Contenders vs. Pretenders

If you ever needed any inspiration to keep going,

please watch this video.  It's simply amazing.

This is a great time of year.  Here in north Texas we get a different season every few days, Kleenex sales skyrocket, and with Valentine's Day approaching we start separating the contenders from the pretenders in the gym. 

Research has shown that 80% of people who start a new exercise program stop within 6 weeks. Guess what all you New Years resolution peeps...it's the 6 week mark!! What has always intrigued me is that someone will start to work out, not IMMEDIATELY lose 25lbs, and say "Screw it, I'm done!!" News flash, you didn't gain the weight that quickly, don't expect it to come off that quickly either. Thankfully you can lose weight quicker than you put it on, but remember to set REALISTIC goals with an achievable plan. Over the years I've seen so many people just throw in the towel when things don't change as quickly as they'd like. The problem is they never give themselves a chance to succeed because their effort is less than 100%. They SAY their diet is perfect, and it's not. They say they can't do one more pushup, but they can. We love lying to ourselves. It's all the justification we need to do or not do anything in life. "I just don't have the time"...yeah you do, you just don't want to. "I'm happy where I am"...no you're not, you complain about your bad knee/achy back/large left butt cheek to anyone within earshot. "I have more important things to worry about"...well don't worry too much, because if your health goes downhill you'll have NOTHING ELSE to worry about. 

Not to beat the proverbial dead horse, but most things in life can happen if you want it bad enough.  People work extremely hard for material possessions all the time.  But the first sign of discomfort or discouragement on the scale, and it's back to the Ben & Jerry's. Stop selling yourself short!! If you're scared, do it anyway. If you don't know what to do next, hit up the Google and figure it out. If you blew your diet on a random Tuesday night with a trough of queso, get over it, shove a grilled chicken breast in your pie hole, and get to work. 

Are you going to cheat yourself once again, pretending that THIS will be the year when in reality you're already done? Or are you going to stay in the ring and keep fighting for the health and life you deserve, and be a true contender? Choose the latter, as it's the only choice you won't regret. 

THE Fitness Ninja...changing the world one pushup at a time. 

Babe's Chicken!!

Babe's Chicken-Mountain of fried chicken tenders, fried chicken, and chicken fried steak!!

So there I was, sitting at Babe's Chicken with many of my peeps, plate full of fried chicken, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, and one more biscuit with molasses (mmmm, molasses...*insert guttural Homer Simpson drooling sounds here*) Next to me sat Preggo, one of my current clients who is, you guessed it, pregnant. With her was her 4 year old son who is quite the picky eater.  After some coaxing, he ate some chicken then declared "Momma I'm full" and returned back to his enthralling game of Angry Birds.  As the rest of us continued to stuff our pie holes, Preggo turns to me and says "You ever notice how kids just stop eating?  Do you ever remember feeling horribly stuffed when we were kids??"

So now I sit here writing this wondering, why in the world do so many people eat to excess, knowing damn good and well they will feel awful afterwards?  Most young children stop eating when they're full.  They listen to what their body is telling them and just stop.  Sure they can always be coaxed into a piece of cake or cookie, but for the most part, full kids=no more eating.  But as adults, we eat the pre-meal (followed by "geez, I'm gonna be full before our meal comes out"), then we eat the meal (lying to ourselves and saying we'll only eat half, then force feeding the rest of it down), and THEN we eat the post meal which consists of 1000 grams of sugar when we already said we couldn't eat another bite!!  What is wrong with us?!?! Why do we do that to ourselves??

There are a number of factors that I believe come into play.  We want value (who doesn't??) and we always want to "get our money's worth" when we eat. Many of us come from the clean plate club, where our parents made us sit at the table until we were done.  (ErmahGERD no one could've finished off the mounds of food at our Babe's table!!)  Some still have the "there are starving kids in___________ who only wish they had this food to eat" syndrome.

As far as getting your money's worth, if you've eaten, you enjoyed it, and you're full, I believe that should satisfy the criteria.  Diabetes and high blood pressure are pretty friggin expensive, and in my opinion should trump any notion of getting your money's worth.  If you're concerned about cleaning your plate, either request a smaller plate, or get over it!! Just because it's sitting in front of you doesn't mean you have to eat ALL of it.  For reals, it's ok.  You're a big boy/girl now and you can decide when you've had enough.  And yes there are starving kids in the world.  If you're really that concerned then put down your knife and fork, wipe the sauce from the corner of your mouth, and go do something about it!! :-)

As I polished off the last bite of my makeshift molasses chicken biscuit, and gasped for breath, I thought "UGH, why did I just do this??" It was the last meal before a cleanse and 28 days of clean eating, it was my last chance to consume any of the food that was in front of me for a while, and I was trying to "enjoy" as much of it as I could.  I felt quite awful the rest of the night, and was still full when I woke up (which almost never happens). This would be quite problematic if I did this all the time, but fortunately I don't...however there are people out there who do this EVERY DAY!!  At some point we must stop the justification, put down our silverware, take a great lesson from a 4 year old, and just say "Momma, I'm full."

THE Fitness Ninja...changing the world one pushup at a time.