The ChillOut Log
- Thread starter Chillen
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He has been on a wholly terror lately, since he received new priviledges, lol.
Hand in the cookie jar syndrome...lol.
But its all good!
Steve, if you mind me asking how are you coming with your training? What goals have you set for yourself? How is "life" in general? Do you have a main "sqeeze" in your life?
Best Wishes,
Chillen
I'm currently in the middle of a cut, which is going well. I started with some pretty extreme measures with 2 weeks of a modified Protein Sparing Modified Fast. I lost about 7 lbs in 10 days there.
Now I'm using Lyle McDonald's Ultimate Diet 2.0 and loving it. It's a tough diet but it's working nicely.
By 'main squeeze' do you mean a significant other? If so, yea.... I'm married.
Now I'm using Lyle McDonald's Ultimate Diet 2.0 and loving it. It's a tough diet but it's working nicely.
By 'main squeeze' do you mean a significant other? If so, yea.... I'm married.
What is that? (what I have in bold). What did you specifically do?
Yea, I meant a girlfriend/wife. How long you been married?
For me its been 25 years (26 years on April 26th this year).
I have read some material on Lyle McDonald, and like his attitude and viewpoints on alot of different things.
For those that dont know what the Ultimate Diet 2.0 is here is an example in his own words from DaveDraper.com:
The Ultimate Diet 2.0
BOOK EXCERPT
By Lyle McDonald
Read this first if you are not knowledgeable in low-carb dieting
Chapter 1: What this book is and who it's for
So here we are again, another book, another chapter on defining the problems. If you read my last book, you already probably have some idea what I'm going to say. In short, dieting to low bodyfat levels sucks. Actually, dieting sucks across the board but the real problems start when you start to get far below normal. So what's normal?
In modern times, an average male may be carrying 18-25% bodyfat, an average female 21-28%. Many, many (too many) people are much fatter than that.
Healthy bodyfat levels are considered to be 11-18% for men and 18-25% for women. To the body-obsessed, except maybe at the lower levels, that's still fat. Male bodybuilders (and other athletes) think in terms of sub-10% bodyfat levels, females typically in the low to mid teens. Researchers would probably debate the validity of such beliefs but who cares; if you believe it, it's true to you. Perhaps more important is that it is your goal.
Most diets or diet books are aimed at the folks who are trying to get somewhere in the realm of average. There are tons to choose from out there. Any discovery or piece of research that might affect these folks can be turned into a quick fix diet book. One of these days, I'm going to write my own, make a zillion dollars and retire.
For obese folks just trying to lose weight, pretty much any non-retarded diet will work. The main issues to deal with there have more to do with anxiety and the issues involved in changing long-term eating and activity patterns. And even though some readers might disagree, getting a male to 12-15% bodyfat or a female into the 18-22% range usually isn't that difficult. Basic food control, adequate protein and exercise will usually get it done without too much trouble. This book isn't aimed at either group.
By the time folks get to the 12-15% (18-22% for women) range, anxiety, food control and changing habits usually aren't the problem. For bodybuilders and athletes meticulous food control and training is part of the lifestyle. It's when folks start trying to achieve the lower extremes of bodyfat percentage that other problems start to occur. Ravenous hunger, severe muscle loss, metabolic slowdown and screwed up hormones are a few of the usual problems. Women and some men have an additional problem mobilizing and getting rid of stubborn fat (hip/thigh area for women, ab/low-back fat for men).
In presenting the UD2, I'm going to assume that you already have the discipline and anxiety issues well under control. While they are less of a problem on this diet than on many others, it's the real physiological problems I'm setting out to address and fix.
Who am I?
I imagine most readers know me as the author of The Ketogenic Diet, which is more or less considered to be the be-all, end-all book on low-carbohydrate dieting. Fewer readers seem to be aware of my second book, which dealt with the drug Bromocriptine. If you've read either book, you'll have a better background to understand the information in this book. If not, don't worry, I'll try to give you enough background to understand the UD2. To be honest, to give the rationale for everything in detail would take more pages than I want to take. I'm going to cover the basics and you'll just have to take my word for the rest.
Who are you?
So who are you, the ideal UD2 candidate? Actually, let me backpedal a bit and talk about who this diet isn't for. It's not for rank beginners. The training and dietary recommendations simply aren't appropriate for someone just starting out. Get 3-6 months of basic training under your belt and get your basic diet dealt with first before even considering the system described in this book. As above, it's not for the general fat folks out there. In general, until males hit 12-15% bodyfat and females 20-22% bodyfat, a more standard approach is probably fine (and desirable). I recommend folks use the simplest approaches they can until those approaches stop working.
First and foremost, if you're a male, you should have no more than 15% bodyfat, female no more than 22% bodyfat. Most likely you want to get leaner while maintaining or even increasing muscle mass. This could be for a bodybuilding contest, for some special event, or simply because you want to see where the body has veins. Alternately, you may want to gain muscle without the accompanying fat gain (or even slight fat loss). Perhaps you're a performance athlete like a powerlifter or an endurance athlete who needs to lean out while maintaining performance. The UD2 can be used for all those goals.
It should go without saying that you have to be exercising for the diet to work. By exercise, that means weight training (I'll talk about endurance athletes separately). Again, if you're new to weight training, the UD2 isn't appropriate; get 3-6 months of training under your belt first. If you're not planning on exercising, this diet will not do you any good. In fact, it'll probably just make you fatter.
You'll need a reasonable (but not insane) amount of diet discipline and you should have a basic understanding of nutrition and diet setup. If you don't know what a protein or carbohydrate is, or how to set up a diet, you're going to be totally lost reading this. I've tried my best to provide all the information you need but I'm going to make some assumptions about basic knowledge. If you meet this rather narrow set of criteria, read on.
Why not just use standard dieting approaches?
You may be wondering why you shouldn't just use one of the myriad standard dieting programs out there. I mean, pick up any bodybuilding magazine, and there are tons of plans that claim to let you achieve everything the UD2 does without all of the hassle. Why is the UD2 superior?
The main problem I have with the standard advice is that it's just so standard. High protein, low to moderate fat, low to moderate carbohydrates, weight training and aerobics is the standard prescription for getting ripped up. If all of the magazines are writing it, it must work, right? Well, yes, up to a point.
Frankly, I have no problem with the standard advice as long as it's producing results. As I said above, I actually prefer simpler approaches as long as they work. In many people, who frequently have genetic advantages that they might not even be aware of, they work just fine. But based on observations at the gym and the feedback I get, not everybody is so lucky (I'll talk about some of the reasons the genetically lucky are lucky next chapter). The reality is, only a small portion of the people who try actually achieve their goals using the standard advice. That tells me that, standard or not, it's not effective.
And don't get me started on the advice given by pro bodybuilders. It shouldn't even be taken into consideration unless you've got the array of steroids, thyroid medications, thermogenics and appetite suppressants that they use to get ready for a contest. A current pro is reported to have said the following about contest dieting "There is no magic diet, buy as many drugs as you can afford and starve yourself for as long as you can stand it."
