Fitness Routine Falling Apart?

Have you ever started to exercise on a routine with great ambition, miss a few days and let it completely throw you off track? Recently I've been going through P90X again and fell off track due to finals. It is easy to chalk this up as failure but in actuality it is part of my path to success...

 It is great to power through goals you set but I think a key to success is understanding failure. In this case I will only let myself down if I don't take this opportunity to get back up on my feet. The great thing about messing up on your exercise routine is you recovery fairly quickly. The first couple days of realigning yourself are a bit cumbersome but you get back into your groove pretty quickly from my experience. It's not like that grueling first week where you wake up sore everyday asking "WHY AM I DOING THIS?"... (or maybe that's just me!)

So don't sweat the days you miss when you are trying to exercise. A few days is minor when you step back on that last day of your training schedule and see major results. When I lost my initial weight there were many bumps in the road; the important part is I kept going! In the philosophical words of Aaliyah, "If at first you don't succeeeeeeeeed, dust yourself off and try again." (Sorry you cant hear me try to hit that high note :P)

Smile - Even when it Hurts

I'm sitting at Starbucks on a beautiful blue sky day waiting to start a job and I can't help but notice different people and they're social and interpersonal behavior... especially the contrast between those who are smiling and those who are not...

"holding a grudge is like feeding yourself poison and expecting the other person to die from it."

 (thanks Calla)

The difference one smile can make is subtle but it's power is exponential. It can be hard to do if you're having a bad day, but logic tells me if you can make others feel better, even with a light smile, you'll feel better sooner.

If you want to sulk or be grumpy that is a problem and I consider we all think twice about the energy we carry because it factors into everything you do. Also how you start the day greatly affects the rest of your day so try to start off on a good note!

One thing I used to do when I was feeling down, is I would get REALLY down, and I would get super angry (in private!) to the point I realized that level of anger is irrational and even humorous, so the contrast would leave me smiling and filled with a joy that took a little conscious effort to release. There is a Taoist practice called the inner smile, and its basically keeping a state of joy on the inside, but the first steps to practicing it actually start by forcing yourself to physically smile because it reprograms your mind to be more positive.

There are a number of health (or quasi-health) benefits like the release of endorphins and lowering stress and blood pressure levels, so the next time you're feeling the knife edge of life piercing your soul, wield one of the most powerful weapons you have at your disposal, your very own smile. (Please holster your gun if you thought I was going to recommend going postal)

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Lose 100 Pounds in 1 Minute

When I was about to turn 18 I was with my doctor for a medical check up; when I stepped on the scale and saw the slider stopping on 273 and being eerily close to 300 pounds, it hit me like a ton of bricks! My world froze and the doctor's words faded away into a distant echo. I stood there and absolutely knew I had to make a descision for myself; to lose weight or not to lose weight. The choice became illuminated and in less than one minute I had already lost 100 pounds.

"...I gained what mattered most; a new sense of being accountable and honest to myself."

In that one minute, I ultimately concluded that I had to change my eating habits and to fall in love with exercise. I knew I would have to stop lying to myself about lifestyle choices and stop being influenced by how companies and restaurants market food to me. I was not sure how I was going to do it, but I knew it was going to happen because in that one moment I gained what mattered most; a new sense of being accountable and honest to myself.

The Body
Whether you're religious or not, you are stuck with your body for the time being. We use our bodies for communication, transportation, recreation, and procreation. It is a gift, a tool, a weapon, a canvas and so much more. It is the ultimate way we interface with the world and the people around us. Regardless of how attached we seem to be, though, we are not our bodies. YOU are not your body. It is an organ, yes, composed of many systems, but if you start to view your body as it's own system that you control, you will learn to respect it more which will lead to many great things. As stated above the body is many things, but why let it become a burden?


The Mind
Like the body, YOU are also not your thoughts... till later! The thoughts in your head do not define who YOU are, but do determine what you may become. Thoughts and beliefs work in cycles like gears. They spin constantly to construct patterns in which we live, but we have the power to change our thoughts, shift in to different gears, which means we can change ourselves and ultimately change the world around us too. It is equally important to feed your mind with information about improving health as it is to feed your body with foods that improve health.


The Spirit
I am not here to tell you who you are. I am just barely wise enough to know you are not your body, and that the state of mind you are in will determine who you become. My goal in writing this article is to explain to you that I lost 100 pounds not in the past 5 years of exploring health and fitness, but in the one minute that preceded that journey. If you are at a point in your life where you are ready to realize you want to change, it only takes a minute to breathe in deeply and acknowledge there is no better time than now to improve your health... but you have to mean it with all your body, mind and spirit. 

I will make more general posts about losing weight in the future, but I feel this perspective was the key that ignited my weight loss. Also the slow carb diet has been an effective diet and you can read about it here.

My weightloss journey

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