NEVER FORGET: Retrain Your Fitness Brain

If you’ve read my blog for a while, it’s probably not the first time you’ve heard me say “you reap what you sow”. This could not be any more evident than with fitness. It’s just a simple fact: You train hard, you will look like you train hard. If you neglect your body, you will look like you neglect your body.

Every time I crack down on my diet and train hard, I’m always amazed at how fast the body responds when you give fitness your 100%. Really? Am I really that surprised every single time this happens? Yup! I’m in the industry and somehow I forget the thrill of seeing your hard work and dedication really pay off – and I forget just how WORTH IT it is!.

Never Forget
It’s like I come up with a case of fitness retardation. Somehow, when I am in the middle of fat and lazy land, I forget what it feels to be at my ideal weight – and it takes me a while to “get it” again (yes, I’m slow). Note the word “ideal”. My ideal weight is just that magic weight where I personally feel my best. This may not be a number for you. Truth is, I don’t even know what my ideal weight is – I just know it when I find it.

For me, it’s that feeling of putting on jeans and not having fat roll over the sides.  It’s being able to put on a fitted shirt and be comfortable in it without feeling like I have to suck in my gut the entire time to avoid popping a button (see hilarious video clip below!). It’s just the place I feel my absolute best – yet, when I’m diving in a bowl of chips and salsa, that feeling gets trumped by the taste of cilantro on my tongue. If only we could never forget.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycv3s7Z-I6Y]

Retrain Your Mind
If we can retrain our mind to think of the reality when we taste food or think of the reward when we are in the middle of a hard workout, we’d respond differently. Eventually our first thought when we face a high calorie food would not be how it tastes, but how it makes us feel – and I don’t know ANY high-calorie food that after I’ve eaten I thought “I am SO glad I ate that, I feel SO good!” And all those times we’re tempted to skip our workouts, if we could just remember how GREAT they make us feel in that very lazy pity-party moment, we’d RUN to the gym!

Reality
You truly do reap what you sow. We may not turn into a french fry after going to McDonalds, but I can guarantee you won’t feel, or look, as good as when you eat quality food and do quality work.

“Being fit feels better than food tastes”

Crap in = Crap out
Quality in = Quality out
It’s just that simple and it’s worth it!