The following is an excerpt from an interview with "Home and Family" Co-host Mark Steines by Web2Carz
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Remove diet from your vocabulary — period. Three of the four letters spell die. If dieting is killing you, then it’s telling you something. You need to do an overhaul of your life. Dealing with that big shift, I can congratulate you on making that shift and recognizing that change needs to happen, but you need to give yourself a break. Be honest with yourself and have realistic goals, but set them, and hold yourself accountable.
What’s your favorite part about hosting the show?
A show like this helps people understand a better way to live their life and how to be healthier. I’m making such better decisions at the grocery store and about what I feed the kids. I’m not always on target, but I know that feeding them stuff out of boxes means there are going to be a ton of preservatives and it’s not organic. We’re really learning so many things now about what’s in our food — our meat is full of estrogen that increases the risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer in young men. It all goes back to what’s in our food. Once we start addressing on a clearer level what’s in our food, we’ll start to see changes in cleaning up food, instead of now where it leads more and more into the obesity epidemic. Right now we’re mass producing food by injecting it with things that could lead to cancer. Shows like ours try to take on that responsibility without being too heavy-handed. We’re not dictating what people should eat, but empowering them with that information.
You’re also a fitness enthusiast, (Steines was featured in People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” issue and Men’s Fitness magazine’s “25 Fittest Men in America”) what is your workout regimen like?
I’m more committed than most. I’ve always worked out in some kind of fitness level, I played collegiate sports, and television is a vain existence. You’re always looking in the mirror questioning yourself, “is my hair falling out?” or “is my butt getting bigger?” Three years ago I was approached by Beachbody — they also do P90x, Insanity, etcetera — for their 10 Minute Trainer. And I’m typically against products like these, because I think they exploit people and take advantage of them saying, “Hey just workout for 10 minutes and you can look like this.” It’s trick marketing. And then I got to understand their philosophy. It’s an entry-level workout program to get someone off the couch. The philosophy is just to get people moving, to fight obesity, and if they can get dressed and just give 10 minutes, then it might be possible to get them for 20 or 30.
I’m more committed than most. I’ve always worked out in some kind of fitness level, I played collegiate sports, and television is a vain existence. You’re always looking in the mirror questioning yourself, “is my hair falling out?” or “is my butt getting bigger?” Three years ago I was approached by Beachbody — they also do P90x, Insanity, etcetera — for their 10 Minute Trainer. And I’m typically against products like these, because I think they exploit people and take advantage of them saying, “Hey just workout for 10 minutes and you can look like this.” It’s trick marketing. And then I got to understand their philosophy. It’s an entry-level workout program to get someone off the couch. The philosophy is just to get people moving, to fight obesity, and if they can get dressed and just give 10 minutes, then it might be possible to get them for 20 or 30.
I took that philosophy and dropped 30 pounds in 90 days following exactly their routine. I thought it would be impossible at 40 to get in the best shape of my life, but I was dedicated to the fitness program. I needed to get in shape — my cholesterol was dangerously high, it runs in the family — and I wanted to drop it without medication, but I was borderline. My doctor said, “When you come back in, if you’re still elevated, we’re going to have to get you on something like Lipitor,” and I didn’t want to do that. This came along at the right time, like the show, and helped change my life.
What’s your fitness philosophy?
My philosophy is simple. I go to bed at night and am storing up all this energy so in the morning I’m ready to release it. I wake up at 4:30 or 5 a.m. every morning, check the news — that’s the journalistic bug in me — and then start working out. My oldest son has gotten up at 6:15 and joined me. I converted our garage into a gym. You can do Beachbody all at home, and I used to do it in the living room, but I wanted a bigger space. We’ll use resistance bands, I do pushups; it’s a lot of using your body weight, and some dumbbells. But, I work out with a video. I enjoy other activities like going road biking, but it can be so hard to get away in LA without taking out a life insurance policy — it’s dangerous biking around here. But that’s the broad strokes of it.
My philosophy is simple. I go to bed at night and am storing up all this energy so in the morning I’m ready to release it. I wake up at 4:30 or 5 a.m. every morning, check the news — that’s the journalistic bug in me — and then start working out. My oldest son has gotten up at 6:15 and joined me. I converted our garage into a gym. You can do Beachbody all at home, and I used to do it in the living room, but I wanted a bigger space. We’ll use resistance bands, I do pushups; it’s a lot of using your body weight, and some dumbbells. But, I work out with a video. I enjoy other activities like going road biking, but it can be so hard to get away in LA without taking out a life insurance policy — it’s dangerous biking around here. But that’s the broad strokes of it.
How do you try to instill healthy eating and exercise habits in your children so that it becomes part of their lifestyle too?
I do a couple things with the kids. My philosophy is kids will do what they see you do — they’ll model that behavior. When my kids see me race off to the gym and get all sweaty, all they see is me leaving them and coming home sweaty. They don’t see or understand the experience of what I’m doing. But when they come down for breakfast in the morning and see me working out to a video, they can connect the dots. As my oldest son is maturing, he’s starting to see girls and pay attention to his body and wants to work out side-by-side with me.
