No matter what your goal or your starting point, if you apply the following advice to everyday life, you are more likely to succeed in everything, including your diet.
Given that what you eat, or how much you eat determines how you look and how you feel about yourself, attention needs to be turned to what really makes us want to look healthy, verses actually being healthy.
I am no nutritionist or dietitian, but the following advice is far more fundamental than WHAT you should eat. We are going to look at how you should view your diet and changes you make in a balanced, realistic way.
Unfortunately the health and fitness industry makes millions of dollars from constantly “feeding” into our insecurities and unrealistic expectations about what we SHOULD look like, what we SHOULD fit in to, what we SHOULD eat. They do this by hounding us with the latest diets (every few weeks), new amazing supplements, falsified before and after pictures, airbrushed models with the perfect six-pack abs we SHOULD aspire to. Personally, I am totally against the promotion of ONE “ideal” over variety in any setting, especially when it begins chipping away at our individuality. Yes, aspire to be healthier – but how can we do this when the image of “health” has its priorities all mixed up? I believe health is an intrinsic process that eventually reflects outwardly, not the other way around. Are the foundations of a house stuck on the outside looking pretty? NO! Health is what stops us sinking.
Tragically the fitness industry is turning into Hollywood – as in, we all need to look a certain way to be considered fit, healthy and successful. As a result of this powerhouse industry, there is always a new diet being marketed, with a new set of impossible rules to follow – which btw sets you up for failure right off the bat! Funny how most of these diets only seem to work for a few select photo-shopped individuals?! But this is part of the strategy, we need to be kept thinking there is a magic quick-fix to keep us hooked, to keep us buying the supplements, the ridiculous pieces of equipment that promise 4 minute miracles! They prey on the fact that if you don’t like yourself, you are going to be searching for an answer, a hope, a cure in all the wrong places. It compares to the endless search for the Holy Grail – which will never happen, under false pretence. The answers we all seek, lie much closer to home.
So this article is not going to contain meal plans, silly promises, 3 hourly meal interval advice, or in fact any diet challenges! Do you know why? Because we need to stop believing that our goals will be achieved by other means. We may be implementing the diet or taking part in the challenge, but until we take responsibility for our underlying relationship with food, we will never escape its hold. Any diet is only going to mask the original problem, until you can recognise and control it yourself. This is why diets fail, their designers know we want to deny our habits but, habits comes back with a bite. I believe if you focus on yourself, rather than the diet, you will succeed.
Here are 5 simple points that will help you make some changes to your diet, training, or anything really:
- Think long-term – there is no such thing as a quick-fix. If it seems too good to be true, then it IS!
- Don’t take drastic measures – you may get drastic results at first, but the body is about equilibrium and the body ALWAYS corrects extremes.
- Don’t beat yourself up – if you slip up, feel responsible yes, but not guilt – let the guilt go and turn it into determination for when you’re ready to try again. If you keep falling off the wagon, maybe this wagon is too extreme – remember points 1 and 2.
- Make the 80/20 deal – make smart choices 80% of the time, leaving a 20% margin of error. As there is no such thing as perfection, this is a pretty good deal
- Walk the walk – are you one of these people who talk about all the things they’re going to do, the changes they need to make and, the great science behind it all? If so, you’re stalling – STOP talking, and START walking!
As a nurse I have learned how the human body is a master at compensating for illness, disease and even trauma. Why then, would we expect any less of the human mind? So, STOP living in denial – this is a feet-on-the-ground reality check. Forget the fake images, forget the quick-fix diets, forget what you “should” be – REMEMBER you are in control and, you are in this for the long haul. It may be a bumpy road ahead, but change is never easy, nor should it be – start believing that and, you WILL succeed!
