Positve mental attitude
Over the past near decade and a half I have been very clear on how I think CrossFit should be approached. Many of you would have heard me shout many immortal and highly encouraging motivational phrases such as “Drink a Cup of Concrete” and “Don’t be a Pussy”. With no context and no tone those can be considered a little non-pc but you will be happy to know those are the snowflake versions that I can actually publish 😇.
I grew up along with my Brother Dave, in and around the army, first as a Pads Brat (My dad served 36years) and then took the plunge and joined myself at 19 and served 6 years. More than enough time for me. Now during those formative years during the 80’s and early 90’s we had a great life. Go out, be kids, stay out of trouble. Mission accomplished. We also grew up with not many cares in the world, and thank god no social media. I wouldn’t say we were pushed too hard by our parents. We definitely weren’t drilled to within an inch of our lives and didn’t go wanting for much. We had each other, we had a football, and we had some wide open spaces to play in. Perfect!
Now somehow we managed to get to adulthood and have an inner steal. A winning mentality and a no quit kind of attitude. Obviously that comes from parenting, but I think it also comes from the alpha male environment. You don’t see it as kids as it’s all you know, but there was always competition, always people trying to get one over on you and always someone trying to take your place. I kind of thrived on that and enjoyed beating these people immensely. The only problem being that it carries through into every part of your life and is quite a difficult trait for many to deal with and I have had more then a few run ins with people who disagree with my opinions and more then a couple of failed relationships as a result.
Until recently, possibly the past 12 months I didn’t see why people couldn’t just get the work done. Couldn’t commit to achieving their goals even when those goals are extremely important due to health worries. I possibly even viewed it as being lazy. “What a Dick” I hear many of you say. And I now completely agree.
The gym has never been a place that has intimidated me, and I was only saying the other day how my inner meat head comes out in a globo gym. These past 12 months has made me very aware that this is the exception and not the norm. Many of the people who I have started working with here at AFSCrossFit through our Nutrition program and our Bootcamp courses do not feel the same way and very much view the gym as a nessecary evil as opposed to a place of joy and achievement. SOUND FAMILIAR?
I believe that most of this comes from mindset. Some of these obstacles are due to a fear of failure. Not being good enough or my favourite not being fit enough. However I also believe that there is a huge fear of success. Firstly not being able to see what success looks like, a fear that success is a shit tonne of hard work away and will people still like me if I am successful?
Pretty bonkers right but all true. I think also that there is a tendency to look at that 10 stone weight loss number, or that 15% body fat that needs to be shifted and get overwhelmed. Trust me when I say I have been there. Actually I am there. I have had a lot of injuries and work has been crazy and I could do with shifting 10kgs myself. Now at 1lb of weight loss per week that’s 22 weeks of hard graft. Tough workouts and a super clean diet. Sounds tough to me.
How I am approaching it is one day at a time. Let’s make small manageable changes that I can stick to and get started. That’s the biggest obstacle. Making the decision to start and then kicking off. After working with one of our nutrition coaches I made a plan. After diving into my daily meals it was clear I needed more vegetables so I started there. I added vegetables into every meal, Yes, including breakfast. And so it began. 2 weeks later having got that down pat I decided I needed more water throughout the day. so I aimed to go from about 4 pints a day upto 7. The more water you have the better your body works, the more fat you burn, and the more muscle you grow. after 6 weeks I was down 3 kgs and my body fat was down 3%. Bang on that 1lb a week target.
The nutrition was only part of it and I see a lot of people struggle with the mindset of getting fit. I was drifting along and not feeling like I was in control. This is where the story goes a little off my usual approach. No longer was head down and plough on working. Just grinding away putting one foot in front of the other was not working. So I did something radical. I started reading, First I read the 5am Club, then The high performance Athlete and just recently the Miracle Morning. These are all good books and very much have a common theme. You need to take time out to be silent, to think , and to put yourself first. Not in a selfish way but in a mindfulness way.
I could go into the S.A.V.E.R.S philosophy of the morning miracle but i’ll let you explore that for yourself. Ultimately what I started to do was to spend 20 mins just breathing, eyes shut concentrating on nothing but being silent and still. Quite a revelation as Im not sure I have ever just sat still and thought of nothing. I’ve recently started these things called affirmations and an even crazier concept in Gratitude. Again two things I have never even come across let alone started to do. Some proper left field thinking I know. I am still a little awkward with saying thanks for stuff but I will get there.
The take away from this epiphany over the past 12 months is:
You can only control what you do and what you think.
Live for right now. You can’t see the future and can’t affect the past.
Be positive, life is pretty tough, Is full of challenges. If you think positively you might just come out the other side a winner. If you think negatively you will 100% come out the other side a loser.
Goodluck in your journey.