Tune Into The 10,000 Years of Exercise History for Ultimate Weight Loss

Ungh (pronounced Un-Ga) the Caveman probably didn’t have a Cybex home gym in his cave. Nor did he make cave drawings of his buddies doing bicep curls with two, 10-pound wild boars.

Ungh was a mobile creature that relied on only one form of transportation. His feet. He hunted, gathered, dragged, lifted and flung whatever he needed to get through the day.

That's a far cry from punching away at the keyboard, picking up the phone receiver and carrying our lunch trays from the cash wrap to our table 20 or so feet away.

Ungh, of course, is imaginary, but what he represents is the essence of this article and the path to optimal health.

Because I brought up the Paleolithic age, does than mean I'm saying that we should live like cavemen?

Absolutley not.

I’ll be the first to tell you that camping is a fantastic construct on paper or when it’s talked about at the dinner table, but put me out in the woods in a tent on cold earth and I long to be in my own bed in complete comfort.

Our modern world offers so much luxury that it's a burden to remove all of them such as the butcher, modern agriculture and the interstate system. Remember it probably took Ungh months to visit his Great Aunt in Hunderland.

The purpose of this article is to give you back the power to control your fitness.

There is so much information about weight training, cardiovascular training, heart rate, BMI, RMR, BMR, Body Composition, VO2 Max, etc. that the average person begins to think that exercise is actually a science.

But do we as everyday people need to know about all that scientific stuff? Do we have to know how the plane flies in order to get to Fiji?

Exercise is something that is inherent to us. It's just something that we’re supposed to do--not to question its effectiveness.

Kids know it. They run, play, wrestle and dig in the dirt without anyone telling them that it’s the right thing to do. They just do it. It’s instinctual to move.

I love watching kids run because it is such an unaffected motion. Take a freeze-frame picture of a kid running and put it next to the best Kenyan runner in the world and I bet you'll see some eerie similarities. Running is a natural motion and our bodies know how to run and walk before they leave the womb even though our physical bodies can’t.

Many of the clients I work with on a regular basis have a very common dilemma. You might share it with them. They yo-yo. Lose the weight, gain the weight, lose the weight, gain the weight.

One of the reasons this happens is because of the science of exercise. The science gives conflicting views and it demonstrates how people can lose the weight without really addressing the issues of long term maintenance for weight loss--or at least how to KEEP it off.

When you're scared that you'll put the weight on, 9 times out of 10 you will put it on. It’s about intention, focus and motion, not about science. People who come to me are afraid to even start working out because they feel that if they work hard and lose the weight that they'll eventually put it back on and it will be a huge waste of time. Yikes.

The philosophy of your exercise program should be simple. It should involve movement as a natural and everyday objective and take your busy schedule into account.

This is why I don’t think I’m contributing to the flack we read everyday in woman’s and men's magazines and mass produced fitness books—I’m convinced they’re the same, just with different models and covers on the front.

My contribution is that when we make motion our daily objective that we will in fact lose weight, be more productive and feel fantastic without having to think about what exercises get the best results in the quickest amount of time. I essentially want you to stop thinking about the challenge of putting exercise into your schedule and I want you to just do it--without much thought.

Non-smokers never think about smoking cigarettes. Smokers always think about it. People who quit smoking manage to understand this construct. If you need to quit smoking you can't make a big deal of it. You just have to stop thinking about cigarettes. Then you'll be a non-smoker. I promise.

Same with exercise. You have to stop thinking about being able to fit it in. It just has to fit. If it does, then you'll succeed.

Simple motion is the easiest way to get started and to get hooked. When we move, we feel vibrant and alive. Wouldn't you want to feel like that--even if it’s just a few days a week?

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You're Getting Fat from Carbs Too...

I was doing a search recently about fat cells and came across this:

It is also possible for fat cells to take up glucose and amino acids, which have been absorbed into the bloodstream after a meal, and convert those into fat molecules. The conversion of carbohydrates or protein into fat is 10 times less efficient than simply storing fat in a fat cell, but the body can do it. If you have 100 extra calories in fat (about 11 grams) floating in your bloodstream, fat cells can store it using only 2.5 calories of energy. On the other hand, if you have 100 extra calories in glucose (about 25 grams) floating in your bloodstream, it takes 23 calories of energy to convert the glucose into fat and then store it. Given a choice, a fat cell will grab the fat and store it rather than the carbohydrates because fat is so much easier to store.

So how does this apply to your energy levels and weight loss?

1. Carbs, which are turned to glucose in your body once ingested, do make you fat!

2. It takes your precious energy to transfer your glucose into fat. So when you eat a piece of 500 calorie cake, not only are you storing the extra sugars as fat, you're also getting tired. You need to use 125 calories to turn that glucose into fat! That's comparable to a 15 minute walk.

3. I always talk about efficiencies... when your body is doing an inefficient process you're suffering from the results. In this case unnecessary energy expenditure!