The most effective way to permanently lose 10 pounds

Valentini, The most effective way to permanently lose ten pounds
The most effective way
to permanently
lose ten pounds!
by Vito Valentini
1

The most effective way to lose ten pounds!
Copyright © 2011 by Vito Valentini
Cover and design by: Mehmet Sukun
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by
any electronic or mechanical means including photocopying, recording, or in-formation
storage and retrieval without permission in writing from the author.
ISBN-pending
aurorawomensfitness.com
vito.valentini@aurorawomensfitness.com
Printed in U.S.A

I am sure you all know the story about the young boy who goes home with his
test scores and when his mother asks him how he did on his exams he answer
“Great Mom, I am an expert; I got 110!” The boy’s mother is in shock;
mothers always like to boast that their sons are smarter than everyone else but
usually know the actual truth! “What? 110? How could that be? I though the top score was
100.” “No mom, I got a 40 in math, a 40 in English, but didn’t do so well in science; I only
got a 30.”
That’s me. I am an expert in weight loss having lost at least 300 pounds during my lifetime;
50-60 pounds at least three or four times and finally 85 pounds permanently! The story is
really simple; for most of my life I was what I refer to as a FLOK (Fat Left-Out Kid). You
know me well – “Vito can play but he doesn’t count”, “tell him we already have a full team”,
“quick, start the game so he won’t be on our team”, on and on. At my largest I weighed
275 pounds with a “tight 48” waist (I am 5’ 11”), a little tighter depending on what I ate and
drank that day! I am still 5’ 11” although I now weigh 185 pounds with a 32” waist, body
fat a little less than 15%, blood pressure 110/80 and resting heart rate of 48. I would like to
offer you some principles, thoughts, mantra, ideas regarding weight loss based on my own
experiences; training and nutrition is not “one size fits all” – no pun intended – however I
believe the underlying principles are universal. If you have an opportunity to read through
this e-book and things make sense to you please feel free to implement them into your own
life. If you need some help or would like to discuss them further, my email address is vito.
valentini@aurorawomensfitness.com and our telephone number at Aurora is 201-943-2888. I
hope you enjoy reading this e-book as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
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“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything sim-ply
because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it
is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of
your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for
many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with
reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
-Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism, 563-483 B.C.
I was an accountant. I didn’t even have a last name, just “Vito the Accountant”. I was sitting
in my office one day opening the mail (had to move the donut out of the way first) and saw
that I had received a mass-mailed postcard imprinted with the following bold words – “you
too can look like this!!” and on the front was a photo of rock-solid abs. I don’t know what
gave me the courage to pick up the phone and I cannot honestly tell you that I foresaw those
abs on my body; all I know is a power greater than my mind, the mind that kept convincing
me that I ought not to take too many risks or move too much, that power guided my fingers
to the phone so that I could call the number on the card and make an appointment to see the
health club that sent out the mailer. I waddled over to the club just three short (although they
felt like long) blocks from my office, went up in the elevator, and found what turned out to
be a beautiful club on the top three floors of a hotel in New York. I took the tour, sat down
to talk about the rates, and heard “the enrollment fee is $2,000 and the monthly dues are
$175 per month”; not a great thing to hear when you are a fat guy on probably on the verge
of a coronary! I had exactly $2,010 to my name….and I joined! (They were kind enough to
waive the dues for the remaining days in that month). In my accountant head I figured out
that if I use the club every day it would only cost $6 per day, if I went twice a day $3 per
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visit, etc! The rest of the story goes like this: I would walk over to the club, change out of
my suit and tie, walk on the treadmill for five minutes because that was all I could do, show-er,
change and go back to work. It basically took me 90 minutes to do a 5 minute workout;
but I stuck with it, putting one foot in front of the other, getting to ten minutes, then twenty,
then running a little, then running more; I changed my eating habits, gave up drinking alco-hol,
learned that training to music was really inspiring, did some stupid things like trying a
product called Cybergenics (gave it up after the first day, the headache was unbearable), ran
in a Hefty trash bag (thought that sweating was the key to weight loss), but pretty much just
moved more, ate less and tried to learn as much as I could about exercise. After four months
or so, I finally got up the courage to walk into the weight training area and began to move
some weights – not big weights, just enough to make me uncomfortable and sore for a few
days. The first principle, mantra, idea, thought…whatever you would like to call it, is this:
the past doesn’t equal the future, unless you choose to let it. Many times the only anchor or
point of reference we have is our past but if we don’t take a leap of faith every day we stop
growing and stagnate. Doing something new is uncomfortable, it is important to embrace the
discomfort as a learning tool.
