Friday, April 29, 2011

The Good & Bad about Challenges

OverHead Head to Head Squat Off...Z and Zeb


As humans we have an amazing capacity for improvement. People continue to push the envelop of excellence, raise the level of greatness, and continue to out perform great feats of the past.

Everyone has the chance to drastically improve themselves but it is HARD. We must be challenged you bring out the best within us.

CrossFit is notorious for exercise and nutrition challenges.

So what is it about being challenged that makes us do what we wouldn't normally do?

Why Challenges are Good:
1. The more obstacle you conquer, the easier the process becomes.
2. With you each obstacle you conquer the more confidence you build.
3. The more confidence you gain the more powerful and unstoppable you become.

But Challenges as good as they can be, also can have an adverse affect. I found a great perspective on this from Steve's Club blog. Here is some of the post, for the full read click HERE

-individuality means understanding that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to learning and living the Paleo lifestyle. The best approach is whatever brings balance that’s sustainable over the long-term. 
-I concede that the strict "Paleo challenges" are useful in determining treatment options for autoimmunity and pressing the “re-set” button on your “system.” People with lofty athletic and body-comp goals may adhere to strict plans. Often gyms institute their own challenges, which foster community and a group support system. These are fantastic reasons to take on a challenge - as long as you bring mental stability and balance to the process.
-Most of us simply want to look and feel better. If your individual tendency is toward neuroses or backslides, it might be best to start small.


The challenge is to push you and help bring energy to others. Its a give and take. You give the goods you get the goods back.

What have you found out about YOU going through a challenge? Good stuff? Bad stuff?

P.T.S!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Need a Pep Talk? Give one TO get one.

Two of my favorite momma's


Stuck in a rut?

Feeling down in the dumps?

Is nothing getting you going lately?

How do you snap out of it?

Here is a great way to snap out of it and get you right back on track...Give NOT get a pep talk!

I was chatting with someone very important to me the other day. And they were telling me how they had coffee with a family member and she really pumped them up to go out there and follow their dream and stop settling for what they didn't want because they were afraid of failure. The result was not only did she help her family member out but it ended up that she started to pump herself up as well.

I have found one of the best ways to re-light your fire and get yourself right back on track with your goals and dreams is to help someone that is in need of some help and give them the good ol' 1-2-3 Pep Talk. You start to realize that the advice you give someone you care about is the very exact advice YOU need to follow yourself. And by explaining to someone else you end up firing yourself up.

For example: As I write this right now I am firing myself up!!!:-)

Who out there needs some advice? Any family members, friends, co-workers, workout buddies, your pet, gardener, trainer???

P.T.S.!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

What's the Worst that Could Happen?



Life is all about perspective and how YOU look at things.

Life also has a funny way of throwing things at you when you least expect it or better yet 'you think you can't handle it':-0

But we always end up getting through any crisis or problem.

Trust me this year I have seen about every curve ball I could hit: from selling our 1st business, moving half way across the country (again!), with no job, having no place to live, still having our home in Sioux Falls with no renter for 4 months (until now...YEAH!). Its been more than I thought we could handle at many points, but we took everything in stride, chipped away at it and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I came across this blog post the other day from Paradiso CrossFit:

What's the worst that can happen? I ask myself that question a lot before doing something new.  Imagine the worst case scenario and ask yourself if you can live with whatever that answer may be.  The answer does invariably arrive, I could die.  But of course, I could die in a car accident tomorrow, or get my face eaten off by some flesh eating mold, and I remember the fear of death is no reason to not try something new.   So ask yourself, Do I want to participate in the Malibu Trail Race of Death?  What's the worst that could happen?


It is always important to think and remain positive throughout life, especially in the rough times, and I believe one of the ways to do so, is to think the opposite and say to yourself "What's the worst that can happen?"


Anything you can add? What has been thrown your way this year that you didn't know about or 'thought you couldn't handle' but did and came out fine?


