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Something clicked for me this morning and reminded me of a topic I wanted to talk about.  Long term weight loss comes with a price tag labeled with patience.  No matter how long I’ve been working out, I still mentally want more faster. I also know I’m not the only one.

There have been times when I trained with an almost frantic pace.  A pace no doubt, that would have surely have led to injury if I had stayed on that pace.

There have been times I’ve tightened up my food intake to unreasonable levels truly believing that less is more.  I was wrong.

The thing I’ve lacked the most in my journey has always been patience.  Patience to allow myself to get good at this whole fitness and nutrition thing.  Patience with my own expectation regarding my results.  This stuff doesn’t happen over night.

I consider those who get on the fitness band wagon without massive weight to lose to be a an advantage for a couple of reasons.  I might get a little hate mail for this, but I do.  To have the physique that doesn’t have the wear and tear of major weight loss is a gift that so many take for granted. Instead of worrying about losing all the time, you get to focus more on making positive gains.  It’s more of a one way street.

I screwed up, yes I did, for not taking responsibility sooner.  For not stopping that locomotive I was on.  That being said I wouldn’t be literally half the person I used to be if I hadn’t gone through what I’ve been through.  This my friends is where patience comes in to play.

Everyone I meet who wants to change, they want it over night, ok to be fair, they want it in a week or two, some even make it a month before they freak out because they are dramatically changed and still working their butts off.

They want change that takes years to happen in just a few months.  If they aren’t seeing change, they want to change this or that because what they are doing isn’t working fast enough.  I’ve derailed myself more times than I care to admit because I kept searching for the better, faster way of getting results.  The one thing that I only recently got better at was patience.

It was only when I stop waffling all over creation and starting focusing on what I was doing right and doing just enough more of it to make even better progress.

I wanted my shoulders to look better, it was only after I made the effort to add a bit more focused attention to my shoulders did they respond.  Does that mean I worked shoulders every other day, no.  I it means I worked them one extra workout per week.

I wanted to get leaner, does that mean I ate less?  No, actually I started tracking my caloric output vs. my input a little more thoroughly.  Does that mean I became obsessed about it?  No, I came to the realization that my oldest and by far my worst “dieter, less is more” habit was still alive an well.  It was only when I logged it and looked at it staring me back in the face that I knew I had to make some changes.  Small changes, like adding a more effective carb source post workout and adding a bit more fat during the rest of my meals.  I feel better, I can lift more.

Is what is working for me what you should be doing?  No, not necessarily.  Every human body is different.  If you aren’t writing down or logging what you are doing, how do you know if you are making positive or negative gains?  Well if negative your pants will be tighter.  If positive?  That’s a different story.  You’ll come to a point when you don’t want your pants to get smaller, but you want your body composition to change.  Without photos, measurements, workout, data, and a nutritional log, you’ve got very little to trouble shoot with.  Your first instincts are to eat less and work harder, when just the opposite is in order.

So before you go changing things, are you doing the logging, the information gathering that you need to identify change when it is happening?  If not, start there.  Patience, persistence, and consistency.  Keep moving forward!