A Challenging Philosophy

One of the bloggers I like to follow/read is Craig Ballantyne. He recently posted this as his daily philosophy:

Five principles for success

1) Show up.

2) Get outside comfort zone

3) Take the necessary actions to move forward

4) Get the social support you need

5) Never give up.

Outside comfort zone = Dramatic steps forward.

I can think of several areas of my life where I could pursue this advice to my advantage. I'm going to do that and report back on what the outcomes are. I could apply this in my teaching, my personal business, my church work, my health goals, my writing, etc.

So, along with all the rest, here goes.

Eyes on the Prize

Having health related goals is important to the process of losing weight and becoming fit. And many people will gladly set goals. One of the challenges to successfully reaching our goals is keeping the goals in front of us. Many of the goal gurus suggest reading the goals on a daily basis or even more often than that. Here's an idea I use to keep my goals, deadlines, and progress in front of me. I use my bathroom mirror as a personal white board.

I use white board markers to write on my mirror. I write down my goals, my deadlines, and my current progress. I also do this to remind myself of things that are coming up that need to be taken care of in the next day or so. My mirror is like a page from my personal Daytimer or Day Runner.

Dry erase marker marks can just be easily wiped away with a tissue. Colors are available so that emphasis can be made where necessary. And every morning you look at yourself in the mirror, there are the goals and a visual reminder of who is responsible for reaching your goals - the man (or woman) in the mirror.

Saving the Goal

Well, I'm there again: one hundred eighty five pounds. I have 13 lbs to lose in the next month - at this point 30 days to Jan 1. Time to focus and save this goal.

A goal is a promise we make to ourselves. Too often we allow ourselves to break those promises. After all, who will be affected? But these are some of the most important promises we make and some of the most important to be kept. The old saying is that promises are made to be broken. I can think of a number of promises that should never be broken and among those are the promises we make to ourselves to make our lives better.

My BMR is 1700 calories daily for 175 lbs. I'm shooting for 1000 calories a day. That gives a 700 calorie deficit every day, that's 1 lb every 5 days and that's a total of about 6 lbs loss by Jan 1. The rest will have to come from a  forced calorie deficit.

There is no weight loss without good nutrition, exercise and, importantly, calories deficits.

The goals remain: 172 lbs by Jan 1, complete 1 round of P90X by April 4th (Easter) and finish a second round by July 4th.

Here's to pulling this one out of the fire.