You are correct, you will never succeed!
Whether you think you can, or you can’t, you are right…
April 2008
I spent many years as an over weight, eventually obese, man. I tried numerous times to lose weight, but I never really succeeded. One minute I was counting points, or counting calories,
Why did I fail so much at losing weight and getting healthier? I let my past determine my future. I held on to all of the old failures and used them as an excuse to not succeed. I failed before I even began. I spent years battling my weight, my attitude, and my heart. For me, I finally was fed up. I finally was tired of looking in the mirror. I was tired of buying bigger and bigger clothes. I was tired of being tired. During this process I was a teacher. Over the years I spent time working in buildings with multiple floors and sharing rooms with teachers. I was out breath climbing stairs and walking to different classrooms. I was fatigued from standing all day. I was lazy and just wanted to sit. One day I was climbing the stairs to go from the basement, to the third floor and I felt like I was going to pass out. My heart was racing out of control. I was not used to this feeling and I ended up being told by the school I had to go to the hospital to rule out a heart attack. Luckily, I was fine. Did this motivate me to get into shape? Nope. It just made me lazier and more depressed. Later that year I was laid off due to budget cuts. Pile on more depression. I spent the next two years searching for employment. I felt like lesser of a man because I was not providing for my family the way I used to. I ate more, and more. the next minute I was spending my time at fast food restaurants. I would then try eating small portions, and then ended up eating pints of ice cream. I would lose some weight, then gain back more. I was my own worst enemy. I let society determine my self worth, my portion size, my likes, and my dislikes. I lost. I got tired of starting over, and over, and over, and over…. you get the point.
Finally I got a job at a warehouse. I was excited. I felt like like was going to turn around and would get better. I was wrong. I injured my knee at work and could not keep up to the demand required of my position. My mental stability was no where to be found. Being a very mental person, working with children, thinking on my feet, calculating numbers in my head all day, and now just staring into the end of trailers throwing boxes I was on the edge of a mental break down. I felt like I was going backwards in life. I went from being an educator, with a Masters degree, to a warehouse employee throwing boxes. I let the combination of my injury, and my pride, push me to quitting the job and working in a retail environment instead. I was eventually able to find a job at another school district shortly after.
I spent the beginning of the year adjusting to taking over for another teacher who had resigned. It was a little stressful and demanding at first, but I adjusted. I was on the top floor of this building as well. Yet again, I found myself out of breath and unable to move about the building as a normal person. I was fed up, and my wife motivated me to change. She was overweight and unhealthy as well. We made a commitment to ourselves to change. The end result of the process is a story that is always evolving. You can read about my transformation a little more in detail, here. That story talks about how my life changed because of P90X and my commitment, however it does not talk about what I needed to make the first step.
I knew I would not succeed, I knew I would fail, I knew I would not lose the weight and be able to keep it off. I was right in ALL of those situations. My attitude and my past experiences are what held me back. I know it sounds cliche, but it is true. If you truly want to succeed, your toughest and MOST IMPORTANT battle will be yourself and your mental attitude. Trying to make a dramatic change for the better, or even a small change, always comes back to your motivation and attitude. If you believe you can do it, you will. If you have the correct motivation, you will be able to stay motivated.
For me, my motivation was complex. I wanted to lose the weight, I was fed up of being overweight and unhealthy. I hit my breaking point. I also wanted to enjoy life, and my children, like I should be able to. I wanted to feel attractive again. My wife would love me no matter what or how I looked, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to feel more attractive for them. I wanted my kids to look at me like a superhero and not just a lazy man who was always too tired. I also wanted to feel comfortable in my own skin and clothes.
January 2014
I succeeded.
My attitude needed to be changed. These are the steps I took to succeed.
- Forget the past. Do not compare your current journey to your past failures.
- Believe in yourself. You can do it, you have the ability.
- Make a schedule. Schedule your workouts first thing in the morning. You avoid excuses and obstacles getting in the way. If you try to “Fit in” your workout when you “have time” you are setting yourself up for failure.
- Do YOUR best. You do not have to be great to start, but you have to START to be great.
- Accept progress. It doesn’t matter if you lost 0 pounds or 10 pounds in a week, if you didn’t gain that is progress.
- Understand the difference between failures and SET BACKS. Gaining weight one week, or missing a workout is not failure. It is a SET BACK. Failure is when you stop trying.
- Stop giving up and you won’t fail. You only fail when you stop trying. Tired of starting over? Stop quitting.