A friend of mine who has clearly been through many many years of not looking after himself and I were talking a few weeks ago. I wasn't bragging or anything but he was asking me tips because it seems like every time i see the guy he sees that I am wearing some sort of fitness attire because I have recently been doing something that could be considered athletic such as going for a run, riding a bicycle, or going to / returning from the gym.
He is a bit older than me and in far worse shape than I ever was so when we got to talking, I didn't really know what to suggest to him. Mostly, when someone reaches the advanced state of out of shapeness that he had managed I would resort to telling them to focus on cutting carbs from their diets and just go for a walk as many times a week as you can.
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Most exercise options were off the table and I think he didn't stick to the diet advice that I gave him because it seems like every time I saw the guy he was eating pasta and bread, which is two of the worst things you can do if you want to lose weight.
Anyway, we came up with a program for him that was going to be extremely easy, I thought it was too easy but it went like this.
- In week one he would hit the floor and do a single pushup. Just one, but do this every day
- TRY to limit carb intake but don't focus so much on any other aspects of calories because his diet was already so terrible that this drop would be a shock to his system enough
- go for a walk as many times a week as possible - forget running because it isn't going to happen and there is a good chance of injury for someone his size.
Each week that passed he would add a single additional pushup to his regime. The rest of the stuff is variable and it is up to him whether or not he is even going to do them at all. The idea behind this is three-fold, the single pushup is going to perhaps inspire him to get out the door for a walk, it is going to show him how incredibly out of shape he is in (everyone should be able to do at least 10 pushups in my mind), and it is also an easy enough task that he is not going to quit.
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I am happy to say that my buddy Mike is now doing 14 pushups a day and going on walks 3x a week or more. These walks are nothing terribly aerobic and honestly, they don't need to be. The entire process of losing weight is more along the lines of caloric deficiency, no matter what it is that you do. I have no idea if he is sticking to any sort of diet but I can tell just by looking at him that he is in much better shape than he was 3 months ago... all just by starting with 1 single pushup.
He is now buying new clothes and even though he is a still a very big guy, he feels so much better about himself. His confidence and happiness is much greater, and he is generally just a happier person and this is just fantastic news.
I think the biggest mistake that a lot of people make when they decide the want to incorporate exercise into their lives is that they aim entirely too high. When they realize that it is just too difficult, they do what comes naturally to them: They quit.
Small, manageable and achievable goals are of the utmost importance when starting from scratch as far as exercise is concerned and a single pushup, even though it seemed silly at the time, was all that it took for Mike to change his life entirely. I now look forward to hearing the stories of his progress and expect to see him jogging sometime in the not-too-distant future.
I know it is cliche but every journey starts with a single step... or in the case of Mike, with a single pushup .
I went from star athlete, to fat ass, and then lost over 50 lbs and have kept it off... so can you... but you gotta put in a little work
Really true! We just have to start!
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