The traditional geek archetype isn’t commonly known his athletic prowess. Geeks often get a bad rap in the realm of fitness. Maybe it has something to do with our social awkwardness or innate computer skills. Nevertheless, most of the geek world is actually well suited for a life of fitness. The very aspects of geekdom that stigmatize us at parties and in the office can easily be relayed into strategic advantages in the realm of diet and exercise. Binary humor aside, here are a few ways you too can become a true fitness geek.

0001: Be Smarter – True geeks have a reputation for being “curve breakers”. They’re full of book smarts and are capable of applying their knowledge to real life. Try to analyze fitness from a “smart” perspective. Do some research and try to determine the science behind fitness. Personally, this was my first step in approaching diet and exercise. I read articles, books, and websites to determine how to properly lose weight according to biology. I’ve tried to relay much of what I learned on this site, but there is a still a wealth of information out there. Figure out what your body needs to run and how you can program it to be the fit machine you’ve always dreamed of.

0010: Be Obsessive – It is no secret that geeks can be a little obsessive at times. This is actually one of the main characteristics that distinguishes us from the rest of the world. Utilize this to your advantage and fully devote yourself to meeting your fitness goals. For the first nine months of my weight loss, I was meticulous about logging everything I ate. It drove my wife crazy. She tried to call me on my obsession and get me to give it a rest but to no avail. I was losing this weight no matter if I had to record and monitor every aspect of life for the next ten years. Now truthfully, obsession can be dangerous if taken to extremes. However, if you just focus your energy on meeting your goals, you will reap the rewards.

0011: Look for shortcuts – My favorite part about being a geek is learning how to be efficient. Bypassing standard procedures in order to achieve the desired goal the fastest way possible (what some lovingly refer to as “hacking”) is practically a core value of the geek community. With this mindset, you can really accomplish a lot. Avoid repetitive or unproductive exercises. Eat foods that provide nutrients and are filling at the same time. Try high intensity intervals instead of other time consuming cardio workouts. There are plenty areas where you can cut corners to achieve results. The fun part is finding them out for yourself.

0100: Utilize Technology – This is no secret. Geeks love their gadgets. Again, however, this can be useful in the realm of fitness. Personally, I use several high tech items to get the most out of my workouts. One of my favorites is a heart rate monitor/pedometer that I used extensively in training for a marathon last year. I frequently bring along an mp3 player on my jogs and there are numerous iPhone apps designed to help your pursuit of fitness. I also recently mentioned 15 web applications that are great for tracking your fitness progress. Fitness gadgetry is a huge industry right now. Take advantage of what engineers are currently creating for our health.

0101: Refuse to be bound by traditional standards – Ignore pre-determined ideals set forth by the rest of the world. Be yourself and feel free to express your own identity without stressing about how others view you. Not all of us will get to 1% body fat or be able to bench press 300 pounds. Your standards aren’t my standards and vice-versa. However, neglecting your own health just to shun society’s conventions aren’t helpful either. Be healthy and fit for yourself; let the male models fret over their glamor muscles and South Beach diets.

I’m a pretty technical guy, a geek you may even say. So when I looked at the task of losing weight, I came at it from a scientific point of view. Food is simply fuel for the body. The amount of fuel in each individual piece of food is scientifically valued in units called ‘calories’. Calories are what our bodies burn for energy. We burn calories doing pretty much anything. Running a marathon, typing this article, or even eating are all activities that burn calories – though the first activity seems to burn a little bit more than the second two.

If the amount of food that we eat contains more calories than the amount of calories we burn off throughout the day, then we store those extra calories as fat and gain weight. If, however, the amount of calories burned is greater than the amount of calories eaten then we lose weight. (I think we’re all fairly familiar with this concept, I just like rehasing things in a scientific voice). However, what I’m trying to do is simplify the whole issue into numbers. If you can see food as simply part of a mathematic equation, the mystery and mumbo jumbo that clouds alot of our minds about dieting simply vanishes. No wive’s tales or urban legends here, just cold hard numbers.

Now that we’re not afraid of the magical calorie goblins, lets go a bit deeper. Generally speaking, you will lose 1 pound for every 3500 calories that are burned. That means that if you can cut out or burn 500 calories a day from your usual daily diet you will lose 1 pound per week. 500 cal X 7 days = 3500 cal/week = 1 pound of weight loss per week! (Everyone still with me?).
When you stop and think about what you’ve been eating throughout any given day (see my previous post), it’s not that hard to cut out or burn 500 little calories. Instead of drinking a Mtn. Dew (around 170 cal.) for breakfast, lunch and dinner try a water or unsweet tea instead. That wasn’t so bad was it? Simply reduce the amount of calories, even by a little bit, and you can begin to see weight start melting off.

One of the single biggest helps for my own personal weight loss has been the use of a foodlog. It is nothing fancy, just a text file that I keep on my computer at work, but for the past three months it has helped me remain accountable to my fitness goals and has served as an encouragement, reminding me of all the progress I’ve made.

“what is a foodlog?”

A foodlog is simply a way to keep track of what you’ve been eating. Every day I simply enter in the food I ate at each particular meal. I neglect nothing! Every meal item and every snack goes into the foodlog. Also, I use my foodlog to keep track of my daily exercise and my weekly weight. It is pretty much my own digital personal trainer. It shows me what I’ve accomplished and how far I’ve come. It can also shame me and prod me to work harder. See the typical entry below:

8.13.07 (204.0)

B: egg biscuit; unsweet tea; coffee – black

L: chickfila grilled chicken garden salad; honey mustard dressing; unsweet tea

S: water; honey roasted peanuts

D: ground beef soft tacos – tortilla, beef, black beans, cheese, lettuce, salsa

S: glass of milk

X: jog 2.0 miles

“how do I make a foodlog?”

There’s really nothing to make. A foodlog is just a journal of your eating. For my own foodlog I simply opened Notepad and used the format above. I put today’s date and weight. Then I keep track of each meal and snack I have throughout the day. The “B:” is breakfast, “L:” is lunch, “D:” is dinner and “S:” are the two snacks I sometimes take throughout the day. Lastly, I like to post my exercise of the day as well. Next to the “X:” I list any physical activity that I made a conscious effort to include in my day. (I’m not counting the walk to and from the car here, this is dedicated exercise time). Every time you make an entry, save the file to your Desktop or some other easily accessed location and go about your day. Another tip I’d like to mention is to fill in the foodlog only AFTER you have eaten or exercised, not BEFORE. This way, it’s like a reward to be able to proclaim the salad you had for dinner and the mile you ran the night before.

“what if I forget?”

To keep myself logging all my daily meals, I have integrated this with my email client. MS Outlook (and pretty much every email client out there) has a reminder functionality built in. I simply set a reminder for each day to go off about the time I get in to work. Now, each day I have a pop-up alerting me to fill out the foodlog for the previous day and to keep nutrition in my mind. If you forget or miss a day, simply try to fill in the missing days as best you can once you remember. It’s important to keep this going.

Once you see your progress for a few days or weeks, keeping up with the foodlog is more and more exciting. Literally being able to watch your pounds fall off from day to day is incredibly rewarding and always keeps me motivated to eat right and exercise throughout the day. The power behind this strategy is amazing. I believe it has really been the single biggest factor that has made my recent fitness journey a success.