Exercise

Focus on the Minutiae, while planning many steps ahead.

Oh no, you did not just do that?  Really?  that?  did you?  What were you thinking? I can not believe it.  No, seriously?  you did what?

Yes, yes I did, and yes I will.

In my quest to make 2010, my year of action.  I am taking action.  I’m stopping talking about things, and I am doing.  I have not swam or biked competitively ever.  The last time I ran in a track meet was bout 18 years ago (give or take a few years).  Even when I did run, I ran mid-distance sprints.  I did not run cross country.  So, Can you guess what I did?

Congratulations! You are now registered for Chicago Triathlon, Kids Triathlon and Fleet Feet Sports SuperSprint Triathlon. Please check the event’s official website for updates: http://www.chicagotriathlon.com

Okay, I haven’t actually completed a triathlon.  However, Yes, I did sign-up, and yes I will finish.  You can cheer me on in Chicago Sunday, August 29, 2010 @ 6:00 AM local time.

I’ll be doing my best triathlete impersonation.  When I finish, I won’t be impersonating anybody.  I will be a triathlete.  I’ve been talking about it for a few years now.  I like biking.  I like swimming, and I tolerate running when I have to get away from danger.

I know, I know. If you are a reader, you may be thinking that I am violating my own advice: Do not tell me your goal, and you will succeed. However, I don’t feel I have accomplished anything yet. I know I have work to do. Signing up is just one step along the way.

I have been taking steps along the way.

How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time.

• I’ve been reading triathlon books at the bookstore (haven’t bought one yet, if you have a recommendation, let me know).
• I’ve been reading about improving my swimming form and better breathing techniques.
• I’ve been swimming once a week for the past few weeks.
• I’ve been doing some interval short runs/walk combinations to build up my running stamina.
• I’ve been doing some heart rate walking as well as some elliptical workouts regularly.
• I’ve been doing muscle focused weights every morning 6 days a week.

This is just the beginning. I’ve got 4 to 6 hours of running, biking, swimming, and weight workouts a week for thirty weeks.

So, as all the pro athletes state, focus on the next day, the next possession, the next move while thinking and planning multiple moves in advance. I focus on my next workout. I focus on my form during the weight workout. I focus on the posture while running, and the breathing while swimming. Build a strong foundation, and build up from there.

Step 1:  Do your research.  Done!

Step 2:  Do a feasibility study.  Done!

Step 3:  Register.  Done!

Next: Step 4:  Build a training and fitness workout plan.

Next: Step 5: Execute the workout plan

What’s the funny thing about my registering for a triathlon?

I don’t own a bike. I do own running shoes.  I own a swimsuit and googles, but not a wetsuit.

How do you train for a triathlon without a bike?  

Guess, I know what I want for my birthday. A Triathlon Hybrid Bike and a Swimming Wet Suit. As Lucy says in her letter to Santa, just send tens and twenties.

If you have any international distance training plans for newbies with 20 to 30 weeks, let me know.

More goals ahead. In the next few weeks, I am overloaded with work for my main job at my technology boutique consulting business.  So, my simpleweight posts will be a little farther in between.  Rest assured, I am making exercise a priority in 2010.

What’s your priority in 2010?  As always, let me know how I can help you.

Groundhog Day 2010: Make Exercise a Ritualistic Habit revisited.

In my last post, I talked about Building the Habit of Exercise, It’s such an important matter, that I want to revisit that today.

In my day job, besides being a father, husband, fitness entrepreneur, I’m a technology trainer and consultant.

As a consultant, it is often my responsibility to make recommendations and tell people what to do. (As a side note, I’m working a technology post that describes some of my recent consultations. I’ll link to it when its done.) Talking and telling people what to do is much easier than actually doing it.  For example, Do you want to cross the Grand Canyon, jump.  See, that wasn’t so difficult to tell you, but boy, you better be able to fly more than Michael Jordan ever did in order to leap the Canyon.  Actions are not so easy.

If you’ve been reading my January 2010 posts, you know that 2010 is my year of Action!  I want you to take action to meet your goals be it fitness, be it financial, be it personal, be it business, etc…  In order to do that, you must do something.

