Archive for February, 2009
If your First Plan Fails, Try Another! Religious Sacrifice.
If the first plan which you adopt does not work successfully, replace it with a new plan; if this new plan fails to work, replace it in turn with still another, and so on, until you find a plan which does work. Right here is the point at which the majority of men meet failure, because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those whose fail. … No man is ever whipped, until he quits — in his own mind.
Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich
I have had a recent set-back in my Groundhog Resolution plans. There is a reason I am not a garage door repairman. I hurt my finger pretty good while repairing the garage door opener motor. My painful experience put a big cut in my Pick and commit a time to exercise 10 minutes a day plan. Don’t worry though, The doctor says I’ll be okay and everything will return to normal with time.
In my persistence for fitness, I am required to find a plan that works for me and you for that matter. We must keep trying and trying until we hit the mix of exercise and healthy eating that’s proper for our individual bodies.
So, a new plan?
Sacrifice: an act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy as defined by Apple Computer Leopard’s Dictionary.
Sacrifice
I’ve talked a bit about different motivations for fitness. We all are unique, and consequently we have to find what will motivate ourselves. Weight Loss and Fitness is as much as a physical battle as it is a mental battle. Re-thinking old habits and building new healthy habits takes time, persistence, and motivation. Sometimes, we need a little extra help with motivation and our sacrifice to fitness.
- By giving up eating too many calories, we can achieve a healthier body.
- By giving up sleeping an extra 30 minutes in the morning, we can exercise and achieve a physical fit body.
- By giving up unhealthy habits, we can create healthy habits.
We must give up and sacrifice in order to create new.
Now when I hear sacrifice, I usually think Religion.
Most religions require some sacrifice during your religious calendar. Jews have Yom Kippur, Muslims have Ramadan, and Christians have Lent. Each is a time to fast and atone for sins and a way to teach patience, sacrifice and humility. These Religious periods offer a perfect time for those motivated by God to offer up healthful-based sacrifices.
If you have Faith, make a promise to God to abstain from sugary sweets, chocolate, alcohol, French Fries, Coca Cola, or other unhealthy habits. I think that would be one promise you’d want to keep. No on wants to make God unhappy with broken promises.
If you don’t have Faith, then make a promise to your most motivating best friend to abstain from some unhealthy habit.
Back Story
Lenten Sacrifice is exactly how I gave up drinking Coca Cola. I used to drink almost a two liter of Pop (Coke, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, etc…) a day. I decided during lent of 2001, that I would give up Pop as a sacrifice to God. After 40 days abstaining from Coke, I decided to see how long I could go. It is now 2009, and I have about two cans of pop (usually Sprite or 7-up) a year and no Coca Cola.
So, I suggest you and I use the next 40 days to focus on eating habits.
What can you sacrifice that is valued in your diet that may be unhealthy? Is it Starbucks Coffees? is it French Fries? Is it Candy? Is it Alcohol? Make a promise to the most important person in your life, possibly God for some of you readers, that you will abstain from that unhealthy eating vice.
Let’s Review:
- Who’s the most important person/entity in your life now?
- God, Spouse, Best Friend
- What are the unhealthy items in your life/diet?
- Make a promise to sacrifice your unhealthy vice for the next 40 days to your most important person.
Hmm, let me think, What are the some things I commonly over-indulge in lately?
- Peanut M&M’s
- French Fries
- Ice Cream
- Brownies, Cakes, Cookies
- Starbucks Hot Chocolates
- Fast Food
I guess there is no rule that says, I can’t cut them all out.
So, a new plan. What’s your Sacrifice for Fitness?
Pick and Commit Time to Exercise, 10 minutes a day. Ground Hog Day 2009 Fitness Resolutions.
Groundhog Day is here and gone, but there is still time for you to resolve to be better.
David Seah, the first person I know to talk about Groundhog Day Resolutions explains his GDR ideas. Leo at Zen Habits talks about Groundhog day resolutions too. It is in the air! So, is 6 more weeks of winter regardless of whether the Groundhog saw his shadow or not. (Hint: the First Day of spring is: March 20. Count the number of weeks from Feb 2, 2009 to March 20, 2009)
So, What is Simpleweight’s Ground Hog Day Resolutions?
Number one: I know I can do a better job at convincing you (and I) that we can and will achieve our fitness goals. I know it, and I will help you to know it! It is imperative!
