Ready for a weird metaphor? You can’t boil a frog by just throwing it in boiling water. It immediately recognizes that the hot water isn’t good for it and hops out. But if you place a frog in comfortable water and slowly heat it to boiling, it will never notice the difference, never hop out, and will be boiled alive. This is a slightly gruesome but helpful way to look at lifestyle choices and habits.
It is NORMAL for habits to slowly get a little worse over time. Subconsciously a little self destructive habit creeps in here or there, unnoticed. A little more booze here. Some more sweets there. Some skipped workouts because “things are busy”. More and more time mindlessly scrolling, which only leaves us busier and more stressed. It happens slowly when we aren’t paying attention. “I eat pretty well” we say, while slowly gaining weight and feeling sluggish during the day.
If it continues to go unchecked, it will compound into getting full blown derailed. Life will happen, stuff will come up, and your healthy habits will already be weakened enough to go completely out the window. Most of us mortals should expect to get fully derailed once or twice a year. Expect it, plan for it, shake it off when it happens, and take some action to get back on track.
Want to know what happens after a few years when the water is really boiling? We all know smoking is bad for your health. If you are a regular smoker you can expect to lose 10 years off your life. Thats pretty bad right? Well, the combined effects of being metabolically unhealthy, overweight, sedentary, and maintaining a poor diet can take 20+ years off your life! It’s easy to watch old movies where they are chain smoking and scoff at how unhealthy that is. Those chimney stacks weren’t half as bad as the average American now! That’s crazy!
So little backslides turn into getting derailed. Off weeks turn into off months which turn into off years. Do that for a couple decades and you will lose a couple decades. It’s not great and it is tragically common BUT it isn’t all bad. You can absolutely do something about it!
Enter, our New Year PROGRAM! This is specifically designed to be the reset we all need. I say “we” because I will be participating in it as well. Something something practice what I preach : ) This program is 4 weeks starting January 15th. For the 4 weeks we will have some simple rules to follow: no booze, no added, strength train 3 days a week, 60 minute ruck with a 20lbs pack on our non training days.
The real purpose of this program is to be a hard reset. Us little froggy frogs are going to get out of the water we’ve been in and sit in some nice, cool water for 4 weeks. At the end of the 4 weeks you can get right back in the water you were in before but at least you will know what temperature it is. Odds are, you’re going to like how cooler water feels. It will be an easy transition into more long term sustainable versions of some of these short term, slightly strict standards we’ll be holding ourselves to.
When you are ready to get back on track, fill out the form at the top or bottom of this page and I will be in touch : )
