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Seems to be a lot more written lately about if being slim means that you are in better physical condition. I find this question lacking in common sense actually. Why? Because it relates to the idea of physical fitness. Not to how you are doing physically. Over the years as I had become bigger and my obesity started to really take it’s toll, I was often more active than many people my age. Now looking at me you would not have guessed it because at almost 3/4 of my height inches around my waist. I worked out each week. Many of my friends did not. I would often work harder in group situations than many of the people that where thinner and even younger.
You could say I had more endurance than some, but still I wasn’t physically fit. I could not have run a mile to save my life. Three miles before work like yesterday would have been out of the question. First of all I could not have done 3 miles in one setting walking or running. Giving it my best still would have wiped me out for the day. So active is not always fit. And slim is not always active. How to measure fitness?
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1. Determine if you are talking medical fitness or endurance fitness. Medical fitness can be tested and measured as well as endurance fitness. Each one is a different set of tests. Medical fitness is measured with things like blood tests, having check-ups, body fat percentages, and various other measurements of healthy body. Put them all together and you have a measurable results that tells you if you are healthy or not. Physical fitness has other tests. Length of workouts, recovery, intensity, endurance, and the list goes on. It too can be measured and tracked. If physical fitness is not being worked on, it is dropping.
2.Decide what needs to change. If you are at your ideal weight (determined by you and someone you trust) than you may need to look at the other forms of testing. Are there areas of either physical fitness or medical fitness that you need to look at? Start working on them and perhaps you can combine the two for “optimal health”. If you weight needs to change, stop fighting it and work on weight loss. If you have no endurance then exercise and come up with a plan to change it. If you have no ideas, than ask for help. It is available here and many other place on the net. Make a change.
3. Lastly stop making excuses for yourself. I hear it all the time. On of my favorites is that BMI charts are old science and have no bearing in truth. So frigging what! Adjust it for your body type and muscle mass and figure out if you are in shape or get your body fat measured. Stop using it as an excuse for not doing the work to reach a healthful state. Same with exercise. Here it is I am too out of shape or it takes too much time. How will that change if you don’t change something? As far as time goes you can pack life changing fitness into 20 mins a day or less. So time is not the issue. Commitment is! Way out of shape? Start slow and keep ramping it up till you get where you want to be.
You are not too big, too old, too young, too timid, too out of shape or too anything to not change something to make an improvement. You may need some help to get started. You may need a kick start on your weight loss or your physical program. You may even need some one like our team to teach and encourage you. But you can do it! You can reach optimal health no matter where you are now. And optimal health is the best that your body can do for the condition it is in, not in comparison to someone else and their abilities.
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Many people when they look at the chart for Body Mass Index (BMI) tell me that they have never weighed that or will they. It is too low for their body type. Here are some steps to help you decide what your ideal weight might be. I had a hard time figuring out how I would ever get that low in my weight so I went looking for more information. So here are some steps to figure out your goal weight.
1. Stop using big boned as a reason to be overweight. I know this will get many people upset at first but here is the reality of it. Bones take up approximately 15% of your body weight. So if you are totally ripped (7-10% body fat) at 200 lbs. So knowing that some of that weight is figured into the BMI at best you could justify 10-15 lbs of additional bone weight if you are truly big boned. More likely it will be between 5-10 lbs difference. Having said that just know this is not the reason to stop looking at your goal weight. Take it in consideration and make adjustments.
2. Do a body fat percentage measurement. This can be done in many places. It is a hand-held or step on device that will measure your body fat percentage within normally 1-3%. If that is not accurate enough for you many university sport centers have equipment and will do testing for around $25-$50. Then you will know exactly where you need to be. Essential body fat for women is 10-12% and men 2-4%. A fitness level for women is 21-24% and for men 14-17%. Acceptable is considered 25-31% for women and 18-26% for men. Anything more is overweight and doesn’t need a chart to give you an idea. This one will get you close to knowing exactly how healthy you are when deciding your goal weight.