P.T.S!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Mental WOD #5: Journal...What To and Why To



A picture says a 1000 words... Even from a IPhone

Life is a series of moments and memories one after another. We pick up so many great thoughts and ideas along the way. We can't trust our memory (no matter how good it is) alone.

Most of us know the importance of journaling our food or workout journals and tracking our progress with our health and fitness.



But what about the rest of your life?

Your thoughts, goals, dreams, family, experiences, photos... Capturing the very essence of how our life goes. Life moves so fast and a lot of us get caught in the day to day routines and miss a lot of the great things that happen to us along the way.

This week's Mental WOD is to journal your day everyday. It could be a paragraph, a page to a couple of pages. Whatever you feel you want to write on and about is up to you. Just build the habit. Hopefully you will take this habit and run with it for years.

How cool would it be to give something like this to your kids to 20, 30, 50 years down the road?

Below is some tips and tricks from the master motivator, Jim Rohn.

Jim Rohn was the master of the journal. "If you're serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured and unique individual—keep a journal. Don't trust your memory. When you listen to something valuable, write it down," Rohn said. As such, a journal can be many things to many people. Here are a few ideas for how to use a journal:
  1. Keep a tally of your daily 'wins' or accomplishments.
  2. Keep notes on an ongoing problem you're facing.
  3. Write down ideas. The Magic of Thinking Big author David J. Schwartz writes, "Every day, lots of good ideas are born only to die quickly because they aren't nailed to paper."
  4. Maintain your lifelong goal file. Writing down your aspirations in a journal helps build a file so that you can review your ideas over and over.
  5. Keep a to-do list for big projects. Day-to-day tasks can be scheduled in Outlook, but larger-scale projects are perfect for recording in a journal.
  6. Jot down inspirational quotes and why they impact you.
  7. Keep a dream journal bedside.
  8. Handwrite important facts, statistics or phone numbers to help cement them in your mind.
  9. Tear out a page and write a note to someone important in your life.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Is It Too LATE???...Nope!



I have always been fascinated with the Malcolm Gladwell 10k hour theory of the amount of time it takes to get really good at anything. I always reflect back to the days when all I wanted to be was a pro basketball player. When I had the desire and passion I practiced all the time and everyday. I was determined to bypass others that were far more talented then myself by sheer determination and work ethic.

I would practice and practice but was it 'deliberate practice'?

What would it have done for me back then to implement the 'deliberate' part of the practice back in those days for me?

I bet all of us (especially with an athletic background) have asked ourselves the same question.

But with this 10,000 hour rule now widely known, is it too late for any of us to be able to achieve our dream for ourselves?


Lets say the 10 hour rule works.

Lets say it is guaranteed to work...

No matter what...

What would you do?

Last question what is holding you back?

Let me introduce you to Dan McLaughlin. On his 30th birthday, Dan had decided to quit his job to become a professional golfer. And Dan has had no experience and even less interest in the sport.

To read about check out:
Can a complete novice become a golf pro with 10,000 hours of practice?

To check out is blog go to www.thedanplan.com

P.T.S!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Its Always YOUR Fault

I know its an easy way out...but don't blame Perry for your mistakes:-(


Stuff happens.

Why do you think that is?

When something goes bad in your life (lose your job, a relationship break-up, your FAT, not happy, your car gets jacked, etc...);

Who is to blame? Things, other people, family, environment, traffic, economy, your gardener, republicans, etc...

Nope.

Everything that happens to you in your life (good or bad)...is 100% YOUR FAULT!

Think about it. It may be hard to swallow. But I can tell you this, when you do believe this and/or buy into it you will free yourself from a lot of grief/guilt/frustration and begin to really start moving forward with what you want to make out of your life.

Now flip it around.

When things are going well in your life...its YOUR FAULT! That is awesome! When you get back in shape, when you CONQUER your fears, when you reach your goals and dreams...HOLY COW ITS YOUR FAULT...WHOOOHOO! You can take total control of you life, no one else can. That is a daunting and wonderful responsibility at the same time. You have the power to help yourself and set an example for others.

