Doable Ways to start fat loss….

Today’s Post:  Thursday, 10-13-2016

The only way you can cause the lifestyle upgrades that result in permanent fat loss is to do them each week.

But if you aren’t yet and want to, did you know there is considerable research now and has been for many years that shows that it CAN be done and what actually works in practice?

Make the tiniest start successfully -- because that research shows that your ability to focus on the part of you that makes you successful in that area so well, you begin to see yourself mostly as someone who can effectively take actions to get the thing you want!

When you start something even just a bit successfully, it’s as if once you do so you ask yourself why you did and answer “Because it begins to get me what I want AND since I did do it, I must be the kind of person who can take actions to improve me and my health.”

Social science research has shown that over and over for more than 50 years now!

But here’s where it gets very interesting indeed!

In one study where the people in it began regular exercise this effect caused them to make other changes too and do so almost effortlessly!

They ate better and even cut back on smoking if they smoked!  (That’s quite significant, because this was before the 1964 Surgeon General’s report on smoking; and far more people around them were smoking than do so now.)

So this post is about several tips to make that doable and have it work reliably for you.

A.  First of all it’s often easier to add more good things than remove bad ones particularly as a first step.

1.  Since exercise often makes people feel better and is proven effective to make this self-image upgrade, it can be a good place to begin.

Over the last 8 weeks, we’ve posted often on exercises that work and ways that may make them most doable for you.  Those include exercise you can do at home. And, they include a way to have a skilled professional get you up to speed quickly.

Decide on one and set a time to do it each week.  Then do an easy version of it the first time and even a small amount of exercise.  Once you do it you can gradually make it more challenging until you can do more than you can now.  But you want the first few times to be easy enough you can be sure you can do the exercise or exercises and do better the next time you do them.

For exercise, unless you work with a professional at a later time of day, the best time to exercise, particularly at home, is to do your sessions early enough in the morning to be BEFORE the varying demands of the day can sometimes prevent it.

For eating, the most beneficial thing to eat more of is some kind of nonstarchy, organic vegetable.

So, an easy way to begin is to pick one meal during the week when you can eat ONE serving each week of a particular vegetable.  It can be a vegetable that you already eat sometimes or one you will try out.

The method is to pick a time during the week and first day you’ll do it.  Make sure to do so that first week.  And, to make it easy, even a small serving will work!

Second, once you begin, how do you ensure you keep going?  James Clear, the habit change expert, just sent an email that includes one.

You set up a routine that you always follow where the first step is easy!

He’s a writer himself so he uses famous writers as examples.  Many of them get their writing materials or computer set up and sit down to write at the exact same time each day.

For exercise, you do the same thing! 

On the day of the week you exercise or do that kind, at that time, you get out your exercise log or smart phone or PC where you keep your record; you change into the clothes you will wear. And then you go to the gym or do your first exercise.

In my case, I take some creatine in water and some other supplements to help get better results that actually have been shown to work -- as separate supplements.

Then I shave to give my body time to begin processing the supplements; write down my exercises in my log book and start the first one.

I do this at about the same time each day seven days a week now.  But Monday, Weds, and Friday they only take 9 minutes or less.  And when I started, I just did two sessions a week of strength training.

2.  For eating better, the routine that works is to gradually build up a schedule for each week day of which vegetables to eat and then follow it.

This makes shopping and food selection easy and ensures I get the vegetables each week. I eat a serving of broccoli florets each day.  But some days of the week I also have sauerkraut and others I have no sugar, high flavor past sauce with olive oil, and most lunches I have a small serving of baby food winter squash and one of carrots from Earth’s Best.  I also have some mashed avocado as an end of the day snack each day.

The vegetables you choose may be radically different and likely will be!  But the principle is the same.  Find a routine that gets you vegetables each week that you enjoy eating or at least are OK with and then just keep doing it.

I found out in her emails that Isabel de Los Rios does the same thing with each weekday dinner.

She may vary the cooking style and spices a bit; but every week on the days she has set up as a chicken dinner day, she can buy the chicken the weekend before and do some of the prep work.

Then she can reliably cook and serve good tasting health OK food for dinner every night.

