April 26th, 2009
How many of you have “To Do” lists?
Are fitness and health activities on this list?
What percentage of your “To Do” list ends up “To Done”?
I’m sure some of you have read books like the one from the great Steven Covey call “First things First”, but here comes the real deal maker.
Are the things on your list the things you Need to do, or are they the things you are willing to do.
Chances are if you wrote a new list of 10 things (That are legal and morally correct) that you don’t want to do. The first 10 that come to mind are things you need to do the most.
When I first started out and made the decision I was going to work towards getting fit, I had to set my priorities. In the first couple of weeks almost anything could derail my scheduled gym time. I always found an “I can’t exercise today because”.
If you truly want to get into shape, lose weight, or any other goal for that matter, here is what I suggest.
Write down all the ways you could achieve your goal, then put big X by the ones you don’t want to do.
Mine looked like this:
X Watch what I eat and make sure it is healthy and nutritious
Cut out sugary drinks and some snacks.
X Exercise for 45+ mins per day.
X Publicly declare my goals so that I’m held accountable
Take supplements to make sure I’m getting the right levels of vitamins and nutrients
Remember the X stands for something I really didn’t want to do. Those are the items I needed to do the most.
Ask your self what it is that you have as a goal… then make sure its not fear and hesitation of doing the things you don’t want to do, keeping you from achieving this goal.
Categories: Motivational |
Tags: goals | 4 Comments
January 27th, 2009
A Riddle: “Who Am I?” – If you know me and control me I can change your life.
By Ronald Skelton
Here is a riddle for you, see if you know what it’s talking about:
I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.
Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me, and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.
I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons I will do it automatically.
I am the servant of all great men.
And, alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.
I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine, plus the intelligence of a man.
You may run me for profit, or run me for ruin; it makes no difference to me.
Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will put the world at your feet.
Be easy with me, and I will destroy you.
I am a HABIT! — Unknown
I received the above riddle from a co-worker of mine and felt that it is definitely the best explanation of a habit that I have ever heard.
HABIT…When most people hear this word, they automatically go to the negative thoughts that comes to their minds. People think of a habit being negative.
The secret to your health and even your future lies in your daily habits.
“Are my current habits going to help me achieve my goals in life?” This is a life-changing question if you truly ask it and listen for the answer.
When I named this website Done Dieting, I did it for a reason. Diets are temporary and have the same negative connotation that the term HABIT has. I decided that my weight loss was not going to be part of my HABIT of yo-yo dieting this time around. I was going to replace bad habits with good ones.
Here is how the process works. Pick a bad habit and replace it with one that will pull you closer to your goals in life.
I started with my habit of sitting around on the computer to much, I replaced 1-2 hours of my computer time each day with physical activities such as going to the gym.
The next habit that I replaced was eating way to many sweets. I replaced that habit with snacking on fruit instead of cakes and other sweets. (Sugar is very addicting and I still have sweets from time to time but they are very limited).
This process isn’t easy and takes a great deal of willpower in the beginning.
If you look at the definition of habit, Habit: an automatic pattern of behavior in reaction to a specific situation. (pulled from google search “define: habit”), the two key terms here are automatic and reaction. A habit is something you do without thought, its automatic.
What does it take to create a new habit? It’s a common belief that in order to make something a habit you must do it a minimum of 21 times. I like to use the 30 day rule.
When I want to develop a habit say working out 6 times a week, I mark it down on the calendar and schedule my workout time in for the next 30 days. I also get in the “habit” of adding it into my schedule as I plan out past that 30 day mark.
I’m going to go back to my belief that it’s the “Whys” in life that make us succeed. It’s the why that will help you change your habits.
A well developed “Why”, that burning fire inside of you that helps drive your determination is required to change and form new habits, but changing habits is the main key step to achieve our goals.
If you don’t develop a burning reason “Why” you’re trying to achieve a goal, chances are it will not happen.
All it takes to achieve any desire in life, is believing in your “WHYs” so much that you won’t let anything stand in your way and a good set of habits that will push you to success.
You need to review what your habits are and ask yourself…”Would I recommend MY habits to someone I truly care about?” Someone with the goals that I have? If not change it.
Your entire future lies in your habits-positive or negative. You have the most powerful force right now in your hands, the ability to decide what your habits will begin to be.
Control your Habits = Control of your life
(BTW- This is a work in progress for most of us, including myself.)
Categories: General, Motivational |
Tags: achievement, goals, Habit, progress, riddle, success, why | 3 Comments
January 4th, 2009
Where do I start?
I’ve had a few people ask me… Ron… I want to lose weight also but “where do I start?”
The simple answer is there is a very simple starting point. Right Now! Maybe not physically but at least mentally.
Step 1: Get a little motivated: (you’ll find that a little motivate grows up into a great motivation if nourished.)
What is motivation? I like to think of motivation as “My Why”. If you don’t have a “Why” it’s hard to accomplish anything. (this is a good time to quite your inner 5 year old…. “Because” isn’t a good enough answer to “why”).
My why is to live a healthy life, teach marital arts and help others do the same?