"I am exactly where I am because of the thoughts that I create and the actions that I take." -Recco

Below is a great part of a post from one of my new favorite blogs www.positivityblog.com


Take a responsibility for your own life.
“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.”
“You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”
When we are kids people take care of us. They take responsibility. But to become an adult – and not just a kid in a grown up’s body – one has to take responsibility for oneself. There is no other way. Sure, letting someone else take the responsibility may be easier on you.
But without taking responsibility for yourself how can you be free?
How can you really live up you own potential and dreams?
It can be hard to break out of the comfort zone of having other people taking responsibility for us. But if you don’t then you will be trapped by other people’s standards, expectations and limitations. You have to set your own rules for your life. A bit scary. But also liberating. For the rest of the post that I may take some more from later on...click HERE
Time to sound off peeps...let me hear and P.T.S!!!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Working Out Makes Everything Better...SO DO IT!

Why do you think I have a dogg? He is backup!


Working Out i.e. CrossFit works for everyone! Age, gender, race, athletic ability, FAT, unmotivated, etc... doesn't matter how outta-shape you are in or how in-shape you are in...CF works!

When someone signs up with CrossFit from me they are ready to take control of their life and their health. They are excited, motivated and ready for a challenge.

Then it gets HARD!

And we see what that person is really made of:-) They say they want to lose 20lbs, get back in-shape or get off their meds, but CF actually proves if what you say you want is true or just a bunch of B.S.

For those that try to 'let themselves of the hook' and 'TRY' to quit or stop coming, that is when I get fired up!

They tell me they have: 'too much going on in their life', 'im starting nursing school', 'i cant afford it', i don't have any time', 'i work too much'...blah blah blah!


Face it peeps, working out and eating healthy is a privilege not a right or a chore. Your health is a gift from above. You better understand that you must use or you will lose it.

Let me put it to you this way:

Does working more hours at your job/career make you healthier?
Does studying more make you healthier?

Does working out help you make more money at your job/career?
Does working out help you get better grades in school?
Does working out make you a better husband/wife, father/mother?

When you think about it, most of our life's responsibilities (school, work, family, etc)... take up a lot of our waking hours and honestly take a lot of energy away from us.

So ask yourself...where does your health rank on your priority list?

Wouldn't you think if improving your health and fitness would improve all other aspects of your life it would rank the highest on YOUR priority list?

So does it?

Don't get me wrong, it ain't easy, nothing ever comes to us easily, it takes work but bottom line it works and it is for YOU!

P.T.S how health ranks on your priority list. Tell us why. Tell us how you are doing with it. Tell us the obstacles you face daily and how you overcome them.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Stress Busters

Stress Buster #26: Exercise Everyday
It is impossible to go through life smooth sailing. Life has a way of testing YOU to make you grow. The true test is how you respond to situations versus how you react.
I found a great blog about 100 Ways to Overcome Stress. Here are some of my personal favs:
1. Forgive yourself for every mistake you’ve ever made.
2. Forgive others for their offenses against you.
3. Stop obsessing over things you can’t control.
4. Take breaks often to clear you mind.
5. Do one thing at a time.
6. Stop over analyzing and start doing.
7. Stop judging what others do or don’t do.
8. Learn to say no and really mean it.
9. Only add to your “to do” list after crossing 2 things off.
10. When you buy something new, get rid of something old.

13. Let go of trying to control everything.
18. Find reasons to laugh out loud several times a day.
19. Stop taking things personally, it’s not always about you!
26. Exercise every single day!
27. Don’t trade sleep for work.
28. Eat for nourishment not for comfort.
29. Express gratitude for the small things you appreciate.
41. Count your blessings every morning and every night.
51. Laugh at yourself.
52. Be early for everything so you don’t feel rushed.
53. Make peace of mind a high priority in your life.
100. Life isn’t always fair but it is still a gift, practice gratitude.

For the Full List go to advancedlifeskills blog

Post your favorites to the comments.

