The Mythical Slim Zone

I just drove past a gym that was advertising group-exercise classes like this:

‘Small classes, lots of fun, no mirrors.’

No mirrors?

Why on earth is that a selling point?

Sure, mirrors aren’t necessary… but why would their absence be seen as part of sensible marketing strategy? Something to be advertised?

Maybe for the same reason that people don’t want to know their weight or their body-fat percentage when I assess them.

“Don’t tell me, don’t tell me” people say to me as they reluctantly stand on the scales with their eyes shut. “But you weigh what you weigh right?” “Yeah but I don’t wanna know.” “Why not?” “I’ll get depressed.”

So I tell them their weight and they get angry at me. Too funny. Nasty Craig.

“Don’t get grumpy at me… I didn’t do that to your body.”

When it comes to reality, we’re experts at avoiding it. I’ve written a post on ‘head-in-the-sand-itis’ before but it seems that we may be heading into an epidemic. A pandemic even.

Maybe we’re there already.

It amuses me that a business can send out this message: “Exercise with us and you won’t have to look at your fat selves in the mirror” “Yep, sign me up!”

I think some of us should be surrounded by mirrors twenty four-seven until we stop deluding ourselves and start to get proactive.

I’m not a fan of mirrors in gyms for vanity reasons but they are valuable for: 1) Teaching correct exercise technique and 2) Keeping us grounded.

“Oh yes… (in a feeble, pathetic voice), but I find it so painful to look at myself in a mirror, it hurts so much.”

Really?

Well, wait for your first heart-attack; you might rethink your definition of pain. And wait until your pancreas is so shot that you have to medicate every day for the rest of your life to manage your self-induced diabetes… then we’ll chat.

A little short-term emotional discomfort now doesn’t remotely compare to the world of hurt you’re gonna endure if you don’t change your mindset, your habits and your lifestyle.

No melodrama, just honesty. It is what it is.

As I always say to my audiences “I can tell you what you wanna hear, or I can tell you the truth… you can get offended, defensive and precious… or you can get busy changing your reality.”

I actually tell people to go home, take all their clothes off and take a really good look at themselves in the mirror from all angles. Slowly. Preferably take photos as well. Why? Because it’s reality, that’s why.

It’s you. It’s not some computer-generated future fat version of you, it’s you right now. Deal with that, toughen up, get over the self-pity (it’s annoying and achieves nothing) and then you will start to see results quickly. Real change.

Our physical reality doesn’t usually align with psychological reality. In other words, it’s almost impossible for you to be objective about you.

Over the years I have taken thousands of ‘before’ photos of people (front, side and rear) before they start their weight-loss/fitness endeavour. Invariably they are stunned when they see the pictures.

Why are they so shocked? Because when it comes to their body, they live in some alternative reality; The Slim Zone. The one where they look forty pounds lighter.

Amazingly, people always ask me to refrain from showing the photos to anyone else because on some level they believe that somehow the photos are worse than the ‘in the flesh’ reality.

“See me standing here in my workout gear but don’t look at that photo we took five minutes ago (in the same clothes) ‘cause I’m so much slimmer in person.” “I don’t really look like that photo.”

Weird.

I know that I may sound harsh to some of you and I know my approach and philosophy won’t sit well with everyone, that’s okay. But twenty five years of going around in circles with people about the same issues and having the same conversations (often with the same people) will make you a little practical and matter-of-fact. Okay, blunt.

I care more about your heart, arteries, lungs and overall physical health than I do about telling you what you want to hear; what’s comfortable for you. I’m not really about popularity, I’m about change. Results.

I know I could write more reader-friendly, politically-correct content but I would be compromising what I believe and watering down an important message. So blunt Craig it is.

I’m not interested in fluffing someone’s emotional pillow or propping up their poor self-esteem for five minutes. I’m interested in their long term physical health. I’m interested in the truth of the situation.

I’m interested in genuine, forever (never going back) amazing, physical change. It’s very possible but we continue to rationalise, justify and find new and exciting ways to sabotage our own goals and perpetuate our misery. We consistently waste our potential. And we continue to let our mind get in the way of our body.

We choose to inhabit the mythical Slim Zone.

Yep, I care about people’s feelings and emotional state and yes, I factor them into every interaction with every person… in fact, I work on the premise that getting in shape is largely an emotional process. And Yes, I was a fat kid, so I get ‘it’.

However… I won’t be getting rid of the mirrors in my gym any time soon.

Can Government Solve the Foreclosure Problem?

Foreclosures are up nationwide, and will continue to rise as prices continue to go flat in many markets. For some, the problem is painful. Ask New Century Financial Corporation, the nation’s second largest sub-prime lender, who recently filed for bankruptcy. Ask the guy down the block from you whose house is in foreclosure.

