Why Do You Join A Gym?

Happy New Year!

It's time to look at our failures..YEA.

Uh, no. That's not what this is about but that is what the fitness and diet industry want you to believe about yourself - that you are a failure.

So let me ask you this. Why do you join a gym? Millions of American's will make the annual trek to the local gym or healthclub in hopes of finding the holy grail of weight loss.

So why did you join, well, let me revise that. Why are you going to join?

For millions of American, they join the gym because they "think" it's the right thing to do. It's because someone told them to join. Now, whether that someone is a friend, a doctor or the hundreds and hundreds of commercials and advertisments they are exposed to weeks prior to New Year's, those individuals are joining the gym because of what they have been told.

Now hold on here because what I am getting ready to tell you is going to upset the apple cart of the fitness industry and it is going to be so contrary to what you have been told, but it is the TRUTH.

The LAST place you need to be starting your New Year off is in the gym or fitness center. Uh, yeah...Truth.

So why is that? Why would I tell you to not go to the gym or fitness center and yet I have been a fitness professional for over 35 years? Have I lost my mind? Have I gone over to the dark side of the force?

Here it is in a nutshell. So get ready. I am going to share some pretty amazing statistics with you that I hope will open your eyes and give you cause to rethink what you are doing.

TRUTH #1
92% of everyone that start a new year resolution plan fail. Why is that? The human brain is an amazing part of creation. It can do blazing fast calculations, faster than the worlds fastest computer. In fact in some things the speed in which the brain works can be equaled to the speed of light. Now that's the brain. But the "emotional" side of the brain is different. It is attempting to protect you and keep everything copasetic. And when you attempt your New Year's Resolutions (for probably the 3rd or 4th time), the protective part of your brain goes to work.

When we attempt to make these life changes, we go big time. There is an old song by Queen called "I want it all and I want it now". Unfortunately, that's not how our brain works. Our brain works by taking one change and focusing on that. If we load up with massive change, our protective brain goes into overdrive and will cause massive, across the board failure.

Sure, you might by shear will power, make it 2-4 weeks but by the end of that time, you will already be so disgusted and burned out that you, along with millions of other American's will throw their hands up in the air and give up.

That's depressing.

TRUTH #2
Your weight loss success does not come from joining the gym. Regardless of what all the big chain gyms, fitness centers, personal trainers and whomever else tells you, your ultimate weight loss success does not come from fitness.

So where does it come from? It comes from your nutrition program. Ever wonder why you see the big commercial diet companies pour so much money into advertising weeks before the New Year gets here? And did you catch all that "New and Improved" mumbo jumbo, or how you can get lean in just a few days?

The truth is, 80% of your success comes from your nutrition plan and only 20% comes from exercise, but it must be the RIGHT kind of exercise.

But here is where the commerical diet programs are missing it. They know this information, they just aren't going to tell it to you because if they did, chances are, you wouldn't be buying their service.

TRUTH #2A
Every single, well know, documented diet plan is deficient in at least 27 ESSENTIAL nutrients. In fact, the National Institute of Health has gone on record and said that the four BEST diet plans on the market today, Atkins, The Best Life, D.A.S.H., and the South Beach Diet, each plan is deficient in 27 essential nutrients, by thousands of milligrams. In fact, it would take eating between 18,000 and
34, 000 additional calories in THREE DAYS just to get the proper amount of essential nutrients to keep you healthy and well. No one, not even the world's most elite athletes need to eat that many calories. So why should you? But if you don't, you won't get the essential nutrients in your body that will help your body operate the way it needs to.

I hope you are begining to see something here. Not even a diet is going to help you lose weight if you are deficient in any of the 27 essential nutrients. No exercise program in the world is going to work to help you lose weight if you are deficient. In fact, it is going to make things worse. In addition, your diet plan is not going to work either because you aren't eating the necessary nutrients that will help your body work the way it's supposed to. So again, another failure looms.

That's depressing too.