P.T.S.!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Mental WOD #4: Change It Up To Change YOU UP

I WANT to be this EXCITED after I post my WODs:-)  Thanks Armen


It is so easy to go on day after day doing the same old routine. And many of us wonder why we can't do more or do better?

Remember we are what we repeatedly do. And if our routines don't serve us to be better or help us grow towards our goals...why are they in your life?

With Easter coming this Sunday a lot of people have given something up for lent. I feel to change your life (for the good) giving something up is only part of the answer. To succeed and execute change (for the good) something must be added in.

This weeks Mental WOD:

Brainstorm and pick 1-3 habits that you know are holding you back from your goals (drinking diet soda, always hitting the snooze on your alarm, watching too much TV, etc...) And find a healthy alternative to put in place of that unfavorable habit. Think hard and be honest about it. It might be something that you really DON'T want to change but NEED to.

For example, every time you WANT to:

*Drink Diet Soda -> Drink Water
*Hit the snooze on your alarm - > Roll over and do 10 Push ups
*Reach for the remote to watch TV after dinner -> Reach for a book

It will be hard, especially the more 'attached' we are to that particular habit. But this is for YOU.

Something I found that is a great way to look at change and why it is so difficult to make a change.


One thing about changing your life is that you can promise yourself to do anything in the future. And that sounds good and feels even better. But later on we can always come up with reasons to rationalise doing what we decided to never do again just a week ago. And those reasons don’t even have to be that great or logical. When we feel like doing whatever it is we want to do – smoke a cigarette, buy a new expensive coat or shy away from facing a fear – then out mind will find ways to rationalize it. And we’ll do it, feeling we have a good reason to. And then the next day we promise ourselves and others to not do it again. And so on.

By removing these things from your environment as best your can and replacing them with more suitable things you take away many of the opportunities to both do and to rationalize doing something. By replacing them with the things, people etc. that the person you want to become would have a around himself or herself it kinda forces you to live up to and adapt to your new surroundings. And so it becomes easier to change and reach your goals.
Your environment is an important part of you and your identity. Every day it reinforces who you are. Tear your environment down and rebuild it to help create and reinforce a new part of yourself and the person you want to become. -http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2007/07/04/change-your-environment-to-change-your-life/
Post your old habit with you new habit to the comments. And let us know how you are doing throughout the week. 
P.T.S.!!!

Friday, April 15, 2011

SpeakEasy and ThinkEasy



Great quotes to live by. Life is great don't let it get ahold of you:-)

"Speak when you are angry and it will be the best speech you ever regret" :-0
-Henry David Thoreau

Think how much more you suffer with your anger and grief then from the things that made you angry or grief.
-Marcus Aurelius

Happy Friday




Thursday, April 14, 2011

More Secrets about YOU is revealed...

Fun, Functional, and FANTASTIC at www.crossfit818.com what more could you ask for?


Take 10 minutes to read this post. I came across this BOOK and it provides a lot of great insight about training and motivation for every kind of person. One of the parts in the book (which is below) deals with how you get motivated, how you can lose motivation, and how to keep motivation going.

Post your thoughts and feedback to the comments.



