Every day I turn on the tube or google around it seems there is some new diet / health fad that helps people who mindlessly follow it and robs the rest of us. Here's something to chew on - killing yourself on the treadmill won't kill those pounds
any better than sitting on the couch or cleaning the house. If you want to lose or
gain weight, be more athletic, win that tennis match or get abs of steel, you should be spending less time reading Men's Health and more time doing more or less of what you are already doing. Here and there you can throw in a new stretch, situp, push-up, health drink, or carrot, but please no dramatic - "no more coffee" commitments that will work effectively until tomorrow morning.
I could tell you that you have
to eat more meat or eat less carbs or that you have to work out five
times a week in intensive fits. I could laud the benefits of yoga or
boxing. I could tell you pretty much anything and it might help if
you can stick with it; but you won't. You want a real diet? Just drink water for the next week. You will lose weight, but you might die too.
The problem with all these fad diets and crazy workout myths is that they don't work. Most people burn out. It just isn't fun to
change all your habits. You have been doing all those things for a reason. Instead of killing yourself, take it easy and change your world bit by bit - a little more here and a little less there. Best of all this life-changing "program" is free. It won't kill
you and it doesn't change any of those habits you love.
Do a little less or more of what you are already
doing. Eating junk food? Great, keep it up, just eat a little
less this week than you did last week. Are you walking or exercising?
great just do a little more this week than you did last week. Keep it up week by week. You only need to make one commitment - "This week I will eat/do/fuck/drink a little more/less of <insert activity / food / drink> this week". How did we get where we are? Little by little technology, yummy foods and other things came into our lives and we adjusted towards them... Now we need to keep adjusting but control it.
Example: If you aren't exercising at all (which I really doubt), you can chose one activity and make it longer. For example: park farther away from the entrance to your office. Get up to go to the bathroom more often. Do a push-up before you shower. There are millions of little activities you can go or stretch.
Example: If you are trying to gain weight just add a bit extra to everything you eat. Take an extra carrot, bit of chicken or scope of rice. Every extra calorie counts and will make the difference. There are so many different ways to add a few calories here or over there.
Over
time you will do/eat more and more or less and less and eventually your weight will go down/up, you will move towards those stone hard abs and that healthy body. I don't like goals for this kind of thing. Changing habits normally takes a lot of time and it is hard to predict. It might take a month or it might take a year or a few years to meet your goals. But the great thing about this "program" is that once you are there you won't loose it and pig out, you won't burn out and hate yourself. You will be fine.
You didn't change all those habits. You just did a bit more or a bit less of those things that are important to you. And in the end, before you know it, you will have changed your life.
