I Just Gotta Rant About Failing to Plan

Let me just tell everyone my biggest pet-peeve with anyone who comes to me about weightloss. 90% of losing weight is your actions and doesn't have anything to do with what Daddy did or didn't say to you as a child, what your innerself repeats to you, or any of the other "mind games" we play with ourselves to excuse pulling into McDonalds because we didn't pack a cooler.

It's behavior people. Almost always when people aren't losing or gaining it's your actions and not what you think that gets in your way. Some of the people I train that have the most success have the WORST case of fat girl thinking! They just don't let it rule them even if they can't turn it off.

Here's why people don't lose fat. 

1. They haven't planned their workouts and HOPE they will FEEL like it this week. You don't plan it, it don't happen. Get out your calendar Sunday night, make your exercise appointments, and then hop in a circle for 30 min. for all I care at each appointment. I just want you to MOVE. Even if you get it wrong, you get it right because you are doing something. I'd rather hear you tell me you jumped up and down than listen to you for 30 min. telling me why you weren't motivated.

2. While they watch Sunday's boob tube drama they have "ran out of time" to go to the grocery store. During this time they have also failed to plan their food for the week, lost their cooler in the bottom of their closet, and HOPE they make good decisions when co-workers want them to go to lunch. Whatever! You already put TV in front of your desires to live a long healthy life. What makes you think you won't succumb to peer pressure at the local chinese buffet?

3. They are mindlessly eating away all day long without even hesistating to think that bites, licks, and tastes QUICKLY negate a tough workout. Most of my girls shoot to burn 500 calories a workout five times a week equalling 2500 calories. Honey, you gotta have a deficit of 3500 to even lose a pound so you better be eating less 1000 calories that week. If each day you BLT four almonds, overestimate your chicken by one ounce, snag a hershey kiss or two...well, kiss that pound good bye. It's so unfair...I know, but no one said it would be easy.

I tell my girls the new "golden rule" all the time: Fake it til you make it. I don't care if you hate yourself, beat yourself up religiously, are ashamed, out of shape, or just tired; you just do it until it becomes habit. You'll mess up every now and then but you have to keep going.

When I started this at 250lbs I can promise you the last thing on my mind when I walked into the gym was, "Man, I love myself. I'm a strong woman, ready to go, I believe in myself, and I look damn good doing this." Yeah right. It was more like, "I don't belong here, I can't do this, I'm so tired, why am I not taking a nap while the baby is asleep, and I've always been fat and will always be fat." I felt incredibly ashamed, embarassed, looked a mess, and did all I could to talk myself out of making the best decision of my life.

Six months later I walked in the gym feeling ashamed because I hadn't lost more weight, feeling jiggly because lose skin was appearing, noticing that I STILL was significantly in worse shape than the average person, and wondering why I kept doing it because I still had a long way to go.

A year later I was almost at goal, feeling better about myself, wondering what the hell took me so long to do this, and trying to figure out the best ways I could to keep on improving.

Now I'm coming up on that three year mark of hitting my goal and guess what? I still have days I don't want to do it, I literally just argued with myself over having a big helping of peanut butter, and today I was taken right back to that fat girl stage. It was my first posing class for the competition and don't think standing in hooker shoes at the gym having someone look you over to see imperfections isn't stressful. Ya'll know how I am about my loose skin. All I did was stare at the 1 in. of skin showing above my knees wondering if anyone noticed it. Good gracious, I was wearing a tank and basketball shorts but you would've thought I had nothing on with the way my mind was racing.

But, as I said above...I will fake it until I make it. I'll show up for posing classes and whatever else I need to do because the last thing I want to do is sit around complaining about never doing anything.