The reason most people go to the doctor is to find relief for a symptom. Most times the doctor will only give you what you need for that symptom. Going to the gym has the potential to fix most of the problems that you are experiencing. Exercising is the most natural, sustainable, efficient, and longest lasting medicine with no side effects.

I do respect doctors and you should go to them

I may talk quite a bit of smack about doctors but I do respect them and their opinions. They do possess far more knowledge and have been through the trenches compared to me. They are helpful in diagnosing an issue and pointing you in the right direction in terms of medications to solve your problem.

Your doctor is your most valuable resource to see exactly how healthy you are. You should have regular physicals and blood tests, because these are the most important numbers to judge your health. Getting that firm sexy body that you want can be a plus, but your blood work really tells you how healthy you are.

Tests like this can help you reach your goals faster too! Sometimes we have an underlying condition that is causing us to react differently than we should. If we have a condition that is preventing us from consuming certain foods or just not digesting properly then you will run into some issues. If you don’t have issues then your progress may be just a little slower than normal.

Where I think doctors fall short

Doctors fall short with the experience of working with the general population to lose weight by exercising and dieting. Everyone knows that eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly is good for them and they should do this regularly. However, there are so many questions around dieting and exercise that no one knows how to start.

Can you define a healthy diet?

Can you describe what exercises you should be doing?

With so much conflicting information on the internet now it is impossible to determine the right path for yourself. Not to mention, you have habits that have been cemented into you around diet that will be difficult to break. Creating that behavior change is a difficult process and takes a nutrition coach to really recognize those patterns and help you create those wins.

This is how you create sustainable change that can heavily impact your health. Medications will offer short term relief, and after prolonged use they will require you to increase the dosage over time. Sometimes there are also side effects that force you to take more medications to deal with those side effects. It becomes a vicious cycle.

I think that all doctors should have a background in personal training, nutrition, and behavior change. This way they can at least make some recommendations in terms of bettering someone’s health. If they don’t desire to do anything of the sort then they should have professionals in the field that they can refer them to. This way there can be real lasting change and the patient can live a more normal life.

How exercise shines

Exercise is going to be your all natural medication without any side effects. Exercise will promote a healthier weight which takes an enormous amount of stress off the body. Studies will show that being a healthier weight drastically lowers your chances of diseases. This includes issues like heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and many other problems. Instead of being chained by medications you can put in the some work now that will decrease your time waiting in your doctors lobby.

Cardio

Cardiovascular exercise will promote a stronger heart, lungs, and circulatory system. You can only imagine what this does for your health, especially if you are at risk for heart disease. A stronger heart and circulatory system you will have better nutrient delivery throughout your body. The only way for some things like hormones to travel throughout your body is through your arteries and capillaries. So if your circulation is good your body will recover faster and more efficiently.

Cardio doesn’t have to be intense running. If you can start with 10-30 minutes 2-5 days a week of walking you stepping your way to better health. (sorry for the corny pun)

Resistance

Resistance training will manually pump those vessels to create more blood flow as well. However, resistance training will strengthen your joints and this means every joint in your spine as well. A stronger body will keep your body aligned and allow you to move more efficiently and pain free. If you keep strength in your body, especially in your end range of motion, then you won’t have to rely on pain medication just to get your through the day.

This doesn’t have to be intense either. One to three sets that work the major muscle groups is enough to get your started.

Exercise will have the longest effect

If you consider small doses of exercise like your prescription then you will have much longer effects. Some meds have to be taken multiple times a day up to once a week. Let’s be honest, if you worked out twice a day you would most likely be in phenomenal shape and your chances of requiring meds would be slim. Even if you worked out once a week you would still make progress. Become healthier with movement not meds.

Think about exercise like a prescription

Let’s dive a little deeper into how to implement exercise into your daily life. I’m sure you have been very diligent about your medications, am I right? You have stayed diligent with the time of day, how many times a day, with or without food, and whatever other crazy parameters you have to follow. If you consider exercise like your medication then this can be an easier process.