Now, Today, is Groundhog’s Day, and as such, Right now, I feel like Bill Murray’s character in the movie. I’ve been here done this before.  (Insert wooshing sound to take us back in the way back machine)

If we want to create good exercise and food habits, we have to be boring at first. We have to create rituals. We have to be consistent everyday.
–Scott circa Simpleweight 2009.

If you have not read it, I encourage you to take a moment and read  Pick and Commit Time to Exercise, 10 minutes a day. Ground Hog Day 2009 Fitness Resolutions.

Now, let’s flashback to 2010. As I look back I seem to see some similarities.  In fact, I’m in the same boat as I was last year. I want to get more lean.  I want to exercise more, and I want to lose some excess weight. I also have some other goals which we’ll talk about in the future.

So, What derailed me in the past and how can I overcome that in 2010?

For starters, in 2010, I had an accident where I hurt my left index finger pretty bad near Valentine’s day 2009 that really threw off my plans. All is okay now for the most part now, although, I still have some weird feelings every now and then when I try to open a bottle left-handed. That’s really just an excuse albeit, I’d contend a pretty good one.

The main reason for lack of 2009 Action, is I did not make exercise a priority.  It just wasn’t for me.  The consultant in me is great at giving valuable advice just as a shoe cobbler is great at fixing shoes. Yet, in the classic parable,  the shoe cobbler’s children go barefoot. The consultant sometimes has difficulty taking his own advice much less anybody else’s advice. Since 2010 is my year of action, I’ve begun to re-read my own blog posts, and I’ve begun to focus on the minutiae of habit forming fitness activities. Eat less and Exercise more.

If you look at my January 2010 calendar below, I’ve exercised.  Why?  Now, My day gets planned around exercise even if it means I’m exercising at 11:00 PM on the treadmill in the house.  At the very least, I’m doing something.  I have decided I have to, and I have decided I want to.  It’s time I’ve acted and created this big positive habit.

The thing is, exercise is not a habit yet. Even though, I’ve gone about 4 weeks of consistent exercise.

My actions have shown that I’ve done a very focused 10 minute weight workout in the morning Monday – Saturday.  Then, three to four days a week, I have done a 40 minute to 60 minute cardio workout.  I usually set the treadmill to keep my heart rate in my target fat burning zone.  The treadmill then adjusts the incline and speed to maintain that heart rate. I know that this habit is not engrained.  Its going to take me time to build the stamina and the endurance for this to become a natural daily aspect of my life.  Yet, I also know, I must schedule my day around my exercise rather than schedule my exercise around my day.

As I was talking with my wife last night, (the run 5-6 days a week type of person), she told me that in order to make exercise a strong habit, I really need to maintain a consistent exercise plan for 12 weeks or longer. I’m almost four weeks down, and I have some work to do. I believe forming the habit of exercise is fundamental in building the strength needed to improve my eating habits.

It all takes consistent, ritual, habitual action.

What actions are you taking to make healthy fitness as ritualistic as Ground Hog Day?

Building the Habit of Exercise & Why is it difficult to lose weight?

Eating, Food In. Why is it so difficult for anyone to lose weight?

Let’s look at my past eating habits as an example. I have kept a food journal on and off for the past 10 years. I’m not as fanatic about tracking my food as I am about weighing myself everyday. It shows in my waistline. I’m not what you would call obese person at all. I don’t even think I’m fat which just may be my positive thinking kicking in. At the same time, I’m not lean or ripped at all either. Why is that? Why has it been that I have tracked my weight for 10 years, and I am not lean or ripped.

Two reasons: Exercise and Eating.

1) In the past, I have not made exercise a priority. I did it when I had time. Now, if you are like me, who has time for exercise? Exercise has not really been fun for me. In the past, I have rationalized my exercise as something I have to do rather than something I want to do. I am working on changing that rational right now. So, my Food Out has not been steady. Even when I do add 30 minutes to 60 minutes of exercise a day. I’m really only adding 300 to 500 calories to my normal expenditure.

