I have noticed that when you are feeling a little down that things pile up easy. For example, I walked into my office last night and I saw one thing out of order, then another and then a third. By the time I got to the third thing – my mind was convinced. Everything is going to hell and life sucks. Same thing when I walked into my bedroom last night. I saw something on my counter that was out of place, then I saw that I forgot to put something away on my bathroom counter, then I saw an loose article of clothing in my closet. By the time I got to the third thing, my mind came to the conclusion that my whole life was out of order and life sucks.
When we are under stress, we sometimes allow ourselves to use the evidence of things around us to convince ourselves of the hopelessness of the situation and allow our bad self (that primal mind I refer to) to take over and convince us to just give up, throw in the towel. A pint of ice cream, and binge watching a Netflix show seems like a better alternative then picking up that sock on the floor of the closet. The primal mind is a tricky and devious creature and will do anything it can to get out of work.
So I read from a blog by a psychologist one day about this phenomena. He indicated that when you are feeling this way, there is a great strategy to overcome this primal mind. Wherever you are at and whatever you are doing – stop for a moment. Stop thinking. Sit real still and close your eyes, take a deep breath then open them. Then the first thing you see or think of that is not right – fix it. After you fix the first item, if you are still feeling a little out of sorts repeat. By the time you fix two things in this manner – you will no longer be feeling negative – you will now start to feel positive. Your mind will get that check box reward and your outlook will suddenly improve. What seemed like an overwhelming avalanche of chaos, will suddenly seem like a downhill slope of fresh powder after accomplishing 1 or 2 messed up things around you.
Last night, I listened to random You Tube videos (a dangerous idea btw) and ran into a quick 1 minute video featuring David Goggins. He has become this sort of mythical motivational voice for me. When I just do not want to do something, I channel the inner-Goggins voice and do it anyway! He was saying in this video that when he discovers something bothering him, he just fixes it. That was a pretty interesting concept and reminded me of what that psychologist was saying. If it is bothering you, then fix it. The main thing that is bothering me is my nutrition right now. I have this process where I Consider, Measure and Record everything that I eat. I have been doing that for 320 days as of today. It is a good mechanism because it keeps me conscious of what I am consuming. However, I am slipping a little in my nutrition and I have noticed a direct impact on my performance as a person, my mental sharpness and physical strength based on what I consume the day or two before. In many cases I am not eating enough and in some cases I am eating really poorly. The nice thing about recording everything that I eat is that I can go back now and look at trends.
Well the trends are not good. I am having a tendency to consume more sugar based substances in the afternoon time frame, and I think I can attribute that to being tired. I correlated that to sleep and I can almost directly prove that my increased sugar consumption is tied to my lessened sleep pattern. Not sure if one caused the other, but this is definitely something that I need to fix and get dialed in. So it is bothering me and I am going to fix it! So I have decided that this weekend I am going to fix this problem and come up with a simple, easy to follow process for getting my nutrition dialed in, and my sleep patterns fixed. I will let you know how it goes.
I watch and listen to a lot of blogs and podcasts from famous athletes, specifically ultra marathon runners. My ultimate goal I set last year was to compete well in a 100 mile race. That seems like a long way off for me, but as I get closer to my first marathon I see this as a first stepping stone. Everyone of these athletes focus on nutrition when someone asks them how they did it. You ask them, how did you become successful at running? Sure they talk about shoes, about will power, about daily running routines, increasing miles, etc but they ALWAYS talk about nutrition. They rarely have the same program, but they all have a program a way of dealing with the fuel their body needs. I think that has been my challenge, I am just not used to being under the load of a constant running routine and the calories that I have to consume to maintain myself is difficult to stay on top of. I get into a deficit and then start trying to overcompensate with quick sugary treats.
I try to remain stoic at the office or at a dinner where people are passing around the plate of yummy stuff. Cookies remain my bane. So this is bothering me. I need to follow the path of Mr. Goggins and just fix it. I know it is something holding me back. I have made remarkable improvement, and lost a lot of weight, but now that I am closer to my idea body weight and a caloric deficit can really have an impact. I need to get serious. So here it goes, no more wallowing in despair – I am going to figure out how to fix it.
Guy Reams (454)
365 Alumni
59 Days Left to 1st Marathon