Start with a schedule

What days of the week are preferable for you to exercise? As human beings we work better on a routine. Find some days and times that are best for you to workout. For resistance training it is preferable for you to do twice a week. So maybe 10am on Tuesday and Thursday is best for you. Maybe afternoons work better for you because you aren’t an early riser. The point is to find a schedule that allows you to be the most consistent.

Find the “prescription” that works best for you. Here are some samples in order from most difficult to least.

1. Resistance training 2X per week and cardio 3X
2. Resistance training once and cardio 3X
3. 4 days of cardio 30-60min
4. 5-7 days of walking 10-30 minutes

If one doesn’t work that is ok. Reevaluate and try again. Don’t force something just because you heard that it’s the best. You can never fit a square block into a circle hole.

Don’t depend on the doctor to determine your health

There is no magic pill and even diet and exercise has its limitations. However, actively pursuing a healthy lifestyle will give you the greatest chance of warding off lots of illnesses. You can’t depend on a pill or shot to constantly save you, this is only putting a band aid on the problem. You are in control of yourself so you have to do the things that make you feel better. Yes, it is hard work and there will be a lot of times that you don’t want to do it. But, if you get started now I promise that yourself 10 years from now will thank you.

The post Stop Going to Your Doctor and Start Exercising appeared first on The Super Senior.

• Stop eating all the food you enjoy and only eat brown rice, bland chicken, and steamed broccoli
• For breakfast you can have oatmeal with no flavor
• You can only drink water so no alcohol or any other drinks with any sort of flavor
• If you must go out for a special celebration you must bring your own food as stated above
• You have to measure everything and document it super accurately so that you only consume 500 calories a day. 1 Calorie off is unacceptable

I’ll be honest…I wanted to kill myself just from writing out that diet. However, this kind of diet is what is typically given to the average person that wants to lose weight and get healthy. Essentially you have to eat very little food and it all has to be very bland. Other diets typically known as “fad diets” follow a similar protocol, but they typically demonize particular foods or food groups. Let’s break this down and understand why these methods are typically unsuccessful.

Flaw: Too much at one time

The average diet that is given to clients that want to lose weight basically completely flips their entire way of eating upside down. You are expected to do all these new things, eat different foods, and dedicated a lot of time to prepare and follow the plan accordingly. In addition to eating very little food you’re expected to perfect your sleeping habits, make time for breakfast, and workout 3-5 days a week. Implementing all these new habits at one time is an extremely challenging ordeal. The typical trainer see’s these habits as simple and part of their everyday life, and something that they may have already done in the past so it must work for everyone. THIS CRAP IS HARD! It is simply way too much at one time and will be an overwhelming venture.

The psychological backfire of these diets is the biggest reason these diets fail. When you fail to keep to the program you’re met with discord by the trainer and yourself. Sayings like “try harder”, “do better”, and “you don’t want this enough” can be enough to make you feel like a failure and give up. After enough failed attempts you feel that being a healthier person is just something you can’t do.

Correct: Baby steps, Little bit at a time

Find the small habits that you can accomplish easily. Take these new habits one step at a time and make sustainable progress. It is much easier to implement one new habit at a time than taking on a lot at once. Consistency is key to creating a healthy lifestyle, and it is easier to be consistent with easy habits. As each new habit becomes easier then you start adding new habits to the mix. Each baby step you take becomes giant strides to your success. All these habits become building blocks for your new healthy lifestyle.

Flaw: Doesn’t teach better habits

I could tell you to take a multivitamin, but if I don’t tell you why then why should you care? When you see an advertisement on TV for a pan they don’t just tell you “buy this pan it’s great!” They spend a great deal of time explaining why this product is the best and is going to benefit you. Setting up a program for you to follow isn’t the same as actually educating you on why these new habits are important. The education that comes with nutrition is far more important than the nutrition program itself.

