This is the last simple principal that makes sure if all else fails that’ll have you to stick to your commitment of good health and leanness!
I recently asked the teacher of my first born how she was behaving at school? I asked this question in response to her disgusting behaviour we were witnessing at home. To my surprise the teacher informed us that McKenzie was a very obedient and well behaved....”Bull shit” was my reaction, but the teacher went on to explain the principal of peer pressure and the expectation demands that her friends and teachers wield....and my strategy is not much different ...
...Tell everyone what you’re doing! Yes, that’s right tell everyone you’re doing it....it’s easy to say things like “I’ll try my best” what a load of pathetic crap, grow a back bone and tell everyone that you’re doing it and then let the pressure to keep to your word motivate you. This will help you through the days when it would be easy to quit...
So, practicing what I preach...
”I’m (Alex Mann) not going to bloat out this winter, I’ll give up eating biscuits, binging on wine and over eating in the evenings from today onwards in order to hold my weight under 70kg and this will assist me racing and placing in the nationals in October!”
Done...now you all can hold me too it...
In the comments section I encourage you to do the same and lets hold each all to account. Best of luck
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Ok so now you’ve started this exercising thing, you may have lost some weight but how the hell do I make sure I keep it up every day.... Two (2) things have helped me and many others...
Plan it
The biggest mistake I see many people do that want to establish any habit is this; “tacking it on at the end of your day after all you have to do and handle” ....FAIL; yes a big way to fail.
Let’s take today for an example, I have a meeting at 11am in Sumner about a 30 minute cycle ride away, already in my calendar is the time to shower, ride and quickly whip on my jeans before the meeting (click the screen shot to make bigger). After the two meetings I plan to ride back home the long way (my lunch break) and so instead of 30 minutes in the car I’ll get 90 minutes of riding!
Mix it up
Not everyday is the same boring routine, with immense satisfaction out of planning what each workout will contain, this has you look forward to(some) workouts.
Another benefit of slightly more complex workouts is while doing them you’re too busy thinking about what you have to do next that before you know it you’re finished!
Another key to lasting results with your health and fitness is immersing yourself in the chosen activity. For myself, I read every book and magazine article I could about cycling. I went to the bike shops and tortured the staff by asking all the dumb questions I could muster.
Why, well think of the thing you most hate or feel is the most boring thing (for me its Bridge the card game). Then ask yourself how much you know about it?... for me the answer was NOTHING.
The way to become more interested is to learn more about something. You must remember a time when you meet an expert in some field that you knew nothing about and then as they shared with you I bet you found yourself becoming more interested...so...
In order to increase the chances that this lifestyle of fitness is enduring, you’ll need to become an expert. It psychological and it makes a huge difference to how you view what you do and that in turn changes how you will act.
My anecdotal evidence based on my association with top cyclists and business people revealed that successful people don't have to work hard at working hard, let me explain... until I was 33 years old I struggled with implementing exercise in my life it was sporadic & fleeting, have you experienced that???.
When I analysed the activities of past and then subsequently quit (Karate, Golf, Body building and running) there were two defining faults; [1] I was not good at them and [2] they never got easily implemented into my day to day life. I certainly had a passion for the activities but that did not deliver lasting results.
So how do you find that activity that’ll leave you fit and lean...
1. Do things that fit your natural abilities. Are you tall, muscular (or could beJ) coordinated, and or exhibit a natural competitive attitude. I was too solid to be running and it left me fatigued and regularly left me more knackered than invigorated. My experience with cycling is that I return feeling better than when I left and that how it should be for you. My coordination is adequate but not natural enough to really get good at karate and team sports, but you don’t need super coordination to cycle well. I’m also a left brain person and so the technical aspect of cycling is also interesting and easy for me to understand.
2. Do things that fit your life. Be realistic, if you’re the CE of a public company, have 6 kids & civic duties, or if you have irregular shift hours and work weekends then team sport maybe hard to commit to. After I graduated from University and started work, I made the decision to commute to work. This fulfilled my need to exercise and get to work (Cheaply).
Think about the activities you could fit into the regular flow of your day, as an example do you work near a gym? Then maybe a lunch time visit is easy to fit in. Do you live near great running tracks which eliminates the need to finish work - drive home - get changed- drive to the park/hills - then do your work out – then drive back home... It’s the hassle of the activity that causes us to be inconsistent not the activity itself, try and eliminate it. Good planning can be all that is needed so that if you do go to the gym you do it first thing in the morning, shower at the gym then go straight to work.
This is just the intro... so remember come back here every day this week. If you've had success please post comments and or advice that others would benefit.
Here are my techniques to being fit, healthy and lean. I’ve found that following these simple steps I DON'T have to work at it... its automatic, fun and sustainable (I’ve been lean for 14 years now...I was 96kg now I’m 68kg)
I’ll expand on one of these each day this week...
1.How to pick something you just love to do
2.How does the “expert” principal help
3.How to guarantee you’ll do it just about every day
4.The power of peer pressure & making sure it works
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