End of Week 6 and Lessons Learned:
Well, I've made it 6 weeks! I've lost weight, gained energy, and stopped being tired all day long. Lessons learned:
1. It takes about a week and a half to really see results:
From the time I started, it took about a week and a half for me to really experience tangible results. If you can hold out for 10 days consistently, life suddenly gets better. The hardest part was falling asleep - I'd lay in bed for hours and hours and not be tired. It's tempting to get out of bed and do something else, but don't - just lay in bed and train your body. Your body will get the hint within a week or two and start letting you fall asleep quicker, but you really have to fight it for the initial part. I call this the "rite of passage" - if you can get through it, it's all downhill after that.
2. The formula for feeling good is simple:
It consists of four things: sleep, diet, exercise, and stress. The keys are simple enough, but implementing them in a consistent fashion is difficult initially. Here they are:
1. Go to bed early (9:00pm is best)
2. Eat 6 healthy meals a day, drink water all day long, stop eating at least 3 hours before bedtime
3. Exercise at least 10 minutes a day (walking is fine, or an exercise bike, or whatever floats your boat)
4. Adopt the "do it now" habit to take care of things in your life in order to reduce stress from procrastinating
Pretty much it boils down to eating right and moving your body 10 minutes a day. That's pretty much all I did for the first month and I lost about 15 pounds. It's pretty simple, it's just a change and change is hard. Going to bed early makes change easier - when you're not tired, life is just plain easier. Everything is easier to do because you feel good and you're not sleepy. The #1 principle for changing your health picture and getting things done that you want to do is going to sleep early. Beyond that, I've found that stress has a real impact on how I feel both mentally and physically. Avoid procrastination and putting things off by simply adopting the "do it now" habit. Then you never have things lingering in the back of your mind, keeping you up at night, or deadlines suddenly appear and you're not prepared for them.
3. It all boils down to desire:
Adopting someone else's plan doesn't work for personal motivation type of activities. In other words, if it's not you're idea, you're not likely to do it on a regular basis. What that means is this: if you want to be successful, you have to have a strong personal desire to achieve it. For me, having a "leader goal" works the best. By leader goal I mean a clear, simple, 1-line goal that motivates you. Mine wasn't even "get healthy", it was simply "have energy all day long, every day". I wasn't incredibly overweight, although I did have an extra 50 pounds and was out of shape, but my goal wasn't really weight loss or to get buff, it was simply to increase my energy so that I could feel good enough to do what I wanted to do.
One of the key tricks I've learned is visualization. If you can get a clear mental picture of your goal, it's that much easier to achieve because you know what you're working towards. Do you want an Arnold-buff body? Do you see yourself crossing an Ironman finish line? Do you see yourself feeling good all day and having tons of energy to pursue whatever activities you desire? Write down your goal, clearly and specifically, and then visualize it. Then plan how to get there.
4. Be patient:
Human nature says "I want it NOW". Physical limitations say otherwise. It took you X number of years to get to where you're at now, so you're not magically going to change overnight. I've been working at this a month and a half and I still have 25 pounds to go. Just be patient. My goal wasn't a short-term, get-rich-quick kind of improvement, it was long-term success.
5. Success is a good night's sleep:
I mentioned this above and I'll say it again: sleep is the #1 key to feel good and achieving your dreams. IT'S REALLY HARD TO DO STUFF WHEN YOU'RE TIRED!!! Because being tired puts us in a fog, it's really hard to realize how important and essential sleep is, and not just brush it off and say "oh I need to get more sleep" or "gee I'm tired, I should go to bed earlier". Nope. If you want to start achieving your goals and making steady, consistent progress, sleep is the #1 tool that you need to master. Go to bed early. You can have one cheat night a week and it won't mess up your schedule, but stay on track the rest of the week. I'd go so far as to say quit your late-night job if you have one and find something during the day. I've seen very few people be successful while keeping third-shift jobs throughout the night; it's just incredibly difficult to keep up your motivation when you're tired. If you realize this and believe this and adopt this, then your life will be infinitely better and easier.
Go to bed early!
6. Make a SPECIFIC plan and keep track of your progress:
I talked about desire and having a clear "leader goal" to visualize your success with. To make it happen, you need a specific plan. What are you going to do today? When are you going to do it? You need to make a plan that answers those questions on a daily basis. Without a plan, it's too easy to get lost in the course of a day and not get to what you really want to do. Following that is track your progress. You need to be accountable, if not to someone else then at least to yourself. Coming in and posting my progress every day not only motivates me to do things so that I don't have to post that I didn't do what I was supposed to, but gives me a track record and a history to review to see how I'm doing. Our brains aren't designed to be precise information storage devices, that's why we have papers and pencils and computers. Make good use of those tools and keep track of your daily actions.
Also, stick to your plan. It's easy to get caught up in the "snowball effect" and then take steps that are too big and start failing. I did that - I tried to increase my exercise time too much and it because too hard after a day or two. Make a realistic plan and stick with it. Modify the plan as necessary, but stick with the plan.
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So what's the procedure for making a change? I think it goes something like this:
1. Think about what you want to change.
2. Take those thoughts and think of a one-line goal to write down (write it down somewhere - on pencil and paper, on a sticky note, or send yourself an email. If you don't actually write it down, don't expect results. Write it down!). It needs to be very clear. For example, "lose 50 pounds by the end of summer" or "improve my health so that I have energy all day, every day". Make sure that it is something that YOU are personally interested in.
3. Make a plan with specific daily steps.
4. Make an accountability system - post in your blog, on your website, in a forum, personal journal, to your workout buddy, whatever. Keep track of what you do.
5. Don't try to take giant steps; stick with the plan and modify the plan as necessary.