Fitness For Life

BODY OF ARTICLE: Copyright (c) 2006 Ainsley Laing

Resiliency: What does that word mean to you?

To me, it means learning from mistakes and using that knowledge to create
positive change. Being resilient in the face of adversity requires that a
person be honest enough with him or herself to see their own mistakes for what
they are without blame (self or others), reflect on what could have been done
differently and have the courage to try again. Resiliency involves taking the
"if only…." Statement and transforming it into "next time…"

Recently, I came across a statement published in the American Journal of
Clinical nutrition that said 90% of successful dieters had failed before with
many of the dieters reporting several gains and losses before achieving their
goals. By itself, the statement is pretty uninformative, but it does say one
thing: the successful dieters didn't give up. In fact, I would venture to
speculate that most of these people kept trying different things, learning with
each failure what worked and what didn't until they found what worked for them.

It has been my observation that the same thing is true for exercise and fitness.
What's the difference between a really fit person and one that isn't? The fit
person doesn't let failures like choosing a fitness program that they don't
like or otherwise doesn't work for them stop them. They take the knowledge
gained from their mistakes and use it to move forward.

Isn't this how champions are made?

Can a couch potato become a champion athlete? Of course! It takes more than
just the intention to do it, though. It takes commitment and a mindset change.
It takes being honest with yourself about your motives. It means releasing your
fear of change, fear of failure, fear of success and dependence on other
people's opinions of your choices. It involves looking at past attempts and
reflecting on both the good and the bad about those attempts without judging
yourself negatively.

Let's use an example of a fictional person named Roger. Roger is a successful
scientist and has a lovely family. He's happily married, has three children
and all the "trappings" related to his success. Life's good. He has one
thing in his life that bothers him: his health. When he turned 38, he started
to show medical signs of years of inactivity and overweight – high
cholesterol. At age 40, he knows he needs to do something to improve his
health, but the motivation isn't stronger than the "pain" of changing his
lifestyle….yet.

Over the years, Roger has sporadically gone to the gym and not eaten too much
"junk" food but he has never been particularly motivated. He chose to be too
busy to make his own health a priority. Whenever he starts a new fitness
program and gets frustrated he feels like a failure. Failure is a very
uncomfortable feeling for Roger. He doesn't like it, so he runs from it.

Wham! One day he has a mild heart attack and ends up in the hospital. The pain
of change just became less important than his motivation to be healthy! Roger
must change his life or lose it. BIG motivator. Sadly, this type of earth
shaking experience is all too often the impetus for change.

Roger no longer has trouble with mindset changes when faced with the alternative
which is possibly premature death. But what about our second fictional person,
Elizabeth?

Elizabeth is 35, has a successful career, great family and no health problems.
She has always felt healthy and is mildly active. She intends to work out 4
hours per week but usually only manages on average two hours per week. She is
always "dieting", going from one fad diet to the other. She feels like she has
3 kilos (6.6 pounds) too much weight. Not enough to impact her health.

So, what really are her honest motives to change? Does she have any? When she
is honest with herself she knows she is motivated by the way her body looks