Speaker 1: Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of My Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted. I
Speaker 1: was talking to someone the other day, actually it was
Speaker 1: on a podcast, and this person alluded to the fact
Speaker 1: that they had lost a significant amount of weight and
Speaker 1: kept it off. So I wasn't familiar with this person
Speaker 1: before the podcast, and whenever I meet someone like that,
Speaker 1: I need to know the story. And I have brought
Speaker 1: you a handful of those people like David Garcia who
Speaker 1: lost over a hundred pounds and kept it off for
Speaker 1: over ten years, because that is part of the puzzle
Speaker 1: hearing those stories. How did they do that? Because we
Speaker 1: learned from that. When I wanted to be successful in
Speaker 1: this industry, I started to look into people who had
Speaker 1: been successful in this industry that I admired, that I believed,
Speaker 1: you know, was aligned with their philosophy. Jack Lolaine one
Speaker 1: of the well the top person and so the same
Speaker 1: holds true with people who have been successful at weight
Speaker 1: loss and kept it off in a healthy way. Really important.
Speaker 1: We need to look at evolution, We need to look
Speaker 1: at the empirical evidence. We need to look at everyday life,
Speaker 1: what we can do and everyday people, not celebrities, not
Speaker 1: people like that, but your next door neighbor who made
Speaker 1: significant change and kept it off and is healthy and happy,
Speaker 1: all of those things. So I kind of turned the
Speaker 1: podcast around at that point and just started interviewing this person,
Speaker 1: and one thing popped out of me. And this has
Speaker 1: for years. This person said that they had, you know, lost,
Speaker 1: I think it was over sixty pounds. I think that
Speaker 1: was to start. But they used the term cheat day,
Speaker 1: cheat day, and cheap meal. Now, for those of you
Speaker 1: don't know many diet plans, maybe eating plans will give
Speaker 1: you cheat day and cheap meal. And I have used
Speaker 1: those terms in the past, but I stopped. I have stopped,
Speaker 1: at least using it in the way that this person did.
Speaker 1: And the current meaning, the connotation that people have with
Speaker 1: cheat day, we need to stop using it. And I
Speaker 1: said this to him. I said, listen, you're not cheating,
Speaker 1: and I went into why. And that's today's podcast. Perfect
Speaker 1: for a fit tip, Perfect for a fit tip. Let's
Speaker 1: look at what the Dictionary definition of cheat is. Right
Speaker 1: as a verb, it's to act dishonestly or unfairly in
Speaker 1: order to gain an advantage, especially in a game or examination.
Speaker 1: It can also be to avoid something undesirable by luck
Speaker 1: or by skill. An example of that would be like
Speaker 1: she cheated death in a car crash. Right. And then
Speaker 1: one of the definitions when it is used as a
Speaker 1: noun is a person who behaves dishonestly in order to
Speaker 1: gain an advantage. What what is the common theme in
Speaker 1: all of these definitions. There's negative connotation. It's a negative
Speaker 1: just jumps out of you, right, And so this is
Speaker 1: one of the main reasons we need to get rid
Speaker 1: of that term. In my opinion, Listen again, as I
Speaker 1: say that you could do whatever works for you, I'm
Speaker 1: just as always putting my take on it. I don't
Speaker 1: like it. I think it's it is a negative for
Speaker 1: the reasons I just said. And words matter, words matter
Speaker 1: a lot. It goes to eight people, how many times
Speaker 1: am I going to bring that up until I die?
Speaker 1: And it goes for intensity of exercise, it goes for uh,
Speaker 1: you know, nutrition, how I approach my day and how
Speaker 1: I approach a week. And I don't call it cheat.
Speaker 1: I mean I've called it cheat in referring to how
Speaker 1: it is used in the common vernacular. But when people
Speaker 1: ask me how I eat, I say I eat five
Speaker 1: to six medium sized meals a day, where one or
Speaker 1: two but generally one is less than perfect. That's the
Speaker 1: of the day. And then when it comes to a week,
Speaker 1: I eat generally what I eat that way right, where
Speaker 1: one meal a day Monday through Friday generally is less
Speaker 1: than perfect, usually dinner when I'm less strict. And then
Speaker 1: on the weekends is where I do the vast majority
Speaker 1: of my less strictness, And that makes sense, makes sense
Speaker 1: for me, makes sense for many of you. But I
Speaker 1: don't call it cheating. I don't say a cheat on
Speaker 1: the weekends. That's a negative. That means I'm not doing
Speaker 1: something I should be doing. And there is no perfect
Speaker 1: no matter what these social media fitness guru tell you.
