Think about this for a second. Have you ever been working on your health and a close friend say, why not skip your work out tonight because you worked hard at your job or its late and it would be crazy to do your exercises. When people around you are saying things like this, it takes a lot of focus and commitment to stay on track. Thus the importance of having someone who supports you along the way.

Fat Dad Thin Dad Update

If you have been tracking how Fat Dad, Thin Dad has been doing in his transformation, you will see that even he has things that can get in the way. That’s just part of life. The important thing is to not lose track of what you are wanting to accomplish. In my situation, I have had to work some extra hours, been out of town to attend a seminar, and it goes on and on. Again, that is what happens in real life. This is not where you take overweight people and have them work out for 6 to 8 hours a day for a television show. It is real people with real things in life. Its all about finding what can work for you and taking action.

We put together a short video on what is happening and what we would like to do as it relates to making this into a community that supports others in gaining their health goals in life. Keep in mind that we want everyone to focus on common sense and this includes checking with your health care professional as each of us is different. Check out this video…

Until Next Time…

True Measurement Of Dieting Success

If you want to have a good measurement of success, measure the inches you lose. Here are my results for the last two weeks.

Waist - 1/2 inch loss
Chest - 1/4 inch loss
Biceps - 1/4 inch loss each
Thighs - 0 inch loss each which is not a problem due to the legs exercises I am doing

Total inch loss - 1 inch

For the full 8 weeks, here are my results

Waist - 3 3/4 inch loss
Chest - 5 1/4 inch loss
Biceps - 1 1/4 inch loss each
Thighs - 2 1/2 inch loss each

Total inch loss - 16 inches

I have continued to shrink on some part of my body each week. Even if it is a small amount, it is still getting smaller than I was a week earlier. To stay motivated, you have to have regular successes. Now compare this to only 2 pounds in 4 weeks with basically no weight loss for 3 of those weeks.

Next 4 Week Focus On My Health Management Plan

Over the next 4 weeks, I plan to change up my routine in both exercises and eating. I have slowly changed my normal eating to smaller portions without going hungry. The cool part about what I am doing is just developing new habits to eating what my body wants. Remember, this is not about starving yourself. It is about learning what your body needs and training it to perform at its maximum levels. I know the next four weeks will be a tad painful as the routines I just added yesterday already have added a few sour places in my body. A good thing because I am moving my muscles in a new and different way. I refuse to be assimilated into the Borg.

Until Next Time…

Why Do People Stop Diets?

What happens when you cut your intake of food? Your body starts to send signals to the brain that it is not getting all the extra food that it is used to getting. At first the signal is quiet, but as time passes, it gets really load. (That’s my unscientific take on this.) The point I am making is that reducing food intake causes your body to slow down.

At first you lose weight fairly quickly. But as the warning signal gets heard in the brain, it sends out commands to the body that its time to go into a starvation mode. This causes the body to slow down and become accustomed to the lower intake of food.

Your Body Is Like The Borg

Have you ever watched the TV series, Star Trek New Generation? On this show is a race called the Borg. The Borg are a rather scary group of aliens because their whole purpose in life was to assimilate the various races they encountered. When ever they were met with resistance, the Borg would quickly adapt to the attack and make it useless.

Your body does the same thing. That load signal that is sent to the brain at first is like the attacks on the Borg. It quickly adapts and makes the attack useless. Thus, your diet program seems to stop. When it stops, what do you think happens? Exactly. You stop the program thinking that this doesn’t work. Why should you try any longer.

Overcoming The Borg In You

To overcome this adaptation, you have to do the same thing. Adapt just as quickly. To break out of the shutdown, you should look at cycling your program and exercises. Rotate from a lower intake to a higher intake every few days or every other day. Change up your exercises every week or two.

Keep your body guessing as to what you will be doing. While it is in this state of confusion, it doesn’t have time to worry about whether or not you are in the “starvation” mode. It is not sure what mode you are in since nothing is constant. When this happens, your body keeps shrinking down to the size you want it to.

Always keep in mind that what ever you do decide on, please verify this with your health care professional as they are fully aware of your specific health needs.

