Pat's Health Fix

Over the past few weeks something really fun has been happening at the local gym — a ton of my friends have  been signing up as members.  The cool effect is that now I basically have an on-call workout buddy any time of the day.

Having an accountability partner is one of the absolutely most effective ways to achieve results in your fitness goals.

My roommate Matt is one of my new gym buddies.  It’s been really incredible so far to have someone living in my house pushing me to hit the gym regularly.  The flip side is that  when he isn’t in the mood to work out, I usually will be — which gives him that little extra boost needed to make it to the gym.

Last week, I wrote a post explaining my new experiment with Tim Ferriss’ Slow Carb Diet from his new book The 4 Hour Body.  You can read my post about it here.

This week, I am feeling incredible! I cannot believe how fast one week of great eating has improved my energy level, rid my body of “bloaty-ness” (yes that’s a technical term), and generally improved my mood.

After just one week, I have already noticed a 3 pound weight drop.  Granted, I know that most of this is due to less water retention from the lower carb intake, but already seeing results like this easily puts a smile on my face and motivates me to “bring it” this week again.

It’s true what they say — maintenance is definitely the hardest part!  Three years ago, when I was in the midst of my body re-design journey, it was fairly easy for me to make the right choices.  Choosing lean protein over greasy burgers, fresh veggies instead of fries, and water rather than beer seemed like a breeze.

Looking back now, I realize that the ease in making the right decisions came from my commitment to my mission.  I was willing to change my behavior to reach my goals because I was so strongly connected to succeeding.

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

–Michael Jordan

I absolutely love this quote by Michael Jordan, it’s easily one of my favorite quotes and I’m not even much of a basketball fan.  The reason that I relate to it so deeply is that I see the parallels in every aspect of life.