Just clear a space for your own gym

The beauty of LCHF is that exercise is an option, not an absolute requirement. ALL my weight loss was achieved WITHOUT any major exercise at all. Indeed, as I have already explained, if you are having to exercise to control weight, you need to change your diet.

In the days prior to LCHF, I was like most of the population in thinking that lack of exercise was the reason why I was putting on weight. I would have feelings of guilt and low self-esteem when my exercise routine failed to keep my weight in check and naturally I blamed myself for just “being lazy”. Now I realize that it’s all to do with diet: you simply “can’t run from a poor diet”, especially the older you get.

Throughout my 20’s and 30’s I would exercise hard trying to achieve that “perfect body” but even then I was on a hiding to nothing. Why? The answer is simple: I was also on a VERY high carb diet, mainly in the form of beer! No matter how hard I tried, I could not get rid of that slight beer gut that was developing. I tried exercising harder but to no avail, it was always there. I thought that if I exercise real hard, drinking a few beers and consuming a few high fructose sports drinks won’t make the slightest bit of difference. How wrong I was! Also in those days, exercise was not a very pleasant experience. It always entailed of some sort of pain in the form of cramps, stitches, crashes in blood sugar, etc., etc. Exercise was something to be endured rather than to be enjoyed. With LCHF, I am glad to say all that has changed. Exercise is now a pleasure with no cramps, no crashes in blood sugar and no post exercise stiffness.

The big secret to achieving a lean, well-defined body is to have low adipose (body fat) tissue in the first place. The lower your body fat, the more your muscles will stand out by themselves, without any particular need to exercise. Burning your fat off with the correct diet will achieve far quicker/more effective results than a 1000 sit-ups ever will! I am not saying don’t do any sit-ups, I’m just saying get your body fat down first and THEN do your sit-ups if you want to. You will be surprised & amazed at how quick and effective your training will become with only a small amount of effort! Exercise is something I now look forward to rather than dreading.

My “Routine”

As with my diet, as with my exercise routine: KEEP IT SIMPLE. To that extent, I don’t really have an exercise routine at all, I exercise when I feel like it! However, I also try to incorporate as much exercise as I can into my daily routines so that any “extra” exercise I feel I have to do is minimized. To that end, I walk almost everywhere I can, I take the stairs rather than the lift, I carry my shopping home rather than take the car, I carry my daughter on my shoulders whenever possible, etc., etc.

Apart from the above, I also do the following “additional” exercise:

• Running: when I feel like it it; 3,5,10 km sessions
• Resistance training: when I feel like it, at home (I don’t believe in gyms!); press-ups, sit-ups, curls, etc.
• Asthanga Yoga: 2-3 times/week. About the only thing I make sure I do on a regular basis. Great for strength, breathing, toning & relaxation.

My attitude to exercise and its aims/goals is very simple: I want to comfortably be able to do things I want to do in life without them being stressful or exacting huge physical demands on my ability to do them e.g. I did NO TRAINING for the Samarian Gorge. I don’t want exercise to dominate my life, I want it to complement it. Hence, get your diet right in the first place, exercise when you feel like it and enjoy life!