Ladies, this one I dedicate to you. I keep getting this as a goal for people wanting to get fit: “I need/want to lose X pounds and get toned.” Who says? Who says you need to lose a specific number on the scale to even meet your definition of toned? Do you even know what you are losing when your number on the scale goes down? Does it matter to you that you’ve lost muscle tone but kept your body fat at about the same level while losing weight? Are you really that stuck on the number on the scale that you will be down on yourself if it stays the same or even goes up but you look and feel healthier than you ever have before? There’s a silly saying about desires…Size doesn’t matter.
Well I say weight doesn’t matter. How you look and feel matter, not just losing weight. And no I don’t mean that you only look good if you resemble a female on a fitness magazine. Those ladies work hard and look phenomenal. But THOSE PHOTOS ARE NOT REAL!!! One of the hottest fitness models on the planet has her legs lengthened in photos! Why? I have no idea. It is this sick idea in society that she isn’t perfect unless she has a certain leg to torso ratio even though she doesn’t have an ounce of body fat on her and has a beautiful amount of feminine muscle. Stop comparing yourself to THAT and establishing your goals just on losing weight! It is a fairy tale. You do YOU! Aim for YOUR healthiest self.
AWESOME BODY TRANSFORMATION
Looking a particular way is a natural by-product of getting healthier and stronger, not just losing weight. Your goal should be to put yourself in a position to feel great while you are enjoying your life. To feel vibrant and strong and self-assured. To be here for your children and their children and to give them an example of how they can and should love themselves. Will you start to lose unnecessary body fat and get more curvaceous muscle and fit better in your clothes? Absolutely! But if your focus is on hitting some arbitrary number on the scale then you will lose yourself and your accomplishments in that journey. You do nothing but foster self doubt and loathing when you are stuck putting yourself down if the scale isn’t cooperating with your skewed view of where you “should” be. You will know where you “should” be when you feel great! Your family and friends will let you know you are there when they begin to comment on how happy you seem and they mention that your skin glows and your eyes have that certain sparkle. Eat to be healthy, work to be strong, and THROW AWAY THE DAMN SCALE! I’ll say it again, its not just about losing weight. You’ve been living a self-defeating prophecy for too long to admit, and it hasn’t been working for you.
Here is a tip: Muscle weighs more than fat by volume, and it takes some muscle to have a sculpted and toned body. That said, if you are wokring out properly you should be putting on a litt muscle WHILE losing bodyfat. Why? Because muscle burns fat. It takes a lot of our bodily energy to build and maintian muscle, and that energy typically comes from the process of burning fat. Get it? But with that, the weight on the scale will drop slower, even though you are looking better because the muscle you build will weight more than fat.
See the picture?
My favorite quote in the world applies here and I wish I knew who came up with it because they saved my family and my sanity. NOTHING changes if nothing CHANGES! Your insistence on basing your self worth on what you weigh or what you think you should weigh is not working. If you want to change, then you can’t do that without CHANGING the way you think and the way you view your body. Nothing changes if nothing changes. Well let’s change then.
Chet Nichols is a Team Beachbody Coach, 3 time Beachbody Challenge winner and Body Beast Success story. He operates the website TeamGetFit.com and offers FREE Health and Fitness Coaching. Nichols is 42 years old, a United States Veteran and lives in Timnath, Colorado with his wife and kids. You can find him on his Facebook Profile, Facebook Page, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube. For questions, you can contact Chet at mailto: CoachChet@TeamGetFit.com.