Understanding food and healthy eating habits helps you continue far past the 3 month transformation. Learning the reason behind all the different habits that are taught to you, and the affect that food has on your body will help you stay healthy long after you have reached your goal. When you understand nutrition on a more intricate level you can enjoy food to its fullest without the stress of gaining weight. Enjoy the foods that bring you nostalgia and foods that are strongly part of your culture without worry. Just following a program or “fad diet” takes all the joy out of food and places you inside a box, and if you step out of the box you’re told you will be fat. Become educated and roam freely eating foods that make you happy but having an understanding of those foods that keeps you healthy for a lifetime.

Correct: Learn the importance of the new habits

“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better”. – Maya Angelou. Educating yourself on the real reasons why we would want to incorporate certain habits into our lives helps with consistency. For example, I want you to eat more protein. By itself this task doesn’t really doesn’t give you a whole lot of reason to actually do it besides the fact that I told you to do it. So let’s add the following statement. “Protein is the building blocks of our body and if we don’t give our bodies enough then we won’t have the building blocks to grow our muscles. A good target is about your body in grams of protein. Protein also has a satiety effect and helps us feel and stay full for longer periods of time.” Now that you know a couple of the reasons why you should eat more protein the chances of you actually incorporating are much more likely.

Flaw: All-or-nothing paradigm

“I already messed up my diet for today so I might as well have my fill of cake and ice cream”. “F#%@ it!” These situations happen all the time to everybody! We give up on the rest of the day, or the week, because we’ve already fallen off the cliff for one day or one meal. This sort of thinking creates a bad relationship with food which makes it very difficult to stay consistent. We often end up saying things like “I’ll get back on it tomorrow” or “I’ll restart everything on Monday”. This turns exercising and eating healthy into a punishing activity. These binges do impede your progress but they also make you feel as though you have failed.

These all have bigger psychological affects than you would think. Not only do you feel like you’re letting yourself down but you feel like others are looking down on you too. This can cause a bad relationship with yourself and your body. All these added stresses are difficult to overcome, and the stress causes your hormones to become unregulated.

Correct: Find what is sustainable for you to stay consistent

The biggest reason that this fails is because of the relatively extreme level of deprivation. This deprivation will inevitably lead to a period of binging. When you feel completely deprived of things that you once enjoyed you will be driven to over consume these foods. The biggest thing to overcome are special occasions. Food is normally the central item that pulls everyone together. Personally, coming from a family that follows a lot of the culture from Hawaii food is a staple. There’s no party at a Hawaiian household where there isn’t an over abundance of food, and you eat so much that you go into what we call “Polynesian paralysis”. Everyone experiences this with events like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. These events create an enormous amount of happiness which is important to our health. So what do we do? How do we become healthier without completely depriving ourselves of the foods that make us happy?

We need to slowly work our way towards a diet that we find sustainable. By finding a diet that is sustainable we won’t feel the need to over consume on foods that we crave. We will be able to enjoy the foods we crave without the guilt that tends to follow. However, these cravings will come less and less frequently. Since we are nourishing our bodies with the whole foods that it desires our craving for processed foods is something we think less about. We become much more satisfied with only a couple slices of pizza or a small bowl of ice cream instead of the pizza or the entire carton.

What is the best diet?

The best diet is the one that you can eat for the rest of your life. You can allow all the “bad” foods that you love and crave without the guilt. You stop labeling foods as good or bad because you understand food on an entirely different level. Sorry to say but there is no one diet fits all approach. There is no secret formula to becoming healthy. If you were looking to see if veganism, keto, paleo, and any other fad diet was the solution I am sorry to disappoint you. You have to find the diet that works for you, because everyone is different and comes from different backgrounds. The food that I eat and the way that I eat isn’t necessarily what will work for you. But, in general you want to work your way to whole minimally processed foods.

Take baby steps to slowly eliminate processed foods and eat whole foods. Don’t take on too much at once and overwhelm yourself. If you do happen to fall off don’t consider yourself a failure and continue rolling down the hill. Pick yourself back up and stay the course! Not every day is going to be perfect there will always be an obstacle that will try to nudge you from the path. Don’t be discouraged and take a moment what happened or is happening at the moment that there are obstacles. Understand what is happening and why it is happening. This education will help you become more self-aware and propel you forward even faster.

