12 Jun Why Diet Change and Exercise Isn’t Just for Fat People and Athletes – Daring to Change Bad Habits

We sure love our technology, it has been our secret weapon for thousands of years and it ensured our survival and prosperity. However there has been such a sudden surge, an unstoppable wave of innovation in just these past few decades that we have become too reliant on it in our everyday lives. It’s no longer a secret weapon, a powerful tool of survival and security – it has become a basic necessity without which we cannot operate. We have grown accustomed to comfort, and easy life where manual labor is the least rewarding career path and even hard physical work itself has become a lot easier. In a world where even farmers have a fleet of motorized vehicles, internet connection and high-end gadgetry, and yet food is cheap and readily available at every step, it seem to be quite easy to become overweight.

Even more important than that is the fact that if we don’t associate healthy eating habits and regular exercise with the lifestyle of the common man. It is reserved to be the last resort of those who have gone too far, or as a quirky lifestyle choice of overachievers or professionals who are paid for what we perceive is a major sacrifice. Looking even deeper at the problem, we find that the very definition of “the average person” encompasses some very unhealthy body types as obesity is on the rise, and the very terms “obesity” and “overweight” have some very fuzzy definitions. It’s like the old saying goes: “In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king”, or something to that effect. Only in our case do we have a land of the obese and overweight, where a “sort of chubby” person is looked upon as a good example of health and fitness.

Identifying the problem

In 2009–2010, 35.7% of U.S. adults were obese and it seems to be a growing trend. Bear in mind this are just people who fit the clinical definition of obesity, the number of overweight people will be even higher than that, but even our scientist seemed to be too afraid to try and check those numbers. What we tend to do is try and define the exact point where a simple fat person crosses into obesity, but we seem to be missing the point. It’s not enough to just exclude ourselves from the dangerously overweight crowd and be satisfied with being “just a bit overweight”; we have to work on our fitness level, not just for mere aesthetics but for our health as well.  Other sources will have the number of overweight and obese adults in the United States at around 66% and there are still no definitive numbers for overweight children and adolescents, but approximately 17% are obese.

Another problem that commonly occurs in our first world, technology-driven societies is that there is less and less physical activity throughout the day. Not so much as a couple of hours of low-intensity activities such as walking around, standing upright for extended periods, going up and down the stairs or some non-competitive leisure sports activities. Doctors have found that even being fit and having regular high-intensity workout sessions isn’t enough to prevent the development of serious health issues (including heart disease and cancer) if we just sit around at the computer the rest of the day. Exercise is great, but long hours of sedentary activities like watching TV, writing, drawing and playing video games need to be broken up into shorter blocks by inserting some light aerobic activity in between, every hour or so.

As this study on the effects of feasting during the Holidays on body composition in students’ points out, even though overall weight gain during this period wasn’t that substantial, there was a major increase in body fat percentage and fat mass. Some 2-3 extra pounds doesn’t seem that big of a deal to people, but it does mean an extra inch on the belly, an inch that, by remaining there throughout the year, can mean a slow but steady weight gain. It doesn’t have to be the Holidays, although they really are the greatest threat to a lean figure, a person can have a period of nervous or comfort eating and tack on weight that stays with him for years.

The fat percentage is what will cause the most health issues, and the saddest thing is that you can still look pretty good in a T-shirt even with 10-15 extra pounds. Here we come back to that lowering of standards, we go out to Wall-Mart and see a bunch of comically overweight people, some of them on mobility scooters, and all of a sudden, we seem like Spartan warriors compared to them. Thanks to the low quality and high calorie count (mostly fats and sugars) in our food, I have seen such walking paradoxes as generally skinny people with several inches of belly fat and man boobs. The problem there is that what they lack in muscle tone they make up for in fat and fat is less dense than muscle so you can have a nice little potbelly and still not tip the scales over 130 pounds.

Being even slightly overweight and having very little activity during the day can cause a great many problems for you, and we’re not just talking somewhere down the line – there has been a major increase in the number of people in their 20s and 30s with diabetes. Even if you don’t fit the usual criteria of high risk of heart disease, such as being overweight, having a family history of heart disease or smoking, you still might be at risk without knowing it. A lot of teenagers and adults consider themselves “skinny nerds”, they don’t exercise but they remain relatively thin and they therefore think that they are somehow immune to “fat people problems”.

