DredNerd Fit by 50 Newsletter #3

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a doctor or other medical professional. I am only relating the experiences of my fitness journey, specifically this attempt to become my fittest self ever between the ages of 49 and 50. So, before you try any of the tips or techniques I cover get cleared by your doctor!

Now that the legalese is out of the way.

Tip #1 Be Consistent

You’ve started small. Now it’s time to be consistent. Let’s say you’ve decided to walk three times a week for thirty minutes at a time. You’ve got to stick to it. Schedule the time, make yourself an appointment for those three days. Block it out on your calendar. Make your exercise time as important as any other appointment you set or meeting you accept. This is about you and your health. Surely you can make yourself a priority for 30 minutes.

On the flip side, don’t beat yourself up if you miss a scheduled system. Be kind and compassionate with yourself.  Just start again the next day. This goes for your chosen method of eating as well. Say you blow your diet one day. You’re in a rush in the morning and hit McDonald’s for breakfast. You have a choice, you can say to yourself “Well I’ve messed up I might as well eat whatever I want for the rest of the day.” This can quickly spiral out of control and lead to days or weeks of poor eating choices. The other choice is to say to yourself “It’s okay. I messed up but I’m going to eat clean the rest of the day.” Or even if you eat poorly the whole day, start over the next day. Don’t let yourself get into the spiral.

Consistency is key because this is a long term game, a slight edge strategy. You make a few small changes at a time and repeat them until they become a habit and over time they have tremendous results. Then those good habits begin to cascade into other good habits and you begin to get a snowball effect, a positive spiral that accelerates you towards your goal.

So in short, make a plan and stick to your plan. Give it a time frame of say 90 days. Measure your progress during the time period. Look at your results and adjust. If you get off track, be gentle with yourself then get back on track as soon as possible.

Tip #2 Try Weighing Yourself Daily

Try weighing yourself daily. Most common advice goes against this by recommending weighing at most once a week. But just because advice is common doesn’t mean it is always correct or correct for everyone.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” ― Mark Twain

So, this idea came from the book The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss. In the book Ferriss relates the story of Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote. Phil was at 258 pounds and wanted to get down to 230 in six months time. However, he didn’t want to change much or anything about what he was doing. He decided to make one change to weigh himself daily and record it in a spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet included a chart with his starting weight on the upper left and his target weight on the lower weight. The chart also had lines for upper and lower bounds surrounding the target line. If Phil dropped below the lower bound he ate a little more. If he found himself above the upper bound, which apparently he never did, he planned to eat less.

That was it. He didn’t change anything else. He didn’t add exercise. He didn’t radically alter his diet. He lost about a pound a week and hit his six month goal. Amazing! Tim has kindly provided a similar spreadsheet on his website. I also found a blog post that has a nice picture illustrating the spreadsheet.

This is not to say that you cannot track your weight daily like this and make other modifications to your behavior as well. But remember some earlier tips about starting small and not trying to change too many things at once. If you change a lot at once you won’t know what’s actually working.