Free Will and Free Weights”
by Dan John
I’ve said it a million times: There aren’t any secrets to training. I would’ve stood by that, too, until the single greatest moment in the history of strength trainingand fitness happened to me. I finally discovered the secret.
I tend to joke about secrets and gimmicks quite a bit. You know what I’m talking about:
• Lose ten pounds overnight with the diet of the stars!
• Instantly increase your arm size!
• Use psycho power to get women and money!
True, I bought all those products, and I decided to use them all at once. They all worked! I lost my money overnight. Whoops.
No, I’m not talking about a real secret here, the answer to a lot of the crazy issues that plague probably everyone. The funny thing is I’m serious.
There’s something you have in short supply that you need to cherish. It’s the difference between making your fitness, strength and body composition goals and not making those goals. Before I divulge it, let’s look at a few examples.
New Year’s Eve – A drunk walks over to you, spilling a glass of merlot down your arm and on the Persian rug. “You know what” he slurs. “Tomorrow I’m laying off the booze, going on Atkins, and I’m going to work out every day, just like I used to. Stopping smoking, too. This is probably one of the last times you’ll see me smoking.”
We all know what’s going to happen. Most of us (raise your hands, please) have made a New Year’s resolution that didn’t exactly work out as we planned:
“I will eat low carb.”
“I will work my legs first every workout.”
“I will stop looking at internet porn.”
What’s strange is resolutions are usually good ideas. Let’s be honest, saving the first ten percent of a paycheck, cutting back on carbs or sweets or whatever, exercising more, or being kinder to humanity are all pretty damn good things to try to do.
Next example: With my old job I did a lot of prison ministry. Prison is nothing like the movies or television shows, at least in my experience. Sure, there are deep dark bad places in every prison, but most of what I saw wasn’t unlike hotels I stayed in while visiting New Jersey and Florida.
I sat on a coach once and had a long conversation with a very nice guy without any bars or guards nearby. I later found out he’d killed six people one night . . . the last just to see someone squirm. He seemed like a wonderful guy.
One of the things people talk about is how buff prisoners are. “Ah, to have the discipline of a multiple offender,” you might think. And there it is. That’s the insight I had recently. All of the connections finally linked up and in a flash . . . I got it.
Got what? The secret to success in all of our goals. Don’t laugh, don’t undervalue, and certainly don’t underestimate what I’m about to say. The secret to success is free will.
Free will? Sure, call it what you want: self discipline, habits, free agency, or my personal favorite, no other damn choice. Now listen, this isn’t a religious discussion, but there’s a great story that illuminates the concept. By the way, the story is absolutely true. I verified it.
There was a very religious man who lived in a flood plain. One year, a big flood hit and he stood on his porch watching the water go by. A neighbor came by driving a motorboat. “Hop on, friend, and I’ll take you to safety!”
“No, thanks,” the pious man said, “The Good Lord above will save me.” Later, while sitting on his roof, the sheriff came by in a rowboat. “Here you go, hop in!” he said.
“No, thanks. The Good Lord above will save me,” the man replied. As the water rose higher, a helicopter dropped a rope ladder down to him and offered him a lift off the top of his home.
“No, thanks. The Good Lord above will save me.”
He drowned.
Standing in line waiting to get into heaven, the Good Lord walked by him. The man said, “Why didn’t you save me?”
The Good Lord answered: “I sent a motorboat, a rowboat, and a helicopter. What did you want?”
This is a true story and I’m standing by it.
What’s the point? We all know we need to take the bull by the horns, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, or add any cliché comment you were told as an adolescent to spur you to get off your damn computer chair and walk over to the gym and spend the next hour doing nothing but every exercise you hate.
Or, you can keep reading this article and eat some of those chips that are bad for you, but since they come from Hawaii must be pretty good after all, so eat a few more, then sneak over to those websites that have panting college coed in pasties. Or whatever.
Every great motivational speaker from Napoleon Hill to Earl Nightingale to Anthony Robbins will always dedicate a large amount of time and energy to the concept of self-discipline. My college coach, Ralph Maugham, had a saying for his athletes: Make yourself a slave to good habits.
And you know, to a group of Division one track and field athletes who all have at least a 3.0 GPA, that’s a nice bit of advice, especially worthy of discussion. Of course, that audience was a little different than maybe most of us deal with during a typical day.
