It has been over a year since I reached my current weight, and people are still asking me what my "secret" was. Almost everyone is expecting me to give out some sort of "magic" solution. Looking back there were really only two principles that were core to my own personal success. The first of course was having reliable and accurate weight loss information. Real weight loss information, not the ineffective stuff mainstream media likes to tell us; the only thing I loss following their advice was lots of time. The second key to success was discipline. Even with the perfect information at hand, I would not have lost even a single ounce if I did not exercise self-discipline to carry out the information.
Most of us prefer to avoid pain and discomfort; it is our nature. We would rather do the things that are pleasurable. Willfully engaging in activities that are both discomforting and even occasionally painful goes against our grain. And yet, to achieve the physique that so many people desire requires us to do these very things. This is where discipline comes in. To go from couch potato who only did light workouts a couple days week from to a hardcore doing heavy cardio twice a day every day required me to develop strong discipline. Discipline to drag myself out of bed early in the morning so I can complete my cardio in time to get ready for work. Discipline to push myself hard during cardio, not light and easy while reading magazines or books. It means I walked away from my favorite junk foods and eat the same foods day in, day out. It means I go to the gym, regardless how bad my mood, and I stay until I complete my exercises, not when I am merely tired. It means I do the painful, hard exercises, instead of the comfortable, easy ones. To do all these things not because I have to or because I predilection for pain but because that is what it takes.
But my greatest exercise in discipline comes not from refraining eating unhealthy and fattening foods or attending my workouts religiously, but disciplining myself to continue on when I fail in these things. I see this often; a person starts well on a weight loss plan, and then they are human enough to have a setback. Perhaps it was a day or two of skipped workouts, or maybe a late night binge. Many of those people get lost in despair, and then give up. What separates the success from failure is the ability to continue you to push on, regardless of setbacks, or failings on your part. This form of self-discipline is known as persistence. Most people who successfully lost weight will tell you they had their bad moments yet pressed on anyway. They persisted until the end. It is good to have the discipline have a healthy lifestyle, even better to have the discipline to stick with it when you slip up.
The good news is that anyone can improve their discipline regardless how much they have been lacking in the past. The first step is to accept responsibility for you, and not play the victim game or blame game. Acknowledge that you will resist the unpleasant tasks. Our imagination loves to make excuses or wallow in our past failures. But remind yourself you need to do them nonetheless, and then do them. Action allows you kill two birds with one stone; you accomplish the task that needed to be done while developing your self-discipline. Each time you successfully exercised self-discipline, remember the accomplishment; it serves to build motivation and to further strengthen your discipline, and as you continue, they can develop into habits, good habits. Monitor yourself in realtime and when you catch yourself in the act, stop. It will take time, but continuing to practice these, you can grow your self-discipline to where you are simply doing what needs to be done, instead of avoiding it. A major tenet of Taoism states that to control yourself is the ultimate form of mastery. Mastering self-discipline in one are, such as weight loss, will carry over to other aspects of your life. Start today your mastery and achieve the life you desire, in weight loss or simply life in general.
The author had a runaway success in his weight loss journey. He started at 240 pounds @ 35% body fat, and reached 160 pounds @ 12% body fat in only four months, Just recently the author went below 10% body fat; a new picture can be found at his site. Now, he is sharing the techniques and methods he used for his success.
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