So – day one – you have one cent in the bank. Day two – two cents. Day three – four cents. Day four – eight cents etc. By day 30 – you’ll have over $5 million saved (go ahead – do the math). The idea is that major change starts with a small investment.
Think of the change you are working on in yourself, whether its your health, finances, relationships, or something else. Major change starts with a small investment. One of the ways I have experienced this concept is in the continuing reading/learning investment in myself. And the results over the last 10 years is substantial. Its not easy and I struggle with it, but I committed a 10 years ago not to start my day in any other way than a proactive reading of my choosing. That way I choose what the first thing my brain experiences instead of the other way around. I win that war more times than not, and in my daily reading, studying, and learning I came across a blog by a woman who has studied under one of my mentors which leads me to the post below. It inspired me as a person and as a coach involved in the day to day lives of people who hire us to help them, not hurt them.
I hope you enjoy it. Success has to start from within.
Anna
Sunday, 8 September 2013
Ending the war on our ourselves
This is probably the one of the most controversial blogs I have ever written.
In it, I'm going to explain why I have completely changed the focus of my entire business in the last 6 months, and why I think 99% of nutritionists and fitness professionals have been barking up the wrong tree.
I'm going to come right out with it and say, I think we've been wrong to put so much emphasis on diet and exercise.
Now, I'd understand if you think I've totally lost my mind. After all, I am a diet and fitness expert. But let me explain...
When we look at the research on weight loss (which is, unsurprisingly, extensive), we see that pretty much anything works on a short term basis. Weight watchers, 5/2 diet, cabbage soup, 500 kcal deficit.. you name it, it will work for a little while. We also see that after a certain amount of time, and even with rigid adherence, results drop off. This doesn't just apply to diet. It's the same with exercise. After a while the body becomes pretty savvy and the rate of fat loss decreases.
No matter what diet you follow, or what exercise program you do, you will never comfortably, healthily maintain a size 10 physique if your natural shape is a size 12. If you think about it, you've probably already proven this to yourself. If you have to actually monitor what you're eating and have any kind of good/bad scenario going on in your head with regards to food, the chances are you're being governed by cultural ideals and not your body's natural, healthy state.
I don't care who your trainer is. If your body is a happy size 14 and you starve and exercise it down to an 8, you're going to struggle to keep it there.
So why are we trying?
We're trying because of culturally dictated 'norms'.
If the widely accepted 'rules' of weight loss actually worked they would have worked by now and we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic. And that in itself has only added to the message that being a bigger build is not ok.
There are messages everywhere telling us that unless we're a certain size we're bad people, unattractive, lazy, undisciplined, unhealthy and unsuccessful. It's become as much a war on fat people as it has a war on fat. And what's happened as a result is that ALL of us, fat or not, end up living in terrible fear.
Those who are overweight are constantly fighting their body to change it, and those who aren't fat are terrified of becoming it. EVERYONE is afraid.
I know what you're thinking. 'But being fat is really bad for your health!'
IS IT?
One look at the research and we find that those who fall into the slightly overweight category actually live LONGER than those who are classified as 'healthy weight.'
Sure, morbid obesity isn't good for your health, and I am definitely not advocating we all rush out and stuff ourselves silly with doughnuts and pizza. But nor is being severely underweight healthy. They are two ends of a long spectrum, and what is healthy for one person isn't healthy for another.
I know a ton of healthy people who eat well, are happy, fit, look great and yet fall into the 'overweight' category.
I also know a ton of people who are absolutely miserable, desperately trying to beast themselves with diet after diet and training regime after training regime, trying to shoe horn themselves into a cultural ideal which will never be comfortable for them. But right now, that's the price they feel they have to pay to feel 'ok'. 'Accepted'. 'Worthy'. 'Loved'.
And as a coach, I hold my hands up and say I have helped people adhere to this ideal. I've mopped up the blood, sweat and tears of desperate dieting to look ripped, more times than I care to remember.
I've done it myself.
And I suddenly realised. What the hell am I doing?
I'm not being the change I want to see in the world. I am exacerbating the problem. Virtually the entire diet and fitness industry is, as it currently stands.
I want to encourage people to trust their bodies and allow them to stabilise at a weight that is right for them.
Our bodies did a pretty great job of that way before we had nutritionists telling us what we should and shouldn't eat.
You might be thinking, ok, so what are you going to do about it? You can't change a paradigm that is driven by a multi-billion pound industry!
Well, you know what, I think we can.
Once upon a time people got put in jail for claiming the world was round.
Paradigm shifts take time but they can and will happen if enough people are prepared to stand up and make it happen.
So, my team and I at Phoenix Pro Fitness (soon to be renamed the Charlotte Ord Academy) are starting with our corner. We are dedicated to promoting health at every size. Our mission is to provide solutions for fitness, health and happiness. All three. Not one at the expense of the others.
We are going to help people re-engage with and trust their bodies to tell them when they are hungry, or full, or need to move. We are going to help people love their bodies at their natural, healthy size, whatever that is. We're going to focus on vitality, and confidence, energy and wellness as dictators of health and not a clothing size or number on the scale.
