The No More Excuses Diet (52 page)

Procrastination and complacency are two big excuses people give for not changing. Many put off what is important for
tomorrow
because of short-term stresses or momentary satisfactions. Maybe you don’t feel your weight and unhealthy habits are taking a toll, but it’s not a matter of
if
; it’s
when
—when your organs, bones, and overall body succumb to the additional pressure you are applying to them. Maybe you won’t be able to run with your children, to watch them grow old, or to travel the world in your later years. But if you want a toned body, if you want to see your focus and energy soar, if you want a more healthful life, what on earth are you waiting for?

Every dream begins with a desire. Once that desire takes hold of your psyche, this is the moment to move. Don’t wait for tomorrow,
don’t wait until next week—you need to start now. When you make that decision to change, it has to be a solid thought, stemming from an urgent place.

This book is not about perfection or about beating yourself up if you aren’t getting results as quickly as you’d like.
It’s about making progress.
It’s about not giving up. It’s about letting go of guilt or fear of failure and clearing a path for yourself so that success is the easiest option. It’s about believing that you deserve to love your body and proving to yourself that you can do
anything
you set your mind to. I will be honest with you: I ate a couple cookies earlier tonight. I was premenstrual, incredibly stressed from work, and fatigued from days on end with the kids. Do I feel bad about it? No. Will I begin anew tomorrow? For sure.

The tools and ideas in this book should give you plenty of ways to get started. Since most of our lives are spent lying in bed or sitting in the car, at work, or watching television, it’s vital you find opportunities for activity wherever you can. I have been known to walk up and down stairs at airports, perform push-ups at the park, and do lunges while watching television. Here are ten easy ways to incorporate more physical activity into your daily life:

Success is not about making huge promises to yourself that will be hard to keep; you will get the results you want by making manageable commitments to yourself and following through—no matter what.

Bruce Lee wisely said, “Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” At this point in our No More Excuses journey, we know that it has not been an easy one. On this road less traveled, many have lacked support, resources, finances, and, oftentimes, faith in this process. As we continue to master our S.T.R.I.V.E. principles, let us remember that stress can work for or against us. How we perceive our circumstances and how we adapt to change will determine our overall success.

In this chapter we will take a good look at our journey so far and begin tackling life—not just fitness—but life. We can’t be successful on one end of our life while several other parts deteriorate. We must learn to balance, organize, prioritize, and focus on what’s important.

Let’s get real. You’re going to miss workouts. You’re going to have an unplanned splurge. You’re going to be imperfect in this process because the fact is, nobody is perfect. Not me, not your favorite athlete, and not you. Be forgiving of your weaknesses and focus on your progress. We can always get a little better, and that’s the beauty of this journey. Remember that imperfection is perfect. When you strive to attain a higher level of excellence, you are working toward progress. Will you ever reach perfection? No. But the striving to attain it is rewarding in itself and will bring you closer to becoming the person you were meant to become.

The only way to grow is to be challenged. There is no other way. Like the chest muscles that ache while you’re pushing through a push-up or adversity in your life that’s challenging your mind and spirit, you will become stronger through the process of surviving the pain. So ask yourself: Are you uncomfortable yet? Do your muscles feel sore? Are you pushing yourself hard enough to get results that you’re excited about?

If not, let’s take a look at some of the things that could be slowing you down. This is a diagnostic test you must regularly run on yourself to ensure you are getting the mileage you want from the vehicle that is your body. If you discover inefficiencies, troubleshoot them. There is no stopping on this road; you are driving and striving to become your very best!

I often compare the body and its metabolism to a car and its engine. You can’t expect your car to perform well if there are inconsistencies in its care. Are you fueling it regularly? Are you getting oil changes and tune-ups? Are you driving it too hard? Are you not driving it at all?

