Last Updated on July 30, 2021
The year’s coming to an end and many of us would usually take the opportunity to come up with some new resolutions like:
- Lose some weight
- Improve our health- like reduce our cholesterol levels, put our high blood pressure under better control, etc
- Allocate more time to exercise by joining a gym, waking up earlier for runs, etc
Have you been making these resolutions for many years and find that you have not been able to achieve them?
Brian Tracy in his book, “Eat that Frog” had mentioned that we always learn to tackle the most difficult tasks first, that is doing something that you do not want to do first thing first so that other tasks get easier. But by doing that, you may find that you actually do not look forward to getting up in the morning because you will know that you’ll have to eat that frog first.
But we cannot attain fitness or improve our health conditions overnight or just in over a span of few weeks. If we start off with high ideals, we may find ourselves crashing all the way down. When starting something that feels like an uphill battle, do it slowly, one step at a time and celebrate small little victories at small little milestones.
Setting goals and orthodox time management methods does not work for me. And I am sure that these methods may not work for some of you. Some of us must be convinced in our hearts and minds that we want something- and only then we can work towards our aim in mind. If you are pursuing what society generally believe is the right thing to do but feels wrong or irrelevant to you, your subconscious is probably going to fight you all the way.
The solution to this predicament
Ask yourself- why you want to get fit, slim and/or healthy? In the end, you have to love yourself or your family enough to want to do it for everyone’s well being. Because being fit gives your bursts of energy to waltz through activities of daily living with little effort. Because being slim enable you to look great in clothes and make you feel good about yourself- and it indicates your mastery over your body, the fact that you can manage your body. Being healthy enables you to lead a painless, medication free …generally a life of better inner quality. I have a few friends who quit smoking cold turkey despite being a chain smoker for years because they wanted to live long enough to watch their babies grow up and graduate.
If we do not love ourselves enough or driven by the correct reasons, then we would want to achieve these goals so as to impress other people. We know deep down inside that we doll up for events and parties, most people don’t actually pay attention to us- yes, they can stay a few niceties but most people are concerned with how they look and will not waste much thought on us. We are doing it for others or to satisfy the ego but we are driven by the wrong motives that could originate from low self esteem. We would find that it is almost not possible to achieve these goals in the long run. We give up not because we are weak willed or useless- but because our heart knows we are doing it for the wrong reasons- so somehow we would subconsiously self sabotaj ourselves. We’ve picked a losing battle from the start.
That’s why quite a lot of folks who lose weight during the Biggest Loser show ended up regaining back their weight (sometimes more) within the next 6 months. Why is that?
It’s because they’ve started off with the wrong intentions in mind. It’s not that they are weak willed or are failures- because the program is very gruelling and tough- and it takes a lot of determination to drop the pounds with punishing exercises. Anyone who do not usually exercise will know how tough it is when suddenly the body is forced to perform squats, push ups, weight lifting. But when the media attention wears off and they are no longer having a camera following them 24/7, they lost the motivation. However, there are some who stuck on to their weight loss and went off to lead healthy lives because they are motivated by the correct reasons- such as to live healthy and be able to run after the kids.
James Authur Ray mentioned in his book, “Harmonic Wealth” that how we manage our bodies and health could reflect on how we manage our lives. Like it or not, people often judge us by how well we manage obvious things like our weight. He said that we should do our best to lose the excess weight and learn to dress more respectively. In the sense, I do agree with him- because when we are able to be able to formulate a weight loss plan and stick to it (slow and steady works best), the effect spillover to other effects of our lives.
We will find that we are able to plan something and stick to it. We do not give up when faced with obstacles. If you find that you suffer from ill health, fatigue or are overweight, try to work on tackling this. Don’t give up easily at the initial obstacles and don’t beat yourself up with you initially fail. Get up and try again. Gradually, gaining little small victories will boost your self confidence and belief in yourself and your abilities (not in the egoistical way though).
When I started this blog in 2007, I was almost 15kgs heavier than I was today. If you read the past posts, you would have known that I’ve my little victories, but sometimes my methods made me gain more weight. Eventually, I signed up for a course with Fitness Innovations and learn the ropes on personal training. And then I modified the knowledge to fit my lifestyle. It took two years from the blog for me to lose that 15kgs so that I am able to fit into small sizes. I sustained because I’ve made friends who shared my view on health and fitness and because I wanted to be healthy for something more than to satisfy my ego- but to be able to use what I’ve learned to help others and to use exercise as medicine.
I wasn’t raise to believe that success is my birthright. I was bullied by teachers during primary school and suffered from low self esteem for a long time. So I ate lots of junk food and had been overweight since childhood. It took a long time for me to free myself from my childhood conditionings and rise from the ashes. If I can do it, you can too 🙂
We all have what it takes to succeed- it’s just that we have to be driven by motives that are in sync with our core values. Take your time to discover your core values because once you do that, the entire life plan and what you really want becomes clearer.
