If you Google what is the most common fitness question, “how do I lose weight” is at the top.
I believe that to be a very loaded question. There is so much noise out there about health and fitness I’m surprised anyone gets it right. Allow me to pose a different question.
How can I feel stronger and healthier?
I would say that is a better question for the two are invariably tied together. If you go back to the question of “lose weight?”, you might end up very skinny, but very weak. Having less muscle to support your skeletal and metabolic systems will provide a little less strain on your circulatory system, but you will not be significantly healthier. Your body will be inefficient at taking up the glucose in your bloodstream, which means you’ve lost weight, but could still have early onset diabetes, and we have yet to address cholesterol.
In recent years, the argument has been settled, you still hear both sides debating whether diet or exercise is more important, but almost everyone if asked better questions will say that the two need to coexist. It’s not that one side or the other was lying, it’s that the information and the science has gotten better and good science corrects itself as it goes along. Also, and this is the only place that I will rant, if someone says they have the answer for everyone, they are straight out lying. It’s a sales technique and it’s on its face dishonest. Human biology is infinitely diverse and no one thing works for everybody.
This article is not gonna go into all of the diets out there that is too deep and too complex a subject, and is rarely handled well in a single article. Same goes for exercise, no one exercise or exercise system is best and all have their positive and negatives. Instead, I want you to think about investing in yourself and the time it takes to be both stronger and healthier, understanding that it will take time. Bad habits you made over decades or years are not going to be corrected in a weekend. You are going to fall back into your old habits and need to start again without beating yourself up over the lapse. Change is hard, but if you’re reading this, I can say that you have made the decision to give it a try. Keep reading, keep trying things. Sometimes more is just more, not better, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Find some friends with the same goals, you will need the support, and know that everyone takes different roads to get there.
Diet
Food is a social activity for the most part. Choosing one that is going to pull you away from friends and family may be too strict a diet to start with, barring any health emergencies that need addressing. I find I can fix a great deal of the diet problems my clients have with a few rules. Cook at home more and shop only in the fruit, vegetable, meat, and whole grain bakery sections of the grocery store. Almost all the trouble people get into with food choices are in the aisles.
Exercise
Starting to exercise, despite Instagram, Facebook and TikTok‘s Influencers best efforts, kind of sucks. You’re going to be sore. It’s going to feel inconvenient and intimidating.
So of course, being someone who does this professionally, I recommend a professional! Someone you can lean on and be accountable to. A person you can ask questions and will lend you the motivation when you don’t have any. If you persevere, and start back up when you miss, eventually, it’ll become a habit and then an addiction of the very best kind.
Start making small changes to your diet. I believe most people inherently know what they should eat, it’s just getting their brain to go along for the ride. Work on getting a little stronger, take a class, join a run group, hire me! All excellent choices on your journey, You will lose weight, be stronger, and feel better. In the end you won’t have to pick one question over the other. You can be both stronger and healthier.