For the majority, the genetically average (or disadvantaged), any number of problems can stop the diet in its tracks. A metabolically average dieter may lose 1 lb of muscle for every 3 lbs of fat lost trying to get to single digit bodyfat levels. Women have even more problems with muscle loss, not to mention issues with lower bodyfat mobilization. For some, metabolic adaptation causes fat loss to slow or stop completely long before goals are reached. There are all kinds of reasons these problems occur, most of which can be traced to the body's many annoying ways of adapting to a diet. Those same individuals have an equally hard time adding muscle without gaining too much bodyfat at the same time. Fundamentally, this is an issue of partitioning, where the calories are going (or coming from) when you eat (or diet).
What you should expect during the diet
I'll say up front that the UD2 is not an easy diet. You'll have to count/decrease calories and carbohydrates 3-5 days out of every 7. While you don't get to eat everything in sight on the other days, it'll sure seem like it. On some days you can even eat some junk food.
If you use the fat loss variant, you should be losing a pound or more of fat per week, while gaining some muscle. At the very least you'll maintain muscle without loss which can be an improvement for most people. Performance athletes can lean out while maintaining or even increasing performance as well. For the muscle gain variant, it's a little harder to predict. Women, of course, will have slightly smaller changes overall for what should be obvious reasons.
Despite what you may be used to, you'll only be lifting 4 days per week. Each workout should take about an hour or so, with one running maybe an hour and a half. If you can't find 4 hours per week to train consistently, this diet won't do you much good. Cardio is optional for men, but generally necessary for women to lose their lower bodyfat at any decent rate. Still, you shouldn't need a ton of cardio with this diet, not nearly as much as you think anyhow.
There are only one or two required supplements, although there are some that can be genuinely helpful. Beyond that, the diet revolves around basic foods that you can get at any supermarket (I assume that bodybuilders and athletes have no problem with protein powder). While I'll mention drug options to further optimize the diet, they are by no means required.
(by LYLE MCDONALD)
Best regards,
Chillen
Last edited:
I've been married since last July, so coming up on a year.
Here's a pic:
PSMF is really a starvation diet first used by obesity docs to cut the max amount of weight in the fastest time possible for surgery. Lyle has modified it a bit but in essence, it's basically giving your body ONLY what it needs and nothing else.
We know what's essential; some of the amino acids and fatty acids. So basically, you eat a **** ton of protein (for muscle maintenance since you're in such a big deficit), a lot of fish oil pills (to get your EFAs in) and fibrous veggies.
Nothing else.
The science behind it isn't complicated... but it's a pretty grueling diet.
There's more to it than that... such as refeeds and whatnot but I'm sure you get the point.
Here's a pic:
PSMF is really a starvation diet first used by obesity docs to cut the max amount of weight in the fastest time possible for surgery. Lyle has modified it a bit but in essence, it's basically giving your body ONLY what it needs and nothing else.
We know what's essential; some of the amino acids and fatty acids. So basically, you eat a **** ton of protein (for muscle maintenance since you're in such a big deficit), a lot of fish oil pills (to get your EFAs in) and fibrous veggies.
Nothing else.
The science behind it isn't complicated... but it's a pretty grueling diet.
There's more to it than that... such as refeeds and whatnot but I'm sure you get the point.
Chillen, I dug this post up I made in my journal over on WLF when I was explaining it to someone over there:
April 21, 2008: Thoughts for day (1)
I saw this post at the JP Fitness Forum, and thought it could be of benefit to some on this forum.
(This was posted by: MaryKaa at JP fitness Forum )
Excerpt from the book, Your Performing Edge
JoAnn Dahlkoetter, Ph.D
Look around you, find your passion, see what makes you whole
To excel as an athlete you must be hungry - hungry for success, for results - hungry simply to become the best athlete you can be. It starts with a dream, but somehow you must be inspired, or you will never be able to reach your goal. We often read about athletes overcoming physical disabilities. Lance Armstrong survived testicular cancer and won the Tour de France two times. Marla Runyan ran in the 1500 meters of the 2000 Olympics while being legally blind. It is out of these challenges that athletes develop a fierce, burning desire to succeed. They need to prove to themselves that they can achieve their goals. Through these kinds of examples we can begin to understand that desire is sometimes more important than even talent or a healthy body.
The movie “Prefontaine” depicts the life of a running legend who had one leg shorter than the other, and did not necessarily have “the perfect runner’s body”. Yet from a very early age he developed an insatiable love for running. Through his drive and determination Steve Prefontaine went on to break the American record in every distance from 2,000 - 10,000 meters, a feat never attained by any other American man.
Without a true love for your sport and a burning desire to be the best you can be, you will never be able to push yourself to do what has to be done. It will be too easy to skip a workout now and then. A coach or parent can give you support and guidance, but you have to supply the rest. Only you can push yourself when you’re tired, or make yourself work out when distractions get in the way. After Steve Prefontaine had reached the height of his running career, he lost to Lasse Viren in the Olympic 5,000 meters in Munich. The loss led him to consider quitting the sport. His coach Bill Bowerman told him: “If you’re gonna run, be at the track and I’ll give you the workouts; or if your gonna stop running, then do that. You decide. I can’t coach desire.”
So the drive must come from within, regardless of whether you’re a novice, a serious athlete, or competing at the elite level. The good news is that building and maintaining a high level of self-motivation is a learned skill that anyone can acquire. Motivation is energy, and that sense of self-directedness is one of the most powerful sources of energy available to an athlete. From internal motivation you gain the willingness to persevere with your training, to endure discomfort and stress, and to make sacrifices with your time and energy as you move closer toward realizing your goal.
Profile of the Highly Motivated Athlete
What are the key characteristics of well-motivated athletes?
Through my extensive work with numerous athletes over several years, I have developed a constellation of traits that defines the champion’s mentality. Elite athletes do not possess superhuman powers or extraordinary qualifications limited to a selected few. The characteristics that make a champion can be attained and developed by anyone who wants to excel in a sport.
• Enthusiasm and Desire - Love for Your Sport: Top athletes have a hunger, a fire inside which fuels their passion to achieve an important goal, regardless of their level of talent or ability. To accomplish anything of value in life you need to begin with some kind of vision or dream. The more clearly you can see that picture in your mind, the more likely it is to become reality. Wherever you place your attention, your energy will follow.
• Courage to Succeed: Once an athlete has the desire, he or she needs to back it up with courage - the incentive to make any dream you dare to dream become reality. It takes courage to sacrifice, to work out when you’re tired, to seek out tough competition when you know you’ll probably lose. It takes courage to stick to your game plan and the relentless pursuit of your goal when you encounter obstacles. It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before – physically or mentally. It takes courage to test your limits, and to break through barriers.
