Everywhere we look today, people are in a hurry. Rushing to work, rushing to school, rushing their kids off to after school activities. We have become a society of hurried and stressed people. And, nowhere is it more prevalent that in the health/wellness industry or in the exercise/diet world. Everyone is looking for instant results, the instant fix, the simple fix without putting in the work. Well, if it was that easy everyone would look and feel wonderful. If it was easy, obesity, chronic diseases and sedentary lifestyle wouldn’t abound.

THE DIET GAME:

The diet game is one that is riddled with quick fixes. Everywhere you turn there is the miracle diet, the miracle pill, the miracle treatment or surgery that will turn you into the god or goddess overnight with very little effort or work on your part. Just look around at all the diet centers in this City (Sure Slim, Weight Watchers, Dr. Bernstein, Jenny Craig to name just a few) and all doing a booming business. So many people looking for the easy fix, the quick fix. The truth is that all of these places will work – in the short term. They all say you will lose weight – and you will if you follow their plan. No one says it will be a healthy weight loss. No one says you will lose the weight and keep it off.

The sad truth is that desperate people take desperate measures (starvation diets, no exercise, packaged food products); all is a desperate attempt for this one last diet to work. The problem with most of these quick fix diet plans is they don’t teach you what to do for the rest of your life. Yes you will lose weight. And you will lose it quickly, which in itself is not healthy nor sustainable (but that is a whole other soapbox). But, the problem is what happens when you have reach your “goal weight” and you begin to resume normal eating patterns? Most don’t know what that is, so they revert back to old habits and presto – what happens? The weight comes back on and more.

Dieting without proper nutrition and education is a receipe for failure. Dieting without exercise teaches nothing about sustaining a weight loss for the rest of your life.

There is only one recipe for success in the game of weight loss – Proper nutrition and education provided by a qualified Registered Dietician combined with a well balanced strength and aerobic conditioning program again provided by a fitness professional.

THE EXERCISE GAME:

The other aspect of wellness that everyone seems to be in a hurry is in the exercise department. Proper exercise technique, whether it be kettlebell training, weight training or whatever acitivity you choose – takes time to learn and it takes time to teach. Sadly most adults do not move well. They have developed muscle imbalances, asymmetries leading to faulty movement patterns. Tight and inflexible muscles, decreased range of motion through joints leads to the inability to move correctly. This has a huge impact on someones’ ability to master proper exercise technique (or the golf swing for that matter).

With these faulty movement patterns prevalent in most of us, teaching exercise technique takes time. It may sometimes take several months to learn a proper deadlift or the ability to hinge the hip. It may take months to learn core stability as well as scapular stability to perform proper exercise movements. It is impossible to teach or expect someone to master a movement, whether it be a basic squat or push up in a hour or two when their very own bodies are not even capable of performing it no matter how hard they try. The job of the fitness professional is to determine the imbalances/asymmetries and correct them allowing proper movement to take over. This takes times to correct. You cannot undo months or even years of postural problems/movement imbalances in one or two sessions in the gym.

Fitness professionals as well as clients need to be patient in learning and executing proper exercise form. It will come. It will happen. One day everything will just click and presto the perfect deadlift or perfect push up will be executed. But to expect to teach or learn correct movement patterns in a hour or two is inappropriate for the majority of people. As fitness professionals, we are committed to the long term and we hope our clients are as well.

Bottom line – be patient. Good things come to those who wait. Determine your goal, plot your path or course of action, be consistent, be patient and work hard. Your goals will be realized and better still – that goal will be permanent!

Till next time,
Narina

By Melonie Dodaro

The body is the physical form and machine that’s instructed daily by our dominant thoughts and actions. The body carries out actions based on directions from the conscious and subconscious mind. It’s the evidence of what’s held in the mind.

For example, let’s say you decide you want to be a public speaker. If you’re nervous and worry about saying something inappropriate, or are concerned that someone will make fun of you, those thoughts will manifest in the body as sweaty palms, embarrassment, and stumbling over words. However, if you spend time imagining how positively your audience will respond, how articulate you’ll sound, and how energized you’ll feel, that will manifest in the body as well. You’ll be confident and filled with energy and your audience can’t help but respond positively to you.

When we intentionally change the thoughts to which we give the most focus and energy, and repeat these thoughts until they become desires, they are impressed on our sub-conscious mind and become emotions. Our bodies put those emotions into action and our actions become our results.

A paradigm, which can be a habit, belief, attitude, pattern, work practice or expectation, gives you the guidance to interpret and approach the world around you. When you examine your paradigms around weight, you may find your current results aren’t what you want. Your objective of reaching your “ideal weight” is to move your conditioned results into alignment with what you want. For instance, let’s say you used to drink one glass of red wine every evening, but to reach your ideal weight you have to change that to a glass of water with a lemon slice instead. This is a paradigm shift.

