Too often when we start an exercise or nutrition program we miss a crucial element that if absent, almost guarantees our failure.
I missed this element many times in regards to my own personal fitness and nutrition goals.
At a fitness conference it was all at once that the realization of this question hit me.
It changed me with such clarity that it made me want to go back in time, track down my five-years ago self and give myself one of those wrestling moves you see on tv for being such a dummy and not figuring this out years ago.
a picture of me about to go back in time in order to give myself a well-deserved backhand
Many people start an exercise routine and have goals.
Other people are told by their doctor to start doing something.
Others are fans of weight watchers or jenny craig (both of which have their positives and negatives).
The key to success that often gets missed comes to us not when we are at our meetings and not when we are at the gym.
It is not when we are talking with our friends about our progress or our new outfits or our old outfits that we want to start wearing again (even though capris are sooo out of style now).
The key question (and it’s answer) is something that we may be a moment of silence for.
It is the moments of silence in our lives that lend us opportunity to solidify our foundation
The answer to this question helps us at 6am in the morning in the middle of winter when it is cold and windy outside and bed seems just so nice.
The answer is crucial to our success when our friends innocently invite us to a night of debauchery and hedonism the likes of which we sorely miss and would thoroughly enjoy.. at least until the next day.
If we fail to ask this question then we build our fitness goals on a false foundation.
If we are able to answer this question then we have found the concrete pillar upon which we can refer back to at times of weakness, the touchstone that will drive us forward when life around us tries to drag us down.
The key question is this:
What could stop me from achieving this goal – and what am I going to do to make sure it doesn’t?
The answer will change as your weight loss/fitness changes. If you can focus on your answers at times of weakness, you can focus on not letting anything stop you.
Dont
Let
Anything
Stop
You
Like a loaded gun on your hip, have your solutions ready when the obstacles come…
And success will be yours.
Jamie Atlas
http://jamieatlas.wordpress.com
Want some more fitness ramblings in your inbox? Make sure you subscribe to my rss feed!
if you liked this post, you might also like:
What the world of fitness has been reduced to (in one picture)
so true.
and SO often I hear “well it’s easy for YOU MizFit because of yada yada yada”
it isnt easy for any of us.
I just decided what wouldnt get in my way.
thanks for the reminder.
Thanks for that insight. I could have really used that this morning when I wanted to get out of bed but the snooze button was calling.
hey jamie,
i have been having this eating disorder for the past one and a half years, ever since 2007…before that, i used to be the epitome of fitness and had a body to kill for. i was an expert on nutrition and health. so, my bingeing comes on and off, and all this while i have been on diet after diet trying to shed all that weight off…unsuccessfully, of course.
and then a few days ago i was just thinking about it, and realized that in order to get where i wanted, i had to eradicate the root of my problem- my bingeing. more importantly, what it is that triggers my bingeing and why i start to binge… so i did that, i identified the key areas, and im really hoping that everything will work out just fine and i’ll get back to healthy me.
all this happened a few days ago, and today i was reading your blog and found this post…it’s so coincidental! it’s appeared at just the time when i can identify most with it! so even though it was absolutely coincidental on your part, thank you, i guess, for sharing this with all of us because it really reinforces everything that i discovered through self-reflection and im sure it’ll help a lot more people out there who need this piece of wisdom =)
luv, diana
Great post. Truer words have never been spoken.
[…] The one question to ask yourself before starting a weightloss program […]
[…] The one question you need to ask yourself before starting a fitness program […]