Weight loss is weight loss and that’s the gain from working out and dieting right? Not so fast. You could be losing the wrong type of weight. Say what, now?

Richard Ellis and Samantha Moitt, two of the certified fitness and nutrition experts recruited to co-facilitate this year’s Mindful Movements Fitness Madness, explain that the goal is not to be fit for 10 weeks but to be fit for life, and if that’s the goal then you’ve got to be concerned with much more than the scale.
 

Setting fitness goals is a part of it. It’s one of the reasons Fitness Madness has teamed up with Mount St. John Medical Centre to do a before and after assessment of not just weight, Moitt explained, but Body Mass Index, fat percentage, and waist size. It gives the participants somewhere to start, she said, and somewhere to go. Using this measure, she said, “We’ve had quite a few successes.” It’s not just about losing weight, she stressed, adding, arguably, that anybody can lose pounds, but are you losing the right type of weight; are you losing the fat, are you taking inches off your waist, and so on? Greater success is realized, Moitt said, by those who stick with it beyond the programme’s run. “It has to be a year round thing,” she said. And she pshaws notions of I don’t have the time or I don’t have the money. “You can make the time and should,” she said. Even half hour a day would do, she said, and as for money, if Fitness Madness or gym membership is absolutely out of the question, you can try You Tube, stick in a DVD, or go for a walk. But do something, she said: “Not just for weight loss, but to increase your energy level and to prevent and control a lot of chronic diseases, (and to be) more flexible and fit.”
 

Eating right is a part of it. In fact, in Ellis’ view, it’s at least 90 percent of it. Too much sugar, too much salt, over eating – and, Moitt added, not eating on time thus causing you to overeat later – even carbohydrate deficiency i.e. not eating enough or eating the wrong type of carbs or not balancing the carb intake with sufficient fibre intake, a pattern of too much or not enough, these are some of the bad habits contributing to the lifestyle diseases that have become so common place. Ellis recommended, as a counter, more vegetables and more fibre – and, Moitt said, more fruits and vegetables and cutting portion sizes. “Once (you’re) eating properly, Ellis said, “You’re going to feel full longer and are less likely to cheat.”

Cheat? As in stepping out on your partner? No, in this case we’re talking about stepping out on yourself, on your commitment to living healthy.
 

Being consistent is a part of it. Both experts emphasize getting physical not just for the run of the Fitness Madness programme but all year round. “Do some form of exercise, something to stimulate the muscles, any kind of challenging movement,” Ellis said. This way, he added, the body won’t decide that your muscles are expendable, converting them into fat which, Ellis said, has “no workable capabilities.”
 

And exercise doesn’t mean just the aerobic stuff. You know how good a good morning stretch feels. Turns out there’s good reason for that. It wakes the body up. “Most of us don’t stretch enough,” Ellis said. “It makes you flexible, less prone to injury”.
 

You can expect some of this advice on healthy living to be interspersed between the kicks and fist pumps, squats and stretches when Mindful Madness jumps off on May 14^th 2012. Like this little tip, from Ellis, who will be targeting your upper body through his routine: the importance of fuelling your body with food before your workout (like your car, with Unleaded), it needs it to run.

And don’t worry that you won’t be able to keep up. Moitt, employed as dietician at the Mount St. John Medical Centre, a project partner, and instructor in kick boxing, step and other aerobic activities, said, “We usually cater for beginners to advance, and even if we’re doing something for the advance (participants), we will show a basic option first.”

So get on it.