Conquer the Monster: Full Scale Warfare
Posted on January 4, 2011
Happy New Year!
It might be January if…QVC is selling treadmills you have to assemble yourself. HSN is selling power shakes, protein shakes, shake weights and 6 week solutions to all your problems. New fitness blogs appear and disappear faster than $2.50 gallons of gas, gym memberships get contracted and sexy new fitness gear flies off the shelves.
The secret for success in your 2011 resolutions may be more obvious than ever. (Resolutions? remember them? they were the things you decided to improve upon in your life? the cool, energizing, money saving, fat-busting, fitness improving list you compiled…wasn’t that just yesterday?)
Repeat after me: The scale is not my enemy. It is a measuring device. It does not have power over you. It provides information. Sometimes we like the information it offers, many times we do not. Do not hate the scale…
If you can conquer the “one who must not be named”…the DIET industry…you can enjoy success in at least two of your top ten resolutions. The dreaded DIET industry exists to profit from fits of flailing optimism unmitigated by any kind of real planning or clearly defined goal. It’s garbage.
If it says it works in 3 minutes a day, don’t buy it. If it promises a flatter stomach and comes in a small bottle with cotton stuffed in the top, don’t buy it. If it is pre-packaged, pre-measured and frozen…and you can’t pronounce the first three ingredients, don’t buy it. (Consider this – an apple is food, a protein bar is a product.) Honey, if it sounds too good to be true…you don’t really need me to finish this one, right?
OK – so you just avoided the hype and rip off of the lean and mean and saved hundreds of dollars and a load of personal pride! Yeah!! Resolutions 2 and 3 in the bag – Financial Freedom and the Improved Self Esteem that comes from being smarter than the rest!
Becoming a member of the Full Scale Warfare team means telling ourselves the truth. We want to be healthier, happier, and most likely we want to/need to shed some pounds. STEP ONE – Eat less junk. Put down the wine glass/ beer bottle more often. Eat more delicious real food. Move more. Move harder, faster, longer. And have fun doing it. Today.
Stay away from the pills, gadgets and promises of ten day perfection. That reality is just no fun. And it gets expensive. The toll it takes on our confidence is devastating. And studying the Procrastinator’s Guide to Fitness is probably not the answer, either. If you think about it, every day is a chance to make a big decision, map out a plan or take a step toward becoming someone better than you already are. Waiting around for New Years is just an excuse to procrastinate and then, ultimately, you don’t end up getting s*** done anyway so you finish out another year with lots of ideas and zero execution.
I’m sore from my restart yesterday – yup, my promise to keep to the program in December ultimately ummm (self talk: tell the truth)…failed, and I find myself nearly starting over. (is it in bad taste to wear my marathon medal as a reminder of better days? is it?) So, after the busiest first work day of the year, I did make it to the gym, got requainted with my friend the treadmill, hammered out four miles and a leg blast and headed home only to head out again for a ballroom dance lesson with Ben and friends! As much as I enjoyed learning the cha cha basics (and we really did MOVE for the full hour!), it may not help me with the stair climb…but I digress…so much to do…