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Self-Sabotage Is The Biggest Enemy To Weight Loss Success
By Christina | September 16, 2009
I walked out of the gym today, sweaty and spent. As an aside, if you are not walking out of the gym in the same condition as me, you are doing something wrong! That said, I saw an unusual sight that stopped me in my tracks. Three women, who were in relatively decent shape, were standing on the sidewalk in front of the gym smoking.
This is the visual equivalent of seeing someone leave a spinning class, drenched in sweat, standing in the lobby eating donuts. No one knows what people really do in the privacy of their own homes after working out, but it is unusual to see people airing their vices so publicly in a place known for health and fitness.
The first question I asked myself when I saw the three women smoking right after exercising was “Why?” This can be interpreted a multiple of ways. Why were they endangering their health by smoking in the first place? Why did they even bother exercising if whatever cardiovascular gains they were making would just end up in smoke? Finally, why would they want to undermine the gains they made by exercising by smoking? The unfortunate truth is, even if people don’t smoke, they are making lifestyle choices daily that sabotage their weight loss efforts both in terms of diet and exercise.
How many of you work out regularly and intensely and then find yourself binge eating at some point during the day? Weight loss at the end of the day is still a numbers game. Burn more calories than you consume. Exercise is not a free pass to eat like there is no tomorrow. One problem that many people face when they exercise a lot is that they find themselves hungrier, much hungrier, than they would be if they didn’t exercise at all. This problem can be solved by eating slightly more calories, but making sure that those extra calories are in the form of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grain carbohydrates.
Be careful, however, to assess the real reasons why you may be overeating in spite of your due diligence with exercise. The closer people get to attaining their weight loss goals, the more likely they are to subconsciously try to sabotage their progress because of their fear of success in the weight loss battle. Don’t be one of those people. Embrace your proximity toward reaching the finish line and pat yourself on the back that all of your hard work has finally paid off.
Lack of sleep is another way that you may be undermining your weight loss success and not even know it. Studies have shown that sleep deprivation on a regular basis can trump any positive gains made by exercise. Most of us neglect getting a good night’s sleep regularly because of our crazy lives. We think we are doing amazing getting ourselves to the gym everyday only to find out that our 5 hour sleep might have cancelled out the benefits gained by exercising.
None of this is to say that you should stop exercising if you exhibit behaviors that undo or diminish the potential gains made by exercising. What it does do is send a warning flag to not view exercise as an isolated activity in your day. What you do before and after exercise determines if you are in danger of sabotaging your weight-loss efforts or aiding in your weight-loss success.
Topics: Exercise |
