Find Your Reason for Getting in Shape

You've often heard us say on the air, when you're in shape, everything in your life gets better.

It's true. When you're in shape, your attitude, behaviour, confidence, strength, energy and overall health and happiness all improve. These positive attributes are part of what help keep you going to the gym. It's the health bandwagon. The more you workout, the more you want to work out.

Conversely, when you're out of shape, you tend to struggle more with all those assets. It's that much harder to drag your carcass to the gym when your attitude, energy and strength are low. In other words, the less you work out, the less you want to.

It's like Newton's first law of motion. An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion.

However, you're not an object. You're a person capable of being inspired to break all of Newton's laws. You just have to find your motivation. Without defining your reasons for getting healthy, you probably won't succeed. Only you know what that reason is. Is it a desire to have a hot body? To have a healthier, longer life? To have more energy? To be more productive at your job? To find love? Have more sex? To be generally a happy person instead of being chronically depressed? All of these goals can be expedited with physical fitness. You need to find the one that most inpsires you and write it down. Put in your fridge with a topless photo of yourself.

Nutritionally, we become overweight because we've eaten too much junk. Obviously. But why do we eat the junk when we all know it's going to help destroy the only body we'll ever have? I think we glom onto these delicious junk foods when we're young, feeling immortal with a raging, efficient metabolism. Later on, that catches up with us. I think many of us become ashamed. We don't like our bodies very much and think, "To heck with it. What's the difference if I eat this? I'm a pig anyway. What's one more Big Mac?"

The answer to that question is simple. That one Big Mac moves you one step farther from your now clearly defined goal. That whole wheat turkey sandwich, equally satisfying, gets you one step closer.

Junk Food, the Foul Temptress

Former NHL'er Dan McGillis, now playing in Germany, gave me some simple, yet excellent advice on adhering to your meal plan.

McGillis said, "The key for me has been getting the junk food out of the house. I just cleaned out the pantry. I mean, if you come home and you're hungry, you'll grab the potato chips if they're sitting there on the shelf. I just decided to throw all the junk out and replace it with good healthy alternatives. Now I just grab an apple that's sitting there where the chips used to be."

That seems pretty basic but it's been some of the best advice I've gotten during "the quest". Chips and ice cream are almost impossible to ignore. If I open the pantry and see a big, beautiful bag of Doritos there, I might resist once, maybe twice. But I will eventually pounce on it like a lion on a gimpy wildebeest.

If you're into healthy eating, maybe you convince yourself you're buying the stuff in good faith for someone else - for your kids, guests or an upcoming party...whatever. Don't do it. Your kids and parties will do just fine without it. They don't need a belly full of grease, salt and sugar any more than you do.

It's out of sight, out of mind. If it's in sight, you'll go out of your mind. Like McGillis said, keep the junk food out of your house completely and apples will always be the victim of your snack attack.

Tips on How to Not Blow Off Your Workout

I think one of the real keys to having success in the gym is making yourself accountable to someone else. We all should be accountible to ourselves. But we usually aren't. If it's entirely up to me and no one else, I'd probably go home after work and grab a nap. Or work on the never ending to-do list. You'll never be perfect but here are some ways to make yourself accountible to someone else.

1) Have a workout partner and plan to drive to the gym together. That way you're letting your buddy down if you blow off your workout.

2) Create a monthly gym attendance competition with your workout partner(s). Everyone chips in a little cash. Winner takes home the prize.

3) Schedule your workout like a dentist appointment. The dentist is always cranky when you're a no show. If it's written down as part of your week, you're more apt not to miss.

4) Hire a personal trainer. It doesn't fit everyone's budget but a good personal trainer will playfully lay a guilt trip on you when you miss. Even though it's your money, you do sorta feel like you're letting him down and wasting his time if you bail.

5) Think of your family. Do you want to see those grandkids someday or not? Admittedly, hitting the gym now guarantees nothing. But it dramatically increases the odds of a longer life.

Another trick that helped me is simplifying my goal. It's really simple. Don't make it your goal to get fit by a certain date. It can overwhelm you. Just drive to the gym. That's all. My goal is to get in my car and drive to the gym.

That's it. The rest always seems to take care of itself.

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Tony Greco's DLWV Tip of the Week - Don't let stress get the better of you. It can be lethal. You can break down stress by spending at least a little time every day doing something you like. Play with your kids, jump in the hot tub, go for a walk, get a massage, read, listen to relaxing music or meditate. Whatever. If it helps you unwind, it'll also help you live longer.

Welcome to DLWV!

Welcome to Die, Lard! With a Vengeance! Yessir. It's high time someone used the internet to create another one of these blog thingys.

This a blog about my assault on lard - the lard that I've collected in my body over the years and the lard you''ll be mindlessly shoveling into your gaping maw as you watch American Idol. For the love of goo, never EVER do that! And don't eat lard either.

Time for introductions. I'm the host of a morning sports talk radio show on Team 1200 in Ottawa. As a side job the last 4 or 5 years, I've also co-hosted a weekly fitness radio show (Grecosize) with Ottawa-based trainer Tony Greco. It can be heard Saturday mornings at 9am online at team1200.com. You can also download past shows at snihealth.com.

It's not easy for a sports fan to accept health and fitness. It's not how we're programmed by the beer companies. Through advertising, the breweries have brainwashed everyone into thinking their sports experience, playing or viewing, must include beer. If it doesn't, well then you pretty much suck. The ads promote the same junk over and over. Look how much fun they're having! Look how that supermodel is panting like a porn star because Johnny Nerdlinger cracked open a pint!

The reality for me? Beer consumption has been the road to Tubsville. Three or four beers in, you crave pizza, wings and/or nachos, which make you fatter still. I love beer and bar food but I love not being fat more. It took Tony many years of fitness radio sermons but the de-programming has begun. I'm now working out at his gym, eating better and feeling better. I wasn't too far gone but didn't like at all where I was going.

This blog is simply a light look at one middle aged guy trying to increase the chances he'll be around to see his kids' kids grow up. We'll also look at health and fitness items in the news and get many contributions from our ol' pal Tony. I hope you enjoy it.

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Tony Greco's DLWV tip of the week: Drink plenty of water. Not only is it crucial for proper body function, it also helps quell your appetitie. Fill up a clean 2.5 litre bottle with water. If you can pound that back gradually over the course of the day, then you're properly hydrated.