It's day 13, and you're in the final two days of Kenzai Shift. Even though this short program is coming to a close, push through to the very end. It feels great to do things right, and your good results will start showing themselves more and more as this week draws to a close. Keep eating well and getting some light cardio in each day!
Our goal in this program is to create a change in your mindset that sets you up for fitness success for years to come.
As you look to the future and think about what's next, there's an important paradigm you need shift now and forever, and it has to do with how you think about your nutrition and exercise efforts.
This leads us to today's misconception:
EXERCISING IS SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF.
EXERCISE IS BASIC BODY HYGIENE, AND SHOULDN'T BE SOMETHING YOU THINK OF AS A SPECIAL ACCOMPLISHMENT TO BE PROUD OF.
This fact sound harsh on its surface, but stay for the explanation.
When you start to exercise, especially at the beginning, there can be an outsized feeling of accomplishment. Most of the people around you are sitting on the couch not making any changes at all, and here you are, putting on your workout clothes and making the tough choice to devote your time to a cardio session or workout. When you get it done, there's an understandable sense of pride that you faced down all the excuses and are making the changes that most people only talk about. On a day you rock a workout, you feel like a badass. This is a good thing.
You could have just sat around, but you got your workout done. You're a champion!
However, as you retain the fun and self-esteem that comes from exercising, keep in mind that, in the big scheme of things, getting your workout done isn't something that you should view as special or exceptional in any way. It's true that most people in the modern world are sitting around instead of exercising, but living your life in comparison to people who are getting it wrong sets a low bar.
To have a healthy life-long relationship with exercise, you need to get to a mental place where you view it as unremarkable body hygiene, the same way you view taking a shower or brushing your teeth.
Think about how you feel after finishing a toothbrushing session. Do you congratulate yourself for your dedication, and walk around the house proudly displaying your wet toothbrush for all to see? Brushing your teeth isn't something to be particularly proud of. It's the minimum standard of dental hygiene. You do it because the consequences of not doing it are clear; bad breath in the short term, cavities and gum disease in the long term. And not brushing makes you feel kind of gross.
At first this sounds kind of mean. We all want to feel proud of our good choices, so why not get a little puffed-up when we make the sacrifice of time and energy for cardio or a workout?
This approach will work for a while, but any choice made out of ego and self-regard is ultimately corrosive. As soon as you stop feeling that pride your exercise routine will become tedious, and you'll have to muster greater and greater willpower to get it done.
But once you start to see exercise as basic hygiene, the resistance to it evaporates. You don't have to hype yourself up to brush your teeth or take a shower. It's just a part of your day that you do on a kind of autopilot. When you can get your exercise to the same level you'll be on track for a meaningful, life-long change. And it all starts with a simple change of perspective that you can nurture from today.
You know you're on track when it's the days when you eat poorly and skip exercise that are remarkable, not the ho-hum good hygiene days where you get it right. Diet and exercise isn't something to be proud of, it's the foundation that gets your mind and body in the right place to do big things which you can be proud of!
