All of us realize that if we woke up one day and said, “I really don’t feel like going into work anymore.”, there would very quickly be consequences.
Similarly, if we decided to stop paying our mortgages or other important bills, it wouldn’t take long for trouble to start.
“Giving up” on things like that is not an option.
Yet in other areas of our life, there appears to be more flexibility with the application of the “give up” rule…
In fact, we see several examples of this every day.
- The Activity Give-Up: Defined as the point, either sudden or over time, at which the average person stops doing regular, structured activity (physical movement) designed to maintain health.
Because this “give-up” takes a while to produce consequences, one can attribute is to other causes.
A busy schedule…
Normal aging…
Simple inconvenience…
But, there are consequences.
Our bodies require physical activity in order to function properly. Just because today’s demanding pace can make maintaining physical fitness inconvenient, does not remove the consequences.
- The Nutritional Give-Up: This is VERY easy to fall into.
Why?
The duty of making healthy food choices falls squarely on us.
No one else can or will do this for us…not our spouses, friends, co-workers and certainly not the food industry.
It’s all on us.
This requires each of us to be very self-aware of the food choices we make, but not everyone is driven to do so.
If you think about it, we all tend to eat the same foods, in the same amount, prepared the same way for years on end.
Even if some of these choices are terrible for our health.
But mentally, we accept these choices as normal.
This is also known as “A Give-Up”.
There is zero motivation to change…(until we’re forced to.)
Another cause for the “nutritional give-up” is one we’re all too familiar with…
We eat a lot of what we like.
Portion size control is arguably the No. 1 problem facing most of my clients.
We’ve all been guilty of this one…
Eating more of something than we should have.
At the end of the day, this one is a bit childish.
A simple lack of control.
“Give me more. Me want more.”
And more is what we do…giving no thought to the repercussions.
As a fitness professional, I tend to deal largely with these two “Big Give-ups”.
Of course, there are more.
- The Appearance Give-Ups…aka going to Walmart in a tee shirt and pajamas, etc. but I won’t get into those…
Inertia and “settling in” can be a dangerous mindset.
Treating yourself with the same urgency as we do our bills and other life obligations is one way to look at it.
You’re the CEO of your own life.
Poor decision-making by the CEO gets you fired.
If the consequences of poor diet and inactivity were as immediate as financial consequences, it would be really interesting to see how our lives and the people around us would change…
Can you picture it?
Fundraisers for people who can’t afford their gym memberships…
Neighborhood rallies to get someone to go for a walk…
Protests in the street if a fast-food place applied for a building permit in the neighborhood…
Kinda funny if you think about it.
Anyway…
Being self-aware is the first step towards heading off “The Big Give-Ups”.
Is it time to have that honest conversation with yourself about anything you’ve given up on?
Until next time…
Stay strong. Make things happen!