Six Moves To Your ThriveLife - Part 3

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Thrive Month continues!

A couple of weeks ago, I declared September to be Thrive Month! 

I intend to show every Over-50 Guy in America how to create his own ThriveLife transformation as this year’s holiday season approaches. To accomplish this, I created a plan called 6 Moves To Your ThriveLife, which I’m now sharing through the LenDentonThrive Letter. 

(I’ve also just completed an ebook, 6 Smart Moves To Your ThriveLife, which will be available soon. More on that shortly.)

For the sake of brevity, I’ll share Move #5 with you today, and I’ll close out the series with Move #6 next week. But first, here’s a quick review of our progress thus far.

Recall that the ThriveLife is a transformational lifestyle strategy for Over-50 Guys to help them lose weight, get fit, and stay fit for the rest of their lives...without crazy diets or grueling workouts. 

Move #1 is Get a Checkup - making sure that you’re healthy enough to engage with the ThriveLife is a good first step. And, regular annual checkups are the best strategy for detecting and treating serious chronic diseases that can arise as we age.

Move #2 is Start Moving. Motion is medicine. It helps us develop a calorie deficit, and Zone 2 Cardio is the most effective way to burn excess body fat. Walking 7,000 steps a per day can reduce your risk of death by 50-70%!

Move #3 - Exit The Red Zone - The Standard American Diet (SAD) is driving an obesity epidemic among Over-50 Guys. The antidote to the SAD isn’t dieting. It’s Eating Smarter! To exit the Red Zone means to systematically eliminate seven unhealthy Red Zone foods from your diet. These are sugar, white flour, white rice, white potatoes, corn, high-fructose corn syrup, and seed oils. 

Move #4 - Daily Meal Planning - a smart move that goes hand-in-hand with Eating Smarter. It's easier to avoid excess calories than it is to work them off through exercise. Planning ahead helps you avoid falling into the Red Zone Trap (making bad food choices). 

For a more detailed review, you can revisit last week’s edition here.

Move #5 - Daily Weigh-Ins

What did you weigh this morning?

Is that a strange question? Most of us Over-50 Guys can’t answer that question. A lot of us don’t want to even think about that question! 

When I started my ThriveLife journey more than 10 years ago, my doctor told me that I needed to lose 40 pounds. Up until that time, I hardly ever weighed myself. I think that was mostly because I knew that the results would be bad news and I didn’t want to know how overweight I was. 

But, my “scale avoidance” ended when I started my ThriveLife. That’s because I had learned through my business experiences that “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” (This quote is attributed to business guru Peter Drucker) 

I knew this was true in the business world, so I just assumed that it might also be true for me on my fitness journey. And, fortunately, it did turn out to be true.  I actually lost 70 pounds in 7 months, and my daily weigh-ins were a key element of that success!

What is a Daily Weigh-In Ritual?

When you’re trying to lose weight and build a healthy lifestyle, your weight should be one of your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). The ThriveLife is built on smart daily practices. And, the daily weigh-in ritual is just one of these essential daily practices.

Let’s not overcomplicate things. It’s just a weigh-in! 

But, our weight varies throughout the day. So, if you weigh yourself at different times of the day, your measurements have a lot of variability, making it difficult to tell if you’re making any progress. 

The key is consistency. 

For a daily weigh-in to be most effective, you need to do it the same way, every day. That means using the same scale, at around the same time of day, under the same conditions. As an example, here’s a quick summary of my daily weigh-in ritual:

• Weigh first thing every morning

• On the same digital scale

• Before consuming any food or drink

• Wearing skivvies or less

• Record the results in my fitness app (more on that in a minute…)

I’ve been doing this ritual every day for the last 10 years. Your weigh-in ritual might look different, based on your specific needs and schedule. The key is to do it with consistency. 

The Benefits of a Daily Weigh-In Ritual

I have found that there’s a lot of psychological power in my daily weigh-in ritual. The process of becoming more fit and healthy is a deliberate act of behavior change. We replace bad habits with healthy habits that allow us to become healthier over time.   

Repetition is an important part of forming new habits. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, says: “every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” With that in mind, here are three key benefits I believe forming a daily weigh-in ritual will create for you:

1. Accountability - doing daily weigh-ins is a simple way to hold yourself accountable for your fitness commitments. Each weigh-in is a vote for the healthier version of you! Think this: “The new, fitter me checks my weight daily.” 

2. Connects Behaviors to Outcomes - Today’s plate is tomorrow’s weight. While this is a bit of a generalization, it's still an effective accountability tool that you can use to shape your new, healthier behaviors. From my personal experience, I am more mindful of what I eat today knowing that I will be stepping on the scale tomorrow morning.

3. Shapes Your Behavior (Visual) - Recording and reviewing your weigh-in results visually has real power in helping you to become the fitter version of yourself. I’ve put that visualization power to work in my ThriveLife, and you can do the same. Here’s how:

1. Record every weigh-in in your chosen fitness app. I’ve used Fitbit for the last ten years. (Other apps like MyFitnessPal have similar capabilities.)

2. Review the Weight Graph every day. An example Fitbit Weight Graph (not mine) is shown below.

3. This graph shows two important things. First, the actual weigh-in numbers are shown in white. As you’d expect, the weigh-in numbers vary from day to day. The weight trend line is shown in blue. 

4. Focus your attention on the trend line. You want that trend line going DOWN!

5. Focusing on this trend line every day tells your brain that this is important. Your brain takes over from there to “solve the equation” to make that trend line move in your desired direction. You’ll start thinking about the trend line when making decisions about food and exercise. So, the trend line starts to affect your decisions to move the trend down. It’s not magic. It’s neuroscience.

This daily, visual connection to my weight trend line is a critical part of my daily weigh-in ritual. It's a powerful daily mental reinforcement of what I’m working to achieve.

Time to Take Action!

It’s time again for a weekly check-in on our Action Plan:

• Move #1: Have you gotten your annual exam yet? Or, has it been scheduled?

• Move #2: Have you started getting your daily dose of motion? The more the better.  Remember, motion is medicine for a long, healthy life!

• Move #3: Have you begun to evaluate your diet to eliminate Red Zone foods? This is a challenging, but important move that will dramatically impact your weight loss and overall health. Read this if you need additional information. 

• Move #4: Are you planning ahead for your daily meals? Just remember that it's easier to avoid excess calories than to work them off.

• Move #5: Begin creating your own daily weigh-in ritual and don’t forget to record your weight. Look at the trend line every day to harness the power of your mind.

Your ThriveLife will be built on smart daily practices like these.

Smarter - not harder.

My New Book Is Coming Soon!

I’ll be releasing my new ebook 6 Smart Moves To Your ThriveLife in a few days! I’m finishing up with final edits and completing some website updates in anticipation of the release.

If you’d like a free pre-release edition of the book, just reply to this newsletter’s email and send me a note. I’ll send it right over.

Thanks for being a faithful reader of the LenDentonThrive Letter!

Do You Know Somebody?

Do you know somebody that’s struggling with their weight and fitness levels? Please consider sharing this information with them. Just forward your copy of this email to them. It might change their life!

Thanks for reading this week.

I write this newsletter to make a positive impact on the lives of Over-50 Guys and their families. If you found this information useful, please consider subscribing to receive new editions each week.

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