Failure Isn’t An Option – Or Is It?
by David Fowler on January 15, 2009
in The Plan, Uncategorized
So what do you do when you start a fitness blog with two other people and then you spectacularly fail to get fit or lose the fat?
Picture: fireflythegreat
We’re eight weeks in with the Wednesday Weigh-In and by my reckoning I should be in the region of 16 lbs down. That’s half the weight I wanted to lose at a modest rate 2lbs a week.
O – M – G !!!
What’s wrong with me?
Why have I lost a grand total of 1lb in EIGHT weeks?
That’s pitiful by anyone’s standards even taking Christmas into account.
The very best I can say about my circumstances is that I’ve maintained…. but then that’s not quite accurate. It’s more accurate to say that I’ve lost weight… and now I’m putting it back on again.
The BEST I can say is that I haven’t exceeded my starting weight. And I’m clinging on to that fact for dear life.
Clearly something isn’t clicking.
I don’t think any of what I’ve written to date at BlogToFit is outrageous nonsense or even dramatically flawed. I think my basic plan to get fit is sound.
So what’s the deal?
Well… I think I’m NORMAL.
Seriously, I think that I’m just the same as everyone else who’s trying to lose weight or get fit.
I have the same busy lifestyle where I’m trying to fit a quart into a pint pot – constantly juggling conflicting priorities and making a hash of it.
Prior to starting my own blog Teach My Children Well – which was intended to track my self improvement – I spent a lot of time reading blogs like Zen Habits, Scott H Young, Steve Pavlina and many more like them and the vast majority of them seem to advocate simplifying our lives and concentrating only on one major goal at a time for a month at a time (as per the links).
I’ve always loved that idea but I’ve never been able to do it. My life is just too full of other things.
There are too many urgent demands that I need to be dealing with right now. Real issues in my life that will come to a head within the next six weeks like the looming threat of a return to work and an overwhelming desire to avoid that by finding a new way to make a living, not to mention the fact that I have a four children to marshal around, along with all the attendant duties of a stay at home parent – I don’t feel I can afford to put any of those things off for 30 days so that I can get on top of the weight loss.
What I’m going through now is exactly why I came to the web. I was looking for the solution to my general inability to get things done. I felt overwhelmed all the time, which led to procrastination, which led to nothing getting achieved.
I’ve always kept an open agenda, because I’ve convinced myself that I don’t want to live my life by an appointments diary. Which is nice for doing spontaneous things, going where my fancy takes me and getting into the moment, but it gets nothing achieved.
Vast swathes of time pass and I look back and wonder how, with all that time, I managed to achieve so little.
I know I need to do less. I know I need to cut so many more things out of my life in order to get the important things done, which is why I chose to have only four priorities.
I’m cautious about following another hair brained scheme to trick myself into losing weight but if I don’t do something, in two months time, I’ll still be nearly 200lbs and I’ll still be without an income and forced to return to work and both of those scenarios are about as far away from my major goals as it’s possible for me to be.
I strongly suspect my personal organisation is the root cause of my problems. The open agenda approach means I’m doing what I feel like doing, not what I really need to be doing.
Are you organised? Does this help with your fitness or weight loss goals?
Or am I totally missing the point? Should I just pull myself together and get on with it?
Should I put fitness on hold indefinitely until I’ve dealt with my top three priorities.
What would you do?
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Good post! I used to read a lot of women’s health mags. I stopped. One of the reasons is that you read the success stories, only to find out the person spends 1 – 3 hours PER day on a dedicated fitness activity. Give. Me. A. Break. What normal person has time for that?
The reality is, whatever positive changes you make to your diet and fitness, must fit into your normal mode of operation, in order to be sustainable. I suggest, therefore, smaller tweaks. Like getting a pedometer like Tara and achieving 10,000 steps while you go about your day. Only having healthy snacks in the house, such that when you normally reach for ’something extra’ it’s a good ’somthing extra’.
For me, I realized the only time I will exercise is during lunch at work. So, I joined the gym right next door. And the only changes we made to our food is less of it.
Don’t get discouraged. Your desire is there; it’s just a matter of finding out what works for you!
OH, and how long did it take you to pack on those pounds? Not eight weeks I imagine. Isn’t it reasonable to give yourself the same amount of time to get rid of it?
Urban Panther’s last blog post..Let there be organization … and there was!
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David Fowler Reply:
January 15th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Panther, That’s exactly it. Whatever I have to do to get fit and lean has to fit in with my lifestyle.
As you say, if I had plenty of time on my hands it wouldn’t be an issue. It’s why at 22 years old I was fit and not fat. I didn’t have a family and I had masses of spare time on my hands. Where did I spend it? In the pub! In the gym! Or Running! (The pub accounts fro why I wasn’t totally lean – but I was fit and felt good about my bod.).
Things are vastly different now. I have a family and there’s no time for the pub, but surely I can make time to exercise. I was doing it before and I want to do it again.
I’m too hard on myself I know
Thanks for the encouragement.
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Tara Cain Reply:
January 18th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Panther, you really do have a way of really instilling encouragement!
This isn’t even my post and I’m all ‘d’you know she’s right’
“how long did it take you to pack on those pounds? Not eight weeks I imagine. Isn’t it reasonable to give yourself the same amount of time to get rid of it?” – abso-bloomin-lutely!
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Organization helps to an extent. I never get EVERYTHING done that I want to. I think a schedule has been the most helpful for me. I try to get my chores done in the morning. Afternoon I do the pick up from school and exercise. (I are not s-mart enuff to get mush more com-pil-i-ca-ted. /wink)
It sounds silly but Dori from Finding Nemo said it best – “Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.” Even with working hard people tend to loose weight slowly. We are creatures of habit and I think it takes a good year or more to truly change a habit. Not this little month stuff. I’m down almost 10 pounds since May. (Almost 8 months in the works for that loss.) Don’t be disheartened! Let’s go for the long run changes!
