So. I shot this video last week…
Is she holding… lube?
…and then all hell broke loose. (But, of course, you’re already subscribed to my newbie YouTube channel, so you knew that already, right?)
And, although I spent the first few days of my summer being dropped in a dunk tank, we won’t talk about that. All I know, is that when my daughter starts waking up at 9:30 every day instead of 7…it’s officially summer.
But why a #scalefreesummer? Why now?
Because I’ve already learned the hard way, that permanent weight loss is about the fact that what you do to lose the weight will be what you do to keep it off. It’s about habits. The habits – and the nature of consistency that comes along with something being and becoming a habit – is what creates the weight loss. And, in fact, you can achieve the weight loss goal by focusing solely on the habits and throwing a middle finger to the scale.
(To be fair, and to assuage the fears of those of us who are addicted to the scale, I’ll accept a graduated digression from the scale – if you check it every day, try to strive to only check it once a week instead; if you check it every weekend, go for twice a month.)
What most people don’t realize is that it’s “pretty easy” to lose weight; it’s keeping it off that’s the challenge. And, as someone who has successfully kept my weight off for a long time and is experiencing quite a bit of success in literally transforming my physique for a competition in a healthy fashion – and taking my sweet, sweet time in doing so, because I’m not gonna embarrass myself or my blog getting on stage when I’m not ready – I think that I’m pretty intimately familiar with how this game goes.
A full-scale change has to happen. It’s literally a mind-body-soul type experience. Your mind is affected because, quite honestly, you have to change the way you think about food. Your body, because you need to prepare it for the ability to actually transform. And your soul, well… you really have to look at the things that make you happy, decide whether or not they’re standing in your way, and be willing to both let those old things go and embrace new things, allowing the new to make you happy.
I really hope that makes sense. It’s early and it may or may not look like gibberish through my sleepy eyes.
I’m tackling this from both the standpoint of the person who needs to change, and the person helping others change. I’ve got 8 people in two groups – 4 men, 4 women – that I’m going to personally be counseling through the entire summer, and writing about their experiences here. Everyone’s coming from a different place – some are thin and want to be lean, some are obese and are working with emotional eating, and some are right in the middle.
The fact of the matter is, this is what I’m basing my career on – yeah, I can train you, but what will you learn about how to live after you “can’t afford a trainer anymore?” What will you learn when you’ve decided we can’t work together anymore? What about living – not just weight lifting and weight loss – will you understand? This is giving me the opportunity to create a system that legitimately helps people, and understand how to navigate issues other than the ones I’ve endured, myself. They’re allowing me to share their stories with you, and hopefully it’ll help you work through whatever you might be going through, as well.
That being said… I’m filling up my hashtag with love, support, jokes, and insights from my own training. And, most importantly, I’ve got prizes for you if you do the same!
You don’t, necessarily, have to tweet in order to be down. You can share your photos on Instagram using the hashtag #ScaleFreeSummer, or you can come to the FB page and post your workouts and updates, and dialogue with our community there! You don’t need to @ me on twitter or Facebook, but definitely mention me on Instagram so that I make sure I can comment.
Add the #ScaleFreeSummer hashtag to your Fuelband, your Runkeeper, your DailyMile, your MyFitnessPal, whatever app you use to share your fitness activities on social media! I want to know what you’ve got going on! Maybe you could show me a little something!
We’ll be spending a few weeks on each facet of the #ScaleFreeSummer – mind, body, and soul – and I want to bring you along for the ride!
So…who’s coming along?
Click here to buy the #ScaleFreeSummer e-book and training guide!