3. Self examination. This one is almost too easy. You can buy a caliper and measure yourself or have your doctor do it in most cases. Now your doctor won’t normally suggest it to you because they won’t want to offend you and loose you as a patient. I am a strong advocate that if your doctor isn’t being honest with you, find a new doctor. But get your measurements and again you will have a close estimate to where you are now. You can even find body fat percentage calculators on the internet that take a waist to hip ratio and estimates your body fat percentage. Find one that uses forearm and wrist and you have one that will come close to a caliper measurement in estimating body fat.
4. Look in the mirror. Do you like what you see? Can you see defined muscle or do you see rolls. If you see rolls chances are you need to loose some weight. At the very least you want to do some toning and exercise and take care of yourself. Being honest with yourself and how you feel is one of the key factors to decide where you need to be. Charts and measurements are guidelines, but when it gets down to it, you need to like the way you look and feel.
5. Ask a trusted friend. Be honest with someone you trust and ask them straight up: “Do you think I need to loose some weight?” Now here it is not always a good idea to ask a spouse or co-worker, unless you can expect them to be honest with you. I would shoot for that close friend that you can count on no matter what to be there for you.
After you determine your honest weight compare it to the BMI chart and see how it stacks up. Remember that they figure in that you will loose muscle as you get older and a few other factors, but if you get your body fat percentage figured out, you will know where you need to be.
As always if you would like someone to help you get there send us your contact information and we will be glad to help you.(Contact Us Form Link) We will do a free assessment and make some recommendations on what to do next. Also we are currently doing a once a month newsletter with some great ideas in it.
Gotta Love Me!
Now that we have established that a “diet” is what you eat, we can talk about different ideas on eating. Let’s start with what you eat now. Ask yourself this question. Is what I am eating normally every day working to get me healthier? If I am not at my optimal weight, is it getting me closer? Or is it taking me over the edge in both my health and my weight?
These are not tough questions. We all know if we weigh what we want to. Look in the mirror and you know your answer. For some it will be: “Yeah I look and feel great!” Others, not so much. Whatever it is, it is. That is the first thing to decide. Are you happy with where you are right now? If not then what is your next step? Something has to change.
Back when I was a hair’s breath away from 300lbs and at a 43 BMI I was medically morbidly obese. I watched it happen over the years. I told myself I needed to do something. I tried to make a habit of watching what I ate. Problem was I loved to eat and watching what I ate, not so much. I knew that I was getting bigger. I was afraid to get on the scale and see myself getting heavier. I started to stop looking so often when I reached 275. I didn’t want to know. At 297 I made a new choice. I had to stop the progression.
Health wise I was having chest pains. I could no longer walk up one flight of stairs without getting winded. I was told to quadruple my blood pressure meds. I was in sad shape. My sex life was disappearing before my eyes. I knew I was getting close to the day I would grab my chest and fall to the ground. And no one knew but me. But see, I knew. Your body does not lie to you. What is it saying?
Back to the eating habit called my diet. I was on the put food in front of me and I would eat it program. I was always hungry. I was always drained. Chocolate was my friend, well at least for the hour or two it boosted me before I would crash and need more. Energy drinks where a must just to stay awake from lack of sleep. Sound familiar?
I was on the how fast can we check out of here diet. Not one I recommend to people, but you would be shocked how many people stay on that one even after having that fall to the ground experience. I know several people that are struggling with back pain, indigestion and heartburn, various medications, high blood pressure, and are either already a type 2 diabetic or borderline. They still are on the fast lane diet out of here. They ignore their warning signs like I did.
What can I do? I weep (literally) for them. I know their pain. I talk to them to inspire them to change their lifestyle and that no matter what their age they can make a shift. Some will and do. Some won’t and continue down the path. As they used to say on the tv show “Dinosaurs” “You got to love them.” I live for the lives I can change and inspire and learn to let be those that take the path to ignore what they already know to be their truth.
Stay tuned for the options as we discuss the various other types of diets I have been on over the years and how they affected my learning along the way. If you want to cut to the chase and get going send me a contact request and I will be glad to work with you.