It took a long time for me to see real results; I was training on my own, learning on my own
and trying to coach myself without any real knowledge or relevant experience; fortunately
for me I didn’t hurt myself. About seven years later, at the age of 39, I ran two ultra-mara-thons,
a 32 mile race and a 50 mile race. I trained harder for the 32 mile event and finished
in 5 hours, 25 minutes; didn’t train so hard for the 50 mile race so that one took me about 9
hours! Sure, it took me 9 hours but if you think about it, I started out with 5 minutes on the
treadmill and got to a 50 mile run….and I am not any more (or less) athletically gifted than
you. Again, I trained on my own, coached myself, etc, etc. I never really learned the ben-efit
of working with a trainer or participating in science-based group fitness programs until
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I became an indoor cycling teacher. That’s when I began to see the value of being coached
by someone who cares about their students and knows what they are talking about, has the
experience to help you navigate the potential pitfalls, and inspire you in a way that you can-not
inspire yourself. It is important to begin; each of us has a personal starting point and it
has absolutely no relationship to anyone else’s starting point. Lance Armstrong was a profes-sional
cyclist prior to begin diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer; after surgery,
a surgery that his doctors gave him a 20% chance of surviving, and extensive chemotherapy
he began to make his way back into professional cycling. During his first few training rides
women with strollers actually passed him, that is how slow he was travelling on his bike.
Lance Armstrong - a man who in the same year but prior to his diagnosis had been ranked the
number one cyclist in the world was being passed by women pushing their children in stroll-ers!
Our starting point is our starting point and we move forward from there! Here is your
second principle: small changes lead to BIG results. As you begin to see results you become
more inspired, not only for the specific results you see but also because you feel more in
control of your current life and future destiny. The fact of the matter is that unlike in Lance’s
case, training, exercise, athletics and sports for most of us are life-metaphors; we are not
devoting our lives to athletics but we can translate our successes in those endeavors to our
everyday lives. We gain confidence in our ability to improve our lives, we feel healthier and
more vibrant and move through our days with a sense of purpose and we actually become
sources of inspiration for the people around us. Imagine for a second what it would feel like
working in an environment filled with positive, energetic, and optimistic people and knowing
that we had a hand in creating that environment – PHENOMENAL!
“A lot of people have gone a lot further than they thought they could because someone else
thought they could.” – Zig Ziglar
An addendum to the Lance story; as he began to make his way back to professional cycling
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in 1998 he met with some very serious challenges, even dropping out of Paris-Nice, a one
day race. That is when he went to North Carolina to train with his coach Chris Carmichael
and the rest, as they say, is history. His accomplishments in cycling and in life are too nu-merous
to mention. This is your third principle: seek out the advice and guidance of a pro-fessional
or group of professionals who qualify themselves through their constant search for
knowledge as well as their interest in making a positive difference in your life! A coach who
is knowledgeable and dedicated to helping you achieve results is invaluable. As coaches we
follow a simple three-step process known as ARC – assess, review and analyze, then coach.