Cheers
Marianne
I just want to comment on one aspect of eating clean and regular workouts and how they affect one’s weight and fitness level. I have never had a fast metabolism but liked eating clean….I love vegetables and didn’t have much trouble avoiding large portions or processed foods. I liked working out and was able to keep my weight in check with diligent attention to food and exercise but could still treat myself sometimes. Then I got a little older and hit the big “M”, and despite the fact that I have reduced my portion sizes and continue to get stricter and stricter about my food intake (low carb, animal protein limited to seafood and eggs only, lots of vegetables with small amounts of unsalted nuts and low fat cheese, avoiding sugar, flour, rice, pasta, and bread like the plague), I have put on 30 pounds in the last couple years. Nothing I’ve tried to lose this weight has worked, and while I continue to work out, it’s impossible to keep up the level of intensity when I’m this much heavier. While I appreciate the concept of loving yourself as you are, all I can say is that when you feel like you’re doing everything right but are still uncomfortable in your skin, it’s a hell of a lot harder.
I know this is an older post, but I like it and want to comment. For me, creating a relationship with food is a larger issue. I want the food I eat to be the best possible choice for me, my body, the earth and my life, and if it is not, I don’t want to eat it. I don’t keep snacks in the house because I don’t want to snack. The ingredient lists in the foods I eat must be as short as possible. I will not eat foods with preservatives in them. I choose to eat predominantly vegetarian because animals take a lot of space and resources to raise, and the production of meat have an impact on the environment that is too often overlooked. But given the right criteria, grass fed, local, antibiotic free, I will eat it. No prob, it is good. Food is fuel. Thankfully, I do not have an addiction to eating and am not focused on sweet treats. I like your 80-20% idea because every now and again, I want pistachio ice cream.
This is an older article but it does toch upon some good points: http://greenlivingideas.com/2010/04/02/vegetarianism-environment/
I find it so reassuring that am not the only guy out there over the age of 20 who
doesn’t know any of this! Time to learn *about all of it*.
Hi Ma’am,
I reached here while i was going through your videos in YouTube…
Wonderful work done there…. I have a doubt…. I was very chubby and kinda fat when i was born…later wen i grew up to be 3-4 yrs.. I was skinny… then we moved from India and came to the Middle-East… Since then the food here made me fat… cant blame the food… blame me for eating… 😀
Since then i have been growing huge…. I’m working out now… I’m also on a diet program… i would like to know… will i get back my skinny body back or will i just get a bit in shape…??
Hoping that you will reply…:)
Melvy… 🙂
Ummm I’m 19 now…
Melvy, it is hard to tell exactly what type of body shape you will have, and remember that at 19, you have a little bit of hormonal “settling” to do yet. I find that females tend to really settle into their true weight as they reach their mid 20s, and can fluctuate quite a bit before this. The best thing for you to do, is train and eat smart. Training should include resistance work and conditioning work (much like what I do here), and then keep your diet healthy, but not extreme. Not too much and not too little. Try to focus on a goal other than fat loss too; as taking your mind to performance and strength goals can lift the pressure to lose fat, and then it happens as a nice side-effect to better training. When we are fixated on being thinner, we often train too much and are stressed over it – I say take a step back and look to increasing your strength and conditioning, with proper, healthy eating then see what happens. Above all, try to be happy with something about yourself, and don’t focus on what your dislike.
Hope this helps! 🙂
Don’t be offended Maryann. That’s a compliment if you ask me. We know you are all natural and you have no reason to portrait otherwise. I think he was asking on behalf of the ladies he showed your site to.
Thanks Cheryl, I think it’s a pity that the ladies came to that conclusion first 🙁 Hope fully I didn’t put them off with my reaction :/ I just can’t help but be offended a little.
I guess I can see how it could be a compliment. I’ll go with that to make myself feel better 🙂 Cheers
Thank you for posting so much great info and workout routines. I’ve been using some of your elements to train two ladies and using some for myself for the last few weeks. I showed your website to both of them and one is convinced you are taking steroids to achieve your results. You show no signs from what I see. Ie: Acne, deeper voice or large muscle mass.
1. Do you use steroids?
2. If not what supplements if any do you use?
Hi Marc. I am unsure whether to be offended or not by the first question! But I will answer all the same for the sake of the ladies to understand. No I do not use steroids, nor will I! My results are a product of my hard work over the last few years and … calories! For a female, I am not THAT large! I am 5’5” and 59kg!