We're going to encourage love of food, love of exercise, and love of life.
People tend to take good care of the things that they like.
And when people like their bodies, they tend to treat them a lot better, nutritionally, psychologically, and physically.
What I've come to realise over the last year or so is that the current obsession with dieting, exercise, and body image doesn't make people happy. It makes them miserable. It puts them at war with their own bodies.
Let's take courage and start creating a better, happier paradigm for future generations. Let's end the fight with our own selves. Let's make it easier for people to be happy and feel loved in any body. And let's stop bowing down to cultural ideals.
'...Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” - Apple
In it, I'm going to explain why I have completely changed the focus of my entire business in the last 6 months, and why I think 99% of nutritionists and fitness professionals have been barking up the wrong tree.
I'm going to come right out with it and say, I think we've been wrong to put so much emphasis on diet and exercise.
Now, I'd understand if you think I've totally lost my mind. After all, I am a diet and fitness expert. But let me explain...
When we look at the research on weight loss (which is, unsurprisingly, extensive), we see that pretty much anything works on a short term basis. Weight watchers, 5/2 diet, cabbage soup, 500 kcal deficit.. you name it, it will work for a little while. We also see that after a certain amount of time, and even with rigid adherence, results drop off. This doesn't just apply to diet. It's the same with exercise. After a while the body becomes pretty savvy and the rate of fat loss decreases.
No matter what diet you follow, or what exercise program you do, you will never comfortably, healthily maintain a size 10 physique if your natural shape is a size 12. If you think about it, you've probably already proven this to yourself. If you have to actually monitor what you're eating and have any kind of good/bad scenario going on in your head with regards to food, the chances are you're being governed by cultural ideals and not your body's natural, healthy state.
I don't care who your trainer is. If your body is a happy size 14 and you starve and exercise it down to an 8, you're going to struggle to keep it there.
So why are we trying?
We're trying because of culturally dictated 'norms'.
There are messages everywhere telling us that unless we're a certain size we're bad people, unattractive, lazy, undisciplined, unhealthy and unsuccessful. It's become as much a war on fat people as it has a war on fat. And what's happened as a result is that ALL of us, fat or not, end up living in terrible fear.
Those who are overweight are constantly fighting their body to change it, and those who aren't fat are terrified of becoming it. EVERYONE is afraid.
I know what you're thinking. 'But being fat is really bad for your health!'
IS IT?
One look at the research and we find that those who fall into the slightly overweight category actually live LONGER than those who are classified as 'healthy weight.'
Sure, morbid obesity isn't good for your health, and I am definitely not advocating we all rush out and stuff ourselves silly with doughnuts and pizza. But nor is being severely underweight healthy. They are two ends of a long spectrum, and what is healthy for one person isn't healthy for another.
I know a ton of healthy people who eat well, are happy, fit, look great and yet fall into the 'overweight' category.
I also know a ton of people who are absolutely miserable, desperately trying to beast themselves with diet after diet and training regime after training regime, trying to shoe horn themselves into a cultural ideal which will never be comfortable for them. But right now, that's the price they feel they have to pay to feel 'ok'. 'Accepted'. 'Worthy'. 'Loved'.
And as a coach, I hold my hands up and say I have helped people adhere to this ideal. I've mopped up the blood, sweat and tears of desperate dieting to look ripped, more times than I care to remember.
I've done it myself.
And I suddenly realised. What the hell am I doing?
I'm not being the change I want to see in the world. I am exacerbating the problem. Virtually the entire diet and fitness industry is, as it currently stands.
I want to encourage people to trust their bodies and allow them to stabilise at a weight that is right for them.
Our bodies did a pretty great job of that way before we had nutritionists telling us what we should and shouldn't eat.
You might be thinking, ok, so what are you going to do about it? You can't change a paradigm that is driven by a multi-billion pound industry!
Well, you know what, I think we can.
Once upon a time people got put in jail for claiming the world was round.
Paradigm shifts take time but they can and will happen if enough people are prepared to stand up and make it happen.
So, my team and I at Phoenix Pro Fitness (soon to be renamed the Charlotte Ord Academy) are starting with our corner. We are dedicated to promoting health at every size. Our mission is to provide solutions for fitness, health and happiness. All three. Not one at the expense of the others.
We are going to help people re-engage with and trust their bodies to tell them when they are hungry, or full, or need to move. We are going to help people love their bodies at their natural, healthy size, whatever that is. We're going to focus on vitality, and confidence, energy and wellness as dictators of health and not a clothing size or number on the scale.
We're going to encourage love of food, love of exercise, and love of life.
People tend to take good care of the things that they like.
And when people like their bodies, they tend to treat them a lot better, nutritionally, psychologically, and physically.
What I've come to realise over the last year or so is that the current obsession with dieting, exercise, and body image doesn't make people happy. It makes them miserable. It puts them at war with their own bodies.
Let's take courage and start creating a better, happier paradigm for future generations. Let's end the fight with our own selves. Let's make it easier for people to be happy and feel loved in any body. And let's stop bowing down to cultural ideals.
'...Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” - Apple
Source: Charlotte Ord Blog dot com
