Ok, that's a bad twist on the "If they don't fit, you must acquit" line from the OJ Simpson murder trial, but the point is still valid. Results can take time, so you can't walk away too quickly if you aren't seeing what you ultimately want yet after a week or two.
We, as a society are dangerously indoctrinated with and trained to expect instant gratification. Countless diet pill and shake commercials and gym membership ads imply that you'll fit into that little red dress or have rock hard abs in no time. It doesn't work that way. That might sound bad to most, but the truth is that it shouldn't. I've posted a lot on how you need your mind to be there with your body for this to stick and really change your life. How could that happen if it only took like 4 days to hit your physical goal? It couldn't.
No, you need to put in some work and need to get used to the changes little by little. That's another reason those pill and shake ads imply super speed - would you really go for them if you thought it would take swallowing that stuff for months? If you're not a gym person yet, would you jump at their offer if you thought you'd have to stick it out for a while? No, you wouldn't because your mind isn't there yet. But I would suggest that you are smarter than that - don't let these ploys insult your intelligence and lead you away from real, lasting results and health.
The truth is, the problem isn't that it can take weeks or months to get where you want to ultimately go - after all, you have the rest of your life to be healthy, so what's the rush? The solution is that you need some interim goals to keep you going through the more realistic timing that should be involved here. I talk about this in Principle #4 - set goals, both near and far. You have to have way markers to let you know it's working and to motivate you onto the next goal. This is how marathons, walkathons, etc work. There are check points, mile markers, etc to keep you going. This is a key feature of lots of running apps for your phone. I love how Nike+ GPS checks in with me to give me my progress and cheer me on. It's hugely helpful.
And the good news is that you keep feeling like a champ for genuine reasons that you delivered for yourself. Setting meaningful short term goals means hitting them is a genuine accomplishment worth feeling proud of yourself for. It's not some "everyone is a winner" entitlement generation stuff. Nor is it the 'magic' of living on a calorie restricting shake diet. It's very real. I wanted to go from 222 pounds on July 1 2011 to 185 by year end last year. I set a couple of interim goals, including 200 by my 33rd birthday, which coincided with a annual physical exam in October. Guess what - I was 185 - my ultimate goal - at that visit. Two and a half months early. I felt damn proud, and I deserved to. It sparked a whole new fire in me that lead to newbodi.es. So I got to set a new goal of 10% body fat or less by year end. And another longer term one of maintaining that through to the 1 year mark for the whole thing (July 1 2012). I have fewer than 4 weeks to go, and should do just fine. Why? Because it is real, measurable and manageable. I get to be challenged but also know I can do it if I work at it and then be proud when I do. And it's something I am doing myself, not some drink, pill, surgeon, etc. I put the work in to better myself, and got success myself. My determination. My sweat. My results.
You can, too. It's all part of enlightening your body.
No comments:
Post a Comment