• Internal motivation and self-direction: Champion athletes decide early on that they are training and competing for themselves, not for their parents, their coaches, or for the medals. Direction and drive need to come from within. The goals must be ones that you have chosen because that’s exactly what you want to be doing. Ask yourself, what keeps you running? Who are you doing it for?
• Commitment to Excellence: How good do you want to be? Elite athletes know that to excel at their sport, they must decide to make it a priority in their life. They make an honest effort each day to be the best at what they do. At some point you must say, I want to be really good at this; I want this to work. To notice significant growth you must live this commitment and regularly stretch what you perceive to be your current limits.
• Discipline, Consistency, Organization: Winning athletes know how to self-energize and work hard on a daily basis. Because they love what they do it is easier for them to maintain consistency in training and in competing. Regardless of personal problems, fatigue, or difficult circumstances, they can generate the optimal amount of excitement and energy to do their best.
• Being focused and yet relaxed: Champions have the ability to maintain concentration for long periods of time. They can tune in what’s critical to their performance and tune out what’s not. They can easily let go of distractions and take control of their attention.
• Ability to handle adversity: Top athletes know how to deal with difficult situations. Adversity builds character. When elite athletes know the odds are against them they embrace the chance to explore the outer limits of their potential. Rather than avoiding pressure they feel challenged by it. They are calm and relaxed under fire. Setbacks become an opportunity for learning; they open the way for deep personal growth.
Dan O’Brien, Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, knows about handling adversity. During my interview with him he recalls: “When I didn’t make the opening height for the pole vault in the 1992 Olympic Trials, there was no doubt in my mind where I was going. Sure I was upset, but I dealt with it and quickly moved on. That event set the pace for the next four years of my training. I was driven. I knew I could be the best. I surrounded myself with people who shared that same vision. I wrote my goals down on paper so I could see them every day.”
Only six weeks after the Olympic Trials Dan shattered the world record in the decathlon at the Deca Star Meet in Tolance, France. He went on to become the 1996 Olympic Decathlon Champion in Atlanta. Adversity fueled his vision. Dan says: “If you can see it you can achieve it.”
Guidelines for Building Motivation and Maximizing Your Potential
The people who develop these qualities and practice these skills regularly have the best chance of excelling in athletics as well as personally and professionally. Each of us begins at a different starting point physically and mentally. We all have strengths that we can build upon. Now that you have an idea of the constellation of traits that successful athletes possess, how do you begin to build them into your life? How do you turn these qualities into useful behaviors that will make a difference in the way you train and race? Numerous researchers in the sports psychology field have reported on the critical skills and behaviors of successful athletes. Below I have offered suggestions that have helped many of my own clients tremendously toward excelling in their sport.
• Generate a positive outlook: Direct your focus to what is possible, to what can happen, toward success. Rather than complaining about the weather or criticizing the competition, the mentally trained athlete attends to only those things that he or she can control. You have control over your thoughts, your emotions, your training form, and how you perceive each situation. You have a choice in what you believe about yourself. Positive energy makes peak performances possible.
• Visualize your goals daily: Put yourself in a relaxed state through deep abdominal breathing. Then, as vividly as possible, create an image in your mind, of what you want to achieve in your sport. You can produce a replay of one of your best performances in the past. Then use all those positive feelings of self-confidence, energy, and strength in your mental rehearsal of an upcoming event. See yourself doing it right. Then use your imagery during the event itself.
Practice being focused and yet relaxed: Develop the ability to maintain concentration for longer periods of time. You can tune in what’s critical to your performance and tune out what’s not. You can easily let go of distractions and take control of your attention. As you focus more on the task at hand (e.g. your training form, how you’re feeling) there will be less room for the negative thoughts to enter your mind.
• Build a balanced lifestyle: Create a broad-based lifestyle with a variety of interests; strive for a balance between work and fun, social time, personal quiet time, and time to be creative. Develop patterns of healthy behavior. Eat regularly, get a consistent amount of sleep each night, reduce your work load at times if possible, and allow time to relax and reflect between activities. Develop a social support network of close friends and family, some who are sports oriented, and some with other interests. Learn to communicate openly; resolve personal conflicts as they occur, so they don’t build to a crisis on the night before an important race.
• Vary your workouts: Train at a new, scenic place at least once a week. Change your normal training schedule, even if only for two days. Try “active rest” by doing a different sport for a few days (e.g. hiking, swimming, inline skating, cycling, or cross-country skiing). You’ll get a tremendous psychological boost and probably not lose any of your fitness level. Put new spark in your training schedule by doing interval work, tempo work (fast 20-30 minute training), varying your speed and doing endurance work, rather than slogging along at the same old pace.
• Enjoy and take the pressure off: Make a deliberate effort each day to create enjoyment in your sport, renewing your enthusiasm and excitement for training. Don’t try to force your physical improvement. Lighten up on your rigid training schedule and exercise according to your feelings each day. Remove the strict deadlines and race dates which have been cast in stone. Let your next breakthrough occur naturally, at its own pace, when the internal conditions are right. Use setbacks as learning opportunities. Do the best that you can do, draw out the constructive lessons from every workout and race, and then move on. Look for advantages in every situation, even if the conditions are less than ideal.
Sport offers a wonderful chance to free ourselves for short periods and experience intensity and excitement not readily available elsewhere in our lives. In endurance sports we can live out our quest for personal control by seeking out and continuously meeting challenges that are within our capability. To develop an inner desire and maximize your true potential, make the most of the talents you have, and stretch the limits of your abilities, both physically and psychologically. Athletics can become a means to personal growth and enjoyment of the pursuit of your goals. Try incorporating the profile above into your mental preparation, and you can learn to live more fully, train more healthfully, and feel exactly the way you want to feel.
=========================================================
I hope you enjoyed it!
I hope that all of you had an enjoyable day. I hope that you got yourself to train even when you didnt feel like it, AND you kept your diet framework within your goal guidelines.
Wish you much happiness and joy!
PEACE brotha and sista's!
Best regards,
Chillen
I saw this post at the JP Fitness Forum, and thought it could be of benefit to some on this forum.
(This was posted by: MaryKaa at JP fitness Forum )
Creating an Inner Desire
Excerpt from the book, Your Performing Edge
JoAnn Dahlkoetter, Ph.D
Look around you, find your passion, see what makes you whole
To excel as an athlete you must be hungry - hungry for success, for results - hungry simply to become the best athlete you can be. It starts with a dream, but somehow you must be inspired, or you will never be able to reach your goal. We often read about athletes overcoming physical disabilities. Lance Armstrong survived testicular cancer and won the Tour de France two times. Marla Runyan ran in the 1500 meters of the 2000 Olympics while being legally blind. It is out of these challenges that athletes develop a fierce, burning desire to succeed. They need to prove to themselves that they can achieve their goals. Through these kinds of examples we can begin to understand that desire is sometimes more important than even talent or a healthy body.
