But do not be afraid. There is no reason to dread this. The physical demands of fitness training will seem minuscule once you have the appropriate mindset.
Finding your spark of motivation
I have a personal story to share. I finished my freshman year of college tipping the scales at more than 225 pounds. I was greater than 15% body fat. I was not pursuing fitness but rather relying on the active metabolism I'd always possessed in my youth. The most troubling part was, I didn't even recognize how much I was letting my physical condition slip.
Then one day while on break at my summer job, a co-worker who I went to high school with relayed to me an exchange he had with a former friend of mine. Somehow I'd come up in their conversation and apparently she'd told him, "Eddie Rybarski got fat." Now it may not have been her place to say this, or his place to let me know she said so, but I'm sure glad they did. Those words stuck with me, and provided the spark I needed to change my lifestyle.
When I got home from work that day, I went for a run. I did the same thing the next day after work. And again after work the day after that. And again after every day of work for the rest of summer. If there was ever a day or a moment during my run I felt like giving up, I simply thought of those words that I was determined to defeat: "Eddie Rybarski got fat".
I wore a rubber band around my wrist to remind me of these words. Before long, the rubber band came to represent a number of different thoughts that motivated me. I found that by keeping my train of thought narrowed to a few key motivating ideas, the run became nothing to do with exercise or fitness. It was about proving people wrong. It was about becoming a better person.
By the end of summer, I'd lost more than 35 pounds. I'd achieved these results without paying much of any attention to my diet. I simply ran the same three mile route as well as I could every day. As the pounds came off, the exercise came easier. I just ran harder.
If you're looking for these kind of results, try doing the same. Find a spark of motivation - something that really motivates you at your core - and let it drive you. If you can't find one off-hand, search for it while you exercise. Or borrow mine. Imagine a person you greatly respect saying you "got fat" or some other derogatory comment that gets under your skin. Once you've found your spark, focus on it intently before workouts and during periods of weakness.
"This path I'm running, I must run alone"
Many people who are trying to foster a new workout regimen look to a partner or trainer for encouragement. The popular belief is that you will be more likely to stick to your plan if you have someone to keep you accountable. But this thinking is flawed. True change must come from within. The best way to adopt better fitness habits is to become fully convinced that you are doing so because you really, really want to.
One of the reasons I think my method of weight loss was so effective was the solitary approach I took to exercise. Anders Erricsson, a psychologist from Florida State University in Tallahassee, has spent the past 20 years studying geniuses, prodigies and superior performers in fields such as sports, the arts, and entertainment. His work, as cited in The New Brain, reinforces the benefits of this method.
"Ericsson is firmly convinced that there are no special inherited qualities that distinguish persons with expert abilities. The key ingredient it turns out to be the willingness to 'stretch yourself to the limit and increase your control over your performance,'...
Ericsson found a...pattern of intense solitary, deliberate practice among superior performing athletes, chess players, and mathematicians.
He concludes, 'For the superior performer the goal isn't jut repeating the same thing again and again but achieving higher levels of control over every aspect of their performance. That's why they don't find practice boring. Each practice session they are working on doing something better than they did last time.'"With a partner, it becomes essentially impossible to completely lose yourself in your motivation and improve your mind-body connection. Your potential will be limited by chatter, trying to maintain an even pace, and any number of distractions. For this reason, I also advise leaving the headphones at home. Even though you are alone, you are still flooding your mind with noise and thoughts that can interfere with the ability to properly motivate and pace yourself.
Work OUT
Forgive the title of this section if it is a poor attempt at trying to creatively say "workout outside".
I've found running outside to be beneficial in a number of ways. Aside from being a great place for solitary exercise (which is practically impossible to find at the gym), the outdoors provide a natural terrain that our bodies were designed to scamper over. It can help you get in touch with your "animal instinct" and is an abundant source of fresh oxygen for your mind and respiratory system. Gyms can be a great way to get a workout in when the weather does not permit outdoor exercise, but workout machines tend to isolate certain body parts and can complicate basic fitness goals.
But the greatest advantage to exercising (specifically running) outdoors is that it encourages you to truly stretch your limits. It is way too easy to give up on your run on a treadmill. How easy is it to give up on a run when you are two miles from home? My advice for runners at any level of fitness is to run as far as they can before they feel they absolutely MUST turn back. Chances are, this distance will be much farther than you would have done on a treadmill or if you'd planned your distance in advance. You need to learn to listen to your body for your fitness goals to succeed. This is a great way to start doing so.
Visualize
Your primary motivator will likely invoke visual thoughts and emotions you should apply in your training as well. Start using them to enhance your focus. If it's a case of someone bad-mouthing you, imagine them doing so. If your spark is a sleight you received by a former friend, coach or employer, imagine them on the side of the road watching.
When you start thinking visually, you expand your motivational opportunities exponentially. Your spark will likely spawn other ideas from which you draw motivation. If you initially imagine an individual person who has wronged you, you can easily begin to imagine others as well. While spite or anger can serve as a great impetus for exercise, pride is what I've found helps sustain it.
When I exercise nowadays, I rarely need to think back to my primary motivator. Instead I imagine the people I love watching me. This visualization can take many forms. I can imagine crowds on the side of the path shouting my name, a stadium of friends and family cheering wildly for me, or even how individuals might react to watching me compete on television. When I can "see" and feel the pride they have for my effort, my energy and enthusiasm is boundless.
(If you find visualization is something you are struggling with using effectively, I suggest picking up The Mental Edge).
Conclusion
The greatest weight loss secret is there are no secrets! There are countless methods and programs for exercise, but none better than the one you teach yourself. You will hold yourself to it because you are using your core motivations, listening to your body and doing it because you really, really want to. Once you have that kind of self discipline, you will be able to accomplish anything you set your mind to.
Thanks for reading. As always, please contribute any thoughts or opinions relating to this post in the comment section below.
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