Wednesday, 17 September 2008

The Truth About Abs - It Doesn't Take Any Discipline?

I thought I'd post this interview with Mike Geary at Truth About Abs as it neatly expresses my feelings about discipline and acheiving your dream body.  When you 'diet' using 'willpower' and 'discipline' you have to work really hard to keep going.  But when you make lifestyle changes that you enjoy, it all becomes rather effortless:

"I've been interviewed a lot lately for fat loss teleseminars, radio shows, etc, and one question really caught my attention recently.

I believe I was asked how I maintain so much discipline to always eat healthy and rarely ever cheat.

Well, first of all, I don't always eat perfect, but if I do cheat, it's only a couple times a month and only when I eat out. So basically, I never keep any junk food at all in the house.  And even when I do "cheat"... I still never eat french fries, soda, donuts, or candy.

But I get asked often how I stay so disciplined to eat so healthy and always bypass the fries, sodas, and other junk foods that we're all bombarded with on a daily basis.

I thought about it for a second, and my answer was that I don't really think it's about discipline for me.  Instead, I have something going on in my head that makes the thought of eating deep fried food, candy, donuts, or sodas not appealing at all to me.

In fact, it even goes a step beyond junk food just not appealing to me...

My mindset is that these junk foods actually appear disgusting to me and I have no desire to eat them at all. I actually crave healthy foods instead.

So it made me think... Why do some of us see junk foods and not crave them at all (and even view them as disgusting), while others see junk foods and cannot resist the temptation?

That's a tough call...and when it comes to how our minds work, things can get complicated.

For me personally, I can say that I think the reason why junk food is so revolting to me is that I've spent so many years reading about all of the negative effects that these foods have on your body... and digging into the actual science and the negative cellular reactions that they cause within your body.

Due to the fact that I've read in such depth about what these foods do to your body, I have ingrained in my head over the years that these foods are pure evil and therefore, I have no desire to eat them.

In fact, my dislike of junk foods is so deeply rooted at this point in my life, even the smell of deep fried chicken or donuts sometimes can make me feel sick, whereas the smell of a healthy meal makes me feel energized.

I never realized during all of these years that this was the reason that I eat so healthy on a regular basis. Everyone always said I just had "discipline"... but now that I've actually thought about it more, I've discovered that it's not discipline, but rather that my brain views junk foods with such a negative view, that the thought of eating junk food almost makes me feel sick.

This is interesting indeed. I'm not a brain-science expert, so I can't explain exactly how to adopt this type of mindset. All I can say is... keep continually educating yourself on nutrition and how different types of foods are processed and react in your body.

Hopefully, by learning exactly what is going wrong in your body when you consume trans fats or excess processed sugars, perhaps that will help you to view junk foods in such a negative way that you no longer crave them at all.

Good luck!

Here are a couple additional nutrition articles of mine that might help you make healthier food choices:

Protein Bars or Junk Food?
http://www.truthaboutabs.com/protein-bars-energy-nutrition.html

Healthier Post-Workout Meals and Shakes
http://www.truthaboutabs.com/post-workout-meals-shakes.html

Energy Drinks or Fat-Fertilizer?
http://www.truthaboutabs.com/energy-drinks.html

Don't be lazy... be lean"

Mike Geary
Certified Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer
Founder - http://TruthAboutAbs.com & http://BusyManFitness.com
http://AvalancheSkiTraining.com


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