Budgets and Bulges, Part 4

“I’ll start at the first of the year.. “ “I’ll start Monday.” “I’m going to start on my birthday.” “I’m happy with my weight. People in my family are just big-boned.” I’m sure you have heard, or uttered these same statements as you pondered a lifestyle change, or significant decision. These statements could be considered a form of procrastination, but I see them as different stages of readiness.

Stages of Readiness is not a new term, or anything that I cooked up on my own. James O. Prochaska, the psychologist who identified the cycle, recognized each stage as a means of utilizing different strategies or tools. I have borrowed the following from his book, Changing for Good.

Precontemplation
"People at this stage usually have no intention of changing their behavior, and typically deny having a problem. Precontemplators resist change. They may change if there is enough constant external pressure, but once the pressure is removed, they quickly revert. Precontemplators are often demoralized and don't want to think about their problem because they feel that the situation is hopeless. "There is certain comfort in recognizing that demoralization is a natural feeling that accompanies this stage-and in realizing that if you take yourself systematically through all the stages of change, you can change."

Contemplation
"I want to stop feeling so stuck. Those simple words are typical of contemplators. In the contemplation stage, people acknowledge that they have a problem and begin to think seriously about solving it. Contemplators struggle to understand their problem, see its causes, and begin to wonder about possible solutions."

Preparation
Most people in the preparation stage are planning to make changes within the next month. An important first step is to make their intention public. "But although those in the preparation stage are committed to action, and may appear ready, they have not necessarily resolved their ambivalence. They may still need to convince themselves that this is the best step."


Action
"The action stage is the one in which people most overtly modify their behavior and surroundings. They stop smoking, remove all desserts from the house, pour the last beer down the drain, or confront their fears. In short, they make the move for which they have been preparing.

Maintenance
In the maintenance stage, you consolidate the gains you made in the action stage and work to prevent relapses.

This stage is a long, ongoing, and critically important process. We all know someone who lost many pounds on a diet, but regained them all in a few months. Successful maintenance requires active alertness.

Termination
The termination stage is the ultimate goal. Here, your former addiction or problem will no longer present any temptation or threat. You will not need to make any further effort and will exit the cycle of change.

So, one of the first thing an individual needs to do is assess his stage of readiness. If, deep down, you really don’t want to change, he will be spinning his wheels as he struggles to alter behavior. Remember in one of my first postings, I said it was funny that 6 or 9 months after I trained with someone, I would see them, and they had finally lost weight ,or gotten healthier? Well, I believe now that when they were working out with me, they were not in the stage of readiness that would have allowed them to achieve their goals. Something or some event came along in those intervening months and became the catalyst that wasn’t present 6 months before. At that point, they could now start to put into practice the workout concepts they had learned with me earlier. The difference, however, is that they had started incorporating the nutrition portion of their lifestyle change into the formula.

I would love to take credit for their success stories, but I really can’t. I might have been an instigator, or a coach, or possibly even a motivating factor, but ultimately the individual (the Y.O.U. factor, if you will) was what drove the little engine up the mountain (I think I can, I think I can…). It all comes down to what is inside, and identifying your motivations and catalysts. Good luck.
Next up: How to be S.M.A.R.T.

Budgets and Bulges, Part 3

This is the posting where I start to reveal the secret to your success. Here’s the really cool thing. It is actually easier than you think. Here’s the hard thing: it requires a little determination, perseverance, and self-motivation. At least I’m honest, which is more than can be said for the people that tell you that a little pill, a magic potion, or a revolutionary new exercise gadget is going to change your life. Nobody changes your life except you. So I call my magic formula Y.O.U.

For me, Y.O.U. stands for “Your Opportunities are Unlimited.” For you, it might be something completely different. See, that’s the idea. You are an individual, and your journey will be different from everyone else’s.

There are, however some similarities in how people approach getting healthier, and specifically, weight loss. There is an organization called the National Weight Control Registry (http://www.nwcr.ws/) that collects data from people who have lost at least 30 pounds, and kept it off for at least a year. The membership is totally voluntary. The information that people submit is solely for the purpose of gathering data and noting similar trends among individuals who have lost weight. Some of the success stories are quite remarkable. Interesting thing is that there aren’t a lot of accounts of bariatric surgery in the success stories. Here are a few statistics gathered by NWCR:

•78% eat breakfast every day.
•75% weigh them self at least once a week.
•62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.
•90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.
•98% of Registry participants report that they modified their food intake in some way to lose weight.

