My Perfect Body Weight

As boxers, we learn to manage our weight as part of the sport. People seem to think boxers must have incredible willpower to train so hard while eating so little. It’s more than willpower. It’s strategy. We depend on strategy to stay lean and strong. Forget dieting. Rely on strategy and see how easy it can be.

MYTH : The key to ideal body weight is willpower.

TRUTH : Willpower will fail. Good nutrition will ultimately succeed.

PROOF: The people on Survivor and the other shows who go to extremes of exercise and lack of food lose lots of weight fast. They all put it back on (and more) when they resume their normal life. Notice that the Biggest Loser teaches nutrition strategy, no junk food, and making better choices.

SECRET STRATEGY: Following is the Don Akers tried and true secret strategy for ideal body weight. I’m going to give you all my techniques, no holds barred. I urge you to consider that your mind, thoughts, and internal communication might work faster than you originally believed. (Be sure to check with your doc before beginning any weight loss program.)

How Things Are: The Big Picture (in your head) Most important, this is not a diet. It is a way of eating and acting that makes it natural to maintain an ideal body weight. My self talk is, “I am eating a little bit lighter; I am dropping some weight.” I don’t say or think, “I can’t have that on my diet.” Instead I choose to think, “I don’t want that; I’m eating lighter.” It’s simple but powerful. Try it yourself for seven days.

Next, our internal representation of our body is like a magnet that pulls on our consciousness and influences our behavior. If we see ourselves as big, we act in ways that support us being too big. Change the internal image and we change the influence on behavior. Too simple? Try it for three months and call me!

Technique:
– Current body image: Close your eyes and imagine what your body looks like. Hold that image in you mind’s eye right in front of you.
– Vision: Next, imagine how you want your body to look in three months (not perfect, not a caricature, not Mr./Ms. Universe, but what is reasonable and healthy for you to achieve without too much stress).
– Path: Visualize your body melting from its current image to your desired image.
– Create a few different images that lead from current to desired body size and shape.
– Align the current image in front and let it be transparent.
– Align each of the other images behind the first one so you can see them all, with the desired image being the easiest to see.
– Important! Ask yourself, “Is it okay for me to hold this new image to help my body become more healthy?” If you are sure the answer is “No,” call me. If “Yes,” read on.

Principles (rules of the road)
-Diets don’t work.
-Making consistently good choices about nutrition does work.
– Good nutrition is simple.
— Eat whole foods, reduce the fats, avoid packaged, process foods, and eliminate sugar.
-Everybody is different. What works for one person might not work for you.
-Exercise is helpful, but it’s not a solution in itself. We can eat 2,000 calories in the time it takes to work off 200!
Movement makes it way easier to maintain your weight. Walk five minutes when you get up and before you go to sleep.
If you exercise, good on ya!

– One step, then another: Changing our body weight takes time.
– Pushing doesn’t work: Trying to take off weight too fast or starving ourselves creates emotional and physical push back. It doesn’t work. Small simple changes add up over time.

Using our Natural Tendencies:
o Eating before we’re hungry helps us makes better choices.
o Eating early tells our bodies that food is plenty and they retain less.
o Reduce, don’t eliminate fat and carbohydrates. No fat and no carbs causes our bodies to think they’re in starvation diets and they hold on to fat.

Path:
o Drink water every morning: I drink sixteen ounces of water every morning. It helps with elimination and hydrates the body.
o Eat breakfast every day: Readers Digest reported that people who eat breakfast lose more weight than people who eat the same amount of food without breakfast.
• If it’s not within reach we can’t eat it. The real discipline is needed while shopping for food. When we only buy and keep good food in our homes, we make for better choices.
• Keep something close. Get food in range before you get hungry or all bets are off. Carry nuts, vegetables, and fruits to snack on during the day.
o Never shop for groceries hungry.
o Fatigue makes cowards of us all. Get plenty of sleep. Lack of sleep has been linked to increased hunger, cravings, and weight gain.
o Never swim up stream: On holidays, birthdays, parties, have fun, eat what you want and enjoy it (go back to the routine when the party is over).
o Choosing Food: Rather than thinking about what is the best value for the dollar, consider what will taste best. Think about what will satisfy and nourish you and what will make you feel good when you get up in the morning.
o Prepare: Every Sunday I prepare snacks, cut up celery, carrots, radishes, sometimes green onions, broccoli, cauliflower, olives. I slice some cheese and put cashews and almonds in easy reach. We need to have low-fat, high energy food available.

Why RIGHT NOW is the best Time To Lose Weight:
o August was made for weight loss. It’s so hot that we aren’t hungry, and there are lots of great fresh fruit and vegetables available.
o Start today by drinking water every morning and eating a good, light breakfast. Then, after a week, start cutting back on fat and starch (choose lean meats instead of fatty cuts and substitute whole vegetables for breads or processed carbs).

Here is my daily breakfast during hot weather: This is adapted from the breakfast drink in Overachievement by Dr. John Elliot:

8 ounces of orange juice
1/4 cup of tofu
1/4 cup of yogurt
1/4 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries
1 banana
1 packet of Stevia to sweeten
1 Tbs Flax oil

Blend it up. This excellent breakfast drink will keep you going with protein and some varying qualities of carbohydrates. It is a great breakfast that will get you all the way to 11:30 or 12:00, feeling good.

Managing our body weight is easy if we change the way we see ourselves and take simple steps to stay emotionally strong and make it easy to make excellent, nutritious choices.

This might look like a long list or it may be a few simple changes for you. Either way, we all get there the same way.

Start where you are.

One step, then another.

Keep going. God bless you.

Don Akers

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