As I drove home from work in the pouring rain I began to wonder why I work so hard at getting in good shape.  It is such a slow process and I sometimes wonder if it is even worth it.  At the same time, my mind immediately goes to how I felt a year ago when I was close to 30 pounds heavier.  I know how horrible I felt inside.  I know how it felt to carry around too much fat on my body.  I know how people looked at me.  I do not ever want to go back to that.  Is it worth the hard work?  Yes it is!

I enjoy how exercising makes me feel as I do it.  I enjoy sharing that feeling with other people who want the same feeling.  I enjoy mentoring those who want to know how to get to a better place in their fitness journey.  It excites me to read about nutritional issues and body building.  I enjoy the topic from A to Z.  That's one reason I do it.  I get enjoyment from it.  I also do it because it helps me to interact with my children.  I enjoy being able to keep up with them and their activities. 

I believe that there are two major reasons (among many others) that people veer off their plans–reaction and distraction.

Reaction

People are very excited after they create a plan.  They just know they are going to see massive results.  They plan a 12 week attack and then get to work on executing it.  After about 2 weeks they don't feel like they've seen any results.  They get down on themselves and begin to react to their situation.  This reaction takes them right off course.  Instead of riding things out to see what will happen, they make a change at the wrong time.  I can personally attest to the need to stay the course.  I was not seeing alot of results after 2 weeks of my first H.I.T. cycle, but I stuck with it and ended up with massive results.  You have to trust in your plan and not react prematurely.

I strongly believe that this type of planning is the reason some people succeed where others can only try and fail.  At the same time, Yoda once said "Do or do not do, there is no try!"  So why does it seem that people continually "try" to get things done rather than actually "doing" things?  Non-specific planning is the direct cause of this issue. 

I have found that when I write out a plan that says "Do abdominals 4 times a week" I might miss a day here or there, but if I put down a schedule that says "Sunday-Abdominals; Tuesday-Abdominals; Thursday-Abdominals; Saturday-Abdominals" I hit the schedule as listed.  It is the same with nutrition or working out.  When I have a general plan it doesn't work for me, but a very specific plan keeps me on task.  It is as though my brain remembers things better when there are specifics behind the issue.  I have found a similar thing in my time management.  If I use a calendar for events that must happen at a specific time and date, a task list for things that can happen when I have the time to do them and a delegation feature/follow-up system for things I need to assign to other people, life becomes easier to control and manage.

When we approach the topic of nutrition we should give it careful thought.  As we select the foods we are going to eat we should be asking the question "what's in it for me?"  In other words, how is what I'm about to put in my mouth going to help my body?  Will I benefit from eating what I'm about to eat or will I take a step backward?  We should only be eating the things that are going to benefit us (most of the time). 

I am a strong believer in the 90% compliance stance.  I believe that as long as you are compliant to your eating plan 90% of the time you will be doing what is best for your body.  What's interesting about the 90% number is what it means in terms of your meals.  If you eat 6 meals a day like me that means you are eating 42 meals a week.  If you are 90% compliant you will have 4 meals that are not compliant.  That's equal to one every other day.  This is why I do not have a problem with my nutrition any longer.  It used to be a huge issue for me and now it is just another thing that has to happen.

I settled in on the Anabolic Diet methodology (though slightly modified) because it is flexible.  As long as I am completely compliant Monday through Thursday I can eat just about anything I want on the weekends.  For instance, I like pizza.  With the Anabolic Diet methodology I can eat pizza every single week and not be cheating.  In fact, I get to eat alot of things guilt free because by using the Anabolic Diet methodology I've pretty much turned my body into an efficient fat burning machine.  It is a nice feeling to know that I can make it through the week with my nutritional plan.

The Muscle Building Fat Burning Machine Video Podcast – 12/14/2008 – Nutritional Concepts

Obviously everyone starts out with good intentions.  They sincerely plan to complete whatever plan they are currently working.  Along the way the encounter some unexpected circumstances.  Their reaction to this generally causes them to change direction.  There are other reasons that occur as well, but this is the most common one.

Without a doubt I am always a little disappointed when I see this going on.  Everyone wants to use Adam: RTP Blog 2.0 as an example, but they miss a key point.  One reason Adam is so successful is that he sticks to his plans.  You rarely see him change things up midstream in a drastic way.  He remains consistent and gets things done as planned.  To me, this is how it is supposed to be.

I agree that at times during a plan (depending upon the length of the plan) we need to change directions a little.  However, we rarely require such a drastic change that we can no longer complete our original mission.  I see this problem most commonly with our training plans.  We make such a drastic change that we can no longer complete the original plans.  Perhaps we planned to do a 4 day split and somewhere along the line decided we needed more gym time, so we upped it to a 5 day split.  There are many possible combinations of this concept, but I think you get my point.  The plan gets changed to the point that it no longer even resembles the original plan.

I implore all of you to stick to your plans.  Make small changes where needed, but stay the course.  Your body takes time to show evidence of the changes you are putting it through.  If you are continually jumping around from one plan to another you will never get the opportunity to see the changes manifest themselves.  Drastic changes to a pre-made plan are a bad idea.  If you planned to workout 3 days a week, stick to that plan until it is completed.  There is a reason you came up with the plan in the first place.  Give it a chance to work.  Small adjustments can always be made as the plan progresses. Even NASA has to make some flight adjustments to be sure that a spaceship that has traveled a long way stays on target.

I am going to point to Adam: RTP Blog 2.0 as living proof that sticking to a plan works.  I can also point to my M4 and state plainly that sticking to a plan works.  I gained alot of muscle during that mission by sticking to my plan even when it didn't seem to make sense to me.  I trusted the principles and worked them.  You need to do the same.

Video Podcast Update:

You have all voted and the voting was close, but the video podcast topic will be nutrition.  I have been working on that today and will release the video podcast on Sunday and will follow every Sunday thereafter with a new video podcast on a topic my readers choose via online survey.  With that in mind:

Vote for the next video podcast topic here!

Matty's workout log:

Week 1 of the new training plan is in the books for Matty and I.  We have progressed in all of our exercises as was the plan.  I am finally getting used to the deadlifts so early in the workout.  They definitely make the rest of the workout harder, but it is harder in a good way.  Matty managed to get up 160 lbs. x 10 on the deadlifts, matching his personal best on this exercise.