Last night I got fired up. Real fired up. I was talking to my husband as we were getting ready for bed, and I realized that I was slipping. I'm slipping back into old habits, and it happens so. dang. fast. Even just a few days of breaking my routine or my plan, and I can feel it happening. So, I got fired up. I pulled out my soap box, marched right up on top of it, and I declared that THIS. STOPS. TONIGHT. RIGHT NOW!
You see, I'm an accountability coach. I help other people build healthy habits. I help other people stick to their workout schedule and nutrition plan. I make sure other people are drinking all the water. THAT'S MY JOB. That is my passion and my purpose. What happens when the teacher is talking the talk but not walking the walk (even if only for a few days)? I can't expect other people to do what I'm not doing. I have to do the things that I'm asking my clients to do.
I recall reading or listening to a concept on habits and our brain. Our brain has not really evolved that much beyond our caveman days. Basically, our brain just wants to keep us alive. No more; no less. Your brain (and body) will default to your highest level of training. Let's say you are going to run a marathon, which is 26.2 miles. You set out on a run and say, "I'm going to run 18 miles today!" The farthest distance you've ever run before is 6 miles, though. Where do you think you're going to poop out? Probably around mile 6 or 7. Your brain defaults to your highest level of training. When we are training for races or training to create new habits, our brain does not want to evolve. Our brain is lazy and just wants to be ok with status quo. I'm here to tell you that status quo is bullshit. We don't show up every single day just to be average. We don't set goals to be ordinary. We're here to be freaking extraordinary.
Where am I going with all of this? What's the point I'm trying to make? It's this: don't quit when you start to see results. Don't backslide after missing 1-2 days of your workouts. When you see your pants fitting a little looser, don't go reaching for the cookies "because I deserve it." When you lose that extra pound on the scale, celebrate, but KEEP ON GOING. What if you kept your foot on the gas pedal? What if in two months you looked back at right now and thought, "WOW! I'm so glad I kept going." The alternative to this is starting to backslide and making a trend of overindulging. If you go that way, in two months you'll WISH you had kept up the hard work. Instead of "I wish I never gave up; where would I be now?" Let's say, "dang, I'm proud of myself for not quitting back then."
Where do we go from here? What if you've slipped so far back that you forget where to even begin? These are the 3 pillars to your success. Let's start here with a plan.
Write out your workout plan for the week. Include times and what specifically you will be doing.
Write out your eating plan for the week. For me, that's an 18:6 intermittent fasting plan.
Write down how many ounces of water you're going to drink daily. I recommend half of your body weight (in ounces) of water daily.
Just start here. Take it one day at a time and use a habit tracker to celebrate each day you complete your habits that you set out to accomplish. Keep it simple. Create a plan. Do the freaking work. Keep doing the work. Show up every single day.
