Tough Guy

If you've read my blog thus far you know that I usually go out of my way to make the point of our individual uniqueness.  I go on about how we're all different and how you should listen to your own body and do what is right for your situation.  Well, that's all good and true, but it's not a pass for you to skip on making hard decisions about what it is you ultimately want to achieve health wise, and face up to the reality that this will involve some tough physical and mental work on your part. 

Tough Guy eh?

We're fortunate that we can, for the most part, pick and choose our food and activities.  And that's nice, but I think it makes our everyday lives too easy in a sense.  You say you don't like the taste of liver or heart?  Well guess what, your body sure likes it.  You don't want to sprint or lift intensely?  Hey, you don't have to.  It may or may not make you live longer or become faster or stronger.  But it sure gives your body the opportunity to do so.  Am I talking about going to your local Zoo, jumping some fences, and seeing if you can outrun a Cheetah?  No.  I'm just talking about working hard sometimes.  I like doing my sprints twice a week, but if you think I've got a smile on my face and I'm whistling Dixie as I take off down the Launching Pad, you've got another thing coming.  It's friggin hard work.  What I dig about it though, is that it's quick, safe and effective.  I bang em out and I'm on with the rest of my life.  I count my lucky stars that the quality of my sprints or high intensity lifting doesn't influence whether I will eat or be eaten.  But that doesn't mean I don't work hard.

Same thing with food.  There may be bickering in the Paleosphere about what is the healthiest of fare, but we know for sure that the majority of the stuff you find in a grocery store is garbage.  So just stay away from it most of the time.  Pick fresh foods instead.  It's really not that confusing.  Oh, you can way over think this stuff (and I'm as guilty as anybody in this realm) but don't bust your base diet over a few optimization parameters.  Or not work hard physically because you don't know if it's better to do Pullovers or Pullups ... or at what presise speed to do them.  Just do yourself some hard work - in as safe and simple a context as you can figure out.

And figuring it out is the hard part mentally.  You don't have to sift through all of the Scientific literature or anything, you just have to do some reading, see what makes sense to you, and then go try stuff out.  Begin to put together the pieces of what it takes to make yourself healthier.  It will probably seem challenging because it is.  But you know what?  Nobody is going to do it for you.

Alrighty then, how did my little tough guy act come over?  I'm probably preaching to the choir if you're reading this particular blog, but I know there are people out there who just want to take the easy path or make excuses, and then are mad at themselves for not getting the results they want.

So, what are you going to do to toughen up today?