Know Thyself

 

I believe that many people that are trying to lose weight fail for this very reason; they don’t adapt to who they are.  They buy a book or they join a group or they buy some “program” hoping to get an instruction manual on how to lose weight.  The concept is sound, but flawed to the extent that likely that manual you just bought wasn’t built exactly for you.  Knowing yourself means learning new things, but then adapting those learnings to meet your objectives in the most optimal way for you.

It’s been 3 weeks since I started my transformation to a healthier lifestyle.  These first three weeks have been great; I feel like I have truly started down the road to being healthy.  However, I’ve already started to notice things that just simply aren’t going to work for me.  It’s time to make some changes.  When it comes time to make adjustments you have to make sure you are doing it for the right reasons.  There’s a fine line between knowing yourself and having an excuse to go back to some of your old unhealthy ways.

Over the last week I’ve taken some time to really think about what works for me and what doesn’t.  I think it’s important to analyze the situation before you actually make the change.  My first change is really a no-brainer; I mentioned it in my last post, I’m abandoning my morning meditation.

The Search for Perfection

I am my own worst enemy!  When I commit to something I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and any deviation from perfection is seen as failure (no matter how small the imperfection is).  On the one hand it has helped me to be very successful in my career, but on the other hand I think it has been a source of a lot of my personal misery.  It is because of this I am abandoning my morning meditation.  There’s a ton of literature out there that touts the benefit of meditating for as little as 10 minutes each day.  I’ve been doing it on and off for the last 6 months.  There are times when I think it helps and other times when it seems pointless.  I’m abandoning it for now because when I don’t do it, it makes me feel like a failure on an otherwise successful day.  My goal right now is to lose weight, meditation can wait.

Did Someone Say “Good Morning”?

I am not a morning person.  Let me repeat, I am not a morning person in any stretch of the imagination.  Under my current plan, I’ve been getting up at 5AM and exercising.  I started with 15 minutes in the first week and I’ve managed to add 5 minutes each week after with the plan to get to a full 60 minutes.  The problem… did I mention I’m not a morning person?  I have to go to bed at 9PM in order to get 8 hours of sleep but unfortunately I just lie in bed and stare at the ceiling.  When the alarm goes off I just want to curl up and die.

Regular Routine and Fitting it all in

I chose the morning to exercise because it’s the only time in the day when I’m guaranteed to have time.  My job is not conducive to exercising at lunchtime regularly, and anyone with kids will tell you that days after work are filled with soccer, gymnastics, and music programs.  Because I’m a very structured person, I strive for a very structured workout regimen.  Doing it in the evening just didn’t make any sense.

Remembering the Past and Making the Change

When I restarted my blog the first time, I wrote a post called “My New “Radical” Exercise Plan”.  In it I wrote about changing my mindset and learning to fit in exercise whenever and wherever I could.  I went back and read that post and realized that I need to go back to something like it again.  I was also inspired by another blogger.  If you regularly follow weight loss blogs you know who he is [Check out his blog] .  I was inspired because this guy has a crazier schedule than I do, but he almost always finds time to do something in the name of exercise.  It’s not the same time every day and sometimes it’s just a walk, but he finds a way and he doesn’t get worked up when things change.  If he can do it, so can I.

Moving forward I’m abandoning my plan to get up at 5AM and workout to a structured plan.  Instead I’m just going to make a commitment to make an honest effort to do something in the name of exercise for at least 20 minutes every day.

Are These Changes Right?

As I said, I had thought about these changes for about a week before I made them.  I pulled the trigger after I missed a workout in the middle of last week.  I couldn’t make it up in the evening because I didn’t get home until 8PM and then needed to go to bed in an hour.  Since then I’ve been true to my word opting to do elliptical training after dinner during the remaining workdays.  I also played basketball with my daughter on Saturday for 30 minutes, and as of this writing (Sunday morning) we are getting ready to go on a 5 mile hike at a local state park.

Are these changes right for me?  No doubt, dropping the meditation is the right choice for me right now.  I hope to re-visit that someday, but I can’t fix everything all at once.  As for exercise, time will tell; it depends on how honest I am with myself.  I have no doubt that I made the decision for the right reasons, if I am truly serious about changing my ways, the exercise will happen.

-Stay Strong!

[Photo: Flickr / Zaneology]

Solving the Weight Loss Problem

I sat down this morning with the intent of writing a post about my new weight loss goals.  As I began to write (see my first sentence below) I was suddenly inspired to go in a different direction and what you see below is the result.  I hope you enjoy:

It’s funny, when most people start a blog about diet and exercise they put their goals in the very first posting.  If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you’ve probably figured out that I prefer to not be like most people.  I told myself when I first started this blog that I wasn’t going to just parrot what everyone else posts on a weight loss blog.  Sure there are some commonalities that we all want to discuss, but what I hope you get from me is a different perspective from everything else you’ve read out there. 

There are so many of us that are struggling with our weight; it’s clear that this is not a problem that’s easy to solve even though it seems like it should be.  I’m an engineer, and one thing I’ve learned in my career is that when I can’t solve a problem, quite often it’s because I made an assumption early on that led me down a wrong path.  We make those assumptions when we fail to look at different perspectives.  If you look at the blogs I follow, you notice that a lot of them have totally different views on how to lose weight.  I choose to follow them BECAUSE they are different from me.  I want to see different points of views because every once in a while you pick up one little nugget of information that moves you forward on your weight loss journey.  If there is one thing I’ve learned through my struggles, it’s that this problem with weight loss is so difficult because we are all unique and different things work for different people.  Dare to think differently as you create your own path and you might find a few of those little nuggets that help to craft your success.

So how do you solve the weight loss problem? 

1. Arm yourself with knowledge
2. Don’t be afraid of different points of view
3. Carve out your own path
4. Don’t Give Up!

In 2010 I started this blog with the intent on increasing my accountability.  After all my failed attempts at losing weight, I figured it couldn’t hurt to try something different.  While I was writing I was truly enjoying myself and I was punching out some articles that you don’t see everywhere (check out “Will you be happy after you lose weight”, “What’s your eating personality”, and “You don't have to starve to lose weight”).  I have a lot more to offer and look forward to continuing this journey with all of you.  I hope you all learn as much from me as I do from you, and please feel free to leave me a comment if you do pick up one of those little nuggets from my blog.  Stay Strong!