Trying something this week. I have taken some quotes out of a pretty cool book (references and links below) and hopefully (hopefully) it doesn’t come across as too pretentious…it is 100% NOT the intention. I have received a heap of emails and had conversation after conversation with people sharing their ‘gonna’ list for 2019 – the usual stronger, skinnier, healthier stuff that goes through all of our heads as the new year rolls in – and I really have one answer for everyone:
“Your actions speak so loudly that we cannot hear what you are saying.”
(The same quote applies double to me btw!).
I’m going to start with a longish quote from Jocko Willink and his book ‘Discipline Equals Freedom’. This is a book I think everyone should have on their shelf – you can pretty much open it at a random page and find a little bit of inspiration for the day ahead…I guess that’s why he’s a Navy Seal and I’m not!
“People look for the shortcut. The hack.
And if you came here looking for that:
You wont find it.
The shortcut is a lie.
The hack doesn’t get you there.
And if you want to take the easy road, it wont take you to where you want to be:
Stronger. Smarter. Faster. Healthier. Better.”
I feel like I could (and should) quote the entire book and just say to everyone ‘Before you start making plans for what you are ‘gonna’ do in 2019, read this…to be truthful, that’s kind of what I want to do. But I am going to go with this.
When we do our Health Check’s (which are super call – member or non-member you can sign up for them here: https://round1fitness.com.au/health-check/) in the pack we give out is a chart showing the ‘AVERAGE’ change people achieve when following the rules of our challenges. It looks like this:
The little ‘**’ or double asterix in the title is a reference to the RULES of the challenges – or the stuff people did to achieve the results in the table! Now, these are as follows:
Training: Minimum of THREE (3) Round 1 group sessions per week PLUS TWO (2) challenge workouts each week.
Food: No SUGAR (No sweeteners of any kind, natural or artificial). No Bread (meaning No crackers, no mountain bread, no Turkish Bread, no Foccacia’s, no wraps, no cracker bread, no cracker biscuits…it means NO BREAD) and NO PASTA. No Alcohol. Challenge participants are allowed TWO (2) x cheat days for the MONTH when they can ‘break’ the diet rules by eating bread/pasta/sugar or drinking alcohol.
Now, we don’t present this info as a negative, but time after time when I go through the data with new clients and they realise that even if they give up sugar, bread, pasta and alcohol AND come to the gym 3x per week they are still only going to lose 600g/week (girls) or 900g/week (boys) on average, well, there is disappointment all over their faces. Not only that, the ‘sacrifice’ of both the food rules AND the training seems to be FAR, FAR (FAR, FAR, FAR etc) in excess of the effort that most people were expecting to have to put in. What seems hard to get across is that (using the girls numbers as an example), 600g/week = 7.8kg over 3-months. So, if they were to start TODAY by the end of March the scales would be 8kg to the good. Which to me seems awesome and would represent the wishes of probably 90% of the people who I chat too…BUT THEN (yep, it gets better) whilst the number sounds good – perfect even – the ‘sacrifice’ (which for most people is a direct link to the fact that alcohol would be limited to once every 2-weeks) is all of a sudden WAY too much. Did I mention that this stuff is bloody hard – and for pretty much all of us needs to be squeezed in around work and family?
You have to understand that if you want what you say you want, your actions have to match not just your words – but your WISHES – for the long term. Yes, even on days when you are just ‘not feeling it’ you have to go and train. Yes, even on days when it is your work mates birthday and everyone in the office is eating cake you have to sit there and sip on your water. NO – it doesn’t mean you can’t have a beer with your brother who you haven’t seen for 6-months when he unexpectedly lobs at your front door (that would be called ‘being a dick’)…but YES, it does mean you can’t sit there with him and drink the whole case whilst munching on potato chips. (‘Cos that would ALSO be called ‘being a dick’!).
You also have to understand when you get into this that even when you are walking on the ‘right’ road – eating like an adult, training consistently – the ‘fall’ is never far away…and it never comes ‘fast’. Your best intentions are never ‘lost’ in a rush – you never lose in a single battle. What ends up happening is that you stray from the path one step at a time – so slowly that you BARELY notice it happening. First of all, you start missing those ‘extra’ gym sessions you were squeezing in first thing Saturday morning. Then, those ‘cheat meals’ – that were happening every second week – are every weekend. Next, you start having a couple of beers on Friday night instead of just on Saturday. Then you add in a couple of drinks on Sunday avo…which means you sleep in a little bit longer and miss that Monday morning gym session as well…and by the time you step back and have a look at things, your life of discipline and forward progress has turned into something else entirely – and all of this has happened without you even realising.
Let’s all make 2019 a year where we all move things forward. I feel like I am really rambling on now so I’ll finish this up with another quote from Jocko Willink’s ‘Discipline Equals Freedom’:
“This is where it begins.
In the darkness.
Before the sun and the birds and the world.
Every day.
When the alarm sounds.
IT IS TIME.
Rise.
Despite fatigue and soreness.
Curse the warmth of the bed.
Curse the comfort of the pillow.
Fight the temptation of weakness.
Get up and go.
Do it quickly, without thought.
Do not reason with weakness. You cannot.
You must only take action.
Get up
and Go.”
See you guys in the gym,
Michael.
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