Weight Loss, Overcoming Self-Preservation with VIPER
If you think you can’t lose weight because of a lack of willpower, it is not willpower that you lack. It is because of your body’s self-preservation instincts.
An individual can overcome the body’s self-preservation instinct around weight loss. It is the same process sports psychologists use when working with athletes to reach peak performance. It is referred to as CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). Bobby Jones’s quote sums it up perfectly: golf is played on a course between the ears.
I had plans, before my hip became so debilitating, to retire in June 2015 and start my BAJA FITNESS & SPORTS PAGE, covering sports and its huge impact on our lives. I had rough drafts of two books on fitness and golf that I planned to publish. My plan was to promote them by appearing on the covers. Those two books have now become ten books, which also include our faith.
After my hip replacement, I needed to lose approximately 45 pounds and 6 inches from my waistline. Like many people, I turned to the gym in November 2014, but I had only modest success: I lost 10 pounds and about one and a half inches from my waistline.
If you are trying to lose weight with workouts only, here is an issue you will be facing: If I work out in the gym for 45 minutes, I burn about 525 calories. A Big Mac has 555 calories. If you are focusing on cardio to burn belly fat, you have to raise your heart rate to (220 − your age) × 80%.
If you are 35 years old, to burn belly fat you have to elevate your heart rate to (220 − 35) × 0.80 = 148 beats per minute for at least 15 minutes. This is why people’s New Year’s resolutions fail: you cannot burn fat off by exercising only. This is why working around the house doesn’t allow you to burn belly fat.
One advantage of strength training is that it burns about 50 calories for every pound of muscle you add. Also, ladies: strength training releases a natural growth hormone that contains collagen. To look younger, add iron to your workout.
To achieve weight loss, an individual must deal with the body’s self-preservation and the mind—not just mental willpower.
Matthew 26:41 addresses this, when Jesus said, “…watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The key word is watching, or visual ability as an incentive to achieve weight loss.
Here are two visual incentives
One visual incentive is to go shopping and see an outfit on a mannequin that looks great and catches your eye. But when you get home and try it on, it does not look anything like it did in the store. A mirror is the other problem.
When you use a mirror to evaluate yourself, you hold that image for only a few minutes before going about your day. It comes down to out of sight, out of mind.
Instead of using a mirror to evaluate your clothes and how they fit, do this: use a camera to capture your appearance. Facial skin, waistline, and glutes are the focal points. This is what is called incentivizing—what we need to drive us toward weight-loss results.
A Photograph Is Worth a Thousand Incentives
You hear that a photograph is worth a thousand words. Well, a photograph is worth a thousand incentives for weight loss.
Take my case: I got up enough courage to have a photograph taken of myself without a shirt in October 2014, below. What the photograph revealed was shocking to me. I had never gotten that perspective standing in front of a camera offers that a mirror doesn’t.
The next thing I did was even more astonishing: I measured my waistline, which was 37.75 inches. A healthy waistline should be half your height.
Just to show how out of shape I was: my height is 66 inches; half of that indicated I should have a waistline of 33 inches. Since the camera adds inches and pounds, I used a 2.20 denominator, or 66 / 2.20 = 30.0-inch waistline as my objective so I could pose.
My actual waistline chart is below:
The VIPER Approach to Achieving Success
I have always used VIPER (Visual–Incentive–Process–Evaluation–Results) in my career to achieve objectives as a grid engineer with a utility company. This included as an instructor for linemen.
So, I had my Visual and my Incentive from the photographs above. I just needed a Process and Evaluation to achieve Results: a waistline of 30.0 inches.
The Process
I used my chemical engineering background to evaluate Nutrition Labels. But the nutrition label does not list one of the biggest culprits in weight gain: simple carbohydrates, or those hidden sugars.
The other issue with nutrition labels is that they do not list the two healthy fats we need to aid digestion and provide us with overall health: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, or omega fatty acids.
Breaking the Nutrition Label Code
I was able to devise a Process to identify what are called macronutrient foods: foods that are high in protein, fiber, omega fatty acids, and complex carbohydrates, with limited fructose, with no added sugars. Some food manufacturers can cause healthy food to become unhealthy just by the added sugar that they add. A good example is Figs that are nutritious with 8 grams of fructose (natural sugar). But Fig Newtons adds 16 grams of sugar.
My MAC Score
The MAC Score identifies foods that are macronutrient (sources of natural GLP-1) foods by keeping the score at or below a MAC Score of 3.50.
The Results of the MAC Diet
Again, a photograph is worth a thousand words. I will let the photograph below, taken in October 2015, show the last part of the VIPER Approach—RESULTS—by using my BAJA Fitness & MAC Diet Program.
If you want to lose weight, inches, and even years off your appearance, you must have a Vision, Incentive, Process, Evaluation, and Results. The BAJA Fitness & MAC Diet that is based on VIPER analysis will help you overcome the body’s self-preservation instinct on weight loss. The photograph below was taken of me at age 68 in April 2026 for a classic car and air show.
MY BOOKS ON AMAZON KINDLE IN E-BOOK & PAPERBACK
