Failure as the Doorway to Your Success

I remember ordering two meat-lovers’ pizzas on Saturdays as I watched college football (with Diet Coke of course) in the mid-1990's.  Maybe later I would get a huge Cherry Coke Icee and throw a big bag of peanut M&M’s in the super-sized cup. 

I now spend a lot of time helping people “make better eating choices”. Pretty ironic, huh? 

Although my eating choices were poor back in those days, I was always pretty active and craved getting back into the shape of my athletic years.

I wanted to lose weight, I talked about losing weight, I read about losing weight. 

But somehow I thought it should be easy.  I wanted to maintain my old habits but also somehow find a “secret way” to get in great shape.  

I had the desire but was in “no-man’s land” as far as not knowing how to change. Or maybe I just was not ready.  Not sure about that. 

Either way, I slowly gained weight over several years. And that produced lots of self-condemnation.  

I  believed it would be impossible for me to make a change.  So I just denied it was a concern.  Sort of. 

In this area, I was leading my life of quiet desperation like millions of Americans. 

Spurred on by some pictures where I no longer recognized myself, I started to make some eating changes. As is the case for many people, only when I realized how unsuccessful I was did I make progress. 

This is the fitness equivalent of the "Big Bang".  The fitness universe begins to expand at this point.

I slowly changed my eating habits and now have seemingly lost my desire for many of the foods I used to crave.  The external goals of “losing weight” have become internalized and now my goals center more on feeling great.

The self-condemnation is a distant memory,  Somewhere along the line, I have honestly forgotten what many of those old foods taste like. 

I had to accept losing weight requires a new, long-term approach. Accepting this fact is probably the most important factor in my eleven-year fitness success run. No more popcorn diets.  No more running in sweat suits in the heat.

Time to "get real" as they say.

Of course, almost all fitness and diet marketing takes the opposite approach- e.g. “just 3 minutes per day to get ripped” or the “lose 10 pounds by midnight!”  type approach. And we have all bought into this microwave fitness approach at times.

Any time you try to change habits formed over years that involve personality, behavioral, social, physiological and psychological factors then making a lasting change will require a real commitment. 

As long as I thought I could continue to eat the same way but somehow find a “silver bullet” to make it all right, I did not make any progress. 

When I finally realized, “Hey, I have been trying the same stuff for years and I always end up right back in the same place-maybe I should seek out someone else's approach?", I finally moved forward. 

My admission of failure become my doorway to success.  

Do I feel better now making different choices?  Absolutely 

Is my life improved in a million ways? Definitely 

Is it worth giving up the old foods to get a new life? 1,000 times over. 

But sometimes you have to fail to succeed.

Posted Jan 10, 2010 by Jeff Blair.
This entry is filed under Los Angeles Personal Trainer, Los Angeles fat loss, Los Angeles fitness, Los Angeles exercise, and Los Angeles fitness success.