Past Topics : Habits of Health Tuesdays

Plan - a scheme or method of acting, doing, proceeding, making, etc., developed in advance.

Goal - the result or achievement toward which effort is directed; aim; end.
I refer to them as steppingstones and guideposts, leading to an outcome/destination.

Destination – The ultimate end or purpose for which something is created or a person is destined.

Ideal - a conception of something in its perfection.
An Ideal is never a destination, but always worthy of a journey.

Success - a Progressive Realization of a Worthy Ideal

Diet - food or feed habitually eaten or provided:
NOT - A special combination of foods, herbs or processes.

At or on some level everyone makes plans. There are long-term plans and short- term plans all leading us somewhere. Sometimes they lead us forward and sometimes they take us backwards. Plans seem to always fit our needs, and can be physical, mental, or spiritual.

If we incorporate the Slight Edge Principles into our life, we could say that Simple Disciplines will typically lead us forward and Slight Errors in Judgment will take us backwards.

When planning, one of the most important things that we should not do is plan the expectations. We should not pre-determine what an outcome must be. Planning expectations ahead of time leads to disappointments and the urge to quit, if things don't work out exactly the way we planned them to be.

Planning starts with a decision. What is it I really want? To answer that takes an honest evaluation. Where are we now? Do we have dissatisfactions in our life? Is there anything that, if we changed, would make our lives better?

We must know where we are in this moment. We must have a beginning point — a point at which we start our journey.
A second equally important part is to know where we would like to end up. What "ideally" would we like to have, be or become.

When we know the beginning point and where we want to end up, we can start to fill in the pieces of how we want to get there. That is the plan! To go from a to w or y or z.

Within the plan, we must also include goals. The goals are the stepping stones and guideposts that we use during the journey. Goals should always be secondary to the plan. What knowledge do we need to gain? What do we need to change physically in order to accomplish our end Ideal? Might it behoove us to change something Spiritually in our lives, in order for us to reach our ideal?

How good is your forgetter? Mine is pretty good. With a written plan to reflect upon, our forgetter does not have a chance to activate. With a plan, I can stay in the journey and not jump to the next whizbang that comes along.

A life based on goals rather than on plans tends to be very disappointing in the overall scheme of things. A goal of “I want to be rich” leads nowhere without a plan. A goal of “I want to be slim” means nothing unless you know what you need to do to become slim. There is one other downfall and that is, once you accomplish your goal, you quit because it is finished, many times going back to the old habits and the old way of living. With weight loss this is called yo-yoing.

Many times happiness in life is based on accomplishing goals. We seem to be excited and happy once we have accomplished what we have set out to do. The problem is: that happiness is fleeting. It disappears soon after the goal has been met.

Many people want to start in the middle of the plan, rather than at the beginning. Without a plan, people dive into a process, sometimes in the middle. The 12-step program has a saying: "Half measures availed us nothing." Many times starting in the middle leads to unsatisfactory results, which take us back to the old habits we are familiar with, but that never worked for us in the past.

Weight loss, the process, is a good example. Number one, people should not be looking to lose weight. What they are really looking for is to lose fat. No one wants to decrease muscle mass or to lose a bone or two in order to decrease their weight.

A friend recommends a "diet," so they jump in. Many people falsely define diet as something special and different. Diet is actually defined as "what we eat," nothing more, nothing less. Diet should not be considered a dirty word or that it's something someone does on occasion.

To lose fat it is important to understand how and why we gain and store fat.
There are too many excuses—"reasons" people use to explain why they can't get rid of the fat they have stored. Bottom line is that they are not using the energy that has been stored in that fat. Each pound of fat equals 3500 calories. If the desire is to burn that 1 pound, then it needs to be accessed and used. However, people eat sugary and fat-laden foods, which provide instant energy, and therefore, our body fat is never accessed.

Many people have been deluded into thinking that exercise will burn that fat. It is well known to marathon runners that the body will use the blood sugar stored in the blood and in the liver before it will access the fat stores for energy. If you've ever heard of the term "hitting the wall" at around 20 miles, that is typically when the body has run out of blood sugar as an energy provider.

There are other delusions about exercise. Running a mile in around 12 minutes uses about 100 calories. That means, if you could convince the body to use the fat stores, you would burn around 2900 calories running a marathon (26.2 miles).
That's less than a pound of fat and at 12 minutes per mile it would take you 5 hours and 14 minutes.
So exercise is not one of the answers. It is extremely important for conditioning the body and the heart, but it should not be used as a tool to lose weight.

Losing fat is an eating, digestion, assimilation, storing process that needs to be understood. It is not just as simple as calories consumed versus calories expended.

To lose fat the body must enter what is called "a fat burning zone."

Fat burning zone defined:

1. Blood sugar levels remaining within prescribed limits. Balanced insulin levels, with no blood spikes. Around 110 mg/dl – no higher than 150 mg/dl after a meal.

2. Fat levels "lipids" remaining within prescribed limits. Triglycerides below 150 mg/dl.

3. Keeping the heart rate in a fat burning zone which is defined as 50% of your maximum heart rate.

To lose weight (fat) you need to have a plan (head knowledge - intellectual center). With that plan you can define your "WHY" (heart knowledge – passion center) and then allow (Gut knowledge – power center) the process happen. At that point, implementing that process and living life becomes a journey. Also know that because it’s a journey, there may be detours along the way. Plan for them and you won’t be disappointed when they happen.

If the heart rate reaches the aerobic or anaerobic zone, it will automatically switch to burning sugars for energy instead of fat, taking you out of the fat burning zone.

To begin losing fat you must start at the beginning. If you try to modify your diet to a transition or maintenance phase, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Remember, half measures avail little!

To begin losing fat, you must put yourself in a fat-burning zone. To get into a fat burning zone takes approximately 3 to 4 days. One meal high in sugar or fat can bring us out almost immediately. Anything less and you will be spinning your wheels, attempting the impossible. You may end up losing weight and meeting a size goal, but typically this is when the yo-yoing begins.

Losing fat is a process that we coach on daily.

Losing weight can be and is simple! However, acquiring the lessons, taking them from the head, the Intellectual Center, into the heart, the Passion Center, and down into the gut, the Power Center, usually requires some assistance.

Together i Can (T i C) is here to help, to provide that assistance. Call us today.

 

Join us to discuss these topics!

For more information read our other articles or contact us today!

Michael McCright
Free Health Coaching – provided by the "Together i Can Group"
Togetherican.com
November 22, 2016

Call 619-316-6900