5 Ideas for Longterm Healthy Weight Loss and Staying Lean

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I hate carbs

Carbohydrates are evil.

I love carbs.

I just hate what they do to my body when I’m not on the right program.

The problem with weight loss, muscle gain and fat loss is that it requires discipline.  When you build enough momentum into your workout plan, the exercise becomes easy.  I have found that the most difficult piece of the puzzle is nutrition.

From time to time, many of us will get really motivated to be disciplined with nutrition.  Other times some of us go F’ it.

That’s me included.

What’s the best way to deal with carbs?  Should you go cold turkey and go on atkins?  Maybe do a low carb paleo diet, or just a high carb paleo diet.  Carb Nite has been one of my favorite interest for crash dieting, but what about carb back loading?

There is no one answer, because each of our situations is different.  I mean, many of us want to get lean and lose body fat, but many of us have different things going on in our lives.  You may have a crazy demanding job, you could be married with kids; maybe your job requires you to work evenings – there are so many different circumstances each of us live in.  You could be a student with a demanding school schedule.  Maybe you’re a personal trainer (no wait that’s me). 

Are you a business owner that works 7 days a week?  What is the right diet and exercise program to follow?

I’ve been training to help people get in shape for 12 years.  I personally struggle with my ability to stay as lean as I’d like. 

Of all the years of experience training people to transform their bodies, there is one piece of advice I can give that I hope you should take to heart.

Your philosophy about health, nutrition, exercise and fitness is the root of your problem.  If your philosophy sucks, you are doomed.

philosophy image for fitness tipsHere are 5 ideas that will help shape your own philosophy about health and fitness – don’t just copy my list; your life is different than mine.  Take the stuff that fits, disregard what doesn’t fit.

  1. Food quality before calorie counting. What is the source of your food?  Do you get your food through a window?  It’s pretty important that as long term strategy to stay healthy is to stick with foods with minimal processing.  This mostly means meats, fruits and vegetables.  Doesn’t that sound like the paleo diet?  Yes it does.  You can call it the paleo diet if you want, what’s important is that you put emphasis on your food sourcing.  When you eat processed food, it messes with your body in a negative way most of the time.  Some processed foods cause digestive problems while others bypass satiety signals.  This is what leads to malnutrition and over eating.
  1. Rest day from exercise.  You don’t need rest.  Your body is designed to move. Just don’t murder yourself every day.  Follow a smart training regimen that makes sense, or get a coach for proper guidance.  If you can’t afford a coach, find a friend that has similar goals.  Maybe you know someone in shape. Crazy workout people are usually happy to help the de-motivated.

  1. Lift heavy resistance with intensity.  Strength is a pretty important skill.  Have you ever felt weak?  You probably feel weak because you don’t lift heavy things.  Lifting heavy objects multiple times has loads of benefits.  Preventing osteoporosis, boosting sex hormones and decreasing your chances of being frail are things I value.
  1. Cardio for weight loss is a very bad long term strategy.  Doing cardio for a marathon, for a sporting event, or just to feel good are practical reasons.  If you enjoy running long distances and like the meditative effects of it, keep doing it.  If you’re doing it for only weight loss, you’re kidding yourself.  Too much cardio will just lead to weight regain. Why?  Because you teach your body to efficient (good for sports, bad for weight loss).  You teach your body to burn less calories.  You turn into a Prius. If your goal is to become a fuel efficient Prius, then expect to fill the gas tank less frequently.  In the case of being human, you have to consistently eat less to manage your weight.  I’d rather be a gas guzzling tank that burns excessive amount of calories so that I can fill my gas tank up more.  In this case, eat more.
  1. Work on yourself harder than you do your job.  Listen to audiobooks and podcast that inspire you to be better.  A better husband/wife, parent, employee, student ..or whatever.  I’m a podcast-aholic.  I listen to many different audiobooks to motivate myself. I also use youtube as a resource to keep me up beat.  Here are some of my favorite books.

This article was suppose to be about carbs and my love hate relationship with them, but I will save that for another blog post.  Comment below if you have an idea to share.