There is a lot of conflicting information out there about how to get fit and most people find it difficult to make any of them work. There are a number of different reasons for this, but I think the simple truth is that it is hard to make these restrictive or extra pieces to our lives work in the end because we see them as restrictive or additive. We reject them either subconsciously as we lose interest or sometimes emphatically as we rage binge a Netflix series over an extra large bit of chips.
Understanding what you are trying to achieve is where many folks go wrong in these misadventures and I’m going to start here since knowing what you might get out of something makes it easier to accept. Notice we’re still in trading mode where we take on something restrictive or additive in order to get something back! It’s not super sustainable but we do need to start somewhere!
MYTH: Eating Right and Workouts are interchangeable
These two roads might start at the same motivation point but they do not lead to the same place. One if you can stick with it, Eating Right will get you moving down or up the scale (depending on your goal!). Dieting in it’s many forms can be your version of Eating Right but for most people this torture has little long term gain. I use Eating Right like a trademarked ad because it’s the idea of finding a way to make the way you eat everyday the one that actually helps you reach your goals. You want to have the same weight as you were in college then Eating Right is the way to have it every year of your life rather than a yo-yo extreme game forcing the purchase of pants that fit a range of waists. Eating Right is for weight control!
This is not to say you should give up your workouts, trading your dumbbells for a juicer, or your yoga classes for appointments with a nutritionist. These are two different roads, and just as you know a skinny person who is not fit and a heavy person who is not buff, getting to a weight is not exactly the same as getting to a shape. Most of us could care less if we weigh more than a little car as long as we look and feel the way we want. The looks part is admittedly very much impacted by the weight part since if your desired look is skinny then it’s most likely going to be lighter BUT my point is that you were not chasing after the weight, it was just a road you needed to travel to get the look. Working out, makes sure that the look you get once you achieve the weight is to your liking.
I also mentioned the way you feel, and of course your body image will elicit some feeling from you, but the way you move and the physical feelings of your movement can be a massive motivator for working out. Athletes want explosiveness and to perform optimally for hours but the average person should be headed towards keeping up with their energetic kids or being comfortable simply bending and lifting or standing for longer periods. Maybe hiking up a hill for a fantastic view or free diving a coral reef is on the list of desired experiences that are currently locked away under too difficult. Meaningful goals which a reasonable workout can help to achieve – that’s working out. Training your muscle groups and activating them to help you achieve a level of fitness either by reshaping your body or simply extending your physical abilities is what you get from working out.
Your Body is a Warehouse
Try thinking about your body and its relationship with food as a small distribution center. The food you eat are the inbound trucks that bring products to your DC. Those products are recombined into orders which are sent out of the outbound doors to your customers: your arms and legs and even your brain to give you energy to think. The number of orders you have is based on your individual body’s needs and the activities you do in a day. If you Inbound more than you send out, then your DC gets crowded. This makes you fatter. If you slow the inbound trucks by eating less, your outbound orders will slowly use the excess inventory you have stored in your warehouse and you’ll slowly get thinner. This is the basic premise of dieting. Eat less than you need and your body will slowly release the excesses it’s stored up.
How will working out impact this system’s dynamic? It does a few things: it makes the outbound doors bigger. That doesn’t exactly sound like a lot but it means you can send out bigger orders if you need it. This is maybe working out even harder or going on that hike. The second thing it does is add maybe one more outbound order for the actual workout itself. To put that in context, your normal operating body might use 100 orders of roughly the same size to keep the lights on and do your normal week’s activities. Working out will add maybe 1 more order to that. It helps but it’s a really small way to impact your overall DC’s inventory situation. The last thing working out does is to make your overall operations more efficient by reorganizing your layout. It’s not something easy to see but you might end up needing less inputs to get the same energy so for a business that could be really useful.
All this is to stress that Eating for Scale and Working for fitness are two different focuses with two different goals – but if you want a sexy beach ready body (pure unabashed vanity!) then you’ll need both strategies to help you hit your goals. In the best of circumstances, these two different focuses can work together, help you supercharge your timelines and hit some incredible results in a fraction of the time it should normally take. Sadly this is the real world and unless you are an actor training for the next superhero movie, dedicating yourself to these two focuses and living your life is probably not going to be easy, natural or long term.
Vain or Vanilla?
The real way to hit even the most vain or vanilla of goals is prolonged persistence and eventually a reframing of the whole approach. It’s not working out, it’s your morning routine. It’s not a diet, it’s just lunch. That’s some mind over reality stuff but you don’t need to be Neo to make it happen. It’s a little bit about acceptance, and a little bit more about finding resources that can help you make your life’s choices who you choose to be. Maybe a quick and easy breakfast suggestion which helps you start your day off with more than just a smile. That’s what this hopes to be. A little bit of a resource that helps you along on your journey.
If you are trying to lose weight, my advice is to start in the kitchen. You’ll see results far faster and you can focus on trying to scale yourself in a sustainable manner. Working out will be something you do when you want to start your next goal!