As for supplements, I do not take any – I found when I did take protein supplements, it made no difference except to my bank balance.
I don’t mean to come across as rude or defensive, but I am confused about why she would think this given that I am sharing HOW I get my results here on my blog. I train hard and I eat! If I want small muscles, I will eat less. If I want bigger muscles I will eat more and train for that. Why take steroids??
Anyway, I hope this helps in some way. And I hope they will continue to visit my site and see how you do not need steroids to look and be strong 🙂
If you read her blog long enough you will see that clearly she doesn’t use any steroids! Too bad you can’t sell your “determination and hard work” in a pill form Marianne! 🙂 I love reading your blog!
Thank you Mary Kate 😀
Hi Marianne
That is a fantastic post and so true :), as a person who is really struggling with her body shape and size at the mo (I’m on steroid treatment) I know how important it is to be healthy and take the long view as regards diet .I love how kettlebell workouts give me much needed energy and your workouts look fab .
I have signed up for the forum hoping a like minded community will help to keep me going 🙂 just waiting for you to approve me my user name is jojo309.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Jo
Hey Jo, thanks for the comment. Steroid side-effects are so difficult to deal with, but it’s great that you are clued in to the importance of diet and training, as this will help reduce the weight-gain and also keep you healthy and infection-free. I am happy to hear that you remain motivated to train despite all of this!
Just activated your account over at the Forum 😀 Happy posting 😀
I have just recently stumbled upon your workouts (i am new to KBs) and love your style. I am meeting a friend tomorrow at the gym and I am using some of your bodyweight moves for our workout! I also love this post. So true. Especially #2…the body always corrects drastic measure doesn’t it!!! The body is truly an amazing machine!
Thanks Mary, I hope you enjoy the exercises tomorrow 🙂 I hope you will check out the tutorial section to get to grips with the moves. If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I’ll do my best to help.
Cheers
Marianne
Marianne, you hit it right on the head! I agree with you completely. Like yourself, I, too, live and breathe with the 80/20 rule, where I’m good to my body 80 percent of the time and also give myself room for error/pleasure etc. So for example, any given week, I eat accordingly (combo of protein/good fat/vegetables) 3 to 4 times a day, 80 percent of the time and also do my workout regimen at most 3 times a week. The other 20 percent, I allow myself to have something I just truly want to have and not worry whether it’s healthy or not, usually it’s a type of dessert. I also agree to your point about individuality. Being fit and healhty is not a one-size fits all paradigm. I finally learned this a year ago. Everyone is different–metabolism, digestion, everything! I think all of us, at one point or another, try to fit in someone’s individual diet and then we get disappointed when we don’t see the same results as that person did. This is a recipe for failure.
If there’s one thing I learned from my journey of trying to understand myself on how to keep it healthy and performing better and better, is body language. We all need to listen to our body because it will tell you what it needs. I learned this from a very good mentor and friend.
I love your blog, and I thank you for sharing your wisdom and really part of your life with us, so that we can perhaps improve and be better. Blessings to you Marianne! 🙂
Thanks Geny, I appreciate that. Listening to our body is a difficult thing to learn, as even within ourselves we have guilt, taunting and sometimes extreme habbits.
Cheers
Marianne
So true…yes we all do. It’s very difficult to contend with oneself. I still struggle with this every now and then. You know, if there’s anything/anyone that snaps me out of it, it’s my husband. He really is just wonderful in that regard–just very grounded in his own right and because of it, i get grounded too.
By the way, thank you for accepting my FB request! 🙂
No worries. It seems you are lucky to have someone to keep things real. Far too often people just say what they thing we want to hear and this sometimes reinforces our poor choices and unrealistic beliefs – a reality-check sometimes is what the doctor ordered, even if it’s hard to stomach.