Well, have I got some mind-blowing news for you – a lot of thin people will have hidden fat deposits, that cause the thickening of blood-vessel walls which can over time lead to heart failure. That’s right, all those unhealthy snacks your average skinny person will shove down his throat, thinking that they simply melt away magically, can come back to haunt you. There, you have one more reason to put down the game controller every so often and go for a short run.

Understanding the solution

Weight loss is basically just a byproduct of teaching people how to lead a healthy life. Now, since they have gone off the rails, a bit stricter regime has to be enforced and a lot of calories dropped from meals to get them back on track. However, those workouts and diet plans that you will find in a good weight loss program are basically what it takes to be healthy and fit. Of course, once you are sufficiently fit, you simply stop lowering your calorie intake and stick with meals that will give you just enough nutrition to stay on your current weight and fat percentage, and switch to a less exhausting exercise routine, switching the focus from simply burning calories to a more strength oriented or sport specific training that is to serve as regular maintenance.

If you choose, you can strive to continuously improve and that is where things like martial arts and sports come into play. Taking up boxing, for example, will give you something to focus on, something where you can grow and improve. As you become more proficient, you will be trying harder and investing more, you will have a group of people to work with, compete with and feel obligated not to let them down by not showing up at the gym.

Finding support is a big part of sticking with the lifestyle changes you have made, and at times so is the exclusion of negative influences. Just like drug addicts are required to leave behind the bad places and the people that encourage self-destructive behavior, a person striving for a healthier life should learn to avoid places that only sell junk food and people who don’t appreciate their efforts and are constantly tempting them to indulge.  Here are the integral parts of a healthy lifestyle.

Diet

The exercise itself needs to be accompanied by a healthy diet in order to give you the greatest results, but this doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to just bread and water. Even just cutting sugary drinks, sweets, high-fat food, switching to whole wheat and limiting portion sizes will be enough to affect significant weight loss if coupled with regular exercise. Eating smaller portions more frequently seems to be a great way to both lose weight and avoid health problems. A good diet will also incorporate the proper daily amount of essential nutrients that your body needs to stay healthy and function at 100% efficiency. Staying well hydrated is another consideration and you can get a lot of liquid from the food in your diet, especially fruit, so drinking gallons of water is not necessary with a well-balanced diet.

Food types that you will need to have in your well-balanced diet include:

Carbohydrates

Good sources of carbohydrates include brown rice, whole grain bread, corn, beans and various fruit. Fruit is especially important since it not only contains fructose, but is also rich in antioxidants and a multitude of vitamins. If you are going to be exercising a lot, it is important to have a good supply of sugar in the body, since your body will be burning glucose for ATP synthesis during your workouts. The complete science behind it isn’t really that important as long as you are aware that the body needs carbohydrates for fuel.

Protein

These are the building blocks of the body, and although they serve a multitude of functions on a cellular level, they are an integral part of muscle tissue construction. They are essential for the synthesis of new muscle tissue and the regeneration of existing tissue. They can be used up by the body as fuel if all other sources are depleted, but their main purpose in your diet is to build up more muscles, so you can be more efficient in future workouts and burn more calories. More muscle also means more calories burned for maintenance, even when resting. Good sources of protein are chicken breast, turkey breast, venison, salmon, tuna, egg whites and soybeans.

Fats

They are another important energy source for the body, however they are used up in periods of rest where great amounts of oxygen are present. Fat can also serve to protect the body as many substances can reach dangerous levels, and will then be stored in the fat until they can be secreted. Some vitamins can only be efficiently utilized by the body in the presence of fat. Although most fats can be produced by the body, there are essential fatty acids that the body can’t produce on its own, but are needed to ensure the proper functioning of the body. Omega-3 fatty acid is an essential nutrient and can be found in such foods as flax seeds, soybeans, walnuts, tofu, tuna and salmon.

Vitamins and minerals

These are essential for your body staying alive and functioning like it should on many levels. Having insufficient levels of vitamins can cause some major health issues and care should be taken to ingest enough of them either through diet or supplementation if necessary. You can get a good amount of them by eating a lot of diverse fruit and vegetables (especially dark green vegetables like spinach), nuts and dairy products, however supplementation is often required as we don’t get nearly enough fresh produce in our diet. Multivitamin pills containing vitamins A, E, C, D, B vitamin complex, Selenium, Calcium, Zinc and omega-3 are a good addition to your diet, as it can take no more than 2-3 pills once a day to take care of all your basic nutrient needs, coupled with a healthy diet of course.

