Weight loss is a battle. I don’t care how you look at it. Sometimes in life, you have upper hand. Other times, you give in and happy hour with the boys gets the best of you. The key to gaining the upper hand in the battle on weight loss is to stay consistent in your battle, minimize the losses, and create a lifestyle change that will always win the battles throughout the longevity of your life.
I took a hard dose of my own advice this evening.
Anyone that reads this regularly knows that I am a very keep it basic/keep it real for results type of guy. There isn’t magic potions on this site, no 5 minute fixes. Just basic ways to make lasting changes in your life. I attempted to think outside this box today.
Here is something to ponder on:
According to the CDC (center for disease control) the leading causes of death in America are as follows:
I just read a great blog post from Alwyn Cosgrove, who owns Results Fitness. It was about a homeless man who was given $100,000 dollars, which is a large sum for someone who is living under a bridge. Within 6 months, he had $5000 left and within 9 months he was back living under a bridge. The idea behind the post is the fact that it is your attitude needs to change in order to make something stick. For the homeless man in the story, his attitude toward money didn’t change. He didn’t want to invest, or budget, or anything else. It is the attitude, choices and behaviors that made him homeless, 100k didn’t change that.
So put this into perspective for YOUR life. Imagine that you woke up tomorrow morning and had the ideal health and fitness you always wanted. You looked exactly how you always dreamed. You felt like you have always wanted. What would you do differently to maintain that? Would you eat better? Would you exercise more to keep the physique? Or would you let your attitude, choices and behavior shatter the body and take you right back to where you were? Most of you would probably do whatever you can to keep the perfect body and health.
So why not start living that way now?
I am always looking for new workouts to try. I have tried it all from traditional weights, to body weight, to kettle bells, to suspension trainers, to medicine balls, to sandbags and everything in between! So when I read something about a new trend in workouts, I try it out and pass it along to you.
I want every one to do an exercise with me right now. Stand up, and count to 20.
I am serious. I have a point to prove. Stand up and count to 20.
Did you successfully count to 20? Good. You don’t need a personal trainer.
I have talked before on how you don’t really need a personal trainer and sometimes it easier not to have a gym membership. To say the least, I am a big advocate for getting in shape on your own. There are so many tools out there that allow you to get in great shape. I am a HUGE fan of one tool that is quickly rising to the main stream of working out on your own.
Everyone wants results in what they are doing. Whether in business, health, money, whatever it is, people want to see the fruits of their labor come to bloom. But some people don’t know the difference between actual results, and those results that are just an illusion of an actual result. The main difference is the action. People that see the illusions use all their resources, but don’t take action. Actual results come from taking action.
How people go about weight loss is a great example of illusion of results vs. actual results. Reading the latest diet book is an illusion of a result. There are many people that read all the latest fitness books and RSS feeds, and never lose a pound. It is that illusion of results that they are after. “If I read this book, then I will lose the weight”. The only way you will get actual results is to get up and move. Take action for results.
Another example is the Getting Things Done formula. David Allen create a pretty cool work flow to get people organized. Many people have tried to duplicate it as well. There are people that need to get organized, so they go buy his book. Illusion of a result: The book will not get your organized. You need to put his plan into action to get an actual result.
Taking action is the true only way to get actual results. Setting up the process, reading about the process, and educating yourself about the process is all good, don’t get me wrong. Those steps are needed in order to ensure you do whatever you are doing in the right manner. However many people stop after those steps. Illusion of the results: “I set up everything, my results should come now”. WRONG. You need to go get your results. Put the process into action. Put the plan into action. Put the education into action.
Also be aware that you will not always get the desired result. Adjust your process so you can get the outcome you want. Remember: There are no failures, just outcomes. If you don’t get the desired outcome, adjust.
As always, email or comment if you have a question, comment or concern!
I had an interesting conversation over the weekend. After chit chatting with someone, it came across that I was in the health and wellness industry. After talking a little more, I informed him that I am a certified personal trainer. This person started asking me about rates and if I had a time slot that he could fill in.
There is a little 4 letter word that people use in the wrong way and it is one of my biggest pet peeves. People throw the word around without truly thinking of the meaning. In my opinion, you should completely remove this little 4 letter word out of your vocabulary before you start using it in the wrong way.
There is no reason to have the word CAN’T in your vocabulary. CAN’T is short for CANNOT. Think about the times when you use the word CAN’T.
“I CAN’T run 2 miles”.
“I CAN’T hike that mountain”.
“I CAN’T lose the weight”
I can’t do this. I can’t do that. It is all complete BS. CAN’T means cannot. You CAN do all that stuff and MORE! But the reality of it is that you WON’T. You will not even try! If you are going to cop out of something, at least be truthful with yourself and everyone else and tell them that you are not really even willing to give it a try. Tell them you WON’T try the task at hand. Yes, that will show everyone you are afraid to try and that you really do not want to succeed, but at least you are being truthful right?
Want another option? DO IT. When someone challenges you at something, or you are faced with something that you think you CANNOT do, try it. Do it. Succeed. What do you have to lose? Honestly, what do you have to lose by trying it? Maybe you won’t succeed at doing it. Did you fail? NO. You created an outcome. Adjust your next try based on your outcome until you succeed. Plus, who is going to tell you that you failed at trying? The true failure in life is the failure of not trying.
I know that most people have the word “CAN’T” so heavily built within their vocabulary that not saying the word is difficult. But, like the overall message in this post, try it. Become conscious of what you are saying and every time you say “CAN’T”, ask yourself this question: “Can I really not do this? Or am I just not willing to try?”. More than likely, you aren’t really to try. So then change it and either say “Sorry, I am not willing to try” or say “Let’s do it!”. It is up to you.