Cheers
Hi Marianne
I just came across your youtubes when I was looking for exercies for my new kettlebells [birthday presents]. I got them as I’ve been exercising for the last 14 months after I had a heart attack [cardiac rehab orders – 1 hour a day] and I was getting bored with the treadmill and home gym. While I will NOT be using 16kg weights anytime soon – WOW that’s impressive 🙂 Nor will I be challenging myself quite so much, I thank you for posting the exercises so I can do them safely and at my own pace in the comfort of my home. You’ve a wonderful blog and I thank you for it, the comments have been wonderful. While I have no doubt I will continue to see my fitness levels improving with help from your examples, it’s just a shame I didn’t find your exercises before I bought an unbelievable amount of extremely boring DVD’s [beware the adverts!] and exercise equipment which are now gathering dust or have been given away to other people so they can use them to gather their own dust! The kettlebells fit nicely and your exercises are just perfect. Thank you.
Cheers
Paidi
Paidi, I am sorry to hear about your heart attack! But it is good that you are now exercising regularly 🙂 I am a cardiac nurse, so you will be getting rehab orders from me now too LOL 😀
Feel free to join in over at the forum too, I am sure your story will inspire many others.
Happy Birthday btw.
Marianne
Hi Maryanne,
Just came across your you tube videos on kettle bell workouts. I continued onto this website, you are a true inspiration to help with health and well being. I’m a 61 year old female weighing 120 lbs @ 5’2″. I have been using kettle bells for two months and have noticed improvements but with your videos I am going to achieve optimum results quickly.
You are a true but sincere inspiration!
Martine
Hi Martine, nice to have you drop by 🙂 Thank you for your comment. Do you find the kettlebells difficult? Fun? It’s great that you are seeing changes already, and I think you will definitely see more. This is an amazing community, who are all very focused and supportive. This is very special what we have here 🙂 So I hope you will continue to stop by.
Cheers
Marianne
Book marked, I really like your site! 🙂
You look great in both pics Maryanne. You look beautiful in the purple gown and in the middle picture your abs are freakin rockin!
Hi Missy, thanks. The first picture was taken after I had lost quite a bit of weight, I think I was about 145lbs there, and i didn’t train at all. The second picture was back in the summer, and I was probably my leanest ever, not sure about weight, but probably 130ish? This is when being lean was still a goal – I guess my thinking has changed now. Although I was happy at that level. With these pictures I was trying to illustrate the journey and how it can easily become an obsession and a “one-track” mind-set.
Cheers
Marianne
Lots of wonderful,inspiring and positive words from everyone. So nice to be able to share thoughts and ideas with such an awesome group of unique beings. Love visiting here for a pick me up
Thank you Marianne for keeping it real.
I feel the same. It is a real pick me up to read everyone’s comments – it’s my favorite thing about the day and usually the first thing I check when I log in to the site! So thanks everyone for putting a smile on my face each day 😀
Mickela, you’re so right! I love how we can all share without judgment. We just learn from each other. We keep what is good, and we give back what we can for the benefit of everyone.
Thank you for creating such a wonderful forum, Marianne! I love this blog! 🙂
And this, Marianne, is why I love you <3 <3 <3
😀
A breath of fresh air in your approach, Marianne. I have finally stopped beating myself up and watch my portions while making sensible and healthy selections. I have lost only about 5 pounds over the entire year, but with my Kettlebell training and smart choices in diet, it has made a difference. I have accepted that I am only 5’3″ tall and weigh in about 140 pounds, and w/my training, I look pretty damn good for a 55 year old. I could look worse. Thank so much for your post on diet.
Hi Mary, I think you have touched on a really important point. Acceptance. Being able to appreciate that, no matter how “good” you look, if you can’t accept and appreciate it yourself, you will never be happy. I can think of countless examples of girls and guys who, despite having six-pack abs, are still not happy and continue to seek more.
I am so glad to hear that you are happy to try and reach your own potential, in your own time. And that you CAN see that what you have done so far HAS made a difference. This is a very healthy mind-set.
