Physical training consumes the body but principally reveals what is in your mind. It doesn’t matter what type of physical training, all of them teach you about what is in your mind.
In fact, the lessons are all the same, but only the medium or emphasis is different. Have you learned how to listen to what your body is saying? Can you be consistently committed? Can you effectively envision the accomplishment of a challenging goal well before it happens? Can you plan for that vision? Can you keep the big picture in mind? Can you keep from being distracted from the vision when things are not going well?
This week, dealing with plantar fasciitis has challenged me to revisit all of this. Not because it is so bad that I have to stop training. No, but I was feeling down towards the end of this week because I realized that I have to lose some weight to accomplish my goals and help to address the plantar fasciitis. Why does losing weight challenge what is in your mind? Because you have enough to make substantial life changes over a long period of time to be successful.
In the short term, I think about how hard this will be. How hungry you always get when training. How inconvenient it is to manage what goes into your mouth when you just want to stop being hungry. But the next day, I was reminded of the challenges and opportunities. First, if I am able to make the weight loss goal I want, I will be able to be much more confident in setting and achieving my goal time. Second, I got a body fat reading at the gym, and it was much higher than I expected. So if I can meet my goal, I can get closer to my target body fat measurement as well. Third, I’m not sure it’s good to have a high BMI, even if one is muscular or functionally fit. Your heart can’t tell the difference, and it would still be stressed. So, if I meet my goal I’d be lowering a long term health risk factor for several chronic diseases.
Training and managing my diet will test me. But, at least I’ve got an even bigger picture in mind. Thoughts or suggestions, anyone?