getting into shape

Jimmy Petruzzi

If you were given a 5 million pound race horse, would you feed it crap, and not let it exercise, how are you investing in your most prized asset yourself?

With out question your health is one of the most important aspects of feeling great. When you are feeling great it has a knock on effect on other parts of your life. Giving you a sense of well being and confidence.

Exercise and activity stimulates your minds endorphins (which are an essential part of feeling great).Have you ever done some exercise or played some sport and afterwards felt really great.

Exercise and activity is one of the best prescriptions for feeling better about your self. Getting into shape has been the catalyst for many people to turn their life around, because if you feel better physically you bound to feel better mentally.

Years ago through injury I had given up playing sport on a full time basis, so I had gone from training 4 to 5 hours per day,

to next to nothing. I had completely let myself go, and whilst I was no longer training anymore. I was eating the same amount, which was a fair bit. In no time I had gained a considerable amount of weight. I was carrying around 50 excess pounds; I was feeling sluggish, lack of energy, lost a considerable amount of self esteem, and confidence. I had gone from being a excellent athlete with less than 5% body fat to carrying around 35%body fat, and whilst I don’t advocate anyone to get down to 5% unless its part of their sports regime and controlled, having personally gone from 5% to 35% when around 12% to 17% is considered healthy for an adult male. 30% body fat extra body fat from were I was before was a fair bit.

If you took 30% of 100 kilograms you would have 30 kilograms of extra fat I was carrying, around 70 pounds of extra fat.

Imaging carrying a 70 pound bag on your back all day. Almost like giving a piggy back to a small child all day. Imagine the impact it would have on your life, even during day to day tasks, shopping, going up stairs.

My goal was to once again start working in professional football as a fitness coach, I had to do something about not just my physique though how our felt about myself. I felt terrible and it was having a negative impact on my life, I felt like a slob. I knew I had to take action. And I did, I took up some sports I enjoyed, and changed my eating habits, within 6 months I was feeling much better, lighter, fitter, healthier, I didn’t measure myself by the scale, though how I felt. In the process of losing that excess weight I felt much better, which was one of the best investments I made. Investing in my own well being. Whilst I don’t advocate over doing it on exercise and eating rabbit food, being conscious what you eat, and making time to exercise and be active goes along way.

In this chapter I share some tips and techniques to help you get into great shape

Remember if you’re looking to lose weight

Losing weight isn’t a mysterious process. In fact, weight loss doesn’t even have to involve strange diets, special exercises or even the ‘magic’ of pills or fitness gadgets. Want the secret to weight loss? Make small changes each and every day and you’ll slowly (but surely) lose those extra pounds.

The more food with high calories you eat and low nutritional values the more weight you gain. I am sure you’re aware of that as you don’t have to be a rocket scientist. It was something I was well aware of myself when I gained weight after all I worked in the fitness industry for many years and as an athlete I knew enough about nutrition to  understand by continuing to eat the volume and type of food I was eating I was going to keep on gaining weight. However what many people seem to think is by doing some exercise it will burn all the calories they have consumed off.

Exercise has many benefits other than burning calories; it can help lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, feel better, stimulate the mind, and contribute towards minimising the risk of illness. Though in regards to losing weight exercise can contribute to losing weight, though the calories expenditure during exercise is minimal, so what we eat is the key to losing weight. To put it into context a one hour run from your normal adult will burn around 300 calories.

Some chocolate bars have double the calories and hour run has

To lose one pound, you must burn approximately 3500 calories over and above what you already burn doing daily activities. In other words a sensible nutritional plan with exercise and activity are the ingredients to losing weight and staying in shape. The irony is when people join a gym they sometimes gain more weight; because they feel they are burning the weight off. I have seen many people, go do a session in the gym, and then an hour later their in the bar having a pint.

Nutrition and calories

McDonald’s double cheeseburger contains around 460 calories

To burn off the calories in just that one burger, the average 150-pound person would have to do moderate-intensity aerobics for an hour!

