No more bacon (guest post).

by

Master the Mind and the Body Will Follow

I’ve written and rewritten this post in my head about a bazillion times. I didn’t know whether I should play the humor card, go for total shock factor, or go all research and stats up in here. I have a little bit of all three in my blog (not too many stats). I mean it’s not every day someone gets the chance to write a post for a platform like MizFitOnline right?  (MizFit note: I beg to differ. In fact, I begged Ryan to come over here and yammer. Im the honored one). Basically I’ve got one shot to convince thousands of readers to follow my blog too.

Guest posting is all about trading traffic and giving the little guy a leg up in the blogging game right? WRONG!

This is an opportunity but it’s not an opportunity to gain followers. It’s an opportunity for me to help more people. I take that very seriously and I’m not about to waste an opportunity like this one.

Thanks to Miz for giving me the chance.

Last July I weighed 400 pounds. I stepped on the scale today weighing 270. I didn’t use the Atkins Diet or South Beach or even Weight Watchers. In fact, I didn’t use a diet at all. I obviously changed what I ate but that wasn’t my secret. I started exercising every day but that wasn’t my secret either. My secret is something that gets overlooked every single day in weight loss.

The Science

Weight loss is a science, kind of. Here are some things that we know for sure about weight loss:
•    Every time we create a 3500 calorie deficit we lose a pound.
•    Muscle burns fat and increases our metabolism.
•    It’s hard

Wait! Is that last one a scientific fact? Losing weight is extremely hard but according to the text books all we need to do is lower our caloric intake and increase our caloric burn. The problem is that there’s a human element. Our thoughts, feelings, and emotions can’t be measured by any tool. They are real and they are always changing.

The Questions

Why is it so difficult? Why do we have trouble committing to eating right and working out? We all know that healthy diet and exercise is the key, but we’re willing to subject ourselves to a myriad of different diets because “This one is going to be different”. We all own cupboards full of exercise DVDs and have all the latest workout contraptions. Was it a bad idea for me to do the Cookie Diet, The Taco Bell Drive-Thru Diet, and use the Shake Weight all at the same time? Perhaps, but really it doesn’t matter. There are literally more opinions on weight loss than there are on religion.

The Solution

Do you want to know my secret now? It’s not a pill, a surgery, or the latest doodad from Suzanne Somers. It’s my mindset. I believe that I will be successful. I believe I can change.

Last July when I started on this weight loss journey I was in desperation mode. Chastisement from a doctor, being tired all the time, and fearing that my boys would be left without a father and my wife without a husband were all motivating factors in my weight loss. I knew I wanted to lose weight but I didn’t want any fads. I had successfully lost some weight before doing other diets but I didn’t want a diet (sidenote: I always gained the weight back). The word diet is so finite. It implies that at some point I’ll return to old habits or stop eating right altogether. I wanted to change for good. I wanted a do-over in life.

As I started losing weight I began to gain confidence in myself and my abilities. “I can’t” became “I will” and places inside that had been empty for so long began to fill up. Over the last 8 months I’ve continually been training myself to get rid of negative thought. The good news is that it’s working. I’m constantly seeking solutions rather than focusing on problems. I have an optimistic outlook on life and would love to see that switch flip inside of other people who may be struggling with weight loss or any aspect of their lives really.

The key to removing negative thought is awareness.

We need to know the words and emotions that trigger negative thought. This is obviously easier said than done, but it is possible. You can do it. 8 months ago I was just about at rock bottom and I am rising up every day.

In order to help us eliminate negative thinking for good I started Spring Cleaning at No More Bacon.

Every day in the month of March I am going to post words that will impede our success and give suggestions for how to combat them. It’s going incredibly well so far and the feedback seems to be overwhelmingly positive.

Believe in yourself sounds so cliché but it is imperative. Master the mind and the body will follow.

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Comments

  1. Excellent post and I totally agree that weight loss actually starts in the brain, with the quest to change a lifestyle, not just a diet for a finite period of time.

  2. It’s so true. We use mental barriers everyday to keep yourselves ‘eating bacon’. It’s not easy, persay, because allowing ourselves to become something that we’ve wanted or can’t even imagine is hard.

    Ryan, you’re such an inspiration.

  4. No doubt it starts in the mind. SO happy to see you over here Ryan. Love the post, but you totally should have embedded the running man at the end. Just sayin.