Foreclosures are up nationwide, and will continue to rise as prices continue to go flat in many markets. For some, the problem is painful. Ask New Century Financial Corporation, the nation’s second largest sub-prime lender, who recently filed for bankruptcy. Ask the guy down the block from you whose house is in foreclosure. Some pundits think the rising foreclosures will bankrupt our economy, causing pain for people who lose their business or job as a ripple effect of all these foreclosures. Others think that the rise in foreclosures is a healthy adjustment to the end of a long real estate boom, and is nature’s way of taking care of a free-market economic cycle. Who’s right? Time will tell, but it’s alarming to see politicians trying to fix this problem. Here are some of their solutions.

Give People Money Tax the rich, give to the poor. The federal government now wants to fund programs to help people stay in their homes. Second foreclosure-prevention bill introduced in Senate A new bill in the Senate proposes giving money to people who can’t pay their loans. We taxpayers are confused. If these people are in trouble because they never should have been given such a loan, why should taxpayer money be used to keep them in their homes that they could not otherwise afford? Maybe someone in Washington has the answer to that question?

Regulate Foreclosure Investors I have written extensively about the assault on foreclosure investors that have been initiated by consumer advocate groups, resulting in a tsunami of new “Foreclosure Protection” laws across the country. A Review of the NCLC’s “Dreams Foreclosed” Report While protecting innocent homeowners from unethical investors is a good idea, new legislation is not always the answer. Enforcement of existing consumer protection laws and prosecution under existing criminal laws is certainly a better option than creating new laws that limit the options of a seller in foreclosure. The best solution to a foreclosure epidemic is a free market that allows investors to gobble up inventory. By hamstringing investors with complicated, punitive regulations, it will only discourage transactions and result in more properties in lender inventory. More lender inventory forces them to sell at lower prices, which hurts the entire real estate market.

Stop the Foreclosure Process The Government of the State of Massachusetts just handed the State Banking Division the authority to put up to a two month delay on any lender foreclosure. All a homeowner has to do is file a complaint with that office. State Orders Foreclosure Delays It is not year clear on how many lenders this will affect, but certainly this move is troubling. If the government’s action is based on a consumer complaint, what kind of complaint deserves the kind of government involvement that stops a lender from collecting on its debt?

Certainly, any homeowner whose legal rights have been violated under state or federal law can stop or delay a foreclosure with a court order. Opponents, of course, will argue that since these people in foreclosure can’t afford lawyers, they won’t have the means to seek this remedy. Such is life, that people who are in debt can’t afford lawyers to protect their legal rights. Do people in $1,000,000 homes deserve the same protection as people in $100,000 homes? Do lenders and their shareholders have the right to foreclose and get their collateral back? And, think about the next logical step… will the government stop allowing landlords to evict if the problem gets bad enough?

Stop the Lenders from Lending Nobody can seriously deny that lenders got sloppy in how they lent mortgage money over the last 10 years. As a result, many people got into loans they couldn’t pay back, and we now see the consequences. Conversely, with the exception of gross overreaching by mortgage brokers, it’s hard to deny that most people didn’t understand the risk involved in borrowing money they couldn’t pay back. If you buy a house with no money down and a negative amortizing loan, you are gambling that you will make more money in the future and/or the price of your home will increase. If you are wrong, you lose your home. That’s the gamble. It’s like Vegas, except for one thing - the house doesn’t win when the customer loses. Everybody loses, except the attorneys who get paid to foreclose.

Should the government stop lenders from offering “risky” loans? The answer, I believe, is emphatically “NO”. If lenders go too far, they suffer financially. Thus, the market will take care of itself, in that lenders who lose profits will tighten up loan regulations, and Wall Street will downgrade or reject portfolios of risky loans. Before you get too excited by this last paragraph, I do believe that some regulation is appropriate to protect the consumers and shareholders from getting duped in the process. Additional disclosures to both homeowners and Wall Street investors are appropriate considering the large number of defaulting sub-prime loans. However, if people want to borrow money under risky terms and lenders want to lend under a high risk of loss, why should the government stop them? Pawn shops, check-cashing stores and used car lots all operate on a high-level of risk.

Step Up Enforcement of Existing Laws Instead of stopping the business, I believe the government should throw money at enforcement. Prosecute the bad people and leave the options open for people who want to do business under their own terms. There are enough existing laws that give the state and federal prosecutors plenty of room to go after bad operators, and many of them already have.

The government can put band-aids on it, but only the market can solve it the foreclosure problem. When demand exceeds supply in a given market, prices will go back up, and people will have enough equity to sell their homes. Somehow, I don’t imagine people will learn their lesson and, thus will continue the same cycle in the future. But, most Americans believe it is not the government’s job to stop people from willingly doing stupid things. When it comes to your financial decisions, be responsible, read the fine print, and remember… “buyer beware”.