September 14th, 2008: "Thoughts for the Day" (1)
Good morning my beloved forum.
Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.
(Benjamin Disraeli)
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There is nothing you cannot be, there is nothing you cannot do, there is nothing you cannot have.
AND, DO NOT FORGET IT!
Got that?
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An "Opinion" from Tom Venuto. The purpose here is to "read between the lines" to gain something of value:
Five Secrets to Keeping the Weight Off for Good
(By Tom Venuto)
I have very little interest these days in all the media-hyped stories of dramatic, rapid losses of body weight. “Big losers” don’t impress me, for numerous reasons. For example, weight is not fat. “Weight” could be composed of mostly lean tissue, or it could be mostly water weight. In fact, I would go a step further and point out that rapid loss of bodyweight correlates very highly with a greater chance of relapse, weight re-gain and long term failure.
So what does impress me? What gets my attention?
I pay attention to what the “long term maintainers” have to say - those are the people who have maintained an ideal weight for over a year… preferably even 2-5 years or more.
The difference between losers and maintainers
As I was researching the subject of long term weight maintenance recently, I was surprised at the huge amount of research that's already been done in this area.
One paper that caught my interest was published by Judy Kruger and colleagues in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, titled,
“Dietary and physical activity behaviors among adults successful at weight loss maintenance.”
This was not an experimental study, but a compilation of data from the “Styles Survey” which was representative of the U.S. population and asked respondants questions about strategies to aid with maintaining an ideal weight.
In this particular survey, only one-third (30.96%) of the respondents said they were successful at keeping their weight off. The researchers wanted to know the difference between the small group that was successful and the majority that were not.
Both groups reduced the amount of food they consumed, they ate smaller portions, more fruits and vegetables, fewer fatty foods and fewer sweetened beverages.
Not really any surprises there, but what we want to know most is not what losers and maintainers have in common, but what the maintainers did that the losers didn't.
Some major differences emerged between losers and maintainers:
First, a significantly higher proportion of successful maintainers reported exercising 30 minutes or more daily, and they also reported adding other physical activity to their daily schedules (recreation, sports, physical work, etc). In addition, more of the successful maintainers included weight training in their exercise regimens than did the losers.
Reducing sedentary activities (TV watching, etc) was also a significant difference between those who successfully maintained and those who did not.
The next big difference that separated the successful maintainers from the unsuccessful was in their “self-monitoring behaviors” including:
* tracking calories
* tracking body weight
* planning meals
* tracking fat
* measuring the amount of food on their plate
Unfortunately, these types of self-monitoring behaviors, especially weighing and measuring food and counting calories, are among the most avoided and even criticized weight control techniques. Some weight loss “experts” even claim that it's detrimental to count calories, weigh yourself or measure and weigh your food.
However, these self monitoring behaviors are being identified more and more frequently in the research as part of “the difference that makes the difference.” I agree, and they have always played a major role in my own Burn The Fat program.
A final difference was that people who reported self-perceived “barriers” to their success were 48-76% less likely to be a successful maintainer.
For example, they said they had no time to exercise, they were too tired to exercise or it was too hard to maintain an exercise routine. I interpret this as: the unsuccessful losers were excuse makers!
THE TOP 5 STRATEGIES TO BE A SUCCESSFUL MAINTAINER
So let’s recap and turn these research findings into some practical action steps you can apply today.
1. Increase your total daily activity level, including formal exercise as well as sports, physical work or recreational activity. Exercise improves weight loss, but more importantly, it is critical for weight maintenance.
2. Decrease sedentary recreational activities by cutting back on TV watching, computer games and web surfing. Take up physical recreation such as sports, boating, biking, walking, hiking, gardening, physical hobbies and playing with your kids, if you have them.
3. Include weight training as part of your formal exercise program, throughout the fat loss phase and even more seriously during maintenance.
4. Track and monitor everything! Count calories and nutrients, measure your portion sizes, weigh your food, plan your menus in writing and monitor your body weight and body fat percentage.
5. Avoid excuses and maintain positive beliefs and attitudes towards your environment and what you perceive as “barriers.” For example, say, “I can always make time for what is most important to me” instead of, “I don't have time to exercise.”
If you're currently on a fat loss journey, and you want to know how good your odds are for being a successful maintainer, it's pretty easy to predict using these 5 strategies. If you're not using all 5 of them yet, then when would be a good time to start today?
There are limitations to survey results such as these, including the fact that they are cross sectional, and therefore cannot prove causality. However, I believe these findings are important and significant.
Not only do they confirm previous similar studies and agree with the findings of other groups of successful maintainers (such as the National Weight Control Registry), I found that these results match precisely what I've seen among my most successful “Burn The Fat” clients.
THIS is the type of advice I'd suggest you listen to the most: Advice about how to lose body FAT, not body WEIGHT, and how to maintain an ideal bodyweight and body composition over the long haul, not how to lose weight as fast as possible.
Your friend and coach,
Tom Venuto
P.S. There was one more “difference that made the difference,” in this study, and this one may surprise you (although it didn’t surprise me). Successful maintainers were LESS likely to take over the counter diet products (pills, etc) <-----
YEP MY KIND OF DUDE!
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“The gyms you go to are crowded with guys trying to look like men, as being a man means looking the way a sculptor or an art director says.
Like Tyler says, even a souffle' looks pumped.”
(Duke_of_Nowhere
Chuck Palahniuk)
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Thoughts become words. Words become actions. Actions become habits. Habits become character. And character becomes your destiny.
(Unknown)
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To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly
(Henri L. Bergson)
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You are today where your thoughts have brought you.
You will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
(James Allen)
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What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.
(Buddha)
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Don't let the negativity given to you by the world disempower you. Instead give to yourself that which empowers you.
(Les Brown)
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They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.
(Benjamin Franklin)
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To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.
(John Churton Collins)
When getting advice on the forum and applying it, one sometimes has to modify the "contents of the advice" to adhere to feedback obtained from the body. Be
wise.
Realize and
Sanitize.
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By stretching yourself beyond your perceived level of confidence you accelerate your development of competence.
(Michael J. Gelb)
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If you don't program yourself, life will program you!
Wake up! CHANGE YOUR LIFE
(Chillen)
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“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.”
(Conrad Hilton)
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“What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning - and some of them many times over - what do you find? That you can swim? Well - life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!”
(Alfred Adler)
How many times does a child skin their knee when trying to learn to ride a bike? After a few scrapes and bruises they learn how to ride the bike to such an extent, that it becomes second nature--even without thinking.
Look at your mistakes in diet and training the same way. You are going to make mistakes in training, and dieting. You pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and learn from them, and get better. And, you do not quite.
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
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Mistakes are, after all, the
foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an
increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.”
Know what your mistakes......are not. Know what they are. Learn from them. Grow stronger. Learn your body. It will tell you what you are doing wrong and right.
I hope all of you are happy and filled with much love and joy today.
Happy lifting.
Hope you stay on course with your diet.......
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I leave you with this thought:
The best motivation is self-motivation. One person says, "I wish someone would come by and turn me on!"
What if they don't show up?
YOU have to show the UP.........END. You have to turn on the THUNDER!
And, one more thing.......
ROCK ON BROTHA AND SISTA"S!
Chillen