Is motivation a single thing? Absolutely not, all humans are motivated by many many objects, some more than others.
I’m motivated by helping others, seeing results, feeling great, and of course financial gain. (don’t lie money motivates most people.. think of all the things you wouldn’t eat… but I put a hundred dollars on the table beside some of the common foods you think are disgusting, I’d bet the majority of you would choke it down.)
Where does motivation come from? Inside! I can’t motivate you. I can influence your motivation… I maybe even be able to drill sergeant some anxiety into you so that you work out harder… but true motivation comes from within. It comes from your why.
Step 2. Set some goals
Goal setting is part of planning and we’ve all heard that people don’t plan to fail…they fail to plan. So write down some goals.
What makes up a good goal?
- It needs to be specific… NO “lose weight is not a good goal”.
- It needs a time line. A due date.
- It needs to be realistic. Not to others but to you… You need to believe in your goals. I hear people tell me that there is no way I’m going to lose 100 lbs in 1 year… (135 lbs in less that 1 year 3 months). They don’t know me. I’m the most determined man on this planet.
I have a goal of being at 199.x lbs (under 200) by Dec 31 2009.
That’s 100lbs from where I stand today. Now I have a few other large goals like this but they don’t relate to this topic so I’ll refrain.
Step 3. Now that you have a goal in mind, break it down into micro goals.
My first micro goal was to walk into the local gym. I knew I used to enjoy working out and that if I put myself back in that environment I would likely want to get really into it.
This is a continuing process. I have dozens of micro goals. Some I just have mentally but most I written down.
I had a micro goal of getting on the elliptical trainer and seeing what I could do. That turned into a micro goal of increasing my time and calories burned while on it. Today I get on the elliptical and it’s normal for me at 300 lbs to stay on it for 1hr 30 mins or more and hit calorie counts of up to 1500 in a single session.
Micro goals are key to successfully reaching a major goal.
Step 3. Action: as Nike would say, Just do it.
This is the most important part… as a mater of fact you can do this before you officially do the others.. Its simple… push yourself way from the computer and go for a walk. Push out a few push ups. Do something. You’ll find that this will get the blood flowing and you’ll be eager to complete each of the other steps.
If you haven’t read my post What 4 Things Can Get You Anything You Ever Wanted Out Of Life? You must do so now… but it’s a twitter exclusive so follow me on twitter and get the password.
Good luck, Good Health and Great fun.
Categories: Motivational |
Tags: goals, health, motivation, start | 2 Comments
December 27th, 2008
Tips and tricks I use to make it for over 1100-1500 calories in one cardio session non-stop.
- Goals (Achievable goals I should say). I know what my goal is before I get on the machine. The goal is realistic and I’ll never go less than the goal but I may go more.
- Micro goals. As I’m going along I pick things like the half way point or trying to maintain a 100 per 7 min pace. These micro goals help me make it through the workout.
Mind games:
- I always change the display to show the least amount of time. For example our machines only go to 60 min’s then a 5 min cool down.
- For the first 30+ minutes I set it to total time I’ve been on the machine, so I see it climbing 5, 10, 15 etc…
- After the 30 min mark, I set it to time remaining, so I see 29, 25, and 20.
- I wear multiple layers: a long sleeve, under a T-shirt, under a hoodie. It serves two purposes :
- First, I like to sweat so it helps me get a sweat going.
- Second, as time goes by (sometime past the halfway point) I start shedding layers, & it makes it seem like it just got easier. I pull off the hoodie… and say… now that’s more like it, this is easier!
- Music, Audio books… Something… just get your mind busy thinking about something else. Be selective about what you’re listening to. The other day I was just listening to the radio and about 45 min into my workout a song about NEVER ENDING love came on… I don’t want to hear the words NEVER ENDING when I’m trying to get through a tough workout.
What does all this add up to?
Sheer determination and will power… Only you decide when to quit.
Categories: General, Motivational |
Tags: elliptical, tips, tricks | 1 Comment
December 20th, 2008
A close personal friend of mine wrote something on his myspace a while back and I thought it would be good to share here.
All that you will become will depend on you.
Current mood: 
determined
All that we will be is a product of what we are doing and thinking today… You first have to set your mind to it and really believe in it. If
Sifu Chris Smith
you dont believe that you can accomplish the goals that you set out to do then you will for sure have a self fulfilling prophecy… Secondly you have to actually try… I know thats hard to believe but it’s amazing to me the people who come to me and want to improve but wont put in the effort necessary to get them where they want to go. Thats like wanting to go to the store but not ever getting in the car to drive there. What have you done today to accomplish what you want in life? If you havent done anything today why not? Do you really want to accomplish it or are you just dreaming about something that will never happen because you are not willing to put in the effort… You can think of any excuse in the book as to why you cant do something trust me i have heard them all when it comes to training. But if you want it bad enough you will find a way to make it happen and not let anything or anyone stop you from it… Ultimately life is what you want it to be and where you are at is because you choose to be there… So get off the couch and change it…
Categories: Motivational |
Tags: determination, effort, MMA | 1 Comment
