Do Diets Cause Rebound?

by Neil Anderson

Diets don’t deserve as much credit as we give them for our successes.  

I am lucky enough to be in one of those enviable positions in life where I regularly get to see people make astounding, life transforming changes to their health.  These changes have transfer.  They transfer to all other aspects of their lives.  When someone is going through these positive, healthy changes they can see and experience the far reaching effect of their own efforts.  It’s exciting.  

Sometimes in this excitement, humility prevents a person from taking full credit for such an outstanding accomplishment.  When asked how they did it (lost weight, got healthier) most will simply give credit to the diet they are on.  Deserved?  Well, let’s do the math.  YOU were the one who overcame your addiction to the bad stuff you were eating.  YOU got the headaches, the hunger pain, the fatigue.  YOU were the one who reorganized your life to get away from the poor health habits you once had.  YOU were also the one who did the hard things like learning to eat right and exercise.  None of these were small things.  They all took supreme effort and perseverance.  The common denominator?  YOU!

By contrast, diets don’t deserve as much blame as we give them for our failures either.  

Over the years I have noticed that those who become healthy and have success with weight loss tend not to take the blame for it when they revert to a portion, or all of their previous life style choices and gain the weight back.  I have often heard them complain, “I think it was that diet I was on.  I mean, I can’t be expected to eat like that forever can I?”  

The answer to this question is, “As opposed to what?”  Perhaps you thought your dieting efforts were someday going to end and you’d be fine going back to what made you unhealthy in the first place?  

I have NEVER been in a conversation with someone who was gaining weight who had a perfectly balanced, nutritious and portion controlled eating plan.  NEVER.  How do I know?  They tell me.  Usually, when someone complains about weight gain I’ll begin looking for holes in their programming by asking a lot of very detailed questions about their diet and exercise.  It is what trainers do.   

“What did you eat for breakfast?  What did you have for lunch? What did you have for dinner? What did you have in between?”  These are the most common questions.  They are very telling, and sometimes we find problems with someone's diet in these alone.  If not, I have more.  

“What was in that casserole?  What time did you eat it? What was the ratio of fat, CHO and Pro?  What were the portions?  Did you weigh it?”    

Those who don’t have detailed answers to these questions are not on a proper nutrition program for weight loss (diet).  They are guessing.  Some are lucky.  They guess well and will lose weight anyway.  Most of us aren’t that lucky.

The thing is, if you are guessing - YOU are the one not doing the hard stuff.  YOU are the one not overcoming addiction.  YOU are the one not getting the headaches, the hunger pains, the fatigue.  And if you are gaining weight back - YOU are the one who refuses to organize your life, eating, and exercise in a way that will facilitate the changes you seek.  Not judging you here.  Just making the point.  

The common denominator?  _ _ _ (please fill in the blanks)

Good people are usually quick to give credit where credit is due.  This is honorable.  And while SURLY there are exceptions to every rule.  And SURELY there are those who have medical conditions which prevent them from finding success (so far) despite a valiant effort on their part.  It is my opinion that IN MOST CASES your diet and exercise programs are secondary to the real influence of your failures, or successes.  

Have You Got Skin in the Game?

by Neil Anderson

The pursuit of health and fitness is a peculiar game.  I say "game" because it is to some.  At least it appears that way when you take into consideration the actual lack of effort they put in to such an undertaking.  We have observed that many (the uninitiated) begin this process with little to no thought about what it will take to be successful.  I mean, I have personally witnessed games of Pictionary played with more forethought and planning than many people put into getting healthy.  It's weird.  But it happens.  OFTEN.  It is little wonder why most fail to meet their healthy objectives.  

Gaining health and fitness is a ROUGH process, to say the least.  An unrelenting, frustratingly ROUGH process that grants success only to those who possess the will to succeed, the bravery to endure and the humility to change.  To think you might forge your way though this process without walking through the refiner's fire is a farce.  In this day and age (it is 2012 for Hell sakes), if you still believe "easy" and "optimally healthy" belong in the same sentence - you watch too much T.V. 

To be successful at regaining your health and fitness you'll need to become VERY clear on what exactly you are willing to sacrifice.  Will you give up your comfort, your convenience, your entitlement?  

