Get fit or die trying is what my neighbor blurted out one day in 2012.
But he first prefaced that sage advice with this barb:
“You’re such a fat bastard; your belly is hanging over your pants. Rich, I dare you to get fit or die trying!”
That seemed pretty harsh, but on the other hand, not unreasonable.
My doctor had already told me that if I do not lose weight, I was risking my life, so what did I have to lose?
- How do I get fit?
- How can I lose weight?
- What do I have to do to look like a human being again?
This knowledge cannot be rocket science, or is it?
Those are the words that I thought to myself the first time that I put a barbell on my back and attempted to do a squat.
And that was just a barbell alone and no weights!
I thought for sure that my knees were going to crumble or that my back would break.
Or I would fall with the weights behind me and bang my head or who knows what else.
But I remembered how that morning, that neighbor had called me a fat bastard.
And he was right.
Can You Get Fit?
The answer is yes.
If an Oreo addict like myself could make the change, so can you.
I did not want to be a fat bastard.
I wanted to get fit, but after so many years of failed diets, I did not believe it was possible, especially since I was already over the age of 50, fifty-five, to be exact.
But, those stinging words ‘fat bastard’ fueled my determination to get fit or die trying.
What did I have to lose?
I was already 55.
I had gone through so much the previous decade that I did not think it would make a difference if I did die trying.
In only one year, I lost my family, career, home, and community.
Sure, back then, I was sure it was everyone else’s fault but mine, but that is a different subject.
Suffice it to say that today, I like to say that I ‘shoulder the should’s.
I am the one who is responsible for what happens in my life.
Can You Relate?
After ten years of isolation and morphing into a fat middle-aged man, I was ready to get fit or die trying.
I could not disagree with my good neighbor, 275 pounds on a 6-foot one inch frame is pretty hefty.
A 50-inch waist is so large that I could not even bend down to tie my shoes.
Whose fault was that?
Mine.
Whose fault is your overweight or obesity?
No one forces you to consume what you consume, to think your thoughts, to say what you say, and to do what you do.
What did I know about exercise?
Not much even though I thought I knew plenty.
After all, I had been going to the gym, doing a treadmill or elliptical, even machines.
Yet, every year, I kept ballooning out, and I felt so desperate.
Can you relate to the frustration of your body never changing, no matter how much diet and exercise you do?
The new title fat bastard immediately brought me to my senses.
I thought about Mike Meyers as Fat Bastard in Austin Powers, and as much as I hated hearing those words, that is what I needed to hear for the motivation to get fit or die trying.
The three pillars to dramatically change your body and life are:
#1. Get motivated
You must be motivated.
I do not know what will motivate you; perhaps it is the thought of your children or your wife or your girlfriend.
Maybe it is the thought of living a higher quality of life when you get older?
Are you as fit as you want to be?
If the answer is no, then you are in the right place.
If you are not as fit as you want to be, then you have to fire yourself up to take action, but the first step is to get yourself motivated.
Do it.
#2. Eat Your Way to Health and Fitness – What?
Eat your way fit?
Yes, I said it, and it is so accurate.
If you want to waste the rest of your life on diets, go ahead, but if you’re going to listen to someone who had gone through the maze of commercial weight loss plans for too long, then you need to know that eating real food is the holy grail of getting fit over 50 or any age.
You will be on your way to slaying the demon of obesity that appears as a muffin top on top of your too-tight jeans.
Yes, we have all done it, squeezed into pants, jeans, or a suit that just does not fit us.
Have you ever seen a guy with his belly hanging over his pants?
Are you that guy?
Yes, I have seen it and lived it!
But one day, after sitting in an all-night deli about to start on a second blueberry muffin, I looked down and could not see my feet, my belly was just too big.
I hated food because I thought it was food that made me fat, but the truth was that it was not food, it was the type and quantity of food.
Processed Foods
You bet that too many Oreos, snickers, muffins, chips, ben and Jerry’s, and any other processed food you can think of helped to make me fat.
Would you believe that everyday supermarket products available in colorful packages everywhere could be so lethal to your health?
Well, time to consider this reality, only six months after I started to eat clean, meaning to just eat real foods that do not come in colorful fancy wrappers, I was down 75 pounds and comfortably fitting in 32-inch pants.
Change the type of food you eat, and like magic, your body will change, no, transform would be the right word.
Eat the right foods, you will be doing yourself a favor that no exercise in the world can do.
Without the right foods, for sure your body will stay as it is and if you starve enough, maybe it will be a smaller version of what you are now, but to transform from obese to fit, from your fat body to your real physique, then you must eat real food daily.
#3. Get moving
That sounds simple, but you likely do very little moving.
Get up, take a shower, sit in the car or bus, then sit on a train or again in a car, then walk a couple of minutes to the office, and then guess what?
Sit again!
And again and again for hours, in meetings, at the desk, writing reports, and then you do the same in reverse, leave the office and sit some more, yes, more sitting!
If you do not think that there is a new danger in your life called sitting disease, then think again!
Excellent, I hope you came to your senses and realized that Judge Judy does not know who you are.
All you are doing by watching tv is supporting more advertising companies, so be resolute that you are going to take care of yourself no matter what.
Your family will thank you for getting fit and reclaiming your health.
So the third pillar to get fit fast is to put on your sneakers and start walking.
As Easy As Walking
Walking is the essential thing that you can do to begin changing your body.
Get up earlier and go for a walk, 20 minutes is fair, 30 minutes is better, and 60 minutes is even better.
If you do not have at least 30 minutes to invest in your fitness by walking, swimming, tennis, or cycling, some way for you to get moving, then you are not in the right place because you have to start moving to get fit.
The Bottom Line
HashiMashi.com is about getting fit, no matter what your age.
I write for:
- men and women who want to get back into shape, even over 50 because I know how it feels to be ‘over the hill’ with still no clue how to get fit.
- people who are not just a little bit overweight, but even thirty, fifty, seventy-five or more than a hundred pounds overweight
- anyone who thinks it is hopeless to wear normal size clothes or want to go out in public again
- those who think they are too ‘big’ or ‘large’ (fat) to get a date
I am still a work in progress, but my hope here is that after 14 years of maintaining my initial weight loss, I can be of service to help you as well to transform your body from fat to fit.
If you want to get fitter, healthier, and have the best chance of living a better life, then you are in the right place.
There is no question, Change Your Body, Change Your Life!
It did mine, and I hope it will only bring positive results to you.
It is time to take action.
What’s Next?
- First, get a free body transformation guide., a gift to you to help you get started today!
- This guide is a template of the exact strength training + clean eating approach I used to lose 75 pounds in 6 months.
