New Rule for Bodybuilding #18

18. Individual results vary simply because some people exercise and others do not.

Every fad diet and diet center usually have a disclaimer: "Individual results will vary." "Exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle." Individual results vary simply because some people exercise and others do not.

Simply exercise, and there is no need to pay weight-loss profiteers. Their appeal is to make exercise appear optional. But it's not that way in reality. Some people embrace exercise without too much thought, others think too much and label it as too difficult, shroud the idea in anxiety, and then avoid it. Accepted or denied, physical activity is for everybody. You are a somebody. Therefore exercise is for you. That's Aristotelian physical education. :)

Before humans figured out agriculture and developed a way to store surplus food, we ate all day long, throughout the day. Humans were like other animals that forage. Eating was survival, and most of the day was spent doing necessary things in order to live. Life then was, compared to today, very difficult. It was day-to-day uncertainty and eating hand-to-mouth. Doing the necessary things to live required doing work, physical activity, "exercise," and doing it all day long. Your career options were either hunting or gathering or not living.

Things are a bit different today. If the extent of the day's physical activity is limited to: walking from house to car, car to office, [work], office to car, car to house...weight gain is guaranteed. Even after agriculture came along, survival still required a lot of work, till machines and technology began to make differences in the late 1800's. Exercise appears optional in our modern world, but it is necessary. Whether one chooses to or not, is a different subject.

This is not bad news. This is good news! Why? Because if you don't get regular physical activity and you've felt down-in-the-dumps, now you have a glimmer of why that is so. Now you can take steps to fix the problem. Is how you feel imporant? Is it a priority? Yes, it is--how you feel is priority #1, consciously or unconsciously.

The weight-loss industry has figured out that many people consider "exercise" the foulest among dirty words and many will pay [lots of] money for an "answer" to get around doing what is entirely necessary, healthy, and beneficial for normal human function. There is no magic bullet that or quick-fix that will get this handled for you.

Even if they made a pill that miraculously melts bodyfat away to almost nothing, you would still feel lousy from not exercising. There is only one person who can take care of it, and that's you.

Weight-loss profiteers and certain sorts of opportunists are driven to feed people false notions about exercise being optional. They are just selling what people are wanting. Here is a fun example: a soda that is claimed to lead to weight loss.

And if their weight-loss schemes don't work for you, then whose fault is it? It's yours, not theirs. If you don't get what you paid for, it's still your fault. You're the one who gets to leave with a feeling of "failure" because their product (scheme + "exercise is optional myth") did not get you lasting results. But remember: individual results may vary. If you do succeed, you'll likely give them the credit for your diligence and persistence, especially by word-of-mouth advertising for them, for free.

If they did have great success rates, that's the first thing you would hear about in their commercials. The success rates of their customers are not clearly public, probably for a reason other than client anonymity. The best thing they offer people is a little nutrition info and tips about changing your [bad] habits. You can get that for free on the web.

I should say that I have no gripe with people making money. But their business practices might benefit from being straightforward and honest, "do not pay till you sign a contract wherein you agree that you will exercise and give it a persistent effort." If they did this though, potential customers would simply laugh at their sales pitch and realize they can do as much on their own.

If a friend asked you to help him or her lose weight, you would do what most people would do, and that is to create a line of food for them to purchase from you--a paid subscription to your delightful treats--all of their meals would come from you--maybe for all time? Kidding aside, creating for them, a dependence on you, is not really "help." Weyt Watchers is the devil!

Anyway, wouldn't you more effectively help your friend out by teaching them skills (at the gym)(during non-peak hours)? Well surprise, because you are that best friend of yours! A friend who will not let you down, who won't let you get away with settling for less than you deserve! HOoray! :)

A lot of times we believe something will "work" because we want it to work. It's time to let go of that (particularly effective) marketing trick and look at things the way they are. There is no workaround to exercise.

Sign a contract with yourself.

Here is the form.

Here is insurance that you will follow through.

Here are 20 tips to keep you motivated.

Here is "21 Ways to Stick to a Workout: Simple solutions for our favorite excuses."It is far easier for me to just go to the gym and hit the weights than deprive myself of food or invest in false hopes or hand over money for nothing.

Even walking will do.

Here are great tips on getting started.

In return you get to:

Look better naked
Feel better period
Improve self-esteem
Have more energy for other activities
Get out of the house
Enjoy yourself

Of course, 'Feel better' belongs at the top of the list. But I'm shallow. :) Anyway, it's my blog and I'm not changing the title :)

*plus* you get:

Benefits of regular exercise

• Reduces your risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes and obesity
• Keeps joints, tendons and ligaments flexible so it's easier to move around
• Reduces some of the effects of aging
• Contributes to your mental well-being and helps treat depression
• Helps relieve stress and anxiety
• Increases your energy and endurance
• Helps you sleep better
• Helps you maintain a normal weight by increasing your metabolism (the rate you burn calories)

If you want to look differently, then changing your menu, or starving and depriving yourself, or taking diet pills, etc, will not do it. Even if diet pills do lead to weight loss, the weight comes right back if you stop taking the pills: it's like the pills are a subscription to "looking better," not ownership.

If you know where you want to go, be wary of those on the side of the road that try to sell you an easier way to get where you are already headed.