Thank you
Marianne
Give yourself a lot of credit… most of your peers would not do half of the work you are doing! You have take the decision to workout and you have put it into action.
Its not your weight that matters, it is how you feel — your energy and endurance. If you’ve only been at this a year, you may well see more improvements this year as you persist and get stronger. Also, you have to acknowledge that muscle is heavier than fat, so if you are gaining muscle and losing fat at that the same time, you may not see much difference in the scale!
Yay for us Boomers! What a generation! Born between the end of the war and the beginning of the ’60s… we have seen so many changes in the world! I remember the music like it was yesterday!
~ Gillian
I am sure no one needs yet another blog to read.. but I did find one that is pretty interesting: the great fitness experiment. Its by the woman who wrote about Z on Huffpo a few weeks ago. Apparently she has been addicted to exercise and dieting for years — on her blog she recently reposted an article about Audrey Hepburn (5 foot 7 inches tall and never over 103 lbs!) and how that ideal was totally unachievable for a normal person. Yesterday she blogged about fitness models and and how so many have boob jobs and cannot really do the exercises that they are photographed doing, except for a lady named Kim Strother, who is all real and in great shape. I guess there was a special about the fitness industry published in a recent Slate issue, that prompted this line of thinking… anyway, what I got out of it is that few people, even professionals (like competitive body builders) have a healthy body image — women who will spend hours in the gym pumping iron to get down to single digit fat percentages, still feel the need to artificially augment their breasts!
Being physically fit is one thing, but being obsessed to the point where it takes over one’s life and one is always thinking about the next workout or what they can and cannot eat and when, that is just extreme. The waif-like models pushed by the fashion industry have little if any functional strength or endurance, and yet they are the standard to which many women aspire.
I realized years ago that working out was useless to me if it did not enable me to do physically demanding things more easily– ie. help me develop functional strength. That is why KBs are so great — working in multiple planes works peripheral muscles, while working out on a machine limits movement to one plane, which is often nice and safe, but not applicable in the real world.
Being in my 50s also helps, as I don’t care a whole lot anymore what people think about me (well, yes I do, but just in terms that I stick to my moral compass. The wrinkles… they are just there for good!) I am lucky, in that I do have a nice body again, just with some aches and pains catching up from youthful indiscretions. What made me different from my friends is that I had a plan and I stuck to it. When it comes to exercise, I push myself to my safe limit. Most of my friends won’t do that: they don’t want to challenge themselves. They are all concerned about their weight, but they don’t do much to make any changes in their lives to get started on that path.
Getting into shape for me meant that I had to make a lifestyle change — so I looked at what I ate and changed that in a sensible way. Then I got into the HABIT of working out, but I also gave myself variety. If you follow Marianne’s blog, and you aspire to improving, you MUST challenge yourself. You do that consistently and you WILL see results. I believe that if you focus on getting into shape, your body will start to find its natural equilibrium and you will gravitate towards your ideal weight. Your body will also start telling you what it likes and doesn’t like — be that certain foods or certain behaviors. If you listen, your body will steer you in the right direction.
Being overweight and out of shape can often be connected to psychological hangups. So changing those things may force you to look at other aspects of your life that you might have been ignoring.
The thing is we now have a private and supportive environment to work towards healthy changes… and that is HERE! None of us may ever be able to lift what Marianne lifts, but that really doesn’t matter and while we have some healthy competition going on here, I doubt that any of us minds that we won’t get to exactly where Marianne is… we all have our own personal challenges to deal with. My whole viewpoint changed the day I could do ONE pushup! My world was suddenly larger and less restricted! (That was about 10 months ago!)
What we think of as healthy has changed over the years (just read the Slate article comparing Jack Lalanne, Jane Fonda and Jillian Michaels), but I think we have the tools to be more at peace with ourselves now than we have in the past, even given the aberrant images we still see on the screen. I see this blog as a major tool in helping us along that path to our own greatness.
Thank you everyone for your input.
