Thoughts on Day 1

Day one at the gym actually took place yesterday. I went a bit late so I decided to write about it the next day instead.

      I often run into people and friends who tell me, "I wish I liked working out!" or they will often say "I wish I enjoyed reading." after giving it some though I was able to finally break apart what these phrases mean. The brain releases chemicals when you do certain actions. The happy chemical is Dopamine(this is the short version, sorry its so watered down) So really what these people are saying is, "I wish my brain released dopamine naturally every time I worked out". People wish their persona simply accepted and enjoyed things that were good for him or her. But the reality is that it takes weeks and months to develop a feeling of pleasure from the things you dont enjoy now. So really, this journey is a journey of pleasure. To attain pleasure from doing things that make you better and not worse than how you already are, and pleasure from what you become.

      I understand that a healthy diet is thee most important element for loosing weight. But I also believe that people go about it completely wrong. A person will hit rock bottom with their self image and will one day say to his or herself, "No more, I will loose weight ASAP because I cant take this anymore! (As they pinch the extra thicks of skin at their sides)"  So they will go out and try a crazy diet filled with no carbs, or one with just carbs and no protein, some will do no meat, and some will simply eat plants. Others will live off of coffee and crackers, the breakfast for champions.... But I noticed that many times these people run into a wall of disappointment. The reason is because they automatically make a 1000% change into their habits with no particular end-game. They shock themselves with crazy diets and hard workouts, but after a few weeks their bodies an minds decide to simply be honest out loud, and their brain screams, "I hate this!!"  So they break the diet and the new gym routine. They will be left with nothing but feelings of disappointment because they failed. And all you do is sit there and watch the notebook while ugly-crying and eating ice cream because you broke your new diet and you failed at life... Im not the only one right?
   
      Yes perhaps the first few weeks were filled with rigor and determination, and they saw the pounds shed off their ass, like ice cream on a sunny California day, but jumping in cold turkey with no end-game plan, in my humble and highly-pretentious opinion, will many times result in a disaster. No shame needed. I personally believe that thinking long-term will bring better results. For example, I want to start a new habit of discipline so I begin going to the gym everyday. Once I have a solid routine going, I can begin to introduce a couple salads throughout the day. Week 1, no more soda for me. Week 2, stop munching on ungodly amounts of pastries, and papitas( if you dont speak Spanish, google it). Week 3 Starbucks needs to stop ( this one hurts a lot I know because I love coffee) but long term, you develop these habits, so your end-game strategy is a healthy life style which you dont have to force, because you slowly introduced new habits and they actually stuck! and there was no shame attached to your results.

      And this, I believe is a better way of establishing a good healthy life. I dont like buying in to hot new diets, its not a diet, its a life style. We are all so eager to satisfied our needs for instant gratification. We want to push a button and melt off the fat. Instant gratification! instant gratification!! but sometimes aiming long term can be a better strategy.

The hardest part with all things, or at least in my opinion, is to get started. Your brain does this funny thing where it starts to give you TMI (too much information) about the process you will be starting; the tediousness, the absurdity of it all, until finally, you are talked out of doing anything by your worst enemy; yourself. Going to the gym is not a hard task in itself, but rather, actually going there is the real odyssey.Getting in your car and driving is the hardest part, once youre actually there you realize its not that bad. I am no expert in the science and psychology of habits and starting new habits, but I have read enough to be pretentious around other people about the subject. And I have come to the following conclusions; I am my worst enemy, I need to establish new behaviors through repetition, and I need to do it for about 21 days for it to actually stick. So my fitness goal will revolve around this. I wish I could set up a cool goal like lifting 300 lbs by a certain date, or running with the lions by christmass, or having a 13 pack. But nope. My fitness goal revolves around consistency and discipline. My karate sensei always yelled at me for lacking discipline, so I guess I should work on it. In the words of my sensei, (and please imagine a thick Japanese accent while reading this) "You very talented person. But no discipline, discipline IMPORTANT!! You have European wife, Russian gurl strong, she leave you if you don't have discipline!". So there you have it, I need to build consistency because the talent is there, but I lack commitment. So my goal will revolve around 30 days, all documented here about establishing a new habit. It wont be any crazy workouts or nothing of the sort, simply... showing up. Next time I log on I plan on posting my weight and measurements so you can see for yourself what I fat ass I really am.