You can KNOW what it takes to lose weight, run faster, lift heavier, start a business, change careers, re-organize your house, etc… and accomplish none.
You can read all the books, blogs, magazines, talk to all the experts, make friends with all the right people, and get all the diplomas and certifications you want and still never really reach your destination.
Isn’t it, at least, curious that we can simultaneously KNOW “all the right information” and end up DOING none of it?
That’s because…
KNOWLEDGE AND ACTION ARE NOT THE SAME!
Here’s the thing.
Some knowledge is good. It’s pretty much amazing that we can search any nutritional topic we are curious about and have more information than we could ever imagine sorting through.
However, that “information gathering” stage is where I see people get stuck.
Fear of taking action. Fear of not getting it right. Fear of gain takes over.
They begin to plan… and plan… and plan and as questions arise they gather… and gather… and gather, ending up confused and no where farther in their journey than before.
Listen, I don’t want to say “I’m done” and “over” talking about calories, fats, protein, and carbs, (they’re important) but I am immensely more interested in BRIDGING the gap between information and action for people.
Afterall, if my personal journey began with processed, frozen, chicken nuggets, canned green beans, and frozen french fries… then truly that “perfect meal plan” people ache for doesn’t hold anyone’s automatic ticket to lifestyle change.
It may surprise you to know that one of my strengths in the beginning of my journey was that
My KNOWLEDGE was limited.
That’s right…
I knew very little about food, calories, protein, fats, carbs etc.
The awesome thing is that because there were fewer choices, fewer decisions, fewer paths…
It was very EASIER to get to the point of…
TAKING ACTION!
I simply took what I knew, what felt good, what felt do-able and started hacking my way through weight loss.
Looking back… hindsight being 20/20… not knowing… was a huge asset.
Here’s why and I hope it makes you stop being a “gatherer of information” and a “hunter for your own solutions”
- I BANKED ON ME RATHER THAN THE LATEST NUTRITIONAL HYPE!
So much of fat loss is NOT SCIENCE! It’s plain ‘ol psychology!
Instead of pouring all of my energy on books and meal plans, I spent my time figuring out my quirks, my individual needs, finding my breaking point and steering clear of it.
I didn’t DISMISS me over whatever scientific whatever said that carbs were bad at night.
In fact, eating oatmeal or a granola bar before bed was one of the habits I took up and I looked forward to the most.
I had not clue it was “bad.” I was too busy with my own results to go beyond what was working for me.
This, of course, is easier done 10 years ago than today.
But, I do want to encourage you to begin an “information fast.”
Stop gathering so much information. Stop watching what works for others. Stop thinking there’s anything WRONG with you because x, y, z doesn’t work for you.
Spend your time “hacking” you!
- What has worked for you in the past? Why? Are circumstances still the same? If not, how can you tweak things so that they better fit you?
- When you were at a happier place with your body, what were you doing consistently? What weren’t you doing consistently? What is available to you right now to help you repeat that?
- What takes away food anxiety for you? What things make food enjoyable for you? What makes meal time miserable? What are you willing to give up, reduce, or reintroduce?
- Who’s your support system? Who’s got your back when things don’t go your way? Who’s going to help you stay accountable and kind to yourself?
- I FOCUSED ON ONE BEHAVIOR RATHER THAN ACHIEVING NUMBERS.
Okay… so if you know my story you know that after the first year of my transformation my brain made a switch and entered into anorexia.
That’s when the number obsession began.
900 calories a day.
More mileage.
Faster mileage.
Do more, eat less was my religion.
But, that first year… before things went dark… gah! it was awesome!!!
I didn’t care what the scale said. I didn’t care about how many calories I was eating. I didn’t worry about my protein. Didn’t feel pulled to hitting any particular number by any particular time frame.
My energy was spent solving ONE fat storing behavior at a time.
I knew my night time wine drinking was out of hand.
One small glass had turned to one big glass. One big glass had turned to 2.
I could ban wine all togehter- I was not willing to do that.
I could reduce my intake every day- I didn’t feel like that would be as impactful as I wanted it to be and the amount of daily will power necessary to do that correctly was not something I wanted to handle.
I decided to allow wine Friday and Saturdays and eliminate it Sundays through Thursdays.
Not going to lie.
It was hard. Some days, SUPER CRAZY HARD.
I know now that our brains release a hit of dopamine every time we complete a habit.
No wonder I turned into a fein some evenings.
My stress buster was gone and my dopamine hit was gone. #crackheadmode
I stuck to it.
It made a HUGE impact in a short amount of time.
Small daily wins added up to a big win in about 6-8 weeks.
-
I FELT ZERO ENTITLEMENT TO ANY RESULTS!
And finally I realize today that since I didn’t put my faith in a book, a guru, a study, or a set method, I didn’t feel entitled to “results in 21/24/30 days or less.”
I stayed tapped into ME, my quirks, my needs, my behaviors.
If something worked, hooray.
If something didn’t, okay, no biggie… let’s work on this other thing right here.
I’m not broken. I’m not weak.
My results or lack there of never felt like a reflection of my worth, my ability, my desire to change.
It was data.
I reacted to data as a scientist should… without emotion… and a new hypothesis. MORE ACTION. NEW ACTION. And a let’s see what happens attitude.
YOUR TAKE AWAY:
My goal here is to help BRIDGE THE GAP you may feel between what you KNOW and what you DO.
I promise you know enough already.
I promise you don’t need to know everything.
I promise you don’t need to do everything right.
START! Just start… anywhere… with whatever is available to you now.
Give a big fat middle finger to organic, clean, high protein, more fats, or more carbs… blah, blah, blah.
You are the expert on you. You are the missing formula to everything you’ve read and know.
Put yourself, who you are, your needs, your likes, your dislikes, your quirks, your schedule, your stress, your budget BACK INTO THE EQUATION. Put your energy into hacking one thing at a time, without the pressures of TIME and RESULTS.
Stop planning. Stop trying to get everything figured out before starting. Just start!!!