Avlor’s last blog post..Wii Fit and Blog to Fit Update #9
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David Fowler Reply:
January 15th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Avlor, LOL at your “I are not s-mart enuff”.
Ah, the wisdom of the animated movies is not to be underestimated. You have a point and luckily for me I haven’t quit, but I am treading water. I think I’d better break into an intense Crawl, or maybe I’d be better starting with a gentle Breast Stroke?
I’m tempted to start scheduling my time but I don’t want to spend time creating a complicated system I later abandon. I’m still convinced I could get back on track if I plan my time a little better.
Thanks Avlor
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Losing weight can be very, very hard. I’ve struggled with it for years. I’ve succeeded a bit at times, one time quite spectacularly, but while I remember the success being due to my workouts, Karen remembers it as the “starvation” cabbage soup diet.
I’m not an organized person, but I don’t think that necessarily has to be the key to success in weight loss.
So far as Urban Panther’s question about what normal person has time for 1 – 3 hours per day on a dedicated fitness regimen, I guess I would have to say that it would be someone who has been able to eliminate something else that takes time — like lunch…, or a job. Back when I was working and exercising regularly, I gave up an hour or so of sleeping and went to the gym before work.
I hope you’ll be able to find your solution.
Mike Goad’s last blog post..Wednesday Weigh-In
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David Fowler Reply:
January 15th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Mike, I’m not sure whether you intended the first paragraph to be amusing but it made me chuckle. Perspectives are interesting aren’t they?
Quite right. I don’t think you have to be organised to lose weight. The last time I lost weight successfully I was no more organised than I am now. But my life was less chaotic and there was much less pressure.
Again, I don’t know if it was your intent but I found this funny to – “I guess I would have to say that it would be someone who has been able to eliminate something else that takes time — like lunch…, or a job.” Hahahaha.
It’s incredibly useful to examine the issues in this way, so thank you Mike.
I’m sure I’ll get back on track and I’m determined to do so.
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I know the feeling. I feel like I have a lot on my plate and unfortunately, fitness seems to be the easiest to push aside and the hardest to make time for.
However, I also know that if I don’t make the time, I will never see the results I want.
Yes, it does boil down to organization and time management.
The question for you is what are you doing wrong? Is it taking you less time to do the wrong things than the right things? Could you swap the bad habits for healthier habits using the same amount of time?
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Blogger Dad, I feel fortunate to have a greater insight to your busy schedule than most and therefore I can say that you are playing down the workload you’re having to contend with at the moment.
What am I doing wrong? I may well have figured that out over the course of the day, and it is a time management issue.
Because I’m operating an open agenda, I’m allowing my other priorities to run on and crash into time I could use for exercise. This profile fits nicely with my completer/finisher all or nothing mentality.
I’m tempted to impose a more rigid schedule on my day in the hope that it will force me to chose my activities wisely.
Thanks Blogger Dad!
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Dave,
I have to be organized to lose weight. I just can’t skip fitness, which I did for years when the kids were younger…then I added it back in by making vacuuming aerobic and unloading groceries or making dinner a 5 minute weight lifting moment. I now eat 8 tiny meals a day – one is protein, one is brocolli, one is salad, one is fruit and when I eat with everyone I only eat 1/2 cup of food and no dessert. Weight is just not moving off my body – I have lost 6 pounds and kept them off from one year ago…and that is with 17 hours of exercise a week.
I get up at 4:30am to accomplish this and when I miss because of snow etc…..I really miss how good I feel and how much better I can control my emotions only cook 1 day a week, I only clean what I can get done in 3 hours on Wednesday morning…
Get focused on what is your top priority and then spend 4 hours a day on that…and block out the time – I know it is hard if someone is ill or you are ill and with 4 children that is a high priority.
I can only do twitter 15 minutes in the morning and about 10 minutes last thing before I go to bed…
If I don’t keep at it I don’t achieve my goal…It does sound like your top priority is getting a new income stream…That would be your 4 hours a day..???
When I have a plan I can work my other goals into it and succeed…Now take this with a grain of salt, with a hyperactive special needs kiddo I worked with her constantly – even walked her from class to class at High school…I became content with that life and no money, but reading while she was in class or walking the track and just being patient…we did survive..and are surviving….actually with the track walking and being stuck in the car I was at my best weight…I didn’t have the refrigerator to stare into and randomly graze
Also reducing your stress with planning will help you lose weight..
Hope that is not too preachy but it is the only way I have found to gain success.
Patricia’s last blog post..Taking it On: Architecture2030 Challenge
[Reply]
David Fowler Reply:
January 16th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Patricia, that’s not preachy at all. Thank you for giving me your perspective. What you describe is what I’ve been contemplating ding. Blocking out time and dividing the blocks up between the things I need to get done, and being disciplined about it.
For example, this evening had I felt well enough to go for a run (still not shifting the cold) I would have blocked out 7pm to 8pm for exercise and showering. That would work well for me because I’d also know I had to eat much less for my evening meal at 5pm. Having an open agenda means that I’ll go for a run if I fancy it. Mostly I don’t. Funny how that works.
My top priority is finding a way to make a living or supplement my wife’s income enough to stay at home. That’s why the blog writing and other internet related activities come first.
Unless I do start to block out aome time to exercise over the next few weeks then I’m unlikely to do any as I have a project I want to undertake (to earn money) and that will take up much of my time.
Thank you for sharing your experience and throwing in some suggestions, I appreciate the time you’ve taken to do this.
Dave
David Fowler’s last blog post..It’s Odd But It’s True
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