You'll also need to become VERY deliberate on how you are going to go about becoming healthy.  Winston Churchill said, "Failure to plan is planning to fail."  If you don't have a working schedule (workout, rest, family time, meal plan, etc) that you are trying to follow to the letter, it is time to get with a trainer - STAT!

These are basic steps.  Steps you know all too well, but let me ask you this:

Have you got any skin in the game?  

Have you ever wondered why the bank makes you put money “down” on big loans?  It is simple.  They want you to have some “skin in the game.”  You are less likely to walk away from your commitment to them if you have some flesh on the table.  Something that will hurt A LOT if you walk away from it.  They have figured out that you are more apt to pay them back when you have contributed (invested) something very valuable to the process of borrowing money from them.  It is interesting to note, in the process of negotiating with a bank for financing a home, many are willing to contribute all they have.  

So the question NOW is ..., Do you have skin in THIS game?  More specifically, what is it that you have contributed to this process of getting healthy and fit that you CANNOT walk away from without some REAL pain?  Have you considered it?  What have you got to lose if you walk away?  

You should know, if your answer is much less than EVERYTHING - it should be no surprise to you that you may be struggling to see results.  Truth is, until you put that which you truly value on the line, you haven't shown enough faith in yourself to BE successful.  Yet ...

There are things we value in life above all others.  When we learn what these are (family, money, time, appreciation) they become even more valuable.  Some of us are well aware what these are.  Others have not discovered them yet.  In part II, I have joined forces with renowned Clinical Social Worker - Louis Naegle to expand on the concept of "Putting Skin In the Game."  We have also created an exercise to help you discover what is most valuable to you and what you might use as leverage to put it "all on the line" to become more healthy.

Programming - Works

It is called "programming."  It is the element missing from your friends' workouts.  It is too bad.  They could be saving a lot of time, energy, money and frustration if they'd consider it. 

Let me take a minute to brag on ya'll.  Today we saw impressive improvement in strength across the board.  All class times reported significant improvement.  Personal records were set all over the place on heavy deads.  Both the over-all male (455 - Brother of Beastmode) and female (255 - Buff) dead lift records fell today.  Many many other PRs were reported.  Some by 50 lbs!  Others by more! 

OUTSTANDING work all! 

The thing is, we have hardly done ANY heavy deads this year.  A couple of times we have done heavy sets of 5.  Once, we did heavy 4's.  Even then, I can only find (less than) a half dozen times we have done heavy deads at all.  The question then becomes, HOW is this possible?  How is it that so many of you saw such improvement on so little specific training on this movement?  Wouldn't you think that to improve your dead lift by over 50 lbs. and set a new PR you'd have to put some specific, constant and focused effort on dead lifting?   

It is called "programming."  And your trainers at GPP have learned how to put these improvements onto you without subjecting you to the potential dangers and rigors of frequent dead lifting. 

The popular notion among fitness trainers in the world (the bad ones) is that delivering a daily "hell beatin" is all that is needed to show improvement in fitness, strength and health to your client.  So, instead of learning anatomy, physiology, kinesiology, biomechanics and the like, inexperienced (and bad) trainers are putting all of their effort into thinking up creative ways to "WOD" up their clients and mop them off the floor after a workout.  And while many clients will see some improvement from this type of training, the improvement they see is not without downside and risk.

Downside - Slow change, incomplete fitness, imbalances in physique, injury and expense.

Risk - Permanent injury, poorly developed health & fitness, de-motivation, lack of confidence, illness and imbalances.

The problem with this randomized stuff is that your body just doesn't respond well to random.  Case in point, can you imagine how successful your doctor would be at helping you if he prescribed random drugs, to be taken at random times, in a randomized dose?  Or how about your orthodontist?  What if she randomly tightened your braces using randomized forces and tension?  You might see some improvement, right?  Then again, it could really mess you up bad too.

It isn't much different with exercise.  The thing is we all know it.  Can you imagine training for a marathon using randomized protocol?  Just start running however many miles, however many times per week/day? 

To see progressive change that is healthy and can serve you in every way, you'll need some well thought-out programming to see the fastest, most complete improvement.  Anything less than this will yield poor results.  We've always said, "Randomized training yields random results." 

If you'd like to learn the specifics of how we program and train at GPP, please send us a letter to "Contact Us."  We are organizing a class to teach our specific methodology and training techniques to others.