Visualize the Body You Desire

While I do not consider myself a student of metaphysics, I do think there is a lot to be said about the power of positive thinking and visualizing a desired outcome.  Many years ago I read a research study on the power of visualization in which 3 groups of people were tested on their ability to shoot basketball freethrows.  At the beginning of the study they shot freethrows to establish a baseline performance level.   After establishing a baseline, the different groups were given different sets of instructions.

Group one was the control group.  They didn't have to do anything differently.  They just went about their normal lives.  The second group was asked to practice for a certain time period or number of shots every day.  The third group was asked to imagine successfully shooting freethrows for a certain length of time each day but they were not to actually shoot freethrows. 

After 30 days, the groups were again evaluated on their freethrow shooting ability.  Group 1, the control group, showed no change in their ability to shoot freethrows.  Group 2, the group that practiced freethrows consistently showed a 24% improvement in their performance.  Most remarkable, however, was Group 3, the visualization group.  Although this group hadn't touched a basketball during the entire experiment period, their freethrow shooting ability increased by 23%.

Whenever we visualize something, our brains begin active recruitment of body systems to carry out the task being visualized.  If you want to shoot more freethrows, practice AND visualize.  If you want to throw more strikes in bowling, hit better tee shots in golf, or blast more home runs in church league softball, visualize your goal and the path leading to it and see if performance improves.

The process of transforming your physique isn't immune to the effects of visualization.  Here are a couple of ideas on how to visualize the body you want.

Meditate

Sit or lay in a quiet, comfortable place.  Darkness helps.  Close your eyes and visualize your perfect physique.  Make sure every body part is accounted for - arms, shoulders, chest, abs, waist, back, thighs, and calves.  Imagine them as being lean, muscular, and rippling.  Imagine yourself running and not being tired.  Imagine that you are lifting weights you never imagined and your muscles are responding to the activity exactly as they are supposed to.

Further, visualize the inside of your body - the heart, circulatory system, and lungs.  Imagine a perfectly clean circulatory system - no clots, plaque, or other harmful deposits in your veins or arteries.  Imagine your lungs as clear and able to take in as much life-giving oxygen as possible with every breath.  Visualize every cell in your body working as it was designed to work.

These visualizations don't need to take a long time - 10 minutes or so should suffice - and can actually be done when lying in bed before sleep.  If you fall asleep while visualizing these things, all the better since they will be the last thing your conscious mind contemplates just before entering subconscious patterns.

Conscious Visualization

I'm not exactly sure what to call this practice, so I'll just call it conscious visualization.  Back in 2008 when I was working on getting out of the rut my life had fallen into, I was working in a position that had me sitting all alone in a building (a double-wide "office") monitoring a database.  The job afforded me a few nice perks, one of which was a dual-monitor computer setup and a laptop.  When I wasn't tied to using both monitors, I would leave the picture you see to the right on the second screen.  If I was using both monitors, I would pull the image up on my laptop.  I always had the image in front of me.

The body in that image belongs to Jamie Brunner.  The head was from one of my before shots.

The color was bad, and the image looked a little funny, but what I was trying to do was visualize myself with that body.  I got the idea from a Body-for-LIFE video that I got back in 2000 in which Hank Johnson used the technique to create an INCREDIBLE transformation of his physique.

All you need to do is find a picture of the body you want to walk around in, superimpose your head onto that body, and save the image.  You can print it and put it on your fridge (the trouble spot for many a would-be physique transformer) or put it on your bathroom mirror as a reminder that yours is a body under construction and the picture represents the goal.

Hopefully all of this makes sense and doesn't sound to woo-woo for anyone out there.  There is a lot to be said about the power of the mind over the body.  Tap-in to this potential gold mine and put it to work in your favor.

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A Gift from Dad

If our Facebook page is any indication, a good number of our readers are women.  If you are a mother reading this, I invite you to print it and hand it to your husband.

This weekend is Father’s Day Weekend.  Kids and moms everywhere will be endowing their fathers/husbands with gifts and words of gratitude.  I personally plan on driving a couple hours to spend the day with my father.  I’m grateful to have the opportunity to spend my 41^st Fathers Day with my dad.  I hope to be able to spend a good many more with him before all is said and done.  Conversely, this is my 14^th year as a dad.  In another 27 years, I expect my son will be able to say to me what I will be saying to my dad tomorrow – Happy Father’s Day.

In the meantime, I have to give my children a gift.  Fathers everywhere need to step up and give this gift to their children.  Failure to do so is, in my opinion, an abdication of responsibility as a father.