So, why does the guy in prison have a better body than you? It’s because we have just a little bit of free will. How do I know? People actually research this stuff and then I steal it. Let me take a quick detour for a second and see if I can explain it.
I shave daily. I recently changed from shaving cream to shaving gel, but I’m going back to cream. Why? Well, with shaving cream, as you get to the bottom of the can, it splutters and spats and spits cream for about a week before it goes absolutely empty. The first time you get shaving cream spit in your eye, you mentally note, “I need to buy more shaving cream.” In that week, you have three or four opportunities to get spat on as a reminder to buy more cream.
With gel, you’re standing in the shower and you press the button and . . . nothing. Yesterday, a face full of gel; today you’re trying to shave with Dial soap lather and all day your friends comment about your dry, bleeding face. Your coworkers might think you got into another bar fight, like you told them last time.
You see, free will is like shaving gel. It seems you have a one-can allotment and it just runs out without warning. Researchers did an interesting test on people: Everyone was asked to do a series of complex tests without any chance of success. They timed how long people would try the task before giving up – like maybe a Rubik’s cube that had been made impossible to finish.
When the next group came in, they offered everybody cookies. Those who said, “No thanks, watching my diet,” or whatever, would quit the impossible task far earlier than those who said, “What the hell, give me a damn cookie.”
Why? My friends, you basically have about one can of Free Will. It you use it saying no to cookies, you won’t have any left for impossible tasks, quitting smoking, or whatever resolution you picked in a carb-induced haze sometime during the holidays. Sorry. One can.
That’s why our friend in prison has a better body than you. When your alarm goes off, do you basically get up? Why? Could you miss class if you’re a student? Maybe. Well, then, getting up out of your toasty bed will eat up some of your free will.
Can you miss work? Sure, but then, you know, something happens, like you miss the Henderson Report and the Dingwinglies fall of the Schimshank and whatever the hell else bad happens to you at work.
Do you have kids? Now we’re really talking about losing free will, fast and furious. Children will drink every ounce you have before you send them off to school. Trust me, I don’t have any personal choice at all!
Who makes your meals or chooses what place you’ll eat? You. There goes some of that decision-making ability.
As decision after decision hits you throughout the week, the reservoir of free will you’ll have on hand to spend at the gym begins to fade. When I originally wrote my Four Minutes to Fat Loss article, which you’ll read later in the book, a number of people asked me, “If it’s so good, why don’t you do it every day?” My answer was always clouded: You do it and get back to me.
Why wouldn’t I do it every day? To push myself that hard after a long day of commuting kids back and forth to school, choir and volleyball, while the dog is puking next to the broken toilet, while the lady from the reunion wants to know if I can get there early to help hang crepe paper, after I get the truck back from getting new tires, before I mow the lawn, and while the boss still needs that report . . . I’m happy to hide in the gym.
Lots of us know these workouts. We go into our gym and hide. I call it arm day! Our buddy in prison? Does he decide when to go to bed? No. Get up? No. Eat three times a day? No choice. Not only no choice on what to eat, but usually our friend doesn’t have to do anything to prepare the meal. Quiet time? I don’t even know what that is.
Day after day after day, decisions I take for granted are just not a part of the prisoner’s life. What does he have control of anyway? His workouts. That whole can of Free Will – literally bottled up inside of him for days, maybe even weeks, months and years in some cases – can be used for training. And train he does.
You decide on ten New Year’s resolutions. Here’ s my unsolicited gambling odds: no chance. If you only make one resolution? Maybe you’ll achieve it. It could happen, you know, with the right motivations.
Why am I confident you’ll fail? My point: You have only so much in the can of Free Will, and most of us waste the bulk of our self-determination, grit, or free choice long before we can muster up the energy to deal with nicotine fits, carb cravings, and the three-minute wait to get on the treadmill.
Listen, it’s easier to just eat the damn cookie. I know, I’ve been there. Hi, I’m Dan and I’m the guy who knows cars are bad for me, but I eat them anyway so leave me alone in my corner to sob.
How can we save more of the can of Free Will so we can focus on our workouts or really push that diet? Let’s be honest, look at Chris Shugart’s Velocity Diet. Just look at it. Pretend for a moment you could do that for a month. Just pretend. I did and immediately came up with 400 events I couldn’t bring a protein drink to, even one mixed with flax seeds.