Water

Fruit like oranges, grapefruit, grapes, watermelon, pineapples, apples, tomatoes, peaches and cherries are an excellent source of water as well as being packed with antioxidants, fiber, complex carbohydrates and vitamins. Low fat milk is another source of water, but then again, any food you consume will have some level of water in it. Since you can get a good deal of water from food, only a slight increase in pure water consumption is necessary. It will best serve you if you replace other drinks with it. Every time you feel like you need a drink, just get a glass of water instead of juice. If you must drink juice, make sure you make it yourself, with freshly squeezed fruit (a few oranges and a lemon diluted with water can make a very nice refreshing beverage) and no added sugar. Other safe drinks are coffee and tea, once again no sugar or cream, but you should be careful not to overload on caffeine.

It’s important to point out that the key to long term success with diets is consistency. Whether you are trying to lose weight, have lost weight and want to maintain your level of fitness or are simply making healthy dietary changes to improve your health, you need to stick with it for the long run. Now, when I say long run, I mean for the rest of your life. That might sound a little bit ominous, but you need to understand that diet changes need to be permanent in order to work. The reason so many people complain about diets not working (excluding those who try borderline insane things like eating only a certain type of food, excluding food containing carbohydrates or fat altogether, ascetic-like fasting on water and bread, etc) is because once they achieve their goal, they start eating and drinking all the candy, doughnuts, soda and fast food that made them fat in the first place.

Some call this the boomerang or Yo-yo effect, alluding to the fact that you will inevitably come right back where you have started from, but I simply call it being weak. It takes a few major sacrifices and a bunch of little changes in the life that we are used to live, and I understand that we as humans are afraid of feeling uncomfortable with things changing around us. Once we get used to something, we feel safe, even though we might not feel our best or even that comfortable, we feel some sort of false security. Well, we need a great deal of determination and psychological toughness to see these major changes through, but we will deal with that a little later.

For more information on the essential nutrients, their role and the best food sources, you can check out some pretty comprehensive sites on the internet, which will give you a good idea of what foods need to find their way into your shopping cart if you want a nutrient packed diet that will keep you strong and healthy.

Exercise

As I have mentioned, simply working out for an hour in the morning and the calling it quits for the rest of the day just won’t cut it. Six hours of sitting in the same position, moving and clicking a mouse is bad for your posture, cardiovascular system and joints among other things, no matter what you did previously. The only time our bodies need to lie dormant is when we sleep. Even the word dormant comes from the Latin word dormire, meaning “to sleep”. The human body is a wonderful and highly adaptive machine, but it has evolved to work a certain way, and those biomechanics cannot be overridden in the few short decades of excess and a reduced need for manual labor. The Chinese have a saying: “Flowing water never goes stale”, even though very old, it still has merit, and can be applied to the health problems of our modern, predominantly sedentary lifestyle.

Staying in good health is a multifaceted endeavor that requires some effort on your part. Just staying in decent shape and working towards strengthening the immune system and helping the body operate at near 100% does not require too much work, but it requires a certain amount of hard work on a regular basis. As with diet, lifestyle changes have to be made to incorporate a solid training routine and these changes, although small, will need to be permanent. However, the physical exercise can provide you with more benefits than simply dieting right, as it will help toughen you up mentally so that you may face challenges in other walks of life.

The most fascinating thing is how this emotional equilibrium can spill out into everyday life. There is a video where Arnold Schwarzenegger explains how he wouldn’t even be upset if someone stole his car. Starting a workout means you leave all your problems outside of the gym and focus on a single thing – your progress. In the process of strengthening your body, you strengthen your mind as well, and you are better able to cope with everyday situations. Some people achieve this through yoga, some through religious rituals like daily prayer chanting, some through martial arts and as you saw, it can even be done by simply exercising.

Engaging in martial art training can give you an outlet for stress as well as provide other favorable areas of focus besides mere exercise. Such activities can have a sport oriented approach that will bring out your competitive nature and help you improve, or it can be a form of moving meditation that enhances the mind and provides spiritual and health benefits. You will also have a group of people supporting you and helping you improve.

