“Continuous effort-not strength or intelligence-is the key to unlocking our potential”-Winston Churchill.
thought for the day
Day 45 Telling it like it is
One of the best traits i like in people is the ability to speak your mind, telling it like it is and really seeing great importance on getting your message across. With the amount of people i train, i always get to hear problems throughout the day as well as success stories.
The ability of the person i train to tell me what is really going on is paramount to the effect i can have on their development. For example, we have jean writing in last week, how good she felt when she tried a jacket on last week that hadn’t fit her only weeks earlier. I remember her saying she was having massive asthma problems, and the need of an asthma pump in her life and the fact that she hated it with a passion.
Then we had Jean writing in how well her training was going, hitting hills for the first time in a very long time, and her breathing had actually improved tenfold!! There were non-stop positives coming through thick and fast. Then the screeching halt, the scales were telling here that she hadn’t improved after all, all the better breathing ability hadn’t really mattered, the jacket fitting for the first time didn’t matter, the fact that she was putting very good food in here body every day, and somehow this didn’t matter?!!!!!!!!
What rubbish, jean is going great guns and i’m prepared to congratulate her for her perseverence. All i have done now is point the facts out to here, and one little small thing (the scales), is playing games with her mind. Don’t fall for it jean, throw those scales in the skip if you have to, because they are clouding your otherwise very good judgement!!
Who else on here is not having a “perfect” time? I have a less than perfect time all the time! I have the same worries and insecurities that most of you have, but i work on the following principles/guidelines to where i should be.
If my lowest waist jeans still fit well, then i am in shape and i am happy. If my fitness is still good, and i’m improving year on year, i am happy. If i am still giving my best most of the time, then i am happy. If i feel good most of the time and have a lot of energy , i am happy. These are pretty good principles and guidelines to live by.
So what are your guidelines and standards? I would suggest the following.
Grab your best jeans, do they fit anymore? Great if they do, if they don’t, its easier than you think to get there, it just may take some time and you need to get with the programme!
Do people still give you compliments on your appearance? If they don’t, you can turn that around and make it happen.
Are you still in the range of your previous personal bests in terms of physical performance? If you are great, if not, you have the tools to make it happen!
Are your energy levels still good? If they are not, start eating properly again and exercise regularly, you can change that around STRAIGHT away!
Are you happy? If you’re not, chuck out the negative influences in your life and celebrate what you have going for you, help others and do the things that give you satisfaction and personal pride.
Believe in yourself-When everything seems to be going wrong around you, this is the only thing you have to bring you out of all holes you don’t want to be in. Believing in yourself and your abilities is crucial to achieving long term success and firm foundations in your health and fitness programme, and i life in general.
Be honest with yourself-if you’re eating rubbish most of the time, and you’re missing more workouts than you’re actually doing, you’re kidding yourself and you’re not living life at the level you could. If you’re carrying extra pounds or stones, the best thing you can do is admit it, then formulate a plan on how you’re going to achieve your physical goals. Self-honesty is paramount to being in the shape you want to be, and on this programme it’s good to tell it like it is, as none of us are perfect and we all feel like we can’t climb life’s mountains at times. The first step is always the hardest.
Sharing your problems is always a good strategy as there is always a way out, there has always someone who has been there or even a worse situation, and can maybe advise on the best way out. See problems as challenges, and without challenges, we would be able to grow as human beings.
Tell it like it is, don’t gloss over it and you are likely to get a direct answer back, which means the issue gets solved straight away, and the problem/challenge no longer exists.
Hope everyone’s having a great week!
Keri
Thought for the day
“Insanity; doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results”-Albert Einstein.
Day 44-THIS IS POSSIBLE FOR ANYONE AND YOU DO HAVE TIME!!!
It’s very easy to walk away from this programme, and even easier to never start it. It takes guts and determination to get through it and finish it, and you will do well if you finish it and achieve big things! I’m getting some pretty inspiring stories through too, such as daughters and sons nagging their parents to keep on going, even when the parent doesn’t want to sometimes!
When questioned, the main reason the parent wasn’t going to exercise that night was due that old chestnut “I didn’t have time”! That’s my favourite one, or at least my favourite in a most pathetic kind of way.
If you look at the training/workouts section of this blog, some of those workouts are 15-20 minutes long. I work on this theory and it’s heavily based on actual progress, and actual results. Anyone who has ever been through it will know exactly what I’m talking about.
If you start off being able to do 4 press ups, then 6 weeks later you may be able to do 30, would you say you progressed? Of course you have, if you did 20 squat thrusts to start with, and 6 weeks later you are up to 100, did you progress? It doesn’t take a genius to work that one out, so good you’re getting it!
Three circuits of 5-6 exercises takes a maximum of 20 minutes including water breaks! So what exactly are you spending your time on? What do you exactly base “I haven’t got time on”?!!
Most people work so 8 hours there if you’re full time, let’s give you 8 hours a sleep night, family responsibilities I will give you 3-4 hours after work? Is that fair? So we have 19-20 hours, so is the 4-5 extra hours (at least) in place for neighbours, emmerdale, coronation street, and eastenders, sorry I forgot holby city? And what about silent witness, or jordan’s latest exploits too? Sorry, I forgot that life was supposed to be about all of these?!
So even allowing for all of that, you probably have a couple of spare hours, yet you need just 15-20 minutes to turn your life around, and you can’t manage that? Compare that to driving to some gyms, 20-30 mins there and back, then a workout and that’s nearly 90 minutes to 2 hours out of your night, same with the swimming pool?
So the question is again, is 15-20 minutes too much inconvenience in your schedule to get you into shape, sorry I forgot about the pub on the way home, the petrol station to get wine, the spar to get chocolates, and tesco to get your ready meals? There are more important things every day than your health, I apologise!!!
If you’re reading this for the first time, then you may think who this crazy person is, but I make no apology for stating the obvious!!! Many people justify all of these actions, most people have become very skilful at making excuses why they aren’t in the physical condition they want to be!
What would happen if you actually committed to the 20 minutes most days, and within 3 months, people started saying “wow, you’re looking great, what have you been doing?!!!”, would you like that? Would you like people saying that those clothes are hanging on you? You should buy a size that fits you?!! Would you like that or not? Would you like to be on the beach or certainly wearing less clothes, and people commentating on how amazing you look now and you look 10 years younger? THIS IS POSSIBLE AS LONG AS YOU QUIT MAKING YOUR EXCUSES NOT TO DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t fool yourself anymore, this IS possible, I’m repeating myself and I want to know when you are going to give yourself the body and health you really deserve?!!!!! I’m excited anyway because I’m living this every day and I’m helping others to achieve their dreams! Nothing better when you see someone you are training and their clothes no longer fit, and they realise they are getting into their best ever shape, that’s a great feeling for all of us, so let’s pick up the pace and really hammer the remaining 40 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thought for the day
“Of all the attitudes we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing”.
– Zig Ziglar