A properly trained group fitness program coach is the equivalent of a using a personal trainer
in a group format. For many women, personal training is not a viable option; the good news
is that in many cases the incremental results achieved through personal training relative
to consistent participation in group exercise are not significant enough to justify the extra
expense and in fact are counter-productive. Women tend to enjoy participating in group exer-cise
and therefore will participate more often and for a longer period of time, reaching their
goals in a shorter period of time and then setting new goals. Other benefits of participating in
an integrated group fitness program such as the one we offer at Aurora include 1) profession-al
coaching provides training that is science based and a well-balanced overall fitness regi-men
rather than the bodybuilder mentality that is so prevalent in most gyms (chest Mondays,
back Tuesdays, etc); 2) the program is based on a coordinated schedule of classes; creating a
training plan around the group-ex schedule is the equivalent of an appointment, especially if
you agree to meet your friends for class, rather than a hit-or-miss “I think I’ll go to the gym
tonight” attitude; 3) the classes are set to inspiring music with your coach participating in the
class as your role model as opposed to doing the same old exercises on the treadmill or cross
trainer with the same old tv program on the screen in front of you distracting you from your
training; and 4) the programs are based on repeating functional and fundamental movements
that help increase your strength, coordination, mental awareness and neuromuscular condi-
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tioning; 5) the programs are typically based on higher repetition-lower resistance training
that is perfect for women whose goals are a combination of weight maintenance, increased
cardiovascular conditioning, and more tone-less bulk.
“Those who plan do better than those who do not plan even though they rarely stick to their
plan.” - Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
The definition of success is personal to each of us however the word “success” implies the
reaching of a particular goal. Perhaps your goal in a bike race is to simply finish the race
while one of the other riders is set on a podium finish. Each of you will increase your chanc-es
of attaining your personal goal by creating a plan on how to accomplish your goal. Plans
are not static; they are fluid based on the circumstances you encounter throughout the process
however there is no question that absent a plan you lose the foundation for making decisions.
Let me offer an example. Many of you reading this e-book make use of public transporta-tion
to get back and forth from work or school and you take a very specific bus, perhaps the
166, to get to Port Authority at a certain time. The bus driver has a route assigned to him/her
and follows that route without deviation. What if the driver didn’t have to follow a route but
instead was able to decide on a daily basis which streets to take at any point in time, stop for
as long as he/she wanted, pick up passengers wherever he/she felt like it…sounds silly right?
How many people do you know would tolerate that as a commuting option? Now, how many
people do you know, those same people that you might have thought of in the first example
perhaps, use exactly that type of system to “plan” their training program? Show up to the
gym at any time, if at all, and do whatever comes to mind at that particular moment. What
do you rate as their opportunity for success based on the “hit or miss” method? This is your
fourth principle: “fail to plan and you plan to fail.” It is impossible to achieve desired results
without a plan; how can you get somewhere if you don’t know where the “where” is? Plans
can be as simple as “I am going to participate in the 6:30PM class every Monday through
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Friday” to taking the group exercise schedule and circling 2 BODYPUMP classes, 1 BODY-COMBAT
class, 2 RPM classes and 2 BODYFLOW classes per week to a training plan that
requires you to log in to your Aurora on-line training peaks account and record the amount
of calories you take in, the amount of calories you expend, an exercise log including rates of
perceived exertion and actual work performed. In all of the cases above, the plan provides
you with a very specific methodology to achieve your goal, a way to measure your results,
and an analysis of your on-going results, known as plan-to-actual OR “how am are doing?”
Plans are adjustable, not based on whim but based on analysis; “is this working?” “Am I see-ing
the results I want?” “What needs to change in order to get to my goals?” Just the simple
difference between a plan that says “I will attend 6:30Pm classes Monday through Friday”,
or every other day, or Monday, Wednesday and Thursday is a better plan than “I’ll see how I
feel when I get home”. The plan is a commitment while the hit-or-miss, as a steady process,
has no priority and is a waste of time and effort. There is nothing wrong with being sponta-neous
in life, in fact, it is one of the things that makes life interesting; for most of us though it
just doesn’t work as a steady diet.
Speaking of diet, let’s have a simple talk about calories and nutrition! First, please remove
the word “diet” from your vocabulary as the first three letters of the word “diet” spell “die”
and we would prefer not to work with people who have that as a goal. Also, the word “diet”
has a negative connotation as it is usually associated with a reduction in food intake as op-posed
to making healthy choices, and in order to achieve positive results it is imperative that
we put our minds in a positive and optimistic thought process! Your fifth principle: guide
your mind toward the positive and it will help you find the right answers; fill your mind with
negatives and it will lead you there instead!
