This post and the following post were just some thoughts regarding nutrition, some copied in from PT on the net (towards the end of the post)
Calling all fat people
As I've posted before I spent about 6 years now waiting for my diet and nutrition to just some point magically "click" with me and have me understand and magically lose weight. After 6 years of waiting and training and learning I've finally been able to say more recently that it never happens and it takes more than just some real basic knowledge of diet to actually lose weight. As a trainer I don't think people will ever understand how much info I know about nutrition, which I'm comfortable with, but even with all this knowledge it doesn't make me or any of us make the correct decisions about what we eat and drink on a daily basis.
Some people are really quick to say "well just don't eat that" and I've always thought that its easy for someone who is in shape or who never had issues with being overweight or obese to, potentially not fully understanding what the person might be feeling. Some people will also "rebel" when a trainer or someone says "hey you shouldn't eat that" they'll eat it in spite, which I know I do. But realistically we all know we shouldn't eat these things (some of them are really obvious), but they're convenient and it can be really tough for someone when they're either on there way home from work, or at work going to lunch and hadn't ate in quite a few hours or a bunch of friends are going out to eat it becomes tough to turn down the junk food. Even when athletes or clients think they're following a diet very closely and they step on the scale and haven't lost any weight it can be 1 of the most defeated feelings in the world (from a weight loss perspective). It is very easy to say after eating a crap meal "I shouldn't have eaten that, or I'm not sure why I ate that" its more important to have that realization before you eat it.
So then what's the solution? Well to be honest at this moment I really haven't found a perfect solution or I would be in great shape myself, but I'm going to give some ideas of ways that people need to be helped, and ways that we can make progress. 1) Realize there are no excuses for eating crap, and any excuses are just that, if we want to lose weight then we need to want it every moment, and if we're not willing to make that dedication, then we're doomed to be overweight and never see enough progress. 2) Diet is so much mental, and so much about will power, and if we're not connecting on a mental perspective then we've lost the person. 3) Accountability and a support staff, 1 that's going to be understanding and troubleshoot the diet issues as they come up instead of pointing the finger and cursing out the person for eating poorly or not progressing with their weight loss. Some people need to be "sympathized" with others need to have strict guidelines and not fall off that wagon. 4) Cheat days or meals, and we need to understand that cravings will happen and it CAN be absolutely brutal to change habits that have been formed, and if we cheat on the diet or nutritional plan then you need to get right back on, and not have to start from the beginning. 5) and lastly we need to realize that if we take an approach of cutting back until we're rid of these bad choices (ie cutting back on soda until we aren't drinking any) or if we go in with an attitude of "I'll start my diet tomorrow" or "after this meal" we'll always have a reason to not make progress, and we'll continue on with our ways that got us to this state in the 1st place.
I hope this comes across correctly and like I said I don't have a full proof solution and I'm hoping others will give some good ideas and anyone who needs help in this way can begin to progress and see what needs to happen to make life long changes that will result with being better athletes.
The other 2 things I wanted to add in here were motivation to lose weight is only going to last for a small amount of time among the avg person. Most people will either hear from their Dr, or step on a scale and be at a point they've never been at regarding weight or health, and realize that they need to make changes, unfortunately that doesn't last, and with diets (my opinion) if you want something quick and immediate, then you could be screwed, because a lot of times you either put it back on, or starve yourself to get to some point.
Last thing I wanted to add in was its my theory, that our bodies always are working against us, my thoughts are that we have an internal set point where are body is comfortable at (the weight that we stay at) and its usually hard to get too far above or below that weight, because our bodies don't know healthy vs unhealthy weight it just knows what its comfortable with, as in taking in close to the same amount of calories and macro nutrients per day, so when we diet, our body doesn't like it, and fights against it, at least in certain instances, making it really hard to lose weight consistently and keep it off for extended periods of time. Again all my theory no facts or research to back these up.
