If I wanted to be an Olympic athlete would I just show up at tryouts one day with no preparation and expect to prevail?
Sounds silly doesn’t it?
Oftentimes we look at dieting that way though.
As discussed in earlier posts, we really don’t like to be troubled with the details of what it takes for successful weight loss. We want weight loss to be "trouble free and easy".
We want to eat a “little less” throw in some fruit and vegetables and count walking up and down the aisles of the frozen novelties section as exercise.
[AND WE WANT QUICK DRAMATIC RESULTS!]
As long as we are dreaming lets win the big lottery too!
People who are seriously approaching the decision to do something about their weight need to “get ready to get ready”.
That’s what I said.
If you are serious about losing weight you need to “get ready to get ready!”
What do I mean?
Well if you had aspirations to be an Olympic athlete but had never really developed athletic skills such as physical stamina and strength, what would you have to do first?
You’d start slowly. You would wait patiently to see results.
You would build up your muscles and you would exercise. You’d begin to train your body to be conditioned for more and more strenuous exercise.
YOU WOULD BEGIN TRAINING.
You would not expect to have an Olympic athlete’s body overnight. It would take years! You would accept that without a second thought.
You would be purposeful.
You’d get associated with other like-minded individuals.
You’d seek out a coach, a mentor - a training buddy.
You’d be teachable.
You’d put yourself in the hands of experts and listen to what they said.
You’d train with many different exercises to work over the whole body, and you’d exercise specific muscles and train for your particular athletic discipline.
You would practice, practice practice!!
And speaking of discipline, yes, you would learn that skill as well. In fact without the skill of discipline, you may as well stop before you get started. Have courage though, part of your training would help you develop that skill too.
You’d read material about your sport, and you’d watch others as they developed their skills, learning from their successes and failures. You’d study films of yours and others performances.
You would take constructive feedback from your coaches…you would adapt to a new way of living.
You’d get mentally tough and you would focus…oh how you would FOCUS!!
You’d make sacrifices of time, money and anything that would distract you from achieving your goal to make the Olympic team in your sport.
And you’d do this for years often with no recognition, often weary and discouraged, sometimes even wondering if it was worth it.
[And many, many of the people you train with wouldn’t make the cut and they’d quit.]
But YOU would PERSEVERE!
In order to be successful you’d train this way to achieve what very few people ever achieve; and even if you got selected to represent your country in your sport there would be no guarantee of victory. You could do all this work for years, be in tremendous shape, excel beyond 99.9% of the rest of the world and still come in last at the Olympics.
Someone always comes in last!
Does that mean the training and years of sacrifice weren’t worth it?
The medals, if you’re talented enough to win one, are merely a symbol( a truly FANTASTIC symbol), but the benefits of being an Olympian (win or lose) last a lifetime!
Well, you can see where I’m headed. Losing weight (and keeping it lost) is a lot like going into training to become an Olympian.
You get ready to manage weight by getting ready to act like an Olympian. Many of the same characteristics apply.
“WEIGHT MANAGEMENT” is not for wimps!
Notice I said “weight management”.
Getting ready to get ready is just as much about retraining your thinking habits as it is about retraining “bad eating habits” into “weight management eating habits”.
(The worst fat in my body is situated between my ears!)
An Olympic weight loss manager practices their skills until they no longer think of weight management as a “diet”.
When it comes to weight loss and weight management I like to say that “we are all in this together by ourselves”.
Personally, I need group support. I’ll take an “atta boy” from anyone.
But I face the refrigerator and cupboards by myself!
No one is holding a gun to my head forcing that 3 pound bag of chips and half-gallon container of French onion dip down my throat.
I stand on the scale alone.
I realize that the sun does not rise or set on a bad (or good!) day of weight management.
I retrain my thinking to -!!STOP!! - saying that "since I really failed at my lunch, I will just fail the rest of the day and start fresh tomorrow."
No!!
I will eat my snacks and supper just as if I didn’t fall off my plan at lunchtime! There is no more “wait till tomorrow”.
I will forgive myself, I will agree that weight management can be difficult (or darn near impossible at moments) but I will not have a pity party and crawl back to that carton of ice cream.
Let me let you in on a little secret, whatever that food is - that is tempting you to crawl back to it - is not your friend! You will "love it" and it will "leave you"..with bulgier hips, more thunderous thighs and crying in your chip dip!!
I will keep the real goal in mind…not a number on the scale, a healthier happier me!
I think this goal is more important for us than any gold medal!
I am in “Olympic [weight management] training” with some of these HEAVY THOUGHTS, and it is my intention that it will result in my LIGHTER LIVING!
