What does Mexico and the United States have in common, besides being neighbors?
According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), they are each in the number one (Mexico, 71.3%) and number two (U.S. 70%) spots in terms of the overall population being overweight and obese.
In the U.S. alone, 36.5% of the adults are obese.
That’s huge! (no pun intended)
It’s no wonder that when I type in the phrase, “weight loss”, into Google, it returns: About 215,000,000 results (0.40 seconds) (I threw in the seconds, because that’s a pretty fast search engine.)
When I type in the same phrase, “weight loss”, into Amazon.com, it returns 147,154 results.
That’s a lot of weight loss products.
So you would think with all those products, we would have some of the healthiest people on the planet, right?
Wrong…
Consider this, in the U.S. there are 30,500 gymnasiums, according to International Health, Racquet and Sports-club Association (IHRSA) and there are 6.4 million personal trainer users.
So we aren’t lacking the products, places, or help.
What seems to be the problem then?
Could it be lack of knowledge?
Well, again, searching on Amazon.com there are 73,934 books on the subject of “weight loss”. (numbers can vary slightly from the time of this post and the search that was conducted)
So again what’s the deal?
Could it be that, maybe, people just can’t afford the books, after all knowledge is power?
Let’s see, according to the American Library Association, the estimated number of libraries is 120,096 in the U.S. that is, again, certainly, a relatively large number. So it can’t be that we lack FREE places to access the FREE information.
Really, what seems to be the issue then?
Maybe, it’s time?
Good old fashioned, father time, with the trite but often overused excuse of, “I just don’t have enough time in the day.”
Well according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Watching TV was the leisure activity that occupied the most time (2.8 hours per day)
In fact, there is a site that will even calculate just how much time you spend watching your favorite program. (http://tiii.me/)
And for those of you that don’t watch television, you can replace “watching TV” with time spent on the internet or playing video games.
2.8 hours a day, I am sure we can find time to workout, right?
Surely, not enough time is not a sufficient excuse.
So what is it, then?
I actually think it might have something to do with too many choices.
Good old, Analysis Paralysis a.k.a. Choice Overload.
The Jam Experiment
Sheena Iyengar, Professor of Business at Columbia University, conducted many studies on the effects of increasing the amount of choices available. She is considered an expert on this very subject.
Let’s see what she discovered.
In a well-known study conducted by Iyengar, a jam tasting booth was setup in a specialty grocery store known for its huge selection of packaged goods.
The researchers would change the booth periodically so that either 24 different varieties or 6 different varieties of jam would be offered as free samples.
The results indicate that more shoppers stop to sample jam when more variety is offered, with 60 percent of shoppers sampling jam when 24 varieties were available and 40 percent of shoppers sampling when 6 varieties are available.
Greater variety obviously has some appeal, but would it translate to higher sales of the jams offered as samples?
Absolutely not, as the results indicate that only 3 percent of those who sampled the large display wound up purchasing jam while 30 percent of those who sampled the small display made a purchase.
That is absolutely astounding.
Iyengar, has gone on to conduct many other types of similar experiments, and the results time and time again, have resulted in the same findings.
We have way too many choices, and simply don’t know what to do.
This is quite a lot of preamble, to the initial question of, Want to Lose Weight Without All the Drama?
Here is the simple and rather oversimplified weight loss program you have been waiting for, it consists of four steps:
1) Walking
Walk 3-5 times per week for at least 30-40 minutes. The distance is probably more important than the time.
When I was 10 years old, I remember a rather overweight lady, (in her Flash dance leg warmers, Richard Simmons short shorts, and teary cloth head band) and her husband (who was super thin in similar attire) walking, like clock-work, every morning, before I would go to school. They would pass by my street every day, at the same time.
For a year I would see this lady and her husband walk by my house. And with each passing day, and each passing week, I would see this lady shrink right before my eyes.
This had a profound effect on me. I saw first hand the power of consistency and will power to transform a person for the better.
Now granted, there could have been a host of other factors that contributed to her weight loss, but I do not, for an instance, doubt the power of simply walking and it’s impressive results on the human body.
And best of all, it’s FREE.
2) Food
What we put inside our body has an over-arching effect on what happens on the outside. Every religion and culture on the planet all, know this one, we are what we eat.
And yet, for some strange reason, some of us, think that we are suddenly immune to this.
We all know fruits and vegetables have a profound effect on the body, yet we do not do what we know.
Why?
I have no idea, Chalk that up, as the late Jim Rohn, would say, to, “One of the great mysteries of the world.”
According to Harvey & Marilyn Diamond, from their book, Fit for Life, our bodies go through, three cycles:
The 3 Cycles are:
1) Elimination (of body wastes and food debris) 4am-12pm
2) Appropriation (eating and digestion)12pm-8pm
3) Assimilation (absorption and use) 8pm-4am
We need to give our body the time to go through each of these cycles.
Many people are doing their bodies more harm than good, by over taxing their digestion system, and thus having blockages, and as a result, being overweight.
What to eat?
Whole base foods, that are in their most natural state. Preferably organic.
Garbage in, Garbage out.
Good stuff in, good stuff out.
3) Water
I can not speak to this one enough. I am constantly on my wife and son to drink enough water.
Our body is 70% or more water.
Our planet is 70% or more water.
Doesn’t it make sense to hydrate and re-energize your body with water?
Water helps to cleanse the body, nourishes the cells, and can boost your energy. You could go weeks without food, but without water for more than 3 days, you are toast.
One of the best things to do is to first calculate how much water you need normally with minimal activity. A good rule of thumb is take your bodyweight and divide it in half.
So if you weigh 150 pounds than you need 75 ounces of water a day based on if you live a sedentary lifestyle. For those reading this, you are unsure how much you need to replenish here is a great website: http://www.camelbak.com/hydrationcalculator
If you’re working out, hiking, running, etc you’re going to need to add to those 75 ounces.
4) Sleep
Believe it or not if you don’t sleep enough you may actually cause you to gain weigh because when you are sleep deprived, you may be tempted to drink coffee and something fast for a quick “pick me up”.
I know from personal experience that when I have not gotten my 8 hours of sleep I am less motivated to workout.
After skipping working out, you may be too tired to actually prepare and cook yourself something good to eat, and opt instead for fast food. Because you may be too wound up to sleep from all the fast food and take out you consumed, and the cycle repeats.
Here are just some of the benefits of a great night of sleep:
1) Improves memory
2) Live longer
3) Reduces inflammation
4) Increase creativity
5) Improved recovery time
6) Better attention/focus
7) Maintain healthy weight
8) Lower stress
So there, you have it, the four step Drama Free Weight Loss Program.
Think of it like a chair, with four legs, and each leg of the chair helps you get closer to your weight loss goal. By standing on the chair, you get a completely new perspective.
