Make things simple, easy, and effective. Make a better decision and keep building on that decision. That is a big part of Chris Mondragon’s philosophy at his gym called Personally Fit. He has been a fitness coach for over 34 years and loves helping people who have never been successful at fitness?
In this episode, we talk about the importance of sustainable behaviors and how since Atkins and shows like the biggest loser the American understanding of diet has changed to short-term changes in behavior to achieve results instead of the “No Shortcuts,” common sense approach of a lifelong health journey.
Brandon and Chris discuss CBT and how it helps people pick, reach, and adjust their fitness goals in a way that is sustainable. Learning to create willpower over emotion.
“Willpower is like gas, it passes quickly.” Chris Mondragon
“The same behavior that they do to lose weight should be the same behaviors they do to keep the weight off.” – Chris Mondragon
Brandon and Chris discuss the benefits and drawbacks of intermittent fasting.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on challenging and changing unhelpful cognitive distortions (e.g. thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes) and behaviors, improving emotional regulation, and the development of personal coping strategies that target solving current problems. Wikipedia
It’s not just what you eat, it’s what you absorb. This is why you should consider eating slower. Enjoy your food. You may have heard it takes 20 minutes to feel full. Eating slower helps you feel more satiated and absorb more nutrients. What could that look like? Try chewing eat bite 15 times.
Chris shares the importance of making sure that they (clients) realize they’re worth it. I always say women are a great example. So the Bible teaches to love others as you neglect yourself and they go, yeah, no, it actually says to love others as you love yourself, but they often are putting themselves last from their kids to their husbands, to everything. They’re always last and there is a place for self-sacrifice, I understand that but you can’t be at your best if you don’t make yourself important.
Connectivity as talking makes us relax and raises or endorphins as visiting with people, with people we care about. Yeah. Eating junk food kicks up your dopamine. Having a meal with a friend and visiting kicks up your endorphins. It’s a different experience.
I believe in science-driven workouts. I think that makes complete sense. Exercises and science. Let’s get people the best results for the time and effort. However, what I discovered at personally fit, probably about a year ago, I had everybody do three words that explain personally fit to them. I was thinking it was going to be all “science-driven workouts”. But, fun was number one. Two, community or friends. And three was accountability or results. So what the behavior change specialist talk about is, and if you’re not having fun, you’re not going to stay away from for three to six months to start seeing results.
Mentioned in this episode:
- John Berardi of Precision Nutrition
- The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
- Athelean-X by Jeff Cavalier and his youtube channel
- EliteFTS
- T-Nation
- Shawn Stevenson on the Model Health Show
Find out more about Chris Mondragon and Personally Fit Individualized Training in Raleigh NC or call (919)832-8484 or check out their Facebook