2) Eating. I love food. Seriously, I love to eat out. I love to taste food. I love the sensation, the feeling of being full is not a bad thing for me. The excitement and the social aspect of eating is super fun. When you are going to meet a friend you haven’t seen in a while, what do you do? do you go hiking? Do you say, let’s go for a bike ride? Or, maybe we should go build snowmen outside? No, you usually say lets meet for lunch or for drinks. Then you have a wonderful leisurely lunch full of fantastic conversation which makes the meal even more enjoyable. Mmm… food. Now, while tracking my food, I have realized that I can eat roughly 2200 to 2600 calories and pretty much maintain my weight. However, I often eat more like 3000 to 3600 calories. So. Obviously, I’m going to gain weight.

So, Why is it difficult for you or me to lose weight?

If you are like the typical person who eats more than they should, then not only do you have to cut your eating habits to get down to your maintaining metabolism burn. You have to cut your eating habits below it. So, for me. If I eat 3600 calories on norm (I don’t anymore, but still happens every now and again), I have to stop eating 1000 calories just to get to 2600 calories I mentioned that I would not gain weight. Now, I want to lose weight, I have to cut that even further. So, I basically have to go from 3600 calories to 1800 calories. Wow, I’m cutting my typical diet in half. That’s a thought process that I’m just not mentally prepared for. I often thought I could do some other way. I could overcome it by exercising, or I just didn’t really think about it at all.

This wouldn’t be a problem if I didn’t enjoy food so much, but as I said I love food. Its not like I eat terrible. I generally eat whole grains. I eat mostly poultry. I do love my fast-food mexican, and I will eat unhealthy at regional fast food joints. Yet, I don’t know when the last time I went to McDonalod’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, or Wendy’s. I do know the last time I had a Coca Cola was in 1999. I drink maybe two cans of pop (sprite, 7up, or Root Beer) a year. I have cut most frutcose corn syrup from my diet. I eat whole grains, brown rice, mufa, and all the other super foods you can find. I could use more vegetables and fish in my diet, but I do make sure I eat a vegetable at every dinner and almost every lunch. So, how can I eat 3600 calories? My empty calories come from too many servings and not managing my cravings.

So, for me to lose weight, I have to cut my Eating Habits. I’ve been regretting that a ton. I know it has to happen, and I’ve tried to do it with some success. In fact, knowing that cutting my food intake will have a big impact in my waistline, I have tried many times to only cut down my quantity of eating. I do lose weight that way. However, I begin to notice that I also start to feel sluggish. I start to crave more sugar to jump start my brain. I start to want more, and when I do get a special dinner, I just gorge myself (I love thanksgiving dinners). I don’t last that long, and I eventually gain most of the weight back.

So, I have also tried just exercising to lose weight. That did work as long as I was conscious enough not to increase my eating habits. It was slow going. Yet, I found that as I increased my exercising, I became hungrier. We all will. We are burning more calories, so your body says to itself that its time to get more calories. Its easy to give into.

As you can see, my tracking my eating and exercise patterns helps me to identify my trends, to learn from my own habits, and allows me to experiment to find the best possible way to maintain my own healthy body.

What do we do? If we exercise, we eat more, if we cut our calories, we crave sugar. We have to do both of them together. However, changing long ingrained habits at the same time is a sure fire way to not change any habits at all.

Knowing that changing your food consumption would have the greatest impact on your weight loss, I used to always recommend to myself and to others to start with the changing your eating habits first. After much self-experimentation combined with researching the subject, I have decided that changing my eating habits first is not the best way to go. Building the exercise habit must come first. You must build the necessary pscychological muscles to generate the increase in energy you’ll need to overcome the sluggishness that will inevitably set in when you cut your eating. Now, I know some dieticians and fitness gurus will preach if you eat the right and correct food, you shouldn’t feel sluggishness, and I agree with them to a point. But, now you are talking about changing your daily life to include exercise, changing your daily life by eating less food, and changing your daily life by eating the right kind of food. Now, we need to make three habits happen all at the same time.

You are just setting yourself up for failure. In addition, that tumbling in the tummy is still there. The psychological cues you have built up to eat are still there. The temptations will still be there to eat. So, we’ll have to build some fortitude to overcome these challenges by demonstrating and committing to ourselves the building of the exercise habit. Exercise must be something you schedule your day around.

So, here’s what I recommend you do.

