Discover the 5 Fitness Secrets of the Naturally Lean

You know who they are, the naturally lean people. You see them on almost every magazine cover wearing their ridiculously skinny jeans and their washboard revealing midriff tops. Their super charged metabolisms seem to burn off anything they eat leaving their bodies impossibly lean without any effort.

They are just too perfect to live and, truth be told, they do not really exist. These people with seemingly impossibly fast metabolisms, these people that eat anything that they want are just like you and me. They just have a secret weapon against fat that anyone can use, including you.

Secret Weapon #1: They eat when they are hungry.
Here is a statement that I want you to burn into your memory; if as a society we only ate when we were hungry, there would be no overweight people in the world.

Your body has the ability to regulate your weight naturally. Your brain knows that extra fat on your frame is unhealthy; it actually fights against it - for awhile. However, society has programmed us to overeat.

Portions are enormous, snack foods like chips and cookies are not just encouraged, they are mandatory, almost everything in our world is somehow tied to food. That is right, you have been programmed to overeat.

Remember when you were a kid? You did not worry about watching calories. You ate when you were hungry. Somewhere along the way those natural eating patterns set by your own internal rhythms were overridden with imposed programming.

Maybe your parents made you clean your plate before leaving the table, maybe you learned to eat when you were stressed out, maybe you got into the habit of eating junk in front of the TV Somewhere along the line our natural habit of eating when we were hungry became eating when we are stressed, or sad, or bored, or distracted.

As a society we use food for almost anything but what it was intended for, a source of fuel. The first step to getting to lean is to separate actual hunger, from something masquerading as hunger. Thirst, lack of sleep, stress, boredom, all can trigger the hunger reflex.

There was a time when listening to your body and its internal rhythm was second nature. The first secret is to get back to the point where your body tells you what it needs and when it needs it - and you listen.

Secret Weapon #2: They eat the foods that they want to.

Our bodies have the innate ability to eat the foods that they need. What we call cravings are actually our bodies way of telling us we need something in that food to grow, heal, maintain.

However, just like our ability to regulate when we eat, we have reprogrammed or ability to regulate what we eat and how much we eat. Listening to our bodies is not something that is encouraged in our society, as a matter of fact the assault on our natural inclinations is relentless.

Every commercial, every billboard, every magazine advertisement screams that we should consume, and consume as much as possible. Not only have we built a fast food restaurant on every corner, we can have it delivered if we do not want to leave the couch. We have an entire industry dedicated to getting us to overeat.

Once again, the secret here is to listen to your body, not that commercial. Have you ever felt bad after eating food that you knew was unhealthy? Maybe it gave you heartburn, maybe it made you sluggish and tired, maybe you got a headache. All of these things are your body way of telling you, no, screaming at you that you ate the wrong thing.

Now, how do you feel after you have eaten a meal that you know is good for you. A quality lean protein source, lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, a complex carbohydrate.

I would be willing to bet that you feel great! You have more energy. Your mood is lifted. Your workout was more satisfying. What do you think your body is telling you when feel this way? Listen to that message. Embrace that feeling.

Secret Weapon #3: They do not count calories.
We are all creature of habit. Take a look back at any week of your life and you will see patterns in the way you eat. We usually eat at roughly the same times everyday, and we usually eat the same things from the same places.

Once the pattern is recognized and established you know where your calories are coming from, and once they are counted, you know how many you are taking in. Now of course there are some times when there will be exceptions, like when you are traveling or special occasion dinners.

However, for the most part your diet stays pretty constant. The trick here is to know the calories in the foods you eat, to make that knowledge a part of the eating process.

Once you know the calorie counts for all of the foods that you eat, you automatically know how many calories you are taking in on a particular day and if you are over or under your calorie goal. So the secret here is, do not count - know!

Secret Weapon #4: They do not keep a food journal.
Now I know that I am going to get some grief for this one. As a trainer I insist that all of my clients keep a food journal. Well, you might ask, how can not keeping one be a secret to being impossibly lean?

My philosophy on eating healthy, as well as working out is that it should become a part of your lifestyle. It should become second nature to know how many calories that you are taking in and the quality of those calories.

Keeping a food journal is just a way to establish patterns, once the patterns are established, once you recognize the parameters, once all of this is engrained and your old damaged programming is rewritten, the food journal is internalized, just like it was when you were a kid, before your natural rhythms were disrupted. It is just like counting calories, sure you have to do it before you can know what the count is.

Sure you have to keep your journal before you can establish patterns. But once you have, your day to day eating is established. I cannot tell you how many times I have asked to see my clients food journals and I see page after page of the same things over and over. Once you reach that point, the need for a food journal is done.

Secret Weapon #5: They do not Workout.
This is another one of those remember when you were a kid scenarios. Kids do not go to the gym. They do not need to. They play. Their workout is whatever is the most fun at the time.

Playing tag, riding bikes, roller skating, climbing the jungle gym all kept us burning calories when we were little. It is time to get back to that mindset. Workouts should not be a chore. They should be fun. If your workouts are not fun, you are doing it wrong.

If you do not like running, do not run. Ride a bike instead. Find a trail that inspires you, invite friends to go along. If riding a bike does not get your mojo running then go surfing. The point is find something that you love doing, and you will never workout a day in your life.

I happen to love weight lifting, always have. Even when I was a little kid I had a set of dumbbells. Ok, maybe I was a weird kid, but the point is that when I workout, I am doing something that I love.

Every one of us has a favorite activity. It might have been awhile since you done it, you may have even forgot about it, but somewhere in your brain is the memory of pure joy that only physical exertion can bring you. Find that bliss, it will save you.

So there you have it, the secrets to being impossibly lean. Just like most things in life, the answers are simple, they are just not easy. Stick to the basics, make minor adjustments and have fun. Getting lean can be a rewarding journey. Do not be afraid to start that journey today.

Article From: WeightLossStudio.com

Michael Arnone is the Tiger Fitness Ambassador for Tiger Fitness Los Angeles, the premier personal training company, fitness boot camp and fat loss experts in Los Angeles and Santa Monica. www.TigerFitnessLA.comwww.TigerFitBootCamp.com

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