Have you ever told yourself:
“I’m an idiot. I ate like total crap today.”
“Why am I so lazy? Why did I skip my workout this morning?”
“I have no willpower, because I couldn’t stop myself from eating those M&M’s.”
Every day, people trying to get healthy have tiny moments of weakness, and absolutely berate themselves for being “bad.” Then, they allow that one fleeting moment to absolutely derail any success they’ve had by making additional bad decisions because “it’s too late at this point.”
I’m going to teach you a little trick today to instantly stop this behavior and allow you to continue down your path towards a leveled up life.
It’s called the “Get the **** over it” rule, and it’s sweeping the nation.
Get the **** over it
If you are working to improve your life, you WILL hit speed bumps along the way.
We are all works in progress, which means that we will all make mistakes. Want to know the path to progress? Setting priorities, learning from our failures, and taking action…not self-sabotage, guilt-trips, and getting down on ourselves.
So let’s put the “get the **** over it” plan into action! Let’s take a look at those previous examples:
- “I’m an idiot. I ate like total crap today.” Get the **** over it! Eat f***ing phenomenally tomorrow. Deal? Deal.
- “Why am I so lazy? Why did I skip my workout this morning?” Get the **** over it! Go outside right now, run a mile and then do 30 push ups. Like, right now.
- “I have no willpower, because I couldn’t stop myself from eating those M&M’s.” Get **** over it! Throw the M&M’s away so you’re not tempted anymore, and move on.
Here’s the truth: One bad meal, one missed workout, or one day of overeating cannot undo weeks of hard work. It’s physically impossible – your stomach would explode before you got to that point. However, that one bad meal or one missed workout can mentally undo weeks of hard work, if you LET IT.
When you eat poorly for a day or two (probably loading up with carbs and sodium), you can step on the scale MUCH heavier than before…but it’s temporary. You might see a number on that scale that can absolutely demolish you if you let it. However, if follow up that one meal with a few days of clean eating, you can get right back on track.
It isn’t this mistake that matters…It’s the next one.
When you skip one workout, the next workout quickly becomes the most important workout of your life. One missed day becomes two days, which can become a week, which can VERY easily become a month. So never miss a workout two days in a row. No excuses. You have enough time – make it a priority.
Here’s another gem for the day…
Just fix it
I’m going to guess that you probably didn’t win the genetic lottery, which means you have to work hard to be healthy and look good.
You’re going to struggle with it. You’ll have days when all you can think about is eating candy. You’ll have mornings where “poking my eyes out” would come before “any sort of exercise” on your list of preferred activities.
When you screw up, skip a workout, eat bad foods, or sleep in, it doesn’t make you a bad person.
It makes you human.
Welcome to the club.
There’s like seven billion of us.
You’re going to have moments where you screw up or slow down. You’ll spend a week exercising properly and the scale doesn’t move. And you’ll see other people effortlessly losing weight and talking about their success while you’re still struggling to lose that first five pounds.You have two options at this point:
1) Most people choose to complain very loudly: They’ll tell anybody that will listen how bad their genetics are. And how busy they are. And how eating healthy doesn’t work for them. And how they just can’t seem to lose weight. Sure, it doesn’t produce any results, but it makes them feel better about not being honest with themselves.
2) Now, Nerd Fitness Rebels tend to fall into the “fix it” category. They choose to do a few key things, which you should too:
- Stop comparing yourselves to other people – you only see their results, without seeing their years of hard work and struggle.
- Stop complaining about how unfortunate your situation is, and understand that everybody is dealing with their own personal baggage. Play the hand you’re dealt, or in nerd terms…play the character you’ve rolled.
- Stop complaining about how you eat healthy and can’t seem to lose weight, and instead spend a few days actively figuring out if you really ARE eating healthy. Are you stuffing your face with “heart healthy whole grains,” sneaking M&M’s, and counting corn (a grain) as your only vegetable for the day? Be honest with yourself, listen to your body and find out what works best for you.
If you are not happy with how you look or feel, fix it. Do your research. Track your calories. Cook your own meals. Go to bed earlier and exercise more. Make small changes, but MAKE CHANGES.
The game of life is tough, amigo – nobody gets out alive.
So when you have a bad day, get over it. When you feel like complaining, instead, make changes.
The silver lining
Amidst the tough love, there is a silver lining to all of this.
You are an amazingly advanced piece of machinery.
Yes, you. You are capable of greatness. You can seriously become whatever you want if you’re willing to work for it.
What you did five minutes ago is done and cannot be changed. What you do five minutes from now, however, is completely up to you.
You are NOT your past.
You ARE your future.
Your destiny isn’t set in stone, so feel free to create your own.
Stop berating yourself for mistakes. Stop playing the “woe is me” card. Stop comparing yourself to those around you.
Smile and be thankful that you woke up today!
Quietly and consistently work towards building a better you.
Stop worrying about where you’ve been and put your focus on where you’re going.
Go. Start. Now.
-Steve
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photo source: iron man, clouds, sad lego, lego mechanic
