Hey guys!  Dan Galanto is back with another killer guest post for us! Dan is a published author (check out his book HERE), he’s a fitness professional, an epidemiologist, a public speaker and he’s also my main squeeze ;o)

In this article, Dan talks about one major distraction that lots of us focus on when we have a goal of weight loss (or any goal for that matter) and why the “eat less exercise more” advice really isn’t helpful at all for anyone who is looking to improve their lifestyle.  It’s lazy advice and lifestyle change is almost never that cut and dry.  Check out what Dan has to say and let us know what your thoughts are on the “eat less exercise more” advice once you’re done reading this fantastic piece.

{The one NEW thing you HAVEN’T been trying that will get you RESULTS!}

Did that tagline get you? It gets me every time. That tagline alone implies there is something that the author of the article knows that you don’t. It also implies the knowledge is new and for whatever reason, it’s better… because new is better, right?

I’ve heard time and time again “Dan, I’ve tried everything to lose weight and nothing works.” When people tell me they’ve tried it all, I actually believe them. They’ve probably tried every workout, every diet, every fitness fad and every product out there, because when we see the word “new” in the tagline, we think it must be something better that we haven’t tried yet, when in reality, it’s just a twist on the same old “eat less, exercise more” strategy we’ve had pushed upon us forever. But there’s actually something these people who can’t lose weight haven’t been trying: A lifestyle assessment.

Let’s say you’re a nurse and you’ve recently gained some unwanted weight and nothing that the fitness industry tells you to do works. Well I can imagine it’s because the advice isn’t tailored to your root cause of weight gain. Nurses, typically nurses that work overnight, are probably stressed out from the hustle and bustle, potential lack of sleep, lack of breaks and put-others-before-yourself mentality in the workplace. Picture this: 3a.m. You’ve been on your feet since 7p.m. and haven’t eaten. You’re tired, the doctors won’t listen to you, and you’ve spent all your free time entertaining kids or catching up on work chores and you’ve skipped your midnight meal. If you’re like me, you’d definitely either run outside to the nearest fast food place (the only thing open at 3am) or the vending machine to get something in you for fuel for the next however many hours you have left. Typically these food choices are not the best and overtime, contribute to your unwanted weight gain.

How about another scenario: Growing up in a culture where you see magazine covers and television shows where the people on them are so unbelievably perfect that you made it your goal- you’re going to look like them. So you spend way too much time in the gym, meal prepping, avoiding the “bad stuff” and devoting yourself to achieving your dream look. Come to find out all this work results in little reward. You may have heard peers or family say, “You spend all this time eating well and exercising, why don’t you look like her yet?” Or maybe you’ve been saying the same thing to yourself. This results in feeling like a failure. Not only that, but you also see magazines with celebrities on the cover at the beach exaggerating the small “flaws” in their body- stretch mark here, a muffin top there- or maybe you’ve heard your friends criticize someone behind their back for the same small flaws. This leads you to believe if you are not unbelievably perfect and you have the same flaws, you must be deserving of the same scrutiny you’ve witnessed. Just having the belief that we’re unfit or overweight or unperfect leads us to act in self-sabotaging behavior. We believe we’re unfit, and no matter what we do, we can’t look like the cover models, so why would even bother trying?

A really interesting infographic showing how people’s bodies are scrutinized in the media vs how they probably should be looked at in reality

For these two scenarios (and many more), telling someone they need to exercise more and eat better is not helpful because it’s just not that simple.

A nurse who’s on the clock and stressed from saving lives does not have the same luxury as a nine-to-fiver who can eat whenever they please and access healthier food options. A nurse may not even have the mental capacity for something like meal prepping after a physically and emotionally stressful day at the hospital. The solution for the nurse isn’t to eat better and exercise more. The solutions from their lifestyle assessment could potentially be: stress reduction, social support and maybe even more flexible break times so that they can prepare for high stress work days in some way.

For the person influenced by culture and friends, their lifestyle assessment might tell them they need to change their perspective on themselves, do the inside work first and learn how to feel good despite having stretch marks or a muffin top before they begin trying to change the outside.

As you can see, there are many reasons why someone might not reach their fitness goals. The fitness industry deems the problem as eating too much and moving too little along with lack motivation and dedication to their goal and this isn’t always the case. Most people know how to walk and run, do squats, crunches, jumping jacks, etc., and know, generally speaking, what a healthy meal does and doesn’t look like. Telling someone they need to exercise more and eat better is a no brainer and it’s a really lazy way to go about fixing the problem which is why it doesn’t work.

What people need instead of this overarching piece of advice is an individualized approach because weight gain is an individualized issue. Whether it’s their job, their mental health, their group of friends, where they live, or societal standards, their lifestyle needs to change before their physical body can.

You might have heard the term “Lifestyle Intervention” before. Sure, the term Lifestyle Intervention might seem cliché or like something you don’t need, but you if you’re struggling time and time again to reach your goals and you keep coming up short, a lifestyle intervention is exactly what you need. People have to assess their own lifestyle and look at what needs to change there before they start in on the diet and exercise.

I talk extensively about lifestyle change in my new book A Big Distraction: A Different Look at Obesity. I give the reader the tools they need in order to ignore the distractions (aka “eat less and exercise more”) and assess their lifestyle to find the best solution for their individual root cause of weight gain. The last thing people need is another “eat less exercise more” suggestion.

The good news here is you don’t have to go it alone. Progressive fitness professionals are popping up all over who understand that fitness is a supplement to a more individualized solution. They understand that doing the newest fitness fad or falling victim to yet another fitness product isn’t helping anyone if nothing changes in someone’s day to day lifestyle. They understand that when people say, “Fitness changed my life,” what they are really saying is, “My life changed, and my fitness followed.”

Progressive fitness professionals include, you guessed it, Lauren (you know, the person’s site you’re on).  She’s not only had to do some lifestyle assessments herself, but she’s got the educational background to help you through your own personal journey as well.

Reaching fitness goals with the wrong information is nearly impossible. It’s like tying your shoes with chopsticks because someone told you it’s “newest and best way” to tie your shoes. What we need to realize, and what I’m hoping you as the reader have realized by now, is that we don’t need fancy fitness equipment and diets to reach our goals. You’ve had what you needed all along, you’ve just been distracted by misinformation. If you want help realizing your own individual solution to reaching your fitness goals reach out to Lauren then order your copy of A Big Distraction. You’ll be on the straight and narrow path to a long-term healthier lifestyle.

Dan Galanto
danvicgal@gmail.com
Instagram: @letsdolegs & @DanGalano

I hope you enjoyed Dan’s article!  If you’re someone who has been following the eat less exercise more advice and it’s not working for you, it’s time to try something different.  Seriously.  If you need help figuring out what that is, shoot me a message and we’ll set up a free call to talk about your goals, your struggles and how we can simplify things for you! Click HERE and let’s get you started! xo Lauren