The question you’ve gotta ask yourselves is, do I want to be the person that gives up again, or do I wanna be the person that continues to stride forward.” Sharif Deen, The Biggest Loser Australia contestant 2009.
I love this quote. I was watching the full episode reruns of TBL online this week and snagged it. It is a great quote from an inspirational guy. Sharif was morbidly obese and struggled with his overweight issues most his life. Now he is a living, walking, talking lifestyle fitness advocate. He is also a qualified personal trainer :o)
His experience on TBL could have been yet another Yo-Yo moment in his life. Another notch in the belt. But he made a mental decision to never give up, and to change his life forever.
Each of us need to make these mental decisions before we can commit to anything. Sometimes taking action is difficult because we are addicted to living our life in a way that is completely opposite. These difficult decisions take up a lot of our mental energy because there is a niggling part of us that wants to stay the same.
Sharif puts it great. He says, “…continues to stride…”. He didn’t lose 72.5kg (the weight of a healthy adult male) by Yo-Yo’ing. He kept it up. He didn’t take baby steps. He took strides. He didn’t do it easy. He did it hard.
Moral of the story is, if something is important to you, then you need to do it constantly, consistently and non-stop. You need to jump right in. You can’t remain standing with one foot in your old life and one foot in your new. You must change. You need to jump right in.
Whether you need to lose 70kg (hopefully you are not this morbidly obese) or only need to lose a few kilograms. The point is, you must continue to stride and make exercise a lifestyle choice, not a weight loss choice. Weight loss is a symptom of someone who lives a healthy and active lifestyle.
Here are my tips:
- Make a goal to be physically active every single day (take the stairs, walk to work, etc)
- Make a goal to start doing vigorous exercise 3-5 times per week (either with a personal trainer, a bootcamp or by yourself)
- Make a commitment to continue to do this for the rest of your life
I promise you, that if you do this, you will not only lose weight but you will be healthy, you will be fit and you will get into the best shape of your life! You will truly become an Active Aussie.
Have you exercised today?
