The Fourth Cornerstone: Inner Strength

Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover
by Bob Greene

(Page 10 of 10)

For some reason the idea that losing weight requires willpower has gone out of vogue. Instead, the emphasis over the last few years has been on taking the easy way out. Eat more, weigh less! Exercise just ten minutes a day for a better body! Take a pill and lose weight while you sleep! Eat as much steak, butter, and cheese as you want! But in the end, the idea that changing your body is easy is just wishful thinking.

The ability to impose your will to accomplish what you want to do is what separates those who succeed in any area of life from those who don't. You do need willpower, no matter what anyone says. Actually, I prefer to call it inner strength, because those words describe where willpower actually comes from. We all have it deep inside of us; whether you choose to use it is up to you.

I believe that one key to inner strength is making conscious decisions. If you're like most people who struggle with their weight, many of your decisions have become rote reactions, not conscious choices. You come home from a stressful day at work, and you have a drink or dig into a bag of chips; it's a habit. A conscious decision would be to choose to go for a walk instead. You go to a favorite restaurant, and you order the fish and chips because it's what you always get. A conscious decision would be to try the broiled fish. Do you automatically take the elevator instead of the stairs, park as close as possible to your destination, always eat dinner an hour before you go to bed at night? All these things matter, and you should be conscious of them.

All my clients get the "ten-second delay" talk. I ask them to take ten seconds to think about their choices before deciding whether they'll give in to fleeting desires or exercise inner strength to combat them. Ten seconds is just long enough for you to make the decision consciously rather than impulsively. By drawing out the time, you may find that you make a different and much healthier choice whether the choice is between grabbing a cup of yogurt or a piece of cake from the refrigerator or between going to the gym in the morning and rolling over and going back to sleep.

As much as a tool like the ten-second delay can help, in order to draw on your inner strength you're going to have to have made some fundamental changes in your thinking. When you've searched your soul for the reasons you haven't succeeded in the past, owned up to your responsibility for your actions, and really committed to making a change, willpower will be second nature. You'll only need to hone it. Think of your inner strength like a biceps muscle: the more you exercise it, the more powerful you'll be.

Preparing to Change

At this early stage of the program, before you really start taking action to make your body over, I'd like you to think about what you ultimately hope to achieve. It's important to think realistically about your body and how much weight you're capable of losing as well as what you hope weight loss will bring to your life. What is your real intention, and how will that intention be realized?

If your intention is to be successful because you truly care about yourself — and not because you are trying to please or attract other people — then your chances of success are greatly increased. This goes back to telling the truth, which I discussed earlier in this chapter. Be honest about why you're going on this program so that you can make sure from the start that you are doing it for the right reasons. Losing weight can make you feel better about yourself, but it's not the ultimate key to happiness. Yes, slimming down can improve your self-esteem, but it can't erase painful experiences from your past that you've avoided dealing with. It can give you newfound or renewed confidence, but it can't make an unhealthy relationship you're in disappear. Don't, in other words, put all your emotional eggs into one weight loss basket. Extra pounds may cause unhappiness, but more often they're a symptom of unhappiness.

So don't make weight loss more important than it really is. It's only one way to feel good about yourself. It's healthy to have goals that aren't weight loss-related — learning to play an instrument, doing charitable work, mastering another language, growing a garden in your backyard — the more options you have to help you feel accomplished, the better.

Another thing I think it's important to think about is your ultimate body makeover goals. I'm not going to pretend that most people aren't driven by the goal to look more appealing. There's nothing wrong with that. But I also want to make a case for concentrating on how the changes you make will affect both your health and the way you feel. Those benefits of this 12-week program will come a lot sooner than substantial weight loss, and though you won't necessarily see them staring back at you in the mirror, they're not inconsequential. Eating nutritiously and exercising will do you a world of good above and beyond reducing your body size, so don't take those payoffs for granted.

As you prepare for change, also think about how much change you expect to occur. How much weight do you plan to lose? Most important, is it in your biological nature to accomplish that goal? When you see some of the pictures of makeover success stories on my Website (totalbodymakeover.com), you'll see that not everyone worked him- or herself down to a size 2. Those who did had an inherently thin body hiding underneath the excess pounds. Those who didn't get skinny simply may not have skinny genes. I don't have to tell you that we come in all shapes and sizes and that some people's healthy weight is higher than others. The good news is that everybody can attain a healthy weight for him- or herself.

Consider what's really feasible for you. What is your family history? What is your body type? Even if you can whittle your body down to a very small size, ask yourself what you're going to need to do to sustain it. Will you be able to sustain the low calorie intake and hours of exercise that got you there? Your goal should be to adopt changes that you can sustain for the rest of your life. Keep your goal realistic, and you'll succeed.

The Science of Weight Loss:
What You Can Expect to Happen

Did you know that your body allows for only about a loss of three pounds of fat per week? Sure, you can lose water and muscle tissue — that's how quick-fix diets that promise you'll drop a lot of pounds instantly work — but you don't want to. Everyone loses weight at different rates, but in general losing one pound or even a half pound a week means that you are losing in a way that can last. Quick weight loss, though inspiring and satisfying, hardly ever lasts. Slow going is more frustrating but ultimately offers a bigger payoff. In the beginning, you may find that this 12-week program feels like you're rolling a boulder up a hill — lots of work but no payoff — but I promise you, you will reach the top and begin losing at a faster rate.

In the beginning, as you start exercising and ramping up your workouts and as you change your eating habits, the water your body holds on to (or lets go of) will largely dictate your losses — or even gains. As you become more active and drink more water, your muscles will retain water. The primary culprit here is glycogen, a form of carbohydrate that's stored in your muscles and is the main fuel for exercise. The more active you are, the more glycogen your muscles will retain and thus the more water you'll hold on to: Each gram of glycogen stores an additional 2.5 grams of water. What's more, the fitter you become, the more glycogen you store.

This initial water weight gain can be disheartening, but hang in there. Water-weight gain will cover up the body fat losses that you will be experiencing. After a few weeks, you will begin to see fat loss. And the reality is, this is a part of charging up your metabolism, which will ultimately lead to an increase in your fat-burning power.

The initial weeks of this 12-week program will really be a test of your will. You need to trust that you're doing the right thing, even if it doesn't show up right away on the scale. And while we're on the subject of the scale, try not to get too attached to it. I know that it's hard not to check up on how you're doing constantly, but try to weigh yourself no more than one day a week. Concentrate on how you feel and how your clothes fit. Don't be like the kid in the backseat whining "Are we there yet?" Just be patient. You'll reach your destination, and it's going to be great!

Copyright © 2005 by Bob Greene Enterprises, Inc.

About the Author

Bob Greene is an exercise physiologist and certified personal trainer specializing in fitness, metabolism, and weight loss. He has been a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show. He is also a contributing writer and editor for O, The Oprah Magazine, and writes on health and fitness for Oprah.com. Greene is the bestselling author of Get With the Program!, The Get With the Program! Guide to Good Eating, The Get With the Program! Daily Journal, and The Get With the Program! Guide to Fast Food and Family Restaurants.