Something I find is a struggle when it comes to adherence with a regimen is the clients dissatisfaction with their appearance. I know I know it seems crazy for a professional in a career where we work on bodies complaining about people not liking how they look. It seems like I'm biting the hand that feeds me right?
Well I guess it comes down to my philosophy of goal setting. "A watched pot never boils." We have to trust ourselves that if we turn on the heat a change will occur. Hovering over the pot doesn't change the time in which it takes the fire to heat the water to the point of boiling. Adding a lid, may help to speed up the process but that water is still going to boil in it's own time. There are simply too many factors that affect the water's boiling rate to be consumed with that process. The boil rate depends on the temperature of the water before it's put into the pot. It depends on how thick the pot is and how it conducts heat. It depends on how much water is being heated at the time. It depends on if there are other things in the water also conducting the heat.
All in all it is as frustrating to watch a pot of water boil as it is unnecessary. Remember if the heat is on change is coming. What people forget to realize that there are many other tasks to focus on while the water boils. If we take our fitness regimens and imagine that the boiling water will be when we achieve our ultimate physique, well the process between start and finish is all preparation. Once that body is obtained we have to learn how to keep it. Like with any dish the combination of ingredients is going to affect how that dish is consumed and preserved.
Regimens must be built around what one can do rather than how one looks. The mind has to be occupied with the multiple facets of how we are creating our body, whether that be sleep adjustments, eating every 3 hours, and voiding our bowels multiple times a day. Training the mind to slow down and the body to turn off at a specific time so that the full sleep cycle will heal and rebuild our internal systems is a challenge even I face. No your tummy is not flat Janet, but you also are only getting 4 hours of sleep and your nose is runny all the time because you are tired not sick.
Same thing with working out and writing down the data from each work out. Every workout is different even if the movements are repetitive, and in that work we do between reassessments clients find that habits have been forms, weight and repetitions have increased, and overall awareness of body has improved. These are tools that are indispensable when that dream body is achieved. Why?
Well if you boil cold water, and then put it back into the freezer it will become cold again. So during the boiling we have to cut up veggies and select spices that we can pour into the boiling water to continue to have change. When people work on regimens only to meet a certain look, they loose out on the fun of seeing where they actually are progressing. They don't see what they have cooked, they don't relish in the taste. They are simply focusing on completing a dish.
The focus should always be on the activity of living a fit life. Change the mind, change the routine, and then the body changes. Because each part of the journey in itself a labyrinth to navigate and find success, self hatred is wasted energy. Body confidence is telling the waiter at the restaurant that your food has to be cooked in olive oil not butter. Body confidence is parking further away from the entrance and walking a little more. Body confident is increasing weight on a squat. Body confidence is discerning that we can control what we do and how we do it.
And almost suddenly, when we stop watching and waiting on the water to boil, but focus on cutting up potatoes, the water boils rapidly and drastically and it's time to give it everything it needs to sustain that temperature (remember to continue to boil the water means is evaporates).
I urge everyone to prepare to maintain the body of your dreams!
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