Here’s an assignment if you are interested in losing weight. If you feel your weight is just fine, ignore this. But if you think you need to make some changes, simply write down EVERYTHING you eat for a week. Nobody will read it except you. Be totally honest and pay attention to portions that you eat. If you aren't sure of the calorie value, add at least 50 calories, because we usually underestimate our intake. There are several websites (ie.: http://www.myfitnesspal.com) that can give you calorie content, so you can total things up at the end of the day. There are applications you can use on a data phone that will do that, as well. If you are maintaining your weight, you can probably just stay the course (unless you are not happy with that weight). If your weight has been creeping up over the past months, you could probably “cut the fat” out of your food budget.

Don’t get crazy once you make a decision to change your eating habits. It's hard to change habits, so you move slowly, but deliberately. It pays off in the long term, Do little things. Just look for one thing that you can cut out. One of my favorite treats is a Starbuck’s cinnamon chip scone. It’s not that big, at least it doesn’t look that big…But it is 470 calories!! And they are for the most part empty calories. If you are on a 1500 calorie per day eating plan, you have just used a third of your calories before 8 (maybe even 7) AM! Let’s add a tall latte to that, and you’ve got another 80 calories, if it’s non-fat. And voila! You have lots of calories, with little nutritional value. If you want an eye-opener, go to the Starbuck’s nutritional value pdf
http://www.starbucks.com/retail/nutrition/Zone024_SBUX_Food_Nutrition.pdf and look at the calorie counts. It reminds me of looking at the price tag of an impulse buy once I get home and realizing that I’ve just shot my entire clothing budget on one pair of shoes!! I have nothing against Starbuck’s, but we have to take charge of what we put into our bodies.

That’s all for today, because I just realized I’m really hungry from writing, so I’m going to go down to Starbuck’s and… Stay tuned for the next installment! In the meantime, Write it Down.

Righteous Indignation

I know I said that my next installment was going to be about tapping into the Y.O.U. factor in order to achieve you fitness goals, but something else got my attention. I have a tendency to be a little random in my thought processes, and writing this blog has really helped me to focus, but, I have given myself permission to veer off course when I believe the occasion calls for it.

My cousin has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. She is currently talking with surgeons and oncologists and radiologists (oh my!), about her treatment options. Scary times. Very scary times. And let’s throw one more boogie-man into this little horror scenario: she doesn’t have health care. Through some unfortunate circumstances, she was recently forced to retire at 60, and couldn’t afford to pay the insurance premiums to fill in the coverage gap between her retirement and Medicare eligibility. So now she begins the Alice in Wonderland journey of treatment options.

I read an interesting statistic the other day: life expectancy for Americans who have already reached the age of 65 is strikingly above average among industrialized nations. Why? Because Americans above age 65 actually have universal health care coverage. Medicare.

One of my clients was telling me about her breast cancer diagnosis. One of the first questions she was asked was if she had insurance, and what kind it was. Glad to see we have our priorities straight.

But back to cancer. I hate this disease. I hate it in whatever devious form it takes. It changes lives-not in a good way- and it steals our self-confidence and makes us fearful and paranoid. Even after a series of surgery, chemo and radiation, and even after the patient has been given a clean bill of health, there is always the lurking fear of its reoccurrence at each subsequent doctor’s visit.

I must tell you that after I walked in the Komen Foundation Breast Cancer 3-Day, I still wasn’t sure why I walked, except to see if I could do it. I wasn’t a survivor, and didn’t have a mother or a sister or a grandmother or aunt who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I just felt so powerless every time I heard of one more person being diagnosed, that I just got angry. So I transferred my anger to my feet, and I started walking. I don’t think that’s enough, but it’s something, and something is better than nothing at all. Unfortunately, when my cousin contacted the Komen Foundation, she was basically turned away. I’m still a little confused about that. (that might be another subject at a later date)

I am now on the universal health care band wagon. Call me a socialist. Call me a hopeless romantic. Call me crazy. But we need to do better than this. We’re AMERICA, for goodness sakes! Home of the free, land of the brave. The place where the baseball team with the most money can win 27 World Series Championships. We just need to do better.

Budgets and Bulges, Part 2

I wasn’t being completely honest when I said that I didn’t have a secret formula for weight loss. After researching, I think I finally came up with something. I searched many websites that promised that if you click just one more button, the secret will be revealed. I actually clicked the button, and then I had to click another button, and then finally I got to the page where they’re sure you’re hooked, and you’re ready to part with your hard-earned cash. That’s when I logged off.
Weight loss is a little like clicking lots of buttons. Or maybe like viewing lots of websites, or perusing a lot of weight-loss books. One thing that all these methods have in common, is that they are all a little bit right. But not a single one is the absolute answer. So you keep clicking buttons.