The movie “Prefontaine” depicts the life of a running legend who had one leg shorter than the other, and did not necessarily have “the perfect runner’s body”. Yet from a very early age he developed an insatiable love for running. Through his drive and determination Steve Prefontaine went on to break the American record in every distance from 2,000 - 10,000 meters, a feat never attained by any other American man.
Without a true love for your sport and a burning desire to be the best you can be, you will never be able to push yourself to do what has to be done. It will be too easy to skip a workout now and then. A coach or parent can give you support and guidance, but you have to supply the rest. Only you can push yourself when you’re tired, or make yourself work out when distractions get in the way. After Steve Prefontaine had reached the height of his running career, he lost to Lasse Viren in the Olympic 5,000 meters in Munich. The loss led him to consider quitting the sport. His coach Bill Bowerman told him: “If you’re gonna run, be at the track and I’ll give you the workouts; or if your gonna stop running, then do that. You decide. I can’t coach desire.”
So the drive must come from within, regardless of whether you’re a novice, a serious athlete, or competing at the elite level. The good news is that building and maintaining a high level of self-motivation is a learned skill that anyone can acquire. Motivation is energy, and that sense of self-directedness is one of the most powerful sources of energy available to an athlete. From internal motivation you gain the willingness to persevere with your training, to endure discomfort and stress, and to make sacrifices with your time and energy as you move closer toward realizing your goal.
Profile of the Highly Motivated Athlete
What are the key characteristics of well-motivated athletes?
Through my extensive work with numerous athletes over several years, I have developed a constellation of traits that defines the champion’s mentality. Elite athletes do not possess superhuman powers or extraordinary qualifications limited to a selected few. The characteristics that make a champion can be attained and developed by anyone who wants to excel in a sport.
• Enthusiasm and Desire - Love for Your Sport: Top athletes have a hunger, a fire inside which fuels their passion to achieve an important goal, regardless of their level of talent or ability. To accomplish anything of value in life you need to begin with some kind of vision or dream. The more clearly you can see that picture in your mind, the more likely it is to become reality. Wherever you place your attention, your energy will follow.
• Courage to Succeed: Once an athlete has the desire, he or she needs to back it up with courage - the incentive to make any dream you dare to dream become reality. It takes courage to sacrifice, to work out when you’re tired, to seek out tough competition when you know you’ll probably lose. It takes courage to stick to your game plan and the relentless pursuit of your goal when you encounter obstacles. It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before – physically or mentally. It takes courage to test your limits, and to break through barriers.
• Internal motivation and self-direction: Champion athletes decide early on that they are training and competing for themselves, not for their parents, their coaches, or for the medals. Direction and drive need to come from within. The goals must be ones that you have chosen because that’s exactly what you want to be doing. Ask yourself, what keeps you running? Who are you doing it for?
• Commitment to Excellence: How good do you want to be? Elite athletes know that to excel at their sport, they must decide to make it a priority in their life. They make an honest effort each day to be the best at what they do. At some point you must say, I want to be really good at this; I want this to work. To notice significant growth you must live this commitment and regularly stretch what you perceive to be your current limits.
• Discipline, Consistency, Organization: Winning athletes know how to self-energize and work hard on a daily basis. Because they love what they do it is easier for them to maintain consistency in training and in competing. Regardless of personal problems, fatigue, or difficult circumstances, they can generate the optimal amount of excitement and energy to do their best.
• Being focused and yet relaxed: Champions have the ability to maintain concentration for long periods of time. They can tune in what’s critical to their performance and tune out what’s not. They can easily let go of distractions and take control of their attention.
• Ability to handle adversity: Top athletes know how to deal with difficult situations. Adversity builds character. When elite athletes know the odds are against them they embrace the chance to explore the outer limits of their potential. Rather than avoiding pressure they feel challenged by it. They are calm and relaxed under fire. Setbacks become an opportunity for learning; they open the way for deep personal growth.
Dan O’Brien, Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, knows about handling adversity. During my interview with him he recalls: “When I didn’t make the opening height for the pole vault in the 1992 Olympic Trials, there was no doubt in my mind where I was going. Sure I was upset, but I dealt with it and quickly moved on. That event set the pace for the next four years of my training. I was driven. I knew I could be the best. I surrounded myself with people who shared that same vision. I wrote my goals down on paper so I could see them every day.”
Only six weeks after the Olympic Trials Dan shattered the world record in the decathlon at the Deca Star Meet in Tolance, France. He went on to become the 1996 Olympic Decathlon Champion in Atlanta. Adversity fueled his vision. Dan says: “If you can see it you can achieve it.”
Guidelines for Building Motivation and Maximizing Your Potential
The people who develop these qualities and practice these skills regularly have the best chance of excelling in athletics as well as personally and professionally. Each of us begins at a different starting point physically and mentally. We all have strengths that we can build upon. Now that you have an idea of the constellation of traits that successful athletes possess, how do you begin to build them into your life? How do you turn these qualities into useful behaviors that will make a difference in the way you train and race? Numerous researchers in the sports psychology field have reported on the critical skills and behaviors of successful athletes. Below I have offered suggestions that have helped many of my own clients tremendously toward excelling in their sport.
• Generate a positive outlook: Direct your focus to what is possible, to what can happen, toward success. Rather than complaining about the weather or criticizing the competition, the mentally trained athlete attends to only those things that he or she can control. You have control over your thoughts, your emotions, your training form, and how you perceive each situation. You have a choice in what you believe about yourself. Positive energy makes peak performances possible.
• Visualize your goals daily: Put yourself in a relaxed state through deep abdominal breathing. Then, as vividly as possible, create an image in your mind, of what you want to achieve in your sport. You can produce a replay of one of your best performances in the past. Then use all those positive feelings of self-confidence, energy, and strength in your mental rehearsal of an upcoming event. See yourself doing it right. Then use your imagery during the event itself.
Practice being focused and yet relaxed: Develop the ability to maintain concentration for longer periods of time. You can tune in what’s critical to your performance and tune out what’s not. You can easily let go of distractions and take control of your attention. As you focus more on the task at hand (e.g. your training form, how you’re feeling) there will be less room for the negative thoughts to enter your mind.
• Build a balanced lifestyle: Create a broad-based lifestyle with a variety of interests; strive for a balance between work and fun, social time, personal quiet time, and time to be creative. Develop patterns of healthy behavior. Eat regularly, get a consistent amount of sleep each night, reduce your work load at times if possible, and allow time to relax and reflect between activities. Develop a social support network of close friends and family, some who are sports oriented, and some with other interests. Learn to communicate openly; resolve personal conflicts as they occur, so they don’t build to a crisis on the night before an important race.
• Vary your workouts: Train at a new, scenic place at least once a week. Change your normal training schedule, even if only for two days. Try “active rest” by doing a different sport for a few days (e.g. hiking, swimming, inline skating, cycling, or cross-country skiing). You’ll get a tremendous psychological boost and probably not lose any of your fitness level. Put new spark in your training schedule by doing interval work, tempo work (fast 20-30 minute training), varying your speed and doing endurance work, rather than slogging along at the same old pace.
