On starting small and building habits.
Training. Diet. Life.
I got to the gym in the morning today full of energy! It was like a fountain sprouting out of me!
I went through a week of feeling weak, getting sick, getting unmotivated and failing, it seemed like, in everything — my goals regarding fitness modeling, my training progress, my finances and paying off debts, making progress in almost every area. I was getting depressed and didn’t want to wake up in the morning often. Feeling sick and losing my voice didn’t help.
What did I do despite all of that for the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE?
I stuck to it.
It — my routine and commitments to myself that I made earlier. Commitments that were 100% in my control.
Like getting up in the morning the earliest I could (I had a couple of important events and went to bed later a couple of times, and then a reasonable thing to do was to make myself sleep in to make progress the next day.) Most of the days I woke up 3.30 AM no matter how shitty it all felt.
Nobody has to wake up at 3.30 AM — that’s just how I love it.
I went and worked out EVERY SINGLE DAY. Sometimes later, sometimes before bed, sometimes not feeling like it at all, sometimes barely making it through the workout feeling the weakest I felt in weeks and months!
I blogged.
I made videos.
Believe me, there were days when I felt like blogging and making videos the LEAST! But I stuck to it. Not the best videos of my life, but I stuck to it, because it’s important to make progress, it’s important to get better, it’s important for my self-respect, more than anything, but IT’S ESSENTIAL TO ACHIEVE ANYTHING. It gave my brain a signal — I’m serious about it, and you’d better make me better at it to suffer less embarrassment and disappointments.
I ate healthy.
I slept enough.
I went to bed early.
I made priorities.
I journaled.
I had difficult conversations.
I asked for help.
I shared what I was going through.
Lesson: the worst truth is always better than the best lie.
Result?
I got back healthier, stronger, more enthusiastic, with more energy and gains in all areas, and I’m starting to build a momentum. Things are getting better and I’m here to stay. I am moving forward.
Healthier, stronger, better.
On starting small.
To move forward with my physical development I felt I wanted to add HIIT sessions a few times per week. I “couldn’t” do it for a weeks!
It takes time, energy, I’m doing pretty good as it is, why bother … — I had so many excuses!
The biggest one for me was additional time. I felt I had to do it for 20 minutes or more, or not at all.
I felt it was important, so I made an agreement with myself. I’ll do it all out for 10 minutes instead and see how it goes for a week.
Make it short. Make it painful. Make it fun.
Today, the first day, it was 30 sec all out sprint + 60 sec fast walk on a treadmill. 10 minutes. Done!
YAY!!! — Got to make it fun next time.
You want to improve your diet?
Start with a healthy breakfast. Leave the rest the same. Can you do this for me?
A couple of eggs, an avocado, some salad or chia pudding? Greek unsweetened yogurt with fresh berries?
Want to start writing?
5 sentences a day. Can you do this?
Want to start training?
Take the stairs today.
…
You got the idea.
What can YOU start small today? What have you been putting off for ages because you made it too difficult?
VIDEO.
You don’t get healthy and stay healthy.
HEALTH is a DAILY PRACTICE. One bite at a time.
Daily Bite of Health
START SOMETHING SMALL
