How to lose weight at the gym

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A common question that people Google is ‘How to lose weight at the gym’. I think this speaks volumes about the type of information most individuals believe about weight loss. But what would you expect? Over and over we’ve had it beaten into our brains that getting into shape means spending 30-45 minutes, 5 nights a week, sweating it out on an eliptical machine or stairmaster. Not only is this sort of routine incredibly boring, it takes forever to see any real results. And what kind of results would you expect from this sort of exercise regimen? Most people I know don’t want to look like a long distance runner. They’re typically skinny, practically bordering on emaciated. My apologies to any die hard runners out there. But most people I know would rather look like a 100 meter sprinter. Toned muscles, six-pack abs, etc…

But regardless of what you want to look like, the first thing you need to do is get rid of the notion that you’re going to drastically change the way you look just by spending 30 minutes a night doing cardio at the gym. Besides, the path to realistic weight loss requires much less physical effort. Research suggests that about 80% of effective weight loss happens because of dietary changes, not exercise. If you continue eating the same junk that you’ve always eaten you are NOT going to see any worthwhile results from going to the gym. Not only that, but you will hate going to the gym because the food you eat supplies you with very little usable energy. This makes your workouts even harder, and as a result, you’ll be even less likely to stick to your routine.

So where do you start? First set your weight loss goals. It’s tough to get anywhere if you don’t even know where you’re going. Set specific goals of what you want to achieve. And as I’ve mentioned in other posts, try not to focus soley on weight. A number is aribtrary and holds no emotional value. If you know what you want to look like, and what you want to feel like, you can actually start getting motivated to lose weight.

Next you’re going to need to modify your diet. While this is physically less difficult than exercise, the mental aspect of changing your diet can be extremely difficult. You’ve put a lot of practice into your current eating habits, and those are not always easy to change. The diet I subscribe to and mention throughout this site is the Paleo diet or Primal diet. It is based on eating the things that humans consumed for thousands of years, before all of our foods became processd and refined. But changing your diet takes a consistent, concerted effort. Ours is a world of convenience, where we are constantly bombarded with quick and unhealthy choices for food. But there are some things you can do to make sticking to the right foods easier on yourself. The biggest is preparation. If you surround yourself only with the foods you’re supposed to be eating, it’s much harder to slip back into your old eating habits.

But when it comes down to it, you’ve got to have a solid motivation to lose weight. And this motivation, or desire, has to be stronger than every other desire you have. It won’t work if you stick to your diet for just a few days of the week, or when it’s convenient. The primal diet and paleo diet are a lifestyle change. You are giving up the junk foods not just to lose weight, but to become healthier, stronger, and happier. So what will your motivation be? A longer and better life for yourself, your spouse, and your children? The strength to control how you look and feel? To be proud and happy with the way you look?

Start thinking about your motivation now. Don’t take the easy route and write down some arbitrary weight. This desire needs to be something real, something that really motivates you, and that is truly important to you. This is something that brings to mind a mental picture powerful enough to bring a smile to your face and tears to your eyes. Once you have that picture in mind, you have found your motivation. The next step is developing the focus necessary to achieve it.

That’s a lot of information to answer one question. And maybe it’s not the answer you were looking for. But if you’re reading this, odds are you’ve tried other ideas on losing weight and they probably didn’t pan out. Maybe asking ‘how to lose weight at the gym’ is just the wrong question.

Primal Diet Pumpkin Pie

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Without a doubt, one of the toughest things to give up in the primal diet are the baked goods.  From pies and cakes to biscuits and pancakes, so many of our ingrained comfort foods are based on LOTS of carbohydrates.  And of course with the holidays approaching, this is traditionally the time of year when my favorite pie starts making its appearance in grocery stores.  I have loved pumpkin pie since before I can remember.  It’s one of those flavors that has come to represent late autumn for me.  The smell and the taste evoke strong memories of colder weather, changing leaves, and family gatherings.

Traditionally pumpkin pie is loaded with lots of processed carbohydrates.   The crust is typically made with all purpose flour.  And the filling is loaded with either brown or regular sugar.  Some recipes also call for sweetened condensed milk.  Now I’m all for splurging every now and then on old favorites.  But I like to stick to my primal diet as much as possible.  I also enjoy showing my friends and family that it’s possible to eat healthy and actually enjoy it.  So I’m going to show you a way to have your pie and eat it too.  The final texture of this is more of a souffle than a pie.  But the taste is just the same.

We’ll be using a pie crust recipe from Mark’s Daily Apple.  If you haven’t started reading this blog yet, add it to your list.  It’s got TONS of information on the Paleo and Primal Diet.  You’ll need the pie crust already prepared before you start this recipe.

