Yesterday morning while at the gym (do you see a pattern? I do LOTS of thinking in the quiet hours at the gym) I saw the "usuals"; the elderly man who always wears a red shirt tucked into his shorts and can barely stand up straight, but he can surely crank out some chin ups; the heavy set woman who could probably bench press my body weight; Mr. GQ with his fake tan and I believe his biceps have biceps and I can't forget the guys and gals that don't really know what they're doing but they are there and they are trying...All the early morning regulars. I looked around and thought, "what brings us here this early? Day after day?" You'd think we'd all be pretty healthy right? We're committed, we're getting up, lifting weights, pounding away on the cardio machines, we've got a routine! Right? But we don't all "look" healthy. Let's go back to the heavy set woman. That woman knows her way around the weight room. She's got the form down, she's pushing heavy weight, she's huffing and puffing and really really REEEEEALLLLY working hard. So why doesn't her physical appearance scream, "Hey...I work out!" My guess is her nutrition needs a little attention. I'm not invalidating genetic issues or hormones, kids, age, etc. We all know MANY factors can contribute to body fat, but you'd think you'd see SOME progress for this lady, right? There have been times when I see her and I wonder what she's going to eat for breakfast...ugh, my brain just wanders!
I know for my own weight loss struggles, I dropped my first 25lbs just by adding exercise to my life. The first 25lbs came off relatively slowly, but it came off and I was still eating the same way I'd always eaten I had just gotten a bit more active. However, once I tweaked my diet...BAM the weight was falling off and my clothes were LITERALLY falling off. Once I had added a clean diet AND exercise to my life things started to come together for me.
When I talk to my weight loss challengers, I can feel their frustration. They are working so hard. They are running, training, lifting, crunching, planking, jumping...you name it. So much effort...only to be washed away with a soda or beer, or a weekend of pizza, snacks, and unhealthy habits. It's like a scale (pardon the analogy) that's trying to balance. You have to put forth the same effort into your diet/nutrition as you do into that jumping jack. By fueling your body for the activity you have in your life and balancing the health aspects of diet and exercise you can and WILL achieve results, but you can't do one without the other. Just like you can't expect to be strong, fit and muscular unless you're working those muscles and toning yourself up; you can't expect to get lean and drop body fat when you're stuffing yourself silly with processed, empty calorie food!
I've seen the light bulb turn on for many; some it took longer than others. Finding that balance is a real struggle. How many times have we said, "I worked out today, I deserve that cupcake"? unfortunately, for most it just doesn't work that way. Understanding the marriage of diet and exercise and how they together make up your overall health it key. You can be strong, but "fat" and you can be "skinny" but weak. If you want to be healthy, you've got to get in that zone where you're moving AND eating well.
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