Guaranteed Ways to Get in Shape

So after weeks of reduced portions and 10 days in the freezing cold of Tibetan Tagong, China I'm back down to my fighting weight. I've got some visible ab definition, and my man-boobies are a thing of dark and soon to be repressed history. I've got a pretty fast metabolism and youth on my side so for me to lose weight is certainly not as tough as it is for some people - howevever, it's still work. Here are some things that have helped me.

1. Public Nudity: I'm filming a nude scene (no floppy bits visible) in India. This means that that whenever someone get's curious and types "Donovan Keith Nude" into google, they'll get a still-frame from the movie of me in the buff. If I'm going to be haunted by this scene for years to come, I might as well look good. I've used the threat of public nudity in the past to great effect as well, I put on 25lbs of muscle over a period of 6months because I knew I would be scrutinized by every gay man in the Castro when I performed in "Take Me Out". Take Me Out is a play about baseball - but for most audience members it's a play about a shower scene. If public nudity doesn't scare you, then maybe you don't need to get in better shape - you seem to think you're just fine the way you are.


2. Meaningful Goal: "Lose 10 lbs" is not a meaningul goal. 10 lbs is just an abstract number, and you could lose more muscle than fat making your situation worse than it already is. Try these goals on for size "I want to see my abdominal muscles before I'm videotaped with my shirt off." or "I want to lose 2 inches off my waist so that I can fit comfortably in my pants and I don't have to buy an entire new wardrobe, or take my box of fat pants out of storage - they're all pleated khakis."


3. Ambitious, but Realistic Deadline: If your goal is to simply get in better shape, it'll never happen. It's like a teacher assigning a paper but saying you can turn it in whenever you like. The last quarter of your Senior year that paper still won't be done and you'll be missing the credits needed for graduation. So give yourself a date to look foward to, for me that's Dec 18th when we land in India. Early in the trip I was drinking nightly and eating all I wanted, but as the 18th started approaching I actually got my act together. So another thing is to set smaller deadlines that are coming up fairly soon - if a deadline is too far away it's almost worse than not having one.


4. Accountability: If we're the only people we will disappoint with our actions or lack of actions - more times than not we'll find ourselves disappointed. Why? Well because in the grand scheme of things, we don't matter that much. But if your kids are going to cry themselves to sleep unless you go out and buy their Christmas presents, then you'll buy their Christmas presents I guarantee it. I've got pretty good accountability with this project in the form of Public Nudity, I've also got this blog, and a number of people in my life who I've told what my goals are.


5. A Buddy: I was a vegetarian for 2 years along with my father. Myself because I was headed to college and it seemed like the cool ethical thing to do. My dad for health reasons. but really, we did it for each other. The first week we might have done for ourselves, but anything past that point we did because we didn't want to disappoint each other. My sister and I once ran a half-marathon in SF. We both wanted to quit after 5 miles. But we never told each other. We kept running because we thought the other wanted to, and we ran at a much faster pace than either of us would have run at our own. So when it came time to pick my buddies for this project, I picked my father for weight loss, and I signed up for a half marathon with my sister. Seriously - find someone who will motivate you and whom you can help motivate and there's no end to what can be accomplished.

My friend Ilana Turner from Richard Seyd's Acting Class recently started on a weight loss plan of her own. She's using a tool called Flaab.com which is absolutely brilliant. It integrates just about everything I've talked about above in a very simple structure:

If you don't meet your weight loss goal by the time that you specify a significant sum of your money will be given to the person, organization, or thing you hate most in this world. For Ilana it's the girl who insulted her for being fat in middle school. For you it might be Kill the Whales or the Yes on Prop 8 campaign. If you put $500 on the table saying you will lose the weight by Feb 1 or the Puppy Killers Association of America will get the money, I guarantee you'll work harder than if you just make it one of your new year's resolutions.

Seriously, flaab.com is a brilliant concept and worth a look.