How to Lose Weight without Exercise

The truth is that exercise is a very small component of weight loss. It’s probably the smallest component for most people.

That might be a surprising statement to hear from someone like me who probably knows most of you from the fitness industry, but it’s a very small component of weight loss and weight management. And I just have to be honest with you and tell you that. That’s why it’s so important for you to not worry about what the perfect exercise program is, but most importantly, when it comes to your weight loss and weight maintenance, what’s the right way to eat for you for life.

I’m not a fan of diets. I think it’s fine to go on a diet in an attempt to find a diet. In other words, in an attempt to find a way of eating that you look forward to and you can maintain for life.

So, why am I so passionate about getting people to exercise? Why would I personally exercise every single day? Well, I’m going to give you the 10 reasons why. But know this. I’m a little peeved. I can’t help it. I get this way and I’ve been told by my mentors that sometimes I come across as being condescending when I talk about this. But know that I don’t mean to.

So I’m just going to apologize upfront because it does drive me crazy despite the fact that you don’t need to exercise to lose weight and maintain weight, it does make me a little bit mad that you don’t exercise every day. It does. I’m just going to tell you. If I know you and I love you, it makes me mad. I’m sorry. Here’s why.

Number 1, exercise makes you happier. It makes me mad that you don’t want to be happier. Exercise makes you a happier person! Plain and simple!

Number 2, exercise makes you a more patient person. It makes you more understanding. It makes you more open-minded. It makes me mad that you don’t want to have more patience. It just does, because I want you to have more patience. I want you to feel patience. I want you to feel what it feels like to be calm. Exercise gives you energy. And you’ve heard it a million times and you know this to be true. People will often say to me, “How do you find the time?” or “How do you get the energy to exercise?” I’m like, “You exercise to get the energy.” You exercise to get the energy.

Before I go further, when I’m talking about exercise, I’m not talking about jumping up and down and beating up your joints and killing yourself and joining a CrossFit gym and competing for America. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about getting your freaking heart rate up and feeling good. I’m talking about going for a walk. I’m talking about doing whatever the flip you want to do that gets your heart rate up and uses your body. That’s all. I don’t care what it is. It can be intense if you want, but it doesn’t have to be.

Number 4, exercise makes you live better, healthier. If you have people you love, why wouldn’t you want to be healthier for them? If you love your life, why wouldn’t you want to be healthier? That makes me mad, to be honest. It makes me mad that I’ve got friends who have children and people that they care about and they don’t want to be healthier for them. It just makes me mad.

Number 5, it is proven that people who exercise on the days that they exercise are more creative. You don’t want to be more creative? You don’t want to get through that roadblock? You don’t want to get over that writer’s block? And you don’t want to get in that moment when you can think of what you need to do next and what you should post on social media? Of course you do. So if you want to get more creative, you need to exercise. Get your heart rate up daily.

Number 6, this one’s going to hurt a little bit, but it’s true. People who exercise are perceived as being more put together, more in control, more successful, and more inspirational than people who don’t. It’s a fact. So how do you want to be perceived? All this other stuff is about how you feel. And I understand that you might not love yourself enough to care about those things. But how do you want to be perceived by the world? How do you want to be perceived by your children? How do you want to be perceived by others? Of course, you want to be perceived well.

Will they have a higher regard for people who exercise? It’s because it requires a prioritization of the things you have to do each day. Why do you think every president we’ve had in the last five decades exercises on a daily basis? Do you think they are too busy? Yeah, they are too busy but they prioritize it because their health is important to the country, because their clarity, because their energy, because their patience, because their mood regulation, all of those reasons are why all of our presidents – and I always use the president because I think everybody always like, “I want to exercise, I’m just too busy.” I don’t know anyone who’s busier than a president. And it is very important that we make that a priority.

Number 7, exercise improves your confidence. You just feel better about yourself when you exercise, you do. When you exercise, even if it’s just for 30 minutes, even if it’s just for 20 minutes a day, your confidence level goes up. You know it does. Guess what else goes up? Your libido. Yeah, sexual desire increases when you exercise on a regular basis. So if that’s not inspiration for you to get your partner on board, I don’t know what is.

Number 9, it is proven that regular exercise reduces cortisol levels, reduces stress levels. If you want to have a lower body fat, if you want to live longer, if you want to feel better, if you don’t want to have as much stress, you need to exercise on a daily basis. Get off your meds. This is free. It’s a free thing that doesn’t have all those negative effects that medications do.

I know so many people that are dealing with aches and pains and lack of clarity and depression and so many other things of which they are medicating as their first go-to before thinking about ‘I wonder what would happen if I exercise on a daily basis’.

And number 10, exercise gives you clarity of thought. Obviously, number 11 is it helps you to maintain weight and to lose weight. But I’m not even going to list number 11. I’m going to end at 10 because I really think that’s the least important reason why you should exercise. I think for whatever reason, I don’t why, again you’re going to see that it gets me angry for whatever reason people think that exercise is about losing weight and maintaining weight. I personally believe that is the least important reason why you should exercise. It’s the least important reason.

I don’t understand people who know that this reduce their stress and it can give them clarity of thought. I don’t understand why you don’t make this a priority. You just haven’t made it a priority. When you say you don’t have time, it is not true.

A better statement is “I am not prioritizing my happiness, my patience, my creativity, my energy, my confidence, my health, my stress and my thought. I don’t place a priority on those things”. But if you do, figure out a way to make this happen every day for you because you want all those things.