TRUTH #3
No one wants to tell you this. In fact, they are counting on your not knowing this because it gives them the opportunity to sell you more programs and more diets. They are counting on you not knowing. The old saying is, "Ignorance is bliss" but not in this case. Ignorance is not an excuse when someone is sharing the truth with you. Ignorance will cause you to continually fail, over and over again and at some point, you are going to just give up and declare there is not hope or you will resort to something dangerous.

OR, you might listen to experience and professional advice and start your new year off the right way.

So how should you approach your New Year's resolution this year? Very simply. Because simple always works. More times than not, someone is wanting to sell you a program that seems so complicated because they know that the more complicated a program seems to be, the more the average individual believes it must work. That creates a dependence on the program and then the seller of those services can sell you anything they want because the unsuspecting individual believes they need it. Not only is that wrong, it's fradulent.

Let's look at how you should start your New Year's Resolution this year.

FIRST.
Don't look at yourself as needing "fixed". There is nothing wrong with you. And while you might have some unwanted body fat that you want to lose, we all have something we want to improve on. That doesn't mean we are all broken. A child growing up from infancy to being a toddler doesn't know it needs to go from diapers to a potty. Unless they are taught, they will always use diapers. But until such a time as they do start using a potty, they use their diapers. Are they broken? Of course not. They just need to grow into something more mature. It's the same way with you. Stop believeing the lie that you are broken. You are NOT broken. We can all use some improvement but just like wine, we may need some time to mature.

SECOND
Start small. Starting small allows you to make the changes in your behavior that doesn't overwhelm you nor does it alert your brain to go into protective mode. An avalanche doesn't start with a massive wall of snow and rock. It starts small and picks up everything in it's path as it comes racing down the mountain in such a destructive force that nothing will survive that is in it's way.

That is exactly how you need to start. Start small and allow the momentum to carry you in such a way that in a very short period of time, you are moving at avalanche speed and momentum.

Ignore the diets and ignore the fitness advice. This is about you and no one else. But trust me on this. Your friends are going to be influenced to follow the gimmicks and fads and they too will join the hottest exercise or group fitness trend and they will put pressure on you to join. You will feel like  you are being left out, but what is more important to you? Following the trends and gimmicks that your friends have been influenced to join or enjoying that high speed momentum 6 months to a year down the road while your friends are looking at you and asking you how you did it?

Yes, they will do that.

THIRD
It's good to journal and write down the areas you want to improve on. I encourage that. It doesn't say you are broken, it demonstates that you have a desire to always improve. That moves you out of your comfort zone and nothing good ever happens in the comfort zone. The comfort zone simply makes one lazy and unproductive - it's where failure exists - constant failure.

Journaling allows you to record your successes and to analyze where you are having difficulty in changing. Remember, failure is not the end, it is part of the success formula. We only "fail" when we don't get back up. Journaling also creates a sort of "owners manual" on how you react to things and respond to circumstances. Journaling isn't about recording the events of your life so you can look back and say you are a failure. You aren't. You are a work in progress.

Remember, a lump of coal is useful for providning heat and energy but given enough time and with enough pressure, it will become a diamond. I like to say I  am just a lump of coal but I'm going to be a diamond someday.

STARTING
While starting is so simple it is crazy, it does take some understanding of where that starting point is and when you need to go to the next level. Oftentimes, some people will think that starting small is a diet while others think starting one of those supplement weight loss programs is small.

Starting small is just that. Starting small. For example, start with taking 1 complex vitamin / mineral tablet each day with one fish oil gel cap - that's really starting small. Seriously and it is the BEST thing you can do for yourself because those two things will begin building the necessary foundation you will need to go to the next level. And you do this for one week.

The next week, you roll over the first week into the second week and make another change. Maybe you drink 5 softdrinks per day and very little water. The next week would be to exchange one softdrink for one cold bottle of water. And you do this for one week.

And this is how you start your avalanche. While others are taking on more than they can handle, you are starting small and building up to an awesome transformation that others will envy.

All because you chose to start small and start smart.

I hope this helps you with your New Year. Remember, you aren't broke and you don't need to be fixed. You are awesome the way you are now.

Until the next time, Have a Happy New Year!
JR Smith, MET
www.biofitexercise.com
biofitexercise@gmail.com
606-305-9362