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N 2060 Term Paper Introduction Healthy life-style is the way to beauty, health and long years of life. Every person is able to achieve a victory over obesity or overweight. This is what is claimed in Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover. In this book Bob Greene dwells on the most efficient methods that allow people to achieve their goals in the most effective way in a minimum amount of time.
The goal statement was to test Bob Greene's innovative twelve-week plan for transforming the body inside and out and to lose at least 30 pounds in order to prove the effectiveness of the program. Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover is written in an easy-going manner. The author of the book considers that great health and fitness begin with the right state of mind (Greene, 3) and provides a detailed description of the most effective techniques of the modern fitness, addressing emotional issues along with the nutrition and workout programs. Recommendations concerning physical exercises and nutrition secrets allow developing practical habits for amazing results. In addition, the author of the book provides the compelling true-life success stories about real people who succeeded to change their lives and bodies simply following the basic conceptions of healthy life-style. The book contains plenty of illustrations and practical recommendations helping the readers to achieve the ever-dreamt results, to lose several pounds, to improve metabolism, to retain vitality and tonus for your muscles, and offers the twelve-week makeover challenge as the answer to all fitness foals.
The workout guides are presented in the step-by-step way, for all fitness levels, and provide a combination of progressive cardiovascular and intensive strength training exercises aimed to enhance metabolism and to provide a radical weight-loss solution. Apart from that, the author provides key nutritional guidelines five simple eating rules able to improve the quality of life and to facilitate the process of weight loss. In contrast to many other nutrition plans, Bob Greene's idea is not to force people to adhere to some formal or strict dieting, but to make small steps that will allow burning far more calories each day when the person reaches the end of the twelve-week program. The book is designed for a wide circle of readers and allows following the program for everyone, whether the reader is a beginning exerciser, who has a regular workout routine going, or whether he (or she) is at advanced level of fitness. The author places a high emphasis that it is very important to have the proper mind-set before the person begins Total Body Makeover program.
It means that it is very important not to surrender, but to undertake all efforts to achieve the desired outcomes. It is necessary to think like an athlete (Indeed, as it is claimed by the author, it is not necessary to be an athlete, but it is important to feel and to think like an athlete in order to succeed). By pursuing this thesis, the author explains that the athletes usually train intensely in order to win the game, or to achieve a specific goal. However, when they reach the goal, they "scale back and continue to stay active at a less rigid place" (Greene, 4). Here we come to understanding the difference between an average person and the athlete, as if the athlete's goal is specific and athletes mindset is goal-oriented, our goal is not to achieve a specific result, but to be strong enough to keep this result as long as possible. It means, that, probably, the most important conception of fitness is to achieve a result and to continue to be in a good physical shape, to be active, and to continue healthy nutrition plan, in order not to lose the effect (weight loss, for example, or health strides) you have already made.
In such a way, the goal should not be to accomplish the twelve-week workout program, to celebrate the results, and then to return to the lifestyle you liked in the past, but to learn the healthy lifestyle and continue to do so for the unlimited period of time. The next thing to be taken into consideration is the success of others. The author considers that the successful stories will be very helpful for both the beginners and advanced exercisers, as they help people to understand that they are not alone. Indeed, this strategy is effective, and the book is rich in the stories of people who succeeded to change their bodies through commitment and dedications.
These motivating tales inspire the readers and allow them to see their own possibilities and struggles in the real experiences of others. It is a common knowledge that America reports, probably, one of the highest obesity rates all over the world. Many people find hard to follow the nutritious diet or to go to fitness centers (or, at least, doing some exercises at home). In result, the obesity rates are consistently increasing.
In addition, even those people, who understand that healthy lifestyle is the must, and do make efforts to slim down, often stop at their midway to success, because they consider fitness to be a boring and exhausting duty. Bob Greene reports that as many as 95 percent of people who lose weight gain it back (Greene, 4). That's why he places high emphasis on motivation and positive emotional background of fitness and healthy nutrition, and successful real stories about real people make a great deal in his book. Only after the person comes to understanding that it is his own choice to change his body (and lifestyle) or not, he is offered to read the twelve-week workout program and to begin his way to a new life and new body. As it is claimed by the author, this twelve-week total body makeover includes no strict or formal diet.
On the one hand, it may appear surprising, as the vast majority of personal workout plans require changing your eating habits drastically. However, as we have already found out, the vast majority of these fitness programs fail. Instead, Bob Greene offers not to change your eating habits at once, but to make step-by-step changes that will make your goal closer and closer, until you will not succeed. Bob Greene places high emphasis on the fact that for the vast majority of people it will be enough simply to doing the exercise program and to follow his five simple eating rules, before starting a stricter nutrition plan. Only when the 12 -week total body makeover program will be completed, and the person will not meet his goals, he may then thing about a diet in a literary meaning of this word. So, the five simple eating rules are as follows: To get a grip on the persons emotional eating; To eat breakfast; To have an eating cutoff time; To drink plenty of water; To abstain from or limit the persons intake of alcohol (Greene, 4).
Among other things, Bob Greene asserts that it is not necessary to cut the calories drastically, as it may make the metabolism slow down. Instead, the person is offered to make metabolism running on high both through exercises and through corrected nutrition plan. In case the person restricts his food intake, this does exactly the opposite, as it slows the metabolism down instead of boosting it. Indeed, the metabolism process in the human body is often underestimated, and the first thing the person does when he wants to lose weight is to reduce the amount of the food he consumes daily and cut it to minimum.
