Side Effects May Include Becoming Lean

Often I hear people saying that they wan to lose weight, or in other words be lean. In a previous newsletter I talked about the importance of having a smaller waist size over being a certain weight (don’t get me started again on the stupidity of the Body Mass Index [BMI] scale that the NHS insists on using).

In my view being lean shouldn’t be an end in itself. Instead it should be a “side effect” of a healthy lifestyle. This is because being lean doesn’t mean being “thinner” or “slimmer” in the traditional sense. Yes, a lean person has lower amounts of fat, both visceral (fat inside the body around your organs) and subcutaneous (fat under your skin). But, a lean person will also have a good amount of lean muscle. They don’t have to be muscle bound hulks like bodybuilders. A swimmer, or a gymnast, or a runner, or someone who goes to the gym regularly will generally have decent amounts of lean muscle and be leaner than someone who does not do anything much athletic.

And here’s a fundamental truth: When we live a certain way, we look a certain way. The opposite is true too: When we look a certain way, it means we live a certain way. Being lean is a side effect of a healthy, lean lifestyle. Our output reflects our input.

That includes how we live. Waking up each day hoping to be thinner doesn’t translate into being lean. It’s like hoping to be rich. Being lean, like being rich, isn’t something we can impose or manifest from wishful thinking. Rather, leanness emerges as a side effect of our lifestyle, mindset, and who we are.

We all know someone who has followed every diet going for the last few years with every one of them being unsuccessful. Why? Those people were 100% focused on having a lean body.

Could that be the problem? Sometimes the more we aim at something and make it the only target, the more we might miss it. How can this be? Surely being laser focused on our goals is a good thing?

The problem here is emphasising the outcome, rather than the quality of the process, and the behaviours and meaningful actions that get us there. In fact if we make “having a lean (or in common vernacular: a thinner or slimmer) body” the only focus, it may lead to downright unhealthy things, as we ignore the process and become tempted to take shortcuts (drugs, surgeries, starvation diets). And if we don’t get to our “lean body” goal in the way that we expect, or if we don’t reach that goal fast enough (whatever that means), we might criticise ourselves, feel like a failure, and/or give up.

But when we make the journey itself the reward – for instance if we enjoy learning more about resistance training, cooking healthy meals from scratch, and living a healthy lifestyle
– then there are no shortcuts.  And we feel good about every step on the road.

“But David, you’re wrong! I went on a diet and got lean and it was my only focus!”

Uh huh… A short term diet/workout blitz may well help you lose fat. But if the sole reason that someone eats nutritious foods and exercises is to lose fat, what happens when there is no more fat to lose? We often expect fat loss to be good enough to justify the eating changes and exercise that made it possible. But this isn’t always the case. Once we have a lean body or have hit our target weight on the scales (careful… I’ll be off on one again about why I don’t have a set of scales in the house!), then what? What else brings us joy and value?

How many people do you know who let their eating and/or exercise habits slip after getting to their goal weight? That’s a bit like brushing your teeth once and then never doing it again.

But here’s the good news. We don’t have to worry about losing our lean body if a lean body is merely a side effect of who we are.

So that is why, when I am working with clients, I will aim to have them forget about “fitting into a smaller dress size” or “benching 100 kilos”. In short I will aim to have them forget about making “a lean body”, and instead coach them on how to “live healthily”.

Embracing larger, more meaningful incentives is much more powerful for clients – the lean body becomes the side effect of understanding who you are and what is truly, deeply important to you; honouring your body with meaningful choices; and focusing on the quality
of the journey.

So if we break it down, there are three main areas to think about:

• Personal: Why do you want a lean body? Take the first answer you give, and then ask why that is important to you. Why do you REALLY want a lean body? Take the next answer and ask what achieving that result will mean to you. Keep going until you understand your ‘Why’, which will be what is truly important to you. Are you living your core values? Do you have the skills and knowledge you need to be lean?

• Social: Who do you spend time with, healthy people or unhealthy people? This isn’t about “good” versus “bad” people. Rather the people we’re around simply encourage us, knowingly or unknowingly, to live a certain way. What do your social activities consist of? Do you do leanness supporting things for fun? For instance, do you enjoy cooking, dancing, or walking the dog? Do you have a mentor or coach
  who supports a lean lifestyle?

• Environmental: How do you structure your home and work environment? Does that support leanness? For example,  are healthy foods easy to get and prepare? Conversely, are junk foods far away and hard to get? Do you make the healthy option the easiest option? If not, how could you make it easier, more convenient, and more pleasant? Do you make the unhealthy option the hardest option? If not, how could you make it tougher, more inconvenient, and more painful?

Here are some examples to give you an idea of what I am talking about (but remember these are specific to me):

• Personal: I am motivated to have a lean body so I feel good, have confidence, can function well in my job, sleep well, and be there for my family. I read lots to learn more about exercise techniques, nutrition and the best way to improve behaviours. And I read and listen to people who inspire me.

• Social: I spend a lot of time with my personal training clients, who on the whole are trying to be fitter/stronger/healthier. Outside of the gym I walk the dog almost daily for a minimum of forty five minutes at a time. And, yes, I enjoy a beer (or rum) or two with friends, but I am mindful of when I partake.

• Environmental: I’ll let you into a little secret. Crisps are my Kryptonite. If they are in the house they will be eaten. As a result, they are not bought on the weekly shopping trip any more. If they aren’t in the house, I can’t eat them. Simple.

So the key message is value the doing: A lean body occurs as a result of changing our attitude and the way we do things. Live lean, be lean.

When you focus on how you are living, feeling and thinking each day, and on the quality of each choice that you make, your body will respond accordingly and you will become leaner as a happy by-product of the journey that you are taking, rather than it being the end goal. Yes it takes time, and some of the choices may be challenging, but if you live as healthily as possible, then that happy by-product will happen.