Urban Thought Collective

Greetings UTC! You still with me? Okay, great! Let’s jump right in!! “Here we go…”

It is my aim that by sharing my experience as a fitness trainer for over 14 years, readers will feel encouraged, glean some additional direction and pick up some helpful tips, tools and tidbits along the journey to living a happier and healthier life.

The mission of my company, Fit4LA.com, is to make fitness available to everyone, no matter what race, religion, economic status or social identification.

I’d like to continue sharing what I have found to be the key to success, not only in life, but in specifically in achieving and maintaining fitness related goals and aspirations. It is what I call The FIT4 Principle™. The FIT4 Principle™ consists of several thoughts attitudes and suggestions that, when put into action, have consistently yielded significant, life-lasting, duplicable results.

I will share this formula and expound on it’s components with each blog entry. So, without further delay, allow me to continue with Step 1 of The FIT4 Principle™; FIND YOU:

FIND who YOU are, what YOU are and where YOU are. It’s okay to want something more or different for ourselves, but in order to accomplish that, we must take a realistic look at our current state. We spend so much time trying to fit ourselves into notions of who we “should” be but don’t spend enough time figuring out who we actually are. We must know our starting point before we can get to our final destination.

FIND what YOU are – Part II

Last time we left off with the very curious, but serious question, “What kind of fruit am I?” Are you an Apple, Pear or Banana? What I’m referring to is your body type, or somatype. Somatypes are broken down into 3 different categories:

ECOTOMORPH AND MESOMORPH
An Endomorphic somatype refers to a person who gains weight easily, has a wide waist and a large bone structure. Depending on where they carry the majority of their weight, they typically resemble an Apple or a Pear. Most Americans fall into this category.

An Ectomorphic somatype refers to a person who has a difficulty gaining weight, has very long arms and legs, and is typically considered skinny. Thus… the banana comparison. This is the second most popular somatype.

Finally, a Mesomorphic somatype refers to a person with wide shoulders, a narrow waist, and is typically considered “well-proportioned” or muscular. Female Mesomorphs are often regarded as having an Hourglass figure and male Mesomorphs are Rectangles. (Yes…Rectangles). This is the rarest somatype, and to no surprise, the most coveted.

Some people consider somatypes as a hard and fast rule, but really it’s more of generalization. In essence, you might have a genetic predisposition to storing fat or a difficulty building muscle in specific areas of your body. If not engaged in a specific nutrition program or exercise regimen, your tendency will be to lean towards the same somatype as your parents. But don’t give up and start binging on Ben & Jerry’s yet! A significant part of how you end up relies heavily on your diet and activity level (Nature –vs- Nuture).

There are many ways to shape and sculpt and define and redefine and make things more proportional. The point here is to FIND (and know) what YOU are so that you don’t compare yourself to Sally the Anorexic Ectomorph. Sally might be able to lose 20 pounds in 3 weeks, but the same might not necessarily hold true for you. It might take you 6 months to lose those same 20 pounds, but the key here is to set your goal and take consistent action (see upcoming entries for more on goal setting and developing an action plan). The weight will come off; you just have to be patient, consistent and realistic.

When you are honest with yourself, FIND what YOU are, and have realistic expectations, you do two very important things:

1) You increase your confidence by achieving smaller, more reasonable goals.

2) You prevent yourself from being disappointed and discouraged when those lofty, unrealistic goals aren’t reached.

Both of which allow you to stay on course and continue towards your goal. Don’t be fooled by exercise fads and diet gimmicks. The fitness game is as much mental as it is physical and nutritional.

Again, the holidays are fast approaching! Now is the time to start figuring out your game plan for getting fit before the holidays hit. You don’t want to go into the holiday season without a strategy.

Stay tuned for more on Finding You and good luck on all your fitness and nutrition related endeavors. Till next time, all good things…

-L

Lanre Idewu, B.S., C.P.T. is a Celebrity Fitness Trainer and founder of Fit4LA.com,whose mission is to make fitness accessible to everyone. His carefully customized tips for living fit are exclusive to Urban Thought Collective.