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Ten Tips for Lifetime Leanness

  1. Food Is Fuel.Going without breakfast because you're planning a big dinner is as silly as filling up your car's gas tank after you finish the trip. There is no "calorie bank". You can't eat more dessert by skipping breakfast or lunch. Missing meals slows your metabolism. You will never eat your way to fitness. No magic eating plan, no exact ratio of carbs to protein to fat will ever be the end all.
  2. Eat What You Want. Eat all you want of the things that you know to be good for you; all of the grains, vegetables, fruits, and lean proteins that you enjoy. Eat only when you are hungry, and eat only enough to be not hungry. Don't eat until you are full. Eat as often as you can. If you look back only as far as your grandparents, they ate things which would be considered "bad" now. Why were they lean? Because they worked their ____ off.
  3. The Body Needs Hard Work. Your body needs to work hard to function properly. The only way to be fit is to exercise on a regular basis; daily if possible. It should be difficult. Physical stress causes the body to adapt and get stronger. Think about the last time you exercised regularly; you didn't get sick as often, you had more energy, and you were probably "happier". Make all activity vigorous.
  4. Make Exercise Fun. Exercise doesn't have to be structured. If it's something you enjoy doing, you'll look forward to it. My son Stephen and I ride bikes home from his school in the afternoon. Even though it may only be a couple of miles, it's something that he and I enjoy together. I can't rely on it for my total exercise plan, but it is a part of the overall plan. Walk with the family to the post office, the grocery store, heck, even the ice cream shop. Ride bikes or in-line skate to the neighbors' house. Don't try to "make up" missed workouts. Jump right back into the next one. If you aren't looking forward to your next workout, do something else.
  5. Get Strong. Find a way to incorporate strength exercise into your program. Weights are the easiest way to do this, but there are other ways. Slow, controlled calesthenics at home (pushups, crunches, twists, etc.), martial arts, even yoga and tai chi have elements of muscles working against each other (resistance exercise). Walk the stairs whenever you can. Even mowing the lawn can be considered resistance exercise. I resist it like crazy.
  6. Have Realistic Expectations. Don't expect your body to look like a model's. I was a model for nine years and I never looked like the other models. When I finally quit trying to diet down to their size, I actually started looking good for me. The people booking the models liked me as me, better than me as someone else. Everybody wants something they don't have; skinny people want muscles, stocky people want to be thin. Take a good, honest look at your body. If you are skinny, do endurance stuff. If you are stocky, do activities which demand strength. You will feel better, get more fit, and reach a higher level of satisfaction by letting your body do what it does best.
  7. Don't Do The Same Thing Forever. Every six weeks, or so, plan a change in your routine. Not only will your mind be more challenged, your body will have to adapt more often. The body is an amazingly adaptable machine. It will get very good at what you ask it to do. It will get very efficient at what you ask it to do. It will begin to use less fuel for the same activity.
  8. Be Patient. If you focus on the activities, and the achievement of progressing with performance, you will be less likely to feel failure from not looking exactly as you envisioned. How do you want to look a year from now? Two years? Ten years? Think about those time frames, and a pound or two on the scale won't seem so important.
  9. Learn To Enjoy Solitude. Exercise is the best way that I have found to learn about myself. Sure, it's fun to be in a group occasionally, but you need to be able to discipline yourself to working your body, even if no one else wants to.
  10. Do Now, What You Would Do Then. Imagine that you are in exactly the shape that you ultimately want to be. You're lean, strong, fit. You're the envy of all of your friends. All of your hard work has paid off. Once you've reached your goal, what would you do each day to protect your investment? How would you eat? How would you exercise? What would you NOT do? Would you skip workouts? If you can think about what you would do to protect a great body once you had it, you know what to do to get there. Doing the things to keep that body, will make your body become what you want.