Until Next Time…

What Kills Any Weight Loss Effort?

The biggest killer for any one on a weight loss or in my case, inch loss effort is the thing called a plateau. You know where your body decides that it doesn’t want to keep up losing weight or inches. Let’s look at what happened to me. Over the last two weeks, I have lost zero pounds. Yes, that is correct. No weight loss at all. For most people they would say why try and quit.

Why It’s Best To Measure In Inch Loss

While I lost a good 11 inches in the first 4 weeks, over the last two weeks, I have lost 3 3/4 inches. Here are the results:

Waist - 1/2 inch
Chest - 1 1/2 inch
Biceps - 1/2 inch each
Thighs - 3/8 inch each

Weight loss - a big fat zero

Overcoming Plateau Challenges

The best way to describe a plateau is where your body decides to challenge you to see if you really are serious about living a healthier life style. It says, “Hey wait a minute. I don’t remember you doing this before. Besides, I’m getting a little sore from you actually moving and not sitting in front of the television all evening. If I just hold on to my weight a couple of weeks, I am sure this person will stop all of this and things will be back to normal, right?”

To overcome the plateau effect, you focus on the right things. Those things are inch loss. You will find that your body will still be losing inches even though its weight is the same or going up. Also, setting your goal of being able to wear a specific size of clothes by a certain date is much more fulfilling than X pounds. If those skinny jeans fit, who cares what you weigh.

You Have To Track Your Progress

If you don’t track your progress, you will end up losing focus because you won’t know how well you have done overall. It is hard to imagine losing almost 15 inches off my body in the last 6 weeks. Had I not started out by measuring myself when I started, I would not have known this. It is easier to give up when you can’t see your progress. Also, when you don’t see progress, it is easy to see where you may need to adjust.

Even though I did have inch loss, there are things I can see that I may need to adjust. I know I had to change up my workout over the last two weeks due to a sore knee. I can see the impact this has had in certain areas of my body, particularly in my waist. My attention will be to look for alternate exercises that I can do to focus on my waist line and allow my knee to regain its strength.

How Do You Handle Plateaus?

While the ideas shared here work for me, it is always interesting to see how others have been able to overcome their challenge of plateaus. Please post your ideas for other readers.

Hope you enjoyed today’s post. I will get more things happening on the blog this week along with getting the final touches for us to start our diet plan reviews.

Until Next Time…

Presenting Flab Off

Fad Diet TV came across yet another video which shows you the total fallacy of diet programs. This little spoof clearly illustrates all the crap that we can easily get sucked into from a diet program. Fast weight loss. Easy fat burning. No exercise. All in one little tablet. In essence, you don’t have to pay any price except for the one you pay the diet pill company. Check it out…

What do you think? Do you believe this will really make a difference in your life long term? How about other types of similar diet programs?

Until Next Time…

Yes, simplicity is the key to success. The biggest challenge people have is attempting to do too many things at once. You end up losing your focus. You attempt to change what you eat, how you exercise, and many other things at the same time. You end up hungry, sore, and totally confused. And….you end up quiting and saying this doesn’t work. I have lost my ability to lose weight. Well stop it!

The way to have success is taking it one step at a time. Find one thing this week that you can change for the better. Maybe it is giving up something you know is not good for you or at least reducing the times you eat it in a day or week. If you do that, then you are now on your road to reaching your goals. Now add something else. I know how it is to pore yourself into a program and get to the end with some good results but then you are extremely tired and worn out. Not a good thing.

Measure The Right Things

Stop weighing yourself! Yes, you heard me right. Only measure your self. I would recommend the places I stated in the video and in addition you should add your butt. I forgot to measure that when I started so I decided not to include it in the challenge. Who cares how much you weigh when you can wear your skinny jeans, right?

Focusing on the simple things are what will get you where you want to go in this crazy world of fad diets. In fact, toss out the fad diets and only focus on these simple things.

