Eat less, move more. It’s a fitness mantra that’s been around for a long time. And it works. But people, like the lady in the MadTV skit, want an easy way out.
The madness of it is that eating less and moving more is an easy way out.
Eat less. Hmmmm…. How hard is that? Remove simple carbs from your diet. Do it incrementally. Get rid of those sugars little by little. First sodas. Then donuts. Then cupcakes. Then bagels. Or, bag it, keep the bagels, but get rid of the obvious sugars. Guaranteed you will be eating less.
People tell me, “I don’t see how you can just not eat sugars.” First of all, if you cannot control what you eat, you have addictions you should address. Second of all, those addictions can be beaten, just like any other addiction.
I used to sometimes bake a german chocolate cake, add the coconut-pecan frosting, and have that for dinner. Half the cake. The rest would be gone in a day.
I used to buy a six-pack of Cinnabons and eat three of them without blinking.
I had to stop doing that because it was killing me! Did I want to stop? No! I was addicted.
But now I can be in the same room with a German chocolate cake or a Cinnabon and not even feel tempted.
Maybe cake and cinnamon rolls are not your weakness, but what is? Coke? Cupcakes? At some point you need to make the decision to stop … and … then … just … stop. Add more fresh or frozen fruit into your diet — it’s sweet but healthy. Get the organic kind to keep the sugars down, and eat the berries and fruits as nature intended. Or don’t do that, but you gotta get off the sugar!
Eventually, even though you cannot imagine it now, your cravings for those sweet treats will diminish.
As for moving more, this is a simple thing, too. You don’t even need to work out. It’s a good idea to work out, to build muscle and keep your mind and body fit, but these simple tips will get you moving in the right direction.
- Wear a pedometer. Shoot for 10,000 steps. Having a number goal will keep you moving. When I used to wear a pedometer, I started at 10k steps, then moved up to 15k as a minimum. The pedometer shown above is a good one. It’s silent, no annoying clicks. A number on a pedometer was a real motivator for me, when I was getting started. If I’d look down and see it was under 5000 at 2:00, that would get me moving.
- Park far away. Don’t look for that parking spot up close. Park far away. This not only forces you to walk more, but also you avoid traffic, and you don’t need to search for a spot.
- Get up every hour or two from your computer. You need to rest your eyes anyway, so get up and move around for a little bit. Walk around the house or office. Just walk. I walk in circles around my kitchen island, then up and down the stairs a few times.
- Walk on the phone. If you are on the phone and use a cordless or cell, walk around while your talking. You can get in a good mile during a twenty-minute conversation that you normally would have wasted sitting and getting fatter.
- Read while you walk. This is a new one for me, but now that I have a Kindle app on my phone, reading while walking — indoors, obviously, not out on the street — is much easier.
There’s no silver bullet to kill the fat that is killing us. Eat less, move more is the only way to go.