Fit to Fat to Fit on A&E

I have been watching the show Fit to Fat to Fit on the A & E Network. As I am sure you know, the basis of the show is personal trainers gaining 40-60 pounds over a four month period so that they can understand where their clients are coming from.  Then the trainer and their client have four months to get down to their goal weight. Of course, throughout the season you see female trainers having meltdowns because they can’t handle seeing themselves with the weight, as well as what happens when extremely regimented trainers find out that sugar is a hard addiction to break.  That is where you really see that diet is at least 70% - 80% of the battle.

As someone who spent most of her adult life as a trainer, then gained 30+ pounds working a stressful office job, and is still working to get it all back off, I definitely feel a bond with the trainers on the show. Everything they are going through is exactly what I am going through. As I watch the show, I see the fat personal trainers making the same statements I have made throughout the last few years, “I don’t even want to go to the gym,” and my personal favorite, “I have turned into one of my clients!” These words are coming from people who LOVE the gym and love to work out. It is their passion. When you are working out, you feel good, and you want to help everyone feel as good as you do. But, when you stop eating clean and working out, you gain weight and lose all your energy and motivation to help others.

I love the show. Even my husband and 15 year old daughter are addicted. It gives hope to see that if they can get down to their starting weight in just four short months, so can others.  Of course, it makes me want to get back out there and start helping others reach their health goals. I love the idea of working out with my clients to give them a bit of healthy competition.

Trainers work in a gym, or outside, motivating their clients. They have an active job.  Most people don’t. Many are office workers that are forced to sit all day, tightening their low back muscles, sitting in positions that cause their shoulders to roll front, their upper backs to stretch while their pecs tighten. These imbalances cause headaches and back pain. Add in the stress of their job and they are mentally exhausted when they get home.

Then you have the workers that are on their feet all day. Again, depending on what they are doing, they are causing muscle imbalances through repetitive movements. They ache when they get home and are physically exhausted. The last thing these people want to do is hit the gym. 

Leading experts say we should get up early and work out in the morning. That is great in theory. But for many, the exhaustion is still there in the morning due to not enough high quality sleep. Add in a headache, muscle aches, nausea, and working out takes serious work.

That is where the words working out really kick in. You have to force yourself to work your body, like you force your mind to focus on your job all day. Only, at the end of this work, you won’t feel drained and exhausted. You will feel energized, like you really accomplished something. The more you do it, the more energy you will gain. The pain will melt away and your entire mindset will change.

For me, just running or walking a mile before work makes all the difference in the world. It changes my outlook on the day, the way I react to traffic and office stress. It even makes me feel like lifting weights when I get home.

When I miss those runs a few days in a row, I fall back into the mode of achy, stressed out, and too tired to lift my butt off the couch, or even to roll out of bed. My diet suffers as well. When I work out, I crave whole foods that are healthy for me. When I skip workouts for a few days, the junk food cravings creep back in to my head. Watching Fit to Fat to Fit made me realize, that is the typical reaction.

I have created a workout program based off Cory Gregory’s Squat Every Day Program, which can be found on Bodybuilding.com.  I added in exercises that are necessary to rebalance the body after spending 9+ hours sitting at a desk.  I will be posting it on my webpage for you to try after I am done tweaking it a bit.  So far all I can tell you is….It works and you will be sore!