in Momma's exercise room. And insofar as Mary has even on occasion borrowed stuff from Momma ranging from cookware/flatware, blankets, picnic baskets, gardening equipment, to a rope pearl necklace and matching dinner ring and earrings; there's no way she could think anyone'd object to her using Momma's home gym.
- It's too much to learn how to monitor her caloric intake --> BS
- It takes about 30 minutes worth of reading and about a week or two of practicing it, whereafter one will be able to "eyeball"/"ballpark" it well enough that one won't have to expressly count calories anymore.
Mary called me Saturday afternoon, the day after she'd worked with my trainer. "OMG! I'm sore all over." I told her that was her body Kreb's cycling to consume some of body fat into amino acids that would be used to repair the tears in her muscles and make the soreness stop. The point being, of course, that what Mary thinks is "working out" and what constitutes working out enough to burn off the fat are two very different things....building muscle burns fats so long as one doesn't actually eat enough calories to build the muscles and sustain the body using only what one daily consumes.
I can't help but think that lots, maybe most (?) folks who talk about "losing weight" and wanting to be fit really no more care about doing so than they care about whether they win the lottery. It's as though if someone were wave a magic want that makes it happen, great, but actually doing the work it takes to get fit isn't anything they are willing to do. It's as though, for all their talk about wanting to be fit and look good, they yet have an aversion to exercise.
