The Body as a Machine

One of the most important things to start with is to frame your mind. This is not a plan to get fit, this is not a plan to lose weight, this is a lifestyle change. Changing your life and focusing on living longer and surrounding yourself with positive thinking people, hopefully some will be family members and loved ones, you will make changes that stick. It is the positive thinking and desire to be healthy that will cause side effects such as a slimmer waist line, a more tone physique, a better healthier you.

There is nothing that say you can't go on a sugar binge, a sweet craze, even a high calorie vacation week. However, having a body that recognizes these events as that is what is important. Which leads me to lesson number one - your body is a machine. Got it? Your mind is what carries your emotions and drives the rest of you to be depressed, happy, etc causing you to feel better when you eat or spend money etc. It is the chemicals in your mind that are released which makes you feel better or worse throughout the day in reaction to these activities. Your body will continue to react as a machine. So step one, start thinking of your body as a machine!

You have learned thus far in life that your body may not fit into the scenario of many diets. It is difficult to fit such strict plans, that you know will work if you can follow them to a tee, that the well-known diets layout. However, what happens when you fall short or have a vacation planned. We all know what happens, you gain the weight back, you lose any muscle you gained and what follows is depression and feelings of failure that keep you or the side of gaining. All of this is your mind doing this, not the machine that knows none of these emotions.

So, how does the machine work?

I am not going to provide scientific detail as if I were a fitness expert. What I will explain is the most basic concepts of how your body works in order to frame the context. Your body has the job or managing the consumption and exertion of energy throughout the body. It is constantly learning your normal behavior and calorie exertion in order to make decisions on how to process foods that you take in.

More simply and for example, if you eat irregularly your body will begin to react accordingly, storing certain proteins and fats for processing during the longer periods without food intake. This is why you hear of so many programs talking about eating regular amounts of food at regular intervals. The idea here is to train your body to know that it doesn't have to store carbs for later use because it will get them regularly throughout the day. Food intake at regular intervals and with normalized quantities allows the body to expend the energy on a more regular schedule. Exerting this energy, in turn, makes your body feel more energized, it is more readily available to you rather than being stored for later.

Taking it one step further, is exercise. At this point I am not talking about the 3 times a week for 30 minutes to an hour, just talking about normal, “get the body moving” type of exercise. This could be talking a walk around the office, to the vending machine, to someone's office rather than calling them, to get a glass of water instead of asking the kids to get it for you, that kind of stuff. Your body will begin to make this energy available to you right away to be burned for this activity because it already knows it will be getting more food in a few hours so it doesn't matter. Are we starting to trigger an "ah-ha" yet?

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