As Spring is here and Summer is only a blink away, we find ourselves approaching “excuses season” once again. You know the season: the weather is fantastic, people are celebrating a wide range of events, and killer BBQs are hosted. Let’s not forget all those festivals, carnivals, boat rides, food trucks, and beach fun…
I will be the first to admit that it’s rough trying to ‘be good’ all the time when it comes to choosing healthy foods, prepping meals, and balancing macros. But sometimes, we give in and indulge. And there is NOTHING wrong with indulging from time to time. It is, however, when we overindulge on a regular basis that becomes the problem.
Trust me when I say that I’ve had my fair share of being slapped in the face by the’ scale of destiny’ and the ‘mirror of truth’. Only at this point do I realize my over-indulgence has led to undesired weight gain. But damn, some of that food out there is legit like crack. And yes, it’s hard to pump the brakes and get back on track by eating the foods I need and should be eating to stay on my own personal fitness journey. But it’s not hopeless when you know what you’re after.
You Need A Goal
Remember your goal. Your fitness goal. That goal of yours that drives you to be a bass ass m-fr’, in the gym and out of the gym. I’ve found that the quickest way for me to reset my mind and body when I’ve strayed too far down the chocolate-covered marshmallow path is to be unquestionably aligned with my goal.
Define your fitness goal, be specific.
I know what my fitness goal is. Because of this, I can ask myself this simple question at any moment at any time: ” Is the action I am about to take a fit Rob decision, or a fat Rob decision?”. You see, my goal is to be fit, not fat. So now, when I’m jonesing for a sweet treat with no nutritional value, I can make the conscious goal-based decision (to be fit) or a non-goal-based decision (not to be fit).
And the beauty of this tactic is that it applies to everything in life. Remember just the other day when you didn’t want to go to the gym, but you knew you should go. So instead, you made up some bullshit excuse to justify your decision which ultimately led to you not going to gym, when you should have gone. As if you brilliantly outwitted yourself in choosing laziness.
Well, you made that decision to skip the gym when you should have gone because you are not aligned with your fitness goal. I know because if you were aligned, you would have gone to the gym—even if you preferred not to.
When you know what your goal is, you know exactly what you are after—there are no excuses, even when it hurts.
NO Goal = NO Progress
As we get comfortable and content with ourselves and our bodies over time, we sometimes lose that vision of our goal. Unfortunately, for many of us, the way we get reminded of our goal (or to get a new one) is to get unintentionally derailed so that we can get back on track. Like enjoying an unrestricted Summer only to find yourself dieting hard in the Fall, only to miss out on apple-picking season… mmmm, so many pies… and then the holidays are back, and you are still wearing the extra 20 pounds from your unrestricted Summer… and the cycle continues.
When we have a specific fitness goal, we know what we are willing to do and not do to achieve it. When we don’t have a fitness goal, we have zero accountability, zero restrictions, zero compliance, and that is okay, provided we don’t complain if the person staring back at us in the mirror isn’t who we expected to see looking back.
So the next time you are about to make some b.s. excuse as to not go the gym, or to go back in line for seconds on that macaroni salad and gram-grams 7-layer taco dip, ask yourself “is this a fit me, or fat me, decision”. The choice is yours. Goal, or no goal.
Just don’t blame the scale and mirror because you can’t control your mouth and mind.
Eat. Lift. Recover. 😉
~Rob