Again, this routine makes continuing to follow health upgrades in your eating every week AND to keep doing them.

B.  The other thing you can do is to use strategic methods.

There are a number of these that work well!

Here are some you can use.  Just pick the ones that fit you best. Then, do one or two to get started.

1.  Review what you already are doing right!  Review a few of the things you are good at even if they aren’t directly relevant.

One successful fat loss counseling program discovered that having people do this at the beginning and to see the assets and strengths they are already using or can use, just about doubled their results over people who did not.

2.  Review the reasons why that are important to you. 

Any health motivations are very useful because sometimes it can be easier to do the right thing for health reasons than for fat loss.

So writing down what things you want to escape ever getting or turn off if you already have them can really help.

Doing it just to feel better can be a great motivator!

Vigorous exercise most days of every week and taking 7,000 to 10,000 iu of vitamin D3, and taking DHA supplements twice a day has been shown to build new brain cells and turn off some kinds of depression. So you feel better.  But it also helps prevent heart attacks and Alzheimer’s disease!

Eating the anti-inflammatory foods and taking curcumin as described in the book Anticancer can reduce and prevent joint pain.  So you feel better and can do more.  But this reduction in inflammation also prevents many cancers and heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease besides preventing or turning down osteoarthritis!

Looking better is a powerful motivation too!

When you feel better you look better. 

When you can move more easily and can do more things people notice and the confidence that gives you makes you look better.

When you eat enough dark green and yellow and orange vegetables research found people subconsciously think of you as looking healthy. 

They don’t even know where it comes from or why; but they do conclude you look healthy!

The reds and oranges in the carotenes actually give your skin a ruddy, glowing look is why!

And, they and the many other micronutrients in the vegetables, like folate and others, also boost your health and longevity.

3.  Review the challenges you have:

What things would help if you could do them better?

Sometimes regular exercise can do that for you after you do it long enough to get those results.

Sometimes getting a short term tutor to get you up to speed can work wonders.

4.  What things do you want to get rid of and do NOT want? 

Where fattening and harmful foods and drinks and food components are concerned, are there some you already know you’d like to be free of and stop paying for?

If so, it can be quite freeing to just toss them all out and not buy any more!

5.  What solutions have you seen that are so promising that you are inspired?

Which things have done exactly what you want successfully for other people?

What things have you seen that might make you able to do key things or get good results or remove obstacles?

When you see things like that which make you feel hopeful and confident to at least try to do those things, it can really encourage you.

And by then following up and doing these things, often you CAN do more!

6.  To succeed you must do more things that bring you the results you want and you must also stop things that are blocking you or even making things worse.

It's easiest and most doable to add more good things than stop bad things often. 

What good things would be easiest to add more of for you?

But it can also be quite freeing to escape from bad things you are very motivated to get rid of. 

Which bad things would give that feeling to you?

This one is a good one to start with and to revisit from time to time.

7.  For things that you are already doing that are working, setting up and following startup rituals and scheduling set times you do for what management author Jim Collins calls your 20 mile march.

That's something that you are already doing that produces good results you want to always do the minimum even if it's very hard; but when the right amount is easy or fast, it's important to rest and recharge or think up new things to do. 

Doing more of the routine thing past a certain point can lead to burnout which is NOT a good idea.  To get good results, you must do these activities with very great consistency.

But also look for or think up solutions to doing better or removing obstacles.  If you are looking for these things, the most unlikely things sometimes will bring them to you. 

As the saying has it, “Chance favors the prepared mind!”

Once you find or think up a better way or new solution, before you over-commit to it, find a fast and inexpensive way to test it.

Some of these won't pass your tests. 

Ah! But those that do pass can triple your results when you weave them into your 20 mile march routine!

Jim Collins calls these mini-tests shooting bullets.  Some will be right on target and worth keeping but many will not.

Conclusion:

There are many ways others have found work to make lifestyle upgrades and make the lifestyle upgrades that force fat loss and ensure the fat loss is permanent.

As you may have noticed, many of them do NOT require eating less or being hungrier!

May you find some in this post that work for you!