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Sky Fitness member Scot Underwood is the man! He has lost over 340 pounds over the course of the last few years. No, he didn’t take any short cuts, magic pills, lotions or potions.  He has lost every single pound the healthy way.  His journey has been one of proper balance in eating right and exercise, along with his determination to be FIT FOREVER.

So how does a person lose over 340 lbs?  How do they go from wearing 9X shirts and size 80 overalls to wearing regular sized clothes?

Scot Underwood says, “I knew that if I told myself I needed to lose over 300 lbs that it would be overwhelming.  So I set a goal of just losing a couple of pounds the healthy way; simply burning more calories a day than I consumed.  I continued to lose those couple of pounds 150 times over a two-year period.  This has been an amazing journey; one that has literally saved my life.”

The key is finding proper balance with what we eat and how active we need to be for optimal health.

Health is feeling positive and energetic, and the ability to put in a good day’s work on the job, and still have energy when we get home at night.  It means taking control of our schedules and making time for our priorities.  It’s realizing the importance of living long enough to see our children, our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren grow up to lead long, happy lives.  Healthy living is no short-term venture.  It is a lifestyle that we must embrace every day of our journey.

The truth is, most Americans live inactive lifestyles.  That is why 120 million people – over 50% of us – are overweight.  The reason that most people have become overweight is fairly clear cut – they take in more calories and fat than they burn throughout the day.  Simply put: if we want to lose weight, we must find a way to burn more calories and fat than we take in.

The good news is that by taking more steps in the course of our day we can add consistent calorie burning which increases our metabolism, helping us to lose weight.  Weight loss is all about how many calories we burn in a day, what we eat, and how much we eat (portion control).  Without some help to know those equations our weight loss is left to happenstance.

Decide to live an active lifestyle.

We must take the time and energy to be more active.  Start today by walking more.  Instead of taking the elevator to the second, third, or even fourth floor, search out the stairway and get a little exercise.  Take opportunities to walk during the lunch hour or around the neighborhood after work.  Just keeping our body in motion by walking an extra 20 minutes a day will burn a surprising amount of calories.

Schedule an hour of exercise three times a week, setting aside twenty minutes of that hour for cardiovascular exercise like walking, running, riding a bike or jumping rope.  During the last forty minutes of that hour do some kind of strength training such as push-ups, sit ups, or lifting weights.

One thing that may be helpful to understand about exercise is that it not only burns fat but also actually speeds up our body’s metabolism.   To speed up our metabolism we need to increase our activity and our aerobic exercise. As a rule we strive to burn as many calories as we can during exercise.  That is beneficial to weight loss.  But interestingly enough, it is after exercise that the metabolism speeds up, burning off even more calories and unnecessary body fat.

We need to realize that it’s time to change some things that are long overdue concerning our health.

NOW is the time to change.  Much like Scot Underwood with his 340 lb. weight loss, you can do ANYTHING you set your mind to do. Good luck on your FIT FOREVER journey!

Check  out the latest news on Scot in the Tulsa World Article.