I hate to keep anyone in suspense (actually I do, but I thought that sounded good), but I am now ready to reveal the key, the magic button, the secret potion, the ultimate tip. Here it is: Y.O.U. YOU hold the key. You are the only person who knows the most about your body, your likes, your dislikes, your weak points (I like to refer to them as “areas of opportunity”), your strong points. You know what you like to eat, you know what you hate. You know how you like to exercise, or if you don’t. So take that self-knowledge and put it to work for you. Become a fitness expert on yourself.

As I mentioned in the last post, I didn’t know how to put a strategic spending plan together, so I went to someone who did. I had a strong enough motivation (long-term financial stability), and that was what compelled me to take action. It is the same with good health and weight loss—there needs to be a tangible reason to make a change—something that starts the process. I don’t believe anyone makes lasting changes in their life unless they have a good incentive. You may or may not seek the help of a health and fitness professional, who will assist you in your journey, but ultimately you are the one who succeeds or doesn’t (I don’t like to use the “f” word—it’s so negative).

To go back to the budget thing: if I had read countless books on wealth management, or had gone to workshops, or consulted financial gurus and spent thousands of dollars on their advice, and then gone back to my old habits, I’d be right back where I started. It’s the same with fitness. You can work with a personal trainer every day, or buy all these great diet and exercise books (last count on Amazon, I think there were in the neighborhood of a gazillion titles), but if you don’t DO it, you are still at square one. Excuse the example, but look at Oprah—she has every fitness and dietary professional in the world at her beck and call, and she still reverts to the old habits.

In the next post, we’ll get a little more specific on how to reach your goals. After all, I can’t expect you to read more than 1200 words in one post! You have work to do! Have a great day.

Budgets and Bulges

Recently, I started an on-line class through the local community college called, “Where Did All My Money Go?” After eight years of non-stop college tuition, and a few other life events, I decided to try and put my house in order. As I was approaching my "golden years," I felt I needed to be more cognizant about how money was being spent, and how to better save for the future. (Don't ask me why I didn't do this 20 years ago..) I found the assignments on spending, particularly the tracking of spending habits painful, yet illuminating. I started to see how small purchases here and there, combined with a lack of oversight can lead to a loss of control over our finances.

As I studied the curriculum, terms such as “spending plan” (aka “budget”), and “net worth” (what you have and what you owe), started to light little bulbs in my head. Simple concepts, but if you pay no attention to them, they don't do you much good. So in essence, I put myself on a –excuse the lack of euphemism—DIET. It occurred to me that what the instructor was having me do was exactly what I was asking clients to do when they were trying to lose weight!

When you establish a spending plan (budget), you first must look at what you currently spend. When I ask clients if they know how many calories a day they consume, most cannot tell me. When I ask them how many calories they need to survive, they cannot tell me. So here’s the dilemma: how can you know what needs to be done to resolve your burgeoning budget (read: waistline), if you don’t know how to curb your spending (eating), and monitor your assets (exercise) and debits (sedentary lifestyle and extra pounds)? We'll talk about this later.

With the HOLIDAYS fast approaching, we find ourselves “outspending” on many levels. We spend a lot on entertaining, presents, and travel. We also spend a lot of time indulging in foods that do not help our fitness budget. And in addition, I have people tell me that they don’t have time to exercise “because of the holidays!” This is probably when we need to be scrupulously monitoring our exercise assets more than ever! Eating rich food is okay once in awhile, but it starts a vicious cycle: the more you eat, the more you want (rich food is very addictive), the slower you become, the less you do, the fewer calories you burn up. Spending on non-essentials is kind of the same way. Heck! It’s fun to spend money. I am the first to admit it. But I know it’s not going to help me get where I need to be financially. The same is true when it comes to exercise and a sensible eating plan.

But, let’s get back to my analogies. January rolls around. And the bills start trickling in. You wonder how the heck your VISA bill got that big. Where did all these Nordstrom charges come from. I bought WHAT? at Amazon.com? Then you step on the scale, and you wonder where the extra 5 lbs came from, and then the resolutions start. You see where I’m going with this.

There are countless clients who have come to me wanting to lose weight. They are desperate. I have told them I do not hold the key to weight loss. They do. They want some kind of secret formula, and I don’t have one. I just tell them what I know has worked for me and many others. What I find interesting, is that during the time my clients worked out with me, very few actually lost weight. (Sad, but true). But then I see them 6 months later, and—by golly!—they’ve lost weight. You may want to know how that happened. Tune in tomorrow to find out more….