It always seems that right after the New Year, you can find multiple articles and blogs posts about tips, tricks, and lessons by the fitness influencers about losing weight and gaining muscle. I am not sure about you, but a couple years ago every time I saw those articles I would be so motivated to get in shape. But most of the articles were written by professional influencers that looked like they have been working out in the gym since before high school. Their fit bodies whether it’s a female influencer or male influencer, it is what most people strive for. I want to aim my focus more towards us older people that have let their fitness and nutrition decline over the years.
Unfortunately, there is a mental side to it. You need to force yourself to believe the goals can be achievable. You also must understand that it will take work and dedication. More dedication than work if you pay attention and learn about nutrition. Most diets fail because a lot of people see a “diet” as a temporary thing. “I am going to lose weight to fit into my bathing suit”. Nutrition must be a lifestyle change. There is nothing gained from being nutritious, losing the weight, then going back to your old unhealthy ways of eating. All that work and progress is lost.
Let me share a short story about my first client as a personal trainer and nutritionist. I won’t give you too many details, but she was a female over 50 years old. She stated that she and her girlfriends had planned a trip to Hawaii in about three months and wanted to look good and fit in a bathing suit. The first thing I did was to advise her and educate her on the true facts about how nutrition had a lot to do with weight loss. As far as the workout portion, she wanted to focus on glutes and flabby triceps muscles that result from getting older. I had her work on arm exercises with light weight, some body weight squats and the most difficult exercise for her was the plank.
Unfortunately for most older people, they seem to have forgotten the importance of working on your core muscles and she struggled to hold a plank for 15 seconds. This is not to shame anyone but to stress the point that everyone must start somewhere. It may be a little embarrassing but if you can focus on improving, you will see the results. Just don’t give up.
She had a couple sessions over the period of a month and was seeing progress, then she dropped the “bomb”. She had already purchased her swimsuit and it fit well so she didn’t need to workout anymore. I tried to encourage her to continue but she fell back on what I hear a lot nowadays, “I am fine with my weight and according to my doctor and blood panels, I’m healthy”. I guess you can throw a little blame on the “Body Positivity Movement”. But the truth is that by the time your blood panels start showing the markers, your body, which I have referred to in my other articles, as a complex machine, is already running poorly. And sadly, the doctors are more than willing to put you on statins or many other pharmaceutical drugs because that is what makes them the most money.
Back to the point I was making is that the most important lesson in weight loss is to find the motivation you need. Positive affirmations can come in multiple ways. Make sure you are not only setting clear goals, but they must be achievable. Think about it this way. Say your goal is to do ten pushups a day and you find, as you will, it is getting easier, then increase the number. If you set a goal to do 30 pushups a day and struggle to get to 20, you will find it easier to give up. Realize that it is always easier to just give up which you will have to overcome.
Surround yourself with positivity, whether it’s note cards on the bathroom mirror, finding yourself a personal trainer that can motivate you, and friends and family that ensure you that you can reach and exceed your goals. I find that when I choose to do a challenge or a goal, I will commit publicly so if I feel like giving up, there is the feeling of letting them down. It gives me the strength to fight on.
Avoid the negativity; the friends that tell you that you look good enough. You will come across some people that may be jealous of your transformation and want to discourage you, so they feel better about themselves.
The last important way to stay motivated is to focus on the positive and find the joy in your weight loss journey.
Another lesson worth learning is that most personal trainers simply state that it is “Calories in, Calories out”. To lose weight, you must be in a calorie deficit. This is not true. A calorie is not a calorie. I guarantee that eating 1500 calories of healthy whole foods is not the same as eating 1500 calories of processed foods. This does not mean that you have to give up on your favorite foods. It does mean that you must seriously decrease the frequency of when you eat them. My nutrition currently went from keto to a carnivore diet. I also have a cruise vacation planned in October. So, for the whole year, I eat healthily and for the one week in October, I might have the ice cream by the pool or a dessert after my meal. I don’t normally go crazy and go gluttony. But as soon as the vacation ends, so does my unhealthy eating.
In your daily nutrition, make sure to priority protein. Especially meat protein because it contains essential amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. It is the building block of muscles. Protein is essential for growth and maintenance which decreases as we get older. Protein will help balance fluids, help maintain proper pH, and acts as a messenger by aiding communication between your tissues, organs, and cells. It also will help you stay satiated throughout the day which will eliminate the will to snack.
Walking is a good way to relieve stress, enjoying nature while getting an exercise that won’t aggravate your joints. The last lesson is to just increase our activity during the day. It doesn’t have to be 20,000 steps. But walking a mile a day or several times a day is going to better than sitting on the couch or recliner and binge-watching Netflix. Let’s strive to live healthier.
