Hey you,
I know that people around you, fitness experts, people you train with, have made you believe that your are lazy and gluttonous. I am right, aren’t I? How many times have they told you that you do not have enough will; that you make too many excuses; that you do not want it strong enough; that you are lazy and so forth. Words that are constantly echoing in your mind. Every time when you feel like changing, you somehow feel the breath of failure, which is standing right behind you – just dare to try one more time and you will experience it again.
I know that you have already lost faith and courage and that after all the times you’ve tried and failed, you have fallen to believe that you really don’t have what it needs to achieve the dreamed body, to improve your health and to be able to perform at least a tiny part of all the exercises that you watch on Instagram and Facebook. You are about to give up, aren’t you?
But something always makes you try again! Am I right? Let me tell you what it is. What makes you try again every single time is something deep in you which knows that you are not lazy or gluttonous. Something inside of you which knows that you haven’t found the people who will really see your potential. You haven’t found people who are ready to go back and meet you where you are – with understanding, acceptance and then walk by your side, while you are building a new and better version of yourself.
Because lazy and gluttonous can’t be attached to an identity. You are neither gluttonous, nor lazy. These are conditions and not something that defines you and your value. Everybody is reproaching you how you do not want it bad enough and how you do not have will, but few realize what is the reason behind this. If lazy and gluttonous are conditions, then there is a reason for them to occur. Every condition is just an expression of what happens inside your body. This means that your behavior, that others name laziness and gluttony are not due to your weak will, but to the processes that occur in your body.
What does it mean to feel lazy? It means that you lack energy, that you have no desire to do something and that you choose to rest and do nothing, instead of push yourself.
What does it mean to be gluttonous? It means eating a lot from everything. You hardly manage to resist the temptation of food and no matter how much you try, you always find yourself digging in the fridge for a second helping or reaching in the pack of nuts for another handful.
All of this is making you feel as if you lack will and you are telling yourself that others are right. Are you going to believe me if I tell you that this is far from the truth?
Are you going to believe me if I tell you that laziness and gluttony are just the response of your body towards your present lifestyle and the choices you’ve made? Laziness and gluttony are just one of the slangs of your body – the way it communicates with us. Laziness and gluttony are not your identity – they are a signal from your body that something doesn’t happen properly.
Forget what other people tell you. They just expect you to start today and then, tomorrow be where they are. But is that the way you win a competition? Is that how you prepare yourself? You start training track today and tomorrow you are at the Olympics? No! Nobody sees the years of hard work, consistency, plateau, a step back and then a couple steps forwards. Nobody sees the moments when you are about to quit. The moments when you try a new method, but it doesn’t turn out and you go back home – disappointed, just to wake up on the next morning and look for something new and try again. It is the same with diet and working out.
Free yourself from the expectations that you are gonna start training today and eating healthy and that you will never happen to overeat again; that you will never skip a workout or stop just two reps before the end of the rep.
I do not want you to be perfect. I know that you are not gluttonous or lazy and that the choices you’ve made so far, make your body respond in this manner. I know that the moment when you start choosing better things for yourself, your body will slowly start changing. I know that the moment you start a diet not with the idea that you need to deprive yourself, but with the idea that you need to give and nourish your body, the gluttony will disappear. Because when your body knows that it will receive, it won’t force you to make up for it.
I know that the moment when you stop exhausting yourself with working out, because others tell you that “no pain, no gain”, laziness and lack of willpower will disappear, because your body won’t be under constant stress.
Have you thought that laziness and gluttony are a mean of the body to recover – from the choices that harm it? You act gluttonous, because your body lacks something – or because you are constantly depriving it with diets or because you are eating low quality food – in both cases you are depriving it.
You act lazy and with lack of will, because you are exhausting your body or because you are not moving at all – in both cases, your body feels the lack of energy and tries to conserve it by forcing you to rest.
Don’t worry. I know that you are confuses. I know that the words gluttonous, lazy and lack of will power will echo in your mind. I am good at meeting people where they are. Trust me and we will walk the path together.
Ines
