No tags yet.
I promise I have tried the visualizing thing.
I have really tried to picture my face on Ryan Reynolds (Blade Trinity is where is at…) or Jeff Cavallier’s body. JF: the awesome Athlean-X. Go check him out if you haven’t yet by the way. Really great stuff.
I do see my lovely face inserted above those guys’ neck lines, only with bigger ears and nose and a bit more hair, but me nevertheless. And I have tried to make the visualization a habit so that my subconscious would then interpret that as the real me and get me to that physique within the best 10 weeks of my life (insert Eye of the Tiger on the background with me climbing the local library stairs and I’m game).
I have even left the cinema feeling SOOO inspired after seeing Chris Bale on Dark Knight or Gerard Butler on 300, I have talked myself into doing 500 pull ups three times a day… on my way to the car, while finishing that family size bucket of sweet and sour popcorn and mumbling something to my patient wife on how this time is for real baby…
Well I spent the £5 on the magazine and watched all the Youtube videos so the visualizing method should work right??
Answer is yes, it does.
It somehow alters those negative beliefs that hold you back from achieving the goals and dreams you so desire by lining up the moon and the stars and a handful of chemtrails so that you can have the bottomless bank account and the sport car and the 7 bedroom house in the suburbs and the recipe for the calorie free brownie that tastes like a real brownie even after you’ve had two dozens of them by 9am. Ok that last one is physically impossible within the confines of our galaxy but what about the rest, eh!
Point being you need to conquer certain parts of how you think of yourself if you want to take real steps into creating positive change in your health. You do need those steps to eventually become every day habits, almost second nature to who you are and what you do.
Whether you are aiming to lose weight, or picking up exercising, or quit smoking, or calling your mum every week without fail, at some point you will need to talk yourself into it. And see yourself doing it.
Yet if the image in your mind is of perfection, you are most likely not talking yourself into who you want to be in 6 months/6 years. Quite probably you are allowing yourself to quit before you start as you know the goal is simply not to be accomplished within your environment. The bar is too high so why bother.
Ryan Reynolds looks out of this world in that Blade film: kudos to the man. Does he walk around at that level of muscularity and low levels of body fat 365 days per year? (let alone the great hair and the awesome punch lines)… Not entirely sure but unlikely. Yet I would bet the last few points on my Starbucks card that he does keep himself healthy, strong and lean most of the year. I guess his job and even an inclination for sports have ingrained in him the habits to achieve those results.
Same reason why Arnie looks the way he does in his 70s. Habits.
You get me, don’t you?
Let me also point out actions do not become habits unless you ENJOY the process. The small wins and the set backs need to rock your world and fill you with a desire to experience more of them. You could argue that quitting smoking is pretty shitty and that there is no way you would post a selfie on Instagram when having that fag on the toilet cubicle with the hashtag #lovin’thechanges. Agreed. But certainly if that is your journey you must be able to pat yourself on the back whenever you manage to go 48 hours without a cigarette. You must feel elated when you have not eaten junk food for a week and actually you do no longer crave those fries with your lunch anymore.
And those are the milestones I believe we need to be able to visualize.
The everyday wins, the way we will react next time we make yet another stupid mistake. One bad meal does not mean anything brother, keep up the good work. If you have had a pretty horrid day at work and on the way home you find yourself with a box of 4 peanut butter and caramel donoughts on your lap together with a banana and chocolate milkshake (the one with chocolate chips, I love that one) and you cannot even explain why you were not able to resist the urges by launching into the cobra position for 2 minutes and breathing from your pelvic floor just like that video with 3million views explained you… well… what about you finish that cheat meal today, and see what control mechanisms you need to put in place whenever you have to deal with a stressful situation again? Just stop and think. And watch the video again, you may have missed the point and may even be able to explain it to me, because I still think is bs…
Butler’s abs have to be a by-product of a steady and controlled process where necessary steps are taken into first get your body moving, eating healthier (on a caloric deficit but that is for another post) and slowly progressing into that physique if you so wish to do so.
So yes, I do visualize. Right now while wrapping up this entry on my blog at 22:39 on a Wednesday night, I am trying to see myself reading my book on politics with my breakfast tomorrow mornign, as opposed to just browsing social media without a purpose. Also I visualize myself nailing my diet tomorrow, since I will be attending a rock gig in the evening and the beer is just too tempting!!
I am definitely calling mum this week.
Keep strong.