~ Gillian
I like your comment Gillian! It really is a lifestyle change. I have friends too that whine and complain about being overweight. I have a friend, who to this day, still blames her weight on the birth of her two kids, the oldest being 12 years old now. Go figure! I made a mistake of telling her that she needs to cook her own food instead of buying marie calendar’s pre-cooked meals and put in a work out regimen may be starting with 1 time a week for 30 minutes. That was the last time coz she cursed at me up and down 🙁
At any rate, I enjoyed reading your comment. It’s just refreshing to see and talk with like-minded people 🙂 Have a great one!
What about theeople who have never given birth? Whats there excuse for weight staying on them for 12 years? Has she thought of that.??
Hi Cheryl, I really don’t know if she has. I love my friend so much that I just want to shake her out of it sometimes. She has told me time and time again, that I don’t understand because I don’t have a fat gene and that she does. What do you say to that?
I give up. At some point, I have to back off because I really can’t help her. This really makes me sad 🙁 Her own daughter took after her too…if you know what I mean. My own husband even talked to her about this. That probably wasn’t a bright idea :/
The truth hurts, and I say good for you for telling your friend she would be wise to change her lifestyle. The fat gene thing is the worst thing that science could have discovered, because it gives people an excuse not to try! Fat gene does not mean you need to sacrifice the health of your heart, or help reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, bone density etc etc. Exercise is not just about losing weight. I understand your frustration, but you can lead a horse to water… At least you had the courage to say something. All you can do now is support her as much as you can without compromising yourself and accept that the decision, although misguided to us, is hers.
It is a pity, but habits are comforting and change is scary for many people. :/
Marianne
I guess also, there is no more to say. Just keep being friends. When its her time to check into fitness, she will have you there.
Marianne
I think you are right, beating ones self up over slipping can actually make things worse in terms of overindulging in anything.
The simple approach to diet is what I think works best. The more rules you try to follow; the more rules you will end up breaking.
I understand that a lot of people have issues with overindulging with sweets and junk, and that stuff is just as addictive as alcohol and cigarettes which is pretty darned difficult to let go of as a habit, and it doesn’t happen overnight.
My simple advice is to be kind to yourself when it comes to diet.
enjoying food and drink is after all one of the great pleasures in life.
cheers
You are so spot on in this, at least for me! I find the more I focus on the details of things, the more it backfires on me. I just have to relax and just do the healthy stuff my body wants me to do — it always works so much better for me, but it’s sometimes hard to resist the urge to try the latest published thing!
I hear ya there Bee. It’s like a fashion almost! The lastest diet, or being hooked by magazine covers claiming massive weight loss secrets or best celeb bodies! The temptations are everywhere, so of course we will fall prey to some of this stuff!
Thank you. An answer to my prayer I said before I got out of bed today. I said, let me make better choices and accept what my body is. I may not ever see my groins of apollo but I want to be healthy. I want to be able to swing my kettlebells, lift my sandbag and walk upright. I know they are always in our face to look airbrushed and no matter what age, we try to look like that. We don’t even know what our body will look like because we are trying to make it look like someone else. We are not all super model hight, i.e. Beyonce or Tyra Banks. We need to accept our selves and let our bodies morph they way they are going to. Not have a pipe dream body that makes you want to take any pill to achieve it. I don’t want the pills or the shakes or the only eat this with that because I’m A positive with a rectangular body. I’m who I am and I have to make it the best and accept that is me. This may not make a whole lot of scenes but it’s what’s in my head this morning and reading this confirmed, STOP THE MADNESS similar to Susan Powter’s STOP THE INSANITY. It’s been said, for years and years since Jack LaLanne.
I do try to go on the guidelines of Weight Watchers now because I need help on portion size. I still go out to restaurants and eat what I want. I don’t say I can’t have a Carb until after a workout. I don’t know, just all these thoughts in my head and you can tell, the media has affected me. This message has helped. Thank you.
Thanks Cheryl. For some reason when I read your comments, they seem poetic or musical in their style. I know that’s a strange thing to say about someone’s writing, but I like it.
