1, 2, 3, 4 ... Damn, Where was I?

Once Upon a Time ...

... a young mother decided it was time to make a change and signed up at 24 Hour Fitness.  Her young, good looking, fit trainer, Sean, sat down and talked about her goals.  She told him, "I'm here to learn how to work out.  Don't talk to me about food."  He said, "Well, we have to talk about your diet."  She looked him square in the eye and said, "Don't ... talk ... to ... me ... about .... food."

To his credit, he didn't for 10 months.  During that 10 months, she worked out HARD - a good 8 hours a week of swimming, cardio and hard isometric exercises.  She reduced some of her food intake to a point.

By Month 9, she had lost 30lbs and in that month, lost something like 6" off her body.  She was thrilled!

Gung ho for Month 10, she continued on and at the end of Month 10, found she had lost only  half an inch off her entire body.

So, she went to her trainer and said, "Why didn't I lose anything?"

He replied quietly, "It's your food."

She rolled her eyes and says, "That's impossible!  I've reduced my portion sizes!"

He sighed, leaned back in his chair and said, "It's your food."

Well, the heroine of this tale was indignant.  She said, "No, it's not! It's my metabolism, it's always been slow."

A slow smile came across that cute man's face, and with a glint in his eye, he said, "So, it's your metabolism, huh?"

"It's always been slow, " she said (a little uneasy about that glint in his eye).

"Well then, let's test it, " he said and motioned for her to sit down.

As she slowly sank into her seat, she said under her breath, "Oh ..... you can ... um, test it?"

"Sure can!" he smiled.

He then placed a breathing machine on her face and had her breathe for a few minutes.  At the end, he read the test results, looked over at her and said, "YOU'RE A LIAR.  You have the highest resting metabolic rate I've ever seen in a woman.  You burn 24 calories a minute just sitting there."

"What??" She exclaimed, "Then, what is it???"

He put his hands on his hips and said, "IT'S .... YOUR .... FOOOOOOOD."

And, for the first time, our heroine thought he just might be right.

So, for the next two days, she documented what she had eaten.  She counted everything and found she was eating about 2500 - 3000 calories a day, and over 200 grams of fat a day. Her sodium intake was about 4000 grams a day and her carbs were well over 200 grams.  She shook her head in disbelief and thought, "I wonder what I was doing BEFORE I started reducing my food intake."

The next time I, I mean, our heroine, went to the gym, she had to face that trainer's smug look.  But, it was worth it and once she started keeping track of what she was putting into her body, the weight started falling off again.  And to top it off, for the first time in a long time, she was being honest about her food intake to everyone, but most importantly, to herself.

But, counting is sooooooo boring ....

In my next blog, I'll show you the easy way to do this.

Challenge of the Day:
Face your excuses.  If one of them is that your metabolism is slow, get your butt into a gym and ask to be tested. Find out for sure, and go from there.  Until next time!