Obesity Rates Are Skyrocketing
Many of us need to do something to lose weight and get in shape. But look around, whether it’s television, radio, news print, magazines, dieting is geared towards women. Sure a man can pick up a women’s magazine to get useful information but is he going to? We don’t see dieting columns in the sports section of the newspaper, there aren’t a ton of health and fitness tips in fishing, hunting or car magazines. Weekend sports shows aren’t really focusing on how men can lose weight.
These media outlets were not developed to talk about health and nutrition, but the point is, when you think about reaching the average 35-55 year old male who is overweight to obese and highly sedentary, it’s a pretty good bet you'll find him reading the sports section, watching one sports shows, or reading a host of sport focused magazines that have nothing to do with diet and fitness. Is it because he is simply uninterested or is it because there is nothing for him to be interested in?
The irony is that dieting and fitness are an essential foundation of virtually every sport, and the very athletes that are watched by millions of men across the country are likely very disciplined in their nutrition intake and fitness plans. The problem is that the average male relates to these individuals as athletes not as examples of how to diet or train. The gap between the average male and these elite athletes is simply too far and because so little is discussed about dieting and fitness for the average male, men simply don’t see these athletes as models for health and fitness behaviors.
What is even more ironic is that men are very well suited to succeed at dieting. If you think about dieting as a skill or set of behaviors that must be mastered then you can think about dieting in the same context as any sport, hobby or pastime. Whether it’s football, basketball, hunting, fishing, racing, construction, car repair etc. all of these are skill based activities. To do these things, you must know what the activity entails (i.e. the rules of basketball, the anatomy of a car engine, appropriate match between fish and bait), you must want to do the activity, and then you must begin to learn the skills that will enable you to be successful (how to run, shoot, dribble, how to change out an alternator, how to cast a line).
Dieting is no different. You need to know what to eat, you need to want to eat differently, and you need to know how to change your habits and routines. Dieting is not a girly thing- dieting is a sport!! It’s a set of tasks that can be mastered. The challenge of mastering a task is very much suited to the male personality style.
So guys- here’s how to take the sport of dieting and make it your own: First, make sure you know what foods to eat. That is the easy part- there are a million dieting books and free dieting resources out there. The American Heart Association (www.americanheart.org) and the Small Steps program (www.smallstep.gov) have excellent information you can use.
Use The S-M-A-R-TTM Training Strategy
S- Set a goal. Be specific. Make it reachable. Short term and long term – it’s hard to stick with it if your only goal is going to take you 3-5 months to achieve. If you want to lose 40 lbs., then think of it in 5 lb increments. You wouldn’t start a weight lifting program by trying to bench press 315lbs.
M- Monitor what you eat- Write everything you eat down on paper. Period. The more you write it down the less likely you are to cheat. It’s a food log.
A- Arrange for success- Set up your environment to help you, not hurt you. So for example, you can’t snack on sweets if they are not in the house. But by keeping healthy snacks around, you make it easier to make the right snack choice.
R- Recruit a support team- getting to your goal is a lot easier if your family and friends are pulling for you. Sticking with you diet once you have reached your goal is also more likely if those around you know you are trying to stick with it.
T- Treat yourself. Dieting shouldn’t be torture. If it is, you are going to fail. You must create an incentive program. If you have cut down on sweets consistently for 2 weeks or when you lose that first five pounds, give yourself a reward. Dieters that are rewarded are more likely to stick with the program than those dieters that achieve the weight-loss only through depravation and painful experiences.
You’ve mastered many tasks in your life. You learned how to play football, basketball, baseball. You learned how to replace the sparkplugs and fix the plumbing. Dieting is the same thing. Here is the one big difference. You learn how to diet and you have learned a skill that not only will improve your health, it may save your life.