Fit for Life: Are You Insane?
Matt Espeut, GoLocalProv Health +Lifestyle Contributor
Fit for Life: Are You Insane?
Do you keep falling off your nutrition plan, eat junk food, drink alcohol, miss the gym and get frustrated when you can’t lose weight or look better?
Do you keep hitting the snooze button in the morning and get stressed out when you can’t get enough done during the day or are late for work?
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTDo you keep going back into an abusive relationship with someone, and a few weeks later find yourself unhappy again?
Have you ever listened to an addict preach about how “this time” they are gonna kick the habit for good, and never look back, yet a few days later it’s the same old song and dance?
Are you someone that keeps doing something over and over again and expect a different result?
Well, I have news for you, change will never happen until you do.
I don’t mean to just change your mind. No no no. It’s not that simple.
Change is hard and bad habits are hard to break.
They are hard to break because bad habits are usually an easy way out, and most people have a difficult time preparing for battle and making changes.
Most are looking for the fastest way, or even better, a list of excuses why things are so hard for them and they can’t succeed at anything.
They compartmentalize themselves and self-diagnose with some form of disorder that keeps them from reaching new milestones and or positive goals.
Let’s talk about health and fitness, since that’s my forte.
I see hundreds of people on a weekly basis, and the difference between the ones that succeed with the program and the ones that don’t is the amount of hard work, discipline, and preparation one invests in themselves.
The ones that make the biggest changes in their lifestyle are the ones that succeed.
Many people come to me with over 10 lbs to lose.
They are 10lbs overweight because of their lifestyle and the bad habits that they have incorporated.
In the past, they ate with reckless abandon, didn’t train with intensity, and didn’t prepare themselves for success.
If you eat fast food for lunch, candy bars for snacks, and large amounts of starchy or fried food for dinner, you need to stop and make changes, hard changes that will require a lot of discipline and effort.
If you don’t do this, the 10lbs will be 20 next year.
Yea but I like sweets. Yea but I have kids that like Mac and cheese. Yea but people at work bring in food, what am I supposed to do?
Change. That’s what you are supposed to do.
STOP doing what got you in the bad place to begin with because if you don’t, nothing will change. Or stop saying you want to look and feel better, because if your actions don’t change, you won’t change.
EVERYONE likes sweet, salty, or greasy food, yet the people that care about changing their unhealthy lifestyle will suffer and avoid it. A few seconds of discipline is less stressful than days of regret.
Saying you are addicted to sugar does not excuse you. We are all in the same boat, and you’re not special or different, so realize what it will take, and start taking the actions required for success.
If you can’t do it on your own, that’s ok, because at Providence Fit Body Boot Camp we specialize in helping one change bad habits through encouragement, motivation, and requiring you to be accountable.
I was reading a book called the power of habit, and in it they describe the habit loop, and how to change it.
MIT researchers discovered a simple neurological loop at the core of every habit.
This loop consists of 3 parts, a cue - a routine - and a reward.
The first step is identifying the routine, then you can make the necessary changes that created the routine that made you unhealthy in the first place.
Like I said earlier, most people won’t change, because following a bad habit like eating from a drive thru is faster and easier than preparing your lunch. So, unless you are willing to change and exert some effort, you will stay the same or get progressively worse.
I have a brother that has had substance abuse problems since he was a teenager. We tried everything a family could do, yet 33 years later, it’s the same story, only worse.
He stays stuck in the same routine, makes constant excuses, feels sorry for himself, and blames every outside force on his problems.
He gets arrested regularly and its always someone else’s fault. He ends up in the hospital on a monthly basis due to high levels of insulin, (oh yea, I forgot to mention he is a diabetic too) yet he’s always eating sweets at my mother’s when I visit.
He complains about his breathing and his low lung capacity, in between drags of a cigarette. When I try to bring solutions to his attention, (like stop smoking and eating dessert) he gets mad, walks away and grumbles under his breath that everyone criticizes him.
“Yea stupid, stop doing all these self-destructive things to yourself, or stop complaining about how hard your life is”, is usually my comeback, because I get frustrated and want him to get better more than he does. I even arranged a bed for him in a residential rehab, but he refused to go.
All this doesn’t happen TO him, it happens BECAUSE of him. Yet he won’t get the help necessary to change his life around, and many of us will fall into the same situation until we decide it’s time to make changes.
Yes, this is an extreme example, yet it spells it out clearly.
You are in charge of your own destiny, and your thoughts and actions will dictate the outcome of your life.
Everything we do has repercussions. Eat poorly, gain weight. Smoke cigarettes get lung cancer. Overload on sugar, you will get diabetes.
On the other hand, if you get up early, prep your day, eat healthy, sleep 8 hours, drink water and exercise, chances are you will see a favorable outcome on all levels.
It’s all in your power, and the choice is yours.
Work hard, exercise discipline, have drive, or make excuses and take the easy way out.
Whatever you choose, nothing will change until you do.
Committed to your success,
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