You Look Like Your Decisions

As a teenager you could eat whatever you wanted to without gaining a pound. Bikini ready all year long. Washboard abs that you could literally wash your clothes on. You could run and play ball for hours a day and still have energy to wrestle with dad at home in the evening. Then something weird happened when you went to college. The dreaded “Freshman 15... or 25” set in and you might have thought it was no big deal. The switch from after school sports which required 10+ hours of work a week to after class naps had its natural effect. Fast forward ten more years. A sneaky 3-5 pounds a year of weight gain have accumulated on a body that is 50+ pounds overweight (don’t forget the Freshman 15) and you’re scratching your head wondering how it happened.

You look like your decisions. If you regularly choose to gulp soft drinks and sweet tea, eat double cheeseburgers, and french fries you will look like you do those things. It’s a sneaky downward spiral. At first those foods had no impact. Then they just fit your schedule and budget. Then it became a habit which resulted in a body you feel trapped inside of. Sound familiar? This is the American lifestyle. Overweight and unhealthy kids grow into overweight and unhealthy adults. The same thing happened to me. After joining the professional world for a few years of sitting behind a desk, I found myself about 40 pounds overweight and unhappy. My clothes didn’t fit well, my belly preceded me into rooms, and I did not sleep well. I was making bad decisions. I drank soft drinks at most meals, ate pizza and cheeseburgers, and sat at a computer for 8-12 hours a day. A lot of you have had similar experiences.

So what comes next? Do you continue in a Jabba the Hutt lifestyle? Let the next 10 years take their 5 pound a year toll? Of course you do, this is America.

Well, not you. You are here reading about fitness. You want to make better decisions that result in a better quality of life for yourself and for those around you. So what decisions can you make that have a direct result on how you look and feel?

1. Drink more water.
Most Americans are systemically dehydrated. Want to see if you are a unique and special snowflake or just a member of the masses? Find the flat bony part of your shin. Press your thumb into the part of your shin you just found for 15 seconds. When you release the pressure, if the dent remains in your shin, you are dehydrated. A good goal to shoot for is half of your body weight in ounces. So for me, a 225lb man, a good prescription is consuming 112 ounces of water daily. Being hydrated supports all of your body’s functions and can help lubricate achy joints.

2. Eat whole foods.
What are whole foods? They are the natural foods that you would find in nature. Chicken, eggs, apples, and broccoli are examples of whole foods. Cookies, milkshakes, and pasta are not. Whole foods are naturally colorful and nutrient dense. They taste good and fill you up so you are not prone to overeating. Refined foods tend to have the opposite effect. It is much easier to overeat on fettuccine alfredo than steak and asparagus. If you only made the decision to do these two options, you would lose weight, feel more energetic, sleep better, and improve your sense of well being within the first month.

3. Find a physical activity you enjoy and do it.
If you are like most Americans, you spend a lot of your free time in front of a screen. TV, computers, and smartphones are all cool inventions, but when they rule your time you start looking like the characters in the Disney movie Wall-e. You don’t want to look like those people. They made all the wrong decisions. Instead, find a physical activity you enjoy, and do it regularly. I am biased. I think that weight training and moderate to high intensity conditioning will get you the most bang for your proverbial buck. I can back that up with the experiences of my clients. Aesthetically, you can see that Olympic sprinters look how most men would like to look. What do they do? You guessed it, high intensity conditioning and weight training.

So how do I put it together?

To sum it up, if you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired you need to 1) drink water not sugary sweetened drinks, 2) eat whole foods instead of refined foods, and 3) find a physical activity you enjoy and do it regularly. You’re probably thinking this sounds way too simple to be what I need to do. Turns out losing weight and building the body and lifestyle you've always wanted is simple, but not easy. If anyone tells you it’s easy to change long term bad habits, they probably have never done it. But anyone who has done it can tell you that while it was difficult, it was worth it and somehow the struggle to overcome made it that much more valuable in the end. So go, and make better decisions.

If you would like more direction on how to make good decisions that lead to higher quality of life, comment or email me, I love to see people succeed and can take the guesswork out of the equation.