This seems like a good day for a third installment to my Blog Schmog. Perhaps I haven’t adequately warned you that I may take a few detours here and there along the journey. There are a few reasons for this. One, I may have forgotten what we were talking about. Lol. Two, science, opinions, and my own experiences are constantly changing and evolving so I will often start off with one topic, revise it after kicking it around for a bit, and land on whole new topic. Third, I have so much I want to discuss with you I don't always know which thread to pick up. Not to worry, however, we are not in a hurry. Ah, yes, now I remember where we were. We were not in a hurry.
Not in a hurry to lose weight. Not in a hurry to build natural muscle. Not in a hurry to build entirely new habits. Not in a hurry to drastically improve. We want to get where we’re going, don’t get me wrong. But being in a hurry, when it comes to nutrition and fitness goals will usually not deliver good results and will ultimately end in frustration. Here’s what I’ve noticed and I think there’s a little bit of science on my side. After your first two weeks or so working with a trainer, or starting a new program of some kind, you will think things are changing for you physically. And it might even feel like things are really changing for you. And this is awesome. Because in a sense, if you feel it, it is happening! At this point after about 2 weeks in a weight training process most of the changes that are occurring are neurological in nature. It’s like your brain is creating the necessary pathways for you to do the the new gym stuff. Your brain is starting to figure out weight lifting, as it were. Real muscle building takes a little more time. And yes, you may actually feel, see and notice some good results after 6 weeks. By this time I think science and I might agree that you could have built a little muscle. But if you want to see and experience significant changes, give it months. And even years. But hey, by the time months and years are passing you’ll be having such a great time throwing weights around the gym you will barely notice that months and years have passed. Am I right? Alright, perhaps you will need a little more persuading, but I have the whole future of this Schmog to persuade you, so…no rush.
With regard to diet and nutrition, I think we would be well served to also think of this in a much longer term way than we typically do in our culture. Listen, I am not the queen of patience. It’s laughable but true that I get impatient when my phone takes too long to load Google because I need to know right now why they named the monitor lizard the monitor lizard (It is likely because they can stand on their hind legs (scary!) to apparently survey or monitor their surroundings, as it turns out). I got distracted again, but my point is we don’t do patience that well in our culture. And successful lifestyle changes when it comes to nutrition and diet appear to be much more achievable and sustainable long term when done slowly over time.
So, what does this mean specifically? My specific suggestion would be to start to give some thought to how you would like your fitness and nutrition to look for you a year or two from now, instead of weeks or months from now. If it is possible, begin to draw a mental picture for yourself of how you would like to feel in your body 1-2 years from now. And in my opinion, this will work better for most people than putting a specific scale weight number on your goal, at least for now, or even setting an aggressive quantitative goal for weekly gym visits. My specific suggestion for getting started; keep it pretty general for now. For example…One year from now, I want to feel strong and healthy in my body. I want to feel powerful in my body. I want to feel limber and agile. Moving forward, we can get more specific with your goal setting, but let’s start with a big, general, feeling placed target.
I’m going to conclude part three of this Schmog installment with an awareness that I have a whole lot more to say. This is why I started this Schmog. We are going to get ALL the way into it! So just temporarily, to conclude this installment, consider being patient with yourself and with the process, keep your goals general, and give some attention to how you would like to feel in your body a year or two from right now. Thank you for reading, I wish you health and happiness, and I will catch up with you soon.
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