Finding Motivation & Commitment

My priorities are certainly being tested! I am a few days into my summer nutrition program and I am finding it very difficult. I'm still in a place where I am trying to figure out how I will adjust and acclimate and determine strategies that will make all this more convenient. It is NOT difficult for me for the reasons that pretty much everyone else would be challenged by this! I don't care that much about what I eat. Sure I have cravings and I will have a tough time working through them but that is not the issue here.

I AM SICK OF EATING!!! I am having to eat every three hours. I am eating simple, basic food; all the same stuff all day. A lot of people would be going crazy already. Protein drinks, poached eggs, lettuce, brown rice. Greatly relieved after some experimentation to have found a way to prepare chicken breasts so that I can get it down as they are a staple of this form of super high protein/very low fat strategy for eating.

I have to do this clear until the end of August. I've made the commitment; I'm corresponding with a high-level nutritionist who created the eating plan for me. I've paid for this! I've put myself into a place where I can't back out now. No going back, no refunds. I HAVE TO DO THIS.

I'm hating it and I'm loving it! It's an adjustment. I'll find my way to deal with it. I'll get through it. But I love that I have found a very serious, high-end program to do with a real person who can help me and keep me on track. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want the results that are possible. Everything costs something and if you want it, you have to pay! To extend that metaphor, what I want is pretty expensive. I WILL PAY IT! It's that valuable to me.

Finding a strategy for yourself and maintaining it will make you feel great, physically and psychologically. We all have had that experience of starting something and not sticking with it, you know that makes you feel like a big failure! A lot of people get caught in that shame cycle, nothing they do ever seems to bring any actual change.

I think there is a very tough Catch-22 operating here. GETTING RESULTS will solidify your motivation and commitment BUT you have to work really hard to achieve results and get them going! Sticking it out through that "start up" period is the real challenge. Achieving results can make you want to hold on to them and achieve more but you have to get there first!

I am in a very challenging start up period right now! I don't know how this will work out. It's taking a HUGE effort to give it a good college try! But I have learned that IT IS POSSIBLE to make real changes and even to manipulate my body and my physical state. I won't give up on it. I am working to determine what all the obstacles might be and I will find ways to get past them.

When you try something new and you let it go, you're not giving up on the latest diet or workout program, you're giving up on yourself. Shortchanging yourself. You have to give yourself the best try you can to see what you can realistically accomplish! If you try your best and it doesn't work out, try something else until you find the right solution.

Don't ever give up.

Dagny's Summer Boot Camp

I did a lot of shopping this evening to get ready for launching the X-TREME nutrition and exercise program. Yes, that's X-TREME with a capital X-TREME. It's much more intense than ordinary extreme. That's because the e is for extra wuss-ass.

I bought a tiny little crockpot for cooking chicken which I will be consuming so much I'm likely to start clucking IF slow cooking it will allow me to keep it down! I have some issues with chicken so we'll see! I bought organic peanut butter and raw almonds, various supplements and this really high-tech custom-blended protein stuff. An egg poacher and a carton of egg whites. Food scale. Organic oatmeal. Fish oil. Veggies and fruit for carb days I will shop for each day. I'm ready and psyched. I decided I will ask to work from home on Friday and make that my first day so that I can feel organized and focused. It's going to take some planning and acclimation. You know, like the gettin' up at 4:30am every day to climb the stairs for a half hour. Oh yeah. Here comes my summer of BIG FUN!

Doing the Really Hard Work

I've always been generally opposed to the idea of "Fat Acceptance." I see it as embracing surrender and complacency. I also see it as an admission of failure. It seems like people turn to it when they believe that attempting to lose weight and get fit is too difficult for them and actually does more harm than good, in their experience. I honestly feel those people are SIMPLY DOING IT WRONG.

A correct diet should meet your nutritional needs and make you HEALTHIER THAN BEFORE. An exercise regimen should bring you a multitude of benefits that you should be able to start feeling even if you are not seeing physical change.

Depriving yourself of crap you shouldn't eat anyway isn't "deprivation"!! Under a correct diet, you shouldn't feel hungry and miserable all the time. If your body's needs are being met, what you are actually dealing with is psychological hunger. Please go back and read this post for a discussion of this very critical subject.

I have been asked how do I maintain my attitude and motivation. Staying consistent for the length of time it takes to see real changes in weight and physical ability is VERY DIFFICULT!!! Being very disciplined about what you eat, being willing to work yourself into a shaky sweaty state of intense exhaustion---not many people can keep this up! There are mental tools you can use but you have to consider your priorities first to be willing to use them!

I often help myself to make proper choices by thinking through the concepts laid down in the list of psychological hunger indicators. I have learned that there are MANY other ways besides eating to cope with life's stressors and decisions. But it is my life priorities that are at the foundation of all my choices.

This may sound trite and simplistic, but it really is the basis and foundation for being successful: HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT IT? You have to ask yourself that question and answer it ALL THE TIME. When you don't want to get out of bed early to do a workout, you have to ask yourself if you want the results you are working toward more than laying in bed for another half hour. When you are choosing between having a big slab of pizza for lunch or a lean protein with a leafy salad, you have to ask yourself---Do you want that pizza more than you want to see your tricep start to show in your upper arm??

I find that exercising a lot has a self-perpetuating effect for me. The harder I work, the more I want to be sure I am not undermining my physical efforts with bad food choices.

I've also said many times that I think you have to CHANGE what you're doing if it isn't working. My weight has been frustratingly stable for a long time now. I've tried a few different approaches for my eating plan but nothing has been working so I decided I need to call in a professional. I am starting a 12-week program with Troponin Nutrition. They work with competition bodybuilders but they have programs for regular folks too! I got my eating plan tonight and it's going to take some figuring out and planning to do it correctly. I'm going to take tomorrow to go over it all, get my questions together for the consultant, and determine what I have to do. I might start a separate blog just for simple record-keeping and tracking for the consultant. I will probably go ahead and make it public.

It's a very intense and extreme program for three months. I've paid my money and set things up with the consultant--There's no turning back now! This is my priority, I'm willing to do it. I'll update you how I do.