The No More Excuses Diet (48 page)

I altered my intake to reflect my greater activity levels and I challenged my metabolism by increasing my caloric intake. It was startling to realize I was on a weight-loss plateau possibly because I had not been eating enough! So ask yourself: Are you losing weight? Are you missing workouts? Are you following your program rules 100 percent? Are you writing down everything you eat? To create change, something has to be changed. You can’t continue doing similar actions weekly and expect different results.

Once you’ve discovered why you’re not making progress, tackle the challenge head-on. Don’t be discouraged or daunted by the fact that you’ve discovered an obstacle; start finding your way around it! Take on the problem aggressively and assertively, and with all your mental might. Grab hold of this problem and start controlling it—after all, this problem is preventing you from getting to the next level in your fitness goals. So control it, and believe me when I tell you that you can change it!

While losing the baby weight after pregnancy, I ate a healthy diet and exercised daily. I enjoyed doing Zumba, taking kickboxing classes, and going for the occasional run. Despite what I did,
I couldn’t regain a strong midsection, even though I would log sometimes a thousand sit-ups in one day! When I sought the reasons I wasn’t becoming more “toned,” I discovered the importance of strength training. Because I was a “scale watcher” the idea of building muscle was a little scary to me. Gaining muscle mass often means you need to let go of the number on the scale, however, because a pound of muscle is much smaller than a pound of fat—it’s tighter and denser. When I knew I wouldn’t turn into a bodybuilder, I became comfortable lifting light weights.

It was a scary process to walk onto the gym floor, over to the free-weights section, and hear the clinking of iron and smell the rubber, sweat, and bad cologne. It was emotionally tougher to stand next to young women who have never had a child or seemed to be athletically gifted (another excuse I gave myself). Nevertheless, I needed to tackle the matter and start educating myself about this activity. I gained confidence daily by setting small, short-term goals and reading about new exercises on the Internet while I was nursing or flipping through fitness magazines while waiting in line at the grocery store. Whatever obstacle you want to resolve, the first step is to tackle it head-on and create a game plan.

Reflection is a cornerstone of your constructed new world. Whether you are failing or succeeding in your efforts, it’s important to be aware every step along the journey. Reflection is not about feeling guilty or beating yourself up; it’s just being aware of
why
you’re not progressing on schedule. Its result is to give yourself permission to consider
how
to change your course so as to reach that success. For example, if my goal is to develop better abdominal muscles, I need to change my game plan so as to lose 5 pounds so I can uncover my toned abs.

So reflect on your plan and break it apart. If your goal is to get
leaner, could you start incorporating an extra day of weights? If you are constantly missing your workouts, can you schedule your exercise for a different time of day? If you need more personal accountability or knowledge, can you enlist the help of a trainer or friend? What do you plan to do?

Most recently I was preparing for a fitness event, so I was running two to four miles daily. However, I fell on concrete and injured my neck and back. It was a huge blow to my progress and it prevented me from training for a couple weeks. Instead of dwelling on my anger and getting frustrated, I reflected on this new challenge to stay fit and changed my game plan. I focused on eating healthier foods and I created a caloric deficit and macronutrient profile to reflect my lowered activity level. Instead of running, I scheduled various therapies and incorporated rest into my program to recover from the injury. So, just because you have a setback, that does not mean the program stops. The program is about living your healthiest life in the circumstances in which you are living today. Remember that.

Your intention is the seed your mind plants before you develop your action plans. When you need more energy to pursue your goal, you must look at the present moment and ask yourself,
Why does this effort matter so much to me? What was my intention when I decided to take the first step in changing my life? Do I want to impress family at an upcoming reunion? Do I want to feel comfortable in tank tops and shorts during the summer? Do I want to extend my life span? Was I pre-diabetic or did a family member just die from heart disease?

Reaching long-term goals requires you to set short-term goals.
Setting short-term goals will keep you motivated because you are focusing on a reachable target. You wake up each day and state your intention. You think about your action and find your motivation to complete it.

My ultimate goal is to feel fit and be healthy for my husband and children. Vanity also plays a big role in my efforts: I know that I want to look great in a cocktail dress and feel toned in a bikini! But when life becomes busy and I keep finding my hand in the cookie jar, I always think about why staying disciplined is so important. Some
times a small motivator is enough to get me back on track:
Do I want to call off the race? Do I want to return that dress?
Other times, I can renew my intention by thinking about the big picture:
What will happen to my health if I slack off?
It’s easy to get lost in the business of just getting through each day, but that’s why it is so important to regularly check in with your goals and remind yourself what they are all about.