It’s not the tool we should be looking at; it’s the method in which it is used to create a masterpiece. Any form of exercise can help you learn to endure hardship (initially physical), improve focus and improve. However, for full health benefits, besides proper diet of course, physical exercise should include:

• Cardiovascular training – activities like swimming, running, cycling, jumping rope, aerobics, dancing, punching bag or shadowboxing/form training will keep your body operating at full speed, increase your stamina, lung capacity and the efficiency with which oxygen is transported by the blood. These type of exercises are a great way to maintain a healthy heart, although circuit training with weights (one exercise immediately followed by another, with minimal rest in between until you complete a set of 3-5 exercises) will keep your heart rate high throughout the workout session, so you can opt for this approach and just add some brisk walks if you don’t like traditional cardio activities.

• Strength training – this is very important on many levels. First of all, the bigger your muscles are, the more calories the body will burn on tissue repairs. Secondly, you will be able to perform a multitude of tasks with ease which will prove very useful in your daily life. Once your muscles have been trained for a while, they will get used to performing a lot of work, so your workouts will become more challenging and your body will get accustomed to different types of motion. Your mind and body will start working as a unit and all those muscles will provide excellent support to joints and internal organs, keeping everything in place and working right. Last but not least, as your physical appearance improves so will your confidence and cheerfulness.
• Light activity throughout the day – you can’t just sit around the house when you’re not hitting the gym, or spend an hour in the morning on running to “fill your quota” and then lie in bed the rest of the day. Sedentary behavior has to be avoided at all costs. A simple solution is to take short breaks every hour when sitting at the computer/TV and either do some light exercise, a full on workout focusing on a single body part or at least stretching and going for a little walk up and down the street. If you are doing a good amount of circuit training as described above, you will not need heavy cardio activity, so you can do with things like walking your dog, stretching your legs with  5 minutes of running or perhaps something like walking to your neighbor’s house instead of calling him on the phone, using stairs instead of the elevator, parking farther away from the entrance at work, etc.
• Sport specific/compound movement training – this is a good addition to your weekly training schedule for two reasons mainly: learning to utilize different muscle groups in unison when performing tasks and  keeping you from getting bored by adding some variety to your routines. Substituting a training session each week with a boxing, wrestling, running or football related workout will make you better at performing movements applicable in everyday life and will make things much more fun. Training in boxing or martial arts can also be a good way to get some good cardio as well as strength and plyometric exercise, balance and coordination which will come in handy.

The best thing about workouts is that they are truly multifaceted – you have so many options available. You can train for stamina, strength, explosive power and speed, or just simply to get bigger or slimmer. You don’t have to go to a gym if you don’t have to since you can do a lot of exercise at home with no more equipment than a pair of dumbbells with enough weight plates and perhaps a bench that you can modify for decline or incline and a pull-up bar. If you don’t have enough room for any major pieces of equipment (although dumbbells don’t take up much space at all) you can get simple things like TRX suspension straps or you can go super cheap and get a jump rope, some resistance bands and fill up a travel bag with sand. You can get a bunch of sand relatively cheap, just line a medium to large sized sports bag with some rubber or nylon and fill it up with sand to get the required weight. You can shove it anywhere and it is easy to grasp and work with.

You can even do workouts with nothing but your own bodyweight to give you resistance.

You have a range of tools and training methods at your disposal. There are many ways to train and the training itself will help you cement your determination. As you progress, you can improve in various areas, be it strength, punching power, speed and the ability to run long distances or lift really heavy weights. This improvement will serve to further motivate you, and as you become better than your peers, you will feel more confident. Your social status can improve significantly during the whole experience and many people have met their significant other in a gym or class. The only thing that is stopping you from fully committing to a better lifestyle is the lack of resolve. Let’s take a look at some of the psychological aspects of having a strong resolve to improve.

Resolve

You will constantly have to reinforce the base of your new healthy-body plan, and it comes down to a few basic things:

• Awareness of the need for change
• Inspiration to take the first step
• Determination to go through with the change
• Motivation to work hard every day towards achieving your goals
• Guidance of those who have “been there, done that”
• Support of the people closest to you

These things form a basis for your resolve to make a big and lasting change in life, and are not specifically limited to exercise. Going through this mini-checklist and making sure you have got every step covered will be of tremendous help in terms of psychological changes like overcoming grief or conquering addiction, job related issues like changing your career or starting a business, social and emotional changes involved in getting married and starting a family, learning new skills, etc.

