The Psychology of Fitness & Supreme Fat Loss

Applying the Universal Law of Cause & Effect to the Physical Body

By John Abdo

You’ve been watching what you eat. You’re even making conscious efforts to read labels before purchasing groceries, and making special requests when ordering food in restaurants. You’re exercising and actually making a habit of it. Some of you, I’ll bet, have purchased some exercise equipment from an infomercial; maybe it’s one of mine? Others are supplementing their eating with nutritional or weight-loss products. But with all your efforts there’s still something missing as looking or feeling your best is somehow eluding you.

It’s no secret that many people are doing what they feel they should be doing to lose weight, reshape their bodies and boost their energy and health but are left dissatisfied or frustrated. The solution doesn’t always lie in what you’re doing; it actually lies within the proper attitude, as “doing” is the physical part while “thinking” and your levels of motivation and enthusiasm are the psychological one.

In studying the habits of people; why they succeed or fail, personally or professionally, ultimately, it’s revealed that their attitudes or psychological demeanor is what [really] propagates their results. If they desire a change in results, people must change their mindset to correspond with the ideal outcome they’re striving for. Once the mind is aligned for success each [physical] action is stimulated with a higher degree of mental power, and successful results are not just possible, they’re inevitable.

WHAT’S YOUR MOTIVE?

To achieve then sustain positive results, either psychologically and/or physical, one must first determine their motives for exerting themselves to accomplish their goals in the first place. Is the mind fueled with a “have to” attitude or is it motivated with a “want to” attitude? There’s a huge difference between the two. In delving deep into the psychology of both, “have to” and “want to”, both of these emotional states are polar opposites that, as a coach, I can make, with a high degree of accuracy, very predictable [and contrasting] consequences to one’s physical and mental exertions.

Think about it. When you “have to” do something it’s mostly because somebody else is demanding you to do so or you’ve been backed into a corner and have no other choice. “My doctor keeps telling me that I have to lose weight otherwise serious medical complications are in my foreseeable future”. Comparatively speaking, “I want to lose weight so I can have more energy, and be healthier and more productive for my family, kids and business”, yields positive, long-term results as those objectives are fueled with enthusiastic mental energy.

What initiates then sustains positive successful actions is proper thought. To produce successful results one’s mentality must be fueled with a “want to” attitude. Those who endure the process of getting back into shape or losing fat with a “have to” attitude struggle to attain any level of achievement which is often temporary due to lack of a positively charged sustaining motive, hence the infamous “yo-yo” syndrome.

FAILURE IS INEVITABLE, UNLESS…

Aside from doing-what-it-takes to assume a “want to” attitude, the next step is to place emphasis on the cause of the condition you’re striving for. Most people striving for physical betterment are always thinking weight loss, or fat reduction.  This objective obsesses their mind while that’s all they think about, seek, ask for and pursue. People persistently ask their trainers and mentors, “How can I lose weight?” or “How can I get rid of my fat?” But what’s amazing is that you hardly ever hear people ask, “How can I get healthier, stronger, more energetic and powerful?” These are the true states of body and mind that yield ultimate success.

Many people then are only focusing on the effects of their condition, while ignoring the cause[s]. Being overweight or out-of-shape is a ‘symptom’, ‘effect’ or ‘result’. Effects are directly linked to a very specific cause, or causes. Amazingly, with just a tiny shift in the thought process, shifting much of the emphasis away from the effects by focusing on the cause, people begin to actualize consistent dramatic results beyond their wildest imagination.

Mind over Matter:  And your body is the matter

The flaw in approaching fitness with only a “losing fat” attitude per se is it’s a superficial approach to what’s really a much deeper, internal issue. We all know that there are plenty of diets, exercise programs, devises and potions designed to address the effects of obesity and an out-of-conditioned body. But to obtain then maintain a lean and healthy body one must mentally and physically perform the tasks that are required to cause a lean and healthy body to transpire.

When you think of it, there are plenty of great looking people who never really focus on their appearance or body fat per se, but they look absolutely terrific. Many athletes are prime examples. Most of these elite members of our society focus solely (entirely) on performance when they’re training. By placing emphasis on strength, dexterity, coordination, stamina, agility, recuperation, internal fortitude and other physical attributes, awesome physical [exterior] appearances manifest automatically, and much without paying attention to the specific elimination of excess body fat. Losing excess body fat then is the bonus to performance conditioning. Athletes do not win competitions by their appearances; it’s their mental and physical skills that bring home the Gold.

Be a Doer

Losing fat weight is actually about strengthening and energizing your muscles, or the ‘internal’ engines of the body. Now don’t feel that you need to convert yourself into a bodybuilder. Fact is, muscle development must be focused on, not the fat, as muscle is the only functional tissue in the body that makes fat burning possible in the first place. During activity, the body shuttles fat [and sugars] into the muscle to serve as fuel for movement. With an increase in activity you have an increase in fuel-expenditure, or fat burning.

So take the pressure off yourself, and refocus your efforts off your fat. Instead, work yourself from the inside out and develop a powerful strong body that burns fat easily and allows you to live your life with vibrancy, endurance and supreme levels of productivity!

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John Abdo is an Olympic Strength & Conditioning Coach, Award-Winning inventor of fitness equipment like The AB-DOer® and Inductee into the National Health & Fitness Hall of Fame. For more information please email John at: john@johnabdo.com.

June 8, 2012 - Posted by John Abdo | Performance Library | body, exercise, fat, fitness, health, metabolism, muscle, sex