Cheers
Marianne
I see a lady in the first picture. Who is Cutie and Tim? Going to read now:)
Cutie and Tim are the cats on the home page picture gallery. I wanted a happy picture and it is so cute 🙂 Random, but cute.
oh. now I see them. When I first followed my link I didn’t see the cats. Gottcha. So now you have 3 Cats? is that woman in the maroon dress you???????
Yeah we have 3 cats now 🙂 They’re all muppets, and are very amusing. The women is my sister in her dressing gown (as usual) lol, she lives in that thing! Cutie and Tim were rescued from death’s door by my mum, who took them home until I had space to take them. My sister lives with mum still. so she got very attached to them. How could anyone resist those faces 😀
Hi Marianne,
This is a very good article and sooo right!
When I think how much people are brain-washed by mass-media, it drives me crazy. Not sure about Europe, but in North America is just crazy. When I see what they advertise on the TV, I really feel like I want to kick them hard 🙂 because they twist it all and it becomes messy and totally upside-down.
We should not forget that we all are unique and not necessarily what works for me will work for someone else and vice versa.
It doesn’t matter how many times we slip up or fall. But it matters how many times we have power and energy to get up and try again. Because the only way to make it is to do it 🙂
Big thanks again!
Cheers,
Ali
marianne,
Well done! As on the mark as your Christmas rant, which was money. Like most people, I succumb to the occasional diet book, or magazine with the “sure fire cure to shrinking your gut”. Your advice was simple and to the point, and easily employable, as you said , to virtually anything. According to those insurance tables, for my height I should weigh 170lbs (not sure what that is in stones..lol) at 5’11’. My body type is sort of like Mike Tysons..between fights..lol. In shape for me is 195-200lbs. I’d have to get Malaria to see 170lbs. I started regularly with your workouts, daily, mixed in with sandbag(no swings) and my boxing workout. Im 9lbs down since the 6th of this month, following what you described here. The 80-20 theory is perfect…thanks for writing this..
John
Good work John. BTW even those tables apply only to averages, standards and “ideals” as many athletes are considered obese according to the BMI.
We gotta do the best with what we have.
Cheers
Marianne
Bravo ma’am.
Highly agreed with your thoughts@ truths…We are so obsess with getting flat stomach, slimmer thighs, smaller butt, tone triceps…for guys big guns, v-shape torso etc…We forget that everyone is special even though he do not have 6 packs abs, even though her butt looks bigger in jeans…
We forget to love our potentials and be grateful for it…we even curse our own God-given body day in day out…We want to have the look of Hollywood’s celebs & we let the media to fool us directly in our faces by making false hopes…
Only a few individuals like you realize the propaganda and stood up, fight for a good cause… saving us from being cheated…
Thank you
Keep spreading the truths…
Regards
Mohamed, Malaysia
It’s difficult not to let images affect us, but like you say, it is propaganda and it does what it’s designed for. But we can fight against it – I mean we fight for our individual rights in everything else, so why not this? In fitness you are discriminated against if you’re not super lean for example!
Thanks for commenting Mohamed 🙂
Yes ma’am.
I been there too. When I started my career in fitness, not many people want me to be their trainer because i don’t have big guns,my pecks doesn’t pop out even though i served better than the other big guns @ bodybuilding trainer & my early clients get good results.
If you are a lady, they aspect you look like the Britain’s Next Top Model Season 5 1st runner up…lol 😀
If you are a guy, it always the former California’s governor looks that win the crowd
…lol 😀
Without knowing that these figure image actually are worst in doing calisthenics…
In my pole dancing class…( i do teach pole dancing these day lol 😀 )most of the body building guys in that gym try to climb the pole,thinking that they can duplicate my stuns,spins…but they failed
While the skinny girls having a lot of hard time to climb as well because they lack of strength…
They might look like tv infomercials models but when come to functional movements they failed badly…
Keep fighting for good cause ma’am
Because the model type girls can’t push press a pair of 16kg like you…
Keep spreading the truth…
😀
please, let me know your body fat.
I’m curious, thanks.