In Search of Healthy Living ~ Doing What It Takes

So you make a goal for yourself. Lose 5 lbs. Run a 5K. Save $1000 in an amergency fund.

Now what?

Well now comes the work - making a plan to follow to get you to that goal and then following it. But those are the obvious things. There is one key piece to the goal achievement puzzle - doing what it takes to get the job done.

For example, if your goal was to lose 5lbs you would first decide on a food and exercise plan to follow. So for sake of this example, say you decide that Weight Watchers is the way to go and you will do at least 30 minutes of excercise 5 days a week.

Great job on making the promise to yourself, as well as maping out your action plan! Now fast forward three weeks. You are down only 2 lbs. You are following the WW plan... sort of. And you only make it to the gym for 1 or 2 workouts.

What do you do?

Do you say that the WW plan does not work, that it is uneffective? No. You aren't following the plan. Do you say that you cannot lose the weight, that it is genetically determined that you will always be 5lbs overweight? Not at all - you did not follow your plan.

What you do is whatever it takes to get the job done. If you cannot follow WW because you eat out too much at your favorite restaurants and don't really pay attention to what you are ordering or how the foods are prepared, then it is up to you to put the effort in to making it work. You will need to research and know what you are going to order (as well as how you will ask for it prepared)prior to getting to the establishment.

Likewise for exercise, if you miss the gym because of afterwork comitments or because you are too tired to do it afterwork look into working out at lunch (walking around the building premises for 30 minutes counts!) or getting up early to get it in before the demands of the day get you behind.

This is what I am struggling with right now. I know what needs to get done and I have the training plans to prove it. However - I am just not doing all that I can be doing in order to get there.

What I need to do is start working out at lunch at least once a week, as well as getting up early to get in a swim or a run so the stresses of the day will have less effect on my workouts.

I took the first sttep towards this today. At lunch I went to the gym and swam 800 meters just to feel the water on my skin again. Tomorrow what I NEED to do is wake up about an hour earlier than I have been and meet up with our VP of Swimming to get in a decent swim workout before my day even starts. Then at night I am free to run or go to spinning.

In triathlon we are used to doing two-a-days or even three-a-days (when you workout twice or even three times a day). This is to give you a fresh workout so you are not always bricking them up, and you can work on one discipline at a time.

I have the plan. I have the means to follow the plan by having three gyms that I work out at regularly. I just now need to remove all possible roadblocks and I know that I am the #1 roadblock I have!

So today when you are looking at where you are in your goals think of the following:

1 - Do I have a good plan to get to my goal?
2 - Am I following this plan to the best that I can?
3 - Am I doing whatever it takes to balance my life obligations with my goals?

Ask yourself these three questions every so often to make sure that you are moving forward and you should do great!


As for me... my alarm clock will be set for 5:00AM tomorrow and I will arrive when the gym opens it's doors so I can swim... it is what I have to do in order to get it done!