Add on a shake and order of fries and you might as well cancel any plans you had for the half-a-day you’ll need to spend at the gym to un-do that one meal!

Good nutrition is very important for fat loss, and focusing on health and health promoting foods is far more productive than focusing on fat loss and denial of favourite foods.

I am sure reading this you might be thinking I find the gym boring or I don’t have time to go to the gym. I guess theirs nothing more patronising then some young 20 year old gym instructor telling you to make time, especially if you’re very busy or logistically getting to the gym for you on a regular basis is difficult.

Exercise does not have to involve going to the gym, all be it some people enjoy going to the gym, their are many other ways to get in shape, which burn equally as many calories and have equally as many health benefits, like organising a game of 5 a side football with your mates. Or going for a country walk with your partner, here’s a list of other things your can do to:

Make Exercise Fun

1         Swimming pool

2       Classes

3       Sports: such as badminton, tennis, squash, anything you enjoy

4       Gym circuit training

5       Dancing

6       Horse riding

7       Rock climbing

8       Table tennis

The list is exhaustive, identify activities you enjoy doing and integrate them into activity plan. Doing the activities you enjoy will help you to stay motivated and contribute towards a healthier life style.

Simple nutritional changes

You can start losing weight right now by making a few simple changes. If you can burn around an extra 500 calories each day, you could lose around a pound a week. Try these ideas:

Instead of….	Do this…
Having an afternoon Coke	Drink a glass of water. (calories saved: 97)
Eating a bacon sandwich for breakfast	Eat some fruit and cereal  (calories saved: 185)
Using your break to catch up on work or eat a snack	Go for a walk (calories burned: 100)
Wake up 5 minutes early	Get up 10 minutes early to some exercises, I.e. abdominal crunches   (calories burned: 100)
Watching television after work	Do 10 minutes of yoga (calories burned: 50

Set some goals to help you stay the course

By using the same principle in chapter setting goals, complete the following goal setting process to get you well on the way to losing weight and staying in shape

Have a goal: e.g. sign up for a 5 km Fun Run

1. State your goal in the positive.

Think about what you want rather than what you don’t want. If you still come up with something negative ask yourself “What do I want instead?”  In the context of weight loss what do you want?

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2. State it in simple terms.

If a five year old wouldn’t understand it, it may be too complex – unlike some goal setting techniques your goal needs to be brief, simple and specific. I.e. how many pounds do you want to lose and when, what dress size would you like to fit in to, what size jeans

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3. State it in the present tense.

Make it as if it is happening now. I have, I am, I’m doing… what are you doing right now, and attending this seminar is a positive step forward

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4. Is it achievable and realistic?

Has someone else already achieved this or might they achieve this? Is it realistic for you? If one person can achieve something then so can you.

5. Set a time and make it an exciting outcome

There is some debate about setting a date and some people feel uncomfortable about this. If it is a small goal then do it. If it is a really big goal then I advise that you leave the time for the moment until it starts to look like things are moving.

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6. Finally how will you achieve your goal?

For example

By going to the gym twice are week, going for a walk twice per week, changing certain things you eat, doing things in a manageable way to suit your lifestyle, choose exercises and activities you enjoy

Remember not to over estimate what you can achieve in a week and under estimate what can be achieved in 6 months

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Remember losing weight and staying in shape is a lifestyle change. There are many diets and fads on the market which people lose allot of weight in a short amount of time. Only to put it back on and to risk their health. One of the things I tell my clients is you didn’t put the weight on over night, or in two weeks, the weight you put on was through a gradual process of neglect. Creeping up on you.

To expect to lose all the weight you may have accumulated in a few years, in just two weeks, probably isn’t feasible.

By making a few changes to what you eat, doing some activity and exercise you enjoy, and integrating into a lifestyle change you are building an effective platform to staying in shape and never looking back.