During the recent event with the Taste of Home show I must have asked the question over 500 times. Almost every time I got a laugh and a response that went something like “Yes of course I want to lose some weight.” There were of course some loving partners that said “Yes my husband really needs to lose some weight.” What I normally follow up on after a few pleasant introductions to some very nice people was this: “Was that a want to or a need to?”
Let me explain why I ask. You see for over 20 years I had a want to lose weight and get healthy. That want got me 20 years of up and down yo-yo weight loss. Something I refuse to set some one up for. See during my hypnosis training my instructors taught me that you have to want to change and if you feel the need to change your therapy will be much more effective. For hypnosis it would be much easier to work with the suggestions at a deeper level within the subconscious.
However if someone wants you to lose weight or to quit smoking and you don’t, no amount of behavior change techniques will fix the problem. Sure I can help you loose the weight but you will never keep it off, because the behavior change was not yours in the first place. You need that want and need together to be ready for the journey. It will be a journey of change at a deep level because superficial won’t produce long lasting change. And before you ask I don’t use hypnosis in my practice unless it is a tool that is needed in that journey.
So ask yourself when you look in the mirror (I always suggest people get naked spiritually and physically) and see what you see. Do you like what you see? I know I didn’t. At 297 pounds I made a promise to myself I would not go over 300. Funny now when I look back at it really, why didn’t I start with a promise to not go over 200? I swore at my doctor (behind his back) for suggesting I would be better off adding four more medications. I knew when the chest pains started coming multiple times daily that I “needed” to do something. I was ready.
Truth be known I knew that I needed to do something many years before all of that. I just didn’t “want” to do the work. After all I wasn’t that big. Lol, yeah right. At a 43 BMI I was a morbidly obese and qualified for gastric bypass without any of the multitude of other medical conditions to go with it. So the want and the need had to come together all at once. Opportunity and preparedness met.
What is it going to take for you to go for optimal health? Is it that you can’t keep up with your kids or grandkids and play? Is it wondering if you will see them get married and have children of their own? Is it that climb up one flight of stairs that gets you breathing so hard you think your chest is going to burst? Or will it be the way the doctor looks at you when he says one more time that you need to eat less and exercise more? Is it now or never?
I know this for a fact there is life after being fat. And all those people that loved you anyway will still love you thinner. Living for health is much better then dying to eat. Trust me on this one. Come lets take that walk together. I am blessed every day now with changing lives and being reminded that the journey was worth the walk. Come along aside and walk with us. There is plenty of help along the way and it will be there when you stumble and want to get back up again.
Nothing tastes as good as thin feels! Be blessed in whatever walk you choose today!
I am sure that the good folks that put together the BMI (Body Mass Index) meant it all to warn us when we needed to pay attention. They got my attention the first time I checked in with my doctor and he said. You have reached what is classified as morbidly obese at a rating of 43.9 on the scale. I was so depressed. I felt what he was telling me in truth was that I didn’t have long to live if I kept up this weight level.Â
The first thing I did was to let him prescribe the blood pressure medicine. I had fought for over 5 years to stay off of any medications and I knew I was fighting a loosing battle. I had been trying for that entire time to loose some weight. But to no avail. Morbid hit me like a car hitting a brick wall a 100 mph.
Up until then I didn’t see myself as obese. I was “plesantly plump” sure enough. I was getting winded easier but I could still work out. At least when I would get up off my butt and go do it. I had tried the various diets. Atkins (lost a little), Abs (lost the most before MediFast), low carb, low fat, calorie watching etc. etc. None of them did I loose more the 30 lbs (with exercise).
Well today I broke that best lost record by 7 lbs. Thats right I have lost 37 lbs so far on this journey. Better then anything I have been able to do in the last 5 years of trying to work it off, starve it off, exercise it off, watch the calories it off. Today I officially am just “Obese”. Lol never thought that would sound good to me. But it is like my blood pressure. Going from Stage 3 hypertension to normal is a big deal. Changing BMI category to 38.5, a change of 5.4 to Obese, is a big deal to me.
Another week in and still going strong. Looking forward to the day that some one will find this as motivation to change their lives and ask for my help.
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