  5. Great post! I am working on the mental piece more than anything else right now. Can’t wait to check out Ryan’s blog.

  9. Great post. I’ve been working on banishing negative self talk and have posted a few blog entries about that as well. One day at a time, we can do this! I’m currently down 76 pounds. I have more to go, but every day I’m learning attitude is everything. It’s so easy to slide back into negative behaviors. For me attitude takes constant monitoring.

  12. Yes, yes, YES! The biggest lesson I’m learning this year is that you have to train your mind-muscle! Once you shape it up, your body will transform before your eyes!

  14. What a great post! Weight loss and gain is so mental! Weight gain is often emotional eating & weight loss is about battling the mind. YES, it is hard! The concept is simple, the process isard! It is life long & you will have to change things along the way & with age.

    Thx for a great post & for MizFit for bringing you here.

  15. @Tracey It’s definitely not easy but I have found that it seems to get easier every day.

    Your mind will get stronger every day if you “work it” 🙂

  17. You are SO right. It’s ALL about the mindset. That’s the part I’m working on right now… I know that once I’ve got a really solid frame of mind, I’ll be able to lose those few extra pounds and have a much healthier relationship with food.

  19. Fantastic advice Ryan! Look at you over here at Miz Fit, wow! You so deserve the spotlight and your advice is perfect. You are doing awesome and I really hope someday soon one of us drive the 20 minutes to meet each other in person.
    🙂

  22. For how much I said I wanted to lose weight and get in shape in my college years it wasn’t till I determined my mind to do so that the weight actually started coming off and I enjoyed the work it took to do it. So true.

  23. Great post! If it were easy, then everyone would be smaller and healthier.
    I think you gained some followers along with helping 🙂

  24. You’re absolutely right, it’s all about your mindset. Losing weight and getting in shape is 99% mental. I too have dieted in the past, only to gain it right back as soon as I went off that diet. I’ve tried Atkins and South Beach, but those aren’t designed very well to be long-term sustainable. As soon as you go off their prescribed diet, the weight comes right back.

    Thanks for a great guest post Ryan!

  26. Kudos, and so true…I have a hard time remembering that key element in weight loss, and it’s time to buckle down and be a “do” not a “can’t” 🙂

  28. So true about the mindset – I swear, that has been the biggest difference in me “this time” – great guest post! I’ve never seen your blog, Ryan – off to go read it now!

  29. “The word diet is so finite. It implies that at some point I’ll return to old habits or stop eating right altogether. I wanted to change for good. I wanted a do-over in life.” YES, exactly. THIS, THIS is why I have been successful. Because I decided that I was not going to diet, I was going to change my definition of “normal”.

  30. I agree that the human element is the key here, just like in controlling your spending. It is more than just the math, or the science.

    You are doing a great job at controlling the person you shave with every morning. Get him into the right mindset, make the person in the mirror behave, and it will all work.

  31. Holy cow!!!!! I JUST posted about this yesterday! About getting un-stuck from the diet mindset, re-building my self-confidence, and realizing that I deserve health, happiness, and all of life’s blessings.
    Thank you, Ryan and Miz, for putting it so beautifully!!!!

  33. Great post. I totally agree. Hence why I love sparkpeople. I’ve learned a lot, and lost a lot and I’m constantly getting better with the inner-speak. 🙂

  41. Interesting post and of course, everyone who is successful at long-term weight-loss has an interesting and different approach.

    I would like to mention two things that are rarely mentioned as it relates to health, diet, and lifestyle change:

    1. A very simple word…Satiety: for long-term weight-loss, at each meal, you must have the feeling of being full and yes, satisfied. Otherwise, you will feel deprived.

    2. Many people who are overweight and not, indulge in drinking their calories (sugared soda and juice). This visual just might shock those folks into drinking water: http://bit.ly/awEpYV

    Ken Leebow
    Feed Your Head

  42. The mind is the key. I have worked with so many people over the years and the biggest roadblock is always their mind. Subconscious roadblocks put up by years of external or internal verbal abuse. Sometime you even need additional help to overcome this obstacle.

    Ryan’s mindset has definitely separated himself from the pack.

  43. This was great! Most people want to loose weight, but they don’t want to do what it takes to make it happen. Most people rather reach for a magic pill and hope for the best.

    Keep it up!

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