[00:00:00] Unfortunately, the groundhog did see a shadow, so we’re looking at six more weeks of winter. These six more weeks of winter will lead right into spring break. This is crunch time if you want to get ready for spring break for the summer, shortly after that, now is the time to accomplish your weight loss goals and any New Year’s resolutions you had.

[00:00:15] Address the underlying conditions that are really causing this issue so that you have permanent changes to your body and not just. This Groundhog Cycle where every year, every month, it’s that same up and down cycle that you’ve been dealing with for many years. And the question is, what kind of shadow are you casting?

[00:00:30] Heading into 2021 Game on sports, fitness and health fans for another episode of the Sporting Good Posture podcast. You’re up for Coach Margie’s advice from the sidelines as he helps you crush your game no matter what health or fitness game you play. Hey, I’m Coach Marella. I’m sporting good posture.

[00:00:48] What are you sporting? The coach’s door is always open. Let’s join him next. Now. Hey coach, what do you got for us today? Okay, campers rise and shine. And don’t forget your booties cuz it’s cold out [00:01:00] there. This is Coach Marella and it’s Groundhog Day. Again. For those of you that don’t remember from the movie Groundhog Day, that was what was on the radio playing every morning when Bill Murray would wake up and maybe you feel a little bit like Bill Murray, where you feel like every day has been the same thing for a while now.

[00:01:21] And since Groundhog Day just passed, unfortunately the groundhog did see a shadow. So we’re looking at six more weeks of winter. And the question is, what kind of shadow are you casting now heading into 2021? We’re a little over a month past New Year’s, and unfortunately, most people don’t accomplish their New Year’s goals.

[00:01:42] There’s actually a day in January. It’s January 17th. Ditch your New Year’s resolutions day. Only about 10% of people actually accomplish their New Year’s goals. So with six more weeks of winter and spring break, just around the corner, what are you [00:02:00] going to do to accomplish your goals now that it’s already February?

[00:02:04] Over the years I’ve been in practice, I find that February is more of a weight loss month than January because the urgency gets more extreme when you get to February. And the other thing that happens in February is the Super Bowl. That’s typically a day where most people go to Super Bowl parties, eat whatever’s around Doritos, corn chips, chips and salsa, potato chips, pigs in a blanket, malam Mars, whatever it is that people put out at Super Bowl parties, it’s there, and every commercial you see on TV is about all the foods that we shouldn’t be eating as well.

[00:02:42] On a side note, This is the time of the year where it’s important to start being more organized, to have a plan, to have something set in motion that you can do that’s more effective. In my office, we’ve had the Lipo Laser program for the last seven years. [00:03:00] We’ve recently added the ChiroThin program, but I want to get back to the basics of what weight loss is and why you may have been struggling with weight loss to begin with.

[00:03:12] Going back to the episode that I just did with my producer, Frank Sardella, we talked about how weight loss was really a side effect of other underlying conditions that are going on in your body. This is why most people losing weight is very temporary. It’s never a long-term thing. It’s more of this up and down cycle that seems to repeat itself every year.

[00:03:31] Just like Groundhog Day. Many people in the new year try the same fad diets, the same exercise programs, and think they’re gonna get different results. But unfortunately, they wake up every day and they still look the same as they did before. So again, how are you gonna handle this year with regards to weight loss if you don’t address any underlying conditions that you’re dealing with?

[00:03:55] And I’ll briefly go over some of the main things that I find that cause weight gain in the first [00:04:00] place. The number one thing is poor sleep. Poor sleep is one of the biggest reasons why people have weight gain because you’re not getting the sleep. Your body has cortisol that’s raised when you’re stressed out and when you don’t get enough sleep, and that in turn makes you store fat cells.

[00:04:18] Which is the complete opposite of what you wanna do when you’re, when you’re doing something to lose weight. And underlying that, I find is poor posture because the poor posture has now moved things out of position in the neck and the upper back. And that’s the area that’s really needs to be in alignment for you to get better sleep.

[00:04:34] So if you’re having poor sleep, there’s typically misalignments in the neck and the upper back that are causing those problems, and then you’re not getting good sleep. So your hormones are all outta whack. Number two then is digestive problems where you are either not digesting your food properly, or you may be dealing with constipation or elimination issues where your body isn’t pushing the food through.

[00:04:57] If you think about it, if you don’t push the food through and it doesn’t come [00:05:00] out, basically on the other side, you’re not gonna be losing weight because the weight is still there because you’re not digesting the food. And many times I see problems with digestion linked to low back pain. Remember, the nerves in the lower back are the ones that control the.

[00:05:15] Your stomach, your kidneys, your liver, and your bowels, and if those aren’t working properly, again, you’re not gonna be able to lose weight because your body’s not eliminating the food that you’re, that you’re eating anyway. The last thing I find is that people don’t drink enough water, and if you don’t drink enough water, you’re not flushing out toxins outta your body.

[00:05:35] You’re not hydrating your vessels so that your blood pressure can stay lower and your body can flush things through your blood vessels as well as your your lymphatic system. That’s a big factor on people not being able to lose weight. Exercise is actually at the bottom of my list because you can’t out exercise a bad diet.

[00:05:54] Diet is really more important than exercise, so ultimately on top of [00:06:00] underlying health conditions, you also have to know what you’re putting into your body and is it causing you to gain muscle or is it causing you to gain fat? Working out is also part of the deal, but it’s not actually as important as what you’re putting in your mouth.

[00:06:13] There’s an old saying out there that abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym, because really what you’re eating has a huge effect on the fat and the muscle that’s in your body, and even if you’re not working out, Really eating better is, is a big part of that. Now, if you do work out and you’re looking to burn fat, the worst thing to do that I see a lot of people at New Year’s do is they go on the treadmill and they stand on the treadmill for an hour, hour and a half, or they go on the elliptical machine and they go for an hour, hour and a half, and they’re not lifting any weights.

