ASK THE TRAINER

Lifestyle changes ultimate challenge

— Last week I shared a question from a Comcast technician who asked me how to lose weight. By the time he drove out of my driveway, I had given him many tips on healthful eating and lifestyle habits that I hope he will adopt.

I encouraged him to make time for breakfast because it would jump start his metabolism. I also suggested that he keep a supply of healthful snacks in his company truck for on-the-job hunger attacks.

Finally, I suggested some lifestyle changes, which I will share with you.

On one level, losing weight is a simple mathematical equation: If a person consumes more calories than he burns, he will gain weight. Thus, to lose weight, a person needs to burn more calories than he consumes.

Yet this simplicity belies the difficulty that most of us have with losing weight.

Some folks are genetically lucky or have great discipline keeping their eating habits in check. For the great majority of us, however, gaining and losing weight is a constant struggle.

There are no quick fixes to losing weight, even though many weight loss clinics and diet plans promise quick results.

Weight loss clinics make a fortune giving guidance to help people lose weight, often selling clients their own brand-name foods to ease the decision-making process.

Diet books with sexy names like The South Beach Diet, Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution or The Five Second Flat Belly Secret prescribe menus and eating plans and promise quick results, but guess what? Even if you spend hundreds of dollars a year on prescribed menus from the latest weight-loss guru, the bottom line remains the same: In order to lose weight, a person must move more and consume fewer calories.

Any achieved weight loss from these commercial diet plans is often short lived because people are spoon-fed a particular eating plan and do not learn how to make proper food choices on their own. The exception is Weight Watchers, which uses a point system to count calories in an easy-to-use method that helps people cope with the challenges of eating in restaurants and cooking at home.

Real, lasting weight loss can be achieved without relying on quick-fix diets that result in repeated weight gain and weight loss. In addition to the Weight Watchers program, some wonderful, free apps and computer websites can help chart caloric intake and output in a very easy-to-use way.

My favorite is myfitnesspal.com, which also is available as a smart-phone app. It is so easy to use that even my tech-challenged husband uses it to track his daily food intake.

Tracking food and limiting caloric consumption is only part of the challenge. You also need to move more to burn more calories than you eat. That means starting an exercise program and sticking with it.

I encourage my clients to work out at the same time every day. This discipline makes your daily workout part of your regular routine. Join a gym, work out at home,watch exercise DVDs, take a fitness class or join a neighborhood walking or running group.

Whatever you choose to do, mix up the workouts so that you are working different muscles and challenging yourself in new ways.

Above all, have fun and enjoy the healthy benefits that result from taking charge of your personal fitness program.

Enjoy a healthy breakfast, eat often during the day (which increases your self-control), move more and consume fewer calories, and exercise for your personal well-being.

Weight loss is a shared goal for most of us, not just the Comcast technician, and while the mathematics of accomplishing the goal are simple, the difficulty lies in motivating yourself and sticking with a plan long enough that it becomes a part of your way of living.

While the steps I laid out hopefully are ones that everyone can take, the decision to make them part of your daily routine is yours. Lifestyle changes are not easy to implement, but the results you feel and see will keep you on course.

Write to personal trainer Janet Roget in care of ActiveStyle at P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203, or e-mail

cstorey@arkansasonline.com

ActiveStyle, Pages 25 on 11/26/2012

Upcoming Events