We all know only too well what we have to do to be at our ideal weight; the problem is that we aren’t doing it! The secret to success is to gain an understanding of why we’re not doing it-what the primary cause of the problem is-and then correct it. Remember when you were growing up and your teacher or parent would say, “Why do you do that?” and you probably said, “I don’t know” and then your mom would say, “What do you mean you don’t know? You know you weren’t supposed to do that.” At that point, you dropped your head and would say “Yup, I know.” The crazy thing is that we still carry this silly, “I don’t know” concept into our adult life!

We all do things we know we shouldn’t do-things we don’t want to do-and we do them anyway. We’re conditioned to believe that it’s our behavior that’s causing the unwanted results in our life. That’s really not true; we’re forever attempting to change those behavior patterns: eat less, eliminate junk foods, and exercise more often-all without success.

There are millions of people in every country in the world going on different diets all the time to lose weight. These people aren’t trying to reach their “ideal weight”; their whole obsession is with “losing weight.” There’s a dual problem with this. First, they believe that food-eating the wrong food or eating too much food-is the primary cause of their problem, which isn’t true. Their eating habits are a secondary cause of their problem; it’s the primary cause that needs to be corrected if the results are going to permanently change. Second, when you lose anything-it doesn’t matter what it is, from your car keys to those 20 pounds-you’re subconsciously programmed to immediately begin to look for it. Unfortunately, when it comes to weight loss, you find it.

To experience any kind of lasting success with weight loss, you must address the primary cause of your problem, which stems from your thoughts and beliefs. Once you deal with the primary cause, you’ll find releasing excess weight and keeping it off will be easier than ever.

About the Author

Melonie Dodaro is a weight loss expert, author and speaker. Her approach to weight loss incorporates showing people how to master their mind-body connection for lasting results. To learn more tips and techniques like the ones included in this article please click here: www.MindBodyFX.com

By Melonie Dodaro

A diet victim excuse is the line you tell others, and yourself, about why you haven’t been successful with your health goals in the past. By and large, this is a conglomeration of misconceptions, assumptions, and denial all rolled up into one. All of us have heard or used the following excuses at one time or another:

“I’M JUST BIG BONED.”

Hmm…large bones make us tall, not round. The difference in skeletal structure in relation to weight is a function of height. You can think of it like a corn dog. If one corn dog is twice as big as the next, does that mean the stick weighs more? Probably not.

“MY FAMILY IS BIG – IT MUST BE HEREDITARY.”

Yes, some families do tend to put pounds on easier, but most families that are overweight stay that way due to the way they’ve been raised to think about food. These habits are generally passed on to the succeeding generation, so they cause the weight gain, not a specific family gene.

“MY METABOLISM IS SLOW.”

Although a slow metabolism does make it harder to lose weight, often our metabolism slows because we’ve chosen not to live a healthy lifestyle. If your metabolism is slow, get up and get moving to speed it up; take responsibility for your health.

“HEALTHY FOOD COSTS TOO MUCH AND TASTES BAD.”

How much do your doctor bills or your blood pressure medication cost? How expensive will it be to have Type II diabetes due to weight? Total up the money spent on fast food, lattes and bad habits like tobacco or alcohol. Eating well doesn’t cost nearly as much as you think. You can actually SAVE money and increase your life expectancy.

Healthier foods can be delicious! Within weeks of eating wholesome healthy food, your body will want to be healthy and you may develop an aversion to fast food. You need to take time to let your taste buds adjust to good wholesome foods.

“I HAVE TOO MUCH TO LOSE AND IT WILL TAKE TOO LONG.”

Who says there is a timeline to meet your goal? Eating right and exercising is a lifestyle, not a one-shot marathon! It’s unrealistic to impose an artificial deadline. Commit to the lifestyle, and the goals will be met along the way.

“I JUST CAN’T DO IT. I’VE TRIED AND I’M AFRAID TO FAIL AGAIN.”

This is such a sad excuse, because it means you’ve given up; you’ve convinced yourself that you don’t deserve to look or feel any better than you do right now. This mindset keeps more people moving toward a life of obesity and ill health. If you don’t have things straight in the mind, no plan will ever work. You must convince yourself that you’re worth it—you deserve to look and feel as good as you possibly can. Your very life depends on it!

You have a powerful capacity for healing your body and transforming your mind. To accomplish this, you have to free yourself from the past. When you release old hurts, you grow and learn to recognize happiness, which will help you stick to your goals and realize your dreams. Every time you relive a memory, especially a past diet disappointment or an old hurt, it keeps it alive in your spirit and body. Break the cycle by shedding the past story and creating a present one…and in the new version you can be determined not just to muddle through, but thrive.

Visit our site for more information on living a healthy and happy life at your ideal weight www.MindBodyFX.com.