However, when the person cuts way back on the amount of calories, he involuntary initiates the survival mechanism, which forces the body to make a supply and to slow metabolism in order to expend the energy slower. Cutting the calories with no exercising is, therefore, the worst thing for any person, who wants to lose several pounds. In such a way, dieting is not the most efficient way to reduce weight and to keep the achieved results. Instead, the person, who wants to lose weight should focus on exercising, and let the five eating rules guide his approach to eating. The most important thing here is that these simple eating rules will allow the person to reduce his daily calorie intake, at the same time allowing to eat enough in order not to slow metabolism down. This is yet another important consideration Bob Greene wants to concentrate on: When youre in the throes of an intensive exercise program, you need to make sure youre getting enough calories to fuel your workouts.
One can ask whether this seemingly easy program is successful. As it is claimed by the author, the vast majority of his clients end up reaching their desired goals without going on a formal diet. This is what Bob Greene calls the free fall the thing that generally occurs after a certain period of time. This may last two or even four weeks, or even after the twelve-week program is over, - but finally, those, who adhere to this program, reach a certain point when "their metabolism revs up and the weight starts consistently melting off" (Greene, 5). However, reaching this "free fall" point doesnt necessarily mean that the person has lost enough weight. Indeed, some of them will further require the most structured and detailed nutrition plan in order to lose the desired quantity of pounds.
Yet, the first thing to consider is that the person should accomplish this program before he will start doing harder and stricter workouts and nutrition diets. As far as the author claims that some people may require additional dieting, he goes over ten of the most popular diets in order to help the readers to clarify their dietary needs and to learn how to make better food choices in their everyday lives. While some of the diets are well-known and popular, there are some of them that will introduce the reader to an entirely new way of eating, thus assisting the reader to make the correct transition to real life in order not to spoil the results. To put it differently, the reader is expected to accept a conscientious eating, instead of dieting.
Conscientious eating is not synonymous to dieting, as dieting implies the nutrition plan that lasts a specific period of time until the person reaches his goal. Conscientious eating is a way of life that allows you to stay within healthy boundaries while still eating enough to give you energy to exercise and to feel satisfied" (Greene, 5). Thus, the person should understand that diets are not the be-all and end-all (Greene, 5). Now, the next important aspect of Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover program is exercising, the heart and the soul of Greene's idea. According to it, the person is expected to do three different categories of exercises over the twelve-week course: functional exercise, strength training exercise, and aerobic exercise. Although one can feel embarrassed about doing plenty of physical exercises, the author assures that, from his experience working with many different people, all these exercises are very doable.
The first set of exercise is functional and is aimed to improve flexibility, core strength, balance and coordination. This type of exercises strengthens stabilizing muscles (such as abdominal's and others) and allows achieving what is called functional fitness. Functional fitness prepares the person to the next step, and makes the aerobic and strengthening parts of the workout program easier to perform. Apart from that functional fitness improves posture, and makes you move more gracefully, and help you avoid injury (Greene, 6).
The second set of exercise is weight-training. These exercises are done with weight machines and dumbbells, and are aimed to increase muscular power and endurance. Apart from that, they strengthen joints thus preparing you for more intensive exercises. In addition, these exercises boost metabolism and make the process of losing weight easier and faster. Finally, aerobic exercises (cardio exercises) allow not only losing weight easier, but improves the overall level of fitness as well. Bob Greene's workout program seems to be very effective.
When I have read the book, I understood that the author didnt invent anything new, but, instead, he created an amazing mixture of the most efficient weight-losing techniques. Apart from that I liked that this book it not aimed at people, who are at advanced level of fitness, but instead, allows both, the beginners, and those at advanced level, to make small steps in their struggle for healthy lifestyle and to achieve the desired aims. What concerns my goal attainment, as I have already mentioned, my goal was to lose 30 pounds. Since I have started this program about two months ago, I have lost 10 pounds, but still have 20 more pounds to go.
I do not feel that I didnt attain the goal, because, as it is written in Greene's book, the person should reach the free fall point. It seems that I have reached the free fall point only a couple of weeks ago, as only then I really felt that my metabolism boosted and the weight started consistently melting out. Bob Greene's is not very difficult, as it is based on the reality of the long-term weight loss and the common sense. What makes his program different from all others is that it teaches how to change eating habits for life.
Greene's idea is both new and old. It makes you love life and doesnt make you feel bad while exercising and dieting. Instead, this program makes you understand that you can enjoy your life and food, and at the same time be successful in your weight loss goals. The usefulness of Bob Greene's workout program cannot be underestimated. On the one hand, continued physical training is able to boost metabolism, to make the person stronger, to improve posture and to make the body more flexible.
On the other hand, aerobic exercises, such as jogging, walking, and some other types of aerobic exercises, improve the overall level of fitness, and have positive impact on cardiovascular activity as well. In addition, the program is created in such a way that even those people, who are too busy to dedicate a specified time for physical activity can find time to incorporate Bob Greene's ideas into their daily life activity. What is even more important, the program is not focused on formal dieting, as it is not designated to be accomplished at a specific period of time, but rather to become a part of healthy life-style. Finally, the program is designed so efficiently that it hardly requires any improvements. Bibliography Greene, B. (2004).
Total Body Makeover. Simon & Schuster.
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