“Enjoy the journey. Not just the result.” is part of a letter Camyrn Manheim wrote to herself once she was a successful actress and was asked to give her younger self advice. Most of her letter spoke to my heart but those two small sentences in particular made me pause and ponder how many of us are making sure that health and fitness is equal parts results AND gratification.
Results + misery= diet
Results + gratification= lifestyle
In fact, I changed up the wording a bit because I want both the journey and the result to be of EQUAL value.
There are a plenty of long journeys we take in life that would be boring and painful and EMPTY if we didn’t include personal satisfaction and fulfillment within the formula. We want our kids to enjoy school, not just get good grades. We want our jobs to be rewarding, not just a pay check. We want our relationships to be deep and meaningful, not just a ring on our fingers.
HEALTH AND FITNESS IS NOT THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE!!!
Just like there is no book or magazine that can tell you the exact route to feeling fulfilled in your job, at school, or in a relationship, there is no book or magazine that will provide you with the magic meal plan to create the body you believe you should have or deserve. Everything and I mean EVERYTHING that you buy or read (including my blog) is a skeleton or a blue print of where you can begin but you will get lost if you do not accept that the rest of the solution is yours to discover.
You OWN your process and it is, without a doubt, a NON LINEAR process where success and failure cycle in and out. Fairness is not the name of the game. Just because your girlfriend lost 25lbs doing one thing, does not ENTITLE your body to automatically respond equally. It is for THIS REASON that you are not to MINDLESSLY MIMIC deprivation but to MINDFULLY PLAY with the amount of exercise and food that brings about equal parts gratification and results.
Yes, you will absolutely lose tons of fat by doing 2-a-days with the no milk, no sugar, no bread, no fat, no alcohol diet. You will also miserably regain it once you are off this wagon.
If health, fitness, fat loss, and muscle gain is something you want to have for the rest of your life then that journey is like all the other valuable journeys you are on right now- full of joy, fun, tears, laughter, sweat, HARD WORK, ups, downs, start-overs, and do-overs.