We’ll also be removing all of the processed sugar from the recipe.  I prefer to use honey.  To help make the pie solidify, we’ll be adding some cream of tarter and baking soda.  In this particular recipe these two work better than baking powder, as baking powder tends to affect the flavor of the pie.   But enough about the reasoning behind all this.  Let’s get to the recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup pecan halves
  • 2/3 cup almond meal
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 eggs, separated
  • 2/3 cup buttermilk
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • Honey or Pure maple syrup for serving
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • Optional – Rum soaked golden raisins
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Optional – in a small bowl combine 1/4 cup golden raisins with enough dark rum to barely cover them.
Rum Raisins
For the pecan topping place 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat.  Pecan mixture
Once the butter is melted, add the pecan halves.  Cook for 2 minutes. Pour the butter and pecan mixture into a bowl and while still hot, drizzle with 1 tablespoon of honey (you could also use good maple syrup).  Mix and set aside.
Separate the eggs.
Eggs separated
In a small bowl mix the almond meal, salt, and pumpkin pie spice, cream of tarter and baking soda.  Set aside.
Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter.  In a large bowl add the egg yolks, buttermilk (same amount of skim milk with 1 tsp of vinegar can be substituted for buttermilk), honey, vanilla, and melted butter.  Then gradually whisk in the almond meal mixture.  Then stir in the pumpkin puree.
If you are adding the optional raisins, drain them from the rum and add them to the pumpkin mixture.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Soft peaks
Then gently fold the whites into the pumpkin mixture.  Gently spoon the pie mixture into your pie crust.  Sprinkle the pecans on top of the pie.  Bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes.  The center should be fairly firm when you move the pie plate.  Allow to cool and enjoy!
Pumpkin Pie

How to Stay Motivated to Lose Weight

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One of the biggest hurdles of any diet is how to stay motivated to lose weight.  Losing weight and then maintaining weight loss requires conscious focus and attention.  Take a minute and think about the number of friends you’ve heard say they were starting a diet in the last six months.  How many of them are still on that diet?  And have they made any noticeable progress?  Sadly, a far higher number of diets fail than succeed.  And much of this comes down to motivation. So what is motivation?  Put simply, it’s the reason to act in a certain way.

Let’s look at two key words in that definition; act and reason.  Every time you act, or take action, you choose to do one thing over another.  Typically you are compelled to act by some change in circumstances.  If you’re lounging comfortably on the sofa and you notice a burning smell coming from the kitchen, most likely you’ll feel motivated to go to the kitchen and investigate.  You choose one action over another.  Your motivation in this case is making sure the house isn’t burning down. But this is a very short-term situation.  Once you realize there is no immediate danger of the house burning down, you return to relaxing on the sofa.

Now let’s put this into context for our current topic of weight loss.  Perhaps one day you decide you are fed up with the way you look.  You want to take action.  And that action will be some sort of diet.  Unfortunately most of us are wired to apply this same short-term logic to everything we do.  So for the next week or two you consciously change your eating and exercise habits.  And shortly thereafter you lose focus and return to your normal routine.  Sound familiar?  For most people it does, because this is how the vast majority of diets end.

Now let’s explore reason.  It’s likely you didn’t reach your current physical condition overnight. You developed habits of eating and exercise (or lack of exercise) over many months and years. And now you want to change all that.  Well guess what?  You’re going to need a pretty compelling reason to change years of habit.  And that’s the key to motivation.  You have to want one option more than all the others.  And not just part of the time, but all of the time.  It can sound somewhat daunting.  But there is a way to do it.

And it will probably have 50% of you heading for the doors.  Goals.  Setting goals is a phrase that gets thrown around A LOT.  Any kind of motivational system talks about setting goals.  And the reason that 50% of you stopped reading at the mention of setting goals? Most of us have heard this spiel before.  You sit down and list your out your goals with the best of intentions.  Then in short order life gets busy, you lose focus, and forget about them entirely.  Been there, done that, right?  So rather than dwelling on those past failures, most of us would rather explore some other method that we haven’t tried yet.  Don’t believe me? Just look at all the diet products on the market.  It’s a multi-billion dollar industry specifically because people are ALWAYS looking for another way.  But we’re going to do something a little bit different.  We’re going to focus ourselves every day on how to stay motivated to lose weight.  More on that later.

First let’s develop that thought on goals a bit further.  Setting goals is important any time you’re trying to effect real change in your life.  But it’s a double-edged sword.  Every time you set a goal, and then fail to achieve it, you condition yourself to failure.  It sucks to think about it in those terms, but that’s essentially what happens.  And for many of us, it happens all the time.  How many times in a given day do you say to yourself that you’re going to do something, only to not follow through?  Spend one whole day noticing how many times you do this. You might be surprised. And you’re deluding yourself if you think this doesn’t have a significant impact on your psyche.  Look at it from a different perspective.  If one of your family members or co-workers promised you that they would have something done by the end of the day and then didn’t follow through, would you notice?  Of course you would.  Every time you drop the ball on yourself, it registers on a subconscious level.  So what’s the solution?

Set your goals in a way that is both realistic and measurable.  Then acknowledge your successes, no matter how small.  First set up your long-term goal.  Your long-term goal should focus more on achieving the look and feeling that you ultimately desire for your body.  If you are a size 12 and would like to be a size 6, set that as your long-term goal.  What about all the steps in between a size 12 and a size 6?  You’re going to use those steps as your short-term goals.  We are wired for the short term.  So right after you decide on your long term goal, set some short term goals.  These need to be very specific.  A goal of “losing weight” or “get rid of body fat” is not going to get you anywhere.  An important and meaningful goal might be fitting into a pair of jeans that fit you a couple months ago.  Just don’t make the mistake of getting hung up on weight.  Achieving the look and feel you want for your body is much more rewarding than achieving a specific weight.

Spend a few minutes writing down your goals. In the next post on visualizing your weight loss goals we’re going to talk about keeping your goals front and center in your daily life. We’ll also cover using positive visualization to see those goals through. You’re on the right course. Get your long-term and short-term goals in place, then you’re through with the first step of how to stay motivated to lose weight.