1. Print a two week or monthly calendar from calendar.google.com
2. Put Circles around the days you plan to exercise right now. I suggest you circle every day. A habit is much easier to build if it is consistent and if it is every day.
3. Now, you don’t want to overdue it. So, if you have not exercised in a while just commit to walking 5 minutes the first week everyday. then walk 10 minutes every day for the second week, then walk 20 minutes every day for the third week, then walk 30 minutes every day for the fourth week.
4. When you exercise, put an X through the circled day.
5. Build momentum!  Soon, you will not want to break the chain of days that you’ve built up.  It’s a snowball.  As you continue going, you’ll want to keep doing it.

Now, if you are like me, and walking or running is not that difficult to do. Don’t overdue it. Mix it up. Do Weight Training 4 of the days, and Walk/Run 3 of the days. or some mixture. Just be ACTIVE everyday. ACTION!

As I said before, I don’t want you to over do it. So, If that’s too much for you, then add in some rest days. Yet, I still want you to pretend like you are exercising. So, let’s say you are planning on weight training Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You also plan on cardio training on Tuesday and Thursday. You want to rest on Saturday and Sunday. I have no problem with that plan. Here’s what you do on Saturday and Sunday. You set aside the time as if you were going to exercise. Then, I want you to do mental exercises, stretching, yoga, or meditation exercise. You just need to do something to keep that exercise habit from weakening. They don’t call the weekend for nothing.

We’ll talk about building the endurance for changing your eating habits in a future post.

So, Take note. February is almost here.  If your New Year’s Resolution was to stay fit. There is no time to stop and no time to rest. We must continue the year with ACTION.

What can we do to help you ACT on your weight loss goals?

Tack, Tick, Tick, Tick – Metronome Interval Strength Training Hack.

Use a Metronome for Interval Strength Training

I recently began interval strength training as a form of exercise.

For those new to different types of workouts, interval strength training is a form of circuit training. Basically, I perform a group of weight training exercises in sequence with little rest in between. I target different muscle groups, and I perform the circuit of exercises twice with little to no rest between exercises.

At first, Interval Strength Training was really difficult for me to do. Why?

I had to think:

• What exercise I was doing?
• How do I do that exercise?
• What exercise is next?
• How many repetitions was I on?
• Where am I in the 4 second cadence?
• Am I using the correct form?
• Did I just hear my 2 year old daughter dive into the toilet?
• Who is going to sign up for Simpleweight.com next?
• Will the Cubs win the World Series?
• Man this exercise is burning pretty good now.
• Will the …. as you can see too much to think about, my mind starts to wander, and I just get lost.

With interval strength training, you use a cadence to lift weights in a rhythm. While contracting the muscle, I count 2 seconds and then hold 2 seconds, then while releasing the muscle, I count 4 seconds, repeat for 10 repetitions with no rest.

For example, for a bicep curl, I count 2 seconds up, hold 2 seconds, then count 4 seconds slowly releasing the bicep curl back down to the resting position. I immediately lift again using the same cadence until I reach 10 in the set and move on to the next exercise in the circuit with little or no rest (30 seconds or less) in between sets.

As I mentioned before, the problem I had was I got lost in all the counting and thinking.

UP, Two, Three. Four
DOWN, Two, Three, Four
UP, Two, Three, Four
DOWN, Two, Three, Four
What Repetition am I on?

How do I stop all this counting?

I use a metronome to maintain the cadence. A metronome ticks at whatever rate you want. I set my metronome to 60 beats per minute and let it tick off my cadence. Google Metronome, and you’ll find all sorts of web-based metronomes to use.  Of course you could use an iphone app as your metronome of choice. Of course you can use a loud clock or watch, but I find a metronome better especially a digital metronome that allows you to set the beats per measure.

See, you can set a digital metronome to 4 beats per measure. which means:

Tack, Tick, Tick, Tick.
Tack, Tick, Tick, Tick.
2, Tick, Tick, Tick.
Down, Tick, Tick, Tick.
3, Tick, Tick, Tick.
Down, Tick, Tick, Tick.
4, Tick, Tick, Tick.
etc…

If you are using the Colorado Experiment workout, described by Tim Ferris, which uses a 5 second cadence, just set the metronome for 5 beats per measure.

