The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones.~William Somerset Maugham

How many times have you told yourself that starting Monday you were going to… start your new diet, go to the gym, get up an hour earlier to do, take a lunch at work, spend my time with my family, call a friend.  My guess is a million.  Now, how long did it last, if ever got started?? Did you make it 21 days?

Okay, so where did this 21-day concept come from?  Dr. Maxwell Maltz, wrote a book entitled  ‘Psycho-Cybernetics’  in the 1960’s after he observed that it took amputees about 21 days to stop feeling as though they still had their amputated limb(s).  Basically it takes our brain 21 days of consistent new stimuli to forge new pathways, so for any new behavior to become a habit we need to do it consistently for 21 days.

Can you do 1 thing consistently for 21 days?

I have 2 goals for the next 21 days.

1. consistently bring informative and actionable information in this blog
2. read for 1 hour each day

Now that I have written this down, and make it public, I got do it. So come brain help me make it stick!

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I was watching Sunday Morning on CBS today and they suggesting that the ups and downs of the stock market can be compared to a herd mentality.  A herd mentality is a way to describe how people’s behaviors can influenced by their peers.

So what does this have to do with fitness? Well, how is your fitness influenced by what others are doing?  Has a friend ever called/emailed/text-ed you and asked what you were doing and when you said you were going to workout they mentioned that a group of people (the herd) where doing something else and asked you to come along?  What do you say? Do you stick to your plan or do you go along with the herd?

We may have evolved, but we still like to feel part of a group and fear of not belonging sometimes over takes our need to be our own person. Trust me I know how you feel!

I am a fitness competitor and typically compete in 5 shows/year. The season starts in April runs through June and then I start back up again in the Fall. So trust me there are plenty of times when I get the phone call, have to go to a party, wedding or other social event and I want to follow the herd and play hooky, but this is when you reach inside and ask what are your goals?  How committed are you to reaching them?

Let me know do you follow the herd or do you stick to your goals?

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So… Red Sox nation waits 86 years to win a World Series and then we wait just 3 years to make another trip back to the big game to win again.  We are a town that was accustomed to disappointments.  Then things started to turn around in 2001 and we are now a town that expects everything.

For the past week, Boston has been held in suspense will we make again to the World Series. So last night while most went to bed to awaits the news of Boston loss, The Red Sox make an incredible come back.

Is there something that you have always wanted to do and thought all was lost? In Boston we have a saying “Why Not Us” When I am feeling down, stress out and thing I can’t turn things around, I think “Why Not Me”

Can you make a come back?  Have you made come back?  Tell me about it

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There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
- Beverly Sills
So stop with the shortcuts, hold yourself accountable for your actions and embrace the fact that slow and stead y wins the weight loss race.

Tell me (in the comments below) what have been some of the shortcuts you taken?  I promise no judgments.

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So, at least 3 times a week I do a high intensity cardio workout.  I run intervals  either straight sprints  or hills on treadmill at my gym.  I love working out, but interval training is not something that I like to do, but since I am getting ready for a show (we’ll talk about that later), interval training is the only way I am going to lean out.

I’m bumped up, got my favorite songs loaded on my pod, I’m 15 minutes into my run on a 10% incline I’m about to do a fast sprint decline and my treadmill gets STUCK!! I couldn’t get it off a 9 /12% incline.

Have you ever got stuck?  What did you do, did you just stop?
So instead of getting a boo boo lip, I just hopped on the treadmill next to me.

It’s 40 days and 12 hours until I compete in the Fitness America Show in Las Vegas; it’s time to put the pedal to the medal, if I plan to come home with some hardware!

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