One important part of being a fitness professional has been my obsession to watch and learn from people's everyday habits. This has helped me to learn about people's fitness practices, weight loss successes and failures, how they stay thin and whether they consider proper eating habits. I feel that observations are equally as important to learning and personal development as reading books, magazines and journals etc for learning what works and what doesn't.

There are many common questions that get asked of fitness professionals. Queries about diet, exercise and tips for staying thin. I don't mind this because it can invariably lead to a conversation where the participant reveals what they have been doing and their personal experience. This can be a great way to pick up additional insight on factors to do with exercise and a person's eating habits that may be contributing or hampering a person's success
Usually, I only provide advice when it is called for. I do not openly preach about fitness unless the person asks about it. After all, nobody likes to be lectured about something unless they have expressed a genuine desire or interest to learn more.

One thing I noticed on vacation last week was that out of the hundreds of people that
were walking around the resort in swimwear, only a handful of people, about four in total, had anything that closely resembled six-pack abs. That's about 4 people out of about 1000 people I crossed paths with over the course of 7 days!


This observation was just a casual observation about peoples conditioning levels whilst on vacation. Despite the fact that most people are not following their normal routines, it was an interesting observation none the less.

The observations about the habits and practices of people who are in shape and people who are overweight has provided a useful set of guidelines to establish successful versus unsuccessful practices. It could be at the gym, in a restaurant, in a social situation or at a party. All these places represent potential occasions to learn about why people are fat or how they stay thin.

If you start to observe people on a daily basis and their corresponding body shape, you will begin to find certain behavior characteristics and tendencies that can explain their fitness and weight condition.
You might discover that the office guy who claims to have tried everything to lose weight unconsciously consumes 3 to 4 sodas on a daily basis without even giving them a second thought. Poor eating habits are never a consideration. Meanwhile, the office girl who is way overweight and who claims to exercise diet control is always the first into the kitchen during morning tea break to consume a handful of cookies or an iced doughnut. She is a prime candidate for poor eating habits but it never registers.You might also notice that the overweight guy constantly skips breakfast (a real metabolism killer) and that the thin office girl who never puts on any weight and is always eating junk food never actually finishes more than half the serve of what she is consuming.

The point is that a persons behavior and actions about food and lifestyle choices are very telling factors about why a person is constantly overweight or how they stay thin. If you look a little deeper in your day to day travels you can learn a great deal about whether people follow proper eating habits and why people succeed and fail with weight management or fitness goals.

Do you want to learn more about the lethal combination of smart eating and training?

An article on exercise for beginners.