We owe it to our children to be an example of healthful living.

Consider the following statistics from 2005-06: 11% of children aged 2-5, 15% of children 6-11 and 18% of adolescents 12-19 are overweight (Source).  Children don’t become overweight by themselves.  Medical issues notwithstanding, overweight children are most often the products of parents whose lifestyles don’t reflect healthy habits.  The fact that 2/3 of adults in the United States are classified as overweight with half of those being labeled as obese.

What is your lifestyle teaching your child about his or her health?  Are you sending the message that health isn’t really important – that the human body can be abused with food and beverage that ages it prematurely?  Are you active or inert?

Children observe EVERYTHING you do – or don’t do.  And they WILL duplicate your behaviors.

The gift you can give to your children this Father’s Day is you for a long time to come.  Your child should be able to enjoy you for 50, 60, or 70 years of their lives.  Unless you are doing your part – eating a nutritious diet and getting regular exercise – you are stealing yourself away from your children.  Further, you are aiding and abetting the loss of your grandchildren’s Mom or Dad.  Your lifestyle today has a generational impact that will endure well beyond your years on this Earth.

Be well, not just for yourself but for the ones who call you ‘Dad’.

It's Not about Losing Weight

Anyone can lose weight.  Anyone.  Here's the secret:

Stop eating.

There.  Problem solved, right?

This website/blog is not about losing weight.  The message I broadcast has little or nothing to do with losing weight, because that "goal" is such a meaningless one.  Besides, who wants to "lose" anything?  Name one thing that you lost that you didn't want to find again.  If you "lose" 50 pounds, how long will it be before you go looking for them again in the bottom of a pint of Ben & Jerry's?

Losing weight is not the message here.

What we promote, and what I hope our readers understand, is that this blog is about fitness.  Fitness is a lifestyle, a state of being, and a message that you send to others.

Fitness as a Lifestyle

One's lifestyle is reflected in his or her actions and decisions.  A fit lifestyle simply means that a majority of the time decisions and actions reflect an attitude of health and wellness.  These decisions can be as small as taking the stairs instead of the elevator and parking further away from the door at the mall.  Do you eat the double quarter pounder with cheese or the grilled chicken salad with low-fat vinaigrette?  Water or soda?

A fitness lifestyle is transparent and recognizable to the casual observer due to the bigger decisions that are made on an ongoing basis.  Daily decisions may not be witnessed by many, but the results of those fitness decisions are obvious.  After all, isn’t it apparent who has adopted a lifestyle of sloth and gluttony?  Big bellies and grease stains on the shirt are dead giveaways.  People who live a fitness lifestyle have similar tell-tale characteristics – their lean muscular physiques, bright eyes, and generally pleasant attitudes give them away.

Our fitness lifestyle is apparent in the types of activities Alice and I enjoy.  We frequently walk in our neighborhood and down by the river.  We take the children to the falls of that river and climb the rocks there.  We attend karate classes multiple times a week, sometimes for 3-4 hours per night.  We go to the beach and swim.  What we do from day to day is a reflection of our fitness lifestyle.

And so should it be for anyone who wants to be fit.

Fitness as a State of Being

Fitness, like any other state of existence, is a moment-by-moment event.  The key with fitness (and with any other attitude) is to not let circumstances dictate that state of being.  In 2009, I broke the second metatarsal on my left foot - cracked the ball of the bone behind the toe.  It hurt to walk or stand.  My doctor told me to take 6 weeks off of any physical activity.

I told him he was nuts.

Fitness is my state of being.  Telling a “fit” person to just sit and do nothing is like telling a flea-infested cur to stop scratching.  It’s not happening.

The day after my orthopedist told me to take time, I was in the gym.  I had to use crutches to get from one place to another, but there was no way in hell I was going to stop training for 6 weeks.  I modified all of my exercises to accommodate the broken bone.  Squats and presses became extension and flexion moves.  Cardio changed from running to cycling.

Fit was a state of being to me.  I couldn’t change who I was just because of my circumstances.  Had I followed doctor’s orders, I might never have restarted my training regimen after the 6 weeks were over.  By the end of 6 weeks of inactivity, I would have adopted a new state of being – that of being an inert injured man.

Changing your state of being is a must in order to become fit.  Simply “losing weight” doesn’t cut it.  If an exercise program or nutrition plan is tossed out the window at the slightest hint of difficulty, then fitness isn’t a state of being, it’s a matter of convenience.  This is a path to failure.