So how do you prioritize it? Well, number 1, you need accountability. You need to look at this in a different light because so many people look at it as punishment. It’s not. Are you punishing yourself by being happier, by feeling more patience, by being more creative, by boosting your confidence? How is any of that a punishment? It’s not. So you have to change your experience with exercise and know that it’s something you do because you love yourself and you love other people and you want to reach your full potential.

I think most people don’t like exercise because it’s failed them because they looked at it as a way to lose weight and they’re like, “Well, you know, eventually, I put the weight back on so then exercise must have failed you.” No. Exercise will never fail you when you approach it from the perspective of happiness and energy and confidence and relief from depression and increased clarity and reduced stress. It will never ever let you down.

There’s so much more that exercise provides for you other than weight. If you are that person that exercise feels like something you have to do and it’s something that you dread doing, that’s a very clear sign that your first experiences with exercise were negative. And I want you to shift them.

And the way you do that is by setting new goals for yourself. And just when you’re done exercising and all I need you to do is 30 minutes of getting your heart rate up and I don’t care what it is. I need you to ask yourself when you’re done or even later that day, “Am I happier? Do I feel more patient? Is this improving my health? Do I feel more creativity? Do I feel more confident? Am I able to think a little more clearly?” Just ask yourself those questions. If the answer is yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, then you’ll see that you were successful.

But if you’re exercising and then getting on the scale every day, if you’re exercising and trying to look like the girl on the cover of the magazines, well, no wonder exercise is a negative. I don’t want you to think of it that way. I want you to think of it as something that’s going to allow you to reach your full potential in this life. And I don’t want you to think about it in terms of weight loss or weight maintenance or a perfect body. I want you to think about it in every other area of your life.

It is a gift from God that you have the ability to exercise. Don’t throw that gift away. Too many people don’t have that gift. And when it’s taken away from you, then you realize what an incredible choice you had and decided not to take advantage of it. It’s an advantage. It gives you the advantage to exercise. Don’t take it for granted.

If you’d like to listen to the Podcast episode about this topic, just click play below! Or head to iTunes to download.

This post is sponsored by my husband, how crazy is that? You may or may not know this but there’s only one chef in our household and it’s Bret. I’m really not the best in the kitchen and Bret is. And for years, people have been asking him to do a cook book. But he’s a coach. So this year, he’s decided to do his own twist on a cook book. It’s really more of a coaching book. It’s going to coach you through some really great recipes.

Now, to be completely forthright, I will tell you that my husband’s style of cooking is healthy-ish. He’s the perfect person if you are not a freak basically about every single morsel that goes in your mouth. You eat healthy-ish. He subscribes to the 80-20 rule. Most of his dishes are very basic, very easy, very fast, high in protein, low in carbohydrates but just easy to make, fast. That’s the idea.

The Hangry Chef is releasing his cook book depending upon when you’re listening to this in February of 2016. If you haven’t already, be sure to get on the list or check it out by going to hangrychefguide.com. And as always, thank you so much for spending this time with me. I really appreciate it because you are the bomb.com.

This episode was also sponsored by courageousconfidenceclub.com. It’s a club that I’ve created specifically to help people who struggle with confidence and insecurities and social settings and just standing up for themselves. Being yourself and feeling good about it, all of us could benefit from having more confidence.

I’d love for you to just experience a taste of it. So please be my guest by going to chalenejohnson.com/confidencetips. Now if you don’t feel writing that web address down or remembering to go there later, all you have to do is while you’re listening from your phone, send me a text message. The number is 949-565-4337. And that is for U.S. residents. Then just send me the word confidence and I will send you access to this video. This video will help you to eliminate self-doubt and just feel more confident in any situation whether it’s work or personal or just your social interactions. Every one of us can benefit from having more confidence.

There, you’ll submit your email address and I will immediately send to your inbox my latest training video where I teach you step by step how to feel more confident in just about any social setting. I think you’ll find this incredibly useful whether it’s business or personal or just in your everyday interactions.

Confidence is something that makes life easier. It helps you to raise more confident, self-efficient children. It allows us to speak our mind, to stand up for ourselves, to do the things that otherwise we are paralyzed by fear and we just allow our own thoughts to stop us.

By learning how to overcome self-doubt and fear of success, you can become that confident person that others are attracted to, the person you want to be, the person you deserve to be, the person you know is inside of you. So thank you for checking out my free tools by going to chalenejohnson.com/confidencetips.

For health and fitness advice from Chalene, head to www.cj7day.com to download her FREE program with complementary workout videos!

Wow! you’re still reading this! Then let me take a moment to say you’re amazing 🙂 Connect with me below!

Connect with Chalene:

Chalene on Facebook: www.facebook.com/chalene

Chalene on Periscope: follow @chalenejohnson >> You can catch my Periscope replays at www.katch.me/chalenejohnson

Chalene on Instagram: www.instagram.com/chalenejohnson

Chalene on Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/chalenejohnson

Chalene on Twitter: www.twitter.com/chalenejohnson

Chalene on Youtube: www.youtube.com/chalenejohnson

Some of my Instagram Accounts:

www.instagram.com/instagramimpact

www.instagram.com/pushmedaily

www.instagram.com/homeworkouts_4u

www.instagram.com/chalenefashion