• Enjoy and take the pressure off: Make a deliberate effort each day to create enjoyment in your sport, renewing your enthusiasm and excitement for training. Don’t try to force your physical improvement. Lighten up on your rigid training schedule and exercise according to your feelings each day. Remove the strict deadlines and race dates which have been cast in stone. Let your next breakthrough occur naturally, at its own pace, when the internal conditions are right. Use setbacks as learning opportunities. Do the best that you can do, draw out the constructive lessons from every workout and race, and then move on. Look for advantages in every situation, even if the conditions are less than ideal.
Sport offers a wonderful chance to free ourselves for short periods and experience intensity and excitement not readily available elsewhere in our lives. In endurance sports we can live out our quest for personal control by seeking out and continuously meeting challenges that are within our capability. To develop an inner desire and maximize your true potential, make the most of the talents you have, and stretch the limits of your abilities, both physically and psychologically. Athletics can become a means to personal growth and enjoyment of the pursuit of your goals. Try incorporating the profile above into your mental preparation, and you can learn to live more fully, train more healthfully, and feel exactly the way you want to feel.
=========================================================
I hope you enjoyed it!
I hope that all of you had an enjoyable day. I hope that you got yourself to train even when you didnt feel like it, AND you kept your diet framework within your goal guidelines.
Wish you much happiness and joy!
PEACE brotha and sista's!
Best regards,
Chillen
You WILL be pleasantly surprised what the body can do, even with us middle aged men.
Open up your heart! Let our goal dreams enter! ROCK YOURSELF!
Chillen
Even with the short time that I have committed myself to my own well being, I have been very pleasantly surprised. The hardest thing to describe to people is how much more "substantial" or "solid" I feel.
Mornings are the only time of day where I have control, so morning it is for working out. I'm up each work day before 5:00 and work out for 1 hour each day...30 minutes straight cardio, and 30 minutes of resistance...keeping my heart rate up. I'm also much more conscientious with my diet and hydration.
HBP runs rampant throughout my family, and I was diagnosed 3 years ago. I've had it under control since then with medication, but eating whatever I want and sitting on my a$$...counting on the medication to "fix" me...is not the path I want to walk. Too often in my family, I've seen where that path leads.
I'm learning that it's not just enough to remove negativity from my life, but to also insert positivism wherever and whenever possible. Your "voice" is one of a few that I hear over my shoulder on those days when I might be lagging...encouraging me to get up, move, and to stay FOCUSED! Thanks again.
Glad you enjoyed them, Drex!
We can still have some things we enjoy....just changing some of the ingredients with more healthy alternatives!
Keep on ROCKEN!
Best wishes,
Chillen
Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.
“There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.”
(Henry David Thoreau)
(My Favorite Philosopher)
I dont have the words to utter to example all the feelings I have for the way diet and fitness has changed my well-being and "overall" physical health.
My aging body has responded wonderfully well, but this has come through "multiple self-learning processes" while trying to intelligently and efficiently manipulate the almighty calorie (macronutrients) and exercise, and adapting it to my "personal" bodily feedback.
From the very beginning it was a lifestyle change--with no execuses, it was going to be implemented, knowing I was going to meet some challenges in order to break some previous habits.
From the beginning I had this (breif synopsis) mindset:
I am an extreme "hard ass" and give myself no "unnecessary" pity; with "nearly" every decision there is a consequence, and if one makes a choice they "know" isnt exactly what they should do, then one wallows in the consequence of the choice made.
I learned a long time ago, that the body can "reasonably absorb" alot of stress and still function properly and adapt and overcome.
The "only" time I do not train when scheduled is when it is "just not possible" with the circumstances and responsibilities of life for this to happen.
I have trained in the gym after working 12 hours, and knowing I was going to have only 4 hours of sleep after I was done. I have gotten up 2 1/2 hours before work to train, knowing I had 10 to 12 hours of work ahead of me.
When my shift hours changed, I just manipulated my fitness schedule around it.
I flat do not make execuse.
In my opinion, there is an important disctinction between an "execuse" and a "reason".
Fitness is "a part" of my life and I give it priority importance as I would any other elements of life.
I dont have time for the friggen "petty choices" in life that would belittle and/or interfere with my fitness activities.
However, I do have time for working with legitimate "reasons" that fall in within the responsibilities of life.
There is a huge difference between the two.
If I can give you any advice, it is to stay "faithful and true" and be completely honest with yourself in what you do, and be very consistent in the application of knowledge within diet and fitness. I promise if you build a "history trend" of fighting and dont give up, your goal will be achieved.
This is the bottom line, really, IMO. And, is the very reason I have been personally successful. I just flat wanted it, and "nothing" was off limits of getting "the boot" if it hindered my goal in some fashion.
You appropriately handle "choice" within your life (when concerning diet and fitness), and you will become nearly unstoppable as you work down your goal path.
It does feel good, doesnt it? Be proud of yourself in all that you have accomplished.
What do you do for your weight training? What type of cardio?
What are your overall personal goals?
You are on the correct path now, and personally taking "the walk"
)) to improve your overall well being.Thank you for your kind words! Its for people like you and others is the reason I created this log! Just to spark something inside to at least one, that could "spin off" something inside to make them feel good and BELIEVE they can accomplish what they desire to achieve.
You are just hearing your own voice of power inside you. It has always been there.......
When you arm yourself in the circumference of knowledge applicable to your goal, and partake in goal driven "perception of this knowledge" by applying the "super glue" of power (the basic fundelmentals) and then go beyond just the basics, one can implement and apply this different perception to resolve problems that develop and create some freedom of the self at the same time.
You have all the power.
Best wishes,
Chillen
Last edited:
Yes...yes it does!
I'm using a Bowflex Extreme 2 for resistance training. For cardio I'm using a combination of treadmill, recumbent bike and heavy bag.
I couldn't get to the gym in the morning and still make it to work on time, and my job has no set quit time. Rather than use that as an excuse for not working out we diverted money from a planned kitchen remodel and turned our basement into a home gym.
We modified our dietary lifestyle about a year ago, and my wife and I each lost 25 pounds of excess weight. My initial goal beyond this was to get moving on a cardio regimen, to strengthen my core, and to continue to make the right dietary choices...and to make this all part of my routine and lifestyle. So far, so good on all fronts. My next step is to further educate myself so that I can get the most out of the work that I put in. Right now I'm not looking too far beyond these goals...baby steps.
Patience hasn't always been a strong suit of mine, and that's another area where I'm trying to improve. It's only been 2 months since acquiring the equipment and starting to work out in earnest...so it's too soon to call my initial goals "achieved", and too soon to move on to new goals.
Agreed! The difference is that now I'm choosing to listen!
