Weightloss: Why you aren't losing
Weight loss is a touchy subject. People often get offended when you make suggestions on what works or what doesn’t. I’m not shying away from that today, so if you are easily offended then please, help yourself and read on. I’m not talking about the nuisances that exist within the fitness industry and the outlier strategies that are often used as “click bait” or used to sell products. Today I’m just going to talk about the truth.
The best way for me to paint the picture of successful weight loss is to use an example that most anyone can or has experienced. Let’s pretend for a moment that you are assigned a test. Prior to this test the teacher clearly communicates that 80% of the test is on spelling and 20% of the test is on mathematics. How would you partition your effort, time and focus on preparing for the test? Would you spend more than 50-60% of your time and energy on preparing for math? I surely hope not, as logically this would be a waste or an error when you know that the bulk of your grade will come from the spelling portion. Don’t you think that you should allot the equal amount of time on each subject as it is reflected in value on the test? I do. Yet for some reason most people fail at this exact problem when it comes to weight loss.
We know that weight loss and living a healthy and fit lifestyle is literally based on 80% nutrition and 20% training. For some reason as humans and consumers we are driven to focus more on what we “do” vs. what we actually put into our bodies, we have it backwards. Why aren’t we obsessed with everything that goes into our body? Why aren’t we concerned with both short term and long term effects? Why don’t we ask where our food comes from? Who made it? What is inside of it? Does it have a shelf life? Is it actually food? What will happen to my cells and body as result of the consumption of this exact food and what it is made of? As a society we are getting better at this and the conversations are now being had to some degree. But my goal is for you personally to account for that in your life.
Are you spending more time and energy on learning the newest training methodologies that will help you lose weight or are you learning about real, whole foods, where you should get them, how much of them you should eat, and spending time and effort in how you prepare them so you can be successful? Likely you are spending more time and money on the training side, but again this is backwards. Put your effort and resources in learning about “fueling” your body. This goes into the real foods you grow personally or purchase from the store and all the way to the supplements you choose to use. You should be asking what your fuel is doing for you and why you are consuming it. When you start having these thoughts and collecting answers on them you will start having success in living more healthily, understanding your body, gaining muscle and losing weight.
Most people aren’t successful in losing weight because they can’t identify fake food from real food. They don’t understand that they should eat fresh, real, raw food (veggies and fruits) as much as possible. They don’t understand that eating healthy isn’t eating expensive. Trust me I pay attention, I literally just bought 8 organic oranges and 2 bundles of organic bananas for $4.00 total, that’s a good amount of food when you hold it in your hands, not to mention that spinach is $1.99 a bag and most other produce is around the same price point. The downside is that you have to eat it, you have to prepare in a way you enjoy and yes you can’t go down the isles and waste your dollars on chips, crackers, popcorn, cereal, candy bars, soda, juice and all the other processed and sugar ladened foods that are inhibiting your goals. Do your homework, study, read, learn and spend less time worrying about what you do in the gym. Both are important, but I can safely guess that your interest is likely one sided and it’s on the opposite side of where it should be. Become a foodie.