LIVIN' LARGE: Minimizing yourself and maximizing your life!When you have over 100 pounds to lose it can seem impossible to get started in the right direction.
One of the things that has helped me the most over the years has been a system of accountability/encouragement. I will tell you a little more about my system in my next post, but I wanted to get the topic started. Accountability relationships can take many forms...maybe it is coworkers, friends, family, forumites...or a method of holding yourself accountable... but tell us about it....
Newman
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"Branch chainz, bro. Leucine in the sky with diamonds." - Alan Aragon
I find that my short term goals or benchmarks keep me accoutable by always having something that I am working towards. If I was just running or lifting and not trying to achieve a new PR or faster race time my training would be less focused. The same with my diet. I know that my diet is directly connected to my achievement of my fitness and performance goals. If I wander off on an unplanned lost weekend of beers and pizza it is going to adversly affect my training and therefore keep me from attaining my goals.
__________________ -50# by 4/1/10 2 down 48 to go.
Biggest one has always been that i'm accountable to myself, responsible for myself, and thus need to take care of myself.
In recent times though I find ways to be accountable to friends and such. Telling them I'm going to do X or Y etc so that I'll feel I'm letting them down if I don't actually do it.
First and foremost, myself, of course. Beyond that, I'm generally a sucker for peer pressure, so once I hooked up with a group of runners (who I found through dancing) and heard them talk about all the races they ran and good times they had, I started trying to keep up (and have started to surpass, in some cases). I also make a race calendar as far out as I can and publish it on my MySpace profile, and I always write a post-mortem blog on each race including finishing times from previous races as kind of a running log (no pun intended) on my speed progress.
I guess it doesn't hurt to have a girlfriend who also runs, is competitive as hell, and smokes me in 5Ks, which is fine because the Charleston 10K is coming up, and she hasn't competed in anything beyond 5Ks yet
__________________ No Magic Pill (the log)
My Movember page (yes, I'm slacking on pictures)
Accountability has always been my number one motivation. When I was working, I put up a weight loss chart in my cube and told everyone in the office about it. I charted my loss weekly.
It became a real source of talk with everyone. I had people coming in just to look at my chart every Monday. In fact, I had people offering to walk with me at lunch, always watching if I ate anything, and generally offering great support.
Unfortunately, I had to quit my job with the birth of my daughter and have not been good since.
I just started a new accountability attempt from home, using the internet and posting a blog. The more people that see it, know about it, and check it, the more motivated I will be. I actually started TODAY. It is my first attempt at a website, so I am very proud of it. I just hope the weight loss follows.
Accountability for me has become an interesting thing.
When I was first decided that I wanted to lose weight, I was reading posts over at MH. I was like a sponge. It didn't take long to figure out which people I trusted for advice and which ones may have been well-intentioned but ill informed. Nevertheless, the MH forums and TAP were what got me started. Still, though, it was an on-my-own kind of endeavor and it stayed that way for a number of years. Sure, I was successful enough, but my hallucination is that it would have been easier had I actually POSTED to the forums, etc rather than just lurking.
When I decided to transform my life, I also decided to transform my education. No longer was my quest about helping myself. I wanted formal training and credentials to back up what I knew to be true. Moreover, I wanted to help others. I knew there were lots of people out there who were similar to me, who were fighting the same battles, who might come out of the woodwork if called out specifically. So if you are one of these people, I am CALLING YOU OUT!
When I chose my profession, I had a high degree of self-accountability factored in. Let's be real here....if I am going to be successful professionally, I need to have my training and diet squared away. I need to not only look the part, but BE the part. My economic future as well as my health and livelihood depends on it. So you can see how that would have a major impact on my decisions as well.
It is my personal belief that every person is in some way my superior. I have something to learn from everyone. I also believe that every coach should have a coach. So, I sought out the experience and expertise of Coach Charles Staley. I had previously used Coach Staley's training protocols with great success but I needed more. So I joined his private coaching group.
For me, this was a needed shot in the arm. The heightened level of accountability between the members of the coaching group, Charles himself, as well as Julianne, etc have been great. I am thankful for the opportunity to participate. Everybody needs something different. I needed someone to just tell me what to do because I would nitpick my own programming until I was suffering from analysis paralysis.
Today, I am fortunate to be an active participant rather than just a lurker here at JPFitness. It has made a huge difference in my life. It has helped me not only to become closer to some people I already knew, but also to make new friends as well. My accountability network extends to collegues, friends, forumites, the coaching group, and even random people who have never posted nor have I ever met (they simply send a message).
There are a lot of people I owe my success to. My knowledge base, my application of that knowledge with clients (even their success) is something I can't separate from the journey that I have been on. To those individuals, THANK YOU. You all know who you are and I offer my most sincere gratitude.
