It’s the start of another year. That means lots of new faces at the gym!
Why this is good: It’s boring to see the same people all the time. It’s great to have new energy infusing the place.
Well, maybe.
Why this is bad: Sometimes, those new faces behave badly!
Case in point: I was working out on New Year’s when I approached a pull-down cable machine. Yes, you can do numerous exercises on this piece of equipment. But not if other people are waiting!
Dude #1, using the equipment, must have noticed the seven exercises pictured on the front of the machine and decided to do them all, one after the other.
RULE #1 – No one has exclusive rights to any piece of equipment. Think “COOPERATION”!
So, after a couple of sets, it was obvious I was standing nearby, in the middle of the room because I was WAITING! He glanced at me and ignored me.
So, as he puffed through a set of (very poor form) overhead tricep extensions, I said: “Excuse me, I’m waiting to use that too. Is it OK if I work in?”
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It’s December 31st. Resolutions fill the air. It’s only natural to want to make changes, and we’ve been conditioned to assign a “start date” to every “project.” Think: first day of school, Mondays, first of month, summer.
But some changes take a bigger shift than one day can signify. We can start a diet on a certain day… but a journey to permanent weight loss has no start date. That’s because every day of the past is part of it, including all those bloomin’ diets and freaky binges and the very sad thirteen Weight Watchers tries where I let some stranger put me on a scale and record my worth.
My own journey to permanent weight loss has been going on for over 35 years. I’ve helped thousands of people on their journeys. And my experience has taught me that we all want real, deep and meaningful change in our lives. But that scares the crap out of us so we opt instead for superficial change.
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Oh, it’s the day after Christmas and what do I see at the gym?
Lots of Santa’s elves, working out excessively, hoping to make up for yesterday’s excess eating! Perhaps they indulged in too many cookies, or Santa shared too many cups of eggnog!
There were some of us who would be there, no matter what our holiday was like. But the woman frantically grasping the treadmill rails as the timer ran past 75 minutes… and the red faced man rotating from bike to stairmaster to treadmill… those are signs of desperation, the all-out drive to burn calories after overeating – in short, MAKEUP EXERCISE!!
But is it actually possible to make up for yesterday’s calories by burning more today?
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You know those emails you receive from Aunt Mary with the cute sayings? Usually they tout “life through the eyes of a 5-year-old” or “signs with outrageous text – if you read it the right way.”
Well, I got one today with some very funny sayings in it. One really caught my eye:
You do not need a parachute to skydive.
You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
Now, there are many things I’d like to do twice – especially skydiving.
But, what about weight loss? Anyone want to do that twice?
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I took an amazing yoga workshop this weekend! What I like about yoga is that it teaches me so much about myself and my body. I can do this pose, the Warrior Interlock, now!
I’ve always been a weight lifter. I love being strong. If you’d told me a few years ago I could touch my flat palms to the floor at any moment of the day or night without strain, I’d have laughed in your face. And the Warrior Interlock? I would have put that in the “freak show” category.
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The people of Okinawa eat until they’re 80% full. They even have a name for this naturally slimming habit: hara hachi bu. We can adopt this healthy habit by dishing out 20% less on our plates or leaving 20% behind.
Does it make you uncomfortable to leave food behind? I used to feel that way. I broke the habit
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I hear the phrase “People Don’t Change” a lot, especially from the scientific and medical communities.
I’m just back from a conference focused on scientific studies about change. I’ll acknowledge there are studies that show most patients who encounter life threatening conditions return to old behaviors that caused the problem in the first place. Hence, red meat eventually seduces the heart patient. Nicotine lures the smoker. Weight comes back to the dieter.
I know some people don’t care to change, or it is too threatening to them to do so. Yes, living without food as a soother, friend or emotional barrier can be scarier than death.
But the problem with the general belief that “people don’t change” is: it’s just that – general.
And it’s not necessarily forever.
I fit that picture of “life-threatened-but-not-changing” once.
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