How do I Change?

Of the many mistakes I made in my own health and fitness journey and perhaps the most detrimental mistake I made was my failure to make any attempt to understand what fat is and get some meaningful information that I could possibly use to help me get rid of the extra fat I was carrying around.

Once again, I naively followed the media logic as regards fat and thought I just needed to buy this one simple device that would shred that fat from my body. I believed fallacies such as needing to work out 6 days a week consistently for 6 weeks to see the promised ‘transformation’.

Eat what you want once you train like this and you’ll have your dream body, remembering thought patterns like this makes me cringe now at my own naivety.

I’m not a doctor and I’m not a qualified nutritionist, what I’m going to outline here should not be taken as gospel. What I state below had a big impact on my own health and fitness journey and I hope the knowledge I’m imparting goes a long way to helping you do your own research or curbing bad habits. Coupled with the right professional advice and your own common sense as regards your personal wellbeing this information will help you.

My thoughts on why I was overweight and unhealthy

It’s easy to see this in hindsight that I was overweight because I had a very poor diet that consisted of mainly processed cheap foods and take away food,

I neglected to do any beneficial regular exercise and I would binge eat on a regular basis, usually towards the latter part of the day and weekends. I was blissfully unaware of this and like a lot of people all too happy to blame everything but myself for my predicament.

I wasn’t always fat, in fact right up until my early twenties I had been in what you might class as good shape on the back of playing for several football teams in school. I was swimming, playing sports and not really overeating or drinking too much.

As my level of physical activities started to slide my diet progressed from what I would call average for my age to absolutely appalling for any age. This coincided with me moving out of my parents’ home and getting into a long-term relationship. Needless to say, I am still the one to blame. Not having any idea on how to cook something was a major pitfall. It seems quite a common thing these days also.

I didn’t gain the weight suddenly; it was a gradual thing. So gradual in fact that I was somewhat unaware and ignorant of it, and I carried on doing what I was doing assuming I was still fit and still healthy. I was probably eating 1.5 to 2 times my required daily calorie intake and it was all bad food I’m not sure I ate any fruit or vegetables at all.  

At that rate I was putting on a couple of pounds a month. As people looking at the older pictures of me say now, ‘you carried it well’ or in other words you didn’t look ‘that fat’.

Clothes didn’t fit as well as they used to, and my general health and demeanour became very poor. I seemed to be catching every winter cold and flu that was going. I truly love food and there is very little I won’t eat. I would eat my own dinner and then polish off my partner’s plate. We’d often then have ‘goodies’ or ‘treats’ after our dinner.

I would get up on Sunday and make us a nice Sunday breakfast like the good loving partner that I am. The traditional Irish fry up was the meal of choice often coupled with copious amounts of white bread toasted and as always whatever my partner didn’t eat, I would ensure was not wasted.

It was fine I thought to myself, more food is more muscle and as soon as I can get that product, I saw advertised that gets you from fat-to-fit in six weeks I’ll be fine. I’ll worry about all that when I start on a future Monday.

All this took place over the course of several years and along the way like most people there were life events some very good and some very bad that all had a bearing on my own personal well-being. The net result was that I was in my mid-twenties, overweight, often sick and I was getting worse and worse. I had tried and failed to address the problem and lacked any clear goals.

Mentally I was struggling with my weight, I wore clothing that hid my body, I would sweat profusely in social situations because of worrying about my weight and then this would make me even more self-conscious, it was a vicious circle.

This mental anguish caused me to lose a lot of my self-confidence and in turn I became a much more negative and pessimistic person. I was aware of my failure’s health and fitness wise, and I wanted to fix them badly, I reached a point mentally where I wanted to be fit so bad but didn’t have the ability to do anything about it.

I was exactly the type of customer the late-night advertisements and fitness gimmick marketing departments target, and I lapped it up. From DVDs to exercise equipment, I blindly purchased it all.

While some of the products are excellent when used correctly, many of them were simply gimmicky fads endorsed by some vaguely familiar celebrity. I won’t name anything here that I used but suffice to say if it promised ‘fast and long-lasting results’ the credit card was quickly deployed.

I’m reticent to put a figure on how much exactly I wasted but if I was pressed, I would have to say anywhere in the region of €2,000.00 to €5,000.00 over the course of a small space of time. None of it worked.

