I caught myself making a big mistake in my approach to creating an improvement in my life. While my mistake was in the gym, it’s a mistake I see most people making in the way they approach losing weight or improving their food choices.
This mistake, which I describe in detail in today’s show, is choosing intensity before establishing stamina. While this can absolutely happen in the gym, it’s just as common in our food choices.
Choosing intensity over stamina means choosing the intense approach without first building consistent basics. That might be a Whole 30 right from your standard American diet, or going from indulging too frequently to strict keto – but we jump to the intense approach hoping for faster results without realizing that we haven’t laid a solid foundation for change. Then, we bail. We get frustrated or can’t sustain the extent of the change and we give up.
Our ambition exceeded our preparation. Our motivation is greater than our stamina. We might have the desire to create big changes but we need to slow down, establish a solid foundation and making gradual changes that last instead of massive changes that don’t.
In today’s episode I’m talking about how and where we most often make this mistake and sharing some ideas of how you can establish that stamina for change before dipping your toes in the waters of intensity.
My fall Fat Loss Fast Track groups are coming to a close this week (winter kicks off in early January) and I’ve been reminding my groups of the importance of being a finisher – of learning to finish strong – practicing a strong finish to a program, to a day, to a week, a month or simply a meal. In a world where we feel like we’ve mastered the strong start (at the expense of ever finishing, nevermind being a strong finisher) this practice can be a real game changer.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here.
My grandpa used to love coming to my basketball games when I was a kid. In addition to shouting at me to rebound and be aggressive, he’d remind me to leave it all on the court. Give it everything you’ve got. Don’t come off the court with any energy left. Leave it all out there.
That has evolved into one of my favorite mantras during a workout – “last set, best set”.
Last set, best set.
It reminds me to bring my very best effort at the end of the workout. Even if I was pacing at the start to feel out the workout, the end isn’t the time to give up or surrender or back off. It’s the time to bring my best and leave it all on the floor. I want to finish with nothing left to give. I use the end of the workout to show myself what I’m really capable of and push beyond my comfort zone.
Every time I do, it builds my confidence. It shows me where maybe I was slowing down or stopping short of my capabilities because of fear or uncertainty or discomfort. Practicing this strong finish makes me better.
Of course it improves my fitness but it dramatically improves my mindset.
I’m sure we’ve all seen runners who put on the brakes as the finish line gets close. Their last few steps are slow, resigned lopes. We’ve also seen runners who turn on the turbo boosters for those last few steps – blasting across the finish line with every ounce of energy they can muster, and then some. They finish with nothing left.
It’s easier for me to apply this inside the gym than outside the gym.
For me, and for many of my clients, outside the gym we’re more likely to finish with resignation & surrender than strength – to finish with the hope for tomorrow instead of pride in today. The perspective of “Oh well, I’ve already blown the day, I might as well eat the rest of the cookies so they aren’t here and I have a fresh start tomorrow” is the absolute antithesis of finishing strong.
We have to use every day as an opportunity to practice.
Did you go out to dinner & indulge in a couple drinks and the warm bread from the bread basket? Finish strong without dessert.
Was your day a hot mess of stress & chaos? Finish strong by slowing down, getting organized and setting yourself up for success tomorrow morning.
Have you been eating everything in sight for the last few hours? Put on the brakes. Have the rest of your day be the rest of your day.
Maybe 2017 hasn’t been the epic year you hoped it would be and you can’t wait for a fresh start in 2018. Sure, new beginnings are great but commit to finish 2017 strong. Impress yourself. Do your best. Make yourself proud.
This is a great time of year to talk about letting go of the quest for more: more food, more stuff, more gifts, more stress, more drama.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here.
I want to kick off this post the way I kicked off episode 429 of the Primal Potential podcast, by sharing an excerpt from The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist.
No matter who we are or what our circumstances, we swim in conversations about what there isn’t enough of.
I see it in myself. For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is, “I didn’t get enough sleep”. The next one is “I don’t have enough time.” Whether true or not, that thought of not enough occurs to us automatically before we even think to question or examine it. We spend most of the hours and the days of our lives hearing, explaining, complaining or worrying about what we don’t have enough of.
We don’t have enough time. We don’t have enough rest. We don’t have enough exercise. We don’t have enough work. We don’t have enough profits. We don’t have enough power…of course we don’t have enough money – ever.
Before we even sit up in bed, before our feet touch the floor, we’re already inadequate, already behind, already losing, already lacking something. And by the time we go to bed at night, our minds race with a litany of what we didn’t get, or didn’t get done, that day.
The mantra of not enough carries the day and becomes a kind of default setting for our thinking about everything, from the cash in our pockets to the people we love or the value of our own lives. What begins as a simple expression of the hurried life, or even the challenged life, grows into the great justification for an unfulfilled life. It becomes the reason we can’t have what we want or be who we want to be.
