Copyright 2006 Raymond Burton
Its pretty easy to get sucked into the belief that if you want to lose weight you have to lift weights 3 times a week and then do cardio in addition to that at least 4-5 times for half an hour. Does that sound familiar? Of course it does, because it works. However, if it has not worked for you in the past, it’s probably because it just doesn’t rock your world. In other words, you would rather be rubbing pickle juice on a paper cut than lifting weights.
As with anything in life that you are able to take to a highly successful level, you need to love the physical activity you are doing in order to stick with it and give it your all. You have to have a passion for your training. Don’t get stuck on that word either. Training brings up all kinds of images of an overpaid trainer barking orders or worse yet sitting back and having a cup of coffee counting reps while you hate every moment of it. Now take a trip with me to the land of crosstraining for weight loss and see how this tickles your fancy.
7:30 AM – Your eyes open and you have your first choice of the day. How you create your internal monologue. Choice one; Say, “Crap, its 7:30 already? I hate my job, I want to rollover and die.” Choice two; you open your eyes and look at the ceiling for a couple of moments. Just lay there. Then you sit up and put your hands over your head, breath deep and say, “I have a choice how I live my life and I choose happiness”. Now get out of bed and do 5 sun salutations being mindful of your breath and all thoughts that come into your head.
After reading that you had one of two reactions. You either thought that I was a bubbly fitness nut that was off his rocker or you thought that this all sounded exciting and cant wait till tomorrow to try it. Your reaction was a reflection of your internal level of happiness.
That was the first step to you taking control and dictating how your day is going to be. This first step states that you will not be blown around the whims and moods of others or even your own negative thoughts. You are taking the reigns and the biggest project you have on the go right now is, you.
Now, the idea of crosstraining is that if it involves activity then it can be part of your routine! How easy and fun is that? You have already done some bodyweight resistance training today and also got in some stretching with the five sun salutations. What would you like to do next? What is in the back of your mind that when you think of activity, fun, sports or exercise that comes to mind? The funny thing here is that whatever it is that pops into your head probably strikes the fear of god into you even though you think it would be really fun.
As humans we are kind of weird that way. It seems like whatever it is that we are truly drawn to and whatever it is that is truly best for us actually scares the pudding out of us. The idea you have to wrap your head around though is that you would never have a sense of accomplishment if the things you tried didn’t overwhelm you a bit in the beginning. Remember that. Fear and anxiety are signs of personal progression.
So what do you want to try today in your crosstraining? Maybe a walk at lunchtime? If that sounds doable then get to it. Go have a blast and burn some calories while you are at it. That can be your cardio for today. Maybe when you woke up this morning you were a little stiff and were thinking about giving yoga a try. Maybe not because there will be all those skinny fitness yoga queens there and you don’t have a clue..WAIT. Did you catch it? That’s right! The thoughts of fear and anxiety starting creeping in, but you caught them. Since we know that fear and anxiety are signs of personal progression and this in turn brings you towards your weight loss goals, what do you suggest you should do? Great job, go to yoga!
It sounds like a broken record to say this but crosstraining and weight loss are lifestyle choices. Just like the choices you have made in your life before now that have taken you to this place. New lifestyle choices can take you to another. Where you want to go with your weight loss is totally up to you. How you want to get there is also totally up to you. In fact, whatever you want to get out of this life is placed squarely on your shoulders by the choices you make. Excuses are great, I use them sometimes too, but they only delay the arrival of a goal achieved.
Before I go I want to tickle on one last point. It’s got to do with emotions and action. This will be my way of getting you to act instead of fertilize. There is an emotional ladder that ranks the emotions of a person by a series of steps towards personal evolution and success. The very bottom of the ladder is apathy and despair. Let that sink in. The very worst emotion to sit around in and fertilize is apathy and despair. How do you get out is the question. You step up the ladder to anger. Anger sounds bad and there are better emotions but when you are depressed and cant seem to break free the easiest way to take action is to get fed up with your present state and do something about it! Simply say, “I’m angry and I am going to do something about this hole I have dug myself into!” Now of course we don’t want to be angry all the time, but you have to admit that getting angry and doing something that takes you towards your goals makes you feel real good!
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