Whatever cadence you use, your mind is free to count the number of repetitions while the metronome does the work of keeping your cadence straight.

Pick and Commit Time to Exercise, 10 minutes a day. Ground Hog Day 2009 Fitness Resolutions.

Groundhog Day is here and gone, but there is still time for you to resolve to be better.

David Seah, the first person I know to talk about Groundhog Day Resolutions explains his GDR ideas. Leo at Zen Habits talks about Groundhog day resolutions too. It is in the air!  So, is 6 more weeks of winter regardless of whether the Groundhog saw his shadow or not.  (Hint:  the First Day of spring is:  March 20.  Count the number of weeks from Feb 2, 2009 to March 20, 2009)

So, What is Simpleweight’s Ground Hog Day Resolutions?

Number one: I know I can do a better job at convincing you (and I) that we can and will achieve our fitness goals. I know it, and I will help you to know it! It is imperative!

Number two, and more importantly: Our GroundHog Day Goal is to become physically fit. That Goal is too BIG! however, we need it that way. As I wrote in my previous Groundhog day post, Begin With The End In Mind, we must become absolutely certain where we want to go. So certain, that we believe and know it is inevitable. Remove the fat talk from our consciousness and replace it with fitness talk.

Some suggestions about goals:

• Break out a map (a piece a paper).
• Draw a line of where you are to where you want to go.
  • If you don’t know where you are, then write down everything about where you are now.
  • If you don’t know where you want to go, then write down everything about where you want to go.
  • Then keep that in your mind.
• Then, break this big elephant into small bites. We must start small in order to make good habits.

As we begin to create our new selves, creation and being creative is a habit we must form just as a our fitness habits must replace our fat habits. So, how do we build this creative habit? In Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, the first step she talks about is the “Rituals of Preparation”:

When you have

• selected the environment that works for you,
• developed the start-up ritual that impels you forward every day,
• faced down your fears,
• and put your distractions in the proper place,

you have cleared the first hurdle. you have begun to prepare to begin.

Tywla Tharp

Wow. That is a lot in just one paragraph. I added the list and bold for emphasis. In order to create creative habits, we must make rituals. Rituals are things we feel impelled to do consistently. For some, that means to attend church everyday or every week. For others, it means praying five times a day. For basketball players, it means shooting your free throws in the exact same form every time. If we want to create good exercise and food habits, we have to be boring at first. We have to create rituals. We have to be consistent everyday.

Homework exercise:

• Decide what time of day you are going to exercise every day for the next week.
• Decide how much time you plan to exercise.
• Decide what type of exercises.
• Decide where you are going to exercise.
• Decide why are you exercising.
• Write this time and what you plan to do on 7 different 3 x 5 index cards.
• Put the index cards next to your alarm or on your mirror or somewhere you will have to see them!
• Set your phone alarm, set your watch alarm, set your clock alarm, set your computer alarm, and set your spouse alarm. Do whatever you have to do to meet this goal for the next 7 days! Each Day, pick up your card, go to the appropriate place and exercise!

Homework Hints:

Make this exercise time a ritual that is so rigid and so small, that it’s almost impossible for you to fail. Failure will not be possible. Guess, what we will do the following week. Increase the time and keep increasing it until we get to a net-caloric effect, but for now, we start small. We have to.

Mental thoughts: people who are not committed to exercise will ask themselves, how can I fit exercise into my day tomorrow. People who are committed ask themselves, how can I plan my day around my exercise time. Are you committed? Do you really want to become physical fit and achieve your ideal body? If so, change the questions you ask yourself.

Resist the urge to start exercising 60 minutes everyday. You are changing habits. People gradually become out of shape and sedentary. When we come out of the womb, we’re not super fat overweight babies. As we grow, most children are naturally active and moving around. We gradually learn to become sedentary, so we have to gradually learn to become active. If we do it too quick, we generally see people fail and over-whelmed. We know failure is not an option. So, start slow.

Homework Recommendations:

For those of you who need recommendations, because you don’t know where to start.