When you look for value in every moment, you start seeing opportunities and possibilities. Maybe you don’t have spousal support, a gym membership, a large grocery budget, or a babysitter, but what you do have is the ability to choose your attitude. Do not focus on the things you don’t have—that will only lead you to spend more energy on why you can’t do what you want rather than on working to get it. No matter what your circumstances, it is within your power to arrange your life around the things that are most important to you. Realize that
it is possible to get the life you want.
Every day, life’s changes and challenges shift. Don’t dwell on the possibility that things might be easier if your life were different; focus on the way your life is now and appreciate your indelible spirit and unwillingness to give up.

Time is your most valuable commodity. Finding enough time is a challenge for everyone, including myself. As a busy working wife and mother, I rarely have time to relax or feel that I’m doing something for myself. Even though my schedule is back-to-back with obligations, errands, sports practices, and work right now, I
know that life will change. My kids will get older, I will get older, and I don’t want to look back wishing I had valued all my moments a little more. I want to make sure that every action I take brings value to my life. Working out brings value. Playing at the park with my kids brings value. Giving back to my community brings value. Developing relationships brings value.

Strive to live a valuable life. Slow down and be deliberate about who you are and where you are going in life. Be mindful of your priorities and ensure that your values, including your thoughts, actions, and results, all align. When your moments start to mean something, you’ve gained a force that drives you in a purposeful direction.

It’s not easy to identify a dream and go for it—let’s face it, most people give up. Most people don’t dig deep, mentally and spiritually, to uncover the root of the struggle. To succeed, you need to seek the problem, tackle it with a plan, reflect on the plan, keep sight of your intentions, value the moment, and emerge with renewed vigor.

Your priorities will change with time; your intentions will change, too. Your body and mind will most definitely change. In the process, you must always keep
striving
to get the most out of your time and your efforts. S.T.RI.V.E. is not about pushing yourself harder in the same direction or whipping yourself into a short-term frenzy of activity; this is about making sure that you are actively engaged and conscious of what your goals are—and living by them each day.

With careful observation of your body and your habits, you will find a way to climb out of any rut and see results. Do not feel frustrated
that you hit a roadblock. Do not get discouraged, and above all do NOT quit. The health, the body, and the life you want are within your reach—all you have to do is S.T.R.I.V.E. to grab them!

Take out a pen and paper and start a new S.P.E.E.D. strategy, considering how you can tweak the routine to keep your motivation high. Write down your new goals, create a new action plan, and emerge as a refreshed No More Excuses person. You can do this. You are capable of overcoming challenges, and you will create your best body. It all begins with a thought and it proceeds with an action.

It is so easy to get distracted from our goals. We can get discouraged when something’s not working fast enough, or we get cocky when we start seeing results. But it doesn’t have to be that way! And right now, today, you have a chance to make a new commitment to yourself and your body, no matter what else is happening in your life. In this chapter, we look at the most common excuses that prevent so many of us from having the lives and the bodies we want. Believe me, I know how real many of these situations can feel—I’ve been there! But nothing is more important than good health, and it’s time right now to make a new commitment to yourself.

I recently received an email from a woman who said she continued to exercise and eat healthy despite gaining weight and undergoing depression from her treatment for breast cancer. She expressed feeling weak, helpless, and defeated on a daily basis. She had plenty of reasons to let herself off the hook, but she chose to exercise, eat healthy, and strive toward health.

A friend in her thirties is suffering from congestive heart failure,
diabetes, and end-stage renal disease. She works full time as the primary breadwinner for her family of four, and yet spends 12 hours a week in the dialysis chair. Despite her challenges she is focusing on positive actions and has lost 30 pounds in 12 weeks. She recently posted, “If anyone is overweight, out of shape, and mad about it, remember that you have a choice. You can choose to remain the way you are or put the work in and change your lot in life. I did.”

A single working mother of four children shared with me her struggle to get into shape. I was impressed by her vigilance, ability, and creativity to incorporate exercise into her hectic schedule while managing expenses on her own. One of my closest girlfriends battled polycystic ovarian syndrome, a hormonal imbalance that affects 5 million women in America. Although weight gain was one of her symptoms, she was able to lose weight, take supplements to balance her hormones, and is now a marathon runner.

We can take so much hope from such stories. These women had legitimate excuses for giving in, but they believed they could improve their lives, and they succeeded in doing so.

For every excuse you have, there is a way to overcome it. But you have to want to do it and believe that you
can
do it. Believe that you can reach your highest potential. Believe that every obstacle is a test of how badly you want to achieve your best body. And believe that you are stronger than those obstacles and tests. Success doesn’t come easily, and it only serves those who are mentally and physically willing to do the work that brings results.

So let’s bust those excuses right now. A successful fitness lifestyle requires a goal, a plan, a deadline, and a desire. This desire is the energy that propels you forward. Yes, let’s blast these excuses off the road toward your fitness future.