Brain & Body Fit After Forty

Why this book? Why another book about health and fitness, while already so many other books are available about this topic? The short answer is: to help you “filling the gap between knowing and doing; the gap between intentions and results”. How? By giving you the tools and strategies that actually help you implementing the habits that support a healthy lifestyle after forty.. Of course, expect to read about everything you need to know about Healthy Nutrition and Safe and Effective Exercising but I’m not going to leave you with that. Most books about health and fitness only tell people what to eat or what not to eat and what for exercises to do, and then simply expect them to take action and follow through till they have reached their health and fitness goals, from where it is only a matter of maintaining. Reality shows that it hardly ever works this way. Do you recall that enthusiastic feeling when you thought that you finally found that book or program etc., that gave you exactly what you were looking for, and that you couldn’t wait to put it into action to forever change your life for the better…only to find out after a month or so that nothing had changed and that all the vibe had left you? Seriously, from the moment on that book was yours, you felt like sitting in an aircraft with roaring engines, ready for take-off. So why didn’t happen what you expected and so intensely hoped for to happen? Simply put and metaphorically spoken; the book or program you had bought gave you an aircraft but forgot to provide you with a runway and a flight plan. This is where this book steps in. By identifying your personal health and fitness goals, creating a plan to achieve your goals, discovering the options you need to achieve your goals, dealing successfully with the roadblocks that prevent you from achieving your goals, you’ll have that runway and flight plan that enable you to create the focus, flow and momentum you need to achieve your goals and maintain them for life. Studies show that 95 to 98% of the people who managed to lose weight were unable to maintain their results and gained back their hard lost excess body weight within two years. This highly frustrating fact caused many people to give up and settle for a life with a body they feel is often in their way. Aside of the physical health problems that come and worsen with every passing month and year as a result of being out of shape and/or overweight, mental problems arise as well that can lead to feelings of depression and living an unsatisfied life. During my career as personal fitness trainer I’ve seen too many people who started out with the best intentions, stayed motivated for a while, but gave up because of the results they had hoped for didn’t occur, despite all their hard efforts. Other people gave up because their hectic life interfered too often with their workout schedule. After skipping one workout, another followed and so on till they reached the point that they had to draw the conclusion that it didn’t make sense to continue their workout programs and that they’d better wait a while for quieter times to arrive... These are just two reasons why people “fell of the wagon”, but a list with reasons could virtually go on forever, ranging from unsupportive family members to setbacks caused by injuries or boredom with the workout routines. The big question that arises is: why is it that sustained weight loss and improved health are so difficult to achieve, and can only be realized by a “happy few”? What distinguishes them from the people who tried so hard - perhaps with even more effort - but never got the lasting results they were after? That question and the will to make a positive difference in the lives of so many whose desperate and rightful goal it is to have a cooperating body that enables them to live a purposeful and rewarding life was the starting point for writing this book. What I learned over the years during following, observing and interviewing people who started a training program was that the people who had the biggest chance to achieve their health and weight loss goals were those who were more interested in the process than in the end goal. Of course it was their aim to get the best results in the shortest time possible, but rather than focusing on what the scales were telling them every morning, they were open to learning about the physical as well as the mental processes that occur in the body as a whole. Less successful people often tend to focus on the end goal only. It is from these people that I heard comments such as: “Patrick, do me a favor and spare me the details. I really couldn’t care less about all that background stuff you’re talking about. Can’t you just tell me what to eat and what for exercises I should do to get me in shape as quickly as possible and leave it at that?” The simple question to this answer is: “no”. Working with my clients I learned that helping them to acquire a basic understanding about “how things work” makes it much easier for them to make better choices and to consistently follow through with their program. The secret here is that through understanding “how things work” with regards to healthy nutrition and the right type of physical activity, they made themselves part of the process. Simply saying to people “do this” or “do that” turns them into followers who can easily get distracted. Losing motivation and “falling off the wagon” is what often happens next. Making people part of the process puts them in charge of their own success. What is needed is - similar to getting the best out of a machine, vehicle or tool - a good basic understanding about the human body and mind, which role and function it is to serve as a vehicle and tool to enable us to create the life we choose. Today’s society has moved people away from themselves. With their constant focus on the outside world with all its demands and distractions and a life filled to the rim with responsibilities and obligations geared to the interests of others, many people have lost sight of their own inside world and live separated from body and mind. With this I mean that, in order to make it to the end of a day, the majority of the people basically leave it to the food, pharmaceutical and entertainment industry what it is they feed and cure their body with, and how they spend their free time, without questioning themselves whether what they eat, drink, swallow and experience meets with the true needs of their body and mind. The human body is wired to preserve energy; realizing maximum results by spending the least amount of energy. This combined with the high demands today’s society poses upon people made “convenience” to one of the leading principles in life. Convenience makes it possible to choose for quick fixes at every moment and for virtually every circumstance during the day. Examples of quick fixes are fast food, pain killers, watching a movie or on-line entertainment. Whether the motivation is moving away from discomfort and pain or moving toward pleasure and reward, a solution is always within reach to satisfy the needs. The problem with quick fixes is that they are superficial and therefore hold the risk that so called body responses, the signals our body uses to make us aware of its condition, aren’t recognized, let alone understood.