I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of people in the gym over the years. While many have wanted to reshape their bodies or improve their fitness and conditioning, most really just wanted to lose some weight. So how do you do it?
At this point, there are really just two approaches. You can either add some activity to your day (exercise), or you have to start watching what you eat (diet).
I’ve seen people get decent results with either, although it’s not automatic. You have to be pretty good at it, and you have to be very disciplined. Miss a day of working out, or have a bad day with your diet, and you can easily undo the progress made the day before.
Stick To Your Guns
Posted: September 11, 2014
“Stick to your guns.” The phrase is typically used as a metaphor for not giving up on an idea. Or not stopping, once you’ve started something. Like a lot of old phrases, it’s interesting to think about where it originally came from.
According to the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs, it means “to remain firm on one’s convictions, to stand up for one’s rights. The dictionary refers to a soldier staying on the line, ready to fire their weapon, “even when all appears to be lost.”
When you were about to be overwhelmed by a superior force, and you were clearly in danger, you still stuck to your guns. Even if all was lost.
Buddy the Wonderdog Loses Weight
Posted: September 11, 2014
About four months ago, during a routine visit to the Vet, we got some alarming news. Our Golden Retriever, Buddy, who was fourteen months old at the time, needed to lose ten pounds. If he didn’t, he would be at risk for serious illness and injuries.
We’d suspected that he was getting a little big, but we hadn’t realized he needed to lose that much weight. It snuck up on us, just like it does with our own bodies. We attributed it to two things: The extremely cold winter made it hard for us to get him outside, and we’d been following the portion sizes on the dog food bag.
Now, we should have found a way to work him out despite the cold. But the dog food? That was a shocker. We didn’t realize it was almost twice what he needed. I should have known better, because eating too much with no exercise always makes us humans fat. Of course it would make Buddy fat too.
CHANGE YOUR THINKING
Posted: August 26, 2014
“If you do what you always do, you’ll get what you’ve always got.” I’m not sure who said it, but I’ve sure found it to be true.
Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing but expecting a different result.” Thomas Edison did hundreds of experiments, all slightly different, before creating a light bulb that worked. Both changed the world.
Whether you’re just trying to get active and change your eating, or you’re already active and trying to break through a plateau, something is probably going to have to change. We can’t keep doing the same things but expect a different result.
Staying Focused and Beating Fatigue Helps With Both Muscle & Money!
Posted: August 20, 2014
I love training. Any type of training. Especially if it will help me get better at something I’m interested in. Or learn something I need to learn.
In a couple weeks, I’m going to start some training for my brain, and my heart: Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University (FPU). It’s designed to help people exercise their financial muscles. Over the last 20 years, Dave has helped millions of people turn things around, and become debt free.
Kathy and I are no strangers to Dave’s program. Several years ago it helped us pay off thousands of dollars of personal debt, and develop a nice safety net. We’d built up our financial muscles, and gone on the cash only diet.