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Elastic waist-band pants are the enemy to everyone trying to maintain or achieve an ideal weight. Isn’t it amazing how they allow people to gain tons of weight without having to acknowledge it? Are you one of those people in stretchy pants? If so……go denim shopping. Jeans rarely lie. At that rate, neither does the scale.
I’ve had several new clients come in lately who’ve underestimated their weight by well over ten pounds. How does that happen? Elastic waist-bands. Now, I’m not writing this to pick on pants. I’m writing this, because I’ve recently experienced an influx of people who just have no clue where they are physically. When they tell me they “‘think” they weigh 146, but find out they actually weigh 159 … alarms go off in my head.
Thirteen pounds isn’t an enormous amount of weight to gain, but it’s not irrelevant either. Do you think if they had weighed themselves weekly or even bi-weekly they would have put the brakes on before they gained that much? Yeah. I think so. I’m not a proponent of obsessing about weight as you may already know; I work to increase my clients overall health and help them to achieve their fitness goals. But weight is a factor in fitness. It just is. Weigh too much and you increase your chances of diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, injuries, etc…
Denial doesn’t do us any favors. If you have an issue, deal with it. If it’s your waistline…measure it. Ever wonder how people get to 300, 400 or 500 pounds? They were in denial! Sure, they may have realized they weren’t slim and trim anymore, but I’m confident most just avoided the scale after they hit 250. Then they just invested in pants with stretchy waist-bands.
Don’t be that guy. Don’t be that girl. Get real with yourself. If you believe you might have gained weight, jump on the scale and find out. Get educated on how to solve your problem, create a plan and stick with it. Then MONITOR your progress.
- If you are moving in the right direction, stick with your program.
- If you are falling back, do some re-evaluating.
- If you’re sticking with a plan and going nowhere…..get a new plan.
- If you are just failing to stick with the plan, then put your foot down and get back to it. Excuses rank right up there with denial.
Folks, life is short. We only have so much time to be the people we want to be and live the life we want to live. Earn a body you’re happy in and proud of. This fitness thing……it’s absolutely attainable, and there is no DENYING that!
Fitz,
I got on the scale after reading this article and am 19 pounds over what I thought I was. I am shocked. I will read more of your advice and set up a personal phone consult with you. Thank you for writing this. I felt like it was written just for me Queen of Denial! I’m getting your cookbook too. Thank you so much.
Rachel.