Picture this.
You are re-committing to strength training. You walk into the gym on your first day and load 500 pounds on the bar. You set up, and with all your might and great intentions try to lift the bar off the ground. It doesn’t budge. Now discouraged, you say ‘screw it’ to the rest of the workout, and leave. You come in the next day and try again. Same result.
This time a few days pass before you try again. Same 500 pounds. Same result. This goes on for a couple weeks before you admit that you are not ready to lift 500 pounds, so you quit altogether. “I’ll try again after the holidays”.
No adjustment to the plan. You are just done. Sounds ridiculous, right? Most of you are thinking “of course I can’t lift 500 pounds from day 1!”, or, “I would just lower the weight”. Both completely logical ways of thinking!
But for some reason that logic stops at physical fitness. Nutrition? Sleep? Hydration? The logic goes out the window.
Instead, a few times a year, we get motivated to do things right. So we come up with the plan….. perfection. We believe that out of nowhere we will be able to eat well, sleep better, and do what it takes to lose weight and feel better. However, the habits we are choosing are the equivalent to the 500 pound deadlift. We just aren’t capable. Yet.
Habit change is no different than strength training. You must assess your starting points, understand your history and relationship with food, alcohol, and sleep, and create a realistic starting point. From there, you ramp it up week to week as your capabilities grow.
What people quickly realize is they don’t need perfection to see the first wave of results. By adding in a little protein and water, and removing a couple inflammatory foods, we almost immediately start to feel better. A few pounds may even come off the scale. Then, as we progress the habits, the results progress with it. We see more and more, until our appearance, energy, and health numbers have all drastically improved.
We probably don’t ever have to lift 500 pounds. You will feel strong and fit well before getting to that point. Your health habits are the same. You don’t need perfection. You need to start with a realistic plan, and ramp it up until you get to a point that is both sustainable and successful.
That is where balance exists.
As you are returning to some post-summer healthy habits, consider doing things different. Understand what hasn’t worked in the past, and start with what is challenging but realistic.
September is the new January, and your results are right around the corner.
Any content, resident submissions, guest columns, advertisements, and advertorials are not necessarily endorsed by or represent the views of Best Version Media LLC (BVM) or any municipality, homeowners associations, businesses, or organizations that this publication serves. BVM is not responsible for the reliability, suitability, or timeliness of any content submitted, inclusive of materials generated or composed through artificial intelligence (AI). All content submitted is done so at the sole discretion of the submitting party.