We cannot create or destroy energy; we can only change its form. I know this for a fact be-cause
I used to eat Snickers Bars for breakfast on the way to school (after a nutritious pack-age
of pop tarts of course) and when those Snickers Bars reached my belly or my butt they
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didn’t look like Snickers Bars anymore but I can assure you I knew they were there every
time I had to walk up more than five steps! Their form changed, but they were still there!
When we eat, our bodies begin the digestive process as soon as the food hits our tongue;
the process continues throughout our digestive tract. Essential nutrients are pulled from the
food and delivered to the parts of our bodies that require them with the balance of the food
converted into glucose so that our muscles, brain and organs can perform their daily func-tions;
we eliminate what we do not need or cannot use. We measure the amount of energy in
food in calories. One gram of protein contains 4 calories, one gram of carbohydrate contains
4 calories, one gram of fat contains 9 calories and, just in time for the upcoming weekend
or happy hour, I thought you might like to know that 1 gram of alcohol contains 13 calories
(see the table attached at the end of this article if you spend more time at the bar than at the
gym!) You can do one of two things with the energy you take in; use it or store it (see my
Snickers story above!). One pound of unused energy stored in the form of body fat equals
3,500 calories. The rate at which we burn calories can be measured with a simple metabolic
test that takes about 20-30 minutes; we call that your RMR or Resting Metabolic Rate and it
is comprised of both involuntary movement (breathing, eye movement, brain function) and
voluntary (reaching for the ice cream, scooping it out of the container, using the tv remote).
While we all burn calories at a different rate statistics tell us that the average daily caloric
expenditure for women is approximately between 22 to 24 calories per kg of bodyweight
per day, or 10 and 12 calories per pound. In order to demonstrate the effects and benefits
of exercise I will tell you that when I did my last metabolic test I weighed 85 kg (approxi-mately
190 pounds) and during my highest interval I was burning approximately 22 calories
PER MINUTE (not per day, per minute – a regular fat burning machine!) I don’t say that to
impress you, I say that to impress upon you that anyone can progress; I went from being 270
pounds and a 48 inch waist at 30 years old to 185 pounds and a 32 inch waist at 50 years old
with a resting heart rate of 48 (so much for the “I’m getting older excuse!). Anyone who sets
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their mind and their heart to changing their life can do so…it isn’t a trade secret and we’ll get
to the how in a minute. The bottom line – if your daily requirement is 1,400 calories and you
take in 1,575 you store 175 (1,575 you ate less the 1,400 you used) and you will therefore
gain one pound every twenty days (175 x 20 = 3,500), or three pounds every two months,
or 18 pounds per year. What dress size do you wear for the New Year’s Eve party at 130
pounds? How about next year at 148 pounds? If you continue on the same path and gain
another 18 pounds what size do you wear the next year at 166 pounds? How do you feel? I
don’t know about you but I felt terrible (no, I did not wear dresses but I didn’t feel great at
270!). Sure, I didn’t like the way I looked and I had no energy (I was lucky to be able to
make it on time to a 9:30 meeting – now I get up at 4:15AM every weekday, without my
alarm!), but mostly I felt depressed because I wasn’t in control of my own life. What to do,
what to do……AHA, I know – either (a) eat less than we require; (b) increase the amount of
calories we utilize through involuntary movement (AKA exercise!); or (c) a combination of
both. We like (c), please let me tell you why. This is principle number six: your body is the
most intelligent living being you will ever come across and it always does everything it can
to find balance – commonly referred to as a state of homeostasis. If, as in the example above,
your body requires 1,400 calories in order to sustain itself and you begin to feed it 1,200
without requiring it to perform any additional work, your body will adjust its metabolism
by slowing down and at some point it will only require 1,200 calories. If however you add
additional caloric requirement in the form of exercise so that you leave your caloric intake
at 1,400 but you take an RPM class and burn an extra 350 calories, your body will maintain
its normal metabolic rate but search for stored energy to do the work required by the RPM
class. In other words, your body needs 1,400 calories, you fed it 1,400 calories and now you
asked it to do another 350 calories worth of work. It has to find that energy from someplace
and the easiest way to find it is to utilize stored bodyfat for energy. Now, instead of slowing
down your metabolism you actually begin to burn excess bodyfat for energy and as in our
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example before if you burn an extra 350 calories every three days you will lose one pound
of bodyfat every thirty days, or 12 pounds per year. So, however you felt at 166 pounds will
certainly change when you begin to take control of your life and your destiny and one year
later you are 154 pounds. It gets better. If you begin to do some weight training, for example
BODYPUMP, not only do you burn calories during the class but you also increase your lean
muscle tissue and bone density. Lean muscle tissue requires more energy than bodyfat to
feed itself so all of a sudden instead of your metabolism requiring 1,400 calories it may now
require 1,600. You may need to eat a little more or you can continue to eat the same and lose
weight faster. (A word of caution – the examples I provided above are for illustrative pur-poses
only; most people ought not to be on a caloric deficit that is greater than 10% of your
metabolic rate and it varies by individual. Again, the smart thing to do is start with a plan
and move forward from there).
