Getting Started

Often, the hardest step of the journey is the first one.

I of course don't know where exactly you're starting from. A former jock who has let himself go for a few years? A life-long couch potato? A bit overweight, just deciding to cut down? Serious obesity threatening your life? Relatively healthy so far, but worried that it won't last unless you take action? Already in health trouble, and needing to act now before it's too late?

Each of those scenarios requires a different sort of response. But the one thing they all have in common is that you have to get started. So here are some suggestions for what you can do now and in the next few weeks to start heading in the right direction.

1. Move. That's right, move. Get some physical motion in your life. Struggle up off the couch (put the remote control down, if it's weighing you down!) and walk somewhere. Maybe around the room, but hopefully a bit further. Out in the yard. Down the street and around the corner. Walk until you feel tired. If you don't feel very tired after walking a half mile or so, the next time you need to walk faster. But wherever you go, move. Each day go a little farther or a little faster. Walking won't be adequate exercise for ever, but if you haven't been doing any exercise, it's a good place to start.

2. Stop the obvious excesses right now. I'm not talking about decisions about which kind of salad dressing is less fattening, or the benefits of low-carb vs. low-fat eating, or subtle differences between different forms of exercise. (We'll talk about all of those things eventually.) I'm talking about sitting down and devouring a whole pack of cookies. I'm talking about knocking off a 6-pack or two by your self in an evening. I'm talking about going to the buffet restaurant and going back and loading your plate 8 times. ("Oh good, he's not talking about me--I've never gone back more than 7 times"). You know what I mean, and you can apply it to yourself.

Story: My mom had a friend who struggled with her weight. Well, sometimes she struggled, but mostly she just gave up and gave in. One day she baked a chocolate-cream pie "for my husband and the boys" (her husband and her boys didn't really need the excess calories either, by the way). When it was done, she ate a small piece just to sample it. Apparently it was quite good, so she had a second slice. And a third, etc. Suddenly she "realized" that she'd eaten half the pie. She couldn't bear to have her husband and sons come home and see a half-eaten pie, so she ate the rest and baked a new one for them!

3. Get honest. STOP lying to yourself, your family and your friends.

• "I can't imagine why I don't lose weight, I don't eat a thing!"
• "It's a genetic defect, and I can't do anything about it."
• "I've got a thyroid problem."

This kind of talk is self-deceptive, and dishonest. Maybe you don't know the best ways to lose weight. Maybe you have a genetic defect (sure, your parents and grandparents were overweight), and maybe you even have a thyroid problem. But your genes, your ancestors and your thyroid gland haven't been putting food in your mouth. They haven't been holding you in the Stra Lounger.

4. Find like-minded friends. Call it a support group, call it group therapy, or just call it friendship, but find people that you can help and on whose help you can depend. The measure of success of such groups as Weight Watchers and TOPS are due in large part to group dynamics (and we'll talk later about why they haven't been very successful long-term).

5. Start learning. Get this straight right off the bat--you may not have had much success at weight loss or fitness in the past because you didn't have the best information about diet and exercise. Adopt the mind-set that what you think you know may be wrong. When you hear dietary advice that is different from what you have thought was the best, consider that it may have some truth. Look into it. Read about it. Google it, for goodness sake!

On this blog I won't be preaching anything that is not supported by reason, experience and even research, but I will say some things that fly in the face of conventional wisdom. I'm a doctor, and a fairly main-stream one. I'm not a conspiracy theorist. But I don't agree any more with what most doctors believe about diet and many aspects of exercise.

6. Make up your mind. I often hear people talk about will power. I don't actually know what will power is. I do, however, understand the power of a decision. Decide now that you will get your life under control, whatever it takes. Decide now that what might seem like failures will only be stumbles, and that you will get up after every one and keep going forward.

Story: Mr. Miller was my Taekwondo instructor for many years. When it came time to test for a new rank, he had one firm policy. He'd say, "the only way to fail this test is to quit." As long as a student kept trying, the test was still in progress. He'd also say things like "if you need to go outside to throw up,we'll still be here when you get back," and "if you need to go to the emergency room, we'll continue when you return." Life is like that. If you are willing to keep trying, you haven't failed.

So that's your job for this week; get started.

If you are just getting started at fitness, click on the "COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS" link below, and tell me about it. I'd love to be a part of that support network.

See you on the road!

Doc


COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS