Many days I will see on
my schedule there is a consultation with a potential new client. I know nothing
about them yet, just their name and contact information.
Our first meeting will
consist of getting to know one another and seeing where we both stand with
expectations, goals, fitness levels and a heap of other things.
I walk through my
initial statements with the person and I am just waiting for them to ask the
question I don’t want to hear. “What is
the fastest way to lose the weight?”
Sometimes I don’t even
get a chance to say anything before this is blurted out.
My response: “Cut off your leg”
Let’s be honest here,
that would be the fastest way to lose some pounds. Yes, it sounds like an
asshole thing to say but it would be a real asshole move to have someone just
“lose” the weight as fast as possible.
What they want is for me
to run them into the ground for a month or two and watch the number on the
scale slowly creep down.
In this sense the weight may be off on the scale but you lost muscle mass, you aren’t eating, you feel like crap, your hormones are unbalanced and nothing is working well. This is a recipe to have ALL the weight you just “lost” to come back on and most likely gain more back.
After I tell someone to
cut off their own leg usually they are quite astonished so I have to reel them
back in.
So what do I tell them?
First off, there really is no “fastest way” in the sense of losing weight. Everything is a process and if you don’t do it correctly the repercussions aren’t fun.
The main thing I try to get people to do is change their outlook on the situation, getting them to swap the word fastest out for correct.
What is the correct
way to lose this weight?
NOT, what is the fastest way to lose this weight.
This is a much better
way to approach the process. It will take longer than someone may expect doing
it the correct way but I can tell you that the results are long lasting and who
can argue with long lasting results.
The next thing I put
towards people’s attention is the fact that the process will be a lifestyle
change.
I always revert back to things I bring up for almost all topics: SMALL CHANGES.
I have my clients change
small things, one or two at a time, until they have mastered it. I want people
to feel as if these small changes are now second nature before moving to the
next set of changes.
If we add up over months
all the small changes people have made they are astonished at what they’ve
accomplished. Not because they didn’t believe they could do it, but because of
how they don’t feel like there have been any drastic changes to their lives.
Once all the lifestyle
changes have been made and the person is in a safe, healthy, and strong
position then we are ready to start manipulating weight with calorie
adjustments, movement, exercise programming (which has been going this entire
process) but now we put these things on the forefront.
There are two reasons I
will not go into detail about these manipulations that most people want to hear
more about.
First off, every single person in this world is the different and things that work for some people may not work for another. This is why I cannot make a generalization and say,
“okay after you are feeling that you are in a safe and healthy place start with a strength phased program and eat 16,000 calories this week”
NO! There is no one size fits all process, everything in this field must be individualized if you want the best results for your body.
The second reason I
breeze over these changes is the people I work with have a major change in
perception as things move forward.
For the people that
listen and follow these steps well they do not look to lose that exact 20 or 30
pounds. The numbers don’t matter to them anymore.
What matters to them is
optimal health, which will trump any number on the scale.
Getting to this pound is
many hours of commitment to doing the right thing for your body. When people
experience how good they can look and feel by doing this there is no turning
back.
This is where the real lifestyle change occurs!
Now not everyone experiences this type of outlook but the ones that do have seen the results they want for years following.
JNHealthandFitness@aol.com
