90/10 Rule

Or 80/20 - but don't go any lower than that.  What am I talking about, you ask?  I'm talking about life.  I believe we can all live happy, healthy lives by fashioning nearly ever aspect of it around these percentages.   


What kind of ground beef should I buy?  The leaner the better - 90/10 is great, 80/20 is okay - but definitely don't drop below that or you're wasting your money and your health. 


That's a simple one, but let's dig a little deeper into these numbers.  We'll start with our weight loss plan.  The key to weight loss is 90 percent food and 10 percent exercise.   Obviously if you work out A LOT it could possibly be just 80 percent the food you eat, but again, never less than that.  Because let's face it - no matter how much you exercise, you're not going to be able to eat whatever you want and lose weight.  I am living proof of that.  I've been a certified fitness instructor for 10 years.  I have worked out consistently - meaning 3 days a week at the very, very least.  Those are just classes that I TEACH.  Right now I TEACH class 5 days a week - and that's been a pretty consistent number for me over the past 10 years.  There might be a month or two stretch where I'm only teaching one class that takes place two days a week, but that's honestly a very rare occurrence.    There have been times where I've taught two different classes on the same day, which would equal two hours of teaching exercise a day - and sometimes back to back. 


Remember, those are just my teaching hours - now let me add to that the workouts I do for myself for fun!  Yes, I said it - FUN. I have a passion for fitness - luckily Steph and I both do.  So when we find ourselves with free time we are usually looking for a good workout class to take or an opportunity to take a long walk somewhere.  We are lucky enough to have our lunch hour together, so we also generally find a way to be active for at least 20 minutes during that time period, whether it be going for a walk or doing yoga or an exercise video at the office. So, by the time you put together the teaching hours, the noon workouts, the boxing classes with our own trainer, evening walks with the dogs - it's not unheard of for Steph and I to be physically active 7 days a week, anywhere from 1-3 hours a day.    Now let me just tell you, and I hope you understand, I don't in any way say this to brag or build myself up - but I need you to understand all this in order for me to make my next point.  EVEN WITH all of the exercise I've done over the past 10 years, I have remained within the same weight range, give or take 10 (or 30) pounds, depending on whether I'm in a "diet" phase of my life or not. EXERCISE ALONE DOES NOT MAKE A PERSON LOSE WEIGHT.  

Note to reader: This eye candy was added to catch your attention....did it work?

Is exercise important? VERY.  Is it helpful in losing weight?  Most definitely.  And people who exercise AND follow a healthy eating plan are much more likely to lose weight and keep it off.   Losing weight is 90 percent what you put in your mouth and 10 percent how you move your body.   Let me give you another example.  A glass of skim milk (because we ARE health conscious) and 4 oreo double stuff (be honest - we all go for the double stuff because anything else is just a "waste" of  calories) totals up to 363 calories.    I can eat that snack in about 15 minutes - giving myself extra time to slowly dunk and drink.    In order to BURN that many calories by exercising, it would take about an hour, depending on what exercise I decide to do.  I guarantee you it would take at least twice the time to burn off that snack than it did to eat that snack.    And that's the SNACK. We have to burn more calories in a day than we actually consume, so that's just the EXTRA exercise you would have to do on top of  whatever workout it would take to burn off your regular meals.  


Bottom line is, you won't lose weight if you don't change your diet.  If you go from doing absolutely no physical activity to exercising an hour a day, you'll definitely see a change in the scale over the first couple of weeks without changing your eating habits.   But  a lot of that is water weight and bloating and sodium that your body is releasing and it will quickly level out.    


Again, I'm not saying you SHOULDN'T exercise - because I'm a huge, strong, firm believer in the benefits of exercise and I know it will help your weight and your health overall.  But if you need to lose weight, follow the 90/10 rule with diet and exercise.


This blog is getting longer than I intended - so I'm going to make this part 1 of 2 (or 3 maybe - who knows!!)  :-)


Peace, Love, Happiness and Health!!!