• When to exercise?: First Thing you do when you get out of bed is to exercise (you might need to use the restroom, take a drink of water, and put your exercise clothes on and then exercise!)
• How long? 10 minutes.
• What Exercises? Anything. Do Jumping Jacks for ten minutes, Do stretching. Do Yoga, Run in place. I don’t care as long as it is something physical and you are pushing your body beyond what it normally can do. The goal is really to make the exercise a habit. If you need more stringent recommendations, I think you’ll see the most benefits from High Intensity Strength Training (we’re not talking heavy weight lifting, we’re talking weights that make you tired when you get to repetitions 7, 8, or 9.) Possible Exercise plans: The pattern that Jorge Cruise uses in the 8 minute workout is an excellent starter plan. Also, the Fitness Ladder Exercises from the Hacker’s Diet is another excellent quick starter workout. Remember pick something you love. So, if you love being outside, then go for a 10 minute walk.

I was reminded today, that big websites started out small. The first Amazon was nothing in comparison to what it is today. The first city began with a one room meeting place and then evolved into skyscrapers. Our Fitness habits will start small, we’ll build a strong foundation of habits that we’ll layer on top of. We’ll add biometric habits, eating habits, and more exercise habits all of which will make up the Slow Weigh to long term weight management and weight loss.

Dream Big, Start Small, and Continually take action! What’s your Ground Hog Day Resolutions?

Weight Loss – Back to the Basics

I recently read a ChangeThis manifesto, The New Time Management: Simply Focus on the Fundamentals, and Toss Away the Tips, By Francis Wade.

Francis describes 7 fundamentals he believes are critical for any professional to master Time Management. He makes the comparison to athletes who have to refocus on the fundamentals. For example:

• Tiger Woods going to practice and making 1000’s of putts a day.
• Or a Professional basketball player, such as Michael Jordan, taking 1000’s of free throws or jump shots a day.
• Or Maria Sharapova, a tennis player who takes thousands of tennis swings a day.

All of these all stars, or professional athletes, practice fundamentals deliberately every day.

Can we stop there? As a hobby trombonist taking lessons with Professional Trombone Performers, They all stress fundamental practices such as learning scales, breathing exercises, note flexibility studies, and so on and so forth.

Image: 'THE TENNIS SESSIONS' www.flickr.com/photos/42369167@N00/711672576

Let’s rephrase Francis Wade’s Title:

Weight Loss Manifesto: The New Weight Loss System: Simply Focus on the Fundamentals and Throw Away the Tips.

Every day, we hear tips in the form of fad diets. Flat Belly MUFA Diet, South Beach Diet, Atkins Protein Diet, Mediterranean Diet, French Diet, Don’t Eat Anything Diet, See Food Diet, Peanut Butter and Jelly Diet, I could go on and on. As my brother says, in You don’t diet? you have a diet – now make it a good one.

What’s the deal? What should I do with all these fad diets? Francis Wade Suggest when it comes to Time Management Systems:

…The result is that the users of different systems are either raving fans, or failed adopters.
The fans are the lucky ones whose habits easily fit into the new system they are learning. The failures are those who get fired up for a few days, and after a week are forced to go back to their old habits.

My observation is that the vast majority of professionals take a bit from here and a bit from there to craft their own unique set of habits. Unfortunately, they do so without understanding the fundamentals, and the results in some cases are disastrous.

Their system of habits doesn’t work, but they don’t know why. It allows stress, missed appointments and forgotten commitments to occur too frequently, but they don’t know where to start to fix their systems.
…
Luckily for them, the 7 fundamental practices are perfect for the job or fixing, upgrading or adapting personal time management systems.

When a professional athlete’s game deteriorates, which happens to all of them at some point in time, they go back to the fundamentals. So must a working professional.

I would add so must an everyday healthy person. Everyday, we must be cognizant of our diet and exercise choices and focus on the fundamentals.

Often times, people start a new diet, see results at first, but then fall off the wagon. Why? Because that system doesn’t fit YOU. Everyone is different. Just as a professional must pick and choose what items fit in their own time management habits, we as healthy eaters must pick and choose habits that fit our own bodies and minds.

Okay, we understand.  Focus on the Fundamentals: What are the fundamentals of a becoming physically fit the abridged version?

Monitor your Biometrics at regular intervals

Possible examples:

• weigh yourself everyday,
• measure your waist line every week
• Record your BMI every month
• take a picture of yourself every month

Exercise, and be mindful about the exercise

Find an exercise you like and do it effortlessly.