Speaker 1: I watched another the other day talking about cheat meals
Speaker 1: as well, and the person was eating as they were
Speaker 1: talking about cheat meals, and suffice it to say, I've
Speaker 1: been in this industry long enough, I would argue, study
Speaker 1: enough psychology, body language, all that kind of stuff to
Speaker 1: make an educated guess that this person was struggling this
Speaker 1: for and had not figured out how to eat and
Speaker 1: was feeling guilty about those cheap days. And that's one
Speaker 1: of the huge problems with the term cheat and the
Speaker 1: connection to guilt. And then where do you stop funny
Speaker 1: story at my brother's expense. I have many brothers, so
Speaker 1: I can throw this out there without outing this person.
Speaker 1: But he did the Body for Life many years ago
Speaker 1: where they called it a cheat day. That's probably one
Speaker 1: of the places that came from Bill Phillips Body for
Speaker 1: a Life. You have a cheat day. I think that's
Speaker 1: what it used. I'm almost positive it's long time ago.
Speaker 1: But anyway, my brother tried this program and what he
Speaker 1: would do, I can laugh again, it's family, uh is.
Speaker 1: On that day he would go off the rails. And
Speaker 1: that's another issue with the term cheat and being what
Speaker 1: so restrictive all of the other days, so he would
Speaker 1: literally eat himself sick. He didn't feel good. Can you
Speaker 1: see the problem with that. You're restrictive six days of
Speaker 1: the week. You go off the rails to the point
Speaker 1: where you're well, since I can have whatever I want,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have everything. Is that a way to live?
Speaker 1: It didn't work for him. Words matter. Words are really important,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to exercise and nutrition. So it's
Speaker 1: not a cheat day, it's how you eat. It's a reality, right,
Speaker 1: it's real world. There is no perfect there's enjoyment, and yes,
Speaker 1: it's a healthy lifestyle. I don't want to use the
Speaker 1: word cheat in anything. I don't cheat in in the
Speaker 1: events I compete in. I don't cheat in school. I
Speaker 1: don't cheat, and I don't cheat on my diet. It
Speaker 1: is part of my diet. It's a healthy diet, all right.
Speaker 1: And this goes to social gatherings. We are social people.
Speaker 1: I talked about the blue zones to put that into context,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people have a connection with that
Speaker 1: or starting to just places in the world where people
Speaker 1: live long, healthy, you know, vibrant lives and social connections
Speaker 1: are huge part of that. So this is a big
Speaker 1: issue with food. I don't want to get into too
Speaker 1: deep because this is a fit tip, but I'm Irish
Speaker 1: and Italian, and my Italian grandmother I used to tell
Speaker 1: me and everyone you need to finish everything that is
Speaker 1: on your plate or it's a sin. So she would
Speaker 1: bring in not it's not just cheating their religious implications.
Speaker 1: That's a problem. I joke, but it's it's it's not funny.
Speaker 1: This is part of the issues with eating and culture
Speaker 1: and family gathering. So to keep this a fit tip.
Speaker 1: When I am less than perfect, are times when I
Speaker 1: have less control? Does that not make sense? So in
Speaker 1: other words, Monday through Friday, when I'm making my breakfast
Speaker 1: pretty much, i'm making launch, I'm in the office, the studio,
Speaker 1: I'm controlling my dinner. On the weekends is when I
Speaker 1: will tend to go out with friends and family social gatherings.
Speaker 1: That's when it makes sense for most of us to
Speaker 1: be less than perfect. So weekends, family gatherings, when you're
Speaker 1: at a restaurant, when you're with friends, when we have
Speaker 1: less control, and that's okay, you still make great choices,
Speaker 1: but you can have dessert and you can have that
Speaker 1: appetizer because when it comes to the calories in calories
Speaker 1: out over the course of twenty four hours or the
Speaker 1: course of seven days, this works. And let's go back
Speaker 1: to the definition. As I wrap this all up, you're
Speaker 1: not avoiding as was in one of the definitions. You're
Speaker 1: not acting dishonestly or un fairly. You are living. And
Speaker 1: let me end with this. The same person said in
Speaker 1: their journey that took years to get to that sixty
Speaker 1: pounds down, and it's very smart, like had has had
Speaker 1: done his homework. He used the term failure and mistakes,
Speaker 1: made a lot of mistakes along the way, and I
Speaker 1: I challenged him one more time, and I said, you
Speaker 1: didn't make mistakes. It's all part of the journey. That
Speaker 1: was the journey. That is the journey learning what so
Speaker 1: much about your personal likes and dislikes. With exercise and
Speaker 1: with food, that takes time. It's not a failure to
Speaker 1: try form of exercise, ago, I don't like that. Try
Speaker 1: ten forms of exercise, different classes and go. That's not
Speaker 1: for me. Food is even harder, more challenging to learn
Speaker 1: what is healthy and what you like and what your
Speaker 1: body responds to, in other words, your levels of hunger
Speaker 1: and satiety. That takes time. People, there's that's not failure.
