Take Your Own Personal Fitness and Health Inventory

Do you know how unhealthy you really are? Do you really know what you are doing to your body? I get calls and emails many times from people telling me they need to lose weight, but they are doing all the right things already. They are claiming they need to lose weight but already eat healthy foods and exercise regularly and still do not know why they are so big! I also had a lady email me for help for her 12 year old 200 pound son who will not stop gaining weight….HUH?! I also get the caller who says they just cannot seem to lose the weight after a pregnancy and giving birth!

Look I am not going to pick on these people because they call me asking for my help and services, but first thing is first – you have to get real! In a minute I am going to pick apart some real scenarios from real clients of mine to show you how we miss certain things in our everyday lives which lead us down unhealthy roads. Many times we get so caught-up in life that we forget how inactive we really are, forget how bad we really eat, and forget how little sleep we get. This is where taking your own Personal Health Inventory will benefit you. I do this when I work with my clients all the time. I ask what they ate the day before, how much sleep they got, did they take a walk after work, are they stressed out to the max, etc… We really need these Personal Health Inventory’s to help us really see what and where the problem really is.

When I became 305 pounds and really Obese years ago, it was my own doing. I can look back and Fat Map where and why I really became so darn huge! It was not anyone else’s fault but my own. I had just gotten my driver’s license and put away my bike and was not as active as I was the years prior. I also was out with friends after school having fun instead of playing sports and being active. I was eating junk late at night and huge portions. I was skipping breakfast and sometimes lunch which made my metabolism very slow and made me store more body fat. I was staying up too late at night and getting up early without structure in my sleep schedule and not getting even close to 8 hours each night.

I had a client who really thought she was eating all the right stuff and doing all the right exercises, but when we really got into the thick of her life I found out she was not eating the right types of foods at the right times. She was claiming to eat organic this and organic that but they were still unnecessary calories. A bag of corn chips whether organic or not ain’t necessary! Doing the same easy going walk, down the same easy street, at the same time everyday does not get great results. Her gym workouts were just as stale and boring. When you keep doing the same things over and over you keep getting the same old results. If her exercises were too easy and her calories were still too high then this leads me to believe she needs change in her exercise routine and to clean-up her food some more.

The lady who emails me about her 200 pound 12 year old really needs to wake-up! I am not saying this to be mean, but come-on! He cannot drive, he does not have a job so he ain’t got no money, so how is he still eating? If it is other family member’s feeding him junk and chaining him to his room so he cannot go out and play, then Mom lay the non-violent smack down and save your child from their behavior. My intuition and years of experience though tells me this Mom is feeding her son junk, letting him be in-active, and not putting him on a real structured schedule. It is not so much the kid’s fault as it is the Mom. Yes sometimes genetics plays a role, yet this is very rare. It is probably the excess junk, lack of activity and exercise, and bad sleeping habits. There is probably too much TV watching, Internet surfing, Video Game playing, and Fast Food. She is the Mother and She is half in charge with the boys Father so they should fix the problem they created. Again I am not picking on them I am just showing how when you really get down to the Knitty Gritty and expose everyday habits, you can see what needs to change. I have calls and emails like these all the time and the stories are almost always the same and usually the parents are mostly to blame.

When a lady has a baby, yes things have changed hormonally. But what also changes because of the hormones and the body preparing to deliver is the habits of higher calories for Mom and Baby plus less intense exercise (which is good at the time). Usually the calories are up and the exercise is down, so during a Personal Health Inventory with a woman who just had a baby 6 months to a year ago I usually see those same bad habits after the fact. The Baby is out but the Mom is still eating for two. The Mom is also still not exercising often enough or with enough intensity. Window shopping for baby clothes does not count as a real aerobic exercise! Most of these women still have the same habits from when their body was telling them to eat more and rest more, yet now they need to eat smaller meals and snacks 5-6 times throughout the day and exercise 3 times per week with cardiovascular exercise and 3 times per week with resistance training.

Please take your own Personal Health Inventory and ask yourself these types of questions:

Do I eat a breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, late afternoon snack, dinner, and late evening snack each day or do I skip most of these?
Do I drink enough water or am I drinking lots of sodas and juices?
Do I eat and snack on a lot of high-fat junk food and fast foods?
Do I cook at home often?
Do I Resistance Train at least 3 times per week for 30 minutes each session?
Do I get 30 minutes of Cardiovascular Exercise at least 3 times per week?
Do I stretch?
Do I do any outdoor activities such as riding a bike, walking, roller blading, basketball, hiking, swimming, etc.?
Do I watch too much TV, play too many Video Games, or surf too much Internet?
Do I get at least 8 hours of sleep each night, naps during the day, and some time each day for myself? Or am I tired and fatigued all the time?
Do I have a lot of stress from Work, School, or Family and Social life?
Am I really ready to make a positive change for my health and well being by getting into a healthier lifestyle?

So go ahead and question yourself and write it all down and you will see that you really do have areas that need improving, we all do! I am not perfect with my health all the time either. I have to constantly re-evaluate myself and take my own Personal Health Inventory to keep myself in check too!

Have a great weekend!

-Dave