April 23, 2008: Thoughts for the day(1)
I want all of your hopes and dreams fulfilled......
It takes only you.
Todays topic: Self-Discipline
(Critias of Athens)
=========================================================
Self-respect is the root of discipline;the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself
(Abraham J. Heschel)
=========================================================
Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward.
(Napoleon Hill)
=========================================================
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.
(Jesse Owens)
=========================================================
Self-discipline, although difficult, and not always easy while combating negative emotions, should be a defensive measure.
At least we will be able to prevent the advent of negative conduct dominated by negative emotion.
That is 'shila', or moral ethics. Once we develop this by familiarizing ourselves with it, along with mindfulness and conscientiousness, eventually that pattern and way of life will become a part of our own life.
(gotaro Dalai Lama)
=========================================================
Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment.
As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment.
(Ross Perot)
=========================================================
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me.
(Michel de Montaigne, Essays, 1588)
=========================================================
The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame.
The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.
(Bob Moawad)
=========================================================
You must admit you have self-control before you can use it.
(Carrie Latet)
=========================================================
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.
(Thomas Jefferson)
=========================================================
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you.
(Buddha)
=========================================================
You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension ard discipline are taken out of your life.
(Dr. James G. Bilkey)
=========================================================
If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.
(Napoleon Hill)
=========================================================
Discipline is remembering what you want.
(David Campbell)
=========================================================
Develop the winning edge; small differences in your performance can lead to large differences in your results.
(Brian Tracy)
=========================================================
The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either necessarily.
But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.
(E.M. Gray)
=========================================================
Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you.
Never excuse yourself.
Never pity yourself.
Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else
(Henry Ward Beecher)
=========================================================
First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer you.
(Dr. Rob Gilbert)
=========================================================
Best wishes to all of you each and every day.
I wish you all much peace, happiness, and joy.
I hope you reach of your dreams.
Have a great day!
Best regards,
Chillen
I want all of your hopes and dreams fulfilled......
It takes only you.
Todays topic: Self-Discipline
"Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day."
With Self-discipline Most Anything is Possible
If I want to be great I have to win the victory over myself... self-discipline
.If you will discipline yourself to make your mind self-sufficient
you will thereby be least vulnerable to injury from the outside.
you will thereby be least vulnerable to injury from the outside.
(Critias of Athens)
=========================================================
Self-respect is the root of discipline;the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself
(Abraham J. Heschel)
=========================================================
Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward.
(Napoleon Hill)
=========================================================
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.
(Jesse Owens)
=========================================================
Self-discipline, although difficult, and not always easy while combating negative emotions, should be a defensive measure.
At least we will be able to prevent the advent of negative conduct dominated by negative emotion.
That is 'shila', or moral ethics. Once we develop this by familiarizing ourselves with it, along with mindfulness and conscientiousness, eventually that pattern and way of life will become a part of our own life.
(gotaro Dalai Lama)
=========================================================
Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment.
As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment.
(Ross Perot)
=========================================================
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me.
(Michel de Montaigne, Essays, 1588)
=========================================================
The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame.
The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.
(Bob Moawad)
=========================================================
You must admit you have self-control before you can use it.
(Carrie Latet)
=========================================================
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.
(Thomas Jefferson)
=========================================================
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you.
(Buddha)
=========================================================
You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension ard discipline are taken out of your life.
(Dr. James G. Bilkey)
=========================================================
If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.
(Napoleon Hill)
=========================================================
Discipline is remembering what you want.
(David Campbell)
=========================================================
Develop the winning edge; small differences in your performance can lead to large differences in your results.
(Brian Tracy)
=========================================================
The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either necessarily.
But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.
(E.M. Gray)
=========================================================
Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you.
Never excuse yourself.
Never pity yourself.
Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else
(Henry Ward Beecher)
=========================================================
First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits, or they'll eventually conquer you.
(Dr. Rob Gilbert)
=========================================================
Best wishes to all of you each and every day.
I wish you all much peace, happiness, and joy.
I hope you reach of your dreams.
Have a great day!
Best regards,
Chillen
Last edited:
April 24th, 2008: Thoughts for the day(1)
Two days until my 26th, wedding anniversary!
Yep 26 years married.......Geesh times flies....
I have been married longer than most of you have been breathing.....
Geesh......that makes me feel old, he, he.....
Okay, OKay.........on with todays, thoughts for the day:
Can I learn from being hungry?
Do you want to eat, or to stop the hunger? There is an important distinction between these desires. Most of the times we eat, we're not actually hungry. We eat because it's our regular meal time or because we associate eating with a given activity (``It just isn't a movie without the popcorn''). We eat because it's part of social ritual, or a respite from the press of events. Any why not? Eating is one of the most physically enjoyable things you can do in public.
Hunger is something very different. Hunger is a command, not a request. Hunger is looking at your dog curled up sleeping on the rug and thinking, ``I wonder how much meat there is beneath all that fur?'' True hunger, although part of the daily life of billions of people on this planet, is rare in Western industrialised countries except among the very poor and those engaged in dieting. One thing you learn from the worst moments in a diet is what hunger really is. Not only does it help one appreciate the suffering of those deprived of food by circumstances rather than choice, it also teaches an important lesson about why we eat.
After you've truly experienced hunger once or twice in the course of a diet, you realise that most of the times people say, ``I'm really hungry'' they're nothing of the sort. In all likelihood they're motivated to eat by something entirely distinct from hunger. Getting to know hunger first hand teaches you how unrelated the motivation to eat is from your need for calories and how important it is, therefore, to control what you eat by some means other than instinct.
By John Walker
=========================================================
Only you know precisely why you decided to lose weight, but let's tick off some of the likely reasons.
Live longer
Fat men are more likely to die suddenly than the slender.
--Hippocrates, Aphorisms, c. 400 B.C.
Every day you see plenty of fat people and lots of old people, but have you noticed how few old, fat people you see? All those geezers who make it into their eighties and nineties and call it the ``prime of life'' seem to be the lean, wiry type, don't they? This isn't because people suddenly feel compelled to lose weight sometime in their fifth or sixth decades. As the original hipster pointed out 2400 years ago, it's because the fat ones are dying off early.
This is the most fundamental reason to lose weight: to live longer. Whatever you value in life, you can't enjoy it if you're dead! What's the trade-off between a few bad days in the course of a diet, or even low-level irritation for several months, against living for five or ten more years? Of seeing your grandchildren grow up? Of seeing your life's work serve as the foundation for the next generation? Of finally getting the money out of your IRA? Of a happy retirement on the Moon? Whatever...death disqualifies you from every activity.
Dieting is unpleasant and bad days are wretched, but dropping dead is worse. Tomorrow will be better.
Better health
Feed by measure and defy the physician.
--John Heywood, Proverbs, 1546
Even if excess weight doesn't shorten your life, you're far more likely to suffer a variety of medical problems that will make the years you live less enjoyable. These range from really big annoyances like heart attacks to lesser maladies such as habitual shortness of breath and muscle aches and pains.
