ShareLast week, I was training private clients down in the basement gym of a residential building, and I witnessed something very disturbing.
As I walked in, there was a fit, athletic looking woman on one of the dreadmills. She was walking along and watching Moneyball at the same time. Good movie, bad workout distraction. But that wasn’t the real problem here.
After 45 minutes walking along, she started telling her friend on the phone about the 2 huge cupcakes from Crumbs that she ate the previous day. Just so you understand, Crumbs makes the biggest cupcakes I’ve ever seen AND put the calorie damage next to the name and price. No joke. I saw a cupcake worth 980 calories in that place. It’s so scary, I can’t even go in there anymore.
This chick seriously ate 2 of those cupcakes? Whoa… mumma!
The most shocking part of this story continued to unfold.
Two hours later – she was STILL on the same dreadmill. STILL walking along. STILL watching that movie. Wasting massive amounts of time and energy.
Now, that is my definition of complete insanity.
Do you think she burned enough calories to negate the cupcakes?
Hell no.
You would need to run about 20 miles at a steady pace to burn approximately 2000 calories. By the way, that’s no fun unless you’re training for a marathon. Or you could try doing a few rounds of this crazy workout.
Walking on a treadmill like this will do nothing to accelerate your fat loss, besides make you feel better about yourself.
This brings me to my next point.
Your #1 Worst Habit
Punishment via Exercise
Punishing yourself with exercise for eating the wrong foods is toxic. Absolutely damaging. This long, slow self-torture for overindulging is equally unhealthy as stuffing yourself with junk…
We must get out of the mindset that it’s OK to cheat or splurge and then justify it by saying “I’ll run/walk it off tomorrow”.
Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t have splurge meals. On the contrary, I think enjoying your favorite cheat foods is essential for keeping your sanity and to long-term sustainable fat loss success. It can definitely help you in the journey to reach your goals.
The real problem is unplanned, mindless splurging that is fuelled by your emotions of anger, stress, or even boredom. You justify those moments of weakness by telling yourself you’ll “train it off” tomorrow.
It’s not about counting the calories, that’s unnecessary too. The most important thing is your reasoning and the bad habits that develop over time.
Personally, this was a major issue for me for many years. I’m embarrassed to admit, but I would eat half a loaf of banana bread washed down with a big milky coffee and kill the guilty feelings by telling myself it was OK, because “I will go out for a long run the next morning”. Sure, at the time I thought this was totally acceptable.
Ha. Welcome to the vicious cycle.
This so-called run the next day was a joke. I didn’t even get close to “burning off” the banana bread destruction – all it did was make me feel good about myself and make this behavior acceptable.
Meanwhile, I was GAINING weight and losing motivation. See, when you eat a ton of carby, sugary and fat laden bread, it’s not so easy to walk let alone try and run for half an hour. No wonder I ended up gaining 30 pounds, despite working out.
How can you break this vicious cycle?
Two options:
1. Eliminate Binging on Trigger Foods
You know those particular favorite foods that you can’t get enough of? It’s time to break up. I had to banish banana bread, beer and all those sugary treats I was addicted from my world. Farewell. Game over.
Winning Tip: Finding your trigger foods and eliminating them from your life is the fastest way to break your food addictions.
2. Exercise For Performance
Unleash your inner athlete. Instead of dragging my sorry ass out for a slow, run the next morning, I started racing. Every weekend I would join a running race in Central Park and run as fast as possible. I’m competitive so this was the perfect solution for me.
It was intense and helped me shed belly fat fast. I also learnt very quickly racing with a hangover is torture.
Winning Tip: You could set yourself any type of performance goal. It might be a heavy deadlift or squat, or perhaps your first pull up. Set the deadline and take action today!
Final Word
There is room for cheat meals on your fat loss journey, but just be smart about it.
Make sure you plan your splurge, and keep it under control.
If you screw up, it’s no dramas. Don’t punish yourself doing insane, time wasting exercise. Get over it and move on.
Why don’t you give yourself a little bit of love? Feed your body the right food that makes you feel happy and energized, and you’re on the road to success.
Rock on and have an awesome day,
KV