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Let’s recap the principles we discussed in this book:
1. The past doesn’t equal the future unless you let it. You are in control of your life; the
choices you make are what shape your day and your destiny.
2. Small changes lead to BIG results. As you begin to see results you become more
inspired, not only for the specific results you see but also because you feel more in control
of your current life and future. We always have momentum in life, forward or backward,
because we never really stay still; it is important to develop forward momentum in life so
that you can attract positive energy to you that will help you accomplish your goals. It isn’t
surprising to me to see existing members of Aurora help the new members during their first
few classes; they remember when they were new.
3. Seek out the advice and guidance of a professional or group of professionals who
qualify themselves through their constant search for knowledge as well as their interest in
making a positive difference in your life! We were not meant to live our lives in a vacuum.
Having a trained professional to guide you, especially at the beginning stages of your com-mitment
to being fit and healthy, is one of the smartest choices you can make. Trained group
fitness coaches like those that teach at Aurora make sure that you perform your exercise in a
safe and effective manner, take an interest in helping you set and achieve goals that are rea-sonable
for you based on your starting point and lifestyle.
4. “Fail to plan and you plan to fail.” It is impossible to achieve desired results with-out
a plan; how can you get somewhere if you don’t know where the “where” is? You will
achieve the best possible results by creating a plan and committing to it, even if the plan is as
simple as showing up to the 6:30PM class Monday through Friday. A plan can always be ad-justed;
not having a plan is leaving your life up to chance because someone else will be only
too happy to make a plan for you that will benefit them.
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5. Guide your mind toward the positive and it will help you find the right answers; fill
your mind with negatives and it will lead you there instead! Be optimistic about today and
your future; there is no substitute for optimism and positive energy. Try using the question:
“what’s good about this?” and your mind will help you find something positive about any-thing.
Remember, it isn’t what happens that’s important, it’s how we choose to view what
happens and then what we choose to do about it. There is no such thing as a good or bad
result there is only our perception of the result.
6. Your body is the most intelligent living being you will ever come across and it always
does everything it can to find balance – commonly referred to as a state of homeostasis. You
have been given a gift called life; what will you do with it? You didn’t earn it however you
can show some reverence for having been given that gift by making the most of every day
and by investing your life in making the world better for yourself and everyone around you.
How will you do that if you do not care enough about yourself to at least be at your optimum
health?
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Some positive thoughts for you:
“People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things.
When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.”
- Norman Vincent Peale
“Every choice moves us closer to or farther away from something. Where are your choices
taking your life? What do your behaviors demonstrate that you are saying yes or no to in
life?” - Eric Allenbaugh
“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valu-able,
worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in our-selves
we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the
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human spirit.” – e. e. cummings
“Your body is the ground and metaphor of your life, the expression of your existence. It is
your Bible, your encyclopedia, your life story. Everything that happens to you is stored and
reflected in your body. In the marriage of flesh and spirit divorce is impossible.” – Gabrielle
Roth
“If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But by all means, keep
moving.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”
- Chinese Proverb
“Act swiftly and vigorously, without “buts” and “ifs”...” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.” – Marcus Aurelius

RIDGEFIELD, NJ - 2011
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