Aaaarrgh!!
Why can’t the mirror just make it disappear?
And while I am talking about it, my pants would feel better without it, and don’t even get me started on how my shirts and blouses would fit without it.
When I step on the scale, it is still sitting there, reminding me of everything I don’t want to hear, see, or feel…
I have ten pounds of unwanted, undesirable, and un-removable body fat…I feel like I have tried everything, and it is still there, taunting me with its jiggly, bloated, bulging presence.
How do I lose the last little bit of fat?
This story has been told by all of us, and even though it feels like the last ten is stuck there forever, this does not have to be the story.
First, let me premise this story with the understanding that there is a necessary and healthy need for body fat, and it helps the male and female body look attractive. I am not here to help the person who is looking to starve and over-train every ounce of fat from their body.
I am here to help the person that truly has ten pounds (or more) of unnecessary body fat, which is doing more harm than good.
I am talking about the knee-pain-inducing, high-blood-pressure-raising, heart-disease-increasing, depression-promoting, back-breaking ten or more pound of body fat.
We all see the shining light at the end of the tunnel. The shining light is where we have lost the ten pound baggage that has been weighing us down for too long, and now we are free to move, feel, and look amazing!
We know it is not going to be easy, and yet for some reason we want to hear someone tell us, “all you have to do, is keep doing what you have been doing, and it will gone.” or “Just do this one exercise for five minutes a day, and that little bit of fat will disappear before your eyes.”
Unfortunately, we all know this is not true, because we have been doing the same thing for (insert insanely long period of time here), and nothing has changed.
We also know that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, and expecting a different results, yet it is so easy to keep doing our routine. Is that because we are creatures of habit? Yes.
What if we could make a slight change to our habits, and see a HUGE result?
Insert good news emoticon here, because we can!
Time after time at Innovative Results and throughout my time as a fitness trainer and fitness coach, I have seen the longest lasting, biggest transformations–especially with the “last ten pound club”–from those that stay dedicated to making small habit changes for good.
The three simple steps to lose the last ten pounds are record your nutrition intake (to include hydration), twenty minutes of relaxed, focused breathing, and show up consistently to an intelligent fitness training program.
Step 1 – Record Your Nutrition Intake, Which Includes Hydration
This daily habit change, does not mean you have to go on a crazy diet, or fast with lemon-juice and ginger for forty days, or throw away everything in your kitchen, replacing it with fresh-picked hipster organic farm goodness.
Recording your nutrition is a way for you to teach yourself what you are eating.
Sounds dumb, but it is effective, which also means it is not dumb.
You would be surprised to hear that every single person I have asked to track their nutrition, has told me some rendition of, “Wow! I did not realize this juice had so much sugar in it.” or “Wow! A half a cup of rice seems so small on my plate.”
We live in America where convenience, incredible marketing, and big/more/bigger is the way of life, especially with food.
You can imagine how much help it is to add daily nutrition tracking of your food intake.
This small habit will completely change your life, and it is so easy to implement with smart phones and apps there is no excuse but to implement it today.
We recommend myfitnesspal, because it is simple, easy-to-use, and it is FREE! (we make zero money off of the promotion of this app and website)
Step 2 – Twenty Minutes of Relaxed, Focused Breathing
There are too many studies that recount the goodness and improvement that come from focused breathing, daily relaxation, prayer, and meditation, but I want to look at this time from a different perspective.
Think about this time as a reset button.
When your day is starting to choke you out, or last night’s lack of sleep refuses to be conquered by coffee, take twenty minutes to improve your mood, relax, de-stress, unwind, and focus on one thing, your breath, instead of the million things on your list.
If this turns into a twenty minute nap, than we know you probably needed more sleep anyway, which helps our metabolic and hormonal function.
If you keep thinking about all the things you need to do or want to do, bring a pad of paper, write it down and take care of it after your breathing time, and then refocus back on your breath.
This reset is crucial for your mindset during this time of change and renewed habits.
Every time you take twenty minutes to reset yourself mentally, you are also resetting yourself physically. Whatever mistakes you made or problems you had are now gone and in the past.
You are no longer weighed down by shame, guilt, or past habits.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, and you have the opportunity to make a new you with a new day.
Step 3 – Show Up Consistently To an Intelligent Fitness Training Program
Showing up is the hardest part, especially if you have a million things on your list, or you don’t feel perfect, or you are feeling the darkness of the tunnel, not the shinyness of the light at the end of the tunnel.
Once you show up, all you have to do is join in the calculated exercise program, and you always feel better.
If the program is a smash-fest or it is variable and inconsistent, you probably won’t feel better, so don’t get sucked into these dark holes.
Seek out good coaching, encouraging environments, and tried and true methods for your exercise program and fitness training.
Whether it is one-on-one, group training, classes, or do-it-yourself exercise programs, make sure it is progressive, enjoyable, and helpful.
Progressive workouts build on themselves, instead of randomly putting together a bunch of exercises, and saying, “do it more and do it harder and do it more harder with intensity”…sounds weird, but because of our culture this is one of the biggest mistakes when trying to lose the last ten, because the stress of these workouts add to the stress of your day, and set your hormones up for fat-retaining failure.
Enjoyable workouts are going to be a personal choice, because where I see sweaty, disheveled mats with twisted figures hiding pain, many of you see a relieving, reviving, toxin-expelling, breath of fresh mobility, called hot-yoga.
Find something you enjoy, and stick to it long enough to build a deeper than paper relationship with the instructors and coaches that can only help you if they see you more than once or twice per month.
If we focus on these three areas as new, small habit adjustments, we will begin to see where our body and mind is most healthy in terms of body fat and lean body mass.
You will see that the ten pounds have melted away, and you have new lines, curves, jeans, shirts, and relationships that you never would have thought possible.
Your relationship with the mirror, scale, closet, pictures, and people have improved, along with your quality of life.
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If you are interested in losing the last ten pounds with one of Innovative Results fitness gym’s coaches, fill out the form below, and we will contact you to schedule your free trial at The Orange County Fitness Playground.