For your body to become a “lean, mean, fat-burning machine,” you need to remember the first lesson for success:
consistency.
You must create a trusting environment for you and your body to exist, breed, and progress in. You need to eat at the same time, sleep at the same time for the same length, and poop at the same time—every single day. Your body is a machine, after all, and by giving it proper training, conditioning, and consistency, you can become its effective operator. Most people fail to eat regularly, plateau in their program, suffer from digestive issues, are stressed, and are sleep deprived. If you can master these five elements, you can improve your physical progress and overall quality of life.

If you’re being consistent in your plan, whatever was difficult a month ago should now be easier to perform. Perhaps running a mile was difficult at first, but now it’s not as much of a challenge. Maybe reducing your calories to a certain number resulted in weight loss initially, but lately you’ve noticed that you’re not getting any slimmer. Your body is always adapting to the pressure, which makes losing weight a double-edged sword. Hitting plateaus is naturally part of this process, and that’s actually a good thing: It means that your past efforts have worked!

Remember, though, that challenges are what make you stronger, so you need to create new challenges to continue getting stronger. If you notice your endurance and strength increasing, you should celebrate the fact that your hard work is paying off. Take a week to enjoy and reflect on how far you’ve come, then think about how you can switch up your exercise program to take yourself to the next level.

If you want to keep building your best body, you’re going to have to step up your intensity or change your strategy. To change, you have to challenge yourself more. Sometimes you will spend weeks without seeing any results. Be patient as you persist at this plateau. Continue working hard, staying focused, adjusting your plan, and remaining faithful to your program.

Striving stems from a desire and passion to be better than who you are today. That’s why you picked up this book, right? You want to overcome excuses. You want to realize the person you know (and I know) you can become. You have to believe in your power and your purpose. When you start to see your body change, when you start strengthening your mind and empowering your spirit, you will be astounded by the amount of might that you hold within you right now.

If you’ve built a heavy vehicle, that means you’ve been fueling it with more than it needs to run. But you can’t just stop fueling the machine entirely. Most people make the mistake of reducing their fuel intake so much that the engine starts to break down. If you’re not fueling your machine, how can you operate? When you are constantly running on empty, it’s only a matter of time before your engine starts to stall. Instead, you need to reduce the fuel slowly to ensure you can still operate while improving your body’s physical exterior and ultimate performance.

So eat. You should be eating what you usually eat, but a little less each week. Keep in mind that I said a
little.
I didn’t say to drop your caloric intake to 1,200 calories a day if you’ve been consuming 3,000. In fact, if you’re hitting a weight-loss plateau right now, it could be because you were overambitious in dropping your caloric intake too early in your program. If you are not eating enough, your body doesn’t know what’s happening—it thinks there’s possibly a famine. So your body begins to store fat and burn calories at a slower rate.

You are doing a disservice to your diet if you’re dieting too much. If you aren’t feeding your body enough, your body will reduce the speed it takes to process foods, so it can burn at the new pace you are feeding it. Your body is an adaptable machine and will adjust itself according to the stimuli placed upon it. So start eating more regularly and increase your calories if you’re not giving your body enough nutrients. The goal isn’t to eat the
least
amount of food; the goal is to master your metabolism and have it serve you.

If you are eating, then you should be digesting. There is no set rule for how often you should be “on the john,” but you should be urinating
every one to two hours and have a bowel
movement every one to two days. Unfortunately, Americans struggle with this single “act,” with the laxative industry making $725 million annually.

The perfect bowel movement is experienced without difficulty and the stool floats (at first). How does it smell? Does it stick to the toilet bowl? Are you straining? Is your toilet time a 10-minute event? These are great questions you can ask yourself as you are becoming the master of your machine. There is no better sign of good health than how your body processes foods.

When I’m not regular, I know something is wrong. I’m either eating unhealthy foods, I’m too stressed, or I’m not drinking at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. Nothing is more evident of that than after a huge splurge day, when I’m literally hunched over on the john somewhere, wishing I had had more discipline the day before. It’s not just the frequency you should consider, it’s also the size and shape that should concern you.