"The Best Weight Loss Product : Motivation" Insanity: Day 34 of 60

A new diet drug.  A pill.  An artificial sweetener.  A diet book?  All carbs.  No Carbs.  No Fat.  All meat.  All vegetables.  Cardio.  Spinning.  Kick boxing.

Which one will help you lose the most weight?  Any of them?  All of them?  None of them?

Do you know what the answer is? The answer is: “IT DOESN’T MATTER”.

The one thing missing on that list that’s necessary to lose weight and get fit is motivation.  You either have it, or you don’t.  No one thing guarantees weight loss success like motivation.  You could have the worst program and have picked the craziest diet…but if you are motivated to lose weight, you will eat less and exercise and SOMETHING will happen.

I worked with a guy once who lost about 75 pounds.  It came off quickly too.  You’re always a little afraid to ask the ones who lose weight, “What diet were you on?”  It’s like asking a really large woman, “When are you due?”  You’re playing with fire.  The answer may not be what you expect.  With weight loss, you always fear some form of illness.  It’s not completely insane to have that fear.  The number of people who experience big weight loss compared to the rest of the population need to be counted with a calculator…or something else that can handle decimals.

So I asked Doug kindly, “What’s with the weight loss?”  He responded with a smile (whew!), “I’ve been on a diet.”  “Really, what kind of diet?”  He laughed before he told me, “You’re not going to believe it.”  So I pushed, “Okay…and?”  He smirked, “It’s the Peanut Butter and Jelly Diet.”

Wait.  Hold the phone.  I’d never heard of that diet and I had heard of a lot of them.

“I have one Peanut Butter and Jam sandwich, four times a day, and I do five miles of fast walking on my treadmill every single night.  I am actually to a point where I can jog.”

That’s it.  That was his diet.  Now, I could go over this and dissect it…but that would be meaningless.  IT DOESN’T MATTER.  He restricted his eating and exercised but more important than that, he had the motivation to make it work.  He stuck with it because it was working.  A person that motivated, even if the PB&J diet failed, would have looked for another solution.  It’s not the diet that worked, it was the drive inside the person.  It was their motivator.

Your motivator is the little engine inside your head that creates dreams and then negotiates with the rest of your psyche about how hard you are going to go after that dream.

If you are trying to get other people to think about their weight, fitness and general health, stop trying to show them new products.  Stop telling them how to do it.  Stop expecting them to want to do it because YOU did.  It doesn’t work.  Ask them questions.  When they make exasperated statements, follow up with questions.  When they comment about how good you look, ask them questions.  Drop the breadcrumbs.  They will follow if they have that special ingredient that will help them get healthy…motivation.

If they don’t follow…they don’t care.  They might care a little, but they don’t care enough.  The drive it takes to change your life is not to be underestimated.  It has to be substantial.  It has to be selfish.  It has to be able to push some of the other things in their life out of the way.

Eating right 90% of the time (a recommendation from Dr. Joel Fuhrman), requires a discipline that comes from the motivation that the outcome will be worth the decision to go with the veggies rather than the potato salad slathered in Miracle Whip or opting for the roasted chicken breast over the Prime Rib.

Making exercise a part of your routine requires effort.  How many times have you circled a parking lot looking for the closest parking space?  “I’m not taking that spot all the way out there!”  Let’s face it, they have shopping carts.  It’s not like you are going to have to carry your crap all the way there in your arms.  It also isn’t about time.  I know that because people will spend 20 minutes stalking people leaving the store to get that treasured spot.  It only takes five minutes to walk from the spot ‘way out there.’  It’s a mindset.  It’s about not wanting to move.  It’s about moving as little as possible.  To look at life’s situations and say to yourself, “No thanks, I’ll walk” is a completely ass-backwards violation of our existing social standards.  It means you have to be motivated enough to be different and make better decisions.

So fine.  Motivation is needed.  We all get it.  Where do we find that?  Ahhhh.  Good question.  The answer is a tough one.  That depends on how important that thing you are trying to achieve is.  How hard is that motivator working to push out the other things?  Pushing out the other things simply means that you are pushing the thing you want to the top of your personal needs list.  So if that ‘thing’ is health and general fitness…what will make it a top priority?  Sometimes you make it a priority from fear.  Fear of the next heart attack.  Fear of high blood pressure.  Fear of getting old maybe?  Fear of ‘looking old?’  Sometimes it’s just the challenge of achieving the goal.  If you are a celebrity, maybe you fear not getting the young roles anymore.  Maybe you fear not getting the phone calls.  If you are a model, maybe you fear that being five pounds overweight means no one wants you…unless you are Kate Upton.  So what is the motivation?

It’s in each person uniquely.  If you want to lose weight, you better find your motivation.  Not the diet, the pill, the drink, the program…the motivation.  The tools to get the goal will always be here.

If you are trying to help people get fit…you better ask them insightful questions.  Find their motivation.  Otherwise, the only fit that you will experience will be the tantrum you throw when they don’t get it!!