STRIVE TO BE BETTER THAN THE PERSON YOU WERE YESTERDAY EVERYDAY

The post What’s The Best Diet? Crushing the Flaws of Commercialized Nutrition Advice appeared first on The Super Senior.

Finding that motivation requires you to really dig deep and find what matters most to you. “I want to get in shape and look good naked” is going to eventually fall apart because…

It’s too superficial

The idea of getting in shape normally encompasses the number on the scale and how you look in the mirror. These two qualities are enough to drive one mad. You will probably see some good progress in the beginning in terms of the number on the scale getting lower. But eventually that number stops going down and may even go up. You are doing everything right and using all your will power but the scale isn’t matching your effort. This can cause depression and anger that causes you to lose motivation. To look good just doesn’t work in the long term.

We need to really dive deep into our soul and find what really matters to us. This is where we will find the motivation that will help us create a healthy lifestyle. This can take some time and deep thought, but this is a crucial first step before you begin your fitness journey. Why do you want this? The things that mattered to me were…

Protection

I stay in shape and push myself to the limits to protect myself and those that I love. If my house catches on fire I want to be able to grab both my kids and get them out of the house safely. If I see a car coming right at my children or other loved one I want to be able to get them out of the way. If anything or anyone decides to threaten my family I want the power to protect them.

You already know that life isn’t just a straight line. It goes up, down, left, right, makes a couple U-turns, and even makes you go in circles from time to time. It’s like when GPS navigation first started coming out and it would tell you to get off the freeway just to get back on going the same direction. Life always throws you curveballs and we need to expect the unexpected. I hope and pray that nothing ever happens, but I will always be prepared in the event that something does.

Survival

I can’t protect others if I can’t protect myself. If I were to slip and below me is severe injury or death, I want the ability to pull myself back up. If I need to run from the zombie apocalypse I better have the ability to do so. If something happens and my survival depends on my strength, I’m going to give myself the best chances possible to survive. A strong body has been shown to have significantly better at avoiding injuries in comparison to an untrained individual. The recovery from an injury is also substantially faster if something happens.

My Kids

My children will be the biggest factor that keeps me going and pushing myself to stay in shape. Part of the reason is that I believe “do what I say not what I do” will only go so far. I know that I need to set the example for my kids. If I sit on the couch and watching TV all day, or if I’m constantly on my phone then my kids will follow. I want them to see the affects of putting in the effort to take care of your mind, body, and spirit. Especially in today’s world it is so easy to become complacent with everything. We have so much food available that we can eat anything we want whenever we want. We have so much entertainment that we couldn’t finish everything within a lifetime. I know I need to be the one to get them up and outside to really experience life and keep their eyes open.

The biggest reason why my kids are my motivation is to see them grow old and be apart of all their milestones. By staying in shape I increase my chances of being around for a long time. For my daughter, I want will be there for all her biggest accomplishments, walking her down the aisle for her wedding, and the father daughter dance. I’ll be sure to brush up on my breakdance skill from my teenage years to embarrass her. For my son, I just realized nothing has the same significance as those events. But, I will be an icon that he will have to work hard to surpass. I will be there for his biggest accomplishments, supporting and pushing him every step of the way. These are very far into the future since my daughter is 4 and my son isn’t even 1 haha.

If they decide to give me grandkids one day then I will be there as the very active grandpa. I’m very grateful and blessed that my parents have put their health as a priority for most of their life. It always warms my heart that they have the ability to play with the kids the way they do. After this experience I know that I want to be able to do this for my grandkids as well.

Find your motivation

These are the reasons that motivate me to keep going. When I find myself starting to fall off I take a minute and remind myself why I want this. This motivation goes beyond just wanting to look good. We need to find those deeper reasons why we want to stay healthy or even become healthy. Focus on how you feel and your goals to keep you going. When you find your answer I suggest writing it down to always remind yourself why you do this. So finding your “Why” is THE most important step to keep your motivation for the rest of your life. Leave a comment below and tell me what your why is?

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