As I’ve said before, I’ve always gotten support from my fiancé in regards to my goals, but lately he’s been in overdrive. It’s done so much to inspire and motivate me! Last night we were laying in bed, me reading oxygen and he reading some men’s fitness magazine. While we were laying there I read aloud some snippet regarding ‘tips’ for your contest, and as usual followed it with some sarcastic “As if…” meaning ‘like _I_ would be on stage’. My fiancé looked over at me and said, “Why not?” My first and instinctual answer was, “Because I can’t”

Oooops!

“I can’t” isn’t allowed in our house anymore.

Every time I catch myself saying or thinking that I’m reminded of snippet from Tom Venuto’s “Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle” book. In it he talks about a story told by Anthony Robbins about a man at a seminar who was extremely frustrated with his lack of results in his business. The befuddled businessman said he had tried “everything” but nothing worked. Here is the exchange that went on between the two of them:
Robbins: "You've tried EVERYTHING???"
Attendee: "Yes, I've tried absolutely everything!"
Robbins: "Tell me the last HUNDRED things you tried,"
Attendee: " I haven't tried a hundred things."
Robbins: "OK, then just tell me the last FIFTY things you tried."
Attendee: "I haven't tried fifty things."
Robbins: "Alright then tell me the last DOZEN things you tried."
Attendee: (getting somewhat embarrassed) "Well, I haven't tried a dozen things."
Robbins: "I thought you said you tried EVERYTHING! So tell me then, how many things HAVE you tried?
Attendee: (shrinking back into his seat, embarrassed), "Two or three."


So I had to ask myself, honestly, why couldn’t I compete? Yeah I’ve got some skin issues – stretch marks and lose skin. But what have I tried to resolve that? Certainly not one hundred things, and no not fifty, in fact, I’ve probably not even tried three. And I certainly haven’t given simple weight loss enough time/effort to say that it ‘doesn’t work’ either.

It really is time that I stop imposing limitations on myself. That glass ceiling I complaining about – Most of the time, I put it there.

Then, this morning, while waiting for the ferry, we started talking about the sheer number of dumpy unhappy looking people who were walking by. My fiancé said to me “I could see you using your project management skills and fitness knowledge and becoming a personal trainer.”

I admitted to him that I had some dreams of being a personal trainer or even something more then that… we talked about it and I realized. Once again I had been putting limitations on myself. I’ve been allowing my dreams to be ‘too small’ and I’ve settled for what other people have told me I’m capable of.

Yes, it’s hard to think about helping other to people to succeed when I’ve not succeeded myself. But it’s not too early to set myself up so that I’m ready when the time comes. To get to where I want to go it’s going to take a few years of school. But during that time I can be working toward becoming my own best customer. A shining example of not only what _I_ am capable of, but what other’s are capable of if they are willing to give up one thing… their doubts!

To that end – I ate clean yesterday. I fought a battle with the chocolate chip cookies and won even though the smell of them in the break room was so overwhelming I could smell it even through my stuffy nose. Today, they are still there but I do not have to pull my hand back from grabbing one every time I walk by anymore. I don’t find excuses to adjust the covering. I don’t feel deprived.

I’m so ready to get back to the gym that I’m practically crawling out of my skin. Monday can’t come soon enough.

I’ll leave you with another quote from Dr. Stephen Gullo.

“…none of us wants to look back to the prime of our lives when we had our youthfulness, attractiveness, and health to realize that we squandered it all to hang out with a bread basket, a bag of candies or a pizza pie. This is the greatest deprivation of all.

If I don’t talk to you again before then… have a great weekend!