Until Next Time…

Ongoing Baby Step Approach

One thing I wasn’t sure of when I started this was that it may not appear that I am taking baby steps. In actuality, I am. Keep in mind that I have been exercising on a regular basis even though I had two non-related injuries. My focus was just to get into the habit of doing something every day. Then I added a little more while making small changes in my eating as well. I must say that it is like history repeating itself in that when I did this before I dropped 2 pant sizes in 4 weeks. This time I am focusing on doing things I can do on a regular basis. You know that thing called life? Where you develop habits that you do each day without really thinking about it.

Part of my baby step approach is just to do the little things that can make a difference. I know I tested the work out I used to do twice a day last Saturday just one time. I was shocked at how much energy I expended. I quickly realized that it was not something I could live with for the rest of my life. The simple workouts I am doing are.

Complete Video Update Coming Monday

We will work on developing a new video update and if all goes well, we will post it on Monday. In the meantime, I hope you all had a great Valentines Day and told that someone special in your life that you appreciated them.

Until Next Time…

Running To Lose Weight

Many people decide to take up jogging to lose weight. Some become real serious and become marathon runners. They train for months and some times years on end in order to get to the point where they can actually complete the marathon. For those of you who find it hard to get motivated to get out there and run, Fad Diet TV has yet again discovered the answer to this challenge.

Here is a new program guaranteed to get you running and losing weight so fast, you won’t recognize your self where you look into the mirror. Check it out…

What about you? What do you do to motivate yourself into getting out there and exercising?

Until Next Time…

The Results Are In

Drum roll please….This week Fat Dad, soon becoming Thin Dad, has lost a total of 2 1/2 inches again. BooYah! Here is the break down for last week.

Waist - lost 1/4 inch
Chest - lost 3/4 inch
Right Bicep - lost 1/4 inch
Left Bicep - lost 1/4 inch
Right Thigh - lost 1/2 inch
Left Thigh - lost 1/2 inch

Total Inch Loss To Date

Waist - lost 2 1/4 inch
Chest - lost 2 1/2 inch
Right Bicep - lost 1/2 inch
Left Bicep - lost 1/2 inch
Right Thigh - lost 1 1/2 inch
Left Thigh - lost 1 1/2 inch

Grand Total Inch Loss - 8 3/4 inches

Weight Loss Secret Revealed

Last week I promised to share a secret to winning this game. Now some may see the real forces that drive this and others may just look at it and say, “Huh?”. Either way, here it is. One thing I do that keeps me motivated is that I set a goal to reach a certain size by a certain date. Not only do I set this goal, I take action on it. I go out and buy a pair of pants the size I plan to be able to wear and use that new pair of pants as my motivator. During the last two weekends, I have tested out these pants to see how well they fit. When I started, I couldn’t get them all the way up to be able to zip them. Last week I was able to squeeze into them.

With losing the inches I have been losing, I don’t think it will be a challenge to fit into these pants come Sunday. Right now, the pants I am wearing are getting really baggy and I have to keep pulling them up. Not fun at all. So I look forward to being able to move into the new pair.

What Motivates You?

In order to have long lasting reduction, you need something that will motivate you. What can you do in your life to keep you on track? Next week, I will share more ideas on ways to stay focused and on track.

Until Next Time…

Good Alternatives To High Fiber Diet

One way to “keep things moving” is to do the same thing your self. Yes, that’s right. The more you move, the more the stuff in you moves. This comes in the form of planned exercise or even unplanned exercise. Go for a nice walk after you eat a meal and watch the difference it will make in how you process your food.

Bad Alternatives To Eating High Fiber Foods

Some people just want to take that short cut. You know, swallow a pill or drink a potion to make it happen. This short cut may work in the short term, but the challenge is that your body is not designed to keep getting shocked into moving things through it. What ends up happening is that your body becomes dependent on the product you are taking and the nature process could shut down or slow down drastically.

To add a piece of comedy to this, Fad Diet TV found a spoof video that illustrates the sheer strangeness in taking stuff to clean out your system and/or to lose weight. Watch…

What about you? Have you taken pills or potions that may have had a bad effect on your body that you didn’t want to have happen? Maybe even an accident that might have been embarrassing? As always, chose wisely in what you put into your mouth.

Until Next Time…