I recognize this in myself. The way “not enough” is described often feels like my life – not enough sleep, not enough time, not enough fun, not enough, not enough, not enough.
I am determined to change this. I am determined to think and act differently.
I am determined to choose less as a way of appreciating all I have and re-affirming that I do, in fact, have enough. More than enough.
I am choosing less stress. Less drama. Less emotion. Less arguing. Less negativity. Less food. Less spending. Less stuff. Less complaining. Less alcohol. Less sugar. Less excess.
I am choosing less wherever and whenever I can.
In episode 429 I talk about exactly what this means to me and what I’ll be changing about my choices to make this happen. Take a listen!
I am feeling so happy & peaceful now that I’ve found my perfect mantra for today and into 2018. It’s not just a mantra though, it’s a new operating system that is going to absolutely help me with nutrition, fitness, business, finances and relationships.
In today’s episode I’m sharing with you this mantra, inspired by The Soul of Money, and how I plan to apply it across every area of my life, starting today.
It’s a short episode & you won’t want to miss this one! It’s going to be a game changer in my life!
The other day, I had the best drink of my entire life. Hands down. A fresh cocoa bean margarita. Amazing! If you’re following me on Instagram, you probably saw it in my stories.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here.
I was on a working vacation for 10 days and there were treats, sweets and alcohol absolutely everywhere.
One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to a Mayan cocoa bean farm & factory. After the tour they were selling Mayan chocolate bars & cocoa bean margaritas, pina coladas, hot chocolate and the like.
Of course I bought the cocoa bean margarita. It was E P I C. I literally watched them put fresh cocoa beans into the blender as they made it. Delicious doesn’t do it justice. It was one of the best drinks I’ve ever had.
Totally worth it.
As I savored the special drink I thought, “This is exactly why I don’t drink random, average drinks throughout the trip.” Most drinks just aren’t worth it. If they are average, they aren’t worth it.
When I indulge, I want it to be exceptional. That, to me, is worth it.
There’s nothing special about a generic margarita. Tasty, sure, but not worth it. There’s nothing special about an average piece of red velvet cake on a dessert buffett. Yeah, I love red velvet cake but I’m only going to eat it if it’s truly worth it and it’s only worth it if it’s awesome.
I’ve been there. I’ve done that. I’ve had enough average and below average indulgences to last me a lifetime. They didn’t make me happy. In fact, they made me unhappy.
When I indulge, I want it to be worth it. I want to indulge in the kinds of things that are so good you want to tell someone about it.
The reason I’m telling you about this cocoa bean margarita and what’s worth it to me is because I didn’t use to think this way. I didn’t get it. I wasn’t selective. Everything tempted me. I struggled to turn down a free grocery store cookie in the break room at work.
None of it was worth it but I wasn’t even considering that. I wasn’t in the habit of considering if it was worth it. I was just eating whatever looked good at the moment. It wasn’t a strategy that worked for me. It wasn’t a strategy that made me happy. But, it was my strategy.
The reason I wasn’t thinking that way then is because I wasn’t choosing to think of it that way. I wasn’t questioning my own operating system. I wasn’t looking for a different way to think about it versus the simple “good food, bad food”.
I hadn’t established any standards for indulging. I had ideas and hopes but not strategies I practiced regularly.
After the margarita I started to think about how I created this shift.
How I moved from just eating what tempted me and relying on willpower to really being discerning about what’s worth it and what’s not.
How did I train myself to implement standards and determine worthiness?
I started by simply asking myself, “What is really worth it?” What’s not worth it?”
I began journaling about these questions with the perspective of the day at hand, not just life in general.
For example, I’d ask myself, “Is there an indulgence today that will be totally worth it? Why is it worth it? Are there indulgences I might see today that aren’t worth it? What are they? Why aren’t they worth it?”
When I asked those kinds of questions about the daily perspective, I’d remember as I walked into the meeting room with donuts that I know they aren’t worth it. I know they aren’t worth it because they only last a few seconds, they destroy my energy and make the rest of the day harder.
I’d also rank indulgences on a scale of 1-10 as I evaluated them. I still do this regularly. Every night while on vacation I’d look at the menu and evaluate if anything was worth it. Did anything look like it was a 10? Usually not.
If it did, I’d try a bite. A bite. Then, after that bite, I’d re-evaluate. Is it a 10? If not, I move on.
I saw a delicious looking red-velvet cake and I got a slice. I took a bite. It wasn’t a 10. It wasn’t worth it. I set it down and moved along. If I’m going to indulge, I want it to be awesome, like that cocoa bean margarita. It was a 10. Totally worth it.
In episode 397 of the podcast I talk about the importance of creating standards & bright lines. Definitely check out that episode if this is something you need help practicing.
For now, try the daily strategy. Ask yourself what, if anything, will be really worth it today. Ask what you might encounter that isn’t worth it, why it isn’t worth it and how you’ll respond to it.