Misconceptions:

I harboured many misconceptions about health and fitness. I wanted a body that looked like something out of Hollywood, but I had no idea how to get it. For instance, I would read about how such and such an actor did [insert latest fad exercise] for 6-12 weeks for their latest film and they’re now shredded and endorsing that product.

Notice how it’s always 6-12 weeks? Short enough to draw you in and long enough so that it can appear to have a dollop of credibility. Having read about said actor I would proceed to engage in the same training albeit at a very much amateur level mind-set and execution wise.

I’d approach the task like a runaway train and quickly come off the track and lose interest when I didn’t see instantly gratifying results.

I had no clue about the difference that doing strength training can have. I had no idea how to tailor my diet to get the results I wanted. I had no idea how much cardio I should be doing. I had no idea that starving my body was a very bad thing. I’d no idea about anything despite years of trying and buying all the latest gizmos. How was that possible?

It was possible because of ignorance on my side, failure to address the real problem (diet/lifestyle) and not the symptoms (poor health) and constantly looking for the quick fix solution as opposed to making the right medium to long term choices.

How did I and how do you change it?

I truly believe that you can do what I and many others have done. You need to adopt a long-term mind-set, drop the need for instant gratification, ignore the mainstream marketing infinite loop of ‘revolutionary’ products and focus on small meaningful changes that add up bit by bit.

Don’t get caught up with the Hollywood leading man or starlets’ bodies. They don’t work the hours you do; they have personal trainers and diet experts and there is the inference of the use of steroids and other drugs. They are not who you should be deferring to. Seek out people with similarities to your own lifestyle challenges who’ve managed to adopt and maintain health and fitness lifestyle.

Body Metrics

There’s a fantastic quote I read on the internet a long time ago referring to the famous Spartans that I’ve used on the website.

‘There were no weight scales in Sparta. Your armour weighed 64lbs/29kg. Your shield weighed 20lbs/9kg. Your fitness results were measured in what you were capable of, and how long you could do it. Fitness is not a numeral on a box you stand on’.

This is a great little note to jot down for yourself when you’re facing hard days. Too many people get hung up on the number that appears when they climb on top of the weighing scale. I’ve seen people throw weighing scales in the rubbish bin because they were so mad at what they saw. They were of course just mad at themselves.

I have stopped weighing myself completely unless I’m making weight for a fight. Otherwise, it’s not a metric I care for or actively monitor. Instead, I focus on a metric known as body fat percentage calculated by the measurements of my body parts. Calculating your body fat percentage requires a little bit more effort than standing on the scale however it gives you a much more accurate reflection of your state of fitness.

How does it work I hear you say?

You take a series of measurements using a tape measure of several different areas of your body. You take these measurements and your height and weight and use them to calculate what percentage of your bodyweight is fat i.e., your body fat percentage.

How is this helpful or better than a weighing scale?

As you move toward a healthier lifestyle and your body begins to change, you cannot rely on the number on a scale to accurately measure this. For instance, if you’ve undertaken some form of strength training it’s highly likely that you have gained muscle and either remained the same weight or gotten heavier. A scale won’t tell you this nor will a BMI score.

Whereas if you’re measuring your body every 3-4 weeks and doing your body fat percentage calculation too, you’re going to be able to see the difference more accurately. You’ll know that your arms are getting bigger, and your waist is shrinking even if your weight is the exact same. This will serve to motivate you better as you won’t be just taking your health and fitness as a measure on a single scale.

If you cannot measure something you cannot manage it. By using your body measurements and using them to calculate your body fat percentage you’re going to be able to accurately track your progress and pick up on any failings in a far more effective weight than simply standing on a scale at the end of every day. Use the scale as well but don’t get hung up on your weight.

Metrics are very useful in terms of managing your own progress as you move toward a healthier lifestyle.

There is no better metric than how you feel, if you eat clean and train dirty you will feel better in yourself. From time to time your metrics might not change all that much but it’s important to remember that how you feel; how your clothes feel on you and your general well-being are not something you can really measure. Remember this isn’t a quick fix it’ll take time; the most important thing is consistent effort.

Remember, chin up, chest out and handle it.

Yours,

Stephen