I do a couple things with the kids. My philosophy is kids will do what they see you do — they’ll model that behavior. When my kids see me race off to the gym and get all sweaty, all they see is me leaving them and coming home sweaty. They don’t see or understand the experience of what I’m doing. But when they come down for breakfast in the morning and see me working out to a video, they can connect the dots. As my oldest son is maturing, he’s starting to see girls and pay attention to his body and wants to work out side-by-side with me.
I try to have a balance; let’s have a good time and enjoy ourselves, but I also teach him proper form and technique. I try to keep them interested by keeping it fun, because I want to connect it to a positive experience, which can be hard when you’re asking them to reach failure or fatigue. How do I get a young kid to push themselves to where they fail and make it positive? So I keep it fun, we’re always laughing and high-fiving. And now my son is telling me he likes to wake up early and work out because he really likes how he feels when he goes to school, he feels really energized. He’s more alert and pays attention; he doesn’t have a stomach full of sugar and white bread that are going to put him to sleep. It’s my philosophy of taking good energy and being a good model for my kids.
Years and years ago, I realized how addictive video games are and my kids go through this. So, I hooked up the Play Station in front of the elliptical trainer and the rule is you work out while you play video games. I don’t play that many, but I love Madden Football — I’ve won so many Super Bowls on that trainer (laughs). But when I need a break, I can just go sweat and feel good with a consistent workout, not doing interval stuff, and that gets the endorphins moving. So that’s my guilty pleasure. It’s funny though, because I’ve had co-workers come over and walk in and be like “what are you doing?” “I’m working out AND playing video games.”
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For many people Thanksgiving marks the start of the eating marathon that carries on throughout the holiday season. What is the best way to approach the upcoming holidays when it comes to eating?I approach the holidays the same way I approach every day: moderation and balance. When you look at the holidays, it’s what they’re here for. There are so many other days to focus attention on being healthy. Make healthy choices when you can, but don’t kill yourself. Maybe don’t have that third piece of pie, but if you’re going to indulge, do it with family and friends, the holidays are for celebrating.
Gluttony is never a good thing, but I go back and forth on it. My stomach shrank so much because my meal plan was eating little meals throughout the day. The holidays are perfect for this because, there is always food out. I used to load up my plate, eat, and then slide into a coma. Now, I can only eat a third of what I could. But recognizing these habits, eating smaller meals and eating slower, I prevent myself from going into that hypoglycemic state where I’m just famished. I’ll grab a bar or something to offset that. So, if you follow those patterns throughout the year, they will be prevalent during the holidays too, and you won’t have that bulge to deal with afterward.
Beachbody and lots of these folks know when to start hitting the airwaves. The first of the year, everyone is making New Year’s resolutions coming off the holiday food marathon and they want to get in shape. They commit themselves at the start of the year and decide to make a change; this is when the videos fly off the shelf, because people think that January 1st is a great time to start. It’s great if it works, but lots of times people set themselves up for failure. If you eat right and are balanced across the board in life, you won’t have this big bulge to deal with.
You mention that people can set themselves up for failure. Lots of times, we just want to lose weight fast, but if you don’t make a lifestyle change you’re going to gain it back. What’s the best way to stay committed to your weight loss goals?
Remove diet from your vocabulary — period. Three of the four letters spell die. If dieting is killing you, then it’s telling you something. You need to do an overhaul of your life. Dealing with that big shift, I can congratulate you on making that shift and recognizing that change needs to happen, but you need to give yourself a break. Be honest with yourself and have realistic goals, but set them, and hold yourself accountable.
Remove diet from your vocabulary — period. Three of the four letters spell die. If dieting is killing you, then it’s telling you something. You need to do an overhaul of your life. Dealing with that big shift, I can congratulate you on making that shift and recognizing that change needs to happen, but you need to give yourself a break. Be honest with yourself and have realistic goals, but set them, and hold yourself accountable.
Beachbody wants you to take “before” pictures, and I thought “Oh god, really?” So I went out to the beach and had a friend take some before I started going through this. I looked at them and thought “I look kind of thick, I don’t look like that in the mirror.” I don’t see many pictures of myself, and I realized I thought I was in shape, but I kind of had a gut. Ninety days later, I looked at the pictures and thought “Wow! I can’t believe the transformation!” It was giant momentum for me during that time period to keep going back and see inches coming off. Clothes were no longer fitting; I had to have my suits at Entertainment Tonight altered. To see these physical changes taking place was very rewarding, and I’ve kept the weight off for three years now. I adopted their idea and philosophy, but it took that initial commitment. Sure, if I want to bust out and have dessert I do that, but I also know that if I have a real craving for sugar, I didn’t eat well enough during the day.
Lots of people are against this philosophy too, but I get on a scale every day just because I like to keep tabs on my body weight, but I don’t freak out about it. I know I’ll normally swing anywhere from 3 – 7 pounds in a couple days, so I do it to understand my body, but I don’t get too worried about it, I just want to know. There’s a little latitude here, but I’m not going off the road. Check out the full article