A few years ago I went through a couple of weeks where I'd haul a 75 pound computer printer home, use it for a day or so, have it break, haul it to the shop, pick it up, and so on. As I recall, I ended up hauling the sucker back and forth about six times before I finally junked it. Every time I wrestled that beast into the car and out again, I woke up the next day with my muscles screaming for mercy. And yet for years, I walked around with the equivalent of that printer strapped around my middle, day in and day out. No wonder I felt awful! You can get accustomed to almost anything. If you've been overweight for a long time, it's hard to know what it's costing you not just in terms of potential health problems down the road, but in how you feel every day. The only way to find out how great you'll feel without the excess ballast is to see the diet through and experience its happy conclusion for yourself.
If a bad day comes a month or two into the diet, think back to the beginning. Think beyond the hunger to how you feel physically and what you've accomplished so far. And remember that your present situation pales before how much you'll enjoy finally achieving the goal.
Accomplish more
Great eaters and great sleepers are incapable of anything else that is great.
--Henry IV of France (1553-1610)
There's a not-so-subtle discrimination against overweight people in most organisations, and it's based on the flip side of the argument that finally convinced me to lose weight. It's easy to imagine the following thoughts passing through the mind of a person considering promoting an overweight employee to a position of greater responsibility.
Andy's bright, trustworthy, loyal, and one of the hardest-working people I've ever met--in short in matters intellectual, social, and professional he is the very model of a modern middle manager. But I have to consider the whole picture.
This is a management job, not a technical position. I'm betting a large budget, an important project, and more than a little of my own reputation on whoever I pick. Do I really want to bet all that on somebody who can't even manage his weight...?'' The prejudice is normally far more subtle than this line of reasoning, but don't doubt for a minute it's there.
Another barrier blocking the advancement of overweight people is the perception they aren't "dynamic'' and don't have the energy and stamina to see through difficult tasks.
In my experience this discrimination against the overweight is totally unjustified, but that doesn't keep it from happening every day. As we've seen, most overweight people don't suffer from flaws in character or weakness of will; they just have a broken feedback system. But if others assume there's something wrong with them, the consequences will be no less severe for being unjustified and unfair.
By John Walker
=========================================================
How will I feel right after I eat?
Think about how you'll feel if you do go and wolf down something to slake your hunger. Yes, the hunger will be gone, but will what replaces it be an improvement?
You've invested a great deal of effort in getting to this point of your diet, and at this very moment it's all on the line.
All the monitoring, all the calculation, all the analysis of the trend and the carefully crafted feedback systems are for nought if you ignore the meal plan whenever it proves uncomfortable. Weigh the immediate surcease of hunger with the feeling of accomplishment you'll have after the next regular meal in knowing you weathered a difficult time and emerged still on course.
By John Walker
=========================================================
Best regards,
Chillen
Two days until my 26th, wedding anniversary!
Yep 26 years married.......Geesh times flies....
I have been married longer than most of you have been breathing.....
Geesh......that makes me feel old, he, he.....
Okay, OKay.........on with todays, thoughts for the day:
Can I learn from being hungry?
Do you want to eat, or to stop the hunger? There is an important distinction between these desires. Most of the times we eat, we're not actually hungry. We eat because it's our regular meal time or because we associate eating with a given activity (``It just isn't a movie without the popcorn''). We eat because it's part of social ritual, or a respite from the press of events. Any why not? Eating is one of the most physically enjoyable things you can do in public.
Hunger is something very different. Hunger is a command, not a request. Hunger is looking at your dog curled up sleeping on the rug and thinking, ``I wonder how much meat there is beneath all that fur?'' True hunger, although part of the daily life of billions of people on this planet, is rare in Western industrialised countries except among the very poor and those engaged in dieting. One thing you learn from the worst moments in a diet is what hunger really is. Not only does it help one appreciate the suffering of those deprived of food by circumstances rather than choice, it also teaches an important lesson about why we eat.
After you've truly experienced hunger once or twice in the course of a diet, you realise that most of the times people say, ``I'm really hungry'' they're nothing of the sort. In all likelihood they're motivated to eat by something entirely distinct from hunger. Getting to know hunger first hand teaches you how unrelated the motivation to eat is from your need for calories and how important it is, therefore, to control what you eat by some means other than instinct.
By John Walker
=========================================================
Why am I doing this to myself?
Only you know precisely why you decided to lose weight, but let's tick off some of the likely reasons.
Live longer
Fat men are more likely to die suddenly than the slender.
--Hippocrates, Aphorisms, c. 400 B.C.
Every day you see plenty of fat people and lots of old people, but have you noticed how few old, fat people you see? All those geezers who make it into their eighties and nineties and call it the ``prime of life'' seem to be the lean, wiry type, don't they? This isn't because people suddenly feel compelled to lose weight sometime in their fifth or sixth decades. As the original hipster pointed out 2400 years ago, it's because the fat ones are dying off early.
This is the most fundamental reason to lose weight: to live longer. Whatever you value in life, you can't enjoy it if you're dead! What's the trade-off between a few bad days in the course of a diet, or even low-level irritation for several months, against living for five or ten more years? Of seeing your grandchildren grow up? Of seeing your life's work serve as the foundation for the next generation? Of finally getting the money out of your IRA? Of a happy retirement on the Moon? Whatever...death disqualifies you from every activity.
Dieting is unpleasant and bad days are wretched, but dropping dead is worse. Tomorrow will be better.
Better health
Feed by measure and defy the physician.
--John Heywood, Proverbs, 1546
Even if excess weight doesn't shorten your life, you're far more likely to suffer a variety of medical problems that will make the years you live less enjoyable. These range from really big annoyances like heart attacks to lesser maladies such as habitual shortness of breath and muscle aches and pains.
A few years ago I went through a couple of weeks where I'd haul a 75 pound computer printer home, use it for a day or so, have it break, haul it to the shop, pick it up, and so on. As I recall, I ended up hauling the sucker back and forth about six times before I finally junked it. Every time I wrestled that beast into the car and out again, I woke up the next day with my muscles screaming for mercy. And yet for years, I walked around with the equivalent of that printer strapped around my middle, day in and day out. No wonder I felt awful! You can get accustomed to almost anything. If you've been overweight for a long time, it's hard to know what it's costing you not just in terms of potential health problems down the road, but in how you feel every day. The only way to find out how great you'll feel without the excess ballast is to see the diet through and experience its happy conclusion for yourself.
If a bad day comes a month or two into the diet, think back to the beginning. Think beyond the hunger to how you feel physically and what you've accomplished so far. And remember that your present situation pales before how much you'll enjoy finally achieving the goal.
Accomplish more
Great eaters and great sleepers are incapable of anything else that is great.