Speaker 1: Failure is doing the same thing or making mistakes, is
Speaker 1: doing the same thing over and over again, right, insanity.
Speaker 1: But that's just the process. So don't beat yourself up
Speaker 1: that way either. It takes time. Took this person certain
Speaker 1: amount of time. It will take you a certain amount
Speaker 1: of time taking in the information. That's the final thing.
Speaker 1: There's many others, but one the final points is this
Speaker 1: person was learning what was bs and what was science,
Speaker 1: And that's really hard. It's a lot of bad information
Speaker 1: out there. Okay, so when we do the when you
Speaker 1: don't call it a cheap meal, but it's when you're
Speaker 1: less strict, when you're enjoying life, when you have less control,
Speaker 1: and hey, when you go off the reservation, when you
Speaker 1: go you know what, I want to go to that
Speaker 1: fast food restaurant. When you are healthier, when you are
Speaker 1: on that journey and learning and your body and mind
Speaker 1: are changing in a way that is really hard to
Speaker 1: describe and put out there, but it gets easier. You
Speaker 1: crave the fast food less, you do it less, you
Speaker 1: enjoy it less, and when you do do it, it
Speaker 1: reminds you of how good healthy food makes you feel.
Speaker 1: Last story, then I promise it's over. Iron Man South
Speaker 1: Africa actually came up in my memories, my Facebook memories
Speaker 1: recently a couple of years ago. Brutal, so many things
Speaker 1: went wrong before the race and and during the race
Speaker 1: as a result, and just brutal race. But during the run,
Speaker 1: which was the hardest run and i've it was one
Speaker 1: of the top three. I passed. There was out and
Speaker 1: back three times, so three loops essentially for the marathon,
Speaker 1: and I passed to McDonald's three times the next morning,
Speaker 1: and anyone who's done endurance races or races like that,
Speaker 1: no that you oftentimes wake up and you just crave garbage.
Speaker 1: You want salt, and you want fat, even though like again,
Speaker 1: I go very infrequented fast food restaurants, but I was like,
Speaker 1: I need that, and I remembered it as being close
Speaker 1: to my hotel. I started out on foot, which was
Speaker 1: hard because it was the morning after the race. It
Speaker 1: was a lot farther than I had remembered, but I
Speaker 1: walked the whole way and when I walked inside, it
Speaker 1: was filled with what fit iron man triathletes, men and women,
Speaker 1: all eating McDonald's. But you looked at these people and
Speaker 1: what do you what do you know? Everything I just said,
Speaker 1: they crave it less, they do it less, they enjoy
Speaker 1: it lest, but we do it. There is no perfect
Speaker 1: and we're not cheating. It's a weird reward that is
Speaker 1: like you enjoy for about eight seconds and then yes,
Speaker 1: you get the mc gurgels and you're remind yourself of
Speaker 1: why you're probably you know, yeah, you know what I
Speaker 1: was gonna say. You probably didn't want to know you
Speaker 1: wanted it because those people myself included. We eat a
Speaker 1: lot of egg whites, We eat a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: oatmeal every now and again. You do it and it's
Speaker 1: not cheating, it's living. Stop feeling guilty and stop calling
Speaker 1: it cheating. All right, Thank you for listening. Love this
Speaker 1: topic as I do them. All you can reach out
Speaker 1: to me. Tom h Fit is Instagram and Twitter. Tom
Speaker 1: h Fit messages, comments, questions, Love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Rate the show, follow the show, whatever way you can
Speaker 1: connect to the show. I greatly appreciate it. What else
Speaker 1: Fitness disrupted dot com You can email me through the site.
Speaker 1: All this stuff matters people. All this stuff adds up.
Speaker 1: All this stuff will make it easier and make you
Speaker 1: happier and make you healthier when you figure out your plan.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening, and remember there are three things
Speaker 1: we all control. How much we move, what we put
Speaker 1: into our mouths, and our attitudes or choices, and those
Speaker 1: choices also go to what we call things, how we
Speaker 1: frame things. That's up to us nobody else. I am
Speaker 1: Tom Holland this is Fitness Disrupted, Believe in yourself. Fitness
Speaker 1: Disrupted is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart radio, visit the I heart Radio app,
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