“The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now” – Zig Ziglar
Many choices we make daily affect our health, fitness and appearance, either helping or hurting us. Some decisions affect us more directly and immediately, others more indirectly and over a longer period of time. We often make decisions that hurt us fully aware of the consequences, rationalizing them based on some immediate, short-term benefit.
“I knew eating/drinking this will make me feel horrible later and slow down my fat loss, but it tastes so good!”
“I know if I buy this TV I will be late paying bills, but the game is going to look great on it!”
“I really should wear a condom…”
When deciding between different courses of action we usually have some idea what the consequences might be, which can be evaluated based on our values. If you value being strong, fit, healthy, and looking your best more than you value the brief gustatory pleasure a particular unhealthy food provides you should choose to not eat it.
But, many times people choose to eat it any way.
It is common to rationalize having a little occasionally won’t hurt, and in some cases that is true, however if your idea of “a little” and “occasionally” is a serving or two a few times a week it is going to hurt you and/or your progress towards your goals. If you find yourself doing this, when you are trying to decide whether to eat a particular item and weighing how much you value that experience against the potential negative effects don’t think of the negative effect of the single instance, but consider the negative effect of making it a habit over time.
Before eating or drinking something, ask yourself:
Is eating or drinking this going to help or hurt you in the long run, or help or hinder you in accomplishing your goals?
Are you really hungry or thirsty, or just bored or eating out of habit?
If you really are hungry or thirsty could you make a healthier choice?
If you value being strong, fit and healthy and looking good over the temporary enjoyment of eating or drinking certain things make a commitment to thinking and acting in accordance with those values. Post reminders to yourself. Ask friends and relatives for support. Hire a personal trainer.
A few weeks ago I talked about this with a client who wants to lose more fat before summer. In addition to the usual recommendation to purge the house of anything she shouldn’t be eating I suggested she have a photo taken in her swimsuit and post it on her refrigerator door. She says the reminder helps, and it shows. She’s gotten consistently leaner and is well on her way to looking great in a swimsuit this summer.
Whenever I am out with family or friends if I’m tempted to eat or drink something counterproductive to my goals I think about how the enjoyment of a food or drink is temporary while the effect on my body is long lasting. While it might increase my happiness momentarily, it will reduce my overall happiness by negatively affecting the higher value of having a fit, healthy and attractive physique.
A similar choice occurs during exercise. Properly performed high intensity training produces a variety of very uncomfortable sensations – painful muscular burning, significantly elevated heart rate, labored breathing, and even slight dizziness and nausea on occasion – which must be worked through for the best possible results. You can choose to quit when it starts getting hard and avoid the worst of the discomfort, or you can choose to work through it and train as hard as possible.
Which do you value more, being comfortable and avoiding transient and harmless physical discomfort, or getting the best possible results from your workouts?
Which do you value more, the temporary enjoyment a particular food or drink provides, or feeling and looking your best?
Think before you act and choose accordingly.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Great. This was just what I needed to read!
Simple the truth!
Hi Drew,
Great posts
I noticed you underlined “Personal Trainers” often for client’s, personal trainers make bad “choices” for the clients more so than the client themselves.
Steven,
Unfortunately most personal trainers out there do more harm than good, however I’d hope most regular readers of this blog would know enough to look for one experienced with high intensity training.
Hi Drew,
I don’t want this post to appear that I am CrossFit bashing.
The conversation was with a strong advocate and follower of Crossfit. Sometime ago a fitness magazine article stated that the winner of the Crossfit games was the fittest person in Australia. I commented that it should have read the fittest Crossfitter in Australia. The response from this person was that a Crossfitter would be the fittest of all regardless of what a person trained for. I than said that from my observations specific skills, body leverage factors, neurological efficency could be a huge advantage in Crossfit competitions. The response was that I was insulting Crossfit I was only trying to point out facts, we parted on friendly terms.
Steven,
CrossFit needs to be bashed. It is counterproductive for the purpose of improving long term health and fitness and has set a very bad example for a lot of people. The problems with the CrossFit philosophy and methodology need to be pointed out so people can make informed choices about it.
Translate “fit” to “able” to more clearly see how absurd it is to use the word without qualifiers. Q:”Are you able?” A: “I have no idea whatsoever; able to do -what-?
Hi Drew,
I’ve been applying your approach of using very slow movement with a static hold on three body weight exercises: freehand squat(no shoes), floor push-up( pivoting from the knees), and floor chin-up( using two identical chairs and a metal vacuum bar).
I do have chronic full body inflammation with a whiplash injury. I’ve been experimenting with this about twice a week for a couple of months and can’t seem to make any progress. I never feel muscle soreness. It feels like I’m just working the joints and inflammation. I’m still just doing one rep. I wonder if the floor chin-up is too stressful for my neck and spine, particularly during the static hold part.
Any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated. I really don’t have the money for a club membership. I could still improve upon my eating habits with the/a anti-inflammatory diet.
Thanks, John
John,
Without seeing exactly how you’re doing these I can not comment specifically, but depending on your body positioning you might be doing something to irritate your neck and joints. I will be addressing timed static contractions on the site soon and will be addressing these exercises.
I have read most of the site and watched your videos. I get over training is an issue and I get your body must form adaptations to the stress you have placed on it. One thing I do not see you address,at least I could not find it on the site, is what about sports training. Most athletes train everyday in some way, how would you go about gaining muscle, speed, etc. while also having the physical demands of practice everyday. Maybe you could write a blog about that or just post the link if I somehow missed it. Thanks.
Ernie,
When working with athletes and individuals with physically demanding jobs you have to balance the demands of exercise against the demands of skill training and other physical activities with respect to the constraints of their goals and their response to exercise.
I get questions about this often in phone consultations and will probably write something about it over the next few months.
I just read this post as I finished making dinner. I find it a challenge to make healthy food that tastes great but, I find that cooking at home lets me have a lot of control over what I put into me. We buy a lot of Organic Produce at our local Costco and during the day when I feel a craving for sweets I usually drink a lower calorie mid carb MRP and it reduces my craving. I think Clarence Bass said it best,”Nothing tastes as good as being lean feels.”
Avi,
Doing your own cooking helps considerably, but it is possible to eat out and be healthy if you are careful about where you eat and make sensible choices.
I agree with what Clarence said. The taste of the best food in the world can’t compete with the feeling of being at your physical peak.
Hey drew, was hoping you could point me towards a drew recomended website to show proper form on a few exercises. Such as lower back, reverse lunges, forearms, grip exercises, that kind of stuff.
James,
My upcoming book Elements of Form overs all of those except the lunges, which are a very poor exercise and not recommended.
Do you recommend reverse lunges? I saw Anthony performing them and have not seen any damage done and like the feel of them. I am curious as to what you have to say about them. My equipment is severely lacking at the moment with no equipment other than dumbbells to effectively exercise my lower half without damage.
James,
No, I do not recommend any variant of lunges, especially when done with weights. Very slow squats performed with body weight or dumbbells would be a better option if you do not have access to a good leg press machine.