You can see these steps being followed in traditional Yogic teachings, Buddhist, Christian and Islamic monk traditions, where a person first sees the errors of his ways, decides to devote himself to a higher path in life and then seeks a spiritual teacher who will provide not only knowledge and encouragement, but also an environment that is safe and full of people on the same path who can provide support, i.e. an abbot in a monastery.

In the Christian tradition the awareness that a change must be made and the source of inspiration for the change is typically a vision of God, usually in a dream, that points out the morally wrong or self-destructive nature of the path one has taken and that it has to be changed to avoid catastrophic consequences, usually hinting at the punishment awaiting in the afterlife. Even the New Testament’s Saint Paul was once Saul, the murder of Christians before a divine vision inspired him to change his ways and repent.

This does not mean that one necessarily needs to turn to religion to strengthen ones resolve, a good hard look at your life can make you want to change it for the better and a person you admire, a hero who has achieved a lot, can serve as an inspiration. So, unlike the warning and scare tactics often employed in religious teachings, a lot of people in this modern world might respond better to a reward based system. A dog will respond wonderfully to punishment based training, however a wolf, as a far more intelligent and wild animal is used to freedom and will protect its right to this freedom from being tied up and told what to do, therefore trainers will use rewards to enforce good behavior to avoid enraging the animal. People these days, I feel, are more like wolves. We have become used to certain freedoms and we dislike having to do something for fear of consequences, we would much rather do something because we see the potential benefits.

Of course, a healthy mixture of fear and hope is always a good motivator. So, you can look forward to great gains in terms of health, strength, mental stability and focus as well as a newfound well of confidence, while at the same time being aware that failure to improve can lead to unwanted circumstances. Basically, what I am saying is pick your poison – whether you are a religious person in one way or another, a scholar of human nature or just a good old hard working son of a gun who doesn’t like to overthink things you will have a way to reinforce your resolve and stay on the right track.

Conclusion

In this world of expansion and technological progress, where we are granted freedom so we can live in varying amounts of comfort and luxury, it is often easy to neglect the simple things. Many problems face the world, the obesity epidemic in first world nations being one of them, so we grow accustomed to accepting these troubles and staying happy with what we have, for it is much more than a lot of people can even hope for. Suddenly, when looking at the walking, ticking coronary seizure time-bombs that people have let themselves become, we do not only feel good about ourselves, we start thinking more of ourselves.

The small imperfections disappear in the sea of arrogance, narcissism and a false moral high-ground. “ I am not as fat as you, therefore I am better than you, need not make any changes in my lifestyle and shall mock you” – this has become the unofficial mantra of people who are on the fast track of becoming the very thing they mock. Worse yet, we let our health degrade because on the outside our bodies look relatively serviceable. These bodies were meant for motion – physical labor that engages the muscles, the heart and other organs to work together and propel this magnificent biological machine.

Once you have perceived the problem and have gathered information to help guide you towards a solution, the only thing stopping you is a lack of resolve. Taking the first step is important. We need to pull ourselves away from this lazy way of going about our day to day reality that sucks the very life out of our bodies. Exercising and eating right are important aspects of being at full health and operating with unparalleled efficiency. This goes for all walks of life and all endeavors we might partake in. Mens sana in corpore sano, as the Romans would say. Shaping a strong body requires strong will, dedication, perseverance, patience, pain tolerance and sacrifice.

Through the ordeal of major lifestyle changes we cement an idea in our mind. We are strong, we are able, we can take it, we can give it and we will get what we desire no matter what it takes and no matter how long it takes. These words are the mantra of champions, winners, survivors and leaders. These are the thoughts guiding the strong and capable people that drive nations and civilizations forward. I think it is about time we stop modeling our society on the psychology of the weak, feeble, self-destructive and defeatist and look for true inspiration in the mental prowess and the hardened psyche of the survivors and heroes. Take up this mantra as your own, commit to a few simple yet persistent changes and try to make the most out of life by seizing it by the collar.