So here I am two years later just as thrilled about life as ever. Now, obviously I had taken those other photos to show a before and after. I had a game plan, implemented it and completely and totally failed. Talk about a knock to your self esteem. And not only had I failed at my goal, I was now even worse off than when I had started. So this time I had to take a whole new course of action.Â
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When I was running cross country, life guarding and working out like crazy as a teen I learned that I know how to really push my bodies limits. But this was different. My problem wasn't my body. My problem was how I was coping with the every day stress in my life. Soda, food, a sedentary lifestyle of video game marathons, movies, tv shows and baked goods as well as a consistent diet of eating pizza, burgers, fries, and ice cream.
Now, at first glance this seems to be trivial at most. First, go on a diet, which honestly your diet is just what you eat so you don't go on a diet you change it. Second, start working out consistently. And lastly start making sure I am getting plenty of rest so I can heal up. No big deal.
But here's the thing. The reason we all fail consistently at this is because we forget that we are trying to give up all our most important coping mechanisms all at once. Coping mechanisms are behaviors you've developed over time to cope with stress. Not only are we removing coping mechanisms, but we could be adding in additional stressors at the same time. Insecurities show up when we enter a gym where everyone else looks like a god compared to ourselves. It shows up in not lifting as much or running as far or as fast as others, or even as our past selves. And without our past coping mechanisms we might be more impatient with our coworkers or family members who might start to tempt us to go back just for their sake.
So how do you do it? Very slowly. Start with non sugar substitutes for your drinks until you find one that seems to do the trick. That's a ton of calories right there. I switched from enormous amounts of dr. pepper to sugar free monsters. Once that's done start calibrating your diet. I started just letting myself have a handful of peanut m&ms a day and one small bag of chips. I would wait till I was really craving them, and then I would take my time. Then switched to a lower calorie snack. I changed my burger and fries to wings and fries, then wings and fries to wings, then to chicken legs with rice.
Having a consistent sleep schedule can be disruptive to mutliple coping mechanisms at once. Playing video games all night, tv all night, talking on the phone or with a friend all night, parties etc.
The real take away here is to mindful of your coping mechanisms. You've had them for some time, but they don't have to be the reason for your failure. Remember, if you fail to plan you plan to fail. And knocking out all the pillars that are supporting you at once definitely seems like a quick way to failure.
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