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Avoid sugar and foods with added sugar (this is hard!). Study it, and find out where you can make healthy changes. Keep it simple, stupid: Make an honest accounting of everything you eat over a typical week-most people never take the time to do this. Do as many of these as you can and continuously switch between them! There are also weight loss supplements, jiggle machines, colon cleanses. Let’s overly complicate this: There are a ton of “special” diets out there: celebrity diets, diets that include only smoothies, diets that eliminate all meats, diets that eliminate almost all carbs, raw food diets. Exercise certainly doesn’t hurt, but it takes a change in the way you are eating to cause significant and lasting weight loss.
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We should all strive to be a “healthy weight”-not too thin, and not too heavy-and living an active, fit lifestyle.Īnother misconception is that simply adding exercise to one’s current lifestyle will cause weight loss. It’s also important to note that being thin does not necessarily mean being healthy or fit. But let’s be real: extra weight can not only become its own health issue, but it also makes exercising much more difficult. I don’t mean to offend anyone, and I realize that this is a sensitive topic. Here are some humble suggestions I offer you if you are motivated to get into shape in 2018, each with its own “overly complicated” plan, and then a “keep it simple, stupid” plan. When you are faced with information overload about getting back to fitness, I recommend opening up the “Journal of Common Sense” and asking yourself if what you are planning 1) is reasonable, 2) is practical, and 3) is sustainable. I am now convinced that keeping it simple works!
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I have been guilty many times of being “stupid” and overly complicating a training plan, diet routine, or injury. Not because you’re stupid, but more because we 21 st century humans are overthinking things to the point of unnecessary and unproductive complexity. I love the KISS principle and find it so very important to reflect on here in 2018.
PLAN YOUR KEEP IT SIMPLE HOW TO
With all of this special stuff, you hardly even have to exercise!Īsk most long-time veterans of endurance sports or exercise their opinion on how to get in shape however, and they will likely answer more simply-“Just run.” “Get outside every day.” Or, “keep it simple, stupid!” Someone who is motivated to get in shape and starts doing a little research on the topic may soon be convinced that they need special shoes, socks of a particular fabric, a special and painfully restrictive diet, just the right GPS watch/fitbit with all the latest features, a coach, the perfect smoothie recipe, and a crazy-detailed training program that has you scheduled for the next six months.
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Between the explosion of social media information sharing, new “studies” that are constantly trying to show us the best way to add a few more days to our lives, and a million and one products to make you better, stronger, faster, and thinner, it can be difficult to find your way through all the muck! Now more than ever, people are making getting into shape a far-too-complex undertaking. The KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid) states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided – Wikipedia
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