There's no destination

In weight loss, there always seems to be some magical goal. Some place that we arrive, some goal we hit, some destination we need to get to. There's the weight we're at now, ad that place we want to get to at some point.

The weight we're striving for.

It seems to exist in the future. Some time, a few weeks, months or years from now. But it doesn't exist. It's not real. It's some place in our heads.

Now this is getting philosophical I know. But before we get too philosophical hear me out. The only place that exists is now. Of course there's going to be the usual arguments of what's real and what's not, the nature of reality and whether it's all just an illusion or not but putting that all aside for a minute, the way I look at it, is there is only now.

Look around. What do you see? But more importantly...what are you doing? What are you doing today? What are you doing now? and what do you do in every now on a regular basis?

Those are your habits. Those are the clues to what you will do in every now that you have. What you're doing now tells you how you're showing up. In weight loss there's always the I'll start on Monday. It's a great way to defer action. We convince ourselves we'll start then, we'll take action then. But what's actually going to happen on Monday? We'll put off action till a few days later, or we'll have a fit of enthusiasm which will last a few hours, or maybe even days and then back to normal.

In order to make progress, we need to change the normal. How do we know what our normal is? Look at the now. Look what's taking place now. Look at who we are now.

I weighed in at 73.2Kg today. I want to weigh in at 68Kg. That's my target weight. Am I going to get there? Well let's look at my now. I'm showing up at the gym. I'm putting it in when I do the exercises. In my previous now I didn't do some of the exercises. In my now prior to that I didn't do some of the exercises. Maybe on that basis I can still hit my 68Kg, but with that attitude the now that I want will take a lot longer to come. I may hit the weight but having the physique that I want will take a lot longer to come. I need to tighten my game there.

How about diet? My now yesterday was good. Today it'll be good. My now a few days ago I overate. I knew I was overeating. I did that in my now last Friday as well. I also regulated at dinner in my now on Friday.

The verdict? My now says, I'm going to be around 73Kg maybe a little more, maybe a little less. I'm showing up as inconsistent. I need to change who I'm showing up as and what I'm doing now, then my future nows will take care of themselves.

So how do I change my now? I tried a fit of enthusiasm before and that lasted a few days. Small consistent, manageable steps is the key. Catch myself before I overeat. Stop eating once you've had a plate of food because that other plate is going to cause havoc.

Make enough of those small changes is the key to changing the normal and creating a new normal, a new standard and changing the now.