Sunday, January 4, 2015

Time to Break it down

Happy New Year!

Time to Break it down...

 

No, not on the dance floor.  Well, that actually might be a pretty good way to burn some calories... so... yes, break it down on the dance floor! 

I usually write a year in review post every new year consisting of "The State of Versus".  So really fast, here  is the State of Versus.

"My fellow Versicans, the state of our gym is strong.  We have a huge army, a very small navy and a non existent air-force.  We have a new logo though and its cool!"  - The End

On a serious note, our community is awesome.  Our staff is awesome.  We are excited about 2015!

Back to the subject of breaking it down.  I got money on it, that if you browse the Internet a little bit you will find articles with titles like: "Top 5 things to permanently lose weight in 2015.  Get ripped in 2015 with this one thing." etc etc etc.  The writers of those headlines are in touch with the us.  We want the secret to weight loss, health and happiness.  We want the answers and the shortest way to get there.

Right?

Heck yeah we do.  We have been conditioned to the path of least resistance for quite a while now.  Think about it for a second...  If you come across a question that you don't know the answer to what is your first response?  "Siri, what is the capital of Alaska?"  Don't lie, you know you do it.  I do it too!  65% of Americans own one of the smartphones that are available.  65% of people, more or less, use technology to speed down the path of least resistance.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

However, there are some questions in life (if you want the answer) that require a little more than holding down the home button on your iPhone. 
  • Why am I unhappy?  
  • Why am I afraid to step out of my comfort zone?  
  • Why do I keep making excuses.  
  • Why can't I change? 
Those are some tough questions that Siri may not be able to help you with.  So what do you do when Siri can't help?  Instead of summoning Siri,  I would suggest getting out a pen and paper.  Set out 20-30min of time and start writing down the top 10 things you want to work on to improve you.  Once you write down 10 things, pick 3 that mean the most to you.  Here is a hypothetical answer:

1.  I want to lose weight.  get more specific, I want to lose 15lbs.

Ok, so we want to lose 15lbs.  Why?  "Girl, you should be comfortable in your own skin.  God made you this way and you shouldn't get down on yourself for it." 

So wait a minute, God made you to skip breakfast, eat cheetos out of the vending machine for snack, drive thru Canes chicken fingers for lunch, grab a large frappuccino as you head back to work, hit up happy hour once you get off and eat pizza as you watch the bachelor?   Umm, ok, if you say so.

The reason why we ask why is to "try" to get to the root.  I can tell you from personal experience WHY I wanted to lose 15lbs.  I wanted to lose 15lbs, because I wasn't happy.  Everyone morning I looked in the mirror I wasn't happy with what I saw.  People will say that weight gain and the unhappiness that comes with it is really a by product stemming from other areas in your life.  And as soon as you lose it, you will still be unhappy.  In my case, those folks were dead wrong.  When I lost 15lbs(which turned into almost 50) I was a happier person.  So shut up haters.

Ok, back to what we were talking about.  You have written a list and picked out 3 things you want to work on.  What next? 

Our Overall goal is an "Outcome Goal"---- Lose 15lbs
How we get there is a "Behavior Goal"---- What we do to get there.

To me a behavior goal is sorta like asking for or getting directions.  "Hey, how do you get to Iowa?"
Imagine if the response given was, "Well, you get on that highway and go to Iowa.  Good luck!"  Could you imagine how long it would take to get there? Ha Ha!  That type of broad and general response is actually putting our Outcome Goal in the Behavior Goal slot.

Here is the Behavior Goal Response but put to the "How do I lose 15lbs?" question- 
1.  Work out at least 5 hours per week.
2.  Eat Clean 90% of the time. (what does that mean?  if you don't know seek out someone to help)
3.  Control the portion sizes of your food
4.  Earn your carbs

Those behavior goals look like a pretty good road map to Iowa if you ask me.  The easier the behavior goals are to follow the greater your likelihood of success.  Imagine if I smoked 10 packs of cigarettes a day.  However, come hell or high water, on Monday morning I'm quitting cold turkey... fat chance...  Quitting cold turkey is a good goal, but planning to only smoke 5 packs a day would probably be more feasible.

To recap:  Break it Down!

  • Write down 10 things you want to work on 
  • Pick 3 of them that mean the most to you
  • Establish an Outcome goal
  • Establish habits/behavior goals and stick to them every day

In closing, if you don't know how to do something on your own or continue to fail at what you are trying to do... REACH OUT FOR HELP!  Invest in yourself for once and stop cutting corners.  Believe me, you are worth it.  If you want to talk more about this kind of stuff shoot me an email at steve@versusstrengthandconditioning.com or come see me at the gym!


 

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