Sometimes we just don’t want to face where we are at in life because it is painful. We choose to remain ignorant and pretend that where we stand is not that bad. However, this ignorance only makes the situation worse. I am talking about fitness of course, but this can apply to virtually every area of our life: financial, relationships, school ,etc.

I have see this happen with many of my former clients who have fallen off the wagon or even current clients who wanted a little break from checking the scale. That break led to continual overindulgences when a little freedom was given. This happens to all of us. We are human. We make mistakes. We eat too much. We avoid the scale. Then because we “don’t really know” we pretend it’s not that bad. We create an illusion of where we want to be and hold that as our truth. The problem is, by avoiding the facts we avoid what we really need to do to reach our end goal. I believe this is the root of the problem. We don’t really want to believe that for the rest of our lives we must remain disciplined to maintain the fitness level we had worked so hard to achieve. It’s time to remove the wool from our eyes and come to grips with how life really works. If you want to save money; you have to spend less and make more. If you want to maintain a lean physique year round; you must be disciplined 7 days per week. Your body know if you are good 5.5 days and then go bananas the other 1.5 days. This means even “healthy” treats. You can and will gain weight off of overindulging in the healthy stuff.

This is the toughest part for me. I love sweets and I will try to trick myself into thinking that it is ok for me to overindulge in a healthy recipe. The truth lies in the scale and I ALWAYS gain weight after doing so.  Now let me explain that I do believe that unhealthy food and cheat meals definitely are part of a well balanced, healthy lifestyle IN MODERATE PORTIONS AFTER you have achieved your fitness goals. Self monitoring is key. Portions and frequency must be kept in check to maintain a high level of fitness.

This post is for all of you out there who are pretending right now that your weekends of beer and pizza haven’t been affecting you. I bet you feel it in your pull ups and push ups but blame lack of sleep or sore arms on the increased difficulty. Let’s get real and step on the scale to face the facts. Everything you put into your body matters. If we want to maintain the type of physique that most others cannot that you must be willing to do what most others are not on a consistent basis.