• Some people are Artists, I say then paint building sized murals that require dexterity.
• Some people are outdoors people, I say hike in the forest, or garden.
• Some people are shoppers, then I say go to the biggest mall you can find and walk and walk, and walk as much as you can as often as you can.
• Do it everyday.

Eat Standard Portions

Healthy Eating has its own set of Fundamentals which we’ll talk about sometime in the future. Generally, I’d say:

• Eat Protein and MUFA at every meal
• Eat Plants as much as possible.
• Learn what the correct portion is, and stick to it!

Retrain your Emotional and Social Eating

How do we do this?

• Keep a Food Diary.  By keeping a food diary and writing down what you eat before you eat it, You’ll be mindful of what you are doing.  This will you stop binges.
• Making your Weight Management Public and Social.  By sharing your goals with your friends, you are putting peer pressure on yourself.  It’s amazing how many people will not want to let someone else down, but they’ll let themselves down all the time.  In other words, if you tell your friend you are not going to eat ice cream today.  You don’t want to let that friend down.  If you tell yourself and only yourself, you are more likely to break that self promise since it is not out in the public.
• Become a Positive person.

Some diets say exercise 8 minutes a day. Some diets say eat 60% protein, 30% fat, 10% carbs. Some Diets say eat fish and oil.  Some diets suggest walking 10,00 steps a day. Whatever it is, Focus on the Fundamentals.

Since Weight Loss is personal and everyone is different,  What are your fundamentals?

Pedometer Field Test by Money Magazine

Sorry, I have not blogged in a while.  I have come to the conclusion that blogging is more difficult than it looks.  It is difficult to write consistent good content when one has other daily tasks. Consequently, I plan on blogging when I have good content. I am not going to blog just to blog. I will try to build a habit to have good content every week. It will take a while to build that habit.

I am a big pedometer user.  For a while, I wore a pedometer everywhere I went to track how many steps.  My goal was to walk 10,000 steps a day as that’s what some experts believe keep a healthy heart. 

After consistent use of a pedometer, I came to the conclusion, that the only way I could achieve 10,000 steps was to walk at least 30 to 45 minutes a day. This gives me about 6,000 steps from the walking and 4,000 steps from my day-to-day movement. 

I would not have known that had I not measured and tracked my progress. I have mentioned a few times: It is imperative to track your progress and watch trends. With your information, you can make smarter decisions with your activity. 

Here’s the abstract of Money Magazine’s Pedometer Field Test

1. Money Magazine field test winner
   Grade: A- Omron Pocket HJ-720ITC – $50
2. Grade: B  Oregon Scientific PE823 – $20
3. Grade: B- New Balance VIA Wrist Pedometer by Highgear – $60
4. Grade: C  Walk4Life WFL Elite – $29
5. Grade: C- New Lifestyles NL-2000 Activity Monitor – $60

What’s my Favorite pedometer?

Thank you for asking. my favorite pedometer is the: Omron HJ-112 Digital Pedometer. You can find it at Amazon for about $20. The pedometer is light, accurate, and easy to use. It’d say it’s the little brother of the Money Magazine’s field test winner.

An excellent way to track your exercise activity is to combine a good pedometer with Simpleweight’s exercise tracking.

Patent Search Diet

Did you know you could use Google Patent Search to diet?

That’s what I learned at lifehack.org. I found an article Kyle wrote describing Unconventional Diet Tips, Lose 50 lbs in 3 months. First, the tips are worth mentioning:

1. Buy a Digital Scale
2. Weigh yourself everyday
3. Drink 8 glasses of water everyday
4. Make your Diet Public
5. Don’t Diet on the weekends
6. Don’t sacrifice your life for your diet
7. Make Small Changes
8. Gain perspective by understanding the fractions
9. Rationalize your workouts
10. Have a red flag weight

Lastly, for the curious out there…I followed the Weight Watchers diet. I did not pay for the diet, nor did I go to meetings. I found out all the information about the diet on-line. The first place to look is at their patent.

All well known diets are available via Google Patent Search.

Author: Kyle Pott, Source: lifehack.org

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