During the height of COVID, I assessed many of our members after quarantine. Many of them gained some weight, and others could at least maintain their weight. I don’t blame them. Even though I continue to exercise, I bet I also gained some weight, and here is why:

You may relate to what I am going to say. I had many things to do at home, and I had a pretty good routine. I was working in my backyard, meditating, writing, reading, creating online sessions, training members online and some small physical groups. However, when I was at home, I walked so many times to the refrigerator.

Even though there was no junk food in my refrigerator, I still managed to overeat some of the good food my cousin cooked. I am not sure how many times I checked the refrigerator or the cabinets to find anything tasty to eat, but I know I walked to it many times.

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I talked to many of our members, and they all have similar experiences. How about you? How did you during quarantine? Did you gain some weight? Did you walk to the refrigerator many times? Or how was your experience?

Now that I am busier, the refrigerator is not an issue anymore. I am back to my routine and find new ways to keep our members healthy.

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This leads me to think about many people who have free time at home and choose to watch TV or be on social media for many hours. They may visit the refrigerator many times. Therefore, they may overeat and gain weight.

The mind wants to stay busy. I recommend you keep your mind busy with some productive goals that will lead you to lose weight instead of visiting the refrigerator. Setting up your goals and creating a plan would be a good idea to keep your evenings working toward your goals and not gaining weight.

Think about everything you want to achieve and create. Think about the guitar lesson you want to take, the online course you want to attend, the quality time you want to spend with your spouse or children. There are many things you can do to improve your life instead of watching TV and visiting the refrigerator. Besides keeping your mind busy in a productive way, you are avoiding overeating.

Remember that nothing will change in your life unless you consciously take the decision to change. You will continue practicing the same behavior if you don’t stop it once and for all. 

Weight loss is about what is in your head. When you change your beliefs, your actions change, and your body changes. This is what I study and do to deliver results.

I have helped many people around the valley lose weight and tone their bodies, and I am not planning to stop any time soon.

Lately I have been playing with new ideas about how to overcome the negative side of ourselves. Interestingly enough, I ran into an experience where a person had many seizures, and professionals could not find the cure. So they decided to get physically into the brain of the person and split the left and right hemispheres so the circuit of the seizure would not transfer from left to right hemispheres.

What they found out about this experiment is that everyone has two entities, the right and left hemispheres. Both hemispheres think differently and are independent. When they are connected is when we have those arguments about pain and pleasure.

I am not here to tell you the whole research, but I think it is important to know that you are always going to have battles against yourself, when you do things that matter.

You are always going to find the difficult side of any action you take unless you consciously focus on the good side of the action that you are performing, which is the goal.

When I read any research, I always think about myself and see how I am applying such discovery in myself. I concluded that I treat my body as a machine and the discomfort that my body is experiencing is nothing else than discomfort, but because I am not my body and I am stronger than my body, I put my body to the test.

I have done it for 20 years and never injured myself exercising, and I have seen amazing results in my health, appearance, biological age and my mental strength, not taking into consideration that I have never been overweight because of it.

So for you to be able to enjoy a workout and your new healthy lifestyle, it is important to overcome your body and the left side of your brain to be able to change your thoughts, then beliefs and last actions.

When you do that, your life and body will change. Remember that discomfort will always stop you from achieving your goal and living life. 

You can start with small changes such as walking 30 minutes, then start walking uphill, then hiking a mountain. The same goes with your weight training. You can start with 30 minutes of weight lifting light weights, and as your body allows it, increase your time and the heaviness of the weights. 

Also you can start with the small things. For example, instead of taking the elevator, take the stairs. Instead of parking in front of the store, park far away. Insteads of using the snow blower, start shoveling the snow. 

If you start with the smallest thing, changes are that you can do an exercise program.

I remind you that discomfort is part of the equations to get any good results in life, and that includes changing your body. 

Sandro Torres is owner of Custom Body Fitness in Basalt, Carbondale and Glenwood Springs and author of the books “Lose Weight Permanently” and “Finding Genuine Happiness.” His column appears on the third Wednesday of the month.