--Henry IV of France (1553-1610)
There's a not-so-subtle discrimination against overweight people in most organisations, and it's based on the flip side of the argument that finally convinced me to lose weight. It's easy to imagine the following thoughts passing through the mind of a person considering promoting an overweight employee to a position of greater responsibility.
Andy's bright, trustworthy, loyal, and one of the hardest-working people I've ever met--in short in matters intellectual, social, and professional he is the very model of a modern middle manager. But I have to consider the whole picture.
This is a management job, not a technical position. I'm betting a large budget, an important project, and more than a little of my own reputation on whoever I pick. Do I really want to bet all that on somebody who can't even manage his weight...?'' The prejudice is normally far more subtle than this line of reasoning, but don't doubt for a minute it's there.
Another barrier blocking the advancement of overweight people is the perception they aren't "dynamic'' and don't have the energy and stamina to see through difficult tasks.
In my experience this discrimination against the overweight is totally unjustified, but that doesn't keep it from happening every day. As we've seen, most overweight people don't suffer from flaws in character or weakness of will; they just have a broken feedback system. But if others assume there's something wrong with them, the consequences will be no less severe for being unjustified and unfair.
By John Walker
=========================================================
How will I feel right after I eat?
Think about how you'll feel if you do go and wolf down something to slake your hunger. Yes, the hunger will be gone, but will what replaces it be an improvement?
You've invested a great deal of effort in getting to this point of your diet, and at this very moment it's all on the line.
All the monitoring, all the calculation, all the analysis of the trend and the carefully crafted feedback systems are for nought if you ignore the meal plan whenever it proves uncomfortable. Weigh the immediate surcease of hunger with the feeling of accomplishment you'll have after the next regular meal in knowing you weathered a difficult time and emerged still on course.
By John Walker
=========================================================
Best regards,
Chillen
April 24th, 2008: Thoughts for the day(2)
I don't mean to imply by dwelling on bad days that you'll experience them frequently or that extreme measures are needed to survive them. In my experience, really difficult times happened no more frequently than every other month, and never lasted beyond the next meal. If you find you're suffering real hunger (as opposed to the desire to eat--learn to distinguish them) on a frequent or regular basis, it's time to revise your meal or diet plan. If hunger occurs at the same time every day, try shifting calories from another meal to the meal that precedes the problem period. Often a few shuffles of calories among meals can match the calories you eat to when you need them during the day and eliminate hunger attacks.
You can also try removing calories from a largish meal and allocating them to a planned snack in the middle of the problem interval. This moves in the direction of more meals with fewer calories apiece which many people find helps them minimise hunger. As long as your meal plan adds up to the same calories per day, any schedule is fine. Experiment until you find what works best for you.
If no amount of shifting calories from meal to meal or fiddling with your meal schedule works, if you still experience frequent attacks of serious hunger (as opposed to the "Gee, I wish it were time for dinner'' that's normal whilst dieting), it's time to revisit your original diet plan--you may be trying to lose weight too rapidly.
If your calorie deficit, calculated from the trend, is substantially above 500 calories per day this is particularly likely. Adjust your meal plan to bring the daily calorie shortfall down to the vicinity of 500. You won't lose weight as fast, but neither will you suffer hunger attacks that may prompt you to abandon the diet entirely.
Also, remember there's nothing magic about a 500 calorie per day shortfall; it's convenient to talk about since it translates into a pound a week which many people find tolerable, but recall the wide variation in individual calorie requirements. A 500 calorie per day cutback reduces the food intake of a five foot tall, lightly built woman by more than a third but it's only one fifth the daily requirement of a robust six foot man. Clearly, the woman is going to miss those 500 calories a lot more than the man, and should probably choose a more gradual rate of weight loss to minimise hunger.
(By John Walker)
=========================================================
When hunger strikes, you're already undoubtedly thinking of food, so why not put in concrete terms? Locate a table of calories on page and look up the foods you're tempted to wolf down.
Think about their calories compared to the calorie deficit in your meal plan, and work out, in your mind, how much longer your diet will run if you add such a food every day. Rather than increasing your focus on food, that may let you balance the food you're craving in a purely numerical way against the forecast length of your diet and the knowledge that once the diet is done your weight problem will be solved and you'll never have to endure hunger like this again.
(By John Walker)
=========================================================
Best wishes to all!
Chillen
Too many bad days
I don't mean to imply by dwelling on bad days that you'll experience them frequently or that extreme measures are needed to survive them. In my experience, really difficult times happened no more frequently than every other month, and never lasted beyond the next meal. If you find you're suffering real hunger (as opposed to the desire to eat--learn to distinguish them) on a frequent or regular basis, it's time to revise your meal or diet plan. If hunger occurs at the same time every day, try shifting calories from another meal to the meal that precedes the problem period. Often a few shuffles of calories among meals can match the calories you eat to when you need them during the day and eliminate hunger attacks.
You can also try removing calories from a largish meal and allocating them to a planned snack in the middle of the problem interval. This moves in the direction of more meals with fewer calories apiece which many people find helps them minimise hunger. As long as your meal plan adds up to the same calories per day, any schedule is fine. Experiment until you find what works best for you.
If no amount of shifting calories from meal to meal or fiddling with your meal schedule works, if you still experience frequent attacks of serious hunger (as opposed to the "Gee, I wish it were time for dinner'' that's normal whilst dieting), it's time to revisit your original diet plan--you may be trying to lose weight too rapidly.
If your calorie deficit, calculated from the trend, is substantially above 500 calories per day this is particularly likely. Adjust your meal plan to bring the daily calorie shortfall down to the vicinity of 500. You won't lose weight as fast, but neither will you suffer hunger attacks that may prompt you to abandon the diet entirely.
Also, remember there's nothing magic about a 500 calorie per day shortfall; it's convenient to talk about since it translates into a pound a week which many people find tolerable, but recall the wide variation in individual calorie requirements. A 500 calorie per day cutback reduces the food intake of a five foot tall, lightly built woman by more than a third but it's only one fifth the daily requirement of a robust six foot man. Clearly, the woman is going to miss those 500 calories a lot more than the man, and should probably choose a more gradual rate of weight loss to minimise hunger.
(By John Walker)
=========================================================
What food is worth it?
When hunger strikes, you're already undoubtedly thinking of food, so why not put in concrete terms? Locate a table of calories on page and look up the foods you're tempted to wolf down.
Think about their calories compared to the calorie deficit in your meal plan, and work out, in your mind, how much longer your diet will run if you add such a food every day. Rather than increasing your focus on food, that may let you balance the food you're craving in a purely numerical way against the forecast length of your diet and the knowledge that once the diet is done your weight problem will be solved and you'll never have to endure hunger like this again.
(By John Walker)
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Best wishes to all!
Chillen
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Nah, I was in 1st grade :yelrotflmao:
Have a great 26th anniversary, I'll make it to that day too. 7 for me so far.
Have a good anniversary Chill!
I didn't even see that.
Happy Anniversary. Hope you and the wife have some fun tonight LOL
- Status