Circa 2009 at the Westchester Toughman Half Ironman. 14th place Overall and 1st in Age Group
The other day, I met a new neighbor who had just moved in. After asking me what I do for a living, he replied, “How do I lose this 15 lbs.?” I gave my usual response, “Stop eating sugar.” He answered, “I don’t eat sugar, but I drink a lot of beer.” It got me thinking, why do we put an asterisk next to our goals? I want to lose weight but I don’t want to eat healthy. I want to put on more muscle, but I don’t want to lift heavy weights. I want a better job, but I don’t want to leave the one I have. Typically, the reason you aren’t where you want to be is because of the condition you have chosen to live by and hold onto.
If you think and act like your old self, you are doomed to stay your old self. The actions you consider unthinkable to do now will be normal for the person you will be. I use myself as an example. When I was 23 years old, I decided I wanted to train for an Ironman after watching the world championships on NBC. I was a newbie to triathlon so I went to Borders books (yes this is dated) and I grabbed a book called Triathlon Training for Beginners. I read the book cover to cover and started to follow the training program in the back of the book. The first swim workout when training for an Olympic distance triathlon read as follows:
Swim 200m easy warm-up
12x50m @ tough pace
Swim 200m Easy Cool-Down
Just to give you an idea, though I had a background in swimming for my town team in the summer, I hadn’t ever swam more than 100m in a row at any given time. I knew this workout would be rough. And I was right. I could barely make it through the warm-up, and by the time I got to the actually workout, I was already gasping for air with a belly full of pool water. After the workout, I skipped forward a few pages and looked at what I would be doing 12 weeks in the future:
2,000m time trial
I was shocked. I couldn’t fathom swimming that far continuously in a pool. But I showed up for the next workout and continued to struggle. And struggled more. And struggled more. After a few weeks, the warm-up became easy. I threw in a few swim lessons here and there my confidence started to grow. After 12 weeks, I had reached the time trial workout. Man, was it brutal, especially the first 500m. But once I found my rhythm, the laps just melted away. At the end of the 2000m, I was spent but felt awesome. I had done it, and it felt good. It felt normal. I had grown so much in the last 12 weeks, but had I allowed my fear of failure or pain or the challenge get the best of me, I would have still been struggling with the 50m intro workout.
What I am trying to get at is that if you are looking to achieve one of your fitness and wellness goals, prepare to struggle. That’s completely normal. What it really means is that you are challenging yourself. As I showed in my own story, the person you are to become will look at the person you used to be with gratitude for putting yourself into a vulnerable position and taking that risk.
If you are ready to become comfortable with the uncomfortable, but a free assessment today. I offer nutrition coaching, individualized training programs, and personal training. Let’s get started today!