I’ve listened to a few thousand people bullsh*t me about their “goals.” (more on that tomorrow)
Me: Why do you want to do this program?
Them: “Overall health, I guess. I want to have better energy. Losing some belly weight would be nice.”
–All are canned answers. Social media and commercials have trained us to think and say but never do these things.
We should be healthier.
We should feel vibrant during our only lifetime.
We should walk around without the extra 20+ lbs around our belly.
But we don’t, and we can feel pretty miserable if we stare our contradictions in the face. This problem intrigued and affected me years ago.
I’d gone through a painful break-up in my late twenties without having the tools to take care of myself as a single person. So, I drifted. I lost touch with my goals and any momentum I’d created towards them.
Vices like alcohol, some drugs, and the mass consumption of social media entered my life. I learned to seek the fastest way to feel good. I became stuck in a loop of becoming distracted from what I really wanted in life, looking up to find I was more off-course and unhappy, then distracting myself again. Over and over.
Do that for a year, and you won’t look the same. You won’t feel the same. You won’t act the same.
You’ll catch on that you’re different and not in the best way, then if you’re like many people I’ve worked with, you’ll unconsciously reach for the fastest way to feel better. You get stuck in a loop of your own.
We stay stuck because we feel overwhelmed, but getting out is far easier than we think.
It takes a flip in perspective.
Our natural state is happy, energetic, and able to live our days without existential crises. We layer these unhappy and unnatural things on top of that state, cover it up, and make our lives harder in exchange for the fast release of hormones they give us.
It takes energy to worry, ruminate, and compare ourselves to the highlights (or just flat our lies at this point) we scroll through on our phones.
It zaps our health to stay up drinking in excess multiple nights each week or even one night/week.
It costs both to eat poor food (food-like stuff) daily.
How can someone suffering from the above summon the energy to break out of that loop?
They don’t.
Instead, lay down your chosen weapons that you diminish yourself with, allow yourself to be okay without them, and reset.
Eat a high-protein diet.
Drink a lot of water.
Track your food once in a while.
Sweat in a way that you love.
Get back to having fun.
-J
