Getting Healthy

Getting Healthy 

Why People Suck at Getting Healthy?

We’re in trouble.

WALL-E knows it too, which is why he looks so sad.


Poor WALL-E


We are spending more money on fitness quick-fixes, gym memberships, “health food”, personal trainers, and other ‘life improvement’ products than ever before. Thanks to the power of the Internet, we’re hit on a daily basis with “Top 10 healthy foods,” “foods to avoid for optimum health,” “6-pack abs in 15 minutes a day!,” and millions upon million fitness sites extolling expert advice.  Super markets like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and even healthy “fast food” places are popping up everywhere that make it incredibly simple to eat healthy foods.

Despite All of this, we continue to get bigger, slower, and lazier.

“I know what I should do, I just can’t motivate myself to do it. Can you help?”

My answer has always been “I can give you motivation (temporary)  , only the tools to use once you FIND your motivation".

Be More Like Yoda

when you read an article about exercise and fitness and diet, if you say “man I really should do that,” you’ve already lost.

“Should” is a defeatist word.

And here’s why:


You are a smart person.

You know what needs to be done in order to get in shape.


You know that you should eat REAL food and stop eating junk food. You even know that a majority of “healthy” foods out there are crap. You know that your diet is 80% of your success or failure. You know HOW to build a simple workout, or you at least know that there are free workout resources available through some sites.

On top of all of that, we ALL know that eating better and exercising improves your life in about a MILLION ways, so I won’t even bother listing them.

And yet, people come to me every day and say “I know I should exercise, and I know I should eat better, but I just don’t have the motivation and don’t know where to find it.”

I try to write motivating articles that inspire action and give you the desire to change, but I know their influence can fade as soon as the laptop closes and the Xbox/Netflix/Hulu beckons.

Today’s article is for the people who know they SHOULD change but don’t.

Yoda said it best:

“Do or do not.  There is no try.”

There is NO “should” either!

It’s time to stop sucking, stop saying should, and start DOING it.

Start here: Every time you say “should,” drop and give me 10 push ups.  I don’t care where you are or what you’re doing.  Trust me, it’ll be funny.

Stop searching for motivation, start building systems

Do any of these situations sound familiar?

“Just one peanut M&M” or “Just one piece of cake” becomes the entire bag/plate.

“I skipped yesterday’s workout, why bother today? It’s useless.”


“Meh, next month is better for me anyways.”

Whatever your excuse may be, we BOTH know that you’re the only person who believes it.  We might tell ourselves that we don’t have time, or that we had a bad day at work, or that we just don’t feel like exercising or eating right for whatever reason.

It’s at this point we start to question our willpower, wondering how to get “motivation” or “inspiration.”

It’s not just a lack of willpower – it’s a lack of proper preparation and systems!

Although we can’t automate our workouts and our diets, we CAN automate our thinking to promote positive habit change. It takes around 30 days or so for a new habit to form.  By automating our thinking for the first few weeks, we can remove emotion from the equation until we start to see positive change and build momentum.

As we also know from Sir Isaac Newton (All praise his scientific name!), “an object at rest tends to stay at rest,” and “an object in motion tends to stay in motion.”

In our case “somebody who sucks at being in shape will continue to suck being in shape…” until he/she becomes somebody who “is good at getting in shape will stay in shape.”

Fix your diet

Your diet is 80-90% of your success when it comes to getting healthy and looking better.


Seriously, it’s that important!

we’ve all said at one point in our lives, “I should start eating better” while polishing off a bag of Doritos/popcorn/Skittles.


#Fail.

“I should (eat better)(eat less)(clean up my diet)” is a useless phrase that will result in no positive action.  So stop saying SHOULD.


Instead, put systems and practices in place that remove any thought or action from your decision-process until you’ve heard “hey, have you lost weight?” and “you look great.”  Once momentum is on your side, nothing can stop you.

Create a yes/no list

Create a list of foods right now that you have zero self control over and or foods that you know are bad for you.


If you know those foods are derailing your efforts, then remove temptation and emotion from the equation by making a rule that YOU CANNOT EAT THEM.

It’s no longer a question of willpower, it’s just what you are doing.

If you want to start eating better and you know certain foods are bad for you, build a list that says what you can and can’t eat. If you’re a person that struggles with self control when it comes to unhealthy food (and we all are, to an extent), then “just one” doesn’t work.

“But Sahel, people will give me funny looks for not eating birthday cake at the office/party, and I’ll get made fun for not eating the bun on my burger and replacing french fries with a salad.” A strong majority of people are overweight, out of shape, in debt, and unhappy…do you really care what they think about you?  Do what you need to do to only eat the foods on your approved list. Gabor told everyone at his office that he developed a food allergy to avoid all of the unhealthy temptations at work.  While lying sucks, they never asked again, and it made it super easy to bring in whatever he wanted without getting weird looks.

“But Sahel, I eat out all the time, mostly at American style places with big portions. How am I supposed to eat healthy there?”   As soon as your food comes to you, set aside 1/2 or 1/3rd of it as “not touchable.” Ask for a to-go box right away and put that portion in there.  Don’t feel like taking it home but know you’ll nibble at it?

“But Sahel, people will think I’m weird!” EMBRACE THE WEIRD. Fitting in with everybody else got you where you are now. Maybe doing things that others think is weird is precisely what you need to get back on the right path.

Bring it all together, you will

To recap:

Stop saying should.  Penalize yourself with push ups every time you do.

Create rules for yourself about what you can eat and what you can’t eat.  Follow these rules without exception, and remove emotion from the equation.


Get rid of the foods that are holding you back.

The first few weeks of getting in shape can be incredibly difficult.  By planning and building in proper systems to avoid the pitfalls that trip everybody up, you can power through the slow-roll stage until your momentum and positive behavior start to snowball into an avalanche of awesome.



I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!