Fitness is a Message

I am a walking talking billboard for Weightingon40.com.  I broadcast a message about this site with every step I take, every bite I eat, and every breath I breathe.  Hopefully, the message is a good one.  Occasionally I will slip and present a bad message, but that’s what makes me human.

Nevertheless, my message to you today is simple: forget about “losing weight.”  It’s not that important.

What IS important is that you find within yourself the strength to become the lean, healthy, fit individual that already exists inside of you.  It’s important that you struggle to free yourself from the bondage of fat and, once it is shed, to stand upon the shell of your former self and declare victory over the most formidable enemy you’ll ever face – complacency.

Honestly, I haven’t dropped that much weight.  Since starting this blog – including 63 days of Insanity and hours in the gym – I’ve only shed about 17 pounds of body weight.  The true victory for me has been overcoming the hollow shell of a man who used to crawl away to his room every day to hide from the world behind the television and internet.  My victory over laziness, anger, fear, and complacency are far more noteworthy than any weight I might have “lost.”

This blog has nothing to do with losing weight.  It has everything to do with helping YOU become the happy, healthy, fit human being you were designed to be.

Be well!



What's Your Motivation?

One of the hardest parts of becoming physically active is finding the motivation to get started and keeping that motivation long enough to see results.  Because exercise is sometimes a real pain, we have a natural human tendency to avoid it – a kind of primal survival instinct that tells us to stop doing that which causes discomfort.

Our motivation has to be stronger than that instinct.

Motivation to do anything is an individual trait.  What worked for me won’t necessarily work for everyone.  The burden of motivation, then, falls to each of us individually.

Now, I’m an expert on me.  I know what pushes my buttons and makes me tick.  Thus, I know what motivates me and what doesn’t.  The same is true in your case.  The really difficult part is being honest enough with yourself to determine what it’s going to take to get the fitness ball rolling and keeping it going.

It’s funny sometimes how people can be brutally honest with other people but will lie to themselves.  I used to tell myself all the time that I was in great shape, even when I carried an extra 25 pounds of flab on my gut.  Contrary to the humorous t-shirt slogan, being “round” does not equate to being in “shape”.  I was lying to myself to my own detriment.

Since I can’t specifically tell you what your motivation is (or should) be, I can tell you what mine was and is.  When I first got started on this journey, my motivation was to impress my wife.  Shallow, but true.  In truth – a truth I wasn’t telling myself at the time – I knew my marriage was desperately in trouble, and a lot of the problem surrounded my physical condition.  Not that Alice was so shallow that my appearance caused her not to love me – far from it – just that I was so unhappy and emotionally void that just being around me was unbearable for her.

Imagine what it would be like to be in a relationship with a guy that spent all of his time holed up in his bedroom watching TV and surfing the internet.  I had separated myself from my children and voluntarily checked out of life.  This wasn’t the grand adventure she had envisioned for herself when we got married, so she was justifiably disappointed and ready to escape.

I knew all of this, but what I wanted to believe was that everything – including my health and marriage – was just fine.  When the lie I had told myself was exposed, I found the real source of my motivation – to fix the damage I had created in my marriage by improving not only my body but also my mind.

First motivation: impress my wife.  New motivation: keep my wife and marriage through focused self-improvement on both a physical and emotional level.

I’ve come a long way in my self-improvement goals.  I’m not done – I don’t think one is ever “done” with improving the self – but I’m content with my growth.  Having repaired a lot of the damage my complacency did to my marriage, I needed a new motivation.

That’s where Wo40.com came in.  My fitness and marital successes have compelled me to share my journey with others in the hopes that I can make a difference in the lives of my readers.  So, basically, YOU are my motivation now.  What can I do to make your life more meaningful, abundant, rich, and prosperous?  Those are my driving questions and the very reason I spend time writing articles like this one.

My journey started with a realization of truth – that I wasn’t happy with who I was.  Birthdays have a strange ability to make us introspective as we realize that we are growing older.  On the eve of my 40’s, the truth of my condition somehow became apparent; I realized that I needed to change.

You must be honest with yourself first.  Sometimes it’s hard to face the truth about ourselves, but the longer we avoid who we really are the longer we will stay where we are.  Are you happy?  Truly happy?  True happiness comes from achieving things and making a difference.  It comes from being actively involved in something that is larger than we ourselves are.

Look in the mirror.  Strip down to your jockeys and take a look at yourself.  The Bible says that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Does your body belie that sentiment?  Look into your own eyes.  They are the windows to the soul, after all.  What are they telling you?  Are they begging you to help a fading soul, or do they sparkle with the light of life?

