Weight Loss and Muscle Gain: It's All About Mindset, Baby!

Most everyone's been through it, their high school reunion. Whether it's your 10th or 50th, you want to look good, right? Why? Maybe you've gained a little (or a lot) of weight since "the gang" has seen you. Maybe that "washboard stomach" has gotten some dirty laundry on it.

Whatever the reason, you want to look your best, right?

So you start searching ways to lose the weight and tone those muscles. You see all those gadgets and gizmos out on the market. You've researched all the magic pills that make you lose 50lbs in 2 days. Heck, you even went and checked out your local gym.

All this is great stuff, but there is something a bit more involved with the whole lose weight and gain muscle process. Here's the secret, you have to WANT to do it! You have to have your OWN reasons! If you attempt it because you're afraid what others will say if you don't...well, that just won't cut it for you. You have to WANT to lose weight. You have to WANT to gain muscle.

Let me put a whole new twist on it for you. In other words, have another way to focus on changing your body, and paradigm shift, if you will. Think of gaining muscle from the outside in and losing weight from the inside out. See if you get the two forces, for lack of a better term, to meet in the middle. Make sense?

So, for the inside out part, start with proper food intake. Now, you can find all kinds of programs, diets, fads, magic formulas, etc. that may or may not get the weight off for you, but ultimately, it starts with you. So, what I suggest is good old fashion common sense. Let's face it, if you've researched how to lose weight, you've ran across what foods are good for you and what foods aren't.

A good friend of mine says think of your body as a Cadillac. Would you put kerosene in a Cadillac? Of course not, you would give it the proper fuel. So, your body is more valuable than a Cadillac, so you should put the best possible fuel in it you can.

Does that mean cutting out your favorite foods? Only you can answer that question. If you feel eating pizza, burgers and beer is the right way to lose weight, then go for it. In the end, only YOU know if you're being honest with yourself or not. Make jokes all you want, but deep down you know what the answer is. The same goes for starving yourself. Does a Cadillac run well on an empty tank? Hmm, something to think about, eh?

If you feel you don't know what's right and what's wrong to eat, then pat yourself on the back because that means you actually WANT to do it right and you're on the right track.

I'll give you two hints about proper foods...fruits and vegetables are extremely important and should be included with every meal and water is a LOT better for you than any diet soda drink.

"But Andrew, soda tastes so much better than water." No one will argue with you, but which will get you to the results you're looking for?

Now, let's look at from the outside in, gaining muscle. In other words, exercise! No need to get all bent out of shape on this one, we'll stick to some basics.

So, the theory is that as a muscle grows, it uses energy. To use energy, the muscle has to get it from somewhere. Fat inside your body will be used as energy, combined with the good food you put in. (remember the Cadillac reference).

Does that mean you have to bench press 500lbs to gain muscle and make it grow? Nope, but it does mean using your muscles....regularly. This could be as simple as going for daily walks or doing a full blown 3 hour daily full body workout.

The main thing to keep in mind when working on growing your muscles is to be aware of what you are doing. For instance, when you go for a walk, think about what muscles are being used in your legs. Are you using your arms to help with momentum? Which muscles are being used in your arms? The point is, the more your concentrate on what you're doing, the better your results will be.

Concentrate on how the muscles are being constricted and how they are being stretched because both of these activities need to be utilized to strength and gain muscle.

How do you know how much exercising you should do is totally up to you, within reason. Working out for 5 minutes then recovering for 2 hours may not be the best plan. Again, YOU need to determine if that's acceptable for what you want to accomplish. You have to be honest with yourself.

As you can tell, this has not been about "you should lift this weight" or "you should eat this food." As I said, you can find that information all over the place. What we're doing here is intended to give you a sense of understanding about how to lose weight and gain muscle, just the basics.