Are you Disciplined, with your diet and exercise

Rant and Tip for June 14, 2012

Quote: “Feel the fear, and do it anyway. – Susan Jeffers

This is how I have to approach the bar when I squat. A while back a friend Mike Macri once told me “Jimmy you have to be fearless in the squat. Just got to the bar and do it.” I had the pleasure of watching him do this in a meet in Albany a while back. He approached the bar and this look of dominance came across his face. Not aggression, Not a look of a crazed mad man but a look of calm, cool, and collectiveness that stated, I own this bar and I am going to take it for a ride. I do not know if he felt the fear and just did it anyway, but I can tell you this, It was a solid lift with a lot of weight.

Feel the fear, and do it anyway can apply to many aspects of your life. Including your diet, really aren’t we all worried that we will not be able to go without that dish of ice cream or piece of cake or pie at a family gathering? Maybe fear is not the right word in that case but I do know that taking on a new eating lifestyle can be difficult for many people. Acknowledge the concerns you have and do it anyway. Your body will thank you.

I had to very interesting things happen to me yesterday involving an online friend as well as one of my superiors at work. I was sitting in a meeting and this person made a comment about not getting to the gym to get her exercise in. She was making an analogy. Well this of course made me chuckle, loud enough for her to hear, and she laughed and stated “Jim, I know you are self disciplined.” The thing is I was not always self disciplined. I was fat and overweight and you could not get any less disciplined than I was at that time. We all need to realize while we are not disciplined enough to get to the gym or watch our diet we can change that and make them more of a habit than a discipline.

The other situation was with a Facebook friend. A while back she reached out to me for some help with diet and exercise. I was and am always willing to help people. Well about 2 months ago she stopped contacting me and just 2 days ago sent me a not to say hello. While speaking to her she asked if I was mad at her. I asked her “why would I be mad?” She responded that I might be disappointed in her because she had not gone to the gym, and had fallen off her diet. She said she felt like she let me down. I explained to her that she had let herself down and that while I am willing to help I am still 14 hours away and cannot be there to help with one on one encouragement. I did say that if she is ready and really ready all is not lost and she can get right back on the horse and still be successful.

This brings me to a question for all of my readers. If I could come up with a way to send alerts to you on a daily basis that would address your personal training schedule and diet regimen, would this be something you would be interested in? It seems to me that until you are able to make this a habit that it might be helpful. Thoughts and comments will be greatly appreciated.

Have a great workout!

Tip: For Squats Sit Back. Always start the Squat by sitting back first before you bend your knees. Think of sitting on a toilet - your hips always move first and go back, way back, to the rear. Sitting back engages your stronger hip muscles more, which is safer on your knees and allows you to Squat much heavier weights.

Sitting back does NOT mean that your knees will not bend, they will. You just Squat down by moving your hips back first and while pushing your abs out. The stretch in your hamstrings will be bigger and they might get very sore the day after. Make sure you keep your lower back tight at the bottom so you don't lose tension.