Truth.  It will set you free.

There’s no better way to show love for yourself than to take care of your body.  Every time we light a cigarette, down a case of beer, or eat food that we know is nutritionally void, we demonstrate a deeper belief that we aren’t worth it, that we don’t deserve better.  How you treat your body speaks volumes about deeply held self-image beliefs.  Learn to love yourself, and demonstrate that love through action.

Reading this, it might seem a rather simplistic that I would believe that exercise and nutrition could have that big an effect on your overall life.  2 years ago I would have said the same thing.  My only advice is this: try it for yourself.  Tell yourself every day that you’re worthy of being loved and demonstrate that love for yourself through a regimen of exercise and proper nutrition.

What’s your motivation?  You are.  The people you love are.  If that’s not good enough for you, then you’re already dead and your body is just slow in figuring it out.

This article didn’t turn out as expected, but sometimes it’s a good thing to just let go of the outline and speak from the heart.

Be well.



Labels and Self-talk.

What’s your identity?

We assign labels to ourselves all the time – sometimes intentionally, sometimes not so.  We also allow, usually passively, others to assign labels to us.  Some of those labels are constructive.  Too many are destructive.

Think for a moment: how do you describe yourself?  Here are some possible labels that you might have used: “I’m fat.”  “My thighs/butt/hips are big.”  “I’m too tired.”  “I don’t like to exercise.”  “I love food too much.”  “I hate vegetables.”

Statements like those have an impact on how you see yourself and how you behave.

We reinforce beliefs about ourselves by repeating them, either to ourselves or others.  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve looked in the mirror or stepped on a scale and reinforced to myself that I’m fat.  I also used to tell people that there were 3 things of mine that you shouldn’t mess with – my family, my money and my food.  Because I reinforced my identity (as a fat glutton), I lived my life accordingly.  I ate poorly, rarely exercised, and my body reflected my behaviors.

Personal labels can also be unspoken.  I’ve seen people wear clothes that tell me they embrace a slothful lifestyle.  A year or so ago I saw an early teenager (13-14ish) wearing a bright yellow shirt that looked like a Lay’s potato chip bag.  It said “Lays-e” No surprise this kid was obviously overweight. 

Do a quick search for “Lazy t-shirts” or “Fat t-shirts” and you’ll see that many people don't mind assigning the ‘lazy’ and ‘fat’ labels to themselves.

You might be saying, “Those shirts are supposed to be funny.”   That may be so, but the fact of the matter is our brains can’t tell the difference between truth and fiction.  Every time our eyes see the message on a self-deprecating shirt, a message is sent to our brains that tells us we’re lazy or fat.  Our subconscious mind files away that assertion and helps us conduct ourselves accordingly.

Looking at this from another angle, we sometimes passively allow others to label us.  I know a mom who used to call her son “little Buddha” due to his abundance of baby fat.  Not surprisingly, the child has been noticeably fat through toddlerhood and into childhood.  Unless the child is de-programmed (by parents or by himself), that label may well follow him into his adult life.  Spouses label each other all the time – often as a term of endearment – but with similar negative overtones.  The labels often become self-fulfilling prophecies.

Any of my readers own a La-Z-Boy recliner?  The chairs are not so named because they encourage 30 minutes of physical activity every day.

The offset to all of this destructive input is to identify ourselves with uplifting descriptors.  “I eat healthy foods and live a happy and active life.”  “I eat exactly what my body needs every day.  Nothing more.”  Think healthy thoughts, say healthy words, and your brain will help you behave accordingly. 

Make your thoughts and words action oriented rather than person oriented.  Saying, “I’m a good person for choosing water over soda,” actually sets us up for future self-recrimination later on (e.g. does drinking soda make me a “bad” person?).  This goes for talking to others as well.  Saying “good job” beats “good girl” every time.

Don’t let negative labels sabotage your progress.  Over the next few days, try paying particular attention to what you say and think about yourself.  Notice whether your self-dialogue is uplifting or desctructive.  If you find yourself being "mean" to yourself more often than you are being "nice," it's time for some re-programming.

A good remedy for destructive self-talk is to write down the negative labels you assign to yourself and thoughtfully consider alternatives that put your situation in a positive light.  For example, instead of “I’m fat,” you can say, “My body is in a state of constant improvement.  My actions are in line with that process.”

Give it a go, and see how your body (and mind) reacts.

Be well!