Here are three ideas to help you get more Free Will out of your can.
NUMBER ONE
Camp. I’m serious. Each year, I spend up to four weeks in training camps. Somebody wakes me up, somebody makes my meals, somebody else pushes me to work out, somebody else tells me when to put the lights out. You know, I work hard during those weeks.
How can I reinvent camp for my normal life? A couple of things leap out at me. First, if nutrition is so important, and it’s my biggest trouble spot, is it possible to sublet my meal planning? One day a week, should I do all the cooking and bag and freeze some meals? Can I hire someone to do all the cooking? Should I buy a lot of pre-made meals? Or, should I just stock all my shelves with really good things, and only eat in appropriate places?
Really, none of these ideas are bad. Not great, but not bad either. In the area of training, we all know what the value of a personal actually is: It’s someone making sure you do something in the allotted training time. I’m not ripping on PTs here; I’m just pointing out the single greatest value of a personal trainer is someone else’s will replacing your own. That psycho, whistle-blowing high school coach you had might’ve been on to something.
NUMBER TWO
I’m working with a young woman, Edna, who recently did a pretty impressive thing: She quit smoking, lost a lot of bodyweight, stopped partying so much, and decided to recommit to her lifelong goals. As of this writing, she hasn’t smoked in a long time, has lost a lot of weight, and is in the fog of love with a very decent guy.
Her secret? She took on one task at a time, but only with a large community effort behind her. What does that mean? It means she told everybody her goals. I mean that, gentle reader, — everybody. Friends, people at parties, coworkers and people in the mall looking for a new microwave all heard the same chorus.
“Hey, I’m quitting smoking, so if I say I need a smoke, tie me down and don’t let me smoke ’cause I’m quitting and I’m not going to smoke, so don’t let me smoke.” Hey, you aren’t going to let that person smoke. Leave, yes; smoke, no.
Next, Edna joined Weight Watchers. She goes to the meetings. She talks about things. She talks to other people in Weight Watchers and she lets everybody know she’s in Weight Watchers.
I’m telling you, you can save your precious free will by recruiting a vast army of people willing to give up their free will to bolster yours. How? Tell them, ask them, beg them for help. Does your family know your goals? Coworkers? Professionals? Mailman? Start putting it out there.
There was a time in my youth where I could go to a party filled with booze and an assortment of products from Columbia and no one would offer me a share. Why? I was dumb enough to let everyone know I was going after something that drugs and booze would only hinder.
I was joking about the dumb-enough part. I’m damn proud of those decisions.
NUMBER THREE
I don’t like this one, but it works: Whittle down your life a little. I’ve always told my daughters you can measure a good relationship by the way you expand rather than contract. What am I saying? Maybe you do too much.
I’m guilty; I love leaping into things. In fact, it’s a rare fall that I don’t have a conflict on a weekend between a Highland Games, flag football or Olympic lifting!
Whittle. I was at a party with a guy recently who told me he couldn’t get back into training. Six minutes later he asked me about a list of television shows I’d never watched, and a few I’d never heard of. By God, this guy watched Joey!
Whittle that TV habit and the time will appear for training. Don’t TiVo a bunch of crap so you can watch it faster without commercials! When I was growing up, we never watched CBS; we didn’t get the station where we lived. You know, I never missed a thing. Now, we have 10,000 stations and think there’s always something better on another channel.
Whittle. Drunk all weekend and go to work hung-over? Whittle away a little there. Whittle away your workouts, too. Why does anybody do the innie and outie thigh machines? Really, why?
There you go, friends. Once again, I offer some basic ideas, but the problem isn’t so easy. Be very sparing with your little can of self-discipline, Free Will, or whatever word you want to toss around.
You have thiree options to help you make better choices:
ONE: Be proactive and try to find someone or some way to cut back on the options, all those deadly choices and decisions . . . especially in nutrition and training.
TWO: Bring everybody onboard to keep an eye on you. The more personal trainers, mentors, gurus, Yodas, and Gandalfs in your life, the better. Tell everyone you know your goals and watch how much easier it is to stay on track. The crazy lady on the 814 bus might be the one person who stops you from munching on that muffin.
THREE: Whittle away at all the extras. Better yet, chop away. I’m not saying disconnect with humanity, but I’d like to see you turn off the damn television set. Chop. Chop. Chop.
Hey, like the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade said, “Choose wisely.”
And not very often.