[00:06:45] They’re not, they’re not doing anything to actually create muscle. In order to lose weight, you have to burn fat and to burn fat, you have to build muscle. And if you don’t build muscle, your body’s metabolism is gonna be slow at rest and in your [00:07:00] active stages, so you’re not gonna burn enough calories throughout the day and you’re not gonna dip into your fat storage.

[00:07:04] So you have to lift heavier weights if you’re. Dealing with any problems with joints and you can’t lift heavier, any weight you lift is gonna be better than no weights. Cardio is good, but if you’re trying to lose weight, you’re trying to burn fat, you have to lift some weights and you have to have some resistance so that your muscles gain muscle.

[00:07:23] And in turn, the hormones that help replace damage muscle and fixed damage muscle after a workout are the same hormones that burn fat. So if you’re not actually building any muscle, those hormones then don’t get released and you’re not gonna burn any fat. So these six more weeks of winter from the ground hawks prediction will lead right into spring break.

[00:07:42] So this is critical time right now. This is crunch time if you want to get ready for spring break. If you want to get ready for the summer, that’s shortly after that. Now is the time to do the right things and have a precise game plan on what to do. To accomplish your weight [00:08:00] loss goals and any New Year’s resolutions you had, and also to address the underlying conditions that are really causing this issue so that you have permanent changes to your body and not just this Groundhog Cycle where every year, every week, every month, it’s that same up and down cycle that you’ve been dealing with for many years.

[00:08:16] Nothing is more frustrating and debilitating than doing all that work at the gym or trying a fad diet that doesn’t work. Or whatever you decide to do to try to get your weight loss goals, and you just go back into that endless cycle where you lose, you gain, you lose your gain. So to recap, weight loss comes from proper exercise by lifting weights and not just doing cardio, drinking more water, sleeping better, and digesting properly.

[00:08:50] If any of these functions are not being done, then you’re not gonna lose weight and you’re not gonna lose it long term if you do lose it short term. So the idea is that you also have to [00:09:00] address the underlying health conditions that are causing you not to be able to either work out because of pain or joint problems, or not sleep correctly because there’s misalignments in your spine, and also you’re not digesting properly because of misalignments in the spine and poor posture that are causing those nerves not to function the way they normally should.

[00:09:19] Also that chronic inflammation you’re dealing with, which is basically if your body has inflammation from long-term knee pain, back pain, foot pain, elbow pain, wrist pain, headaches, whatever it is that’s causing pain, if that’s not addressed, your body’s now fighting extra battles that it can’t win on top of you trying to lose weight.

[00:09:40] So if your body’s always inflamed, no matter what you do, you’re not gonna be able to lose weight. And lose it long term because you didn’t address the inflammation that’s causing your body to slow the metabolism down. So again, if you don’t address the underlying health conditions, you’re just kind of in this endless rut.

[00:09:55] You’re in this endless groundhog day cycle, and that’s where people just [00:10:00] kind of give up at at a point where they just learn to quote unquote live with the pain or it’s not that bad. Those are the kind of things I hear all the time, but it’s just because it’s gone on so long that you don’t know what it is to feel like.

[00:10:12] When you wake up and it’s, and it feels good in the morning where you wake up, where you get up and you don’t have any pain, you know, think about it, when was the last time you woke up and you didn’t have pain in the morning? When was the last time you woke up and you felt energetic right away when you got up?

[00:10:29] If the answer is high school or college or, or many years ago, then something’s wrong because your body should be able to respond immediately when you need to get up in the morning. It should be able to rise to the occasion when something gets in the way or something needs to be done. It shouldn’t be a struggle just to get outta bed in the morning, and if that’s the quote unquote normal that you’re feeling, it’s not normal.

[00:10:54] It may be common, but it’s not normal. And there’s a big difference with that. And I hear these complaints a lot at [00:11:00] my office, and I hear these things with a lot of my patients and family and friends as well, but that’s not normal. It is common in this world now, unfortunately, and I hope that. You listening to this podcast, you’re learning some things that you can do better, where you can succeed now, and you have some inside information on what to do to accomplish these goals.

[00:11:22] And if you are having problems, like I’ve said, contact me. The coach’s door is always open. Reach out to me on Facebook at Ideal Health and Wellness Center on Instagram at Sporting Good Posture, or give us a call at (615) 567-6683. Tell me what’s going on and I’ll tell you what I think. If you wanna make an appointment at the office, we can sit down and work out whatever’s going on where you need to know how to do things as far as working out, eating right.

[00:11:53] Maybe do lipo laser, maybe ChiroThin, or if you want to email me or video chat, we could do that as well. [00:12:00] My goal here as a coach is to help you. And my goal as a doctor is to help you, and also the other meaning of doctor as teacher. So I do these podcasts because I want to help you learn more about the best ways and the most efficient ways to get healthy and succeed at accomplishing your health goals.

[00:12:20] Stay tuned to Sporting Good Posture in 2021. There’s a lot of good episodes coming up, some great guests I have lined up for you and let’s get healthy together. This is Coach Marella. I’m sporting good posture. How about you? The Sporting Good Posture Podcast is a broadcast wellness production powered by Ideal Health Wellness Center.

[00:12:43] All content copyright 2020, all rights reserved. Executive producer Frank Ardella. Dr. Marella appears courtesy of Ideal Health Wellness Center in Franklin. For more information, visit sporty good posture.com and follow Coach on Instagram at Sporting Good Posture.[00:13:00]