The great thing guys...the story isn't finished. There are more people to help, more goals to reach, more personal achievements, etc. I am happy to be on that journey with all of you and I thank you for being here. There have been many days when I have asked myself, "Do I have what it takes to be successful in this business?" I want to publish more articles, write books, expand my client base even further, etc etc. I want to learn everything I can possibly learn and learn it from the best in the business. I want to make a difference...
Do I have what it takes?
The truth, I am not sure..... but we'll find out....
Here we are... Livin' Large....
Newman
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"Branch chainz, bro. Leucine in the sky with diamonds." - Alan Aragon
Your story beginnings sound a whole lot like my own. I started at MH and was an active poster until everyone that I trusted basically left (for here).
My first REAL attempt to lose weight was with TAP also. I learned a lot about my body and how it reacted to both food and exercise with that program. I highly reccommend that program to anyone beginning and lost.
After losing a decent amount of weight I became fascinated with fitness. I basically gave up my law career to begin something in the fitness field. I took and passed the CSCS and began training people. The problem was that I was still fat. I didn't look the part and wasn't taken seriously by those who didn't know me. (Who cam blame them?) As a result, I was somewhat depressed and fell off the wagon. That made me more depressed and on and on. Vicious cycle.
Well, now my wife who was in business, was also inspired. She decided to completely change careers and we figured we'd battle the fitness business together. She is in her second year now getting her doctorate of physical therapy. We have definite plans to open our own clinic eventually. I can use her gym on off days or at nights to train people. My passion is really to work with obese kids. We want to hold free camps over the summers for kids that can't afford the fancy gyms. She wants to intermingle the special needs kids that will be coming to her for physical therapy and see if we can't help everyone.
She has one more year, thus prompting me to finally get off my ass and do something again. When she graduates, I expect to be in MUCH better shape and taken a whole lot more seriously. She will probably work a couple years with another PT to gain experience while I begin to look more the part and train people full time.
I'm excited again to get back on track. Sounds like we really have a lot in common on this trek. Best of luck to you. I have much further to go in my career aspirations, but it will be nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of.
When I decided to transform my life, I also decided to transform my education.
That right there is a quote in the making because nothing trumps education. With the proper education you will find motivation is a lot easier to come by because you build trust through knowledge.
Accountability and trust are the top two things I think I discuss with my clients. I tell them right off the bat that they are not working with me because I know something they couldn't know. Hell I even give them lists of books to read that can tell it to them better. My job is is really accountability and to earn their trust of my education. When I read a book now it isn't just for my own self knowledge, it is for theirs as well. They in turn make me accountable for my actions.
Don't get me wrong I think experiance is important but I would rather be trained by a guy that is brand new with experiance but has tons of education over a guy with 15 years of experiance but bad education.
For example in my gym, one of the guys has 12 years of "experiance" but puts every client no matter who they are on the "glute master" machine and I have never seen him make a client lift one free weight. Experience is not everything, sometimes its just wasted time.
For example in my gym, one of the guys has 12 years of "experiance" but puts every client no matter who they are on the "glute master" machine and I have never seen him make a client lift one free weight. Experience is not everything, sometimes its just wasted time.
But...but...you can have eight years of education, 25 years of experience and still be a retard. Look at all the hack lawyers and quack doctors. That's independent.
They've actually done surveys on how knowledgeable trainers are comparing education, experience, etc and they have proven that experience adds nothing to how good you are. They've actually tested trainees and had them score the same as some trainers.
I have been trying to think of something new, interesting, or otherwise useful for you guys that isn't already here, somewhere else on the site, etc. One of the great things about JPF is you have so much readily available to you. The important thing to remember, sometimes you have to ask if you aren't easily finding it.
Everyone one of us is different. Our hopes, dreams, struggles -- our journeys. My question for you all is how can we better help each other? What do you guys need in the way of support? Should I assume that because you haven't asked a question that you have none? Is your program working for you? By the way, if you guys haven't checked out MVPs progress, that guy is doing awesome.
I am confident that many of the rest of you are doing well too. LD's compliance log is really cool. I am equally sure that some of you are struggling. I know that I have struggled in the past, hell, I struggle some to this day.
LD has a great post I encourage you to read about a Support Network. In many ways, that is what Livin' Large is supposed to be. I can't help but think that as a leader, I am letting you guys down. I have been diligent about sending private messages to folks who have posted here to see how they are doing. I read the blogs and I try to comment every once in awhile. Rarely do I hear much in return.
All right guys, lets speak up... let's make this subforum a little more active and a lot more of what you need. Sure, I will keep you posted about my personal journey, but I am not in this alone. WE are in this TOGETHER.
Newman
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"Branch chainz, bro. Leucine in the sky with diamonds." - Alan Aragon
Accountability
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