Number two, and more importantly: Our GroundHog Day Goal is to become physically fit. That Goal is too BIG! however, we need it that way. As I wrote in my previous Groundhog day post, Begin With The End In Mind, we must become absolutely certain where we want to go. So certain, that we believe and know it is inevitable. Remove the fat talk from our consciousness and replace it with fitness talk.
Some suggestions about goals:
- Break out a map (a piece a paper).
- Draw a line of where you are to where you want to go.
- If you don’t know where you are, then write down everything about where you are now.
- If you don’t know where you want to go, then write down everything about where you want to go.
- Then keep that in your mind.
- Then, break this big elephant into small bites. We must start small in order to make good habits.
As we begin to create our new selves, creation and being creative is a habit we must form just as a our fitness habits must replace our fat habits. So, how do we build this creative habit? In Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, the first step she talks about is the “Rituals of Preparation”:
When you have
- selected the environment that works for you,
- developed the start-up ritual that impels you forward every day,
- faced down your fears,
- and put your distractions in the proper place,
you have cleared the first hurdle. you have begun to prepare to begin.
Tywla Tharp
Wow. That is a lot in just one paragraph. I added the list and bold for emphasis. In order to create creative habits, we must make rituals. Rituals are things we feel impelled to do consistently. For some, that means to attend church everyday or every week. For others, it means praying five times a day. For basketball players, it means shooting your free throws in the exact same form every time. If we want to create good exercise and food habits, we have to be boring at first. We have to create rituals. We have to be consistent everyday.
Homework exercise:
- Decide what time of day you are going to exercise every day for the next week.
- Decide how much time you plan to exercise.
- Decide what type of exercises.
- Decide where you are going to exercise.
- Decide why are you exercising.
- Write this time and what you plan to do on 7 different 3 x 5 index cards.
- Put the index cards next to your alarm or on your mirror or somewhere you will have to see them!
- Set your phone alarm, set your watch alarm, set your clock alarm, set your computer alarm, and set your spouse alarm. Do whatever you have to do to meet this goal for the next 7 days! Each Day, pick up your card, go to the appropriate place and exercise!
Homework Hints:
Make this exercise time a ritual that is so rigid and so small, that it’s almost impossible for you to fail. Failure will not be possible. Guess, what we will do the following week. Increase the time and keep increasing it until we get to a net-caloric effect, but for now, we start small. We have to.
Mental thoughts: people who are not committed to exercise will ask themselves, how can I fit exercise into my day tomorrow. People who are committed ask themselves, how can I plan my day around my exercise time. Are you committed? Do you really want to become physical fit and achieve your ideal body? If so, change the questions you ask yourself.
Resist the urge to start exercising 60 minutes everyday. You are changing habits. People gradually become out of shape and sedentary. When we come out of the womb, we’re not super fat overweight babies. As we grow, most children are naturally active and moving around. We gradually learn to become sedentary, so we have to gradually learn to become active. If we do it too quick, we generally see people fail and over-whelmed. We know failure is not an option. So, start slow.
Homework Recommendations:
For those of you who need recommendations, because you don’t know where to start.
- When to exercise?: First Thing you do when you get out of bed is to exercise (you might need to use the restroom, take a drink of water, and put your exercise clothes on and then exercise!)
- How long? 10 minutes.
- What Exercises? Anything. Do Jumping Jacks for ten minutes, Do stretching. Do Yoga, Run in place. I don’t care as long as it is something physical and you are pushing your body beyond what it normally can do. The goal is really to make the exercise a habit. If you need more stringent recommendations, I think you’ll see the most benefits from High Intensity Strength Training (we’re not talking heavy weight lifting, we’re talking weights that make you tired when you get to repetitions 7, 8, or 9.) Possible Exercise plans: The pattern that Jorge Cruise uses in the 8 minute workout
is an excellent starter plan. Also, the Fitness Ladder Exercises from the Hacker’s Diet is another excellent quick starter workout. Remember pick something you love. So, if you love being outside, then go for a 10 minute walk.
I was reminded today, that big websites started out small. The first Amazon was nothing in comparison to what it is today. The first city began with a one room meeting place and then evolved into skyscrapers. Our Fitness habits will start small, we’ll build a strong foundation of habits that we’ll layer on top of. We’ll add biometric habits, eating habits, and more exercise habits all of which will make up the Slow Weigh to long term weight management and weight loss.
