BURN Fitness 101 – STOP Dieting and Exercising! Start Changing Your Life...
Lisa wrote an awesome post last week on our Facebook page, about pacing the changes in your life to assure success. I wanted to expand on that topic, and explain the differences between Lifestyle Modification… and Dieting and Exercising.
One of the biggest problems people have with exercise is simply sticking to a new routine. Everything in our society today is geared toward instant gratification, and the weight loss industry is the BIGGEST culprit! Everything is a 30-Day Challenges, or a 14–Day Diets, and a 90-Day workouts. EVERY single one of these plans is simply a set-up for failure!
Unfortunately, when people start on a weight-loss venture, they attempt to make a cold-turkey universal change. They change their diet entirely. They add huge volumes of cardio. They sometimes add strength training too. They join Orange Theory, and take spinning classes, and run every night… all while switching from their “normal” eating patterns established over years, to eating entirely new, foreign, and un-appetizing foods.
It’s NO WONDER that after a few weeks they QUIT entirely!!!
Lisa’s philosophy, which I love and endorse, is to change ONLY one thing at a time… and if you don’t plan on doing it for the REST OF YOUR LIFE… don’t do it. I know, that sounds pretty ominous. But it’s ENTIRELY TRUE and GREAT ADVICE!!!
Nobody gets fat overnight. In fact, nobody gets fat in a month! Nobody goes from lean, strong, and healthy, to obese, frail, and sick in a few months’ time… It takes years. YET we are convinced by the weight-loss establishment… by supplement companies… and by unscrupulous “fitness gurus” that in 14 days, 30 days, even 90 days… they can make you lean, strong, and healthy again!
At BURN Fitness, we can show you measurable progress in that time-frame… but our focus is NOT on miraculously fast transformations. It is on LIFETIME changes. Our focus is making sure you are leaner, fitter, and healthier in 3 months, 3 years, and 30 years from now. Most people who focus on the quick-fix not only regain all the weight they lose in less time than it took to lose it… they usually regain MORE. Our focus is on steady lifestyle modification, establishment of permanent lifestyle changes one at a time… so that the fat you lose, and the muscle you gain, and the health you attain… will be with you for a lifetime.
So how do we do that?
First… we get you moving, and getting stronger. This is the ultimate foundation of all health and fitness. Establish a REGULAR, consistent activity pattern, and strength training foundation, building a “tolerance for exercise”. Diving right in to a jogging and calorie-cutting pattern is the WORST possible way to start… yet that’s what 90+% of people do, and why 90+% of people FAIL at permanent body change.
Once you are into a regular routine of MOVING, activity, challenging the heart, lungs, and muscles… and start getting strong enough, THEN we start with nutritional changes. Typically, this is never a wholesale change in food and calories! Making radical changes to your nutrition is a SUREFIRE way to cause a client to relapse! Taking away everything you currently eat, and replacing it with “perfect food” is GUARANTEED to make anyone rebel, relapse, and cheat on their diet. To ensure long-term compliance, the changes have to be gradual.
Many new clients come to us and INSIST on complete change in their diet… then fail… then blame themselves, blame their trainer, or blame their job/partner/genetics/etc… If instead they can make one SMALL change, and incorporate that change PERMANENTLY into their nutrition… they’ve move one step closer to “perfection” without risking a relapse or implosion! Once that small change has become habit and lifestyle… we change another.
The same goes for fitness… Establish a base of strength, and add ENJOYABLE movement and exercise into your week. Even if that only means two half-hour sessions per week! Once you’re accustomed to 2, and enjoying it… add a 3rd!
Lisa wrote an awesome post last week on our Facebook page, about pacing the changes in your life to assure success. I wanted to expand on that topic, and explain the differences between Lifestyle Modification… and Dieting and Exercising.
One of the biggest problems people have with exercise is simply sticking to a new routine. Everything in our society today is geared toward instant gratification, and the weight loss industry is the BIGGEST culprit! Everything is a 30-Day Challenges, or a 14–Day Diets, and a 90-Day workouts. EVERY single one of these plans is simply a set-up for failure!
Unfortunately, when people start on a weight-loss venture, they attempt to make a cold-turkey universal change. They change their diet entirely. They add huge volumes of cardio. They sometimes add strength training too. They join Orange Theory, and take spinning classes, and run every night… all while switching from their “normal” eating patterns established over years, to eating entirely new, foreign, and un-appetizing foods.
It’s NO WONDER that after a few weeks they QUIT entirely!!!
Lisa’s philosophy, which I love and endorse, is to change ONLY one thing at a time… and if you don’t plan on doing it for the REST OF YOUR LIFE… don’t do it. I know, that sounds pretty ominous. But it’s ENTIRELY TRUE and GREAT ADVICE!!!
Nobody gets fat overnight. In fact, nobody gets fat in a month! Nobody goes from lean, strong, and healthy, to obese, frail, and sick in a few months’ time… It takes years. YET we are convinced by the weight-loss establishment… by supplement companies… and by unscrupulous “fitness gurus” that in 14 days, 30 days, even 90 days… they can make you lean, strong, and healthy again!
At BURN Fitness, we can show you measurable progress in that time-frame… but our focus is NOT on miraculously fast transformations. It is on LIFETIME changes. Our focus is making sure you are leaner, fitter, and healthier in 3 months, 3 years, and 30 years from now. Most people who focus on the quick-fix not only regain all the weight they lose in less time than it took to lose it… they usually regain MORE. Our focus is on steady lifestyle modification, establishment of permanent lifestyle changes one at a time… so that the fat you lose, and the muscle you gain, and the health you attain… will be with you for a lifetime.
So how do we do that?
First… we get you moving, and getting stronger. This is the ultimate foundation of all health and fitness. Establish a REGULAR, consistent activity pattern, and strength training foundation, building a “tolerance for exercise”. Diving right in to a jogging and calorie-cutting pattern is the WORST possible way to start… yet that’s what 90+% of people do, and why 90+% of people FAIL at permanent body change.
Once you are into a regular routine of MOVING, activity, challenging the heart, lungs, and muscles… and start getting strong enough, THEN we start with nutritional changes. Typically, this is never a wholesale change in food and calories! Making radical changes to your nutrition is a SUREFIRE way to cause a client to relapse! Taking away everything you currently eat, and replacing it with “perfect food” is GUARANTEED to make anyone rebel, relapse, and cheat on their diet. To ensure long-term compliance, the changes have to be gradual.
Many new clients come to us and INSIST on complete change in their diet… then fail… then blame themselves, blame their trainer, or blame their job/partner/genetics/etc… If instead they can make one SMALL change, and incorporate that change PERMANENTLY into their nutrition… they’ve move one step closer to “perfection” without risking a relapse or implosion! Once that small change has become habit and lifestyle… we change another.
The same goes for fitness… Establish a base of strength, and add ENJOYABLE movement and exercise into your week. Even if that only means two half-hour sessions per week! Once you’re accustomed to 2, and enjoying it… add a 3rd!